Lester shut out the Yankees and I got the front of the Weekend Arts section. All is right with the world. You can read my story about Somerville artist Skunk and his wild metal sculptures right here, but you should really grab the hard copy to see the photo collage that Yoon S. Byun created to go with it. Skunk's work is currently on display at the Space 242 gallery in the South End. (At left is a Space 242 photo of Skunk's warrior robot Hathor.) ... More ...

Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder is building on a West Coast solo tour in April with an eight-city August jaunt that will begin with two shows in Boston, at the Opera House on Aug. 1 and 2. Tix are $75 and go on sale July 11 at 1 p.m. through the Opera House Box Office, www.livenation.com, www.ticketmaster.com or at Ticketmaster outlets. Liam Finn, son of Crowded House's Neil Finn, will open. Expect Vedder to sample his "Into the Wild" soundtrack, Pearl Jam songs and covers. He might... More ...

There are enough Bruce Springsteen fans in Boston that some of you will want to hear the sad news: the Asbury Park, N.J., fortune teller Madame Marie  has died at age 93. She was immortalized by Springsteen in his song "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)," from his album "The Wild, The Innocent and the E Street Shuffle." It included the line, "The cops finally busted Madame Marie, for telling fortunes better than they do." Update: Bruce has posted a couple of gr... More ...

The folks at Emerson's Chocolate Cake City comedy troupe messaged me with a link to their new video, "Darth Vader Barbershop Quartet." Due to very dubious production values, it failed to move me. (Are those Darth Vader masks? It's kind of hard to see...) But once I got to their You Tube page, I found some that did amuse, including "Universal Twoness": ... More ...

I'm hardly a slave to political correctness, especially in speech; I worked at the Herald. Still, my eyes 'bout popped out of my head this morning when I saw the headline on Jeff Jacoby's Globe op-ed column about Obama and gun control. I presume the figure of speech was his choice, rather than an editor's. Even given the provocateur's  role that comes with being  a conservative columnist for the Globe, this seems a poor choice of metaphor: He doesn't even mean it the way it sounds;... More ...

I never really thought of Ireland as being gay friendly. Maybe I'm just extrapolating from the repeated squabbles over gay participation in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Southie. On July 11 Boston will host a performance by Gloria, right, which is billed as "Ireland's only GLBT chorus." The concert at the Arlington Street Church will feature Gloria along with the Boston Gay Men's Chorus and Voices Rising, Boston's Women's Chorus. Tickets are $25-$35 and you can order them online her... More ...

Specifically, that would be the north entrance, which faces the Fenway and has been shuttered since before the Celtics won their last championship. This morning I joined a few hundred other journalists, museum employees, rich people museum patrons and assorted hangers-on at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, for the opening of the State Street Corporation Fenway Entrance and the Jean S. and Frederic A. Sharf Visitor Center, emceed by Malcolm Rogers, the Ann and Graham Gund Director of the Museum.... More ...

Hometown fave Chad Perrone brings his yearning voice and new solo album, "Wake," to the Paradise Rock Club stage tonight ($15, doors 8 p.m., 18+). The Haverhill native first played there in 2003 as lead singer of Averi, the popular Boston band that won a lot of acclaim around the country but never managed to get that major label deal before Perrone left the band in late 2005. (He was replaced but it appears Averi shut down shortly thereafter. Insert random "Behind the Music"... More ...

How long has it been since we could say this: Summer in the city starts today with the Celtics championship parade. But the previously planned kickoff to the season is the Summersday Revels happening Friday through Sunday in the Fort Point Channel hood. And like the Celtics parade, it's all free. The festivities begin Friday at 6 p.m.  with the Summer Street Solstice Art Celebration at the Boston Convention & Exposition Center, featuring artwork by Massachusetts artists: XL paintings c... More ...

Turns out that WCVB has more online than just "our web site, thebostonchannel.com," as touted so relentlessly by cheery anchor Ed Harding and the rest of the news team. A big story in the N.Y. Times business section highlights Channel 5 as the first test station for an interactive-TV advertising and shopping service created by Boston-based Backchannel Media, which uses special set-top boxes in viewers' homes. "The test offers viewers programs — and ads — they can respond to b... More ...

Over at the day job, I penned a review of the season premiere of the fourth-season premiere of "Weeds," on Showtime tonight, and the British series "Secret Diary of a Call Girl," which will debut right after it. "Weeds," starring Mary-Louise Parker (right), is one of the best shows going. Not so much "Call Girl." ... More ...

Had to share this. My friend showed up at the coffee shop this morning in this t-shirt from the '84 (or maybe '85) NBA Finals. He dug it out of his collection this morning after last night's awesome comeback win. He also kept a little piece of duct tape handy that was big enough to cover the "fuck" so he could apply it "if the priest shows up for breakfast." I figure, hey, making awesome bootleg t-shirts to sell on Causeway Street counts as a HubArt, right? ... More ...

My former Herald colleague Paul Sherman has written one in "Big Screen Boston," which tracks movies filmed here, from "Mystery Street" to "Gone Baby Gone." This is a must-have for Boston film fans and anyone interested in the intersection of Dot Ave. and Hollywood Blvd. Sherman offers individual profiles of 80 movies set here and at least in part shot here, from a few flimsy post-World War II thrillers through the gritty indie films of the 1970s and '80s to the Hol... More ...

Big story in the Times today on the most honored writer in my little corner of Essex County. A reporter returns with Andre Dubus III to the Florida strip clubs where three of the 9/11 hijackers whiled away their final hours, and where Dubus researched his new novel "Garden of Last Days." It's the kind of piece the Times does when your last book ("House of Sand and Fog") was an Oprah fave and an Academy Award-nominated movie. A stripper and a hijacker are among the troubled ... More ...

My friend Aaron just posted this insane piece of Indian video on his blog, and I have to share it with you here, despite a complete lack of Boston content, unless you count the fact that Aaron lives in Somerville. As he wrote, "Oh my god there are people dancing in his mouth!" ... More ...

Geoff over at The Exhibitionist pullsa few key numbers out of the Boston Symphony Orchestra's new consultant study of its economic impact on the state. Including the Symphony, the Pops and Tanglewood, the BSO pays out $33 million in wages every year and $43 million on goods and services, out of a total $138 million in direct economic impact. The BSO report breaks out visitor spending separately, at $55.9 million annually for Suffolk County (home of Symphony Hall) and $24.5 million annually in ... More ...

The dates are April 25-May 3, but I think that announcement just gave the folks at JazzBoston an excuse to send around some other facts, namely the highlights on Jazz Week '08: More than 215 events were held in over 80 venues in Greater Boston. Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Roslindale, Dorchester, the South End, Hyde Park, and Back Bay were among the Boston neighborhoods that hosted events, in addition to Cambridge, Somerville, Belmont, Brookline, Acton, Wellesley, and Newton. The world premier of f... More ...

OK, this is why you have DVRs, people. We're all going to be watching the NBA Finals tonight, I presume. But you'll want to record "Swingtown" on CBS at 10. This summer series follows the wife-swapping, Quaalude-popping escapades of a bunch of Chicago suburbanites in the summer of '76, and it's either going to be one of the most talked-about guilty pleasures in TV history or one of the most laughed-at failures. It's a hoot. I mention it here only because I have a big review of "S... More ...

It's been a long time since I got one of Esperanza Spalding's sprightly emails pitching for one of her gigs at (the late, lamented) Bob's or another venue around town. The Berklee grad and faculty phenom, bass player and singer, is really coming up in the world with her new album, and she's probably got A-line publicists on the job now. I opened the Globe this morning and saw that she's playing on "Late Show With David Letterman" tonight - and Jimmy Kimmel next week! Sweet. She deserve... More ...

Most of you would have missed the story, which only appeared in the Globe's North regional section yesterday. But for classical music fans, summer visitors and anyone interested in the area's performance venues, check out Rockport Breathes Sigh of Relief for Performance Center, by David Rattigan. With a legal challenge settled - those pesky abutters - the Rockport Chamber Music Festival is free to begin work on the new $17.5 million Shalin Lui Performance Center overlooking Sandy Bay. They expe... More ...