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Here's an update on Salem, where I spent both Friday & Saturday nights.
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Here's an update on Salem, where I spent both Friday & Saturday nights.
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| I forgot to mention that I've recently been to the Fruitlands Museums (& nature trails). Upon arriving, my friend and I were assaulted by middle-aged women who love, love, love the museum and its founder, a strong-willed woman from the 1920s. Seeing their enthusiasm was half the fun, the other half was extricating ourselves politely. They have museums about American Indians and Shakers, and its small, it is sort of interesting but also sort of not. So you may want to skip this until the Spring when it's warm enough to enjoy the trails as well. They close Oct 31st but re-open in May. |
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| I also checked out the DeCordova Sculpture Museum (& park), which is the best museum around Boston, in my opinion. There is always something kick-ass there, interesting, surprising, sensational, and accessible -- not too esoteric. The museum is surrounded by a park which is dotted with sculptures, great for a picnic lunch and stroll. Inside, there is a photographic exhibition of Arno Minkkinen (see pic), who puts himself in scenic photographs to show that humans really are part of nature. It's fascinating, you must go. One secret: the park itself is open for free anytime the museum is closed, such as Monday or at dusk. A great date location, wink wink. |
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| I'm really excited about the Day of the Dead Festival @ Forest Hills Cemetery, Nov 2nd, 4:30-6:30pm. This is a Central & South American tradition and a neat twist on the Halloween concept, subtracting some commercialism and adding some religion. A lot cheaper than traveling to Mexico, too. |
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| If you still have your inner child, definitely get to Salem's Haunted Happenings. Basically it all happens Friday and Saturday evenings. See previous posts also on local Haunted Houses. |
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| For the best party in the area, check out the incredibly expensive Official Salem Witches Halloween Ball, Oct 28th, which is run by actual Wiccans. A number of other events are happening such as the Dumb Dinner with the Dead on Oct 31st, at which you're not supposed to talk at all. At $100 a plate, it sounds expensive and boring, but that's probably just my ignorance. |
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| As to what to do on Halloween evening itself, I have to admit I'm really lost on this one. Just about every bar on the planet seems to be having a costume party, but do you really want party small on Halloween? Personally I plan to check out the Wiccan Samhain Magick Circle Ceremony, Oct 31st in Salem, which is open to the public. </a> |
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| For the non-Halloween oriented, catch Gwen Stefani & Black Eyed Peas on October 31st, at the TD Banknorth Garden, which used to be the fleet center. Tell me if I'm wrong but there is no actual garden or possible reason to call the venue a garden. |
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| Also, in lieu of the East Coast A Capella Summit which seems not to be happening this year, check out Spookapella III: Five O'Clock Shadow / Duwende, Oct 28th, 8:00 PM @ The Center for Arts in Natick (TCAN), 14 Summer Street, Natick, MA Contact: (508) 647-0097. The website www.bacs.org has regular a capella information. |
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| Also catch The Vagina Monologues, Oct 28-Nov 5th, in Holliston, by the Washington Street Players. |
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I've visited a bunch of haunted houses now, and here is the scoop, each with a letter grade. See previous posts for details on each.
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| The big event of the week is the Head of the Charles Regatta, Oct 22-23. We just happen to be lucky enough to live where the biggest rowing event anywhere is taking place. Walk down to the Charles River, especially near the Weeks Footbridge which is that little pedestrian bridge near JFK Street. It's 9:30-4:30 Saturday and 7:45 to 5pm on Sunday. I've never actually gone to this but I'm told it's not as crowded as you think. I wonder if bringing a blanket to sit on is a good idea or if there simply won't be room. |
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| Another neat Halloweeny thing coming up is the Life is Good Pumpkin Festival, October 22nd on Boston Common, 12-8pm. And there are carving parties today, Thursday, see the website for a list of farms. They are trying to set a world record and I bet it'll be awesome to see. |
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| Meanwhile, it is very important that you get out to Salem Haunted Happenings, now to Oct 31st, although really it's just Friday & Saturday evenings when the most is happening. Skip the museums, which are open year-round, and go to the haunted houses and theater events. The Salem website is so easy to use and comprehensive that just go there for details. |
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| Also, you really must check out Massachusetts Haunted Houses. Here are my picks, see previous weeks for links and details. You really must see the Livingston Street Terror, Barrett's Haunted Mansion, the Castle of the Damned at Hammon Castle, and the two in Fall River: Asylum of Horror and Factory of Terror. Definitely skip Witch's Woods, and go to Hallowscream Park only if you're lazy about driving and won't go anywhere outside a 30 minute drive from Boston. Others I can't vouch for, but it's a can't-miss experience for three reasons. 1) You are still a little kid. 2) Seeing all the screaming teenagers is a blast. 3) It's a theater experience that New England happens to be the headquarters for, thanks to Salem. Note: Haunted Houses are really for kids ages 12 and older. If your child watches R-rated horror movies then a haunted house is OK. However, the Foxboro Jaycees Haunted House at the Walpole Mall has a not-so-scary halloween experience, as does Davis Farmland's MegaMaze which I keep plugging and if you haven't gone yet, you need a spanking. |
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| This week's bonus event is Monthly Game Night, October 25th at True Grounds, 717 Broadway, in Somerville. Events czar Sooz Kaup is running the event on a regular basis; she is a really cool person who knows all about Bostonian adventures. It's free and you can meet some fellow Boston Events enthusiasts. Unlike some gaming nights which are focused on the 6-hour Battle For Europe Re-Enactment games, you can play Scrabble and checkers and other games that you won't find yourself faced with a long list of rules. |
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Hi everyone,
Halloween report. I went to Witch's Woods at Nashoba Ski Valley and it wasn't really worth seeing. They put some effort into the mechanical effects, but the actors (the kids who jump out at you) had no real theater. And there was no metaphor or backstory for the attractions, except the hayride. But the hayride tour guide was a comic which destroyed the horror genre. Felt commercial.
However!! The Livingston Street Terror which earlier I said was minor, was an incredible hit. All the monster kids obviously had theater training. The house was creative and deeply interesting. They didn't send huge groups through. Best of all they had dance acts. No, I'm not kidding. Kids age 6-15 dancing in front of the house to keep people waiting in line entertained, wearing scary costumes. The younger ones were exceptionally cute. A real community production with some warmth. We went through right in front of some teenagers who shrieked and giggled and it was the greatest experience, better than Hallowscream.
See my last posts for visitor information. Everyone get to Livingston Terror. What, you'd rather watch TV? Personally I hope to visit the other 7 haunted houses on my list before the month's out!
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| Breaking news! I have to check out the Skillz 4 Billz Breakdancing Competition , Oct 15-16. Saturday 3-10pm, Sunday 5-10pm at the YMCA in Chinatown at 8 Oak Street. |
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| Late breaking news, also check out Witch's Woods, in Westford, MA, yet another haunted house that looks worthwhile checking out. This one is at the Nashoba Valley Ski Area and has 4 different attractions. Rt 2W to Rt. 2A/119, 6mi to Powers Rd. Thu-Sun in Oct + 31. 6:30-11pm. 978-692-3033. This looks like one of the larger ones; I have chatted with someone who went there. |
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| And here's another smaller one that's only worth visiting if you are in the area, the Livingston Street Terror. Tewksbury. Livingston St. Fri-Sun thru Oct, 7-10. Rt 93N to exit 42, into Tewksbury. One of the smaller ones. See website for coupon. |
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| Now is the time for Salem Halloween Happenings, in Salem, Massachusetts, Oct 6-31, which didn't really get going much last weekend. There is a lot going on! There are several haunted houses, the usual museums... the Witch History Museum being the best, but also check out the Pirate Museum and the House of Seven Gables. More importantly, since they are special to the season, check out some of the theater performances and tours. It's all in their handy brochure, which is easy to read. |
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| The bigger haunted houses in Massachusetts, beyond Hallowscream Park (see last week) seem to be Asylum of Horror and Factory of Terror, both in Fall River</a>, Barrett's Haunted Mansion, in Abington, MA, which is on the south shore off of Rt 3 South. I've done a pretty exhaustive web search and these three seem to be the biggies. They have the best websites and the biggest marketing budget. If you've heard of SpookyWorld, it appears to be dead. Somebody email me and let me know what's up, I called but their voicemail box is full. |
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| And also consider these lesser haunted houses. Jaycees Haunted House @ Walpole Mall, Haunted Mansion @ Victorian Park, in Salem, NH, and Castle of the Damned at Hammond Castle, in Gloucester, MA, which is on the North Shore, and Haunted Ghost Town @ Marshfield Fairgrounds. These all seem to be haunted houses worth visiting. I have cut out numerous dumb little haunted houses I found on the web of no interest. The Foxboro Jaycees has a "not so scary" haunted houses for little kids daytimes which is a really nice twist. |
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| What, you want more? What am I, some sort of Boston Events Slave? Oh yea, I guess I am. OK, well this weekend there are two competeing open studios. Open studios are when local artists open up their private homes and art studios to the public. You get to walk around and admire the artwork, and buy something to support a local artist. Plus you get to actually meet and interact with the artists and see some of their passion first hand. Also, there is free food. Every artist is given a small budget to buy snacks and some of them are great and some of them suck. So you have to always be munching on these open studios. I have been to the Fort Point Open Studios, Oct 14-16, in South Boston, which was very good. I haven't been to the Arlington Open Studios, Oct 15-16, which is bound to be smaller. You start by visiting the website and figuring out where to pick up a map. |
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| The hokey event of the week is bound to be Wachusett Mountain Applefest, Oct 15-16, which is out at Wachusett Mountain near Worcester. The event itself is a bunch of vendors selling every kind of New Englandy craft imaginable, plus hot apple cider. I went one year and there was a huge trampoline for $5 and "Robinson's Racing Pigs" which is, believe it or not, a guy who drives around the country in a trailer showing off his racing pigs to people. It's like a state fair but worse. However! There is a gondola ride to the to of Wachusett Mountain which is breathtaking during fall foliage season. That's going to be expensive and you can just drive to the top for $2 though. I would recommend stopping by to visit Wachusett Mountain if you are in the area visiting Davis Farmland, which you really must go to with their petting zoo and corn field maze (see previous weeks). Wachusett has a festival every weekend in the fall, by the way, for example next weekend Oct 22-23 is "countryfest", and recently I had the misfortune to attend "rockfest", which is cool but only if you are a motorcyclist, like hundreds attend, wow. |
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Bonus event of the week is the performance 700 Sundays w/ Billy Crystal, Oct 18-29, at www.broadwayinboston.com. They say it's the biggest grossing non-musical event from Broadway ever. I may go, I'm not sure.
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I went to Hallowscream last night (see below) and it was worth the $12 parking and $25 each admission -- just barely. The event is a huge couple of warehouse spaces with 3,500 pumpkins. We met one of the staff who explained that the pumpkins are created professionally by an art/farmer firm, and the detailed ones (there are 250) take 2-4 hours each to make. Mildly interesting, the real fun are the haunted houses... one was cheesy but the other three were fairly professional and fun. Strangely, because last night was opening night, the entire event was basically empty. There were maybe 100 people there total. Hopefully they'll get much higher admission in the future, it would be a lot more fun with a big crowd.
Also I saw Serenity, the movie, which is awesome and you should check it out
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| I forgot to mention that I've just visited The Ansel Adams Exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Now to Dec 31st, which could have been titled "I Really Like Mountains". I started off being somewhat jaded. Is it really that hard to get good photos when you're in an incredibly scenic vista? But then I learned a lot about how Ansel Adams would modify the photos using darkroom techniques and camera gadgets. Apparently he was the master at making just a picture give the emotional impact of actually being there. That's certainly true. So I left very impressed and highly recommend the exhibit. The Ansel Adams exhibit is $22. Wednesdays the MFA is free after 4pm and open late to 9:45, although the Ansel Adams $22 admission includes admission to the MFA so that's kinda moot. Make sure to check out the non-permanent exhibits while you are there. |
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| Also this weekend is closing weekend for Camelot, to Oct 9th, at the Shubert Theater. I really wanted to go to this but wasn't able to get around to it. |
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| OK, here's the bonus activity for the week, since I was too lazy to do it yesterday. It's Contra Dancing, which is a kind of folk dancing. It's a "called" dance, which means that someone in the folk band is calling out the steps for the dance, based on maybe 20 individual movements. It's surprisingly easy to pick up and anyone can just jump right in and do it. I like it because, unlike ballroom dancing, if you screw up you're not offending the old masters. You just laugh and try again. You can go contra dancing every Thursday at 8pm at the VFW Hall in Cambridge, at 688 Huron Ave. Also every Monday in Concord, see the website, which I have not gone to. Also MIT has contra dances, usually the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month. |
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| Admittedly it takes some courage to try contra dancing, but for the brave of heart, how about Breakdancing at MIT, Tuesdays 7-9:30pm in Lobby 13. Oh come on, like you've never wanted to check out breakdancing. Even if you go just to watch it's worth the trip. I tried it last week and discovered that breakdancing is incredibly exhausting. Even the best can only go for a minute or two before they need a breather. This appears to be an informal club with no website. |
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| Finally, it's time for everyone to drive out and go for a Fall Foliage Walk. The peak of the season is mid-October so you might wait a week or two. The Mohawk Trail, The Blue Hills, or The Berkshires are popular destinations. One favorite would be Mt. Wachusett, since you can drive to the top if you're lazy. |
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Believe it or not, events in Salem don't fully ramp up until next weekend. So do something else this weekend.
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