The Third Decade

December art shows

Shameless plugs for two art shows I'm in are below.

ON THE STREET: Artistic representations of the street by artists

December 2-20, 2008

Opening reception: December 5, 5-7:30pm

@ Kingston Gallery

450 Harrison Ave, #43, Boston

www.kingstongallery.com

617-423-4113

NATURE'S GEMS: 

Exhibit and sale featuring works by artists inspired by nature and from Emerald Necklace communities

Proceeds support woodlands restoration and youth jobs in the parks.

Preview reception & silent auction: December 5, 6:30-9:30pm (call 617-522-2700 for tickets)

Art exhibit & sale (free): December 6, 12-6pm & December 7, 12-4pm

Gallery talk by Candelaria Silva (free): December 6, 12-1pm

@ William Devine Clubhouse

Franklin Park, 1 Circuit Drive, Boston

www.franklinparkcoalition.org

ArtROX!

ArtROX, the 10th annual Roxbury Open Studios is this weekend from 11am-6pm across Roxbury. The Boston Globe, Boston Metro, and Weekly Dig have all written about the event. I was even quoted by the Dig and have an image featured in the Metro to represent ROS. 

As the Dig states, "[i]n its 10th year, it's fair to say that Roxbury Open Studios is one of the most slept on events in the city." I'd agree. When I started showing there were about 100 artists on display; this year there are over 170. Clearly there's a growing arts community in Roxbury, not to mention that it's a beautiful and historic place to visit.

If you've been staying away because of your fears, be ashamed! Shake off the shackles of negative stereotypes, come on over for a visit, and prove yourself wrong. There's plenty to see and do and Discover Roxbury will be providing a guided walking tour of the artist locations on Fort Hill on Saturday afternoon for only $5. It really couldn't get much easier or be more convenient.

Hope to see some of you at the event. I'll have my photography set up on the 3rd floor of Dudley Square's Hibernian Hall.

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Ferdinand Time Capsule Reveal

Ever since I started working in Roxbury, I've noticed just how important Dudley Square's Ferdinand Building is to the collective imagination of the neighborhood. I don't think there's any other building or name in Roxbury which draws crowds as much as those do. When the City announced that a time capsule had been found in the annex of the Ferdinand Building and that there would be a ceremony featuring a reveal of the contents, I didn't expect the kind of crowd that actually showed up. The Mayor, City Councillor Chuck Yancey, and state legislators Diane Wilkerson and Byron Rushing were in attendance. All of the major media outlets were there, as well as the Metro and BNN. Local businesses, non-profit organizations, and cultural institutions, including Dudley Main Streets, the NCAAA, and Discover Roxbury were there. The crowd was also rounded out by dozens of local residents.

The energy and enthusiasm of the crowd was disproportionate to the size of the actual time capsule. It was only a small black box, probably no bigger than a loaf of bread, but the idea of what might be inside captured the imaginations of everyone there. The ceremony featured about 20 minutes of speeches by the head of the BRA, the Mayor, and Representative Byron Rushing before the box was opened. Moments before the reveal, I knelt down at the side of the table and was instantly swarmed by press and other photographers. There were so many people crowding around to look at the contents that the cameraman from BNN actually knelt astride my legs and asked me not to move so he could get some video! Lucky for him I'm not claustrophobic and don't have random leg twitches. Otherwise, a very hurt cameraman might have returned to BNN this afternoon.

Anyway, the contents of the box weren't particularly exciting from a photographer's perspective, but historians will probably pour over them for a while. The Mayor and Rep. Rushing pulled out copies of the Boston Evening Transcript and the Boston Post, furniture advertisements from Ferdinand's Blue Store, and a list of store employees. Everything was from 1922. Rep. Rushing is planning to do some research to see if any of the employees might have been Black. He noted during his speech that the Black community in Roxbury had begun to establish itself firmly at the turn of the 20th century and that even though Roxbury was a racially mixed neighborhood, Ferdinand's staff didn't always reflect that. However, he believes that there may have been some Black elevator operators working there in the 1920s, which is what his research on the list of names will focus on.

As the ceremony concluded, Senator Diane Wilkerson and Mayor Menino both urged local residents to begin thinking about what they would like to see included in a new time capsule that will be placed in the cornerstone of the city building that will be constructed at the site of the Blue Store annex. BNN interviewed some people for their ideas, but residents are also being encouraged to send their suggestions to info@discoverroxbury.org.

Update:

More images are available on the Discover Roxbury website. Video is also available on Neighborhood News Network's site. You can catch a glimpse of me in the video as I'm walking behind the Mayor and taking photos of the press conference. Look for the bright green shirt.

Time To See If It's Worth the Hype

Ugh, I can't take any more talk about the iPhone! People, this is not the cure to cancer or the solution to world hunger. It's a gadget. Yes, it's a very cool one, but a gadget nonetheless. There were actually people camped in line inside the Cambridgeside Galleria from the entrance to the Apple store all the way to California Pizza Kitchen at lunchtime today; as well as 2 local media outlets there to report it. Geez, isn't there any real news going on anymore? And did those folks take a day off to camp out?

Oh well, I guess there's no stopping progress, especially when it's trendy. I wonder if someone could hook me up with one...

Environmentalism is the New Black

The environmental movement in Boston still has a way to go. Despite the city council's ideas about banning plastic shopping bags, the mayor's solar powered trash compactors, and Boston Globe articles about those issues and global warming, there are still a handful of people who aren't aware that environmentalism is both important and the hot new thing. Today, for example, I went to Stop and Shop in SouthBay. Unlike most visits to the store, I remembered to bring the three green canvas bags I bought last fall (admittedly, all of the recent articles about the environment helped). Anyway, when the time comes, I hand the cashier my Stop & Shop card and hold out the 3 bags to the bagger at the end of the belt. He looked at me, looked at the bags, then asked "You want me to use those?" He made it sound like I was holding nothing more than a few Ziploc bags or that I was crazy just for making the request. Anyway, I said "Yup" and soon enough everything was packed in the three bags. They look small, but they actually hold a lot. The boyfriend snarkily added, "The Earth thanks you." I simply nodded, quite satisfied with myself, and went home feeling fabulous. After all, enviromentalism is the new black.

Something's Always Cooking With My Kitchen

I just realized today that my two year anniversary of becoming a homeowner was exactly two weeks ago. When I moved in, I never would've thought I'd still be making repairs and improvements to the same room two years later. Yes, again with the kitchen. I just couldn't leave well enough alone.

While browsing the aisles of Ikea yesterday I decided to purchase wall cabinets. For those of you who have never seen the inside of my home, I removed the nasty cabinets which were here originally and replaced them with an open shelving system. That worked well until I started collecting more dishes, mugs, pots and pans, and serving utensils. Plus, with my boyfriend and I talking about his moving in at some point, space will become even more of an issue soon. So, after getting back to mine, we started assembling the cabinets and moved the current shelves to an adjacent wall above the sink. Unfortunately, all of these changes mean more patching and painting of the walls - and another trip to Home Depot - in addition to everything we did in September. We also decided that the kitchen would look better with another shelf to match the one currently in place, so we're heading back to Ikea for that, too. We'd have to go anyway to return a replacement part we were mistakenly sold for another item and get the right one. Hopefully, these latest purchases will mark the end to the major renovations to the kitchen. We still have details from the September improvements to finish, but those aren't so bad. I'm just looking forward to being able to rest for the winter and think ahead to improvements somewhere else in the spring.

Below are photos from before I moved in, the 2005 anniversary, and this morning. Looking through my home improvement photos, the sink area of the kitchen seems to be the bellweather for how my home is shaping up from year to year, so it made sense to continue the theme. Click on each one for a larger image.

The Incredible Shrinking Roxbury

Where's my neighborhood going?

For years people have debated where the boundary between Roxbury and Jamaica Plain is over in the Mission Hill area, although most people settle on Heath Street as the line. Recently, however, I've noticed that more websites have either been listing Mission Hill as its own neighborhood or as part of Jamaica Plain. This week in particular, I've come across two sites which show Mission Hill as being in JP. What's up with that?

Actually, it seems that the real estate industry is behind the effort to move and re-brand areas of Roxbury as somewhere else. I mentioned it briefly a while back, but now one realtor is being more brazen about it. Click on the above image to see a larger view (it's very large, so don't be surprised). The building I pointed out is in Roxbury. It's a 2 minute walk from my home on the same hill, in the same neighborhood, and in the same zip code. Zip code 02119 is in Roxbury. That's my zip code. The building's website lists it in that zip code. So how the hell did Coldwell Banker decide to list it in the South End? It's gotta be a sales tactic to get more people interested in buying into the properties, but anyone who stops by for a visit will quickly realize that they are not in the South End. Don't get me wrong, the building and the units are gorgeous, although a bit overpriced for the area. Either way, it seems disingenuous for a realtor to flat out lie about the location of property. Isn't there a code of ethics or something?

We need Charles Swift to sort out some boundaries!

Break Time

The Body Shop sent two representatives and some samples to my office building today. In lieu of taking a snack break, one of my female coworkers and I decided to wander downstairs and see what was on offer. There wasn't a lot of information on why they were there or what they were doing, but the informational flyer said that there were products for men and women available so we figured it was worth a peek. What a disappointment! Basically, the reps were there to do $5 makeovers. Their table was covered with all kinds of brushes, powders, blushes, cremes and whatever else women use for a makeover. After glancing at their wares I asked one of the reps what they had for guys. She looked at me and said that she could apply a bronzer. A bronzer?! I looked at her like she had three heads and they were all crazy. For those of you who haven't seen my photo, my skin is milk chocolate brown so a brozer is low on my list of needs. All I could muster in response was "No, thanks. I'm bronze enough." She tried to joke with me about finding colors that could suit me, but at that point it was too late. I left my coworker to browse and headed back upstairs just shaking my head. I realize the importance of making a sale, but that was just ridiculous.

The Blizzard

I gotta hand it to the weather forecasters this time. Today's blizzard is huge! In fact, it almost justifies the craziness at the grocery store yesterday. Around 7 last night, the boyfriend and I drove over to the massive new Stop and Shop in South Bay and the place was mobbed like nothing I've seen before. I mean, it's usually busy, but these crowds were like being at Logan Airport during a holiday. I think the store was caught off guard too because food was actually starting to run out. There wasn't a single chicken breast or package of ground meat anywhere. All the bananas were gone. Half the bread aisle was empty. Most of the good canned tomatoes were taken, leaving those gross stewed tomatoes, but that's probably because most of the spaghetti sauces were gone too. And, of course, this being New England, there was a run on salmon, cod, and haddock. Surprisingly, even most of the store-made sushi was gone! There was only one lonely little pack left.

Damn, Boston! I know we like to be prepared for a snowstorm and all, but that's getting a little extreme. Then again, it is comforting being snug and cozy at home looking out the window and knowing that if things get really bad, there's plenty to survive on until help arrives...oh, wait...I forgot that this is W's America. Better not count on help arriving until after he's flown overhead and half of Roxbury stands on their rooves and waves for help first.

Figurines

The boyfriend and I went to Target this weekend and came across these figurines in the Global Bazaar aisles. What is it about servile brown-skinned men in colonial-era, culturally inappropriate clothing that would make someone say, "Yeah, I gotta get one of these?" To quote Angry Asian Man: That's racist!