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MUSIC
DEAFHEAVEN METAL GEAR SOLACE
FICTION
THE ASTEROID THEORY
THE LAST TEN MINUTES OF YOUR LIFE ARTS
CARLO CRIVELLI ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM DEBUTS A CLASSIC
MEDIA FARM
THE RETURN OF
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THE HORRORS OF JOURNALISM
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Bill Blumenreich Presents
BILL BLUMENREICH PRESENTS
LAST COMIC STANDING
VOL 17 + ISSUE 43
OCTOBER 28, 2015 - NOVEMBER 4, 2015 EDITORIAL
DEAR READER
EDITOR + PUBLISHER Jeff lawrence
Dying with dignity is a nice alliterative catch phrase for the right-to-die lobby. Right-to-die, on the other hand, sounds a little sinister and depressing. Assisted suicide is the bastard child of the lot. It sounds so defeatist. So as our legislature takes up the issue once again this week (as of deadline, advocates are making their passions and wills known before state lawmakers), maybe a lesson in PR is in order. First off, it’s self-determination at the highest level, and making that decision while terminally ill is the ultimate guessing game: Do they REALLY want to die? Are we sure they really mean it? That said, calling it what it is, making a personal choice about one’s own health, is extremely important if we’re going to understand and accept what a loved one truly wants in the end. It’s the same argument we’ve been having now for what seems like forever between pro-choice and pro-abortion. The former speaks to a personal decision, and the latter speaks to an agenda trying to change the conversation. We’ll be watching this closely here at the Dig so stay tuned, especially since the measure was barely defeated in 2012 and is likely to come up for a vote again and again until it passes, contentious as hell every step of the way. Maybe with some dignity, we can forward the conversation back to hospice, respect, and choice, instead of simply just dying.
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DIGTIONARY
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ART GARFUNKEL
adjective 1. To look foolish, usually while attempting to make others look foolish. An unintended consequence. (Example: Bro, you got hillaried!)
NOV 15
DAVE RAWLINGS MACHINE
OH, CRUEL WORLD
NOV 16
ON THE COVER
As far as cover artists go, I guess Carlo Crivelli is OK. He’s real easy to work with and has a big fan base. Read all about his first US show courtesy of The Gardner Museum on page 18.
NOV 17
BILLY GIBBONS AND THE BFG’S NOV 19
MIKE EPPS
Dear Cross Walker, Did you just push the fucking walk button, even though you didn’t need to, then did you run out into the street without waiting for the goddamn light to change, so that I had to wait at an unnecessary red light for no reason? Of course you did, because you’re a thoughtless nitwit who probably doesn’t even know what the big red button on the corner does. Next time please prepare to get run over.
NOV 27
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NEWS US CHARTER TANK NEWS TO US
A roundup of arcane and ongoing ‘school reform’ snow jobs in Mass and beyond BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 I attended a social event last week with numerous reporters and political media folk, more than a few of whom made some kind of comment about my dislike of charter schools. My sentiments are something of an ongoing joke in those circles, and have been ever since I figured out about four years ago that I am incapable of faking any attempt to cover the issue objectively. But back to those media friends. One chum (who prefers that his name be omitted from my writing) advised that I jazz up some of my investigative digging on the charter front. “How about a list?” he said. “People would probably like a flowchart or something along those lines. Talk to them just like you’re talking to me right now, like you do with other topics.” A charter flowchart is in the works. For now, though, I’m starting with a sizzling compendium that might attract some readers from beyond my typical ed crowd of public school professionals and true progressives. Without further ado, here’s a spattering of sleazy charter school developments that you’re not likely to read about anyplace else. Told casually, roundup-style. About that current push for more, bigger, and better charters… Though it’s hard to imagine that Governor Perfect can do any wrong, it’s important to consider that Baker’s purple heart bipartisanship sows fertile soil, which those who profit from school privatization can plunder—real estate investors, test administrators, consultants, consultants, and especially consultants. So far, Baker appointed a venture capitalist with no relevant ed experience to chair the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, while his testimony last week on behalf of legislation to “Improve and Expand Educational Opportunity and Charter Schools” showed far more
interest in fertilizing alternatives than in repairing traditional infrastructure: • Baker’s legislation would “add up to 12 new Commonwealth charter schools and/or expansions annually—outside of the current cap of 120—focusing the growth in districts that are performing in the bottom 25% of districts statewide.” The administration boldly claims their budgeting will “level the financial playing field between high income and low income communities” and deputizes these proposed new charters to “work on closing the education opportunity gap that had historically left too many kids behind.” That’s Baker’s baseline—that charters are inherently good, and capable of saving us. • The governor then performed the increasingly common charter stat cherry-picking routine, in which he at once hails “our charter schools [as] the envy of the nation,” and notes that “despite all this positive progress, the difference in overall student achievement in underperforming school districts and the rest of the Commonwealth remains too high.” The problem? According to Baker, it’s that “37,000 children sit on waiting lists, trying to get into the Commonwealth’s very successful charter school network.” • The governor then neglected to acknowledge the demoralizing experiences of countless special-needs students, English-language learners, and families of those children, many of whom have struggled in the kinds of failing Massachusetts charter schools that don’t get put on pedestals. “Charter school operators
are often criticized,” said Baker, “unfairly I think, for not serving a full cross-section of students.” • Finally, and most tellingly, Baker revealed that his own ego is on the line: “I served for several years on the board of the Phoenix Charter School network, which operates alternative high schools in Chelsea, Lawrence and Springfield.” The State House News Service noted this tendency to rely on anecdotal evidence and allies over actuality: “Baker, citing his previous work on the board of the Phoenix Academy Charter Network, said he rejected the notion that charters skim the best students from the pool, leaving traditional public schools to educate students in need of more services and attention.” This next one you may have glimpsed in the mainstream, as the scam involves a number of marquee charter boosters including Bill and Melinda Gates, and has garnered some big headlines in the past couple of years. Still, the plight of public schools in Newark marks a warning sign that people in Mass should study. I advise everyone to join me in reading the long version—Dale Russakoff’s new book, The Prize: Who’s in Charge of America’s Schools?—but Democracy Now! summarizes so much subterfuge sweetly: Five years ago, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated $100 million to fix the trouble-plagued schools of Newark, New Jersey. Joining forces with Republican Gov. Chris Christie and then-Democratic Mayor Cory Booker, the effort was billed as a model for education reform across the nation. But the story of what followed emerges as a cautionary tale. Tens of millions were spent on hiring outside consultants and expanding charter schools, leading to public school closures, teacher layoffs and an overall decline in student performance. As for the Gates Foundation’s tentacles in Massachusetts, they are plentiful, but for now I’ll remark on a tip that I received from out of state (as one of the few writers who cover charter shenanigans, I’ve become something of a “Dear Abby” in this niche). The reader asked for information about Education Resource Strategies—a Watertown nonprofit with strong links to Gates— and said the outfit is angling for a contract to advise their struggling district. I took a look at the vendor’s credentials and track record, and wrote the reader back the following: CHARTER TANK continued on pg. 6
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CHARTER TANK continued from pg. 4 You’re fucked. Among ERS board members—always a good place to start in checking if these operations are nefarious or altruistic—the nonprofit boasts an advisor partner from Bain Capital, as well as former Ted Kennedy advisor Ellen Guiney, who I recently reported has been instrumental in directing public education dollars to third-party service providers. I’m glad you wrote me though, because I now see that our own struggling school system has partnered with the same nonprofit for 8 out of the past 16 years, working with ERS in “several areas including professional development spending, comprehensive resource mapping and analysis, and supporting the creation of a district-wide strategy for turnaround schools.” As it turns out, the same consultants making money grabs in your neck of the woods have preached the education reform gospel for a decade from behind administrative lines in Boston. I appreciate your letter, and I’ll bring your concern to my readers in New England. Until I have time to write my own book about the influence of Gates and his ilk on education—in the Commonwealth, of course—I’m always happy to spread news about the outside players and consultants who are influencing policy and pedagogy leagues under the radar.
BLUNT TRUTH
HACKS AND HACKERS
Media infants sensationalize pot angle in CIA email story
n w o r u o Be y
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BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 Waking up to the morning news one day last week, I learned that a “teenage stoner” had hacked into the AOL account of CIA Director John Brennan. Like most skeptics who encountered similar reports, I immediately thought: The director of the CIA uses AOL? And also: Wow, that marijuana sure is one hell of a drug. Good job, kiddo. I gave the topic little further thought until a day or so later, when I ran into the fifth or sixth sensational stoned hacker headline. As it turns out, the source of said quotation is evasive—that despite everyone from Highlights for Children to Fortune leading with the cannabis angle. From the latter: The New York Post reported on Sunday that a self-described “stoner high school student” claimed to have breached the non-governmental accounts, which contained Social Security numbers, a 47-page security clearance application, “personal information of more than a dozen top American intelligence officials,” and more. A few things here. First, it’s pretty absurd to trumpet anything in the Post, a faux-populist attention whore with a crack dealer’s sense of social responsibility. Second, and more important, is that the tabloid changed its online title on day two, for some reason going with “Teen says he hacked CIA director’s AOL account”—but still the toker legs grew longer, with sites like Breitbart echoing, “‘Stoner High School Student’ Claims He Hacked CIA Director’s Personal Email.” Gawker did some due diligence for the rest of the internet, communicating with the hacker via instant messenger, and asking him about his stoner status: When I asked how he felt about being labeled a “teen stoner” by the New York Post, he seemed fine: “Me and phphax know each other irl, most of our school and grade are smokers and stoners, so i mean it just kind of describes us in away...I dont find it insulting in anyway. [sic]” It didn’t matter what they really said though, or how much weed they smoke. By that point, outlets like TechWorm had cemented themselves a sexy cannanarrative—one that had almost nothing whatsoever to do with what actually happened. From that site’s stellar account: A high school student who smokes pot has claimed to have hacked into the private account of the CIA Director, John Brennan. The hacker told [sic] NY Post that the head of the CIA was using his own personal AOL account to stash workrelated documents and he hacked into them.
www.goodwillmass.org Allston-Brighton • Boston • Cambridge • Hyannis Jamaica Plain Quincy • Somerville • South Attleboro South Boston • Worcester 6
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What’s the lesson here? It’s hard to say. But one is probably that despite the mainstreaming of marijuana and increasing acceptance of cannabis culture— from the marketplace to the media—most news organizations remain run by straights and closet tokers, the newsroom equivalents of covert gay Republican congressmen who oppose same-sex marriage. Another takeaway: reporting on surveillance and security is so pitiful in this country that most so-called journalists, when given a window of opportunity to peek into a secret agency with a famously shady track record, will opt for college pot shots every time.
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MEDIA FARM
BLOODFEAST LIVES
Journalists and Halloween return to Machine BY MEDIA FARM @MEDIAFARM If you thought that journalism primarily attracts a curmudgeonly troupe that prefers dive bars to spectacularly glitzy nightlife, then you’re mostly correct. Nevertheless, over the past decade, the New England chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has successfully thrown Bloodfeast, a blowout Halloween ball fully decked with an iconic costume contest packing a $1,000 cash prize. Being as there is some significant Dig history involved, we asked longtime journalism organizer and Boston Globe reporter Emily Sweeney about the return of the annual SPJ soiree held in the good name of media mayhem. Tell us how this all started, and how it ultimately became an event propped by the Society of Professional Journalists, of all groups. ES: It all started back in 2004, when Lissa Harris (a Dig alum!) and I were running the New England SPJ chapter. We did the paperwork to officially launch a scholarship fund for journalism students, which was easy … but then came the hard part: we had to figure out how to raise money to put into the fund. So we came up with the idea of throwing a Halloween party, and charging a cover at the door. Check DigBoston.com for the full interview, and join Emily and SPJ for Bloodfeast at Machine on Saturday, October 31.
APPARENT HORIZON
SHUT PILGRIM NOW
And save Mass from nuclear disaster About 50 people—most from the South Shore and Cape Cod—held a protest rally last Thursday at the Grand Staircase in the Massachusetts State House to demand the immediate closure of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station on a long list of public safety grounds. This in the wake of the facility’s owner, Entergy Corp., announcing it will shutter the plant by 2019 because it’s become too expensive to run. The demonstrators, led by the several grassroots groups that comprise the Pilgrim Coalition, say that’s an improvement from the 2012 decision, by the industry-friendly Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to allow the plant to remain open until 2032. But every minute that Pilgrim remains open increases the possibility that some calamity could render large swaths of the Bay State radioactive for thousands of years. It was the kind of event that left me thinking, “We need 50,000 people here, and another 50,000 people surrounding Pilgrim until Entergy shuts it down.” So great is the existential crisis of such a dangerous and aging nuclear reactor being allowed to continue operating far closer to Boston than the now-infamous Fukushima Daiichi nukes are to Tokyo. In early 2014, Gov. Deval Patrick confirmed what area activists had been saying for years: there is no viable evacuation plan in the event of a disaster at Pilgrim. Many people living in areas affected by releases of radiation would essentially be told to “shelter in place” by Entergy and the Mass. Emergency Management Association. At the time, Patrick asked the NRC to step in and to close the plant if it failed to comply with regulations. Later that year, the NRC kicked the responsibility for developing real plans back to Patrick. In short: there is still no evacuation plan for communities near the plant, let alone for Boston. To make matters worse, the Pilgrim nuke is a General Electric Mark I type. Exactly the same type as five of the six reactors at Fukushima Daiichi—including all four of the reactors that suffered catastrophic failures in 2011. Like Fukushima, Pilgrim is situated right on the ocean, and is therefore susceptible to damage from the kinds of super-hurricanes and massive winter Nor’easters that are expected to hit the Massachusetts coast with increasing frequency in the coming decades due to global warming—much like how Fukushima was hit by a tsunami caused by a powerful earthquake. Given these facts, the only sensible thing to do is to shut the plant down immediately. So I join the protestors in calling for Gov. Charlie Baker and the legislature to take all appropriate actions necessary to make that happen now, and for Entergy to think about more than just its bottom line. Rally speakers Sen. Dan Wolf and Sen. Kathleen O’Connor Ives can be looked to for legislative leadership in this fight, though it won’t be their last. Seabrook is only 39 miles from the State House and has similar problems, but that’s a column for another day. Readers interested in getting involved in this critical campaign can check out the Pilgrim Coalition website at pilgrimcoalition.org. 8
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COPYRIGHT 2015 JASON PRAMAS. LICENSED FOR USE BY THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM AND MEDIA OUTLETS IN ITS NETWORK.
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ASTEROID
SLUSH PILE FICTION
THE
IT WAS A TYPICAL WORCESTER
night, right before Halloween, when the leaves had mostly fallen, and wood burned in fireplaces, and chilly raindrops soaked our backyards. Charlie sat there dribbling Kodiak Ice Mint into an empty Bud bottle. Blackbird—who still lived with his mother and who had promised to quit dipping after sloshing his can of tobacco spittle on her Ulster linen tablecloth—sat next to Charlie, sniffing the minty air like a salivating dog. I was on the other side of Blackbird. A typical Worcester night. Blackbird, Charlie and me were two drinks in before one of us asked: What would you do with ten minutes left to live? Blackbird shrugged his thin shoulders. “Beats me,” he said, staring into Charlie’s dip bottle. “Get plastered?” I said I’d call home and talk to Annie. “Bullshit,” Charlie said. “You’d call your six year-old daughter and tell her you’re about to die? ‘Hi honey, brush your teeth and say your prayers. Daddy’s not coming home.’” Blackbird shook his head at me, confirming how right Charlie was, and how wrong I was, with a grin. “Fuck you,” I said to Charlie. “What would you do?” “If I had ten minutes to live?” Charlie said. Blackbird and I nodded. We knew something was coming. Charlie smashed a twenty on the bar and ordered a fresh round of beers with bourbon chasers. He scooped the wad of tobacco from his lower lip and tamped it down the throat of an empty longneck. His eyes roamed around the bar, packed that night with the usual crowd: old guys from the Main South Legion Post, girls from the local college. They had either come from, or were headed to, a
Halloween party, one of them in a short skirt with cat ears and a tail; another dressed as some kind of super hero; another dressed up like a mermaid with sparkling green tights, cardboard seashells pinned to a bikini top and a long blonde wig. “If you’ve only got ten minutes to live, and you know it,” Charlie said, speaking louder, exaggerating his voice as if he were on stage, “then the answer’s simple.” He stepped toward the college girls and tapped the super hero on her shoulder. Curly dark hair spiraled down her back and she turned, blue eyes flashing. Charlie leaned in and whispered something. She smiled, pulled her hair back, then shook her head and turned away. But Charlie threw his hand back up on her shoulder and twirled her around, almost like he was dancing with her. Beer sloshed onto her leotard. “Get your fuckin’ hands off me,” she said. But she didn’t slap him or toss the rest of her beer in his face. She just stood there, with one hand on her hip, a silverdollar beer stain above her right breast, waiting to see what Charlie would do next. Her stunned friends watched in silence. “We’re constructing a theory,” Charlie said, smiling and shouting over the noise of the bar and the icy looks of that girl and her friends. A few people turned their heads. “If you’ve only got ten minutes to live, and you know it, what do you do? I say, you find the hottest woman around,” He paused, looking at her for emphasis, “and convince her to take one last romp in the proverbial hay.” It must have been the way he said hottest woman or proverbial hay because two minutes later, that college girl and her friends were drinking with us.
THEORY BY RICH FARRELL
It didn’t take much to get the crowd going that night. The Sox had just won their second World Series in three years, the Patriots were undefeated, and two weeks before, Blackbird had won a thousand bucks on a scratcher. He was finally taking his mother down to Tampa for Thanksgiving. Sitting around the bar, shooting back beer and bourbon, none of us thought about things going bad. Charlie said it would be easy to convince someone to have sex while the clock ticked down. He said everyone secretly wanted to, and it was only courtesy that held us back. He said that he could prove it. “When faced with the certainty of death,” he said, “all that shit flies right out the window. Trust me on this.” He kept drinking, getting louder, and started theorizing about the different ways it could happen, how death could come but leave you ten minutes warning. You needed to have ten minutes too, not nine, not eleven. Eleven minutes left too much time to think; nine was not enough time to get-off. One of the first scenarios, the one I came up with, was of a giant asteroid barreling toward earth. “The entire planet would be one big Roman orgy,” Blackbird said, and everyone laughed. “You’re nuts,” I said. “People aren’t that shallow.” “You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Charlie said. “Shallow’s got nothing to do with it.” Then Charlie was really on a tear. He spoke of sinking ships, of floods, sinkholes, tidal waves, apartment fires, hurricanes, hostage scenarios and plagues, even suicidal stuff too, like popping a bottle of Ambien and chasing it with a fifth of Jack. THE ASTEROID THEORY continued on pg. 12
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THE ASTEROID THEORY continued from pg. 10 “With just the right amount of pills and booze you can leave yourself ten minutes,” he said. “Of course there’s a problem with that one.” He hung a limp finger from his waist and appeared deeply concerned. Blackbird and I laughed. The mermaid and the girl in the cat costume laughed. Everyone laughed. Charlie stood there grinning, like he was Christ himself come down from the cross, and Blackbird and I were just those other two mopes crucified next to him. The super hero kept touching his forearm. One of her friends, in a short jean skirt with cowboy boots and a stetson smiled at me and said “Hey, I’m …,” but I didn’t catch her name. I thought she said Wind or Wand. She twisted red fingernails through long, blonde hair and fiddled with the plastic gun in the fake holster slung low on her waist. Her skin was so pale it seemed almost translucent, but her cheeks and neck were flushed, as if she’d been outside in a snowstorm. I felt sixteen again. And everyone around us seemed to feel that way too. The bar just buzzed. We all listened to Charlie, fueled by booze, music and the sound of clanging bottles. It was one of those nights, a good night, amidst a whole series of shitty ones before and after. Everything about it felt scripted but spontaneous too, like when your friend wins the lottery and afterwards you think of all the little decisions he made that could’ve changed the outcome. How he could’ve taken a left on Salisbury Street instead of right, and gone up Park Ave, hitting all those red lights, and then how he would’ve walked into Cumberland Farms four minutes later and some cashier from the Big Y would’ve already bought that winning scratch ticket instead of him, and how she would’ve spent the money on a flat screen TV, and how he wouldn’t have taken his mother on that ill-fated trip to Tampa. That night—with those girls, with our theory grabbing all that attention, with the smell of fireplaces and kids getting ready for Halloween, with Caroline still at home, tucking Annie into bed—it kind of felt like winning the lottery. People shouted out questions. “Would you have sex with a dude if there were no chicks?” Blackbird yelled. “Fuck you, you prick,” Charlie said. Then he added, “If there was no one else?” Everyone laughed. “Would you screw an old lady?” “Walker or wheelchair?” Charlie replied. “An old man? A dog?” “First, you make contingencies,” Charlie said. “Backups. You make a list, and you don’t get hung up on things like looks, gender or species.” Charlie was quick as lightning. The girl with wintry skin and red fingernails, Wind or Wand, kept getting closer to me, so close I could smell apple shampoo in her blonde hair. And there was good music playing. Charlie kept saying he was going tell us a story that would illustrate his point. But I knew all of Charlie’s stories, all of Blackbird’s too. I thought he was just showing off. He started talking about how he makes a list as soon as he enters a place, about how proximity matters, about how quickly you’d lower your standards. And none of us were trying hard either, that was the best part. It was so easy, so fun. Springsteen boomed from the speakers, and the girls started singing, “I prove it all night.” Blackbird and Charlie and me, we were chatting with those girls like they were the only people in the world that mattered, like we were living out the last ten minutes of our lives. Over and over they shouted: “I prove it all night, prove it all night,” along with the chorus, which would get Charlie saying he could prove his theory. We were hitting on them a little, but it was safe and easy. We loved it
“It’s bad turbulence. I’m mean really bad. Toss-your-cookies, shit-your-pants, and say-a-rosary bad.”
and they loved it. When the song ended, we clapped and clanged our bottles again and the girls bowed. Charlie, me, and Blackbird, we weren’t trying to bag any of them. We didn’t need to. “So? Prove your theory,” one of the girls shouted. But instead, Charlie started to talk about airplane crashes, and I’m not exaggerating, people leaned in and watched as he scribbled out figures on a bar napkin, calculating that if a plane started to freefall from thirtythousand feet, it would take precisely ten minutes for it to smash into the ground. He was explaining about the math and about the speed of gravity. I hadn’t laughed that hard in a long time. I didn’t know that the Pats were going to blow the greatest season in all of sports and be accused of cheating. I didn’t know that Caroline was cheating on me with a guy who drove a Pepsi truck. I didn’t know that Blackbird was sitting there with the angel of death on his shoulder. All I knew was that Charlie at the plate, and he was knocking ‘em out of the park. “Tell us the fucking story!” I finally said. I didn’t think he had an actual story to tell. Charlie grabbed my shoulder and squeezed. Then he smacked Blackbird on the arm, reached for his beer, raised his hands above his head, and told every one to listen. “Five years ago, I’m on a plane,” Charlie said. “We’re out over the Midwest somewhere, Chicago or St. Louis, and the pilot comes on and tells everybody to buckle up. Thunderstorms ahead. You could see lightning flashes. Then the whole thing goes in the crapper. The plane drops like a stone. Lights start blinking and bags are flying all over the seats.” Blackbird was resting his elbow on the bar. He loved Charlie, I suppose. He admired him. Hell, so did I. How could you not? We all basked in the warm glow of Charlie. “It’s bad turbulence. I’m mean really bad. Toss-yourcookies, shit-your-pants, and say-a-rosary bad. People are shouting, babies are crying. I’m in the aisle, with an empty seat next to me, and in 12A is this hot chick. And she’s looking at me, and she’s terrified.” Charlie lifted a longneck and smiled. “And out of nowhere, I get a boner.” The whole bar roared then, even if people couldn’t hear the story itself, laughter had taken over. We were all sitting there, imagining Charlie on a crashing plane with a hard-on. “I look over at 12A and she sees it,” Charlie said. “She looks down at my lap and then looks up at me, and I’m dying. I’m ready to crawl inside in my seat. But then she reaches for it. She doesn’t say a word. She just starts stroking it over my pants.” Blackbird almost spit out his beer. “You’re so full of shit it’s coming out your ears,” he said. Charlie swore up and down that it was gospel. You couldn’t even hear him anymore because people were laughing so much. “What the hell did you do?” I asked. But rather than answer, Charlie suddenly stopped talking. A blank look crossed his face. All of us around him were hanging on his every word, waiting to hear what happened next, but his story stopped cold. Charlie sat on that bar stool, staring into space, for what seemed like eternity. It was probably only ten or fifteen seconds, but it felt like minutes passed in weird silence. And we didn’t say anything either. We were all frozen in place. I swear the music even stopped. I kept staring at him, waiting for him to speak, and Blackbird did too, and all those girls, all of us were wondering what the hell was going on. When he finally snapped out of it, he chuckled, but it was a nervous laugh, as if he were a stand-up comic who tanked a joke, but still had fifteen minutes left on stage. “So I was getting into it,” Charlie said. “But the plane leveled out, and the bouncing stopped, and the pilot came back on and apologized and everyone clapped. Twelve-A yanked her hand away and stared out the window at the lightning flashes. A moment later, she excused herself and changed seats.” He took a long pull from his beer. People laughed a bit more as the story ended, but moved away rather quickly. Everyone went back to their corners. The college girls stayed a little longer, but NEWS TO US
eventually they smiled and said they had to go to their party. Wind or Wand winked at me as she walked away. A few minutes later, it was just the three of us again at the bar, me and Charlie and Blackbird. I wanted another round of drinks, but Charlie waved his hand at the bartender. “I really thought we were goners,” he said. We settled up and Charlie drove us back to Blackbird’s house. ~ That October night was the last time the three of us were together. Twenty days later, Blackbird and fourteen other people, including his mother, went down with their commuter plane in a blizzard. Blackbird’s sister stands to make a lot of money from the airline. Losing a brother and mother on the same flight looks like a solid seven figures. Good for her, I say. Caroline blames me for the affair. She told me I didn’t pay enough attention to her, that I spent too much time hanging out with my friends. She said it was my fault that she started meeting the Pepsi guy at the Route-9 Motel, dropping Annie off with her parents before dropping her pants. We went round and round over furniture, finances, and blame, but in the end, she won, almost all of it. Except for Annie. The judge awarded me half-custody. The Asteroid Theory has become a tragic joke to everyone down at Crowley’s, to the ones who were there that night and to the ones that weren’t, like one of those fish stories where a guy snags a six inch perch but sticks the hook into his wrist and he needs a few stitches. After a while, that perch is a shark, and that hook is the shark’s teeth, and those stitches are the reason the guy walks with a limp. Stories can grow and grow. People talk about how Charlie had a premonition that night. Blackbird’s plane split apart in mid-air and everybody suddenly believes Charlie’s a fortune teller. People who barely knew Blackbird ask Charlie to speculate about what might’ve happened on that plane. Did Blackbird, with his mother sitting right next to him, find a willing partner as his turboprop corkscrewed down? And Charlie never fails to play along. I guess everyone deals with grief in different ways. I don’t go to Crowley’s much anymore. I can’t watch Charlie, grinning on his barstool like he’s an oracle. In different ways, I lost my two best friends, but I gained something too. On that rainy, fall night, I glimpsed the way life could be, when everything breaks just right. After the bar, when we got back to Blackbird’s house, we sat together in the dimly lit kitchen, Blackbird, me, and Charlie, a silver crucifix floating above the door, faint odors of spent candles mixing with old-cupboard mustiness, and everything felt holy, like midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. Tacked up on their fridge was a packing list from Blackbird’s mother. The word “beer” was scrawled on the bottom of the list in huge letters, but then scratched through with a red pen and two large exclamation points. She hadn’t been on a vacation in twenty years. I wanted to ask Charlie if his story was true. I wanted to ask him about why he’d stopped talking at the bar, in the middle of all that laughter. Maybe he knew that it wasn’t a laughing matter. I wanted to ask him, but I didn’t. Instead we sat there together in silence, three friends drinking the evening’s final beer.
Rich Farrell hopes to one day overwinter in Antarctica with a big stack of books and several cases of wine. Until then, more of his writing can be found at Contrary, Descant, Hunger Mountain, Numéro Cinq, and various other journals.
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
11
MAC ATTACK
WEDNESDAYS NOVEMBER 4TH -25TH 5-11pm
HONEST PINT
HOW MUCH FOR YOUR TAP LINES? Pay to play is here to stay BY JEFF LAWRENCE @49THOUSAND
MAC-ANCINI
Flash Fried Mac & Cheese Croquettes | Spicy Tomato Herb Gravy
DECADENCE
Crème Fraiche | Fontina Cheese | Gemelli Pasta | Bordelaise Sauce Truffle Essence
SOUTHERN STYLE Macaroni | Cheddar Cheese | Fried Chicken | Collard Greens Corn Bread Crumble
ROASTED PUMPKIN Shell Pasta | Mascarpone Cheese |
Vermont Cheddar | Maple Cured Bacon Crispy Fried Sage
BACON BOMB
Penne Pasta | Pepper Jack Cheese | Smoked Bacon | Pork Belly Pancetta | Crackling
FARMER’S MARKET Spinach Pasta | Vermont Goat Cheese | Roasted Local Veggies
Portobello Mushroom | Foccacia Herb Crumbs
BLUE RIBBON Macaroni | Cheddar Cheese | Buttermilk Biscuit Crust
Slow Smoked Baby Back Ribs Before placing order, please inform your food server if anyone in your party has a food allergy *Consuming raw or undercooked meat/poultry/ seafood/shellfish/eggs may increase risk of food borne illness
@MAGOUNSSALOON OLDEMAGOUNSSALOON 518 Medford St Somerville
magounssaloon.com|617 - 7 76 - 2 6 0 0 12
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The recent investigations/accusations made by the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission into pay-to-play allegations against Craft Beer Guild LLC in April, and subsequent investigation and charges made against some of the largest bar groups in Boston in September, are just the tip of the tap lines, and everyone in the industry knows it. This isn’t a well-kept secret after all, nor is it the be-all-end-all practice by which beer companies—and to be fair, wine and liquor brands—acquire draught handles and product placement in on-premise businesses. But it’s pervasive enough that in tough times and an ever-increasingly competitive market it’s the low-hanging fruit and go-to method behind this malt, mash, and merlot madness. So now that the ABCC is paying attention, where do we go from here? The answer is nowhere. Bars and restaurants, and liquor stores, have a tremendous amount of pressure put on them daily when it comes to carrying new and high-volume products, and as such have little choice but to engage in favoritism and/or enticement. That comes in many forms, not just buying tap lines or shelf space: A pair of Red Sox tickets here, an ad buy there, and before you know it, the scale has been tipped in somebody’s favor. If anyone thinks that’s now disappeared or will no longer take place, they’re a fool. The problem, though, isn’t so much that this takes place, with or without the consumer’s knowledge, or that brands actually engage in this practice (either directly or with the help of a distributor), but rather that the Mass ABCC doesn’t know how to deal with it today and certainly hasn’t had a clue for the last 20 years. What’s the problem, though, right? Consumers will always decide with their wallets and quality trumps kickback, right? Maybe, and the idea that everyone is on a level playing field is a legitimate argument, but in the case of say, Fenway Park or even a chain of Irish bars with different names but the same owner, consumers will also drink whatever is in front them (bars are tastemakers and brand-makers), and these venues have a legitimate need to streamline and commodify their assets during that process. At least, that’s the assumption. So how does the ABCC address this and at the same time create some parity of access for all? Fuck if I know... but instead of suddenly waking up to the obvious practices that have gone on for too long without oversight, maybe they should put together an advisory board of brewers and distributors and find a way that allows brands and bars to collaborate within an acceptable framework, instead of spending time and energy investigating a tiny fraction of the industry that actually got nailed for the practice. Larger brands will always have the resources to push smaller brands aside with these tactics, but smaller brands are not innocent in trying to fend them off with the same wink and nod. If the ABCC and the brands and bars now caught up in this keg roll want real change, they all have to sit at the grownup table together and figure out a solution beyond fines and fiefdom.
The
y l Toast d n e i r F Stop waiting in line for brunch
1 Kendall Square Cambridge, MA
617-621-1200
Brunch served Saturday and Sunday 11 : 0 0 AM - 3 : 0 0 PM 9 2 H A M P S HIR E S T, CA M B R ID G E, M A | 6 1 7-2 5 0 - 8 4 5 4 | L O R D H O B O.C O M
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
13
ARTS ENTERTAINMENT
SLAP ON YOUR BEST (OR WORST) COSTUME AND RUN FOR A GOOD CAUSE. THEN DRINK LIKE THE CHAMP THAT YOU ARE AFTERWARDS.
14
THU 10.29
THU 10.29
THU 10.29
SAT 10.31
SAT 10.31
SUN 11.01
Boston Grown-Ups Museum - Fright Night
Illegally Blind Halloween Party
MFA College Night: Throwback Thursday
16th Annual Boston Halloween Bike Ride 2015
The Boston Common Costume Dash 5K
Oysterfest
For one night only, Boston Children’s Museum is putting on its big-kid pants and getting ready to party. Put on a costume and indulge your youngat-heart spirit as you compete in the best costume challenge. Explore interactive exhibits and even attempt to build a “big kid” sized fort. With all-night dancing and a spooky atmosphere provided by KISS 108’s very own DJ Rich DiMare, this’ll be a museum event to remember.
Vundabar, Creaturos, the Televibes, Mini Dresses, and Wakes have gotten together to throw you a musically charged evening that will for sure get you in the Halloween spirit. With a wide variety of talent, the Middle East will be packed with good times and good vibes. To add to the awesomeness of the night, if you come in costume you get a discounted ticket. It’s these kinds of price-based deals that Halloween is all about.
Travel back to the 17th century and beyond as the MFA presents to you its Throwback Thursday college night. Indulge in the age of Rembrandt and Vermeer with some free gelato from Taste Café, then groove on down to the Shapiro Family Courtyard with music by Groovin’ You. If 17th-century art isn’t your thing, you can check out some Herb Ritts photographs like the iconic black and white photo of Madonna. And if that isn’t your thing either, well, you’ve got an entire museum to check out, don’t you?
Get your spook on in a spooky, scary, fun bike ride throughout Boston. Slither through the streets in costume as you bike towards a secret outdoor dance party that you’ll only find after throwing caution (but not too much) to the wind and trusting the hundreds of strangers you’ll be cycling with. If that’s too much intensity for you, there will be ride marshals that will keep you safe and make sure to tell you when to turn. You can’t have Halloween fun without a little sense of safety.
Run! At the first annual Boston Common Costume Dash 5k this Saturday. Put on your spookiest costume and race through the heart of Boston alongside hundreds of other runners. Once your five kilometers of pure adrenaline have been fulfilled, kick back and party at Beantown Pub, Pour House Boston, Barracuda Tavern, the Rattlesnake, and Globe Bar & Café. If that isn’t enough to convince you to get your jog on, the event supports the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Massachusetts Bay. Run for a good cause.
Is there really a better way to come down from your Halloween-night high than with some $1 oysters? You read that right: $1. Not $10, not $100, but $1. “But how is this possible?” you may be asking yourself. Well, I’m not super sure, but it’s happening, and you should take advantage of it, because oysters don’t come cheap. If the prospect of cheap oysters isn’t convincing enough, than perhaps a delightful brunch with live a cappella music might be.
Boston Children’s Museum. 308 Congress St., Boston. 7-11pm/21+/$25. eventbrite.com/e/bostongrown-ups-museumtickets-15137976094
The Middle East Upstairs. 472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge. 8-11:59pm/18+/$12, $10 with costume. facebook.com/ events/757515511061256
Museum of Fine Arts. 465 Huntington Ave, Boston. 6:30pm-9:00pm/18+/FREE. mfa.org/programs/specialevent/college-night-2015
Copley Square. 560 Boylston St., Boston. 7-10pm/18+/FREE. halloweenbikeride.net
Copley Square. 560 Boylston St., Boston. 7:30am-noon/all ages/$50. costumedash.com
The Lansdowne Pub. 9 Lansdowne St., Boston. Noon-4pm/all ages/$1. facebook.com/ events/879372945461491
10.28.15 - 11.4.15
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NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
15
MUSIC
MUSIC
Deafheaven escapes the Los Angeles blues
Rosie and the Rosies grow into the punk scene
METAL GEAR SOLACE
IN BLOOM
BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN
come back, at least for the first couple weeks I enter a sort of depression, especially with not working when I’m home. When you’re out, you have all this purpose. You’re working towards something and for people and sharing your art with people and having life experiences. Then you come home and a lot of that shuts down. You’re walking the dog. You’re opening mail. You’re creating tasks for yourself to get out. That always kind of depresses me. You start to realize when you’re gone for a month that your life at home continues and evolves without you. LA is so spread out—to the point where you feel isolated.” As painful as that adjustment was, Clarke used his move to Los Angeles for the better. New Bermuda bathes in its own introspection. For Deafheaven fans, that’s perfect. They identify intensely with the band’s lyrics, often more so in a live setting. “We try to entertain crowd engagement, but the content itself is purely personal,” Clarke says. “I’m happy people can hear certain things and pick up on certain lines to appreciate them in a way that I do, but this band has always been very self-serving. We’re a selfish group with very selfish songs.” For such cathartic live shows, the five need to be. Bands people have the strongest connection with aren’t those who leave lyrics open-ended for molding, but those whose specificities and narratives belong to a developed character. “People can feel themselves in the words,” Clarke adds, and I find myself nodding, already making space in those he’s said over the phone.
>> DEAFHEAVEN + ENVY + TRIBULATION. TUE 11.3. ROYALE, 279 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. 7:30PM/18+/$20. ROYALEBOSTON.COM
In some of Boston’s mustiest basements, Rosie and the Rosies can be found breathing new energy into local punk crowds. Contributing to the city’s fuzzfilled scene is just one of the goals the band has, and lately the guitar-driven trio—vocalist-guitarist Rose O’Malley, bassist Steve Volante, drummer Jeff Balter—has been setting many new projects into motion, including the fantastic Meat Valet EP, a collection of punk jams that erupt out of the group’s Bandcamp page. To record, the band headed out to Volante’s farm in Needham; out in the woods of the grounds, the three holed up in an abandoned house. “It was really fun, but the only weird thing was we all were playing in different rooms,” O’Malley says. Usually it’s a collaborative process. This new setup with layered guitar tracks was a fundamental part of producing the EP’s grinding sound. The Boston basement music community has been a major influence for the band. The three can’t speak fondly enough of their Boston punk pals, citing bands like the Monsieurs and the Channels as some favorites who utilized the same full-fuzz sound as Rosie and the Rosies, helping the band define the kind of stage presence it wants to have. O’Malley loves focusing on sound and feeling when writing with the band, since it lends a natural power to meticulous, crafted songwriting. “The way I play guitar in this band is unlike any other band I’ve played in,” she explains. “It’s very cathartic. More than in other bands, it’s like a fluid thing where my emotion and everything I’m feeling while playing just happens.” When the band’s old drummer moved to New York, she scouted new drumming talent from its Needham scene. Her choice, experienced drummer Balter, adds dimension to the project. “He’s played in a bunch of different bands, and he’s incredible,” O’Malley says. “We’ve only played two shows with him, so I’m really excited for people to hear us with him … It’s definitely on another level than we were before.” >> PAINTED ZEROS + SLIGHT + ROSIE AND THE ROSIES + BIG BUCK HUNTER. THU 10.22. OUT OF THE BLUE TOO ART GALLERY, 541 MASS. AVE., CAMBRIDGE. 9PM/ALL AGES/$5-10. OUTOFTHEBLUEARTGALLERY.COM
MUSIC EVENTS WED 10.28
THU 10.29
THU 10.29
FRI 10.30
SUN 11.1
MON 11.2
[The Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 8pm/all ages/$12. mideastoffers.com]
[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 9pm/18+/$15. sinclaircambridge.com]
[The Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$12. mideastoffers.com]
[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston. 8pm/18+/$18. crossroadspresents.com]
[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$13. sinclaircambridge.com]
[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 8pm/all ages/ free
PUNK WITH PURPOSE JOANNA GRUESOME + AYE NAKO
16
10.28.15 - 11.4.15
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POLISHED POP BORN RUFFIANS + YOUNG RIVAL
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LOCALS LOOK SPOOKY VUNDABAR + CREATUROS
ELECTRONIC COVE YOUTH LAGOON + MOON KING
INDIE TWANG NIKKI LANE + CLEAR PLASTIC MASKS
FUZZ FREAK-OUT THE ORWELLS + NICE GUYS
DEAFHEAVEN PHOTO BY KRISTEN COFER | ROSIE AND THE ROSIES ARTWORK BY H ROSE PARRY
When following up an award-winning black metal album titled Sunbather, Deafheaven didn’t expect to find itself in some serious shadows. Yet that’s where New Bermuda finds the band. Sonically, the five-piece did what it does best—merge post-rock, gloomy metal, and shoegaze into one style—but lyrically, it ditched the sun for a harrowing tale of the isolation and suffocation that come with adulthood. “We’re not the first band to approach writing heavier music this way, and I’m sure we won’t be the last,” singer George Clarke says over the phone. His voice sounds pleasant, soft even, compared to the shriek of his onrecord scream. Given his experiences that shaped the album, what he said is most certainly true for the future of music as a whole. New Bermuda details Clarke’s move from San Francisco to Los Angeles and his dive into real-time adulthood. “It’s about taking on responsibility and living with someone romantically for the first time, how that shapes your personal relationship with that person and the way things go around you,” he says. “I felt myself feeling very complacent and a bit suffocated at times, really trying to reconcile this whole ‘next stage’ of my life. I went from someone who lived in a six-person squat essentially to this set mobility and stability.” Out of all of adulthood’s dreary facets, it’s the medial tasks that affect him the most. “Honestly, up until this point, I lived a very minimal life that focused on having a good time and refuting responsibility,” he says. “Any time I’m gone for an extended period of time and I
BY MARY KATE MCGRATH @MKMCGRATHS
Boston’s Best Irish Pub
261 MAIN ST., WORCESTER, MA
JUST ANNOUNCED!
SATURDAY, JANUARY 23
512 Mass. Ave. Central Sq. Cambridge, MA 617-576-6260 phoenixlandingbar.com
THU 10/29 - LEEDZ PRESENTS:
KOOL KEITH HALLOWEEN JUS ALLAH (EX. JEDI MIND TRICKS) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 31
FRI 10/30 - NIGHT ONE
PINK TALKING FISH SAT 10/31 - NIGHT TWO
PINK TALKING FISH SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
SUN 11/1
5’NIZZA MON 11/2
MARK BATTLES WED 11/4 - LEEDZ PRESENTS: FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14
JOE BUDDEN
THU 10/29 ILLEGALLY BLIND HALLOWEEN
VUNDABAR CREATUROS FRI 10/30
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28
11/4 11/4 11/8 11/8 11/19 11/19 11/20 11/20 11/21 11/21
AIDEN AIDEN TEXAS TEXAS IN IN JULY JULY II THE THE BREATHER BREATHER GHOSTOWN GHOSTOWN THE THE FACELESS FACELESS
All shows, All ages. Tickets available in person at the Palladium Box Office, FYE Music and Video Stores, online at Ticketfly.com or by phone at 877-987-6487.
www.thepalladium.net
GEEKS WHO DRINK Free Trivia Pub Quiz from 7:30PM - 9:30PM
MONDAYS
RE:SET WEDNESDAYS
MAKKA MONDAY 14+yrs every Monday night, Bringing Roots, Reggae & Dancehall Tunes 21+, 10PM - 1AM
Weekly Dance Party, House, Disco, Techno, Local & International DJ’s 19+, 10PM - 1AM
THURSDAYS
FRIDAYS
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ELEMENTS
PRETTY YOUNG THING
BOOM BOOM ROOM
15+ Years of Resident Drum & Bass Bringing some of the worlds biggest DnB DJ’s to Cambridge 19+, 10PM - 2AM
80’s Old School & Top 40 Dance hits 21+, 10PM - 2AM
80’s, 90’s, 00’s One Hit Wonders 21+, 10PM - 2AM
THE BEST ENTERTAINMENT IN CAMBRIDGE 7 DAYS A WEEK!
1/2 PRICED APPS DAILY 5 - 7PM
WISDOM TOOF
RUGBY WORLD CUP SHOWN LIVE, STARTING ON SEPTEMBER 17TH
FIRE IN THE FIELD
WATCH EVERY SOCCER GAME!
SAT 10/31
PASSIN JACK MON 11/2 - LEEDZ PRESENTS:
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 18
WEDNESDAYS
SHAWN THOMAS WED 11/4
HEYDAZE WILLIAM BOLTON
VOTED BOSTON’S BEST SOCCER BAR ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE
Saturdays & Sundays Every Game shown live in HD on 12 Massive TVs. We Show All European Soccer including Champions League, Europa League, German, French, Italian & Spanish Leagues. CHECK OUT ALL PHOENIX LANDING NIGHTLY EVENTS AT:
WWW.PHOENIXLANDINGBAR.COM NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
17
FILM
FILM
NO SLEEP TIL BROOKLINE
AN UNFAIR FARE
On Jafar Panahi’s new film Taxi
Coolidge Corner Theatre’s program manager talks all-nighter
BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN
BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN To describe the mood of the room at 5am, you’d have to divide fear by fun. The audience is somewhere on the spectrum between “terrified prisoners held for ransom” and “exhilarated audience at a rock concert.” Your eyes start to sag, but then the next violent act occurs, jolting up with a twitch. You’ve been scared wide awake, and you like it—you don’t want to miss the next bit of bloodshed, either. This is the annual Coolidge Corner Theatre’s Halloween Horror Movie Marathon, and you’re not even halfway through it. The man we have to thank for much of this is sitting across from us at Allston’s Refuge Cafe, explaining the method to his madness. That’d be Mark Anastasio, program manager for the theater. In addition to the marathon, Anastasio also programs the weekly After Midnight series at the Coolidge. You might’ve seen him introducing one of those screenings. He’s the charismatic gentlemen— identifiable by tattoos, an imposing beard, and an inviting smile—who stands at the front of the auditorium and speaks briefly about the picture. Right now he’s telling us about the concoction he’s brewed up for this year’s marathon, which will take place on the holiday itself. Given that gift from the fates—Halloween falling on the marathon’s traditional Saturday—one of the two movies Anastasio has announced ahead of time is Halloween II. “It picks up at the exact moment that the original ends,” Anastasio starts, when we ask for a sales pitch. “Dr. Loomis is standing in the yard, searching for Michael Myers’ body. He runs over to the police, lets them know that Myers is still on the loose, and we literally hit the ground running from there. This follows the rules of the horror sequel: there’s the POV-via-steadicam style that the first movie followed, but now there’s more gore, and more action. It picks up everything that had been done in the horror genre since Halloween, and adds that stuff to the Halloween formula.” If you’ve been to the Marathon before—here’s your fair warning: It tends to sell out—then you know the size of the dosage: two movies are announced beforehand, then five more surprise features play afterwards. What elevates the long night from “movie nerd paradise” into a genuinely singular cultural event are all the ephemeral interstitials that bring us from film to film. There’s an opening band, trailers, short clips; this year, there will even be a game show. The audience will be costumed, and—if they’re daring enough to come onstage—they’ll be judged, too. “The costume contest will start us off,” Anastasio explains. “It used to be in between the first two movies, but the costumes have gotten so elaborate over the years that I’ve started to feel bad … There was a year where Hawkman and Hawkgirl had to uncomfortably sit in the back through the first film fully costumed, with their wings stretched. That’s when I realized we should probably do the contest first.” The theme for 2015 is the evening itself: Halloween night. Anastasio has also announced the mid-2000s cult favorite Trick ’r Treat—a gonzo anthology picture that
For audiences that aren’t familiar with Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, the first shot of his new film Taxi may seem unremarkable: It’s a look at standard-issue bustle on the streets of Tehran, as seen through the windshield of the eponymous vehicle. But for audiences that do know Panahi, that composition is reason for celebration all on its own. Since being banned from state-approved filmmaking and placed under house arrest for subversive (liberal) statements, the filmmaker has finished two feature-length works. Both were filmed in his own dwellings, with photography captured using his own phones. The house arrest has since been rescinded—Panahi is back on the streets. His iPhone is out. And a dashcam is in. These post-ban Panahi movies adopt the language of diaristic documentaries. But they’re really fables, about his nation and his art form, where Panahi often plays himself. Here he’s a cabbie who’s picking up a number of cinema-adjacent passengers. There’s the DVD bootlegger (he sells banned films), an art student (he buys them), Panahi’s niece (she’s shooting a short film as a school project), and the boy who serves as her subject (his misbehavior means her movie will be as “indecent” as her uncle’s work). Other passengers illustrate the political complications of Iranian life—like the lawyeractivist who was disbarred for her activism. Panahi sits and observes them all. Even during the sadder sequences, he seems happy just to be out of the house. When he was illegally promoting his last film, Panahi spoke candidly about the melancholy that was enveloping him. He had realized the filmmaking ban would not be lifted. And he wasn’t willing to leave Iran, as Panahi considers it his duty to dedicate his cinema to his own home nation. What tormented him wasn’t his unofficial status—it was that he couldn’t document the culture that was growing in his own backyard. Taxi is still the work of a hiding man—it’s filmed entirely within an enclosed location. But Panahi’s gaze has turned outward again. The windshield that opens the movie has the rectangular dimensions of a movie screen. And the activist later says something that equates a deep care for filmmaking with a deep care for human beings. There is national culture, there are individual characters within it, there is the formal style of cinema that represents it—and the unstoppable artistic passion of Jafar Panahi bridges all three.
NO, THIS ISN’T A SCENE FROM PROM NIGHT 6: ENSTRANGLEMENT UNDER THE SEA loops together a series of violent acts as they occur in a small town during the holiday, like a Mario Bava movie on steroids. That will bat leadoff during the marathon. The rest of the movies planned for the night cut through a wide swath of horror history. One is a canonized classic, another is a critical favorite (Martin Scorsese is a noted fan), a third started a franchise. And, given that we’re just a few days away, Anastasio’s willing to reveal one more title right now. “By the end of Halloween II, the audience is going to be really up—very high. And instead of crashing them down with something brutal, we’re going to keep it light, and stay in the 1980s. We’re going to play a film called Night of the Demons. That’s also set on Halloween. It’s a classical ‘teenagers head to a haunted castle for a Halloween party and then it gets infiltrated by demonic entities’ movie.” What keeps you up through Anastasio’s all-nighter— aside from pizza, popcorn, and other intoxicants—is the care he takes to maintain a sense of sustained momentum. He’s the kind of programmer to seriously consider the emotional tenor of a movie like Night of the Demons. After tracking down 35mm prints for each movie, Anastasio holds a home-video version of the marathon at his apartment. He tweaks the lineup, ensuring there won’t be any slow passages. So Demons has a job to do: “There’s enough weirdness and comedy in it to keep everybody awake past 4am,” Anastasio promises us. And if our hazy memories of Coolidge Horror Marathons past are any indication, then that sentence is sure to be true of the whole night—and the whole morning.
>> TAXI. KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA. 355 BINNEY ST., CAMBRIDGE. UNRATED. OPENS ON FRI 10.30.
>> THE 15TH ANNUAL HALLOWEEN HORROR MARATHON. COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE. 290 HARVARD ST., BROOKLINE, MA. SAT 10.31 AT 11:59PM. SEVEN FILMS ON 35MM. $20 FOR DOUBLE FEATURE TICKET, $25 FOR MARATHON TICKET.
FILM EVENTS THU 10.29
INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL BOSTON PRESENTS CHARLIE KAUFMAN’S ANOMALISA
[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 8:30pm/R/$11-13. iffboston.org]
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FRI 10.30
PLAYING WITH THE LATEST WORK BY BEN RIVERS CUADECUC, VAMPIR
[Harvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 9pm/NR/$7-9. 35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/ hfa]
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HAPPY HALLOWEEN! DEMONS
[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 9:30pm/NR/$9-11. 35mm. brattlefilm.org]
COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS ROSEMARY’S BABY
[Coolidge Corner Theatre. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/R/$11.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]
SAT 10.31
FEATURING “SECONDS,” “DRACULA,” AND “ALIENS” THE SOMERVILLE THEATRE’S HALLOWEEN HORROR MARATHON
[Somerville Theatre. 55 Davis Square, Somerville. Noon/$30. Six films on 35mm.]
MON 11.2
THE SOUNDS OF SILENTS AND ALLOY ORCHESTRA PRESENT SON OF THE SHEIK
[Coolidge Corner Theatre. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. 7pm/NR/$20. coolidge.org]
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Tues 10/27 7PM - (Fundraiser) A FUNDRAISER BENEFITTING
THE CENTER FOR TEEN EMPOWERMENT JOSH KELLEY + FRANK DRAKE WERS: LISTENER APPRECIATION PARTY DUKE ROBILLARD W/ MIKE WELCH THE POLYPHONIC SPREE + PARTY BOIS
AS IF BY LIGHTNING
Crivelli’s first US exhibition, courtesy the Gardner Museum BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS
Wed 10/28 8PM - (County/Singer-Songwriter)
Sat 10/31 7:30PM, $35
THE POLYPHONIC SPREE + PARTY BOIS (15th Anniversary Tour) Tues 11/3 7PM
HOWARD JONES SOLO (Synth)
Sat 11/14 7PM
ZACH DEPUTY (JAM FUNK, SOUL)
17 Holland St., Davis Sq. Somerville (617) 776-2004 Directly on T Red Line at Davis
Thurs 10/29 - 7:30PM - (Fundraiser)
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17 Holland St., Davis Sq. Somerville (617) 776-2004 Directly on T Red Line at Davis
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When Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased Carlo Crivelli’s Saint George Slaying the Dragon in 1897, it was the first time that a Crivelli painting made its way to the United States. Now, over 100 years later, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum beautifully continues Mrs. Gardner’s trendsetting ways with its new exhibition, Ornament and Illusion: Carlo Crivelli of Venice, which is the very first US exhibition dedicated to his work. Saint George Slaying the Dragon is only a portion of a larger altarpiece that Crivelli was commissioned to create for the parish church of Porto San Giorgio in 1470. The first installation of the two-part Gardner exhibition reunites a newly restored Saint George with its three other altar-mates; a total of six panels have survived, but two were too fragile to travel. It is fun to keep in mind while looking at these works that they were meant not to be viewed at eye level, but from below. The altarpiece stood for over 400 years before it was broken up into individual fragments, which were sold when the church was demolished in 1803. The newly cleaned and restored Saint George Slaying the Dragon is nearly overwhelming, particularly for its precision and its boldness of color. The restored gold leaf, which serves as the painting’s sky, is astonishing. Crivelli was a master of pastiglia, which adds an embossed, three-dimensional effect that he sculpted from gesso. Many of his works showcase his gift for this, but it is particularly astounding in the armor of Saint George as he prepares to administer his final blow to the dragon. As he was leading me through this portion of the exhibition, curator Nathaniel Silver told me that Mrs. Gardner had initially placed this work in the Gothic Room, but soon moved it into the Raphael Room (named after the artist), which serves as some indication of how highly she thought of Crivelli. In its current setting within the exhibition, on its own midnight blue wall, the piece shines in a way that it didn’t in its usual spot: The gold leaf and the vivid colors stand out exquisitely against the blue walls. In the second installation of the exhibition can be found 20 of Crivelli’s most important works, not least of all one that is on view for the first time in the United States: The Annunciation, With Saint Emidius, which is not only the largest work of the exhibition but possibly its most mesmerizing. The work shows off Crivelli’s knack for rich, exhaustive details. Crivelli was commissioned to paint an altarpiece depicting the day that the news of libertas ecclesiastica, the right to self-government free from papal rule, reached Ascoli, which happened to be on the feast day of the Annunciation. Emidius, the patron saint of Ascoli Piceno, is shown standing next to Gabriel, who is holding a model of the city—perhaps in an offering to the Virgin Mary, who can be seen framed by an ornate doorway. You’ll have a tough time getting this painting out of your head, and benches have been placed before it so that you can gaze in comfort. Bernard Berenson, Mrs. Gardner’s trusted art advisor, facilitated the purchase of many of her most important treasures, including Saint George Slaying the Dragon, of which he said to her: “You never in your life have seen anything so beautiful for color, and in line it is drawn as if by lighting.” If only he could see it now. >> ORNAMENT AND ILLUSION: CARLO CRIVELLI OF VENICE. THROUGH 1.25 AT THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM, 25 EVANS WAY, BOSTON. GARDNERMUSEUM.ORG
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THE FUTURE OF
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BOOTIE Spencer 4 Hire, Jabulani, McFly + Caserta BREAKS, HIP HOP, R&B, CLASSIC HOUSE & MASHUPS
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SAVAGE LOVE
DANGEROUSLY SEEKING SEXUALITY BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET My boyfriend of two years and I broke up because I found out that he was having sexual relations with anonymous men he contacted through Craigslist. My ex will not admit to being bisexual. He claims that he has these urges only when he smokes marijuana. But through our computer history, I caught him watching gay porn at times when I knew he had not smoked marijuana. I check CL periodically, and he is still posting ads regularly, even though he denies this and insists that he has the situation under control. Disturbingly, he is also dating women. I think this is dangerous because there is such a strong chance that he will give these women an STD, such as AIDS, and destroy both of their lives. Since I am the only person in his life who knows his secret, I feel some sort of responsibility. I am very emotionally troubled by this knowledge and I don’t feel right about ignoring this. Anxiety Infuses Distressing Situation Your ex is obviously bisexual—or if not, AIDS, then his heteroflexibility is downright acrobatic. But policing your ex’s sexual identity, his love life, and his Craigslist presence is Not Your Job. Knocking dicks out of his mouth is not your responsibility, and you are not responsible for alerting other 22
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women to the porn, the personal ads, the dicks, and the laughable excuses. (Contrary to an infamous Reddit thread, marijuana does not make men “temporarily gay.”) You could, however, speak to your ex as a friend—a creepy friend who cyberstalks him, but still a friend. You could urge him to accept that, even if he isn’t bi, he needs to own up to not being entirely straight, either. If he’s going to engage in risky sex practices with men—and you don’t know that he’s doing that (he could be using condoms correctly and consistently)— he should talk to his doctor about getting on PrEP, aka preexposure prophylaxis, aka Truvada. Then, having said your piece, you can butt the fuck out his life with a clear conscience. On the Lovecast, Dan chats with rival podcaster Debby Herbenick about condoms and PrEP… for ladies: savagelovecast. com.
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BOWERY BOSTON
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WWW.BOWERYBOSTON.COM • • • • LIVE MUSIC IN AND AROUND BOSTON • • • •
ROYALE 279 Tremont St. Boston, MA • royaleboston.com/concerts WILD CHILD TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3
W/ FILOUS, PINK FEATHERS
SNEAK PEEK AND Q&A
W/ ROYAL CANOE
W / B E R N H O F T, L I L L A
WED. NOVEMBER 4
FRI. NOVEMBER 6
SAT. NOVEMBER 7
TUES. NOVEMBER 10
IN ASSOCIATION WITH MMMMAVEN
NEWPORT FOLK PRESENTS
SLOW MAGIC GIRAFFAGE
THE BALLROOM THIEVES W / YO U WO N’ T, TH E B R OS . L ANDRETH
RON POPE + THE NIGHTHAWKS
DEERHUNTER
W/ TR UETT
W/ ATLAS SOUND
W/ DAKTYL
SUN. NOVEMBER 22
THURS. NOVEMBER 19
TUES. NOVEMBER 24
WED. NOVEMBER 18
THURS. DECEMBER 10
SAT. DECEMBER 12
SUN. FEBRUARY 21
NEWPORT FOLK PRESENTS W/ JAMIE KENT
52 Church St. Cambridge, MA sinclaircambridge.com
W/ CLEAR PLASTIC MASKS, FRANKIE LEE
W/ FLAGSHIP
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30
W/ BROTHERTIGER
W/ BIG SOMETHING, CROOKED COAST
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5
NATALIE PRASS
WERS DISCOVERY SHOW
YA C H T W/ LARRY GUS
W/ LOAMLANDS
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 8
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9
RACHAEL YAMAGATA W/ BROTHERS MCCANN
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 11
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12
ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON!
ON SALE TUE 11/3 AT NOON!
AND THE SOUTHWESTNORTHEAST W/ MIRANDA MULHOLLAND, BROOKS HUBBARD
W/ MY NAME IS YOU
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14 ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON!
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TUESDAY, JANUARY 19 WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 20
W/ GRETCHEN AND THE PICKPOCKETS, BILLY DODGE MOODY
Keep Shelly In Athens W/ DIFFERENT SLEEP
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3
1222 Comm. Ave. Allston, MA greatscottboston.com
ANDERSON COMEDY’S THE GAS PRESENTS
NEIL HAMBURGER FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 (EARLY)
W/ KNOX HAMILTON SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 7
FRIDAYS AT 7PM!
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≠ 10/30 2ND ANNUAL VANYALAND HALLOWEEN ≠ 10/31 SCANNERS “HORRORSCAN” HALLOWEEN COSTUME PARTY ≠ 11/2 FUTURE TEENS ≠ 11/8 BEN KATZMAN’S DEGREASER ≠ 11/13 THE GAS PRESENTS DANA GOULD ≠ 11/13-15 DIARRHEA PLANET W E R S D I S C OV E RY S H OW
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WED. NOVEMBER 25 MIDDLE EAST UP
FRI. NOVEMBER 13 MIDDLE EAST DOWN
Tickets for Royale, The Sinclair, and Great Scott can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com or by phone at (800) 745-3000. No fee tickets available at The Sinclair box office Wednesdays - Saturdays 12:00 - 7:00PM
MON. NOVEMBER 16 MIDDLE EAST DOWN
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