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In Cambridge, family behind Brookline Lunch loved Bernie Goldberg

By 1988, Abu-Rubieh had abandoned his engineering ambitions and, after working in restaurants for a number of years, wanted to open one of his own. Word around town was that Bernard Goldberg was the man to help make it happen. He and his twin brother, Bill Goldberg , had set up shop in Central Square, earning a reputation as kind and respected lawyers, particularly among immigrants in the community. Years after arriving from Jordan in the 1970s, Jamal Abu-Rubieh pursued a longtime dream half a world away in Cambridge, home to many immigrant families hoping to carve out a new path in America. Advertisement Known as the “Gold Dust Twins,” the Cambridge natives boasted a penchant for style and a knack for telling jokes. After Abu-Rubieh applied for his restaurant license, he went to Goldberg for legal counsel, and Goldberg helped him and his wife, Manal Abu-Rubieh, open their first restaurant, Jimmaize Cafe, on Western Avenue. Not long after, he assisted the couple in buying Brookline Lunch, a beloved local diner. Get Camberville & beyond A Boston Globe newsletter about Cambridge, Somerville, and communities beyond. Enter Email Sign Up That pivotal meeting in Central Square was the start of a lasting friendship, one that would unite two families — one Palestinian and one Jewish — in affection and now in grief. On Nov. 30, Goldberg, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in his later years, died at the age of 94. Known as “Bernie,” he was a five-term city councilor, a lawyer recognized by the city with his brother in 2004 after advising residents for a half-century — Goldberg Square is named after the pair — and a generous family man. To his own family, and to the Abu-Rubiehs. “It felt like we lost a father figure,” Manal Abu-Rubieh, 57, whom the brothers helped emigrate from Jordan, said by email. “Bernard took pride in helping our family set roots in Cambridge and believed in us and what we could make for ourselves. He empowered us to achieve everything we’ve done over the past 35 years as a business and as a family.” Advertisement In an online tribute to Goldberg, Abeer Abu-Rubieh, one of seven children in the family, remembered him as a loyal customer, a dear friend, and an ally who understood “that the intricacies of the law often intersect with the delicate fabric of human lives.” As kids, they would fight over who got to visit his law office with their dad, where Goldberg would insist upon them taking more than one Hershey’s Krackel or Nestle Crunch he had waiting, Abeer Abu-Rubieh recalled fondly. A regular for breakfast on the weekends, he would stroll through the kitchen — “Goodfellas style” — to hand the children a box of black and white cookies. For Jamal and Manal, he would bring raisin nut bread. On one Jewish holiday, Goldberg brought in matzah, curious if her dad could make a meal with it. In the kitchen, he cooked up a chicken salad nestled on the flatbread that Goldberg raved about. From then on, Jamal Abu-Rubieh purchased matzah for him — “just to make the salad Bernard fell in love with.” “In times like these, we find solace in the beautiful memories we have of Bernard and we find comfort in knowing he’s now reunited with Bill,” she wrote. Bernard Goldberg, left, and Bill Goldberg, right, ate at Brookline Lunch in 2012. Jodi Arlyn Goldberg A Cambridge mainstay, the diner known for its baklava and knafeh pancakes has used its Instagram account to highlight the plight of thousands of Palestinians displaced and killed in Gaza as the Israel-Hamas war, now in its third month, rages on. The family has long celebrated their Palestinian roots in posts, and, in recent weeks, have expressed grief over the violence and offered ways to help the people of Gaza. In response, some people have called the restaurant and threatened their parents, the siblings said. Advertisement Within those posts is a picture of a smiling Goldberg, wearing a crisp leather jacket as he dined on a plate of falafel and hummus in the brick-walled cafe. “Bernard wanted to be a part of helping you feel secure,” Manal said. Charismatic and caring, he was “the most trusted voice and a voice of reason for me and my family,” added Jamal, 66. Over the years, Goldberg often stopped by the diner just to check in and say hello. He helped the Abu-Rubieh children enroll in school and lent a hand with business licensing. Legal fees were never a concern. He was there for matters big or small. When he brought his loved ones for a meal at the diner, “it truly felt like we were a part of the family,” Jamal said. There was no need for menus. The Abu-Rubiehs knew all their favorites by heart. Those are the memories, Jamal said, that he now holds most dear. “It only felt right to give him a place on the menu in the restaurant that he helped make possible,” he said of a special he named after Goldberg. Advertisement The family’s online remembrance gave Jodi Arlyn Goldberg, 58, a window into her “father that we didn’t always get to witness.” “Being able to see him through the lens of someone else’s experience was so intense and moving,” she said in an interview with her sister, Carla Greengrass, 55, and their mother, Judith Goldberg, 83, who was married to Bernard Goldberg for nearly 60 years. Bernard Goldberg, Jamal Abu-Rubieh, and Bill Goldberg. Brookline Lunch The Goldberg brothers practiced law in Central Square their whole careers, with a clientele based largely on word of mouth. It was hardly a money-making venture, Greengrass said. But “that’s not why they did it.” “They continued to serve the immigrant community because they understood the experience,” she said. “They had to navigate the world of being an other, and I think those are the values that they held on to. They often got paid in food. It was a beautiful, symbiotic relationship.” The Abu-Rubiehs were extended family, Judith Goldberg said. The Goldbergs were always welcomed with open arms to the restaurant and watched as the seven children grew up into successful adults. On his 90th birthday, Judith drove her husband around Central Square to see some of his old friends. She went to the diner to let them know he was waiting in the car. Jamal and Manal ran out the door to see him, showering him with hugs and kisses. They shed tears. Advertisement It was painful to see Goldberg in that condition, Manal said. But it reminded her of how he had been a source of strength for her family over many decades, guiding them through uncertain times and immense change, both in their own lives and the city around them. “But Bernard never changed. Bernard was the very best of Cambridge, and what made this city feel like home. ... Bonds like that endure no matter how much time has passed,” she said. “You don’t forget the people who treated you with respect and kindness; you only hope you feel as special to them as they do to you.” “Few people leave a legacy and impact as large as Bernard did,” she added. It was the last time the two couples saw each other. Before they parted, Jamal and Manal gave Bernard an orange blossom for good luck, Judith said. “It lasted a long time,” she recalled. As did their friendship. Shannon Larson can be reached at shannon.larson@globe.com. Follow her @shannonlarson98.

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entertainment

What Makes Chicken and Rice Even Better? A Little Bite.

By now, I’ve learned that this layer of crunchy, golden rice that can form at the bottom of the pot is rightly prized across cultures, be it Persian tahdig, Korean nurungji or Spanish socarrat, to name just a few. Achieving the ideal layer of crisp rice is the kind of culinary feat that takes long practice — or, occasionally — dumb luck. Or you could use this simple hack: Spread cooked, oiled rice on a sheet pan and bake it at high heat. The large surface area of the sheet pan will dry the rice before it browns, making it especially crunchy, and the oven’s steady, indirect heat helps keep the rice from burning — a welcome relief for us multitasking cooks. For this technique, I particularly adore the textural contrast of short-grain rice, because while the plump, starchy grains get nicely crisp where they meet the bottom and edges of the pan, the top stays softer and chewy. But long-grain rice, which takes on a consistently crunchy texture, also works.

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entertainment

Winter 2023 things to do around New England

1. SHARPE HILL VINEYARD Connecticut’s aptly named Quiet Corner takes on a pastoral feel in winter, especially with snow blanketing the ground. Tucked into this Rockwell-esque scene is a hillside winery that’s tough to find but tougher to leave — its 1700s-era house and barn are straight out of a movie. In a tasting room with the feel of an elegant country home, sample from Sharpe Hill’s array of excellent wines (including the cabernet franc if you’re into bold, Bordeaux-style reds) and soak in the enchanting atmosphere of this spot just a 90-minute drive from Boston. – Marc Hurwitz Advertisement Details: 108 Wade Road, Pomfret, Connecticut, 860-974-3549, sharpehill.com Michael Kirkam for the Boston Globe 2. EAGLE WATCHING On the day the Shepaug Bald Eagle Observatory in southwestern Connecticut opened for the winter last year, 15 of the majestic birds greeted visitors by soaring above the Shepaug Dam. Eagles that spend the winter in New England just can’t stay away — and you don’t have to stand outside in the cold to watch them. A small wooden observatory overlooks the 147-foot-high dam. The pool at the base never freezes and the turbulent churn brings fish to the surface. It’s an all-you-can-eat buffet for eagles in the know. Open December 23 to March 10, on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Free, but reservations required at bookeo.com/shepaug-eagle-viewing. – Patricia Harris and David Lyon Get Globe Magazine An engaging blend of award-winning narrative journalism, opinion, lifestyle, travel, recipes, and advice. Enter Email Sign Up Details: 2225 River Road, Southbury, Connecticut, facebook.com/baldeagles MAINE 3. “SECRET” VISTA AT SUNDAY RIVER The overlook atop Sunday River’s Barker Mountain is something of an open secret: an unmarked, well-trodden rock ledge offering one of the most charming peak views in the state. To get there from the lift, start down the beginner-friendly Three Mile Trail. Pause just before the first bend where you’ll likely see a smattering of (temporarily) abandoned skis on your left. Ditch yours safely (but hang onto your poles) and hike 20 or so yards into the trees along a faint, snowy path, past evergreens decorated with empty nips of Fireball whiskey. At the flat rock peak, you’ll find two Adirondack chairs (vacant, if you’re lucky) and an expansive south-facing view: mountains, trees, sky. But if anyone asks, you didn’t hear about it from me. – Alyssa Giacobbe Advertisement Details: 15 South Ridge Road, Newry, Maine, 207-824-7669, sundayriver.com 4. CANDLELIGHT CAROLING Kennebunkport’s Christmas Prelude, an 11-day annual celebration to usher in the season, may be known for its decidedly merry vibe, but the breakout stars are a group of Franciscan monks singing traditional carols. For one night, the grounds of St. Anthony’s Monastery light up for a magical outdoor performance by candlelight. Flames flicker through the crowd as the candles are lit, telephone-style — accept a flame, and maybe a holiday greeting, from your neighbor and pass it on. You needn’t be religious or even celebrate Christmas to experience a little bit of what this time of year is, as they say, really about. This year’s caroling event, which is free, takes place December 2 at 6:30 p.m. – Alyssa Giacobbe Details: 28 Beach Avenue, Kennebunk, Maine, 207-967-2011, christmasprelude.com A troll sculpture at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Pamela Wright for The Boston Globe 5. GARDENS AGLOW Imagine 750,000 twinkling LED lights in every direction as you stroll through the magical world that is Gardens Aglow at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Bundled up, and with a thermos of cocoa, you walk through 14 acres of gardens, bathed in the light of illuminated sculptures, trees, and structures. Time seems to pause for the hour or so it takes to make your way through. Once you go, you’ll want to make this an annual tradition like my family has. Through December 31. – Erinne Magee Advertisement Details: 105 Botanical Gardens Drive, Boothbay, Maine, 207-633-8000, mainegardens.org 6. CENTRAL PROVISIONS Every winter, my friends and I gather at a low-slung, brick-walled Portland restaurant that’s a passageway to another world: a cross between Cheers and Beowulf. Here, the clouds are lined with charcuterie. Pungent, runny cheese flows as the wind and snow howl outside. Gluttony is expected; the faint aroma of whiskey fills the air. Within this cozy refuge, linger over spoonfuls of bone marrow and toast; slather on the red-onion jam a little thicker. Laughter ricochets off the brick walls as darkness falls. What’s one more glass of wine? – Kara Baskin Details: 414 Fore Street, Portland, Maine, 207-805-1085, central-provisions.com The Jack Williams Toboggan Chute in Camden, Maine. Pamela Wright 7. JACK WILLIAMS TOBOGGAN CHUTE Built in 1936, this toboggan chute in Camden, Maine, is one of the last of its kind in the country: a 400-foot-long wooden trough packed with ice. Clamber to the top, climb in, and hold on! You’ll fly at speeds up to 30 miles per hour, rumbling and roaring through the woods before sliding across frozen Hosmer Pond. Named after a key figure in the chute’s revitalization, the slide harkens back to a time of simpler thrills. It’s also home to the US National Toboggan Championships, held the first weekend in February, when you can cheer on contestants or register to join. The chute is $10 per person, per hour; free toboggans available to use. Must be 42 inches tall to ride. See website for schedule and other details. –Diane Bair and Pamela Wright Advertisement Details: 20 Barnestown Road, Camden, Maine, 207-236-3438, camdensnowbowl.com/toboggan-chute MASSACHUSETTS 8. SUNRISE OVER CHATHAM The vivid hues of a Cape Cod sunrise are even more spectacular during the cold months, and (bonus!) you don’t have to get up as early to see them. For front-row seating, park at the Chatham Lighthouse Beach lot and watch from the cozy warmth of your car, sheltered from the icy winds whipping off the water. Pull up your playlist or simply enjoy the sounds of the waves and the gulls overhead. Unlike summer, there’s no limit to how long you can stay, but a cup of freshly brewed coffee at Chatham Perk beckons. – Julie Suratt Details: 42 Main Street, Chatham, 508-945-5199, chathaminfo.com/beaches 9. COCOA ON COMM AVE Winter in Boston can feel grim, especially after the first snow goes gray with dirt and slush. One way to make the most of the dark days: Arm yourself with a hot chocolate from the L.A. Burdick Handmade Chocolates near Copley Square and wander the Commonwealth Avenue Mall under trees wrapped in string lights, past the occasional brownstone festooned in holiday finery. With a friend or a date, you’ve got the perfect dose of dreamy Hallmark-movie magic. It’s a quick stroll, just long enough to leisurely sip your drink — and with the perfect bit of sparkle to take the edge off those 4:30 p.m. sunsets. – Elizabeth Koh Advertisement Details: 220 Clarendon Street, Boston . Michael Kirkam for the Boston Globe 10. SANTA BY THE SEA It’s the first Saturday in December, and we’re huddled by the harbor in Rockport, braving the briny chill to watch Santa Claus pull into town — by lobster boat. After docking, Santa hops aboard an antique firetruck and poses for pictures at a nearby church, but we spend our afternoon strolling art galleries, gift shops, and cafes along Bearskin Neck, scooping up holiday presents and cozy treats. Later, a choir sings carols in Dock Square beneath a towering local spruce, whose 2,000 lights erupt as evening falls. The day is so quaint and wholesome, it feels like visiting Whoville — minus the Grinch. December 2, 1 p.m.– 4:30 p.m. – Jon Gorey Details: Rockport, rockportusa.com/christmas-in-rockport 11. ETERNAL GREEN AT THE GARDNER When the trees look frail and bare, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s courtyard is a lush reminder of warmer times. The garden is in perpetual bloom, with year-round mild temperatures allowing for seasonal displays that rotate nine times a year. Come winter, junipers, amaryllis, pines, palms, and ferns add bursts of color to the breathtaking Venetian Gothic architecture. Sit on the stone steps, crack open a book, and lose track of time. The stillness of the courtyard and the vibrancy of the impeccably tended plants are sure to revive your spirits. Tickets required — $20 adults, $18 seniors, $13 students, free for children under 18. – Zenobia Pellissier Lloyd Details: 25 Evans Way, Boston, 617-566-1401, gardnermuseum.org The courtyard at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff 12. SUFGANIYOT AT KUPEL’S Napkins at the ready, I sink my teeth into a raspberry-filled jelly doughnut coated in powdered sugar. Light and pillowy, but heavy once you hit the fruit filling, the sufganiyot from Kupel’s Bakery in Brookline are one of my Hanukkah traditions. Like other Hanukkah treats, they are fried in oil to pay homage to the miracle of the lamp oil that lit the menorah for eight days. Kupel’s version, sold from a week before Hanukkah (which this year begins at sunset on December 7) until a week after it ends (or when the store runs out), typically comes with raspberry or chocolate filling. Afterward, I stroll through the neighborhood that, with its kosher grocery and Judaica stores, is like a miniature of Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter. Because it’s never just the scrumptious sufganiyot that I crave. – Linda K. Wertheimer Details: 421 Harvard Street, Brookline, 617-566-9528, kupelsbakery.com 13. FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS Every year until I was 6 or 7, my parents bundled me up for a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette in Attleboro for its annual Christmas Festival of Lights. Established in 1953 as part of the Catholic shrine’s ministry, the 10-acre site is bedecked with over 300,000 lights in a dazzling array of colors, illuminating its serene wooded landscapes, icons, grottos, and, the centerpiece, a pond surrounded by the Stations of the Cross with a crucifix sculpture at its center. It shines brightly as a tradition that has illumined New Englanders year after year. Through January 1, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Free. – Kevin G. Andrade Details: 947 Park Street, Attleboro, lasaletteattleboroshrine.org/christmas-festival 14. VOLUNTEERING AT HALEY HOUSE Few things brighten the winter more than giving back — and few places give more than the storied soup kitchen at Haley House. It’s not just the 50 to 100 meals its staff hands out to the community almost every day, rain or shine. There’s something about volunteering in the kitchen—brewing carafes of coffee, washing armfuls of produce, packing breakfasts in an assembly line — that turns cooking into community, strangers into friends. It’s a kind of magic Haley House has kept going for more than 50 years—and one that will keep you coming back, all year round. – Elizabeth Koh Details: 23 Dartmouth Street, Boston, 617-236-8132, haleyhouse.org/volunteer 15. LYMAN PLANT HOUSE AND CONSERVATORY When the holidays are over and everything is still frozen, I head to Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College in Northampton for a blast of warmth and late season cheer. Here, my dreams of summer are free to roam through rooms of camellia, citrus, and orchids; my kids love the waterfall and the banana tree (with actual bananas!), and the shiny pods of cacao they can’t believe make real chocolate. In the depths of February, there’s no better antidote to endless winter than the sun warming your bones through the glass walls, promising a return to sweeter days. – Francie Lin Details: 16 College Lane, Northampton, 413-585-2742, garden.smith.edu Lyman Plant House and Conservatory at Smith College. from Smith College 16. DINNER AT PAMMY’S Rare is the restaurant that holds its charm after being discovered by the masses. Pammy’s in Central Square is a shining exception, and on cold winter evenings, it’s the perfect respite. One needs neither a reservation nor pomp to sneak into a fireside high top in the restaurant’s bar and lounge area. The wait is seldom longer than 30 minutes — just enough time for a pint at the nearby Plough and Stars. If I’m feeling spicy, I opt for the generous “choose-your-own-adventure” fixed menu ($79) and a Sazerac that rivals those mixed in New Orleans. When I need a familiar hug, it’s the gochujang Bolognese and Miller High Life. For parties larger than three or four, a reservation is strongly suggested. – Hanna Krueger Details: 28 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, 617-945-1761, pammyscambridge.com Pammy’s in Central Square in Cambridge. Natasha Moustache 17. GIBBET HILL GRILL Drive west on Route 119 into Groton (est. 1655), turn right when you see the Old Groton Meeting House (1755, cover of Life magazine, November ‘42), and stop by the picturesque Gibbet Hill Grill. Inside the comfy bar area, you’ll discover an 8-foot-long gingerbread house resting on the fireplace mantel — lovingly detailed each year by three generations of Grill proprietors. Through the years, the candy-covered house has been decorated to simulate downtown Groton, the Boston skyline, Buckingham Palace, and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The experience is warm, cozy, and takes you back in time. Enjoy a seasonal special Christmas cosmo or snowball martini by the 33-foot-tall, handmade granite fireplace. Gingerbread house displayed from day after Thanksgiving until New Year’s Eve. – Dan Shaughnessy Details: 61 Lowell Road, Groton, 978-448-2900, gibbethillgrill.com Gingerbread house at Gibbet Hill Grill. Amy Severino 18. ENCHANTED VILLAGE If you’re nostalgic for holidays past, head to the Enchanted Village at Jordan’s Furniture in Avon. Originating at the Jordan Marsh Downtown Crossing store in the ‘60s, the grand holiday display eventually fell into disrepair and bounced from one home to another. In 2009, Jordan’s Furniture bought its surviving pieces – the animatronic carolers, shoppers, and revelers who occupy a variety of twinkling scenes – and restored them to all their Dickensian glory. Now the experience includes rides, skating, and games; you can even try the famous Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins, reproduced with loving authenticity. It’s a New England tradition. Through January 1. Some attractions require tickets. – Stephanie Tyburski Details: 100 Stockwell Drive, Avon, 508-580-4900, jordans.com/enchanted-village NEW HAMPSHIRE 19. GLEN HOUSE BAR One joy of hitting the slopes or trails in winter is cozying up with a beverage afterward. In the shadows of Mount Washington sits a rustic lounge in a hotel with roots back to the 1800s, whose atmosphere is a nod to the grand hotels of New Hampshire’s past. Relax by the roaring fireplace with a beer, wine, or cocktail, then pop outside for a stunning view of the highest peak in the Northeast. Close to Wildcat Mountain and Pinkham Notch, it’s the perfect place to warm up and fuel the soul for another day of fun. – Marc Hurwitz Details: 979 N.H. Route 16, Gorham, New Hampshire, 603-466-3420, theglenhouse.com 20. MT. MONADNOCK Mount Monadnock, in Jaffrey, is less than two hours from Boston, which is among the reasons it’s one of the most climbed mountains in the world. On autumn weekends, its main trails can feel as jammed as the Southeast Expressway. But in the winter, when snow is high, the air bracingly cold, it can feel like yours alone. It is a magical — and challenging — winter hike, often requiring the use of traction devices such as crampons. On perfect, bright, and still winter days, when the trees are coated in delicate rime, the well-trod mountain becomes someplace new. – Mark Arsenault Details: Monadnock State Park, 169 Poole Road, Jaffrey, New Hampshire, 603-532-8862, nhstateparks.org The Ice Castles in North Woodstock, New Hampshire shown in 2019. Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press 21. ICE CASTLES Some 25,000 tons of ice. About 12,000 icicles. Ice-carved caverns and caves, chutes and slides. The Ice Castles in North Woodstock, New Hampshire, sprawled across about an acre, are by no means tiny — and the display has become an essential experience of New England winter. Made entirely by hand, it’s a massive ice-scape that takes four weeks to construct, and delights and awes visitors throughout the season (typically early January through mid-March, weather permitting). There’s also tubing, horse-drawn sleigh rides, and an illuminated forest walk. See website for schedule and prices. –Diane Bair and Pamela Wright Details: 24 Clark Farm Road, North Woodstock, New Hampshire, icecastles.com 22. A SEA SHANTY SINGALONG Tucked in the backwoods of New Hampshire lies Canterbury Aleworks, a one-man pub with a roaring fire. You’ll know you’re there when you see a British phone booth outside. And every second Thursday of the month, “Shanty Man” Mike Green leads the crowd in a call-and-response sea shanty singalong. For two rollicking hours, amid the smiles and nanobrews (yes, micro is too big a measurement for this brewery) and eclectic crowd, it doesn’t matter how cold or dark it is outside. What matters is that when Mike bellows, “Oh, whiskey is the life of man,” you respond, “whiskey, whiskey, whiskey-o.” Tickets required — see website for details. – Hanna Krueger Details: Canterbury Aleworks, 305 Baptist Hill Road, Canterbury, New Hampshire, 603-491-4539, canterburyaleworks.com . Michael Kirkam for the Boston Globe 23. PUDDLE DOCK POND SKATING Ice skating at Puddle Dock Pond is like gliding through a folksy Grandma Moses painting. Nestled next to the houses of Strawbery Banke Museum, an outdoor history museum in Portsmouth, an afternoon at the Zamboni-glazed pond is a trip back in time. The houses themselves, which show a neighborhood’s evolution over 350 years, are closed until spring — but bundle up and hit the ice for plenty of winter reveling. Check the schedule if you want to join a pick-up hockey game. Season lasts at least through February. See website for schedule and prices. –Patricia Harris and David Lyon Details: 14 Hancock Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 603-422-0600, strawberybanke.org RHODE ISLAND 24. PROVIDENCE ATHENÆUM When winter’s winds cut to the bone, the Providence Athenaeum beckons me to shelter among its nearly 180,000 books. With roots going back to 1753, the subscription library is among the oldest in the United States. Though a paid annual membership is needed to check out materials, a stroll through its three stunning floors — once frequented by the likes of H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe — is free. Grab a hot chocolate from a nearby coffee shop, find a book, and settle in for a good afternoon read. – Kevin G. Andrade Details: 251 Benefit Street, Providence, 401-421-6970, providenceathenaeum.org 25. WATCH HILL OYSTERS Oysters are at their most succulent early in winter. And there are few places more picturesque to gather them than along Westerly’s Watch Hill peninsula, where Taylor Swift’s seaside villa is perched. A caveat: Harvesting oysters and clams isn’t allowed in areas where commercial shellfishers have staked a claim. But East Beach, Maschaug Pond, and other east-facing spots are fair game, and all you need is a rake, some boots, and a permit ($11 for nonresidents). Hunt your winter quarry to the siren song of everyone’s favorite local mansion mermaid: “And it’s like snow at the beach / Weird, but [expletive] beautiful.” – William J. Kole Details: 227 Shore Road, Westerly, Rhode Island, 401-322-7280, dem.ri.gov 26. NEWPORT MANSIONS Newport usually screams summertime, but the winter has its own charm on this part of the Rhode Island coastline. After all, what better time than winter to spend an afternoon inside — and the Newport mansions make it easy to while away hours wandering. The Breakers is the largest and most ornate — more so during the holiday season. It’s one of three mansions that put up decorations annually, from dozens of baubled trees and evergreen garlands to the 15-foot-tall poinsettia tree. See website for schedule and prices. – Elizabeth Koh Details: 44 Ochre Point Avenue, Newport, newportmansions.org Michael Kirkam for the Boston Globe VERMONT 27. GET COZY AT PITCHER INN Never have the words “meet me by the fireplace” sounded cozier — or tastier — than at The Pitcher Inn in Warren. Executive chef Jacob Ennis employs the inn’s massive brick hearth for his “fire-to-fork” menu offered in winter, roasting meats and simmering cauldrons of soup over an open wood fire. Humble root vegetables such as celeriac, sweet potatoes, and rutabaga emerge as superstar side dishes. Corn bread and other old-fashioned pan breads, complemented by homemade burrata and ricotta cheese, round out the perfect winter dining experience. Don’t wait too long: The winter menu only lasts through the end of the ski season. – Diane Bair and Pamela Wright Details: 275 Main Street, Warren, Vermont, 802-496-6350, pitcherinn.com 28. HORSE-DRAWN SLEIGH RIDES Snow isn’t just for skiers; you might prefer snuggling under blankets for an old-fashioned sleigh ride. Kedron Valley Stables in South Woodstock offers stunning trips, lasting 45 minutes to an hour, through open fields and around their wooded edges, provided the ground is frozen and there’s enough snow. Owner Chip Kendall, whose family has been in the valley since the late 1700s, loves the landscape like he loves the horses. And, yes, the sleigh bells do jingle. Rides, which leave from the Green Mountain Horse Association, cost $200 for one to three people; $300 for four to five. Reservations required. – Patricia Harris and David Lyon Details: 5491 South Road, South Woodstock, Vermont, 802-457-1480, kedron.com 29. VON TRAPP BIERHALL Every winter, a beautiful pocket of Vermont comes alive with cross-country skiers and snowshoers enjoying the fields, meadows, woods, and mountain scenery at the Trapp Family Lodge’s historic cross-country ski center. After a day on the trails, head over to this rustic Austrian-style bierhall for easy-drinking pilsners, floral helles lagers, crisp Kölsch-style ales, and other beers with European (and New England) influences. Its wooden beams, communal tables, hanging lights, and mesmerizing valley views almost make it feel more like a ski lodge than a brewpub, which makes it the perfect place to end a tranquil day of Nordic sports. – Marc Hurwitz Details: 1333 Luce Hill Road, Stowe, Vermont, 802-253-5750, vontrappbrewing.com . Michael Kirkam for the Boston Globe 30. THE SINGLE CHAIRLIFT AT MAD RIVER GLEN Some of my favorite ski days are the solo ones, when I wake up to the sunrise and decide, in that dawn moment, to rip it up to Vermont, accompanied by an audiobook, a thermos of coffee, and a PB&J. On days like these, my destination is often the venerable, co-op-owned Mad River Glen. Suit up in the parking lot (pro tip: put your rubber car mat on the ground so your socks don’t get wet) and head straight to the mountain’s single chairlift, the only lift of its kind in the Lower 48. It’s a testament to old-school New England skiing on a small, but mighty, mountain — and a rare moment of solitude. – Hanna Krueger Details: 57 Schuss Pass, Waitsfield, Vermont, 802-496-3551, madriverglen.com Send comments to magazine@globe.com.

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entertainment

Coming Soon: A George Santos Documentary Focusing on His Human Side

George Santos, the disgraced former congressman trying to parlay his notoriety into a cottage industry, is now participating in a documentary film project on his colorful lies, life and times. The film is being led by Jenner Furst, a successful documentarian whose projects include a Peabody-award winning documentary about Kalief Browder, a young Bronx man whose suicide after an extended detention on Rikers Island became a symbol of the breakdown in criminal justice in New York. Mr. Furst is also known for a documentary genre that he refers to as true comedy, and it is those stories — among them the Amazon docuseries “LuLaRich,” about a leggings-hocking pyramid scheme, and “Fyre Fraud,” which went behind the scenes of a high-end music festival that wasn’t — that have earned him a peculiar distinction. “I’m a scammer whisperer,” said Mr. Furst with a laugh. Of the two films, “Fyre Fraud,” which hit Hulu in 2019, was an especially big hit. One of two competing projects on the subject, it was the only one to interview the story’s ostensible villain, Billy McFarland, who had pleaded guilty to wire fraud and agreed to forfeit $26 million.

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Mass. State Lottery to release new $50 scratch ticket in Feb. 2024

A new $50 lottery scratch ticket will be released in February 2024 with a grand prize of $1 million a year for life, the Massachusetts State Lottery confirmed to MassLive. The new ticket will be the lottery’s second installment of a $50 scratch ticket game, and comes a year after its highly-successful “Billion Dollar Extravaganza” scratch ticket released Feb. 2023. “Billion Dollar Extravaganza” was the best-selling lottery ticket in the state and across the country in 2023. The game is called “Lifetime Millions,” and will offer a top prize of $1 million a year for life, the lottery said. It will also offer lower-tier prizes valued at $2 million and $1 million. Similar components of “Billion Dollar Extravaganza” will be present in “Lifetime Millions,” including each winning ticket’s minimum prize of $100, an 82% prize payout, the game’s play structure and its 10 “Second Chance” drawings. “Our first $50 ticket has been amazing; arguably the best-selling ticket of any U.S. lottery, especially in the first 16 weeks of release,” said Mass. Lottery Director Mark William Bracken. The $50 "Lifetime Millions" scratch ticket to be released in Feb. 2024 by the Massachusetts State Lottery, featuring a $1 million a year for life prize. Image by Massachusetts State LotteryMassachusetts State Lottery Bracken said the lottery’s second $50 ticket will have three top prizes of $1 million a year for life, and said that prize “is truly for life” — even after a winner lives past the 20 years of guaranteed prize winnings, they will continue to receive $1 million a year for the rest of their life. “It’s loaded with winners, just like our last one, and we timed it to supplement as the other $50 ticket begins to wind down,” Bracken said, adding the $50 ticket was about 70% distributed as of late December. The lottery director said though he can’t be sure the lottery will release new $50 scratch tickets every year, the lottery will closely monitor if players enjoy “Lifetime Millions” after its release and is taking into account the success of its first $50 ticket.

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entertainment

With perky ears and tails wagging, 'furries' converge in Boston

Take a stroll through Boston’s Seaport this weekend and you might encounter colorful packs of bipedal animals. We’re talking lions and tigers and cheetahs, oh my! That’s because Anthro New England at the Westin Boston Seaport Hotel is welcoming thousands of costumed fans for a three-day celebration of furry culture. What’s furry culture, you ask? Well, if you feel most like yourself in bunny slippers, have a stuffed animal on the dashboard of your car, connect spiritually to cartoon characters like Disney’s foxy Robin Hood, Winnie-the-Pooh, or video game icon Sonic the Hedgehog, you could be — shall we say — furry-inclined. But avid devotees, known as furries, take their affections further by donning ears, tails or full-body “fursuits.” Some adopt "fursonas." To find out more about this community and its fascination with anthropomorphic animals in art, cartoons, comics and literature, we reached out to author and longtime fur Joe Strike. He’ll be attending Anthro New England and brings us into the fold of furry fandom, which he says goes beyond fetish. Interview Highlights Andrea Shea: I love how you joke about the “f” word in your 2023 book, “Furry Planet.” For those who are not familiar with this growing subculture, what exactly is a furry? Joe Strike: My personal definition of a furry is someone who has an above-average interest in anthropomorphic animal characters. Humans taking on animal guises for tribal or cultural reasons have been part of the human imagination since the beginning of civilization. Most of this has been forgotten in modern times, except in our enjoyment of cartoon animals as well as advertising and sports mascots. But furs are people who feel this instinct on a personal, visceral level — it’s an ancient, atavistic instinct we’ve rediscovered and take seriously. We invent animal personalities, alter egos, for ourselves we call “fursonas.” (When I’m not myself, I’m a sinister yet alluring Komodo dragon named Komos.) "When I’m not myself, I’m a sinister yet alluring Komodo dragon named Komos,” says author Joe Strike. (Courtesy Apollo Publishers) Shea: People connect to all manner of anthropomorphic animals — from mainstream cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, to comic book icons including the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and literary creatures from books like “Watership Down,” “Paddington,” and “Stewart Little.” Oh, and there’s Kimba the White Lion of manga fame. Who are some other examples? Strike: I’d add Bugs Bunny and the Looney Tunes characters, Peter Rabbit, Smaug, the “Lord of the Rings” dragon, the “My Little Pony” equines, and the imaginary Pokémon animals that are very popular with younger furs. As a baby boomer, I can go back to my college days when Herman Hesse’s “Steppenwolf” — about a man who sees himself torn between his human identity and the feral wolf he feels he truly is — was a popular read. There are hundreds of other examples I’m sure other furs can add to the list. Shea: The furry community is connected to the science fiction, comic book, anime and cosplay worlds. In your books, you trace it back to the 1980s when like-minded people found each other at sci fi conventions and started organizing “furry parties.” How has the landscape evolved for furries? Strike: Furry has its roots in those areas but has evolved totally into its own thing. Now there are innumerable, specifically-furry conventions like Anthro New England. Major ones like Pittsburgh’s Anthrocon and Chicago’s Midwest FurFest are enormous. These attendance figures keep rising year after year as more people discover furry and/or connect with their own anthropomorphic instincts. Shea: Your first book is titled, “Furry Nation: The True Story of American’s Most Misunderstood Subculture.” How and why has it been misunderstood? Strike: I think the basic misunderstanding comes from an assumption that pretending to be or “dressing up” as animals is something only children should indulge in. If adults do it, it’s simply “wrong,” and people imagine spurious connections to bestiality, pedophilia, or just feel a general discomfort with the idea for no particular reason. (Courtesy Apollo Publishers) Shea: Your latest book, “Furry Planet: A World Gone Wild,” illuminates how fur culture has gone global. One of the furries you spoke with in China said dressing up in costume allows him to release the childlike part of himself that we often suppress as adults with jobs and responsibilities. What are some other reasons why people wear ears, tails and full-blown animal costumes?— Strike: It’s definitely a fun escape from one’s everyday life and personality! It really isn’t different from someone becoming Batman or Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter at a sci-fi convention. There is one major difference between furs and fans of those mainstream genres: (a lot of) furs invent and become their own, original anthropomorphic characters. As far as I know, there isn’t an existing Komodo dragon anywhere in pop culture — but when I become Komos, I can be sinister, domineering, and make-believe “evil” (which a lot of people find quite intriguing and attractive) — which is so not me! For some furs, their “fursona” is who they feel is their true self, the essence of who they are. Most furs don’t get as deeply into it of course; for them, wearing ears or tails at a furry convention is just a way of identifying themselves as part of the community without necessarily creating an alternate personality for themselves. Author Joe Strike, right, and as his "fursona" Komos, left. (Courtesy Apollo Publishers) Shea: You’re a champion for this community — do you feel like you have to defend furry culture’s relevance? Strike: Yes, I do, to the best of my ability, put on the record who we truly are and why we do what we do. I also feel it’s important to explore that deeper connection between the human and non-human animal worlds; anything relating to anthropomorphic animals is an attempt to bridge that gap. Many people think, “I’m so weird for being into this stuff, I can’t talk about it with anyone…” and then they discover, no, there are tens of thousands of people who feel exactly the same way you do! Shea: You wrote about the community being a safe space for people who feel like outsiders, including queer youth. How does the community foster a sense of belonging? Strike: Again, it’s that “I’m not the only one!” feeling — realizing, “these people understand and accept me for who and what I am — I don’t have to hide my secret self any longer.” Whether it’s being gay, bi, queer, non-binary, etc. — or being a dragon. There’s also so much mutual support with/from people who know how you feel, because they’ve felt that way themselves. Conferences for furries are held around the world. (Courtesy Apollo Publishers) Shea: There is an erotic angle to furry culture. In your book you acknowledge, “Yes, there is furry porn.” But there’s also fur-friendly media — including furry community news websites like "Dogpatch Press" and "Global Furry Television" in Singapore. It seems award-winning British comedian and "Last Week Tonight" host John Oliver has an affection! What does that say to you about how far furry culture has come? Strike: John Oliver has all but flat out stated he’s a furry. (“The clues are all there,” as he said on his show.) I’d rather not mention his name, but I’ll just call him “X” (as he renamed Twitter), is aware of furry and even called himself “fur-curious.” I’m also seeing more references to furry as just a thing in the culture at large, and not something scandalous, juvenile, or perverse. Stephen Colbert outright brags about being a total Lord of the Rings nerd, and someday I’d like to hear John Oliver come out of the furry closet about his otter fursona. Shea: What are you most looking forward to this weekend? Strike: Komos unfortunately is in the repair shop at the moment to mend a serious tail burn, but I may bring and wear his head at the convention. Most of all though, I’m hoping to spend time with furfriends I otherwise only meet online.

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entertainment

Jingle Bells was written by a Masshole but was it written in Massachusetts?

A Boston-born composer, James Pierpont, wrote one of the most well-known Christmas songs. But did he do it while he was in Massachusetts? Two states, Massachusetts and Georgia, are in what’s known as the “Jingle Bell Wars.” There is a plaque in Medford near 19 High St. that claims it’s the spot where Simpson Tavern was located and that in 1850, Pierpont wrote the song “Jingle Bells” there in the presence of Mrs. Otis Waterman, “who later verified that the song was written here.” Pierpont later had it copyrighted while living in Georgia in 1857, which is why the state claims it was written there instead. Kyna Hamill — who volunteered with Medford Historical Society, is a faculty member at Boston University and has become an expert on Pierpont — worked to get to the bottom of the legend. “I don’t have the definite answer to where he sat down and wrote the song,” Hamill told Boston University in 2016. “But — and this is where my town is going to be mad at me — it was absolutely not written in 1850 at the Simpson Tavern in Medford.” Instead, during that time, Pierpont was in California trying to cash in on the Gold Rush. He returned to Boston broke in 1851 after a San Francisco fire burned down his shop, BU Today explained. The song was originally titled “One Horse Open Sleigh.” Hamill found a playbill from Harvard Theater Collection that puts the song’s first performance at impresario John Ordway’s Ordway Hall, on Washington Street in Boston, with a troupe called Ordway’s Aeolians on Sept. 15, 1857, according to the university. Ordway Hall, near the Old South Meeting House, was known for white men performing in blackface, “offering a racist caricature of people of color as middle-class entertainment,” the university said. Read more: Stranger leaves wedding rings to Salvation Army in act of holiday charity “Sleigh songs were having an important moment in the 1850s. Sleigh bell songs were common,” Hamill told Itemlive. “The songs would often exist in their parlor version and in the blackface version, where they’re put into ‘black’ dialect.” But it’s not clear if Pierpont was even there for the debut. Around the same time, Pierpont moved to Savannah, Georgia, which is where he copyrighted it. It was re-copyrighted as “Jingle Bells, or the One Horse Open Sleigh” in 1859, the university said. Hamill also points out the timing for Georgia doesn’t match up. He was often in need of money, she said. So, he wouldn’t have kept it to himself for that long. Although, another historian, Dr. Christopher Hendricks, a professor at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, told Fox News, San Francisco should be added to the list of possible places where he wrote the song. Still, Massachusetts might be able to claim Pierpont’s “Jingle Bells” for itself. Hamill’s guess is that Pierpont wrote the song at a rooming house not far from the Old State House in downtown Boston. Was Pierpont a Masshole? Beyond the song’s complicated history, Pierpont was also a complicated man. “He’s kind of a jerk, actually. He would leave all of the time. He went out west to try to make his way with the gold rush. He went all over the place and left his wife with his father,” Hamill told CBC News. After his wife died, he quickly remarried and abandoned his three children, the news outlet reported. He had been adventurous since an early age. When he was 14 years old, he ran away and set sail on a whaling ship named Shark, according to Valdosa Daily Times. He later served in the U.S. Navy. During his time in Georgia, Pierpont enlisted with the Confederacy. According to the news outlet, he was first a clerk with the First Georgia Battalion which later became part of Fifth Georgia Volunteer Cavalry, adding that he also wrote patriotic songs during his war years, including, ‘We Conquer or Die,’ ‘Our Battle Flag’ and ‘Strike for the South.’” It wasn’t until after he died that “Jingle Bells” became popular. Originally performed as a Thanksgiving song, it didn’t resonate with audiences as much due to its lack of religious themes or mentioning of Christmas, Valdosa Daily Times reported. But over time, and with some possible song changes, it began clicking with audiences. Now, you’re unlikely to make it through the holiday season without hearing it at least a dozen times.

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entertainment

Opinion | When the World Feels Dark, Seek Out Delight

Here’s an idea for the new year: Let’s make 2024 the year of delight. Does that sound ridiculous, given the state of the world right now? Hear me out. The basic premise of a delight practice (which I learned about in the essay collection “The Book of Delights” by Ross Gay) is simple: You make a point to notice things in your everyday life that delight you. This could be anything — a pretty flower, a smile you share with a stranger, the sight of a person playing a trumpet while riding a unicycle down a major Philadelphia thoroughfare (true story). Nothing is too small or absurd. Then whenever you notice something that delights you, you lift your arm, raise your index finger in the air and say, out loud and with enthusiasm, “Delight!” (Yes, even if you’re alone.) Ideally, you share your delights with another person. The concept of prioritizing delight may sound silly or almost irresponsible, given the heaviness of current events, feelings of burnout and the upcoming U.S. presidential election, in which it seems democracy itself could be at stake. But this is exactly why it is so important. Far from being a frivolous practice, making a point to notice and share things we find delightful can improve our moods, outlooks, relationships and even physical health. How? Noticing delights requires us to pay attention, something that is required for our happiness and satisfaction but can be difficult in our increasingly distracted world. Essentially, this is a form of a gratitude practice — i.e., cultivating the habit of noticing and appreciating the things for which you’re thankful.

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entertainment

The Magic of Olive Oil, Fish and Other Healthy Fats

This is Day 5 of Well’s Mediterranean Diet Week. Start at the beginning here. The Mediterranean diet isn’t like other diets. To begin with, it’s more of a style of eating than a strict regimen. And adopting it doesn’t involve many of the sacrifices people associate with healthy eating. Compared with other wholesome diets, for example, the Mediterranean diet is relatively high in fat. Federal health officials recommend that 20 to 35 percent of your daily calories come from fat — while that number can be around 30 to 40 percent in the Mediterranean diet. Yet in clinical trials, people who followed the Mediterranean diet had lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels and were less likely to develop cardiovascular disease than those who followed a low-fat diet. That’s probably because the Mediterranean diet emphasizes heart-healthy fats from sources like olive oil, fish, whole grains, and nuts and seeds. And it includes less saturated fat than the typical American diet, because it discourages butter and red and processed meats and includes only moderate amounts of cheese, yogurt, poultry and eggs.

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entertainment

Westfield historical ghosts shuffle again, now scheduled for Feb. performance

WESTFIELD — For 10 years, the Westfield Historical Commission has hosted the Historic Ghost Tours in the Old Burying Ground. But not last fall, as commissioners opted to plan a January event instead. And not this month, as the plan recently changed again. “Originally it was supposed to be a murder mystery, but sadly the woman who writes the murder mysteries for the Woman’s Club, who had volunteered to do it for us, suddenly died about three weeks ago,” Commission Chair Cindy Gaylord said in December, referring to playwright Marion Dunk with the Westfield Theatre Guild.

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entertainment

A Masterpiece That Inspired Gabriel Garca Mrquez to Write His Own

But at its core, “Pedro Páramo” is a tale of two journeys, or perhaps one journey that unfolds into two. The first is a linear one driven by a Telemachean quest: a man searching for his missing father. The narrator, Juan Preciado, goes to his parents’ hometown after his mother dies, seeking his long-estranged father, Pedro Páramo. He plans to demand reparations. But what he finds is a ghost town. Then he dies. (This is not a spoiler; the story continues after his death as if nothing really happened.) The second journey is Dantesque: a spiraling descent into a kind of underworld. But unlike Dante’s mathematically plotted inferno, with its concentric circles and somewhat navigable geography, Rulfo’s is largely sensory, densely packed with sounds and their endless reverberations. Many Latin American readers know the opening sentence of the novel by heart: “Vine a Comala porque me dijeron que acá vivía mi padre, un tal Pedro Páramo.” From the beginning, we find ourselves in an unstable space-time that we will question and redefine as we move through the novel. For English-language readers, key differences in two translations of the opening line will help bring this ambiguity to light. The 1994 translation, by Margaret Sayers Peden, reads: “I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Páramo, lived there.” The most recent translation, by Douglas J. Weatherford, is: “I came to Comala because I was told my father lived here, a man named Pedro Páramo.” Just as the exchange of “here” for “there” radically changes the story’s spatiality (where the narrator is speaking), the use of “was told” — less removed than “had been told” — shifts its temporality (when the narration happens). Nothing can fall into place in a novel if the author does not have control over its sense of time, be it linear or fractured. In novels of fractured time, the sequence of events must be governed by a logic of its own, one justified by the book’s central questions. Throughout “Pedro Páramo” — in which a central concern is how the world of the living haunts the world of the dead, and not vice versa, as with most ghost stories — time ebbs and flows in a kind of tidal pattern. It is not quite circular, because circles are closed circuits, but the cadence is similar to something cyclical, to the uprush and backwash of water breaking over sand, over and over again. The dead, tormented by lives they can no longer participate in but which their memories replay, over and over again, produce a steady undercurrent of murmurs, laments, mutterings, chatter, whispers, quiet confessions. If where and when we are in “Pedro Páramo” is constantly shifting, then sound is the swift and sinuous vehicle that carries us through it. For a class I taught this fall, I asked my students to find the many sonic markers in the novel. (It was a fun experiment, and we shared the results with the sound designers of a forthcoming “Pedro Páramo” film. They wrote back to say they were inspired by our sound lists and wanted to credit the students.) I was astonished to see how much of the novel is composed of aural details. Still air shattered by doves’ flapping wings. Hummingbirds whirring among jasmine bushes. Laughter. A tap of knuckles on the confessional window. A church clock ringing out the hours, “one after another, one after another, as if time had contracted.” Also sounds we cannot hear, but can almost imagine: “the earth rotating on rusted hinges, the trembling of an ancient world pouring out its darkness.” And of course, the myriad sounds of rain.

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entertainment

Mixtapes, T-Shirts and Even a Typeface Measure the Rise of Hip-Hop

For the last year, celebrations of hip-hop’s first five decades have attempted to capture the genre in full, but some early stars and scenes all but disappeared long before anyone came looking to fete them. Three excellent books published in recent months take up the task of cataloging hip-hop’s relics, the objects that embody its history, before they slip away. In the lovingly assembled, thoughtfully arranged “Do Remember! The Golden Era of NYC Hip-Hop Mixtapes,” Evan Auerbach and Daniel Isenberg wisely taxonomize the medium into distinct micro-eras, tracking innovations in form and also content — beginning with live recordings of party performances and D.J. sets and ending with artists using the format to self-distribute and self-promote. For over a decade, cassettes were the coin of the realm in mixtapes, even after CDs usurped them in popularity: They were mobile, durable and easily duplicated. (More than one D.J. rhapsodizes over the Telex cassette duplicator.) Each new influential D.J. found a way to push the medium forward — Brucie B talks about personalizing tapes for drug dealers in Harlem; Doo Wop recalls gathering a boatload of exclusive freestyles for his “95 Live” and in one memorable section; Harlem’s DJ S&S details how he secured some of his most coveted unreleased songs, sometimes angering the artists in the process.

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Rat-Hat Roonie: The Movie puts the rat back in the hat of Bostons film scene

Bianca Oppedisano A poster for “Rat-HatcRoonie: The Movie.” Illustration by Bianca Oppedisano / Mass Media Staff. Warning: Spoilers ahead for “Rat-Hat Roonie: The Movie” In a ferocious roar of glory, the rows upon rows of spectators clambered to their feet. The energy of the theater was nearly palpable, the joy of the audience infectious. I wanted to hold on to that moment for as long as possible, but as with all great things in life, the credits would finish rolling, the 16-minute standing ovation would end and we would file slowly out of the room with our 20-dollar, limited-edition popcorn tins in hand and our lives forever changed. It’s been a long time since a film has had such a monumental effect on its audience, but “Rat-Hat Roonie: The Movie” was no mere film: It was a cinematic achievement. It was a new societal standard. After only a few days since its Nov. 22 release, “Rat-Hat Roonie: The Movie” has already ascended past the typical indie film pinnacle of “cult classic” and into the furrows of genuine Hollywood-level success. Smashing even the most optimistic box office predictions, at this rate, “Rat-Hat” is on track to become this fall’s highest-grossing production, and after seeing the film myself, it’s no wonder why. Weaving a delicate narrative of Ronald Ronaldi, a directionless delivery boy who desires nothing more than to play baseball for the Boston Red Sox, the film quickly ventures off into the far reaches of the absurd by introducing Roonie, a small, gray, talking rat, who sits underneath Ron’s hat and gives him the ability to do anything he can imagine. It’s an underdog story for the ages, and if you’re a fan of “Spider-Man,” “The Social Network,” “Dragon Ball Z, “When Harry Met Sally” or “The King of Queens”—and have an appreciation for the Avant-garde—this is the movie for you. What’s even more impressive than the film’s Oscar-worthy story is the fact that the entire production took place over the span of just two weeks. This includes the birth of the initial idea, the writing of the screenplay, pre-production, filming, post-production and distribution. Never in history has such an ambitious project been completed so fast, and what’s more is that the film’s writer, director, editor and leading actor is a UMass Boston alumnus, Isidoro Jeep, who I had the absolute pleasure of sitting down with to discuss the film. “I just wanted to make a nice, warm, melts-in-your-mouth kind of movie just like Mama used to make,” replied Jeep when asked about his inspiration. “I’ve always dreamed of being a filmmaker, but UMass Boston only offered cinema studies as a minor. I felt completely helpless in an industry full of celebrity Toms. Hanks, Hollands, Hiddlestons; how am I gonna compete? Then one day it just sort of hit me—I’ll just make the greatest film of all time!” Jeep’s words may prove to be true if legend Martin Scorsese is to be believed, whose only response to seeing the film was an astonished, “This is cinema!” But what about “Rat-Hat Roonie: The Movie” makes it so great? A wise Ben once said, “With great power, comes great responsibility.” It’s the foundation for one of humanity’s most ancient inner conflicts, and with “Rat-Hat” this conflict is front and center as Ron must choose between responsibility or irresponsibility. Will he do the right thing and stop his vile roommate, Darren, from creating his own meta-style online hub of NFT trading called D-World—where you can be as big a “D” as you want to be—or use Roonie’s powers to become the new God of the multiverse? It isn’t often in modern-day cinema that a character is allowed to make decisions that could impact their own development—looking at you, “Indiana Jones 5.” Other than the film’s deeply intellectual themes and conflicts, the special effects must also be discussed. First things first, the fact that all of the effects for this film were done by Jeep alone in the span of two weeks is nearly unbelievable, but looking at the quality of these effects, they are potentially the most artistically impressive and realistic use of VFX and CGI that I’ve ever witnessed. It truly puts the MCU and DCEU to shame. When Ron and Darren tap into their purified-rat-synergy in the film’s epic final battle, the very fabric that holds our reality afloat melts into disarray. When Ron punches Darren through the core of the Earth and out the other side, you feel it. When Darren grows into a massive, three-mile-tall behemoth and uses his dark rat, Roodie, to raise the dead from their graves to destroy Boston, it’s believable. What’s most impressive is the film’s conclusion, which sees Ron use Roonie’s full power to recreate the universe from scratch, erasing Darren’s evil influence. It’s a jaw-dropping spectacle that sees the entirety of not just human history, but intergalactic history, flawlessly and accurately recreated using life-like computer imagery within the span of roughly two seconds. It’s a real blink-and-you-miss-it moment, but it just goes to show Jeep’s devotion to detail. While “Rat-Hat Roonie: The Movie” is well on its way to becoming a cultural phenomenon, not all critics are equally impressed, with some ignorantly claiming that it’s somehow a rip-off of Pixar’s 2007 masterpiece, “Ratatouille.” It’s a criticism that Jeep is all too familiar with. “People want to hide behind their screens in the safety of their mommy’s basements and say that I’m ripping off ‘Ratatouille’ because what? I have a rat in someone’s hat pulling on their hair and making them do things. Please! Give me a break! It’s a Rat-Hat movie, what did you expect?” What many of these detractors fail to realize is that the genre of Rat-Hat has existed within the film industry long before Pixar. If anything, it’s a genre that’s been around since the very beginning of film with 1894’s “The Arrival of the Rat.” Since then, Rat-Hat movies have maintained a rare but steady representation with notable works including Charlie Chaplin’s famous “Rat-Hat Tramp” in 1935, Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Rats” in 1965, and who could forget the independent short film that would lay the groundwork for his subsequent feature-length debut, Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Rats.” For those, like myself, who have long been fans of this elusive genre, “Rat-Hat Roonie: The Movie” acts as the culmination of over a century of creative ingenuity, giving rise to what is perhaps the quintessential Rat-Hat film. For those who are newcomers, Jeep’s “Rat-Hat” could represent your first foray into the world of rodent-based cinema. However, if one thing’s for certain, it’s that the simple premise of a rat under a hat has captivated audiences for as long as people have been around. I mean, it was only a year ago that UMass Boston Chancellor Marcelo Suárez-Orozco banned hats on campus out of fear of students hiding rats to help them cheat on final exams. While fiddling with the baseball cap he’s been wearing the entirety of the time I’ve been talking to him, man of the hour, Isidoro Jeep, reflected one last time on his cinematic achievement. “If there’s anything that I’ve learned throughout the long and grueling two weeks of single-handedly producing ‘Rat-Hat,’ it’s that, as Roonie so eloquently puts in the film, once you go rat, there’s no going back.”

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entertainment

No, Thats Not Taylor Swift Peddling Le Creuset Cookware

Taylor Swift’s affinity for Le Creuset is real: Her collection of the cookware has been featured on a Tumblr account dedicated to the pop star’s home décor, in a thorough analysis of her kitchen published by Variety and in a Netflix documentary that was highlighted by Le Creuset’s Facebook page. What is not real: Ms. Swift’s endorsement of the company’s products, which have appeared in recent weeks in ads on Facebook and elsewhere featuring her face and voice. The ads are among the many celebrity-focused scams made far more convincing by artificial intelligence. Within a single week in October, the actor Tom Hanks, the journalist Gayle King and the YouTube personality MrBeast all said that A.I. versions of themselves had been used, without permission, for deceptive dental plan promotions, iPhone giveaway offers and other ads. In Ms. Swift’s case, experts said, artificial intelligence technology helped create a synthetic version of the singer’s voice, which was cobbled together with footage of her alongside clips showing Le Creuset Dutch ovens. In several ads, Ms. Swift’s cloned voice addressed “Swifties” — her fans — and said she was “thrilled” to be handing out free cookware sets. All people had to do was click on a button and answer a few questions before the end of the day.

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entertainment

Arts Beat: Flashbacks bookend Gateway City Arts, SSO plans holiday pops

“Jolly Holiday,” The Springfield Symphony Orchestra’s annual holiday pops concert, has been around for decades (with many different titles along the way). It’s a holiday tradition here and the SSO brings its current version to Symphony Hall on Dec. 9, a family-friendly matinee. You’re guaranteed a melange of seasonal songs performed by a large orchestra, and many surprises. William Waldrop conducts, Michael Lynche and Elise Barber are soloists, and the Springfield Symphony Chorus, singers from the Extended Family Choir and the Springfield Conservatory of Music join the orchestra. For details: www.springfieldsymhony.org. “Home for the Holidays,” the Majestic Theater’s annual holiday tradition, is a house party featuring songs of the season, sung by members of the Majestics acting family, including Ben Ashley, Myka Plunkett, Ray Guillemette Jr., Lori Efford and other local talent, including radio personality Brad Shepard. Performances run Dec. 7-22. For details: www.majestictheater.com.

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entertainment

New (and Old) Moves for a Choreographer to Hip Hops Stars

Robinson’s inspirations for Shug included Darcel Leonard, a lead dancer on the 1980s variety series “Solid Gold” — “I would imitate her all the time” — and daggering, a crotch-forward Jamaican dancehall style. For Shug’s showstopping entrance number, “Push Da Button,” at a swampy juke joint, Robinson turned off the lights in rehearsal, and found her snappy, Bob Fosse-meets-Lola Falana rhythm. The darkness pulsing with coiled bodies wound up onscreen too; because Robinson had recorded the practice sessions, Henson said, she already knew how to work the camera angles. And when Robinson was at the monitor during shoots, “she would see things that Blitz wouldn’t see, because he was watching something else, and she would just come in and whisper” a way to amp it up. “I’m not a dancer, I’m a mover-weller,” added Henson, who studied musical theater in college. “And she just knows how to choreograph stuff to make you look good, to make you shine.” Robinson had no formal dance training when she started popping up in Los Angeles clubs in the late ’80s and early ’90s. She was working as a shampoo girl at her mother’s hair salon and going to cosmetology school, then letting loose at night: “I always say, clubs are my classroom.” Toni Basil, the singer, dancer and choreographer, spotted her and offered her an audition for the rapper Young MC. That didn’t work out but the gigs that followed opened Robinson up to the hip-hop stratosphere. “When I danced for Big Daddy Kane, Jay-Z was our hype man,” she said. “I’ve known all these people for years.” After touring as a performer, creating dance naturally followed, even if she wasn’t looking at it as a career yet. “I remember Rosie Perez” — then a dancer friend — “calling me and saying, ‘You have to charge money, and you have to call yourself a choreographer,’” Robinson recalled. “And I was like, OK. And after I got off the phone, I looked up how to spell the word ‘choreographer.’”

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entertainment

From Roommates to Friends to Turbo Twins

It was Verity Jean Louise Elks who first asked to make things official. Her relationship with Benjamin Oliver Brian Riches had moved quickly. Within weeks of moving to Los Angeles in the spring of 2019, Ms. Elks was fully integrated into her fellow Australian’s social circle. In July, the pair were having drinks at a friend’s house in Oceanside — a surfer’s paradise south of Orange County — when she decided to pitch Mr. Riches on becoming her boyfriend. Initially, he accepted. “‘Guys, me and Benny are in a relationship,’” Ms. Elks recalled telling everyone. “Then on the car ride home, Benny was like, ‘No, no, no. I take it back. I can’t do it.’” It was complicated. Ms. Elks wasn’t just dating Mr. Riches at the time — she was also living with him. Laid off from her public relations job in New York City six months before, Ms. Elks had decided she could not face the East Coast both cold and unemployed. Instead, she returned to Australia, where it was summer, to surf and plot her move to Los Angeles. By the time Ms. Elks returned stateside in April 2019, she had a job secured and a room with a friend of a friend in Venice. That person was Mr. Riches. Mr. Riches, 32, was impressed by her sense of style. “I still remember the first minute I met her,” he said. “I just remember thinking that she was so cool.”

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entertainment

The Weekender

The meatless hamburger at Superiority Burger, in New York, is made with quinoa, chickpeas and walnuts, and represents transparency and purity of ingredients that will be popular in 2024. Credit... Karsten Moran for The New York Times

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The Weekender

Overlooked at its release, the Killers’ signature hit has become one of the most inescapable rock songs of its time. _____

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The Weekender

The common denominator between the two relationships had not been gender or sexual orientation. It had been me. _____

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entertainment

Opinion | The Golden Bachelor Is a Fantasy. Aging in America Isnt.

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions. michelle cottle I am Michelle Cottle, and I cover national politics for Opinion, but I have also done a lot of reporting on the graying of America and what society looks like, as it ages here. So that has led me to become completely obsessed with “The Golden Bachelor.” archived recording 1 I’ll be the first bachelor that’s on Social Security. michelle cottle So I’m not sure that “The Golden Bachelor” is something that I would say that I like, like. But “The Golden Bachelor” is completely mesmerizing because it is the first time they’ve done this format with people in their 60s and 70s. And it is not just a look at reality TV and all of its tropes, but also just kind of this fascinating look at how baby boomers, in particular, see aging and how they want America to see aging. archived recording 2 And I’m your first Golden Bachelor. It’s all starting now. michelle cottle So on the regular Bachelor franchise, the contestants are kind of young and nubile in their 20s and 30s, and the twist on this is that everybody’s in their 60s and 70s. archived recording (leslie) I’m Leslie. I am 64 years old, and I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. michelle cottle And they are seriously of the boomer generation. archived recording 3 And I am ready to play some pickleball! Ow, ow, ow! michelle cottle So we’re dealing with this 72-year-old widower named Gary Turner — archived recording (gary turner) I’m Gary. Tonight is the first day of the rest of my life. michelle cottle — who comes from Indiana, and he is just Americana all the way, but with better hair and a spray tan, I think. archived recording (gary turner) I yearn for the second chance in life to fall in love again, the person who can lay down beside you at night, not have to say anything and you feel it. That’s love. That’s what I want. michelle cottle The most telling was the series opener where the women come up and introduce themselves to Gary. It is, from the get-go, kind of hot and heavy. They pull up in the limo, get out, and they are on Gary like a duck on a junebug. archived recording 4 Gary is so handsome. I’ve checked out every last inch of him. michelle cottle These are not your grandma’s boomers, so to speak. They are extremely toned and fit and tan with — I’m pretty sure some have hair extensions. Definitely sure some have had work done. But they are all focused on projecting the most youthful, up for anything — archived recording 5 Yay! michelle cottle — zippy, kind of sexually predatory vibe you can possibly come up with. archived recording 6 You see these heels? archived recording (gary turner) Yeah. archived recording 6 I’m very comfortable with 6 inches. michelle cottle There are only a couple of the women who are not playing the game of “let’s act and look and sound as young as humanly possible.” And they are booted the first night. Those people do not last long. You have a woman who whips in on a motorcycle. archived recording 7 That’s impressive. michelle cottle — flips her hair and tells Gary — archived recording 8 If you leave here with me, it’ll be the ride of your life. michelle cottle One of the finalists is a woman named Theresa who shows up kind of all wrapped up, tells Gary it’s her birthday, and says — archived recording 9 So I thought, why not come in my birthday suit? archived recording (gary turner) Um — [LAUGHS] michelle cottle And I am just like, oh — archived recording (gary turner) Oh, my goodness. michelle cottle Even Gary looks a little frightened. It’s not just a question of, well, how do the producers handle 70-year-old people making out like teenagers? It is, how are we even watching these women handle the reality of aging? archived recording 10 We have power. We are loved. No, there’s always Botox. michelle cottle So it’s clear that these women, in addition to just trying to come across as attractive or personable or smart or charming or whatever, are just so eager to prove they’re not old. archived recording 11 Hi. archived recording (gary turner) Good evening. archived recording 11 We’re all breaking the stereotypical view of what a senior looks like or acts like. michelle cottle And that is definitely the undercurrent of the show. Weird split-personality moments where people are talking about their bad knees or their bad digestion or their cute grandkids or whatever. These people have had a lot of life experience. A lot of them have lost spouses. A lot of them have difficult family situations. But at the same time, they’re supposed to be telegraphing that I’m up for everything, not just young at heart, but kind of young physically, too. They have these women sleep in bunk beds like they are at summer camp. archived recording 12 Do you like top or bottom? archived recording 13 Bottom. archived recording 12 OK. archived recording 13 I can’t climb up. archived recording 12 I’ll go up. archived recording 13 Didn’t want to be on top. I’ve had my knees replaced. That’s a lot of climbing. So I’m going to be underneath. Puts me three steps closer to the bathroom. archived recording 14 How many of you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee? archived recording 13 I do. I have to. Otherwise, it’s going to be an accident. michelle cottle But those pieces are never allowed to interfere with the kind of, “look at how young and perky I’m behaving.” So there’s a huge tension at play. And I think that actually is pretty representative of what you see in society in general. What is completely fascinating about this is that it seems really fake and surreal on one level, but on the other hand, it does reflect this broader tension in society. So one of the things that has been a reporting — I don’t know — almost an epiphany is that you have this kind of understanding that in politics, older voters are consistent, and that’s who the politicians cater to. They’re just the most reliable voting bloc. And as the boomers, which has always been this 800-pound demographic gorilla, has aged, they understandably have wanted their issues looked at. They were not going to go quietly into this good night. But at the same time, the whole idea of American society aging is not getting a lot of policy attention. We are not prepared for this. And it is, in part, because nobody likes to think of themselves as old until it happens. They don’t want to talk about what kind of housing changes they’ll have to make, what kind of caregiving changes they may face, what kind of medical issues may come up. If you talk to people about how they’re going to spend their twilight years, they’re like, I’m just going to stay in my house, and it’s going to be just like it is right now. I’m never getting old. And that’s very boomer-ish in its conception, where 60 is supposed to be the new 40, or in the case of “The Golden Bachelor,” the new 25. archived recording 15 Gary! Gary! archived recording (gary turner) Nobody has fun like we have fun, right? michelle cottle And you just continue to party like it’s 1985 or 1975 for as long as you can, and the rest will take care of itself. Every day, a huge number of baby boomers is entering the senior category. And what is happening is, those who can afford it kind of kick it until it jumps on them, and they have to figure out what to do with their medical issues or housing or care or whatever. And those who can’t are getting completely left behind. So you see a rise in homelessness among seniors. You see a huge affordable housing crunch. You see a housing crunch in general in terms of housing that is accessible to seniors. Eventually, you have to contend with this. Everybody gets older, unless they don’t have that privilege. But nobody wants to pay any attention to it until they absolutely have to. archived recording 16 I may not be as tight-skinned or as good shape, but I’m not dead yet. michelle cottle We all want to think that we’re riding up on that motorcycle, taking off our helmet, flipping our hair, and looking great in short skirts and plunging necklines well into our golden years. One of the things that I think has been hard for boomers is that even though they’re this important demographic and they have all this political clout, as you go through the culture, we still worship youth, and you don’t get a lot of boomer-ish faces on TV. Certainly, reality TV tends to be the province of the young. So a lot of these women talk about how — archived recording 17 As you get older, you become more invisible. People don’t see you anymore. Like you’re not as significant as when you’re young. michelle cottle So I think that they are definitely trying to tap into this feeling that I’ve certainly seen among boomers, where they feel left behind. They feel like they’ve just been forgotten and that everybody’s trying to move so fast past them. archived recording 17 Society makes us feel like we’ve had our chance, and we’ve raised our children. And it’s time now to support the next generation and take a back seat. michelle cottle So as far as the takeaway from this, from a cultural perspective, is it good, is it bad, for one, it’s reality TV and we shouldn’t read too much into it, although I say that and then, suddenly, we have a reality TV president — oh, god. But I think it is instructive because it does show you this weird dichotomy and how ambivalent America is about aging in general. I mean, if you watch this carefully, you’re like, wow, this is weird. [LAUGHS] And so I’m here to sell people on watching “The Golden Bachelor,” which, even if you just want to hate watch it, holds up this kind of funhouse mirror to how Americans and baby boomers, in particular, are approaching aging in all of its weird glory, where you deny certain things and cling to the idea that you’re always going to be young, even as this is creeping up on you. archived recording (gary turner) Here’s to you, ladies. Here’s to you. And I feel hopeful. michelle cottle And when you’re ready for the finale, I will be there, Thursday, November 30. My husband will be forced to watch. archived recording 18 That was precisely as gross as I thought it would be. [LAUGHS] michelle cottle

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entertainment

Saturday Night Live with Jacob Elordi, Rene Rapp: How to watch for free

Jacob Elordi will host the newest episode of “Saturday Night Live” on January 13 and Reneé Rapp will perform. The newest episode of “SNL” will be hosted by the Australian actor, Jacob Elordi and singer, songwriter and actress Reneé Rapp will perform. It will air at 11:30 p.m. EST on NBC. Viewers looking to stream the new episode can do so by using FuboTV or DirecTV Stream. Both streaming services offer free trials for new users. Here is a look at the new episode from Saturday Night Live’s YouTube Channel: How can I watch “Saturday Night Live” without cable? The newest episode of “SNL” will be hosted by the Australian actor, Jacob Elordi and singer, songwriter and actress Reneé Rapp will perform. It will air at 11:30 p.m. EST on NBC. Viewers looking to stream the new episode can do so by using FuboTV or DirecTV Stream. Both streaming services offer free trials for new users. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

All Aboard! This Mass. Christmas train ride is a cant-miss for holiday cheer, according to Yankee

If you’ve already read or watched the Christmas classic “The Polar Express” with your kids, and you’re looking for a real-life holiday train ride, Yankee magazine has you covered. The travel and lifestyle magazine recently published its list of the 14 best Christmas train rides across the New England region. And, course, one from the Bay State made the cut. “Picture this: you’re gazing out the window of a train as it chugs along snow-dusted tracks. Fresh, white flakes are falling from the sky and you hold a steaming cup of hot cocoa in your hands,” Yankee’s Katherine Keenan wrote. “The sound of jingling bells fills the air. Sounds pretty perfect, huh? After all, nothing says “Merry Christmas” quite like a ride through one of New England’s many winter wonderlands on an old-fashioned steam locomotive — and with many different active, running trains to choose from, there’s festive fun all throughout the region. Here in the Bay State, the train rides at the Edaville Family Theme Park at the Christmas Festival of Lights will punch your ticket this season, according to Yankee. The park offers a variety of rides, including its Narrow Gauge Railroad and Mountain Fire Brigade rides, according to its website. “There are many rides for you to enjoy. Some are outdoors, some indoors, and of course our famous classic steam and diesel trains,” the park asserts on its website. And if you’re looking to go back in time, be sure to check out the model Edaville Railroad located inside the second floor of the park’s brick building. There you can “watch these wonderful little engines glide through wonderfully decorated landscapes, each more fanciful and fun than the next,” according to the park’s website. The Edaville Family Theme Park is located at 5 Pine St, Carver, Mass., 02330. Its holiday celebration kicked off on Nov. 9 and runs until Dec. 31. Tickets for the Christmas Festival of Lights start at $12.95 and you can purchase them here.

706d610bafab0d4cdf1e109bab710ef6

entertainment

All Aboard! This Mass. Christmas train ride is a cant-miss for holiday cheer, according to Yankee

If you’ve already read or watched the Christmas classic “The Polar Express” with your kids, and you’re looking for a real-life holiday train ride, Yankee magazine has you covered. The travel and lifestyle magazine recently published its list of the 14 best Christmas train rides across the New England region. And, course, one from the Bay State made the cut. “Picture this: you’re gazing out the window of a train as it chugs along snow-dusted tracks. Fresh, white flakes are falling from the sky and you hold a steaming cup of hot cocoa in your hands,” Yankee’s Katherine Keenan wrote. “The sound of jingling bells fills the air. Sounds pretty perfect, huh? After all, nothing says “Merry Christmas” quite like a ride through one of New England’s many winter wonderlands on an old-fashioned steam locomotive — and with many different active, running trains to choose from, there’s festive fun all throughout the region. Here in the Bay State, the train rides at the Edaville Family Theme Park at the Christmas Festival of Lights will punch your ticket this season, according to Yankee. The park offers a variety of rides, including its Narrow Gauge Railroad and Mountain Fire Brigade rides, according to its website. “There are many rides for you to enjoy. Some are outdoors, some indoors, and of course our famous classic steam and diesel trains,” the park asserts on its website. And if you’re looking to go back in time, be sure to check out the model Edaville Railroad located inside the second floor of the park’s brick building. There you can “watch these wonderful little engines glide through wonderfully decorated landscapes, each more fanciful and fun than the next,” according to the park’s website. The Edaville Family Theme Park is located at 5 Pine St, Carver, Mass., 02330. Its holiday celebration kicked off on Nov. 9 and runs until Dec. 31. Tickets for the Christmas Festival of Lights start at $12.95 and you can purchase them here.

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entertainment

The Cult of Mother God Was Made for the Instagram Era

HBO’s three-part docuseries “Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God” begins with sirens and a scream. Grainy bodycam footage captures police officers making their way through a small Colorado house to a bedroom decorated with colored string lights shaped like flowers. On the bed is a body covered by a sleeping bag. Only a face is visible. The skin is blue and the eyes are missing, their sockets surrounded by glitter. Documentaries about cults don’t often end on a high note, but few start with the leader decomposing in her own bed, surrounded by twinkle lights. That leader is Amy Carlson, a.k.a. Mother God. She started out as a young blond woman who could have been cast in “Barbie.” By her early 20s, she had three children and managed a McDonald’s. There was also the stuff of so many cult origin stories: possible mental-health issues, psychedelics, internet rabbit holes, abusive relationships. One night, at dinner with her family, Carlson excused herself and never returned. For years, the only way her mother, siblings and children saw her was via the videos she and her followers posted online. In those videos she proclaimed herself a divine being, seducing a small group of devotees with her Mother God identity. Many documentaries depict the rise and fall of cults through after-the-fact interviews and archival images, but Hannah Olson, who directed “Love Has Won,” pulls from an astonishing wealth of content created by the group itself: They posted their everyday lives online like a reality show, offering anyone with Wi-Fi a front-row view of behavior many fringe groups would hide. They are like tech-crazed teenagers, rarely without a phone or laptop, sharing their every move, as focused on likes as on they are on enlightenment.

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entertainment

The year of the Meganverse: Here are the best and worst Megans of 2023

For better or worse, this has been the year of the Megans. Featuring gay icons and literal royalty, here are our picks of the best and worst of 2023. Reckon’s Best Megans: M3GAN The horror movie “M3GAN” was released Jan. 6, but the movie was trending since the trailer dropped. The story focuses on M3GAN, a lifelike doll powered by AI who becomes best friends with her creator’s niece. However, M3GAN’s true evil intentions begin to show, putting her creator and family in danger. With killer dance moves and vocals to match, social media adopted the doll as a gay icon. “I love how one cute little hiproll elevated M3gan into instant gay icon status and now her movie is LGBT cinema. Well tf played,” X user Stevie Mat said in a Jan. 6 post. The idea of having a “found family” also deeply resonated with those in the LGBTQIA+ community, with M3GAN’s creator’s niece losing her parents and finding comfort through the doll. The sequel “M3GAN 2.0″ was confirmed to be released in Jan. 2025, so there’s a potential for more dance routines and memes to come. Megan Thee Stallion Rap superstar Megan Thee Stallion, also known as Megan Pete, has not only been able to give back, but take over the entertainment world this year, too. As the “Hot Girl Dean” of Flamin’ Hot University, a collaboration with the brand Frito-Lay’s, she established the $175,000 Flamin’ Hot Scholarship fund at her alma mater Texas Southern University earlier this year. Ms. Pete collaborated with the mental health organization “Seize the Awkward” in order to raise awareness about checking in on those you care about, especially the “strong ones.” Her organization, the Pete & Thomas Foundation partnered with organizations like Houston’s Bread of Life, Inc. to be able to feed and provide resources for those in need in the area. Entertainment-wise, she had her big screen debut in A24′s “Dicks: The Musical,” which started limited releases on Oct. 6. Weeks earlier, she performed her mega-hit “Savage Remix” with global icon Beyoncé Knowles at their RENAISSANCE World Tour at both Houston shows Sept. 23 and 24. Also, she started “Act One” of her new musical era and released her single “Cobra” on Nov. 3. The single gave listeners an inside look of her mental health and inspired other “strong Black women” around her. Megan Rapinoe Acclaimed soccer player Megan Rapinoe announced July 8 that she would be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year’s National Women’s Soccer League season. While playing with Team USA, Rapinoe won a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games, two World Cups in 2015 and 2019, and a bronze medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games. Throughout her career, she was an advocate for voting rights, racial inequality, LGBTQIA+ rights, and more. For example, in a July interview with TIME, Rapinoe spoke out against the politics attempting to ban trans women from women’s sports. “It’s particularly frustrating when women’s sports is weaponized. Oh, now we care about fairness? Now we care about women’s sports? That’s total bulls**t. Show me all the trans people who are nefariously taking advantage of being trans in sports. It’s just not happening,” Rapinoe said in the interview. Social media as well as Rapinoe’s teammates like Ali Krieger have shown their respect towards Rapinoe’s impact on the sport and beyond. “There’s just legacy that she’s leaving. Not only just being a great footballer, but an incredible person and advocate for what’s right…I’m inspired by her,” Krieger said about Rapinoe in Aug. 2023. Reckon’s Worst Megans: Megan Fox With a resume including the “Transformers” franchise and cult favorite “Jennifer’s Body,” actress Megan Fox is well-known in Hollywood. However, she recently came under fire for her Halloween costume choice and its Instagram post. On Oct. 28, Fox posted a picture of her costume as Gogo Yubari from 2003′s “Kill Bill Vol. 1.” Her caption simply tagged the labor union @sagaftra, who posted rules on Oct. 19 concerning Halloween costumes that year due to the Hollywood strike. Stating that actors should stay away from costumes from “struck content,” actors including Fox made fun of the announcement. “I look forward to screaming ‘scab’ at my 8 year old all night. She’s not in the union but she needs to learn,” actor Ryan Reynolds said in a post on X Oct. 19. Others in Hollywood, however, did not find Fox’s post to be funny. Actress Lisa Anne Walter called out Fox for her post on Oct. 29 on X, stating, “What a rebel. Keep posturing for stupid s***, pretty lady. Meanwhile we’ll be working 10 hours a day - unpaid - to get basic contract earners a fair deal,.” Meghan McCain Yes, there is an extra “H,” but they are still Megan. Despite leaving the TV show “The View” in 2021, McCain, the daughter of former U.S. senator John McCain, has still made moves in the entertainment industry this year. McCain launched her production company Citizen Cain Productions in Oct., which will “produce podcasts, scripted, unscripted and documentary content for all platforms with a mission to tell female-led and American stories,” according to an Oct. 13 article by Variety announcing the news. On her new podcast, “Meghan McCain Has Entered The Chat,” which also launched in Oct., she features guests including Senator Ted Cruz. Regardless of the career choices she has made, people are still not fans online. A Reddit thread from Oct. titled “Meghan McCain is a disgusting human being” has numerous comments calling her “arrogant” and “hateful.” X user Tony Posnanski in Mar. 2021 said that they “hate Meghan McCain more and more each day because she always trends for being absolutely horrible.” From controversial remarks she has made to controversial guests like former congressman George Santos on her podcast, McCain has remained a figure that receives criticism in person and online. Meghan Markle Double the Meghans. In August 2022, the podcast “Archetypes” from Meghan Markle started its first season. Featuring guests such as Issa Rae and Jameela Jamil, the season had 12 episodes total. Despite earning positive reviews and even a People’s Choice Award, it was announced in June that the show was canceled. The podcast was part of a deal that Markle and husband Prince Harry created with Spotify to create original content. Along with the Spotify loss, USA Today reported on Dec. 13 that the couple had suffered a donation drop of $11 million this year towards their Archewell Foundation. A Newsweek report also released on Dec. 13 found that Markle’s approval ratings slightly improved in America this year, but are still low. Out of those surveyed, Markle is liked by “38 percent [of those surveyed] and disliked by 23 percent putting her on plus 15, a swing of 13 points compared to September, when she was on minus 2.” Megyn Kelly Another Megan variant. Journalist and host of the “Megyn Kelly Show,” Megyn Kelly, came back to the debate stage on Dec. 7. In August 2015, Kelly called out Trump for his misogynistic comments. In response, Trump called her a “bimbo” and said that there was “blood coming out of her wherever.” Since that debate, Kelly has launched her own show interviewing controversial conservative figures such as Tucker Carlson and Michael Franzese. Telling people to boycott public figures like Taylor Swift on Dec. 12, people called out Kelly for her harmful commentary. X user Kathy on Dec. 12 said “what a sad, pathetic take, Megyn. She attended a comedy show with proceeds going to support HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS in Gaza, where thousands have died and more will,” When it comes to how Kelly handles herself in debates, social media has plenty to say on that, too. “So, what I learned from reading about the debates - Megyn Kelly is still an ass. Else not much,” X user Gene J said Dec. 7.

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entertainment

Visit Thompson Island in Boston, Moby-Dick Marathon, ABBA tribute

Bid farewell to 2023 at sea with the New Year’s Day Boat Trip. Journey to Thompson Island with the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands and spend the afternoon immersed in forests, meadows, and marshes. Departs at noon from Mass Bay Lines on Rowes Wharf and docks at 4 p.m. Bring food and layers. Tickets required — $30 general admission, $20 children ages 3-12, with discounts available — at bostonharborislands.org . January 2-7 Call Me Ishmael Spend 25 consecutive hours reading Herman Melville’s classic at the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s annual Moby-Dick Marathon. Event highlights include a Friday evening cocktail hour and buffet dinner; on Saturday and Sunday, offerings include a scavenger hunt, arts and crafts for kids, a “Stump the Scholars” session, and more. Readings begin at noon on Saturday. $75 for Friday’s dinner; Saturday and Sunday events are free. whalingmuseum.org Advertisement January 5-14 Silk and Lace Complementing the “Fashioned by Sargent” exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, In Sargent’s Time: Edwardian Dramas highlights the era’s lavish style in four films. Movies range from a coming-of-age love story to an examination of class and corruption. Showings run through January 14. Find times and tickets — $15, with member discount available — at mfa.org. Get Globe Magazine An engaging blend of award-winning narrative journalism, opinion, lifestyle, travel, recipes, and advice. Enter Email Sign Up January 6 Dancing Queen Stomp your feet and sing along to The Music of Abba at The Wilbur Theatre. Witness the Scandinavian pop supergroup’s hits brought to life by the Direct From Sweden tribute band, complete with sequined costumes, disco choreography, and catchy tunes. Doors open at 7 p.m., show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets from $35. thewilbur.com January 11-14 Jig Jubilee Click your heels at the annual Boston Celtic Music Festival. In venues across Greater Boston, local musicians of all ages perform traditional shanties and ballads. Fiddles, tin whistles, and pipes in hand, these artists, supported by the Passim School of Music, blend modern melodies with time-honored tunes. Festival also includes a Scottish social dance, an award-winning folk band hailing from Quebec, and a Sunday morning brunch. Ticket prices and showtimes vary. passim.org Advertisement EDITOR’S NOTE: This edition of Your Week Ahead covers two weeks. Look for the next Globe Magazine on January 14. Share your event news. Send information on Boston-area happenings at least three weeks in advance to week@globe.com.

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City, advocates break ground at new memorial 81 years after deadly Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire claimed nearly 500 lives

Local News City, advocates break ground at new memorial 81 years after deadly Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire claimed nearly 500 lives “The impacts of Cocoanut Grove are already forever enshrined in the regulations, safety practices, the innovations and knowledge that have already saved countless lives,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said. Cocoanut Grove Memorial Committee Community members gathered near Statler Park to honor the 81st anniversary of the Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire on Sunday, which claimed nearly 500 lives and forever changed fire safety practices. A new memorial, which survivors and victims’ families say is long overdue, is set to open next year. The Cocoanut Grove nightclub in downtown Boston was packed on Nov. 28, 1942 with about a thousand people crowding the popular spot, more than double the legal occupancy. When a paper decoration caught on fire, the blaze quickly spread, ultimately killing 492 people. The victims have since been honored with a plaque at the site of the club at 17 Piedmont Street near the Park Square theatre district, but at Sunday’s event, the Cocoanut Grove Memorial Committee broke ground on the new memorial with three 11-foot arches – a replica of the nightclub’s entrance. Advertisement: “Now, with this memorial, all the people who lost their lives and those who survived and all of their loved ones will have a place not to avoid, but rather a place to remember and reflect,” said Lesley Kaufman, whose mother is one of the two remaining survivors of the fire. The fire, still the deadliest nightclub fire in history, changed U.S. fire safety codes. The fatalities were so high in part because six of the club’s nine exit doors were locked and the revolving doors got stuck. The deadly blaze resulted in new regulations requiring revolving doors to be accompanied by standard, outward-opening doors in similar venues. At the time, the NFPA said Boston’s building laws were in a “chaotic condition.” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu was at Sunday’s event, along with Fire Commissioner Paul Burke, City Council President Ed Flynn, and former Mayor Ray Flynn. The memorial will also honor the first responders who responded to the blaze. “The impacts of Cocoanut Grove are already forever enshrined in the regulations, safety practices, the innovations and knowledge that have already saved countless lives,” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said. The memorial, which will include the name of each victim etched on granite, is set to officially open in September 2024.

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Knowledge Is Power. But Is It Fun to Watch?

Few things degrade quite so rapidly as the element of surprise, once exposed to the pressurized, accelerated conditions provided by elite soccer. In most cases, its half-life will extend no more than 90 minutes. Even in extreme, extenuating circumstances, it is unlikely to be more than twice that. Two games — one at home, one away — is all that is required these days to know everything there is worth knowing about any given rival. Two games provide three hours of footage that an opposing manager and their coaching staff can mine for insights. They generate reams of data for analysts to pore over and pick through. And, of course, they provide a large enough sample size for the players themselves to learn. “When you’re playing against someone twice a season, every season, you start to see the little tells,” Newcastle defender Dan Burn recently told the BBC. As a rule, Burn said, teams go into games “knowing what is coming.” There are exceptions, of course: Newly-promoted teams, sides who have drafted in a host of reinforcements and managers who have only recently arrived at a club can be decoded more easily on paper than on turf. Still, even their secrets are relatively fleeting.

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Matt Damon, Casey Affleck film scenes in Mass. for upcoming movie

Hollywood stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck were back in their home state of Massachusetts on Tuesday to film scenes for their upcoming movie "The Instigators."Damon and Affleck, both Cambridge natives, were spotted together at a shoot near the Squantum Yacht Club at Wollaston Beach in Quincy."The Instigators" is an Apple Original Films project that is set to be released sometime in 2024. The movie is set in Boston and is about two thieves who wind up on the run with help from one of their therapists after a robbery goes wrong, but not much else is known about the plot.The film is being directed by Doug Liman, who worked with Damon on the "Bourne Identity." Damon and Ben Affleck, Casey's older brother, are among the movie's producers, along with Jeff Robinov, John Graham and Kevin Walsh.According to Deadline, the movie's cast also includes Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Ron Perlman, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser and Grammy-nominated rapper Jack Harlow, who starred in the remake of "White Men Can't Jump" that was released this year.Previous filming for "The Instigators" was done during the spring in the North End of Boston, Boston's Back Bay, the Charles River Esplanade, Memorial Drive in Cambridge and in Quincy.Previous coverage: Hollywood stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck were back in their home state of Massachusetts on Tuesday to film scenes for their upcoming movie "The Instigators." Damon and Affleck, both Cambridge natives, were spotted together at a shoot near the Squantum Yacht Club at Wollaston Beach in Quincy. Advertisement "The Instigators" is an Apple Original Films project that is set to be released sometime in 2024. The movie is set in Boston and is about two thieves who wind up on the run with help from one of their therapists after a robbery goes wrong, but not much else is known about the plot. The film is being directed by Doug Liman, who worked with Damon on the "Bourne Identity." Damon and Ben Affleck, Casey's older brother, are among the movie's producers, along with Jeff Robinov, John Graham and Kevin Walsh. According to Deadline, the movie's cast also includes Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Ron Perlman, Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser and Grammy-nominated rapper Jack Harlow, who starred in the remake of "White Men Can't Jump" that was released this year. Previous filming for "The Instigators" was done during the spring in the North End of Boston, Boston's Back Bay, the Charles River Esplanade, Memorial Drive in Cambridge and in Quincy. Previous coverage:

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Expedition Unknown episode 6: How to watch for free on Dec. 20

Josh helps recover the richest stash of lost treasure in the Americas in the newest episode of “Expedition Unknown” airing on Wednesday, December 20 on the Discovery Channel. The new season will air a new episode at 9 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel. Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo, FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. All three streaming services offer free trials for new users. According to a description of the series from the Discovery Channel, intrigued by legendary mysteries and driven by curiosity, Josh Gates is on a mission for answers.`Expedition Unknown’ chronicles his global adventures as he investigates iconic unsolved events, lost cities, buried treasures and other puzzling stories. In the sixth episode of the new season, Josh helps recover the richest stash of lost treasure in the Americas; deploying cutting-edge technology and an armada of boats, the team dives the Caribbean to bring coins and jewels from the legendary Spanish galleon Maravillas to the surface. Here is a look at the series from Discovery’s YouTube Channel: How can I watch “Expedition Unknown” if I don’t have cable? The new season will air a new episode at 9 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on the Discovery Channel. Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo, FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. All three streaming services offer free trials for new users. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels, like AMC, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more, for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels

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Powerball: See the winning numbers in Saturdays $468 million drawing

It’s time to grab your tickets and check to see if you’re a big winner! The Powerball lottery jackpot continues to rise after one lucky winner in California won $1.73 billion in the October 11 drawing. Is this your lucky night? Here are Saturday’s winning lottery numbers: 05-25-26-40-60, Powerball: 01, Power Play: 2X Double Play Winning Numbers 08-14-23-29-37, Powerball: 18 The estimated Powerball jackpot is $468 million. The lump sum payment before taxes would be about $225.3 million. The Double Play is a feature that gives players in select locations another chance to match their Powerball numbers in a separate drawing. The Double Play drawing is held following the regular drawing and has a top cash prize of $10 million. Powerball is held in 45 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The Double Play add-on feature is available for purchase in 13 lottery jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania and Michigan. A $2 ticket gives you a one in 292.2 million chance at joining the hall of Powerball jackpot champions. The drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:45 p.m.

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30 Shows to Watch This Winter

Is it a delayed effect of the writers’ and actors’ strikes? The Year of the Dragon? Climate change? Whatever the reason, a paper-thin fall season on television screens (definitely a result of the strikes) is being followed by a deluge of attention-grabbing shows this winter. A-list stars (Jodie Foster, Nicole Kidman, Kate Winslet), intriguing adaptations and reboots (“3 Body Problem,” “Avatar: The Last Airbender”), long-awaited returns (welcome back, “True Detective”) and final goodbyes (so long, “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) abound. Throw in all the delayed broadcast-network premieres — your various “Chicago,” “FBI,” “NCIS” and “Law and Order” series, among others — and it promises to be exhausting. Here, based on available screeners, track record or sheer star power, are 30 of the more interesting selections, arranged in chronological order. All dates are subject to change. ‘One Piece’ Episode 1,089 of the 25-year-old pirate-adventure anime begins a new story arc that lines up with what Eiichiro Oda, the creator of the comic on which the show is based, has called the Final Saga. (Crunchyroll, Jan. 6) ‘Funny Woman’ The actress (“Skins”) and writer (“Slow Horses”) Morwenna Banks adapted this six-episode drama from the Nick Hornby novel “Funny Girl.” Gemma Arterton plays a woman who leaves behind her life as a beauty queen in 1960s Blackpool, England, to move to London for a career in TV comedy. (PBS, Jan. 7)

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I Was Addicted to My Smartphone, So I Switched to a Flip Phone for a Month

I Was Addicted to My Smartphone, So I Switched to a Flip Phone for a Month Was it inconvenient? Yes. Did T9 texting drive me crazy? Definitely. Was it worth doing? Absolutely.

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Toucher and Hardy' in the mornings: Rob 'Hardy' Poole named co-host of 98.5 morning show with Fred Toucher

The widely considered top candidate to be the new co-host of the 98.5 The Sports Hub morning show is getting the gig. Rob “Hardy” Poole, who has been a staple on the 98.5 midday show, has been named the co-host of the morning show with longtime host Fred Toucher — who made the announcement on Tuesday. There has been an opening on “Toucher and Rich” since last month when Rich Shertenlieb left the most popular sports talk radio morning show in the region. Toucher, who recently signed a multiyear contract to stay with 98.5, announced Hardy’s move during the show on Tuesday. “Starting on January 4th, there will be a new member of this show, and that person’s name is Rob ‘Hardy’ Poole,” Toucher said on air. “He has signed a contract, and it is official.” Beasley Media Group announced that the morning show will be named “Toucher & Hardy.” Hardy joining the morning show is “not much of a surprise,” Toucher noted. “The cat is finally out of the bag,” Hardy said after the announcement, saying he was humbled and grateful to get the highly coveted position. As soon as Toucher found out that Shertenlieb may be leaving the show, Toucher said he had one name in mind to replace him: Hardy. “Because I’ve known him for almost as long as I’ve known Rich,” Toucher said. “I consider him a good friend. He’s someone that I talk to, who makes me laugh in my personal life. He’s extremely talented with production.” Speculation has been swirling about Hardy moving to the morning show for weeks. Hardy has been a strong third chair on “Zolak and Bertrand,” playing a key role with production. For the open morning show role, the station was seeking someone who has experience with audio production and editing. Jim Murray, the third chair on “Felger and Mazz,” from the beginning said he was “100% not interested” in moving to the mornings. Another name that was being floated for the co-host role was Kendra Middleton, who has been making regular appearances on “Toucher and Rich.” She confirmed that she interviewed for the position. With Hardy moving to mornings, that opens up the third chair on the midday show. A Michigan State University graduate, Hardy worked as a rock DJ for 15 years before making the switch from WBCN to 98.5 The Sports Hub in 2009. Hardy has also lent his voice and creative talents to various platforms across the station, including the creation of the wildly popular “Fuppets” videos for Felger & Mazz. In addition, he has been the long-time host of the “Sports Hub Golf Club” show and can also be heard on Beasley’s Rock 92.9. “As a lifelong radio guy, I’m thrilled for this opportunity,” Hardy said in a statement. “I’m looking forward to working with Fred and the rest of the morning show crew on what I believe will be a great show.”

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Live Wire: Some last-minute NYE ideas

Maybe holiday shopping, family get-togethers and other seasonal celebrations caused you to forget about the changing of the calendar. But now you are looking for some last-minute New Year’s Eve plans. We’ve got you covered. Below are a few parties up and down the Pioneer Valley that you might want to consider: The Deck in Northampton will provide an early start for those who aren’t night owls. The venue opens at 2 p.m., with live music by Wyld Stallyns from 4 to 7 p.m. The Deck’s elevated area is also a great place to watch the city fireworks at 6:30 p.m. While the venue will close at 8 p.m., those wishing to continue the party can simply slide into the adjoining Tunnel Bar, or the complex’s new restaurant, The Notch 8 Grille. The Platform is at 125 Pleasant St. Over in Amherst, longtime rockers NRBQ will ring in the New Year at The Drake. While the band needs little introduction to many area folks, their songs have been covered by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Los Lobos, Dave Edmunds, Widespread Panic and Yo La Tengo, among others. Local favorites LuxDeluxe opens the show with their very danceable rock/pop. The Drake is at 44 North Pleasant St. Looking for more of a formal dinner with music sort of affair? Maybe The Delaney House in Holyoke fits the bill. The event runs from 6:30-9:30, with music by Made Men. Visit the restaurant’s website for reservations. If you’re looking for some pre-party festivities, O’Connell’s Irish Pub in Chicopee will feature the music of Livio Gravini starting at 6 p.m. In Ludlow, the Polish-American Citizen Club will feature The Skid Marks starting at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. The music starts at 8 p.m. and a champagne toast and pastries are included in the price of admission. The venue is at 355 East St. Whatever your plans, please have a happy and safe celebration.

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entertainment

Sofia Boutella Kicks Her Way to a Leading Role in Rebel Moon

During a recent video interview from a hotel in Los Angeles, Boutella discussed life in Algeria, the connection between dancing and acting and what drew her to Kora. Here are edited excerpts from the conversation. What was it like to grow up during a civil war? I think for a child it’s not something you realize really, especially if you haven’t known life any differently. We had a curfew, and we would hear bombs exploding here and there. It was something that I was just, in a weird way, used to. I think it was a different experience for my mother. My dad already lived in France and was traveling a lot. My parents separated when I was 4. But during those 10 years, I would go visit him in France here and there. Once I started going to France I started to see that life is different elsewhere. But when you’re so young, your perception is a bit warped. That must have been a huge transition to move to France at 10 years old. The aspect I could not have anticipated was the culture shock and how quickly I had to adapt. I remember going to school for the first time and not being able to speak because the amount of information that was thrown at me constantly was so overwhelming. The one place I found refuge, where I found commonality with when I was in Algeria, was art and when I started dancing again in France, because I felt that there were no differences. We all spoke the same language and we all had the same culture in a way that felt comfortable and felt like home. But outside of that, it was a different experience. Going to school in Algeria, we all wore blouses, so every social class was the same. But in France we were all judged by the way we looked and how cool we were, and I definitely was not cool.

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Friends of the Agawam Public Library 4th Open Judged Virtual Photography Show

Agawam - The Friends of the Agawam Public Library is looking for entries to their 4th Open Judged Virtual Photography Show, to be on display after March 15. The show provides a platform to recognize and encourage photographers and benefits the Agawam Public Library. Twenty-one awards totaling $1,540 will be determined by judging done on March 1. Dave Roback and Tim Donelan, both well recognized photographers will be the judges. The show is divided into four categories of photography: creative, nature, photojournalism and pictorial. The entry fee is $25 per entry. deadline for submissions is Feb. 15. If there is not sufficient entries, the show will be cancelled and all fees returned. All images must be original, made by the photographer, captured by film or digitally, and cannot be previous entries in their show. The Prospectus and Entry Form can be accessed by going to www.agawamlibrary.org, and scrolling down to the Friends of the Library widget. From there you will be able to click on a link to the show’s information. For further information, contact Bob Kadis at r.kadis@comcast.net or call 413-789-4814.

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I ate IHOPs purple Willy Wonka pancakes so you dont have to

The purple Willy Wonka pancakes from IHOP are colorful, strange and cartoonishly droopy-looking. But they’re actually pretty darn good, and made with much more tact than I expected. Most of IHOP’s limited-edition Wonka menu — a tie-in to the upcoming Willy Wonka prequel movie — has this whimsical, flamboyant nature to it that’s actually a bit unsettling when you see it in real life. But when you actually try a bite, it makes you go, “Oh, that’s actually pretty good.” In all fairness, that’s pretty on-brand for the actual character of Willy Wonka. This is the same dude that had Mike Teavee’s mom eating frosting from a giant mushroom within 30 seconds of walking into the chocolate room. Weird? Yes. But let’s be honest, that mushroom frosting was probably awesome. The IHOP Willy Wonka Menu Gene Wilder in the 1971 Willy Wonka told me that I can change the world around me with pure imagination. That’s why it was perfectly acceptable for me to roll in to IHOP at 11:30 a.m. on a Wednesday to order a stack of purple-dyed pancakes and roughly a liter of sugar-drinks and pretend that it was “breakfast.” That included a class of purple-pink lemonade that had a “sprinkles rim” and a tuft of cotton candy. Adulthood is a scam. Here’s what I got: Wonka’s Perfectly Purple Pancakes: Four pancakes that are dyed purple and feature cheesecake mousse, purple cream cheese icing and gold glitter sugar Dreamy Lemonade: Prickly pear flavored lemonade served with a ”cream cheese icing rainbow sprinkle rim” and topped with a cloud of cotton candy Scrumdiddlyumptious Strawberry Hot Chocolate: Hot chocolate flavored with strawberry syrup, topped with whipped topping, a drizzle of chocolate sauce and gold glitter sugar. Fun fact: The last one is called “Chocolate Caliente Supercaldisustancioso con Fresas” in Spanish, according to the menu. What do they taste like? Wonka's Perfectly Purple Pancakes from IHOP (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive Wonka’s Perfectly Purple Pancakes I was expecting this to be a big ol’ pile of food coloring and sugar. Instead, I got a pretty well-balanced stack of pancakes — with a good amount of purple food coloring. The pancakes themselves are standard IHOP fare. They’re just dyed purple, so don’t expect them to taste like schnozberries or anything. Where things take a turn is with the cheesecake mousse and cream cheese topping. Both elements add a good amount of creaminess and sweetness — but also some tang. To be clear: There’s a whole lot of dairy in this. But at no point did I feel overwhelmed. Each element played its part in making a whimsical presentation that was fun to dig into. It was refreshing to try a familiar pancake with a less-common topping. The cheesecake mousse does most of the heavy lifting here, adding a tangy sweetness that makes you want to take another bite. Everything else is there mostly for presentation. Scrumdiddlyumptious Strawberry Hot Chocolate from the IHOP Willy Wonka menu. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive Scrumdiddlyumptious Strawberry Hot Chocolate While this is the most difficult item to spell on the menu, it’s the most straightforward. It’s hot chocolate with a big hit of strawberry syrup topped with whipped “topping.” The strawberry flavor here is quite potent, with the chocolate working as a secondary character. There’s a good interplay between the two flavors, with the zing of the berry really shining through every sip. The Dreamy Lemonade from the IHOP Willy Wonka menu. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive Dreamy Lemonade I thought this was simply going to be sugar-riddled pink lemonade. Instead, it’s a surprisingly tangy prickly pear-flavored lemonade. The smear of cream cheese icing on the side acts as a glue for some sprinkles. It makes for a cool visual effect, but is tricky to actually eat. Then there’s the topping. It’s surprisingly resilient as cotton candy goes. It actually holds strong if it makes contact with the liquid — inside of dissolving like a lot of cotton candy does. Besides that, it’s pretty straightforward, if a bit heavy, cotton candy. As for the lemonade, the prickly pear flavor comes through strong and tart, providing a worthy counterpart to all the sugary components. There’s also a layering effect here. As the waitress, Linda, reminded me, it’s important to swirl it around to make the drink go from pink to purple. She also apologized to me that the cotton candy was pale and white instead of pink. Linda was an awesome waitress. If anyone skimps on Linda’s tips, they’re a bad egg. So are they any good? Surprisingly, yes. I expected the pancakes to turn me violet like a blueberry and leave me needing to be rolled out of the restaurant. But I’d happily go back and order those again. Now, I realize I’m a maniac for getting both the hot chocolate and lemonade in one meal. That’s a bit much. The final word This whole Wonka menu was pretty good for something that’s a tie-in to the new movie starring Timothée Chalomet. I’ll admit, I’m hesitant about the guy from “Dune” going into such a different lane. But I was just proven wrong by a stack of purple pancakes, so who am I to judge? If Heath Ledger can pull off an excellent Joker, then who am I to question whether the Kwisatz Haderach* can also do Willy Wonka. *If you know what this is, you’re either a huge nerd like me, or watched “Dune” with subtitles on. --- “I ate it so you don’t have to” is a regular food column looking at off-beat eats, both good and bad. It runs every other Thursday-ish at noon-ish. You can send any praise/food suggestions to nomalley@masslive.com. Please send all criticisms and reports of Nick potentially spelling ‘scrumdiddlyuptious” incorrectly to ssudburough@masslive.com You can check out the rest of the series here.

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Dreaming of a white Christmas? You might try Alaska

For most Americans dreaming of a white Christmas, this year’s prospects aren’t good. Although parts of the Rockies and Midwest already have snow or could get a fresh dusting by Monday, other parts of the country that are normally coated in white this time of year are still sporting their drab late-fall look. “Some people will get their dream, their wish, and get a white Christmas right at the last minute,” said Judah Cohen, the director of seasonal forecasting at Verisk Atmospheric and Environmental Research. “But most of the country will have a brown Christmas.” Among the areas more accustomed to snowy Decembers is the Northeast, where a powerful storm blew in this week and dumped heavy rain on the region’s ski areas, wreaking havoc on the snowpack. “It didn’t wash out our trails. But it was crazy rain,” said Tom Day, the general manager of Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, New Hampshire. He hiked the ski area Monday, when it was closed, as 3.5 inches (8.8 centimeters) of warm rain fell and the wind howled. “That’s a four-letter word, rain, in our business,” Day said. The snow cover across the U.S. is at near-record lows for this time of year, said Cohen, who doesn’t expect much change by Christmas Day. “There is a storm that is supposed to come out of the Rockies and head toward Canada, so it looks like some fresh snow in the western Plains, from Kansas to North Dakota,” he said, adding that snow could fall as far west as Denver and as far east as Minnesota. The National Weather Service also doesn’t foresee a white Christmas for much of the country. But on the bright side, “At least the weather is favorable for most people who have plans to travel this year,” the service wrote in its holiday forecast. So where should snow lovers turn? “The best chance for a white Christmas by far is in Alaska,” the service wrote. “Anchorage’s record snow depth on Christmas Day is 30 inches, which was set back in 1994, and this year’s snow depth could be close to the record.” Climate change is playing a role in diminishing Christmas snow, Cohen said, although he noted it remains a complicated picture, with extreme cold snaps and unusual weather events occurring. “Certainly, the globe is warming. Winters are getting shorter. Overall, they’re getting warmer,” Cohen said. “December, I’ve seen the strongest warming. So I feel like December really no longer qualifies as a winter month. The early-season skiing is becoming more and more challenging.” Despite the challenges, Northeastern snow lovers aren’t giving up. After closing for rain on Monday, Gunstock reopened Tuesday, while many other ski areas took a day or two longer to rebuild trails. Ryan Sloan, who drove five hours from New York through “intense” rain on Monday to go snowboarding, said Gunstock’s trails on Tuesday weren’t as washed out as he feared they would be. “The conditions are actually pretty good,” Sloan said. “When you get up to the top, the trails are pretty decent. There are some rocky spots, some icy spots, but overall, pretty good.” Extensive drainage systems allowed the resort to keep its trails intact, Day said. In Vermont, the rain caused ski areas to lose some of their natural snow and close some trails, said Bryan Rivard, a spokesperson for Ski Vermont. But he said cold nighttime temperatures forecast for late this week would help them recover. “Vermont ski areas have some of the most powerful and efficient snowmaking systems in the world, which allows them to stockpile and distribute snow quickly,” Rivard said in an email. In the Rockies, ski areas have been struggling to open lifts and trails on meager early-season snow. Breckenridge Ski Resort in Colorado, for instance, currently has about 30% of its terrain open, while Mammoth Mountain in California has 48 of its 176 trails open. And in Eagan, Minnesota, organizers called off the 2024 Minnesota Ice Festival, which had been scheduled to open Jan. 5. The event was going to feature an ice-skating rink, ice slide and a huge ice maze at the Minnesota Vikings’ headquarters, but the warm weather made it risky, Minnesota Ice CEO Robbie Harrell said in a statement. The good news for Northeast snow lovers is they might not need to wait long after Christmas for fresh powder. Cohen said the weather should get colder just before New Year’s Day and into the first week of January. “So, new year, hopefully new fortunes as far as snow goes here in the eastern U.S.,” Cohen said.

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entertainment

The Road to the Oscars

A great year for movies, as 2023 was, means a lot to look forward to as awards season begins. Things get started tonight with the Golden Globes ceremony, and later this week it’s on to nominations for the Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild of America Awards. The big one — the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — will announce its nominations for the 96th Oscars on Jan. 23. To get you ready, we’ve put together a guide to the movies, directors and performances that The Times’s critics think the Academy should recognize this year. And although the Globes have a mixed record of predicting which movies will win Oscars, tonight’s ceremony is a good excuse to look back on some of the year’s best films. The contenders The competition for the best picture Oscar is so fierce this year that Kyle Buchanan, The Times’s awards season columnist, decided to discuss 13 possible nominees rather than his usual 10. “Oppenheimer,” a three-hour biopic about the father of the atomic bomb directed by Christopher Nolan, tops Kyle’s list. Pitted against it, and favored by the Times critics Manohla Dargis and Alissa Wilkinson, is another historical epic: “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Martin Scorsese’s study of a murderous campaign targeting members of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma. Manohla and Alissa are also rooting for Todd Haynes’s “May December,” a tale of two eerily synced women and the anguished man they manipulate. All three films are up for Golden Globes.

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Corey Taylor cancels tour due to health concerns

Slipknot’s frontman, Corey Taylor, stated on Instagram Friday, January 5, that he is canceling his North American solo tour due to “mental and physical health” concerns. Taylor canceled his run of solo tour dates, a month after announcing them because “he reached a place that was unhealthy for him and his family.” Fans who have bought tickets or VIP packages for the tour will get a full refund. Here is the full statement he posted to his Instagram: “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the cancellation of my upcoming North American tour. For the past several months my mental and physical health have been breaking down, and I reached a place that was unhealthy for my family and I. I know this decision will come as a shock to some and may be regarded as unpopular by others - but after taking a hard look at where I am and where I was going, I need to pull myself back and be home with my family for the time being. Those of you who bought tickets and VIP packages for this upcoming run will get a full refund. I send my love to the fans, my band, my family & friends, and everyone who’s helped me get here thus far. I promise I’m doing everything I can to be as healthy as I can be. Until then, my apologies to everyone we would have seen on the tour - and hopefully, we’ll see you again down the line.” Slipknot has a European and UK tour scheduled for this year, as well as a handful of US festival appearances, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their debut self-titled album. As of now, those are still happening and tickets for those shows can be purchased on StubHub and VividSeats.

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entertainment

Maine Cabin Masters Super Sweet Holiday Special: How to watch for free

It’s the holiday season and the Cabin Masters are in the spirit in a special holiday episode of “Maine Cabin Masters” airing on Monday, December 4 on the Magnolia Network. Season 10 will air a new episode at 9 p.m. EST on the Magnolia Network. Viewers looking to stream “Maine Cabin Masters” can do so by using Philo, FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. All three streaming services offer free trials for new users. Kennebec Cabin Company is the home of the popular cabin renovation show, located in Manchester, Maine. According to a description of the show from FuboTV, there’s no shortage of work for Maine-based builder Chase Morrill, whose specialty is renovating rustic cabins and camps all over the Pine Tree State. Working alongside his sister, brother-in-law and best friend, Morrill contracts with clients to save and transform rundown cabins buried deep in Maine’s remote woods. From century-old cottages to lakeside retreats in need of some major repairs, Chase and his team give these dilapidated properties the revivals they have needed for decades. In the holiday special, It’s the holiday season and the Cabin Masters are in the spirit. Ryan and Ashley plot a stealthy, secret gift for Chase, while the guys team up with a nonprofit and put their woodworking skills to the test to create gifts for a local toy drive. Here is a look at a sneak peek of the new season from Magnolia Network’s YouTube Channel: How can I watch “Maine Cabin Masters” without cable? Season 10 will air a new episode at 9 p.m. EST on the Magnolia Network. Viewers looking to stream “Maine Cabin Masters” can do so by using Philo, FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. All three streaming services offer free trials for new users. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels.

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entertainment

How to watch Celebrity Jeopardy! semifinal episode on Jan. 16 for free

“Celebrity Jeopardy!” continues on ABC with a new episode this Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT — its third semifinal for the season. For those without cable who want to watch the new episode, they can do so for free through either FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users. You can also watch the series the next day on Hulu, which offers a free first month when you sign up, followed by payments as low as $7.99 per month thereafter. FuboTV said in a description of the third semifinal episode for the show’s second season that celebrity contestants are Rachel Dratch, Mo Rocca, and Heather McMahan. How can I watch “Celebrity Jeopardy!″ for free without cable? The new episode is available to watch through either FuboTV or DirecTV Stream. Both offer free trials to new users. You can also watch the series the next day on Hulu, which offers a free first month when you sign up, followed by payments as low as $7.99 per month thereafter. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

Andre Braugher Died of Lung Cancer, His Publicist Says

Andre Braugher, the Emmy-winning actor who died this week at 61, was diagnosed with lung cancer a few months ago before succumbing to the disease, his longtime publicist, Jennifer Allen, said on Thursday. When Ms. Allen confirmed his death this week, she said he had died after a brief illness. A 2014 profile by The New York Times Magazine said that Mr. Braugher was intensely private and “stopped drinking alcohol and smoking years ago.” Though he had an expansive career, Mr. Braugher was best known for his roles as a stoic, composed police officer on “Homicide: Life on the Street,” the 1990s NBC police procedural, and “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” the Fox sitcom that later moved to NBC.

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entertainment

The Year of Taylor Swift

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music Taylor Swift grabbed many headlines in 2023. Her widely popular Eras Tour, which proved too much for Ticketmaster to handle, has been both a business and a cultural juggernaut. And Time magazine named her as its person of the year. Taffy Brodesser-Akner, a staff writer for The New York Times, explains why, for her, 2023 was the year of Taylor Swift.

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entertainment

Live Wire: Enter the Haggis to play two New Years shows

Enter the Haggis, the Toronto-based Celtic rock band, will help locals ring in the new year with two shows at Gateway City Arts in Holyoke, on Dec. 30 at 8 p.m. and Dec. 31 at 8:30 p.m. For almost two decades, Enter the Haggis has blended bagpipes and fiddles with rock rhythms to the delight of there fans everywhere. The bans has appeared on such shows as “Live with Regis and Kelly” and “A&E’s Breakfast with The Arts.” They were also the feature of an hour-long PBS concert special which aired on more than 80 affiliate stations across the United States. The group’s most recent full-length record reached No. 9 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Tickets are $32 in advance at gatewaycityarts.com, and $42 at the door. The Dec. 30 show will be at Race Street Live, and the Dec. 31 show will be in The Divine Theater. Doors open at 7 p.m.

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entertainment

Mass. State Lottery winner: $500,000 grand prize claimed in crossword-style game

A $500,000 lottery grand prize was claimed from a crossword-style scratch ticket game on Wednesday, leaving just one grand prize remaining to be claimed in the game. The crossword-style scratch ticket game is called “Big Blue Bonus Cashword,” which is a $5 lottery ticket released on July 12, 2022. Besides the single $500,000 grand prize left, there’s also just one $10,000 prize remaining to be claimed in the Massachusetts State Lottery game as of Jan. 4. The $500,000 prize claimed on Jan. 3 was from a scratch ticket sold in New Bedford at a store called Mark’s Beverage. A $100,000 prize was also won during Wednesday night’s “Mass Cash” drawing. It was sold in Sterling from a shop called Applegreen Sterling. The winning numbers for the drawing were 3, 8, 21, 28 and 30. In addition, a $100,000 prize was claimed from a “Millions” ticket on Wednesday, and was sold in Revere from a Convenience Market store. Overall, there were at least 851 lottery prizes worth $600 or more won or claimed in Massachusetts on Wednesday, including 21 in Springfield and 25 in Worcester. The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of all the winning tickets each day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.

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The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion episode 14: How to watch for free

The end of Chaos is near and with alliances on the brink of collapse, a grueling minifinal awaits in the newest episode of “The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion” airing on Wednesday, January 17. The new season will air a new episode at 8 p.m. EST on MTV. Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo, FuboTV, Sling and DirecTV Stream. Philo, fuboTV and DirecTV all offer free trials and Sling offers 50% off your first month. In season 39, “reality stars party, fight and hook up in exotic locales while competing in insane physical challenges and scheming to win cash prizes on the competition show that started it all,” according to MTV. In episode 14 of the new season, The end of Chaos is near and with alliances on the brink of collapse, a grueling minifinal awaits. Here is a look at the new season from MTV’s The Challenge YouTube Channel: How can I watch “The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion” without cable? The new season will air a new episode at 8 p.m. EST on MTV. Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo, FuboTV, Sling and DirecTV Stream. Philo, fuboTV and DirecTV all offer free trials and Sling offers 50% off your first month. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels, like AMC, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more, for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

New Years Eve events in Massachusetts outside Boston

Many Bay Staters think of Boston’s notorious First Night celebration as the go-to event for New Year’s Eve festivities in Massachusetts, but there are plenty of other fun events going on across the state for you to choose from. First Night Chatham — If you’re on or close to the Cape, you’ll want to check out First Night Chatham’s 33rd annual celebration, which boasts of offering over 70 performances and events. The event’s highlights include a Noise Parade at and fireworks. New Bedford drone light show — For the first time ever, the City of New Bedford is offering a drone light show at 8 p.m. Other New Year’s Eve celebration events across the city, including a puppet show and fire dancers, begin at 5 p.m. First Night Northampton —Western Massachusetts residents know how special Northampton’s First Night events are. With a variety of performances starting at noon, you won’t want to miss the fireworks at 6 p.m. or the ball raising at 11:30 p.m. First Night at Patriot Place — Patriot Place in Foxborough is having a New Year’s Eve celebration from 4 to 7 p.m. that will feature ice sculptures and music. Fireworks begin at 7 p.m., and other bars and restaurants at the shopping center will host other events afterwards. Rockport New Year’s Eve — This event’s tagline is “small town, BIG celebration” for a reason. Entertainment including performances and food trucks begin at 4 p.m., and highlights include a 6 p.m. parasol parade and a ball drop at midnight. Salem LAUNCH! — This family-friendly event runs from 4:30 to 6 p.m. and offers free face-painting and hot cocoa. Wachusett Mountain — You can enjoy New Year’s Eve at Wachusett Mountain in Princeton even if you’re not a skier or snowboarder. The ski resort will have performances including music and magic beginning at 7:30 p.m., as well as fireworks at 10 p.m. and a champagne toast at midnight. Those with tickets can ski or simply ride the resort’s lifts from 7:30 p.m. to midnight. Providence New Year’s Eve Celebration — Those on the Rhode Island border may want to cross state lines to visit Providence for New Year’s Eve. The city’s event will feature food trucks, roaming entertainment, and of course, its signature WaterFire display. The city will also set off fireworks at 8:30 p.m. Read more: First Night Boston 2024 will have everything from Sammy Adams to ice sculptures First Night Hartford — Western Massachusetts residents on the Connecticut border may want to check out the City of Hartford’s First Night celebration. There will be musical performances, free ice skating, a 5 p.m. parade and fireworks at 6 p.m. and midnight. First Night Portsmouth — North Shore residents may feel like popping over to New Hampshire for the City of Portsmouth’s First Night celebration. The event will feature ice sculptures and a fireworks display at 7:30 p.m.

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entertainment

How to watch the new episode of The Amazing Race, stream for free

A new episode of “The Amazing Race” kicks off Wednesday, Dec. 13 at 9:30 p.m. on CBS. Fans can also watch the season 35 on streaming platforms like FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users who are interested in signing up for an account. The show is an adventure reality game in which teams of two people race around the world in competition with 11 other teams. In the new episode of season 35, “the final three teams travel to Seattle, where they must complete three challenges in a scramble leg; the team that successfully completes the challenges and arrives first wins the $1 million prize.” How do I watch the show if I don’t have cable TV? Viewers can stream the new season on FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

20 Acts in 60 Minutes

Our new audio app is home to “This American Life,” the award-winning program hosted by Ira Glass. New episodes debut in our app a day earlier than in the regular podcast feed, and we also have an archive of the show. The app includes a “Best of ‘This American Life’” section with some of our favorite bite-size clips, so you can enjoy the show even if you don’t have a lot of time.

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entertainment

How to watch Celebrity Jeopardy! semifinal episode on Jan. 2 for free

“Celebrity Jeopardy!” continues on ABC with a new episode this Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT. For those without cable who want to watch the new episode, they can do so for free through either FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users. You can also watch the series the next day on Hulu, which offers a free first month when you sign up, followed by payments as low as $7.99 per month thereafter. FuboTV said in a description of the first semifinal episode for the show’s second season that celebrity contestants include actors Utkarsh Ambudkar (”Ghosts”), Mira Sorvino (”Shining Vale”) and Lisa Ann Walter (”Abbott Elementary”). How can I watch “Celebrity Jeopardy!″ for free without cable? The new episode is available to watch through either FuboTV or DirecTV Stream. Both offer free trials to new users. You can also watch the series the next day on Hulu, which offers a free first month when you sign up, followed by payments as low as $7.99 per month thereafter. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

Shecky Greene, High-Energy Comedy Star, Is Dead at 97

Shecky Greene, a high-energy stand-up comedian who for many years was one of the biggest stars in Las Vegas, died on Sunday at his home in Las Vegas. He was 97. His daughter Alison Greene confirmed his death. Mr. Greene was a frequent guest of Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson and other television hosts, and had acting roles in movies and on television. But he never reached as wide an audience as many of his fellow comedians, probably because his humor was best experienced in full flower on a nightclub stage rather than in small doses on the small screen. In Las Vegas, though, he was an institution. A versatile entertainer of the old school — he told stories, he made faces, he ad-libbed, he did impressions, he sang — he would do just about anything for a laugh, including physical comedy so broad that it sometimes left him black and blue. He was not one to stick to a set routine. “I wasn’t an A-B-C-D comic. ‘Hello, ladies and gentlemen’ and then the next line,” he told the comedy historian Kliph Nesteroff in 2011. Audiences who went to see Shecky Greene never knew quite what to expect.

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entertainment

Arts Beat: New venues, returning directors in local performing world in 2023

It has been a milestone year for several organizations. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra both celebrated their 80th anniversaries. Goodspeed Musicals and Hartford Stage celebrated their 60th anniversaries. Jacob’s Pillow presented its 90th season of live dance performances. Hartford Symphony celebrated its anniversary announcing that its musicians had signed a new four-year agreement, and Maestra Cariolyn Kuan committed to three more seasons. Springfield’s Symphony emerged from the pandemic with Paul Lambert appointed as its CEO, and a two-year agreement with its musicians, although the SSO is moving forward without a music director. Under Lambert’s direction, the SSO gave a free Juneteenth concert, and is experimenting with start times to better accommodate its audiences.

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entertainment

How to watch Undercover: Caught on Tape series premiere on A&E for free

A&E’s new series, ‘Undercover: Caught on Tape,” looks at the first-hand accounts of dangerous investigations from undercover agents. The series will premiere on Thursday, January 11 at 10 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on A&E. Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo and DirecTV Stream. Both streaming services offer free trials for new users. Sling is also an option to watch A&E and offers 50% off your first month. According to a description of the new series by A&E, “Undercover: Caught on Tape” is a true crime series offering viewers a first-hand account of dangerous criminal investigations from those closest to the action, the undercover agents themselves. Undercover agents are on the front lines, often risking their lives to gather evidence that may help take criminals off the streets. Each episode of the series includes surveillance video and audio recordings from actual investigations to reveal the critical moments that could make or break a case—or an agent’s life. “Living in secrecy and often unrecognized beyond their tightest circles, these agents rarely get to tell their stories, until now,” according to A&E. Here is a look at the new true crime series from A&E’s YouTube Channel: How can I watch “Undercover: Caught on Tape” without cable? The new series will premiere at 10 p.m. EST and will be broadcast on A&E. Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo and DirecTV Stream. Both streaming services offer free trials for new users. Sling is also an option to watch A&E and offers 50% off your first month. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. What is Sling TV? Sling TV is the first app-based TV service letting you stream live television and on-demand content over the internet. Watch live shows wherever you are, at home or on the go! With Sling TV, you get to choose the television option that’s right for you, including Channel Add-ons, Premiums Add-ons, DVR Plus and more.

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Munich Came Out 18 Years Ago but Is the Best Movie About Israel Right Now - The New York Times

Watching movies is what I do — for decades as a film critic and for even longer than that, before and since, as a regular human. As a critic, I’m trained to study and coolly interpret the language of filmmakers. Off the clock, I watch to be diverted or to be dazzled, to be comforted or to escape, to be challenged or to try to better understand the world, filtered through someone else’s art. Sometimes this habit has helped me feel well equipped to deal with what’s going on in the world, sometimes less so. Since Oct. 7, I have felt underequipped. That date has become shorthand for a monstrosity perpetrated against Israelis — and in the months that have followed, Israel has retaliated by killing Palestinians, including countless children, in numbers more awful than the heart can hold. In these past months, despair has hung on my doorpost alongside my mezuza, and moviegoing has felt like thin solace. Still, I look. There have been a number of memorable movies this year that speak to historical atrocities and tragedies. “Oppenheimer,” for one, does a pretty stunning job of conveying our human capacity to blow up the planet. “The Zone of Interest,” about the life of a concentration camp commandant and his wife living next door to Auschwitz makes the sickness that Hannah Arendt identified as the banality of evil impossible to ignore. But as I’ve been looking to better comprehend the current moment in the Middle East, the best film I have found is one that came out on Dec. 23, 2005. I’m talking about “Munich,” one of Steven Spielberg’s bleakest, most adult dramas, which — despite five Oscar nominations — was largely considered a misfire when it was released. Today, though, “Munich” reverberates with deep meaning and gravitas. Rewatching the film in this moment reminds us that art can sometimes prick the conscience where hours of political commentary only deaden and that historically based movies are never only about the period in which the story is set or even when the work was made. Movies morph and shift constantly, offering new insights and solaces in relation to the time in which we watch them.

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entertainment

Original AC/DC drummer dies, band says

The original drummer for well-known band AC/DC — Colin Burgess — has died, according to the band. “Very sad to hear of the passing of Colin Burgess. He was our first drummer and a very respected musician. Happy memories, rock in peace Colin,” the band said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

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entertainment

When the season calls for merry murder mysteries

My “mystery winter” reading theme continues, and this week I decided to turn to the “Queen of Crime” herself: Agatha Christie. I asked my sister, a whodunit connoisseur, for her recommendation. She instantly suggested “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” a Poirot mystery that many consider to be Christie’s masterpiece. Not only is the plot suitably twisty and the setting suitably typical (richest man in a sleepy village found murdered inside a locked room of his fancy house), but the characterizations are sharply hilarious. And the final reveal, which exploits the conventions of the mystery genre to deliver a genuinely unconventional denouement, is evidence of Christie’s skill. Next up was her 1941 mystery, “Evil Under the Sun,” set in a glamorous seaside hotel. It evokes the particular claustrophobia of many social novels, with the characters feeling surveilled and scrutinized because they are part of the same broader web of class and society, even if they do not actually know each other. (If you need a last-minute Christmas gift and have a spare $19 million, the island and hotel that inspired the novel are for sale.) Next on my list is “The Penguin Book of Murder Mysteries,” which The Times’s crime critic promises is full of “overlooked and underappreciated” gems from the 19th and 20th centuries.

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entertainment

How to watch The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion episode 9 for free

Cracks in the alliances begin to show themselves as one Contender works to flip the house vote in a new episode of “The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion” airing on Wednesday, December 13 on MTV. In season 39, “reality stars party, fight and hook up in exotic locales while competing in insane physical challenges and scheming to win cash prizes on the competition show that started it all,” according to MTV. The new season will air a new episode at 8 p.m. EST on MTV. Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo, FuboTV, Sling and DirecTV Stream. Philo, fuboTV and DirecTV all offer free trials and Sling offers 50% off your first month. In episode nine of the new season, cracks in the alliances begin to show themselves as one Contender works to flip the house vote. Multiple romantic scandals come to a head as one of the Contenders is confronted about being unfaithful. Here is a look at the new season from MTV’s The Challenge YouTube Channel: How can I watch “The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion” without cable? Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo, FuboTV, Sling and DirecTV Stream. Philo, fuboTV and DirecTV all offer free trials and Sling offers 50% off your first month. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels, like AMC, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more, for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

What Winning a Golden Globe Looks Like

What Winning a Golden Globe Looks Like Lily Gladstone, Paul Giamatti, Billie Eilish and stars from “Succession,” “Beef” and “The Bear” are captured in their moments of glory. The Los Angeles-based photographer Erik Carter was backstage at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on Sunday, where he photographed Golden Globes winners for The Times. Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture Da’Vine Joy Randolph, ‘The Holdovers’

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entertainment

The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion episode 10: How to watch for free

The Contenders soar to new heights in a sky-high challenge in the newest episode of “The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion” airing on Wednesday, December 20 on MTV. In season 39, “reality stars party, fight and hook up in exotic locales while competing in insane physical challenges and scheming to win cash prizes on the competition show that started it all,” according to MTV. The new season will air a new episode at 8 p.m. EST on MTV. Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo, FuboTV, Sling and DirecTV Stream. Philo, fuboTV and DirecTV all offer free trials and Sling offers 50% off your first month. In episode 10 of the new season, the Contenders soar to new heights in a sky-high challenge, with an outcome that makes one Contender question their alliance. A decorated Champion brings the heat in the elimination. Here is a look at the new season from MTV’s The Challenge YouTube Channel: How can I watch “The Challenge: Battle for a New Champion” without cable? The new season will air a new episode at 8 p.m. EST on MTV. Viewers looking to stream the new season can do so by using Philo, FuboTV, Sling and DirecTV Stream. Philo, fuboTV and DirecTV all offer free trials and Sling offers 50% off your first month. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels, like AMC, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more, for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

After Half a Century, The Dark Side of the Moon Still Reverberates

Glum, ponderous songs about madness, mortality and greed, punctuated with tense instrumentals. Was that a blueprint for a blockbuster? It hardly sounds like the makings of one of the best-selling albums of all time. But there’s no denying the popularity and tenacity of “The Dark Side of the Moon,” the indelible album that Pink Floyd released 50 years ago, on March 1, 1973. Looming like an inscrutable monolith, “Dark Side” spent nearly all of the next 14 years — through punk, disco, early hip-hop and the pop heyday of MTV — lodged in Billboard’s Top 200 album chart. It arrived during the analog, material days of record stores and vinyl LPs, when an album purchase was a commitment. And no matter how familiar “Dark Side” went on to become as an FM radio staple, people still wanted their own copy, or perhaps a new copy to replace a scratched-up one. In the digital era, “The Dark Side of the Moon” album returned to the charts on CD, selling and then streaming more millions. The success of “Dark Side” stoked the ambitions of Pink Floyd and its leader, Roger Waters, who has toured arenas and stadiums ever since; Waters, 79, is playing his “first ever farewell” dates this year. He conceived the “The Wall,” a narrative rock opera released in 1979, that would foreground his anti-authority reflexes, from schoolmasters to heads of state; he has performed it against the backdrop of the Berlin Wall. Decades later, Waters would go on to spout cranky, conspiracy-theory-minded, pro-Russia political statements that many former fans abhorred. When “Dark Side” appeared, all that was far in the future.

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entertainment

Cambridge man who died in apartment fire was a writer from Rhode Island

Brian Brandt, the 52-year-old Cambridge man who was killed during a fire at his apartment complex on Jan. 2, is being remembered for his skills and accomplishments as a writer. The fire the killed Brandt broke out at 15 Chester St. around 4:40 a.m. after residents heard a loud explosion, the Cambridge Fire Department said previously. Firefighters were able to contain the fire to Brandt’s second-floor apartment, but they found his body inside once they got the fire under control. Read more: Cambridge resident killed in fatal apartment complex fire identified According to his obituary, Brandt was born in Providence on Nov. 27, 1971. He graduated from Johnston High School in 1990, during his senior year, he earned the Franco-American Heritage Award for the state of Rhode Island. Brandt went on to earn a B.S. in psychology from Boston University in 2007 and graduated summa cum laude, according to his obituary. He pursued many different careers, including banking, resume writing, column writing, fact checking and recruiting. In addition to writing, Brandt loved theater and volunteering, according to his obituary. He is survived by his mother, Pamela Scanlan, his stepfather, Robert Scanlan, his brother, Peter Brandt, and many other relatives.

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entertainment

Barbie Didnt Make Our Top 10. Readers Spoke Up.

A home with 20-foot ceilings, six bedrooms, multiple laundry rooms and a heated pool is on the market in Massachusetts. “Nestled within Wilbrahams finest neighborhood of Hilltop Park, this single-owner, custom-built French Colonial masterpiece boasts more than 10,000 sqft of elegant living,” the listing states. The home is listed for $2.2 million. It has six bedrooms, four full baths, three half baths, two laundry rooms, an oversized garage bays and an in-law suite. It is co-listed by Ann Turnberg and Erica Swallow of the Turnberg & Swallow Team at Coldwell Banker Realty — Western Massachusetts. “Escape to the first-floor Primary Suite through the curved central hall with arched entries, where you’ll find a spacious bedroom, dressing room, custom walk-in closet and bathroom made for royaltysteam shower, whirlpool tub, alabaster chandelier,” the listing reads. The outside is just as impressive. The house is on 4.13 acres and includes a backyard creek and forest, stone walls, patios, lush landscaping and an in-ground, heated pool. “Make this house your home,” the listing reads. For the full listing, click here.

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entertainment

Ferrari Review: Michael Mann Puts You in the Drivers Seat

After leaving the Navy, Mr. McCann moved to Los Angeles, where he studied music and journalism at Los Angeles City College and hosted a Monday night jam session at the Hillcrest Club. It was during that time that he first connected with Mr. McDaniels. In a 2017 interview for the magazine Oxford American, Mr. McCann was asked about Mr. McDaniels’s composition “Compared to What.” “When I heard him,” he said, “I hired him in my band — one of the best singers I’ve ever heard. And I found out he was also a writer. We stayed in touch for years after that, and he would always send me songs. I can’t tell you how many songs he sent me, but that one stuck with me.” Mr. McCann was performing in Los Angeles clubs when a representative of Pacific Jazz Records heard him and asked if he had a record contract. When told no, the representative pulled one from his pocket and offered it to him. Mr. McCann recorded more than a dozen albums for the label from 1960 to 1964, usually leading a trio under the businesslike moniker Les McCann Ltd., but sometimes adding guest horns or orchestral accompaniment and sometimes collaborating with the guitarist Joe Pass. He also took part in Pacific Jazz sessions led by the saxophonist Teddy Edwards, the Jazz Crusaders and others. Les McCann Ltd. backed the singer Lou Rawls on his debut album, “Stormy Monday,” released by Capitol in 1962. Mr. McCann then moved to Limelight, a subsidiary of Mercury Records run by Quincy Jones, for which he made six albums from 1964 to 1966. He signed with Atlantic in 1968; on his first album for the label, “Much Les,” he was accompanied by a string section. He would make 11 albums for Atlantic. On two of them, “Invitation to Openness” (1971) and “Layers” (1972), he played a host of keyboards and synthesizers, an avenue he had been inspired to explore after hearing the keyboardist Joe Zawinul’s work with Miles Davis. Those albums have been cited as seminal in popularizing electric keyboards.

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entertainment

The Road to the Oscars

A jury ruled on Monday that Google had violated antitrust laws to extract fees and limit competition from Epic Games and other developers on its Play mobile app store, in a case that could rewrite the rules on how thousands of businesses make money on Google’s smartphone operating system, Android. After deliberating for a little more than three hours, the nine-person federal jury sided with Epic Games on all 11 questions in a monthlong trial that was the latest turn in a three-year legal battle. The jury in San Francisco found that Epic, the maker of the hit game Fortnite, proved that Google had maintained a monopoly in the smartphone app store market and engaged in anticompetitive conduct that harmed the videogame maker. Google could be forced to alter its Play Store rules, allowing other companies to offer competing app stores and making it easier for developers to avoid the cut it collects from in-app purchases.

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entertainment

An Abandoned Cemetery Highlights a Painful Colonial Episode for France

Nestled amid the vineyards in a picturesque region of southwestern France known for its sweet wines and goat cheeses is a fenced-off parcel of thorny, empty land, mostly avoided by nearby villagers other than the few who walk their dogs there. The nondescript patch has become part of a national effort to address a painful episode in France’s colonial history: the treatment of the predominately Muslim Algerians known as Harkis who fought for the French during Algeria’s war of independence. After the war ended in 1962, some of the Harkis and their families were placed in several internment and transit camps across France. They stayed for years in those camps, treated more as unwanted refugees in France than former soldiers, surrounded by barbed wire and watchtowers, while the French government organized their relocations across the country. In the early years, many of the children in these families, historians say, died in the camps, including one known as Rivesaltes, where about 21,000 Harkis passed through. Historians say they believe that the bodies of at least 50 of these children are buried under the dry soil of Rivesaltes, which is close to the Mediterranean and about half an hour’s drive from Avignon.

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entertainment

Mass. State Lottery winners: 2 $100K prizes won or claimed same day

Two $100,000 lottery prizes were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Friday. One of the winning tickets was sold at Lanzilli’s Fuel on Bennington Street in East Boston. The $100,000 prize was won during Friday’s night’s “Mass Cash” drawing, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery’s website. The winning numbers were 11, 12, 17, 30 and 31. The other $100,000 prize was won from a “$100,000 Extra Play” scratch ticket bought for $2 at Mahant Border Bets & Butts in Attleboro. In Mass Cash, the odds of winning $100,000, the top prize in the game, are one in 324,632. To play, participants must select five numbers between one and 35, either manually or randomly by using the lottery computer system. Each play costs $1. Drawings are done every day at 9 p.m. In $100,000 Extra Play, the odds of winning $100,000, also the top prize in the game, are one in 2.016 million. The winners of the $100,000 prizes were not the only lucky lottery players in Massachusetts this week. On Friday, the winner of the Mass Millionaire Holiday Raffle grand prize claimed his $1 million reward. On Thursday, there were five $100,000 prizes won or claimed, with four won during the daily Mass Cash drawing. On Wednesday, a $500,000 grand prize was claimed from a crossword-style scratch ticket game. On Tuesday, a player won a $25,000-a-year-for-life prize from the multi-state drawing game “Lucky for Life,” and on Monday, New Year’s Day, a player who went to a sandwich shop won a $100,000 prize. Every day, the State Lottery posts online a list of all the winning lottery tickets worth at least $600 sold or claimed in Massachusetts. There were 849 total tickets worth at least $600 sold or claimed Friday, including 21 in Springfield, 26 in Worcester and 60 in Boston.

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entertainment

Lee Sun-kyun, Parasite Actor, Found Dead at 48

Lee Sun-kyun, the award-winning South Korean actor who rose to international fame after starring in the Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” was found dead in Seoul on Wednesday. He was 48. Mr. Lee had recently been under police investigation on suspicion of illegal drug use, and he denied the accusations. The police said they were investigating the death as a suicide. The police found Mr. Lee’s body in a parked vehicle in central Seoul just before 11 a.m., said Jeon Yu-deung, the chief detective at Seongbuk police station, which is investigating his death. After Mr. Lee’s manager reported him missing earlier in the day, the police found his body using the location signal from his phone. Mr. Jeon said that Mr. Lee had also left what appeared to be a suicide note.

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entertainment

HBOs The White Lotus announces new cast members for season 3

The widely anticipated third season of the HBO anthology series “The White Lotus” now has a few more famous faces tied to the upcoming project — set to begin filming shortly. In a release on Friday, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that actors Parker Posey, Leslie Bibb, Jason Isaacs, Michelle Monaghan, Dom Hetrakul and Tayme Thapthimthong are confirmed cast members for the third installment of the Emmy-winning comedy-drama about the adventures and misadventures of guests and staff at luxury “White Lotus” resorts around the world. The six additions join returning cast member Natasha Rothwell — who played masseuse “Belinda” in the series’ first season set in Hawaii — as the show embarks on a new resort located in Thailand, according Warner Bros. Discovery. Filming will begin in the Southeast Asian nation in February, with production taking place in and around such notable destinations as Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok, Warner Bros. Discovery added, noting that HBO has partnered with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to support filming and promotion of the new season. “The White Lotus” debuted in July 2021 and received 20 total Emmy nominations across 13 categories with 10 wins for its first season. It has been nominated for an additional 23 Emmy’s for its second season, which took place in Sicily, Warner Bros. Discovery said. The show was created and has been written, directed and executive produced by Mike White.

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entertainment

How to watch the new episode of CBS Raid the Cage, stream for free

CBS’ “Raid the Cage” will air a new episode on the network on Friday, Nov. 24 at 9 p.m. EST. Fans can also watch the show on streaming platform like FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users. According to CBS, “in this new action-packed game show, two teams of two face off to grab-and-go prizes from the Cage before their time runs out and the doors close. Correctly answering trivia questions adds seconds to the clock, giving teammates more time to grab prizes ranging from cold hard cash to electronics and even a new car! After three lively rounds, the team that banks the highest total dollar value in prizes wins the game, keeps what they grabbed and plays the final round for an even bigger cash prize.” How do I watch the show if I don’t have cable TV? Viewers can stream the new season on FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

The Glamorous Stranger Next Door Knew Everyone. And She Needed Help.

Shelby Hewitt, the 32-year-old old woman accused of posing as a student in Boston Public Schools last year, pleaded not guilty to nine indictments in Suffolk Superior Court Tuesday, where new details emerged around how she allegedly pretended to be a traumatized child with significant special educational and emotional needs. Hewitt is facing three counts of forgery, two counts of forgery at common law, one count of uttering, one count of identity fraud, one count of larceny over $1,200 and one count of making false claims to her employer. The indictment alleges that between Dec. 6, 2021 and Feb. 3, 2023, the social worker carried out an elaborate scheme to convince the Boston Public School system and the state that she was a child as young as 13 while working for the Department of Children and Families. “Obviously Ms. Hewitt is a young lady who’s got significant mental health challenges. That’s abundantly clear,” Hewitt’s attorney Timothy Flaherty said Tuesday. “What’s not abundantly clear, is how whatever happened was allowed to happen at the Boston Public School system for as long as it was.” Officials with the Boston Public School system declined to comment, but some parents are blaming Superintendent Mary Skipper and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. “To hear that this grown woman who crosses three schools within the year sitting in the classroom with my daughter and a whole bunch of other kids – that’s very scary,” BPS mother Robin Williams said after the arraignment. “You’re a social worker. You’re supposed to be protecting children. Why are you doing this? What are you getting out of it?” Hewitt bought the domain name @masstate.us and used it to create two fake DCF workers with phony email addresses and phone numbers in December 2021. She then used an alias and the real identity of a child in state custody to enroll herself in the Walden Behavioral Treatment Center for an eating disorder and three different Boston Public Schools, where she received special education services. All while collecting her $54,000 salary from the state. “The defendant created multiple names and dates of birth for herself to propagate this intricate but false narrative of being an extremely traumatized child with significant special educational needs and emotional needs,” Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Ashley Polin said. “In reality, the defendant was a woman in her early 30s who had attended both college and graduate school and was employed as a social worker with the Department of Children and Families.” Hewitt was released on a $5,000 cash bail she had previously posted. She was also ordered to stay away from the stolen identity victim, any witnesses, all BPS employees, all schools including Boston Public Schools, the Walden Behavioral Health Center and children under the age of 18. Hewitt was also ordered not to engage in the practice of social work. Her case is set to go to trial in the fall.

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entertainment

How to watch Tyler Perrys The Oval season 5 new episode free Jan. 2

The fifth season of the political drama series Tyler Perry’s “The Oval” continues this Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on BET with a new episode. Those without cable can watch the show for free through either Philo, DirecTV Stream, or FuboTV, each of which offers a free trial to new users. FuboTV said in a description of the series: “It tells the story of U.S President Hunter Franklin and first lady Victoria Franklin, a power-hungry interracial couple, who present a perfect façade to the world while indulging in wildly scandalous behavior behind closed doors.” “Not to be outdone, their children — Gayle and Jason — bring their own brands of volatility and excess to the Executive Residence. The soap opera-style series also tells the stories of White House staff members whose lives become intertwined with those of the first family,” FuboTV added. “Head butler Richard Hallsen is an ex-serviceman who struggles to maintain his integrity in the face of greed and corruption. In ‘The Oval,’ Tyler Perry supercharges the political genre with off-the-charts levels of scandal, sex, depravity and betrayal,” according to FuboTV. Season 5, episode 12 is titled “Who’s Playing Who” and in a description of the episode FuboTV said: “When Hunter’s eyes are opened to the truth, he goes into self-preservation mode and begins to weed out those who can’t be trusted; Richard gives Nancy no choice but to face her wrongdoings. How can I watch Tyler Perry’s “The Oval” without cable? Those without cable can watch the show for free through either through Philo, DirecTV Stream, or FuboTV each of which offer a free trial to new users. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels, like AMC, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more, for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, like sports, news, entertainment and local channels. It offers DVR storage space, and is designed for people who want to cut the cord, but don’t want to miss out on their favorite live TV and sports.

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entertainment

For These TV Procedurals, the Formula Still Works

In “Ferrari,” Adam Driver looms like a colossus as Enzo Ferrari. Driver is tall and rangy, but he looks even bigger here — wider, too — partly because Enzo wears boxy suits with linebacker shoulders so broad they nearly scrape the edges of the frame. The most famous man in Italy aside from the Pope, Enzo makes blood-red racecars with sexy curves and supercharged engines. The Commendatore, as he’s called, looks more like a tank. He seems an ideal vehicle for Michael Mann, a filmmaker with his own line of beautiful obsessions. Set largely in 1957, the movie “Ferrari” focuses on an especially catastrophic year in Enzo’s convoluted life. He makes some of the most coveted cars in the world: There’s a king impatiently waiting in Enzo’s office not long after the story takes off. (That royal personage, who’s short, is anxious that, this time, his feet will reach the pedals easily.) All the world wants something from Ferrari, who in turn seems to care only about his racecars, ravishing red beasts that roar out of his factory near his home in Modena and into the world’s fastest, most lethally dangerous races, where records, machines and bodies are routinely broken. What makes those cars and Ferrari run permeates the movie, which opens with the young Enzo (Driver) behind the wheel, racing and all but flying. The jaunty, propulsive jazz on the soundtrack give the scene inviting charm (you’re ready to jump in Enzo’s car, too), as does the smile that spreads across his face. It’s one of the few times he cracks one. Soon after, the story downshifts to an older Commendatore, now gray and imperial and facing bankruptcy as he struggles both with work and two households with two very different women. One greets him on an especially angry morning by firing a gun at him, which does get his attention. Death stalks Enzo and this movie, which energetically gathers momentum even as Mann busily juggles the story’s numerous parts and warring dualisms. Written by Troy Kennedy Martin, the film is based on Brock Yates’s cleareyed 1991 biography “Enzo Ferrari: The Man, the Cars, the Races, the Machine,” if only in strategic part. (Martin also wrote the original, car-centric caper film “The Italian Job.”) While the book traces its subject (and brand) from cradle to beyond the grave, the movie condenses the auto maker’s life into a brief, emblematic period and a series of dramatic oppositions, including two sons, one living and one dead, as well as the road cars that Enzo sells and the racecars that are his life’s passion.

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entertainment

Dorchesters Ayo Edebiri gets Golden Globe nomination for role in The Bear

A Massachusetts native is one of the nominees for the 81st Golden Globe Awards, honoring film and television series from the year. Ayo Edebiri, a Dorchester native, found herself with a nomination for Best Actress in a Television Series - Musical or Comedy for her role as Sydney on Hulu’s “The Bear.” She is one of six nominees in that category. In a description of “The Bear” on Hulu, “Carmy, a young fine-dining chef, comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop. As he fights to transform the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges crew that ultimately reveal themselves as his chosen family.” The show also received five nominations across a span of Golden Globe categories including Best Television Series - Musical or Comedy and Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role on Television See a full list of nominees here. Read more: How to get free Starbucks hot chocolate every weekend in December Winners will be announced at the Golden Globe Awards on Jan. 7, 2024. Viewers who want to watch “The Bear” can do so only with a Hulu subscription. A subscription with ads starts at just $7.99 a month and offers a 30-day free trial for new users. A subscription with no ads is $14.99 a month, also with a free trial.

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entertainment

Live Wire: Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes coming to Northampton

It may not technically be New Year’s Eve, but if you want to avoid the Dec. 31 crowds and rock in the New Year a few days early, Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes will be playing the Academy of Music Theatre in Northampton on Dec. 28. Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes have been unleashing raucous rock ‘n’ roll since 1974, when the group was founded by singer John Lyon and guitarist/songwriter Steve Van Zandt (who left for Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band in 1975, but who still continued to write and record with the Jukes). Indeed, the band was originally influenced heavily by Springsteen on its first three albums, “I Don’t Want To Go Home,” “This Time It’s for Real,” and “Hearts of Stone,” which were produced by Van Zandt and featured songs written by Van Zandt and Springsteen. But the group soon evolved into an R&B horn band in the Memphis Stax Records tradition. This transformation turned into an engine of soul and roots music reverie that has seen the Jukes tour on an almost nonstop basis for more than 40 years. The band performs regularly all across the U.S. along with live shows in the U.K., France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Japan, The Netherlands and Denmark. Tickets, ranging in price from $38.50 to $58.50, can be purchased at aomtheatre.com.

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entertainment

Santa, Jennifer Hudson help light Boston's official Christmas tree

A great year for movies, as 2023 was, means a lot to look forward to as awards season begins. Things get started tonight with the Golden Globes ceremony, and later this week it’s on to nominations for the Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild of America Awards. The big one — the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — will announce its nominations for the 96th Oscars on Jan. 23. To get you ready, we’ve put together a guide to the movies, directors and performances that The Times’s critics think the Academy should recognize this year. And although the Globes have a mixed record of predicting which movies will win Oscars, tonight’s ceremony is a good excuse to look back on some of the year’s best films. The contenders The competition for the best picture Oscar is so fierce this year that Kyle Buchanan, The Times’s awards season columnist, decided to discuss 13 possible nominees rather than his usual 10. “Oppenheimer,” a three-hour biopic about the father of the atomic bomb directed by Christopher Nolan, tops Kyle’s list. Pitted against it, and favored by the Times critics Manohla Dargis and Alissa Wilkinson, is another historical epic: “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Martin Scorsese’s study of a murderous campaign targeting members of the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma. Manohla and Alissa are also rooting for Todd Haynes’s “May December,” a tale of two eerily synced women and the anguished man they manipulate. All three films are up for Golden Globes.

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Bostons Bebe Wood keeps rising with Mean Girls

“Mean Girls,” the musical version, is here, with its comic view of high school as a hellscape of cliques and paranoia intact. For Boston-based Bebe Wood, it’s a career changer playing Gretchen Wieners whose life revolves around pleasing school Queen Bee Regina (Renee Rapp). That translates as having no allegiance to anyone else, especially fresh-from-Kenya Cady Heron (Angourie Rice in the role immortalized by Lindsay Lohan). As to why Gretchen is so obsessed with Regina, that’s simple, Wood, 22, said this week on a publicity stop in Boston. “Regina is so fabulous! As a teenage girl it is easy to compare yourself to people and have these idols. Sometimes these idols are someone in pop culture. Sometimes your friends can be these people you idolize and also kind of fear. Gretchen loves Regina because she’s aspirational. She’s all of these things that Gretchen really values, some of which may be totally superficial. “She’ll discover later in life that these things don’t matter. But everyone has insecurities in high school and it’s really easy to be like, ‘Oh my God! Look at this person. They’re so perfect. They don’t have any insecurities.’ “I think you just start idolizing them because you’re like, ‘I wish I didn’t have these insecurities.’ But of course you find out in our movie that everyone has insecurities, including Regina. And not everyone is perfect.” As to why Gretchen has “her little sort of” breakdown, “Fans can discover the reason when they watch the film, but it’s really cool in a way,” Wood said. “I like Gretchen’s journey. She is this prominent member of Regina’s clique the Plastics, and her breakdown in a weird way enables Gretchen to discover more of herself.” While Wood is not yet a household name, she’s been a successful working actor for the last decade. There’s a bit of serendipity in her being in “Mean Girls” which again has Tina Fey as writer, actor and producer. Gretchen was the last major role to be cast. “I got an email. Like, ‘What are you doing tomorrow? The directors of ‘Mean Girls’ want to meet you.’ And when I logged on the very first face I saw was Tina. “Obviously Tina Fey is an icon and I’d worked with her 10 or 11 years prior. She was my very first scene partner as a professional actor for ’30 Rock.’ I hadn’t seen her since and in so many ways that literally kicked off my entire career. “So it felt very surreal, a very beautiful full circle moment. It was an honor to perform for her in that audition room. “Two days later, I got the call from my agent saying I booked the part.” “Mean Girls” is in theaters now

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entertainment

First Night Boston: New Year's Eve celebrations announced by Wu

This year’s 13 hours of free festivities will include ice sculptures and musical performances on the plaza, located at Government Center, children’s programming inside of City Hall, comedy at the Improv Asylum, free carousel rides on the Greenway, an evening parade from the plaza to Boston Common, and two sets of fireworks: one over the Common at 6 p.m. and another over the Boston Harbor at midnight. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu Wednesday announced details of the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, including the move of the hub of this year’s First Night celebration from its normal spot at Copley Square, which is under renovation, to City Hall Plaza. Advertisement At a City Hall news conference Wednesday, officials emphasized the importance of public safety, encouraging would-be revelers not to drink alcohol in public, to avoid handling fireworks, and not to pilot drones in the areas of the public celebrations. “Public safety begins with each one of us,” said Wu. “This is a family-friendly event . . . and we want to keep it that way,” added Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox. Law enforcement officials, including Cox and Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police Chief Kenneth Green said there are no known local threats for the holiday. “If you see something, say something,” said Green. Wu encouraged those who were attending the celebration to use public transit; the T and the commuter rail will be free starting at 8 p.m. Sunday. Patrick Ellis, a Boston fire marshal, said extra inspectors would be on duty ensuring there will be no overcrowding at private events at bars, restaurants, and other venues. The full schedule for First Night activities can be found online. Danny McDonald can be reached at daniel.mcdonald@globe.com. Follow him @Danny__McDonald.

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entertainment

Review: Boston's Long Wait for THE BAND'S VISIT Rewarded With Great Production

More than three years after its national tour – set to play Boston’s Citizens Bank Opera House in March 2020 – was shut down by the pandemic, “The Band’s Visit” is finally onstage in Boston in the form of a flawless co-production by the Huntington and SpeakEasy Stage, at the Huntington Theatre through December 17. Based on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name, “The Band’s Visit” premiered off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in December 2016 before opening at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre in November of the following year. With music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Itamar Moses, the show, based on a screenplay by Eran Kolirin, went on to win 10 Tony Awards in 2018, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score, as well as a Daytime Emmy Award and the 2019 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. In Moses’ moving book, about a border crossing mix-up that strands the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra in a remote Israeli village with no bus until the next day, “The Band’s Visit,” set in the Negev Desert in 1996, offers a captivating and wistful look at what unfolds when the residents of the small community take in the Egyptian travelers and find their lives intertwining. Adroitly directed by Paul Daigneault, founding artistic director at SpeakEasy Stage, the production features a gifted cast anchored by Brian Thomas Abraham as the reserved Colonel Tewfiq Zakaria, whose quiet, commanding presence masks a wounded soul, and Jennifer Apple, who played Anna on the show’s first national tour, as the complex café owner Dina, who is both charming and fierce. Tewfiq and Dina are very different people but the connection they make during their brief encounter is very real. This is demonstrated throughout by David Yazbek’s magnificent score, which weaves wondrously through the show like the finest gossamer. Indeed, there are several songs in the 90-minute one-act musical that will likely live forever in the hearts and minds of its audiences. Chief among these is the exquisitely evocative “Omar Sharif,” in which Dina, her heart beginning to tug toward Tewfiq, shares memories of the way she once romanticized Egyptian culture. Complementing Abraham and Apple are a first-rate company of actors, among whom are several local favorites including Marianna Bassham as Iris, a new mother likely afflicted with severe postpartum depression; Robert Saoud as Iris’s widowed father, Avrum; Jared Troilo as her loyal, loving husband, Itzik; Josephine Moshiri Elwood as a village wallflower, Julia; Jessi Garlick as the tremulous Papi; and Fady Demian as Papi’s friend, the more confident Zelger. Others more than delivering on this show’s promise include Kareem Elsamadicy as the socially awkward trumpeter who turns to Chet Baker’s seminal recording of “My Funny Valentine” each and every time he is called upon to introduce himself to a woman. Emily Qualmann is terrific, too, as Zelger’s girlfriend, the you’d-better-not-get-in-her-way Anna. And Noah Kieserman, achingly effective as the silent Telephone Guy, comes alive with hope and promise when the payphone finally rings for him, breaking through his single-minded focus to take center stage for the plaintive ballad “Answer Me,” which has other ensemble members chiming in with their own private wishes and dreams. This production also features a very talented nine-member band of musicians, under the direction of José Delgado, and well done, culturally representative choreography by Daniel Pelzig, which even includes some very entertaining roller-rink footwork to Cher’s “Believe.” Miranda Kau Giurleo’s well-turned-out costumes capture the characters and the period, while Wilson Chin and Jimmy Stubbs’ cleverly multi-purpose scenic design is shown off to full advantage by Aja M. Jackson’s mood-setting lighting design. And while this is a story about Egyptians and Israelis getting along with each other, that often-charged topic is handled with great care here. The scent of apprehensiveness is definitely in the air at the outset, but no sides are taken and sensitivity and human kindness win the day. Indeed, the statement “It wasn’t very important,” describing the story at both the beginning and the end, is a droll reminder that this is not a show about world events. It’s about the need to belong, to matter, and, if we are lucky, to be loved for who we are. Photo caption: Jennifer Apple and Brian Thomas Abraham in a scene from “The Band’s Visit,” a co-production of the Huntington and SpeakEasy Stage Company. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

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entertainment

Jewels That Are Spiky, Squiggly and a Little Bit Wild

Objects Jewels That Are Spiky, Squiggly and a Little Bit Wild Leafy and serpentine designs give earrings, necklaces and other pieces an organic edge.

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entertainment

The Boston Musical Intelligencer

Amazingly, this musician [moi] had lived in Boston for 48 years before hearing Handel’s Messiah live. The renowned Handel and Haydn Society’s enduringly popular annual transversal rewarded the wait. I can see why these legendary annual performances (since 1854) always fill the halls. It felt like a real Boston community event, light years away from the seven weeks my brain has been obsessed with a brutal war. Two and a half hours of beautifully performed beloved music helped boost thousands of other spirits whose attendance at this Messiah primed them for a peaceful, joyous Christmas season. The stage apron’s festooning with almost three dozen poinsettias plants announced the advent of Christmas. Whatever one’s beliefs about the coming of a messiah, Handel bestowed a universal blessing upon all of us. Conductor Jonathan Cohen made a wonderful first impression for this listener. Full of grace and enthusiasm, he summoned spritely and enormously enjoyable tempi in the fast sections; this performance, his first as H+H Artistic Director, clocked in at almost a half hour shorter than Václav Luks’s take last year according to an overheard wag. Originally an Easter offering, Messiah first appeared at Musick Hall in Dublin in 1742. The audience swelled to a record 700, as ladies had heeded pleas by management to wear dresses “without Hoops” and men were advised to leave their swords at home, in order to make “room for more company.” Handel’s superstar status was not the only draw; many also came to glimpse the contralto, Susannah Cibber, then in the midst of in a scandalous divorce. Mozart paid Handel the supreme compliment of reorchestrating Messiah in 1789. Even Mozart, however, confessed himself to be humble in the face of Handel’s genius. He insisted that any alterations to Handel’s score should not be interpreted as an effort to improve the music. “Handel knows better than any of us what will make an effect,” Mozart said. “When he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt.” A staggeringly large 20 of the oratorio’s 52 numbers are choral. As for its most famous moment, the “Hallelujah” chorus, (“For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth”) the operative word repeats 70 times. In the 1750s, King George II is said to have risen to his feet, hearing this joyful, if sometimes boisterous number, beginning a tradition of standing in England and the U.S. Sunday, very few of us stayed seated. I doubt we’ll be instigating a new Boston tradition. Many singers I know and love from the prestigious vocal ensembles Lorelei, Blue Heron, and Skylark (sopranos Margot Rood and Sonja Du Toit Tengblad, alto Clare McNamara, tenor Jonas Budris, Stephan Reed, and bass David McFerrin and Dana Whiteside- all superb) showed up in the ranks of H + H’s outstanding chorus. Throughout Sunday’s performance, the 31-person chorus sounded just wonderful, managing the many tough licks with virtuoso finesse. The H + H chamber orchestra performed with their customary excellence. Baroque trumpet player Perry Sutton gave unto “The Trumpet Shall Sound” an extraordinary excitement; and oboist Debra Nagy, timpanist Jonathan Hess, and cellist Guy Fishman were their customary outstanding selves. The society fielded a rather uneven quartet of vocal soloists. Even from my ideal seat on floor in Row R, I had trouble hearing two singers at various times in their solos. British tenor Stuart Jackson, a great discovery, reminded me of the young baritone Bryn Terfel. Jackson is also a real stage beast, full of charm, charisma, and drama. He also had a gorgeous voice. I only wish Messiah gave him more work. His evident joy was a great harbinger of the holiday season ahead. I have known of soprano Joélle Harvey for years, but had never had the chance to hear her, which was one of reasons for coming to this concert. Resplendent in an off-the-shoulder red gown that matched the poinsettias in front of her, Harvey occupied a huge role, and throughout, sang with dulcet tones and expressivity. She tossed off her many melismas and top notes with panache. Her voice perfectly suits opera and oratorio, but her career has encompassed not only solo appearances with many orchestras, but also much work with prestigious chamber music groups. Bolivian-born, Zurich-based bass-baritone José Coca Loza enjoys a good European-based career, yet on Sunday he had difficulties with articulation, .and more often than not, was hard to hear. The audibility did, however, improve as the concert progressed. His higher notes began to project well, and he filled a huge role, as did countertenor John Holiday, who has stellar press quotes to-die-for, plus a profile in The New Yorker, CNN’s “Great Big Story,” and the Los Angeles Times. There is nothing I like more than a great countertenor, but Holiday left me underwhelmed and unmoved. Last thought: People have strange ways of enjoying a concert. A woman a few rows in front of me spent most of the concert knitting. This listener wishes audience members would leave their knitting needles and sewing kits at home; it’s as bad as cough-drop wrappers. Yes, the days are getting dark ridiculously early, but plenty of daylight remains for hobbies and other dalliances. Susan Miron is a book critic, essayist, and harpist. She writes about classical music and books for The Arts Fuse. Her last two CDs featured her transcriptions of keyboard music of Domenico Scarlatti.

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entertainment

Ryan ONeal, Master of the Offbeat Meet-Cute

He had the face of a fairy-tale lead, the kind that would have fit agreeably in an earlier Hollywood era but felt comfortingly alluring in the moment. Ryan O’Neal was a boxer in his youth — announcing his father had died on Friday, his son Patrick O’Neal pointed fans toward YouTube footage of O’Neal fighting Joe Frazier on national TV, with Muhammad Ali doing commentary. But when he migrated to acting, it suited him, and by 1964 he had become a star thanks to the ABC prime-time soap opera “Peyton Place.” No wonder: O’Neal’s youthful looks, blond and round-cheeked and just a little brainy, remind you of the guy who sat next to you in A.P. bio and who would lend you a pen, or his lunch, if you needed it. It seemed, emphatically, to be the face of a good guy, the kind you definitely wanted to bring home to your parents. When O’Neal tested for the role of Oliver in “Love Story,” Ali MacGraw persuaded her husband, Robert Evans, the executive in charge at Paramount, to cast him. As the boyish Harvard hockey player in love with Jenny, the whip-smart Radcliffe student, O’Neal was entrancing, and the pair had instant chemistry. “She had to go home to him at night, but I had her during the day,” O’Neal told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview many decades later. Their meet-cute in the movie, if you want to call it that, was sexy in a cerebral way, the pair sparring over a library checkout counter, then over coffee, where Jenny informs him that she asked him out because “I like your body.”

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entertainment

Harry Potter-inspired series of events returning to Lost Shoe in Marlborough

Calling all Muggles — a Marlborough brewery will transform into a Harry Potter-themed venue for the entire month of February. Lost Shoe Brewing and Roasting Company will don decorations from the book and movie series and feature Harry Potter-themed menu items starting Thursday, Feb. 1. The series of events is back after the success the brewery had last year. “People absolutely loved it. We actually blew up on TikTok. And we booked all of our reservations,” Katie Savluk, general manager, previously told MassLive. “People have been asking us all year, when are you bringing Harry Potter back?” Lost Shoe Brewing and Roasting Company will transform into a Harry Potter-inspired wonderland for the entire month of February.Lost Shoe Brewing and Roasting Company This year’s event will bring a new lineup food specials, pop-ups and events. The following is a list of already scheduled events: Oliver’s Wands will be popping up every Saturday from 12-6 p.m. The Crafted Cookie Company will be popping up on Sunday, Fen. 4 and Feb. 18 from 12-4 p.m. Moeshmallows will be popping up on Sunday, Feb. 11 and Feb. 25 from 12-4 p.m. The Unbranded, Totally Bootlegged Child Wizard Theme Quiz (ticketed event) will be held on Thursday, Feb. 8 and Feb. 22 at 6:30 p.m. Harry Potter Calligraphy Class with Elle from Sip & Script (ticketed event) will be on Wednesday, Feb. 7 from 6:30-8 p.m. Love Potion & Charms Class with Found Source Known and Luna Pines (ticketed event) will be on Wednesday, Feb. 14 from 6-8 p.m. Herbology Class with Bonsai Bar (ticketed event) will be on Wednesday, Feb. 21 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Lost Shoe Brewing and Roasting Company will transform into a Harry Potter-inspired wonderland for the entire month of February.Lost Shoe Brewing and Roasting Company More information about events, including how to get tickets, can be found on Lost Shoe’s website.

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entertainment

Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade Draws Spectators and Protests

“Community” is a word that crops up a lot in conversations with those who have been involved with ImprovBoston over the years. Farris took her first comedy course there in 2013 and began teaching in 2017. Since then, she estimates she has taught more than 250 students. The community-minded approach was instilled in her through her first instructor, Rob Crean, who not only taught comedy basics but also helped get Farris in front of audiences. When she got the chance to produce her own show at ImprovBoston, she created “Farris and Friends,” which put more seasoned comedians on the same bill with neophytes, to help encourage interaction and introduce performers to the local scene. “I don’t think the impact has really hit a lot of us,” she says. “It’s gonna be such a big hole in the community.” After six years of teaching stand-up comedy at ImprovBoston, Kathe Farris will wrap up her final class in February. And this one will be bittersweet. The comedy nonprofit announced a few weeks back that it will “wind down all operations and activity over the coming months” after four decades. A few days after being told the news on a Zoom call with staff Dec. 11, Farris was still trying to process it. Farris isn’t sure she would have continued in comedy without Crean and the connections she made in class. “He was the person who kind of launched me into the community because he produced a couple of shows,” says Farris. “After taking his class, I started going to his open mic. And then going to his shows, and that’s truly how I got in.” Advertisement Managing director Matt Laidlaw was part of the team that broke the news to ImprovBoston staff on the Zoom call. “I don’t think people were expecting that news,” he says. “There were a lot of sad faces.” Advertisement The term Laidlaw uses to describe ImprovBoston’s impending status is “dormant.” That means there will be no full-time employees as of Sunday, the last day of the year, and no more performances or classes once the current round of commitments has run its course early in 2024. But ImprovBoston, as a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization, is not dissolving completely. Its website will stay up, and a small board of directors will remain to manage the organization’s assets. “We’re still working with all of our strategic advisers to make sure the organization can financially survive a long-term dormancy,” he says. “Even in dormancy the organization will have to restructure its fund-raising and outreach model.” ImprovBoston, based in Cambridge, hit its biggest stumbling block at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when live comedy venues were shut down and its theater space at 40 Prospect St. in Central Square went dark. That cut off funding from ticket sales and classes, and, maybe more importantly, took away the space that helped foster the ImprovBoston community. According to Kristie LaSalle, current treasurer and former chair of the board of directors, the landlord for the classroom space was willing to work out a payment plan to help ImprovBoston keep its tenancy through the closure. The theater space was under a separate lease, and the group was unable to get a similar break. ImprovBoston asked to exit the lease, and it left 40 Prospect St. for good in November 2020. Advertisement Several generations of performers have been schooled in ImprovBoston's classes. Cat Grimm It received two rounds of federal PPP funding and grants from the Cambridge Community Foundation, which totaled just over a million dollars. “That allowed us to basically bring back our classes and bring back all the full-time staff,” says Laidlaw. By August 2022, the grants ran out but enough income was coming in by then to keep the organization running. “We were like, ‘Well, we could do this if a few things go our way,’” says Laidlaw. ImprovBoston was able to stay afloat for another year, but ultimately time and money ran out amid faltering ticket sales and class sign-ups. With no theater to operate from, generating income got tougher. Laidlaw says despite some good options for a new theater space, it didn’t have the money to cover construction and opening costs. “We’ve seen sort of a steady decline in registrations for classes,” says Laidlaw. “And one of the reasons for that is our lack of a public permanent space. What we found is that people are very energetic to go into our classes and do the lower levels. And as folks progressed, they wanted more opportunities to perform. And we didn’t have the venue as we did pre-pandemic to give them that opportunity to perform and grow, and also build our roster of farm team performers.” ImprovBoston started in 1982 when Ellen Holbrook created the troupe with the intention of establishing an improv entity like the famed Second City in Chicago. Its first regular nights were at Riley’s Beef & Pub in Government Center, and there were one-nighters and residencies at various clubs, including Ryles Jazz Club in Cambridge. Holbrook stopped performing in 1986 and left the ImprovBoston board in 1988, but the organization persisted, finding its first home in 1994 when it took over the Back Alley Theatre in Inman Square. Advertisement In 2008, it opened the larger facility in Central Square, where it hosted all manner of improv. It facilitated holiday shows and improv tournaments, and schooled several generations of improvisors in its classes. “I’m very proud that it lasted for 40-plus years,” says Holbrook. “I’m really sad and disappointed that it is winding down or going dormant now.” She says the closure isn’t too surprising, because theater audiences have changed, but she is optimistic about the future of improv comedy and hopeful ImprovBoston might live again. “Everybody loves improvisational comedy. They love the performers and the stars that have got that improvisational comedy background. There are still improvisational comedy companies that still get audiences all over the place.” Laidlaw doesn’t see a viable option for ImprovBoston to reopen with a small footprint. But he is hopeful that somewhere down the line, the right people will pick up the reins. “So my recommendation, and the board’s recommendation is: Let’s button everything up, let’s put it on the shelf for a little bit,” he says. “And let’s keep it there, so it’s not dissolved. And let’s wait for those folks that have the energy to build it back up.”

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entertainment

Pioneer Valley Ballet to stage The Nutcracker

More than 175 dancers of all ages — from community members to students from Pioneer Valley Ballet — will dance to “The Nutcracker” on Northampton’s Academy of Music stage this weekend. Six performances begin Friday, Dec. 8, at 4 p.m. (with a special sensory performance) and 7 p.m., and continue Dec. 9 at 1 and 4:30 p.m., concluding on Dec. 10 at 1 and 4:30 p.m. Tickets range from $23 to $45 plus service fees. First performed in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1892, “The Nutcracker” is a ballet for all those who love the magic of theater, dance and the music of Tchaikovsky. Audiences will travel with Clara as she battles the Rat King to save the Nutcracker Prince, journeying to the enchanted Snow Forest and beautiful Kingdom of Sweets. Under the direction of co-artistic directors Maryanne Kodzis and Thomas Vacanti, Vacanti said “The Nutcracker,” which they both performed in during their early days in dance, is a “rite of passage for any ballet dancer.” “‘The Nutcracker’ tends to be any dancer’s first experience in a large production with many professional dancers on stage,” Vacanti said. “So many things” make “The Nutcracker” special, noted the artistic director. “In particular, as a young dancer it is a production you are involved in right around the holidays and there is a lot of magic surrounding it. You can’t beat the score, the music is just so beautiful. If you talk to most older dancers, the score becomes ingrained and they will tell you that they can sing their way through every part of the show,” he said. The artistic director noted that along with Kodzis, they like to keep the production of “The Nutcracker” fresh for audiences, who come to expect to see something new and different from the previous year’s performance. “We have rechoreographed the Snow Scene and added more to the beginning of the second act when the angels arrive, as well as added a new character called Chef Pierre. He brings the younger candy canes and gingerbreads to greet Clara,” Vacanti said. Vacanti noted that “The Nutcracker” is not only a good introduction for young dancers to perform in a large production, but one for young audiences as well. “The music is familiar to many and the show is action-packed and tailored to young audiences to really engage them in the story, our elaborate production, and to the world of ballet,” Vacanti said. While attending productions of “The Nutcracker” is a holiday tradition for many families, part of the tradition for Vacanti and Kodzis is welcoming back dancers from Carolina Ballet each year. “Dancers from Carolina Ballet in Raleigh have been coming here to perform with us for 18 years since we started to direct ‘The Nutcracker’ for Pioneer Valley Ballet. We are so lucky to have them. Jan Burkhard is the ultimate Sugar Plum Fairy and has brought her talents to that role with us for well over a decade,” Vacanti said. First introduced by Pioneer Valley Ballet in 2017, the Sensory and Family Safe performance on Dec. 8 at 4 p.m. runs for one hour with no intermission and offers reduced sound levels and lighting contrast. Seating for this performance is general admission. Tickets can be purchased at the Academy of Music Theatre Box Office online at aomtheatre.com, in person at 274 Main St. in downtown Northampton, or by calling 413-584-9032, ext.105. The box office is open Tuesday to Friday from 3 to 6 p.m., and also opens one hour before each performance.

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entertainment

How to watch the new episode of 1,000-Lb. Sisters on TLC, stream for free

A new episode of the hit TLC show “1,000-Lb. Sisters” will air on the network on Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 9 p.m. ET. The series is also available for streaming on platforms like Philo, FuboTV and DirecTV. All platforms offer a free trial for those interested in signing up for an account. The show follows the personal lives of Amy Slaton-Halterman and her sister Tammy Slaton — who both weigh in at over 1000 pounds between the both of them. Throughout the seasons, viewers are able to see both sisters attempts at weight loss and weight loss surgery. In Tuesday’s episode titled “Caleb surprises Tammy with a romantic dinner date, but it goes south when Tammy learns what’s on the menu; the Slatons attend a Zumba class together, but Amy’s lack of self-care leads to a meltdown that has the whole family feeling déjà vu.” How can I watch the premiere if I don’t have cable TV? Viewers can watch on streaming platforms like Philo and FuboTV. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels, like AMC, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more, for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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The Gilded Age Shows the Virtues of Inauthenticity - The New York Times

This way of speaking sounds to the modern ear almost Caribbean. Family memories of my grandfather, who was born in 1899 and died before I was born, are sparse at this point. However, those still alive who met him as children remember that he sounded as if he were from the West Indies. Yet he grew up near Atlanta; he very likely had the old-school style of Black speech rather than the one that developed later. This means that Black people of Southern origin from the 19th century portrayed in such films as “Lincoln” and “Django Unchained” did not sound as they’re depicted in those films, the way Black people do now. (And never mind that Lincoln actually had a highish, reedy voice, as in Daniel Day-Lewis’s portrayal, not the sonorous baritone we often expect from those playing him.) The Black characters in “The Gilded Age" are mostly Northerners. How they would have sounded in the 1880s is more elusive to the researcher and would have varied according to class, education and life history. However, it is relevant that one would not even know from recordings of his voice that W.E.B. DuBois, raised in Great Barrington, Mass., in the 1860s, ’70s and ’80s, was Black. And overall, the Black English familiar to us today is the result of the original Southern dialect and its interactions with white English varieties after the Great Migration starting in the 1910s. This had not happened by the 1880s, and thus we can be sure that the Brooklyn Black gentry portrayed in “The Gilded Age” did not have the sound of Black English familiar today. However they sounded would, we can be sure, come off as unfamiliar and even somewhat odd to us today. But there is no need to attend to any of this in modern dramatic depictions, and in fact, it would probably make for bad art. Speech is intimate, and its sounds and tones profoundly affect the way we process and respond to one another. The Caribbeanish tone of Black speakers of the gaslight era could blunt any lesson Black historical characters had to teach us about themselves or us, as would having a burgherly Black Northerner sound like Sara Roosevelt or her son. Sometimes a little inauthenticity has its uses. The ending gag in the Bugs Bunny cartoon “Baseball Bugs” in 1946 has the Statue of Liberty coming briefly to life. As a kid, I found it strange that the statue was brown. But Lady Liberty was originally the copper color of a penny. The gorgeous green of today is the result of oxidation, which had changed her color by 1920. When the cartoon was made, the original hue was a living memory, and the artists in this case apparently still thought of it as the statue’s real color. But even in the ’20s, people didn’t want the statue to be restored to the original, and I’m with them. The copper shade was undramatic in comparison with the way today’s green pops, becoming its own kind of real. In this way, authenticity can evolve.

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entertainment

Madonna gives Boston something to celebrate

“Open your heart, I’ll make you love me,” Madonna sang to a thrilled, packed, up-way-past-bedtime TD Garden Monday night. Hearts were wide open. She made us love her. Madonna has always looked forward, charging out in front of a genre perpetually obsessed with the next young thing. This year, Madonna, who is — GASP! — 65, is taking some time to celebrate her — GASP! — past. Not a greatest hits show (no “Material Girl,” no “Like a Virgin”), the Celebration Tour is a retrospective, a finely curated biography set to the greatest pop of the past 40 years. She started her story (at 10:15 pm) in the most obvious place: the dance floor. The first mini set crammed in many of catchiest ’80s club jams, often with too much club bass. The whole night had too many melodies crushed under a tuneless low-end rumble, even ballad “Crazy for You” had a needless thumping. (Note: Pop stars, hire an actual band and minimize pre-recorded tracks.) But, true to form, she overcame the sound with spectacle and charisma. “Open Your Heart” was captivating with Madonna staring into a camera, her dancers recreating the video’s peepshow burlesque vibe behind her. The narrative moved on to different chapters (heretic, sex positive champion, mother and daughter). In each act, what worked — what’s always worked — remained: great pop, spectacle, charisma, and dancers, oh so many dancers! The stage expanded from a main section with multiple smaller sections all connected by catwalks. And Madonna and troupe used every inch of floor. “Erotica” had Madonna and her troupe throwing punches in boxing rings on side stages. “Don’t Tell Me” saw the crew strutting in chaps and cowboy hats, and Madonna can still strut with awesome energy. In one of the most arresting pieces of choreography in any pop show, a dozen dancers spun on a carousel, shirtless, undulating, bathed in warm light, striking crucifixion poses. At the center, Madonna sang a pumping, hypnotic remix of “Like A Prayer.” “Vogue” played tribute to its inspiration, New York’s ballroom scene of the ’80s. With each dancer dressed in a radically different glammed out outfit showing off in front of judge Madonna. In a twist, 11-year-old daughter Estere topped the competition with her skills (four of her kids helped out including 17-year-old daughter Mercy who accompanied her on a grand piano for “Bad Girl”). The show covered so much ground. The world-conquering rush of “Ray of Light” and breezy “Isla Bonita” and a wonderful, acoustic and raw version of “Express Yourself.” There was pyro and costume changes, hydraulic lifts and moving video screens with endless montages And yet, it wasn’t enough. That’s a good thing. She’s made us love her and we want more. “I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around,” she said in a video clip from an event honoring her as Billboard’s 2016 Woman of the Year. The comment couldn’t be more true considering the ageism and sexism she has faced and still faces. So please, shock he haters, stick around some more.

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Blacklisted on the West Bank, Basel Zayed has settled into his new musical home in Boston

Once courted to be a Palestinian Authority-sponsored pop star, Zayed found himself on what he calls a “very long blacklist.” In 2016, he and his family moved to Boston, where his wife is from. Zayed was surprised and delighted to discover that the region is full of musicians who are fellow masters of Middle Eastern music, and he’s started to collaborate with them in both traditional and Middle Eastern jazz contexts. His highest-profile Boston show to date is a sold-out Global Arts Live presentation at the Crystal Ballroom at the Somerville Theatre on Jan. 18 that will combine his own poetic songs with the virtuosity of the traditional improvisatory Arabic musical form maqam . Ask Palestinian singer, songwriter, and oud player Basel Zayed what brought him to Boston, and he talks about an album he made in 2009. One song, “The IDF are Victorious,” was a critique of the Israeli military. When his producer was driving the new CDs from Israel to the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Zayed lived at the time, Zayed says an Israeli soldier saw the title and confiscated the CDs. Things were not any easier on the West Bank. Zayed attempted to play his song “Doleh (Statehood),” a sardonic jab at the Palestinian Authority, at a New Year’s festival at the end of 2011. He says authorities stopped him mid-song and gave him a choice: Stop singing or go to jail. Advertisement The show was announced months before the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that ignited the current war in the region. “I haven’t actually played any music since it started,” says Zayed, sitting in the Arlington office where he has a psychotherapy practice. Get The Big To-Do Your guide to staying entertained, from live shows and outdoor fun to the newest in museums, movies, TV, books, dining, and more. Enter Email Sign Up “Once or twice I actually took out my oud and tuned it a little bit, but mostly I’ve just been glued to the news, like every other Arab actually in the world,” he says. “The saving grace has been opening this office and seeing patients, because it’s allowed me to focus and concentrate on clinical work.” Advertisement Zayed grew up going between family in the Old City of Jerusalem and the West Bank. He was involved in singing and arranging church choral music as well as learning Arabic styles. “That division in social life provided me some diversity in the way I learned a lot of my musical skills,” he says. Zayed played piano until an uncle visiting from America brought him his first oud. His jazz influences took hold when he won a scholarship to study music therapy at Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. As a teenager he played an event in support of famed Lebanese musician Marcel Khalife, who had been indicted on blasphemy charges for singing lyrics by the poet Mahmoud Darwish that invoked the story of Joseph as told in the Koran. Later Zayed would meet Khalife and the two would share a festival stage in Lebanon. “With that, all of these doors started opening,” recalls Zayed. Last summer, Zayed played a few local club shows with a Middle Eastern jazz project he calls Radio Suba, named for a Palestinian village near Jerusalem that was depopulated in 1948. Zayed says the band imagines what a modern radio station would sound like if anyone still lived there. Some of the Radio Suba material will be performed at Thursday’s concert. Joining Zayed will be musicians who are part of the rich Boston-area Middle Eastern and Mediterranean music scene: percussionist Fabio Pirozzolo and bassist Tino D’Agostino, both of whom are from Italy, pianist Utar Artun and violinist Bengisu Gokce from Turkey, and fellow Palestinian Rami Abu Olaya playing ney and flute. Advertisement Like so many of those personally impacted by the current war, Zayed alternates between silence, anger, and sorrow. Noting that he hasn’t posted about the war on social media, Zayed says, “This interview is my first statement. And my statement is: no statement. I just don’t know what to say. It’s hurtful and it’s painful.” Later in the interview Zayed notes the long history of Jews, Christians, and Muslims living as neighbors in the Middle East. “And I think it’s time for there to be a peaceful transition, and a peaceful resolution to the situation. As a psychotherapist I know that when someone does something violent, you don’t take them down, you go and sit with them and try to understand what made this happen. What’s happening now is a massive act of collective punishment, and it just isn’t fair.” Most of the music Zayed plans on playing consists of love songs and instrumentals that might be heard at a wedding, funeral, or graduation. He’s hoping to include, as a dedication to slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, his musical arrangement of “Absence,” a poem by Mahmoud Abu Hashhash “that doesn’t talk about violence, it talks about absence, and how people can disappear from our lives, and how hard it is to navigate fate and loss, especially when that loss is perpetrated by someone else.” Advertisement Noah Schaffer can be reached at noahschaffer@yahoo.com.

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entertainment

Jersey Shore: Family Vacation: How to watch part 1 of the reunion for free

Part two of the reunion episode of “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” will air on MTV Thursday, Dec. 7 at 8 p.m. ET. The new episode from season 6 will be available on streaming platforms like Philo, which offers a free trial. Viewers can also use other streaming services to watch the show like DirecTV and FuboTV. Both offer a free trial for new users interested in signing up for an account. According to MTV, “the Jersey Shore family dynamic is shaken up by the return of Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola, this season’s plus-one to all the chaos and adventures.” Returning “Jersey Shore” cast members will include Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Paul “Pauly D” DelVecchio, Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino, Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Vinny Guadagnino, Deena Nicole Cortese and Angelina Pivarnick. In the new episode, “the family reunion fun day continues! Margaritas are mixed, tables are flipped - but which roommate takes a twirl on the stripper pole?” How can I watch ‘Jersey Shore: Family Vacation’ without cable? Streaming platforms are always available if you don’t have access to cable, like Philo, DirecTV and FuboTV. All three streaming services offer a free 7-day trial for users who are interested in signing up. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels, like AMC, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more, for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

Weekend Recommendations: A Festive Chef Series and a Boozy Holiday Market

Welcome to Eater’s periodic roundup of weekend food and drink events worth checking out around town. Want to let us know about an upcoming Boston-area event? Get in touch at boston@eater.com. December 1 to 3 Seasonal Chefs Much like the bounty of gifts found in the “Twelve Days of Christmas,” chef Will Gilson and the Geppetto team are offering up culinary surprises with the 12 Chefs of Christmas dining series. Starting on December 3 at 6 p.m. — and continuing until December 17 — four guest chefs take over the Cambridge spot each Sunday for a special four-course dinner that showcases their spins on holiday dining. For this first festive feast, Tony Susi of Bar Enza, Erin Miller of Urban Hearth, host chef Will Gilson, and Brian Mercury of Puritan & Co. team up, with beverage pairings offered by Geppetto. Tickets are $120 per person, and you can purchase them here. Further down the line, Dante De Magistris, Colin Lynch, Alexis Babineau, and Rachel Dykes create their holiday magic on December 10, while Jamie Bissonnette, Louis Dibiccari, Dave Bazirgan, and Tracy Chang wrap things up in a bow on December 17. Maker Market As if you need an excuse to head to Bully Boy’s taproom, the distiller is holding a holiday market on Saturday, December 2 from noon to 4 p.m. Besides shopping Bully Boy’s spirits —from ready-to-drink bottles of negronis to Manhattans and distinct rums — check out the baked goods, candles, ceramics, jewelry, and other delights crafted by the mostly women-owned local purveyors. Bully Boy will be feeling festive with a new bourbon, too, and you can enjoy cocktails at their bar. Get Sauced A little while ago, Singh’s Roti Shop quietly moved from its spot at 692 Columbia Road in Dorchester — the current home of Side Chick — to a larger space down the road at 554 Colombia Road. And with a bigger space, including tables for indoor dining, came an expanded menu beyond just delicious meat pies, doubles, and other Trinidadian treats. Dive into new rice bowls for take out or to dine-in, and the hot bar provides a warming and generous meal while you’re on the go. And for holiday gifts (or just to keep handy in the fridge to warm you up on winter nights), you can’t go wrong with a bottle of Signh’s house-made hot sauce. Check out the bottles of Caribbean soft drinks and juices, especially the peanut punch, too.

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entertainment

Lavender Darcangelo continues to shine

LEOMINSTER – Lavender Darcangelo and her dad Wil arrived at the WGBH Boston Public Library studio in October for her segment on “Boston Public Radio” with Jim Braudeand Margery Eagon and, as they made their way in, their joy was palpable. It was the second time the 28-year-old singing talent and her dad were invited to be guests on the popular midday talk show and the two were still talking excitedly about the giant billboard of Lavender they spotted on the Mass Pike when they were driving into the city. A shows producer then came out to greet them and said he would find a spot for them to warm up their vocal cords. While they had been guests before at the WGBH studio, this was their first time at the library studio. Lavender, who is blind and autistic, said “it smells good in here” as she took in the aromas coming from the Newsfeed Cafe. Wil Darcangelo sported a Hawaiian shirt with a design that craftily incorporated the face of his husband, Jamie Darcangelo, who wasn’t able to join them this time. Wil and Lavender sat and listened to the show while chatting with two women in the audience before being ushered off to warm up before their guest spot during the one o’clock hour. The Oct. 20 episode featured a number of guests including the dynamic father and daughter duo, who chatted with the hosts and sang two songs. They talked to Braude and Eagan about Lavender’s America’s Got Talent experience, which wrapped up in September. “She captured the heart of America…she captured me and Margery’s hearts and our listeners,” Braude said of Lavender, with Eagan adding “what an incredible triumph.” Lavender, who said the hosts are “awesome” and “so fun,” talked to them about forgetting song lyrics just before her final AGT performance, joking that “the irony was that I wasn’t even nervous. And she spoke about becoming close to her fellow AGT contestants, “the nicest people,” and proudly bragged about her “perfect pitch.” “Even though AGT had its overwhelming moments for me, the show was very good about protecting my well-being,” she said. “I’m glad that adventure is over now though and I’m looking forward to all that this next chapter brings. It’s so fun seeing my dreams come true!” Although she didn’t come out on top at the end of the AGT run, the Leominster resident had a phenomenal journey on the show and made some incredible industry connections because of it. During the AGT live final performances show on Sept. 26, Lavender sang “Only Love Can Hurt Like This” with award winning songwriter Diane Warren, who wrote the song, accompanying her on the piano. “It’s kind of amazing that both local and mainstream media have been so captivated by this whole story, and by Lavender as an individual,” Wil said of the attention his daughter has received because of AGT. “It makes it all the more meaningful to us that we are reaching people.” Lavender once again sang Warren’s song during Braude and Eagan’s show with her dad by her side. Wil watched his daughter adoringly as she nailed another performance and rubbed his arms as he got goosebumps. Then the two sang a harmonious duet, an original song they wrote together called “Will I Ever?” “Lavender was inspired to write it following the death of two Tribe kids six weeks apart from one another,” Wil said of what inspired the song, referencing the Tribe Music Mentorship Project afterschool music empowerment program he ran at Fitchburg High School from 2010 to 2018, where he and Lavender met. “The first, Gillian Lambert from cystic fibrosis, and then Chris Brinkley, six weeks later in a house fire,” Wil said of the heartbreak of losing two of his students. “It was so devastating to the Tribe, and we were so grateful that Lavender was inspired to write such a beautiful song in tribute to them.” They recorded the song with Lavender’s vocals for the Tribe’s album, “Strange Among the Different,” a project that involved 250 people ranging in age from eight to 76, and Lavender will re-record it for her own album that she’s working on, “Mosaic.” “So far it is the only full song Lavender has ever written but she has ideas for others,” Wil said. Braude said of all the guests they have had on their show, Lavender’s appearances have been his “favorite segments” and added that he wished he “could do it over and over again.” “So spectacular,” he said at the end of Lavender and Wil’s spot. It’s been a whirlwind since Lavender wrapped up America’s Got Talent. She and Wil had just gotten back from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland not too long before the Boston radio show taping, where Lavender spoke at the Yass Educational Foundation Gala about her idea for a nontraditional school that she plans to open one day. “Cleveland was a revelation, to be honest,” Wil said recently. “As overdramatic as that might sound, the minute Lavender began hearing some of the panelists speaking about different and more compassionate, inclusive ways of approaching education, she was immediately moved to tears. She was so taken aback by the notion that her ideas are not weird at all, but just what people have been asking for. “Even more than music, her desire to create a school she would have and will thrive in is foremost on the list of her life goals,” he said. “She dreamed of it without knowing there would be any support for it, or a pathway toward it actually existing. AGT has not only provided that pathway, but it has also exposed her to all of the wonderful minds who know exactly how to bring it about for her. We plan to have a summit in the spring to begin the planning of her dream.” Wil talked about their experience in Ohio to Braude and Eagan and said that he was diagnosed with ADHD in his 30s. He said their Cleveland trip was eye opening and that he is thrilled with “how far we’ve come with neurodiversity. “I’m really encouraged with how the world is now,” he said. Lavender performed on stage at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston for the RFK Community Alliance annual gala on Nov. 9 and in December, the family will head to Las Vegas to begin rehearsals for her appearances at the Luxor AGT show early next year. In addition, Lavender continues to work on “Mosaic,” her debut solo album. She has said that the wide variety of songs and styles that will be included in the album aim to honor and raise awareness of the diversity within the autism and disability community. Warren loved Lavender’s AGT performance of her song so much that she suggested another of her songs for Lavender to include on “Mosaic” and invited Lavender to rehearse with her in her Hollywood studio after AGT wrapped. As of press time nearly $14,000 has been raised to help with the costs of recording Lavender’s album through a GoFundMe that Wil set up. Lavender recently appeared on a special episode of the long running Fitchburg Access Television show “Barbara & You.” The Oct. 21 show was taped at Fitchburg State University with a live audience and during it, Mayor Stephen DiNatale presented Lavender with a key to the city. “’Barbara & You’ was wonderful,” Wil said. “We have a long history with her show. I wrote and recorded her current theme song and have been on the show many times both with and without Lavender for various things over the years. To have the experience of recording it with a live studio audience about our adventure was an honor.” Lavender said she enjoyed being a guest on the show and said that “Barbara was so nice to me.” “I was complimented that she was even a little nervous before the show started, like I’m a celebrity or something!” she said. “I’m feeling like the future has so many more possibilities now than even my imagination could think of. I’m so excited!.”

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entertainment

Disney Rejected Her a Few Times. The Wish Director Just Kept Trying.

It was a proactive path Veerasunthorn knew well. She grew up in a small seaside town in Thailand’s Chonburi Province, where she said her only exposure to animation as a career came in the form of the local artists who hand-painted posters to announce new movie releases in the town square. At home, she and her younger siblings would watch the 1941 Disney animated film “Dumbo” on repeat. The movie’s fantastical nature and its message of persevering against the odds resonated with her as a young girl. Also, she said wryly, “Maybe that was the only VHS we had.” Her parents ran an auto parts shop in front of the family home, and Veerasunthorn used their industrial cardboard boxes and a wall in the kitchen as her canvases. But she had no formal training, and art was just a hobby. When she was 15, she left home for high school in Bangkok, where she chose a computer science track, hoping to learn to write emails. And after graduating in 2000 with the expectation that she would pursue a practical, lucrative career in her home country, she enrolled in medical school. But Veerasunthorn “did not love” the idea of becoming a doctor, and during her semester break, she began taking art classes and writing to Ratanasirintrawoot, who recommended her to the president at his alma mater, Columbus College of Art & Design in Ohio. Her parents were supportive but nervous. No one in Veerasunthorn’s family had pursued a career in the arts. “I was leaving behind something that, to a lot of people, family and friends, is a very solid career to do something that is unknown,” she said.

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entertainment

Review: Frasier is back in Boston and almost as brilliant as ever in classic sitcoms reboot

Kelsey Grammer reprises his role as Frasier Crane, with Jack Cutmore-Scott, right, part of a newcomer cast in “Frasier,” streaming on Paramount+ beginning Thursday, Oct. 12. Photo: Chris Haston/Paramount+ Photo: Chris Haston/Paramount+ Two decades after his hit NBC sitcom “Frasier” ended, Kelsey Grammer doesn’t appear to have missed a beat in Paramount+’s sequel series of the same name. Much has changed in the life of celebrity psychiatrist Frasier Crane, and the supporting cast, at least in the first five episodes shown to critics, is totally new. But our pompous advice-giver with the disastrous personal life is as intelligent and sharp-tongued as ever. If anything, this older, maybe incrementally wiser Frasier accesses his emotions better and deeper than he did in the earlier series and on “Cheers,” where Grammer first created the character. That’s reassuring, as is the fact that this reboot of one of the smartest broadcast comedies ever written almost approximates the original’s deft combination of intellectual discourse, burlesque gags and slapstick visuals. New series’ creators Chris Harris and Joe Cristalli respectively come from “How I Met Your Mother” and “Life in Pieces” — both decent shows, if hardly the platinum level of “Cheers” and the original “Frasier.” Kelsey Grammer as Frasier Crane in NBC’s television comedy series “Frasier,” which ran from 1993-2004. Photo: Gale Adler/Paramount Photo: Gale Adler/Paramount Fortunately for this endeavor, multiple Emmy-winning, octogenarian TV legend James Burrows directed the pilot and second episode (like he did back in the day; Grammer helmed some later chapters). If the pilot feels a bit off-key while establishing all the new characters and situations, Burrows knows just how to nimbly barrel past weak lines to stronger bits. That, too, feels reassuring; besides, what’s “Frasier” without a little awkwardness? The new show opens with Frasier deplaning at Boston’s Logan Airport. He’s on his way to Europe for some serious academic research after 14 years headlining a TV show in Chicago that devolved from empathetic therapy to hatchet-throwing and analyzing celebrity pigs. Fresh from burying his policeman father Martin in Seattle, Frasier’s greeted by his former Oxford roommate Alan Cornwall (English actor Nicholas Lyndhurst), now the laziest tenured professor at Harvard — except when there’s single malt scotch to be downed. Lyndhurst and Grammer’s passive-aggressive exchanges are consistently the show’s best. There is also freshman David Crane (newcomer Anders Keith), Niles and Daphne’s son who was born in the final episodes of the original series’ 11 seasons. He’s got his dad’s effete cluelessness and as much game with the ladies as Frasier’s brother had with his invisible first wife, Maris. Though shaky at first, Keith grows into the pure comic relief role. Frasier intends to spend his layover getting to know Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), the son he had with his sarcastic ex-wife, Lilith. The lad dropped out of Harvard to become a Boston firefighter. That fuels a lot of filial verbal fencing. From left: Kelsey Grammer, Jess Salgueiro and Jack Cutmore-Scott in the Paramount+ reboot “Frasier.” Photo: Chris Haston/Associated Press Photo: Chris Haston/Associated Press “Let’s find someone who has low self-esteem and is also on fire and see which one of us they run to first,” Cutmore-Scott nimbly thrusts, proving himself a smooth operator of the show’s tongue-twisting dialog. “Ah, there’s that mother of yours again,” Grammer ripostes. If Cutmore-Scott is playing a generation-skipped Martin Crane position, his roommate Eve (Jess Salgueiro, “The Boys”) is the Daphne surrogate. Definitely the sweetest character in the mix, Eve is an aspiring actress who works at a bar. Yes, we’re back in Boston, so there are lots of scenes in bars. (None at Cheers yet, but who knows?) From left: Toks Olagundoye, Kelsey Grammer and Nicholas Lyndhurst in “Frasier,” streaming on Paramount+. Photo: Chris Haston/Paramount+ Photo: Chris Haston/Paramount+ This is also a workplace comedy, so for a variety of reasons — not least of which is his own vanity — Frasier gets seduced into joining Harvard’s psych faculty. Department head Olivia Finch (Toks Olagundoye) could be considered the reboot’s Roz substitute, but she is a much more distinct comic creation. Super careerist, competitive with her Yale provost sister and long undated, Olivia sneers at Alan and believes in Frasier’s star power, if not so much his desire to return to serious academia. These relationships mostly yield comedy gold and the occasional emotional wallop. More Information “Frasier”: Comedy. Starring Kelsey Grammer, Jack Cutmore-Scott and Nicholas Lyndhurst. (TV-14. Ten 30-minute episodes.) First two episodes available to stream on Paramount+ starting Thursday, Oct. 12; one new episode each subsequent Thursday through Dec. 7. Filmed in front of a live studio audience, “Frasier” 2.0 rekindles the joy brought on by cunningly constructed lines delivered with perfect timing and attitude. This broadcast sitcom approach has withered since its late 20th century glory days, but such artificial artfulness can still satisfy in the streaming era. To make a comfort food reference, the new “Frasier” is as satisfying as tossed salads and scrambled eggs.

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78 FREE things to do in Boston this week: Nov 27 Dec 3, 2023 [11

Add to: 11/27/2023 07:00:00 12/03/2023 23:00:00 America/New_York 78 FREE things to do in Boston this week: Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2023 <p>Enjoy the last week of November 2023 to the fullest with our picks for 78 FREE things to do around Boston.</p><p><br></p><p>1) Boston Common Tree Lighting (Th) <a href="https://www.thebostoncale... Boston, Boston, MA false

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entertainment

A Magical Tour of Christmas Markets Along the Rhine

In Strasbourg, France, throughout the holiday season, Santa-capped teddy bears festoon a restaurant’s facade. Stuffed polar bears adorn another. In a Yuletide arms race, buildings are affixed with giant, gift-wrapped packages, glittering white deer and oversize gingerbread men. Turning the central medieval quarter into a Christmas maze, curtains of lights glow above cobblestone lanes lined with food and gift stalls. And in the central Place Kléber, lights on a nearly 100-foot-tall Christmas tree flash and glow, synchronized to carols. Across Europe, Christmas markets pop up like fairy-dusted street fairs, with temporary chalet-style shops selling everything from handmade ceramics to warmed wine and abundant food. Visitors shuffle among the merry warrens, holding their cellphone cameras high. “The closer you get to Christmas, Strasbourg really becomes like Times Square,” said Jonathan Frank, a former Broadway videographer who retired to the city two years ago. A popular way to visit the markets in France, Germany, Switzerland and beyond is to take river cruises on the Rhine, Danube or Main, spending roughly $2,000 to $4,000 a week. Could I replicate such a holiday pilgrimage for less by using trains to get around?

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entertainment

Pat McAfee Apologizes Over Role in Aaron Rodgers-Jimmy Kimmel Feud

Pat McAfee on Wednesday apologized for airing comments that Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers made toward Jimmy Kimmel on McAfee’s ESPN television show a day earlier suggesting the late-night talk show host had a connection to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. “Some things obviously people get very pissed off about, especially when they’re that serious allegations,” McAfee said. “So we apologize for being a part of it. I can’t wait to hear what Aaron has to say about it. Hopefully those two will just be able to settle this, you know, not work-wise, but be able to chitchat and move along.” Speaking on his weekly Tuesday appearance on McAfee’s television show on ESPN, Rodgers, a four-time winner of the N.F.L.’s Most Valuable Player Award, suggested that Kimmel, the host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC, was acquainted with Epstein, who was accused of having sex with minors and in 2019 died by suicide while in jail. Epstein was a longtime friend to powerful politicians and business executives, and the names of some of his associates are expected to be publicly released soon in court documents. “There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, really hoping that doesn’t come out,” Rodgers said on McAfee’s show. Kimmel denied the allegations on X, formerly known as Twitter, and threatened potential legal action against Rodgers.

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entertainment

Was a Scandal the Best Thing to Happen to Hasan Minhaj?

Finishing a story about a girl cheating on him in 11th grade, Hasan Minhaj turned to the audience at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan during the first of two shows on Friday night and said, “Don’t fact-check me.” The crowd came alive at this nod to the recent New Yorker article by Clare Malone exposing several of his onstage stories as fabrications. “I had to go head-to-head with one of the most dangerous organizations in the world,” he said, adding that he didn’t mean the U.S. military or the Israeli Defense Forces. “I am talking about a white woman with a keyboard.” Then he mocked the article as “water is wet” obvious before describing it as a sign of success. “I’ve made it: I got a real old scandal,” he said, adding, “A dorky scandal.” With regret in his voice, Minhaj said he didn’t molest a child or sleep with a porn star: “I got caught embellishing for dramatic effect.” Typical crisis management dictates you should move on, not fixate. But in our attention economy, where the most popular Netflix specials of the past year featured Chris Rock talking about the Slap and John Mulaney joking about going to rehab, comedians are wise to consider Rahm Emanuel’s famous political advice: Never let a good crisis go to waste. Minhaj split the difference. He did not linger on the story but dedicated a solid chunk of jokes to it that got one of the biggest responses of the night. There were moments when I even thought this scandal might be the best thing that ever happened to him.