allie

[Photo: Facebook]

UMASS Amherst alums who have landed in Boston, rejoice: Antonio's Pizza is coming, Boston.com's Restaurant Hub blog reports. The location and a timeline haven't been announced yet, so stay tuned for more details.

The pizza shop also has locations in Easthampton, Providence, College Station (in Texas), and Champaign (in Illinois), and Worcester and Lowell locations are on the way in addition to the mystery Boston location. Antonio's is known for its slightly over-the-top slices, with options like spicy chicken quesadilla and barbecue steak burrito.
· Amherst favorite Antonio's Pizza will open in Boston [Boston.com]
· Antonio's Pizza [Official Site]

THE EIGHT KINDES OF DRUNKENNES

The first is ape drunke; and he leapes, and singes, and hollowes, and danceth for the heavens;

The second is lion drunke; and he flings the pots about the house, calls his hostesse whore, breakes the glasse windowes with his dagger, and is apt to quarrell with anie man that speaks to him;

The third is swine drunke; heavie, lumpish, and sleepie, and cries for a little more drinke, and a fewe more cloathes;

The fourth is sheepe drunk; wise in his conceipt, when he cannot bring foorth a right word;

The fifth is mawdlen drunke; when a fellowe will weepe for kindnes in the midst of ale, and kisse you, saying, "By God, captaine, I love thee. Goe thy wayes; thou dost not thinke so often of me as I doo thee; I would (if it pleased God) I could not love thee as well as I doo;" and then he puts his finger in his eye, and cryes;

The sixt is Martin drunke; when a man is drunke, and drinkes himselfe sober ere he stirre;

The seventh is goate drunke; when, in his drunkennes, he hath no minde but on lecherie;

The eighth is fox drunke—when he is craftie drunke, as manie of the Dutchmen bee, that will never bargaine but when they are drunke.

[Photo: Twitter/@cougje]

Over the weekend, distraught South Enders took to social media to spread photos of Delux Cafe's door, which is currently covered with an "RIP" sign, as shown above. But a Twitter account apparently from the bar quickly materialized, reassuring everyone that it is "gone, but not for long. Sold to a long time employee and will reopen in February."

An employee reached at Delux Cafe this morning confirmed the news and said that no real changes are on the way, just that they'd be getting some of the "grease out of the kitchen and dust off of the garlands" while trying to "stay true" to what has made it so beloved over the last two decades. So dry your tears, and stay tuned for a reopening date.

UPDATE: A tipster from the neighborhood reports that the "RIP" sign was replaced by a "we are remodeling" note, which was replaced with plain white paper.
· @DeluxCafe [Twitter]
· South End's Delux Cafe Is 'Gone, But Not for Long' [Boston.com]

The Deal: Get a free cup of dark hot chocolate
When: Today (1/24) through Sunday (1/26)
Where: Shake Shack Harvard Square (92 Winthrop St.)
Link: Shake Shack on Twitter

Ken Burns is working on a new project called Country Music, PBS announced today. The multi-episode documentary series will air in 2018, which is a pretty long time from now! But one does not rush PBS, and one does not rush explorations of the origins and fundamentals of country music, and one certainly does not rush America's most noble documentarian Ken Burns. His iconic ten-episode miniseries about jazz aired all the way back in 2001, though many people are just getting around to finishing it now.

Read more posts by Margaret Lyons

Filed Under: ken burns ,tv ,country music ,pbs ,miniseries

You may have seen something last week about a string of sexual assaults happening in the Union Square and Porter Square neighborhoods of Somerville. Somerville Police released a sketch and description of the suspect earlier this week.

The suspect was described as a white man, 20 to 30 years of age, about 5-foot-9-inches tall, with a thin-athletic build, and clean shaven. The suspect was wearing a red ski jacket with black under the arm pits and dark pants.

They also urge anyone with information about the assaults to contact Sgt. Richard Lavey at the Somerville Police Department Family Services Unit at 617-625-1600, Ext. 7237. Anonymous tips may also be texted to the phone number “TIP411″ ( 847411 ); then put “617spd” at the beginning of your text message.

These things are really important pieces of information. It is absolutely important for public safety for the police to spread this information far and wide. But then the bulletin continues:

The Somerville Police urge everyone, especially women, to take precautions while walking at night. Do not wear ear buds while walking, avoid poorly lit areas, be aware of your surroundings, and do not walk alone if possible, the police said.

And this is where we start to find the announcement problematic. When we use language that urges women to take precautions to avoid being assaulted, we use what’s known as “victim-blaming language.” And what victim-blaming language does is put the responsibility on the potential victim of a rape or sexual assault to avoid that assault, instead of putting the onus where it belongs– squarely on the perpetrator. The only thing that will prevent a rape is not being in the vicinity of a rapist with intent to rape. That’s it. And when we send the message to victims that there were things they could have done to avoid the assault, we create a culture of shame and self-blame.

The other problem with personal safety messaging is that it’s, frankly, ineffective. As mentioned above, once a perpetrator picks a target, there’s not much that can be done to stop at least the attempted assault. And telling women that they shouldn’t walk alone at night or avoid certain routes is unrealistic. The truth is that women often HAVE to be out and about at night. They have work, they have school, they have a life. They may have to take poorly lit side streets to get from the bus route to their apartment. Some of these things are unavoidable. And even if a woman never left her house, that still doesn’t guarantee that she won’t be assaulted, because we know two other things about rape: a) that people have broken into homes and raped women who were inside, and b) most rape is committed by someone the victim knows.*

This personal safety messaging is not unique to the Somerville Police Department. Our sister site in Ottawa recently addressed their own police department’s use of personal safety messaging in regards to a serial rapist in their city. Hollaback! Ottawa, along with other women’s organizations, wrote an open letter to the women of Ottawa assuring them that they have the right to be safe on the streets, regardless of what they’re doing or where they’re walking. Their campaign to change the way we talk about rape is working. They’ve had a meeting with their police department and the media is beginning to rethink the way they report on the story.

And so, let’s talk about what that could look like here in Boston. When we say that personal safety messaging is not only ineffective, but creates a false sense of security, many people wonder what else the message could look like. How can we assure the public that the police are on the case while also helping them to stay as safe as possible when on the streets? The solution as we see it is two-fold.

Firstly, we have a sketch and description of the suspect. This is huge! This information should be distributed as widely as possible. We know what this person looks like and our goal should be to make him feel like the eyes of the entire city are looking for him, because they are.

Secondly, the way we relay our messages is really important. Words have power. Here’s an idea of how the police bulletin could read instead:

The suspect was described as a white man, 20 to 30 years of age, about 5-foot-9-inches tall, with a thin-athletic build, and clean shaven. The suspect was wearing a red ski jacket with black under the arm pits and dark pants. The assaults have been reported in the Union Square and Porter Square neighborhoods of Somerville. Based on his past assaults, some things that the perpetrator may look for are women walking alone, appearing distracted, or wearing headphones.

If you feel unsafe while walking in this neighborhood, call a friend for support or dial the Somerville PD’s non-emergency line at 617-625-1600. If you experience a sexual assault, we encourage you to call the Somerville PD immediately. The Boston Area Rape Crisis Center is also available 24/7 as a source of support at 800-841-8371. Police are doing what they can to ensure that the city is safe for all individuals. Please know that no matter what you are doing, no matter where you are, no matter how you are dressed, you have a right to be safe.

We want to catch this guy as much as the police do– our goals are the same. But we think that the women of Boston deserve better than messaging that blames them for their assault. We think that the message should put the onus and the blame and the attention squarely where it belongs– on the perpetrator of the assaults. We believe that everyone has a right to safety on the streets, and we think that dismantling rape culture is crucial to achieving that. And it can start with something as simple as the words we choose.

And so this is a call to action for not just the Somerville Police Department, but everyone that writes about and talks about rape and sexual assault in Boston. We believe that the women and citizens of this city deserve better, and we think you can provide that! Let’s work together to make our city as safe as possible for everyone that lives here.

If you do have any information about the assaults or have seen the man pictured in the police sketch, contact Sgt. Richard Lavey at the Somerville Police Department Family Services Unit at 617-625-1600, Ext. 7237. Anonymous tips may also be texted to the phone number “TIP411″ ( 847411 ); then put “617spd” at the beginning of your text message. Let’s get this guy.

*We also want to acknowledge that rape does not only happen to women. It happens to men and trans* folks, too. We’re focusing on female victims in this piece because those are the targets of the potential serial perpetrator.

–Britni, Brenda, Jamie and Brandie

Images by Matt Lubchansky, who makes comics and occasionally leaves his apartment in New York. His work includes Please Listen to Me and New Amsterdam Mystery Company. He’s on Twitter, and doesn’t expect you to get his name right.

Read more The True Mystery of Faith at The Toast.

[Photo: Facebook]

July brought the promise of the arrival of a board game cafe, Knight Moves, to Coolidge Corner, and indeed it has arrived; it opened quietly in November and grandly in December. There are snacks and coffee, but the main attraction is the game library (think Citadels, Gauntlet of Fools, Settlers of Catan, Wiz War, and lots more) and the ample tables upon which to play. Visitors can pay $10 admission for a single visit, or there are a few membership options for frequent gamers.

Knight Moves is open every day, beginning bright and early at 7am on weekdays and 11am on weekends. It closes at 11pm Sunday through Thursday and 2am Friday and Saturday. For future improvements, the cafe hopes to increase the size of the game library, upgrade chairs and tables, expand the menu and staff, and more.
· Knight Moves [Official Site]
· All coverage of Knight Moves on Eater [~EBOS~]

Need a lift in the future? Just hop aboard the fully-automated Skatetronics Transport System, and enjoy door-to-door convenience day or night.

Jessica Helgerson is the queen of kitchens, and I had to share yet another one of her amazing kitchen renovations. The kitchen and dining room were remodelled in this old Victorian home in Portland, making a larger, brighter kitchen by using part of a sun porch. It is absolutely beautiful, and so conducive to having large family gatherings where everyone congregates in the kitchen (it's even houses a sofa in case it wasn't inviting enough!)

Allison sent this to me and wrote, “I know the year is young, but still headline of the year?” And of course it came from the most influential and highly-esteemed literal journal of our time, The Daily Mail. You really don’t need to know anything more because that headline says it all and more. The Daily Mail should make room in the 80,000 square foot vault that keeps all of their Pulitzers, because they’re going to get another one for that headline. And if they don’t have room, maybe Jennifer McCarthy (please tell me they call her Jenny) can lease them some space in her genitals.

Chiidax, the baby fur seal can tell you, it’s all about the Aleuts getting you through

to the ground crew who feed you fish stew

while FedEx delivers you a thousand miles or two

to rendezvous with friends anew; other fur seal rescues Kit, Flaherty and Lou. Whew!

Read the complete story of Chiidax, the rescued fur seal pup, over at New England Aquarium and Zooborns!

If you’re looking for just one image that says a thousand words about what’s wrong with America, here’s a contender.  It is a screenshot of the website for the Silver State Schools Credit Union:

Yep, it’s an invitation to K-12 teachers to go into debt to do their job.

Speechless.

(View original at http://thesocietypages.org/socimages)

In advance of tonight’s Stevie Nicks party on American Horror Story — accurately titled “The Magical Delights of Stevie Nicks” — Vulture was granted a quick chat with the fairy godmother of rock-wedding officiator to talk about her acting debut. You already know she sings two songs; the obvious one is spoiled below. Selfishly, though, we wanted to hear about twirling dos and don’ts and the history of her shawl obsession first. There are other places on the Internet to go if you really want to ruin the how and why of Nicks's involvement with the coven — suffice it to say, she and Fiona are thick as thieves. Because of course they are!

What’s the secret to doing a good twirl?
Taking lots of ballet lessons.

Really?
Really. Yeah, that’s where you learn how to twirl! When I’m playing “Rhiannon,” I do this thing at the end when the music’s going duh-duh-duh-duh-duh … to me it’s like the horses are running through the forest and the goddesses and gods are all there. It’s a really dramatic part, and when I perform “Rhiannon” myself onstage, I always twirl to it and I love it.

I don’t know if Lily Rabe, who plays Stevie Nicks devotee Misty Day, did ballet. But she seems to twirl well.
I had to watch my fingers when we were filming because I don’t play it all the time [Nicks plays the piano while singing to “Rhiannon” in the episode], and so at first I wasn’t even thinking about this poor girl twirling herself into the universe. Lily gets an Academy Award for that. You can twirl for so long and then you just drop dead. But she did it. She almost passed out at the end of every take because no one is used to twirling that much [laughs]. I thought she did great. I didn’t have to teach her how to twirl, but she had to summon up the strength to be able to twirl for a minute and a half, and get faster and faster and faster and faster and not look dorky. When you twirl, you want to look beautiful, you know? You want to have your hands up, and you definitely want to spot or you will get dizzy. I was like, “Bravo, Lily!”

She’s really been working the shawls, too. When did you first start using them?
Well, first of all, when I used to be 105 pounds and five-foot-one-and-a-half-inches, I could be pretty much dressed in floor-length shawls at all times. They’re a way to make big movements look huge. You have to be a showgirl when you’re up there on that stage, and if you stretch out your hand, you have to really stretch it out, and be seen from the back of the place. Shawls enhance that. They allow you to be a bigger person than you are. I just thought they were fun in the beginning.

I remember really getting into them after someone brought me one from Colombia or Peru or somewhere and it was sort of like what I wear but made out of a more wooly material. I loved the way it looked, and when I got it, I thought, Boy, if I ever make it in this business, I’m going to re-create this shawl in silk chiffon. And that’s what I did. I said to my designer, “I want you to make square ponchos.” I also had ones that didn’t have a hole in the middle, that were just solid, and when you twirl in those it’s really magnificent. It just became a part of what I did. Then I had this other designer who was able to find the fabric from all over the world, and every time I’d go out, she’d make a new one. I have a vault of these shawls that never fall apart because they’re made out of the silk chiffon that they make sails out of. They never disintegrate so long as you keep them in an air-controlled place.     

Did you bring your own shawls to wear in the episode?
I took a couple with me, yes. I was going to give Lily one, a red one, to wear as Misty, but we couldn’t swap it out. It would have screwed up the continuity of what she’d been wearing in other scenes. I’m like, “But, but, but, I brought ... ” The one I wear is mine. I gotta tell you, it was so cool to be in that house with them. It’s so beautiful. More ornate than my house, but similar.

Similar how?
It has the same white fireplaces, the oval fireplaces, the same kitchen, a very similar living room. When I walked in I was like, “Did you guys see my house? Am I in your dreams?”

Possibly in Ryan Murphy’s dreams! He said you were hesitant to appear on the show at first, not because you’d never acted, but because of crazy Wiccans assaulting you.
In 1977 probably, because I wore black — and why did I wear black? because it’s the thinnest color — I started getting some really stupid wacky mail from witchy weirdos. I didn’t like it. I’d only been famous for two years, and it scared me. So I had some colored outfits made. I wore red and green and salmon for a year, and then I said, Well, this is not going to work for me, so I’m going back to black, and I did.

What happened was when Ryan asked for my music, I said yes. I’d been watching the episodes diligently, and later I called Ryan and said, “I would love to just do a walk-through where I’m in a long black dress and I look amazing and a fan is blowing my hair and I could just be really tall. I could just walk through and say [pitches her voice higher], “Good morning, witches! Good-bye, witches!” And then I’m gone. I could be like a vision: She comes, she’s gone. Deal. Well, when I got to New Orleans very, very late in the day, we got the script and my assistant read it out loud to me and I’m pretty horrified, honestly. I’m going, “This isn’t just a walk-through.” I’m terrified. I didn’t sleep very well. I’m thinking, Oh my God. Do they know I’m not an actress? Have I not told them that already? But when I got to set, everyone of course was just open arms and so loving and like, “You can do it! Don’t worry about it. If you don’t get it, we’ll do it again. Nobody gets it on the first time.” That gave me a safety net. I tried to let all that fear go and think to myself, This is probably the funnest thing you’ll ever do. Also, this is taking my music to a generation of kids from 15 to 40 that have never really probably been associated with it.

You’ve had problems in the past with people thinking you’re a real witch, and on the show you’re referred to as “The White Witch.” Did that bug you at all, or are you over it?
I looked at it differently. I looked at it as my being Misty's only hope. I was her friend. Like all of us do when we’re upset, I go and put on my favorite treadmill song and I rock out in my bathroom. Twenty minutes later, I feel like a new person. That’s how I looked at it: I was there for her, and for goodness’ sake, she lives in a swamp with alligators! She has no friends, no parents. She knows she’s crazy because she’s got witchy powers, but she doesn’t know what that is, or why. I was her blanket, and I love that relationship. I hope that’s what everyone feels about my music. That’s why I write it. Misty is just a personification of the person who I write for, and that doesn’t have anything to do with her being a witch. It has everything to do with her being a human being like all the rest of us who have hard times and music gets us all through it.

Read more posts by Denise Martin

Filed Under: stevie nicks ,american horror story ,shawls ,witchery ,twirling ,tv

How Kurt Cobain talked Dave Grohl into giving up guitar to play drums for Nirvana. Also, a mnemonic for the standard tuning of a 6-string guitar (E, A, D, G, B, E).