A native of Vancouver, B.C., Alan's background as a singer and producer enliven the music you hear during the heart of the weekday, from spectacular orchestral works to intimate early music chamber pieces.

At noon each day, Alan takes you to one of the legendary concert halls of Europe for recent performances of the world's great artists and ensembles on Café Europa.


Each day at 1pm, reporter Cristina Quinn of WGBH News joins Alan for a summary of local and national news, keeping you in touch with the important issues surrounding the community.

Hear recent performances from Café Europa

See playlists

Read and hear more reports from WGBH News

> > EXTRA: WGBH News' Jordan Weinstein interviews First Night's Joyce Linehan about this year's highlights.

The Julian Lage Trio Featuring Larry Grenadier and Eric Harland
Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011
7:45pm and 9pm
Berklee Performance Center
136 Massachusetts Avenue, Boston

Berklee alumnus and jazz guitarist Julian Lage has been performing since he was 5 and has played with such artists as Carlos Santana, Pat Metheny and David Grisman. A former child prodigy, he was the subject of a 1997 Academy Award–nominated film, "Jules at Eight." His 2009 debut release, "Sounding Point," was nominated for a Grammy. His most recent release, "Gladwell," reflects Lage's wide-ranging musical interests and talents, ranging from chamber music, American folk and bluegrass to Latin, world, string-band tradition and modern jazz.

First Night Boston 2012 Discount
WGBH members receive $3 off First Night buttons. Visit the First Night Boston office at 36 Bromfield St., Boston, during regular business hours to purchase.

Vance Gilbert is seen in a publicity still. (Courtesy)

Just ask Vance Gilbert, a local and nationally known folk musician from Arlington, Mass. 

Gilbert performs throughout the U.S. and around the world and thus travels quite frequently. In late August, he boarded a flight at Logan.
 
“I was on my way to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where I was going to coach an Irish fiddle group on their performance and then play a festival and then continue my trip to Colorado,” Gilbert said. “And I was on United Airlines and it was quite an event.”
 
An event that has raised questions about how to respond to that constant refrain played over and over again on airport loudspeakers at Logan and elsewhere, “If you see something say something.”
 
Vance Gilbert, a light-skinned black man with a salt and pepper beard, has what many would describe as an unusual hobby, and in response, someone said something.  
 
“I read a lot of stuff on Polish civil aircraft before 1940 and after 1946. This was an opportunity to sit on an airplane and just read. And we were about to take off and I noticed the flight attendant and someone in the cockpit I think they were pinging each other back and forth,” Gilbert explained.
 
“The plane is still continuing on the take-off apron, and we get out to the take-off point and the plane turns around and heads back to the gate,” Gilbert said.
 
The captain explained over the intercom that a slight issue had come up.
 
“About five or seven minutes later coming down the center of the aircraft are two state police, the bursar that loaded the aircraft and I believe one or two TSA people. They say get off of the aircraft, so I get up and I get off the aircraft, and they take me out into the breezeway and one of the state police asks me, ‘How are you doing today, sir?’ And I reply to him, ‘I have a feeling that I’m not doing as well as I’d like to,’” Gilbert said. 
 
Gilbert was questioned and then asked to go back on the plane to retrieve the book on Polish aircraft.
 
“The policeman said, I see what you’re looking at and its really not a big deal, go back and take your seat and you can continue with your flight. So I go back onto the aircraft and I sit in the seat and no one looks at me for the flight,” Gilbert said.
 
“I look to the right of me and there was a woman, a white woman in a track suit that was sitting in the seat next to me on what was a previously full flight, that seat is now empty. Her book is still in the little slot behind the seat, as is her water bottle. But she’s gone,” Gilbert said.
 
U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz says it’s a tough balance between civil liberties and civil rights and national security.
 
Ortiz works with the FBI and Homeland Security to investigate and prosecute those that threaten the United States of America. And she sympathizes with innocent individuals who have found themselves pulled from airplanes or, in some cases, not allowed to board. She says those situations have to be examined carefully and expediently.
 
“If you receive some report from airline personnel. They think it’s suspicious. In reality, it turns out to be nothing. We should have the tools to investigate quickly, so the situation is completely resolved so that no one is detained or questioned unnecessarily,” Ortiz.
 
But Ortiz argues that, in the post-Sept. 11 period, one cannot be too cautious. 
 
“People in the past quite frankly never reported things because they thought ‘Oh, this isn’t that serious. Maybe that person did leave that backpack but it’s because it’s too heavy. They’re just going to go get a soda. They’re going to the bathroom,‘” Ortiz explains.
 
“You know people who saw things they thought (were) suspicious and were too embarrassed or humiliated to report it later could be kicking themselves for not reporting what turned out to be suspicious and eventually dangerous behavior,” Ortiz said.
 
But what is “suspicious” to one person might seem innocent to another. Reading about 1940s Polish aircraft on a plane would seem odd to some. To others, it might be construed as par for the course flying out of what is inarguably one of America’s intellectual hubs: Boston.
 
But some behavior should set off alarm bells, says George Naccara, Federal Security Director for the TSA under the Department of Homeland Security at Logan.
 
“It could be wearing inappropriate clothes for the season. A bulky look on someone. It could be someone who’s very nervous about their environment; working with a partner.  We look for communication between people. Multiple characteristics and behaviors,” Naccara said.
 
Vance Gilbert does not believe his clothing, his behavior or even the book he was reading was the principal reason he was escorted off a plane weeks before the Sept. 11 ten-year anniversary.
 
“Google a picture of Vance Gilbert and then Google a picture of Osama Bin Laden or anybody else from the Middle East. Look, I’m a brown skinned- guy. Take a look at that and you tell me that combined with looking at a picture of planes from the 1940s is not going to trigger somebody’s panic twenty-three days out from the anniversary of Sept.11,” Gilbert said.   
 
The American Civil Liberties Union argues that, nationwide, a disproportionate number of Arabs and Muslims are on no-fly lists and are detained at airports. United Airlines did not return calls made about this issue. But Homeland Security officials in Massachusetts say they do not conduct racial profiling. Folk musician Vance Gilbert, though detained, was never arrested. But he says that does not mean that the pain and humiliation can be so easily forgotten.  
 
He has met with officials from United Airlines and has requested a formal apology.  Gilbert says he is hopeful that the incident might prove to be instructive for both the airlines and for citizens who are asked, time and time again “If you see something, say something," even after the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.

Vance Gilbert is seen in a publicity still. (Courtesy)

Just ask Vance Gilbert, a local and nationally known folk musician from Arlington, Mass. 

Gilbert performs throughout the U.S. and around the world and thus travels quite frequently. In late August, he boarded a flight at Logan.
 
“I was on my way to Allentown, Pennsylvania, where I was going to coach an Irish fiddle group on their performance and then play a festival and then continue my trip to Colorado,” Gilbert said. “And I was on United Airlines and it was quite an event.”
 
An event that has raised questions about how to respond to that constant refrain played over and over again on airport loudspeakers at Logan and elsewhere, “If you see something say something.”
 
Vance Gilbert, a light-skinned black man with a salt and pepper beard, has what many would describe as an unusual hobby, and in response, someone said something.  
 
“I read a lot of stuff on Polish civil aircraft before 1940 and after 1946. This was an opportunity to sit on an airplane and just read. And we were about to take off and I noticed the flight attendant and someone in the cockpit I think they were pinging each other back and forth,” Gilbert explained.
 
“The plane is still continuing on the take-off apron, and we get out to the take-off point and the plane turns around and heads back to the gate,” Gilbert said.
 
The captain explained over the intercom that a slight issue had come up.
 
“About five or seven minutes later coming down the center of the aircraft are two state police, the bursar that loaded the aircraft and I believe one or two TSA people. They say get off of the aircraft, so I get up and I get off the aircraft, and they take me out into the breezeway and one of the state police asks me, ‘How are you doing today, sir?’ And I reply to him, ‘I have a feeling that I’m not doing as well as I’d like to,’” Gilbert said. 
 
Gilbert was questioned and then asked to go back on the plane to retrieve the book on Polish aircraft.
 
“The policeman said, I see what you’re looking at and its really not a big deal, go back and take your seat and you can continue with your flight. So I go back onto the aircraft and I sit in the seat and no one looks at me for the flight,” Gilbert said.
 
“I look to the right of me and there was a woman, a white woman in a track suit that was sitting in the seat next to me on what was a previously full flight, that seat is now empty. Her book is still in the little slot behind the seat, as is her water bottle. But she’s gone,” Gilbert said.
 
U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Carmen Ortiz says it’s a tough balance between civil liberties and civil rights and national security.
 
Ortiz works with the FBI and Homeland Security to investigate and prosecute those that threaten the United States of America. And she sympathizes with innocent individuals who have found themselves pulled from airplanes or, in some cases, not allowed to board. She says those situations have to be examined carefully and expediently.
 
“If you receive some report from airline personnel. They think it’s suspicious. In reality, it turns out to be nothing. We should have the tools to investigate quickly, so the situation is completely resolved so that no one is detained or questioned unnecessarily,” Ortiz.
 
But Ortiz argues that, in the post-Sept. 11 period, one cannot be too cautious. 
 
“People in the past quite frankly never reported things because they thought ‘Oh, this isn’t that serious. Maybe that person did leave that backpack but it’s because it’s too heavy. They’re just going to go get a soda. They’re going to the bathroom,‘” Ortiz explains.
 
“You know people who saw things they thought (were) suspicious and were too embarrassed or humiliated to report it later could be kicking themselves for not reporting what turned out to be suspicious and eventually dangerous behavior,” Ortiz said.
 
But what is “suspicious” to one person might seem innocent to another. Reading about 1940s Polish aircraft on a plane would seem odd to some. To others, it might be construed as par for the course flying out of what is inarguably one of America’s intellectual hubs: Boston.
 
But some behavior should set off alarm bells, says George Naccara, Federal Security Director for the TSA under the Department of Homeland Security at Logan.
 
“It could be wearing inappropriate clothes for the season. A bulky look on someone. It could be someone who’s very nervous about their environment; working with a partner.  We look for communication between people. Multiple characteristics and behaviors,” Naccara said.
 
Vance Gilbert does not believe his clothing, his behavior or even the book he was reading was the principal reason he was escorted off a plane weeks before the Sept. 11 ten-year anniversary.
 
“Google a picture of Vance Gilbert and then Google a picture of Osama Bin Laden or anybody else from the Middle East. Look, I’m a brown skinned- guy. Take a look at that and you tell me that combined with looking at a picture of planes from the 1940s is not going to trigger somebody’s panic twenty-three days out from the anniversary of Sept.11,” Gilbert said.   
 
The American Civil Liberties Union argues that, nationwide, a disproportionate number of Arabs and Muslims are on no-fly lists and are detained at airports. United Airlines did not return calls made about this issue. But Homeland Security officials in Massachusetts say they do not conduct racial profiling. Folk musician Vance Gilbert, though detained, was never arrested. But he says that does not mean that the pain and humiliation can be so easily forgotten.  
 
He has met with officials from United Airlines and has requested a formal apology.  Gilbert says he is hopeful that the incident might prove to be instructive for both the airlines and for citizens who are asked, time and time again “If you see something, say something," even after the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11.

BOSTON — Momentum may be growing behind efforts to legalize online poker in Massachusetts. State Treasurer Steve Grossman’s Office is considering plans to legalize online poker for state residents.

Treasurer Grossman is assembling a task force to look into the complex jurisdictional issues that could be raised, and he plans to hire a consultant to walk his office through them.

Many forms of online gambling technically have been illegal in the United States since 2006, when Congress banned gambling across state lines. But lawmakers in some states, including California and Nevada, are trying to get around the ban by restricting gambling activity by their residents to operations located within the state. And it's not hard for gamblers to access sites that originate outside the U.S.

Some in Congress, like Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, say its time to revisit the issue. Treasurer Grossman says the state should be prepared for changes.

"If the federal government says yes you can do it, either on an intrastate level or full online poker, we want to be ready for that. We want to be talking to other states, we want to be talking to other organizations," Grossman said.

He also says the task force will consider the best possible approaches for bringing online poker to Massachusetts.

"Let’s assume that online gaming is approved by the federal government. Then the question becomes how does Massachusetts do it? Does the lottery do it in a regional group? Do we do it in a public private partnership with a private company? Any and all of those options…those are all the things we’re going to consider," Grossman said.

Meanwhile, Norfolk state Representative Dan Winslow has proposed an amendment to the Massachusetts casino gambling bill that would allow the state to sell five licenses for online gambling websites.  The debate on the casino bill is expected to start Wednesday.

BOSTON — The scene at Logan Airport Sunday was anything but sedate. On the anniversary of September 11th, thousands of passengers passed through the nation’s eighth-busiest airport, but memories of ten years to the day bore heavily on the minds of many travelers.

With a small carry-on bag by his side, Allen Cohen, a Boston-area businessman, made his way toward the United Counter for a flight to Houston. Ten years ago, he was standing by for a U.S. Air Shuttle to LaGuardia for a meeting at the World Trade Center in Manhattan. He had missed his usual 6:00 a.m. flight.

"So I was on a 7:00 a.m. shuttle on U.S. Air to LaGuardia. The company I was going to visit actually still a client of ours. It was one of our trustees. Our board of trustees and it was our first meeting and he didn’t make it," Cohen said.

Darlene Crifo brings flowers to Logan Airport every year on Sept. 11. (Phillip Martin/WGBH)

Cohen said he was traveling Sunday because he had to for his job. Others, like Tom Hurlehey, from Quincy, were at Logan by choice. Hurlehey said just being at the airport was an act of defiance in the face of terrorism.

"I’m determined not to be concerned about traveling. I don’t think I should have to worry. It’s just that simple," he said.

Dozens of passengers lined up at Jet Blue and American echoed that sentiment.

Marla Ohlendorf was heading back to St. Louis. "Of all days, this is going to be the safest. We have noticed the heightened police presence," Ohlendorf said.

And then exactly at 8:46 am at Logan — the time when hijacked American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the first tower — he luggage conveyer belts shut down, airline employees stopped issuing tickets and, for a moment, at least, there again seemed to be unity of purpose.

When that moment of silence ended, United ticket agent Luz Barlocello turned again to her customers but found it difficult to stop the tears. She had worked the same counter 10 years ago.

"It was very sas because I was here and I checked some of the passengers," Barlocello said.

On the counter was a bouquet of flowers that had just been delivered by Darlene Crifo, a FedEx employee. Crifo then rushed toward the American Airlines terminal with asters, roses and sun flowers.

All in all, the day at Logan airport on Sunday seemed almost like a normal travel day. And for many passing through the airport, that was exactly the point.