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Ian Sands

Latest Articles

Power to the people

Art of the Streets Dept.
Painted portraits are, as evidenced by the many on display inside Boston’s world-famous art galleries, a window into the world of royalty, politicos, and other spectacularly coiffed assholes from centuries ago.

By IAN SANDS | November 04, 2009

Less than zero

Artist Russell Freeland went from Boston to Austin — and gave up absolutely everything in the process
Three years ago, Russell Freeland had what most would consider a settled life. Just two years later, though, Freeland was hungry, exhausted, and homeless, trying to survive in Austin, Texas.

By IAN SANDS | October 10, 2009

Wheels in Motion

Ghana Fly Now
David Branigan, who recently returned to town after more than a year in Koforidua, in Eastern Ghana, says what he missed most about Boston is the "efficiency." That might come as a shocker for those of us here who have ever waited for the Number 66 bus in the thick of winter.

By IAN SANDS | September 02, 2009

Apartment aid

Outfit your digs with bad art, help save a life
Back from an arduous vacation full of nail-biting beer-pong battles and vigorous Wii tennis matches, you enter the dilapidated dorm or apartment where you'll be spending the next year doing much the same.

By IAN SANDS | August 31, 2009

For those about to lock

Somerville's champion lockpicker Schuyler Towne can't be stopped.
It's too bad Skip Gates didn't have Schuyler Towne's cell number on that fateful day last month. If he did, the Somerville-based lockpicking champ likely could have gotten in to the good professor's home in no time at all, and a national controversy (and international beer summit) might have been averted.

By IAN SANDS | August 05, 2009

Only the awesome need apply

Free Money Dept.
What if Eli and Edythe Broad, two important financial backers of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, had gone batshit crazy back in the early '00s and decided to go in a different direction with their philanthropy?

By IAN SANDS | July 22, 2009

Antiques | No Fortune

self-released (2009)
self-released (2009)

By IAN SANDS | July 14, 2009

The dark knight

Merry prankster Sir John Hargrave is a square peg at a round table
By his calling card alone, Sir John Hargrave sounds like he may be a world-renowned botanist, or the first man to set foot in some remote part of Papua New Guinea.

By IAN SANDS | July 08, 2009

The healing arts

Breathing Easier
Eunah Kim, a Korean-born, Cambridge-based artist with advanced lung cancer, has focused her craft on dark imagery.

By IAN SANDS | April 22, 2009

Food fight at MIT

A battle to determine the superior of the Jewish treats
Latke or Hamantashen?

By IAN SANDS | March 11, 2009

Sculpt by numbers

Counting on the Weather
Nathalie Miebach's Brookline apartment looks like the home of a very talented madman.

By IAN SANDS | March 04, 2009

The wrong change

Sightings
A man driving a red sport-utility vehicle pulled up a few feet from the Cambridge Street firehouse in Inman Square.

By IAN SANDS | February 11, 2009

Interview: Artist, construction worker Susan Eisenberg

On Equal Terms: Women in Construction 30 Years & Still Organizing at the Adams Gallery at Suffolk University.
In order to shine some light on the inequality – as well as call attention to the strong, talented tradeswomen who wire this country's buildings, lay out piping systems, and fabricate metals – the local artist and poet Susan Eisenberg, herself a pioneering tradeswoman who came into the business in 1978, has unveiled On Equal Terms: Women in Construction 30 Years & Still Organizing at the Adams Gallery at Suffolk University.

By IAN SANDS | February 09, 2009

Anita Silvey

Women warriors
In her near-40-years working in the field of children's literature, Boston-area resident Anita Silvey has been everything from a publisher, to an editor, an author, a lecturer, a reviewer, and even a professor.

By IAN SANDS | January 22, 2009

Empowerment on Two Wheels

JP cyclists reach out to Africa
If you grew up, as I did, a privileged snot in a leafy suburb, chances are you took bikes for granted.

By IAN SANDS | November 07, 2008

Old trickster

At age 78, able-bodied Alan Abel’s life is still one big joke
On New Year’s Day 1980, telegrams sent from Utah arrived at the New York Times and the Daily News announcing that 50-year-old media hoaxter Alan Abel had suffered a heart attack at a ski resort near Orem, Utah. He left behind a wife, Jeanne, and daughter, Jennifer.

By IAN SANDS | October 09, 2008