⚾🤑 The ULTIMATE Red Sox freebie

Happy Friday, Boston!

🏄😳 Thinking of heading to the beach this weekend? THINK AGAIN. Hurricane Erin is *still* bringing life-threatening surf and rip currents to most of New England’s coast. Don’t believe us? Just look at this terrifying video on Nantucket. 

💌 Want a free dinner? The Globe’s Dinner With Cupid is open for applications. Based on the app, they set you up on a blind date (where THEY foot the bill), and write a little story about it. Do it for the plot!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• You’ve evaded your last fare

• Solar-powered e-bikes

• Josh Kraft is on TikTok

SUMMER FRIDAYS

 BBQ, boats, and baseball

Summer may be winding down, but in the words of Chappell Roan: It’s not over ‘til it’s over (she invented that, right?). And as of today, it’s NOT over.

Here’s what’s going on this weekend:

⛴️ Take a *budget-friendly* day trip. We put together an epic car-free itinerary for one in Newport, R.I., including a cutesy café, stunning views, boat rides, and frozen lemonade, all on the cheap. And not to toot our own horn, but it’s kind of adorable.

🕺 Kick it old school on the plaza. Funk. Soul. Hip-hop. House. We’re talking about City Hall Plaza on Aug. 22! The city is holding a free Old School Dance Party with food trucks, a cute photo booth, and obviously, a bangin’ dance floor.

🎥 Practice your “Defying Gravity” belt. It’s still outdoor movie season, and this weekend, you can catch a “Wicked” sing-along at the Hatch Shell on Aug. 22, or see “Moana” at the Pru on Aug. 23.

⚾ Watch the Red Sox WALLOP the Yankees. We hope! If you can’t swing a trip to the Bronx to catch the make-or-break series, the Aug. 23 game will be on the big screen at the Hatch Shell with free food, drinks, games, and blankets for the first 1,000 fans.

🎶 Make some NOISE in Downtown Crossing. At the We Make Noise music fest, duh! It’s a free music festival of female and gender-expansive artists Aug. 23. Just check out this lineup!

🧶 Load up on craft supplies. For $10 (plus tax), you can take home a bag of secondhand art supplies (yarn, tools, fabric, etc.) for all your hot girl crafts at Make & Mend’s fill-a-bag event Aug. 23 in Somerville.

🍅 Have a tomato girl summer. It’s a thing! On Aug. 23, First Street Market is celebrating all things tomato (think: cooking demos, games, bevs, goodies) at its annual tomato festival.

🍖 Chow down on Boston’s best BBQ. If Jayson Tatum loves the Everybody Gotta Eat BBQ fest, so do you! On Aug. 24 it's bringing 100+ vendors to Cambridge with food, drinks, shopping, music, and community vibes.

🏳️‍🌈 Learn queer history on the harbor. The History Project is hosting a summer picnic Aug. 24 on Spectacle Island. Your FREE ticket will cover the ferry, so just bring yourself, a swimsuit, and any picnic supplies for snacking.

🏓 Raise a glass AND your game. Head to Bosse “pickledom” in Natick on Aug. 28 for a laid-back evening of organized open play for women paired with prosecco, small bites, and great company. 

👀🎟️ Members: Stay tuned, because we’re giving away three pairs of tickets to the pickleball event on Monday AND dropping tickets to our very first B-Side supper club(!) tomorrow. Sign up to become a member here.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🫵 MBTA fare-evaders, consider this your official warning. Starting Sept. 8, the MBTA’s fare engagement team will be cracking down on fare evasion by doling out warnings and fines. The team will be stationed on trains and in stations (you’ll recognize their bright blue shirts), and if they catch you, they'll take your name or ID and issue a warning or fine starting at $50. And while we’re here: The Orange Line is shutting down between Wellington and Back Bay from Aug. 23 to 24. 

🪖 Soooo … what’s up with the giant helicopters on the Common? Great question: It’s for the Marines Corps’ 250th birthday celebration, which is bringing a series of celebratory events (and a fleet of very loud military vehicles) to Boston through Sunday. So during that time, don’t be surprised if you bump into a Humvee or light-armored vehicle, or see military copters flying to and from the Common, especially over Charlestown and Eastie. Here’s the whole itinerary.

🚴 This new e-bike share is powered by *the sun*. Metro Mobility has launched Greater Boston’s first solar-powered e-bikeshare station in Somerville by the Davis Square T station. The Cambridge-based company has been on a mission to innovate e-bike sharing, with $1 rentals for low-income users and fancy docking technology. But this marks its first-ever solar station, which, according to WBUR, will hopefully be the first of many. Here are some tips on how to take a ride.

QUICK QUESTION!

🚃 Be honest: Do you ever skip paying on the MBTA?

ONE LAST THING

Josh Kraft is on TikTok

We have to get this off our chests: Politics aside, Josh Kraft’s social media presence is … bizarre. 

To be fair, a lot of local politicians have stopped us in our tracks with their social media content lately (see: Sen. Lydia Edwards’ Nicki Minaj challenge). But there’s something about Josh Kraft’s posts that we just can’t stop thinking about. So now, we’re subjecting you to them.

Some of his greatest hits include a wild video where he compares Wu’s macaroni-themed Kraft puns to Donald Trump and this one of him describing his day of campaigning … including (for some reason) an instance where he was *rudely gestured to* on the street.

But frankly, that’s all nothing compared to this endorsement from Davis Clarke, in which Kraft says, “The opposition, they come hard and fast, but I’m going to come harder and faster … and relentlessly.” Sorry … WHAT?

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

📲 Thanks for reading! Josh Kraft, if you’re reading this (and taking suggestions), can we get an Eric Adams-style morning routine?

🍂 The results are in: 44% of B-Siders say Sept. 1 is the appropriate time to make our cultural transition into fall. So … T-10 days. One reader said: “August is slipping away into a moment in time :'(”

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