😭🚃 Now arriving: Fat MBTA shutdowns

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

🎨 Wanna channel your inner hot pottery dude? The Emily-approved pottery studio Clay Lounge is offering a $15 discount on its beginner-friendly pottery classes when you buy two or more seats with code POTTERY. Spots fill up fast, so book it ASAP. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Boston’s new women’s sports bar 

• Rats: 1. Dunkin’: 0.

• Goodnight, New England dads

Up first…

TRANSPORTATION

It’s a bad week to ride the T

MBTA riders: We’re back in the trenches. June is kicking off with TWO weekday shutdowns on the Green and Blue Lines. Here’s what to know:

GREEN LINE

🚃 Parts of the B, C, D, and E branches will be down and out from 8 p.m. June 4 through June 8.

⛔ The B branch will shut down between North Station and Babcock Street. Buuut shuttles will only run between Babcock and Back Bay. So after that, you’ll have to hop on the Orange Line for service to North Station. Riders can use the 57 bus for free for service between Packard’s Corner and Kenmore. 

🙄 The C and D branches will shut down between North Station and Kenmore. Again, shuttles will run from Kenmore to Back Bay only — so same goes here for the Orange Line. 

🚌 The E branch will shut down between Heath Street and North Station. And in lieu of shuttles, your options are: The fare-free 39 bus (which, once again, ends at Back Bay), or the Worcester commuter rail line, which will be free between South Station, Back Bay, and Lansdowne. 

👀 Visual learner? Warning: Here’s a migraine-inducing map of said changes.

BLUE LINE

🚆 The line will shut down between Bowdoin and Orient Heights from June 7 to 15. 

🚧 Bowdoin Station will be OOO. So shuttles will be starting at Government Center, which means an extra four-minute walk for Blue Line girlies.

🥴 The shuttle sitch is a little complicated. For inbound trips toward Government Center, shuttle buses will hit Haymarket for easier connections to the Orange and Green Lines. Outbound, they’ll skip Aquarium and State (we don’t know why either). Here’s a map of the changes.

⛴️ The ferry might be your new bestie. If you’d rather skip the shuttle bus mess entirely, the East Boston ferry will be running for FREE and on an expanded schedule during the shutdown.

🤑 Our advice: Keep a glass-half-full mindset. After all, the T will technically be free west of Kenmore on all Green Line branches and on the rest of the Blue Line during their respective shutdowns (we’ll take it).

🙋 Any questions? You can find more info on both shutdowns here.

QUICK QUESTION!

💸 Up to how much would you pay for a B-Side festival filled with free/cheap food and drink, a sick vintage market, live music, and more (be honest)!

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🚨 Local officials are pushing back against ICE. We can now put a number to what’s felt like a never-ending list of headlines about local ICE arrests: In the last month, the agency detained nearly 1,500 people in Mass. AG Andrea Campbell released a “know your rights” guide in response to the uptick, while other officials took the opportunity to push back: Gov. Maura Healey demanded more accountability from ICE and Rep. Ayanna Pressley held a community event where wives of some of the arrested men shared their stories.

⚽ BIG NEWS: A sick women’s sports bar is coming to Boston. When Portland's The Sports Bra (excellent name) opened in 2022, it was the first of its kind in the country. Now, it’s capitalizing on the women’s sports boom and expanding to four new U.S. cities … including Boston! While the date and location are very much TBD, we do know that, like the OG, the new locations will be locally owned and serve products from local, artisan, women-owned businesses. And while you’re waiting … catch a game with Watch With Us.

🐀 If you go to the Back Bay station Dunkin’ … don’t read this. And TBH, just don’t go at all because the location racked up 18 food safety violations for what city inspectors called “gross unsanitary conditions.” Think: Cockroaches, a leaky pipe, no manager in sight, and a suspicious urine scent. And that’s not to mention a recent video of a RAT eating bagels from the bakery rack. Suffice to say, the location has been “temporarily closed” per the Dunkin’ website, but even when it re-opens, you probs won’t catch us there.

🎸 Wanna beef up your summer concert schedule? Boston.com has you covered. It just dropped a list of 10 must-see small venue concerts in Greater Boston, including Brighton Music Hall, Agganis Arena, and The Sinclair. Some of our faves from the list: Yola, a Grammy-award winning Americana and folk artist (not to mention Tiny Desk queen), is at the Sinclair on June 6 (tickets start at $39), and indie dream-pop band Cults, will also be there June 21 (tickets start at $37). Check out the full list here.

THINGS TO DO

Mid-week plans

👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 The Dating Game Live | Friday, June 6 | Aeronaut Somerville | B-Side is teaming up with Aeronaut to host a modern version of the classic 60's game show The Dating Game! B-Side Members get a free drink.

🍕 Boston Pizza Fest | Saturday, June 21 and Sunday, June 22 | City Hall Plaza Boston | The pizza lover’s dream: More than 30 pizzerias from across the world will serve slices of their mouthwatering pies. B-Side Members get 20% off their ticket.

🎂 B-Side Cake Decorating | Sunday, June 22 | Long Live Beerworks Roxbury | Join us for an afternoon of sweetness with The Sugar Connection. Members get 15% off their ticket and a second free drink.

At B-Side events like the ones above, members get perks like discounted entry, free drinks, B-Side swag, and more. Stay tuned for more meetups, and become a member to get your perks!

GIVEAWAY

Together with Flour Bakery + Cafe

Enter to win a $25 Gift Card to Flour Bakery + Cafe. To enter, just refer a friend and have them accept your invite by the end of the day on June 5. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

18+. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Limit one entry per person. See Official Rules & an additional entry option here.

ONE LAST THING

Good night, New England dads

Can one New England man call another New England man to say goodnight? Not without a little chaos, apparently.

ICYMI: One of the latest TikTok trends involves men calling their male friends to wish them goodnight — which usually ends in a silly combo of confusion and/or laughter. 

But the very best of these vids to end up on our FYPs is this dude trying the trend on his Boston father-in-law, who skipped right over humor and confusion and immediately chose violence: “What? Don’t call to say goodnight,” he said, “what the f*ck are you on?” 

The Boston-man stereotype was in full force, with the dad assuming his son-in-law was drunk, dropping approximately 30 f-bombs, talking about the Bruins game, and ending the call saying “Oh my God, I’ve heard everything now.” 

You really gotta watch it to get the full effect.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

📲 Thanks for reading! As one commenter said: “God forbid a man wants to be tucked in at night.” We’re dead.

📝 Correction: The Boston Pizza fest is on June 21 and 22, which is Saturday and Sunday, not Friday and Saturday.

🤑 The results are in: The B-Siders have spoken: 59% of readers want free food and drink at a B-Side summer festival. One reader said: “Love me, feed me…never leave me.” Consider us on the case.

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].