Under-hyped excellence in Cambridge
Great restaurants can sometimes become too popular for their own good. As positive publicity for a restaurant grows, tables become harder to reserve and expectations can become so lofty that your meal could never reach them.
Arts Events DEC. 06 – DEC. 12
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: A previous version of this calendar misstated the time for the Chamber Music Society recital on Monday, Dec. 9. It is at 5 p.m., not 5:30 p.m.
Footloose hits the stage at Berklee
Some films are met with lukewarm welcomes when they hit the screen, only to go on to serve as snapshots of the eras in which they were made. I’ve always considered Footloose (1984) to be one of these ugly ducklings that are met with initial flurries of derision, yet mellow with time and nostalgia into appreciable works. For it in particular, this transformation has largely been possible because of its uniqueness as a film — not because of the acting or directing, but rather because of the music. The plot tells the tale of a dance-happy teenage boy from Chicago by the name of Ren McCormack, who moves to a small, much less excitable town where dancing and rock and roll have been banned under the orders of local minister Rev. Shaw Moore, who is still traumatized by the long past death of his son and three others in an alcohol and party-related car accident. After some clashes with the town’s rather puritanical adults and falling in love with the preacher’s rebellious daughter, Ren manages to convince the minister to allow for prom to be held, albeit outside of town limits. Cue dancing, and credits roll to music from the 1980s.
Hollywood remake still delivers
Delivery Man follows a forty-year-old serial screw-up and truck driver for his family’s butcher store who finds himself the defendant in a class-action lawsuit brought on by 142 of his children.
Perfectly on point
Boston Opera House was glowing with holiday spirit as attendees eagerly squeezed into the ornate, lavish venue for a sold-out opening night of Mikko Nissinen’s The Nutcracker. The Nutcracker is an extravagant, breath-taking production featuring eye-popping set changes, immaculately designed costumes, and energetic, striking choreography that takes the audience on an enchanting journey. Throughout the ballet, audiences alternated between erupting in laughter and breaking out in thunderous applause.
Boy band drops bubblegum pop status
I was unsure of what to expect when my headphones began streaming the first notes of One Direction’s third studio album, Midnight Memories. Although I haven’t been keeping up with the band since their days on the UK televised performing competition known as the X Factor, I’ve been listening to their music for a long enough time to be able to distinguish each member by voice, and I went to their Take Me Home Tour concert in Seattle this summer.
Capturing a temporary home
I sat down with Nora Vrublevska in the Wiesner Art Gallery, walls lined with her black and white prints, to discuss the inception of her exhibit entitled Cambridge at Night. Vrublevska, a native Latvian, has been interested in photography for most of her life. When she was younger, she saved her lunch money to buy 35mm film and develop photos, but she says, “I didn’t really know what I was doing; I was photographing at that time but I didn’t get really serious until I came here.”
SURPRISED BY FIG JAM :
Although the restaurant name may not sound very appetizing, The Salty Pig is a great option if you are in the mood for charcuterie. To get to The Salty Pig, you can walk through the Prudential Center and cut through Copley Place. Once you exit the mall, the restaurant will be right there.
Forgotten but not forgiven
Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney began filming a documentary about Lance Armstrong’s comeback at the 2009 Tour de France, four years after his last win in 2005. But after the infamous 2013 interview with Oprah, Gibney realized that Armstrong had just been using his documentary to bolster his already crumbling story. Gibney was ultimately able to weave the damning footage of his previous interviews into a story of betrayal to deliver a play-by-play of one of the farthest falls from grace in the history of sports.
Through the eyes of Death and a child
You know you are in for an interesting movie when it is narrated by Death himself. Death first sees our main character Liesel on a train, when he comes to take the soul of her sick and dying younger brother. He is intrigued by her for some reason he cannot place, and follows her life story as it progresses.
This movie’s on fire
Catching Fire — the sequel to the 2012 film The Hunger Games, based on the second book in Suzanne Collins’s Mockingjay trilogy — is simply amazing.
Arts Events NOV. 22 – NOV. 28
Arts Events NOV. 22 – NOV. 28 Friday (9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Landing Studio presents 99 Marginal: 9 Strategies for Landing Industry in the City. Open through Sunday — 7-408 (9:15 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.) Architecture/Computation/Media Lab Symposium Day 2: Futures Past - Design and the Machine. Open to the public — E14, 6th Floor (12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.) “Conservative Internationalism: Armed Diplomacy under Jefferson, Polk, Truman, and Reagan” Book talk and discussion with Henry R. Nau and Steve Van Evera — E40-496, Lucian Pye Conference Room (1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.) MIT Water Club presents Sea Level Rise on Coastal Urban Design — 66-168 (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) Fossil Free MIT presents Chasing Ice: Free Film Screening + Ice Cream — 35-225 (5:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.) LSC presents Despicable Me 2 — 26-100 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Guest Artist Series presents: the Jupiter Quartet in the first concert of complete Beethoven String Quartet Cycle performances at MIT — Kresge Auditorium (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) The Musical Theatre Guild Presents Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein — W20-202 (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) Mocha Moves Dance Squad hosts dance competition Ring the Alarm 2013 — W20 Saturday (10:00 a.m. - 8:30 p.m.) Architecture/Computation/Media Lab Symposium Day 3: Futures Past - Design and the Machine. Open to the public — E14-6th Floor (5:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m.) LSC presents Despicable Me 2 — 26-100 (8:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.) MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble directed by Frederick Harris, Jr. — Kresge Auditorium (8:00 p.m. – 10:30 p.m.) The Musical Theatre Guild Presents Mel Brooks’ Young Frankenstein — W20-202 Sunday (4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.) MIT Gospel Choir Fall Concert — 6-120 (8:00 p.m. – 11:00 p.m.) MIT Folk Dance Club presents International Folk Dancing — W20-491 Monday (7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m.) ACT Lecture: Tarek Elhaik: The Incurable-Image — E15-001 (7:30 p.m.) It’s Alive: A series of staged play readings featuring students, professional actors, and faculty directed by Anna Kohler — Killian Hall Tuesday (5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.) Architecture/HTC Lecture: Ruben Gallo, “Radioscapes: Acoustic Modernities” — 7-429 Send your arts events to arts@tech.mit.edu.
Pasta outpost of the Barbara Lynch food empire
If you’re interested in fine dining in Boston, Barbara Lynch is a name that is probably worth learning. Ever since founding No. 9 Park fifteen years ago, her influence in the Boston restaurant scene has grown, along with the number of restaurants in her culinary empire. The “Barbara Lynch Gruppo” now boasts six restaurants (No. 9 Park, Menton, B&G Oysters, The Butcher Shop, Sportello, and Stir), a bar (Drink), and a catering company (9 at Home). Each offers its own focus, and a couple even have prices that make them semi-accessible to college students. Despite their differences, they all share critical acclaim.
Turning 30 days to live into seven years
An unrecognizable Mathew McConaughey stars as Texas cowboy and rodeo hustler Ron Woodroof, whose carefree life is forever changed when he is told he is HIV-positive and has 30 days to live.
Finding Taiwan in Allston
I was really happy when I first heard that the Boston West Saferide had changed its route. It meant that it would be much easier to get to Allston, the liveliest hub of Asian restaurants in the area. Unlike Chinatown, where the majority of places serve Cantonese or Taiwanese cuisine, Allston is a true melting pot of various Asian cuisines. If you are craving Asian food but do not know exactly what you want, I suggest that you just hop on the Boston West and explore what Allston has to offer.
ARTS Events NOV. 15 – NOV. 21
CORRECTION TO THIS ARTICLE: This arts events calendar provides incorrect or incomplete information for four events. The Chamber Chorus concert occurred twice on Saturday, Nov. 16, at both 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. The Ellipsis Trio’s Boston performance was on Sunday, Nov. 17, not Saturday. Musical Theatre Guild’s Young Frankenstein performance on Sunday, Nov. 17 was at 2 p.m., not 12 p.m. Mariel Roberts’ performance on Thursday, Nov. 21 was at 8 p.m., not 7 p.m.
Dramashop presents One Acts
Last weekend MIT Dramashop continued a 56-year tradition, presenting one-act plays performed and directed by students. The night included four short plays, ranging from a slightly morbid tale of death and beauty to a comedy/drama between a hobo and an affluent screenplay writer. We walked away entertained, amused, and thoroughly impressed by our theatrically inclined peers.
‘There is nothing sexier than a smart person.’
In 2001, Missy Suicide (Selena Mooney) co-founded SuicideGirls, a website that features pin-up photography and profiles of alternative female models, as a way to show the world that there is more than one way to be beautiful. Seven of the “SuicideGirls” featured on the site will come to Boston’s House of Blues on Nov. 17 to star in Blackheart Burlesque. The Tech caught up with the show’s organizer, Missy Suicide, about her thoughts on the show, stereotypes, and the sexiness of engineering.
Light comic relief from four old stars
The movie opens with a glimpse of New York in the 1950s and “The Flatbush Four,” a gang of agile, smart-aleck 10-year-olds who assert themselves after punching, stealing, and getting a cute girl. The movie then fast forwards to their current reality, and we meet four decrepit old men: Archie (Morgan Freeman), who is recovering from a stroke and under the care of an overprotective son; Sam (Kevin Kline), who is the lucky husband of a beautiful, considerate, and permissive wife, but has suffered his share of the quotidian married life; Paddy (Robert De Niro), who is depressed because his adored wife passed away and he has not been able to recover; and Billy (Michael Douglas), a successful businessman who is about to marry a Barbie doll half his age. They are pathetic, and they know it.
CAFÉ REVIEW: All-day Newbury bookstore and café
To the casual tourist strolling down the street, Trident Booksellers and Cafe may not appear to be a place to grab a coffee or a sandwich. However, for those of us who enjoy Sunday brunches or who are tired of studying at Starbucks, Trident may be the best Newbury has to offer.