ISSUE #74 04/16
Free!
1: FILM
4/15-4/24 CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL AFTER DARK @BRATTLE Theatre All Ages Think the only thing scientific about Cambridge was MIT? Then check out some of the films hand selected to represent all the joys, tribulations and pocket protectors of being an egghead. The annual festival is a 10 day event celebrating science, technology, engineering, art and math throughout the city and New England proper. So naturally several sci-fi classics will be shown to those who lap up everything nerdy and beyond. I’m talking gems from the 1980s like Weird Science, Back to the Future, Repo Man, Real Genius, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension and the schadenfreude masterpiece Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, nearly all playing in 35mm. So hop on your segway or whatever the hell you use to get around and make sure to stop by the Brattle Theatre in Harvard Square during all the festivities. Come on, you know you want to geek out. -Pablo Torroella
NG: PLACES YOU CAN HA MAKE SHIFT BOSTON Right in the heart of Boston’s South End, surrounded by Berklee, NEC, and Northeastern, Make Shift Boston is fighting for all things good, socially just, progressive, and weird. Since 2011, the cooperative workspace and community center has been home to journalists and activists working to topple the prison industrial complex, nonprofits like Fight for the Future and Jewish Voices for Peace, all-night safe-space dance parties like Break the Chains, and our very own Monday night Hassle/Compass meetings. All of this happens in a light-filled two-story loft on Columbus Ave. With kitchen and couches and long tables to foster conversation and collaboration, the space is the perfect union of a focused work environment and the cozy-yet- classy living room you wish you had. Make Shift makes it easy to become part of the community: you can apply here to become a member (for a small monthly fee), work in the space 24/7, and host your awesome events in the space. Make Shift is also hosting the Hassle’s new Independent and Experimental film screenings. Each month, you’ll be able to see mind-stretching, beautiful, under-sung films, meet the quality independent filmmakers who make them, and be part of good community and good art. Come hang on Friday, April 8th and watch a new short film by NYC-based filmmaker Gina Telaroli, Silk Tatters, which combines old footage from Judy Garland films and psychedelic textures, and her film A Little Death, a gorgeous look at solitude and rituals and Nantucket in the winter. The night will also feature the ambient, experimental sounds of Retribution Body. Next time you are wandering through the South End, drop in through Makeshift’s open doors into diverse, welcoming community of makers, practical dreamers, radical hearts, and good human beings. —-By John Shakespear
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2: MUSIC
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I truly believe the music scene here in Boston is special. There’s a certain something; an inherent friendliness which in my humble opinion permeates the shows that take place in this fine city's underground. Sure nothing and nobody is perfect, but overall I’d say we’re a pretty chummy bunch. We’re all kids on the inside (and some of us on the outside) and knowing that there are others out there like you is what makes music so powerful. It’s what makes it a unifying force for good and it’s that kind of acceptance and unity that inspired two kids like you and me to start a record label and help to support and nourish that connectivity. Over six years later Glen and Chris are still going strong and at the end of the month the boys will be hosting their biggest gathering to date: KLYAM’s Rama Lama Ding Dong. This three day music fest kicks off at Club Bohemia on Thursday 4/28and moves over to Mid East Up for the next two days. Featuring an amazing lineup including The Monsieurs, The Barbazons, Black Beach, Prefab Messiahs, Guerilla Toss, Gravel, and so many more still to be announced, this is one you don’t wanna miss. So come out and be surrounded by people like you. -Michael Achille
We are committed and we should be committed. For we volunteer countless hours a week to foster a platform for independent artists. We're very proud of our music coverage, which we have somehow maintained for 6 years now (shout out to Achille for taking it to the next level) and we’re equally proud of our film coverage which has survived now for over 3 years (shout-out to Ari and Oscar for a handoff in which the ball was never dropped). But at this moment we are lacking someone who is passionate and knowledgeable about ARTS coverage, galleries, cafes and installations. This is a rare opportunity to steer the ship. As a managing editor of the Art Attack section you would, with the input of the team, use our platform to expose local art of high and low brow. Just takes a little commitment, both to yourself and to the goal of making this city a cooler place. Any contribution can have an impact. Whether it's a half hour a day, an hour a day, or a couple hours a week, you can make a difference and better the cultural landscape of this city which persists even as you read this. volunteer@brain-arts.org -Sam Potrykus
3: ART
MOMENT OF CLARITY WITH JON RIZZO: THE MBTA AND CHARLIE B’S LONG CON There’s a lot of crazy shit happening in Beantown lately. Seen those fancy high rises going up but not much affordable housing? How about the fact that we’re shutting down a bunch of public schools yet gave millions to GE? Or that our city is the most inequitable in the country Then there’s the MBTA. If you caught my last article, you know that the T’s financial crisis is the result of forward funding legislation that forced the T to take on private debt. Over 25% of their budget is spent servicing this debt alone. To hear Charlie Baker, you would think worker inefficiency is to blame. Let’s get to the heart of this stinking onion. We’re now far enough removed from the passage of forward funding that Baker start passing the blame for operational failures--but not on a lack of funding for new infrastructure and technology. Once in office, Baker helped suspend a law against privatizing public services for three years. Privatization is the weapon of choice for today’s politicians. Dem or GOP, our establishment politicians have swung noticeably right when it comes to economics, obliterating public services and gifting private companies the job. Using last winter’s crisis as a springboard, Charles Chieppo of The Pioneer Institute, a conservative pro-privatization think tank said, “when an agency fails as spectacularly as the Boston transit system did, it’s time for competition” (Chieppo, was a member of the same board that crafted forward funding in 2000). Charlie Baker was also employed at The Pioneer Institute in the 90s, and today the Koch Brothers are its biggest bankrollers. The MBTA isn’t the rat king in this situation--it’s the entanglement of elite business and Capitol Hill.
NOTES FROM THE CREW Thanks for picking up Compass #74! We are very proud of this issue and actually pleased to bring it to you because we didnt kill ourselves making it for once. As we mentioned last month we are trimming the fat of the newsrag and tightening up our webzine scene. The latest in our streamlining process is the decision to feature ONE artist and ONE designer, creating a more cohesive look for each edition. If you are a serious designer, if design is your art, we want YOU. The whole newspaper could be your creative playground one month, scattered all the over city by the thousands. Email volunteer@brain-arts.org to join the layout team! There are a few particularly radical opportunities available within the org at the moment such as Social Media Team and Art Attack Managing Editor, and we continue to realize more at our weekly meetings (mondays at make shift!), all of varying degrees of commitment so we can get folks involved even their free time is limited. We also offer internships if you crave that cred! For anyone who is brand new we are starting a monthly hang for new volunteers to come chill, make collages and learn what's up with the Hassle at Farmer Horse Coffee house the first Tuesday of every month 6-9.
All in all, the team has been very high on morale this month. We would love to have you join our strange crew in any fashion: come to a meeting, come hang, go to a show and have your mind blown. Hop out the mainstream and into the freak creek, the water is chill. -Emma, Rey and Sam This newspaper is an ongoing project of BRAIN Arts Organization, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Please consider donating to, volunteering, or otherwise supporting us: Brain-arts.org. bostonhassle@ gmail.com