One day this spring, Gina heard an unbelievable rumor: Construction crews were getting ready to demolish and fill in the Ruth Gordon Amphitheater, a natural outdoor performance space at Quincy's Pageant Field.
Overlooking the Atlantic, Pageant Field is the crowning jewel of the city's parks system. It received some upgrades this spring, including a new water-view picnic pavilion and a half-mile walking path around the park. And, it turns out, the city was also getting ready to fill in the underused theater as part of the project — something we only learned about and confirmed after a friend at the Quincy Tree Alliance spoke to a parks employee at the construction site days before demolition.
I was flabbergasted and furious. The amphitheater is built into the slope of a hill, with terraced rows of seating facing a large, stone-studded stage. It's kinda beautiful, and it was one of the things I remember loving about Quincy when we first decided to move here.
But it's been years since the city has funded performances at the theater, and so apparently officials thought it was in a state of disuse. (Despite the fact that kids love to put on impromptu plays there all the time.)
Anyway, we and other local artists and activists bombarded city officials with emails and phone calls, and after enough outcry they hastily walked back the idea. A group called Friends of the Ruth Gordon Amphitheater formed, led by the daughter of the theater's original architect, and they convinced the city to fund a concert series every Friday night this summer.
All of which is to say two things: 1) Activism works, get involved in stuff! And 2) I'm playing a set of original (!) songs on Friday, July 14th (scratch that, the Friday show was rained out! new date is Saturday, July 22nd) around 7:30pm (show goes 6:30pm–8:30pm).
Saturday, July 22nd, 6pm–8:30pm | FREE
'Quincy Rocks' at the Ruth Gordon Amphitheater
Featuring:
* Live music from Jon Gorey, Sweet Nothings, & Daisy *
* Beer and wine from Break Rock Brewing *
* Food trucks including Blacks Creek BBQ *
This is my first time playing a mostly original set in like... 10 years? Yikes! Got any requests? I've been practicing.
Anyway, what's better than live music, local beer, and BBQ outside on a summer night? Not much! There's plenty of parking at Pageant Field, or you can take the Red Line to Wollaston and it's about a 15-minute walk. I'd love to see you there!
PS: In other news, I wrote about working at Market Basket in high school for the Boston Globe this coming Sunday, and they published it early online. So far there are over 180 comments and, for once, they're actually mostly really nice and fun and even inspiring. (Usually when I write an op-ed, the comments are all like, "Go back to Cuba, you pinko!") So that was nice.PPS: Yes, that's a nod to Bluey in this post's title.
