Outdoors in Somerville, this week and beyond

[ron_newman]

Thursday, September 25: Let's Get Barackin' at the Community Growing Center, 22 Vinal Ave., 6-9 pm. "The idea is to encourage your friends, family and acquaintances to register to vote and help promote and get out the vote for Obama. There will be live music from local bands, food, non-alcoholic drinks, literature, and Obama merchandise. Also available will be materials on how to volunteer for the campaign. No cover at the door, donations to the campaign welcome." Music by Audrey Ryan and Tom Thumb

Friday, September 26: The final East Somerville International Movie Night, 165 Broadway, behind the old firehouse. It's Bollywood Night, with Indian food and music at 7 pm, and a screening of Paheli at 8 pm. (This event was rescheduled from 9/12 because of rain.) Cancelled because of rain again. Better luck next year.

Saturday, September 27 Postponed to SUNDAY, September 28: What the Fluff? Festival in Union Square, 4-7 pm. You really don't want to miss this. See the Flufferettes, Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band, and lots of Fluff Shenanigans. This event will take place on Sunday rain or shine. Check the website for details.

Saturday, September 27: Local Roots Food and Music Festival at the Community Growing Center, 22 Vinal Ave., 5-10 pm. Come here to recover from all the fluff. This event benefits Groundwork Somerville, a local non-profit that hosts such programs as the Green Team (high school jobs), the Growing Healthy Gardens (schoolyard gardens) and the Garden Youth Crew (middle school internships). Suggested donation $30. This event takes place rain or shine -- they have bought a large tent to cover the space if necessary.

Upcoming:

• Historic Bicycle Tour of Middlesex Canal, Saturday 10/4, meet at 9 am at Sullivan Square T station
  
• Somerville 5K Road Race, Saturday 10/4 in Davis Square, benefits the Somerville Homeless Coalition
  
• Harvest Fair, Saturday 10/4, 1-4 pm, Community Growing Center
  
• Fireworks on the Mystic at Assembly Square, Saturday 10/4. Details should be at AssemblySquare.com but I don't see them yet.
  
• Union Square Historic Walking Tour, Sunday 10/5, 2 pm, meet at the Independent. (Rescheduled from 9/14 due to rain)
  
• Honk! Festival, 10/11 in Davis Square, 10/12 march from Davis to Harvard Square Oktoberfest
  
• Tour de Somerville: Explore Somerville's Outer Limits by Bicycle, Saturday 10/18, 10 am, starts in Seven Hills Park
  
• Ghosts of Somerville, Saturday 10/18, 4 pm at Milk Row Cemetery
  
• Spirits of the Garden, Saturday 10/18, 3-5 pm, Community Growing Center
  
• Shape Up Somerville Family Fun and Fitness Day, Saturday 10/25 at Trum Field
  
• AntiMorris Dance, Friday 10/31, 5 pm, Community Growing Center, followed immediately by the Oxford Street Souling Tour

Dangerous Intersection

[cintyber.livejournal.com]

I live on the corner of Albion & Lowell streets, since the Lowell Street Bridge reopened this intersection has become more and more of a danger. This past weekend I was talking with an auxiliary officer that was doing detail for a road race at this intersection he agreed with my thought that there needs to be more stop signs at this intersection. Currently there is only one, on the one way section of Albion Street.

Has anyone else on here had luck with getting the city to add stop signs?

Thank you!

Green Tomato is now open

[vinyl-raven.livejournal.com]

http://www.hiddenboston.com/blogentries/green-tomato-0908.html

Yay!

Upcoming event at the Somerville Theater

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

http://www.animeafterdark.net

October 18th, 7pm - 7am

Thought everyone would like to know about this. This appears to be an event renting the theater as opposed to something the Somerville is coordinating. Figured it might be interesting for some, although I've no plans to go myself at the moment.

Soleil Cafe's new owner featured in today's Globe

[ron_newman]

Page B1 of today's Globe has a Yvonne Abraham column about Fortunato Conte, the new owner of Soleil Cafe in Teele Square.

(Earlier posts about the new Soleil: 28 August, 9 August, 17 July )

Somerville rocks, so why does our Mayor oppose Question 2?

[ron_newman]

Somerville has a well-deserved image of being a haven for offbeat and creative types, so I'm confused and disappointed to see Mayor Joe take part in a press conference opposing Question 2.

As the city's press release itself points out, "Question 2 would decriminalize marijuana use and make possession of small amounts of marijuana punishable only with a fine similar to a traffic violation." (Actually, the police can also seize the marijuana.) That seems to me like just plain common sense. It saves the city money by not wasting police and court time on prosecuting a victimless "crime".

The campaigners against Question 2 call themselves the "Coalition for Safe Streets", but this question has nothing to do with either safety or streets.

Why did you do this, Mayor Joe?

does anyone want my futon mattress?

[r-dorissa.livejournal.com]

hello,

i need the frame, but does anyone want this futon mattress?

i found the thread that listed the donation info, but no luck for pick-up.  i'd like to get rid of it soon.  if you want to pick it up during the day, i can leave it inside the fence at my place.  i live on hinckley st, off broadway.

i read this LJ occasionally, and it seems "neighborly" so i started here instead of craigslist.

~rob


update: it's about 7 years old, but I think it's still in decent condition.  that cover was put on a coupe years ago...

Davis Square Writing Group

[tequilamckngbrd.livejournal.com]

Dear Davis Squarians,
I've finally started getting a routine going, and wanted to pick up writing again.  It's been a while since I've written anything that takes a spark of creativity and wasn't related in some way to blogs, political message boards, recipes, or technical help support forums.

Does anyone really know what "four score and seven years" actually equates to?  Not that it matters, but knowing that type of language in literature might be something useful to a writer.

The idea is to organize with at least 2 other writers, with probably no more than 5, to get together 1-2 times a week.  The best times for me would be Mondays through Thursdays from 6:30PM - 7:30PM.  If a group for that day feels like it, we could extend that to 8:30PM by having dinner, either as a potluck at someone's house, or at one of the local restaurants where the ambient noise doesn't make it difficult to talk with one another.

This is something I did with a friend four years ago (he was 91, and I was 25 back then), and there were a lot of topics we came up with that we eventually wrote about.  We would spec out situations, ideas, possibilities, relations to our own pasts, etc.  This would help us to continue to write, even if only for an hour a day, but enough where we wouldn't just sit in the empty space that's known as writer's block.

Let me know if you're interested, and if so, tell me about yourself.  Here's nearly three decades of relativity summed up for your 15 second reading pleasure:

Born in Houston, TX, I was the first American-born from my immediate family that immigrated from South Korea.  At the age of nine, we moved to the Pacific Northwest.  That move was where I first realized the power of perception, and how to use it to my advantage.  I transgressed the expectations of conformity, and became a pseudo pacifist at the age of 11, a vegetarian at the age of 12, and started college at the age of 16, but made sure not to graduate high school early because of my friends.  When I attended the University of Washington, I worked with infant primates, but I got too attached and dropped out to join the military.  After my service in the U.S. Navy, well... eight years later, here I am with you folk, trying to organize a writing ensemble.  If you want to know more, I guess you'll have to join the writing group.  :)

By the way, emoticons are not healthy for writers.