Around Town
Marin Alsop
Marin Alsop is a rarity in the world of conductors. In a profession long associated with and dominated by European men, she’s an American and she’s a she. She is also the music director of the Baltimore Symphony and the first conductor to win the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (often dubbed a “Genius Grant”).
Around Town: Iced Coffee in The Square
The first day of spring was this past Saturday, meaning that it is a blustery 30 degrees in Cambridge when I set out to begin my day on Sunday afternoon. Still, it’s 90 degrees somewhere—more specifically, it’s 90 degrees in the exotic locales my classmates are returning from, as they climb off of airplanes sunburned and with an Instagram feed much sunnier than mine (the status of my bank account vehemently vetoed any kind of international or trans-coastal flight).
Scene and Heard: Kazuo Ishiguro
Kazuo Ishiguro is a Big Deal, both capitals intended. Following his breakthrough 1989 novel “The Remains of the Day,” he’s kept it up over a career of over two decades with a string of bestsellers. You might remember his last, the heartwrenching “Never Let Me Go,” from its movie adaptation starring the equally heartwrenching Andrew Garfield. His new novel, “The Buried Giant,” is big even by Ishiguro’s standards: It’s his first in 10 years, and expectations are higher than Memorial Church’s steeple.
Escape the Room
The two of us meander up West Street in Boston, looking around for any hint of building number 33. Behind us is Tremont Street and Boston Common. In front of us is Macy’s, and general signs of civilization. On this street, though, there appears to be nothing.
Scene and Heard: North Korean Defectors
Korean and English syllables mingled in the air, bearing solemn memories of hardship at times and signalling hope for change at others. The overall mood in Ticknor Lounge was light and conversational, but the evening’s subject was serious: life in, and escape from, North Korea.The event, “North Korea Information Highway: Driving Change in North Korea,” featured three defectors from North Korea.
Scene and Heard: The Freshman Spelling Bee
Did I mention that I got a really shiny blue ribbon for coming in fourth in the elementary school contest?
Crimson Crave: Make Me A Meal!
FM asked Dana Ferrante ’17 and Caroline Gentile ’17, editors of the Harvard-based food blog, The Crimson Crave, to help us find some of the Square’s hidden treasures. With their help, Harvard students just might unleash their inner foodies.
FM's Quest for Boston's Best Donut
Harvard students collectively mourned the move of the Dunkin’ Donuts at Bow Street and Mass Ave. But never fear: This is an opportunity to step out of our corporate comfort zone and into the world of real, bakery-fresh, down-home lovin’ donuts. I spent a week searching all ends of the globe—or rather, from Belmont to South Boston—to create a comprehensive list of the best spots to pig out on fried dough.
Scene and Heard: Keegan-Michael Key
In the past two years, Harvard has welcomed United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Vice President Joseph R. Biden, and billionaire philanthropist Oprah Winfrey to its hallowed campus. But none of those speak- ers gave students the kind of energy, laughs, or celebrity-student make-out sessions that Keegan-Michael Key did during his “Player of the Year” performance with the Immediate Gratification Players, a Harvard improv comedy group, on Feb. 20.
Bagelsaurus
Working toward the goal of creating “the best bagels in Boston and the world, [making] everything from scratch, [and taking] no short-cuts,” Bagelsaurus’s owner, Mary Ting Hyatt, is an artisan of the highest order. And her breakfast sandwiches, made from as many locally-sourced and all-natural ingredients as possible, are equal parts creative and simple.
Santouka Ramen
From 67-cent Top Ramen at CVS to Instagram-worthy burgers with ramen patties instead of buns, a tasty Japanese staple has come a long way in America. As one might expect, the rise of ramen has created a demand for traditional shops that serve the real thing—no styrofoam packaging necessary. This phenomenon recently arrived in Harvard Square in the form of Santouka, a bona fide restaurant serving ramen and only ramen.
The Sloth
The Sloth is not, as it may appear at first blush, an apathetic new final club. It is in fact a storytelling initiative based on the national success of the Moth, a similarly named and structured event founded in 1997 that spawned a weekly podcast, public radio show, and book collection. Sloth attendees gather in the Barker Center, splay out across plush chairs and couches, and listen to their peers recount true short stories from their lives that all center around a weekly theme.
SEAS Racing Team
The SEAS team is currently building the Crimson Cruiser, a battery-powered vehicle that it hopes will push the boundaries of efficiency. This April, the team will compete in the battery-electric division of the Shell Eco-Marathon in Detroit, Mich.
FM's Guide to the Quickest Burritos in the Square
Picture this: It’s 12:40 p.m. on a Tuesday, you have a class approaching fast at 1, and the dining hall just won’t cut it today. In fact, you have a very specific craving in your bones: burrito fever. But which store deserves your service? Luckily, FM is here to do your dirty work for you.
Don't Mess with the Best (Pest)
Driving through the streets of Cambridge in an unmarked truck filled with gadgets ranging from Hershey’s chocolate spread to copper mesh, Matt J. Kreimeyer could very well be a secret agent. Given the fact that Matt has keys to Harvard’s dorms and an unfathomably vast knowledge of the intricacies of our campus, part of me genuinely believes he might be Harvard’s Dark Knight. And in some ways, he is.
Around Town: Single on Valentine's Day
Midway through February 14th, you happen to open Facebook and make the unpleasant discovery that, once again, it is Valentine’s Day. This is bad news. Never fear, though—you’re bulletproof.
Out to Lunch: Elana Simon
Few ordinary students have appreciated the spongy qualities of a healthy liver on Dr. Oz’s TV show, but Elana P. Simon ’18 is anything but ordinary. Diagnosed at age 12 with fibrolamel- lar hepatocellular carcinoma, a rare form of cancer, she has since gone on to beat the disease and, later, conduct research pinpointing the genetic mutation responsible for the affliction.
Harvard Thinks Big VI
My eyes are tearing up as I make my way up to the balcony seats in Sanders Theater. Not because I’m overly excited by the prospect of Harvard Thinks Big VI, but because it is cold as hell, and my eyes haven’t stopped watering since I stepped outside.
Love It: Clover
I strode into Clover for the first time, tasked with penning an eloquent ode to the young coffee shop. It provides a community, a space for congregation, for this group of artistes.
The New Felipe's
Armed with design follies, confusing social dynamics, and a whole lot of space, we don’t how the role Felipe’s plays in the lives of Harvard students will change. We do know that at 11p.m.—scratch that, at any time of day—there’s no place we’d rather go to grab a bite.
The Great Blizzard Buy-Out
When last week’s gargantuan blizzard brought much of the Northeast to a standstill, many Cambridgians reverted to their most primitive instincts. Forming around the afternoon of Monday, January 26 and picking up speed as the day progressed, the frenzy left many shelves wiped clean.
Hate It: Clover
I’m standing in Clover. I look at the menu, a confusing flurry of new age mumbo jumbo. It tells me the wait time for various dishes, proving to me that Clover has never learned the lesson that my dad’s frown taught me in fifth grade: keep expectations low.
All in the Family
People slowly filter into the Adams Junior Common Room on a sunny Saturday morning. Old Boston types clad in bow-ties and jackets and young families sporting multiple shoulder bag worth of childcare equipment all grab refreshment and settle into the plush couches to convene with their adopted first-year students. This is one of the four events thrown each year by the Freshman Dean’s Office for participants in the Host Family Program.
Scene and Heard: The Game
I roll out of bed at 8:45 on game day (you know, The Game), ready to document the event for posterity. First stop: the pancake breakfast in Annenberg to meet up with my fellow game-day warriors. We then head to a sad pregame in a freshman dorm. The theme of the pregame is “Too many Cooks.” Libations are poured to Smarf, the picaresque anti-hero of the 11 minute video. I’m offered some alcohol. I don’t take it for reasons of journalistic integrity, obviously.