Arts hot

Ugh, so first off it feels really really hot this weekend. It's relatively not that bad, mid/high 80s and sunny, but we just aren't used to it up here so it feels pretty awful. It is made worse by the boiled water restrictions that were placed yesterday. There was some water pipe break and Boston and the surrounding communities had to switch to untreated reservoir water, which could last for days. Luckily Seth and I mostly drink tea so we are constantly running our electric kettle anyways, but for the big jobs, like rinsing dishes, we have had to boil big pots of water. This of course gets the hot apartment, which has no air conditioning, even hotter. Poor Lorenzo has been sleeping outside his little wooden house, and is stretched out flat like he is melting. At least we gave him an icepack to snuggle up next to. So much for creature of the desert, poor guy.

This week has fulfilled our year quota of attending live performances. On Wednesday I somehow ended up going to see a popular Italian singer, Jovanotti, by myself at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston. It was offered through the Italian department but I was the only person in my class to go, and Seth had lots of work to do so had to sit out. Jovanotti has been around for a while and is like a rock star in the Italian community, so I was happy to experience some rather intense Italian pop culture. Also, I hadn't been to a fun dingy, dark, loud, venue like that since the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, so it was about time!

Brandeis had its big annual arts festival this week. We caught a performance of Love's Labour's Lost on Friday, much of which I inadvertently slept through, and yesterday was really special because my cousin, Phuong, came to visit for the day (this is the same cousin we met up with in Philly back in November, and this time around she was in Boston for a conference). I took her down Moody Street, showed her the apartment (and Lorenzo!), then went back to Moody St for dinner at an Indian place. We later had a brief tour of Brandeis before we met Seth for the Irving Fine Tribute Concert, conducted by one of Seth's senior undergraduate students (Seth was in attendance as an adjudicator for his performance). I'm so glad we got to meet up with her for the day!

Today was the culmination of Arts week at Uni. Mark, Gina, and the girls actually came over and met us on campus to join in some of the activities. The day is totally family friendly and we saw a performance of the AMAZING Tanglewood Marionetts, watched some world dances, did a bit of sidewalk chalking, and checked out a folk group. It is overwhelming how much goes on today--four or five venues across campus have performances and activities simultaneously throughout the afternoon. It had been a while since we saw Mark, Gina, Kate, and Adah, so it was wonderful catching up with them.


Time for dinner now (ironically we are having red bean soup... bad choice for such a hot day... ergh).