🥳 Summer Fridays are SO back

Happy Friday, Boston!

🍪 Levain cookies with … ice cream!? You’re not dreaming. Starting today, the cookie company is partnering with J.P. Licks to offer their iconic giant, gooey cookie a la mode at the Seaport and Newbury Street locations. We’re drooling just looking at it.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Healey cuts red tape

• June = MBTA shutdown szn

• A b-day bash … for seals

Up first…

SUMMER FRIDAYS

Dorchfest, darties, and denim

Welcome to the first B-Side Summer Friday of the year! Every Friday from now through Labor Day, your favorite morning newsletter will be shorter, sweeter, and things-to-do-focused to help you slam your laptop shut till Monday and get ready for the weekend. 

Here’s what’s going down:

🎸 Grab $30 concert tickets. Shoutout to Live Nation’s tickets to summer deal for getting us cheap seats to tons of local concerts throughout the summer. While many of the big Boston headliners appear to be sold out, you can still catch The Driver Era and James Arthur — and if you’re willing to drive to Mansfield, folks like Halsey and Wiz Khalifa.

😍 Find your summer fling. Or whatever type of love you’re looking for! Boston Single Mingle is heading to Allston’s new Craft Food Hall tonight. $25 gets you on the patio, with a beverage in hand, chatting with tons of local singles.

🤝 Meet your neighbors in the North End. Tonight, the hood is throwing a North End Neighbors Night, where some of our fave shops (Aperitivo the Shop, Uvida, Good Taste Records) will have discounts, complimentary snacks, and more.

🎶 Listen to some *queer* classical tunes. The Handel and Haydn Society is collabbing with Brooklyn’s ChamberQUEER for tonight’s BaroQUEER: Historically Informed, a pay-what-you-wish celebration of the queer perspectives that shaped Baroque’s revival.

🎵 Go on a local live music crawl. There are THREE porchfest-style events on May 31 to pick from: Dorchester’s Dorchfest, Malden’s Porchfest, and South Boston’s Stoopfest. 

🧘‍♀️ Enjoy some slow Saturday yoga. This gentle yoga class at the Brighton BPL is free (and includes a sound bath!). But if you shell out $12, you can get a rooftop class hosted by Equinox at the Revere Hotel plus a smoothie.

🛍️ Kick off your thrifty girl summer. You have two options: 1. FOUND Vintage will have 50+ vendors, food trucks, and tunes at a free vintage market on May 31; or 2. Bow Market is throwing its 10th annual curated vintage market on June 1.

📚 Gather this season’s beach reads. Step one: Bring your unwanted books to Read My Lips’ June 1 buyback sale for 50% of their value in store credit. Step two: Round out your new TBR pile at Dorchester Brewing’s Pride-themed book fair the same day.

👯 Darty like it’s 2000. There are not one, but TWO Y2K-themed darties on June 1: One at Bow Market with tie dye, bedazzling, sips, and shopping, and another at the Scorpion Bar with music, themed-drinks, and snacks.

🧺 Hang out at a park Pride picnic potluck. Say that three times fast! The Queer Neighborhood Council (TQNC) is kicking off Pride month with a community potluck picnic June 1 on the Greenway. Bringing a dish is not required.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

✂️ Gov. Maura Healey is cutting red tape for businesses. On Wednesday, Healey unveiled cuts to 38 outdated (annoying) state regulations in order to save businesses time and money (but, as she clarified, NOT in a DOGE-y way). Among the changes: Those striped poles outside of barbershops are now optional, and formerly strict rules for price label fonts and sizes at grocery stores have been relaxed. Though small, Healey said the changes will grease the wheels for local businesses, ultimately benefiting customers.

🚇 The MBTA is coming in HOT … with June shutdowns. After a relatively uneventful spring, shutdowns are back in full force. On the docket in June: THREE major weekday shutdowns. The Blue Line and the Green Line’s B, C, D, and E branches will be hit starting next week, along with the Orange Line later this month. But let’s get through this weekend’s shutdowns on the Red Line between Braintree and JFK/UMass and the Orange Line between North Station and Forest Hills first. Think of them as an amuse bouche.

🌧️ We’re getting 2023 summer weather déjà vu. And by that, we mean weekend washouts. As we head into meteorological summer, Boston is expected to see its 12th rainy weekend in a row. As of Thursday evening, the rain is expected to roll in around 11 p.m. tonight and stick around till midday Saturday, with temps in the high 60s. The good news: The sun should come out by Saturday evening. And just in time for the workweek … sunny skies and warmer temps will be rolling in cries.

POP QUIZ!

🌧️ How much rain did Boston get during 2023’s infamously rainy summer?

GIVEAWAY

Materialists: A Love Letters Free Preview Screening!

Are you team Pedro Pascal or Chris Evans? Must we choose? Join the Love Letters advice column and podcast in Boston on June 10 at 7 p.m. for a free screening of Celine Song’s latest film, “Materialists,” starring Pascal, Evans, and Dakota Johnson as a matchmaker figuring out her love life.

To win a pair of tickets, send a letter to Love Letters. Ask any relationship question that's on your mind about single life, dating fatigue, when to say "I love you," complicated friendships, and marriage and divorce. Yes, it's anonymous.

ONE LAST THING

Happy flippin’ birthday!

Need a reason to smile this week? Enter: The New England Aquarium’s birthday bash … for seals. Specifically, Amelia and Trumpet, two seal nepo babies who are both turning 40.

Though every seal b-day is a reason to party, turning 40 is especially cool because the pair have nearly doubled their life expectancies. To celebrate, they got handmade cards, a “cake” made of Jell-O and fish. Attendees sang them “happy birthday.” They even shared a birthday kiss. 

Check out this (adorable) video of the festivities.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🦭 Thanks for reading! IDK what’s going on at the aquarium, but between the penguin “retirement home” and these seals, there’s something in the water.

🦖 The results are in: We FINALLY got you guys with a pop quiz. 28% of readers guessed the Stegosaurus is Mass.’ state dino, but it’s actually the Podokesaurus. Thoughts and prayers to B-Side’s content operations manager, Claire, who wrote in and said: “I’ll crash out if it’s not the steggy.”

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