Davis Square

Uh, oh, mayor of Somerville gets really mad; will he turn green and burst out of his clothes?

adamg — Wed, 23 May 2012 02:06:53 +0000

Whoever stole a one-of-a-kind, artist-designed Weekly Dig news box had better hope they don't run into Joe Curtatone in a dark alley. He tweets tonight:

Surely someone can find some other piece of ironic furniture. Return Rawr!

Bike beats car, Red Line in race from Davis to Kendall this morning

adamg — Mon, 14 May 2012 13:08:03 +0000

Rush Hour Race pitted the three transportation modes in a battle to the death, um, fastest commute this morning between Davis Square and Kendall Square. LivableStreets reports bike won, followed nine minutes later by the T. The car sputtered in last.

Steve Annear reports that, yes, the bicyclist stopped for all red lights.

Government would only spray killed bacteria - and only in off hours - in Red Line bioterror attack tests

adamg — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:35:45 +0000

The Department of Homeland Security says the moves will ensure the tests, planned for this summer at Harvard, Porter and Davis on the Red Line, pose no risk to riders with immune problems, according to a DHS report - unlike fellow riders or snakes.

The release of B. subtilis spores will mimic a possible bioterror attack and test the efficiency of scanners to provide early warnings of possible biologic attacks - in as little as 20 minutes after the release of bacteria.

The program does, however, have one key difference from the original

adamg — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 10:40:35 +0000

The Daily Free Press reports a Davis Square health club is offering an exercise program based on "The Hunger Games:"

While the workout does not include a fight to the death as in the book, Cronin said players still get competitive.

Weekend service resumes on the Red Line north of Harvard Square

adamg — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 16:01:25 +0000

And was promptly delayed so emergency workers could retrieve somebody who fell onto the tracks at Davis. No contact with the third rail, at least, Mike Moura tweets.

Trash fire at Davis slows Red Line

adamg — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:45:24 +0000

Kristina Cary reports a trash fire means problems on the Red Line in Cambridge and Somerville tonight.

Missing: Stuffed pink leopard

adamg — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:21:56 +0000

A local parent is frantically searching for his daughter's Lisa Leopard, stolen out of the family mini-van last night at the Rite-Aid near Davis Square:

She has had her since she was 3 years old. This is the go-to comfort toy. No, this is her best friend. This is the thing she brought to EVERY SINGLE "show and tell" day at school for a year.

This is her Hobbes. In fact, when I introduced her to Calvin and Hobbes last year, it was as if she had written the comics in a previous life.

So as you can imagine, I have spent the last several hours in the rain inspecting every square inch within a five block radius of the crime scene. I have been trying to get into the heads of whatever stoner kids found an unlocked door, grabbed the first thing they saw, and looked inside, and realized that there was nothing worth stealing. I have gone into every trash can and made friends with the T station workers. I even chatted up a few of the downtrodden folks at the bottle redemption center.

It only looks like a truck whose driver got horribly lost in Davis Square

adamg — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:21:04 +0000

In fact, this photo is part of a set by the MBTA showing re-painting at the station while the Red Line is shut down for track work.

Trotting turkey

adamg — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 23:59:21 +0000

Nathanael Hevelone discovers the one day of the year when it's acceptable to run through Davis Square dressed like a turkey.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

The cask of a VFW post

adamg — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 04:41:26 +0000

Photo by Maria Varmazis.

Efforts by the Dilboy VFW Post in Davis Square to stay open until it can build a new post hit a cinderblock wall Saturday, when workers hired by the adjacent Winter Hill Bank built a wall to permanently seal off the post's basement game room on orders of inspectors brought in by the state. Post members promptly indicated what they thought of the wall.

Club members say the inspectors came from the Boston Fire Department, but BFD spokesman Steve MacDonald said that whoever the inspectors were, they weren't from Boston: "We did not and do not go into other cities or towns to inspect properties. No Boston inspector was in Somerville at the VFW post."

Post officials said that on Veterans Day, in addition to being told the game room had to be shut permanently, they were given until Monday afternoon to submit plans for bringing their ancient building up to fire code or the state would shut it down. That could mean they would lose their liquor license and possibly jeopardize the proposed move into a new post building on another corner of their property.

The post had proposed dealing with code violations through construction of the new building - which a developer would build in exchange for permission to build 31 new condos on another part of the post's land - but the project has been stalled in an increasingly acrimonious battle between neighbors and the post.

She shot her phone in the air, it fell to earth, she knew not where

adamg — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 21:04:47 +0000

Well, maybe someplace in Davis Square. If you do happen to find a phone attached to a giant mylar balloon, do be a dear and let Katie Gradowski know:

I realize I could have seen this coming. An experiment in aerial photography gone wrong. ... You'll recognize it by the giant mylar balloon attached, or the sticker on the back that says "Katie."

Burren burned by freak fire

adamg — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 21:34:59 +0000

Firefighters break open wall. Video by Ballghflash.

Traffic is a mess in Davis Square as firefighters mop up after a fire along an outside wall of the Burren on Elm Street this afternoon.

Boston area not immune to planking

adamg — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 03:09:05 +0000

Whole series of planking photos, including my favorite - planking the giant steel T outside Alewife. Sometimes, though, it can be hard to tell if somebody is planking or dead drunk.

A Near Futuristic Dystopian CD Release brunch lands at the Burren on Sunday, May 22

Alaiyo — Fri, 20 May 2011 03:40:34 +0000

The Unreliable Narrator Theater Group and The Pluto Tapes are hosting a CD release party for the cast album of 2010: Our Hideous Future: The Musical! on Sunday, May 22 at The Burren, located at 247 Elm St, Somerville, MA at 3 PM.

Featuring local artists Kamela Dolinova, Emily Taradash, Julia Lunetta, Timothy Hoover, John Deschene, Kay Coughlin, Katie Drexel, Ginger Lazarus, and Will Todisco, the cast album features all of the songs from the hit cyberpunk musical comedy 2010: Our Hideous Future: The Musical!, ranging from whimsical (“Doing The Best That I Can”), to the grooving (“Bangor Boogie”) to the memorable and uplifting (“The Future’s Not What It Used To Be”). Joining them are local artists electronic violinist Mei Ohara (fresh from performing at the Unreliable Narrator Showcase), the cyberpunk band Br1ght Pr1mate, and the Pluto Tapes.

The cast of 2010: Our Hideous Future: The Musical! will also perform songs from the album.

Down and out at Diesel

adamg — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 10:55:22 +0000

These days, Marc Levy can afford to buy a sandwich or two at Diesel. But he recalls his unemployment days when he'd spent hours there slowly munching on a bag of its day-old bagels - or furtively consuming the granola he'd stored in his backpack:

Worst of all was that in addition to taking up space and sucking up electricity, I wasn't tipping. Every Thai iced tea was simultaneously delicious and shame inducing; every time I got 10 stamps on my card and a dollar off was a twist of the knife; and reusing a glass and saving another dime was the final insult.