Left Bank of the Charles

The New Monday at Toad

2009-11-09T23:30:00.005-05:00

Toad in Porter Square Cambridge has a new Monday residency, Jen Kearney & the Lost Onion.

We caught the first set at 10pm. Jen plays keyboards and sings, while the drums, guitars, and trumpet blow out the windows. We would say something about finding the lost onion amid the layered sound but we would not know what we were talking about.

We will be back.

The Blue Dog Balance of Power

2009-11-09T01:56:00.006-05:00

The conservative Blue Dog Coalition is ostensibly part of the Democratic Party but could be regarded as a third legislative party that holds a crucial balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives.

By Party, here is the breakdown in the House:

Democrats	258
Republicans	177

But a number of Democrats identify as members of the Blue Dog Coalition, which has its won leaders and whip. The Blue Dogs can perhaps best be thought of as a third party that is currently aligned with other Democrats on many issues but which can and often does align with Republicans on others.

When split into three parties, the Democrats do not have an outright majority of 218 in the House:

Regular Democrats	206
Blue Dog Coalition	52
Republicans	177

Moreover, there are a number of Democrats who are not officially members of the Blue Dog Coalition but tend to vote with them. So the exact balance of power is difficult to peg.

The coalition with the Democratic Party is an uneasy one. Iowa Blue Dog Leonard Boswell faced having his rural congressional district carved and divided during redistricting after the 2000 census. He responded by moving to Des Moines and won in that district. Then he was primaried in 2008, being forced to run against a more liberal Democrat, Ed Fallon. But he beat Ed 61% to 39% in the primary and fought off Republican Kim Schmett in the general 57% to 42%.

The Blue Dogs even have a muse, cajun artist George Rodrigue. His Turn Out the Lights, the Party's Over (2008) appears above.

House Health Care Vote

2009-11-08T12:00:00.022-05:00

Health care insurance reform passed the House on Saturday night 220 to 215, with members voting mostly on party lines, Democrats for and Republicans against. However, 39 Democrats joined the Republicans in voting No:

Bobby Bright Age 57 Blue dog coalition member Alabama 2nd
Parker Griffith Age 67 Blue dog coalition member Alabama 5th
Artur Davis Age 42 Alabama 7th
Mike Ross Age 48 Blue dog coalition member Arkansas 4th
Betsy Markey Age 53 Emily's List member Colorado 4th
Allen Boyd Age 64 Blue dog coalition member Florida 2nd
Suzanne Kosmas Age 65 Emily's List member Florida 24th
Jim Marshall Age 61 Blue dog coalition member Georgia 8th
John Barrow Age 54 Blue dog coalition member Georgia 12th
Walt Minnick Age 67 Blue dog coalition member Idaho 1st
Ben Chandler Age 50 Blue dog coalition member Kentucky 6th
Charlie Melancon Age 62 Blue dog coalition leadership team Louisiana 3rd
Frank Kratovil Age 41 Blue dog coalition member Maryland 1st
Collin Peterson Age 65 Blue dog coalition member Minnesota 7th
Travis Childers Age 51 Blue dog coalition member Mississippi 1st
Gene Taylor Age 56 Blue dog coalition member Mississippi 4th
Ike Skelton Age 67 Missouri 4th
John Adler Age 50 New Jersey 3rd
Harry Teague Age 60 New Mexico 2nd
Mike McMahon Age 52 New York 13th
Scott Murphy Age 39 New York 20th
Eric Massa Age 50 New York 29th
Mike McIntyre Age 53 Blue dog coalition member North Carolina 7th
Larry Kissell Age 58 North Carolina 8th
Heath Shuler Age 37 Blue dog coalition leadership team North Carolina 11th
Dennis Kucinich Age 63 Ohio 10th
John Boccieri Age 40 Ohio 16th
Dan Boren Age 36 Blue dog coalition member Oklahoma 2nd
Jason Altmire Age 41 Blue dog coalition member Pennsylvania 4th
Tim Holden Age 52 Blue dog coalition member Pennsylvania 7th
Stephanie Herseth Sandlin Age 38 Emily's List member Blue dog coalition leadership team South Dakota
Lincoln Davis Age 66 Blue dog coalition member Tennessee 4th
Bart Gordon Age 60 Blue dog coalition member Tennessee 6th
John Tanner Age 65 Blue dog coalition member Tennessee 8th
Chet Edwards Age 57 Texas 17th
Jim Matheson Age 49 Blue dog coalition member Utah 2nd
Glenn Nye Age 35 Blue dog coalition member Virginia 2nd
Rick Boucher Age 63 Virginia 9th
Brian Baird Age 53 Washington 3rd

Note that 23 of the 39 Democrats who voted No are members of the conservative blue dog coalition, including 3 of 4 coalition leaders. Another 29 members of the blue dog coalition voted Yes. And all 3 women Democrats who voted No are on Emily's List (including one blue dog).

1 Republican voted Yes on the Democratic reform plan :

Joseph Cao
Age 42
Louisiana 2nd
Cao was born in Vietnam and is the first Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress.

1 Republican voted No on both the Democratic reform plan and the Republican substitute plan:

Tim Johnson
Age 63
Illinois 15th
Johnson is a West Point dropout.

The Store That Isn't There

2009-11-07T22:26:00.000-05:00

We have been somewhat perplexed watching what has been going on at the old Crate and Barrel location on Brattle Street.

For a while it looked like a new store was opening, with colorful displays of housewares you could see through the big windows. And then came the signs saying that you can't come in.

As near as we can figure, the iconic firm Design Research (D/R) had a store at this location in the 1970s, before making way for the more commercial Crate and Barrel.

Now with Crate and Barrel gone, they have reclaimed the space temporarily as a window showroom. You can walk by and look but you can't go in except by special invitation. We suspect this will continue until a paying tenant is found.

Could unmanned stores that never open except for private parties be the next big trend in retail? Having no sales clerks would definitely cut down on costs, but wouldn't sales suffer too?

But instead of a sign of the future, this may just be an ode to the past. We don't remember Design Research on Brattle street, but judging the baby boomer crowd at a recent reception there, older Cambridge residents do.

All the pretty textiles are also a reminder that New England used to be a textile center, back in the not-so-distant days when Berkshire Hathaway made fine men's shirts.

There is a Kennedy Connection here. The photograph of Jacqueline Kennedy on the December 1960 cover of Sports Illustrated shows her wearing a dress purchased at D/R.

You can still shop the Marimekko product line at 350 Huron Avenue in Cambridge. Customers are admitted Monday through Saturday 10am to 6pm (Thursdays until 7pm).

Note: click pictures for full resolution.

Lyle Lovett at the Orpheum Theatre

2009-11-06T23:30:00.004-05:00

Just when you think Texas is all about pickup trucks and high school football under the Friday Night Lights, Lyle Lovett rolls into town with his two tour buses holding his large band, his small band, and four male backup gospel singers.

Going into the Orpheum, you walk down a narraw alley past the parked tour buses. At the appointed time, Lyle just followed the audience in, emerging into the orchestra seating through the audience entrance. The show got started around 7:45 pm and carried on for two and a half hours through 10:15 pm. Lyle and his bands cover every manner of music and play the audience too.

A little blurry? I guess you had to be there. It was great!

Goodbye Brother Blue

2009-11-06T00:21:00.004-05:00

Brother Blue, the legendary storyteller of Harvard Square, has passed away.

You would often see Brother Blue walking through Harvard Square in his trademark blue garb with his wife Ruth. In recent years he did more audiencing than performing, but that was appreciated too.

The official biography is that Hugh Morgan Hill was born in Cleveland, Ohio, served in the army in both Europe and Asia during World War II, and was honorably discharged as a first lieutenant. Then he then earned his bachelor's degree in social relations from Harvard University, a master's of fine arts in playwrighting from Yale School of Drama, and a doctorate in storytelling from Union Graduate School.

The unofficial biography is that Brother Blue never held a "standard job" and made his living telling stories. He was an unofficial professor at Harvard University and its oldest unofficial undergraduate too.

He passed away this Tuesday at age 88 after a short illness. While the illness has not been publicly identified, I'm guessing it was what I am now calling the Blue Flu. Wife Ruth reports that just before he died, he told her a love story.

Rosanne Cash Is On My List

2009-11-05T02:49:00.003-05:00

I have been listening to Rosanne Cash’s new album The List. Rosanne is the daughter of Johnny Cash, and the 12 Songs on The List are from a list of 100 essential country songs her father wrote out for her on a yellow legal pad in the summer 1973, the year she graduated from high school. The grand tour of Europe is the American ideal for fresh graduates, but can’t compete to spending the summer on a tour bus across America with Johnny Cash.

The album is very low key, and each of these great songs gets to speak for itself. Here’s the song list:

1. Miss The Mississippi And You – perhaps the first of the give up the big city and go back to the country songs. Jimmie Rodgers does a version with his famous yodel and Emmy Lou Harris does a great version too on her album Roses in the Snow.

2. Motherless Children – an A.P. Carter classic that has been covered by everyone. Don't ponder too long on the lyric "sister does the best she can but she really don't understand."

3. Sea of Heartbreak (featuring Bruce Springsteen) - Johnny Cash himself did a version of this song on Unchained but it was Don Gibson who made this a classic.

4. Take These Chains From My Heart - Hank Williams made this song famous but you may know the Ray Charles version better.

5. I'm Movin' On - the Hank Snow classic, covered by everyone from Elvis Presley to Willie Nelson. No, this is not the song by Rascal Flatts.

6. Heartaches By The Number (featuring Elvis Costello) - this song was a hit for Ray Price and Dwight Yoakam also does a nice cover.

7. 500 Miles - made famous by Peter, Paul, and Mary. You can hear the whistle blow 100 miles, but not at 500 miles from home. That's damn good hearing.

8. Long Black Veil (featuring Jeff Tweedy) - this ancient folk ballad was written in 1959. Johnny Cash did the definitive version on At Folsom Prison but Mick Jagger (with The Chieftains) did it justice too, as has Neko Case, and Hazel Dickens. Nobody knows but me.

9. She's Got You - Patsy Cline crossed over with this song. And I've got versions by Loretta Lynn, LeAnn Rhymes, Michelle Branch, and Red Molly.

10. Girl From The North Country - this has the reputation in some quarters as Bob Dylan's best song on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (everyone has a right to their favorite), and Johnny Cash sang it with him on Nashville Skyline.

11. Silver Wings (featuring Rufus Wainwright) - a Merle Haggard original. I'm guessing this was the song rattling around in Johnny Cash's head in that summer of 1973 and since has been slowly fading out of sight.

12. Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow - This was Maybelle Carter's song and the slightly humorous version by her daughter June Carter Cash at the Louisiana Hayride is good too, but check out Natalie Merchant on The House Carpenter's Daughter.

OK, that’s 12 but what are the other 88 songs? We may have to wait for 7 more albums to find out.

We do know that in a interview Rosanne has identified two as Battle of New Orleans and This Land is Your Land (good choices). The Porter Wagoner song Satisfied Mind is the Itunes bonus selection (unfair). And Sweet Memories featuring Chris Thile appears only on CDs sold at Barnes & Noble (double unfair).

Rosanne, if you think I'm going to two different places to get all the bonus tracks, you're on my list.

Caution - Coyote Sightings in Cemetery

2009-10-31T20:00:00.000-04:00

We were hoping for cougars.

Five Candidates Race for the Ted Kennedy Senate Seat

2009-10-27T10:00:00.005-04:00

We have ourselves a horse race in the special election here in Massachusetts to replace Ted Kennedy in the U.S. Senate. Five candidates have qualified for the race. Four Democrats are racing for the next 6 weeks to a primary election on December 8, the winner of which will face the one Republican in a general election 6 weeks later on January 19.

State Attorney General Martha Coakley is the odds-on favorite in early polling (everyone remembers voting her in as AG a couple of years back). As the only woman in the race, she is looking to Emily’s List to make her the 16th woman it has helped the Democratic Party elect to the U.S. Senate. Her reluctant stance on the federal economic stimulus and the health care public option (she says she's in favor, but ...) makes her the most conservative candidate in the race. Martha represents the Max Baucus wing of the Democratic Party.

Congressman Mike Capuano is the other party establishment candidate in the race. He’s running as the liberal’s liberal and the workingman’s workingman. He’s touting the largess he has brought back to his Congressional District (by counting the massive cost overruns on the Big Dig project, I suspect) and his service as Barney Frank’s first lieutenant on the House Financial Services Committee (how’d that work out for us?). Mike represents the Nancy Pelosi wing of the Democratic Party.

City Year Cofounder Alan Khazei is the dark horse in the race. The youngest candidate at age 48, he has never held elective office but has spent his life in public service since starting the much-admired City Year youth service program in 1988 (the signature red jackets are well known around the Metro-Boston area). As such he has perhaps the best claim to the Ted Kennedy mantle. Alan represents the Obama wing and Clinton wing of the Democratic Party.

Businessman Steve Pagliuca is the trojan horse in the race. He made $400 million at Bain Capital and as a coowner of the Boston Celtics NBA basketball team and is said to be willing to spend $20 million of that on the race. He’ll have some big name political consultants and the most TV ad time, but with the bailouts this is probably not the year for a businessman. I look for him to top out at 10% to 15% and finish in fourth place out of the money. Steve represents the big business wing of the Democratic Party (if you didn’t know it had one, think back to Ted’s father Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.).

State Senator Scott Brown is the Republican stalking horse in the race. He currently serves as one of only five Republicans in the Massachusetts State Senate. With no competition on December 8, he goes straight to the January 19 general election. He appeared semi-nude in the June 1982 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine after winning its “America’s Sexiest Man” contest. His daughter Alya went two rounds on American Idol in 2006. Scott represents the “not your father’s Republican” wing of the party.

The RNC would dig up Abe Lincoln if they could to win Ted Kennedy’s seat from the Democrats, so you’ll know if Scott has any chance by whether the Republican Party floods his campaign with money in December. But they won’t risk their high hopes for November 2010 by making a fight out of a losing cause in January. If Scott has an empty stocking at Christmas, you’ll know he has no chance.

My money is on the dark horse candidate Alan Khazei. Many Massachusetts political insiders have made the mistake of writing him off as a long shot. A long shot has little or no chance of winning. A dark horse hasn’t run before so no one has enough information to compute the true odds. I have seen Alan and his campaign staff and volunteers out on the campaign trail, and he is no long shot. He is the candidate to watch.

Charles River on Sunday, October 25, 2009

2009-10-25T22:30:00.002-04:00

Pictures taken from the Charles River bike path between the Eliot Bridge in Cambridge and the Bridge Street bridge in Watertown on Sunday, October 25, 2009.

Flying the U.S. Flag

2009-10-25T22:00:00.001-04:00

We have had a post or two on what is the proper way to respectfully display the U.S. Flag. The Watertown Savings Bank is doing it the right way, with the U.S. Flag alone on its own flag poll. See how majestic that is.

Bursting the Balloon Boy Hoax Conspiracy

2009-10-25T11:00:00.002-04:00

By now there is no point in recapping the story behind the balloon boy hoax, except to note that since the boy was never in the balloon, it should perhaps be called the vomit boy hoax instead.

Still, there are a few lessons on how not to concoct a successful conspiracy:

(1) Don't fake a publicity stunt using a helium balloon that no one would build to look exactly like a flying saucer, except to get publicity.

(2) Don't ever conspire with a 6 year old, they'll either blow your cover or rat you out. Have you ever played hide and seek with a 6 year old? Or asked a 6 year old to keep a secret?

(3) When your son starts throwing up, the TV interview is over, don't do a second interview with another TV program. That's when they send the county to take your kids.

(4) Don't conspire with your wife. In theory she can't be forced to testify against you. Reality is a different story, especially if she has been making hang up calls to 911. She'll hang you up to.

(5) You can't appear on Wife Swap twice and have any credibility, especially if you met your wife in acting class.

(6) Don't conspire with an aspiring reality show producer. If they are looking for a reality show to sell, your conspiracy can be their sale.

(7) Don't conspire via email. Those pesky emails have a habit of staying around to prove your guilt.

(8) Don't conspire to make the police look stupid. They have the power to get search warrants and make arrests.

(9) Don't conspire to make the media look stupid. The media was willing to play along as long as the balloon was in the air. And even afterwards, I'll bet every local news station in America perpetuated the hoax a bit to get viewers to watch their late news even after the boy had been verified safe for hours. If it's a hoax, they make money and don't have to pay you.

(10) Don't conspire to make the public look stupid. They'll turn on you faster than the police or the media.

Drew Hickum & The Colonels Play Toad

2009-10-25T02:00:00.010-04:00

Toad is our local, and we stopped by Saturday for the late set. It was not crowded like we feared, and no one got heckled like the last time we were here (if you don't count the guy taking the annoying flash pictures).

We caught Drew Hickum & The Colonels, a band out of Northampton.

Drew Hickum.

Drew Hickum and Lisa Marie.

Drew Hickum (guitar, vocals), Lisa Marie (guitar, vocals), Peter Sohriakoff (bass, vocals), and Sasha Starr (drums).

Toad music programming note: Tim Gearnan, who owned Monday nights at Toads for the last decade, has given way to Jen Kearney and The Lost Onion. Yu can still catch Tim on Friday nights at Atwoods Tavern and Sunday nights at the Burren.

Barack Obama Wears the Red Jacket

2009-10-24T23:43:00.004-04:00

Barack Obama wears a red City Year jacket at a City Year Chicago dinner in 2006.

More pictures from the event:

Bill Clinton Wears the Red Jacket

2009-10-24T23:25:00.003-04:00

Bill Clinton dons a red jacket.

Yes, that's a City Year jacket.

Bill Clinton speaks at a City Year event in Boston on November 20, 2001. "More friends and fewer enemies" was one of his themes.

Bill Clinton wears a red tie for a 2007 meeting with City Year South Africa.

Alan Khazei Wears the Red Jacket

2009-10-24T17:00:00.002-04:00

Alan Khazei wears his red City Year jacket at an event today to clean up Shubow Park in Brighton. Alan cofounded City Year, the youth service organization based in Boston and 19 cities around the country. It looks to us like Alan and his campaign for U.S. Senate are shovel ready.

Ted Kennedy Wears the Red Jacket

2009-10-23T23:30:00.005-04:00

Could Ted Kennedy be trying to send a message intentional or unintentional about who his U.S. Senate successor should be? We noticed that he got photographed a lot toward the end of his life wearing a red City Year jacket. And now one of the cofounders of City Year, Alan Khazei, is running in the special election to replace him.

Ted gets his red jacket from City Year.

With Boston Mayor Tom Menino and wife Victoria Kennedy.

Sailing.

More sailing.

Walking the dogs.

Taking a walk, with the dogs off leash.

Standing on the porch.

Hanging out at the dock. (After the ad.)

City Year corps members in line at his memorial service.

Blue Night at Bull McCabe's

2009-10-23T23:00:00.000-04:00

I had a blue night this night at Bull McCabe's in Union Square Somerville. Bull McCabe's is at the corner of Somerville Avenue and Bow Street, just at the corner where you enter Union Square coming from Porter or Davis.

This spot was known as Tir Na nOg until it closed in April 2007 and reopened that June as Union Square, much to the dismay and boycott of the old nOg fans. Long before that it was called the 11th Chapter Saloon. Live music has been the one constant.

The new owner, Brian, who got his legs at Spirit in Porter Square Cambridge, has made friends with the old nOg owners and they've introduced him to some of the old music groups that used to play here (not as old as the groups I remember from the 11th Chapter days).

My blue night consisted of a blue cheese burger with fries, chased with a Blue Moon followed by a Pabst Blue Ribbon. The burger was respectable, the fries were good, and the pickle was excellent.

I give points to Brian, who came up while I was eating and asked of his own initiative how I had wanted my burger cooked. When I said medium rare he remarked that my half-eaten burger looked medium well, and took half off the price (half off is my favorite price). Medium well is how my grandmother always cooked burgers, so I quite enjoyed it all the same.

We hung out for a while, and caught the opening set of The Cherry Orchard. Their rendition of Eleanor Rigby made it an especially blue night.

Bull McCabe's (named after the character in The Field) wants to be the west end of the Union Square Irish pub crawl. You can start a Bull McCabe's, make your way to Sallie O'Brien's, then Precinct, and the Independent. Or crawl back from there to Bull McCabe's.

You can now crawl the new streets and new sidewalks of Union Square, nearly complete after a couple of years of construction. They've got some trees to plant and just a few other things left on the punch list.

Mums the Word

2009-10-23T17:00:00.002-04:00

Fall really is here with all the mums around Harvard Square.

Brattle Florist.

On Brattle Street.

Outside Bertucci's Pizza.

On Mount Auburn Street.

University Place.

Charles Hotel Courtyard.

In front of Pronto.

Charles Hotel Courtyard.

Steve Pagliuca Opens Office in Harvard Square

2009-10-23T01:17:00.005-04:00

You can see your reflection in the U.S. Senate campaign office Steve Pagliuca has opened in Harvard Square. Pags is running for the Senate seat that was held by Ted Kennedy.

Wonder what's going on behind the drawn blinds.

The Town Takes All the Parking

2009-10-21T23:00:00.004-04:00

Ben Affleck has been filming the movie The Town in Harvard Square. The movie is about the bank robber subculture in Charlestown, and they shot some scenes at the Cambridge Savings Bank (which will be the Cambridge Merchants Bank in the movie) and around the corner on Dunster Street.

The movie crew put up its own temporary street signs. If you are not with the movie, good luck finding parking in Harvard Square!

The director's chairs.

Crew sets up in front of Cambridge Savings Bank.

Required grainy picture of Ben Affleck with his crew.

Movie trucks take all the parking spots on JFK Street.

Mr. Cesspool can stop anywhere he wants, for however long he wants. Yes, the sign says Tow Zone, No Stopping. We certainly hope Mr. Cesspool eventually gets towed away.

Filming at night on Dunster Street.

More filming at night.

Microwave Art

2009-10-20T19:30:00.003-04:00

Glass plate aged for 20 years, loaded with leftover refrigerated lasagna, covered with a paper towel, and microwaved on high for 2 minutes in a 2005 GE Spacesaver.

The heat expansion of the glass was slowed by the cold lasagna, causing the outside of the plate to expand faster and separate from the colder center of the plate. The paper towel placed over the lasagna had a slight roll - two opposite sides of the paper towel touched the plate so as to hold in the heat and vapor while the other two sides were curled such as to allow heat and vapor to escape. The diagonal break followed the center line of the open ends of the paper towel.

What happened to the lasagna? After reassembling the broken pieces of the plate to confirm that there were no missing shards of glass, I ate it.

What Happened to the Seasons in New England?

2009-10-18T23:00:00.001-04:00

It rained here most of the day, then turned to snow mixed with rain. Big wet snowflakes that stuck to car tops and windshields but melted after a few moments on the 40 degree ground. This was the year without spring, followed by the year without summer, and now may be the year without fall.

Bowled Over and Boarded Up

2009-10-13T04:26:00.008-04:00

For years the Bowl & Board store at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Trowbridge Street served as a landmark for the eastern end of Harvard Square.

The family-owned chain started in 1966 as a single store in Hingham, and ultimately expanded to stores in Brookline, Cambridge, Martha's Vineyard, and Providence, Rhode Island. The stores specialized in kitchenwares, other housewares, and furniture, often with a hand-crafted look. When founder Bill Giarrusso retired, daughter Maria took over the island store and son Mark took over the mainland stores.

The Hingham store closed in January 2008. The Cambridge store followed in August 2008, with a move to a new location in Davis Square, Somerville. The Brookline store closed in February 2009, as the company tried to stave off creditors by reorganizing in bankruptcy.

The story, which has been followed closely on NPR's All things Considered, seems now to have reached its final chapter. That is Chapter 7, bankruptcy liquidation.

The doors are now locked at the Davis Square location, and the landlord has put Lease signs in the windows.

The Coolidge Corner location in Brookline remains empty.

The building at landmark location in Harvard Square still carries the remains of the Bowl & Board signage, and has been empty now for over a year.

Even the company website has been closed down.

Mass Bike at Oktoberfest

2009-10-13T03:53:00.004-04:00

We skirted the Oktoberfest in Harvard Square this year, but did run across the booth for Mass Bike.