READ: Last Words: Boston Phoenix closes today after 47 years. By Editor in Chief Carly Carioli.

The following statement from Phoenix publisher Stephen M. Mindich was circulated to staffers earlier today:

I can state with certainty that this is the single most difficult communication I've ever had to deliver and there's no other way to state it than straightforwardly -

We were notified at 2 pm today that the issue of the Boston Phoenix on stands today is the last one we will ever publish.

The timing comes as a shock, but the news isn't a surprise. We're less than a year into an experiment launched last fall to turn a 46 year old alternative weekly newspaper into a weekly magazine. By every measure not related to advertising sales, it has been a success.

Welcome to "Meet the Mayor," a segment in which we interview local Foursquare Mayors in their natural habitats.

Andrew Square House of Pizza
Kurt Villon

If the Irish had invented pizza, what would be on it?
I think you'd have to go with potatoes. . . . Maybe corned beef and potatoes. I don't know if cabbage would go well on pizza, but corned beef and mashed potatoes would actually be kind of delicious.

Irish-born Bostonian Kieran McWilliam still remembers his very first Guinness at Reddy's in Carlow - his preferred stomping ground on the old sod. Clearly, it made an impact: for more than 20 years, McWilliam has been behind the bar at Brighton's Irish Village, pulling perfect pints of the lauded stout. With St.

On the eve of the Oscars, a crowd of actors, models, casting directors, talent scouts, and other local film and stage peeps gathered in the swanky bar at Newton's Hotel Indigo for a networking party presented by NE Actor and Model Club Inc. At a soiree packed to the gills with people who make their living standing out, we feared it might be hard to pick just one star of the show.

^{Dick Lehr}

Former Pulitzer Prize winning Boston Globe staffer Gerard O'Neill could pass as a prosecutor, right off the set of, say, Law and Order. O'Neill is polite, almost soft spoken, but there is a hint of a killer instinct lurking beneath the poised exterior coiled to jump -- perhaps just for the fun of it.

Shelley Murphy and Kevin Cullen cut their teeth at the Boston Herald before they were hired by the Boston Globe. As a result, they have a touch more edge than some of their colleagues at Morrissey Boulevard. And -- interesting enough -- a touch more charm. Their book, Whitey Bulger: America's Most Wanted Gangster and the Manhunt that Brought him to Justice, has hit the New York Times Best Seller List.

Karaoke at Courtside

We've all had that conversation. "What do you want to do?" "I don't know, what do you want to do?" and so forth. Eventually, the group agrees that all of the usual haunts have grown tiresome and someone boldly suggests karaoke. Whether you're that guy who thinks they can sing because they got a lead in a middle school production of The Music Man, or you're just looking to get drunk enough to belt out some old school jams at a karaoke spot that doesn't completely suck ass, we promise you'll actually have fun at any of these nominees for Best Karaoke Spot

As showcased all throughout the Town Hall Tea Party Era a few years ago, Massachusetts is hardly immune to right-wing buffoonery. Our crackers are every bit as clueless as flag-waving imbeciles elsewhere; as for elected officials, until recently we had a Republican in Washington who tossed Wall Street's salad in the Senate steam room every chance he got.

Terrorism, war, global recessions, and The Jersey Shore - we don't have to tell you the 21st century sucks. Maybe that's why we're into looking backward right now, whether it's watching Don Draper throw back old-fashioneds or the Earl of Grantham scowl theatrically. Thanks to vintage stores, we can stack our closets with threads from better decades to wash away those 2013 blues.

I knew the kids weren't messing around the first time I heard them sing -- a low, slow, foot-stomping dirge, part spiritual and part worksong:

They are digging us a hole.

They are digging us a hole.

Six feet underground,

Where our future will go.

We will lay down our bodies.

We will lay down our souls.