Mike Ball spotted this green-eyed beauty on the Greenway today.

Our own Swirlygrrl reports workers took down the Dewey Square mural by Os Gemeos and began putting up its replacement - some black and white seascapey thing.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports the state Department of Transportation surprised many by selecting a developer that wants to build an eight-story, 180-room hotel on the so-called Parcel 9 at Haymarket, rather than a competing apartment/market oriented proposal that had the backing of many local officials and an advisory group.

NorthEndWaterfront.com shows us that just because they don't often change the configuration of that geometric thing on the Greenway doesn't mean they can't.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports the state has chosen two finalists for Parcel 9 - next to Haymarket, one focused on out-of-towners, the other on apartments, both with restaurants and food-market space.

NorthEndWaterfront.com reports on discussions between the Friends of the North End Parks, which wants to use its own money and volunteers to plant several thousand daffodil bulbs to replace dead and dying plantings along the Greenway and the Greenway Conservancy, which says whoa, not so fast, it might consider that in February - or about four months too late to ensure blooms this spring.

Wonder no more.

Big head on the Greenway. Photo by Jeff Cutler. Posted under this Creative Commons license.

Natasha Vianna, who is Brazilian-American, says she was delighted to see a pair of Brazilian artists, Os Gemeos, come to Boston for a show at the ICA. She reports on meeting the two at a reception and feels compelled to address stupid people who think their mural on the Greenway is a terrorist plot to force Middle Eastern men on us or something:

Trying not to allow fumes from escaping my ears, I explained that this was inaccurate. Their characters usually have no race and like most art, it's up to you to see what you want to see. The skin of the characters are yellow because it is how they envision these characters in their dreams. Specifically in the Boston mural, the man's face is covered because it is a representation of how most street artists do their work, by covering their faces with an old shirt as to not inhale the fumes. ... In the '80s, the two identical brothers started as graffiti artists after embracing the New York culture of Hip Hop and street art. And without much money or the resources to even create street art, they used household and car paint for most of their creations.

Boston Police report that officers investigating the sound of gunfire at Broad Street and Surface Road around 2:20 a.m. found a man with a gunshot wound a block away at Atlantic Avenue and High Street. The man was taken to Tufts Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.