What better way to spend my upcoming birthday weekend (psssst … the big day is Sunday) than by enjoying some free ice cream at Friendly’s? Woo hoo! So consider this your heads up. From noon to 5 p.m. this Saturday, Friendly’s is giving out free scoops of ice cream. I’ll be there. Will you?
I’m not one to complain about getting something for free, especially when it comes to ice cream. In fact, there are few things I get excited for more than free ice cream. So you have to assume that when the good folks at Cold Stone Creamery emailed me Sunday with a coupon for a free ice cream in honor of my birthday (which, ahem, is this Sunday), I was quite excited. That is, I was excited until I saw the coupon itself: good for a free small size original creation of my choice, i.e.: ice cream and one mix-in. One. You’d think that Cold Stone, which features a Signature Creation called Birthday Cake Remix (yum), would offer you a free cup or cone of that flavor — or at least a creation with enough mix-ins so you can make it yourself — on your birthday. Nope. Not that this is going to stop me from claiming my gift between now and June 14, when the coupon expires, but I just thought it deserved a comment.
Here’s another story from the “Sometimes I Can Be Such a Moron” department …
So as you know, Saturday night I went to see Dave Matthews Band at Fenway.
I drove my car to the St. Mary’s T stop on Beacon St., fed the parking meter, and hopped on the T to meet some friends at Bukowski’s.
As the train started to pull away, I thought to myself, “Wait a second. Did I lock my car door? Yes, of course I did. Why wouldn’t I? How could I forget that?”
(You know where this story is going, don’t you?) Continue reading
I spent Sunday evening at the Coolidge Corner Theater, which was hosting a screening of the new movie Away We Go. It was a benefit for 826 Boston, the after-school writing and tutoring center founded by Dave Eggers, who most folks know from his awesome book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (yes, I have actually read it). Eggers, who wrote the film with his wife, was billed as the headliner for the evening, and he was there to do a Q&A. However, he was not the only special guest. The film’s stars, John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, were also there to take questions from the audience. (Sweet!!)
I’ll write more about the film itself closer to its theatrical release (it comes out in Boston on June 12), but suffice it to say, it’s a very sweet film about an unmarried couple three months from the birth of their first child, who travel around the country looking for a new place to call home. During the Q&A, Eggers talked of being inspired by the films of Hal Ashby and wanting to write a different kind of romantic comedy. In the film, the lead couple don’t go through the standard arc: there’s no meet-cute, courtship, breakup, and reconciliation, for example. The chance to be in a film where the couple is happy and together throughout was one of the aspects that drew Krasinski and Rudolph to the project. (As was the chance to work with Sam Mendes, who was apparently a very collaborative director.)
Not surprisingly, Rudolph and Krasinski drew the most laughs. Rudolph, who is currently pregnant in real life, talked about how she had a lot in common with her character and how awkward it was to film an oral sex scene on the second day. Krasinski (a Newton native, of course) was quite endearing with his Sam Mendes/Simon Cowell impression and tales of hanging out at Saturday Night Live tapings too often back in the day. He also gave some surprisingly insightful answers that were a long way from the sarcasm and dopeyness seen each week on The Office (maybe that’s because his family was in the audience).
On the other hand, I didn’t really believe Eggers when he said he wrote the screenplay with Krasinski and Rudolph in mind (really? You really thought of those actors?), and I thought his answer that none of the film was inspired by real-life people or events was less than convincing, given that Eggers’ personal story (well documented in AHWoSG) mirrors at least partly that of Rudolph’s character (in the film, her parents died when she was 22) and the overall journey they are on. But I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
Krasinski and Rudolph were really great, and I wish the Q&A had been longer and had covered more than just the specifics of the movie, because obviously, it would have been fun to hear more Office and SNL talk. But, as Krasinski teased, maybe there’ll be a sequel to the film — Away They Went? — so we may have a chance to ask those questions at another time.
(Photos courtesy of Kirk Kittell)
Where to start about night two of Dave Matthews Band’s two-night homestand at Fenway Park?
After all, there’s, ahem, so much to say.
For one thing, my seat was a vast improvement over the one I had Friday night. There’s just no comparison between sitting in the Grandstand (where I was Friday) and sitting on the field (where I was last night).
As Dave sings in one of my favorites of his songs, “Everything’s different … just like that.” The sound quality on the field is clearer, louder, sharper, crisper, and better — as is the view, of course.
Also, the audience is much more engaged with the show. They’re also older and less inclined to smoke up (at least that was the case with those around me).
And that all added up to a much better experience for me. It was like I had been to two completely different shows. Continue reading
Like Anne Frank, I, too, believe that “Despite everything … people are really good at heart.” So this morning, when I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to log onto LiveNation.com and try to buy a better ticket to tonight’s Dave Matthews Band concert at Fenway Park than the one I already had (yes, I realize that’s a pretty silly thing to do), I knew that my next course of action would be to post that I had an extra ticket for sale on Craigslist. Lo and behold, I got lucky and found a seat right on the field, so I posted my ad on Craigslist, noting that I was only looking for face value so I could get my money back. Within minutes I had a few replies, and over the course of a couple emails, I deduced that the person who had been first to get back to me was for real, so I agreed to meet her at Fenway at noon to make the transaction.
Not surprisingly, there were already folks at Fenway looking to buy/sell tickets, and as soon as one of them realized I was there to sell a ticket, he tried to take it off my hands, and with a small profit for me too. Well, I’m a man of my word, so I said no thanks — I was already meeting someone and had agreed to sell it to her. Then, at 12, I got a text message that my buyer was stuck in traffic and that she would be a little late. No problem, I thought. I’ll give her a couple extra minutes to get there.
Alright, backtrack here to about a month ago when I had an extra ticket on the day of Bruce Springsteen’s second show. On my way into Boston to sell the ticket to someone I had “met” on Craigslist, I got stuck in traffic on 128, the Pike, and Storrow Dr., and ended up losing the sale because the guy ended up buying from someone else when I was late. So now the roles were sort of reversed, and I had a dilemma. Sure, it would have been much easier to sell the ticket to the guy on the street and make a profit in the process, but I decided I would do the right thing and wait for my person to get there. Worse comes to worse, I had a plan B hovering over me, waiting for things to fall through. And even though she, too, would have had this same plan B, it just wouldn’t have been cool to make her pay more if she was an actual fan.
As the time ticked away, and I would get texts that my buyer was getting closer, I started to waiver and considered selling the ticket at the higher price and just walking away. So I was relieved when, at 12:45, the woman finally showed up and was a real fan who was appreciative that I had been so patient and waited for her all that time. As promised, I sold the ticket to her at face value and we parted ways. (Alright, fine. She gave me a couple extra bucks for making me wait. But I’d say I’d earned those, wouldn’t you?)
Call me a sucker if you will, or call me naive or stupid, but despite all the negative press Craigslist has received in recent months, I continue to believe in it and use it, and do so honestly, with good intentions. You can be skeptical, but I think it’s nice to see that there are other people out there who are like me and do the same.
(BTW, those pictures up there? Not me, and not the scalper I was dealing with.)
In the summer of 2003, I saw Bruce Springsteen at Fenway Park.
The next night, I saw Dave Matthews Band at what was then called the Tweeter Center.
Suffice it to say, the DMB show paled in comparison and I decided to take a break from what was, at the time, an annual summer tradition of seeing the band live.
Six years later, DMB are back in town to play a two-night stand at Fenway (their last time there was in 2006), and after attending last night’s first show, I can say that absence sure did make the heart grow fonder. Continue reading
In The Girlfriend Experience, director Steven Soderbergh explores the illusion of human connection.
The porn star Sasha Grey stars as Christine, a high-priced escort, who is so skilled that she charges $2,000 an hour. Christine treats what she does like a business, staying detached from her clients, obsessing about increasing the SEO of her website, and always looking for ways to expand her livelihood (including seeking the advice of a character named “Sugar,” played by an old college chum of mine).
Christine’s clients go to her because she’ll listen to their problems and won’t judge. She’s like a therapist, only more fun.
Oh, and of course, she’s beautiful — in her designer Michael Kors dresses and sunglasses, she looks like a sexier, younger Audrey Hepburn.
But for obvious reasons, Christine keeps her clients at a safe emotional distance. They don’t know much about her beyond what’s on the surface. They don’t even know that her real name is Christine — they think it’s Chelsea — and that’s how she likes it.
After all, wouldn’t the fact that Christine has a serious boyfriend, for example, spoil some of the mystery?
If these clients wanted to know the “real” Christine, they wouldn’t be paying her. Continue reading
I was going to post something here about the people who are always in the Chestnut Hill Finagle a Bagel on Saturdays and Sundays for lunch, and how amusing it is that like clockwork, you can always count on seeing them. Because it’s true: There are a handful of people who are always there midday on the weekends. And I might have made fun of these people’s quirks or remarked about the endearing qualities of one particular couple, or commented on how these customers know the folks behind the counter so well. And then it occurred to me … The only reason I know who goes to Finagle at the same time every week is because I go to Finagle at the same time every week. How lame is that? Jeeeez. I’ve really gotta find a new lunch place.
I went to the Wrentham Outlets yesterday to do some summer clothes shopping, and while it was a pain in the arse finding a parking spot, it was totally worth it. There were great deals all over, and I gave my credit card a good workout buying new pants, shirts, shoes, and other stuff.
But parking was a challenge and it reminded me of two long-held thoughts I’ve had about parking lots. Continue reading
Martin's Musings 