#48 Boston - Return of the Flip Flop - May 5, 2005
No, my friends, I am not talking about John Kerry, even though he does hang around here. This is another unsettling phenomenon, closely related to the quilt bag movement I eluded to in one of my earlier updates. The same women who last year, during my first encounters with New England urban culture, carried the flowery Vera Bradley bags (coined "diaper bags" by my friend Ruth) have now - at the first signs of spring and the sweltering 50 degree weather - pulled out their beach wear -flip flops, which go so well with their professional outfits (not!!). I don't know who started this people!! In addition, I have to say something to the guys accompanying these women - no matter how much you love your girlfriend, fiancée, wife, mistress, spousal equivalent - do not, I mean DO NOT carry their hand bags (in particular if it is one of those bedspread bags...). I know you mean well, but - no, no, no - very unbecoming....
Speaking of returning - this Wednesday, the resident Public Garden swans, Romeo and Juliet, have returned to their summer lagoon - they reside at the Franklin Park Zoo all winter. There was a little parade to welcome them back to the hub, led by none other than our own Boston Park Ranger Lt. Reginald Sampson.
At this point, I am pretty much convinced that no more snow is coming to Boston, and the weather has kept steady at temps in the 50s, albeit with not much sunshine, and last weekend was a rain-out, so any attempts at hiking were balked at by Mother Nature. This drencher of a weekend put a major damper on WBOS's Earth Fest, which took place on the Charles River Esplanade, and had actually a pretty nice line-up with The Wallflowers, Carbon Leaf, Five for Fighting as their headliners. I did not attend, but was able to hear some of it, as I was stuck in traffic on Storrow Drive with my friend Renee's mattress crunched right above my head. I was helping her out with moving and there was gridlock everywhere! All went well though, and Renee, Clover (the cat) and Rufus (the dog) are now comfortably settled in Somerville.
Saturday evening I headed toward Emmanuel Church on Newbury Street (http://www.emmanuel-boston.org/) to usher for Boston Cares. The evening featured a performance by the Spectrum Singers (www.spectrumsingers.org), one of the many choral ensembles here in New England, and definitely one of their finest!! They have been around for a quarter century and generally perform pieces from all periods of music history. English baroque composer Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695 )(http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxpurcell.html) and his opera "Dido and Aeneas" were portrayed that night. Considering that I just saw the play about Dido and Aeneas at the ART, this was a fitting addition to my cultural program, and a spectacular performance by this choir. Bravo!!
I was determined to do some hiking on Sunday, but again - rain, rain and rain. Change of plans, time to hit the museums. For starters I had to visit the one museum in Boston that I had been negligent in visiting - the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. From the outside, you would never guess what a gem this place is - a 15th century Venetian Villa, right in the middle of Boston!! (http://www.gardnermuseum.org/). Isabella, bless her, was an art collector, philanthropist, music enthusiast and designed this marvel to inspire in people a love for the arts. It is one of the finest collections of paintings, tapestries, sculptures, furniture and decorative arts. The courtyard with its amazing display of flowers and, my favorite, the tapestry room, where concerts by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra take place, they just take your breath away. The museum opened in 1903 and has not changed since Isabella's death in 1924. The collection features objects from ancient Rome, medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, the Islamic world and 19th century France and America. Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Sargent are among the artists displayed, and its archives hold thousands of letters from the likes of T.S. Eliot, Sarah Bernhardt and Oliver Wendell Holmes, in addition to original Dante manuscripts. This is a must for every visitor to Boston!
Artist in Residence Dayanita Singh provided an interesting exhibit on chairs - come to think of it, actually a pretty neat idea. Not all chairs are created equal (or seat equally comfortable), as they say!
Well, once I had exhausted myself there, I ambled over to the Museum of Fine Arts to make another attempt at seeing the Ralph Lauren Caaah Exhibit "Speed, Style and Beauty" and this time my quest was successful. (http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/cars/default.html). Quite the car enthusiast he is, our Ralphie! I was not quite sure what to expect, but I have to say, I got swept up in the excitement over the horsepower in that room. Contrary to my expectations, the audience was a pretty mixed bag (not just guys), but definitely different from the "Spring in Bloom" crowd downstairs, which leaned strongly toward the 70+ female demographic. The cars were absolutely cool!! You just wanted to hop into one of those bad boys and go (not that my little Ella is not fun too, but...). Bugattis, Bentleys, Alfa Romeos, Porsches, Jaguars and Mercedes - up-close and personal!! My favorites were the 1937 Bugatti 57SC Gangloff Drophead Coupe, the 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SL Coupe (with its airplane-type doors) and of course the Porsche Spyder. The McLaren Formula 1 all-carbon was quite stylish in a futuristically sort-of-way (also goes 240 mph). Write-ups on the walls depicted the inventors and designers of these cars - and some interesting tidbits about them. Walter Bentley was part of the "Bentley Boys", a "gaggle of British gentlemen, who drove fast cars and lived fast lives, with dusk-to-dawn parties and escapades all over Europe." (ooh, lala!!). Etore Bugatti apparently was a peculiar bird, he once refused to sell a car to King Carol II of Romania, because he did not like his table manners. And William Lyons, the Jaguar guy, once went to test race one of his cars with a friend. He forgot his glasses and instead of heading back to get them, he simply told the poor passenger to direct him where to drive (we are talking race car speeds here!!).
After that adrenaline-laden experience, I headed for a cozy little exhibit the MFA had on baseball and the Red Sox, the center piece of which was a famous Norman Rockwell painting called "The Rookie". It was the cover page of the Saturday Evening Post on March 2, 1957. (http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/rockwell_baseball.html). A small exhibit, but what a great collection of Memorabilia:
- a picture of the first game ever played in Fenway Park on April 20, 1912 between the Boston Red Sox and New York Highlanders
- Harry Hooper's Sweater (he still holds the Red Sox record for most stolen bases (300) and triples (130))
- Jerseys from Carlton Fisk, Carl Yazstrzemski, Ted Williams and Cy Young (did you know his first name was Cyclone??)
- Score cards from the 1915 World Series
- The famous promissory note to the New York Yankees for the partial payment for Babe Ruth
- Johnny Damon and Curt Schilling's cleats and other paraphernalia from the 2004 World Series
- The diehard Royal Rooters, who used to perform their baseball battle song "Tessie", which is still played at Fenway Park, now in its newest interpretation by the Drop Kick Murphys. (http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/dropkickmurphys/tessie.html)
At the end of this rainy weekend, I was suddenly attacked by a vicious virus of sorts and since then have been fighting a cold, that has pretty much afflicted everyone here at the hospital and in my circle of friends (not that I stated it!!). Raspy throat, runny nose (call me Rudolf), the whole works. I have been heading home every night this week and pretty much straight to bed, so nothing new to report.
Got my picture in the paper again, sort of - the Boston Courant had snapshots from the Back Bay Road Race, and while my friends Ruth and Eric can be seen quite nicely, Elaine and I are featured partially, but hey - I'm not picky.
Amigos, Happy Cinco de Mayo, I am head home now and will eat a truck load of chicken soup!!
Ciao,
pet:)
Speaking of returning - this Wednesday, the resident Public Garden swans, Romeo and Juliet, have returned to their summer lagoon - they reside at the Franklin Park Zoo all winter. There was a little parade to welcome them back to the hub, led by none other than our own Boston Park Ranger Lt. Reginald Sampson.
At this point, I am pretty much convinced that no more snow is coming to Boston, and the weather has kept steady at temps in the 50s, albeit with not much sunshine, and last weekend was a rain-out, so any attempts at hiking were balked at by Mother Nature. This drencher of a weekend put a major damper on WBOS's Earth Fest, which took place on the Charles River Esplanade, and had actually a pretty nice line-up with The Wallflowers, Carbon Leaf, Five for Fighting as their headliners. I did not attend, but was able to hear some of it, as I was stuck in traffic on Storrow Drive with my friend Renee's mattress crunched right above my head. I was helping her out with moving and there was gridlock everywhere! All went well though, and Renee, Clover (the cat) and Rufus (the dog) are now comfortably settled in Somerville.
Saturday evening I headed toward Emmanuel Church on Newbury Street (http://www.emmanuel-boston.org/) to usher for Boston Cares. The evening featured a performance by the Spectrum Singers (www.spectrumsingers.org), one of the many choral ensembles here in New England, and definitely one of their finest!! They have been around for a quarter century and generally perform pieces from all periods of music history. English baroque composer Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695 )(http://www.baroquemusic.org/bqxpurcell.html) and his opera "Dido and Aeneas" were portrayed that night. Considering that I just saw the play about Dido and Aeneas at the ART, this was a fitting addition to my cultural program, and a spectacular performance by this choir. Bravo!!
I was determined to do some hiking on Sunday, but again - rain, rain and rain. Change of plans, time to hit the museums. For starters I had to visit the one museum in Boston that I had been negligent in visiting - the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. From the outside, you would never guess what a gem this place is - a 15th century Venetian Villa, right in the middle of Boston!! (http://www.gardnermuseum.org/). Isabella, bless her, was an art collector, philanthropist, music enthusiast and designed this marvel to inspire in people a love for the arts. It is one of the finest collections of paintings, tapestries, sculptures, furniture and decorative arts. The courtyard with its amazing display of flowers and, my favorite, the tapestry room, where concerts by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra take place, they just take your breath away. The museum opened in 1903 and has not changed since Isabella's death in 1924. The collection features objects from ancient Rome, medieval Europe, Renaissance Italy, Asia, the Islamic world and 19th century France and America. Titian, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, Botticelli, Manet, Degas, Whistler and Sargent are among the artists displayed, and its archives hold thousands of letters from the likes of T.S. Eliot, Sarah Bernhardt and Oliver Wendell Holmes, in addition to original Dante manuscripts. This is a must for every visitor to Boston!
Artist in Residence Dayanita Singh provided an interesting exhibit on chairs - come to think of it, actually a pretty neat idea. Not all chairs are created equal (or seat equally comfortable), as they say!
Well, once I had exhausted myself there, I ambled over to the Museum of Fine Arts to make another attempt at seeing the Ralph Lauren Caaah Exhibit "Speed, Style and Beauty" and this time my quest was successful. (http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/cars/default.html). Quite the car enthusiast he is, our Ralphie! I was not quite sure what to expect, but I have to say, I got swept up in the excitement over the horsepower in that room. Contrary to my expectations, the audience was a pretty mixed bag (not just guys), but definitely different from the "Spring in Bloom" crowd downstairs, which leaned strongly toward the 70+ female demographic. The cars were absolutely cool!! You just wanted to hop into one of those bad boys and go (not that my little Ella is not fun too, but...). Bugattis, Bentleys, Alfa Romeos, Porsches, Jaguars and Mercedes - up-close and personal!! My favorites were the 1937 Bugatti 57SC Gangloff Drophead Coupe, the 1955 Mercedes Benz 300 SL Coupe (with its airplane-type doors) and of course the Porsche Spyder. The McLaren Formula 1 all-carbon was quite stylish in a futuristically sort-of-way (also goes 240 mph). Write-ups on the walls depicted the inventors and designers of these cars - and some interesting tidbits about them. Walter Bentley was part of the "Bentley Boys", a "gaggle of British gentlemen, who drove fast cars and lived fast lives, with dusk-to-dawn parties and escapades all over Europe." (ooh, lala!!). Etore Bugatti apparently was a peculiar bird, he once refused to sell a car to King Carol II of Romania, because he did not like his table manners. And William Lyons, the Jaguar guy, once went to test race one of his cars with a friend. He forgot his glasses and instead of heading back to get them, he simply told the poor passenger to direct him where to drive (we are talking race car speeds here!!).
After that adrenaline-laden experience, I headed for a cozy little exhibit the MFA had on baseball and the Red Sox, the center piece of which was a famous Norman Rockwell painting called "The Rookie". It was the cover page of the Saturday Evening Post on March 2, 1957. (http://www.mfa.org/exhibitions/rockwell_baseball.html). A small exhibit, but what a great collection of Memorabilia:
- a picture of the first game ever played in Fenway Park on April 20, 1912 between the Boston Red Sox and New York Highlanders
- Harry Hooper's Sweater (he still holds the Red Sox record for most stolen bases (300) and triples (130))
- Jerseys from Carlton Fisk, Carl Yazstrzemski, Ted Williams and Cy Young (did you know his first name was Cyclone??)
- Score cards from the 1915 World Series
- The famous promissory note to the New York Yankees for the partial payment for Babe Ruth
- Johnny Damon and Curt Schilling's cleats and other paraphernalia from the 2004 World Series
- The diehard Royal Rooters, who used to perform their baseball battle song "Tessie", which is still played at Fenway Park, now in its newest interpretation by the Drop Kick Murphys. (http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/dropkickmurphys/tessie.html)
At the end of this rainy weekend, I was suddenly attacked by a vicious virus of sorts and since then have been fighting a cold, that has pretty much afflicted everyone here at the hospital and in my circle of friends (not that I stated it!!). Raspy throat, runny nose (call me Rudolf), the whole works. I have been heading home every night this week and pretty much straight to bed, so nothing new to report.
Got my picture in the paper again, sort of - the Boston Courant had snapshots from the Back Bay Road Race, and while my friends Ruth and Eric can be seen quite nicely, Elaine and I are featured partially, but hey - I'm not picky.
Amigos, Happy Cinco de Mayo, I am head home now and will eat a truck load of chicken soup!!
Ciao,
pet:)
posted by My Boston at
4:38 PM
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