Source: The Boston Globe
The Berkshire Athenaeum: Morphing from the 19th to the 21st Century
November 28, 2024
September 18, 2024
August 25, 2024
Sturgeon Moon Over Marshall Street, Watertown, MA
August 20, 2024
The wispy cirrus cloud filigree under the moon is saturated by moonglow. The blue dot is an annoying flare that often happens when taking photos at night.
Photo by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
July 05, 2024
Dusk Vanishes Into Evening, July 3, 2022
From the archives...
50 minutes under the original Big Top.
8:08 PM
Porch sitting.... a routine that reminds me of evening vespers at a Catholic overnight camp I attended when I was 9 years old. After dinner, we gathered in a simple wood chapel for evening vesper services. The ritual was calming. The chanting and singing put a soft period to the end to the conclusion of the day's events. The Latin verses I learned rolled off my tongue easily. I had no idea what they meant. Flashbacks of the carefree swimming and games we played all day long tucked me into bed.The chanting and singing at the evening services, with incense wafting to the rafters deepened the ritual and helped ease a loneliness I felt for my mother and father.
I still remember one of rhe last phrases, "in secula saeculorum" (for ever and ever)..Amen. before we marched to small wooden cabins, three pairs of bunks one over the other and the smell of Colgate toothpaste, part of the evening wash up we were required to complete before climbing into our bunks.
Tonight, instead smelling the thick aromatic incense swirling into the chapel rafters, the mild aroma of Bigelow Green Tea wafts from the mug in my hand.
8:08 PM
A dog barks in the distance, crows make their rowdy final caws before choosing their resting places high in the trees across the street. A jet at about 20,000 feet is sounding taps. The cosmos is folding up its tent for the day.
8:58 PM
Gathering dusk has eased into its armchair. A great gray stillness envelops the land. A dog barks in the distance. Crows have made their final caws before choosing resting places high in the trees, A jet at about 20,000 feet is sounding taps for the day. Deepening gray sky turns cheek to pillow, dusk enveloping the cosmos as the earth makes its quotidien turn from the sun.
In the time it took the kitchen kettle to boil and the tea to steep, evening has pulled its arms into its sleeping robe, ready to preside until dawn.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
July 04, 2024
July 4, 2024 Fireworks and Camaraderie at the Hatch Shell Boston
July 4, 2024
400,000 citizens flocked to the Hatch Shell on the banks of Charles River to enjoy a good ol' fashioned Fourth of July celebration. The cantankerous New England weather did everything except sing Yankee Doodle Dandy. The not a-cloud-in-the-sky 75 degree weather was a meteorological mood enhancer.
The The Boston Pops, conducted by Keith Lockhart, was in a festive mood, attired in, what else... festive red, white, and blue hats.
For one glorious night, this was not a partisan event. It was an American event. On this perfect summer night. the whole pyrotechnic shebang, launched from barges on the river, was seen by 40 millions on shore and many more millions like me on TV. It was a kumbaya moment. I could almost hear everyone take a deep cleansing breath.
Echoing in my mind were the words of Ben Franklin ... "It's a republic, if you can keep it."
"How do you keep it?" I ask the venerable man.
His bushy eyebrows arch.
"VOTE FOR IT!" he shouts with the same conviction he brought to fiery speeches in the Continental Congress.
Trust me, Ben. I shall.
The Hatch Shell, magnificently illuminated, added to the tradition of July 4 extravaganzas.
Looking east, I could see pyrotechnic illuminations shimmering on the horizon and hear the muted block buster booooms all the way from Boston to Watertown.
Photos taken from TV by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
July 01, 2024
June 24, 2024
Willie Nelson. Tribute while he’s still standing, smoking and singing
June 23, 2024
Willie Nelson. A tribute while he’s still standing, smoking and singing.
Willie…troubadour, folk hero, counter-culture icon, philanthropist (Farm Aid), father (Lukas and Micah), husband (to Annie D'Angelo), is managing respiratory issues from years of smoking weed, and in the midst what some say will be his last rodeo. He canceled his upcoming show.
The spirits are engaged. WUMB played his son Lukas’s cover “Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground” this afternoon … Lukas’s rich tone and timbre channels his 91 year old dad so well it’s eerie.
“Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die” ?
Willie is in no rush to be smoked. He celebrated his 91st birthday on April 25, 2024
Billboard just reported that Willie’s dropping his 114th career album extending his record for the most in the chart’s history..114!.
Willie's early ballads "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Hello Walls" and "Crazy" on his album "And Then I Wrote" are American Songbook before he grew a beard, let his hair grow to pony tail length and wrapped that iconic red banana around his head. These are my favorite Willie recordings They didn't chart very high but exemplify the man's range and musical sensibility. Check them out.
Willie’s tenacity, perseverance, influence on country/western music is unmatched. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Nelson
Willie, never the one to go softly into the night, is an entrepreneur at heart. He was not kidding when he said, “Roll me up and smoke me when I die.”
You know damn well that he’s gonna order cremation.
You know damn well that he’s gonna have a few grains of his ashes packed in a tightly rolled reefers and have them sold. For big bucks.
You know damn well he’s gonna find a way to keep the proceeds from the revenuers, probably by demanding that proceeds be remanded to non-profits of his choice,
January 12, 2019 photo below of a sold out show in Nashvllle. His son Lukas sang solo and together with his brother Micah then Lukas performed with his band "Promise Of The Real". It's in the genes. Happy Birthday, Willie...may you keep rolling on...and rolling those reefers, assuming there's a smoking section in your next rodeo.
https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2021/08/willie-nelson-singing-for-his-supper.html
Links that add to the legend...
A MUST WATCH VIDEO BELOW TO GET A SENSE OF THE MAN THE MYTH AND THE LEGEND
'Willie on Willie' interview with Walter Isaacsson. on Christine Amanpour show October 15, 2021
Isaacson's style and questions draw out Nelson's humanity and experience growing up with his close knit family in Abbot, Texas...Nelson has sung with George Jones and Frank Sinatra...yes, you read that right.
Photo by Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.
May 29, 2024
The Metropolitan Water Works Museum Redux
April 28, 2024
A reliable water supply of potable water is essential to sustainable life in America.
In the 1850s, Boston began modernizing its water supply, which at the time was a combination of wells, pond water, and downhill piping from a Natick reservoir.[3]
"The water for the Metropolitan Waterworks originally came from Lake Cochituate in Natick, MA. In 1906, it started coming from the Wachusett Reservoir in Clinton and later it came all the way from the Quabbin Reservoir some 65 miles to West of the metropolitan waterworks facility in Chestnut Hill, MA," says Gerard McMahon, Facilities Manager of the Waterworks Museum in Chestnut Hill, MA at 355 Chestnut Hill Ave., Brighton, MA.
NOTE: Be sure to read the comment below by Eric Peterson, Executive Director of the Waterworks Museum
The Richardson Romanesque building was designed Erasmus Darwin Leavitt
In 1886, this 'high service' pumping station was designed by Erasmus Darwin Leavitt., and the next year it came online as the Chestnut Hill pumping station where it stands today at 355 Chestnut Hill Ave., Brighton, MA. Richardson's utilitarian aesthetic architectural style stands across from the Chestnut Hill Reservoir abutting Boston College at 355 Chestnut Hill Ave., Brighton, MA
From Wikipedia...
In the 1870s, Boston city leaders decided the city needed to scale up its water filtration and pumping and began looking into options.
In 1886, this 'high service' pumping station was designed, and the next year it came online as the Chestnut Hill pumping station - only a few years after the first such station in the world, in Germany. Water was pumped from this station uphill to the Fisher Hill reservoir, where gravity would then push the water to the surrounding area.[7]
In 1894, the station put its third water pump into operation: a steam-powered water pump designed by Erasmus Darwin Leavitt.[3] The Leavitt-Riedler Pumping Engine, as it was later called, was promoted as "the most efficient pumping engine in the world" it was first unveiled, and remained in operation through 1928. In the 20th century it was declared a historic mechanical engineering landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.[8] It was fully restored by the museum and is the centerpiece of its main floor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leavitt-Riedler_Pumping_Engine
Leavitt-Riedler Pumping Engine at Chestnut Hill Waterworks Museum. one of several examples of elegant designs by Boston architects.
Richardson's architecture style....form and function.
Behind the Waterworks building...
.
Towering smoke stack...
Towering smoke stack...
Stately architecture, 355 Chestnut Hill Ave., Brighton, MA.
Form and function...
..
Master bricklayers, stonemasons and machinists took pride in their work...
Embodied by this historic landmark they created at 355 Chestnut Hill Ave., Brighton, MA.
Design, fabrication, creativity, imagination and skill all employed to create the immense machinery to move water for miles.
355 Chestnut Hill Ave., Brighton, MA.
Reminiscent of the photography of Charles Sheeler https://www.ebay.com/itm/185849526053?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr%3D1&amdata=enc%3A1LHd_8PaoT6uPZm-ONTWhjw45&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&mkscid=101&itemid=185849526053&targetid=1585159291611&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9002064&poi=&campaignid=19894961968&mkgroupid=148855406073&rlsatarget=pla-1585159291611&abcId=9307911&merchantid=101679609&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIoZG22ZfphgMVwl9HAR1ehQ8AEAQYASABEgJnvvD_BwE
Photos of Waterworks Museum by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
May 23, 2024
Full moon over Oliver Street, May 2024… “The Flower Moon“
The eerie glow cast over my neighbor's rooftop reminded me of a visit to The House of the Seven Gables in Salem, MA many years ago.
Photo by Paul A. Tamburello. Jr.
May 21, 2024
May 11, 2024
Coronal Mass Ejections Taking The World By Storm
Yep, you heard that right. Since Friday afternoon May 10, CNN has been been running non stop coverage...satellite images, experts including Bill Nye the Science Guy, to weigh in about the repercussions that the Coronal Mass Ejections might cause on our digital world.
While on terra firma, Stormy Daniels is testifying about smaller ejections when she and then President Donald Trump had an affair. Lucky for Trump, he doesn't have to pay off the solar system system to bury the affair to page 3. Assuming the world's digital infrastructure survives, Trump's trial will again take over page one when that happens.
Gotta love the headlines about Mass Ejections and Trump that offer the most fabulous example of synchronicity I've read in ages.
April 02, 2024
March 28, 2024
March 27, 2024
February 20, 2024
Peace and Plenty Affords Both
FROM THE ARCHIVES ...my imagination drifts south as a winter storm approaches Boston...
pt at large, February 20, 2006
Peace and Plenty Beach Inn and Bonefish Lodge
Stanley Benjamin, Proprietor
Queen’s Highway, Georgetown, Great Exuma, Bahamas
A flip-flop marinated in Coppertone might have tasted good in this little piece of Paradise. The brilliant aquamarine water of Elizabeth Harbor in Georgetown was frosted with dainty whitecaps in the brisk southeast breeze. The Blizzard of ‘06 had just blanketed the northeast and here sat your reviewer in a polo shirt and shorts amongst sailors, tourists, and a few locals having lunch in the dining room of the Club Peace and Plenty Beach Inn and Bonefish Lodge. Somewhere to the north, denizens of the northeast were seeing their breath crystalize as they huffed while they shoveled snow. I was busy spilling sand out of my beach shoes on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas.
Somewhere in the Caribbean DNA is an affinity for colors most Americans haven't seen since finger painting class in kindergarten. The peach toned walls in the dining room, ceiling fans overhead, smooth white tiles underfoot, were the opening salvo of color. Lined with windows, the dining room was perched over the royal blue and yellow striped awning of a tiny poolside bar. Emerald chaise lounges encircled a pale blue mini pool and the whole terrace was bordered with a low wall of flat peach colored rock overlooking the harbor. As if this weren't assault enough on a poor Northern boy’s limited winter sensibilities, the sandy ribbons of beaches on Stocking Island lay invitingly a few miles off to the west. Lunch was almost an afterthought.
Conch burgers are a local favorite. Tiny cubes of conch in a slightly piquant batter are fried to a crusty brown and served on burger buns with lettuce tomato and onion. In truth, New England fried clams have a more distinctly oceanic flavor but - sorry Gloucester, Manchester, Portland, and Provincetown - aren't served with a view like this.
Bahamian fish and chips stood up to New England’s version. Chunks of grouper, golden fried in a delicate simple batter, were moist and flaky. The chicken wings weren't appealing to look at but pronounced tasty by my dinner companions, even though the kitchen had run out of the spicy sauce that reputedly fired them up considerably. Virtually all foodstuffs arrive by boat. The savvy tourist quickly adapts to two quirks of life in the Bahamas: island time and “we ran out of that.”
One thing that will never be in short supply is color. The range of the Bahama’s water color makes you wonder what planet you’re on. The word paradise often comes to mind. pt at large spent five idyllic days relaxing with good friends on a small island west of Georgetown, with only two trips into town to reconnoiter and get a feel for the culture, history, and the native and adopted residents of the island. I'm already looking ahead to next February when I hope to be invited back to visit my friends on Elizabeth Island, a ten minute boat ride from Georgetown, and one light year away from a New England winter.
Photos by Paul A.Tamburello Jr.
February 15, 2024
A Visit to Peace and Plenty Afforded Both
FROM THE ARCHIVES ...my imagination drifts south as a winter storm approaches...
pt at large, February 20, 2006
Peace and Plenty Beach Inn and Bonefish Lodge
Stanley Benjamin, Proprietor
Queen’s Highway, Georgetown, Great Exuma, Bahamas
A flip-flop marinated in Coppertone might have tasted good in this little piece of Paradise. The brilliant aquamarine water of Elizabeth Harbor in Georgetown was frosted with dainty whitecaps in the brisk southeast breeze. The Blizzard of ‘06 had just blanketed the northeast and here sat your reviewer in a polo shirt and shorts amongst sailors, tourists, and a few locals having lunch in the dining room of the Club Peace and Plenty Beach Inn and Bonefish Lodge. Somewhere to the north, denizens of the northeast were seeing their breath crystalize as they huffed while they shoveled snow. I was busy spilling sand out of my beach shoes on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas.
Somewhere in the Caribbean DNA is an affinity for colors most Americans haven't seen since finger painting class in kindergarten. The peach toned walls in the dining room, ceiling fans overhead, smooth white tiles underfoot, were the opening salvo of color. Lined with windows, the dining room was perched over the royal blue and yellow striped awning of a tiny poolside bar. Emerald chaise lounges encircled a pale blue mini pool and the whole terrace was bordered with a low wall of flat peach colored rock overlooking the harbor. As if this weren't assault enough on a poor Northern boy’s limited winter sensibilities, the sandy ribbons of beaches on Stocking Island lay invitingly a few miles off to the west. Lunch was almost an afterthought.
Conch burgers are a local favorite. Tiny cubes of conch in a slightly piquant batter are fried to a crusty brown and served on burger buns with lettuce tomato and onion. In truth, New England fried clams have a more distinctly oceanic flavor but - sorry Gloucester, Manchester, Portland, and Provincetown - aren't served with a view like this.
Bahamian fish and chips stood up to New England’s version. Chunks of grouper, golden fried in a delicate simple batter, were moist and flaky. The chicken wings weren't appealing to look at but pronounced tasty by my dinner companions, even though the kitchen had run out of the spicy sauce that reputedly fired them up considerably. Virtually all foodstuffs arrive by boat. The savvy tourist quickly adapts to two quirks of life in the Bahamas: island time and “we ran out of that.”
One thing that will never be in short supply is color. The range of the Bahama’s water color makes you wonder what planet you’re on. The word paradise often comes to mind. pt at large spent five idyllic days relaxing with good friends on a small island west of Georgetown, with only two trips into town to reconnoiter and get a feel for the culture, history, and the native and adopted residents of the island. I'm already looking ahead to next February when I hope to be invited back to visit my friends on Elizabeth Island, a ten minute boat ride from Georgetown, and one light year away from a New England winter.
Photos by Paul A.Tamburello Jr.
December 31, 2023
December 29, 2023
Dinner at Barcino continues a legacy, December 28, 2023
Barcino is a legacy restaurant…a second visit December 28 underscores the point.
The new owners understand why Stellina, the restaurant that previously occupied the space, was so special and had such a loyal and discriminating following that it took a massive culture changing pandemic to force it to it knees and close in August 2020.
LINK
https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/watertown-tab/2020/08/26/stellina-restaurant-in-watertown-closes-after-34-years/114686390/
The look and feel and feel remain generally in place. How do you describe VIBE?
Start with service and the servers. Attentive, knowledgeable, and genial. Their responses to my questions made me think that they’ve tasted every item on the menu. They don’t rave, they describe preparations, flavors and textures. They know how to steer a patron with a food allergy to an appropriate item on the menu. Based on replies to our questions, I’ll bet they’ve tried every dish on the menu, the same way servers at Stellina used to do back in the day.
Tonight, my dining companion, not hungry enough for an entrée, ordered the Tuscan Kale Salad ($12), after being assured it was served with goat cheese that she can tolerate. Her eyes widened when she was served this mountain of fresh greens.
My orecchiette (little ears), roasted chicken, broccolini pesto, confit tomatoes, with aged provolone, lemon-herb breadcrumbs ($20) was a satisfying medley of tastes and textures. Served piping hot, the bite sized broccoli florets were crunchy, the pasta al dente, and the breadcrumbs drizzled with enough lemon that gave it a satisfying clean-palate finish.
The nearly 4-inch- high square of tiramisu sprinkled with cinnamon ($10) floated on its dish like a cloud . This was the second visit to Bar’cino. It’s now my go-to fave for lunch and dinner.
Watertown has several; family-owned diners and restaurants and one small chain eatery, Not Your Average Joe’s, a small enough number so they generally complement rather than compete with each other. The public parking lot behind Joe’s and Barcino is a plus.
The restaurant sets a high bar of excellence in Watertown's wide range of eateries.
Google https://www.restaurantji.com/ma/watertown/ for an impressive list of restaurants, diners, ethnic restaurants and markets in the area.
Orecchiette roasted chicken, broccolini pesto, confit tomatoes, with aged provolone, lemon-herb breadcrumbs...orecchiette Italian for "little ears".
Tuscan Kale Salad
Tiramisu
The scene
Colorful corner
Clean lines layout
Entrance on Main Street
in the door...r
relaxed scene at the bar...
Adios...
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
December 23, 2023
23/12/07 Gallery Stroll at the Armenian Museum of America
23/12/07 2nd Annual Gallery Stroll Armenian Museum of America
Armenian Museum of America
65 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472
Member reception, gallery stroll, fund raising event, yes, but more than that… an intergenerational gathering of, no other way to say this, members of a group that has suffered the scourge of genocide and has been flourishing for generations in Watertown Massachusetts, home to the largest populations of Armenian Americans east of the Mississippi River.
Seasonal and Christmas songs played with elegant style by pianist Levon Hovsepian echoed resonantly throughout the gallery rooms on the third floor.
Pride. Resilience. Community…. emotions not found on the music scale, resonate deeper. Founding members opened this museum in 1985, transferring artifacts from a small parish house in Belmont to this sleek modern building that anchors Watertown Square.
https://www.armenianmuseum.org/history
After 125 members socialized and enjoyed a generous spread of hors oeuvres, Executive Director Jason Sohigian and Board President Michele Koligian warmly welcomed 125 guests and members. Many of the teenagers and pre-teens may have been experiencing their first occasion of cultural cohesion in this museum that celebrates their culture.
Guests had a chance to meet and chat wth Ara Oshagan, whose “Disrupted, Borders” installation appears in the gallery.
What happened next will not be forgotten any time soon by anyone present.
“Do you know any Armenian songs?” Berj Chekijian asked pianist Levon Hovsepian.
Moments later, Chekijian’s rich baritone revived an Armenian folk song, a moment that captured past present and future and belongs in its own archive in the museum.
The fund-raising event was successful.
Berj Chekjian's spontaneous solo? Priceless.
Download IMG_9197
Pianist Levon Hovsepian
Elegant piano stylings by Pianist Levon Hovsepian
Welcome remarks by Board President Michele Koligian
and Executive Director Jason Sohijian
to an attentive crowd
Artist Ara Oshagan and board members
Family heirloom necklace displayed by a member
As in this photo in the museum, the audience was multi-generational
The sleek Museum that anchors Watertown Square was designed by Ben Thompson who also designed the Design Research Building on Brattle Street in Cambridge, MA, is an example of Brutalist style buildings in Boston.
Photos and video by museum member Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
December 18, 2023
Brunch at Barcino
23/12/16 Barcino
Brunch 2:30 PM Saturday
https://www.barcino.com/watertown/watertown-menu
Brunch at Barcino
We arrived just before the Saturday brunch menu closed at 3 PM, appetites whetted after holiday shopping. Good start when our server remembers us from a previous visit. And got better when brunch arrived.
My wild mushroom and smoked mozzarella omelet and tri-color salad was a little symphony of taste and texture. Fluffy and light, topped with thin shaved squares of parmesan cheese, it was a perfect reward after delivering holiday gifts to friends.
My dining companion’s arugula salad was served as ordered without cheese. Restaurants are used to accommodating patrons with allergies or intolerances for certain foods - and Barcino is up to the task.
Barcino occupies the space known by locals as Stellina’s, IMHO the best restaurant ever to grace Watertown Square and a casualty of the pandemic in 2020. A classic floor plan, polished mahogany bar on one side and tables set behind a low partition on the other, it was always busy, Veteran servers knew when to leave you be and when to appear when you made eye contact. Owners Ginny Curcio at the front and her late husband Frank Curcio anchoring the kitchen, kept the flame going for 34 years. It took a pandemic to close the beloved place down.
Never fear. The spirit Stellina’s, a legacy front to back, service to kitchen, is alive and well at Barcino,
Photos by Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.
December 04, 2023
Tiger Moan, Amy Kucharik, Cheryl Arena: Full Moon Blues
FROM THE ARCHIVES...
Tiger Moan, Amy Kucharik, Cheryl Arena
Sunday June 4, 2023
Energy from last night’s Tiger Moan show still keeping time in the marrow of my bones.
The Full Flower Full Moon overhead was in its waning gibbous phase. There was no energy waning inside the walls of the Back Room at The Burren in Somerville when Amy Kucharik and her A List musicians, with special guest Cheryl Arena, stepped onto the stage.
Full moons are notorious for casting energy with the sweep and intensity of a cosmic purse seiner. The Burren was in its thrall from the jump. Tiger Moan promises “Vintage and modern blues with sass and class.” Add the sense of call and response reminiscent heard in a Sunday morning clapboard church south of the Mason-Dixon Line and you get the idea. Tiger Moaning? No sir…Tonight was Tiger Testifying.
Scores of blues and swing dancers deftly swirled around the packed dance floor with uncanny radar they’ve acquired from dancing at close quarters to smoky blues and syncopated swing. From the jump, the crowd was locked and loaded and ready to rumble. They were not disappointed.
Amy Kucharik - vocals, ukulele, guitar; Greg Toro - bass; Erica Risti - saxophones, backing vocals; Tim Lewandowski - trombone; Michael Valdez - piano; Stephan Chaggaris - drums’ and special guest Cheryl Arena were on fire.
There was nothing rote about solos by Kucharik, Arena, Toro, Lewandowski, Valdez, and Risti. Their eyes were not focused what was in front of them but what was spinning along a mile a minute as the music like a geyser spilled from their brains into the fingering or mouthpieces of their instruments. Fresh paint, fresh newsprint, still wet.
Performances so uniquely creative that several dancers stood transfixed to admire the sheer artistry.
In the midst of a smoky blues number, the only sound from the stage was Chaggaris’s soft subtle brush work accompanying a slow drag. Not one iota of energy was lost in the the downshift.
The gold standard for blues dancers, this is Amy and Tiger Moan’s second year of residency at The Burren. In these turbulent times, their music is a restorative elixir that, for a few transformative hours, lifts our load, fortifies our resolve, joins us in affirmative community.
Photo by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
Tiger Moan Floor Show on Stage
Sunday, December 3, 2023
Amy Kucharik and Tiger Moan
The Burren, Somerville, MA
If you can count by 8 and 16 and beyond as you listen to music, you’re probably a dancer - and certainly a musician. Watching the blues dancers interpret the math into their pas de deux on the dance floor is reliably entertaining.
Attentive dancers can sense a caesura, a chance to come to a full stop, to dramatic effect. One reason they like Tiger Moan's bluesy repertoire is to take full advantage of those moments.
Another creative show is happening on stage when Tim Lewandowski/trombone, Greg Toro/drums, Ariel Bernstein/drums, Michael Valdez/piano, Erica Risti/baritone saxophone, and of course Amy Kucharik/ukulele/harmonica, break out their solos. They've probably planned who plays when...everything else? Sheer improvisation....that lasts until whoever is playing has wrung every note out of the moment. gives a nod, and the next musician builds on it to ignite her/his own solo.
Sitting at the bar, I never get tired of watching this show within a show of A-list musicians playing in their sandbox.
2022 didn't take photo on December 3. 2023
October 30, 2023
October 18, 2023
Storefront Art Projects: Jasmine Chen At Work
Storefront Art Projects: Jasmine Chen
October 14, 2023
83 Spring Street, Watertown, MA
https://www.storefrontartprojects.com/jasmine-chen-body-work-and-practice
Storefront Art Projects
Second Visit 2:30 PM
Watching Jasmine Chen paint subjects as she sits at a tiny desk in the compact showroom is painterly ballet in motion, her eyes lifting to capture nuances of form that translate to her perception of what’s underneath what she sees then a deft kinetic response using every angle of her paint brush, dainty dots to suggest an eye, broad strokes to fill in shapes of bodies. and a small cotton cloth to blot or expand the still watery ink for the effect she wants.
That Chen carries this off with such calm aplomb is a marvel to witness.
Exhibit A...watching the artist paint family portrait...
Manipulating the still wet ink with cotton gauze to achieve the effect that the artist wants.
The finished portrait admired by the subjects...
and becomes an instant family heirloom.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
October 15, 2023
Storefront Art Projects: Jasmine Chen
October 14, 2023
On view: September 7 - October 14, 2023
Gallery hours: Thursdays and Saturdays, 1 - 4 pm
83 Spring Street, Watertown, MA
More photos to follow.
https://www.storefrontartprojects.com/jasmine-chen-body-work-and-practice
This little outpost is a diamond in the rough. Tucked away on a residential street in Watertown, it regularly hosts work by a range of artists, mainstream to modern. The current show “jasmine chen: bodywork + practice” is a lalapalooza of style and content.
Owner Ellen Wineberg says Chen was born in China, has been steeped in creating art since she was 2 years old, graduated from Harvard then Brandeis with a degree in economics. She has been demonstrating her technique at StorefrontArtProjects using traditional Chinese brushes and ink pots. Channeling her inner child, she connects with her muse of the moment, has painted using strands of her hair and pressed lipsticked lips together against paper to make small prints that remind me of Marilyn Monroe blowing kisses with her pouty lips. Oh, and composed one print by pounding her inked shoe on wet paper.
Her most striking ink wash paintings gain power from simplicity and technique by using traditional Chinese brushes and ink. Subtle gradations from shades of black and gray display an uncanny depth. Examining the prints on the walls and lying on the storefront windowsill feels like a form of walking meditation. In these tumultuous times, a visit to Storefront’s Jasmine Chen exhibit inspires a deep cleansing breath.
I had arrived at 11:30 AM, way before the gallery's opening time of 1 PM. Ms; Wineberg informed me that the artist would return in the afternoon, the last day of her show.
I returned to watch Ms. Chen make an ink wash portrait of a young boy and his sister as their mother watched. While sitting on a folding chair taking notes, I was asked if I'd sit for a portrait...oh boy...yes! And was more than happy to make a donation to the artist.
First visit11:30 AM
Scene across from 83 Spring Street Watertown MA reflected in storefront window
Passersby drawn inside by this display of Jasmine Chen's inkwash paintings in storefront window
Below photos...Chen captures subtle nuances of what is under the surface by the way her subjects choose to pose...
and viewers interpret...
while translating ink and paper...
into their own ...
ideas of who each of them were in person.
ABOVE...Chen's work on display in storefront window is as revealing as a photograph.
Creative Chen used her own hair to create this linear tangle... i would have loved to watch her make this one displayed on gallery wall.
Tabletop on which Chen painted this afternoon.
Chen used a painting knife to apply thick layers of oil paint to the portrait above.
Luminous color shows that Chen has mastered oil paint.
Four of a kind ...
Portrait Jasmine Chen made by pressing her lips to the paper...she's created with her hair, boots and now her lips!
Artist bio...
Sunlit office behind the showroom
Gallery owner Ellen Wineberg holding an ink wash painting by Jasmine Chen. Do you recognize the subject on the left side of the portrait in her hands?
Chen portraits are for sale, not her portraits of family.
Coming soon...Jasmine Chen Part 2 - watching the artist at work.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
September 30, 2023
September 03, 2023
August 29, 2023
MLK 60th Anniversary of "I Have A Dream" speech
In my email box last week…
Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom August 28
“You are all invited to a commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington at First Parish Watertown, 35 Church Street, on Monday, August 28th at 6:00pm. Following the reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speech, local folk singer Jean Gauthier will lead us in singing songs sung at the march.
“Please join the First Parish Watertown Social Action Committee for a reading of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 's speech, "I Have a Dream," as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington August 28. We will gather on the patio of the First Parish Watertown Memorial Garden at 6:00 PM Monday. After the reading we will take a few moments to discuss what the speech means for us today. We will end the program by singing songs of the Civil Rights Era, including "We Shall Overcome."
Monday August 28, 2023
About two dozen people spanning 8 decades gathered on the patio of the First Parish Watertown Memorial Garden at 6:00 PM. Using copies of the speech, we were invited to take turns reading passages from the iconic speech. As I suppose happened in 1968, the speech gained momentum and meaning paragraph by paragraph.
Living history. A woman in the audience was in that crowd at the mall in Washington. Mary talked about coming out of Union Station and being only100 feet away from MLK, Jr. on his way to the event at which he would deliver one of the most eloquently stirring speeches in American history.
After the reading, in the tradition of Friends Meetings, we were invited to say something about what the speech means for us today.
“His speech has no impact unless you and I do something to propel the cause of equality, inclusion, and a just society, When friend and world class sailor Rich Wilson rounded Cape Horn in 2009, he considered efforts to eliminate Apartheid and wrote 'Hope without action is of no use.' " True today more than ever.
Young black men and women put their lives on the line to sit at the "Whites Only" lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in on February 1, 1960. On March 7, 1965, men and women were beaten by police as they attempted to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge outside Montgomery on March 7, 1965. In hindsight, a page in history was turned by those ordinary men and women who felt the call to act.
Led by Joan Gautier, we sang “We Shall Overcome” to close the meeting...and have no idea how much courage it took to sit at those lunch counters in Selma in February 1960 and the "Bloody Sunday" march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge led by 25 year old John Lewis on March 7, 1965. Broadcast on TV, the brutality shocked a national audience.
We have a long way to go. Martin's speech is a call to action...action that starts with one person at a time. It's my turn.
Organizer Eileen Ryan (second from left) heads the Social Action Committee at the First Parish Watertown.
Joan Gauthier leads us in "We Shall Overcome".
Living history...seated woman in blue attire recalls attending MLK 1968 "I Have A Dream" speech in Washington.
POST SCRIPT 1
A little known fact about how How a ten cent comic book read by John Lewis fueled a movement,
A link to Rich Wilson's initiative that resulted in connecting to thousands of school children in a round the world solo ocean race.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
August 16, 2023
Lebanon Meets the Dominican Republic: The Shish Kabob Restaurant
FROM THE ARCHIVES
July 13, 2017
“My bartender makes the best Mojitos in La Romana,” says the Lebanese owner of the Shish Kabob Restaurant.
Good start.
We’re there with two friends who have roots in La Romana, remember buying food from pushcarts when they walked into the streets in the evening when they were kids. and are frequent customers here. We’re getting personal attention from the outgoing owner,
The small world department gets a full head of steam when Juan Giha Elmufdi asks where I’m from.
“My daughter goes to school at Bentley University!” he says with a big smile.
“That’s a ten minute drive from my home in Watertown,” says I.
What are the chances that you’d eat a dinner in a city not found on most tourists radar on a small island in the middle of the Caribbean and get treated like royalty because the owner’s daughter goes to college ten minutes from where you live.
“My daughter got a masters degree in Culinary Arts in New York City and now works at a Michelin two star restaurant in New York City. She intends to return to home here to help her brother open a bar and restaurant around the corner from my restaurant!"
This is one proud papa talking.
I swap stories with him about the Armenian markets and restaurants in my home town. We talk about the various tastes of hummus and baba ganoush.
“Watertown has the largest populations of Armenians except for a city in California,” says I.
When we said we were not ready for a full meal, Juan Giha Elmufdi said, “I’ll send you some appetizers I think you’ll like.”
An understatement. We feast on small plates of fresh aromatic appetizers and have another round of mojitos.
Desserts appear!
When I ask for the bill he waves me off.
“It was my pleasure to feed you. Come again. And bring your friends!”
Lebanese and Dominican hospitality are a magnificent combination.
The Shish Kabob Restaurant, a popular destination for Middle Eastern food in La Romana, Dominican Republic.
Owner Juan Giha Elmufdi,.Katherine Burton Jones, Arlene Alvarez, PT and Alex Martinez Suárez.
Owner Juan Giha Elmufdi and PT... photos of patrons and restaurant history are on the wall.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
August 10, 2023
July 23, 2023
July 22, 2023
July 21, 2023
July 01, 2023
Song and Surprise Of The Day: "Don't Be Cruel," More A Reinvention Than A Cover
Whooeeeee.... never thought someone could, or would, take this song by you know who, turn it upside down, let the sound of the coins falling from its trousers produce a song track, utterly its own, groove heavy, emotionally convincing, reeking of the 1950s, everything going on... voice, gospel phrasing undertones, backup singers and tight band that makes every note count. And the bass line running through like a freight train with a metronome in the firebox. I don't remember dancing to the original but this version begs you push the chairs back in the kitchen.. Oh my, 4 minutes and 17 seconds of retro listening pleasure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-STFyfsdoVA
Let the song play through and wait for the cherry on top, the rock 'n rolly rockabilly, Billy Swan's "I Can Help".
June 26, 2023
Porch Sitting Monday June 26, 2023
Thursday 8:31 PM 2023
In the evanescent minutes before sunset, cirro-cumulus clouds look for a pillow before ceding the cosmos to twilight ... joined in a gavotte by gentle zephyrs that insistently caress the boughs of the giant oak trees on the stage across the street from my porch. Three robins swoop from a power line to forage for tiny insects. Within minutes, their internal alarm will sound curfew.
June 25, 2023
Porch Sitting Sunday June 25, 2023
Sunday June 25, 2023
8;01 PM
Evening porch sitting, David Bigelow green tea in hand. Utter Sunday stillness. no cars or trucks on the asphalt still damp from afternoon rains. Newly born rabbits pad about in their new world. soft, Reliable breeze comes courting from the southwest to rise leisurely up Oliver Street, late for dinner robins peck through the grass for a late night appetizer If you were looking for the heart of Sunday night atop Oliver Street, you’d be pumping through its atriums and out its ventricles right here.
June 23, 2023
Summer Solstice June 21, 2023
8:25 - 8:34 PM
In the evanescent minutes before sunset, cirro-cumulus clouds look for a pillow before ceding the cosmos to twilight. Gentle zephyrs insistently caress the boughs of the giant oak trees on the stage across the street from my porch. Three robins swoop from a power line to forage for tiny insects. Within minutes, their internal alarm will sound curfew...they silently wing it to find their perches for the night.
In 9 minutes, daylight will merge into twilight then night. The longest day of daylight will take a bow, to return next year. The hours of daylight will imperceptibly diminish for a few seconds a day until the winter solstice...a reminder of the passing of time and a not so gentle reminder that solstices are immutable...our time on earth, not so much.
Last call for dinner...
Mr. Robin and family nesting for the night...will be up early tomorrow with foreknowledge that the early birds get the worms.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
June 13, 2023
Intimations of a forest primeval
1:30 PM Eerie quietude, not a decibel registers, robins on radio silence. Butterflies flit on shimmering gossamer wings. An early afternoon breeze, induced by updrafts from the steadily warming earth, arouses the broad oak leaves on the hill with a lover’s caress. Intimations of a forest primeval, pristine, pure, transform the moment in amber.
Photos by Paul A.Tamburello, Jr.
June 06, 2023
Tiger Moan Testifies at The Burren
Sunday June 4, 2023
The Full Flower Full Moon overhead was in its waning gibbous phase. There was no energy waning inside the walls of the Back Room at The Burren in Somerville when Amy Kucharik and her A - List musicians, with special guest Cheryl Arena, stepped onto the stage.
Full moons are notorious for casting energy with the sweep and intensity of a cosmic purse seiner. The Burren was in its thrall from the jump. Tiger Moan promises “Vintage and modern blues with sass and class.” Add the sense of call and response heard in a Sunday morning clapboard church south of the Mason-Dixon Line and you get the idea.
Tiger Moaning? No sir…Tonight was Tiger Testifying.
Scores of blues and swing dancers deftly swirled around the packed dance floor with uncanny radar they’ve acquired from dancing at close quarters to smoky blues and syncopated swing. From the jump, the crowd was ready to rumble. They were not disappointed.
Amy Kucharik - vocals, ukulele, guitar; Greg Toro - bass; Erica Risti - saxophones, backing vocals; Tim Lewandowski - trombone; Michael Valdez - piano; Stephan Chaggaris - drums’ and special guest Cheryl Arena were locked and loaded.
There was nothing rote about solos by Kucharik, Arena, Toro, Lewandowski, Valdez, and Risti. Their eyes were not focused what was in front of them but what was spinning a mile a minute as the music spilled like a geyser from their brains into the fingering or mouthpieces of their instruments. Fresh paint, fresh newsprint, still wet.
Performances so uniquely creative that several dancers stood transfixed to admire the sheer artistry. You had to see it to believe it.
In the midst one smoky blues number, the only sound from the stage was Stephan Chaggaris’s soft subtle brush work accompanying the kind of slow drag that blues dancers love. Not one iota of energy was lost in the the downshift.
The gold standard for blues dancers, this is Tiger Moan’s second year of residency at The Burren. In these turbulent times, their music is a restorative elixir that, for a few transformative hours, lifts our load, fortifies our resolve, joins us in affirmative community.
Amy Kucharik - vocals, ukulele, guitar; Greg Toro - bass; Erica Risti - saxophones, backing vocals; Tim Lewandowski - trombone; Michael Valdez - piano; Stephan Chaggaris - drums’ and special guest Cheryl Arena
Cheryl Arena...
Ensemble
Tiger Moan testifying...
Hitting the groove...Energy from last night’s Tiger Moan show still keeping time in the marrow of my bones.
Hallelujah.
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
May 31, 2023
May 13, 2023
May 09, 2023
Georgia O’Keeffe Watercolors
May 9, 2023
Watercolor is the perfect medium for O’Keefe to render sunlight and naked flesh - casual, posed, or imagined. All O’Keefe needed were willing subjects, her paint box, and a supply of watercolor paper soaked in just the right amount of water to let her colors merge into each other then into the viewer’s imagination.
Georgia O’Keeffe captured the contours of the female form in a halo of of azure, turquoise, or umber colors reminiscent of Native American beadwork which in turn mimicked their sense of kinship with nature’s palette of the southwest landscape.
Washes of pale early morning blue or deeper High Plains midday blue wrap around her nude female subjects. O’Keefe intentionally exaggerates darker fleshy skin tones to center the image in the composition. I can almost smell her subjects skin soaking up the sun.
May 03, 2023
April 18, 2023
April 05, 2023
Homegrown Yard Art Springs up in Watertown, MA
April 1, 2023
https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2023/04/homegrown-yard-art-springs-up-in-watertown-ma.html
A bunch of my neighbors have a playful quirky sense of humor that pops up every April. Like daffodils they are instant mood enhancers.
If you couldn’t travel to San Capistrano to witness the arrival of the swallows in March, you can drive around Watertown, MA to witness yard art displays that nest in yards all over town every April.
The idea of YARD ART, one of the few upsides after COVID-19 shut the country down in 2020. It gave a bunch of my neighbors an idea to allay anxiety about the scary pandemic.
YARD ART invited Watertoonians to take part in a town wide art project that could be done safely and energize our sense of community - a brilliant idea by which we could get in touch with our inner kindergartener or Picasso and put it on display.
Subject matter wide open. “It can be an assemblage, a sculpture, an art project, a lighting arrangement—let your imagination run free! Installations will be on display the entire month of April.”
The idea took off like an untethered helium balloon…and lifted spirits right along with it. https://www.wickedlocal.com/story/watertown-tab/2021/03/30/woman-behind-yardart-watertown-outdoor-art-exhibt/4814814001/
After a year of isolation, vaccinations, boosters, washing everything down with antiseptic wipes every time I masked up to go to the market, I was more worn down than I realized. I didn’t sign up to make YARD ART. No matter. When I drove around, I felt a tribal sense of community and was tickled by the kooky displays. Whether intentional or not, the project was an affirmative mental health initiative.
Oh boy. The neighbors ran with it. See photos below.
Yard Art participants are masters of scale. One display a few blocks from my home hangs all the way down the two floors of the house, indolently fluttering with the breeze that comes late in the morning.
Another is so small that I’d have driven right by it if the YARD ART sign hadn’t been planted next to it.
https://ptatlarge.typepad.com/ptatlarge/2023/04/homegrown-yard-art-springs-up-in-watertown-ma.html
Photos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
March 28, 2023
March 27, 2023
February 21, 2023
February 11, 2023
Homage to André Kertész
Homage to André Kertész (1894 - 1985) American (b. Hungary)
Andre Kertész was a pioneer of street photography and a remarkable still life photographer. In a career that spanned seven decades, he captured everyday life with poetic beauty and elevated ordinary objects to exquisite art.
https://photogpedia.com/andre-kertesz-quotes/
Kertész on Kertész
I like high shots. If you are on the same level, you lose many things.
Everything is still interesting to me. You do not have to imagine things; reality gives you all you need. Everything is a subject. Every subject has a rhythm.
I do not document anything. I give an interpretation. The moment always dictates in my work. What I feel, I do. This is the most important thing for me. Everybody can look, but they don’t necessarily see. I never calculate or consider; I see a situation and I know that it’s right, even if I have to go back to get the proper lighting.
Seeing is not enough; you have to feel what you photograph.
I just walk around, observing the subject from various angles until the picture elements arrange themselves into a composition that pleases my eye.
Kertész high shot
Tamburello high shot
February 10, 2023
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Alice's Restaurant Back In The Day
Recollections about a legendary eatery
Circa 1966
The flimsy screen door slammed shut every time a patron walked into this out of the way restaurant, more accurately luncheonette, in an alley behind the Red Lion Inn on Main Street in Stockbridge,MA.
During a quiet spell, Alice, pushing back the brown hair from her brow, emerged to greet, chat, opine on a special of the day, and retreat to the kitchen.
By the time i cleaned the plate of every morsel, regular customers would have entered to say hello, chat about news of the day, order food or all of the above.
The war in Vietnam was heating up faster then the soup in the kitchen. Opinions in this small town in the Berkshires were divided.
Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant Masacree" song became a staple on WBCN that Charles Laquidara played every Thanksgiving morning. The day never passes without being aired on radio somewhere in the country.
Anthem, perfectly modulated tone poem, audio theater, it will be played as long as turkey is served every Thanksgiving.
Related links
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/28/opinion/thanksgiving-alices-restaurant-consumerism/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/22/lifestyle/alice-brock-alices-restaurant-has-died-arlo-guthrie/
https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2015/08/26/things-about-arlo-guthrie-alice-restaurant-its-anniversary/n9KOboD8L9X32UownPPFtK/story.html?p1=Article_Inline_Related_Link
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/brief-history-alices-restaurant-180967276/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Brock
November 28, 2024 in Commentaries | Permalink