Your weekly guide to staying entertained any day of the week
Your weekly guide to staying entertained any day of the week
August 14, 2026
Welcome back to The Big To-Do. In fourth-grade science class, we learned the Atlantic Ocean off the Northeast US is warmest on Aug. 15. That’s tomorrow! If you haven’t ventured to the beach this summer, consider yourself reminded that the surf is only growing cooler (until next spring). Happily, the weekend​ weather forecast mostly calls for great conditions for beachgoing or pretty much anything else outdoors.
Back inside, your streaming options include “a slew of new movies and TV shows” — among them the “action-packed crime flick” and Bob Odenkirk vehicle “Normal” — and the Globe’s Matt Juul is on the case. And the arts briefs section The Rundown includes the latest addition to the Boston Public Art Triennial.
This week’s One Special Thing is special indeed, mixing visual art and literature with a dash of one of the deadly sins. (Lust. It’s lust.) The New Bedford Whaling Museum is dedicating a statue of Herman Melville this weekend, and sculptor Stefanie Rocknak’s rendering of the “Moby-Dick” author is “very attractive.” The only Globe staffer you’d want on this story is Meredith Goldstein, and she hits it out of the park.
Documenting the deterioration of crowd behavior is a good thing, actually. It “comes from a love of the audience experience, of witnessing magic as a group,” Chris Vognar writes. Ideally, it “requires a tradeoff. The artists deliver magic. And the audience delivers its undivided attention.”
Asked to recount their experiences with disruptive audience members, Globe readers delivered wild anecdotes. Lisa Weidenfeld rounds up some humdingers, including transgressions involving cellphones, public displays of too much affection, and, believe it or not, Pokemon Go.
Live music is at the disgusting heart of a recent “etiquette meltdown.” Bad fan behavior predates the pandemic, of course, but lately, the concertgoing experience is in freefall. “[R]un-of-the-mill annoyances have given way to horror stories,” writes Victoria Wasylak, who shares some hair-raising examples.
At nightclubs, “floors that were once built for dancing and connection are increasingly filled with glowing screens.” DJs are performers now, and patrons are “pushed to the front with a camera in the DJ’s face,” one Boston DJ tells Celine Hijazi. “I cannot believe the lack of respect or awareness.”
For stand-up comedians, jousting with crowds is just another night at the office. “[H]eckling has always been a part of the live experience,” observes Nick A. Zaino III. “Audiences are used to instant gratification,” says comedian Kelly MacFarland. “I feel like I’m teaching them what to expect.”
Sports fans are even more vocal than comedy audiences, but legal gambling has introduced a sinister element. Combine typical fan behavior with “the popularity of ‘prop bets’ — a wager made on an individual’s performance — and a problem for athletes has emerged.” Michael Silverman explains.
Audience members who transform into protesters mid-event draw mixed-at-best reactions, “but sometimes polarization is the goal.” From vandalizing museum exhibits to interrupting sporting events, “a disruptive tactic ... can still successfully shift public opinion,” one activist tells Sterling Davies.
Standing inside Atwood Hall, Jonathan Kappel holds a photo of Jimi Hendrix performing at the same venue in 1968. JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE
The exhibition “Music Legends at Clark” covers a lot. Its focus is “the performers who made Worcester music history at the university, and the students who booked them,” Globe correspondent Victoria Wasylak writes for Sound Check. Funded by architect Nancy Mack and her husband, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, it spotlights “the breadth of the musicians that these motivated ‘Clarkies’ booked.”
“[C]ontrary to common perceptions, protest music is not dead.” The year-old series “Which Side? A Protest Music Teach-Out,” is “a kind of combined social activism incubator and protest-song hootenanny,” in the words of Globe correspondent Jon Garelick. He talks inspiration and logistics with the organizers, Joyce Leinhan and Globe contributor James Sullivan.
Museums & Visual Art
Steve Genatossio, "Organized Clutter." STEVE GENATOSSIO
Chang-rae Lee turns the clock back to the “watershed year” of 1976 in “A Tender Age.” The novel conjures far more than the “tender-hearted coming-of-age tale” the title suggests, writes Globe reviewer Hamilton Cain. “The rage of children — their frustrations with grown-ups, fury at being misunderstood, curiosity about body changes — pulses across the narrative.”
Today’s newsletter was written by Marie Morris and produced by the Globe Living/Arts staff. Marie Morris can be reached at marie.morris@globe.com. Thanks for reading.
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