Celebrity Series of Boston Blog

• Reviews of the Emerson String Quartet

  Here is a collection of reviews of the Emerson String Quartet's December 4 recital at Jordan Hall:
  
  The Boston Globe (Jeremy Eichler)
  
  The Arts Fuse (Caldwell Titcomb)
  
  The Boston Phoenix (Lloyd Schwartz)
  
  
  FYI: These reviews were not late - I'm late in [...]
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  Posted: December 15, 2009, 3:11pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Japanese jazz opera (I think)

  Though words fail, this works for me. It works as a joke, as a fascinating socio-historical product, and, arguably I suppose, as jazz. Check out Charlie Parker's Donna Lee at 7:31. The guy is really singing a difficult melody. Amazing. Judging from the comments it is from a Japanese comedy show, [...]
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  Posted: December 15, 2009, 10:25am EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• ABSU is a "Favorite Place" on Google Maps - um, yay!?

  
  
  According to the A) viral marketing materials designed by Google to get me to promote Google for Google, or B) nice letter from the good folks at Google, this blog is A) a Favorite Place on Google found by over 14,000 people [...]
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  Posted: December 11, 2009, 5:04pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Liam Clancy, 1935-2009

  Liam Clancy sings Carrickfergus from The Clancy Brothers 1984 reunion tour with Tommy Makem

  Folk singer Liam Clancy, the last surviving member of the renowned Irish group The Clancy Brothers, has died at 74 in County Cork.

  The Celebrity Series presented Liam Clancy as a member of The Clancy Brothers in [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 5:42pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Charles Ives is on Twitter

  
  The UnTwittered Question
  
  Charles Edward Ives, internationally renowned American modernist composer (and explorer of such musical techniques as polytonality, polyrhythm, tone clusters, aleatoric elements, and quarter tones), and insurance industry innovator (author of Life Insurance with Relation to Inheritance Tax) whose work helped [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 3:06pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Interview with Mark Morris plus Mozart Dances rehearsal footage

  Mark Morris talks about dance, rehearsal, and choreography in this video from 2007. The clip includes footage of Mark Morris Dance Group rehearsing Mozart Dances.
  

  Mozart Dances (oh by the way) makes its Boston (and Celebrity Series of Boston) debut with the Mark Morris Dance Group (naturally), the Orchestra [...]

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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 12:21pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Classical WGBH radio to switch to 99.5 FM tomorrow

  Tomorrow is DAY 1 of WGBH's classical radio format switch from 89.7 FM to 99.5 FM. Get the details here. [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 3:41pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Charles Ives gets a green light

  "Never you mind what the Ladies' Committee says, my opinion is that God gets awfully tired of hearing the same thing over and over again."
  
  -John C. Griggs, Choirmaster at New Haven (CT)'s Centre Church to organist Charles Ives
  
  
  Charles Ives' first string quartet leads off [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 10:44am EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Happy Thanksgiving!

  [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 10:42pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Samuel Barber: composing in, football out

  "Dear Mother: I have written to tell you my worrying secret. Now don’t cry when you read it because it is neither yours nor my fault. I suppose I will have to tell it now, without any nonsense. To begin with I was not meant to be an athlete. I was meant to [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 11:48am EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Recent previews & reviews: Vega, Sondheim and the Berlin Phil

  

  
  Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic at Symphony Hall on Sunday (Photo: Monika Rittershaus)

  
  Suzanne Vega (November 6, Sanders Theatre)

  The Boston Phoenix (Carrie Battan)
  
  
  An Evening With Stephen Sondheim (November 14, Sanders Theatre)
  
  The Hub Review (Thomas [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:22pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Real pain for my SPAM friends #326

  SPAM, while annoying, does have its pleasures. I love the ambiguity of today's spam comment:
  
  "your blog too enjoyful."
  
  Is it so enjoyful that they just can't stand it?
  
  Is it "just too much, man?"
  
  I don't really want to know the answer any more [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:32am EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Boston Globe talks with Sir Simon Rattle

  
  Sir Simon Rattle
  
  David Weininger of the Globe had a chat with Berlin Philharmonic conductor Sir Simon Rattle in advance of the orchestra's appearance at Symphony Hall this Sunday:
  
  "Rattle is especially glad to be reconnecting with Boston. He nourishes fond memories [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 11:07am EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Mark Morris looks out his window

  

  
  Mark Morris looking out his window
  
  For New Yorkers, peeking in other people's windows has long been a subject for open-minded consideration, a fact of life to be considered rather than an embarassment (or at least for some). “Out My Window [...]

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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 5:57pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Clara Schumann on Brahms' Symphony No. 3

  
  Clara Schumann
  
  
  "I have spent such happy hours with your wonderful creation ... that I should like at least to tell you so. What a work! What a [musical] poem! What a harmonious mood pervades the whole! All the movements [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 1:39pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Pianist Ingrid Fliter's recital reviewed

  
  
  Three reviews have appeared to date of Ingrid Fliter's Boston debut recital this past Sunday:
  
  

  The Boston Globe (David Perkins)

  The Arts Fuse (Caldwell Titcomb)

  The Hub Review (Thomas Garvey)

  
  [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 11:50am EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Suzanne Vega on Twitter

  From [www.twitter.com] on October 20:
  
  "Actually going to Tom's Diner this morning!! It has been a while..."
  
  She can visit Tom's Sandwich Shop in Roxbury when she's at Sanders Theatre this week...
  [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 2:02pm EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Summer Sun, Winter Moon

  Our own Rob Kapilow (well, he's been doing shows with us for quite some time, so he feels like family) undertook an interesting project a few years ago, a commission to create a work that is "a reflection of the enduring legacy of the Lewis and Clark expedition." But [...]

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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 11:44am EST
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Student rush tickets avail. for pianist Fliter's recital Nov. 1

  
  
  $20 student rush tickets are available for this Sunday's Jordan Hall recital by Argentine pianist Ingrid Fliter. More details on student rush tickets are available here. [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2009, 3:40pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Sir Simon signs on with Berlin Philharmonic until 2018

  From the Los Angeles Times' Culture Monster blog:
  
  "The classical music world is known for planning concerts and events years in advance. But the Berlin Philharmonic takes the cake today with its announcement that it has secured Simon Rattle's tenure as head of the orchestra for another nine years."
  
  Read [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 2:33pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Christian Tetzlaff, sublime Bach

  
  Christian Tetzlaff
  
  Violinist Christian Tetzlaff's program was all J.S. Bach, all of Bach's unaccompanied sonatas and partitas, in fact, so it was not a complete representation of what Boston audiences will hear on January 31 at Jordan Hall. However, according to [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 1:37pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Ask Stephen Sondheim. No, really, ask Stephen Sondheim ...

  
  Stephen Sondheim
  
  At the close of his onstage conversation with Stephen Sondheim at Sanders Theater on November 14, Frank Rich will include questions submitted in advance by audience members and other Sondheim fans.
  
  Please email your questions for Stephen Sondheim by [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 5:16pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Suzanne Vega live in Wattensheid, Germany (video)

  Suzanne Vega sings "Small Blue Thing" in Wattensheid, Germany. It's probably the best of the fan-submitted videos from her summer 2009 tour. Suzanne comes to Sanders Theatre, Cambridge on November 6, courtesy of Celebrity Series of Boston (ahem). [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 4:12pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• For Maestro Slatkin and the DSO, "Change is in the Air ;-)"

  
  Leonard Slatkin
  
  A humorous little post from the blog of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra - a pseudo-introduction of the coming season - has confused a number of otherwise worldly and alert adults into thinking the cracks therein are to be taken seriously. [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 2:03pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Ingrid Fliter on Chopin, Argerich and piano competitions

  
  Ingrid Fliter
  
  Pianist Ingrid Fliter is definitely at the point in her career in which people are beginning to know her music and want to hear her story. She spoke to The Times (UK) recently on a range of topics, including [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 10:20am EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Mark Morris talks with The Guardian

  
  Mark Morris
  
  Entertaining, incisive, smart, honest - the only problem with Mark Morris' answers for interviewer's questions is that there are never enough of them:
  
  "The Guardian: Who would you most like to work with?
  
  Morris: This is worrisome. If [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 11:28am EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Berlin, Germany and the Celebrity Series

  
  Several things have us meditating on Germany in general and Berlin in particular this season (no, not Berlin, New Hampshire, watch the video!). For one we are presenting a remarkable and somewhat coincidental array of German performers and works in 2009-2010. And many of them are indeed from Berlin. [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 1:37pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later

  Page for the Boston production at the Cutler Majestic Theatre, October 12, 2009
  
  Emerson College Laramie Project blog [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 11:34am EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Judy Shepard on Ellen

  [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 11:06am EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Flicka's "Goodbye without tears"

  Mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade - "Flicka" as she has long been known - called it quits this past weekend, at least as far as Boston recitals are concerned. At her Farewell Recital (and Celebrity Series 09-10 season opening performance) with her friend Dame Kiri Te Kanawa on Sunday she seemed [...]
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  Posted: October 06, 2009, 4:27pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Small Town Hall, Kids on Money

  From the good people at Marketplace (American Public Media) comes Small Town Hall, videos of kids talking about money, saving, investing, recession and the deficit. [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 5:39pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Flicka & Kiri's additions & encores

  The "TBA" selections and encores have all been sung and a good time was had by all. The two illustrious singers may have had the best time of all ...
  
  Additional selections announced from the stage:
  
  Ambroise Thomas
  "Me voici dans son boudoir" from Mignon
  
  Daniel Schmitt [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 2:06pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Celebrity Series of Boston on Twitter

  
  Now you can follow the Celebrity Series of Boston itself via Twitter. Yup.
  
  Look for us at:
  
  twitter.com/celebrityseries
  

  I will be letting you, the regular readers, know what we're up to on Twitter from time to time, but go check [...]

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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 2:32pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• National Summit on Arts Journalism live feed, 10/2/09, 9am-1pm

  Live video by Ustream
  The National Summit on Arts Journalism is taking place today at the USC Annenburg School for Communication. Their will be a live feed of the summit starting at 12pm today (10/2/09). Among the events featured will be two roundtable discussions about the art and [...]
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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 6:00am EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• National Summit on Arts Journalism live feed, 10/2/09, 12pm-3pm

  Live video by Ustream
  The National Summit on Arts Journalism is taking place today at the USC Annenburg School for Communication. Their will be a live feed of the summit starting at 12pm today (10/2/09). Among the events featured will be two roundtable discussions about the art and [...]
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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 6:00am EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Greg Pierotti on 'Laramie Project' & interview with convicted killer McKinney

  Actor-playwright Greg Pierotti talks about 'The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later' and his interview with convicted killer Aaron McKinney, the person responsible for the death of Matthew Shepard in 1998.
  
  The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later ... An Epilogue will be performed in Boston (Cutler Majestic Theatre) [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 5:17pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Glenn Close to host The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later Pre-Show

  
  Glenn Close
  
  Actress Glenn Close will serve as host for the pre-show webcast for The Laramie Project: Ten Years Later ... An Epilogue, on October 12. Matthew Shepard's mother, Judy Shepard, will give the welcoming remarks and a post-production Q [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 5:05pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• ArtsBoston.org, your online arts buddy

  For those of you that don't know, ArtsBoston has launched a web site. A comprehensive and attractive web site of arts events happening in Boston (we're on it).

  
  A VERY comprehensive and attractive web site of arts events happening in Boston (ok, we're not the only ones [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 12:52pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Tickets now available for The Laramie Project, 10 Years Later ... An Epilogue

  

  In June 2008, members of Tectonic Theater Project returned to Laramie, Wyoming to explore how the town had changed in the ten years since Matthew Shepard's murder. What they found defied their expectations. The result is a new play about how we construct our [...]
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  Posted: September 29, 2009, 4:43pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Alicia de Larrocha (1923-2009)

  

  Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha has died in Barcelona at 86 years of age. Ms. de Larrocha performed a total of seven recitals for the Celebrity Series between 1967 and 1995. Following her 1967 recital, in which she played several works by Granados and Albéniz, [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 11:20am EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Stravinsky conducting Firebird from 1965

  Igor Stravinsky conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra in "Lullaby and Final Hymn" from The Firebird Suite. The concert is from London's Royal Festival Hall in 1965. [...]
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  Posted: September 25, 2009, 4:18pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• NY Times: "Searching for Chopin in Warsaw"

  Have you been noticing more attention being paid to Chopin and his music of late? Well, there is a reason. For those of you who are not aware, 2010 is the bicentennial of Chopin's birth. For our part, Chopin is getting some additional Celebrity Series attention in 2010, too. Three [...]
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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 2:11pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Berlin Philharmonic excerpt of Brahms Symphony No. 3

  Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Berliner Philharmoniker in Brahms' Symphony No. 3 in this excerpt from a November 2008 performance. The full concert is available (for a fee, of course) here.
  
  But I could hardly call myself your special blog friend (blogfreund?) if I didn't also tell you [...]
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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 10:43am EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• WGBH to acquire WCRB 99.5 FM

  There are "wows" and there are "WOWS"! This one gets ALL CAPS.
  
  WGBH, our NPR/PBS colleagues over in Brighton have announced plans to acquire classical music station WCRB, at 99.5 FM on your FM dial. WCRB will become non-commerical, "in keeping with our public mission," as the WGBH [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 3:34pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Washington Post: How football is like dance

  

  
  Sarah Kaufman, the Washington Post's dance critic, gives her take on how football is like dance (I'll give you a hint, it ain't the salaries):
  
  "... though football may be the closest thing to a gladiatorial spectacle since the fall of Rome, it can [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 2:48pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• WGBH program ad

  The Celebrity Series is putting the finishing touches on the program book (you know, that little book they hand you with the names of the pieces to be played in it, among other things) for the new season and I wanted to share this cute/fun new ad submitted by our friends [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 2:50pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Leon Kirchner (1919-2009)

  
  
  Composer Leon Kirchner has died at 90 years of age.
  
  Kirchner's work was performed on the Celebrity Series by at least four performers. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma performed a transcription of Duo in 1988, pianist Peter Serkin performed Interlude in 1990, pianist [...]
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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 5:28pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• [nt]

  6gzvjkemys [...]
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  Posted: September 16, 2009, 4:50pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• 6gzvjkemys

  [...]
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  Posted: September 16, 2009, 4:48pm EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog

• Bobby McFerrin: The power of the pentatonic scale

  Bobby McFerrin uses the audience at the World Science Festival 2009 to demonstrate the power of the pentatonic scale.
  
  We don't know that Bobby will do this same demonstration at his Celebrity Series concert (March 21, Symphony Hall), but he always brings his version of amazing.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: September 16, 2009, 9:21am EDT
  by Celebrity Series of Boston - Aisle Be Seeing You blog