Just down the street this summer has been a great introduction of music into the neighborhood – kind of a continuation of something good that happened late last summer during the 2020 pandemic.
The organization Mad Music Mill has been laying the groundwork for a summer of laid-back outdoor music, and what a joy it’s been. This is significant because I can’t recall a neighborhood concert on this side of Washington Street, that wasn’t connected to a church gathering, in as long as I’ve been around.
Most of the outdoor concerts in Dorchester are in other places, and our family has always had to load up the car and drive to the other side of the neighborhood to enjoy those kinds of things. What a pleasure it is to walk down the street, hang a left, and find a group of young musicians playing their hearts out for anyone willing to lend an ear.
Neighbor Adonis Martin is the owner and director of the Mill – which got its start a few years ago in a church on the Glenway as a place to rent rehearsal space, and more importantly, for a weekly jam session. I’ve seen him walking the dog often in the neighborhood for some time, but it’s funny that you can see someone doing something like that year in and year out – yet not know they’re a great musician, writer, or whatever other good thing. The Mill, by my measuring stick, is a really talented group of musicians and singers from the area, and last September when everyone was looking for something to do outside – they brought the show to the Norwell Street lot (soon to be a park) for a laid-back open mic concert. A lot of credit goes to Laquisa Burke of the West Of Washington (WOW) Neighborhood Association for getting the engine revved up on this for a repeat performance in 2021.
This summer, they’ve returned for what’s being called “Sunday Service – Off the Cuff,” another open mic jam session on Norwell Street that happens every second Sunday. I attended the first one with my wife and neighbors, and it was just what the doctor ordered on a Sunday night before going back to the awful grind of a pandemic workweek. I didn’t contribute musically, thankfully, but I did provide the lawn mower to cut the grass – if that counts for anything.
This, of course, is how all good things start – just for fun – and with a group of very talented people. So it is, if you can play anything, recite poetry or rhymes, or carry a tune, stop by Sunday Service with the Mad Music Mill this summer. They’ll be altering the schedule to be at the WOW BBQ on Saturday, Aug. 21(1-4 p.m.), but then it’s back to the routine. I know I’m looking forward to it.
KICKING IT OFF WITH COFFEE
Acting Mayor Kim Janey kicked off her Coffee Hour series – a staple of Boston summer mayoral activities for decades – in Four Corners late last month at Mother’s Rest Park.
There was a spoken word artist, iced Dunks, the usual potted plant giveaway and Janey spoke about the importance of open spaces in her life, and the lives of all of us in the city.
The visit made me think a lot about the mayoral race before us, which is coming quickly. I happen to live in probably the lowest voter-turnout precinct in all of Boston, 17-1. That means there are never lines to vote, no matter how big the election might be. However, it also means that when you hear and see pictures of the mayoral candidates “canvassing” the neighborhoods, they aren’t canvassing this neighborhood. It’s an economy of scale type of thing.
To date, I don’t believe we’ve had any of the five major candidates come up the front steps to pay us a visit, nor did any mayoral candidates in any of the previous races. Being all super-voters in our household, what we do get is the surrogate visit, which in Boston means a vast array of printed fliers that come in the mail at a clip one cannot imagine. Note to candidates: I toss those right in the recycling, and I know they’re expensive.
For my money, if I were running, I’d take out a series of regular ads in this and other newspapers around Boston – but hey, I’m biased.
Some people like not getting “canvassed” by the candidates. I tend to enjoy having the candidates come to the door and ask for my vote. It’s kind of like Halloween. They come up to the porch, knock on the door and – as it goes – they have to ask for candy, or in the case of politicians, for your vote. It’s the pageantry and the dance of it all that makes it fun in both instances. Then again, like the state of voting here, there also aren’t many kids that come around for Halloween to trick-or-treat either – leaving a giant bowl of unclaimed candy at our house.
That leads to why the day after Halloween is my second favorite day of the year. There’s a huge bowl of unclaimed candy left over, and somebody’s gotta’ eat it. With the final mayoral election on Nov. 2, just two days after Halloween, that might make waddling up to the voting booth a bit more challenging.
For anyone that’s interested, the WOW group and eight other Associations from the west side of Dorchester are having a mayoral forum on online on Aug. 30, 6:30 p.m. Anyone interested in the Council at-Large race can catch the same coalition with the candidates at an online forum on Aug. 23, 6:30 p.m.
PAYCHECK IN THE ATTIC
I was chasing some squirrels out of the eaves in the attic of my house earlier this summer, which has become quite a task with how aggressive those little monsters have become. After the dust had settled and they ran outside, I saw an envelope that fell to the ground below and it contained a pay stub from a former owner of the home – who, incidentally, I do know. The stub was from the Hyatt Regency Hotel downtown, and from November 1982. Shockingly, the total earnings on that holiday week (Thanksgiving) for 44.5 hours was $114.40. In today’s dollars, that’s about $323.64 – still way too low.
But the story only gets worse. I scanned the deductions for health insurance, dental, retirement, federal tax, state tax, this, and that – and by the time it was all done – the guy had only made $33 bucks. Can you imagine? Some people nowadays spend that on lunch at a food truck.
TREASURING THOSE QUIET MORNINGS
Someone who moved to the neighborhood from another part of Dorchester noted to me that the afternoons, evenings and nights on the west side of Dorchester are just too loud. And after some thought, he’s right.
Too many loud backyard parties, too many ATVs ripping up and down the street, too much loud drama, too much loud fighting, and too many fireworks. Everything is loud and obnoxious, I now realize.
But morning, on the other hand, that’s God’s oasis. Crisp skies, no cars, and the sound of nature. I woke up the other morning quite early and you couldn’t hear anything outside. There was no sound. It was so quiet that I think I could hear the sun rising.
