Doing my best to capture the heart, soul, and essence of people, who then get to shine brightly on Cambridge Community Television. This in turn fills me with a great joy and satisfaction. I have lived many incarnations in Cambridge, Mass since 1986.
That is what two strangers gave to the barefoot mother and jacket-less child who ran out into the cold December day, when Berkshire Street erupted and then became engulfed in billowing flames.
She and her one-year-old son were the last residents to exit the Just-A-Start rental property, St. Patrick’s Place, on the corner of Berkshire and York Streets, December 3, 2016.
The loss of the EMF rehearsal complex on Brookline Street is to many, the last nail in the coffin of an autonomous arts community. Of course it is not completely dead, but it’s gasping for air, and for many, the hurt and the disappointment are extreme. This disenfranchised community feels abandoned by a city they love and at war with the “pillars of society” who preach “Refugees Welcome Here” but practice “only if you can afford it,” which you can’t.
The resistance is not winning in Cambridge. Actually, it never really wins. Thinking back to the fight for Rent Control in the nineties and the Holmes building project in Central Square, it was definitely foolhardy to believe that the city, a rich landowner, or some philanthropic patron of the arts would save the EMF building in the name of art over money.
Thirty years ago, Des Desmond’s rock band, the Bentmen, needed a rehearsal space to practice their music. In entrepreneurial fashion, Desmond took out a small business loan, leased a building in the South End and built the first Sound Museum Rehearsal Complex, which, as a company is still operational today.
Reebee Garofalo has lived in the Cambridge/Somerville area since 1970. He is a Professor Emeritus at UMass Boston, a musician, an activist, and the author of the book, Rockin’ Out: Popular Music in the USA, "A comprehensive social history of popular music in the United States.”
Burning a beeswax candle is as ancient as Egypt and as religious as the Catholic Church. The proprietor of Luna & Stars Apothecary, Sharon Preziosi Sciuto, demonstrates how easy and satisfying it is to make your own beeswax candles.
Even though I am a Cambridge resident, I tagged along with a friend of mine to the Somerville Democratic Caucus held at the Somerville high school on Saturday, March 3, 2018. For Cambridge residents, the caucuses were held in February.
I don’t know how many times I’ve been standing outside the Lilypad in Inman Square and someone walks by and says, “What goes on in here?” Well I know what goes on in there, but let me introduce you, dear passerby, to the Lilypad.
I am an enthusiast of the esoteric. In my younger day, I searched the stars to find the meaning of my own life. But now, I read the tea-leaves looking for any sign that the Trump administration will end abruptly, and America will find its way out of the hand basket to hell.
Due to current day American politics, and a country divided, most of my daylight hours are spent trying to quell the burning fire of rage that has left my soul a barren waste of scorched earth. My evenings are soothed and quenched by the august period piece, The Crown, which “chronicles the life of Queen Elizabeth II from the 1940s to modern times.”
