Joel Brown interviews the Pops conductor on the upcoming EdgeFest, which this year features Natalie Merchant and Amanda Palmer:

... I was vaguely familiar with the Dresden Dolls' work, and I'm thinking "Pops Goes Goth" was not a combination I ever saw happening. But as I listened to her solo stuff, it's really, really interesting, very lyric-driven, very honest, and very original, and that's what we're looking for. We're not looking for people to fill some sort of genre. We're looking for artists with something to say. In a way the disparity in people's minds of Amanda Palmer vs. the Boston Pops is going to produce some interesting results. ...

Friday night, we took our children to see the Boston Pops' Holiday show. Barenaked Ladies were the special guest.

To read the chronicle of our adventures in Symphony, read more here.

We go over to Symphony Hall, and everyone there is dressed impeccably. There is fur, there are gowns, there are ties, there are bow ties. There are dress shoes, there are glittery blouses. Everyone is there, dressed to the nines, and my son finally kind of gets it. It's not a rock show -- it's a symphony. And now he's pissed because he doesn't want to see the stupid orchestra. He wants to see Barenaked Ladies. I tell him again and again, you WILL see Barenaked Ladies. I promise you, they are going to be here.

John captures the July 4th festivities, which left Wally pretty cranky. Brian and clan watched from the top level of the Museum of Science parking lot. He reports the fireworks were great

... They're accompanied by pre-recorded music, which is really useless if you ask me. The music selection is lame and doesn't particularly suit a fireworks display, and, after all, there is a world-class orchestra just sitting there watching ...

Tim, meanwhile, ponders the differences between the confident, assured Keith Lockhart at the Hatch Shell, and the whiny, petulant Keith Lockhart in the Boston Sunday Globe:

... Why on earth would someone as apparently media-savvy as Keith Lockhart drop the shield for an interview that made him out to be such a whiner? You'd think he'd, I don't know, go start a LiveJournal or something.