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VOL 18 + ISSUE 7
FEBRUARY 18, 2016 - FEBRUARY 25, 2016 DEAR READER
EDITOR + PUBLISHER Jeff lawrence
Imagine my surprise when I plopped a quarter into a South End parking meter recently and it said “.25 cents per hour.” Once I was done doing my happy dance, I couldn’t resist tweeting it out, and almost immediately I got a response from the Boston Globe stating that this discounted rate was due to “flex rates” based on a new system City Hall was testing that married demand and supply. Thank goodness for the Secondary Gray Lady having some insight as to why it was so cheap and eagerly sharing that info via social media. Too bad the truth hurts and all that glitters ain’t gold. When the City of Boston and its current hizzoner put our public meters out to bid and opened up the floodgates to multiple private companies to offer “solutions” to a non-vexing problem, who would have thunk that one would be paid for its services while another provided it at no cost. We thunk about it, and Chris Faraone got busy right quick as to the who, what, where, when, and why of this latest and greatest municipal trap door. His words are here in print and online for your angered and frustrated consideration. This is a great example of how DigBoston thinks, works, writes, and investigates what goes on in our fair town from the perspective of living in said fair town. We breath it and bring to light anything and everything that raises an eyebrow and passes the stink test. It’s not about a boardroom brainstorming session as much as it’s about a real-life experience, and not just ours. We get daily tips and trips from Bostonians and beyond that also lead us down a rabbithole, so it’s about all of us, not just some of us. Keep those coming, and we’ll continue to keep it coming.
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OH, CRUEL WORLD Dear Winter Boots, I paid like $400 for you two years ago. “You’ll have them for the rest of your life,” the sales fuck told me. He must not realize that I plan on living well into 2017, that is if the treads on these pieces of garbage don’t completely shred before the end of this year, causing me to slide across Mass Ave and collide head-first into a bus thanks to these overpriced ice skates. Before I got my tax return and decided to splurge on you, I kind of assumed that people who wore absurdly expensive boots were assholes who could easily get by with Timberlands or something practical of that sort. It was a pricey lesson, but at least now I know that I was right.
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NEWS US PORKING PERMIT NEWS TO US
Boston entrusts company that compromised city data with new parking ticket app BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 When the City of Boston rolled out its new parking ticket app last month, the news was offered with the usual press release puffery, and received with a routine Hub media fellatio. “Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced today … a new app that allows for quick, convenient and secure parking ticket payments by smartphone,” according to the city’s email to press, which came with the requisite mayoral endorsement: “The new PayTix app is another example of how we’re using technology to make city government more efficient and effective for the people of Boston.” So it often goes with the arrival of new municipal tech. Proud bureaucrats boast, which is understandable, while reporters parrot, which is lazy. In the case of PayTix, Boston.com quoted the “efficient and effective” line directly, while college and community papers also chimed in celebration. Nevermind that the city had for two years prior already contracted with a local startup, TicketZen, to provide a comparable payment service. What ensued was blog and social media applause for Xerox, the behemoth behind PayTix, which is hardly a new kid on the block around here. Xerox and subsidiaries of the company have done business with Boston for more than 30 years. Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), which Xerox acquired in 2010, began contracting with the city in 1981, and in 2007 struck a $19 million deal for three years to provide the city with services including “parking violation processing, notice generation and mailing, adjudication and appeals scheduling, document imaging and correspondence management, training, and help desk support.” Since then, Xerox has continued its seven-figure annual service to Boston. A contract from 2012, obtained by the public records site MuckRock, shows ACS was paid for the “provision and operation of a Parking Violation/Parking Management Information Services System (PVPMISS),” and further states that “ACS will also serve as the city’s collection agency for delinquent parking fines.” Despite the allegiance to Xerox—in FY2013, the city did $4,475,474 in business with the company, then nearly $5 million the following year—when it came time to cosign an app for actually paying tickets, in 2014 Boston’s Department of Innovation and Technology and the Boston Transportation Department chose TicketZen, a local
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startup spun out the Boston-based Terrible Labs. At the time, Terrible Labs Director Cort Johnson told reporters, “The city needs a better blueprint for working and piloting projects/products that are startup oriented.” The implementation was a success. By the city’s own admission, Boston “saw a steady increase of parking violations being paid with the mobile app,” while “the proof-of-concept project for mobile parking ticket payment with TicketZen showed the demand from users to continue this service, with over 2,100 ticket payment transactions a month through the app.” Yet while Xerox was still banking off the other parking services it provides—in FY2015, the publicly traded company made more than $4 million off the Hub—TicketZen was not paid for its efforts. Unless you count press release props from city officials. With TicketZen ceasing its free work agreement with Boston in November, officials put the call out for a new app provider. Lo and behold, Xerox came around with PayTix. Which was interesting to those of us at DigBoston, since last year our contributor Kenneth Lipp revealed that the company left a significant trove of license plate and home address information exposed online. Xerox hid the data after being alerted to the problem, but refused to own up to the apparent error. Instead, a company spokesperson claimed in an email to the Dig that the contents of the server included “publicly available information used to enforce residential parking regulations such as license plate numbers.” Which was demonstrably untrue. The Dig asked the city several questions for this story in order to clarify the relationship between Boston and Xerox. A spokesperson responded to all but one: “Is Mayor Walsh aware that a Xerox company contracted by the city to store license plate data was exposed last year for having left troves of data online? Has the city taken any steps to ensure that more information is not compromised in the future, particularly in regard to the new parking program underway with Xerox?” Attempts to reach the TicketZen for this story were unsuccessful. According to the city, officials “were thankful to work with [the] local start-up over the past year, and learned a great deal about the demand for these types of services available on mobile devices.” But
“TicketZen made a business decision to focus on other products at the conclusion of the pilot with the City in November.” In a statement to the Boston Globe technology site BetaBoston, however, TicketZen cofounder Joe Lind said his “team is still working on the app even though they’ve all moved on to new jobs,” and added that they’re “still focused on a few other key cities and are excited to expand the core product into new markets.” Lind doesn’t seem bitter; Terrible Labs was acquired by Autodesk in late 2014, so it isn’t like the loser deal with Boston put the startup over a barrel. That doesn’t change the optics though; no matter how the story is framed from a PR standpoint, the Hub took a freebie from a downtown company for two years, then gave the gig to a multinational giant. In a city that coddles the likes of General Electric, this is something to take note of. And it’s not only Boston; faced with the same decision in 2014, the City of Cambridge chose Xerox over TicketZen. Asked about the apparent favoring of Xerox over a smaller local operation, Kris Carter from the city’s office of New Urban Mechanics told BetaBoston, “This is not about swapping out a startup for an established company in our minds.” Outside of their minds, of course, that’s exactly what happened.
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TOKIN’ TRUTH
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Medical marijuana patients in Massachusetts have fought for years for more cannabis dispensaries. Though voters approved such facilities in 2012, there are still less than half-a-dozen statewide. But when the long-awaited Patriot Care opens for business in Lowell this week, the occasion will be met with protest. For relevant intents and purposes, this leg of dispensary-related dissent in the Bay State broke out last month after Adam Vaccaro of Boston.com published an article titled, “Medical marijuana lobbyist to oppose pot legalization push.” The piece revealed that a hired gun named Daniel Delaney, who is registered with the Commonwealth to represent the interests of three Patriot Care dispensaries (one of which is in Boston), started a campaign called Safe Cannabis Massachusetts to oppose the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol initiative that will appear on the ballot in November. A DPH-registered nonprofit expecting to open three locations in Massachusetts, Patriot Care is owned by Columbia Care, an industry behemoth that boasts “leadership … from renowned businesses and organizations including Goldman Sachs, Staples, PepsiCo, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institutes.” Led by former Goldman investment bankers, the company operates more than a dozen medical marijuana dispensaries in five states besides the Commonwealth. In speaking to Boston.com, Patriot Care spokesperson Dennis Kunian praised Delaney while denying that the dispensary is involved with the anti-legalization campaign. “He’s doing this independently of us,” said Kunian of lobbying efforts. “Although, if he’s doing it, he’s pretty darn smart, and it’s something we’re going to be taking a look at.” In any case, public records for the Safe Cannabis website show that yet another Patriot Care contractor is tied to the anti-legalization campaign as well. The domain is registered to Greg Czarnowski, whose name recently appeared in my email inbox with an invite, on behalf of Kunian, to the Patriot Care grand opening this week. Asked about this coincidence, Kunian replied in an email: Greg is an outsourced contractor working for me on a number of events for both Columbia Care and Patriot Care among other things that he does for me … He is a terrific web designer and 3 years ago I introduced him to Dan Delaney who has been our lobbyist in Ma. since the very start. We are not involved in any of Dan’s other activities, other than his work for Patriot Care. Kunian assures that his company has “no voice in the recreational issue positive or negative and will always continue to stay our own course.” Delaney claims the same, saying that Czarnowski designed the anti-legalization campaign website, but he says those jobs are independent of any work for Patriot Care. “This CRMLA Initiative is MPP (Marijuana Policy Project), Washington, DC boilerplate that did not consult all of the stakeholders in the Commonwealth such as law enforcement, municipal groups, and property owners,” Delaney says regarding his rationale for creating the opposition campaign. CRMLA political director Will Luzier says the Bay State initiative is an improvement over legalization in Colorado, which is being held up as a failed experiment by the likes of Delaney. Among other differences, Luzier says cannabis in Massachusetts will be taxed at lower rates in order to cut deep into the black market. On the other side of the argument, Delaney doesn’t like that the CRMLA proposal allows for adults to grow up to six plants per person or a dozen per household, with only civil penalties for anyone caught with up to double that amount. “Even for medical marijuana,” says Delaney, “I think you would be hardpressed to find many medical patients needing to grow 24 plants.” In Boston, Patriot Care stands to dominate virtually all of downtown— especially if zoning measures recently proposed by City Councilor-at-Large Michael Flaherty take hold. Rooted in an unsubstantiated reefer madness and irrational fear of pot shops popping up on every corner, according to what Flaherty told reporters, his arbitrary rule would “literally protect the West End, North End, Downtown, Beacon Hill and some other neighborhoods from getting another [dispensary].” All while protecting the interests of Patriot Care and limiting future access for patients.
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APPARENT HORIZON
GE BOSTON DEAL: PART 3 General Electric gets bailed out, people get sold out
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Returning to our ongoing look at General Electric’s recent and inconvenient history of violating the public trust, in part 2 of this “missing manual” the corporation got out of the subprime housing loan market just in time to avoid destruction in late 2007. But it could not escape from the consequences of an economy based on selling toxic home loans to poor people who were defaulting in vast numbers by 2008. That year, everything began to unravel for GE—as it did for all other large interlocked financial services companies that derived a substantial percentage of their profits from predatory loans in the same period. According to Fortune magazine, after reporting an unprecedented first quarter loss of $700 million, GE’s stock price began spiraling downwards in April 2008. Failing to sell off its light bulb, appliance, and private-label credit card businesses over the summer due to the worsening economic climate stopped the corporation from making typical course corrections to get back on its feet. In September 2008, GE’s stock price crashed after Lehman Brothers—a financial services titan—collapsed on the heels of Bear Stearns’ disintegration that March. The company became starved for operating funds. But the private credit markets were frozen in terror. On September 30, GE made two desperate moves to raise cash. It sold $3 billion in preferred stock to Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on very bad terms. And $12 billion of common stock at the terrible market rates of that month. The next day, the coup de grace: Word spread throughout the markets that GE would be unable to cover billions in regular payouts to holders of its commercial paper. Basically a kind of I.O.U., commercial paper is a kind of short-term promissory note that big corporations like GE are able to issue on an ongoing basis to raise money to cover things like daily expenses. Executives clearly knew their company was doomed unless the government bailed it out. Already on September 30, a GE spokesperson “e-mailed the media with a message that Congress must act ‘urgently’ on the pending financial bailout package.” But the company didn’t wait for congressional action. Since it was not a traditional bank, GE did not qualify for a significant direct cash infusion under the infamous Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). So it spent the next few weeks brokering a backroom deal with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). According to the New York Times, on November 12, 2008 the FDIC announced that it would back GE’s commercial paper for up to $139 billion under the Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program (TLGP). A program that the federal government changed overnight to allow GE to qualify—just as TARP was changed to benefit Goldman Sachs et a—according to Pro Publica and the Washington Post. The company was able to sell $74 billion in government-backed commercial paper and longer-term notes by Spring 2009. And how did GE survive the period between its early October 2008 financial collapse—when it was still short on funds despite the precipitous sale of $15 billion of its stock—and its November 2008 bailout by the TLGP program? In 2010, Pro Publica reported that Federal Reserve Board documents released that year showed that GE had effectively borrowed $16 billion more dollars at that time by selling commercial paper through the Fed’s Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF). So General Electric was saved by two government programs that provided it with upwards of $90 billion dollars of cheap credit—while paying only $2.3 billion in fees for its participation in the TLGP and CPFF programs. Meaning that GE got unbelievably good loan terms—the equivalent of a flat 2.56 percent interest rate. Less than the rates that Americans pay on most any other loans. Including the housing loans that wrecked the economy in 2007-2008. And the student loans that could very well lead to another financial catastrophe before this decade is out. That is how GE got to survive the recession it helped create. By gaining access to a massive pool of public funds totally unavailable to its tens of thousands of subprime housing loan victims. The same company under the same leadership that Massachusetts officials are paying $270 million to bring to Boston. Excelsior! Coming soon in part 4: GE’s municipal bond scandal and other amusements. Apparent Horizon is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Jason Pramas is BINJ’s network director.
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INTERNALLY BLEEDING FEATURE
Allen Curry was the victim of an unspeakable attack at the hands of fellow Boston firefighters. Decades later, his struggle endures, as does the BFD’s diversity problem BY ALEJANDRO RAMIREZ @RAMIREZALEJ “I’m sitting here talking to you, and even as I look you in the eyes, my mind is flashing back to Southeast Asia.” Allen Curry’s memory was triggered by a gentle breeze rustling the tree’s branches above us, transporting him away from a park bench outside the Dudley Square Library to Vietnam in 1970. Now 64 years old, Curry grew up a block away from here, on Warren Street, and still lives in the area. I take in the other sounds of Curry’s neighborhood, sounds he grew up around, and wonder if these ever trigger vivid memories—buses struggling around turns, people chatting on corners, a steady stream of vehicles and passersby. When the playback ends, he looks back at me, smiles, and apologizes. Curry’s flashbacks are a side effect of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, from his time in Vietnam but also the trials he would endure after. In 1976, he became the first black firefighter to serve at Engine 52 in Dorchester. He made the force in the wake of a 1974 court ruling known as the Beecher consent decree that ordered fire departments to hire one minority worker for every one white worker until “racial parity” was reached. As this led to a largely unwelcome increase in the hiring of black firefighters to an overwhelmingly white force, Curry faced intense discrimination and hostility, but he says he endured nonetheless, kept focus. Bright and talkative, Curry is a vivid storyteller. He’s outgoing, always ready to speak to a familiar face in the neighborhood. He even has a catchphrase: “Al Curry from the ’Bury—not in a hurry.” But he’s prone to sudden pauses in speech and to steering off on tangents. At one point he begins to tell a story about a bigoted grammar 10
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school teacher in Roxbury who hit students, one of his earliest memories of racism, but veers off topic quickly. Vietnam comes up a lot—it’s the first thing Curry wants to talk about. He recalls that some of his friends crossdressed to avoid the draft and says that despite admiring Muhammad Ali’s famous pacifism and being conflicted in his own sense of duty and service, Curry turned down a scholarship to Brandeis University and enlisted in the Army instead. The PTSD from Curry’s service in Vietnam haunted his civilian life. He says he tried going to college afterward but couldn’t adjust because of flashbacks and and an inability to focus. After a few years his condition mellowed, and Curry decided to enter the fire department. But an attack in his own firehouse reignited his trauma and conjured a painful past. Decades later he calls his experience an “ambush”: One morning his colleagues exposed him to toxic fumes, burning his lungs and forcing him to retire from the fire department at the age of 32 after serving just five years. Curry has told his life story to countless audiences over the last 30 years, including City Council members and courtrooms. His case is unique, even extreme, but reflects a longstanding lack of diversity in Boston’s public sector. As the Boston Globe noted last year, “Since the [Beecher] consent decree ended in 2003, the ranks of black firefighters has declined by 25 percent, from 420 to 315.” The BFD is now 72 percent white, in part due to a preference for hiring veterans combined with a one-year residency requirement. The US military is predominately white, while recruitment of people of color in cities,
including Boston, is relatively low compared with rural and suburban areas. Rayshawn Johnson, president of the Boston Society of Vulcans, an organization devoted to helping and increasing the number of minority firefighters, says nonwhite applicants are increasingly losing opportunities to recent white transplants. Furthermore, Johnson says the current lack of firefighters of color discourages many young people from applying to the department. “Only when we see others like us in those positions can we have those aspirations,” he says. Forty years ago, Curry’s mother warned him against joining the BFD and said her friends in the police department faced harassment. He says despite the lack of black role models who fought fires, he applied anyway in order to give back to his community and save lives. “I chose the fire department [instead of] the police department because I had just come from a situation where I had to use a firearm,” Curry says, referring to his time in Vietnam. “I didn’t think a fire would follow me home.”
SECOND DEGREE
Curry is a short man, but as a firefighter he learned to leverage his lean 5-foot-6 frame to move people and debris. He was focused on his career, too, hoping to make captain someday. In one standout moment he was working as a pipe operator, the one who holds the fire hose’s nozzle, and recalls that after all the flames were extinguished, the chief on duty personally congratulated Curry on a “good stop.”
DOCTORS AND COURTROOMS
While the men who burned him stayed on the job, Curry was given only 72 percent disability benefits. So he sued the city and the firefighters who burned him. It took seven years for the lawsuit to play out, and the city was found causally negligent. Curry was awarded $10,000, but says that after paying his attorney, he was left with only $2,500—and still only collecting the 72 percent. As an added insult, the men who caused his injuries were found innocent of any wrongdoing. In 1988, Curry found an ally in Charles Yancey, the now-former Boston City Councilor from Mattapan, who attempted to help secure a full pension for Curry. It took more than 20 years, but in 2009, Curry finally got a chance to formally request additional support from councilors. During the two-hour hearing, Maureen Feeney, chair of the retirement board at the time, explained that 100 percent full pension was “not something we hand out all the time,” noting firefighters only receive such packages in extreme situations, like when someone dies in the line of duty or sustains disabilities that prevent the retiree from performing work at all. “It’s a shame what Allen Curry has gone through,” says Yancey, who was recently defeated for his Council seat after 32 years. “Right now it’s up to the mayor to push forward on the case.” While the fight for pension remained a big part of his life, after recovering from his burns, Curry worked as a constable during the rest of the ’80s. Later, he took a
“I chose the fire department [instead of] the police department because I had just come from a situation where I had to use a firearm,” Curry says, referring to his time in Vietnam. “I didn’t think a fire would follow me home.”
job in private security on Big Dig projects and became an active member in his community, volunteering to help organize voter registrations drives and veterans events and helping the Five Streets Neighborhood Association, a housing rights group in Dorchester. In the early ’90s, Curry’s wife left him. His thenteenage daughter Allené stayed with her father to keep him company and because he couldn’t cook or clean. She had been closer to her mother, but became closer to her dad through the hardship. “He definitely instilled that same sense of community and activity in me,” says Allené, who has organized with anti-violence groups in Roxbury. Ten years ago, Curry suffered a stroke. He recovered physically, but mentally, his daughter says it took a toll. He’s more erratic and fixated on, even obsessed with, getting justice for that morning in the firehouse. “He was very laid back,” Allené says about her dad before the stroke. “Now he’s fidgety and always late … But he’ll still give the shirt off his back for somebody.” Curry has trouble breathing, so his daughter keeps an inhaler ready for him. Part of her wishes her father would move and abandon the cycle of court cases and council hearings that never pan out. “He gets to a certain point, and it feels like he’s making so much headway, and then it just fizzles,” Allené says. “I think that’s what’s messing him up. It’s like starting all over again.” She understands that the lack of his full pension hurts his pride as a father. “Financially he probably thinks he should’ve been able to take care of me.”
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In any case, Allené wants her father’s story to be heard. After all this time, she says people should know how difficult it was to be a black firefighter in the early days of legally mandated BFD integration. Especially since the BFD and other city departments still have major problems when it comes to race and diversity.
‘DISGRACE’
Rayshawn Johnson first heard Curry’s story after joining the BFD in 1998. After they met in person, the Vulcans president wrote a letter to the City Council during Curry’s pension fight, noting that while people will never know what Curry’s career could have been, the man was nevertheless robbed of a chance to advance. Speaking about the current environment in the fire department, Johnson remains apprehensive. “The current state of affairs is a disgrace,” he says. “The real problem is hiring practices … White firefighters are getting replaced [by new white recruits], but not the black firefighters.” According to those who are critical of the system— the Vulcans, a few city councilors, and black clergy members—the hiring preference for veterans is the main reason for a continuing lack of diversity. Combined with the fact applicants only need to live in Boston for one year to qualify for the job, that preference has resulted in people of color, even longtime Boston residents, losing out to newly relocated vets. Thirty-five years after Curry was burned and more than 40 years after the Beecher decree, diversity is still lacking in most public departments in Boston. According to a 2015 workforce report by the city, Mayor Marty Walsh has increased the number of minorities in his administration compared with the cabinet of the late Mayor Thomas Menino and has been credited for helping bolster ranks in several agencies. Still, last year’s report found the BFD to be among the least diverse departments, while a count of department heads showed “all minority populations are currently underrepresented when compared to the demographics of the city of Boston.” Last month, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination ordered the Boston Police Department to “cease and desist from the disparate treatment of recruits based on race”—particularly, the BPD training academy was more likely to fire blacks over minor offenses than whites. Black cops are also suing the BPD over what they claim are false positives on drug tests that rely on hair analysis, since researchers have challenged the validity of such tests on account of external exposure to powdered drugs —common in police work—sometimes leading to positive results. Discussions about residency requirements for city employees, spearheaded by Councilor-at-Large Michael F. Flaherty, took place in the fall of 2014 and last summer, but change hasn’t come. When it comes to certain residency rules, like those for teachers and even administrative positions, some advocate getting rid of requirements altogether. But for cops and firefighters, the City Council may toughen the rules. Asked about residency requirements, Bonnie McGilpin, a spokesperson from Walsh’s office, said, “The mayor is currently working with Councilor Flaherty and hopes to have an updated proposal for next session. He understands that we must work to ensure that our workforce is diverse and represents our city, while at the same time we are supporting our veterans.” Also asked if Walsh plans to do anything to help Curry, the spokesperson did not respond about the case. With Yancey no longer in office, it will take another councilor to resume his fight at City Hall. This article was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Mr. Curry stopped by a BINJ pop-up newsroom in Dudley Square last year and shared his story with reporters, leading to Alejandro Ramirez pursuing a longer interview with him and his family. For more info on this and other projects, visit medium.com/@binj and follow on Twitter @BINJreports.
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PHOTO BY CHRIS FARAONE
“It felt good,” he says. “I was acknowledged as a firefighter … that [as] a minority firefighter, I could do the job.” Curry says that day made all the challenges he faced in the firehouse from that point forward bearable. His fellow firefighters weren’t too receptive. Curry would overhear racist comments directed at kids in the street, at times with a pointed hostility. None of it compared to the incident that took place the morning in 1981 that ended his career after five years. The episode still haunts him today. It was a Sunday and his shift was almost over. Covered in dirt, grime, and ash from a night of work, Curry went into the showers. No sense in dragging all that mess home. He’d rather be clean when he got back to his wife and daughter, Allené, whose seventh birthday was just two days away. Curry’s locker was the farthest from the showers, which usually meant he was the last one in line. But not that morning. There was no line at all, no one else in the showers. Perhaps he should’ve known something was wrong. He ran the water. Shampooed his head. As he rubbed the shampoo in, his nostrils started to sting. Then his eyes. At first, Curry didn’t think it was a big deal—maybe just some shampoo bothering him. Then it became hard to breathe. Curry’s lungs were burning. It wasn’t soap; there was something stronger than shampoo covering him. He ran out of the shower, took some shallow breaths and felt his insides ablaze. Curry says he dashed out from the stalls and ran into two colleagues who, instead of helping him, directed him toward the lockers. After recovering some strength, he charged into his captain’s office, buck naked, complaining that he inhaled something dangerous. The captain called him an ambulance. Paramedics rushed Curry to Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center). According to medical documents, he suffered second-degree burns internally. Meanwhile, back at his home, a man knocked on the back door, alarming Curry’s wife and daughter. The visitor introduced himself as a firefighter and told them about the injury. Now 42, Allené still wonders why the man came around the back. “I was so young, but even then I figured something was wrong with that man coming to the back door and not the front,” she says. Adding to the curiosity, Curry was transferred to a hospital on the South Shore, where he says he felt trapped. He suspects the move was intended to keep him far away from Boston, but didn’t waste much time hatching conspiracy theories. Instead, Curry played the cards he was dealt; a doctor who treated him in 1981 laid out a diagnosis in a handwritten note to the Boston Retirement Board: “Obstructive/restrictive pulmonary disease probably 2 degree exposure to toxic flames. Severe anxiety and depression.” In layman’s terms, Curry was exposed to cleaning acid. Two fellow firefighters, Thomas Hammond and Francis McLaughlin, poured the chemicals down the drain of an adjacent stall, causing his shower head to spew fumes at him, leading to both physical and mental damages. Two years after the sabotage, a psychiatrist who was treating Curry noted in a letter to the city that he suffered from “recurrent, intrusive memories of the trauma and consequent incapacitating anxiety” that prevented him from working. Curry’s forgiven the two men who burned him. But he is still reeling from residual trauma. “My medical opinion is that Mr. Curry’s PTSD was severely exacerbated by the abusive treatment he received at the hands of his fellow firefighters,” reads one memo from a United States Department of Veterans Affairs psychiatrist, dated Sept 18, 2009. The betrayal still haunts him as well. “I know what it’s like to take a life,” Curry says, referring to his time at war. “But I was a firefighter, I was supposed to save lives.” Forgiveness aside, considering his chosen line of work, Curry still can’t come to grips with the fact that his colleagues did such a thing. “They said it was a prank,” he says.
11
HONEST PINT
10 THINGS I’M BEERING
OLDE MAGOUNʼS SALOON PRESENTS:
It’s a way of life, not a lifestyle BY JEFF LAWRENCE @29THOUSAND
SOUL FOOD Wednesdays 5-11pm February 3rd-24th
ONCE Lounge & Music Hall
156 Highland Ave. ONCEsomerville.com
PAN FRIED CAT FISH
4/3-4/22 The Rock & Roll Rumble
SMOTHERED PORK CHOPS
2/22 Sons Of An Illustrious Father (Folk/Rock) 2/29 The Splinters (Bluegrass/Americana) 3/7 Brenna Carroll and G-Force (Blue Fusion)
Cornmeal Crust, Spicy Shrimp Remoulade
Red Eye Gravy, Pork Belly, Pearl Onions
STEWED OXTAILS Local Root Vegetables, Moxie Pan Gravy
CHICKEN & WAFFLES Fried Chicken, Waffles, Rosemary Maple Syrup
COUNTRY STYLE BABY BACK RIBS
is here @ ONCE! Bands to be announced Presented by Boston Emissions/WZLX Tickets on sale soon….
2/26 Black Tusk, Holy Grail, Gozu w/ Beware the Dangers of a Ghost Scorpion! “Pillars of Ash” by Black Tusk out now! | $10 adv/$12 dos | 18+ | 8pm Doors 3/18 Count Zero, The Shills & Bury Me Standing 3/25 Petty Morals, Muck and the Mires + more 3/26 Framtid (Japan), Aspects of War (SOLD OUT) Locavore tacos done right every Monday night 5-10pm in the ONCE Lounge
Presented by Cuisine en Locale
www.enlocale.com 617-285-0167 CURRENTLY BOOKING HOLIDAY CATERING & PARTIES
Ginger, Garlic Herbs & Spices, Secret Sauce
CHOICE OF 2 W/ ENTRÉE A LA CARTE SIDES - Down Home Potato Salad - Uncle Danny’s Mac & Cheese - Candied Yams w/ Pecans & Pork Candy - Bumpy’s Skillet Cornbread w/ Honey Butter - Braised String Beans w/ Pork Belly & Onions - Collard Greens w/ Smoked Turkey - Black Eyed Peas & Rice
Before placing order, please inform your food server if anyone in your party has a food allergy *consuming raw or undercook meat poultry seafood shellfish & eggs my increase risk of foodborne illness
@MAGOUNSSALOON OLDEMAGOUNSSALOON
magounssaloon.com|617 - 7 76 - 2 6 0 0 12
2.18.16 - 2.25.16
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2. Every time I order a Maine Beer Company Peeper Ale, I say “Pepper” instead. 3. The pay-to-play “scandal” has been fun to watch unravel. Everyone knows it’s been going on for a long time, and the recent decision against Craft Beer Guild is just the tip of the iceberg. What happens to the bar owners currently awaiting their judgement will also not change the fact that this practice existed and shouldn’t be a shock to anyone. 4. When I’m served an IPA in a tulip glass, I send it back.
Fri 2/19 8PM - Reunion Show 7:30PM
Courage Brothers Eddie Japan + Jenee Halstead The Band Band Chuck Reunion Show Amy Black Heavy Metal Horns 25th Anniversary Reunion 10PM
Sat 2/20 - Tribute to The Band 7:30PM
10PM
Fri 2/26 - (Songwriter, Soul, Country, Blues) 7PM
10PM
518 Medford St. Somerville
1. Session beer is not a fad, it’s a delicious lower-alcohol option for smart people.
17 Holland St., Davis Sq. Somerville (617) 776-2004 Directly on T Red Line at Davis
5. There are over 8,000 wineries in the US and not even 4,000 breweries, yet, according to a lot of people, the bubble is about to burst on the craft beer market. It certainly costs more and takes up more space to have a 40-line draught system with refrigeration than it would to carry 80 different brands of wine in a restaurant, but businesses can and should be creative and offer bottle and can lists that are smart and worthy. There’s still room to grow, in other words. 6. The return of the ball jar from the now-defunct Other Side Cafe in the form of the Bull Jar now available at Bull McCabe’s in Somerville is outstanding. Currently pouring is the Notch Pils. Additionally outstanding. 7. There’s a super secret beer week festival event coming up, but I can’t talk about it. 8. I receive a lot of beer mail. That is, beer arriving in the mail for me. I love it all, even if I don’t love all the beer that is mailed to me. One brand, however, stands out above and beyond the rest when it comes to sending samples and marketing swag. The Boston Beer Company. If you’re on their list, you know what I mean. However, it occurred to me that with such an impressive effort put toward these mailings, and assuming the list is enormous and touches all over the country and world, what can I possible say or provide for press that isn’t going to already be slathered all over the Interweb? Maybe I could write about the cool packages I receive every two weeks instead? Add a picture on top of this article too? I’m guessing no one has done that. 9. Jason and Todd Alstrom finally responded to my request for a comment regarding their press release effectively killing ACBF, but it was after we had gone to print, and I never updated the online article with it. Here’s their comment, in case you give a shit: “As per the FAQ, we simply felt it was time to switch things up. We’re really looking forward to the new, old-school concept, as well as possibly working with Harpoon again on a future project.” 10. Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project never brewed an inferior product. Gordon Wilcox acted like a dick and owes Dann Paquette an apology, but it will never happen.
Certified Beer Sniffers 9 2 H A MP S HIR E S T, CA MB 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
THE 5.4 MILLION AND COUNTING STITCH IN IS CRAFTIVISM AT ITS FINEST.
14
THU 2.18
FRI 2.19
SAT 2.20
SAT 2.20
SUN 2.21
MON 2.22
Cannibal Corpse @ Paradise Rock Club
Winter Party @ Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
5.4 Million and Counting Stitch In @ Washington Street Art
Ca$h for your Warhol w/ Kenji Nakayama LIVE painting
Dub Apocalypse @ Bull McCabe’s
Americana Showcase @ Loretta’s Last Call
“Death metal is an extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. It typically employs heavily distorted and low-tuned guitars, played with techniques such as palm muting and tremolo picking, deep growling vocals and screams, aggressive, powerful drumming featuring double kick or blast beat techniques, minor keys or atonality, abrupt tempo, key, and time signature changes and chromatic chord progressions. The lyrical themes of death metal may invoke slasher film-stylized violence, religion (sometimes Satanism), occultism, Lovecraftian horror, nature, mysticism, mythology, philosophy, science fiction, and politics, and they may describe extreme acts, including mutilation, dissection, torture, rape, cannibalism, and necrophilia.” - Wikipedia
Third Thursdays are always a good reason to suck it up and head out for something fun, different. The ISGM has your poison or potion depending on your take on things for how to kick off the weekend in style and substance. Art, live music and hands-on creativity, along with a cash bar, make this a great first date event or 326th date night outing, as long as you’re adventurous and willing to have a great time. if not, stay home or go to the local pub and so shots until your face falls off. But that’s silly so don’t so that. Go to ISGM instead and get real. Cool.
If you care about a woman’s right to choose and the United States Supreme Court hearing on March 2 that will directly and potentially adversely effect that, this is a cause and community effort that will directly have an impact on our future rights. Artist Chi Nguyen has created a series of “stitch-ins” that represent the woman who will lose access to safe and legal reproductive rights should SCOTUS decide against human rights and freedom. Fight the power one stitch at a time and support a cause that is more American than apple pie and Chevrolet will ever be. With each line representing a woman who could lose these very important rights, and potentially soon, we can’t wait to see what happens. We need to put the right to choose in motion, right now.
We’ve got a few Warhol’s lying around the office we’ve been meaning to pawn but it never dawned on us that we’d actually have a place to sell them at/to. Which is a good thing because this is a ruse and our Warhol’s are safe. What isn’t safe is your sanity if you neglect to pay a visit to this one of a kind pop-up shop and check out CFYW in all it’s glory. Kenji Nakayama will be in house on Saturday but come next Thursday, it’s down for the count and gone for good. Until the next time of course. Did I mention that you could still bring in your Warhol’s next Friday and get paid in cash if you sell them? Right...or...right?
I know I’ve written about this before and I’ll write about it again but it’s still the best dubbed out night this side of everywhere. Curated by my brethren Tommy B from John Brown’s Body, this ever rotating lineup of killer musicians led by Johnny Trama, Dana Colley, Timo Shanko and Van Martin, explores reggae, roots, blues, jazz and occasionally metal (wait, what?) in an always complex never complicated set of musical genius. Grab a Bull Jar and show up early because it fills up and stays late. Both of which are a plus for local music and your Monday morning excuse.
Americana is not exactly country for hipsters but don’t tell them that, it makes them feel better thinking it is, and it isn’t that far off. Regardless of what it is, it’s fucking cool and even cooler when the rubber meets the road. Loretta’s is the newest incarnation at 1 Lansdowne Street and finally one that actually has the potential to last through more than one Red Sox season. Country, and it’s bastard brother Americana, is here to stay and this Monday night series is legit. If you want to join in musically, email some music to info@ lorettaslastcall.com and sign up, or just show up and clap along. Either way, it’s a boot-knocking time that beats your currently boring Monday night bridge club.
Paradise Rock Club. 967 Comm. Ave., Boston. 6:30pm/all ages/$25 Do617. com
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum . 25 Evans Way, Boston. 5:30pm/All Ages/$15 gardnermuseum. org
Washington Street Art. 321 Washington St., Somerville. Noon/All Ages/FREE washingtonst.org
Ca$h for your Warhol. 1075 Cambridge St., Cambridge. 4pm/all ages/FREE. @ cash4yourwarhol
Bull McCabe’s. 366 Somerville Ave., Somerville. 10pm/21+s/FREE bullmccabesboston.com/
Loretta’s Last Call. 1 Lansdowne St., Boston. 7pm/21+/FREE lorettaslastcall.com/
2.18.16 - 2.25.16
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DIGBOSTON.COM
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
15
MUSIC
KING ARTHUR
Meet the man Kanye West, Allen Ginsberg, and Hot Chip bow down to
MUSIC
SWEET SPOT
Cherry Glazerr spills about its new album, jagged guitar style, and death row meals BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN Name a band whose name riffs on an NPR host. Here, let us help you: Cherry Glazerr. The California DIY power pop band loves garage rock and In-N-Out as much as it loves cracking witty jokes. When the group dropped its first release in 2013, it needed a moniker, so it riffed on the name of KCRW host Chery Glaser, the Morning Edition host for Southern California listeners. Some months later, she found out, and the band came on the show for a lengthy, buoyant interview—how could it not? The four—singer-guitarist Clementine Creevy, bassist Sean Redman, guitarist Sasami Ashworth, and drummer Tabor Allen—are just as silly when we speak over the phone as they were three years ago. Maybe it’s the natural result of being confined to a tour van. Maybe it’s their peak sugar-rush hour. Maybe they’re naturally that fun. I vote for the latter, but then again, I’m biased. Less than 20 seconds after answering my call, Creevy begins singing a play school rhyme modifying my name. During the whole minute-long, jumbled rant, her voice never drops below a chipper high note. Yeah, they’re definitely this fun around the clock. Musically, Cherry Glazerr’s music runs the gamut. Lyrics dance with the melody on softer cuts like “Teenage Girl” and spike toward a drugged-out punk anthem on “White’s Not My Color This Evening.” No matter what, there’s jagged guitar at its heart. It all comes back to Creevy’s guitar playing. Her board is lined with pedals, pairing distortion with delays, carefully building up a sound that’s distinctly hers. Mellow bar-chord verses roll through three-chord progressions, usually employing pentatonic scales. “People focus on my singing, my songwriting, my haircut, but they rarely focus on what guitars I’m using or the pedals I’m using and what chords are on one song,” she says. “That’s stuff I want to talk about more but people rarely ask about.” Last summer, Adult Swim released the group’s new single, “Sip ’O Poison,” for free. It’s a total shift into high gear with spastic drums, thunderous bass, and vocals on the brink of a mental breakdown. Put simply, it’s hardcore punk à la Kathleen Hanna. Turns out the upcoming album may be more in line with that style than its older material. “It’s less lo-fi jangle pop and more of a hard-driving rock record,” says Creevy. “We actually rerecorded ‘Sip ’O Poison’ to be on the album … with a guitar solo!” They go back and forth about the progress of the yet-untitled record—it’s 60 percent done, and if all goes according to plan, it may come out this fall—with a slight bit of nervousness. All that’s left is overdubbing, mixing, mastering, and organizing the artwork. “Last record was a bunch of demos that I strung together as a 14-year-old girl who didn’t know they were going to get popular,” says Creevy, who is now 18 years old, whereas the rest of the band members are in their mid-20s. “Essentially, I want this next record to look like the full album experience with a cohesive message. It’s definitely harder and rougher than before, partly because we recorded it over five days. It’s a lot of rawness mixed with stamina.” A huge part of the new sound comes from the departure of drummer Hannah Uribe this past fall. “I guess I’ve been preparing for this question for months now,” Creevy laughs, a bit nervous to answer. “I love her; I always will. I fully support her with her future music-making, and I’m sure that’s vice versa, but people grow and evolve and change. Now I’m not carrying a weight anymore. Every member of the band carries their own weight and then some. It’s more collaborative now. Sasami and Tabor are professionals,” she says. There’s a moment of silence and the rest of the band laughs. “Oh yeah, and Sean is cool, too.” >> BEST COAST, WAVVES, CHERRY GLAZERR. FRI-SAT 2.19-2.20. ROYALE, 279 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. 6PM/ALL AGES/$25. ROYALEBOSTON.COM READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW ONLINE AT DIGBOSTON.COM.
Hours after taking over Madison Square Garden to perform his The Life of Pablo in full, Kanye West released a new single. The song, titled “30 Hours,” rides a minimal rhythm section through semi-distorted, lo-fi mastering, offering up the type of low-key sampling that elevates some of Kanye’s best songs: “Heard ’Em Say,” “Runaway,” “Everything I Am.” He raps over another man’s vocals, but unlike “Lost In The Woods,” the background singing is cool, sullen, mysterious. It’s not flaunting chords or trying to impress. Whoever this man is, he’s not looking to outshine Kanye, but in many ways, he already has; if we’re being honest, he always will, even if he would have been too modest to admit so. That’s Arthur Russell. “Answers Me,” the song sampled on “30 Hours,” comes from Russell’s phenomenal World of Echo. The 1986 full-length stands on the voice of soul—not R&B soul, not vintage soul, but once-ina-lifetime individualistic, bare-bones confessional, late-at-nightwhen-you-can’t-sleep honest soul. There’s magic to that song just like there’s magic in the whole album. Arthur Russell is a secret legend. Kanye knows that. Picking “Answers Me,” one of the singer’s more surly songs, makes that much clear. After all, World of Echo is the only non-collaborative studio album recorded, organized, and published by Arthur Russell while he was still alive. If you aren’t familiar with the guy, say hello. Arthur Russell had too many ties to music to pick a single title. He was a cellist, a composer, a producer, a singer, and an Iowan-turned-New Yorker whom many called a friend. Though Russell is most famous for his contributions to minimalism and disco, his catalog runs deeper than that. His days studying North Indian classical music and Western composition prepared him to rule New York’s underground avantgarde scene. In the years that followed, he collaborated with Philip Glass, Talking Heads, Allen Ginsberg, Steve Reich, Bootsy Collins, and more, writing down every note and melody that passed through his head. Then, as sudden as an expected death can be, he passed away from AIDS in 1992. He was 40 years old. It’s strange to realize Russell was, for the most part, relatively unknown during his lifetime. He struggled to make an income. He frequented dancefloors but didn’t dress up for them. Hundreds of musicians and listeners alike have stumbled across his music following his death, be it because of his posthumous albums like Another Thought and Calling Out of Context or the sea of modernday musicians who cover his work like Sufjan Stevens, Robyn, Hot Chip, and Jose Gonzalez. It’s not uncommon to see musicians from folk, dance, and pop worlds referencing him as an influence. As the scroll begins to lengthen, his role in music solidifies itself once again, begging the question: Who hasn’t Arthur Russell inspired? As hearty as “30 Hours” is, there’s no need to feel wronged by Kanye sampling Arthur Russell, nor is there any reason to be embarrassed if that’s your introduction to the guy. Exposing the rich history of underground music and its spotlight-dodging musicians is one of the most exciting parts of covers, sampling, and blindly flipping through YouTube clips. No matter what people say, Kanye isn’t breaking an unknown artist from years forgotten. Kanye’s adding his hand to the pile of hands that have been stretching out in Russell’s direction for decades, a sport-team-like pileup, to help him walk deeper into his own musical rebirth. Each year, Russell receives more nods and covers, and each year, a new pool of people hears his work for the first time. “30 Hours” is a well-written single that carefully crafts a new introduction. The best part is that Kanye chose his sample well. Doesn’t he always?
MUSIC EVENTS THU 2.18
POP PUNK, EXTRA GRIT ON THE SIDE THE LOVED ONES + CAYETANA + MIKEY ERG
[Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$16. sinclaircambridge.com]
16
2.18.16 - 2.25.16
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FRI 2.19
SUN 2.21
MON 2.22
[O’Briens Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston. 8pm/21+/$8. obrienspubboston.com]
[O’Brien’s Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston. 8pm/18+/$10. obrienspubboston.com]
[House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston. 6pm/all ages/$37.50. houseofblues.com]
PSYCHEDELIC GROOVES OH MALO + BAT HOUSE + QUARRELS + WEAKENED FRIENDS
DIGBOSTON.COM
A NIGHT OF TWANGY FOLK JUAN WAUTERS + TALL JUAN + ANDY SADOWAY + BEEEF
THE REAL PROGRESSIVE PARTY COHEED AND CAMBRIA + GLASSJAW
TUE 2.23
SLUDGE BOYS IN A GARBAGE WORLD DINOCZAR + FUTURE SPA + RYE PINES + DRUG DOGS + SHALLOW END DIVERS [Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 7pm/all ages/$10. mideastoffers.com]
WED 2.24
FUZZIFIED MIDWEEK BLUES LVL UP + FLORIST + KAL MARKS + BRITTLE BRIAN
[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/$10. greatscottboston.com]
CHERRY GLAZERR PHOTO BY RHYAN SANTOS AND TYLER SPANGLE
BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN
Boston’s Best Irish Pub
512 Mass. Ave. Central Sq. Cambridge, MA 617-576-6260 phoenixlandingbar.com
FRI 2/19
MATRIXXX GLEB SAMOYLOFF
OF AGATA KRISTI SAT 2/20 - CROSSROADS PRESENTS
SAFETYSUIT
THU 2/18 - CRUSH PRESENTS
50% OFF FOOD MENU MONDAY - THURSDAY DINE IN ONLY 5-7PM MONDAYS
INDUSTRY NIGHT 50% OFF ALL FOOD (NO TIME LIMIT, UNTIL KITCHEN CLOSES AT 10)
LIVE MUSIC @ 9PM SPACE AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE PARTIES CALL TODAY FOR $300 OFF
MAKE RESERVATIONS AT ZUZUDINING.COM 474 MASSACHUSETTS AVE CENTRAL SQ., CAMBRIDGE 617-864-3278
DIRT MONKEY & JANTSEN
FRI 2/19 - ILLEGALLY BLIND PRES.
THE MONSIEURS THE BARBAZONS SAT 2/20
THE LAWN BOYS “A TRIBUTE TO PHISH” SAT 2/20
SOULELUJAH! SUN 2/21
PEOPLE LIKE YOU THE SYMPTOMS ANJIMILE TUES 2/23
DINOCZAR
FUTURE SPA RYE PINES WED 2/24 - ILLEGALLY BLIND PRES.
THE FURNITURE EP RELEASE THURS 2/25
DIRTY CHOCOLATE [MOVING CASTLE]
MONDAYS
TUESDAYS
WEDNESDAYS
MAKKA MONDAY
TWOOSDAY
GEEKS WHO DRINK
14+yrs every Monday night, Bringing oots, Reggae & Dancehall unes 21+, 10PM - 1AM
19+, 8PM DOORS, $5
FEB 9
CROSSWALK ANARCHY, ALLBE
FEB 16
ALLBE, JUICE
Free Trivia Pub Quiz from 7:30PM - 9:30PM
RE:SET
WEDNESDAYS
Weekly Dance arty, ouse, Disco, echno, ocal & nternational D ’s 19+, 10PM - 1AM
THURSDAYS
FRIDAYS
SATURDAYS
ELEMENTS
PRETTY YOUNG THING
BOOM BOOM ROOM
15+ Years of Resident Drum & Bass Bringing some of the worlds biggest DnB D ’s to Cambridge 19+, 10PM - 2AM
’s ld School & op Dance hits 21+, 10PM - 2AM
’s, ’s, ’s ne Hit Wonders 21+, 10PM - 2AM
THE BEST ENTERTAINMENT IN CAMBRIDGE 7 DAYS A WEEK!
1/2 PRICED APPS DAILY 5 - 7PM RUGBY WORLD CUP SHOWN LIVE, STARTING ON SEPTEMBER 17TH WATCH EVERY SOCCER GAME! 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
DOC’S ORDERS
Spring programming at the DocYard BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN Any history of nonfiction cinema requires a chapter on the city of Boston, if not an entire volume. When it comes to actually exhibiting such films, however, the city will always be outflanked; all you have to do is compare our theater listings to New York and see that we maintain a relative scarcity of screens. But thanks to programs like the DocYard—which was launched roughly six years ago by a number of individuals involved in the revered Camden Film Festival (another integral part of the New England nonfiction film community) and has hosted screenings of nonfiction movies (almost always with filmmakers and/or crew present for Q&A sessions) ever since—Boston gets to claim worldclass status on the exhibition front as well. The finished works may leave for film festivals first, but they always come back. The DocYard just recently began its spring ’16 program at the Brattle Theatre and has announced the lineup for the rest of the season as well. There’s no unifying thematic or formal principle that ties the films together; quite the opposite—the gloriously eclectic programming displays nonfiction filmmaking in all its wideranging shapes and sizes. Some of the films take an anthropological approach (Democrats [screens Mon 3.7], by director Camilla Nielsson, is one such film—it dispassionately watches the creation of a new Zimbabwean constitution), while others are less detached (if you listen closely during certain scenes of High on Crack Street [Mon 5.2], you can hear the filmmakers directing their subject’s actions). Some of the films function as journalism (T(error) [Mon 3.21] documents an instance of government agents sloppily entrapping a so-called terrorist and purports that such trumped-up charges are all too common), while others eschew comprehension in favor of experimental aesthetics (Counting [Mon 4.11], by director Jem Cohen, is a highly expressive chapter-based travelogue with a cited debt to Chris Marker). Nor are films restricted to feature length: Short pieces will precede every feature-length film, and one evening will be dedicated to Field of Vision [Mon 3.28], a “visual journalism film unit” co-created by AJ Schnack, Charlotte Cook, and Citizenfour director Laura Poitras that will be exhibiting a number of their own short-form works. This is all to say that a season spent visiting the DocYard’s screenings can’t help but stress the imposing enormity of the nonfiction form itself, a shape-shifting and self-inquiring beast that ebbs and flows and evolves as surely as any other art. We took an early look at two features with local ties: One traveled the world in search of difficult facts, and the other hoped to find some in our own backyard.
CONTAINMENT - Screens Mon 2.22, 7PM
There’s a trip to Japan during Containment where we hear the comments of a man who’s been displaced by the effects of the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima. He will be the first in generations to leave his family’s land, lest the radiation take him as it’s already taken the region’s timber. Another stop in that nation lets us see stone markers, erected many generations prior, that warn future inhabitants of the potential for destructive tsunamis. The marker is an intergenerational command: Don’t build your homes below this rock. Containment investigates and documents the process by which scientists and futurists aimed to solve a related question: What do we do with millions upon millions of gallons of radioactive waste, all of which may be active for as many as 10,000 years? What’s needed is a modern stone marker—and nobody can erect the type that can weather a 10,000-year storm. The picture is directed by Peter Galison (a professor of the history of science and of physics at Harvard University) and Robb Moss (a professor and chair of the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard and oft-cited as a primary influence by the filmmakers who graduate from that program). It’s edited by Chyld King (whose previous credits include work for Errol Morris) and features animation by Peter Kuper and David Lobser (illustrating some of the far-future scenarios that need to be considered, such as “what if, in the future, underground robot drillers unknowingly cause a leak of buried radioactive waste?”). It traverses the globe to find obliquely interconnected subjects—citizens suffering fallout near Fukushima; others living along the coast of a plutonium well in Burke County, GA; the development in Carlsbad, NM, of the first plant designed to permanently dispose of nuclear waste—and presents nuclear waste as an issue that transcends politics. The concept of it damaging a future on Earth is so likely, Containment suggests, that the threat is now purely existential. The idea is that nuclear power and its resultant waste are now a constant facet of the planet and as such will be tied to the human condition as intrinsically as the act of eating lunch. Editing shifts us between the various lanes in an associative manner, often connecting the macro side (design work on the Carlsbad-set Waste Isolation Pilot Plant or lawmakers speaking about the bureaucratic requirements and impediments to storing and disposing of nuclear waste) to the micro side (the effect of nuclear power on people who live in close proximity to these facilities, including the effects on trees and turtles) and then on to the future (experts speaking about potential scenarios for a radiation leak between now and 12,000 AD or scientists speaking about the more general risks regarding nuclear storage and exposure). The animation steps in when the future arrives, realizing some of the techniques devised for long-term “warning signs.” All the thoughtful structuring renders Containment as an expansive inquiry into a particularly specific topic, marked by authorial voices both soulful and unassuming. As a citizen, you’re scared and angered by it. As a human, it’s humility and shame.
HIGH ON CRACK STREET: LOST LIVES IN LOWELL - Monday 5.2, 7PM
An hour-long piece originally produced for HBO’s “America Undercover” series, Crack Street—directed in 1995 by Jon Alpert, Maryann De Leo, and Lowell resident Richard Farrell—receives a 20th anniversary screening at the tail end of the spring season. Cobbled together from 18 month’s worth of footage, it follows three self-described crack addicts through sadly typical plights. Brenda, a part-time sex worker, desperately needs an abortion but keeps procrastinating until it’s too late. Boo Boo, who’s built like a carnival barker and is convinced he’s the father of Brenda’s child, envelops himself further into a mutually abusive relationship with her. And Dicky Eklund—brother of boxer Micky Ward, and yes, this is the documentary recreated and depicted in The Fighter—just works to keep himself out of jail and on his favorite fix. The film takes a directinterview approach, often edited to showcase the bleakest and most grotesque moments of revelation that can’t help but veer toward the salacious. But even just as a record of a time and place, this is compulsively fascinating footage: the smokescratched slang, the dirt-caked pastel furniture, the odd frozen-in-time feel—old homes, old bridges, old shops—of a oncethriving industrial town now devoid of its raison d’etre. It’s enough to remind you that nonfiction cinema is an essential element of our cultural heritage, whether the subject is the future of our species or merely the plastic-bottle crack pipe hidden underneath the couch cushions.
>> THE DOCYARD SELLS SEASON PASSES TO ITS SCREENINGS AT THEDOCYARD.COM. SEE WEBSITE FOR FULL SCHEDULE AND OTHER INFORMATION.
FILM EVENTS FRI 2.19
ONE LAST LOONEY TUNES PROGRAM LOONEY TUNES REVUE
[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. Noon and 2pm/NR/$9-11. 35mm. Also screens 2.21. brattlefilm.org]
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STANLEY KUBRICK’S DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB
[Museum of Fine Arts. 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. 5pm/PG/$9-11. Also screens on 2.21. 35mm.]
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‘HIGHWAYS TO HELL,’ DOUBLE FEATURE DUEL and DEATH VALLEY [Coolidge Corner Theatre. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/PG and R/$11.25. 16mm. coolidge.org]
SAT 2.20
MON 2.22
[Harvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 4:30pm/NR/ $12. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]
[Harvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/NR/$7-9. 35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/ hfa]
DIRECTORS JOANA HADJITHOMAS AND KHALIL JOREIGE IN PERSON THE LEBANESE ROCKET SOCIETY
‘INNOCENCE ABROAD’ CONTINUES WITH AUDREY HEPBURN IN FUNNY FACE
WED 2.24
ALSO STANLEY KUBRICK’S BARRY LYNDON
[Museum of Fine Arts. 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. 6:30pm/PG/ $9-11. Also screens on 2.25. 35mm.]
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SOMETHING WONDERFUL A conversation with Kelli O’Hara BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS
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The finest musical theater performer of her generation, Tony winner Kelli O’Hara is taking a day off from her Tony-winning run in The King and I to come to Cambridge’s Sanders Theatre for an intimate one-night engagement, presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston. As she nears the end of her run in The King and I (you have until April 17th to see her), O’Hara spoke with me about her transition from ingénue to leading lady, making magic with Harry Connick Jr., and her thoughts on winning the Tony. Why is it important to you to go out and do concerts in the midst of your King and I run? Well, I mean for many, many reasons on both sides. One side is that you do a wonderful show like The King and I, that I’m so grateful for, but you need a little break to remind yourself of what other songs you’re able to sing. [laughs] But also, I especially love these concert/master class combos at universities because they really feed me.
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You went from playing an ingénue in Piazza to literally having the best chemistry—and the hottest ticket—on Broadway with Harry Connick Jr. in The Pajama Game. What was that transition like? The fact that it worked out as well as it did is something that I’ll always breathe a big sigh of relief about. Leaving Piazza was really, really hard but I’ll tell you exactly why I was doing it: I knew when I did Piazza that I was at the end of my ingénue run in my heart and in my physical body. At the time, I was really, really anxious to start planting my feet and start being a woman. I knew that if I went to do The Pajama Game and if it went well that I would have graduated into a different kind of role, and that’s exactly what happened. Thank God for that! Who knew that The Pajama Game would be so sexy and exciting after all those years? [laughs] Exactly! I mean, Harry and I, and we talk about this a lot, we didn’t go after this idea that we would try to create some sort of crazy chemistry. It’s just that once we started having fun, and because he’s so unafraid of music and what to do with music, it was really the fun we were having with the music more than anything that was driving it. We had a blast every single night on that stage. How have things changed for you since you won the Tony? Does it put more pressure on you? Everyday feels a little differently. I try not to put any pressure on myself about it. It felt really, really wonderful to win. If I sat around and thought about it, I could think a lot of things that might not be healthy about it, like, “Did I just win because this,” or, “I won because I’m awesome.” You can’t really do that to yourself; you can’t go in either direction. I’m really, really grateful for it. And that’s about all. What’s next for you? You know, I’ve made the really difficult decision, once again, to not take an eight-show-a-week schedule for a minute. I don’t know how long that is. It’s not forever. I say a minute because I have no idea how long. Enjoy your time in Boston. Your one short day. [laughs] My one day. I will, I love Boston. I’m looking forward to coming. >> AN EVENING WITH KELLI O’HARA. 2.28 @ 7 PM. SANDERS THEATRE, 45 QUINCY ST., CAMBRIDGE. CELEBRITYSERIES.ORG/KELLIOHARA
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SAVAGE LOVE
BLUMKINS FOR EVERYONE!
WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM
BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET Why would you call blumkins “sexist”? Are you excluding the idea that gay, bi, and trans people might participate? There are many sexual practices that are degrading. If the partner consents, how is it “sexist”? Lastly, have you considered that a heterosexual female may want a blumkin of her own? I’m a heterosexual male, and I have no idea how you could defecate and remain erect—but to each his own! Your answer was irrational and sexist! The Problem Isn’t Always Sexism Go to Urban Dictionary and read every definition for “blumkin,” TPIAS. There are nine of them. We’ll wait. While almost all of the proposed definitions—including the top one—are gendered (“Taking a nice shit while your woman is sucking your cock”), even definitions that aren’t gendered (“Getting a blowjob while taking a stinky shit”) include examples of usage that are gendered (“Anthony really enjoyed it when Christy gave him a blumkin last night”). While a gay dude could suck his man’s cock while he was taking a stinky shit, and while a trans man could go eat his cis girlfriend’s pussy while she was dropping a deuce, the whole conversation about blumkins—and since blumkins are mythical, TPIAS, the convo is all we’ve got—isn’t about consensual degrading sex play. It’s about the symbolic degradation of women. And that’s sexist. It’s like gerbiling: Everyone has a butthole, anyone can walk into a pet store and buy a gerbil, paper-towel tubes are everywhere. But gerbiling is always described as a gay sex act. The fact that straight, bi, asexual, or even deceased people could theoretically have their asses gerbiled doesn’t make joking about gerbiling not homophobic. The anatomical technicality doesn’t exonerate gerbiling. Same goes for blumkins. So my ruling is final: Joking about gerbiling is homophobic (but funny if done right), just as joking about blumkins is sexist (ditto). On the Lovecast, Dan and writer Ephi Stempler discuss companionate marriage: savagelovecast. com.
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