First Night Boston 2008

In memory of J. Mark Schuster

2008-03-14T20:24:00Z

First Night is honored to accepted donations in memory of J. Mark Schuster.

At a recent event, First Night recognized J. Mark Schuster for his commitments to building community and celebrating diversity through the arts. His work embodies the principles that First Night seeks to promote through its annual celebration and year-round education programs that foster creativity, imagination, and participation. We pay tribute to Mark for nurturing our unique organization and strengthening its foundation, so that the First Night tradition remains prominent on the landscape of Boston for many years to come.

Memorial contributions may be made to First Night Boston online with a credit card by clicking here. Or send a check, payable to First Night, Inc., to:

First Night, Inc.
31 St. James Avenue #949
Boston, MA 02116-9995

For more information, contact Tom Formicola, Deputy Director / Development, at 617.542.1399 or tformicola@firstnight.org.

over and out for the time being

2008-01-02T13:51:00Z

Well, it's done and by all accounts it was a good one. The weather forecasts were way, way, way off by almost every outlet! It was a beautiful (and warm!) day with no snow accumulation and people really seemed to enjoy themselves.

I just got the call that the ice sculptures are being knocked down this morning. We inevitably get calls from people who are upset about this, but just so you know, we have to knock them down, because as a non-profit, we don't have the money to pay for their security post-event. You may or may not be aware of this, but there are some people out there who can't be trusted not to hurt themselves by, for instance, climbing on an ice sculpture. So, if you have to blame someone, blame it on the knuckleheads.

I saw some really great stuff personally. I loved Bob Harmon's "Janus Arch" installation on Boston Common. He had a very long line of revelers there, ready to ring the bell that represented hopes for the new year. Tony V. was very funny as always. David Parker & the Bang Group had the audience enthralled. I couldn't get in to see Santiago Diaz or Sharon Kennedy as Nora Joyce because they were full to capacity! The Procession was really great this year. I especially loved Hawthorne Youth and Community Center's "Jingling Snowflakes" and the yellow puppets made out of Verizon Yellow Pages phone books. What a great way to activiate a corporate sponsorship without looking too commercial.

Thanks to all of those who came out to celebrate, and to all of those who make First Night possible through support.

If anyone's looking for us, we'll be starting to plan this year's event today!

Best of 2007

2007-12-30T18:08:00Z

It's that time of year as you know - when we're inundated with "best of" lists. In that spirit, here's my top 3 weather forecasts for zip code 02116 for tomorrow (First Night).

#3. Weather.com - snow starts around 9 pm and ends in the morning, with a total accumulation of 3-6 inches

#2. WBZ Radio - snow starts late tonight and ends around dawn, with a total accumulation of 2-4 inches downtown.

and my #1 favorite weather forecast for tomorrow is from the National Weather Service, who predict 1-2 inches of snow falling between 10pm tonight and early tomorrow morning.

No matter who is right, we're ready. The City will do a great job of clearing any snow from downtown sidewalks and parks, and the fresh, light coating of snow will look lovely around all of the installations we're working on today.

By the way, if you're in town today, come see work on the ice sculptures at the Common. You can also use your First Night button today to get into the beautiful new ICA today for FREE!

By the way, does anyone want to head over to my house and shovel my sidewalk tomorrow morning? I didn't think so.

We're bad

2007-12-30T15:18:00Z

I'm sorry we've been so remiss about posting. It would be great if anyone else around here wanted to blog, but they're always complaining about how they're too busy driving lulls, moving ice, placing barricades, picking up Winnebagos and so on. Whatever. Anyway, Don Chapelle is out carving right now. This picture was snapped by Phil Sullivan, Boston Common First Night crew, just moments ago.

point counterpoint

2007-12-27T19:08:00Z

Our fearless leader, Geri Guardino, will be on the Chet Curtis Report tonight on New England Cable News at around 7 pm. I will be on the morning show on 92.5 The River (one of our generous radio sponsors) tomorrow sometime in the 8 am hour. I hope you all heard me on the Morgan White, Jr. show on Christmas night. Morgan basically called me old by saying that the event and I had been around since the beginning of time. The indignities I suffer for this event...

dogcentricities

2007-12-27T17:20:00Z

Since the question came up once again today, I am reposting my dog blog doggerel from last year.

Ask any of my friends and they’ll tell you that I am one of those nutty dog people. I spend more money on and time with his royal highness than I probably should, but he is the best boy ever, so I have no choice. Anyway, someone called here to know which of our events are dog-friendly, and was very unhappy when my reply was that none of the indoor events are. (Not sure why anyone would think it’s a good idea to bring a dog to a church or the Orpheum, but there you go.) I told him that much of First Night happens outdoors, and that dogs are of course allowed in all of the outdoor places where they’re usually allowed, and all of the usual rules apply. If you are planning to bring a dog down here, I just wanted to offer some advice, crazy dog person to crazy dog person.

1. I don’t know about anyone else, but my dog is TERRIFIED of fireworks, and we have two displays - one at 7 p.m. and one at midnight. If your dog is freaked out by loud noise, don’t have him out at those times.

2. I’m thinking the Grand Procession is not the best place for a dog. It’s loud and crowded and a bit chaotic (in a good way). If I was a foot and a half tall, I don’t think I’d like it.

3. Don’t let your dog pee on the ice sculptures.
And from Charlie Ashmont (below, sans dignity), plus Raddichio Bishop, Trudeau Burroughs and all the other First Night staff doggies, Happy New Year.

Motivation comes in many forms

2007-12-27T17:17:00Z

So, we're often asked why we do this. My officemate, the lovely and talented Lois and I give very different answers to this question.

Lois, when asked, says "For the children!" Actually, she doesn't even say it, she shouts it, melodically and angelically, with outstretched arms and open heart. She's like a zealot. I, on the other hand, work here because we get free food the week of the event. Our office manager Alene sweet-talks area restaurants into donating food. I'm not sure what exactly she promises them, but they're very generous. Yesterday we had PF Chang's. Today is Viga. On deck are Souper Salad, Vinny T's, and Shaw's. I know I'm shallow, but seriously, tomorrow is Maggiano's Day.

I think the fact that we can still work together peacefully when our world views are so different might be an example for others to follow. I'm just sayin'.

Time flies

2007-12-26T16:42:00Z

Oh, it's getting to be time.

You know how I know? I'll tell you. Every year about this time, I have a major mechanical mishap. It USUALLY happens on Dec. 26, which is actually the busiest day of my year. My job is to deal with the media, and by and large, they don't want me bothering them before Christmas, but then on Dec. 26 they all wake up and declare in unison "Oh my goodness, it's almost First Night." And then they call me. And I am VERY grateful to hear from them.

So anyway, back to the mishap. Last year on Dec. 26, I had a complete computer crash. I'm sure many of you can appreciate how frustrating that was. The year before that, on Jan. 1, I arrived home a tired and broken woman. I grabbed my dog and went out to get some junk food so I could lay on the couch and be a vegetable for a few days. When I came home, the lock on my door was broken and I could not get into my house. Phil, one of my First Night compatriots had to come over and break into my house for me. The year before that, my cell phone dropped and smashed into pieces on Dec. 26, and I couldn't get my car out of a giant snowbank. That was not good.

This year I experienced the case of the spontaneously deflating tires. Last week, I bought four brand new tires. I drove around all week and all was fine. Then on Christmas day, I drove from Dorchester to Canton, and all was fine. I brought some presents in to my aunt's house, and then came out for another armload of gifts and noticed that both passenger side tires were flat flat flat. Of course I immediately looked for puncture wounds, but there were none. Since I'd just bought the tires from te dealer, I had AAA (honestly, the best money I've ever spent) tow the car to them in Hanover.

This morning, the guys from the dealership filled up the tires and let them sit. They found no tire trauma, and really, no reason on God's green earth why the tires might have deflated. So, I picked up the car last night, and so far so good, but what a pain in the neck!

What I don't understand is why I am now being shunned by my co-workers. They smile politely and nod from a distance, but they won't come near me.

Ice, ice baby

2007-12-26T12:32:00Z

Don Chapelle has loaded onto the plaza by the Aquarium and is carving an 18-foot shark. There should be plenty of pictures of him in tomorrow's papers, because there have been plenty of photographers crawling around.

We're getting lots of calls about whether people can come into town early to see ice sculpting. The short answer is yes. But as you all know, short answers often lack the nuance and complexity necessarily to accurately descibe a situation. Ice sculpting is weather dependant, and there is a spot of rain in the forecast. If it's raining, sometimes the sculptors will cover the ice and wait for it to pass.

As far as I can tell at this moment-

- From Wednesday, you should be able to see a completed "Shark on Ice" by Don Chapelle at the Aquarium

- Beginning on Thursday, you should be able to see Don and his crew working on "Mangrove" on the Boston Common, not far from Brewer's Fountain. He tends to work days, 10 to 5 or so.

- Beginning Friday night, you should start to see Steve Rose and his crew working on American Eagle at the Boston Common Frog Pond. He tends to work overnights.

- Eric and Alfred, who carve the Copley Square pieces, usually don't load in until the night before the event, so if you head over there before that, you won't see much more than barricades!

Again, all weather dependant, so no guarantees. It's ice!

New website feature!

2007-12-14T00:35:00Z

Every year we try to improve our website so it's as user friendly as possible. To accomplish this we go through hours, and hours, and hours of testing all the latest internet technology, plotting line graphs, creating pie charts, using excel and making powerpoint presentations to Charlie Ashmont - if you've been keeping up with the FN blog you know who he is. OK, maybe not all of that is true, but we do try to make the site easy to use and this year we're very excited with what we have. But it doesn't end there, even after the site is done we continue working on it, making tweaks and just trying to make it an overall experience for everyone. With that said, (drum roll please) and back by popular demand, we've added an itinerary tool! To use it all you need to do is visit any artist profile page or go to 'Your FN08 Itinerary' in the First Night 2008 section and add your email address. Now when you visit an artist page you'll notice an option to add specific event times, through the magic technology, or 1's and 0's, your itinerary is saved and can be sent to your email so you can print it out. Making it easy for you to plan out your First Night 2008. So check it out and use it, or Charlie Ashmont's time will have been wasted.

20 Days and Counting

2007-12-12T02:00:00Z

The countdown to Midnight has officially begun. The wheels at First Night are cranking and we are ready to give the festival over to you, our loyal button buying public. From the marketing end, I am really excited to welcome FedEx to their first First Night celebration. FedEx is helping us present Comedy at the Orpheum with Jimmy Dunn and Tony V. Should be a great night of comedy. I am going to check it out.

Everyone that I talk to say, "I know you're crazy but...." Though it is busier than say, March, for me, it isn't all that crazy. I have passed "the football" as Gina our production director said one time, off to the production staff that is now ordering fork lifts and getting PODS delivered. I have been working on getting the last of the volunteer vests ordered and finishing up the signage order for this year. Things are cooking along. Hopefully in the coming days you will get a bit more insight into what the First Night staff is up to. I hope to get some of the real workhorses of First Night up on this blog. It is an eclectic group of people to say the least but we are family, at least for a few weeks a year. Enjoy the new site. Russ, the other person in the marketing department, and Markski put alot of hard work and chat sessions into it. Let us know if you find something wrong or interesting.

nightmares and cute kids

2007-12-06T20:20:00Z

So I had this nightmare last night that it was December 6. I'm still trying to wake myself up.

Our friend Joyce Kulhawik (no relation) did a great story last night on the Thomas J. Kenny School marching band in Dorchester. They're the only public school marching band in Boston, and they're spectacular. To see the story, go to http://wbztv.com/video/?id=47479@wbz.dayport.com. I give props to the Kenny School Marching band despite the fact that I attended kindergarten at the Kenny's rival school, the Ellen H. Richards, which was just on the other side of Adams Street in Dorchester. Of course, the Richards is now condos while the Kenny School has this incredible marching band. Oh well.

Oh yes, and this picture sums up how my faithful companion feels about the holidays and my workload around this time of year.

Black Friday and Button Friday.

2007-11-23T16:18:00Z

After a day of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, carrots, squash and apple pie, a few of us from the office got up early to get our Christmas shopping done. Well, not really. We actually weren't doing the shopping and it wasn't for Christmas. This morning, Mayor Menino bought his First Night button at the Shaw's store at the Prudential Center in downtown. It was a fantastic day and all of our friends from the media came out. We even had Mike Ritter the button artist there.

So with that, buttons are now on sale. You can get them at Shaw's and Star Market, Store 24, Lil' Peach and Tedeschi's as well as Au Bon Pain in the greater Boston area. You can also get them online at our website. Take a look here for all of the retail locations.

Happy Shopping.

(From L to R) First Night 2008 Button Artist Mike Ritter, Mayor Thomas M. Menino, First Night Executive Director Geri Guardino

buttons, tea-nog and creme brulee

2007-11-16T19:45:00Z

The button design, by my Ashmont Hill neighbor Mike Ritter, was unveiled with great fanfare this morning at the lovely Park Plaza Hotel. Channels 4 and 7 were there, as was Metro and AP, so you should be seeing some coverage of it later today. Mike's a great photographer, and the button is lovely - very Boston. You can check out his other work at www.ritterbin.com.

After the unveiling, we had a very special treat. The Park Plaza had its own unveiling - the First Night tea blend. The tea itself was delightful. Highly recommended. Cynthia Gold, the Park Plaza tea sommelier has concocted an excellent potion, and we got to have three amazing courses of tea-infused goodies like scones, sandwiches, petit fours and an earl grey creme brulee. As one of my co-workers so gracefully put it, "I can think of way worse ways to spend an hour at work."

That said, we now have one less hour in the 45 days we have left to put this monster event together, so we need to get back to work!

Welcome to the New www.firstnight.org

2007-11-16T02:12:00Z

Today is the first day of First Night 2008. Well not really but it is the first day that the identity of First Night 2008 comes out from the boxes and computer files that have been holding it back for the past four months. We couldn't wait to share with you the new button. Along with a new First Night year, comes a new website, program guide and a new event! Take a look around the site. Try out the new features we have set up for you.

I would personally like to thank four people who have put in a ton of time and effort into this site: MarkSki of markski.net, our web guru, D. Russell Capasso, Carrie Gesteland and our web designer Johnny X.