LAWRENCE - With its huge "Think Green, Live Green" banner and its blocks-long mass of space being converted into "ecoluxury" residential and commercial space, Monarch on the Merrimack is the grandest example of this city's plan to go green.

But while the developer of the former Wood Mill has paused to
arrange new financing, a much more modest project - a three-bedroom, 2-bath home built in pieces in a factory and assembled onsite in less than a day - opens to the public today just around the corner.

Globe link (with photos)

WESTPORT - When Phillip Burgess gets an idea in his head, he's not likely to let go. Consider how he wound up in the kitchen of celebrity chef Todd English.

Like a lot of their friends and neighbors, Lorelei Grazier and Betty
Fulton wanted to green up their lifestyle. But they weren't sure how to
proceed.

"We both felt it can be overwhelming; can one person really change
the world?" Grazier said. "We realized the way to empower a person is
to give them practical information to change their lives."

NEW ORLEANS - To get a clue into Angelique Kidjo, you only
had to witness her set at Congo Square, one of the big venues of this
city's annual Jazz and Heritage Festival, on the first Friday in May.

It wasn't just that she wheedled the burly security chief until he allowed fans to come up and join her. Kidjo commonly requires fans at her shows not only to dance, as she does endlessly, but to do so with her onstage.