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HEADLINING THIS WEEK! i l l e t a c s e P y m m Ta Fri+Sat
VOL 18 + ISSUE 13
MARCH 31, 2016 - APRIL 7, 2016 EDITORIAL
DEAR READER
EDITOR + PUBLISHER Jeff lawrence
Hopefully you’re reading this while sitting outside on a park bench or sipping a beer on the patio at a local bar, taking in the spring sun. While I’m sure there’s still an outside chance we could see a snowstorm in April, the cold short days of winter are behind us, and all that lies ahead is a sea of warmer weather and an eventual avalanche of bitching and moaning that it’s too damn hot. That’s how it works around here now. The spring and fall seasons seem to be shorter every year, and we get to complain about the cold and hot temperatures in between. Thankfully, this past winter was a big pussy, and it never really got to a point worth complaining about. That bodes well for the warmer months, I think. Or probably not. We love to bitch about the weather in Boston regardless. As the flowers start to bloom and the pants turn to shorts, the city starts to come alive with more outdoor arts and entertainment, be it a music festival or a rooftop patio bar. We’ll do our best to talk about these and plenty of other goings-on. For now, though, rip into this week’s issue and check out Joshua Eaton’s feature, part three in a series on transnationalism in Boston, as well as Jake Mulligan’s dude fest on the latest Linklater flick, Nina Corcoran’s cover feature on Savages, and a host of other top-notch content that you won’t find anywhere else under the early spring sun.
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Dear Moo Cow, You use to give me all the damn milk, moo cow. I’d come back to the ranch after peddling fish at the market all day, and you’d let those teets run like a symphony of faucets. I’d tweet about your teets. But lately you’re beginning to dry up, or maybe you’re just saving it all up for another farmer. I’ve suspected that something is wrong in our relationship for a while now, but as long as my milk cup runneth over I’m ashamed to say I didn’t think to mention it. My uncle says that moo cow without milk is steak cow, whatever that means. Please just milk again for me moo cow. This cereal ain’t the same without your booby juice.
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NEWS US PROSPER & GAMBLE NEWS TO US
General Electric’s Boston charm offensive presents dilemma for Boston nonprofits, others General Electric is back on top of the Boston news cycle again. CEO Jeffrey Immelt made the rounds of pressers in person last week, starting with the announcement of a new 2.5 acre GE headquarters site—to be purchased from Procter & Gamble and carved out of their 44 acre Gillette campus. Right on the Fort Point Channel across from South Station and the main Boston post office. After refurbishing two former NECCO buildings on the site and erecting a new third building in the current parking lot, the company expects to spend $80-100 million on the complex. However, the plot of the GE Boston Deal has thickened once again. It turns out that part of the promised $145 million in tax breaks and direct aid to the company from Boston and Massachusetts will only be possible because the Boston Redevelopment Authority plans to purchase the NECCO buildings and lease them back to GE. Neat trick for a much-hated neighborhood-destroying planning agency that only just got a six-year lease on life from the Boston City Council on Tuesday. Over the protests of the three councilors with any spine on the issue: Tito Jackson, Ayanna Pressley and Josh Zakim. No word yet about why Boston needs to spend an additional $100 million to repair the Old Northern Avenue Bridge at GE’s behest now that the multinational will be sited right near two perfectly functional bridges further up the channel. Or why the state has to throw in another $25 million to make the area around the new headquarters plot more pretty. But Mayor Marty Walsh and Gov. Charlie Baker will no doubt be able to explain that to us in the near future. Or perhaps not. On Thursday, Immelt gave a speech to the Boston College Chief Executives Club at the Boston Harbor Hotel. Which raised more questions than it answered. Some of his more noteworthy offerings follow: “And we think by the time it’s all said and done there should be, you know, let’s say 4,000 jobs around the ecosystem in Boston.” [WCVB video] OK, so we know that 800 jobs that will be in the new headquarters will be almost entirely white collar and many jobs will simply be transplanted from GE’s current headquarters in Fairfield, Conn. So what are the other 3,200 jobs that will be conjured into existence by the company’s presence? After all, this is a corporation that has destroyed tens of thousands of good working class jobs in Massachusetts in the last few decades. But fingers crossed, one supposes. “We’re going to give back to the community. Just take my word for this. We’re going to give back, for any dollar that you think was invested in GE being here—and there are a lot of places we could have gone other than here—you will get back a thousand fold.” [WCVB video] Take his word for it? Let’s do the math. So, $145 million in the main state 4
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and city giveaway. Another $125 million or so in the “Make Fort Point Super Awesome for GE” package, again from the state and city. That’s over $270 million. Times 1,000. Then we can expect $270 billion for Boston and Massachusetts out of this deal?! Sweet!!! Will that be cash or credit?! No checks though. Not from these characters. “More recently we’ve worked on community health and even more recently we’ve focused on employability. We like to do things where it’s more than money. You’ll have hundreds of GE people that are mentoring in schools …” [BBJ] Yeeeeeah ... General Electric absolutely does not like to do things where it’s “more than money.” They like to make money. And more money. And screw anyone that stands in their way. Lovely attitude to instill in school kids, right? Still, this brings up an interesting discussion. Even before the impressive walkout of Boston Public School students a couple of weeks back, GE must have been perfectly well aware that Massholes across the political spectrum are furious about the millions in free public money being shoveled into their coffers. And they’re also well aware that Boston, where they are just setting up shop, is a city that rose up to smash the deal for the Boston 2024 Olympics—a very similar boondoggle—last year. So we can be sure that Immelt and his crew are going to start spreading money around to local community nonprofits. Especially social justice organizations that are likely to spearhead the fightback against the GE Boston Deal. Given that GE will certainly increase its local donations, that presents a moral dilemma to Boston area nonprofits: Will they take this tainted money?
Will they accept funds from a multinational corporation that is quite literally part of the reason that we have such an unequal society with so much poverty and immiseration? Are they willing to sell themselves so cheaply? Moreover, are Boston-area residents willing to continue to work with nonprofits that would be willing to take money from GE? One way to find out is to shine the light of public attention on the matter and see what transpires. So if you hear about a Boston area nonprofit that knowingly took money from GE—directly, or through a front group— drop me a line at jason@binjonline.org. If your info checks out, I’ll add the organization to a public list. Let’s call it a Naughty List. And then we’ll see how much its community continues to support it. By the same token, if you know about an area nonprofit that did not take money GE offered them, definitely contact me and I’ll put it on a Nice List. Now that I think about it, I can add politicians to the Naughty List and the Nice List, too. And business leaders. And academics. And journalists. I tell you, it’ll be like Christmas in July. Just not for the collaborators. Welcome to Boston, GE. Apparent Horizon is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Jason Pramas is BINJ’s network director.
COPYRIGHT 2016 JASON PRAMAS. LICENSED FOR USE BY THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM AND MEDIA OUTLETS IN ITS NETWORK.
BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS
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NEWS
WE COULD LOSE THIS BIG LIES emerge against legal marijuana in Mass BY ANDY GAUS
For the past few weeks, opponents of legalization have been piling on. A nowinfamous op-ed by the Commonwealth’s governor, attorney general, and most powerful mayor in the Boston Globe. The report of the state Senate committee on marijuana. A declaration of the Massachusetts Hospital Organization. Against, against, against. Arguments range from the anticipated evils of Big Marijuana (apparently the only kind of business that shouldn’t be big) to the dangers of edibles. But two arguments—both equally spurious—stand out as candidates for the Big Lie treatment in the coming campaign. 1. “Legal marijuana will be more available to minors.” More available than the current 100 percent? Well, perhaps a few minors can’t get ahold of any weed, but if so, it’s because they have no friends. Kids themselves, when surveyed, respond that alcohol is harder to get than marijuana because it’s sold in stores where they check ID. But what do the kids themselves know about what is and isn’t available to them? Surely not as much as our wise legislators. 2. “We already have an opioid crisis, we don’t want marijuana too.” This, of course, is also the opposite of the truth. Cannabis therapy is one of the principal alternatives to opioids, and the availability of medical cannabis has been shown to lower opioid deaths by 25 percent in states that have implemented medical marijuana (which, of course, doesn’t include Massachusetts). This line of falsification is particularly disappointing coming from a governor who has publicly vowed to fight the opioid epidemic with every tool at his disposal—except, apparently, cannabis. We can’t let prohibitionists create the vague feeling that legal marijuana “just isn’t safe.” We need to counter loud and strong—and soon—that marijuana is safer than alcohol and legalization is safer than prohibition. And so, to my colleagues at MassCann, our allies at the Committee to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol and other interested parties, I offer, royalty-free, the following slogans, suitable for billboards, bumper stickers and hand-lettered signs, not to mention sound bites and protest chants: MARIJUANA—SAFER THAN ALCOHOL LEGAL MARIJUANA WITH AGE REGULATIONS—SAFER FOR OUR KIDS TAKE MARIJUANA SALES OFF STREET CORNERS: LEGAL MARIJUANA—SAFER FOR OUR NEIGHBORHOODS LEGAL, REGULATED MARIJUANA—SAFER FOR CONSUMERS CANNABIS THERAPY—SAFER THAN OPIOIDS LEGAL MARIJUANA—SAFER THAN PROHIBITION Polls in Massachusetts have shown majorities for legalization, but that could be eroded if opponents create a thick enough smog of fear and uncertainty. If our side doesn’t come hammering back with the theme that legalization makes us safer, our prospects in November aren’t safe either. Andy Gaus is a Massachusetts-based cannabis advocate and a member of MassCann-NORML.
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APPARENT HORIZON
WHY ARE SO FEW ‘HIGH SCHOOL QUIZ SHOW’ CONTESTANTS BLACK?
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WGBH’s “High School Quiz Show” is great. So great that adults like me watch it on purpose regularly. And that’s why I’ve noticed something problematic about the show over the past few years. There are very few Black (or Latino) contestants. Which is really weird. Because there are lots of Black students in Boston. And in a number of other Massachusetts cities as well. Take a look at High School Quiz Show’s Facebook photos, and Instagram page, and YouTube page. Look for Black students over the seasons that WGBH has documented. Those who you see mainly appear during the program’s annual Super Sunday—where teams from 120 high schools try out for the next season. But the teams with Black students on them generally don’t make the cut for the show. Why? Structural racism. And how does structural racism determine who shows up on “High School Quiz Show” every year? Because structural racism leads to educational inequality. Let’s take a look in broad strokes. People with access to good jobs, housing, schools, and social supports have similar outcomes intellectually. But Black families nationwide, and Boston is absolutely no exception to this, continue to struggle more than their white counterparts economically and politically. Without rehearsing the entire history of racism in America, Black families since World War I did not benefit from the major federal social programs that enabled huge numbers of white families to move up from the working class to the middle class ... and beyond. Especially Federal Housing Authority loans that were targeted to new suburban developments that were kept lily white by use of racially restrictive covenants—which said that properties could only be sold to white people. Keeping Black families out of most white neighborhoods, towns and cities into the 1960s. Suburban towns also passed zoning that stopped the building of multifamily dwellings—that is, apartment buildings—and tried to minimize housing construction of any kind in the richest towns. Making them accessible only to those who could afford to live there, even as major victories by the Civil Rights Movement finally made it possible for Black workers to move into better jobs across all economic sectors and for more Black families to start to move into the middle class. Today, mainly white suburban realtors, lenders and insurers continue to discriminate against Black renters and homebuyers. With the result that quite a few towns and cities outside of Boston remain almost entirely white. And quite wealthy. With many large expensive homes, these wealthy—and some middle class— suburban towns also have an impressively robust property tax base from which to fund excellent public schools. And wealthy parents kick in extra money to provide world class facilities for those schools—amenities that are completely absent from urban public schools. Plus they are able to send their kids to special after-school training programs and summer camps. Giving their children opportunities to excel academically that most urban kids simply do not have. Add to those points the fact that since the 1960s, top students from East Asia and South Asia have been attending Boston universities in significant numbers, finding jobs in the professions here, and making enough money to move to the suburbs opened up to people of color with money by the Civil Rights Movement. Which remain off-limits to the vast majority of Black families that have been kept in redlined urban neighborhoods (even after suburbanites killed rent control), sold subprime mortgages on terrible terms for the houses they can buy there, and are still facing vicious discrimination in the job market. Ensuring they don’t make decent money or build capital as white families have been able to do for decades. And keeping them out of expensive white suburbs. Forty years later, that’s how you get your typical “High School Quiz Show” team. From elite public and private suburban high schools in towns like Sudbury, Wellesley, Sharon, and Andover. Made up almost entirely of white and Asian students. Regarding potential remedies for this particular manifestation of structural racism, there aren’t any easy ones. One suggestion, though. The “High School Quiz Show” FAQ currently says: “It is strongly recommended that teams include both male and female students.” Maybe amend that to conclude: “... and be as racially diverse as possible”? That would be a good start. Apparent Horizon is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Jason Pramas is BINJ’s network director.
COPYRIGHT 2016 JASON PRAMAS. LICENSED FOR USE BY THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM AND MEDIA OUTLETS IN ITS NETWORK.
BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS
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THE DISAFFECTION FEATURE
OF
TIBETAN ELECTIONS Part III in ‘A Higher Allegiance: The Rise of a Transnational Identity in Boston’s Immigrant Communities,’ a BINJ series
Lhadolma Sherpa wasn’t bothered by the rain on Boston Common as she led fellow Tibetans in chants of “China lies, Tibetans die” and “China lies, the UN listens.”
It was March 10—Tibetan Uprising Day, the anniversary of a 1959 revolt against Chinese rule. Around 200 Tibetans and their supporters were marching in laps around the Common, holding signs and chanting slogans to raise awareness about the dire situation in Tibet. “I’m just trying to voice my support for all the 6 million [Tibetans inside Tibet] who can’t speak up for their basic human rights,” Sherpa said. “Even holding a Tibetan flag, you can land in prison for that.” In Boston and across the country, Tibetan Americans are queueing up to vote in presidential primaries and looking ahead to November. But on March 20, they also cast ballots in an election for the Tibetan government in exile, based in India. It was a way of asserting their Tibetan identity and maintaining their culture, many said. The two elections also prove that nationality isn’t a choice—that Tibetan and American can exist fully, side by side. “I feel like it’s our duty as a Tibetan. Not just being in Tibet. Anywhere in the world. Just the fact that you have the right to vote, you have to,” Sherpa says. At the same time, both elections have posed a challenge to the political establishment, and both
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have exposed divides between the older and younger generations. Tibetans from around Greater Boston gathered at Kurukulla Center for Tibetan Buddhist Studies in Medford on Sunday, March 20, to cast their ballots. The three-story yellow-and-gold house is an important cultural center for the local Tibetan community, with members often coming to pray and light candles or to attend community events. They were voting for two open positions in the exile government: the prime minister and a representative from the Americas. The current prime minister of the exile Tibetan government, Lobsang Sangye, graduated from Harvard Law School and lived in Boston for many years. He ran for re-election against Penpa Tsering, the current speaker of the exile Tibetan parliament. Thinley Ghopantsang of Somerville walked alone in the rainy Tibetan Uprising Day march. Speaking over the protest chants, he said it’s important for Tibetans living in exile to exercise democratic rights that don’t exist in their homeland. “As Tibetans, we want to be able to freely express our opinions and thoughts in directing our country toward what we want to achieve,” said Ghopantsang, a 45-year-old construction company owner. “I believe holding a free form of election is very important to do that.” The Dalai Lama set up the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) in Dharamsala, India, after he fled Tibet in 1959. It provides social services for Tibetan refugees and lobbies the international community. But
China refuses to negotiate with the CTA, speaking only with the Dalai Lama’s direct representatives. Still, many Tibetans feel that the CTA represents them, according to Kaydor Aukatsang, the Dalai Lama’s representative to the Americas. “It’s the closest thing we have to a government in exile,” Aukatsang says. “So it represents the aspirations and the hopes of not just the 150,000 Tibetans in exile, but also the people inside Tibet, where the majority are.” After the March 10 rally, high school friends Tenzin Phunkhang, Tenzin Thoulutsang, and Wangden Nangpa huddled in a circle. They were excited about this year’s presidential primary, when they’re voting for the first time. Asked who they support, all three said “Bernie” enthusiastically. That’s Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who’s built his campaign for the Democratic nomination on appealing to young voters. “He’s really progressive, and he doesn’t take money from companies like Wall Street,” Nangpa, an 18-yearold senior at Medford High School, said of Sanders. “He’s just honest and he gives off that good vibe. He’s always trying to help the poor, just like Martin Luther King.” “Not just for the poor and for other races, but also for Tibetans,” Phunkhang, also a senior at Medford High School, added. “He’s trying to progress this Tibetan movement and work towards our freedom.” The friends were less enthusiastic about the upcoming Tibetan election. “I’m not really familiar with Tibetan politics,” Nangpa said, bluntly.
PROTEST PHOTOS BY JOSHUA EATON | WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BY PETE SOUZA
BY JOSHUA EATON @JOSHUA_EATON
There’s a generational divide, said Phunkhang, and older Tibetans are more focused on exile politics. “I think our younger generation, we’re more cognizant and aware of the American politics than the Tibetan.” Phunkhang turned 18 in January, cast her first vote in March, and plans to vote again in November. As for voting in the Tibetan election? “I would,” she said, “except I don’t think I registered.” Elections are still relatively new in Tibetan society. Tibetans in exile elected a parliament for the first time in 1960, but the Dalai Lama still appointed the prime minister until 2001. He didn’t step down as head of state until 2011, when he transferred his political authority to the prime minister. That slow progression was part of the Dalai Lama’s plan to ease Tibetans into democracy, at times against their will, according to Aukatsang. “[T]here was a lot of anxiety within the community, because this was something which was really unprecedented,” he said. “People were reluctant to accept that responsibility. They were pleading with His Holiness not to do this.” Despite his official retirement from political life, the Dalai Lama still casts a long shadow over Tibetan politics. His image hangs above parliamentarians as they debate in Dharamsala, and his birthday is an official CTA holiday. Most importantly, his “Middle Way” approach of seeking autonomy for Tibet within China, rather than full independence, has defined exile Tibetan politics for decades now. It’s a polarizing debate. In 2012, long-time Tibet
supporter Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) charged Lobsang Sangay, the current CTA prime minister, with forcing out the head of Radio Free Asia’s Tibet Section because he allowed pro-independence views. And just last year, many Tibetans say organizers pushed proindependence views out of New York City’s Tibetan Uprising Day events. Lukar Jam Atsok wanted to change that. In the first round of voting last October, Atsok ran for prime minister on a pro-independence platform. However, many Tibetans accused Atsok of disrespecting the Dalai Lama after he made comments strongly opposing the religious leader’s political positions. Penpa Tsering, the leading opposition candidate, even refused to debate Atsok. “It is my right,” he told the Tibetan news site Phayul.com, “to not associate with a person who has made derogatory remarks towards the Dalai Lama.” The exile government’s election commision did not let Atsok proceed to the final round of voting because, although he came in third in the preliminary round, he was more than 20 points behind the second-place candidate, Penpa Tsering. That caused many to claim Atsok was forced out for his pro-independence views. Concerned about discrepancies with election rules, Rohrabacher wrote a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on Feb. 3 asking him to look into whether the CTA leadership was complying with democratic standards. “These developments are especially concerning,” Rohrabacher wrote, “given the substantial support and development assistance the United States
Government has provided the Tibetan refugee community over the years.” Back on Boston Common after the March 10 rally, Phunkhang, Wangden, and Thoulutsang chalked the controversy over Lukar Jam Atsok’s candidacy up to a generational divide. Older Tibetans aren’t used to Atsok’s ideas, according to Phunkhang, and so they didn’t get behind his campaign. “We’re not saying that we support him, but he has some beliefs that are kind of radical and that the older generation can’t handle,” said Nangpa, who admitted that he doesn’t know much about the candidate. “He’s introducing all these new ideas that these older generations haven’t heard, and they’re like, ‘Oh, how could you say such a thing?’” That could also be said of Bernie Sanders, Phunkhang and Nangpa’s other favorite. Like Atsok, Sanders has been criticized as unrealistic and inexperienced—despite his overwhelming support among young voters. Still, Phunkhang is undeterred. “Even if it seems unattainable, if you work hard and have the right person leading you, it’s attainable,” she said. ‘A Higher Allegiance’ was funded with a $10,000 crowdfunding campaign by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism on Beacon Reader. Each donation was matched dollar-for-dollar from Beacon’s $3 million immigration reporting fund. For more information, go to www.binjonline.org
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
11
HONEST PINT
JACK’S ABBY HOUSE LAGER
OLDE MAGOUNʼS SALOON PRESENTS:
1950’s
ITALIAN/
AMERICAN
BY JEFF LAWRENCE @29THOUSAND
Wednesdays April 6th-27th 5p.m. Till gone
ONCE Lounge & Ballroom 156 Highland Ave. ONCEsomerville.com
TOASTED RAVIOLIS
4/3-4/22 The Rock & Roll Rumble
Flash Fried Breaded Cheese Raviolis with Tomato Gravy
ANTIPASTI
Imported Cured Meats, Marinated Vegetables, Assorted Cheese
EGGPLANT PARMESAN
Pan Fried Breaded Cutlet, Tomato Gravy, Mozzarella Cheese, Linguini Pomodoro
CHICKEN PARMESAN
Pan Fried Breaded Cutlet, Tomato Gravy, Mozzarella Cheese, Linguini Pomodoro
BEEF BRACIOLE
Chianti Wine Braised Beef Roulades Stuffed With Prosciutto Ham, Fontina, Rosemary Potatoes, Sautéed Broccoli Rabe
LINGUINI & CLAMS
Imported Pasta, New Zealand Clams, Shaved Garlic, Chile Flakes, White Wine, Italian Parsley
SPAGHETTI & MEATBALLS Veal, Pork, Beef Meatballs, Imported Pasta, Tomato Gravy Parmesan Cheese
CHICKEN SALTIMBOCCA Sautéed Chicken Cutlet Prosciutto Ham, Fontina Cheese, Crispy Sage, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes, Sautéed Broccoli Rabe, Brown Butter Sauce
CANNOLI
Sweet Ricotta Cheese, Shaved Chocolate, Fresh Berries
@MAGOUNSSALOON OLDEMAGOUNSSALOON
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3.31.16 - 4.7.16
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is here @ ONCE! Check out the bands at ONCESomerville.com. Presented by Boston Emissions/WZLX Individual tickets for all nights on sale now!
4/1 Drop ya mic, pick up yer paintbrush (Art Show) 4/1 Smith&Weeden, The Curtis Mayflower, & more 4/3 - 4/9 Rock & Roll Rumble Preliminary Nights
4/2 CVLT Nation Presents: Bongzilla On tour w/ Black Cobra w/ King’s Destroy and Lo-Pan | $18 adv/$22 dos | Doors 7:30pm/Show 8:30pm |
4/10 Rockin Spring Flea Market & Bloody Mary Bash 4/11 New Music (Taco) Night w/ DJ Bad Squirrel 4/13 Milk & Bone w/ Andre Obin & Skinny Bones Locavore tacos done right every Monday night 5-10pm in the ONCE Lounge
Presented by Cuisine en Locale
www.enlocale.com 617-285-0167 NOW BOOKING PARTY & WEDDING CATERING
It’s well documented that I like an unassuming lager. I write about it. I drink them a lot, and I love the style. And what’s not to love? They’re damn good beers, and they don’t try to be more than they are. They won’t give you a hop enema or a malt blast, and they harken back to the day when beer was actually part of our food pyramid. Good times. Good beer. Most of the great lagers available today still come from Germany or the Czech Republic, but there’s a few stateside that deserve my trumpet. Firestone Walker’s Pivo Pils is the first that comes to mind, and it’s still my pick for the best beer in America regardless of style. Locally, there are several good lagers but Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers has been producing nothing but exceptional lager beers, and with its House Lager, it’s now solidified its place among the best anywhere.
Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers / House Lager / Golden Lager (ABV 5.2%)
As much as I love their beers and look forward to trying anything new from them, the House Lager was not something I sought out. It was released in 2015 but I never saw it on tap (outside of the beer hall), and until recently I never saw it at my local craft packy either. Thankfully, I finally stumbled upon the shiny six-pack of 16-oz. cans and had to try it. The price point at just around $10 was a great bargain, considering four-packs of pint cans from other brands usually run $12-14. Price points aren’t my go-to guide when picking any beer, and more often than not there’s a reason it’s cheaper than the rest, so I tend to be suspicious more than curious. However, knowing that Jack’s Abby has recently expanded and upgraded their brewery and has been managing its growth better than most up-and-coming brands in New England over the last 10 years, maybe the savings from scaling up were trickling down to me, the consumer, and this wasn’t just grab-market-share pricing. It didn’t take more than my first few sips to forget any and all price point considerations. The usual crisp, clean, lagered body and taste that I like immediately came to mind—but this was a different, cleaner, crisper, better beer. Before I could finish taking notes, my first pint was gone and I was cracking open another. This is exceptionally drinkable beer for people who like drinking exceptional beer. The beer bio on their website says this lager is inspired by the landbiers (translation: essentially local, but inspired by the local flavor as much as just the location) of Franconia, a sub-state of Bavaria. Famous for its malt, and a diverse selection of amazing lagered beers, Bamberg is the hub of this beer-drinking region, and the kellerbiers you’ll find here are what bring people to it. So does this House Lager live up to its inspiration? Hell yes, and true to its “locally sourced ingredients,” it also lives up to the landbier legacy that nothing worth drinking should travel far from the malt fields to the mouth-face. Time to crack another one open. >> JACK’S ABBY CRAFT LAGERS. 100 CLINTON STREET, FRAMINGHAM. BEER HALL AND KITCHEN HOURS AVAILABLE AT JACKSABBY.COM
©2016 Goose Island Beer Co., Goose IPA®, India Pale Ale, Chicago, IL | Enjoy responsibly.
B:9.5 in T:9.5 in
T:12.25 in
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
13
B:12.25 in
NEWS TO US
ARTS ENTERTAINMENT
GOGOL BORDELLO WILL BE PLAYING THE PARADISE THIS MONDAY SO BRING YOUR DANCING UNDERWEAR
14
THU 3.31
FRI 4.01
SAT 4.02
SUN 4.03
MON 4.04
TUE 4.05
Passport to Pasta @ WGBH Studios
Stella Starsky @ Oberon
Boston LGBT Film Festival
2016 Rock & Roll Rumble @ Once Ballroom
Gogol Bordello @ Paradise Rock Club
Nathalia Holt @ Brookline Booksmith
Ok, let’s be honest with each other. An event dedicated to pasta, the history of pasta, and, of course, eating pasta is a carbo-loading dream. We could tell you all about the host, Dan Whalen, and his blog The Food in My Beard, as well as who the vendors are and what it is that you get for your $35, but it’s a goddamn pasta fest. So do we really need to say anything more? WGBH does a decent job of putting on these smallish boutique events without screwing them up, so it’s safe to say that Passport to Pasta is not going to be a letdown. There will be wine there too, so that’s a bonus, and if the pasta sucks, which it won’t, and the host rambles on incoherently, which he won’t, you can still get drunk and pretend it was all worth it.
The American Repertory Theater’s little sister, Oberon, has partnered with the fine folks at the Afterglow Festival in Provincetown to create a series of solo performances that bend the mind and soul of a theater experience. If you haven’t had a chance to see any of them yet—there have been three so far—this is your last chance, and it might be the best yet. Birth of the American Baroness is the brainchild of Stella Starsky, who is also the genius behind the website americanbaroness. com, and is a celebration of snark and wit within modern motherless “womandom.” Written and performed by Starsky, the one-woman show promises to be enlightening, funny, thought-provoking, and personal.
Now in its 32nd year and one of the premier LGBT festivals in the country, this annual party celebrating the culture of the LGBT community through the medium of cinema has become an important part of the queer evolution. Every year it pokes the eye of mainstream thought, and the slanted view the world has on what’s perceived to be still on the fringe by many comes front and center and takes yet another step forward. The festival begins March 31 and runs through April 10, but the Saturday showings may be the strongest and most diverse. With 11 showings throughout the day, you can literally move from one theater to another, soaking in cinematic art and community, and still find time for a cocktail and conversation in between.
The Rumble has been around for like a thousand years now, and every year there’s a bevy of local talents that take the stage and own it, even if they don’t win it all. And that’s the point. While it’s great to walk away with the coveted Kick Ass Winner Award for the Rumble, the point is to celebrate local music and the local scene as much as it is to push that final band over the top. The lineup is thick with worthy again this year (no surprise!), so check out the schedule online and make a date to catch as many nights as you can.
Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike is an album every respectful music lover should own or at least be familiar with. Sadly, most don’t and aren’t. If you choose to ignore everything else we offer up in these pages every week, I’m OK with it, as long as that means you buy tickets now and see this band live. Celebrating the 10th anniversary of this seminal album’s release, the band is in town for two nights, Monday and Tuesday, so there’s no excuse not to catch this show. While listening to this album in the comfort of your home, squarely on your ass, is one thing, seeing them play it live is another experience altogether, a non-stop musical mind-fuck of beats and bravado.
Boston-based author Nathalia Holt’s career was bound to take off beyond the academic stratosphere in which so many science writers hover. Forgive us for the aeronautics analogies, but she is, after all, the force behind the new essential technology narrative Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us From Missiles to the Moon to Mars (Little, Brown, 2016). In her latest, Holt writes for a popular audience—anyone, in fact, who is interested in learning about the unsung women whose heroics helped launch Americans into space half a century ago. Get to the Booksmith early, as Holt has cred with an impressive number of prestigious Greater Boston institutions.
WGBH Studios. 1 Guest St., Brighton. 7pm/21+/$35-40. wgbh.org
Oberon. 2 Arrow St., Cambridge. 7:30pm/21+/$25. cluboberon.com
Boston LGBT Film Festival. Complete schedule of venues and showings @ wickedqueer.org
Once Ballroom. 156 Highland St., Somerville. 8pm/18+/$10. wzlx.cbslocal. com/category/rock-androll-rumble
Paradise Rock Club. 967 Comm. Ave., Boston. 7pm/18+/$35. crossroadspresents.com/ paradise-rock-club
Brookline Booksmith. 279 Harvard St., Coolidge Cor., Brookline. 7pm/all ages/ FREE. brooklinebooksmith. com
3.31.16 - 4.7.16
|
DIGBOSTON.COM
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
15
MUSIC
FOOL’S GOLD
Boston’s treasure chest of underground music When Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery & More first opened its doors on Prospect Street in 1997, it didn’t expect to become a safe haven for misfits young and old. After a move to Comm Ave in Central Square less than two years ago, that little art gallery became a big art gallery that books poetry readings and raucous music performances, all with the intent of supporting the local scene. Now that it’s established stable footing, it’s ready to celebrate our city’s absurdities on a bigger level. This Friday and Saturday, Out of the Blue Too presents Fools Fest, its first-ever two-day festival. The all-ages event has an impressive scroll of bands performing on two separate stages with no overlapping sets. Once doors open at 6 pm on April 1, the Barbazons, IAN, Home Body, Sound of Ceres, Pick a Piper, Steep Leans, Bat House, and more will perform. April 2 sees Midriffs, Magic Shoppe, Black Beach, the Channels, Littlefoot, W00dy, Frank Hurricane, and more taking over. It’s a massive list, and yes, it’s a wide range of genres. Psych jams fit beside garage rock and harp-led folk at a place like Out of the Blue. “That’s what Out of the Blue represents: this creative expression and freedom to find ways to be creative in an independent way, to brush shoulders with other musicians, to open the doors for others,” says general manager TJ Edson. He and co-worker Travis Long, both in their early 30s, made sure to keep the venue’s goals in mind when creating the festival lineup. This past fall, the gallery threw a one-day festival called Back to School Fest that saw 11 bands take over the space. This time, it’s utilizing the room’s expansive structure to go twice as big. “We wanted to have bands that play the Middle East, bands that are weird, and bands that are local but don’t market themselves often,” says Long. “There’s a lot of smaller bands in Boston who don’t land on big shows and get to play for a lot of people, so we wanted to give them a chance to play on a big bill so things can grow from there.” If you plan on going, make sure you arrive early. The first 40 people who come in will receive a mix CD of unreleased tracks by bands playing that evening. “It’s a super cool thing to do, but it’s also us adding more stress to our plate,” Edson laughs. “I’m realizing what a lot of work it is. We didn’t have to do this, but I’m glad we are because we really care.” Fools Fest signals not only a new year for Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery & More, but a new year for Boston’s underground arts scene. “People kept coming onboard, talking about it, and showing up,” says Edson. “By now, people love the space and appreciate its existence. It’s weird to imagine the city without it now.” We’ve got a feeling that in a few years the same could be said about Fools Fest.
MUSIC
SAVAGES
French rock group finds raw beauty in openness For such an intense name, Savages have bigger hearts than any artist can accurately draw. The French rock quartet from London formed back in 2011 when singer Jehnny Beth, guitarist Gemma Thompson, bassist Ayse Hassan, and drummer Fay Milton felt a pull toward the studio. The outcome of their early efforts, 2013’s Silence Yourself LP, was slathered in praise. Rightfully so; the four women perform with an intense delivery and emotional depth that challenges rock stereotypes to push things a bit farther. On this year’s Adore Life, they go even harder. After touring Silence Yourself, they took a month off and retreated to a small studio in North London with the intent to write extremely loud, harsh songs. “It was a really small studio, so it turned out we couldn’t actually make much noise,” Thompson says with a laugh. As she begins to explain over the phone, it seems the album content pushed them to write things from an alternate headspace. After writing quieter material, they broke out of the studio, took some of the sketches, and reworked them in other spaces until they evolved enough to be played live. Cue the nine-show residency at three different clubs in New York City. “There’s something about [‘Adore’] that, especially in a small club, allows the lyrics to resonate between us and the audience,” she recalls. “It was a joy to see the audience’s reaction with that. We did warn them before we went on that we’re writing and they would hear new songs that weren’t finished. This idea of taking a risk onstage, that the stage is this pinnacle where things are partly written and continue to be written or made, self-consciously opens up the sacred space where everything needs to be finished.” Even when they wrapped up Adore Life, the record stayed complex. It’s an aggressive tone combined with heartfelt themes. In today’s society, that vulnerability simply isn’t popular. It’s cool not to care— especially when you’re in a band. But the way they see it, the world is too beautiful to waste time focusing on what’s not. “That’s something we’ve always had from the beginning, this contrast,” says Thompson. “When Gemma’s writing the lyrics, we’re talking about love and all its different forms and contexts. I think there’s an acceptance that there isn’t one way of love. Sometimes you have to go through love to get to the real love. You have to take risks or give up what you have to find it, the anger and frustration behind it, the presumed ways you should go about things. I guess it’s why people have always gone on to form bands: You want to question everything.” Thompson is the only member who consumes alcohol. The rest stay sober both onstage and off. It may not seem like a feat, but look at their lyrics, their growling guitars, their gloomy presence. It’s easier to do things you’re afraid of in life when there’s alcohol lessening the stress. The four had to push themselves naturally through Adore Life’s dark moments, examining these themes without drunken armor. “You’re testing yourself as well by pushing everything about yourself: the risk, the nerves, the fear,” Thompson says. “It goes directly back into the music.” One listen to Adore Life is all it takes to see what she means—and, in all likeliness, to feel what she’s describing. It’s an intense, emotive experience. Ignoring a cathartic cleanse that honest is a denial of what life has to offer and your ability to grow stronger in its light. J’adore and you can, too. >> SAVAGES. FRI 4.1. PARADISE ROCK CLUB, 967 COMM. AVE., BOSTON. 8PM/18+/$22. CROSSROADSPRESENTS.COM READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW ONLINE AT DIGBOSTON.COM
MUSIC EVENTS
>> OUT OF THE BLUE FOOLS FEST. FRI-SAT 4.1-4.2. OUT OF THE BLUE TOO ART GALLERY & MORE, 541 MASS. AVE., CAMBRIDGE. 6PM/ALL AGES/$13-30 SLIDING SCALE. CROSSROADSPRESENTS.COM AND OUTOFTHEBLUEARTGALLERY.COM READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW ONLINE AT DIGBOSTON.COM
THU 3.31
FRI 4.1
SUN 4.3
TUE 4.5
[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Boston. 9pm/18+/$12. boweryboston.com]
[O’Brien’s Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Boston. 8pm/21+/$8. obrienspubboston.com]
[Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery & More, 541 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 8pm/all ages/$10. outoftheblueartgallery.com]
[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Boston. 9pm/18+/$15. greatscottboston.com]
FURMAN FEVER EZRA FURMAN & THE BOYFRIENDS + SLEEPY KITTY + GRACIE
16
PHOTO COURTESY SAVAGES
BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN
3.31.16 - 4.7.16
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GALLERY JAMS WIMPS + GRAVEL + HALF SOUR
THE LEGEND OF SHAKE SHACK LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS + PINE HILL HAINTS + DIABLOGATO
WED 4.6
MIDWEEK SINGER-SONGWRITER SOOTHE RYAN MONTBLEAU BAND + LYLE BREWER [The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 9pm/18+/$25. boweryboston.com]
WED 4.6
FUZZ ROCK & LYRICAL GENIUS LUCY DACUS + ANIMAL FLAG + MOVING PANORAMAS + THE WESTERN DEN
[Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 7pm/18+/$10. mideastoffers.com]
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FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
17
FILM
JUST IN TIME
Richard Linklater’s latest comedy is another of his time capsules BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! has been advertised as the “spiritual sequel” to the filmmaker’s own Dazed and Confused, and in an impersonal sense, it picks up right where that movie left off: in a car driven by a teenager, with the radio’s knob turned all the way up. The freewheeling finale of Dazed—which was released in ’93 and set in ’76—sketched something vague about all the life that its high-school-student characters had in front of them. Everybody Wants Some!!—which considers a weekend of hanging out among baseball players at a South Texas university circa late August 1980, hence the “sort of sequel” sales pitch—is not the destination those kids were headed towards. It’s more like a stop at a roadside bar, made early along the way. Not much gets figured out, but everything gets sloppy. Linklater’s production company has had the same moniker throughout his whole career, and for this film, it could’ve been an alternate title: “detour.” The song on that radio is “My Sharona” (the first of innumerable era-appropriate needle drops), the driver in that car is Jake (Blake Jenner). His own collegiate detour leads him to his new team’s frat house, where he’s among six new recruits on the squad. They’re all quickly indoctrinated into the intra-male conversations that dominate the place—ruthless insults followed quickly by moral support, inside jokes characterized by debauched punchlines, and everything punctuated by a dugoutappropriate slap on the ass; altogether a highly astute depiction of athletic-male camaraderie—courtesy the teammates who’ve already put their years in. The movie surveys them over three consecutive days, and in that time they convene at disco clubs, rock concerts, line dances, baseball practice, a “theater party,” and at the frat house itself, alternatively discussing their ambitions regarding baseball and sex, spiking each hour with drinks, joints, and double-chambered bong rips. It’s a hangout movie with a high blood alcohol concentration—a descendent of National Lampoon’s most famous off-campus comedy and all the guy-gang comedies that followed it. Then a woman walks into the picture, throwing that
whole subgenre categorization into flux. Her name’s Beverly (Zoey Deutch), and she takes to Jake during a five-man pickup attempt (she likes the “cute quiet one” in the backseat). Over the weekend, he tries to spin this offhanded comment into hookup gold, first stalking her to figure out her address, then leaving flowers with his phone number cheekily attached, then waiting by his bulky landline for the callback. Once she lets him in, they go out on the type of adventures often seen in youth-minded romantic comedies of the 1980s: tubing on the local water, dressing up for a flirtatious costume party, and collectively rhapsodizing about the inherently political nature of rock ’n’ roll music, for three examples. It’s all very John Hughes-ian. (Deutch provides a direct connection to that lineage; her father is Howard Deutch, director of Hughes-produced efforts like Some Kind of Wonderful and Pretty in Pink.) In structuring his film, Linklater creates a competition between these two forms: Jake deconstructs his bro time when he’s with Beverly (often trying to pinpoint a philosophical basis for his sports-playing alpha-maleness), then endures pointed tear-downs of his romantic prowess when he’s back with the boys (who miss no opportunity to make jokes about others’ perceived softness). In other words, the film travels between Animal House and Sixteen Candles, with each of ’80s cinema’s defining comedic modes—the gross-out guy comedy and the sugar-sweet romcom—getting to offer a metatextual critique of its counterpart. This description risks making Everybody Wants Some!! sound like a needlessly heady experiment in genre criticism, which it most certainly isn’t. And you needn’t work hard to ascertain other subtexts, either, as Linklater’s characters have a habit of articulating them at the most opportune moments. Jake talks about having an “identity crisis” after this gang of post-’70s Americans travels to a punk club in a scene that’s emblematic of the musicalchairs-style approach to popular culture depicted in the movies, while the last scene offers a rather damning self-critique of male tunnel vision, should you choose to interpret things that way.
But on a moment-by-moment basis, Linklater is interested in one of the same subjects he’s always been interested in: the textural and psychological detail of human interaction. In Everybody Wants Some!!, and in most of the other movies he’s both written and directed, he considers the way aspirations and repressions are laid bare by conversation (one new teammate imitating a veteran’s speech pattern, one roommate spurning another to make sure their sexual scorecards stay even), the way that environment dictates behavior (reflected quite literally in the film’s costume design, which swaps out for each new setting), and even the way that literal positioning can reveal something about character (Linklater catches as many as 11 individual people in one locker room composition, and we’ll be damned if the blocking doesn’t reveal something about the nature of every single one of them). You get the feeling, in between bong rips, that Jake might emerge from this detour not knowing more about who he really is than he did before he arrived. But he’ll have more interests, more options, and more experiences—more genres of music to listen to in the car ride to his next destination. There are a couple of unconnected images in Boyhood that contorted me into something resembling deep emotion, and I’ve always suspected that if I could figure out why that was, I would understand something more about Linklater’s cinema. The shots themselves are rhyming compositions of Ellar Coltrane’s eponymous boy sitting at a computer in a public school—the first shot, filmed in the early 2000s, has him using an oversize desktop on a bulky table while bantering with a teacher; the second, from recent years, saw him operating a slimline computer from a much sleeker desk while trading meaner insults with a teenaged peer. Something about the contrast of the second shot with the first, the inexorable movement of time wreaking havoc on everything, from Apple products to youthful slang—was inexplicably representative. It encompassed the whole of what Linklater’s growing oeuvre was revealing. He’s a filmmaker obsessed with quotidian detail and imbued with an appreciation for the present tense in which they occur in, with the inherent unacknowledged tragedy being that he’s obsessing over these details once they’re already past. Because if the main character of Everybody Wants Some!! inherits the lineage of his counterpart from Dazed—the freshman and senior pitchers at the center of that movie, who share Jake’s moppy hair, his passive speaking patterns, his philosophical outlook, his understated way with women, and so on—then he also inherits the lineage of Coltrane’s Boyhood character, who played in the same playgrounds. And Jake’s lineage would then, in turn, be inherited by the Ethan Hawke character in Linklater’s three Before Sunrise films who provides the older angle on the director’s likely-autobiographical protagonist autotype. Which makes this whole living, breathing filmography into a collection of halfremembered, half-fictionalized moments in life’s time, entirely fragile except for the film that they’re stored on. These quotidian details take on the importance of an epic, because their very depiction indicates their enormous importance to one person’s development. This one seemingly slight weekend at college may just be a stop on the trip. But the journey itself is growing momentous.
>> EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! RATED R. OPENS FRIDAY 4.1 AT AMC BOSTON COMMON AND KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA.
FILM EVENTS FRI 4.1
COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS APRIL FOOL’S DAY
[Coolidge Corner Theatre. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/R/$11.25. coolidge.org]
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COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT ALSO PRESENTS BASKIN
[Coolidge Corner Theatre. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/Unrated/$11.25. coolidge.org]
DIGBOSTON.COM
SAT 4.2
CROWS & SPARROWS PRESENTS DISTANT
[Institute of Contemporary Art. 100 Northern Ave., Boston. 6pm/Unrated/$5-10. icaboston.org]
GUY MADDIN PRESENTS A ‘HILARIOUSLY MEAN’ FILM NOIR THE THREAT
[Harvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 9pm/NR/$7-9. 16mm. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]
SUN 4.3
MON 4.4
[Somerville Theatre. 55 Davis Sq., Somerville. 2pm/NR/$12-15. 35mm. somervilletheatre.com]
[Carpenter Center Room #B04. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 8:30pm/NR. Various projection formats. balaganfilms.com]
LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY JEFF RAPSIS D. W. GRIFFITH’S INTOLERANCE
BALAGAN FILMS PRESENTS RECENT FILMS BY ADAM PARDIS
AN UNSETTLING, HIGHLY ABSORBING TRUE CRIME DRAMA.”
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THE CHEVALIER THEATRE COMMISSION PROUDLY PRESENTS:
David Gr isman With Sextet Friday Cold Chocolate
APRIL 15, 2016 • 8PM For Tickets
Visit ChevalierTheatre.com or Call Brown Paper Tickets 2.875 (800) 838-3006 30 FOREST ST. MEDFORD, MA
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NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
19
ARTS
AISSLINN NOSKY
5 questions for the Handel + Haydn Society BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS
On April 8 and 10, the Handel + Haydn Society will present an intimate concert featuring Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B-flat Major and Beethoven’s historic Septet. H+H concertmaster (and otherwise complete rock star) Aisslinn Nosky will be leading the concert as well as performing. We chatted about performing historically significant music, period instruments, and—of course—playing and leading at the same time. I was reading about the history of Beethoven’s Septet. It’s so interesting that it really paved the way for who Beethoven would become. It really did. It changed everything. Well, not everything, but it changed his career from one level to the next. It was a giant step up for him, the publication of it. There’s no going back. How much during a performance do you think about the significance of the piece that you’re playing? Good question. No, I tend not to. I’ve never been asked that before. I think about the significance a lot when I’m preparing for the performance. When I’m in a performance of any kind of music, whether it’s particularly historically significant or not, I’m absolutely trying to be in the moment and free of external considerations other than expressing the notes on the page with my instrument and with my colleagues. What violin do you play? I play a violin that was made in Spain in 1746. It’s by a Spanish maker named Salvador Bofill. It’s very, very rare.
ALIVE IN THE HIDDEN CITY APRIL 5 | SHUBERT THEATRE
BUY TICKETS AT CITICENTER.ORG 800.982.2787
CITI CENTER BOX OFFICE © 2016 Citi and Citi Arc Design are registered service marks of Citigroup Inc. Citi Performing Arts Center is a service mark of Citigroup Inc.
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DIGBOSTON.COM
What is it like to play and lead at the same time? Not everyone can do that! Well, I don’t know what it’s like to not do that a lot of times. [laughs] Someone who is directing while they’re playing, as I do—for it to be successful, it requires a really high level of investment from every other player on stage. Because no matter how much information I try to give my colleagues with my body language and my facial expressions, I do have a violin in my hand, and I am playing it. I’m lucky to perform with groups of fantastic musicians who are highly, highly invested in what we do, and they don’t mind that every once in a while I won’t be able to indicate a downbeat with my left hand because they’re so highly aware of their own part and how it fits in the bigger machine that they can tell themselves when to play, that sort of thing. It’s a challenge and I really enjoy it. >> MOZART AND BEETHOVEN. 4.8, JORDAN HALL, 30 GAINSBOROUGH ST., BOSTON. 4.10, SANDERS THEATRE, 45 QUINCY ST., CAMBRIDGE. HANDELANDHAYDN.ORG
PHOTOS BY KAT WATERMAN | LIZ LINDER
Can you explain the difference between performing this music on period instruments vs contemporary instruments? Well, I prefer to perform music on the equipment that the composers may have been familiar with. If at all possible, I try to make those kinds of choices. I tend to make the choices I can to get me as close to what I think Beethoven would’ve looked at when looking at his first violinist in his group. And for me, I make that choice because I consider myself a historian and a detective. When I’m learning music by Beethoven, I’m trying to figure out what he had in mind, what were his intentions with the music, how did he want it to sound, did he want it to sound a certain way. I can’t ask him, so I have to take the clues that he leaves me with the music and in the notation.
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
21
SAVAGE LOVE
JCCSF
WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM
BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET I was honored to speak at JCCSF—Jewish Community Center of San Francisco—last week as a part of their “Uninhibited: About Sex” lecture series. The audience submitted questions on cards, which were ably put to me by Jourdan Abel, who was wearing a wonderful uterus-themed sweater. (Check out my Instagram account—@dansavage—to see Abel’s sweater!) Here are some of the questions submitted by the uninhibited JCCSF audience that Abel and I didn’t manage to get to during our conversation. I had the best sex of my life with my ex. He fucked me hard, had a huge cock, and made me eat his come with a spoon. I loved it. Needless to say, we were incompatible in other ways. My current BF is vanilla. Very. Vanilla. When I masturbate, I think about my ex and can’t help but wish my current guy would make me slurp his come up from a utensil. We are very compatible in other (non-sex) ways. Am I doomed to fantasize about my ex? You are—unless you open up to your current BF about what’s missing in your sex life and/or get his permission to get your hard-fucking/spoonfeeding needs met elsewhere. How do you combat homophobic remarks in a culture that condones and promotes homophobic tendencies? You combat homophobia—and misogyny, its big sister—one terrified middle-schooler at a time. Bearing in mind, of course, that “terrified middleschooler” is a state of mind, not an age bracket. Got any advice for a bi girl, formerly submissive, who wants to start dominating men? Move to San Francisco—oh, wait. You’re already in San Francisco. Leave the house—get involved in local kink orgs, if you aren’t already involved, check out local sex-positive events (bawdystorytelling.com is a great place to start), and let people know what you’re looking for. There’s no shortage of submissive guys in the Bay Area, and no shortage of dominant women up for mentoring women who are curious about topping. “Uninhibited: About Sex” continues at the JCCSF through the end of May. Upcoming speakers and events include Esther Perel, Seth StephensDavidowitz, Nicole Prause, Jules Howard, films, poetry readings, and live musical performances. For a full schedule of events: jccsf.org/arts-ideas/ uninhibited.
THE STRANGERER BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM
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OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS BY TIM CHAMBERLAIN OURVC.NET
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
23
BOWERY BOSTON
For show announcements, giveaways, contests, and more, follow us on:
WWW.BOWERYBOSTON.COM • • • • LIVE MUSIC IN AND AROUND BOSTON • • • •
ROYALE 279 Tremont St. Boston, MA • royaleboston.com/concerts NEWPORT FOLK® PRESENTS
WITH JON McLAUGHLIN AND BRYNN ELLIOTT
W/ THE CACTUS BLOSSOMS
THIS FRIDAY! APRIL 1
THIS SAT.! APRIL 2
92.5 THE RIVER PRESENTS
RADIO 92.9 PRESENTS
TUESDAY, APRIL 12
INTO IT. OVER IT.
THURSDAY, APRIL 14
SATURDAY, APRIL 16
TUESDAY, APRIL 19
ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10AM!
ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10AM!
ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON!
gregory alan isakov and the ghost orchestra
THE
THE WORLD IS A BEAUTIFUL PLACE AND I AM NO LONGER AFRAID TO DIE
RESIDENTS PRESENT SHADOWLAND
W/ THE SIDEKICKS, PINEGROVE
THURSDAY, APRIL 21
SUNDAY, APRIL 24
52 Church St. Cambridge, MA
MONDAY, APRIL 25
FRIDAY, JUNE 10
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22
THURSDAY, JUNE 23
JUDAH & THE LION W/ THE SAINT JOHNS
sinclaircambridge.com
WED & THU APRIL 6 & 7 WERS 88.9 DISCOVERY SHOW
THIS FRIDAY, APRIL 1
Cloud Cult
W/ JILL ANDREWS FRIDAY, APRIL 8
W/ LYLE BREWER (WED.) & DIETRICH STRAUSE (THU.)
W/ TWIN LIMB
THIS SATURDAY, APRIL 2
W/ BBGUN
SATURDAY, APRIL 9
YUCK
W/ SAINTSENECA WUMB PRESENTS
W/ CASSANDRA JENKINS
MONDAY, APRIL 11
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20
SATURDAY, APRIL 23
W/ KEVIN DEVINE & THE GODDAMN BAND
W/ MIKAELA DAVIS
SAT APR. 16 (SOLD OUT) &
THURSDAY APRIL 14
W/ JOHN MARK NELSON
SUN APRIL 17
JULIEN BAKER
ON SALE NOW!
AN EVENING WITH
W/ PHOEBE BRIDGERS
ROBERT ELLIS W/ TO M B ROS SE AU
W/ SUMMER CANNIBALS
SUNDAY, APRIL 24
MONDAY, APRIL 25
ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON!
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27
ON SALE NOW!
(TOGETHER BONNIE “PRINCE” BILLY AND APART) W/ HIGHLIFE AND BITCHIN’ BAJAS
SUNDAY, JUNE 19
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22
SATURDAY, JUNE 18
ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON! SIC/CRASHARTS IN ASSOCIATION W/ WORLDMU
KING SUNNY ADE WEDNESDAY, JULY 6
ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10AM!
TUESDAY, JULY 12
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE LEGENDARY SHACK SHAKERS
W/ HXLT THIS FRIDAY! APRIL 1
W/ MOUNDS
W/ PINE HILL HAINTS, DIABLOGATO
MONDAY, APRIL 4
TUESDAY, APRIL 5
SATURDAY, APRIL 9
PRINCE RAMA BLEACHED B O STO N H A S S L E P R E S E N T S
1222 Comm. Ave. Allston, MA
MONDAY, APRIL 11
greatscottboston.com
FRIDAYS AT 7PM!
‘s THE GAS
W/ FRAMEWORKS, BIG JESUS SUNDAY, APRIL 17
W/ W 0 0 DY, WAY O U T
W/ NO PARENTS, GYMSHORTS
THURSDAY, APRIL 14
FRIDAY, APRIL 15
ON SALE NOW!
ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON!
ON SALE NOW!
C.W. STONEKING
THE SO SO GLOS
SUNDAY, MAY 29
SUNDAY, JUNE 22
W/ PLASTIC WAVES WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29
≠ 3/31 EZRA FURMAN & THE BOYFRIENDS ≠ 4/2 HIGH HIGHS ≠ 4/3 GRETCHEN & THE PICKPOCKETS ≠ 4/6 GREY SEASON ≠ 4/7 TIGERMAN WOAH / THE MALLETT BROTHERS BAND ≠ 4/10 HOOKUP CULTURE ≠ 4/12 ANNA WISE FT. SONNYMOON ≠ 4/15 & 4/16 (EARLY) NICK CHAMBERS ALBUM RECORDING ≠ 4/19 MUTOID MAN
OTHER SHOWS AROUND TOWN:
POUND HOUSE LIVE
OPERATORS
F E AT U R I N G
DJ DOUGGPOUND AND
BRENT WEINBACH TUES. APRIL 12 MIDDLE EAST UP
WED. APRIL 13 RED ROOM @ CAFE 939
W/ TORCHE, WILD THRONE
W/ RIA MAE
W/ BOGAN VIA
SUN. APRIL 17 MIDDLE EAST DOWN
TUE. APRIL 19 MIDDLE EAST DOWN
SAT. APRIL 23 MIDDLE EAST UP
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
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND A COMPLETE LIST OF SHOWS, VISIT BOWERYBOSTON.COM