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VOL 18 + ISSUE 25
JUNE 23, 2016 - JUNE 30, 2016 EDITORIAL EDITOR + PUBLISHER Jeff lawrence NEWS + FEATURES EDITOR Chris Faraone ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran ASSOCIATE FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITOR Christopher Ehlers COPY EDITOR Mitchell Dewar CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Emily Hopkins, Jason Pramas CONTRIBUTORS Nate Boroyan, Renan Fontes, Bill Hayduke, Emily Hopkins, Micaela Kimball, Jason Pramas, Dave Wedge INTERNS Becca DeGregorio, Anna Marketti
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ON THE COVER Jordan Lee of Mutual Benefit gets mellow on our cover this week. Read all about why on page 16.
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They probably would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those meddling kids DEAR READER For the past six months, since Boston Latin School students posted a video on YouTube pegging their campus as a reservoir of racial intolerance, several parties have impugned the famously elite institution. That goes for the brass at Boston Public Schools and City Hall as well as US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, who in March opened an investigation into some of the allegations brought—including racist remarks made by both students and instructors, as well as “disparate discipline and suspension of black students compared with their similarly situated non-black counterparts,” according to a complaint filed with federal prosecutors by community and civil rights groups. Though the public has yet to see if any criminal or civil violations of the Civil Rights Act will officially stick to BLS, this week’s bombshell resignation of Latin School Headmaster Lynne Mooney Teta shows that people in power are paying more than lip service to this issue. Considering the range and degree of cringeworthy stories that have surfaced about cold administrative negligence under Mooney Teta, it seems that her departure is a win for families of color at BLS. But the extent to which the culture there changes will be unknown until school resumes in the fall under new leadership. In the meantime, it’s critical for both BPS and the media to remember that the powder keg that popped in January had been brewing for decades and that the world outside of Latin School would still have no idea about any of this if not for some extremely brave students. That’s the first, and certainly the most important, thing to remember about the departure of Mooney Teta: Prosecutors may be slowly edging out the #BlackAtBLS movement in headlines, and Ortiz will probably get more and more credit for the toppling as further revelations unfold, but to paraphrase the many foes of Scooby Doo and Shaggy, the headmaster probably would have gotten away with it if not for those meddling kids. While we’re preemptively correcting the emerging master narrative, please let the record show that we were also watching BLS closely. Around this time last year, freelance investigative journalist Nate Boroyan began digging into the treatment of Latin School students with learning disabilities, who represent less than 2 percent of the exam school’s population. Earlier this month, in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, we published a 4,000-word feature, “Unaccomodating: A BLS Story,” about a young woman with special needs who was apparently forced out of the school on troubling terms. The plight of special ed students is a complicated addition to the Latin School saga, but it’s a relevant one, and we encourage larger news outlets to consider it in their coverage. The larger story about BLS isn’t over just because of one administrator’s exit, and it’s about much more than just one kind of discrimination on campus. CHRIS FARAONE - NEWS + FEATURES EDITOR, DigBoston
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Problems with GE deal show need for democratic development planning A new wrinkle surfaced earlier this month in the plan to use a big chunk of the $270 million in public aid and tax breaks being shoveled at General Electric to buy two of the three buildings that are slated to make up its new headquarters in Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood. In part 5 of my ongoing series of columns on the GE Boston deal, I mentioned that said scheme called for the Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) to purchase the two former Necco company buildings from Procter & Gamble—along with part of the big parking lot outside its Gillette plant—and lease the buildings back to General Electric. Soon after, it emerged that while GE would pay up to an estimated $100 million to refurbish the buildings and build a new third structure on the site, it would not be paying rent. At all. For the entire 20 years of the lease. And that the terms of the agreement struck with the City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts only put the vast multinational on the hook for “annual operating expenses, property taxes not abated or subject to a PILOT [Payment In Lieu of Taxes] agreement, and interior renovations costs.” John Barros, Boston’s chief of economic development, subsequently insisted that despite the agreement making no mention of rent payments for the former Necco buildings, by gum there would be some kind of payments! Yet there has been no further news on what those payments might look like. Or if the company will, in fact, ever be asked to make any payments in exchange for using the buildings at all. Key to the plan was BRA ownership of the buildings—because that allowed GE, a corporate
behemoth infamous for making huge profits and paying very little in taxes, to use the part of the promised $120 million in state grants that wasn’t used by the BRA to purchase the buildings to rehab them and make other site improvements. Since the state money in question cannot be used on private property. Now it turns out that the BRA won’t be involved in the deal at all. Instead, according to the Boston Business Journal (BBJ), the state’s economic development arm MassDevelopment will own the Necco buildings and the $120 million in state funds “would be used in [its] acquisition of the Necco buildings as well as to improve utilities at the site, create a public park and improve the existing Harborwalk.” As regards the lack of rent, a rather uncritical April 1 BBJ piece, “Of course GE won’t pay rent in Boston, so stop bellyaching,” noted that “the revitalized site could generate roughly $1.75 million in annual gross tax revenues to the city.” An estimated $35 million over 20 years. The next day, the Boston Globe quoted a higher estimate using “City Hall” figures indicating that a “comparably sized office property in that part of the city” would pay $48 million in taxes over 20 years—which a later Boston.com piece interpreted as the city pocketing $23 million over its $25 million in tax abatements to GE. But when WGBH’s Jim Braude had interviewed Boston Mayor Marty Walsh a few days prior, hizzoner agreed there had been no discussion of GE paying taxes to the city to that point. After first putting it as an evasive double negative, “There’s been no discussion of not paying taxes.”
All that said, it comes down to this: The City of Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts are giving millions of public dollars to a mind-blowingly wealthy conglomerate that doesn’t need it. To engineer the public purchase of two out of three headquarters buildings on which it will likely not pay much, if any, rent. Nor will GE likely pay significant taxes on the parts of the complex it is to own outright—if its past record as one of the biggest tax scofflaws in history is any guide. The terms of the essentially secret deal that led to this situation—brokered by high public officials and GE leadership with no public oversight whatsoever— are already being violated. The place of the BRA in the complicated and highly questionable real estate transaction at the heart of the accord has now been taken by MassDevelopment. Once again with no opportunity for public comment or oversight. Things just happen. Politicians and CEOs cut backroom deals. Much of the press lays down on the job. And the public gets shafted. But what if the public didn’t have to bow down to private interests? What if we didn’t have to get shafted on deals like this? Imagine a Boston and a Massachusetts in which the public good—rather than short term gain for a few privileged actors—was the guiding political economic motivation. Let’s say that the same city and state money being lavished on General Electric was put into something that many people have said was important—like strengthening and expanding the arts sector in Fort Point in ways that go much further than anything proposed in the city’s new arts plan. A sector that, after all, was largely responsible for making what the BRA likes to call the “Seaport District” attractive to big developers and corporate interests to begin with. In that alternate Boston, the city and state would pull out of the GE deal. The state would buy the Necco buildings directly from P&G. Perhaps it would pick up the adjacent 253 Summer Street building as well. And it could even buy some of the available P&G parking lot and build desperately needed public housing—following the mixed-use zoning ideas for the area in the 2006 BRA “100 Acres Plan” a good deal more closely than that agency is at the moment. City and state money would refurbish the space as a creative industries incubator with an emphasis on new businesses run as worker-owned co-operatives. The focus of the project would be twofold. Create good arts jobs, and help Fort Point remain a major arts hub. That would be a much better use of public money than dumping it on GE. Especially because the entire development process would be transparent and subject to democratic oversight. A robust popular movement will be required to make this kind of vision a reality. And such movements rarely appear on cue. But it sure would be nice if one did this time around. A version of this article is running online as the Apparent Horizon column: “GE BOSTON DEAL: THE MISSING MANUAL, PART 8.”
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PHOTO BY 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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MEDIA FARM
REALLY, MAKE IT STOP The unspeakable joke of the Globe’s stance on guns BY MEDIA FARM @MEDIAFARM Liberals all across the country (or at least those who don’t mind being pandered to) applauded the anti-assault weapon statement on page one of last Thursday’s Boston Globe, which was reinforced with a life-size image of a semiautomatic rifle. Headed “MAKE IT STOP,” the corresponding oped inside (“BAN THESE GUNS”) read like a hysterical wine bar rant of an obnoxious grad student (“Even harder to fathom is the blinkered fanaticism of the National Rifle Association …”), or like the New York Times last December when that Grey Lady blasted guns on its page one, a spectacle which we derided thusly: Our point isn’t simply that more attention should be paid to suicide and mental health than to banning assault rifles, which would not feasibly have much impact at all on this most dangerous outcome of gun violence, since people aren’t likely blowing their brains out with AK-47s. The point is that with its page one spectacle, the Times implies firearm rights are among the biggest issues facing our country right now, and that such a suggestion is ridiculous enough to match virtually any of the lies or propaganda on this topic coming from the maniac conservative right. Watching publications like the Times ignore the elephant at the gun show—that there are far less firearm deaths in the US now than there were two decades ago—is like watching Fox News cover any number of issues, only worse since we went in with higher expectations.
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Easy as it is to criticize the Globe for telling its readers (and intelligent people in general) what they already know—that assault rifles are ridiculous and background checks should be rigorous—its presentation of last week’s viral column was impressive, both online and in print. That especially goes for a sidebar that appeared in the latter titled “WHO PROFITS,” which called out behemoths like investment management group Vanguard and “TIAA, the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association, which holds $337 million in ammunition maker Olin Corp,” as well as “Boston index fund manager State Street Global Advisors and Fidelity Investments.” This struck us as odd, since the Globe is generally busy sucking up to local power. Consider some of the newspaper’s recent coverage of Fidelity: “Thousands of Fidelity workers get help paying off student loans;” “Fidelity becomes broker for employee benefits plans;” “Fidelity’s Abigail Johnson is richest person in Boston area.” Two weeks ago, Globe business tool Dan Adams shouted out the top 25 wealthiest people in Mass, “Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous” style, a list that included three Fidelity honchos including Johnson. So, was our newspaper of record actually calling out a big finance kahuna for its less than savory investments? Not exactly, as it turns out. At the time of this writing, the spectacular online version of the page one op-ed omits the aforementioned sidebar. Somehow, the only third-party culprit mentioned in the paper that made it into the online version was Vanguard. There was still plenty of blame to go around though, and so for the print edition Globe editors, presumably the younger ones, threw shade on card-carrying AARP members:
We don’t say this stuff because we think guns are great, but rather to remind people that the Globe is merely out for clicks and eyeballs like every other outlet.
AMERICAN RETIREES ARE LIVING OFF OF GUN SALES Some of the largest investors in gun companies are average Americans who own index funds in their workplace retirement plans. If you have a 401(k) plan with Vanguard Group, in all likelihood you own gun stocks — and you’ve done well off it. We don’t say this stuff because we think guns are great, but rather to remind people that the Globe is merely out for clicks and eyeballs like every other outlet. Even if one chooses not to weave conspiracy theories out of the omission of State Street and Fidelity from the online version, which will linger for a lot longer than newsprint, the hypocrisy still smells worse than a summer drive down Morrissey Boulevard during low tide. With its bold stance on firearms, will the Globe stop covering Fidelity like Robin Leach on molly? Or will its reporters continue to hold companies accountable for roundabout investments in murder and fear? Will the brass take ad dollars and sponsorships from State Street in the future? Or will they stand their ground? It’s almost too silly of a question to ask.
THE TOKIN’ TRUTH
CITY HALL EXTORTION? How Boston pressures cannabis activists BY ANDY GAUS ANDYGAUS@SPRYNET.COM
Andy Gaus is a Massachusetts-based cannabis advocate and a member of MassCann-NORML.
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The United States Department of Justice may be investigating Boston City Hall employees for allegedly pushing Boston Calling music festival promoters to hire union stagehands, but there is another form of similar extortion that has continued unabated for years. Just consider MassCann’s annual struggle to secure permits for its Freedom Rally each September. Before issuing permits, officials often hold a so-called citywide meeting with representatives of all affected departments of government. One such meeting took place on May 16, chaired by the since-indicted Kenneth Brissette, then director of the office of sports, tourism, and entertainment for Boston. At that meeting, city officials asked MassCann to hire a contingent of Boston police officers as security. Speaking for MassCann, activist Bill Downing said the group planned on hiring the park rangers to secure the festivities, and didn’t need the police. The meeting ended inconclusively, and instead of approving the permit, the city called a second citywide meeting on June 6—the first time there has been a second such meeting in the rally’s 29-year history. The second get-together was not chaired by Brissette, because he was arrested three days after the first meeting on charges of extortion for allegedly holding up permits for Boston Calling unless they hired union labor. But even with Brissette absent, his spirit marched on. Again, MassCann was asked to hire Boston cops. Downing replied that cops present at previous rallies have not spent their time on security but on arresting people, and insisted that rangers could handle the job nicely. John Swomley, lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, reminded the city that he had sued the city on MassCann’s behalf before and was prepared to do it again. Hiring the cops is a particular sore point with MassCann, given the department’s history of trying to create crimes from scratch, with undercover agents attempting to buy small amounts of weed from rallygoers who otherwise had no intention of selling. This year, MassCann is determined to prevent the police from profiting off the rally. At this point, however, there is still no official resolution. US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, are you listening?
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MASS SURVEILLANCE CANNOT SAVE US GUEST EDITORIAL
Why “more surveillance” is not the answer to the atrocity in Orlando BY ALEX MARTHEWS After the appalling deaths of 49 people, and injuries to another 53, at a gay nightclub in Orlando earlier this month, the presidential candidates leapt to push their own agendas. For Trump, it was about immigration; he magically transformed the US-born shooter into an Afghan, in order to emphasize that he was right about banning Muslim immigration. For Clinton, it was about gun control; she called for better background checks and limits on obtaining assault weapons. But when it came to surveillance, they might as well have been singing from the same hymn-sheet. Clinton called for an “intelligence surge,” for increased internet surveillance and suppression of First Amendment-protected speech, to prevent “radicalization;” for propaganda promoting a USgovernment-seal-of-approval version of Islam; praised a “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) program that marks for intervention Muslims whose politics deviate from what the FBI thinks acceptable; and suggested that people on due-process-free terrorism watchlists should not be allowed to buy guns. Then, she wrapped her actual policy proposals in a cotton-wool language of diversity and inclusion, and claimed that this is not “special surveillance on our fellow Americans because of their religion.” She talked about “Islamism” rather than “Islam,” in order to claim to not be against Islam in itself—but in her world, the government gets to define who is a good and who is a bad Muslim. Perhaps the “bad Muslims” in her mind include citizens like Ayyub Abdul-Alim, imprisoned for refusing to inform on other Muslims for the FBI, who seems only have wanted to help strengthen his community; or Tarek Mehanna, imprisoned for translating al-Qaeda documents and posting them online, who held atrocious opinions but never planned or participated in a violent attack. Trump, with a little less cotton-wool, actually says much the same about surveillance. Domestically, the “Muslim community” will “have to cooperate with law enforcement and turn in the people who they know are bad,” which is what CVE is intended to achieve, and what Mr. Abdul-Alim is in prison for resisting. Trump proposes an “intelligence gathering system second to none” that “includes better cooperation between state, local and federal officials,” and says that intelligence and law enforcement are “not being allowed to do their job.” And he wraps this up with vehement expressions of solidarity with the LGBT community. There’s no evidence that mass surveillance, conducted and promoted by the government, works. In every country that is hit with any attack, large or small, there are calls for more surveillance, then more attacks, then more surveillance, then more attacks. It’s a vicious ratchet that we can only step off by becoming aware of it. France implemented its mass surveillance law before the Paris attacks: The law didn’t prevent them. France now lives under a state of near-martial law, where what we would call ordinary First and Fourth Amendment rights have been suspended. Britain is in the process of passing a new surveillance law that will enable the government to view your browsing history without a warrant, and already outlawed “glorifying terrorism.” They have gone farther along this ratchet than we have, but they are not reducing their chance of being attacked; instead, the purpose is to reduce the chance that a given politician will be blamed for “not doing enough” against terrorism. In truth, there is no perfect safety, and there is a small proportion of violent criminals in every country that the State is ultimately powerless to eliminate. Our own mass surveillance systems led this “lone wolf” to be found and interviewed by the FBI, twice. But 8
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neither Clinton nor Trump articulate clearly what they thought the FBI should have done next, perhaps because there’s nothing more the FBI could lawfully have done regarding allegations of terrorist affiliation. If the aim of surveillance is for the FBI to interview suspected “radicals,” what should they do then to prevent an entirely hypothetical attack? Preventively detain them, without charge or trial, as happened to Jose Padilla? Preventively shoot them before they kill anyone else, as happened with Usaama Rahim? Do we want a State that, claiming to keep us safe, claims the right to do that to any of us? We are already part-way down that road; has it helped us so far? State surveillance cannot save us from mass violence. It’s a poor guarantor of LGBT people’s safety. The sad truth is that there is a tendency to violence in every human being’s heart, irrespective of religion. Guns help violent people carry out their violent fantasies on a larger scale, and while comprehensive background checks wouldn’t have helped with this attack, the evidence suggests that they would probably help to prevent others. Mass surveillance doesn’t even enjoy that evidentiary advantage; last time the surveillance agencies were actually confronted on their assertion that mass surveillance had helped to prevent terrorist attacks, during the debate over the renewal of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, the agencies’ claims shriveled under scrutiny like an ice-cream in the sun.
More than that, the State perpetrates mass violence on a scale much vaster than a single violent, conflicted misogynist. On a daily basis, the lives the State takes in the name of the War on Terror far exceed the number of lives taken by terrorists. We’re busy implementing a cure that causes more pain than the disease, because the State does not value enough or see enough glory in a more peaceful path. Why, then, should we trust the State with more power over the lives of Muslims and other “extremists,” here or abroad? Instead of the State, we should look to each other. We should consider how we can build bonds of friendship and support that will encourage kindness, courtesy, and an appreciation of our mutual humanity. As we volunteer together, worship together, take care of loved ones together, work on good causes and reach out across lines of race and religion to those in distress, we step by step build the thriving “beloved community” of which Martin Luther King spoke long ago, so that even when attacks happen, they cannot break our bonds to one another. And so long as we work to trust one another, we can guard safely our thoughts, our opinions, and our liberties, even against a State that urges us constantly, for the sake of “safety,” to abandon them. Alex Marthews lives in Massachusetts and is the National Chair of Restore the 4th. For more about his group visit restorethe4th.com.
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“REVOLVER DUEL IN NORTH END” FEATURE
A history of (Mass media) violence
Two enraged Italians fought a duel with revolvers at the corner of Richmond and North streets just before noon yesterday. Strange to relate, while 10 shots were fired by the two men from two bulldog revolvers of 38 calibre, no one was injured. Hundreds of pedestrians and business men who were in the vicinity at the time hurried to places of concealment in the doorways and stores of the vicinity. The two Italians quarrelled over the possession of a pushcart loaded with bananas. Guns, of course, had a much different role in society around the turn of the 19th century. The Boston Globe, for example, recently opined about the widespread availability of firearms on page one, but back in 1898 their readers learned about the daily deals on rifles and revolvers in the newspaper’s advertising section. Fastforward to 1935, the year before the National Firearms Act set unprecedented restrictions on the kind of weapons 10
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people could own and how they could sell and transfer guns, and lawmakers in Mass were saying the same exact things they are saying now about the need to sanitize society. Here’s a clip from a 1935 Greenfield Daily Recorder that captures the reform spirit of the time: BOSTON—As one of the major factors in his war against crime Atty. Gen. Paul A. Dever will seek to have the massachusetts legislature amend the laws relating to firearms so that the power to issue permits for carrying pistols or revolvers will be vested solely in the proposed new department of justice or some other state agency. By the 1970s, the conversation about guns and violence had arrived close to the quagmire in which it remains mired today. There have been restrictions put in place in some areas and liberation in others; still, the talking points remain the same. Here’s Lowell Sun correspondent Ralph Novak writing in June 1972: The Constitution actually gives the right to bear arms for the purpose of a militia, not for general use of a population that includes honest people and criminals, sane citizens and lunatics, gun fanciers and gun worshipers. The self-protection issue is a myth, since many more people kill and injure themselves accidentally with their guns than protect their guns. As for the boon to criminals, the professional criminal would, no doubt, find ways to obtain guns, controls or no. But he does now, too, and the fact that guns are available for self-protection does not seem to intimidate criminals, since in this real modern world the bad guys win the shootouts more often than not. As for “the right to bear arms for the purpose of a militia.” Americans may endlessly be locked in a debate over whether the Founding Fathers meant for that to include flamethrower drones and uzis, but their inspiration for the Second Amendment jumps off the page in this dispatch from the Boston Massacre: A few minutes after nine o’clock four youths, named Edward Archbald, William Merchant, Francis Archbald, and John Leech, jun., came down Cornhill together, and separating at Doctor Loring’s corner, the two former
were passing the narrow alley leading Mr. Murray’s barrack in which was a soldier brandishing a broad sword of an uncommon size against the walls, out of which he struck fire plentifully … The noise brought people together; and John Hicks, a young lad, coming up, knocked the soldier down but let him get up again; and more lads gathering, drove them back to the barrack where the boys stood some time as it were to keep them in. In less than a minute ten or twelve of them came out with drawn cutlasses, clubs, and bayonets and set upon the unarmed boys and young folk who stood them a little while but, finding the inequality of their equipment, dispersed … On hearing the noise, one Samuel Atwood came up to see what was the matter; and entering the alley from dock square, heard the latter part of the combat; and when the boys had dispersed he met the ten or twelve soldiers aforesaid rushing down the alley towards the square and asked them if they intended to murder people? They answered Yes, by G-d, root and branch! With that one of them struck Mr. Atwood with a club which was repeated by another; and being unarmed, he turned to go off and received a wound on the left shoulder which reached the bone and gave him much pain … On this, the Captain commanded them to fire; and more snow balls coming, he again said, damn you, fire, be the consequence what it will! One soldier then fired, and a townsman with a cudgel struck him over the hands with such force that he dropped his firelock; and, rushing forward, aimed a blow at the Captain’s head which grazed his hat and fell pretty heavy upon his arm. However, the soldiers continued the fire successively till seven or eight or, as some say, eleven guns were discharged. (Boston Gazette and Country Journal, March 12, 1770) This throwback was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. For posts connecting old headlines with contemporary news stories, check out medium.com/binj-reports/tagged/ throwbacks.
PHOTO BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN
You might have noticed the endless talk about firearms and gun reform in headlines lately. As innumerable political and media critics have noted, a similar cacophony of talking heads emerges after every mass shooting, and especially following over-the-top insane massacres like that which happened in Orlando, often sounding like a broken public record. Peel back some historical newspaper pages, however, and you will quickly see that shootings are considered in significantly different light depending on the era. From the evolution of language (the term “gun control,” for example, was generally used only in reference to the proper handling of firearms until the 1930s), to the sort of political baggage that accompanies the right to bear arms, newspaper columnists guided the discussion about brutality for the first quarter millennium of newspapering in Mass. For our brief tour through old street wars, we checked out the early days of gun control as we now know it, and also dug all the way back to a legendary excerpt from the March 12, 1770 issue of the Boston Gazette and Country Journal, which features a TMZ-style recap of the Boston Massacre which happened one week earlier. But first—a clash between a pair of North End fruit vendors from a 1905 issue of The Boston Post:
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Plenty of good sushi spots can be found in the Greater Boston area, including some very good names such as Oishii, Haru, O Ya, Uni, and Douzo, but there are also a lot of terrific sushi bars that aren’t very well known (and in many cases, a lot cheaper than some of the popular spots). The serene and laid-back Village Sushi & Grill in the heart of Roslindale Village is one such place, and it also comes with a bonus—a hidden brick patio that’s shared with two other eateries and is a perfect place to do a whole lot of nothing (other than eating and drinking) on a warm summer night. Village Sushi & Grill is one of a number of great dining options in Roslindale Village, which is a bit of a hidden gem in and of itself, perhaps because it’s a good six or seven miles from downtown Boston and isn’t as easy to get to via public transportation as, say, Dorchester or Brighton. (The Orange Line ends about a mile and a half short of Rozzie, though the commuter rail does make a stop there.) It’s easy to miss the restaurant because the outside of the place blends into the rest of the commercial strip on Corinth Street with its unassuming storefront and sign. The interior of Village Sushi feels almost like a wellness spa rather than a restaurant with its soft background music, heavy use of blond woods, and traditional Japanese lights, while the setup is a familiar one with the sushi bar that has a few chairs on one side of the main room and a handful of tables mostly on the other side, as well as more tables in the front by the windows. If you continue to the back of the eatery (or walk down the narrow alley off Birch Street around the corner), you’ll find the aforementioned patio, whose space is shared with Sophia’s Grotto and Birch Street Bistro—and which is enclosed enough to keep much of the wind out even on the most breezy days. As is the case with many sushi bars, Village Sushi & Grill offers Japanese appetizers, noodle dishes, grill items, and more in addition to sushi, but the place also has a number of Korean options as well. Non-sushi highlights are many here, including juicy steamed gyoza with pork, wasabi shumai that will quickly clear up any allergies you have, a savory beef dumpling soup with clear potato noodles, a briny and earthy seaweed salad with vinegar and sesame oil, chicken katsu with lightly battered white meat, a zesty and rich salmon teriyaki, udon noodle soup with seafood in a spicy broth, mandoo kuk (a full-sized Korean soup with beef dumplings), and a sizzling bibimbop in a traditional hot stone pot with meat, veggies, and a fried egg. Sushi options at Village Sushi include a tremendous Las Vegas maki (crab meat, cucumber, avocado, and cream cheese with spicy tuna with mayo and tobiko on top) and an equally impressive crazy maki (shrimp tempura maki, spicy tuna, tempura flakes), along with terrific versions of spicy tuna katsu maki, ikura (salmon roe), crab stick roll, sweet potato tempura, and for group dining, a “Village Sushi Boat” with 44 pieces of sushi and maki. There aren’t too many surprises among the drink listings at Village Sushi, with Asian beers and plum wine being two options, while sake and sake-based offerings include a saketini that is well worth getting—but they sneak up on you, so one is probably plenty unless you’re walking home (or a passenger in the car). While by no means a household name among Asian restaurants in and around Boston, Village Sushi & Grill is consistently a very pleasant option for Asian fare, as its friendly service, decent prices, quiet indoor dining area, secretfeeling patio, lack of crowds, and relatively easy street parking out front make this a great alternative to some of the more popular sushi bars and Japanese eateries in the region. Roslindale tends to be an underrated neighborhood for dining, and Village Sushi is certainly an underrated—and underappreciated—spot that deserves a look. >> VILLAGE SUSHI & GRILL. 14 CORINTH ST., ROSLINDALE. VILLAGESUSHIANDGRILL.COM
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NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
13
ARTS ENTERTAINMENT
THU 6.23
FRI 6.24
FRI 6.24
SAT 6.25
MON 6.27
TUE 6.28
Tall Ships Cruise @ Liberty Fleet
Summer Groovefest @ Samuel Adams Boston Brewery
19the Annual Chefs in Shorts @ Seaport World Trade Center
Dead Kennedys @ Paradise Rock Club
Monday Nights @ McGreevy’s
Somerville StrEATs @ Nathan Tufts Park
Sam Adams beer is to Boston what Miller High Life is to Milwaukee. Kind of. While most of its respective beer isn’t actually brewed in either city, the brewery in Jamaica Plain is a worthy trip for tourists and Bostonians alike. Kicking off a series of summer parties, this Friday offers up a rasta-fueled party with authentic Jamaican fare and reggae music from the Duppy Conquerors. Did we mention it also has great beer to wash down the dub? Ya mon!
Chefs have the sexiest legs, let’s just get that out there. Knock-kneed and smothered in bacon grease, come on, that’s just… YUM! Which is why this annual bacchanalia of BBQ and beers is a perfect place to creep on those hairless stems while they prep some of the city’s finest fare. Proceeds benefit Future Chefs, which prepares urban youth in the culinary field, so your money is well spent. Ticket price includes food and beverage sampling all night long.
While much has changed over the years with DK, much has stayed the same. If you were into hardcore, punk, thrash, or just pissed off in the ’80s, this band meant something to you and probably still does. The current lineup of East Bay Ray, Klaus Flouride, D.H. Peligro, and Skip may not be what you want or need, but it’s what you get. No doubt about it either; it’s what you want so get at it. Hard.
There’s a lot of great comedy in the Boston area and plenty of great places to see it live, but more and more places are offering pop-up shows for free, and it’s only making the scene that much better. One of the best bars in the Back Bay, McGreevy’s has thrown its hat in the ring, and on Monday nights, it’s shots of whiskey in between chuckles and snorts. Stop down and see some funny faces for free and tell them we sent you.
Samuel Adams Boston Brewery. 30 Germania St., Boston. 6pm/21+/$25. samueladams.com
Seaport World Trade Center. 200 Seaport Blvd., Boston. 7pm/21+/$80. futurechefs.net
The best part of sailing is not actually having to do the sailing. Unless you’re a sailor. The Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships offers just the excursion for those looking to hit the water under the mainsail and foresail while sipping a beverage and taking in the view. The ships depart for one-anda-half-- to two-hour trips all day long, but a great way to end the day with coworkers or a hot date is to catch the 6 or 6:30 departures. No boat shoes required. The Liberty Fleet of Tall Ships. 67 Long Wharf. Boston. 6pm/all ages/$24+. libertyfleet.com
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6.23.16 - 6.30.16
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DIGBOSTON.COM
Paradise Rock Club. 967 Comm. Ave., Boston. 8pm/18+/$20.
McGreevys Boston. 911 Boylston St., Boston. 8pm/21+/FREE. mcgreevysboston.com
Food trucks are all the rage, and there’s no shortage of food truck festivals in and around the city. But lost among some of the larger gatherings are the sweet little hubs that bring together great street food and even better vibes. Hosted by Bon Me Foods, this cool little hang at Nathan Tufts Park has the makings for an off-thepath gem. Get to know your neighbors, or just a new neighborhood, and hang out in the setting summer sun while you get your chew on. Nathan Tufts Park. 136 College Ave., Somerville. 4:30pm/all ages/FREE.
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
15
MUSIC
SKIPPING STONES
MUSIC
Mutual Benefit talks sophomore stressors and Brooklyn bustle BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN
Four local acts that need to be on your radar BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN
BOSTON LIVE AND LOCAL
Perhaps the hardest musical career to keep up is one that starts with a bang so loud that its prolonged ringing lasts more than several months. When your music not only affects others but gets passed around rapidly, so does your importance to the music world in the now. It’s a rise of compliments and fandom, but the tricky part is what follows: the need to outdo yourself. That’s what Jordan Lee, the brain behind Mutual Benefit, found himself dealing with after the release of his debut LP, Love’s Crushing Diamond, in 2013. The Boston musician moved from Jamaica Plain to New York City as his band began to receive national coverage. With this year’s follow-up, Skip a Sinking Stone, he found himself stressed about what to do. There’s pressure to stay as lush as before for fans. They want the same chord progressions, the same string sections, the same miniature details that people fuse themselves to. This album is rich with tiny instances of this. It opens with piano, but those looking closer will notice it technically begins with the creaking of a seat, an intimate moment of Lee entering the listener’s world gently, as if he’s an audience member himself. “It’s cool people finally get to hear it, but I try not to think about that part too hard. I hate to sound so selfish, but I try to approach a record with ‘What do I want to exist in the world?’” he says. All the pressure that surrounded him in making Skip a Sinking Stone had nothing to do with audience expectations and everything to do with his own expectations as an audience member. He’s taking in what already exists in the world and trying to interact with it, but not trying to replace anything statuesque in the process. “Love’s Crushing Diamond had a lot of people around me who were struggling and I couldn’t help them. I was seeing downward spirals in people close to me. Since I couldn’t help, I wrote about it,” Lee says. “This one isn’t as external because my life got super weird for a couple years and confusing and complex. Because it got manic in a sense, this record was trying to get back to normal and find balance. I had to figure out what things to run away from.” The move to Brooklyn took a while to adjust to. Pursuing his musical style in a world of noise only made that harder. “Home is wherever your friends are and wherever you find your community, but it took a long time to get used to the bustle there,” he says. “I used to live in JP, so the biggest change was not having a pond to walk around whenever I needed a break. I still try to take the Chinatown bus back to Boston whenever I can since it’s such a beautiful place.” A quarter of the new record took shape in Jamaica Plain, while the rest came about in Austin, Brooklyn, New Hampshire, Bed Stuy, and beyond. “When I really started to freak out, that spot in New Hampshire really helped,” he recalls. “We started to collaborate on the string parts. There was a little pond with fish swimming around that we could ride our bikes to. All of a sudden going from these tiny apartments to this huge rural area had a major impact on everything becoming cohesive.” There’s a moment on the album’s almost title track, “Skipping Stones” when Lee seems to confront his stressors. “If I try to sink a skipping stone / Maybe it’ll be the one that goes forever / As it starts its fight towards the horizon line,” he sings. It’s wishful thinking about effort and effect, but above all else, it’s still complex with airiness—the exact sound fans wanted. Turns out that’s what Lee wants himself. Mutual Benefit headed into its sophomore album with plenty of weight on its shoulders, but Lee and the rest of his band shook that pressure off. What’s left is a record of genuine warmth, proving his musical career won’t bend anytime soon.
GAY SIN
RIYL: The Breeders, All Dogs, Potty Mouth Pop punk’s not dead, if only because Gay Sin made it its mission to keep it alive. Though relatively new in formation, the five-piece is, in some ways, a local emo supergroup, sporting members of Daephne, Puppy Problems, and more. It’s got talent to boot at live shows. All it needs now is records people can spin after the set.
SHARPEST
RIYL: Tera Melos, TTNG, Bat House There’s something about finger-tapping and spastic melodies that’s extra comforting. Boston-viaAmherst transplants Sharpest last released its brand of shimmering, gorgeous math rock in 2013. The trio can still be caught playing live shows—which, if all goes according to plan, means new material will surface soon.
GAUNTLY
RIYL: Mount Eerie, Elliott Smith, Soft Fangs Apart from a stand-alone single and three tracks recorded in the winter of 2013, Gauntly doesn’t have much to his name, but the lo-fi bedroom guitarist will imprint on your brain with those four songs alone. If the Allston singer-songwriter majored in bummerism, then can we say we did by extension once he drops a full-length?
MR. AIRPLANE MAN
RIYL: The White Stripes, The Black Keys, The Black Lips
PHOTO BY EBRU YILDIZ
>> MUTUAL BENEFIT, FLORIST, BRITTLE BRIAN. FRI 6.24. GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON. 10PM/21+/$12. GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM >> READ AN EXTENDED VERSION OF THIS INTERVIEW ONLINE AT DIGBOSTON.COM
MUSIC EVENTS
Boston doesn’t boast its blues rock, but we’re sure happy to. Mr. Airplane Man doesn’t hide its penchant for Mississippi hill country blues, nor does it hide its love for the Stooges. The group’s last album dropped in 2004—with the exception of an unreleased 1999 album uploaded two years ago— which means the duo is ready to unleash a round of bastardly work soon.
THU 6.23
FRI 6.24
FRI 6.24
SAT 6.25
WED 6.29
WED 6.29
[Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston. 7pm/18+/$25. royaleboston.com]
[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$15. Sinclaircambridge.com]
[Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston. 8pm/18+/$16. crossroadspresents.com]
[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston. 9pm/21+/$8. greatscottboston.com]
[Middle East Downstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$18. mideastoffers.com]
[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/$12. greatscottboston.com]
SOUL YOU WANNA DANCE? ALLEN STONE + GREAT CAESAR
16
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Living in Boston is a blessing when it comes to local music. Here, “local music” isn’t a tag for kids playing in garages trying to write their first set of songs. It’s a label to describe musicians who reside here, plain and simple. That means Dinosaur Jr., Speedy Ortiz, and other Massachusetts-based bands write, yes, local music. So instead of finding out about talented acts after they release songs, you can remain in the know with these four acts, all of whom we’re eagerly awaiting new records from. Go ahead. Brag about it. Just keep your eyes peeled for their new music.
6.23.16 - 6.30.16
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PSYCH POP FROM JP QUILT + WIDOWSPEAK + DOUG TUTTLE
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THU 6/23
DO NOT FORSAKE ME OH MY DARLING (FAREWELL) PETTY MORALS FRI 6/24
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CULTURE SHOCK THE WORLD/INFERNO FRIENDSHIP SOCIETY THU 6/23
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FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
17
FILM
STARING CONTEST
On Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘The Neon Demon’ BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN Movies are for people who like to look at other people. The Neon Demon is for people who like to look at women. Your gaze doesn’t need to be sexual, but you’ve got to have one. The characters in the film consist of fashion models, photographers, a makeup artist, and a high-level agent, with only a few plebeians (an inadequate suitor and a motel manager) to sully the couture atmosphere they’ve conjured. When a young new girl arrives, they make sport of sizing her up. They calculate what jobs she might take from them, or what unflattering comments she might provoke about their age. The whole time, they’re looking right at her, and we join in. Most films have a line of dialogue that doubles as a mission statement. You get one for Neon Demon in its second scene. Jesse (Elle Fanning) is wiping stage blood off her arm when makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone) catches herself in the act. She apologizes for the movie you’re about to see. “Am I staring?” With The Neon Demon, you’d rather stare than listen. The dialogue critiques the modeling industry with the nuance of an HBO squad comedy. “Plastics is just good grooming.” “Beauty isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.” “Anything worth having hurts a little.” The last line is in reference to a woman who’s had more than 15 cosmetic surgeries and is read with the same empty pithiness as the rest. Neon Demon does have a real potency, but it’s all pictorial. The director is Nicholas Winding Refn, who likes to watch. His eye is painterly, by which I mean that he doesn’t let his subjects move. An opening shot poses Jesse on a couch, with the floor and the windows framing her within a series of false prosceniums. Then she joins her new friends at a club, which plays out like a flicker film instead—the lights flash on and off, but the people inside
them are never moving. Other sequences are staged like photographs, but each one is undercut by disquieting motion: a line of models in their underwear being judged by scarcely audible executives or a sleeping woman stalked by an intruder in her shrouded bedroom. Refn carries his sense of stillness over to the audio track. The first scene between Jesse and Ruby—the “Am I staring?” scene—has the deafening silence of a room hanging over every word. His world is a fashion shoot. His flourish is to cover it with blood. His fetish is the perversely still rhythm that results. His film is a Terry Richardson print that’s been slathered in gore and stationed under a strobe light. The Neon Demon is about the way that the entertainment industry cannibalizes the lives of its women, but it’s not a critique so much as it’s an example. The opening credits play out on a textile fabric that’s marked by an “N.W.R.,” in the spirit of a fashion tag. The closing credits are an It Girl music video, literally emblazoned with a heart. And the story structure starts with the language of fairy tales, because Refn has seen a David Lynch film or three. Jesse is the virginal princess left behind by dead parents, now hoping to Star Is Born her way to the top. Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) have granite faces that look battle tested in comparison, which makes them the villainous stepsisters. Christina Hendricks plays an ad agent who connects Jesse to her greatest opportunities—the godmother. Karl Glusman plays the smitten young man who spotted Jesse first—the aspiring prince. Desmond Harrington plays the lascivious photographer who demands that Jesse strip before him—the domineering king. And Keanu Reeves plays the motel manager who does the sneaking in the bedrooms—he’s the dragon.
One of the primary tenets of fairy tales is that the heroine is a fair-skinned, soft-featured, sexually unattainable feminine ideal. The subject of Neon Demon is that if such a woman arrived on the Los Angeles fashion scene, everyone within it would respond by saying, “Oh, that bitch.” Fanning’s dollish look is the focus of the compositions, of the other characters in the movie, and of our own eyes. By the time the movie ends you’ll know exactly how big her pupils are. And the movie turns on the anxieties that her beauty provokes in everyone else. They fear that Jesse signals that their time as up. But we fear that Jesse will become one of them by the time she turns 22. Fanning hardens her performance as the movie goes further. She speaks her dialogue more curtly, she angles her facial expressions more coldly. She’s physically evolving into her position as the next apex predator of the scene. So we’re watching her swinging between the poles: between natural beauty and a curated look, between unreserved kindness and calculated malice, between virginity and sex. Refn’s also a fetishist for color and form, so he codes the world around her to match the evolution. During her breakout fashion shoot, Jesse is photographed in a room of snowy white, not even blemished by doors or windows. She’s coerced into taking her clothes off, then she’s slathered in gold body paint. The princess becomes a queen, the Madonna is corrupted, the suitors and friends get left behind, the white background turns black. When the anxieties overwhelm the movie, the movie overwhelms them back. Emotions and worries morph into vampirism and cannibalism. One of the women wears lipstick that’s named “red rum”; wondering where that name comes from, she notes that all lipsticks are named after either food or sex, the unacknowledged punchline being that its actual meaning—murder—will soon intersect with them both. Refn elides most of the mythology, though, preferring to let the murderous stuff happen outside the sight lines of his almost-still images. More often we see the aftereffects. There’s a downed model with blood trickling from her mouth, a naked woman menstruating to an absurd degree under cover of a full moon, and a repulsed victimizer retching up her ill-gotten gains. Refn’s narrative is heavily dependent on homage; he bites pieces and images from Cat People; Un Chien Andalou; Romeo and Juliet; folk tales about Elizabeth Bathory; Thief; Dario Argento movies; T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G; Dracula; Lolita; and Mulholland Dr.—and that’s limiting it to the obvious ones. Each of the references gets curdled by his deliberately grotesque male gaze. He lasciviously pans up and down women in a shower, barely stopping to notice the blood that’s rolling off their breasts; he stages a masturbation sequence inside of a morgue, intercutting a sexual ideal with decomposing flesh. The movie’s searching for contrasts that are depraved enough to represent all the pain that’s bound up in the products of entertainment industries— the violent competition that’s bred, the insecurity forced onto any woman who participates, the deliberate insensitivity of gatekeepers, the necessary prejudices regarding appearance, and the innumerable women left behind. Some films from this industry are sex fantasies. The Neon Demon is the counterpoint to fairy tales real and imagined. It’s a sex nightmare.
>> THE NEON DEMON. RATED R. OPENS 6.24.
FILM EVENTS FRI 6.24
A MONTH OF MARTIAL ARTS MIDNIGHT SHOWS CONCLUDES W/ RETURN TO THE 36TH CHAMBER
[Coolidge Corner Theatre. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/R/$11.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]
18
6.23.16 - 6.30.16
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SAT 6.25
THE ROXBURY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS HOW TO TELL YOU’RE A DOUCHEBAG
[Museum of Fine Arts. 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. 8:30pm/NR/$9-11. mfa.org]
DIGBOSTON.COM
SAT 6.25
DETENTION AT MIDNIGHT THE BREAKFAST CLUB
[Somerville Theatre. 55 Davis Sq., Somerville. Midnight/R/$10. 35mm. somervilletheatre.com]
SUN 6.26
SUN 6.26
TUE 6.28
[Coolidge Corner Theatre. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. 2pm/NR/$11.25. coolidge. org]
[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 2:15 and 7pm/R/$9-11. 35mm. brattlefilm.org]
[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 8:30pm/NR/$9-11. 35mm. brattlefilm.org]
DIRECTORS CHRIS HEGEDUS AND D.A. PENNEBAKER PRESENT UNLOCKING THE CAGE
‘MAN MEETS WILDERNESS’ IN ROBERT ALTMAN’S McCABE & MRS. MILLER
ANOTHER FILM BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN VALHALLA RISING
FROM FROM THE THE FILMMAKERS FILMMAKERSOF OF OFDONT DONT DONTLOOK LOOK LOOKBACK BACK& THE WAR WAR ROOM ROOM FROM THE FILMMAKERS &&THE THE WAR ROOM
OLDE MAGOUNʼS SALOON PRESENTS:
DAWG GONE
“Pennebaker “Pennebakerand and andHegedus…are Hegedus…are Hegedus…areinexhaustibly inexhaustiblycurious curiouspeople. people. “Pennebaker curious people. PART PARTCOURTROOM COURTROOM COURTROOMDRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA,PART PARTRUMINATION RUMINATION PART RUMINATION onwhat what whatseparates separates separateshuman human humanbeings beings beingsfrom fromother otheranimals.” animals.” onon animals.”
DOG’S WEDNESDAY’S JUNE 1ST – 29TH 5PM-11 CORNDOG
Battered fried hot dog on a stick/ Honey mustard sauce/Hand cut fries
HOT DOG SLIDERS
America cheese/Grilled potato roll/ Fried egg/Hand cut fries
J UNKYARD DOG
Fried Hot dog/Pulled pork/ Coleslaw/crispy onions/ Pepper vinegar sauce /Fried pickles
SONORA
Bacon wrapped hot dog / Melted Oaxaca cheese/Poblano / Guacamole/Crema/ Diced tomatoes/ Nacho chips
GRUNGE DOG
Polish dog /Cream cheese / Grilled onions / Corn chips
HOT DOG SKILLET
Sliced Pearl hotdog/Molasses pork & beans/slab bacon/Tater tots
HOMEWRECKER
Pickled Jalapeños/chopped onions/ Nacho cheese/Habanero chili sauce /Mustard slaw/LTO/tater tots
–A.O. –A.O. Scott, Scott, NY NY TIMES TIMES –A.O. Scott, NY TIMES
“THOUGHTFUL, “THOUGHTFUL,COMPELLING COMPELLING “THOUGHTFUL, COMPELLING HEROIC!The Thefilm filmmade mademe me &&HEROIC! The film made me proudtotobe primate.” proud bebeaaaprimate.” primate.”
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6/24 Monophonics w/ Gold Blood & Associates | $13 adv / $16 dos | Doors @ 8pm |
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6/23 D.R.I. w/ HASTE & Abstruktor 6/27 Los Kingdom 6/28 King Parrot, Child Bite, Vein & more
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plus HuDost & The Milling Gown | $20 adv / $25 dos | Doors @ 7:15pm | 6/30 Militia VOX, Holly Brewer & Saraswathi Jones 7/2 Minibeast, Trinary System, Oceans of the Moon 7/6 Julie Rhodes, Ron Gallo, & Leland Sundries Locavore tacos done right every Monday night 5-10pm in the ONCE Lounge
AAFilm Film byby CHRIS CHRISHEGEDUS HEGEDUS HEGEDUS&&DDAAPENNEBAKER PENNEBAKER CHRIS PENNEBAKER
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COOLIDGE CORNER CORNER THEATRE THEATRE COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE STARTS STARTSFRIDAY FRIDAY FRIDAY6/24 6/24COOLIDGE STARTS 290290 Harvard Harvard Street, Street, Brookline Brookline ••(617) • (617) 734–2500 734–2500 Harvard Street, Brookline (617) 734–2500
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Jason Isbell Oct 12 • Lowell Memorial Auditorium Tickets available at the Auditorium ticket office, online at LowellAuditorium.com or by phone at 866-722-8881.
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DEPT. OF COMMERCE
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ARTS
A KURIOS HOMECOMING Cirque Du Soleil brings David Locke back home BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS A native of Natick, Massachusetts, David Locke is currently on tour with Cirque Du Soleil’s smashing Kurios: Cabinet of Curiosities, which plays at Suffolk Downs through July 10. Locke is an Acro Net artist and is featured in a spectacular Act 2 opener involving high-flying amphibious creatures in a dazzling trampoline act. A gymnast since the age of four, Locke has also performed with Cirque in Viva Elvis and KA in Las Vegas. How does it feel to come back and perform in your hometown? The tour is so different from what I’m used to. This is my first tour. Does being on tour add to the exhaustion of performing? It’s just a different lifestyle. I’ve talked to a lot my friends who’ve come and visited me and from what I gather, Boston fans are really loyal; they’ve been coming for 10-plus years and they’ve never missed a show. I saw my first show in Boston in ’92. What do you think most people would be surprised to know about performing with Cirque Du Soleil? I guess it would be all the little dayto-day stuff. A lot of people don’t know that we do our own makeup, and then they’re really interested in how much we train and that we have a fullsize kitchen here. It’s a lifestyle, and people are always really interested to hear about the backstage stuff.
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If you could help in the creation of a new Cirque Du Soleil show made up of the music catalogue of a famous artist, who would you pick? Good question. It’s hard to say. Maybe Bowie. I think Bowie would be a great one. What is the hardest thing about being a Cirque performer? It comes down to how much experience you’ve had in shows. Whenever something goes wrong, you rely on that experience to cover up any type of mistake. It comes down to keeping the audience involved in the show, and if something goes wrong you have to kind of cover it up. That’s what it means to be a performer. Tell me about the time that something went most wrong for you. You know, if something goes really wrong we’ll stop the show; they try to keep us really safe, but mostly it’s just little stuff. If we miss a trick we have to get back up and do it again. Sometimes I’ll ask people after the show if they noticed something, and they’ll say, “No, I didn’t see that at all.” That’s the part of the magic of Cirque—to represent our best show at all times, even if something goes wrong. Does the audience ever distract you? The audience, for the most part, are so, so enveloped in what we’re doing that a lot of times they’re not really a distraction. It’s better to have them there laughing and hooting and hollering. We kind of thrive off that. Do you have family coming to the show while you’re here? Yeah, I’ve got 13 coming on the 26th, and my mom’s already seen the show three times and she’s coming for a fourth. That must be cool. Yeah, she’s the original person that introduced me to the Cirque world when I was young and took me to shows and really helped me figure out that was going to be my dream. Seeing it as a kid, I would tell her that was what I wanted to do when I got older. >> CIRQUE DU SOLEIL’S KURIOS: CABINET OF CURIOSITIES. THROUGH 7.10 UNDER THE GRAND CHAPITEAU AT SUFFOLK DOWNS, 525 WILLIAM F. MCCLELLAN HWY., BOSTON. CIRQUEDUSOLEIL.COM
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SAVAGE LOVE
WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM
PUPS
BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET There is a guy at my work who is into puppy play. I know this because I have some friends in the gay puppy community. I don’t give two shits what anyone I work with does to get off. All well and good, except… he wants us to call him Spike, his puppy name. Isn’t this a case of him involving everyone at work in his sex life, whether we want to be involved or not? Disturbed Over Gratuitous Gratifications Of Naming Experience “It’s important to note, firstly, that pup play isn’t a sexual activity so much as it is a head space,” said Amp, a puppy, a gamer, a porn performer, and the cohost of Watts the Safeword, a kinkfriendly sex-education YouTube channel. “For DOGGONE’s coworker, pup play may be a comfort thing, or a social thing, or even a way for him to redefine who he is as a person so that he can take control.” Amp, who is 26 and lives in Seattle, got into pup play about five years ago. “A daddy and his pup joined a group of friends on a gay camping trip,” said Amp. “Their bond just seemed to glow, and their relationship stuck with me as something I wanted in my life. For me, yes, pup play can get sexual with my Daddy, but Amp is just who I am when I’m out and about.” Pup play isn’t as serious a business as marriage, of course, but you should be able to extend the same courtesy to Spike that you wouldn’t hesitate to extend to your hypothetical straight female coworker—that is, use the names you’ve been asked to use without obsessing over their respective sex lives. “DOGGONE should always respect how someone identifies and asks to be named,” said Amp, “and regard the sexual or kink aspects of someone’s name choice as a separate detail.” You can—and should—follow Amp on Twitter @Pup_Amp.
savagelovecast.com On the Lovecast, all hail superhero drag queen Panti Bliss: savagelovecast.com.
THE STRANGERER BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM
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BOWERY BOSTON
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ROYALE 279 Tremont St. Boston, MA • royaleboston.com/concerts THE ENGLISH BEAT S O U L A SY L U M
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sinclaircambridge.com
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KING SUNNY ADE
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MON. NOVEMBER 28
DAVID BAZAN W/ LAURA GIBSON
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 29
SATURDAY, JULY 2
AND THE KIDS
HALLELUJAH THE HILLS
THURSDAY, JULY 7
FRIDAY, JULY 8
SATURDAY, JULY 9
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WEDNESDAY, JULY 6
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 13 ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON!
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WALTER SICKERT & THE RUBY ARMY OF BROKEN TOYS ROSE FOX
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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9
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1222 Comm. Ave. Allston, MA greatscottboston.com
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‘s THE GAS
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TUESDAY, JUNE 28
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HUMMING HOUSE
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FRIDAY, AUGUST 12
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≠ 6/25 ETERNALS ≠ 6/30 MILL POND FALLS ≠ 7/2 TIGERMAN WOAH ≠ 7/6 SONNY KNIGHT & THE LAKERS ≠ 7/7 PRISM TATS ≠ 7/9 INTER ARMA ≠ 7/10 SEBIO ≠ 7/11 JESSY LANZA ≠ 7/12 RAINBOW KITTEN SURPRISE
OTHER SHOWS AROUND TOWN:
CARL BROEMEL
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THU. SEPTEMBER 15 ARTS AT THE ARMORY
FRI. SEPTEMBER 23 MIDDLE EAST DOWN
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4 MIDDLE EAST DOWN
OF MY MORNING JACKET W/ THE NOVEL IDEAS NEXT MONDAY, JUNE 27 CAFE 939
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
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