Levitate Music Festival has been held for the last decade and it gets bigger year by year. Levitate is a great way to celebrate summer with live music and a whole festival atmosphere with fun food, creative vendors, art, a kids’ area, and skateboard zone. Last year was my first Levitate Music and Arts Festival, and I had a great time listening to some bands I knew and many that were new to me. I’m looking forward to covering the festival again this year and watching it grow and change in years to come. The best part of sharing my concert experiences is running into more of you concert-going fo ..read more

Tiramisu is a staple in Italian bakeries and restaurants, but I remember my disappointment when I heard Bar Mezzana had taken theirs off the menu (fear not it is now back I think.) These layers of cream and cookie are having a little moment right now and I am here for the original and every variation. Tiramisu literally means “pick me up” and we could all use a little pick me up now and again. The dessert is layers of lady fingers dipped on a mix of coffee and liqueur, layered with a rich , sweetened, creamy, egg and mascarpone mixture and dusted with cocoa powder. The best one I have had in B ..read more

Summer festival season is in full swing and this year, NICE, a fest is bigger and bolder than ever. This is the festival’s fourth year of four days of live music in Davis Square with two indoor venues: Crystal Ballroom and The Rockwell. NICE, a fest includes an outdoor main stage on Saturday, July 27th for the first time. NICE, a fest will also feature a local vendor market in collaboration with Somerville favorite Small Mart. The festival will feature over 80 artists representing a wide variety of genres all with direct ties to the Boston area. NICE, a fest is July, 25th – 28th 2024 in Somerv ..read more

Boston Calling has it all. the music, the drinks from zero proof and up, and plenty of good local food as well. Some of you will want to completely immerse yourself in every moment. Others will want to take a break from the people, the elements, the scene or even the sound for a bit. Here are a few of my favourite spots to go whether you want a coffee and some quiet or a full meal. Boston Calling in action. Between your favourite sets plan ahead for a drink or bite to eat. Photo: D. KleinOn Site Online you can find all the dining options and sort by dietary choices and restrictions as well as ..read more

Music lovers come to be at all stages of life as do traditions. Some traditions come to you as a very young child passed down from the adults in your life, and others you start yourself as you get older. For concert goers, music festivals quickly become traditions. Friends and family gather at the same spot each year to see one another and take in the music as well as the whole scene of a give festival. In New England we have access to so many music festivals of all sorts. Levitate Music and Arts Festival was new to me last year, and I quickly became a fan. It is a short drive from Boston and ..read more

I have never left a show feeling in such an altered state and I didn’t even have a cocktail before it. Book of Mountain and Seas is a choral and puppetry performance that seeps right into you. The show is best broken down into three parts to explain it but you will experience it as a whole. Arts Emerson presents Book of Mountain and Seas Credit: Teddy Wolff Slowing time is either wonderful or painful depending on your state of mind. If you are in the right state of mind, then you will go on an out of body trip just with the sound of Book of Mountains and Seas. Ars Nova Copenhagen brings choral ..read more

I watched a parade of people, mostly my age, many with their adult or young adult children, our spouses, groups of women, and couples file into the Emerson Colonial last week. All I knew about the show going in, was that there would be Sting’s music and dancing, and that was enough for me. It is said that all art is political and there is no doubt that Sting’s music is. In Message In a Bottle, somehow a hopeful energy comes of a show that reflects back to us some of the horrors of our world today. Ways in which we treat humans that has not changed much since when many of Sting’s songs were fir ..read more

I am not a fairy tale girl. I’m more just a fairies hold the tale person. I grew up on Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch and not Cinderella. I had (and still have) a copy of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night illustrated with Arthur Rackham‘s fairies that were my version of bibbidi boppidi boo. As a teacher, I found all sorts of versions of the Cinderella story that I would read to my class. As for ballet’s, Sir Frederick Ashton’s Cinderella, is my dream story ballet. There are so many laugh out loud moments, fairies, nature and the four seasons, beautiful music, intricate costumes, a motherless ..read more

Pax East will be back in Boston in a few weeks. Here are five things to know if you are new to the world of PAX (aka Penny Arcade Exposition). When and where is it? PAX East is March 21st through March 24th at the Boston Convention and Expo Center. Tickets start at $67 per day or $250 for all four days. Tickets are on sale now here. Saturday is sold out as an individual day ticket. Who is PAX for? Depending on what generation your belong to, a gamer was a stereotype limited by gender, age, perhaps even personality type. Throw that all away because the world of gaming has changed since the fi ..read more

Before delving into this particular show, Duel Reality, I need to introduce or re-introduce 7 Fingers because a troupe like this is a rare find. You know the experience of salon parties? Parties where some talented, perhaps famous, musician plays in a small-ish high society home. Yeah, me neither, but I can imagine how wonderful a moment it is to share art with the artist in such a private, intimate setting. That is what 7 Fingers is to circus. The Emerson Cutler Majestic, is no high society salon, but seeing high energy, gravity defying acrobatics on that stage feels like it could be. That is ..read more