By Rebecca Sirull and Will Jackson, News Staff and News Correspondent
Staying in Boston for spring break can be a downer. It’s cold, there’s snow everywhere and friends are off enjoying the sun at their beach houses or on all-inclusive vacations in the Caribbean. But rather than sit around and envy friends who will come back tan and relaxed in 10 days, consider these ideas instead.
The Fire and Ice festival; March 1; 3 – 6 p.m.; Union Square, Somerville
Celebrate the vagaries of New England weather this Saturday at the Fire and Ice mini-festival. Union Square Plaza will be abuzz with activity as entertainers from both ends of the temperature spectrum come out to wow the crowd. Watch professional fire spinners A Different Spin warm up the stage or head over to admire the work of ice sculptor Don Chapelle. Your tastebuds will get in on the action too, with nearby restaurants offering dinner and drink specials, such as spicy “Volcano Roll” sushi and “Fire Walk With Me” cocktails. The Frozen Hoagie food truck will also make an appearance, along with Black Magic Coffee. Whether you want to heat things up or keep it cool, you’ll find the perfect balance here.
Chicken Sandwich Sunday; March 2; 10 a.m.; Cutty’s, 284 Washington St., Brookline
One Sunday a month, award-winning Brookline sandwich shop Cutty’s is open for business, with a caveat. The only entrée on the menu is the Cutty’s Super Cluckin’ Sunday Fried Chicken Sandwich. From their ad copy, this sandwich consists of “crispity-crunchity chicken, melty sharp cheddar, tangy honey-Dijon, mayonnaise, shredded iceberg and shaved onion on a buttered-up sesame brioche bun.” The sandwich is good enough to generate a line out the door and down the street, and the C.S.C.S.F.C.S. is definitely worth the wait. Consider the chocolate chip cookies and the chocolate milk to wash it down. The combination makes for perfect comfort food.
The Moth; March 4; 7 p.m.; Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston
On Tuesday, Laugh Boston will be holding a StorySLAM. In this storytelling contest, 10 competitors are selected from a pool of entrants and given five minutes each to tell a story related to the night’s theme, which is, in this case, “Escape.” Groups of judges pulled at random from the audience then score the stories, with the winner advancing on to compete in a GrandSLAM held at a later date. The event is sponsored by The Moth, a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to the “art and craft of storytelling,” which hosts events across the country.
NeXt Dance production; March 7; 7:30 p.m.; Green Street Studios, 185 Green St., Cambridge
Upcoming next Friday at the Green Street Studio is NeXt, an Urbanity Dance production featuring work by 11 new choreographers from the company. Urbanity was awarded the Best of Boston’s Dance Company by the Improper Bostonian and holds wide acclaim as one of the strongest contemporary jazz/modern companies in the city. Aiming to push boundaries and affect change through creative mediums, Urbanity has partnered with a number of other artists including musicians, fashion designers and even architects. Continuing this reputation of greatness, NeXt promises to be “an unforgettable night of raw dance” that you won’t want to miss.
Live music
For those interested in checking out a concert over spring break, Boston offers plenty of opportunities to see one of your favorites live, or even discover a new obsession. The House of Blues will host Mayer Hawthorne on Saturday and Broken Bells (a side-project of The Shins lead singer Brian Burton) on Wednesday. Les Claypool (of Primus fame) will hit the Sinclair in Cambridge, and also perform a second show with Bryan Kehoe as a part of his most recent collaboration Duo De Twang. And this is only the beginning. A quick browse through Ticketmaster or Live Nation will reveal dozens of other shows just waiting to be discovered.
Club Snell
Snell Library will be open for the duration of spring break. As per usual, it will be accessible to students 24/7. If you’re catastrophically behind in a few of your classes, this would be a great opportunity to catch up. With everyone else gone, you have a sporting chance of getting a study room or even a booth at Argo Tea.
