every time i go to visit, i swing by john harvard's. mostly cos you can buy a jug to go. plus they make a koelsch that almost tastes legit. bonus!

boston is a wicked city, and the weather isn't that bad in winter... honest.

i've lived in boston and the weather is not that bad, but i grew up in michigan. honestly, it you find it unbearable, come and visit michigan's north campus in ann arbor for a couple of days and suddenly boston will feel much more amenable. as always, all archinectors ar welcome at my place.

when i was in boston, winters were colder than in mi - i thought. bars are so much fun there, i lived right off pearl st. so i always ventured to the "middle east." i think you'll like it there.

thanks for the words of reassurance all . . . over the past few years ive acclimated to mild washington dc winters, and intensely hot spring, summer and falls. and of course, my beloved black cat (bar/club). i will check out the middle east though, and anywhere i can get a koelsch sounds lovely . . . (although id typically go for a schwartzbier)

There are plenty of good bars in Boston/Cambridge for you to linger in, including:
Charlie's Kitchen
Bukowski's
Other Side Cafe
The Squealing Pig
Silvertone

As far as music, the Boston/Cambridge scene revolves around the Middle East and Lansdowne Street, depending what you're looking for. Smaller, more underground acts will most likely end up at the Middle East, while the more popular acts will end up over at Lansdowne. There are always random punk/emo/core shows going on at a church in Allston whose name escapes me. Here's the page for the Middle East to see what they have to offer. Pretty much just religiously read The Weekly Dig to keep up with the shows that are going on.

And winters can suck at times because those coastal winds cut right through you, but its nothing to be concerned about.

my boyfriend went there undergrad and i totally hated visiting him. mostly i hated the people and well... the city in general. there were a good amount of bars and places he and his friends hung out but... bleh! as far as I'm concerned. Everything seemed really false. Good luck, man. I don't think you could pay me to live there, even if it is Harvard!

kazbot-

you will die a cold cold death. but not if you hit up landsdowne st. beantown is awesome. go bosox.

if you go thinking that the winters will be unbearable, you'll probably be miserable. if you go thinking that you'll make it through and sure it's a bit cold, but you can suck it up, you'll make it just fine. it's all mental.

Boston is like any cold place (NYC, DC, Mich, Chicago)...if you have the right clothes:
this includes scarf, hat, gloves, boots, coat...oh and cords are much better against cold wind than jeans...

and you have a warm apt...
and good friends...
and a beer (or drink of choice)

you will be fine.
i agree that it is all mental
(and this is coming from a Southerner who lives in the NE!)

GSD issues a great book for their strudents with a bunch of locals to frequent. start there. boston is cool-you won't have any problems finding a great place to hang out. the weather makes it great to be indoors drinking a pint.

the best place to get away from the usual faces is the model cafe in allston, but it's easier to get there by car or cab. fantastic mix of inked+pierced and billiard bar flies. yeah. trust me. it's cold as a witch's tit in boston.

I'll be starting M.Arch I at the GSD in the Fall and have lived in Cambridge for the past few years. It really is brutally cold here and it can last from November all the way until April. Get some reliable boots and a proper winter coat because you'll suffer otherwise.

Oh, and Landsdowne Street is stupid. The Middle East and TTs in Cambridge are OK music venues, as is Great Scott in Allston, but if you're coming from NYC like I was prepare to be disappointed.

Sorry for the bad news, but we'll likely be spending almost all of our time in Gund anyway... at least that's how I console myself.

bars i liked..
the b side cafe near kendall
bukowski's in inman sq.
sligo pub in davis
the enormous room in central (sometimes)
plough and stars between harvard and central
the people republic - ditto
green st. grill
tir na nog near union sq.
toad nr porter sq.
the good life in downtown boston..better than it's central
square counterpart...but they both serve good martini's
and there's a couple others that i can't remember the
name of right now...

landsdowne st is okay..but cheesy...i feel if you're really
goin to go all out and you want the full-on meat market
experience you should go to the alley of boylston i think..
five or so really cheesy dance clubs all on one alley...that
or you could go to the hong kong right in harvard sq...the
top floor is a dance club and it's a total anomaly from the
rest of boston..
and those are all within almost walking distance of hahvad.

as far as music...tt the bears, the middle east are right
next to each other...

ONLY go to landsdowne st if you're either going to a sox game (you should) or going to see a known band play. i saw sigur ros over there once. good show. avoid the bars. the paradise on comm ave also has good shows.

...and watch out for rubber bullets after the games.

Axis and Avalon have decent shows from time to time, thats Lansdowne's saving grace.

And avoid Jillian's like the plague.

okay, if we're going to talk bars, a couple of my favorites are matt murphy's pub in brookline village and sophia's on boylston (they used to offer free salsa dance lessons on tues nights which might be the best cheap date in town aside from sneaking into the aquarium).

The Model is good but overhearing twenty of the same conversations about the latest Hold Steady album (or whoever is the hot band of the moment) gets boring. But at least the tattoos are interesting. I'd probably like it more if it weren't so inaccessible.

Landsdown Street is great if drunken undergrads in black ass pants are your thing. The whole area around Fenway stopped being interesting when The Rat closed in the early-mid 90s.

I can't think of the name of that other bar in Allston that had decent djs who spun an interesting mix of brit-mod stuff and 60's soul... I don't know if it's even still around. It's been a couple of years since I left boston.

I also really liked B-side near Kendall Square.

And because I went to MIT, I feel the need to give proper respect to Miracle of Science, a bar that seems to be the unofficial bar of the MIT School of Architecture and Planning. It's not really all that great, but I went there often (too often) with friends from school after classes or studio, so that made it kinda fun.

That reminds me that the cambridge saloon on Mass Ave., a dive bar that keeps all of the lights on to prevent fights) is pretty great, too.

Rather than looking in the Pheonix or the Weekly Dig, just find some well-inked bike messenger sitting on the curb behind Harvest in Central Square and ask them what's what.

bike messengers are so hot . . .
wow everybody, thanks for all the tips. ill probablly relent to endless hours in studio, but its nice to be somewhat directed towards life outside. and if you ever have a wonder about princeton or dc, im your girl.

confused . . . javier, rubber bullets? and im a yankees fan, is this bad?

its not the rubber bullets, its the bean-bag guns that'll getcha...

kazbot...
a girl was killed after one of the alcs games (or world series)
outside fenway park when a 'non lethal' weapon was fired
into a crowd she was standing in and it hit her in the eye
killing her. i believe the officer was recently found not
guilty of using excessive force...

of course, in general, celebrations in boston from the
various championships recently have resulted in at
least one death per celebration...which is why the police
were out en masse to keep college students off the
streets...the mayor was in a lose/lose situation since
he'd been blamed for not showing enough of a police
prescence at the previous celebrations.

kazbot.

Boston:Yankees Fan

a) Fallujah:US Marine
b) Guantanamo Base:Muslim
c) LA:Black Motorist
d) Haight-Ashbury:Conservative Evangelic Christian

Kazbot, why the yankees? where are you from originally?

Kazbot, why the yankees? where are you from originally?

BAC masters program in the fall. From Philly to Boston..should be an interesting transition, but anyhow i need a roommate. its urgent!

actually center...most of allston/brighton seems to
be new york transplants..they all come up to go to
bu/bc and then head back down.

plus sox fans have no hate for yankees fans anymore...
or at least i don't ...and i live in new york...there wasn't
a quieter town than nyc after last year's game seven...
of course the opposite was true two years ago

HMMM, I see a Boston throwdown happening...

Build Boston -- GSD vs. MIT tug o' war? BAC as ref... or 5 a side indoor soccer tourny. AFH vs. all you suckers. (I already pick Kazbot and 2 of the new Loebs' on the AFH team).

Actually AFH is deciding between Boston, SF, Bozeman or Minn. as our next port of call....

Cameron:
Relocate to Boston so that I can work for you.

pah, come to the mountains! We got people strolling in every month....

Hiking, fly fishing and canoeing in the summer - 3 ski resorts in the winter - Hot springs in Yellowstone all year round.... hmmm.

hmmmm... thats tempting...

blueprint... i was in the bac master's program... great location... try to get a place near bu... and good luck, your years in that program will feel like eternity...

im in love with the usa
im in love with the modern world
so put down your cigarette
and drop out of b.u.

sharing modern love under suburban rain. move into vado's old crib 18 abbey road brighton ma. usa amerika...

flm: im a jersey girl. princeton jct, 45min and im in ny. and i prefer the yankees (over the mets) for purely aesthetic reasons.

blueprint: youre brave. ive heard bac horror stories. not sure i can help you with roomates, but if i hear anything ill let you know.

cameron: another vote for afh in boston. and im really good at tug-o-war.

Cameron, do you fly fish? While it's not the yellowstone, fly fishing in the Northeast is pretty good, too.