Fountain

Ever hear of a little movie called “Three Coins in the Fountain’’? It was a 1954 Academy Award nominee for best picture, not because it was a great film (it wasn’t), but because it charmed and transported American viewers eager to take in Italy via CinemaScope, and because it had a very catchy title song penned by Jule Styne and Sammy Cahn. “When in Rome’’ has coins and an Italian fountain, too. But it winds up being predictably charmless and forgettable, even as a travelogue or iPod download.

In a once-forlorn corner of Boston Common, a professional pianist sat at her instrument and played compositions by Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Miles Davis. Two young men faced off over a chess board. People pulled newspapers and magazines from a reading rack, sat back on new park benches, and listened to the music mingle with the bubbling of water from Brewer Fountain. A new plaza debuted Wednesday near Tremont and Park streets that may change what it means to be a park in Boston.

LONDON -- Britain dedicated a fountain to Princess Diana yesterday, a shallow, oval trough in London's Hyde Park that delighted children who waded through it but drew mixed reviews from adults. As she dedicated the fountain, Queen Elizabeth II acknowledged there had been difficult times with her late daughter-in-law but said "memories mellow with the passing of the years. " Water flows from the highest point down both sides of the fountain, which stretches 260 feet by 160 feet.

IT WOULD be tempting to write off former GOP congressional candidate Bill Hudak's latest exploits as just another quirky move by a quirky politician. But by hawking an age-reversal system to his followers, Hudak is abusing the trust that supporters showed in him. Hudak built his e-mail list by running as the Tea Party champion against incumbent John F. Tierney in their North Shore district in 2010. He recently announced he would not run for the seat in 2012, but said he expected the Republican candidate to lose and that he would run against Tierney again in 2014.

Darren Aronofsky's "The Fountain" is a noble, shipwrecked folly: a passionately crafted meditation on love and human vanity that stars Hugh Jackman as a conquistador, a research scientist, and an interstellar holy man in a bubble with a tree. Not just any tree, mind you. The Tree of Life. Does the movie work? Hardly, and yet the thing's alive with the urgency of its emotions. A throwback to the visionary personal filmmaking of the 1960s and early '70s, "The Fountain" represents the polar opposite of the big-box product Hollywood now feeds us. Not surprisingly, it barely...

She removed her shoes and rolled up her jeans to her calves. She dipped one foot - toenails painted silver - then the other into the shallow pool in Copley Square. She waded over near the plumes of water arching out of the stonework and turned, posing for a photo. Andrew Arenas, a young handyman who moved to Boston from Colombia, snapped the picture. He comes to the fountain in the square regularly. Other than the trash that sometimes ends up in the water, he said, it's a nice, peaceful place to take a break.

RE "STATE'S broken liquor laws" (Op-ed, Sept. 16): I've always wondered what makes a so-called powerful lobbyist so powerful. Is it his or her ideas, strength of argument, connections - how do connections pay off, anyway - or is it money or favors or votes? In his excellent column, Paul McMorrow reveals the power, the "legislative clout," that a small group of players, the wholesalers, have over all the beer, wine, and liquor manufacturers and all the many retailers of their products in our state.

PITTSBURGH - It calls itself a "playground of historical proportions. " Pittsburgh's Station Square began its life in the late 1800s as a hub for the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Railroad. The complex boasted an opulent passenger terminal, freight facilities, and warehouses on 52 acres at the confluence of the Monongahela, Allegheny, and Ohio rivers. Over the decades, planes, cars, and trucks eroded the passenger rail business, and the area fell into disrepair. The Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation began redevelopment in 1976, eventually leading to the transformation of the empty railroad...

By Patrick Rosso, Town Correspondent Ringgold Park could see upgrades in the summer of 2012. Boston's Parks Department plans to renovate the playgrounds in the park located in the heart of the South End between Shawmut Avenue and Tremont Street. In an announcement on the Friends of Ringgold Park's website , the group said meetings will be planned for the winter to gather community input. News of the planned upgrades was first reported in South End Patch.

Ponce de Leon was searching for the Fountain of Youth when he landed on the coast of Florida back in 1513. He never found the elusive spring and I think I know why. He was on the wrong boat. Instead of a Spanish galleon, he should have booked passage on a cruise ship. This would have guaranteed a genuine fountain of youth experience. I know, because I recently went on a 10-day Florida cruise with my mother, accompanied by approximately 1,492 old people. Ponce, wherever he is, probably would agree that old people are fine as long as there aren't too...

As a traditional anniversary gift, paper may not seem like much of a reward for weathering the challenges of that first year of partnership - marriage or otherwise. To Cheryl Clinton and Marie Craig, however, the first-anniversary tradition sounded intriguing rather than dull as they contemplated an appropriate way to celebrate their own professional milestone, as cofounders of Fountain Street Fine Art in Framingham. "In thinking about what kind of show to do for our first anniversary, we looked for a theme that was somewhat specific but also far-reaching, because our goal is...

By Patrick Rosso, Town Correspondent Ringgold Park could see upgrades in the summer of 2012. Boston's Parks Department plans to renovate the playgrounds in the park located in the heart of the South End between Shawmut Avenue and Tremont Street. In an announcement on the Friends of Ringgold Park's website , the group said meetings will be planned for the winter to gather community input. News of the planned upgrades was first reported in South End Patch.

RE "STATE'S broken liquor laws" (Op-ed, Sept. 16): I've always wondered what makes a so-called powerful lobbyist so powerful. Is it his or her ideas, strength of argument, connections - how do connections pay off, anyway - or is it money or favors or votes? In his excellent column, Paul McMorrow reveals the power, the "legislative clout," that a small group of players, the wholesalers, have over all the beer, wine, and liquor manufacturers and all the many retailers of their products in our state.

Police said Monday they had detained a man who confessed to knocking two chunks of marble off a statue in Rome's famed Piazza Navona and of trying to damage the nearby Trevi Fountain. The suspect was picked up during a routine patrol near Piazza Navona late Sunday, a day after the vandalism took place, carabinieri officials told a press conference. Police noticed him because he was wearing the same white sneakers worn during the attack, images of which were captured by security camera footage.

ROME - A man vandalized a fountain in Rome's famed Piazza Navona, detaching two big chunks from a marble statue, officials said yesterday. A Rome culture official, Umberto Broccoli, said the pieces were recovered and can be reattached to the Moor Fountain, which is on the south end of the piazza. The damaged statue was a 19th-century copy of the original Moor Fountain by 16th-century artist Giacomo della Porta. Giovanni Bernini added the central figure in the 1600s. Security camera footage on Italian TV stations and websites showed a man climbing in the fountain and repeatedly attacking the...

She removed her shoes and rolled up her jeans to her calves. She dipped one foot - toenails painted silver - then the other into the shallow pool in Copley Square. She waded over near the plumes of water arching out of the stonework and turned, posing for a photo. Andrew Arenas, a young handyman who moved to Boston from Colombia, snapped the picture. He comes to the fountain in the square regularly. Other than the trash that sometimes ends up in the water, he said, it's a nice, peaceful place to take a break.

M any Bostonians are familiar with the work of Howard Ben Tré. Stroll through Post Office Square, enter the Mary Baker Eddy Library, or visit the new Linde Family Wing for Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts and you cannot help but be enamored by his glass sculptures, often layered with bronze, brass, lead, or gold leaf. His vessels can take the shapes of ancient urns and basins, reach heights of Native American totem poles, and are frequently illuminated at night, particularly in his public art projects.

What if there existed a Fountain of Youth, a source of unending health and vitality which could not only extend the lives of those lucky enough to partake of it, but allow them to be lived without the inevitable disease and decay that accompany aging? The scientific, technological, and medical advances of the last century and a half have transformed life for most into something altogether different from 17th-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes's description of it as "nasty, brutish, and short.

FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE With Nicole Atkins At: Brighton Music Hall, Friday night Call it "Stacy's Mom Syndrome. " A band can craft a decade and a half of reliably infectious power-pop, filled to the gills with hooks, harmonies, and wistful musings about high school proms and cross-country road trips, and still remain a "one-hit wonder" best known for a tossed-off goof about a sexy mom. Fortunately, the crowd at Fountains of...