5 Things You Need To Know Today: The Ides of March
Et tu, Belmont? Opening night for Beauty and the Beast, MBTA meeting, Lost in Detention.
1. The big public meeting on proposed MBTA cuts to service – including possible elmination of buses to Belmont Center and loss of weekend commuter rail service – and increase fares will be held in the Selectmen's Room in Town Hall at 7 p.m. led by State Sen. Will Brownsberger.
2. It's opening night for the biggest production in the Belmont High School Performing Arts Company's history as the curtain rises on Disney's "Beauty and the Beast." It literally will be a cast and crew (and pit musicians) of hundreds as the professional-level, family-friendly musical gets underway at 7 p.m. at the Belmont High School auditorium. You can get your tickets at the door.
3. The musicians from the upper school of the Chenery Middle School will get their chance to shine as the 7th and 8th Grade Chorus and Orchestra Concert will take place at 7 p.m. in the Chenery Middle School auditorium. It's free.
4. The Belmont Human Rights Commission will be screening the film, "Lost in Detenion." The showing will take place at 7 p.m. in the downstairs Assembly Room of the Belmont Public Library. All are welcome to attend this free program.
5. Today is the March 15, the Ides of March. Today in 44 BC, Emperor Julius Caesar was assassinated by his friends and political colleauges after being warned by a soothsayer: “Cave Idus, Idus Martiis!”
Caesar: Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue shriller than all the music that cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.
Soothsayer: Beware the ides of March.
Caesar: What man is that?
Brutus: A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March. (Shakespeeare’s Julius Caesar I, ii 15-19)
It’s a day to celebrate the fall of dictators and for those in the political arena to remember that your “friends” may yet be the cause of your downfall.