Music Hometown keytar heroes Freezepop have returned from touring the world (okay, Florida, and the Rust Belt) to once again rock Cambridge, with the help of the The Information, The Main Drag, and Michael Hensley. Middle East Downstairs, 8 pm, 18+, $14. Beer Harpoon will hold its St. Patrick's Festival at the brewery on 306 Northern Avenue. Wear galoshes because the floor may well be slick with beer. Harpoon Brewery, 5:30 to 11:00 pm,......

The wheels are coming off the bus. After Monday night's debacle in DC and Tuesday's shutout at the hands of Florida, the Bruins desperately needed a strong showing last night, with Toronto in town and their six-seed hanging by a thread. They gave a strong performance, all right, but only if you gauge by smell. The Bruins opened a 1-0 lead, then watched helplessly as the Leafs pummeled them into a fine dust, scoring eight......

It felt great for a second or two, flipping the pages of the local dailies to check in with the Bruins. Win, win, shootout win, come from behind win, win...and then that Monday night game against the Capitals happened. The Bruins came back home to Boston last night a little humbled, but we'd hoped that they were ready to kick it up a notch and not make absolute fools of themselves again deliver a quality......

Several Red Sox Nation cards are in danger of being revoked this week. First were the alleged lugnuts who beat up a guy unfortunate enough to be wearing a Yankees cap near the Cantab. Now there's the Red Sox scout who was arrested after allegedly "masturbating in front of a window that overlooked a Florida hotel pool where two young girls were swimming." The scout, Jesse Levis, says he didn't go to the window, but......

...only makes you stronger. That has to be the attitude the Bruins take today, after having their winning streak stopped, killed, set on fire, stomped, buried, and the earth salted. The good news is, they will never play a worse game than they did last night. It was 6-0 Capitals in the first period. Alex Ovechkin had a hat trick before half the fans had found their seats. Tim Thomas got pulled, put back in......

- The Bobcats are to the Celtics what the Giants were to the Patriots: confident, strong, capable of making a game of it (although we'd like to think that we won't see Jason Richardson celebrating a championship for at least another couple of years). The Celts barely beat the 'Cats in November, lost (embarrassingly) in January, and were challenged up until the end on Friday night, when Boston won, 108-100, at TD Banknorth Garden. Not......

The Commomwealth's Speaker of the House, Sal DiMasi, is well-known for his opposition to Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan. There's no turning back now. The Globe reports today that DiMasi played golf at exclusive South Florida clubs with Joe O'Donnell, owner of Eastie's Suffolk Downs horse track, who wants a gaming license. They also report that DiMasi met the famously rich casino magnate Donald Trump "...at a cocktail party at the Mar-a-Lago Club, an......

There's been a lot of praise heaped on Bruins goalie Tim Thomas this year, and it's all been deserved. The guy's been a huge reason why the B's are still very much in the playoff hunt. But man is mortal, and Tim looked anything but great last night in Florida, giving up four goals in 12 shots through two periods. His defense was far from blameless, but Tim's been great at covering for their mistakes.......

This Bostonist finally got around to seeing There Will Be Blood last night, so we're prepared to concede that the West can be a harsh and pitiless place. Until this week, the West had been very good to the Celtics. But now they're drinkin' our milkshake! The reeling C's have matched their longest losing streak of the year (two) after Baron Davis broke our hearts with a game-winning shot for the last of his 29......

You've got to be kidding us. We can't get anywhere near the rest of the media during Red Sox spring training (MLB doesn't believe in the journalistic credibility of blogs, can you believe it?), and the big press conference of the pre-season takes place in the Red Sox spring training complex PARKING LOT? We totally should have gone to Florida to try to jump in on the conversation that took place on Monday between Curt......

He was the last man added to the Eastern All-Star team. When KG scratched, he waited for the call, only to find it went to Rasheed Wallace. When Washington's Caron Butler went down, the call finally came. He had to cancel the fishing trip and make plans to go to New Orleans. And when he got there, Ray Allen was awesome. He scored 28 points in 19 minutes, mostly in the fourth quarter, to lead......

Can you put a price on Super Bowl immortality? MasterCard would likely say no (because let's face it, it's priceless), but some people in St. Louis offer a resounding "hell yes." The estimated price of a 2002 Rams Super Bowl win, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans, is $100 million. The lawsuit, which names the Patriots organization and Coach Bill Belichick, stems from former Rams player Willie Gary,......

It looks like it's going to be an easy season for Red Sox beat writers. It looks like all they'll have to do is set up a microphone within half a mile of Jonathan Papelbon, and he'll come a-runnin' with enough material to fill a dozen Notes columns. More, if they can be padded out with 40-year-old rock lyrics (hi, Dan!). So it's the time of the season for Spring Training, and Papelbon held court......

Look outside the window. Grimace. Then realize that somewhere, in a magical land known as Florida, spring is only one day away. Pitchers and Catchers Day is almost here, which means that spring is creeping closer to our frozen city. Ballplayers will be ready to welcome in the season when they finally get back to Fenway. The journey just happens to take them to Florida, Japan, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Toronto before spring finally reaches......

Carl Stanley McGee, a high-profile aide to Deval Patrick, is on an unpaid leave of absence after being accused of sexually assaulting a teenage boy at a Florida resort. Casey Ross at the Herald considers the political impact of McGee's departure. While Bostonist uses the term "high-profile" because McGee was one of the Globe's most stylish people, he was more than just a fashionable face who put off a strong Tim Gunn vibe (in this......

The good news for the Celtics is that the Timberwolf portion of their schedule is in the history books. After surviving a 1-point game against Minnesota at home a couple of weeks ago, the C's went to the Twin Cities and pulled out a 2-point win. It started with a polite Minnesotan reaction for Kevin Garnett, who of course didn't play again but got a huge ovation from his former hometown fans. It continued with......

--A 19-year-old is accused of killing his social worker, 53-year-old Diruhi S. Mattian, in North Andover last night. The accused is now in the hospital recovering from stab wounds he gave himself. [ http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/02/social_worker_i.html">Boston Globe] --A woman was found murdered in her Medfield home last night. The victim, 47-year-old Margaret Ninos, was a nurse at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She died of head injuries. Police are investigating, and she leaves behind a 7-year-old daughter.......

Super Bowl Media Day is the professional football equivalent of the annual family reunion. A bunch of people get together, often traveling long distances, for the purpose of catching up. There's little that they have in common, but since they sort of fall under the same name, everyone has to make nice. The hijinks on display makes for a hilarious time for those not directly involved. People make nice and dumb down the stories of......

Here's something we never thought of: the Patriots' (hopeful) victory parade would have to be on Tuesday, thus conflicting with the Massachusetts primary. The team won't be back on Monday, and most of them have to go to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii on Wednesday. So Tuesday (and not AFTER the Pro Bowl, which would just be crazy talk) it is. "We have to have a plan," saidMayor Menino. "I'm just thinking about it; I......

Randy Moss will not be going to Florida for the court hearing involving an incident in which a woman was allegedly injured at his home, prompting her to file a temporary restraining order. ESPN is reporting that Moss' attorney, Richard Sharpstein, will be there on Monday, but Moss will be in Arizona prepping for the Super Bowl. Sharpstein will ask for a delay in proceedings. Then, Sharpstein said to ESPN, that if and when a......

Riding high from his Michigan victory and the continued defeats of rival Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney is on a tear through Florida, and he's trying to connect with the young people. Unfortunately, Romney's pop culture references are stuck as far back in time as his well-preserved face. He buddied up with African-American teens and tried to sling lingo that he thought they would like. In fact, he uttered the immortal line, "Who Let the Dogs......

In a way, it doesn't feel right; the Colts should perhaps be in town today. They are(were) the defending champs, after all. They gave the Patriots the first in a long stretch of runs for their money that the Pats survived. The Dungy-Belichick and Manning-Brady rivalries are about the biggest stories in sports in this young century. But who cares, really. The Colts are on the golf course and it's San Diego who's in town......

After Randy Moss vigorously defended himself after a woman in Florida served him with a temporary restraining order, the woman's lawyer, David McGill, provided a different story. Where Moss suggested that the woman, whom he has known for some time, was trying to extort money from him, the lawyer said that Moss tried to pay her "hush money" in the six figures. In court documents, the victim checked off a box stating that Moss had......

Update: Adam Reilly takes a close look at the words Moss chose to describe the situation, along with a past incident in which Moss pushed a traffic control officer half a block with his car while he was in Minnesota. Earlier today, the Sports Redux mentioned a story spotted at Sports by Brooks noting that a Randy Moss had been served with a restraining order in Florida. However, it was unclear whether or not the......

--Dr. Judah Folkman, who found a new way of fighting cancer by cutting off blood supply to tumors, died yesterday. [Boston Globe] --After one meeting ended unsuccessfully, the Cambridge City Council decided that Denise Simmons would be mayor. [Cambridge Chronicle] --The judge in a Florida case involving former FBI agent/Friend-of-Whitey-Bulger John J. Connolly has recused herself. [Boston Herald] --Coyote ugly: An injured coyote was spotted and rounded up last night in the North End.......

Former Massachusetts governor and presidential aspirant Romney is putting his New England Spanking behind him and focusing entirely on winning the Michigan primary. He has pulled advertising from South Carolina and Florida and is going whole hog. Michigan seems to be loving the attention, at least according to the AP. Writer Glen Johnson declared that Romney received a "Hero's Welcome." But it's still not the kind of welcome Romney was expecting only a few weeks......

The Chargers sputtered for a while yesterday, but finally turned it on enough to beat Tennessee and ensure that the Jacksonville Jaguars will be the next team to come into Foxboro and try to spoil the Pats' Date With Destiny. The Jags, everyone's chic pick to make a wild-card run in the AFC, barely beat Pittsburgh, but the consensus is that they're well-suited to giving the Pats as tough a game as they've had all......

First Night Monday, December 31 Everywhere (see below) All outdoor events are free. All indoor events are accessible with a First Night button ($15) Official First Night site Artists use the cold weather to their advantage with ice sculptures. The sculptures will be on the Common starting at 1:00 pm until midnight. You can look at a frozen version of Florida courtesy of Donald Chapelle, an American eagle that would make Stephen Colbert proud, and......

Gifts were exchanged in Foxboro yesterday. From Miami to New England: a total lack of competition. From New England to Miami: Their foots off the gas pedal and a non-humiliation. 'Tis the season in the NFL. The Pats jumped out to an early lead, befitting a matchup of 14-0 against 1-13. Brady found Randy Moss twice (been a while since we've heard that!), then Laurence Maroney dashed away untouched for a career-long 59 yards for......

--A woman who was pregnant with twins was shot in the back last night in Mattapan. Police are saying the 22-year-old was shot through her apartment window. The woman is now in stable condition. The Herald adds that Police Commissioner Ed Davis went to the scene and that It was unclear last night whether the woman was targeted by someone she knew or whether she was a victim of a bizarre act of random violence.......