By William Tauro

The 2013 Annual Somerville Council on Aging’s St. Patrick’s Day Party was held this past Thursday afternoon at Somerville’s Winter Hill Yacht Club.

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone and the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development invite all interested residents to an Open Studio Session as part of the city’s Somerville by Design initiative, to be held on Monday, March 18 at 6 p.m. at the Argenziano School on Washington Street.  The latest series, focusing on Complete Streets Design, kicked off on February 11 with a presentation by Complete Streets expert, Ian Lockwood. The presentation can be found online at www.somervillebydesign.com.  The upcoming meeting will feature an interactive brainstorming activity on creative streetscape design solutions.  For more information, contact OSPCD at 617-625-6600 ext. 2500.

Resa Blatman is the artist for March in the Somerville Arts Council (SAC) Artist of the Month Series.

By Cathleen Twardzik

Based in Somerville, Resa Blatman is the artist for March in the Somerville Arts Council (SAC) Artist of the Month Series.

Blatman’s artwork has been showcased in a plethora of magazines and online journals.

Michael Murray knows all the best places to play in Somerville very well.

By Blake Maddux

Somerville musician Michael “Mike” Murray is not showing off when he says, “It’s harder for me to think of a place that I haven’t played around here” (rather than the ones that he has), or that he’s been included “on more stuff [i.e., recorded material] than he can faithfully remember.”

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Remember the dancing and singing popcorn box and soda cups inviting us to buy refreshments at the movies? Sure you do. Do you remember the first movie you saw at a Somerville movie theater? Some of us do. My parents took us to the drive-in when we were really young where we saw The Blob in 1958. My first movie theater shows were  Ben Hur in 1959 and 101 Dalmatians in 1961 at Davis Square. We also saw The Shaggy Dog with Fred MacMurray in 1959. In 1965 my mother took us to see The Sound Of Music.

Here is the almost finished project from the Council On Aging’s  Mosaic Project. Emily Bhargava still has to grout the large mosaic and then it will be complete. This work was done through a grant with the Somerville Arts Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Look for an announcement of when the Somerville COA will be hanging the mosaic. Thank you to all the “artists” who came to Cross Street Center over the last three weeks to make this happen.

By Jim Clark

Somerville police officers responded to a reported breaking and entering in progress at a Morrison Ave. residence last week.

As officers arrived at the residence, officers reportedly observed a man climbing down from the back porch of an upper story unit down to the back porch of the ground floor unit.

By William Tauro

The Benevolent Asian Jade Society (BAJS) of New England held its Annual Banquet in Boston’s Chinatown District this past Friday night to celebrate the year of the snake.

What Does Healthy Look Like?
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Parents & Students are Invited! Saturday, March 16, 11:15 a.m. to 1:00p.m., Somerville Boxing Club at the Edgerly School, 8 Bonair Street.

By William C. Shelton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Next week marks the Iraq invasion’s tenth anniversary. It was the first war that our government embraced as being “offensive” and “preemptive.”

The Vietnam War was the defining event of my life. Yet most Americans today don’t understand how it began or that, as the Defense Secretary who presided over its launch later concluded, it need never have happened. So when the bombing began on March 19, 2003, I wept.