To fans of the New England Patriots, a new season means a new chance to go undefeated and make Eli Manning's Boy Scout face go far, far away. For us, it's an opportunity to see if Foxboro retailers' bid to liven up the town around Gillette Stadium actually works.
The regular-season home opener for the Pats is Sunday. Since Patriot Place hasn't opened yet, if you hit our hot spots now maybe you won't need glove warmers--'cause you'll be holding hands with someone who isn't Pat Patriot!]]>
Movies that play off the characteristics of various ethnicities (My Big Fat Greek Wedding, My Blue Heaven) seem to be safe bets: Throw in some quirky accents, familial hijinks and a romance or two and you're set. This week's pick, Everybody Wants to Be Italian, falls squarely in that camp.
Jake has spent eight years trying to win back his ex-girlfriend to no avail when his friends set him up on a blind date with a beautiful Italian veterinarian from Boston's North End. Her big sticking point? She's only into Italians and Jake isn't one. But he learns to fake it and does everything he can to win her heart.
Yep, it's corn-syrupy sweet and tries hard, but also is good for a few laughs. The film was actually shot in Boston; read on for some cool things to get you in the back-to-school spirit in Beantown this fall.]]>
Anyone who has been to Boston--or has met anyone from the city--knows that watching the local sports teams play is something akin to a religious ceremony for most Bostonians. And those that worship at the temple of the New England Patriots now have a little more space to love in.
As the NFL season gets underway, the Pats are unveiling the anchors of the massive new Patriot Place complex, a 1.3-million-square-foot shopping, dining and entertainment district that gives fans a reason to stay in Foxboro after the game.]]>
Jaunted is planning our fall travel with some help from the networks. Check out our Fall TV 2008 Map to go where your new favorite characters go.
Given that "LOST" creator JJ Abrams' new series "Fringe" (Sept. 9, 8 pm, Fox) begins with a plane crash just like its established cousin, we're pretty sure the producer and director has a serious phobia to deal with. But Flight 627 lands at Boston's Logan with every single passenger dead, and dead in a particularly gruesome way, so there will be no desert island shenanigans here.
A federal agent (Anna Torv), a mad scientist (Peter Noble) and his genius brat son (Joshua Jackson) believe the answer to the fate of Flight 627 lies in the realm of "fringe science"--explaining the unexplained with possible supernatural intervention. So, in other words, the Cloverfield monster did it with an assist from the smoke monster.
We haven't seen the two-hour, $10 million pilot yet, but Wired.com says it contains "a doomed airplane, hairless weasels, rooftop chases in the 'Bourne Identity' vein, acid-tripping federal agents and more translucent skin than you can shake a fat-encrusted artery at."
Related Stories:
· Fringe Pilot Script Review [Collider.com]
· JJ Abrams Tries to Play It Straight(er) With "Fringe" [NYM]
· First Look: JJ Abrams' Fringe [Wired.com]
[Photo: Collider.com]]]>
New England is home to the largest population of Cape Verdean immigrants and descendents of immigrants in the country. Celebrate this tiny Atlantic outpost at the Onset Cape Verdean Festival on Saturday, northeast of New Bedford, just south of Cape Cod.
The archipelago off the west coast of Africa has given us Damon Dash and the NBA's Ryan Gomes, but the fest serves as a de facto reunion for far-flung Cape Verdeans who may have roots in the same town.
Break it down to traditional morna music (a blues-like form often incorporating violins and clarinets) and fuel up on the sausage and corn dish cachupinha.
Related Stories:
· Cape Verdean Festival Is a Homecoming for Thousands [South Coast Today]
· It's Summer Somewhere: Cape Verde [Jaunted]
[Photo of Onset village: dbray]]]>
If you've been following this week's coverage of Eero Saarinen, then today's focus should be instantly recognizable. Constructed between 1953 and 1955, the Kresge Auditorium at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology displays many of the themes that we've seen in his works so far. The building was named in honor of S. S. Kresge, founder of the company that would later become K-Mart. Although not a graduate of MIT, he apparently had some pretty strong cash reserves.]]>
We love our Starbucks Alternatives, but sometimes we do enjoy the Green Monster. Our very own Hunter Walker just checked out a unique bit of coffee gadgetry for us.
This weekend I had the opportunity to check out the infamous $11,000 coffee maker at a Starbucks on Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The coffee machine, known as the Clover, is seen as such a revolutionary piece of Java technology that Starbucks purchased the company that makes it back in March to prevent it from popping up in too many independent cafes.]]>