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Mostly Boston
Nov. 2nd, 2023 02:33 pmWhen it turns to autumn, I want to be in New England. So I flew up to Boston the Saturday before last (i.e. the 21st). I’d been a bit concerned about stormy weather that day. But my flight was fine, albeit a bit more turbulent than is optimal. (And I actually like turbulence.) Prices were high and hotel availability was low, presumably due to it being Head of the Charles weekend. (This is a huge regatta.) So I ended up staying at The Row Hotel on Assembly Row. This is on the Orange Line, and it’s a short walk both from the T and from lots of restaurants (and outlet stores) so it was reasonably convenient. The hotel is actually quite nice. By the way, the “assembly” in the name of the area refers to the former Ford assembly plant, where they built Edsels.
MIT Museum: MIT moved their museum from Mass Ave to Kendall Square (adjacent to campus) about a year ago. Being an MIT alum gets one free admission, which is nice. I started with the MIT Collection, which has roughly a hundred objects from throughout the history of the Institute. Each item has a number and you can type it into a terminal and look up info about it.Here, for example, are some prototypes for the Boston arm. This was one of the earliest robotic prostheses that was controlled by the body's nervous system. It’s significant because it was what got me interested in majoring in mechanical engineering.
Another fun set of objects is the Women of NASA lego kit.
There were a lot of exhibits about various hacks at MIT, like the police car on the roof of the Great Dome and the balloon reading “MIT” that was inflated at the Harvard-Yale football game, but I didn’t get pictures there.
Another large area had to do with AI and included several interactive exhibits. One that I spent some time with showed video clips and asked you to guess whether or not they were altered. I found that a lot of them went by too fast for me to look closely at the hands and the lighting to tell.
The other area on the top floor had sculptures by two artists. I didn’t get a good picture of “Whale” by Andy Cavaatorta. But here’s “Machine With Abandoned Doll” by Arthur Ganson:
This kinetic sculpture was even more fun, at least if you like automata (as I do). You may have to click through to flickr to see the video.
Much of the second floor had to do with genetics. My favorite exhibit there was on a “Mermaid De-extinction Project,” complete with a video from a company called Siren Genomics. There was another fun one that had to with a vending machine for angels, so you could figure out for yourself how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. These reminded me of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, which is one of my favorite places in the world.
All in all, I spent about 5 hours at the museum.
Jonathan Richman at the Somerville Theatre: The major excuse for the trip had been going with my friend, Ron, to see Jonathan Richman perform at the Somerville Theatre on Sunday night. We had dinner beforehand at a Tibetan restaurant up the street. The venue is pretty nice and, most importantly, the sound quality was excellent. He did a mixture of old and new material. Some of the older material included “Pablo Picasso,” “New England,” “Dancing in the Lesbian Bar,” and “The Fenway.” Newer pieces included “Me and Her and the Beach” and “Cold Pizza.” There were, of course, songs in various languages, a journey into Rumi and Kabir, and a dash of reggaeton. He’s always fun to watch and he’s a performer who is very much himself, with digressions and dance breaks and all. I’ve seen him live four times now and I never get tired of him. By the way, Ron had not seen him live before, though he was somewhat familiar with his music. He also enjoyed the show.
Arnold Arboretum: On Monday, Ron and I went to the Arnold Arboretum, expecting to see lots of fall color. Another part of my motivation for going there was that I hadn’t been there since some time in the late 1970’s. There was some color, but it wasn’t quite as brilliant as I’d hoped for. But, see for yourself.
This was my favorite photo of the day, because of the reflections in the water.
The brightest colors were found with what is apparently staghorn sumac. I have to trust other people’s identification of plants, since I can just barely tell a weeping willow from a rosebush.
Dinner at Nostos: All in all, it was a good trip. I flew back early on Tuesday, which gave me plenty of time for a long nap before going out to dinner at Nostos, a Greek restaurant in Tyson’s Corner, with a group of people form Flyertalk, The food was good (I got moussaka) and the conversation was lively.
I have more catching up to do, but housework beckons.
MIT Museum: MIT moved their museum from Mass Ave to Kendall Square (adjacent to campus) about a year ago. Being an MIT alum gets one free admission, which is nice. I started with the MIT Collection, which has roughly a hundred objects from throughout the history of the Institute. Each item has a number and you can type it into a terminal and look up info about it.Here, for example, are some prototypes for the Boston arm. This was one of the earliest robotic prostheses that was controlled by the body's nervous system. It’s significant because it was what got me interested in majoring in mechanical engineering.
Another fun set of objects is the Women of NASA lego kit.
There were a lot of exhibits about various hacks at MIT, like the police car on the roof of the Great Dome and the balloon reading “MIT” that was inflated at the Harvard-Yale football game, but I didn’t get pictures there.
Another large area had to do with AI and included several interactive exhibits. One that I spent some time with showed video clips and asked you to guess whether or not they were altered. I found that a lot of them went by too fast for me to look closely at the hands and the lighting to tell.
The other area on the top floor had sculptures by two artists. I didn’t get a good picture of “Whale” by Andy Cavaatorta. But here’s “Machine With Abandoned Doll” by Arthur Ganson:
This kinetic sculpture was even more fun, at least if you like automata (as I do). You may have to click through to flickr to see the video.
Much of the second floor had to do with genetics. My favorite exhibit there was on a “Mermaid De-extinction Project,” complete with a video from a company called Siren Genomics. There was another fun one that had to with a vending machine for angels, so you could figure out for yourself how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. These reminded me of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, which is one of my favorite places in the world.
All in all, I spent about 5 hours at the museum.
Jonathan Richman at the Somerville Theatre: The major excuse for the trip had been going with my friend, Ron, to see Jonathan Richman perform at the Somerville Theatre on Sunday night. We had dinner beforehand at a Tibetan restaurant up the street. The venue is pretty nice and, most importantly, the sound quality was excellent. He did a mixture of old and new material. Some of the older material included “Pablo Picasso,” “New England,” “Dancing in the Lesbian Bar,” and “The Fenway.” Newer pieces included “Me and Her and the Beach” and “Cold Pizza.” There were, of course, songs in various languages, a journey into Rumi and Kabir, and a dash of reggaeton. He’s always fun to watch and he’s a performer who is very much himself, with digressions and dance breaks and all. I’ve seen him live four times now and I never get tired of him. By the way, Ron had not seen him live before, though he was somewhat familiar with his music. He also enjoyed the show.
Arnold Arboretum: On Monday, Ron and I went to the Arnold Arboretum, expecting to see lots of fall color. Another part of my motivation for going there was that I hadn’t been there since some time in the late 1970’s. There was some color, but it wasn’t quite as brilliant as I’d hoped for. But, see for yourself.
This was my favorite photo of the day, because of the reflections in the water.
The brightest colors were found with what is apparently staghorn sumac. I have to trust other people’s identification of plants, since I can just barely tell a weeping willow from a rosebush.
Dinner at Nostos: All in all, it was a good trip. I flew back early on Tuesday, which gave me plenty of time for a long nap before going out to dinner at Nostos, a Greek restaurant in Tyson’s Corner, with a group of people form Flyertalk, The food was good (I got moussaka) and the conversation was lively.
I have more catching up to do, but housework beckons.
