Day 117: Suburban foraging

Sunday practices in Georgetown are now a regular part of the week, and I find it quite relaxing to get up on the early side for a Sunday, pop into Toscanini's for a coffee top-up, and swing by to grab various members of the crew for the drive up 93 and 95.  On the occasions when D. is with us, these mornings often bring foraged goodies into our lives during Act 1 (his character only shows up in the middle of Act 2).  Today we were in for a treat - may apples.  Rumor has it they are somewhat elusive and difficult to find around the Cambridge area, though apparently the suburbs of Georgetown were more forgiving; fact has it they are extraordinarily sweet. To eat them, you squeeze and suck out the juicy innards, which are so saccharine they remind me of Gushers (those things are like crack).

Treat #2 of the day was that the old-school members of the GTW (see the sign behind the may apples in the above pic?) were throwing a picnic complete with swimming pool and bocce ball (which S., our director, and I threw down at).  I could only stay for a bit because I had to high-tail it back to Cambridge to get to the second practice for the Mercury Orchestra chorus, which was being held at the Masonic Lodge in Porter Square.  So neat all the places being in this group is showing us!

The afternoon was complete with a bit more urban foraging in the form of nabbing some peaches (and pears, I believe) en route to a friend's place for dinner, where others had foraged some mushrooms for dining (S.B. made an amazing casserole with chicken mushrooms - was to die for).  Rounding out the evening with some guitar sing-along-ing made it a pretty much perfect Sunday.

Day 94: Midsummer Mingle

Every time I go to a Gallery 263 event I feel a bit funny when I tell people what I'm doing that evening.  "Oh, I'm just going to a foraged banquet" -- "Yeah, I'm just about to pop off to a silent auction at an art gallery" -- "Ah, can't make it, I've got a benefit dinner tonight".  Makes me feel like ... not an adult, exactly, but definitely more of a patron of the arts than I am (I refuse, as always to use that other "p" word).  And every time I actually _go_ to a Gallery 263 event, I meet like 5 great new people and see more familiar faces each time, get a great vibe from the music/art/food etc. that forms the core of the event (and they are certainly varied in nature), and basically just have a blast.

Tonight's event wasn't held at the gallery, but was rather a benefit for the gallery (that is, a "midsummer mingle") held at the absolutely stunning house of one of its board members.  It was a three-level (four-level, if you count the split-level part) unit with floor-to-ceiling windows in the living area, a kitchen stocked with an eclectic array of pots, pans, etc. hanging from the ceiling (my favorite kitchen concept to date), and a roof deck on the third floor.  The evening began with sushi and drinks and chatting, meeting new people (artists and otherwise), seeing acquaintances made since learning about the gallery, and of course hanging with good friends as well.  At some (not so late, in fact) point it diverged into singing along with a guitar on the roof deck, which didn't stop until nearly 2 in the morning.  Fantastic -- even drew some of the fellow third-floor-roof-decker neighbors into observing -- kind of fun to be among the three-tops but feel like you are on the ground.  The layout of the house seemed really European to me, actually -- reminded me of homes I've stayed in in Germany and the Netherlands.

Day 67: U-Me, Stoneham, MA

With all of the cool places to try out in the immediate vicinity (see the majority of posts 1-66), it is no wonder that venturing out just a bit farther into the 'burbs than Arlington is something done rarely. However, a recent acquaintance who is quite connected to the local music scene (particularly jazz) invited us (a friend and me) out to Stoneham, MA in order to a) eat sushi and b) listen to a great a vocalist he's friends with.  Both of these aspects of a night out appealing to us greatly, we set out to join them at U-Me, a restaurant in Stoneham, MA.

Although it was fairly dead for a Friday night, the ambiance was great.  The restaurant is split in two, and one side was the location of the live music -- just voice and guitar, and it was beautiful. A nice little bar graced the corner, and we got a table right next to the small musical set-up.  The restaurant boasted all sorts of Asian food -- Korean, Japanese, Chinese, tons of sushi -- and each of us ordered from a different sub-genre, but each meal was delicious (I find this to be quite impressive). At the end of the night, we even attempted to order two cocktails, but when the waitress only brought one we decided it was plenty.  One of those very scrumptious all-alcoholic concoctions where every ingredient is sweet (in our case, elements of white chocolate, mint, and creme de cacao).

At only a 20-minute drive out of town (on a Friday night, no less), this is definitely a spot I'd love to make my way back to.