Building community with squirt guns
Another summer Saturday in Boston, another epic squirt gun fight. Last weekend it was the Revolutionary Water Gun Battle on the Esplanade, and tomorrow it's Allston Squirt Gun Day.
If you're going to be walking around the area on Saturday, you'd be wise to carry some sort of water-pumping weapon. Rumor has it that generous parties will be leaving boxes of plastic squirt guns in obscure spots around Allston, but we wouldn't depend on that if we were you. Keep your eyes out for water-pistol-packing sharpshooters perched on rooftops, in alleyways, on street corners, or just marauding around.
Participants will be wearing green - bandanas are preferable, but it's fair game to wear green socks if you want to be stealthy. If you prefer to remain an innocent bystander, best to leave that Celtics gear at home.
The organizers behind the day are known as the Clone Collective, a group of art-vandalism advocates who believe "that this concrete jungle world we live in would [stink] a lot less if covered in art." The goal of the squirt gun offensive, they say, is to help bring the community closer together. And the group isn't just trying to attract the hordes of college kids who haunt the area; fliers advertising the event have been printed in English, Spanish, and Portuguese in hopes that no one will be excluded from the festivities.
The event will culminate in two gigantic melees, one at 11:45 a.m. and another at 8:30 p.m. Participants will gather at the four corners of the Harvard/Brighton intersection, and when the "Walk" sign lights up, everyone will run into the fray, water guns ablaze.
Allston Squirt Gun Day takes place all day tomorrow, with battles at the intersection of Harvard and Brighton avenues at 11:45 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. www.myspace.com/allstonsquirtgunday.
Max Pearl is a second-year student at Hampshire College who blogs about under-21 events in Boston. He can be reached at maep07@hampshire.edu. 