Friday Faves 8/23: Beer Garden, Basketball books, Caamp, Water Taxis

Best Activity

It was a pretty great week of activities with the summer winding down. Last weekend we hosted some friends who live in Hoboken. We realized during this particular visit that they had not really been in Boston during the summertime when the weather is nice. On Saturday afternoon, we walked from Charlestown to the Charles River and had a couple beers at the Owl’s Nest, the Night Shift beer garden next to the Esplanade. The area was bustling with people and dogs, but not too busy where one might feel overwhelmed. The river was packed with sail boats. It was a quintessential Boston day. We capped off the night with a water taxi ride from Boston Harbor Hotel to Charlestown with a quick stop at Logan Airport.

Best Read

My Losing Season - I am about a third through this Pat Conroy book. It’s a memoir covering his senior year at The Citadel on the basketball team. It is excellent and goes way beyond basketball. Conroy grew up an army brat, moving all over the country on a whim. His father was emotionally and physically abusive, even heckling Pat from the stands during his high school games, even though basketball was Conroy’s mealticket to college. His father emerges as a horrible figure, a villain even. I am looking forward to finishing the book, as it seems like his disappointing senior year at the Citadel shaped the rest of his life as a person and a writer.

Best Listen

Caamp - My buddy Dean, who was one of our visitors this weekend, told me about Caamp on Saturday morning. We put them on and they played us through the whole morning. While I don’t always like making band comparisons, I’m going to continue to do it for the rest of my life. These guys sound like the Lumineers and/or Mumford and Sons (banjo!!) with tunes likes “All the Debts I Owe”, but also have some upbeat tunes like Peach Fuzz (which sounds a littttttle like “Brim Full of Asha”).

Best Watch

Roll Red Roll - You can find this documentary on Netflix. It covers a rape case in Steubenville, Ohio involving the high school football team. It digs into the culture of the town and rape culture among high school boys. Adults go out of their way to protect the two football players, while a Columbus blogger discovered a sea of bothersome tweets, Instagrams, and Youtube videos to put this story on the front burner. It stirred up protests in the town led by anonymous; a wave of other victims also came forward following years of silence.

Best Eat

Fish Tacos at The Barking Crab - After exploring the city on Saturday, we made our way to The Barking Crab. It’s always packed and we waited an hour for a table, but it was worth the wait. Their fish tacos are delicious. I used to think fish tacos were a strange combination, clearly the younger version of myself was way, way off. Fish tacos are one of my go-to orders at this point. I am not always a fan of fried fish in my taco; I’d rather have grilled fish. Barking Crab’s fish tacos are fried, and I’m glad I made the exception; if you’re in Boston go to The Barking Crab and get the fish tacos, and then just have a few bites of your dining partner’s lobster roll.

Best Drink

Bell’s Official Hazy IPA - Bell’s was not a brewery on my radar until I met my wife. It’s a Michigan based brewery (maybe the only thing she’ll admit is good from “That state up north”). Their most popular draft is Two Hearted, which is now available in Boston pretty much everywhere, including at liquor stores. I had a few sips of Official this weekend and it was really good. It doesn’t taste like they were trying to jam millions of hops into a 16oz can. This one has a good balance. Keep your eyes out for Official by Bells.