Harvard University

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Casting spells

Tomb 10A at the MFA; ACT UP at Harvard
In 1915, Harvard University and Museum of Fine Arts archæologists digging in a rocky cliff at Deir el-Bersha unearthed the 4000-year-old tomb of the Djehutynakhts, an ancient Egyptian governor and his wife.
By GREG COOK | October 21, 2009

Free speech again quashed at Harvard

RSVPeeved Dept.
It should come as no surprise to readers of “Freedom Watch” that yet another instance of political, intellectual, and academic censorship has sprung up at Harvard, the self-touted pinnacle of higher education.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | October 21, 2009

Photos: The Secrets of Tomb 10A at MFA

The Secrets of Tomb 10A: Egypt 2000 BC on exhibit until May 16, 2010
Photos of an Ancient Egyptian exhibit on display at the Museum of Fine Arts
By MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS BOSTON | October 22, 2009

Photos: ACT UP New York: Activism, Art and the AIDS Crisis

ACT UP New York: Activism, Art and the AIDS Crisis 1987–1993 at the Carpenter Center
Photos from the exhibit on display from October 15 to December 23, 2009.
By CARPENTER CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS | October 21, 2009

Course correction

Out of school and out of work? Don’t enroll in a grad program just yet — adult-education coures could do (and land you) the job.
So it unfolded on Facebook, the story of this down-on-his-luck recent graduate in possession of a bachelor’s degree in the liberal arts from a respected area school.
By VANESSA CZARNECKI | October 14, 2009

Khazei, Like a Fox?

Insiders don’t think Alan Khazei has a chance in the US Senate race. But progressive activists could make him an underdog with bite.
If there is to be a candidate in the Massachusetts US Senate race who inspires the sort of grassroots, progressive following that propelled Governor Deval Patrick into office three years ago — an insurgent candidacy, if you will — it figures to be idealistic public-service advocate Alan Khazei, co-founder of City Year and founder of Be the Change, Inc.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | October 16, 2009

Less than zero

Artist Russell Freeland went from Boston to Austin — and gave up absolutely everything in the process
Three years ago, Russell Freeland had what most would consider a settled life. Just two years later, though, Freeland was hungry, exhausted, and homeless, trying to survive in Austin, Texas.
By IAN SANDS | October 10, 2009

Father Feeney

A Heretic Courted By The Church
Leonard Feeney, a defrocked Jesuit priest and pretty much of a legend in this city as a result of the “sermons” he preached on the Common every Sunday without fail for eight years, from 1949 to 1957, attracting sometimes as many as a thousand people to heckle and to laugh as much as to listen—Father Leonard Feeney is in the news again.
By DAVE O'BRIAN | October 09, 2009

Philadelphia Story

What Steve Taylor needs to know if he succeeds in buying the Globe
The local-media story line of the moment is the push by Stephen Taylor — Milton resident, Yale media lecturer, and former Boston Globe executive VP — to recapture the paper his family ran for more than a century, a goal he's pursuing with the backing of (among others) his cousin Benjamin Taylor, the former Globe publisher.
By ADAM REILLY | October 01, 2009

Has Obama learned from Clinton’s mistakes on health-care?

Action Speaks!
Action Speaks!, the always-enlightening panel discussion series at the Providence art space AS220, is back at it with weekly chats through the end of October.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | September 30, 2009

Leon Kirchner, 1919–2009

In Memoriam
Craggy, tender, passionate, witty, rough-edged, lyrical, uncompromising, Leon Kirchner's music, so like the man himself, made an indelible impression. Even in his recent appearance at a 90th-birthday tribute concert at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the old fire and wit, the frankness and the refusal to sentimentalize, were there.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 23, 2009

Bookstores fight back with instant paperbacks

Just Add Author Dept.
Battered booksellers, especially independent ones, have so far withstood the punishing shock-and-awe offensive of Internet Age marauders like Amazon.
By ETHAN GILSDORF | September 23, 2009

Pottery, Potter, mummies, and a 'Rare Bird'

Museums and galleries gather their objets d'art
The art of 2000 BC Egypt, visions from the Iraq War and AIDS activism, and the magic of a digital technology and Harry Potter make up the highlights of Boston's autumn art calendar.
By GREG COOK | September 15, 2009

Six for the seat

After a tumultuous week, these half dozen are still in the mix for Kennedy's seat.
Over the next few months, as candidates for the US Senate travel the state, you're likely to hear them say again and again that nobody can ever truly replace Ted Kennedy. That's the truth. But what does the state want next, after such a legendary, larger-than-life figure?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | September 16, 2009

The whole truth

Tomes from the 'fact' department
It's the economy, stupid. Or maybe politics or literature. Fall non-fiction goes wide and deep, so plan for some marathon reading.
By BARBARA HOFFERT | September 14, 2009

Vote Yoon

It is time for Boston to debate its future
Barring supernatural intervention next Tuesday, incumbent Thomas Menino is expected to top the ticket in Boston's four-candidate mayoral preliminary. The final vote will take place November 3.
By EDITORIAL | September 17, 2009

Monster man and more

James Whale at the HFA
James Whale's career as a purveyor of marvelous film entertainments was brief.
By STEVE VINEBERG | September 08, 2009

Hammer swings through Harvard

Ad lib department
When he was known as MC Hammer, the man born Stanley Burrell famously sold consumers Rick James samples and parachute pants.
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 04, 2009

A girl's guide to Boston boys

Stop looking for love in all the wrong places
Autumn opens itself wide with possibility. And Boston begins to crackle with fresh energy (you'll feel it), as the city spreads its arms to thousands of new humans. New brains and bodies abuzz with all sorts of anticipation. The feeling of fall: potential .
By NINA MACLAUGHLIN | September 04, 2009

Michael Ryan: 1951-2009

A celebration of the good old days by someone who knew him when
Every proper obit should begin with something long-winded and amusing. In this case, that's easy.
By CLIF GARBODEN | August 31, 2009

Public and private affairs

The case for making a campaign issue of Teddy's reputation for philandering
Philandering, like heavy drinking, traditionally has been one of those activities that the boys in the press keep mum about when reporting on the boys on the Hill, or the boy in the White House, or any boy, for that matter. The rationales for this silence are curiously contradictory.
By SUZANNAH LESSARD | August 26, 2009

Tormenting Teddy

Republicans threaten Kennedy reign
After 32 years in the US Senate, Ted Kennedy remains a force to be reckoned with, both for his legendary family history and his considerable accomplishments.
By BOSTON PHOENIX STAFF | August 26, 2009

Where was everybody on St. Patrick's Day?

Where's the (political) party?
We piled into a car, we three intrepid journalists, and set out from the Back Bay Sunday morning to find our way to Royal Bolling’s party. “Roxbury’s Salute to St. Patrick’s Day,” as Bolling called it, should be easy to find, we reasoned. After all, the Prince Hall Grand Lodge. A.F. & M., was located at 18 Washington Street. All we had to do was follow Washington Street, right?
By MICHAEL RYAN | August 31, 2009

The annunciations

East Coast, West Coast: It's the Ted & Jerry Show
The broad brush strokes of Teddy Kennedy's presidential announcement may have uplifted liberal hearts, but Jerry Brown's announcement challenged liberal thinking with some pencil-sharp specifics about the role of government in economic planning for the 1980s.
By MARCO TRBOVICH AND CHARLES P. PIERCE | August 26, 2009

The Mouth Behind the Eye

Maybe Norma Nathan is just a nice little Jewish mother from the North Shore. After all, she says she only assaults people who assault her.
Norma Nathan, who looks for all the world like a naïve and guileless suburban homemaker (and knows it), was down on Long Wharf a couple of weeks back, snooping around. She was checking out a rumor that Ed King, his Cabinet, a group of political supporters and a crowd of lobbyists were about to embark on a lavish Harbor cruise.
By DAVE O'BRIAN | August 24, 2009

Bad times for the good earth

How are we going to keep them down on the farm?
You could say that the plight of the Massachusetts farmer began during the Great Ice Age, when the Laurentide Ice Sheet scraped over New England leaving poor soil and, as one farmer put it, "rocks, rocks, rocks."
By D.C. DENISON | August 11, 2009

The Gates case isn't about race

Doesn't Matter If You're Black or White Dept.
The weeks-long hubbub over the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. by the Cambridge Police Department has centered on race, understandably, for two reasons: 1) the African-American population has suffered inequitably in its relations with law enforcement across this country, and 2) a race story is easier for the media to tell — and to sell.
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE | August 05, 2009

Interview: John Legend

A different kind of R&B star
Despite being one of the most successful R&B singers of the decade — with six Grammys and three top-selling albums — John Legend is something of an oddball.
By BEN WESTHOFF | August 05, 2009

The Accidental Billionaires

The founding of Facebook: A tale of sex, money, genius, and betrayal
In this nonfiction account of the Harvard origins of the social-networking phenomenon, the author boils down the essence of why Facebook — orginially called thefacebook — was created and the root of its power: nerds obsessing over sex. In this excerpt, undergrads Eduardo Saverin and Mark Zuckerberg begin to realize that Facebook is indeed their golden ticket.
By BEN MEZRICH | July 22, 2009

Only the awesome need apply

Free Money Dept.
What if Eli and Edythe Broad, two important financial backers of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, had gone batshit crazy back in the early '00s and decided to go in a different direction with their philanthropy?
By IAN SANDS | July 22, 2009

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