Photo: Yard sale in Belmont.
Yard sales in the “Town of Homes.”
• 580 Concord Ave., Saturday, Aug. 1, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Drew Road at Beech Street, Saturday, Aug. 1, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• 85 Orchard St., Saturday, Aug. 1, 9 a.m. to noon.
• 27 Payson Rd., Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• 211 School St., Saturday, Aug. 1, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Photo:
When Pope Francis visits Cuba in mid-September, there to greet him will be Belmont Savings Bank CEO Bob Mahoney with a group of approximately 135 Catholics from the Archdiocese of Boston.
“It should be just an amazing experience,” said Mahoney, Belmont Savings’ president and chief executive officer in an interview with the Boston Pilot.
Mahoney, a member of the Archdiocesan Finance Council who is helping to organize the trip,, said the group will attend the Mass Francis will celebrate Sept. 20 in Havana’s Revolution Square. The group will also sightsee Old Havana, attend local musical performances and visit the Caritas Cubana mission at Iglesia San Agustin, where a previous Boston delegation donated a new kitchen.
It will also be opportunity for the Boston delegation to visit and travel to the island nation during a time of monumental change as the United States and Cuba normalize relations after more that a half century of isolation.
“It’s just an amazing experience, getting to go to Cuba while Cuba is still Cuba,” Mahoney said as the communist country begins to welcome American investment and tourism.
Mahoney told the Pilot there is a possibility the delegation could be on the first direct flight from Boston to Havana when they depart on Sept. 18.
“That would be pretty cool,” said Mahoney, who has visited Cuba twice, once when Pope St. John Paul II traveled there in 1998, and when Pope Benedict XVI visited the island in 2012.
Pope Francis will visit Cuba Sept. 19-22 for his tenth trip abroad since becoming pope in 2013. He will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro, local religious groups and families, and will celebrate Mass in Revolution Square that Mahoney compared to “four Boston City Hall Plazas.”
“There will be well over a million people,” Mahoney told the Pilot.
The pope will then visit the United States for a five-day visit, Sept. 22-27, which includes attending the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia, meeting with President Obama and giving the first papal address to a joint session of Congress.
Pope Francis and the Vatican played a key role in engineering talks between Cuba and the United States. The pope wrote letters to the presidents of both countries and tasked the archbishop of Havana to act as an intermediary.
Mahoney said there are still about three-dozen available slots for the trip, which costs $4,500 per person, or $8,000 per couple. That includes airfare, rooms, tourist activities and meals. There are special group discounts, inquire for details.
“It’s an amazing opportunity,” Mahoney said.
For more information, contact Donis Tracy, Educational Travel Alliance, Inc. (www.ETAcuba.com), at 617-610-3776 or DonisT.eta@gmail.com.
Photo: Turn it down!
With temperatures today forecasted to reach the 90s again, Belmont Light has a request to its 11,000 customers: Lighten up on the power, please.
With today, Thursday, July 30, expected to be another high electricity use day, the town’s electrical utility is urging users to save energy and money by reducing electricity consumption during the hottest (or peak) part of the day, between 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
“Every bit of electricity reduced during peak times will help Belmont mitigate rising electricity costs,” read a press release dated Wednesday, July 29, from Sagewell, Inc., the Woburn-based firm that is administrator of Belmont Light Energy Efficiency Programs.
“Nearly one-third of your electric bill is for the cost of procuring sufficient capacity for peak days and these costs are continuing to increase for all utilities across New England.”
And Belmont Light is providing tips to reduce peak electricity consumption:
If customers have any questions or would like advice on how to decrease peak energy consumption, contact Sagewell at 617-963-8141 or at support@sagewell.com
Photo: On stage with the Belmont Summer Community Band.
“You’re playing great,” said Arto Asadoorian as he directs a collection of amateurs and students in a hurry-up rehearsal of an overture from the Disney movie, “Frozen.”
Yet the drummer has yet to get a feel for the piece, which Asadoorian found a bit amusing.
“What, am I the only person to have seen that film a thousand times?” he wonders aloud from the stage of the Belmont High School auditorium last Tuesday afternoon.
Unlike the orchestra and bands he directs as Belmont Public School’s Director of Fine and Performing Arts, Asadoorian is putting about 40 residents, students and alum through the paces as the Belmont Community Summer Band prepares for its once-a-year concert on Wednesday, July 29 beginning around 7:30 p.m. at the Payson Park Music Festival.
Now in its second season, the band – filled with brass and woodwinds accompanied by percussions – will be preforming along with “Frozen” several works that are band standards, including those pieces that you’d likely hear at sitting in the town green somewhere in England.
For Asadoorian, who came up with the idea of creating a local band, it’s a chance to keep some of the high schoolers practicing and playing during the summer, an opportunity to welcome back former students and meet skilled amateurs who are looking to spend a few hours for a month – a total of three rehearsals – learning works to enjoy performing.
“In Belmont, we’re fortunate to have such a wealth of musical talent,” said Asadoorian.
“It’s a really nice way to all come together as a community of music makers and have come fun together,” he said.
There’s an easy rapport between players and conductor; the ensemble takes the music to heart and Asadoorian attempts to shape it into a concert piece despite the limited time together.
There are more hits than misses, with Asadoorian keeping the tempo and atmosphere light.
When a particular passage of music hits the mark, Asadoorian quipped, “Band director of the year – tell them to play what’s on the page.”
On the government end of “The Week”:
• The Belmont Food Collaborative – the people who run the Belmont Farmers Market – is meeting on Monday, July 27, at 7 p.m., in the Flett Room of the Belmont Public Library.
• Summertime Pre-School Story Time at the Benton Library, Belmont’s independent and volunteer run library, at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, July 28. Stories and crafts for children age 3 to 5. Parents or caregivers must attend. Siblings may attend with adults. Registration is not required. The Benton Library is located at the intersection of Oakley and Old Middlesex.
• Movie for Children at the Belmont Public Library this week will be a Short Film Festival. The fun starts on Tuesday, July 28, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Assembly Room.
• From The House of Blues to The Beech Street Center, the Thea & Rick Jazz Duo brings its remarkable skills and charm to entertain you on Tuesday, July 28, at 1:15 p.m. at the Beech Street Center. A mixture of jazz standards and easy listening tunes influenced by classic songs, rock, R & B, gospel and show tunes, including Lullaby of Birdland, Moon River, Satin Doll, Stormy, Imagine, One Note Samba? Come out and hear these great tunes and more.
• Yoga for Everyone at the Beech Street Center on Tuesday, July 28 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m.: join Susan Harris, a registered yoga teacher and associate professor of Nutrition at Tufts University for this Iyengar-inspired class which practices yoga postures slowly and with attention to alignment and safety, adapted to the abilities and needs of individual students. Practice is done with bare feet; mats and props are provided. Cost: $15/class. Non-seniors, beginners and experienced are welcome. This is a non-Council on Aging class held at the Beech Street Center. For more information, call Susan at 617-407-0816.
• I … Am …Ironman! This week’s Chillin’ with Villains movie series at the Belmont Public Library is the very first ‘Iron Man’ movie with Robert Downey Jr. Beat the heat in the library’s Assembly Room at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, July 28. There will be popcorn! No sign-up is necessary. All are welcome.
• The Hampstead Stage presents the tale of our favorite redistributor of wealth, Robin Hood, in a presentation of the outlaw, his merry men and the dastardly Sheriff of Nothingham on Wednesday, July 29 at 3 p.m, in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library. It will be full of action, brave heroics, bumbling villains, and participation from the audience! This is a presentation for kindergarteners to fourth graders.
• For the second year, the Belmont Community Summer Band, led by Belmont Public School Director of Fine and Performing Arts Arto Asadoorian, will be highlighting the Payson Park Music Festival on Wednesday, July 29, at 6:45 p.m. The band, filled with residents, students and alum, will play music from the movie “Frozen” and band standards.
• Award-winning local musician Alastair Moock brings his rowdy, rootsy, singing, dancing, family-fun-filled live show at the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room on Thursday, July 30 at 10:30 a.m.! For those 2 to 5 year olds.
Photo: Yard sales in Belmont.
Yard sales in the “Town of Homes.”
• 34 Benjamin Rd., Saturday and Sunday, July 26 and July 26, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• 60 Channing Rd., Saturday, July 25, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• 25 Elm St., Saturday, July 25, 9 a.m. to noon.
• 12 Franklin St., Saturday, July 25, 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• 27 Payson Rd., Sunday, July 26, 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• 37 Springfield St., Saturday, July 25, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• 57 Trapelo Rd., Saturday, July 25, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Photo: Nathaniel Meyer.
Belmont High School alumnus Nathaniel Meyer conducts the Athena Orchestra Chamber Players in a “Summer String Serenade” on Sunday, July 26 at 2 p.m. at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St.
Meyer, a 2013 Yale graduate who concentrated in German Studies and Music, will lead the ensemble in the free concert featuring music by Mozart, Elgar, Sibelius, Bach and Tchaikovsky.
This marks the third time Meyer brings an orchestra to the Beech Street Center for a summer concert– he also presented a concert in December 2013 – having organized the Belmont Festival Orchestra in previous years.
An outstanding trumpet player in his own right, Meyer has dedicated his current activities towards conducting. A student of Benjamin Zander, the long-time conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, Meyer recently obtained his Master of Music in Orchestral Conducting from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music.
At Yale, he conducted the school’s Amadeus Ensemble, Gilbert & Sullivan Society and the Yale Symphony Orchestra.
Photo: Invitation to Belmont’s big pool party,
You’re invited to Belmont’s biggest pool party of the year as the town celebrates the opening of the New Underwood Pool.
After years of planning, a debt exclusion vote and a last-minute fund raiser in September to save the original proposal, the $5.3 million two pool complex with a pair of buildings housing changing rooms, showers and restroom facilities will hold its grand opening on Saturday, Aug. 8.
The ribbon cutting will take place at 1:30 p.m. with a community open house from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The Belmont Recreation Department will be providing one-month single and family passes to the New Underwood. For more information, call the department at 617-993-2760.
Below is your official invite:
Photo: “Bubbleology,” with Keith Michael Johnson.
On the government side of the week:
• Summertime Pre-School Story Time at the Benton Library, Belmont’s independent and volunteer run library, at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, July 21. Stories and crafts for children age 3 to 5. Parents or caregivers must attend. Siblings may attend with adults. Registration is not required. The Benton Library is located at the intersection of Oakley and Old Middlesex.
• US Rep. Katherine Clark is holding office hours at the Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St., on Tuesday, July 21, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Mary Poppins Sing-Along (with lyrics) will be the Noon movies for children on Tuesday, July 21, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library.
• The Beech Street Center, 266 Beech St., will present “Revere Beach Then & Now Slide Show” on Tuesday, July 21, at 1:15 p.m. The presentation will include more than 100 beautiful images of historic Revere Beach and its glorious past. Once again be thrilled to recall the special memories that we share of Rotherhams Red Indian popcorn, Moxie, Korr Bros. Frozen Custard, and, of course, Kelley’s Roast Beef. Many will also remember the wonderful Big Band music always heard at the dance halls of Revere Beach such as the Oceanview Ballroom, Ocean Pier, or the Frolic nightclub.
• In his show “Bubbleology,” Keith Michael Johnson will build beautiful creations out of bubbles with enthusiasm, humor and style in the Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library on Wednesday, July 22, at 2 p.m. One moment he will be encasing a dinosaur in a bubble and the next he’s encapsulating an audience volunteer! For kindergarteners to fourth grade.
• It is the final three concerts of the summer by the Music on the Hill (MOTH) students will be Wednesday through Friday, July 22-24, at 6:30 pm, at the Powers Music School, 404 Concord Ave. Wednesday and Thursday will be the MOTH Orchestra, with Jazz, Fiddle on Friday.
• The nation’s premier tribute to U2, The Joshua Tree, will once again grace the stage of the Payson Park Music Festival as this week’s featured artist beginning at 6:45 p.m., Wednesday, July 22, at Payson Park Playground at Payson Road and Elm Street.
• The Chillin’ With Villains Movie Series begins Tuesday, July 21, at 6:30 p.m. with The Avengers (2012) at the Belmont Public Library’s Assembly Room.
• Musician Matt Heaton plays kid-friendly folk music and surf-inspired original songs on Thursday, July 23 at 10:30 a.m. For ages 2 to 5.
• It’s OTAKUrabu at the Belmont Public Library. Watch anime, do a craft/activity, plan for future events and nibble on some Japanese snacks (while they last – they’ll go fast) on Thursday, July 23, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. in the Assembly Room. Provided free, thanks to the Friends of the Belmont Public Library. Just drop in, no registration required.
Photo: Ironman is coming to the Belmont Public Library next week, July 28.
This summer the Friends of the Belmont Public Library will use its superpowers to transform the library’s Assembly Room into a showcase for your favorite (mostly) Marvel heroes at the “Chillin’ With Villains Movie Series.”
For the next month, head to the library to enjoy freshly popped popcorn or a sweet snow cone and watch your favorite comics come to life.
The schedule is:
• Tuesday, July 21, 6:30 p.m.: The Avengers (2012) (PG-13) 142 min.
• Tuesday, July 28, 6:30 p.m.: Iron Man (2008) (PG-13) 125 min.
• Tuesday, August 4, 6:30 p.m.: Amazing Spiderman (2012) (PG-13) 136 min.
• Monday, August 10, 6:30 p.m.: Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) (PG-13) 136 min
• Friday, August 21, 2 p.m.: Dick Tracy (1990) (PG) 101 min.