“Perhaps the strangest thing about all this was how little I cared about who was responsible for the attack. I’m sure I will. I’m sure one day, when I learn who did this, I’ll lose sleep, and feel rage, real rage, and want to see them (or him, or her) killed. I’ll want blood. I’m no better than anyone else.

But yesterday, watching the events unfold, watching the looped video of the initial blast, watching that runner, the one who went down when the blast hit, watching his legs crumple, one and then the other, as he goes down, watching all that, I found myself not caring at all who did this. And it wasn’t some zen state that made me like this, not some Gandhi-like understanding of the nature of man, not some peaceful trance where I knew this person or people would get their karmic comeuppance if I just believed in the balance of the universe. There was none of that shit.

It’s almost like I didn’t want to give them the satisfaction. It was some strange unearthing of that asshole Bostonian in me–Nah, pal, you fucking prick, I’m not even going to give you your 15 minutes. I don’t even care what your stupid cause is, or what you believe. You killed a child of Boston. An eight year old. You hurt a lot more. Innocents. Someone will take care of you, and you will pay for this. But right now, I don’t care who you are.

What I chose to care about was this: the people who ran to help. The ones who rushed area hospitals and tried to donate blood. The journalists who refused to speculate and calmly delivered what they knew, what had been verified. The EMTs and Boston PD who rushed into the carnage.

Those are the names I want to know. Those are the pictures I want to see looped over and over again on cable TV. The people who were good.”

—Nathan Savin Scott, for Thought Catalog

My only New Year’s Resolution is short and sweet: to actually finish a to-do list. My winter break this academic year is truncated because of the earlier-than-usual spring semester start date. And to start the new year off fresh from new experiences (and some old traditions!), here’s what I have planned:

• Get hair trimmed.
• Finish Anna Karenina, the book.
• Give Worcester a chance on its nightlife.
• Visit the Aquarium (A Dairly Candy PSA: a BC ID gets you two free tickets per semester at Robsham theater box office!)
• Organize a “Shrews Crew” reunion at Max Brenner
• Watch Les Miserables.
• Try a new restaurant. My eye is set on Za, an allegedly “scrumptious” pizza recommendation by a friend

CMQ & I were on Newbury last night for Aesop’s Boston boutique launch party. So incredibly refreshing to see a boutique pared down from unnecessary flourishes to a clean simplicity: minimalist decor, sleek glass, New England white oak walls and shelving, subtle wasps of the exotic herbs and flowers drifting in the air. My skin felt cleaner just standing in the boutique.

Aesop’s new boutique on Bleecker Street, photographed by Into the Gloss. The Boston boutique opening party is in less than a week, and having never experienced the label before, I’m pretty stoked for it.

Spent an embarrassing amount of time studying this poster on the wall of my friend’s apartment the other day. I’m a sucker for maps (the world is on my closet door back home), and despite how long I’ve lived in this city, it never gets old. Even living in Boston this summer brought out new parts of the city I never really explored. I’m more excited than ever to be staying in this city post-graduation.

Also, I looked up the poster for New York City…somewhat not as structurally appealing. Make of it what you will.

billieisaguysname:

Boston, 1842. Still awesome after all these years.

Fenway Park, 1 August 2012. A little distraction at the Red Sox game the other night by way of a beautiful sunset ending the most bipolar day of Boston summer weather.

Scenes from the Summer Fashion Show @ Free People Boston, including the show’s highlight: a model’s puppy who walked the runway and stole the show.

North End, State House, Beacon Hill, and ominous sky from the Longfellow Bridge, taken mid-walk during Saturday’s half-marathon.

To entertain each other during the half-marathon (hosted by Anna’s Taqueria) on Saturday, a friend and I made mental notes of different streets, shops, restaurants, and bars we walked past that looked appealing. By the time we reached Beacon Hill (where we essentially earmarked an entire street), we realized that we needed to make visiting these places a reality. I consider myself a local (having lived around Boston since the toddler age), yet most of the following destinations on our to-do list are new to me:

• Zaftig’s (335 Harvard Street, Brookline) for some amazing Sunday morning brunch.
• Bar Lola (160 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston) for tapas, sangria and flamenco.
• Charles Street (Beacon Hill) for some retail therapy, pastries at Cafe Vanille (#70)  and groceries at DeLuca’s (#11)
• Sweet Cupcakes (49 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston) for satisfying the mid-week sweet tooth.
• Dalí (415 Washington Street Somerville) for a date night of tapas and a cozy Spanish ambiance off the beaten path.
• Flour Bakery (190 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge) for a weekday lunch meet up.
• Drink (348 Congress Street, Boston) for a classy girls’ night out.
• Chinatown (Boston) for hunting down ingredients to brew up in a hotpot.
• Shabu Shabu (1 Harrison Avenue, Boston) for when we decide that the hotpot at a critically acclaimed Chinatown restaurant is far superior to a personal rendition.
• Commonwealth Avenue (Boston), for a Saturday morning stroll whilst “apartment hunting” along the pristine row of Back Bay townhouses.
• The Middle East Restaurant & Nightclub (472 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge) for a casual night of live music.
• Union Oyster House (41 Union Street, Boston) for when parents/significant others come to visit.
• Revere Beach (Revere, along the Blue Line) for the perfect beach days, and because it is close and accessible from the city.
• Museum of Fine Arts (465 Huntington Avenue, Boston) for the talk of the town: the Alex Katz exhibit.
  
• Fin’s (636 Beacon Street, Boston) for sushi cravings, because the shrimp tempura roll (Crazy Maki) is, to date, the best and cheapest in all of Massachusetts.
  
• Longfellow Bridge (Boston by MGH) for when I get ambitious and decide to go for a run. Rewards are aplenty though—a view of the Boston skyline, Cambridge, Beacon Hill and the State House.
• Harborwalk (North End, Boston) for a visit back to long-time favorites.

What are some of your favorite places in Boston?

A selection of tunes that accompanied my flight to Europe. The prospect of Beantown nostalgia was previously hinted at; this is the actual playlist of songs I recently [finally] gathered. No worries America…be back in time for warm weather and birds chirping.

• Bruce Springsteen: “Secret Garden”
• Tom Petty: “Free Fallin’”
• U2: “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
• U2: “With or Without You”
• U2: “Beautiful Day”
• Dropkick Murphys: “Shipping Up to Boston”
• Bruce Springsteen: “Dancing in the Dark”
• Bruce Springsteen: “Born in the USA”
• Train: “Drops of Jupiter”
• Don Henley: “The Boys of Summer”
• Don Henley: “The End of the Innocence”
• Lee Ann Womack: “I Hope You Dance”
• Josh Groban: “You Raise Me Up”
• Coldplay: “Life in Technicolor”
• The Cranberries: “Dreams”
• Rod Stewart: “Missing You”
• Wilson Phillips: “Hold On”
• Whitney Houston: “Greatest Love of All”
• Passion Pit: “Little Secrets”
• Rod Stewart: “Forever Young”

When I was little, my sister and I would tag along for my parent’s weekly trips to Boston. The drive from our sleepy central Mass hometown to the bustling center of Chinatown where my parents purchased groceries was a two-hour long affair, round-trip. But we don’t mind long car trips. Vivian falls almost immediately into well-timed slumber. I stare out at the rolling hills spread across the 495. Daddy cranks up Magic 106.7 and regales anyone paying attention with a great article he read in the WSJ and true stories of wanting to be a truck driver. Mom just laughs at Daddy. They really enjoy listening to Magic 106.7, and whenever one of their favorite songs come up, they subtly spin the volume.

As a result of these family bonding joy trips, I have developed a profound appreciation for the classic rock songs that I exclusively associated with Boston: Boys of Summer reminds of rolling down the windows of the Camry on a warm spring day even though Mom would be scolding me for doing so because A/C would be turned on. Listening to Dreams will always paint a picture of the Garden and looming high-rises that frame a tunnel entering downtown Boston from 93 South, because sometimes we are coming into the city from the north. Glory Days evokes images of Fenway Park and that time Viv and I got an autograph and picture with Wally. Dancing in the Dark is the soundtrack to the Mass Pike, but only before the roads start to snake through the middle of the city. Then, the jukebox cuts to Lee Ann Womack, before easing into U2’s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For for the winding stretch around BU, overlooking the Charles River, greater Boston and the distant but distinct airport.

Courtesy of an iTunes gift card received as a gift, I spent the better part of the day downloading and creating a commemorative playlist of sorts. A playlist which, for me, holds memories so clear they might as well accompany picture slideshow of Boston landmarks, but for others, is simply a collection of unforgettable artists and classic hits. I doubt that I’m the only person in the world to associate certain songs with unrelated subject matter, but understanding why I do explains how in spite of rather explicit desire to return to my official birthplace or my jet-setting wanderlust, I will forever identify with the city where I was bred.

I think people in Boston have a way of strategically not following things that are happening, which is great. They’re not sucked into a vacuum of ideas that make them fashion cattle. You always hear people knock style in Boston, but go anywhere, and you’ll find people who don’t care about fashion.

—Alan Bilzerian

Looking a lot like Christmas… @ Quincy Market, Boston.

theworldwelivein:

Boston Back Bay at Night (by Werner Kunz)

For a blog that posts such exquisite photographs from such exotic places, it was a little surprising to see a photograph of a skyline I loved and knew so well…