New contributor iMatthew took this great long-exposure shot after yesterday's quick thunder and lightning storm. Check out his neat photo of the lightning strike here......

CHIKARA Pro Wrestling Presents Aniversarioma Friday, May 23, 7:00pm Framingham Civic League 214 Concord St., Framingham More information. CHIKARA Pro is an independent wrestling league based in Philadelphia. Like Boston's Kaiju Big Battel, which has hosted CHIKARA wrestlers in the past, the league offers the high-flying athleticism, complicated grappling, and outlandish storylines common to small-circuit wrestling in Mexico, Europe, and Japan. This Friday, CHIKARA comes to Framingham for its Massachusetts debut: an 8 bout card,......

Um, wow. This amazing photo by D. Brim most certainly speaks for itself. Stunning work.......

BC was hoping for results similar to, or better than, the last time they saw Virginia Tech. That was the game back in October when the Hokies outplayed the Eagles for about 90% of the game, until Matt Ryan led an improbable comeback to keep BC's ACC title (and, at the time, national title hopes) alive. Well, so much for that. Virginia Tech outplayed BC for most of the game, including the last few minutes,......

So Sheriff Beckett stared down the Cleveland gang last night. Once again, when the Red Sox needed Josh to be at his absolute best, he pretty much was. Sure, he gave up one more hit than he did in his Game One dazzler, but he only gave up one run - on a double play ball. Other than that, he struck out 11 Indians and gave 44,588 Clevelanders something to do with their towels beside......

Dare we say things are starting to click at the right time? The Red Sox finished off Oakland with an 11-6 win. Now only a monumental collapse (look upward; no lightning) will keep the Red Sox from celebrating an AL East clinchin' party in the next day or two. The Sox smacked Oakland largely due to the bat of Mike Lowell, who collected five of his 116 RBIs (a Red Sox 3B record) on a......

Sure, it was 147 degrees yesterday, but fall is in the air today. The Patriots are in New Jersey, the J-E-T-S are staring at them from the opposite sideline, and the game is on. All the question marks, fortunately, are fairly minor. Will Laurence Maroney step up to being the number-one option running? Will the secondary stay strong with Rodney Harrison in football purgatory? Is Randy Moss a ticking time bomb, or will the Pats'......

Green Kool-Aid is our favorite flavor. (Yes, Green is a flavor.) We've been chugging the semi-sour variety of it for three years now, as Danny Ainge has told us that we'd been assembling key parts for a magical youth movement that would lead the Celtics back to glory. And we've sipped the ultra-sour variety for a month, trying to figure out what kind of a youth movement features a creaky 32-year-old shooter. But today, the......

from Mr. Laskowski......

We're wondering if Romney asks a higher power to smite his enemies. Rudy Giuliani's campaign stoked Mormon Fear by sending out a release linking the Mormon's candidacy to a weird prophecy about a Mormon riding in on a white horse. During the Republican debate, lightning struck and cut out the sound while Giuliani was speaking. The photo above shows Romney aiming a finger at Giuliani 'cuz he probably thought the Lord was pulling through.......

Bostonist was a few minutes late arriving in Davis Square on Saturday evening. We briefly worried that we wouldn't be able to find Boston's undead elite lurching their way toward Harvard Square. Fortunately, zombies aren't the neatest of creatures and we were able to follow a twisted sort of crumb trail composed of corn syrup drops, fabric scraps, and distant cries of "BRAINS!" Zombie organizers told Bostonist prior to Saturday's march that last year's event......

This Japanese Word of the Day will, we hope, be brought to you by Daisuke Matsuzaka, who will try to use his houri to send the Yankees packing tonight. The Red Sox took game two of the latest Ultimate Regular Season Series yesterday; Josh Beckett recovered from a couple shaky innings to hold New York in check. David Ortiz provided the big hit, as he is wont to do, with a two-run homer around......

A little bit of SXSW and a little bit of Japan are converging tomorrow night in Central Square. The SXSW Japan Showcase makes a few U.S. stops in addition to the big indie weekend in Austin. And, lucky for those of us unable to make a pilgrimage to Texas, Japan Night drops by TT's this weekend. Japan Night includes garage punk band The 50 Kaitenz. In addition to strains of The Ramones (one of their......

The Bruins pounded the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 last night. Not only are the Bruins winning consistently, but they are getting closer to a playoff spot. A few weeks ago, this would have been inconceivable, but the Bruins continue to surprise. It's looking like Marco Sturm is close to re-signing, and Patrice Bergeron seems to be recovering from his injury. After a series of spankings, the Celtics played the LA Lakers last night, 122 to......

The late, great director Robert Altman made some brilliant movies (Nashville, anyone?). He also made some unbelievably crappy ones (Pret-a-Porter). But the Brattle is here to sort the wheat from the chaff and to bring you the best of Robert Altman - at least the '70s Altman, anyway - all week long. Movie buffs, fill out your calendars! Tonight M*A*S*H (1970), 4:30, 7:00 People are so used to Alan Alda as Hawkeye that it's a......

We could go on and on telling you about what's going on in the area for music this week. Sure, there are a few note-worthy shows noted below, but let pre-planning and sold out shows be damned just grab a scalped ticket to attend. Tourfilter is testing out a sweet new service that allows cell users to SMS (or txt whatever your preferred lingo) "tonight" to MSGME (that's 67463) and almost before you can......

The Patriots proved to a national audience Monday evening that this team is for real, and in all likelihood will be playing playoff games in January, and maybe one in February... (crossing fingers, dodging lightning bolts, knocking on wood) New England utterly dominated the Minnesota Vikings (who were billed as the "Denver Broncos of the NFC", who handed the Pats their lone defeat of the season) 31-7 last night, a few miles from the......

Early in the third quarter, this one looked like it was about to get really ugly, as the Pats had jumped out to what looked like an insurmountable 24-0 lead over the Jets at the Meadowlands in New Jersey last night. But the Jets made it more than a game, but in the end, Tom Brady and the Patriots were up to the task, winning their 7th consecutive game against the hated Jets. This......

What's going on this week? Everyone is moving. Hipsters are swapping apartments in Allston. Scenesters are invading Cambridgeport. Undergrads and grad students are making their way into the new rental for September. The lucky ones have renewed their lease (or are keeping up with payments on the mortgage). The music you'll be hearing is blaring from the cab of the U-Haul and out of the windows of that f*ing third floor walk-up you offered......

It is starting to rain. The downpour is accompanied by thunderstorms and some violent lightning and flooding that promises to wreak havoc on area commutes and weekend plans throughout the Hub. Canceling plans to beat the heat at Revere Beach or make way to the Cape may be easy decisions to make – the question remains, however, if Melisa DeMauro will keep her vigil atop a tree through the bad weather. Since Wednesday she's been......

If they didn't know before, then by now Red Sox nation is well aware of the fact that turn-over is a necessary evil in the baseball world. The "business is business" credo is no more evident than in the wake of the Sox management shipping off our beloved rock'n'rollin' and high-kickin' Bronson Arroyo. Those with weak hearts and fragile emotions should steer clear of the baseball fraternity. Even the ubiquitous face of the Red......

Don't forget Saturday is the Bostonist Anniversary Party at the Kinsale. In the interim please feel free to rev yourselves up with some of the great music rolling down the pike. Monday 3/20: Editors Neo-post-punk brits Editors (a la Joy Division & Bloc Party) with appropriately asterisked Stellastarr*. Roxy. Editors: Myspace | All Sparks.ram | purchase Tuesday 3/21: The English Beat, Westbound Train, The Sterns, and DJ Ford E. Buxworth More than just a......

We live in an iTunes nation. It's easy to pull a track down to your pod for under a buck. Bostonist still longs for cover art, liner notes, and that masterwork that is a multi-track collection of songs we call an album. Listed here is our much discussed, unbiased by payola, top 25 albums of 2005. After the jump you'll find where some of us stand individually on the subject of the years best. (Apparently......

It’s been hard to hear today. The snow has muffled and muted the sounds about town. We can hear the roar of snow blowers and the backing up beep of the salt and sanding machines. With the snow and rain today, and the thunder and lightning we just saw (seriously, flash of lightning and the crack of thunder, we really have had everything today) it’s a wonder that we’ve overheard anything at all besides......

Last night, for the first time in our irreligious, left-leaning life, Bostonist really thought that God might be getting ready to punish eastern Massachusetts, Santorum style, for our secular humanist, intellectual sins. We haven't heard thunder like that since, well, ever. The storm just seemed to sit above our house and pound the sky forever, with constant lightning flickering through our bedroom. This morning, we expected to find a scene of hurricane-like disaster (trees down,......

So since there's no Providencist yet, Bostonist has to tell you about what's going on this Saturday in our fair neighboring city of fun and arts. Get yourself down to Providence because AS220, which is devoted to promoting and encouraging art from music to visuals, is taking over Empire Street and celebrating their 20th anniversary and recent renovations. It's all free, and there will be, in the words of their website:"food, games, music, dancing, art,......