Somerville – Salem Happenings

Rock Out at Somerville PorchFest 2016

My friend Bill’s birthday is tomorrow, and Bill, much like myself, has an eclectic taste in music. In fact, I have to admit that you would be hard-pressed to find a list of songs that Bill and I didn’t like (there are definitely some out there, but they are few and far between.) As a result, I’m sure if Bill was still living on the East Coast, he would definitely be up for checking out a music festival in the area this weekend, and if you’re looking for a way to get outside and enjoy a wide assortment of different music yourself, PorchFest may be the event for you. This is because PorchFest, which is scheduled to take place from 12:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. tomorrow (Saturday, May 21, 2016), is an annual event sponsored by the Somerville Arts Council that features a collection of independent musicians and bands playing from porches throughout the City of Somerville. This event will feature virtually every kind of music, including alternative, Americana, blues, bluegrass, classical, country, dance, disco, folk, funk, gospel, jazz, hip hop, metal, pop, punk, rap, reggae, rock, show tunes, ska, techno, traditional music from around the world, and pretty much every other type of music you can think of. Best of all, the event is completely free and open to everyone, so you can hear a ton of good music without breaking the bank. For more information on PorchFest 2016, including a map detailing where to find each band, please visit the Somerville Arts Council’s website.

Photo via VisualHunt

Get Fired Up This Weekend!

Fire has fascinated humankind since the very beginning, and while the world has certainly changed a lot since then, people’s fascination with the natural results of combustion have not. In fact, it may have been the first men and women that discovered that fire could be quite useful while they were living in caves. However, we, the men and women of the modern age, have invented more than our fair share of ways to create and use fire ourselves to heat our homes, cook our food, move our cars, and accomplish a variety of other incredible tasks. Unfortunately, the incredible power of fire can also cause its fair share of problems for when fire is misused and/or allowed to spiral out of control, disaster and destruction is all that can follow in its wake. As a result, it’s important to appreciate the power of fire and its ability to aid or destroy, and if you’re looking for a way to experience this power in a safe environment, you’ll definitely want to check out one of these events.

First, if you’re looking for an exhibition of fire in all its forms, Somerville is the place to be this weekend. This is because Ignite! A Global Street Food and Fire Festival is scheduled to take place in Union Square Plaza in Somerville from 6:00 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. tomorrow night (Saturday, August 15, 2015.) This festival will give you the opportunity to burn your mouth off with some of the spiciest food around as dancers, fire throwers, musicians, and more attempt to show you their inner and outer fire through a series of passionate performances. For more information on Ignite! A Global Street Food and Fire Festival, which is completely free to attend and open to the public, please visit the Somerville Arts Council website.

If, on the other hand, you’re more interested in a person’s inner fire or, in other words, what fire represents in a figurative sense, the FireBall may be exactly what you’re looking for. The FireBall, which is scheduled to take place at 8:00 P.M. tomorrow night (Saturday, August 15, 2015), is a fundraiser thrown by the Theatre on Fire. This fundraiser will allow you to participate in a fire-themed costume ball complete with prizes for the best costume, allow you to watch an awards ceremony, and allow you to help decide which of the eight theatre singers will win the Ultimate Boston Theatre Karaoke Battle. For more information on the FireBall, please visit the Theatre on Fire website.

Photo credit: JD Hancock / Foter / CC BY

How To Get Your Kids Outside

A house can be a wonderful thing. It can protect us from the elements, shield us from creatures both big and small, and give us a place to store all of our stuff. In fact, if you have kids, it can be a place for them to store all of their video games, toys, TVs, movies, and everything else that they have collected. As a result, it should come as no great surprise that the average child has very little interest in leaving his or her house at all. However, every so often, there comes a time when a parent has to find a way to get his or her child to go outside (either for the benefit of the parent or the child.) It is, therefore, fortunate that if you are looking for a way to get your child out of the house and into that magical place called the outdoors, there are a number of outdoor events for children in the Boston area this weekend.

First, if your kid is a big fan of kites, there are actually two major kite-flying festivals this weekend, the Franklin Park Kite and Bike Festival and the Revere Beach Kite Festival. The Franklin Park Kite and Bike Festival, which runs from 12:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. on Sunday (May 18, 2014), will give you and your children the opportunity to eat, purchase your own kite (if you don’t have one already), borrow a bike to tour the park, and, of course, fly a kite. For more information on the Franklin Park Kite and Bike Festival, which is completely free, please visit the Franklin Park Event page. The Revere Beach Kite Festival, which runs from 11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M. on Sunday (May 18, 2014), will allow you and your children to decorate kites, listen to music, and, as you have probably guessed, fly your own kite. Best of all, if you don’t have a kite and you can’t afford one, Sea Side Kites is actually giving out free kites to the first 300 kids under the age of 12 at the festival. For more information on the Revere Beach Kite Festival, which is free to attend, please visit the Official Revere Beach website.

Secondly, if your kid would rather rock out than watch a piece of fabric dance in the wind, you may want to head to Somerville this weekend. This is because the Somerville Arts Council’s annual PorchFest is this Saturday (May 17, 2014) from 12:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. PorchFest, which has become a tradition in Somerville, is a daylong event in which musicians throughout the city setup their equipment on their porches in order to demonstrate their musical skills with everything from the banjo to the electric guitar and beyond. For more information on PorchFest and the bands that are playing, please visit the Somerville Arts Council PorchFest page.

Finally, if your kid is in college and you’re desperately looking for a way to get your child out of his or her dorm room, the Red Sox may have you covered. This is because Sunday night (May 18, 2014) is College Media Night at Fenway Park. As a result, students can purchase Standing Room Only (SRO) tickets for $9 a ticket or seats in a number of seating categories for $20 a ticket. Best of all, if your kid can’t make it to the game this weekend, the Red Sox are offering SRO tickets to college students with a valid ID for only $9 all season long. For more information and/or to purchase tickets, please visit the Official Boston Red Sox Student Offer page.

Photo credit: Bill Ward’s Brickpile / Foter / Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)

Are You Ready for the Spring Yet?

I don’t know about you, but I think we’ve had enough snow for one year. I mean 65 inches of snow should really be enough for just about anyone. Unfortunately, there’s a certain groundhog (who will remain nameless) that insists we are going to have another 6 weeks of winter, so what’s an exhausted snow shoveler to do? Well, there really are only two things you can do. You can try to get your mind off of the snow or you can move south. If the first choice sounds more practical, that’s probably because it is. As a result, you may want to know some of the things that you can do this weekend to get your mind off of the snow and to focus on the lovely season that makes all of the white stuff go away (eventually at least.)

First, if you’re looking for a way to get you mind off the snow or you’re looking for a safer way to satisfy your fascination with fire than taking a blowtorch to the ice in your driveway, you may want to check out Fire & Ice: A Winter Festival. This festival, which is sponsored by the Somerville Arts Council, is a celebration of all things hot and cold, and it’s a great way to celebrate the fact that it won’t be this cold forever. In fact, you, your friends, your family, and anyone else you feel like dragging along with you will have the opportunity to warm themselves up with a hot cup of coffee or freeze themselves to the bone with some ice cream while they watch fire spinners perform amazing feats and ice sculptures take shape right in front of their eyes. For more information on Fire & Ice: A Winter Festival, which is scheduled to take place in Union Square Plaza tomorrow from 3:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M., please visit the Somerville Arts Council website.

Secondly, if fire isn’t really your thing (“Fire bad!”) or the very mention of the word ice makes you cringe (“Ice worse!”), you may want to check out the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society’s Polymer and Beading Show entitled “Spring Starts Here!” This show, which begins tomorrow and runs every day from Tuesday through Sunday until the 16th, is a collection of artistic works that have a garden or spring-related theme. However, what really makes the show impressive is the fact that each of the works in the show are constructed completely out of polymer clay and/or beads, which means that each flower, wreath, and/or other spring-related piece of artwork took weeks, if not months, to complete. For more information on the Spring Starts Here Polymer and Beading Show, please visit the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society website.

Photo credit: *~Dawn~* / Foter / CC BY

Keeping Your Kids Busy During The Holidays

With Christmas less than two weeks away, the countdown has truly begun. In fact, most parents and children are now running around faster than their electric meters in anticipation of the arrival of Old Kris Kringle. As a result, many mothers, fathers, and other guardians are currently in the process of trying to figure out how to alleviate some of their children’s excess excitement before they go out to get the gifts that their children are so excited about. Fortunately, if you are running around trying to find a way to keep your kids busy or, at the very least, find a way to keep them from tearing your house apart, there are a couple of holiday events this weekend that are sure to help.

First, if your children really love to see all of the holiday decorations and/or you prefer holiday decorations when their attached to someone else’s electric meter, the Somerville Illuminations Tour may be the way to go. This tour, which begins at Somerville City Hall, will allow you and your family to see all of the decorated houses in East or West Somerville (depending on the tour your choose) from the comfort of a trolley car. Best of all, you will not only be able to see all of the lights without driving around aimlessly, but will also be able to enjoy coffee, cookies, hot chocolate, kid’s crafts, and music while you wait for the trolley to arrive. For more information on the tour, which runs from 4:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. on Saturday (December 14, 2013), please visit the Somerville Arts Council website.

Secondly, if you’re looking for something to do later in the weekend or you had a traumatic experience with holiday decorating at some point (perhaps you never found the one bulb that burned out), the Charles Hotel in Cambridge may have the event for you. This is because the Charles Hotel is officially opening their ice rink on Sunday and, in honor of the occasion, the Hotel is hosting an Ice Rink Opening Party from 12:00 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. This party will allow you and your family to skate for free, drink hot chocolate, watch professional skaters demonstrate their skill on the ice, and keep your kids busy with arts and crafts if skating really isn’t their thing. For more information on the Ice Rink Opening Party at the Charles Hotel, please visit the Ice Rink Opening Party’s Yelp Page.

Photo credit: Minnesota Historical Society / Foter.com / CC BY-SA