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VOL 18 + ISSUE 46

NOVEMBER 17, 2016 - NOVEMBER 24, 2016 EDITORIAL PUBLISHER Marc Shepard 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 Erin Hussey, Brianna Silva

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DEAR READER

Dear Reader, I am the editor of an alternative weekly, a curmudgeonly one (me and the newspaper), so please forgive me if I cannot seem to muster the best words to calm your nerves in trying times. That’s just not what I believe I’m here for, or what DigBoston is here for. Frankly, as I explain in a longer diatribe that fills our news section this week, we licked our wounds before the punch and came into this latest global scrum prepared to win in spite of Trump. Maybe as a reader of alternative news you find that calming, but in any case I guess I am apologizing for the brash tone I have taken and will continue to take about how people should (at least in my opinion) channel their progressive energy and outrage in the coming days, weeks, months, and, yes, years. Perhaps it is because I’m getting old that I see much of the same aimless outrage in the anti-Trump protests popping off across the nation that so many ’60s radicals, for example, saw in the Occupy movement that I very much admired, but I’m certainly not the only bleeding heart who backs the protesters and is having difficulty picturing the tangible outcomes. Sure, many who have taken to the streets will continue on to demonstrate and work for social justice causes their entire lives. And that’s great. But I really hope the masses who are pissed off keep on fighting. We will certainly keep feeding the fire, and this week’s feature, about the state of our environmental politics as America heads into the Trump era, is a fantastic place to start. . CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR

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There’s good news for independent media in all this BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1

We do subjective advocacy journalism better. I’m not of the school that believes Trump got a free pass from the press. Rather I am in the camp that actually read thousands of articles about the campaign over the past year, many of which—particularly in the Washington Post—were as fair and thorough as they were insanely troubling (the most damning of which that comes to mind being this August piece in which he was forced to smell his own turds on a number of fronts). With that said, it is undeniable that many mainstream personalities and outlets, especially during the last couple of weeks of the campaign, jumped into the tank for Clinton. From partisan tweets, to daily newspapers giving as much or more play to repetitive anti-Trump editorials, they did everything that traditional journos typically criticize alt writers for. Only many of them did it under the continued fraudulent premise that they have no dog in the fight. I of course have zero problem with such garish emotional outbursts. For one, Trump is scum. Who wouldn’t want to troll him and his sycophants? But more importantly, as I have argued for years along with many others in the underbelly of the journalism industry, there is no such thing as objective reporting. Never has been, never will be. It’s never been too hard to prove that big outlet reporters are demonstrably shitheaded on this issue, but now, at least for the next couple of years, anyone who wants to call them on the fraud can simply point to their performance in this past election. Heads are looking for a place to turn. A hopeful place, but also outlets that are down to scrap. That’s us, from my contemporaries in the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, to those in The Media Consortium, both of which people can use to find hard progressive coverage of both national and local issues. As the news and features editor of the alternative weekly DigBoston and the co4

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founder and editorial director of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, I take it as my full responsibility to find and connect with those who are lost in the woods. If I’m going to holler at people about their lack of knowledge about things like the surveillance state and privatization in education, then I’d better make sure that I also go out of my way to link with disenchanted Boston Globe subscribers and others outside of my urban bubble. I hope that others who are similarly fortunate enough to have that opportunity also take the chance to capitalize on this moment. It’s time to get Baby Boomers back to reading the kinds of media that activated them back in the day. People are writing. And sharing their thoughts. Sure, a lot of what they’re dropping is reactive tripe devoid of any real meaning or historical context, but at least they’re writing. And making media of all kinds. The alternative press has always taken public input and engagement seriously, long before large outlets cheapened terms like “citizen journalism” by using readers for free content and clicks. Harrowing events—take, for example, the mortgage crisis of last decade that spurred Occupy Wall Street and innumerable prominent lefty thinkers—get outraged people putting pen to paper, mouth to mic, and so on. The alternative outlets that harness that energy, nurture that talent—particularly young and marginalized voices—will live long and prosper. We are the best weapon against the so-called Alt-Right. As you’re probably well aware as a result of the crush of reporting, mostly late in the game, on the pseudo-Nazi troll brigades born in the bowels of various obscure portals for disturbed individuals, there is a rising tide of dangerous ignorance online. I’m not sure how much this will comfort those who are actually scared for their lives, but many in the alt press and progressive research world have been tracking such oppressive forces of stupidity and hatred for years. I am one of several writers who have spent thousands of hours picking through the Breitbart network’s dirty laundry, while experts on conspiracies like Chip Berlet have traced the toxic rhetoric in local races. Weed. That’s right. Grass, trees, and edibles as well. With cannabis now legal in my adopted home of Massachusetts, as well as in California and Nevada (plus with medical initiatives passing in Florida, North Dakota, and Arkansas), there’s a robust new realm open in which we can generate revenue, create community events and socials, etc. It’s not a silver bullet, and marijuana may not be a fit for every publication. But as I have taught students in my media course at the Northeastern Institute of Cannabis, it’s hard to think of a magazine where a cannabis article (or advertisement) wouldn’t fit. Think about it for a second— from Cat Fancy stories about feline CBD supplements, to Garden Design features on grow rooms, to food and cooking rags (use your imagination), the possibilities are endless. Alt outlets like the Dig have sacrificed a lot over the years to report truth in the face of lies spoken by the highest influencers and officials, and now we will reap the benefits. Because while five o’clock news hairdos are still cracking jokes about the munchies, we showed respect and set the precedent for calling out prohibitionist nonsense.

Let’s face it, there’s a ton of outrage out there. To quote the late rap deity Tupac Shakur, “I learn how to think ahead so I fight with my pen.” There are countless ways to process outrage and negative energy, but my favorite is journalism. And I’ve had some truly great experiences helping other people channel their thoughts in that direction. One Bostonian, for instance, approached us last year with a tip on a major gentrification story, and we convinced her to research and report the article herself. We have other writers who are open critics of the growing surveillance and police state, and they protest by filing FOIA requests and exposing gross violations of civil liberties. So long as they understand that the alternative press is driven by compassion, and not a bottom line, there are endless opportunities to launch effective demonstrations on the page and screen. And on that note, I’ll close with another Tupac line that may help ease the pain: Everybody’s taught that. You wanna be successful? You wanna be like Trump? Gimme gimme gimme, push push push push, step step step, crush crush crush. That’s how it all is… It’s too much money here. Nobody should be hitting the lotto for 36 million and we’ve got people starving in the streets. That’s not idealistic, that’s just real. That’s just stupid… There’s no way that these people should own planes and there are people who don’t have houses.

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I was more curmudgeonly than usual throughout this past election season. Some might say insufferable. To quote a stranger who I trolled on Facebook last week for their shaming of independent voters, “Chris, isn’t it about time for you to ask me some unrelated question about arcane local politics, so you can teach me about issues that really matter?” As a matter of action, that is exactly what I plan on doing. I have dedicated my entire adult life to supporting, producing, and disseminating edgy independent media, and while my own status quo-shaming may be obnoxious or even embarrassing, I promise that my underlying intention is to awaken people to the truly sickening subversion of democracy afoot at the local and state levels. Whether you’re happy or about to eat a bullet over a President Donald Trump, you should be overwhelmingly concerned about the snakes in your backyard, and with the trail of impropriety that many of them slithered while all eyes were on the Trump and Clinton show. On that note, I believe the increasing degeneration of dialogue in this cross-section of sewage, while not exactly welcome news, presents an opportunity to boost the alternative, and particularly the progressive media. Here’s that little bit of sunshine I saw fall over the indie press as the election results mounted …

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For a long, long time I’ve wanted to write about what a better country this might be if everyone had to spend two years in the service industry. My team at the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and DigBoston agreed, and so from this point forward this will be my space to do just that (OK, not just that, but you get the picture). Now get comfy. Do you know what you would like to drink? Excellent, go get it yourself. Welcome to Terms of Service, a column about the service industry, by a bartender, for anyone who’s ever sat down for shifty and also for you 9-5ers who don’t totally suck, because hospitality is a two-way street . -HLH Sometime last month, a few weeks before the axe fell on common sense and people started mourning civil liberties, I attended an event hosted by the Restaurant Opportunity Center (ROC) of Boston, the local branch of a national organization focused on improving working conditions and increasing earning potential for the 170,451 service industry employees in the Greater Boston area. And I was fucking floored. ROC was celebrating the publication of “Behind the Kitchen Door: Promise and Denial in Boston’s Growing Restaurant Industry,” a report drawing from 500 industry employee surveys, interviews with 21 employees and 20 managers or restaurant owners, and industry and government data. The goal: “to offer the most comprehensive analysis to date of working conditions in the Boston-area restaurant industry.” The report highlighted multiple pressing industry issues— wage theft, sexual harassment, and the need for living wages, for starters—yet it did so by surveying 0.3 percent of the industry population. Which, my friends, reflects a problem, one that has bothered me for quite some time: People don’t understand how diverse and dynamic an industry that makes up 8.5 percent of the local economy is. ROC does phenomenal work. For example, its report highlights that many women in the industry are sexually harassed on the job—by guests, coworkers, and management—and that in the most despicable of these cases a woman’s refusal to be physical or ignore comments or inappropriate behavior results in lost wages or unemployment. The report also notes that racial discrimination is alive and well in many parts of the restaurant world, and that back-of-the-house employees, those working in kitchens or as dishwashers or bussers, are often cheated out of overtime. One of the key aims of the organization is to shift employees’ earnings to be tied directly to revenue, as a percentage of sales, and to eliminate the tippedemployee minimum (right now folks earning tips make $3.35 an hour while state minimum wage is an hourly $10) so that no one depends entirely on tips. On a grander scale, ROC organizers want the service industry to be seen and understood as a career, because it is. But according to its report and the problems highlighted therein, the entire industry needs a cultural overhaul—and, according to it, that has to come from the inside. I understand that ROC wants to make the industry a better place to work for everyone, from the servers at IHOP to the city’s most prized sommeliers. Its approach, however, seems to suggest that the economic model of the industry is what breeds discrimination, harassment, and poverty. And I really don’t know what to do with that. Because it’s true for some people, but as I stood in the back of that meeting listening to facts and figures about what awful conditions people are working in, personal accounts of sexism and discrimination from management, and how we must fight, together, to end the oppression of “restaurant workers” statewide, my head almost exploded. I then asked how many bartenders were included in the data pool. Silence. Finally an answer: “Probably about 20 percent.” Which I was told represents the proportion of bartenders to other industry positions in the Boston-Metro area. In other words, they didn’t really think about people like me. That’s reasonable enough—if I was looking to right the wrongs of people working full-time and still living in poverty, craft bartenders wouldn’t be first on my list either. Nevertheless, that mindset perpetuates a significant stigma —that almost everyone is working at the bottom. According to the report and the organization’s rhetoric, there is a very small (larger, I bet though, than the percentage of industry employees it polled) percentage of restaurant professionals making a decent living, and those are the celebrity-ranked chefs and bartenders, most of whom are men working in the the Hub’s fine dining establishments. By that logic, everybody else is struggling to make ends meet. Such language, this mentality—that you’re either a celebrity or a servant—is what makes Friday nights a living hell. It’s what makes people think they can talk down to the floor staff. And it’s what makes it such an exhausting endeavor to beat the idea—that working in hospitality is a respectable way to earn a living—into the public’s collective consciousness. (cont’d pg 8)

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For a long time, the service industry was a catch-all for people ranging from folks who couldn’t hold down a job anywhere else to those who’d never finished high school or those who really liked to party. But it’s not like that anymore. There are many talented people in the Boston service industry who have chosen this line of work because we like it. We hustle hard, we study up, we practice, we create, and we usually do OK for ourselves financially. And we are excellent at our jobs. If we want respect for the industry to grow, it is critical for people to stop boiling everyone down to the same pair of clogs and an apron. Maybe that starts on the inside, with increased wages; or perhaps the process begins on the outside, with people paying attention to how much energy and skill goes into working the floor, the line, and behind the bar. If we want to talk about wages, discrimination, and harassment, if we want to continue advocating for the creativity, skill, and professionalism this industry embodies, first we need to talk about how and why such a massive percentage of the general public views industry professionals as having failed to invest in their careers. I don’t think it’s because we work for tips —I think it’s because we’re frequently misrepresented. No one deserves to be disrespected, be taken advantage of, or feel the need to lower their standards to make a living. We have to fix that cycle, and ROC has indeed spurred the conversation about how to make the industry a safer and more sustainable place for everyone who works in it. Likewise, we need to protect the people starting at the bottom or who may be waiting tables because it’s the only gig that they can get right now, but none of that is possible if we ignore those who don’t fit into a particular narrative. TOKIN’ TRUTH

VICTORY DANCE? Legal pot wins, but so does Trump BY ANDY GAUS

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For the capacity crowd gathered at Lir on Boylston Street to cheer on Question 4, Election Night was an emotional seesaw on steroids. One minute all voices were lifted together to cheer legal pot as the Yes vote on Question 4 passed 50 percent and held its lead. The next minute, each face was isolated in disbelieving pain as Trump took over the map of (what used to be) America. By night’s end, legal marijuana seemed like a newborn babe abandoned in the dark woods of a Trump regime. On reconsideration, for those in Massachusetts, legal pot may be more imperiled here in the state than on the federal level. There’s a lot we don’t know. Trump has said he will respect the right of states to make marijuana legal or illegal within their borders. That could change if Trump appoints as his attorney general Chris Christie, who has vowed to enforce federal laws against marijuana with all available resources. But even with Christie leading the charge, the feds don’t really have enough boots to stomp out recreational marijuana, raid by raid, across the eight states where it is now legal, not to mention the 28 states that allow medical use. In Mass, on the other hand, legislators who ignored the will of the voters for decades may leap to subvert it the minute it’s been expressed. Expect proposals to ban edibles, to outlaw home cultivation, and especially to jack up taxes to 30 percent or more. Governor Baker supposedly hates raising taxes, but he may make an exception for something as sinful as cannabis, while state treasurer Deborah Goldberg has already called for raising taxes, delaying the opening of stores, and abolishing home cultivation. Not surprisingly, a Herald editorial also called for raising taxes and abolishing homegrown. In addition, the Cannabis Control Commission created by the new law may make regulations concerning the sale and transport of marijuana that are expensive to comply with, and that make it hard for legal businesses to compete with the black market. But let’s take a moment to be proud of ourselves. The governor, the mayor, and even the cardinal found that when they spoke with a united voice, they were not very powerful. A majority of voters danced around them and voted for Question 4 and freedom. 8

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A LETTER TO THE FUTURE

How to save the planet from environmental ruin in the age of Trump

If President-elect Donald Trump actually believes all the warnings he issued during the election about the threats of immigration, he should be talking about ways to slow global warming as well. Rising sea level, caused by the melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice caps, will probably displace tens of millions of people in the decades ahead, and many may come to North America as refugees. Climate change will cause a suite of other problems for future generations to tackle, and it’s arguably the most pressing issue of our time. A year ago December, world leaders gathered in Paris to discuss strategies for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, and scientists at every corner of the globe confirm that humans are facing a crisis. However, climate change is being nearly ignored by American politicians and lawmakers. It was not discussed in depth at all during this past election cycle’s televised presidential debates. And, when climate change does break the surface of public discussion, it polarizes Americans like almost no other political issue. Some conservatives, including Trump, still deny there’s even a problem. “We are in this bizarre political state in which most

“There’s no doubt that the steep hill we’ve been climbing just became a sheer cliff”

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of the Republican Party still thinks it has to pretend that climate change is not real,” said Jonathan F.P. Rose, a New York City developer and author of The Well-Tempered City, which explores in part how low-cost green development can mitigate the impacts of rising global temperatures and changing weather patterns. Rose says progress cannot be made in drafting effective climate strategies until national leaders agree there’s an issue. “We have such strong scientific evidence,” he said. “We can disagree on how we’re going to solve the problems, but I would hope we could move toward an agreement on the basic facts.” That such a serious planetwide crisis has become a divide across the American political battlefield “is a tragedy” to Peter Kalmus, an earth scientist with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech in Pasadena, who agreed to be interviewed for this story on his own behalf (not on behalf of NASA, JPL or Caltech). Kalmus warns that climate change is happening whether politicians want to talk about it or not. “CO2 molecules and infrared photons don’t give a crap about politics, whether you’re liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat or anything else,” Kalmus said. Slowing climate change will be essential, since adapting to all its impacts may be impossible. Governments must strive for greater resource efficiency, shift to renewable energy and transition from conventional to more sustainable agricultural practices.

America’s leaders must also implement a carbon pricing system, climate activists say, that places a financial burden on fossil fuel producers and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. But there may be little to zero hope that such a system will be installed at the federal level as Trump prepares to move into the White House. Trump has actually threatened to reverse any commitments the United States agreed to in Paris. According to widely circulating reports, Trump has even selected a well-known skeptic of climate change, Myron Ebell, to head his U.S. Environmental Protection Agency transition team. Ebell is the director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Steve Valk, communications director for the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, says the results of the presidential election come as a discouraging setback in the campaign to slow emissions and global warming. “There’s no doubt that the steep hill we’ve been climbing just became a sheer cliff,” he said. “But cliffs are scalable.” Valk says the American public must demand that Congress implement carbon pricing. He says the government is not likely to face and attack climate change unless voters force them to. “The solution is going to have to come from the people,” he said. “Our politicians have shown that they’re just not ready to implement a solution on their own.” A LETTER TO THE FUTURE continued on pg. 12

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producers would be evenly distributed by the collecting agencies among the public, perhaps via a tax credit. Recycling the dividends back into society would make it a fair system, Valk explains, since poorer people, who tend to use less energy than wealthier people to begin with and are therefore less to blame for climate change, would come out ahead. The system would also place a tariff on incoming goods from nations without a carbon fee. This would keep American industries from moving overseas and maybe even prompt other nations to set their own price on carbon. But there’s a problem with the revenue-neutral carbon fee, according to other climate activists: It doesn’t support social programs that may be aimed at reducing society’s carbon footprint. “It will put no money into programs that serve disadvantaged communities who, for example, might not be able to afford weatherizing their home and lowering their energy bill, or afford an electric vehicle or a solar panel,” said Renata Brillinger, executive director of the California Climate and Agriculture Network. “It doesn’t give anything to public schools for making the buildings more energy efficient, and it wouldn’t give any money to farmers’ incentive programs for soil building.” Brillinger’s organization is advocating for farmers to adopt practices that actively draw carbon out of the atmosphere, like planting trees and maintaining ground cover to prevent erosion. Funding, she says, is needed to support such farmers, who may go through transitional periods of reduced yields and increased costs. California’s cap-and-trade system sets up an ample revenue stream for this purpose that a revenue-neutral system does not, according to Brillinger. But Valk says establishing a carbon pricing system must take into account the notorious reluctance of conservatives in Congress. “You aren’t going to get a single Republican in Congress to support legislation unless it’s revenue-neutral,” he said. “Any policy is useless if you can’t pass it in Congress.” SEQUESTERING THE FARM In Washington, D.C., the nation’s leaders continue tussling over popular issues like immigration, taxes, healthcare, abortion, guns and foreign affairs. Climate change activists wish they would be thinking more about soil. That’s because stopping greenhouse gas emissions alone will not stop climate change. The carbon dioxide emitted through centuries of industrial activity will continue to drive warming unless it is removed from the air and put somewhere. “There are only three places carbon can go,” Brillinger said. “It can go into the atmosphere, where we don’t want it, into the ocean, where we also don’t want it because it causes acidification, or into soil and woody plants where we do want it. Carbon is the backbone of all forests and is a critical nutrient of soil.” But most of the Earth’s soil carbon has been lost to the atmosphere, causing a spike in atmospheric carbon. In the 1700s, the Earth’s atmosphere contained less than 280 parts per million of carbon dioxide, according to scientists. Now, we are at more than 400 and counting. Climate experts generally agree that the atmospheric carbon level must be reduced to 350 or less if we are to keep at bay the most disastrous possible impacts of warming. This is why farmers and the soil they work will be so important in mitigating climate change. By employing certain practices and abandoning other ones, farmers and ranchers can turn acreage into valuable carbon sinks—a general agricultural approach often referred to as “carbon farming.” Conventional agriculture practices tend to emit carbon dioxide. Regular tilling of the soil, for example, causes soil carbon to bond with oxygen and float away as carbon dioxide. Tilling also causes erosion, as do deforestation and overgrazing. With erosion, soil carbon enters waterways, creating carbonic acid—the direct culprit of ocean acidification. Researchers have estimated that

unsustainable farming practices have caused as much as 80 percent of the world’s soil carbon to turn into carbon dioxide. By carbon farming, those who produce the world’s food can simultaneously turn their land into precious carbon sinks. The basic tenets of carbon farming include growing trees as windbreaks and focusing on perennial crops, like fruit trees and certain specialty grain varieties, which demand less tilling and disturbance of the soil. Eric Toensmeier, a senior fellow with the climate advocacy group Project Drawdown and the author of The Carbon Farming Solution, says many other countries are far ahead of the United States in both recognizing the importance of soil as a place to store carbon and funding programs that help conventional farmers shift toward carbon farming practices. France, for instance, initiated a sophisticated program in 2011 that calls for increasing soil carbon worldwide by 0.4 percent every year. Healthy soil can contain 10 percent carbon or more, and France’s program has the potential over time to decelerate the increase in atmospheric carbon levels. Toensmeier is optimistic about the progress being made in the United States, too. The U.S. Department of Agriculture funds programs that support environmentally friendly farming practices that protect watersheds or enhance wildlife habitat, largely through planting perennial grasses and trees. “And it turns out a lot of the practices they’re paying farmers to do to protect water quality or slow erosion also happen to sequester carbon,” Toensmeier said. He says it appears obvious that the federal government is establishing a system by which they will eventually pay farmers directly to sequester carbon. Such a direct faceoff with climate change, however, may be a few years away still. Climate activists may even need to wait until 2021. “First we need a president who acknowledges that climate change exists,” Toensmeier said. NATIONAL POLITICS AND CITY REFORM Climate reform advocates still talk about Bernie Sanders’ fiery attack on fracking as a source of global warming in the May primary debate with Hillary Clinton. “If we don’t get our act together, this planet could be 5 to 10 degrees warmer by the end of this century,” Sanders said then. “Cataclysmic problems for this planet. This is a national crisis.” Sanders was not exaggerating. The Earth has already warmed by 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880, and it’s getting hotter. Even with the advances made in Paris, the world remains on track to be 6.1 degrees Fahrenheit warmer by 2100 than it was in pre-industrial times, according to a United Nations emissions report released in early November. The authors of another paper published in January in the journal Nature predicted temperatures will rise as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. In light of the scientific consensus, conservatives’ denial of climate change looks childish at best and dangerous at worst. In low-lying Florida, so vulnerable to the rising sea, an unofficial policy from its Republican leadership has effectively muzzled state employees from even mentioning “climate change” and “global warming” in official reports and communications. Republican senator Ted Cruz suggested NASA focus its research less on climate change and more on space exploration, according to The Christian Science Monitor. Most frightening of all, maybe, is the incoming American president’s stance on the matter: Trump said in a 2012 tweet that global warming is a Chinese hoax. In January 2014, during a brief spell of cold weather, he asked via Twitter, “Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?”

A LETTER TO THE FUTURE continued on pg. 14

ILLUSTRATION BY KENT BUCKLEY

AFTER PARIS There is no question the Earth is warming rapidly, and already this upward temperature trend is having impacts. It is disrupting agriculture. Glacial water sources are vanishing. Storms and droughts are becoming more severe. Altered winds and ocean currents are impacting marine ecosystems. So is ocean acidification, another outcome of carbon dioxide emissions. The sea is rising and eventually will swamp large coastal regions and islands. As many as 200 million people could be displaced by 2050. For several years in a row now, each year has been warmer than any year prior in recorded temperature records, and by 2100 it may be too hot for people to permanently live in the Persian Gulf. World leaders and climate activists made groundbreaking progress toward slowing these effects at the Paris climate conference. Here, leaders from 195 countries drafted a plan of action to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions and steer the planet off its predicted course of warming. The pact, which addresses energy, transportation, industries and agriculture— and which asks leaders to regularly upgrade their climate policies—is intended to keep the planet from warming by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit between pre-industrial years and the end of this century. Scientists have forecasted that an average global increase of 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit will have devastating consequences for humanity. The United States pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26 percent from 2005 levels within a decade. China, Japan and nations of the European Union made similar promises. More recently, almost 200 nations agreed to phase out hydrofluorocarbons, extremely potent but short-lived greenhouse gases emitted by refrigerators and air conditioners, and reduce the emissions from the shipping and aviation industries. But in the wake of such promising international progress, and as 2016 draws to a close as the third record warm year in a row, many climate activists are disconcerted both by United States leaders’ recent silence on the issue and by the outcome of the presidential election. Mark Sabbatini, editor of the newspaper Icepeople in Svalbard, Norway, believes shortsighted political scheming has pushed climate change action to the back burner. He wants to see politicians start listening to scientists. “But industry folks donate money and scientists get shoved aside in the interest of profits and re-election,” said Sabbatini, who recently had to evacuate his apartment as unprecedented temperatures thawed out the entire region’s permafrost, threatening to collapse buildings. Short-term goals and immediate financial concerns distract leaders from making meaningful policy advances on climate. “In Congress, they look two years ahead,” Sabbatini said. “In the Senate, they look six years ahead. In the White House, they look four years ahead.” The 300 nationwide chapters of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby are calling on local governments and chambers of commerce across America to voice support for a revenueneutral carbon fee. The hope is that leaders in Congress will hear the demands of the people. This carbon fee would impose a charge on producers of oil, natural gas and coal. As a direct result, all products and services that depend on or directly utilize those fossil fuels would cost more for consumers, who would be incentivized to buy less. Food shipped in from far away would cost more than locally grown alternatives. Gas for heating, electricity generated by oil and coal, and driving a car would become more expensive. “Bicycling would become more attractive, and so would electric cars and home appliances that use less energy,” said Kalmus, an advocate of the revenue-neutral carbon fee. Promoting this fee system is essentially the Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s entire focus. “This would be the most important step we take toward addressing climate change,” Valk said. By the carbon fee system, the revenue from fossil fuel

LIVE MUSIC • LOCAVORE MENU PRIVATE EVENTS 11/16 - 11/18 Boston Comedy Festival 11/17 Hold On w/ Eugene Mirman 11/19 Alchemilla, Ladymob, Cat Has Claws 11/20 Xylouris White, Marisa Anderson 11/21 The Splinters (6pm), Uncle Johnny’s Band (8pm) 11/23 PWR BTTM, Bellows, Lisa Prank 11/25 Sam Roberts Band, Hollerado 11/26 Kimon Kirk, Sam Bigelow 11/30 Abigail Williams, Wolvhammer, Lord Almighty 12/1 Dead Elect, Tin Flowers, Personal Space 12/2 Windhand, Z/28, Ilsa

THU 11/17 - CROSSROADS PRES.

12/3 ONCE Upon a Winter Luau 12/5 Jennifer Greer, Sarah Golley 12/9 Consider the Source, David Fiuczynski

FRI 11/18

12/11 Todd Carey, Dylan Dunlap 1/6 Entombed A.D., Full of Hell, Turbid North, Bacterial Husk

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COACH FEST II

MON 11/21 - LEEDZ PRESENTS

DAE DAE

SHY GLIZZY PNB ROCK WED 11/23 - LEEDZ PRESENTS

HOODIE ALLEN THU 11/17 - ILLEGALLY BLIND PRES.

HOLY WAVE FRI 11/18

H2O

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Boston’s Best Irish Pub

TWO SHOWS SAT 11/19 - LEEDZ PRESENTS

AZIZI GIBSON

SUN 11/20 - ILLEGALLY BLIND PRES.

NOBUNNY MON 11/21

STOLAR

TUE 11/22 - LEEDZ PRESENTS

OG SWAGGERDICK WED 11/23

JONATHAN RICHMAN

MONDAYS

WEDNESDAYS

THURSDAYS

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FRIDAYS

SATURDAYS

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FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

A LETTER TO THE FUTURE continued from pg. 12

This feature was produced by The Paris Climate Project. For more letters, info, and calls to action visit letterstothefuture.org.

MMMM, BURGER.

75 CHESTNUT EATS

A local favorite in the Flat BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON

Let’s face it—while the Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston is about as charming and picturesque an area as you will find in a major city, it really isn’t a destination spot for dining. Sure, there are a few excellent restaurants along Cambridge Street and Charles Street, but it isn’t packed with top dining spots like, say, the South End or Allston. And that seems to be just fine with locals who don’t want the mostly tiny eating and drinking places to get too crowded, especially in the case of those spots hidden away on some of the side streets. That includes a laid-back restaurant on Chestnut Street called 75 Chestnut that is almost exclusively a place for the neighborhood folks, along with some from the nearby MGH, tourists who stumble across it by accident, and those in the know. The restaurant is located in a section of Beacon Hill called the “flat,” since it is a level area built with landfill (and almost feels more like a part of the nearby Back Bay in some ways). Charles Street is basically the commercial hub, running along the eastern edge of the flat, with the roads between Charles Street and Storrow Drive being almost completely residential. This is the spot where 75 Chestnut resides, and its location in an area of high-end row houses, historic buildings, and tree-shaded streets gives off the impression that this must be a high-end and almost clubby type of dining spot—and a number of years ago, this would have been considered mostly true before the place changed. Today, what was once a special-occasion restaurant is now more of a simple and cozy spot with a rustic-feeling dining area, a small but comfortable bar, and a classy, elegant overall vibe that is leftover from the former incarnation of the place. The menu at 75 Chestnut focuses mainly on slightly upscale versions of classic American fare and comfort food, with lots of stick-to-your-ribs dishes that favor meat lovers, though vegetarians should be able to find something to their liking as well. Some of the highlights include a rather spicy chili with roasted polenta wedges; a “tower” of appetizers with fried calamari, pumpkin ravioli, and garlic bread; a terrific Caesar salad with romaine lettuce and shaved parmesan cheese; a moderately thick clam chowder with herbs, Maine potatoes, and bacon; a Mediterranean platter that includes a tremendous red pepper hummus; a juicy grass-fed “bistro” burger that rivals some of the city’s best; a smoky sirloin steak sandwich marinated in a slightly sweet port wine sauce; a char-grilled pork chop with shallot mashed potatoes; a Nantucket stew that will satisfy lovers of seafood with its shrimp, scallops, swordfish, halibut, salmon, and sea bass; and marinated steak tips that approach the towering heights of such places as the Newbridge Cafe and Floramo’s in Chelsea. The restaurant has a decent though not outstanding beer list, a much more impressive wine list, and various options for cocktails. Neighborhood restaurants tend to be great alternatives to the big chains and the ultra-trendy (and ultra-crowded) spots, and while Beacon Hill doesn’t really have much in the way of either of these, it is refreshing to see that local hangouts such as 75 Chestnut continue to thrive these days. It may be a bit too low-key for some, but if you’re into quiet conversation in a local spot while enjoying some high-quality comfort food with a drink or two, this place may be for you.

“...a small but comfortable bar, and a classy, elegant overall vibe...”

>> 75 CHESTNUT. 75 CHESTNUT ST., BOSTON. 75CHESTNUT.COM 14

11.17.16 - 11.24.16

DIGBOSTON.COM

PHOTO BY MARC HURWITZ

While most of the rest of the world remains poised to advance emissions reductions goals, Trump is aiming in a different direction. The Trump-Pence website vows to “unleash America’s $50 trillion in untapped shale, oil, and natural gas reserves, plus hundreds of years in clean coal reserves.” His webpage concerning energy goals only mentions reducing emissions once, and it makes no mention of climate change or renewable energy. While meaningful action at the federal level is probably years away, at the local level, progress is coming—even in communities led by Republicans, according to Rose. That, he says, is because local politicians face a level of accountability from which national leaders are often shielded. “At the city level, mayors have to deliver real results,” Rose said. “They have to protect their residents and make wise investments on behalf of their residents. The residents see what they’re doing and hold them accountable.” Restructuring and modifying our cities, which are responsible for about half of America’s carbon footprint, “will be critical toward dealing with climate change,” Rose said. “On the coast we’ll have sea level rise,” he said. “Inland, we’ll have flooding and heat waves. Heat waves cause more deaths than hurricanes.” Simply integrating nature into city infrastructure is a very low-cost but effective means for countering the changes that are coming, Rose says. Many cities, for example, are planting thousands of street trees. Trees draw in atmospheric carbon as they grow and, through shade and evaporative cooling effects, can significantly reduce surface temperatures by as much as 6 degrees Fahrenheit in some circumstances, Rose says. Laws and policies that take aim at reduced emissions targets can be very efficient tools for generating change across entire communities. However, Kalmus believes it’s important that individuals, too, reduce their own emissions through voluntary behavior changes, rather than simply waiting for change to come from leaders and lawmakers. “If you care about climate change, it will make you happier,” he said. “It makes you feel like you’re pioneering a new way to live. For others, you’re the person who is showing the path and making them realize it’s not as crazy as it seems.” Kalmus, who lives in Altadena, California, with his wife and two sons, has radically overhauled his lifestyle to reduce his carbon footprint. Since 2010 he has cut his own emissions by a factor of 10—from 20 tons per year to just 2, by his own estimates. This personal transformation is the subject of his forthcoming book, Being the Change: Live Well and Spark a Climate Revolution, due out in 2017. Kalmus rides a bike most places, eats mostly locally grown food, raises some of it in his own yard, has stopped eating meat and—one of the most important changes—has all but quit flying places. He hopes to serve as a model and help spark a transition to an economy that does not depend on constant growth, as ours currently does. One day, he believes, it will be socially unacceptable to burn fossil fuel, just as it’s become shunned to waste water in drought-dried California. The oil industry will eventually become obsolete. “We need to transition to an economy that doesn’t depend on unending growth,” Kalmus said. Unless we slow our carbon emissions and our population growth now, depletion of resources, he warns, will catch up with us. “We need to shift to a steady-state economy and a steady-state population,” he said. “Fossil-fueled civilization cannot continue forever.” Though Americans will soon have as president a man who is essentially advocating for climate change, Valk, at the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, expects time— and warming—to shift voter perspectives. “As more and more people are personally affected by climate change, like those recently flooded out in Louisiana and North Carolina, people of all political persuasions will see that acting on climate change is not a matter of partisan preferences, but a matter of survival,” he said.

MONDAY, 11/21 @ 8PM

TUESDAY, 11/22 @ 8PM

(COMEDY CENTRAL)

(THE BOB & TOM SHOW)

GIULIA ROZZI JONO ZALAY

(THE BOB & TOM SHOW)

ARTY P RAY BRYANT CHASE ABEL

JONO ZALAY

PHOEBE ANGLE BRANDON VALLEE VINNIE PAGANO

CELEBRATE THE HOLIDAYS & SAVE AT GOODWILL When you shop at THE GOODWILL STORES you support Goodwill’s job training, career services, and youth programs.

www.goodwillmass.org

Allston-Brighton • Boston • Cambridge • Hyannis • Jamaica Plain Quincy • Somerville • South Attleboro • South Boston • Worcester Follow us @ goodwillboston NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

MUSIC

Boston’s bands, record labels, and benefit shows fighting for equality

Because sometimes you need a day full of music to feel okay

WE THE PEOPLE

COACH FEST 2

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

The president of the United States decides a lot of things. He decides legislature. He decides our relationships with foreign countries. He decides who’s on his cabinet. He sets a precedent for what’s acceptable. Most importantly, he sets the tone for the attitude of our nation. What he doesn’t decide is who we are. With Donald Trump bearing the title of president-elect in the wake of the 2016 election, most everyone is shaking with fear, a reasonable reaction to a man riddled with contempt. People of color, women, immigrants, the LGBT community, and the disabled are being faced with increased discrimination. Intolerance has been normalized and hate crimes are on the rise. If you want to even try to deny this, flip open a newspaper. Reports and video footage have captured America gone rogue. But we don’t have to let Trump and his wave of hate control the future. People are fighting back with the only force that can win in the end—love—and Boston’s music world is following suit. The following bands and record labels are shifting their income toward charities to help those in need. Whether it’s downloading a compilation where all proceeds to go to Planned Parenthood, attending a benefit show for ACLU, or buying records to support Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, there are steps you can take to spread your love for music to a love for human rights. As of right now, the political future looks bleak, but our social future is one we, the people, can change. Let’s start acting on that. WHO: Run For Cover Records HOW TO HELP: Download albums by Modern Baseball, Pinegrove, Crying, Pity Sex, Basement, etc. on Bandcamp PROCEEDS: 100 percent to Planned Parenthood, plus matching the total donation up to $5,000 WHO: Foam Castles HOW TO HELP: Buy its music on Bandcamp PROCEEDS: 100 percent to Planned Parenthood WHO: Deep Thoughts JP HOW TO HELP: Buy any album at the record store Nov 18–19 PROCEEDS: 5 percent to Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition WHO: Deep Shred HOW TO HELP: Buy the SMOOCHES compilation LP featuring Downtown Boys, Puppy Problems, the Barbazons, etc. PROCEEDS: 100 percent split between ACLU, Planned Parenthood, the Human Rights Campaign, and the National Immigration Law Center

Looking to escape reality for a while? We thought so. Way back before it knew the country would light itself on fire, Coach & Sons organized a oneday festival to give the community a day of singing, dancing, and musical uplifting. This Saturday, a slew of indie rock acts will perform on two stages at the Middle East Downstairs. The all-ages event aims to give Boston a day of full-hearted songs. Given the state of the country, it will act as a helpful hand, too. The festival sees 18 bands joining forces to give a voice to the community. Longtime favorites like Save Ends, Posture & the Grizzly, Queen Moo, dæphne, halfsour, Bat House, Sports., and People Like You will share the stage with Holy Pinto; Perspective, a lovely hand to hold; the Most; Prince Daddy & the Hyena; Just Friends; Lilith; Kitner; FALL RISK; NOX; and both a DJ set and full set by Bad Dreams. If you’re like us, leaving the house has been hard. So, first, congrats on battling the crude comments and whiplashing winds of the outdoors to pick up a copy of this paper. Second, get out of the house this Saturday to check out the festival, because you can get 25 percent off your meal at the Middle East Restaurant when you show your Coach Fest 2 ticket. Dinner and a show and the comfort of being surrounded by love in a safe space in one fell swoop? Maybe things won’t be as unmanageable as they seem. >> COACH FEST 2. SAT 11.19. MIDDLE EAST DOWNSTAIRS, 472 MASS. AVE., CAMBRIDGE. 3PM/ALL AGES/$12. MIDEASTOFFERS.COM

WHO: The Hotelier HOW TO HELP: Buy its music on Bandcamp PROCEEDS: 100 percent split between Planned Parenthood and Southern Poverty Law Center WHO: Disposable America HOW TO HELP: Download albums by Horse Jumper Of Love, Soft Fangs, Infinity Girl, etc. on Bandcamp PROCEEDS: 100 percent to ACLU

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WHO: GoldFlakePaint HOW TO HELP: Download compilation albums featuring Boston artists on Bandcamp PROCEEDS: 100 percent to the Trevor Project

/weeklydig

WHO: Black Beach HOW TO HELP: Buy Live on WMBR on Bandcamp PROCEEDS: 100 percent split between RAINN and SRLP

@digboston

See the full list of bands, albums, benefit shows, record stores, and more donating funds to charities at digboston.com

@digstagram

MUSIC EVENTS THU 11.17

FRI 11.18

SAT 11.19

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/$10. greatscottboston.com]

[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Allston. 8pm/18+/$20. crossroadspresents.com]

[Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Pl., Boston. 6pm/all ages/$18. crossroadspresents.com]

RETURN OF THE LOCAL ROCKERS PILE + PALM + DUST FROM 1000 YEARS

11.17.16 - 11.24.16

DIGITAL DANCING GOLDFISH + JACKLNDN

DIGBOSTON.COM

PUNJABI FOLK MEETS WESTERN POP BOSTON BHANGRA 2016

SAT 11.19

NATIONAL ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS BENEFIT SOMETHING SNEAKY + THE WAY WAYS + THE OWENS

[Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 1pm/all ages/$10. mideastoffers.com]

TUE 11.22

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 7pm/18+/$25. sinclaircambridge.com]

[Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 7pm/all ages/$10. mideastoffers.com]

MORE METAL, MAN ABBATH + OBSIDIAN TONGUE + SANGUS + INFERA BRUO

RAP FROM THE T OG SWAGGERDICK + BIG LEANO

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

FILM

FUNCTIONING WARDROBES On fashion, worn or otherwise, in The Love Witch BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN The movies love nudity, but they seem to love obscuring it even more. You know the tricks that I’m talking about: behind-the-back shots of nude men, above-the-chest shots of nude women, the L-shaped blankets that seem to liberally block whatever on a bed might be deemed indecent, or the strands of hair that cover up freed nipples. In many cases these techniques are used to ensure the MPAA rating desired by the producers and distributor. In other instances they may be used to protect the wishes of the performers involved. In those two scenarios and many possible others, the reasons for modesty have very little to do with the art itself. And though they’re markedly rarer in our own national cinema, there are indeed cases where nudity is deployed or denied for reasons that are intrinsic to the movie itself. The Love Witch [2016] —the second film by writer/director/editor/costume and production designer Anna Biller, which opens in Boston this week—is such a film. When it covers itself up, it has reasons. More often than not, the subject of its frames, obscured or otherwise, is Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a beguilingly charismatic and exceptionally attractive young witch (one tracking shot sees various men craning their necks for a second look while passing her by) who’s acclimating herself to a newly single life in California (an opening monologue reveals her culpability —declaimed by her, due to the man’s lacking passion—in the mortal demise of her ex). Tarot cards and witchcraft are the tenets of her lifestyle, and they serve as the means to her stated ends: to find a man who’ll love her devotedly, in the vein of the fairy tales she’s internalized so deeply (“We may be grown women,” she says over tea to the woman boarding her, “but beneath we’re just little girls”). Those ends—sex, love, companionship, and their respective roles in a woman’s

search for her own fulfillment—and not the means— witchcraft—are what Biller’s film revolves around. The title misleads you: It’s not the witch that manipulates the love, but the other way around. And it’s the framing that manipulates the viewer. During one of her first days living in her new Victorian home, Elaine’s neighborhood walk turns her on to a potential mate, and just that quickly they’re off to his secluded second home. Elaine drugs him, then undresses for him, and Biller frames her with the aforementioned techniques: behind-the-back compositions, loose hair strategically covering her chest, lightly toned underwear remaining in place. This is not a matter of modesty— matter-of-fact nudity is copious later in the film, during meetings of local witchcraft practitioners. Neither is it simply related to the way she’s treating the male in the scene—Elaine’s body is similarly and unrealistically obscured during a trip outside moments later, when she’s completely alone. The explanation for the formal modesty lies in the movie’s relationship to the people watching it. One of the intangibly pleasurable elements of The Love Witch is that it seems cognizant and conscious about the fact that we’re the ones she’s undressing for. Something related to this relationship is revealed, or at least discussed, during a meeting with some of those fellow practitioners where high-ranking witches (Jennifer Ingram and Jared Sanford) instruct Elaine on the art of “sex magick.” The woman, Barbara, gives a speech that seems the thematic center of the entire film (“The whole history of witchcraft is interwoven with the fear of female sexuality”). And the man, Gahan, lays out their philosophy about the need for female energy and intuition to balance out the more stoic and unfeeling nature of the male

THAT FEELING OF HOT COCOA WARMING YOUR HANDS.

>>THE LOVE WITCH. NOT RATED. OPENS FRI 11.18. KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA. 355 BINNEY ST., CAMBRIDGE.

gender. Their advice, mirrored by the form of Biller’s own film, involves “teaching men how to love us using ways they understand.” Gahan advises the use of perfume, high heels, and makeup. “Display flesh artfully,” he says— mirroring The Love Witch itself once more—“and know what to conceal.” An artful display is exactly how you’d describe the movie. The movie was filmed and is sometimes exhibited on 35mm (though not in Boston), and Biller and cinematographer M. David Mullen have done all they can to invoke the appearance of the vibrant multicolor film aesthetics most popularly used in commercial movies made before the 1970s. The references and homages made by The Love Witch are a long discussion we don’t have the space for, but to my eyes they at least include Belle de Jour [1967], the melodramas of Douglas Sirk, “Technicolor noirs” like Leave Her to Heaven [1945] and color Hitchcock films like Marnie [1964], “fallen woman” dramas from throughout the first half of film history, and occasionally even the experimental sound design of French New Wave movies like A Woman Is a Woman [1961]. Every inch of a given frame is color coded, from the rugs up the wallpaper to the ceilings and the architecture itself, while the lighting emphasizes the expressive nature of the palette. In the press notes, Mullen speaks about utilizing numerous filmmaking tools rendered scarce by digital filmmaking: in-camera optical effects, decades-old lenses, a “thicker negative” that aids color saturation, diffusion filters (some of which were made from pantyhose material), rearprojection backgrounds, and “hard and direct lighting” (on both the performers and/or the set, depending on the nature of the composition), all of which was intended to help to have “a glamorizing effect on the actors, which I think was a primary reason for [their] use in the studio era.” Biller has demonstrably searched far and wide for the historical techniques that would be best to accentuate and emphasize the features of her lead actress: The close-ups of Robinson’s face are slanted with the flattering angles used by the “women’s pictures” of the past, her eyes are rendered in extreme close-ups more reminiscent of Italian genre films from the decades that followed, and her body is teasingly rendered with those ostensibly-tantalizing obfuscating methods we see to this very day. These are the glamorizing effects that Mullen is talking about, the one that Elaine wants to have on the partners she preys on, the one that the movie wants to have on the people who are watching it. Techniques for blocking the nude form of the human body, within cinema, have typically been the result of prudes—ratings boards, mostly, but in some cases filmmakers too—aiming to soften the sight of the sexual act. Biller’s reason for doing so is an altogether different one, more common in the “higher” art forms: seduction. The sight of Robinson, barely clothed, with an emphasis on the barely, is meant to stoke our desire, our pleasure, our jealousy, or some sense memory of our own self-image (this all depending on who it is doing the watching). Perhaps these are not so far from the intentions behind the leery almost-nudity we’ve become accustomed to while watching American television and movies. But with The Love Witch, there’s an intangible but palpable difference: The agency is decidedly on the other side of the screen.

FILM EVENTS FRI 11.18

‘THE BLACK CINEMA REVOLUTION’ CONTINUES AT THE HFA THE MACK [1973] AND CLEOPATRA JONES [1973]

[Venue info. Venue info. VHarvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7 and 9:15pm, respectively/R and PG/$7-9 each. Both on 35mm. hcl. harvard.edu/hfa.] 18

11.17.16 - 11.24.16

FRI 11.18

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS FLASH GORDON [1980]

[Coolidge Corner Theatre. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/PG/$11.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]

DIGBOSTON.COM

SAT 11.19

SUN 11.20

MON 11.21

[Harvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 9:30pm/R/$79. 35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/ hfa]

[Coolidge Corner Theatre. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/R/$11.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]

[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/NR/$11. brattlefilm.org]

[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/NR/$11. thedocyard.com]

SUN RA AND HIS ARKESTRA IN SPACE IS THE PLACE [1974]

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT ALSO PRESENTS HEAVY METAL [1981]

‘THE BARD UNBOUND’ AT THE BRATTLE CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT [1965]

THE DOCYARD AND DIRECTOR DEAN FLEISCHER-CAMP PRESENT FRAUD [2016]

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

ARTS

PARSONSFIELD COMES HOME Chris Freeman speaks

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS In support of its most recent album, Blooming Through the Black, Connecticut-based Parsonsfield brings its tour to OBERON as part of the Sound Society concert series. Parsonsfield provided original music for, and performed each evening in, The Heart of Robin Hood at the American Repertory Theater a few seasons ago, and its ascent has been steady since. Here, lead singer Chris Freeman looks back on Robin Hood, how it changed the band, and the uniting power of music. The Heart of Robin Hood was the first time that you guys worked with the ART, so this is kind of like a homecoming for you guys. Yeah, for sure. Wasn’t Robin Hood supposed to go to Broadway? Can you tell me what’s going on with it? After Boston we went up to Canada and we did it in Toronto for about three months, and Winnipeg just before that. Yeah, they announced that it was going to New York, but it never ended up actually going. Tickets were on sale and all that, but I can’t get too deep into it because I just don’t know. I can certainly talk about what our experience was doing it and what we learned from it. It was a totally different kind of way of presenting our music that we hadn’t thought of before, and it was an opportunity to congeal as the five of us in the band just really working hard on writing new music and making it work within the context of something bigger.

Following the show, did you find a greater theatricality in your music? Yeah. We started to realize, musically, what our range was in terms of different types of feelings that we could create sonically, and it allowed us to realize that our music could be used in other contexts other than just as a touring band. We also met so many other really creative people that I think [it] has inspired us to continue to find new avenues to present our music. That’s so cool. You guys are probably a stronger band because of it, too. A lot of bands can’t survive multiple albums, let alone a project like that. Yeah, for sure. It brought us together. We were living together and it allowed us to stay really excited and creatively active. We’re so far ahead of where we were before we had the opportunity to be in the show. How are your shows different across the country? Well, in other parts of the country, a lot of times we’re playing to people that have no idea who we are. To a lot of them they’re taking a risk, you know, and they’re the unconverted, we’re trying to pull them in. And so there’s certainly some of that in those parts when we’re far away or playing a city for the first time. It can be exciting because you can really blow people away when they have no idea what they’re getting into. But at the same time, coming back home, that’s just as exciting. There’s nothing like [being] in Boston and around New England. That’s our sweet spot.

Being on tour right now must be kind of tricky with all this pre-election anxiety and post-election divide. What is it like to tour the country where you’re playing to so many different types of people? I’ve been thinking about that a lot. I think it came as a surprise to all of us how divided it is, and we are certainly going to a lot of places where they have very different views from us in New England. I think that we have a responsibility to provide an escape from it all, to provide something that everybody can agree on and can find joy in. Music is something that—no matter what your political beliefs are, it can pull people together and offer an escape from the things that divide us. We’re living in an amazing time, and I feel really lucky to get to go around and see the country the way it really is. It changes the way you think a little bit. I certainly hope that our music can be something that folks can find a little bit of joy in and a little bit of happiness in when there are so many things that are kind of frightening right now. And with this Oberon show, especially, we’re trying to create something totally different for ourselves. We just had a meeting about it last night and, man, is it nice to be thinking about something else.

>>PARSONSFIELD. 11.17 AT OBERON, 2 ARROW ST., CAMBRIDGE. AMERICANREPERTORYTHEATER.ORG

ARTS EVENTS PULITZER PRIZE WINNER WIT

[Hub Theatre Company, 66 Marlborough St., Boston. Through 11.19. hubtheatreboston.org]

11.17.16 - 11.24.16

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LAST WEEKEND! MALA

[ArtsEmerson, 559 Washington St., Boston. Through 11.20. artsemerson.org]

BROADWAY CLASSIC WEST SIDE STORY

[North Shore Music Theatre, 62 Dunham Rd., Beverly. Through 11.20. nsmt.org]

INCREDIBLE RENAISSANCE SCULPTURE DELLA ROBBIA

[Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. Through 12.4. mfa.org]

THE EXHIBITION OF THE YEAR WILLIAM MERRITT CHASE

[Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. Through 1.16. mfa.org]

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

SAVAGE LOVE

MOURNING, USA

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET My boyfriend is undocumented. His sister married a US citizen and may receive a green card. We had hoped to someday do the same. But next year, the extreme right will control all three branches of the federal government. Deportation will surely come for my boyfriend. Additionally, we’re a gay couple, and Donald Trump has pledged to repeal marriage equality, if not ban it outright. So if we were to marry now, the timing would look suspicious. And even if we did marry, that marriage is likely to be invalidated in the coming years. Is it still worth it to try? What do I do if the government takes away the love of my life? Keep Him Home You should marry your boyfriend immediately, KHH, and do so with confidence. “There is no realistic possibility that anyone’s marriage will be invalidated,” said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which has taken marriage-rights cases to the US Supreme Court (and won). “The law is very strong that if a marriage is valid when entered, it cannot be invalidated by any subsequent change in the law. So people who are already married should not be concerned that their marriage can be taken away.” And Minter says the court is unlikely to overturn Obergefell, the decision that legalized same-sex marriage across the country. “The doctrine of stare decisis—which means that courts generally will respect and follow their own prior rulings—is also very strong, and the Supreme Court very rarely overturns an important constitutional ruling so soon after issuing it,” said Minter. “Even the appointment of an anti-marriage-equality justice to replace Justice Scalia would not jeopardize the Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling on marriage equality, and the great majority of Americans still strongly support the freedom of same-sex couples to marry.”

savagelovecast.com On the Lovecast, Dr. Lori Brotto on asexuality: savagelovecast.com. THE STRANGERER BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

11.17.16 - 11.24.16

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

BOWERY BOSTON

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ROYALE 279 Tremont St. Boston, MA • royaleboston.com/concerts ANIMALS AS LEADERS W / CL O V E S

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CHLOEXHALLE

SUN. NOVEMBER 27

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Basement Citizen Turnover

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52 Church St. Cambridge, MA

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& THE EXPRESSIONS

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sinclaircambridge.com

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PUDDLES PITY PARTY

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FRI. & SAT. DECEMBER 2 & 3 (EARLY & LATE SHOWS) LOC I R ECOR DS LABEL SH OW CASE LOCI R ECOR D S L A BE L SHO W CA S E

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VANESSA CARLTON THUR DECEMBER 8 W/ TRISTAN

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ALL THEM WITCHES

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THUR DECEMBER 8

BOSTON MONDAY, MARCH 6 THE SINCLAIR

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8

SATURDAY, MARCH 11

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23

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W/ YAUTJA, COAGULA, IRON GAG SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19

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DIANA

1222 Comm. Ave. Allston, MA greatscottboston.com

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‘s THE GAS

w/ Mozart’s Sister

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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27

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≠ 11/23 ULCERATE ≠ 11/29 HORSE JUMPER OF LIVE ≠ 12/7 FLYNT FLOSSY AND TURQUOISE JEEP ≠ 12/8 MATT POND PA ≠ 12/9 THE MOVEMENT ≠ 12/12 TURNED OUT A PUNK LIVE WITH DAMIAN ABRAHAM ≠ 12/13 ASTRONOID ≠ 12/14 JULY TALK ≠ 12/15 CAVEMAN ≠ 12/16 HALLELUJAH THE HILLS

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THE MAGNETIC FIELDS FRI. NOVEMBER 18 AGGANIS ARENA

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