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Boston to get a Wahlberg series to go with all those movies?

The Hollywood tax incentives bill really has brought a bunch o' big-screen productions to Massachusetts. One minute, Marty Scorsese needs extras to play concentration camp inmates in Taunton, the next Sandra Bullock is getting creamed by a drunk driver in Gloucester. And now it looks like we might get a TV series, the first crime drama to film here regularly since "Spenser for Hire" if memory serves.

TNT announced its drama slate for the upcoming season this morning, and included was the Boston-set "Morse Code," starring Donnie Wahlberg as a war hero turned DEA agent. As Wahlberg is also one of the producers, it seems a  good bet we'll see it shoot here. Walon Green of "Law & Order" is the writer-producer. Also on board is director producer John Avnet, who helmed  Wahlberg in NBC's "Boomtown" (pictured).

TNT would like us to think of the show as being in the vein of "The Departed," the Scorsese thriller that shot here and included Wahlberg in the cast. Of course, production will have to wait until he finishes that New Kids on The Block tour...

Norton!

Day job is brutal today but you've got to read about the Eliot Norton Awards here and here. Boston Theatre Works and New Rep did well, as did departing Nicholas Martin. ... Also a big story is Harvard's new museum plans, but the school is trying to play its hand subtly, or at least quietly.

Comedy is easy. Berklee is hard.

Two good of Berklee stories in the Globe today. If you think Madonna or Chris Martin had an easy road, read the stories of the kids auditioning to get into Berklee - and what some did to get here. The other is a review of the concert by commencement honoree Steve Winwood at Berklee, which I notice a lot of people were coming here to find details about.

Coldplay at the Garden

Like Madonna yesterday, Coldplay is apparently too big a deal to put out the news with all the other shows on Tuesday. So here it is: Coldplay will perform "Clocks" and a bunch of songs from its forthcoming "Viva la Vida" album at TD Banknorth Garden on Nov. 3. Tix, $47.50-$97.50, go on sale June 14 at 10 a.m. at at the box office and Ticketmaster, which is 866-448-7849 or ticketmaster.com.

Madonna brings innuendo-free tour to Garden

Kidding! It's called the Sticky & Sweet tour, after her new "Hard Candy" album, and she'll be rolling it into the TD Banknorth Garden on Oct. 15. Tickets are $57.50-$352.50, and they go on sale May 17 at 10 a.m. at the box office and Ticketmaster, which is 866-448-7849 or ticketmaster.com. There's all kind of presales and resales and crap. For details hit livenation.com or madonna.com.

"Young At Heart," live and in Somerville

I've been warily eyeing the poster for "Young@Heart" in the window of our beloved local moviehouse, the Screening Room, for some weeks now. Do I really want to see a flick about a bunch of oldsters rocking out? Or is too uncomfortably close to my own classic-rockin' heart? It's the tale of The Young at Heart Chorus, formed in 1982 in an elderly housing complex in Northampton, Massachusetts to sing songs by Coldplay, Sonic Youth, the Clash, Lou Reed, OutKast, Talking Heads and the Ramones. As the press release says, they're "infusing the lyrics with new meaning as they deal with questions of mortality with grace, humor and spirit." The group will play the Somerville Theatre on June 20. Tix: $30, on sale Friday, May 9 at noon at the box office or through Ticketmaster at (617/508) 931-2000, or ticketmaster.com. And here's a clip from the film...

Nicholas Martin's Greatest Hits: The Video

The Huntington Theatre Company's Join the Conversation blog posted this video, which was shown at this week's farewell for departing artistic director Nicholas Martin:

New Kids tix details. So, so proud.

Hot off the wire from Live Nation:

New Kids On The Block
At the TD Banknorth Garden
Friday, September 26, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Tickets are $37.50, $57.50 and $77.50
Tickets go on-sale Saturday, May 10, 2008 at NOON. Tickets are available at the TD Banknorth Garden Box Office and at Ticketmaster outlets, including Macy's, by calling 866-448-7849, or by logging on to www.livenation.com.

Of course, if you're an American Express cardholder, you can get your tix now...
 

Lyric Stage Announces Anniversary Season

Into my In Box drops the 2008-09 season announcement from the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, actually listing five of the seven main stage productions the company will deliver in its 35th anniversary season. These are: "Follies," with Leigh Barrett and other local faves; "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof," with Lyric Stage Artistic Director Spiro Veloudos as Big Daddy; the Boston premiere of the musical "Grey Gardens"; the Boston premiere of "Speech and Debate" by Stephen Karam; and Nancy E. Carroll in  the New England premiere of Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking," based on her bestselling memoir of a tragic year that included the death of her husband, John Gregory Dunne. Two more productions will be announced soon. Details and tickets are here.

Boston before Broadway

Some cool stuff (the touring company of "Spring Awakening," Chazz Palminteri in a solo version of his "A Bronx Tale") and some traditional show biz (musical versions of "Dirty Dancing" and "Legally Blond") top the '08-09 Broadway Across America - Boston season. And whoever gets tired of "A Chorus Line," right? Right? Also on tap are Harry Connick in a new Gershwin-based musical and a revival of "Brigadoon," both shows hitting Boston before Broadway, just like in the old days. I wouldn't get too jacked about that becoming the norm again, though. Tix here.

My neighbor's a Kerrville finalist

Out walking the dog yesterday, I ran into Susan Levine, a fine folksinger and songwriter who lives a couple of blocks from HubArts World Headquarters in Newburyport. She said she's gearing up for a trip to the legendary Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas at the end of this month. She's one of 32 finalists in the festival's New Folk competition. Chris O'Brien and Laura Bullock, both of Somerville, and Emily Elbert of Boston are also listed in the competition. But if you've heard Susan's album, "Atlas," recorded at (her husband) Tom Eaton's studios in Newburyport, then you know why my money's on her.

Read my Globe profile of Susan published last fall.

Sez the Wikipedia entry on the fest, "A win at Kerrville carries considerable prestige in the singer-songwriter community. This is in part due to the peer-professional judging and the festival’s long history of recognizing emerging artists who have later gone on to wider success." Two other Massachusetts names are among the most notable recent winners: Mark Erelli of Amherst in '99 and Ellis Paul of Wayland in '94. (Erelli contributes guitar on "Atlas.") Go back farther and names like Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle and my fave James McMurtry (a winner in '87) have appeared in the competition.  Michelle Shocked's first album, "The Texas Campfire Tapes," was famously recorded at one of the fest's informal, late-night gatherings.

Fiber Art Center closes: That's a little sad

It's not a good thing when a cultural institution closes due to lack of money. I learned from the Exhibitionist this week that the Fiber Art Center in Amherst is closing its doors May 9. I have to admit, I never went there. It seems I'm not alone. Finances are blamed for the demise of the insitution dedicated to weaving, textile making and related arts and crafts. But I couldn't help noticing this in their farewell statement (boldface is mine):

"For the past seven years we have had the great pleasure to celebrate and promote the work of over three hundred artists from the Pioneer Valley and beyond, offer over 250 classes, greet over one thousand visitors, and have a membership roster in the hundreds."

Round up to 1,100 and that's still an average of 157 visitors a year. Even if the classes are the main programming and exhibitions a sideline, that's not a number that's going to keep many art centers open.

Support Your Local Jam Band

My email informs me that our North Shore neighbors in The Brew, who I profiled for the Globe a couple of years ago, are up for a Jammy award next week at Madison Square Garden's WaMu Theater, just a couple of weeks after their big CD release party at Harper's Ferry. The awards are announced on Monday and the jamming is on Wednesday. The Brew is nominated for Best New Groove, a tie-dyed way of saying best new artist, and the winner will be chosen by online voting that closes tonight. All of which is my way of saying go here to sample the band if you haven't heard them, then go here to vote for them.

Two museum items of note

In the Globe today, on page one, Geoff Edgers breaks the news that the MFA will be opening its Fenway entrance this June, two years ahead of schedule. And on the front of the North section, I have a feature about subtle changes in approach at Strawbery Banke up in Portsmouth.

Boston, movies and crime in two books by ex-Herald-ites

My duties at the Herald sometimes included editing film freelancer Paul Sherman's copy. This week he's out with a book, "Big Screen Boston," looking at some 80 films that were filmed in and around the Hub. Today the Globe gives him a double pump: in the Shelf Life column in the Books section, and a larger item, with a nice pic from "Gone Baby Gone," in the Movies section. If the Herald has run a story, I can't find it on their web site. In 2006, long after I'd departed, Sherman reportedly got jammed up for selling advance DVD screeners of upcoming films. The Loaded Gun blog has the tale, along with another brief look at the book. But Paul emails to says that he was done writing for the Herald by the time of his legal troubles.

Read excerpts from the book at Sherman's Big Screen Boston blog. You can read, for instance, about William Friedkin's 1978 heist flick, "The Brinks Job," which starred Peter Falk. Coincidentally, I spent part of yesterday at the Newburyport Literary Festival listening to another ex-Herald colleague, former staff writer Stephanie Schorow, talking about her new book, which is on the real-life Brinks Job, "The Crime of the Century." And one of the things she said, ironically enough, is that in conducting interviews for the book, she found that many Bostonians had conflated their memories of the actual heist with scenes from the movie.

(Want to know what's shooting around Boston now, in this busy tax-incentive era? Boston Movie Tours' Hollywood in the Hub blog has all the info, including regular production updates like this one.)

Among the events tied to Sherman's book is a June 5 Coolidge Corner screening of Peter Yates' 1973 crime flick "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," based on former federal prosecutor (and Globe and Herald writer) George V. Higgins' novel. It stars Robert Mitchum as a low-level Boston hood jammed up between the cops, a bank robbery gang and a gun dealer connected to radicals. Terrific performances - by Mitchum first and foremost - and lots of authentic Boston color - make this in Sherman's opinion and mine the best feature ever shot here. Take a look at the trailer:

Carbo loading for Boston Theater Marathon

Four new troupes have been added to the lineup for the10th annual Boston Theater Marathon: Spontaneous Theatre Project, Orfeo Theatre Company, Gurnet Theatre Project and Theatre On Fire. They'll be among 50 theatre companies performing 50 ten-minute plays in 10 hours on May 11 at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion in Boston's South End. The charity event benefits the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund, which "provides financial relief in a confidential, respectful manner" to members of the theater community facing a variety of personal catastrophes. More info about the marathon is at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre site. The $25 advance tickets are available here.  And more deets on who's performing what when are here.

Conservatory To Honor Three

Tony-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman, BSO bassist James Orleans and the late Thommie Walsh (right) will be honored at the Boston Conservatory commencement on May 17. Orleans is a Conservatory grad ('81) and Walsh, a Broadway director and choreographer who died last year, attended the school in the 1970s. Stroman gets an honorary degree, Orleans the Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, and Walsh the Conservatory's first posthumous lifetime achievement award.

Time travel behind the scenes at the seraglio

You ever have one of those moments of shuffle-play synchronicity with your iTunes? A few weeks back as I was loading the very bottom CD shelf into the computer, I ripped a promo disc of TV theme songs that the SciFi Channel sent out years ago. Flash forward to this morning when I finally checked out the press release from the Boston Lyric Opera, about their "reimagining" of Mozart's "The Abduction From The Seraglio," which opens Friday.

It offered up a video of workers constructing the set for the show, featuring a train car that's supposed to be from the Orient Express. And while I was watching the time-lapse video, my iTunes started playing the theme to "Time Tunnel." Sweet.

To watch the video, click here and then click on “How do you get a train onstage at the Shubert Theatre?” in the right-hand sidebar. You'll have to handle iTunes on your own, though.

EarthFest lineup announced

Cake will headline the free Radio 92.9 EarthFest at the Hatch Shell on May 24, backed up by Cracker, the BoDeans and the English Beat. I'm just old enough to be most interested in the Beat, which according to this interview is just founder Dave Wakeling and some other guys now. A fifth act will be a local musician chosen via the 929 EarthFest Channel on OurStage.com. And take the T and recycle and stuff, 'K?

Record Store Day is Saturday!

So as I sit here listening to iTunes, I just thought I ought to tell you that Saturday is Record Store Day, organized to salute those purveyors of vinyl and CDs who have managed to survive the onslaught of Napster and BitTorrent, iTunes and Rhapsody. There's a nice piece in the Times today, and because I saw the poster, I happen to know that my local store - Dyno Records here in Newburyport - will host one of many in-store performances nationwide tomorrow. Newbury Comics will have events at most of its stores, it appears, including the Dresden Dolls and Dennis Brennan at the Harvard Square location.

I was going to give you all the lowdown on Boston-area events, but the recordstoreday.com web site, perhaps ironically, sucks in several ways. Worst: It doesn't offer a way to sort in-store performances by location. So if you want to find out what's happening at your local record stores, you have to search the entire listing of hundreds of stores alphabetically and then click to each store's site. Or you can search a separate index listing performances by band name, which makes no sense at all. But you can't search to find the stores in your area, which seems like it ought to be the point. And the listings load incredibly slowly. And my local store, Dyno, isn't listed anyway. Sigh. Oh and if you click on the Record Store Day press release .pdf link, you get a 404 not found error.

The home page is filled up with celebrity quotes, some of which seem real ("You can't roll a joint on an iPod - buy vinyl!" - Shelby Lynne) and some of which were clearly hatched by publicists. Nothing can make me believe that  Chuck Berry actually said, "Music is an important part of our culture, and record stores play a vital part in keeping the power of music alive."

ICA plans for summer fun (You were expecting symposia?)

One of the most talked-about features of the new ICA on the waterfront when it opened in Dec. 2006 was the harborwalk/staircase area under the giant cantilever. With a great view of downtown and the harbor, it ought to be a great place to hang out on a summer night. This summer's lineup of free Berklee student, faculty and alumni performances in world music, jazz and other genres sounds like fun (Thursdays, 6-8:30, free). The 13-week series begins June 19 with Maeve Gilchrist, who's listed as world/jazz/Celtic. Also outside, You Dance Fridays return Aug. 1 at 6 p.m. for four weeks, with an hour of dance instruction at six followed by 90 minutes of live music for you to try out your newfound skillz. It sounds more fun than serious, although the music is high-quality, beginning with swing dancing to Either/Orchestra founder Russ Gershon's Swing Vote.

Inside, primarily in the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater, the ICA will feature  dancer/choreographer Sara Rudner, artist-in-residence at Summer Stages Dance at Concord Academy, who brings Dancing-on-View: The ICA Variations, a new "dance installation," to the ICA on July 26 and 27. The public is invited to wander in and out during the four hour performances, which begin at noon. The work "celebrates dance as an ongoing activity that occurs sometimes publicly, and always in studio practice."

A program on two Boston documentary films (featuring Ross McElwee) and the International Bike Film Festival will also take place inside. And there will also be a free talk on June 19 by poet Joyce Peseroff, whose poem Summer Communion will be installed on the Harborwalk this summer.

Talks and book-signings by Chris Schlesinger, Jody Adams and Barbara Lynch will certainly be mouth-watering, especially with sample tastes, but what they're not is...unusual. You could get that at the Barnes & Noble at Burlington Mall pretty much anytime.

Most (but not all) of these events are free with museum admission. Details on these and more are here.