Water main break on Meridian St.

I came home today to find two blocks of Meridian Street blocked off by police cars. It turns out that there was a water main break at the corner of Falcon Street and Meridian Street. The damage was pretty amazing including a large sink-hole and also the road buckled in places. A witness--and by "witness" I mean my landlord's sister--described the water rushing down the street as "like a river." There was debris deposited for a block down Meridian Street.

Here is the kicker. The pipe one block up had been leaking on and off for months. There were wooden saw horses set up for a while, but there was a hole where the leak was coming out and the hole kept getting larger and larger. That leak was eventually fixed. So I'm not sure if this is something that could have been prevented, but it seems kind to suspect to me. Obviously, I am no expert on water mains and their tendencies toward breakage. I took some snaps of the aftermath which follow:






The sinkhole.







Looking up Meridian Street toward
the sinkhole from Condor Street.


Update: My water is now yellow. Whoopie!

April Exhibit at Perlera Real Estate

Thanks as always to Gloria Carrigg:

Spring is here!

I noticed this morning that the buds were out on the trees. So exciting. Sorry about the crappy camera phone pics:

Gore in '08? Anyone? Anyone?

This video of Vice President Al Gore during the 2000 campaing and was allegedly shot by Spike Jonze and for whatever reason was never released. Man, his campaign people should have all been run out of Washington on a rail. It's so sad to me to know that this is the man who was supposed to be president. (That's right. We all know who really won the 2000 election) We can't change history, but shoot, I'd vote for him in 2008 before I vote for any of the other bozos the Dems seem to have in the line-up.

Rock en Espanol in J.P. this Sunday.

Thanks to Sandra Castillo of the East Boston Artists Group. I'm a little late for the deadline for reservations, but I would guess that if you are interested in going it's worth it to call anyway:

Esta es una iniciativa de la comunidad latina que envuelve a musicos, activistas, intellectualesy artistas de todo Iberoamerica. Queremos pedir el apoyo de nuestros representantes politicos y academicos. Esta iniciativa es sin fin de lucro y nace genuinamente de la comunidad.


This is a community initiative that involves musicians, activists, intellectuals and artists from all of Iberia-America. It is a grass-roots non-profit initiative and we ask for your support along wioth the support of our political representatives and the academic community.


ZUMIX (community arts organization) Casa de la Cultura East Boston, and the CULTURAL AGENTS INICIATIVE at HARVARD UNIVERSITY

invite you to:

ZUBTERRANEO
A Night of Rock en Español

at THE MILKY WAY LOUNGE & LANES

Center Street, Jamica Plain, MA 02130

Sunday, March 26th 9:00 PM

performing live

ROJO ILEGAL

guest performance by

ABACOS

and

LA CHUSMA

$5.00 admission 21+


For Info and reservations call 617-417-2524. Space is limited. RSVP by March 20th.

El cupo es limitado Cada agencia y consulado tiene cuatro entradas de cortezia pero deben reservar a mas tardar el lunes 20 de Marzo

Art by Fernando Di Martino

I attended the closing reception for the latest exhibit at Perlera Real Estate--the works of Brazilian artist Fernando Di Martino. The art was wonderful and the company was as well. It was great to meet some of the people who actually read this blog. Thank you to the wonderful Gloria Carrigg, who does so much to promote local Eastie artists. Here are some pictures from last night:



Artist Fernando Di Martino and exhibit curator Gloria Carrigg



Two paintings of Mr. Di Martino's home town in Minas Gerais, Brazil



I'm a very bad blogger, because I forgot to right down the titles of
all of these paintings, but here is more art work by Mr. Di Martino.

Exhibit on Salvadoran Culture in Somerville.

The Somerville Museum will have an exhibit up beginning April 8th about Salvadoran culture. Thanks again to Gloria Carrigg of the East Boston Artist Group for the tip.

Exhibition on Transnational Community to be Held in Somerville Museum

Somerville, MA March 3, 2006 - Beginning April 8^th and lasting until May 21^s, the Somerville Museum will host From Yucuaiquín to Somerville: El Baile de los Negritos. This exhibition is a unique look at Salvadoran immigrants in Somerville and how they have continued to celebrate religious traditions from their home country in their new setting. It will focus on a typical dance, El Baile de los Negritos, which has been performed for hundreds of years in the city of Yucuaiquín to honor the patron saint, Saint Francis of Assisi. Now that a large community of Salvadorans native to the city Yucuaiquín have settled in Somerville, they have begun celebrating this tradition here; the exhibit hopes to explain, through a varied display, how transnational communities are formed and how traditions are preserved and modified through time and space.

The Salvadoran population in Somerville is not only significant in numbers, but also in cultural, political and economic influence. While the main organizer of the exhibit, Tufts Junior Sebastian Chaskel, is certainly not the first to take note of this fact, he believes that greater awareness is still necessary among Somerville residents. His partnership with the Somerville Museum is aimed precisely at increasing awareness of the eclectic cultural atmosphere of the city and hopes to spark the interest of a diverse audience. Chaskel states that he and the Museum “are hoping to attract people from … Latin American countries, as well as people who would not usually attend an event about Latino culture. It is the cultural exchange between the different groups that will make this exhibition special.”

The exhibition opens on Saturday April 8^th at 5p.m. and will include a performance of the traditional dance by members of the community who will also speak about their hometown and cultural and religious traditions. Following the dance, typical Salvadoran food will be served. In May, the exposition will be followed by a panel of scholars and community leaders that will discuss the topic of immigrant communities; the panel will be held at the Somerville Museum, date to be announced.

This exhibition is sponsored by Tufts University College of Citizenship and Public Service, the Somerville Museum, the Somerville Arts Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and local community members. For more information, please contact Cristina Calzadilla at Cristina.Calzadilla@gmail.com, or at 617.459.7717.

Eastie photos.

Boston, Massachusetts
Originally uploaded by Zakcq.

Zackq, a fellow Eastie blogger whose blog can be found here, has a wonderful set of photos of East Boston on flickr. Check out the set entitled appropriately enough:

"East Boston. Eastie! Eabo?"

P.S. Check out his other photos too, because they are also great.

I love Boston Legal.

I've just discovered youtube.com so I thought I would post a video. This anti-war speech from Boston Legal is just perfect. So exactly on the money. Go David E. Kelley! And who doesn't love James Spader?

East Boston Police, District 7 Newsletter.

Did you know that the District 7 police put out a newsletter every month? Well now you do. Here is the newsletter for February. It's in pdf form so you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to in order to read it. If you don't already have it, you can download here. I think it's great that District 7 takes the time to do this, since I'm sure that they are always very busy.

Eating in Eastie.

The Weekly Dig had a great write up of Eastie restaurants this week:

. . .While dining in out-of-the-way ethnic and old-school restaurants, I routinely run into big-time local chefs, who, I assure you, aren’t just chasing delicious, bargain-priced meals—they’re taking notes.

One rich resource is East Boston, which—as home to continual waves of immigrants—straddles both past and future. While the Irish, French Canadians, and Russian Jews have mostly moved on, a vital Italian-American community remains. Now Southeast Asian enclaves have taken root, as well as a surging Central and South American community that now accounts for a majority of Eastie’s residents. That makes for a proud example of melting-pot America, and a tremendous dining destination.

I’ve barely scratched the surface in Eastie, yet I’ve already encountered everything from shore-town fried seafood and creaky Italian-American to Campanian, Colombian, Salvadoran, Peruvian, Mexican and Vietnamese. Most joints are homely and casual (jeans are the rule), serving meals that are soul-satisfying, gut-busting and cheap. Taken together, they offer both a grounding in some of our oldest local traditions and insight into the Next Big Thing—coming soon to a pricier menu in a tonier venue near you.

I still haven't been to some of places mentioned in the article. There are so many places to eat in East Boston it's hard to get to them all, but it's fun trying.