Misstropolis | Culture

It’s So Easy Being Green

2009-06-10T03:08:16-05:00

Going green or getting even greener doesn’t have to mean installing a wind turbine in your backyard. Washington D.C. based blogger and enviro-mom Janine Nickel offers five easy, inexpensive ways to shrink your footprint. Summer is a great time to get green and when it’s this easy, there’s no excuse not to.Summer is the perfect time to test out easy ways to be green. Outside more often, we experience first-hand the effects of solar energy, wind energy, and even water on our lives. Why not try to harness this energy in your daily routine? I’m not talking about solar panels and wind turbines. I’m talking about things you can incorporate into your home and routine with very little investment (if any) and very little effort.

Are You Ready for the Summer?!

2009-05-28T00:48:42-05:00

Ahhh, summer camp. So many lake shores, so little time. But not all camps are like “Meatballs’” - with Bill Murray as head counselor and kids singing “are you ready for the summer, are you ready for the good times?“ Here are a few options for kids interested in something a little less predictable.In our never ending quest to help moms negotiate the challenging 10 weeks known as summer vacation, Misstropolis profiles some interesting options for the most discriminating campers. Don’t despair if you didn’t make it off the camp waiting list or don’t yet have your plans finalized. Here are four great and unique options to round out any child’s summer.

Join the Authors of “Mothers Need Time Outs, Too” for a discussion about Teenagers

2009-05-05T18:06:24-05:00

Don’t you just feel like you need a time-out right now? Susan Callahan and Katrin Schumann, authors of Mothers Need Time-Outs, Too invite you to an intimate lunch in which they will discuss ideas and share stories about parenting teens in the modern world. Today, Tuesday, May 19 come to the beautiful Sel de la Terre in the Natick Collection and join the discussion. Your own stories could become part of the authors’ new book, Teens Need Time Outs Too. Space is still available but limited. Hope to see you there.Join the authors of Mothers Need Time Out, Too at Sel de la Terre for fabulous French cuisine and a talk about teens! If you have kids between 9 – 19, come share your stories for their next book, Teens Need Time-Outs, Too. It’s about giving our tweens and teens the tools they need to thrive in the Brave New World. Enjoy a 10% discount on your lunch.

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo at the Beehive

2009-04-29T12:22:38-05:00

Forget loco weather patterns, swine flu and that blueprint fast you’re contemplating - Cinco de Mayo is a call for mad celebration and here in Boston, The Beehive is the place to bee. Ole! The Beehive has a special invitation for Misstropolis readers to their annual Mi Casa Bee Casa event. Read on to learn more about what’s in store for the fiesta, including live music, special menu and cocktail surprises and VIP seating. VIVA! el CINCO DE MAYO!Cinco de Mayo is actually a commemoration of a victory by Mexican troops in La Batalla de Puebla more that fifty years after its actual independence, on May 5, 1862. While Cinco de Mayo has limited significance nationwide in Mexico, the date is observed in the United States and other locations around the world as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. That’s why Cinco de Mayo is such a party - viva freedom and liberty! Party on at the Beehive in Boston’s South End and get special treatment as a member of Misstropolis. Read on!

House of Blues Back in Boston

2009-04-22T03:21:19-05:00

From black Chicago rapper to British pop princess – and the diverse multitude of fans these respective acts draw – the House of Blues is the perfect cauldron for a bubbling concoction of music, drinks and a good night out for all ages. Song Han investigates.The original House of Blues opened in Boston on Thanksgiving Day 1992. The music venue, located on narrow Winthrop Street in Cambridge, was the only House of Blues at the time. From the original club, multiple other locations opened, and in the summer of 2006, House of Blues was purchased by Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment company and Clear Channel spin-out. While the brand expanded (there are presently over a dozen HOB locations throughout the US), the original House of Blues, a small white house in Harvard Square, shut its doors in 2003.

Anti-Gym Culture: Make Your Journey Your Own

2009-04-07T18:05:40-05:00

Fitness expert and owner of Life in Synergy in Boston’s Back Bay, Helena Collins has been in the exercise business long enough to know that modern gym culture can be harmful to a person’s health. The key to well-being, she writes this week, is learning how to focus on the journey, not the rock hard abs or bikini ready-booty.In a previous article for Misstropolis, published in January, I wrote “I want to bring fitness back to the pure, personal experience it was ‘in the beginning.’ I think fitness can always be associated with loving life and loving oneself. Why not?!” The why not, as I explain in the article, had to do with the business of fitness in the U.S. – the culture of exercise that has become, in many ways, unhealthy. I explained that with changes in the fitness industry, “gym culture became intense, revenue - driven and win/lose.” Doesn’t sound very loving does it?

I killed a Basilik in My Basement

2009-03-24T16:13:35-05:00

Pacifist, yogini and nature lover, Susan Graage has one deep phobia that challenges her otherwise secure understanding of her true self. There’s a good reason, it seems to the conscientious home-owner, that snakes have throughout history represented evil. But is it right to kill something because we can? Because fear overtakes the rules that govern our otherwise consistent patterns of behavior? It’s a slippery issue…Not once, not twice, but nine times have allegedly harmless garter snakes invaded the suburban bliss of my 1960’s colonial basement. I know exactly because I have catalogued them I my mind over the past 6 ½ years – I could draw a body outline of where each one was discovered. Were the messages emanating from my house – snake loathing, snake fear and snake panic – not received by the serpentine universe? Why would they come to a place in which they were most unwelcome, and leave me with no option but to execute them? Is it possible to retain my identity as an enlightened pacifist, a universally empathic yogini and still kill a snake?

The Snuggie - One Size Fits Some

2009-03-04T18:13:02-05:00

Blankets are ok, but they can slip and slide. And don’t you want to be able to enjoy a snack or reach for your remote in total warmth and comfort? Thank goodness God invented the Snuggie - or was it Satan? The Pop Culture gods are battling something fierce over the new cult phenom that could make the whole Chia Pet thing seem J.V.. Pop culture connoisseur and totally warm and comfortable contributor Abigail Jones investigates.The Chia Pet, ShamWow, slap bracelet, and Pet Rock have a new best friend: the Snuggie. Part-blanket and part-robe, the Snuggie is a fleece blanket with sleeves that lets you curl up, warm up, and still reach for the remote. It comes in three mildly offensive colors (burgundy, royal blue, and sage green are generous names better suited to the J.Crew catalogue), and it has suddenly gone from infomercial obscurity to real-life (so bad it’s good) fame.

Family Musik

2009-02-17T01:17:38-05:00

Win tickets to see Rob Kapilow’s “Green Eggs and Hamadeus” at the Tsai Performance Center at BU. Magda Hernandez did, and if you’d like to read her winning response, check it out at the tail end of the article. Part of the Celebrity Series of Boston Family Musik Program, “Green Eggs and Hamadeus” will make your whole family want to sing and dance - and possibly even become a famous composer! Find out more about the show and how to win tickets from Celebrity Series’ own Stefanie Lubkowski. For any parent eager to expand their child’s musical horizon beyond Hannah Montana and The Wiggles, Rob Kapilow has just the thing with his Family Musik programs, presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston. The February 28 presentation of Green Eggs and Hamadeus at Boston University’s Tsai Performance Center will inspire parents and children alike to try something new with Kapilow’s own setting of the beloved Dr. Seuss poem. Composer, conductor, and pianist Rob Kapilow is perhaps best known for the passion and clarity he brings to his What Makes It Great? series at Lincoln Center and in Boston through Celebrity Series. After having kids of his own, Rob was inspired to apply his educational and musical talents to children’s classical music programming. Rob’s three children are still a large part of Family Musik; he tests out all of the music and interactive elements on them to insure that all the elements will engage and delight.

Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year

2009-02-09T16:08:47-05:00

Renée Zellweger was the recipient of an award almost as coveted as an Oscar (in Cambridge anyway) - the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award. Paraded down Mass. Ave. and roasted on the stage of the New Theater, the star of Cold Mountain (not Brokeback Mountain) and Chicago (not Philadelphia) smiled bravely through both the cold outside and the heat up on stage.Renée Zellweger was the recipient of an award almost as coveted as an Oscar (at least on the east coast, or at least in Cambridge) the Hasty Pudding Woman of the Year Award. Paraded through down Mass Ave and roasted on the stage of the New Theater, the star of Cold Mountain (not Brokeback Mountain) and Chicago (not Philadelphia) sported a smile through both the cold outside and the heat up on stage.