ImprovBoston is Boston’s longest running improvisational comedy troupe, with a history dating back to a group called ‘the Proposition’, who gave rise to some great names in comedy during the 1960s and 1970s, including Jane Curtin, Josh Mostel and Fred Grandy. Still active after all these years, ImprovBoston now hosts a comedy battle every Friday night, with two local improvisational comedy troupes competing to see whose improv is better.
October 22, 2009
Seydou Keita
This exhibition of West African photographer Seydou Keita includes the riveting black-and-white portraits that have won the admiration of art lovers in Europe, Japan and the United States. The subjects of these portraits are mainly travellers who stopped by Keita’s studio, located in Bamako, the capital of Mali and one of the most bustling crossroad cities in Africa. The Museum of Contemporary Art has paired the show with a dozen 1935 Walker Evans photographs of African masks from the New York Museum of Modern Art collection.
October 8, 2009
ShangART at Art 50
A collaboration between the highly rated gallery and a brand new restaurant puts Xue Song on show. Xue graduated from the Shanghai Drama Institute before switching his artistic direction. His paintings have appeared since in Europe, the States and Australia. The works on display at Art 50 consist of mainly visuals of burnt presswork representing ‘a deconstruction of painting techniques coupled with the process of creation’. It’s sure to be more promising than it sounds.
September 30, 2009
The George Colligan Trio
George Colligan is an exciting young American pianist who made a big impression in his Scottish debut at Edinburgh’s Jazz Festival.
September 8, 2009
Dot
First he got in your pants, now he wants your stomach. Nicholas Graham, aka Joe Boxer, has diverted a bit of his attention from his popular underwear empire to open his first restaurant. Simply called Dot, the restaurant echoes Graham’s modern, graphically stylish design aesthetic and trademark sense of humour. Chef Noel Pavia, however, is a bit more serious when preparing his modern American cuisine. The menu features such specialties as roast duck with gingerbread pudding, and garlic flatbread with spicy prawns.
August 29, 2009
Via Graça
This place has easily the finest views of any Lisbon restaurant over Mouraria to the Baixa, so it is heartening that the management has not rested on its laurels and let the quality of the food or service slide. Less in your face than some of the city’s other upmarket restaurants, Via Graça maintains its well-deserved reputation as a place for fine Portuguese food in a relaxed, if slightly formal atmosphere. It scores highest with heartier dishes such as game casserole with chestnuts and various duck dishes. The range of Portuguese wines is excellent, although the prices are a little high.
August 21, 2009
Edinburgh University Contemporary Music Ensemble
Edward Harper conducts the ensemble in a performance of MacMillan’s Raising Sparks.
August 12, 2009
The Spritz
You cannot leave town without sampling the favourite tipple of Venice’s workers. Invented when the city was under the rule of the Austrians, the Spritz comes in several different styles all guaranteed to leave you feeling funny in the ferry on the way home – half a glass of sparkling white wine, with a green olive and slice of lemon, is mixed with Campari for a ’spritz al bitter’, with the faintly medicinal Aperol for a (surprise) ’spritz al aperol’ or with a sweet liqueur for a ’spritz al select’. Three glasses later and Venice definitely is the most beautiful city in the world.
