hear ye! hear ye! i got the dream job!

snapped on the roofdeck at fenway park yesterday before the j. geils band/aerosmith concert by the lovely jsutt. (more on last night later.)

HEY FOLKS.

I'M THE NEW ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR

OF BOSTON'S WEEKLY DIG.

you can read the official press release here. [disclaimer: olde english abounds. i love this paper so much.]

to say that this is a dream come true is, well, completely accurate. i feel like the luckiest little journo in the world. (not to get all cheesy and everything.)

so, with that said, i'm gonna be maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad busy for the next couple of months. david - who was promoted from a+e editor to editor of the dig - put it pretty perfectly: "you're not gonna hit the ground running. you're gonna hit the ground FLYING." i. cannot. wait. to. get. started.

so yeah. if you guys weren't picking up the weekly dig every wednesday before, you sure as hell better be now ;)

X H

"do you want me to come over?" the answer is always yes.

this lady has the right idea. bed, paris, gazillion thread count sheets, bliss.

(photo courtesy of one of my favorite blogs on the planet, so much to tell you. (hey, girls - if you want a pen pal in boston you got one!))

has your body ever just given up on you? lately, i feel like it's absolutely the hardest thing in the entire world to just get out of bed. i just want to sleep and sleep and sleep and sleep. maybe it's the heat, and maybe i'm not getting enough nutrients, and maybe i'm not working out as much as i should be, but whatever it is i'm just tiiiiired, man. the past couple of days have just been about tea and naps and getting work done on upcoming Dig features, so maybe i just needed a little down time in order to recharge my batteries and get centered.

on a high note: THE NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL IS THIS WEEKEND! old school favorite/photographer extraordinaire jess hodge and i will be heading down to newport friday morning for three days of beach, spooning with my aunt's puppies and music music music music. i'm excited for folk festival #51 for the following reasons:

+ saying hey to the festival/fort adams staff. they're all awesome and in such a good mood.

+ seeing edward sharpe and the magnetic zeroes, dawes, the low anthem, the david wax museum, sharon jones and the dap kings and, obviously, the Avett Brothers (duhz all around) right on the waterfront. absolute heaven.

+eating my weight in peach cream cheese muffins from the ocean breeze cafe. these muffins are magical. i kid you not. they are the most delicious breakfast pastries known to man.

+quality time with some favorite people. i'm thrilled that jess and i will be teaming up on this one, but i'm also stoked that ryan, sean, schluter, cristina and a few other friends will be either covering/working/attending newport this year. shenanigans on thames st should be plentiful indeed.

in other news, i've been listening to that black keys album and florence + the machine like crazy. i don't even care that that godawful lookin' eat pray love trailer yoinked the single from flo's debut, that album is glorious. and hey, it's been making me feel better lately. that's something!

i turned 24 and it was lovely.

(this is the famous key necklace found in shoreditch while i was in london last month, by the way.

it's my new favorite thing.)

this weekend, it's all about blogging/detailing the crazy things i've been up to since the beginning of november. i PROMISE. i will not neglect OH HEY! any longer. i promise i promise i promise.

in the meantime, these are shots from my 24th birthday party, which was an 11-hour marathon of goodness that started with brunch and ended with dinner and manhattans at trina's with a homey dance party/sit indian style on hil's floor and drink narragansett and sing party in between. i wouldn't have had it any other way. it was perfect.

the photos are all by jess, one of my oldest and dearest friends and my partner in crime/photographer for SXSW this coming march. [that's a sneak preview on the "what i've been up to" front.]

in other news: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAYA! you're one of the best friends a girl could ever hope to have. i can't wait to dance my face off with you and los and cristina and a bunch of our other favorite people tonight in honor of you you you!

X HIL

my friends may keep me out too late on a school night, but they keep me sane.

chief, smitty and ace at great scott, 9/12

so the lovely and talented ryan rose weaver (who's not only an established, dedicated foodie but now also our Tastes guru over at TeaParty Boston) wrote this on her blog last night and it makes me feel all kinds of wonderful:

What this means is that instead of working on service pieces, guides, features, etc. in a strictly technical sense, my hope is that this fall, me and my people are going to make some art together. We are going to riff. We are going to ad lib. We are going to graffiti our words across the Internet and hope that someone wanders along and likes what they see. We will do it because we are compelled to point out the genius of the people who are creating things in this city in the same way that bees are compelled to make honey, that birds are compelled to sing, that Jessica Simpson is compelled to soldier on doing whatever it is that she does despite all those "mom jeans" comments. We do it because we must create -- not because we must create something we can "monetize."

ryan, you're not in the picture above, which is silly, but you're so great. and everyone involved with TPB is so great. and everything that ryan just wrote is the complete and articulate and better-phrased summary of everything i love about my friends and what i do.

thanks, ryan. you just made a gloomy morning severely lacking in the caffeine department so much better.

long time no see! also: boston phoenix, WTF. regards, hil.

hey guys.

my my my, i've been a busy girl. between day job work, TPB work, enjoying the brief heat wave here in boston and riding my bike all over this city to catch up with friends new and old, i'm getting very little sleep and i'm spending very little time at home. this past weekend consisted of running around like a crazy person trying to cover Boston Band Crush's ONE NIGHT BAND [which was an incredible success], the McAlister Drive show over at the 'Dise and Jeremy's last night drumming it up with the Sea Monsters on Sunday. I'm back at my desk. I have iced coffee in my system, even if it's getting a little brisk out. life is good.

fast-forward to today, when little miss jessietron sent me the link for the Phoenix's new lifestyle piece: "A Girl's Guide to Boston Boys." this post royally pissed me off on many levels and as much as i've respected the phoenix in the past for its music coverage and photojournalism and other stuff [and hey, i have some friends over at phoenix media, ok?], nina maclaughlin's article in the Welcome Back '09 issue made me want to write to her directly and ask her to never ever write an op/ed ever again. my issues with it:

1) The Boston Phoenix is one of the OLDEST alternative weeklies in the country [second only to the village voice, i believe, or hell, it may even be older], it has an established readership and it still gets picked up even though it's a free paper with midweek circulation. what's the most important part of that last sentence? ALTERNATIVE. WEEKLY. The Boston Phoenix is NOT the Improper Bostonian [aka the glossy which boasts quips on cavity-inducing $15 cocktails and socialite photo spreads to keep the beacon hill set happy] and it's NOT the Boston Herald [aka the daily owned by Rupert Murdoch known for its blue collar/conservative slant.] it's picked up, predominantly, by readers in cambridge, somerville, allston, jamaica plain and charlestown, which host some of the most well-known [and liberal] academic institutions in the metro-Boston area as well as the most creative and innovative nightlife/restaurants/venues/museums/etc etc. i think it's incredibly short-sighted of maclaughlin, and the lifestyles editor at the phoenix who allowed this to even hit the web, to make sarcastic [and, um, entirely unoriginal] cracks at THE PAPER'S KEY DEMOGRAPHIC. Boston Phoenix, these "arrogant, competitive, and highly self-centered" men of cambridge/"members of the famed creative class" of JP who are most likely to be seen at the cemetery [wtf?]/"(aspiring) rock stars" of allston are THE ONES PICKING UP YOUR PAPERS. the yah brahs/frat boys/finance dudes of downtown/beacon hill/kenmore are hardly the gentlemen who'll be picking up the latest issue by the T on a wednesday morning. in fact, it's these assholes who are most likely to use your classified pages to wipe puke off their face after a particularly rowdy night at the liquor store/on lansdowne street. i think that this article had the potential to poke fun and crack jokes in a good-natured way: i mean, come on, we're all capable of making fun of our idiosyncracies as bostonians and we're all very aware of how we tend to distinguish ourselves by neighborhood. with that said, maclaughlin's angle on this puff piece was poorly written [line edits, anyone?] and dripping with disdain from someone clearly suffering from a case of hipster/harvard envy.

2) at the risk of sounding repetitive, this piece was COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY UNORIGINAL. oh my god! hipsters in allston with ...tattoos?! girls wearing lily pulitzer in back bay?! backwards red sox hats in... WAIT DON'T TELL ME... kenmore square?! OHMYGAHDTHATISSOHILARIOUS. you write for The Boston Phoenix. i'm sure you had ample time to pitch an idea and see it through to fruition. that should've given you PUH-LENTY of time to think of a new spin to put on this idea. also: ashmont. dorchester. SOMERVILLE. even southie [which tends to host these frat boys who're just like "the pals of your best friend's older bro."]. how about you do your research, learn how to use the subway beyond the red and green line, and get to know the city you're covering? if you're going to write off half your audience, you may as well include the neighborhoods where yes, the Phoenix is distributed and where you can find exceptions to every single "type" you defined in your piece. maybe it'll even give your story a little color and keep it from looking like the half-assed column of some Carrie Bradshaw wannabe majoring in Communications at BU.

aaaaand i'm spent. rant done. editorial staff of the boston phoenix: i expect more from you as the supposed authorities on arts & entertainment coverage in my fair city, and i never thought an alternative weekly would be so snottily exclusive. and, frankly, a little more uneducated about the city in which it resides than it should be.

in other news, teaparty boston? yeah, we won't tell you who to date based on what neighborhood you're scouring for boyfriends in, but we WILL tell you how arts & entertainment actually is in Boston and with direct quotes from the people who are making exciting things happen here. we won't be poking fun at them. OR their tattoos.

"i have a cigarette and a beer. mama needs a break." - marcy, dock at the lakehouse circa 10:45 friday night.

since friday evening, i've eaten/drunk my weight in burgers/steak/beer/french toast/cinnabuns/more beer/more steak, spooned with my best friends, gotten into noodle fights, gone swimming in the rain in 60 degree weather (and LOVED IT) and survived a weekend of fun in the sun on the lake without a sunburn.

and then i came home and went to three shows (the sweet & lo-down at upstairs on the square, followed by natalie portman's shaved head at tt's, followed by the sea monsters duh) and woke up this morning at 7:35 [aka 6 minutes after my train to work left from south station. oof.] i still have mom's suv [i borrowed it for the drive to maine] and all i gotta say is automobiles are MAGICAL once you've got one in your possession and you're no longer dependent on public transportation during rush hour. i made it to work in 40 minutes, slept in and drove through a drive-thru starbucks before getting to the office.

i could probably be more verbose/articulate about how wonderful the past few days have been, but the long and the short of it is i'm such a lucky, lucky person and i'm loving life so much right now.

hil went to sarah lawrence, hil graduated, and a year later hil is....?

i just realized that it's been over a year since my commencement from sarah lawrence came and went. the culmination of my undergraduate education was pretty anticlimactic, but the year since then? i guess you could say it's been tumultuous/enthralling/liberating/ecstatic/orgasmic/abusive/satisfying/real.

since graduation, i've accomplished/experienced the following:

-got lost in translation in tokyo (oh my god i'm so witty/facepalm) in soooo many ways

-signed my very first lease on my very first apartment in one of my very favorite cities in the whole wide world

-beefed up my arts & entertainment press portfolio while contributing columns/music/arts pieces to chicks with guns, stuff magazine and go2 media

-applied for 3094850298348 jobs, landed a pretty sick one and got laid off four months later, agh

-loved hard and lost big and, gasp, got over it, even though it took months for it to happen

-learned how to ride my bike in rush hour traffic

-watched the first of my friends get married

-lost touch with old acquaintances; acquired new darling, wonderful friends

-relished in my unemployment and capitalized on the opportunities it gave me to nest, really take care of myself, satisfy countless creative urges and work on my fitness like a madwoman

-saw 93840298304298340283 concerts and met about half of the bands who played them

-watched my parents endure one of the worst tragedies a family can go through and loved them infinitely more than i thought possible when they lived through it

-ate red velvet cake on my 23rd birthday in the company of 25 of my absolute favorite people on the planet

-realized that i will never be the type who just "does it for the money", that i'm meant to do great things, and that i'm the only person who can get in my own way

-oh, yeah. and i cut my hair and got my nose pierced.

so, yeah. a year ago, i was caught up in all things new york: pinching myself over my days at rolling stone, nursing a pretty hefty caffeine addiction courtesy of my most dysfunctional of second families at slave to the grind, getting my ass kicked by the city on a daily basis only to run back to it in order to convince myself that i was alive and making the most of sharing manhattan with an incredible assortment of fascinating people i was lucky enough to call dear friends. today, i'm living in an apartment that finally feels like my home, spending every minute out of the office in the company of lively, lovable people and doing everything i possibly can to make sure that i'll be doing what i love and what i was born to be doing sooner rather than [too] later.

that's not so bad for a year, now, is it?

what my memorial day looked like:

yesterday, ten or so of my favorite people came over and we made margaritas, deviled eggs and a massive, MASSIVE pile of rib eyes and filets.  and then we ate and imbibed and vogue-offed with my neighbors and all their lovely friends on my roof until well after the sun went down.

as always, photos provided by the lovely gab.

happy summer, everybody :)

i fucking love being 23.

tonight, jessie and i rode our bikes down hampshire street and into central square and met up with our friends as they were stumbling out of the bank of america atm on mass ave.  we went to zuzu's, as it was soullelujah night, and danced like maniacs to motown until 2:30 am.  we then threw champ (the bike's name is champ, we've decided) into the back of christoph's car, stopped at the 24-hour shaw's down the street from my house for fixin's, and headed back to my place for grilled cheeses and mojitos on my roof until about 5 minutes ago.

had you asked me five months ago whether or not i could feel this excruciatingly happy i probably would've looked at you like you were a crazy person.  that was then, this is now, and excruciatingly, insatiably happy doesn't even begin to cover it.

¡cinco de mustache! en fotos.

though i'm officially typing this in the wee hours of the morning of the 6th of May, i figured i'd share with you snapshots for the crazy mexican feast that just demolished my apartment in celebration of cinco de mayo.  aka cinco de mustache.  for whatever reason, we decided to have a mustache party for cinco de mayo, and my silly, silly friends under the influence of cuervo especial thought it would be funny to take their adhesive mustaches and smush 'em all up on every surface of my apartment like this: 

and this:

and this:

and this.

(i promise you that that brazilian carnavale dancer was not sporting sick facial hair before approximately 10pm this evening.)

and they were right.  as i was cleaning up the carnage of crusty refried beans and the remnants of a guacamole bowl that may as well have been licked clean, i laughed my ass off as i found mustache after mustache mysteriously stuck to the counters and walls of my place.  i love my friends so much.

the happy list, "i f*cking love my life" edition.

1) i have a scorching sunburn and look like quite a lobster, but i spent hours lounging on harvard yard lunching on delicious food with a group of my absolute favorite people.  avocado bruschetta, mango salsa, red cabbage and raisin cole slaw, pavlovas, brie, sparkling cider and more tortilla chips than we knew what to do with? so. so. so. goooood.

2) i spent the majority of my weekend playing outside with my friends, be it romping around davis square on a tequila buzz or getting blisters on my hands from the monkey bars at the playground up the street.  this weekend felt like SUMMER.

3) i cannot stop listening to the shout out louds and the love language.  the love language are getting a post of their own because jessie took some amazing, amazing photographs at their show the other night, but in the meantime, i will blast their "lalita" along with the SOL's "very loud" on repeat and dance around my apartment while i clean up the remnants of weekend debauchery.

4) i found my sunglasses, my camera and my missing favorite earring.  scoooore.

5) my thao tickets came in the mail, along with the latest issue of paste magazine! so excited. i've been meaning to pick up paste for awhile.  this is going to be a pretty heavy week on the ear drums: i'm going to go to tt's tomorrow night for the sounds' show with jessie, the bodega girls are playing harper's ferry on friday, and i'm hopefully going to be writing some new reviews/features for chicks with guns in the near future.  

6) the city is in such an incredible mood.  the sox have trounced the yankees SO FAR in their three game series, but it's only the start of the seventh inning of the third game and i don't want to jinx it.  i love watching baseball on my couch.  my daddy would be so proud.  haha.

7) it's nice to finally recognize myself in the mirror again.  i was heartbroken in january, furious in february, bewildered in march and hopeful in april, and now i finally, FINALLY feel rested and refreshed and able to take control of my life again.  i wake up every day EXCITED, man.  i'm optimistic and  i'm no longer wasting time on wishful thinking and coulda-shoulda-wouldas.  i've tried to right my wrongs and it may be too late to salvage friendships and feelings and all that from previous offenses, but i would like to think that the universe'll get me back for that one.  it's cathartic, admitting you're wrong, and i swallowed my pride and apologized in the only way i could.  i don't know what to expect, but for the first time in four months i'm not dwelling on it and worrying about it.  what's done is done, you know?  my hurt and my heartbreak are no longer controlling my outlook and my feelings and that's something to be ecstatic about.  i feel like me again.  it took a little longer than i liked for me to get back here, but that's worth noting all the same.

i am truly happy.

for the past four years, the first sox vs. yankees game of the season has been the true start of spring for me and i've celebrated it with my best friends in new york who all happen to BLEED pinstripes.  with the exception of the spring of '07 when i was still living in spain, i've watched the game go down at a dive bar in yonkers with bren, ryan, billy, larz and a slew of my other ny favorites.  i got all nostalgic sitting on my couch with meg and later jessie last night watching the sox take it in an AWESOME game that stretched into the twelfth inning courtesy of jason bay and his 2-run homer in the bottom of the 9th with two outs.  i miss my boys down in yonkers and mel and jules very much, though it was kind of wonderful to just crack open a brew and feel the first drafts of summer passing through my open windows last night.

so, this is meg and goofing around during the game.  photobooth turns everyone into small children who are easily amused.

oh, and jessie and i got excited when they won.  here's the celebratory shot.

this is jessie's anime face.  this is just my scary face.

before the sox went all rockstar at fenway park last night, meg and i went for a feast at local indian food favorite punjabi dhaba followed by banana cinnamon/chocolate banana ice cream cones at christina's.  there is NO BETTER COMBINATION than a delicious, piping hot meal at p-dhabs followed by the best homemade ice cream in cambridge.  we were gonna stop at the thirsty scholar on the way home for a round/some sox action but opted to just drink the beers in my fridge and slouch on my couch for the game.  we ran up to the roof last night because meg's never seen it, and i could've done cartwheels when i realized that it's FINALLY that time of year for drinks and hookah on the roofdeck.

meg had to bust early due to her crazy athletic fitness loving ways (she's going hiking today, have fun meggg!), but jessie, christoph, mikey and matt all came bounding into my apartment shortly after her departure and within fifteen minutes we were smoking honey shisha on my roof while matt cat-called and howled at random pedestrians moseying up and down somerville ave.  (favorite quotation of the evening: "hey BOZO! you got a calzone? .... yeah ENJOY YA PEPPAHRONI CALZONE BOZO.")

after the hookah started to ash, we opted for an impromptu adventure and decided that heading to the nearest playground was definitely the way to go.  the one up the street from my house is an excellent choice for late-night playground debauchery as it's got good swings, monkey bars and a huge basketball court that slants at a pretty sharp angle, ha.  we must've been out there for at least an hour.  here are the best photos from one of the best nights of early spring.

it's gorgeous out in boston today, you guys.  jessie and i are bouncing over to harvard to go find maya in a little bit and i'm wearing the first sundress of the season.  GO SPEND TODAY OUTSIDE! :)