Boston tunes make me feel at home

Jake Faulkner and Ben Thomas, students at Berklee College of Music, jam on guitars while Abe Drimmer looks on. JOHN NORDELL / STAFF

The other day, I did a quick tally. I've lived here longer than I lived in the Midwest as a kid. I guess that almost makes me a Townie. Almost. I'm still really an expatriate.

Right now, it's summer and traffic has eased. The college students have all gone home, the weather is fine (for the most part), and life slows a little, if life in a major American metropolis can ever slow down at all.

Come September, the streets will clog again with cars from New Jersey and Wisconsin and California as the students return. Time was, that was me - minus the car. I attended the Berklee College of Music, and found myself traveling to gigs and sessions on the T. (The T is the public transit system. You'll sound like a Townie if you call it the T.)

The next thing I knew, I was raising a family here while trying to hold down a 'straight job' and play music whenever I could.

There is no lack of opportunities. This is the kind of place where in a typical week I could play a jazz session, go to two rock band rehearsals, sing a choral rehearsal, take my kids to the Museum of Science, and still beat myself up for not getting out and getting some "kullcha," (culture- in Boston speak). Between the Boston Symphony, concerts at Berklee and New England Conservatory, and the local club scene, there's too much music to choose from on any given night. Add to that the constant deluge of films, plays and museum exhibits, and it soon becomes difficult to decide which part of the cultural fire hose to drink from.

— by J. Johson

'Bertha Foster' garden - Dave Hauck	Chat up someone, anyone - Jim Bencivenga	Beantown music scene - J. Johnson
What's foreign found local - Susan Leach	How to walk in Boston - Judy Lowe	Just take a walk - Greg Lamb
Delegates unite - walk! - Greg Palmer	Where to go for some seafood - Daigo Fujiwara	Seek out a quiet moment - Tom Regan
'To think that I saw it on Newbury St.!' - Christina McCarroll	Some antiquarian bookstores of Boston - Tom Toth