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HOW THE BOSTON GLOBE TROLLED THE AMERICAN MEDIA

I was slouching at my desk, already knowing that the President of the United States is a threat to journalism as well as the American people, including those who support him, when the email arrived: Call for action to protect free press: Publish editorial next week on dangers of Trump’s attack on journalism. … The slander of “fake news” has become Donald Trump’s most potent tool of abuse and incitement against the First Amendment, labeling journalists the “enemy of the American people” and “dangerous and sick.”

Huh? My region’s newspaper of record, it appeared, was requesting a favor—superficially in solidarity with outlets all across the country its asking to “stand together” in “common defense” against Trump, but actually in service of the Globe itself and no one else. Less than stunned, I considered some of my newspaper-of-record’s most heralded prior publicity stunts, like its faux page-one hijinx (that actually fronted its opinion section) from 2016 predicting, however tritely, that Trump would gun for immigrants and journalists if voted into office.

Am I cherry-picking? Of course. Nevertheless, whether deliberate or if editors there really are delusional enough to think that Trump will care and can tell the Globe from the Wahlburgers menu, their marketing and editorial teams are using all these suckers—readers, writers, conservative nutjobs freaking out about a left-wing media conspiracy— to execute an inarguably futile campaign to spread the word about something people who read newspapers already know. They’re steering a sensationalist bandwagon, and in the process wasting the time of every caboose that hitches on, all so they can pander to a paying readership that salivates to any lefty dog whistle blown at vast POTUS depravity.

I may loathe the Globe for its indifference to topics I believe are locally important, but as an advocate for my brand and my writers, I’m nothing short of jealous of its knack for gaining clicks and confidence with banal boilerplate baloney. As for editors in other places who have lapped it up, they have revealed a void in journalistic values and responsibility that reflects the biggest problem our industry faces.

It sure as hell ain’t Donald Trump.

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You. Don’t. Say. The press release, which came from the Boston Globe via a New England newspaper trade association, continued: This dirty war on the free press must end. The Boston Globe is reaching out to editorial boards across the country to propose a coordinated response.

The Globe proposes to publish an editorial on Aug. 16 on the dangers of the administration’s assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date.

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NEWS+OPINION GONZO MASS NEWS TO US

Is the race to replace America’s favorite governor pushing everyone (besides Scott Lively) leftward?

BY PATRICK COCHRAN

The race to be the Bay State’s Democratic nominee for governor—now down to environmentalist Bob Massie and former state Secretary of Administration and Finance Jay Gonzalez—will determine who will take on incumbent Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, the most popular statewide executive in the country.

It’s a massive task. And while the contest hasn’t made a lot of noise in headlines, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t gotten interesting. Or pointed.

“Today’s Republican Party doesn’t give a damn about the little guy,” Gonzalez said in a recent campaign speech.

“Massachusetts has always been a leader, but we are not leading right now.”

In its efforts, the Democratic primary has followed a familiar formula, with an insurgent populist campaign (Massie) taking on a candidate with close party ties (Gonzalez). Still, while it’s convenient and cliché to conclude that said intraparty battle has devolved into a Sanders-Clinton-style proxy war, that description would be inaccurate.

Though there’s a palpable contrast between the Gonzalez and Massie campaigns, both have embraced the progressive energy spreading through Mass since 2016. Each candidate promotes the creation of a singlepayer healthcare system in the state, debt-free college, criminal justice reform, an environmentally friendly energy overhaul, and ambitious infrastructure upgrades.

With a relatively liberal Republican in the corner office, the contest to unseat Baker has been about which hopeful can push further left.

“I’m the only candidate here who voted for Bernie Sanders,” Massie said at a candidates forum. “I believe that the Democratic Party itself has to rethink many of its procedures in order to bring younger people and people with new ideas. … There are plenty of loyal, active, extraordinary people in the Democratic Party, but the system itself is broken.”

Massie often flaunts his early support for Sanders, and enjoys the endorsements of several local Our Revolution chapters, though not the statewide organization, which elected not to endorse in the primary. Gonzalez is more subtle, but is sure to promote his proximity to 4

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politicians linked to Sanders. At the Mass Democratic Party convention in Worcester in June, state Sen. Jamie Eldridge, a prominent Sanders supporter who encouraged progressives to challenge incumbents and take over the centrist party, appeared in a video introducing Gonzalez, affirming his support for the candidate.

“I know that Jay is a strong supporter of civil liberties and social justice,” Eldridge says in the video. “Of economic rights for workers, policies like single-payer healthcare, and speaking out to protect immigrants across Massachusetts.”

That kind of support, including from state Reps.

Mary Keefe and Paul Mark, who co-chaired Sanders’ 2016 campaign in the commonwealth, has come from familiarity and close relationships with Gonzalez, as well as an expressed belief that he is the candidate with the best chance to knock out Baker.

“I absolutely admire and greatly respect Bob Massie’s work and everything he stands for and everything he has done in his career,” said state Rep. Mike Connolly, an outspoken progressive in the Massachusetts House. “I think both candidates would be great. But just judging on the organizing effort of the campaigns, I think Jay is well ahead. And I think it’s important for us to have the strongest progressive we can to challenge Charlie Baker and all of his policies.”

That organization came through for Gonzalez at the June convention, where he picked up roughly 70 percent of the vote to Massie’s 30. Winning the convention, however, serves as little more than a glorified party endorsement, as was demonstrated in 2014 by former state Treasurer Steve Grossman, who went on to lose the primary to Martha Coakley after winning in Worcester. For that and other reasons, Massie and his campaign workers and vols are still at it.

“One of my friends who’s not voting for [Massie] told me he’s not voting for him because he’s too liberal, and he wants to vote for the more electable person,” said Paul Edelman, who serves as a Democratic Party delegate from Lakeville. “He wants to make the calculation that led people to vote for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders.

I think we’ve had opportunity to observe and learn the

consequences of that kind of strategy, especially as it relates to things like voter turnout and enthusiasm.”

While Massie and Gonzalez broadly share positions, the contenders have tried to define their campaigns with notable differences. Listen closely, and you will hear Gonzalez call for Bay State voters to “aim high” and to help steer government down a progressive course. Massie, on the other hand, signals a more radical restructuring of systems, and hopes to upend a “rigged” society.

“Today we find ourselves trapped in a system that is rigged, broken, unfair, and cynical,” Massie said in his convention speech. “A system warped by privilege and corrupted by money. And there are too many people making excuses for this reality in both parties.”

Massie’s supporters sound a lot like those who are backing Gonzalez—he’s the right guy for the job, is wellequipped to challenge Baker, and, most of all, has the right progressive bona fides.

“From environmental protection to single payer health care, and modernizing our aging infrastructure, Bob Massie is on the right side of the issues, and has articulated specific, forward-thinking plans to address these challenges,” one establishment backer, state Rep. Dave Rogers, said of Massie in a statement.

Of the multiple dynamics shared by the campaigns of Massie and Gonzalez, none appear to play more prominently than the challenge waiting for them on the other side of the September primary. While there are hints that voters all across the country are turning against Republicans due to the regular offenses of President Donald Trump, one of the nation’s most liberal states has cozied up to its GOP governor—polls consistently show Baker with enormous leads over hypothetical opponents.

No matter who the Democrats nominate, they’re sure to face long odds going against him.

Assuming Baker wins his primary… *** Things on the Republican side of the race for governor took a dark turn in Worcester at the state’s GOP convention in April, when the fringe candidacy of Scott Lively, a “100 percent pro-Trump” conservative who equates immigration with cutting in line at the RMV, got very real after he won enough party support to officially oppose Baker in the September primary. Among other positions, Lively supports waging a war on Islam, and coauthored a book linking homosexuality to the rise of the Nazis.

“I’m here to represent the full-spectrum conservative perspective of Republicanism,” Lively said in his convention speech. “Charlie [Baker], you were taking a lot of credit for a lot of positive economic changes that are taking place here in Massachusetts. But I’m telling you there is only one man in this nation that’s responsible for the economic miracle that we’ve experienced since the election of 2016. That’s our president, Donald Trump.”

It’s beyond unlikely that Lively will pose a credible challenge to Baker, especially with the open primary system that allows unenrolled voters—independents who are not registered under a party designation, and who in Mass typically lean more moderate than the staunchly conservative convention delegation—to participate on either side of the primary. But it’s nevertheless noteworthy that someone who is unknown beyond hard-right circles pulled in nearly 30 percent on the convention floor.

As far as precedent goes, in the 2014 gubernatorial election Tea Party activist Mark Fisher fell just short of the 15 percent threshold at the convention to get on the GOP primary ballot and only gained access upon a rule challenge. Polling leading up to the primary showed Fisher with support straddling single digits among likely Republican voters. But on election day, Fisher’s numbers skyrocketed.

In the end, 40,240 voters pulled the lever for the right-wing insurgent over Baker, good for 25.7 percent of the vote. It wasn’t enough to keep Baker from claiming the nomination, but in hindsight it was a logical precursor to 2016, when more than 60 percent of Massachusetts Republican primary voters opted for right-wing presidential candidates.

This year, Lively doubled Fisher’s convention numbers, and did so up against a governor with far more institutional support than he had four years ago.

It will be tough to gauge support for Lively as the primary nears. In May, he told supporters to “boycott [polls] completely because we want the media and the Baker Backers think we have NO CHANCE,” according to Politico. Additionally, an online poll floated by the Massachusetts Republican Party left Lively off as an option altogether.

But it’s more than a lack of polling that’s convinced most in Bay State politics that Lively has no shot in this election. His positions, driven by a rightwing interpretation of Christianity, are simply out of sync with the electorate.

Massachusetts, home to the second largest LGBTQ population in the nation, was the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2004. Two years ago, Baker signed a bill into law that set up broad anti-discrimination measures to protect members of the transgender community. An initiative to repeal that law will be featured on the 2018 ballot; limited polling shows potential for a close contest, but with a strong plurality in outright opposition to repeal.

“They say he’s anti-homosexual,” said Randy Gray, a Lively supporter. “He’s not anti-homosexual. He disagrees with homosexuality, but he’s not against the people that do that.” Lively himself writes that he’s “deeply concerned for those who self-identify as homosexuals, bisexuals and transgender because the Bible warns that they will suffer great harm, both physically and spiritually.”

“I just want to say, I’m also a person of faith,” Massie said to Lively at a recent debate. “What I don’t understand is your hardness of heart. … I would ask you to reconsider some of your positions in light of guidance that I think many of us share. That we should be doing justice in the world and not nailing people for the failures that you decided are inexcusable.”

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*** Beyond the fact that he’s still the most popular governor in America, enjoying 69 percent of the state’s approval, Baker has a lot of what Lively doesn’t: money.

The most recent filings show Baker with millions ready to be unleashed on this race, with a lot of that slated to be poured over the airwaves leading up to the primary and then the general election.

Lively, even after a convention bump, is lucky to get above $20,000.

“I’m more interested in the 70 percent of the delegates who supported my message and have supported my administration,” Baker said following the convention vote. “There’s no place and no point in public life—in any life—for a lot of the things Scott Lively says and believes.”

The pushback against Baker from the right, meanwhile, coincides with a rise in his popularity on the left. According to a recent WBUR poll, just 10 percent of Democrats view Baker unfavorably, compared to 20 percent in the GOP. About twothirds of both constituencies have a favorable view of the governor.

“I like Charlie Baker as a person,” said Venessa Pendexter, a Gonzalez supporter.

“He’s a very genuine, sincere, nice guy. But I want him to do more than he’s doing.”

Nationally, voter turnout has risen across the board in 2018. Both major parties have seen a spike in primary participation, with an especially high uptick on the Democratic side. Despite the fact that we are in the final stretch of primary season, though, there’s still little data out of the northeast, with Maine being the only state in New England to go to the polls as of early August. Compared to 2006— the last time both major parties featured competitive gubernatorial primaries in Maine—turnout surged, with Republicans casting almost 20,000 ballots, and Democrats more than doubling their totals. Turnout also increased dramatically in New Jersey’s 2017 governor election.

Gus Bickford, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, said that participation at the state caucuses in 2017 and 2018 increased, but there have been no larger, bellwether elections at the local level to indicate trends that could carry into November (though some smaller special elections have shown Republicans potentially gaining ground in the Bay State since 2016).

In any case, many questions about this race will be answered in a few short weeks: Who will win the Democratic nomination? How strong of a showing will Lively have? What effect could the GOP’s hard-right candidates for senate have on the Baker-Lively showdown? After four years, how effective will Baker be at turning out voters? How organized is the Gonzalez campaign? Can the Democratic Party’s progressive base push Massie to victory?

Perhaps most significantly, following the primary we’ll know a lot more about the Mass electorate. Voters have options from virtually every corner of the American political spectrum on the ballot, and this is the first time in two years that they’ll step into the booth on the same day.

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SOME THOUGHTS ON TRANSPORTATION POLICY APPARENT HORIZON

BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS

Transportation is a subject I address frequently in my columns. But, as is often the case in journalism, it’s usually necessary to write about it piecemeal given various editorial constraints. So I might cover flooding subways one week and a gonzo proposal for sky gondolas over the Seaport the next. But rarely do I have the luxury of looking at such a major policy area in its entirety. Which is nonideal because a good journalist is always interested to spark discussion and debate—and it’s difficult to have a proper conversation with readers if they aren’t aware of my general views on the topic at hand.

Such was the case last week when I published a piece that took a dim view of Bird Rides dumping its dangerous electric rental scooters all over Cambridge and Somerville without first discussing the move with officials in either city… following a nationwide pattern of flouting relevant laws that is clearly its business model.

About a day later, a few wags took to Twitter to slam me for having the temerity to suggest that motorized skateboards with handlebars might not be the ideal vehicles to allow on area streets in numbers. On both political and safety grounds.

I didn’t mind the hazing, of course. But it was vexing to watch Bird fans that clearly hadn’t even bothered to read the article in question—let alone my broad and deep back catalog—attack me as some kind of car-loving anti-environmental reactionary in the service of flogging their hipster transportation fetish du jour. Be they paid marketers or merely geeks with an idée fixe.

With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to run through my general views on transportation policy in this epistle. To clarify why I don’t think that any electric conveyance thrown at us by sociopathic West Coast frat boy CEOs is automatically the best way to save the planet while safely getting people around town with their groceries and pets. I will, however, leave longdistance intercity travel by land, sea, and air aside for now for the sake of space.

Carbon It’s not possible to hold forth on transportation without first addressing the absolute necessity that humanity stop burning carbon to meet our civilization’s power needs. If we fail to shift from getting power from oil, gas, and coal to clean renewable energy sources like wind, water, and solar, then we are well and truly doomed. Not in centuries, but mere decades from now.

Among the largest sources for global warming inducing carbon emissions are cars, trucks, and motorcycles.

And with carbon multinationals like ExxonMobil dominating American politics, it’s going to be extremely difficult to institute the major changes that will be required to replace those vehicles—and the “car culture” that has built up around them—with zero carbon alternatives that will be acceptable to a broad array of communities. Yet without such a transition, anything else we might do will merely be tacking colorful bunting onto our species’ collective coffin. That said, any decent transportation network will have to be based on electricity. Unless some of our cleverer scientists and engineers come up with sufficiently powerful and portable renewable power sources (tiny cold fusion reactors, harnessing evil spinning gnomes,

Carbon-burning cars need to be relegated to museums and antiquarian societies for collectors and hobbyists.

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etc.) that don’t require plugging vehicles into charging stations for periods of time every day or three.

Planning We’re not going to be able to move millions of people to new green transportation alternatives without redesigning the places where they live and work. One appealing way of doing that over time is to build dense clusters of housing and offices around major multimodal transportation hubs that are connected to each other by mass transit. Which will, among other salutary effects, help solve the “last mile” problem of getting commuters from such hubs to their homes and workplaces in weather conditions that are only going to get more unpredictable and dangerous as climate change accelerates.

But while it’s become fashionable and profitable for developers to build such high-density enclaves for rich people, it is generally not being undertaken for everyone else. Until it is, it’s going to be extremely difficult to successfully introduce the transportation alternatives we need. Probably the toughest issue will be converting existing urban neighborhoods and suburban tracts based on square miles of individual atomized domiciles over to sort of more compact and connected urblets without upending people’s carefully constructed lifeways by government fiat. Though, ironically, the global warming-driven imperative of our moving entire cities like Boston away from flooding lowlands onto higher ground—and eventually northward to cooler climes—will provide us an opportunity to start development from scratch in many locales. Since given the choice between staying in aging housing stock with ever worsening service and transportation options, and moving to new clusters of high-rise and low-rise buildings hooked up to a robust grid, people will likely move of their own accord.

Alternatives And what are the cheaper, ubiquitous, and more efficient transportation modalities that will get us to a carbon-free future? I think trains, trolleys, monorails, and similar mass transit options will still play a vital role in moving large numbers of people from neighborhood to neighborhood and city to city. In fact, I believe we need to massively expand rail lines to reach far out into the exurbs. And figure out ways to use such lines for cargo containers as well. Buses—with dedicated lanes—will remain vital in many areas. Especially where it’s too expensive or impractical to build out rail lines. Boats can also be very useful for the same purpose in most weather conditions in areas adjacent to oceans, lakes, and rivers.

And cars? Well, that’s a big complicated discussion, but here’s my brief take. Carbon-burning cars need to be relegated to museums and antiquarian societies for collectors and hobbyists. But there’s no getting around fact that despite all their myriad problems, most people currently like being able to jump into a car and go where they want to go. So what can replace that? At first, shifting over to electric cars will be a big help. Then there will be a debate over robot cars. And that’s a tricky one because that technology won’t work well at first, and will displace many driving jobs if not introduced deliberately without corporate malice aforethought.

Don’t be surprised, therefore, if you see me attacking “public-private” initiatives to shove such cars down people’s throats.

Nevertheless, society will gain much if we can make the new technology work. Because fleets of robot cars can likely replace the individually owned car entirely.

Allowing people to get between areas well away from major transportation hubs at will—simply by using the

future equivalent of a rideshare app to order a robot car for the trip. Robot trucks will be able to deal with moving cargo point to point. And simple electric golf carts—either robotic or not—will suffice for trips around neighborhoods.

We can then gradually reduce or eliminate motor vehicle traffic from many roads over time—allowing bicycles (on ubiquitous dedicated bike lanes) to really come into their own. As for electric scooters? In most locales it will probably be best if they remain an idiosyncratic vehicle choice for young individuals who like to stand out from the crowd, and not accepted as a serious transportation alternative. Because they’re not.

Meanwhile, flying cars, jetpacks, and the like will have to be a topic for a future article.

Labor Building out transportation alternatives needs to be seen as an opportunity for new job creation, not just an excuse for job destruction for the purpose of corporate profit extraction. Such jobs should be “good jobs” with living wages, shorter work weeks (something we’ll need worldwide to compensate for the rise of the robots), and generous benefits. People losing jobs in the existing transportation sector should be retrained at government expense and get priority placement in jobs in the new transportation sector. All of said jobs should be unionized.

Public As many of these transportation alternatives as possible should be public. Leaving our transit future to private companies like Uber, Lyft, Lime, Bird Rides, etc. is a prescription for disaster. Because all such corporations look out for their bottom lines first, and the public good second (if at all). And every entrant to that new sector has sought to end-run public planning processes and government regulators in a never-ending quest to make a fast buck—to the point of Uber purposely designing their payment algorithm so that their drivers would keep driving while making as little money as possible, according to Vanity Fair.

So if we’re going to ensure that commuters have a voice in a reasonably democratic and rational transportation planning process going forward, then we have to expand public transportation to control the commanding heights of its sector. And regardless, the role of privately owned vehicles must be minimized if we’re going to reduce carbon emissions enough to save ourselves from the worst depredations of humaninduced global warming.

That’s my basic thinking on at least regional transportation. Happy to participate in civic dialogues on the subject any time.

Thanks to Suren Moodliar, co-author of the forthcoming A People’s Guide to Greater Boston [University of California Press] for ongoing ever-illuminating conversations on transportation, housing, and many other policy areas.

Apparent Horizon—winner of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s 2018 Best Political Column award—is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Jason Pramas is BINJ’s network director, and executive editor and associate publisher of DigBoston. Copyright 2018 Jason Pramas. Licensed for use by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and media outlets in its network.

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COUNTDOWN TO DOOMSDAY GUEST OPINION

Addressing the US’s complicitness in maintaining the nuclear status quo

BY MICHELLE CUNHA

PICTURED: HIROSHIMA PEACE MEMORIAL

In the sweltering heat of the Japanese summer, I toured the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Set nearly on top of the epicenter where an atomic bomb was detonated on Aug 6, 1945, I saw statutes of women trying to protect children from the bomb’s devastation, a burial mound with the ashes of at least ten thousand bodies, and monuments to workers whose lives were lost on that shameful day. At the Nagasaki Peace Park I viewed images of infants, teens, and adults burned beyond recognition, lying in the streets.

The next nine days I spent in both Hiroshima and Nagasaki listening to the voices of nuclear abolitionists from around the globe. I met Hibakusha, survivors of the nuclear attack, and listened to their stories of losing their loved ones and community in a moment.

They spoke of the deep unabating grief they felt in the days, months, and decades since. Their words made me verklempt when they described the shame of being a survivor, of how many were unable to marry, find jobs, or live any sort of normal life. They spoke about how many Hibakusha chose to live in silence, never speaking of the day, instead choosing to suffer in silence. They spoke of being instantly alone in middle age having lost their parents, spouses, children, and livelihoods.

As I listened to the speeches at the 2018 World Conference against A and H Bombs, two men kept coming to my mind: Congressman Seth Moulton and State Rep. Kenneth Gordon. Why were these two men on my mind as I looked the legacy of the use of nuclear weapons? Both represent Bedford; Moulton believes nuclear deterrence is a viable doctrine and Gordon believes our attention is better spent on elections in other states as a way to change the discourse on nuclear weapons.

The Doctrine of Deterrence is based on the idea that if a nation possesses nuclear weapons it will not be attacked thus it is protected from any foreign aggressors.

Nations do not like unjust imbalances. If one nation has a nuclear weapon then its chief rival must have two.

8

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That skewed thinking leads to an arms race in which the two nations must one-up each other. Other nations wanting to be perceived as powerful join in the arms race as they too start to conceptualize and build their own nuclear arsenal.

Rachel Melly said “Of course our government always claims that they [nuclear weapons] are necessary for our security, that they will never be used, and they are designed to deter attack from hostile powers. But increasingly our politicians are required to say that they would press the button, so there is calculated uncertainty about whether it should be used or not.”

Moulton has declined to sign onto Sen. Ed Markey’s bill, co-authored by Congressman Ted Lieu of California (D-Calif.), which is designed to limit presidential first use of nuclear weapons by requiring Congressional approval before launching. A similar resolution is in the Massachusetts State House, authored by State Sen. Barbara L’Italien. Ken Gordon has procrastinated signing the resolution saying via email on July 12, 2018: “While I do support this initiative and will do what I can to help with this Senate resolution, I really think our time is best spent assisting the campaigns of those Senators in contested races in other states, because the real solution to all of this will only start when people who share our values take back the House and Senate, slowing down the current threat, and then work toward a more rational Administration.”

At a town hall in Newburyport on May 20, 2017, I asked Moulton why he has not signed onto the No First Strike bill. The Congressman mansplained that deterrence is a viable option and US treaty obligations to East Asian allies require the US to maintain a nuclear arsenal. Video of the exchange can be found on Massachusetts Peace Action’s website.

The United States is the only country in the world who has used nuclear bombs, not once but twice. An estimated 60,000-80,000 people were killed instantly in Hiroshima and another 75,000 were lost in Nagasaki.

Added together, a rough total of 145,000 people were killed instantly. If you add the populations of Bedford, Lexington, Lincoln, Concord, Carlisle, Billerica, and Burlington together, total population is approximately 147,000. Imagine every single man, woman, child in those communities being lost in less than 5 seconds. Image the first responders from surrounding communities attempting to respond to such a completely preventable catastrophe: the blocked roads, the widespread fires, the cancers and radiation diseases police, fire, and EMS would contract. Imagine Emerson and Lahey Hospitals—if they were not instantly destroyed—trying to treat any survivors who are able to make it to their campuses.

The lucky ones in Hiroshima and Nagasaki died instantly. Radiation poisoning killed thousands more in the weeks following the attacks. Still, to this day, thousands of Hibakusha suffer the consequences with cancers throughout their bodies and other radiation diseases. The illnesses do not end with them. Second-generation Hibakusha are also afflicted with radiation diseases all because the United States believed dropping nuclear bombs on human beings—military and civilians alike— was an acceptable war tactic even at a time when the Japanese were attempting to surrender on the terms accepted after the A-bombings.

If I were to point a gun at someone but not to pull the trigger, I would be arrested for assault because to threaten to use a gun is as much a crime as to actually use it. Nuclear weapons are really big guns with the capability of destroying entire communities like Bedford.

During the last phase of his presidency, President Obama initiated a $1 trillion nuclear upgrade and 2018 Congress has bumped that number up to about $1.7 trillion. Hanscom AFB, in Moulton’s and Gordon’s districts, will see millions of those dollars to upgrade the Nuclear Command and Control Communications. In the last few weeks the NDAA was passed, which included funding for “low yield” nuclear bombs. These low yield bombs have more destructive capabilities than the two dropped on Japan. Earlier this year the Doomsday Clock was moved to 2 minutes to midnight after Trump’s NPT was released. It was the first time since 1953 that the hands have been so close to nuclear annihilation.

And yet, Moulton and Gordon believe the threat of instant and indiscriminate death brought on by a bright flash of light and a searing heat so hot eyeballs melt is necessary for US security. They believe burdening humans with life-threatening cancers that will affect millions for generations is in the US’ best interest.

It is time to put a stop to outmoded and antiquated thinking. It is time for total nuclear disarmament by all nine of the nuclear states. It is time for the United States to sign onto the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to eliminate every single one of its 4,000+ nuclear weapons.

Michelle Cunha is the assistant director of Massachusetts Peace Action. She lives in Bedford.

SAVE THE ROBOTS BBBB

A beer poised to take over the world if we let it

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON

Welcome to the Boston Better Beer Bureau, our latest incarnation of the trusty suds reporting we’ve done at DigBoston ever since people referred to beer as suds. Really, we remember the days when we’d spend half our checks on fancy German bottles just so that we could review them, whereas these days breweries from all around New England kindly send us samplers and stay in touch. The BBBB is a new attempt to return that love, all while sharing more news about the innumerable microbreweries and pubs among us. This week we applaud a beer that, while brewed locally for an out-of-town imprint, has become a standby in our estimation after just a few years on the shelf.

If we idiotically avoided beers for having extremely interesting, artistic, or (dare I go so far as to say) collectible packaging, then we’d have missed out on some serious greats, like Aeronaut Brewing’s Hop Hop and Away, which we’d have also whiffed on if we were deliberately steering clear of pun brews.

We share this bit of self-reflection in light of our latest look at Save the Robots, which packs no play on words in its name (as far as we can tell) but features a can worthy of a trophy case. It’s a product we are happy to not have deliberately overlooked when we were briefly, nonsensically eschewing snazzy labels.

As for the bite itself, Save the Robots is an East Coast IPA crafted by Dorchester Brewing in Boston for Radiant Pig Beer Company in New York. The hops are citra and mosaic, among others, and as much as we hate it when people do our job better than we do, the copywriter who described the taste on the side of the can really nailed it: “This hazy, unfiltered gem has juicy tropical and citrus flavors, but finishes surprisingly smooth for such an aggressive amount of hops.”

We agree—this is special pick. Stern, but easy going; bitter, but in the best of ways. It’s the kind of treat that, if you lived in an exotic futuristic robot hellscape in which small delicious brews had yet to catch on and you were for some sad reason made to ingest nonironic midgrade swill most of the time, the arrival of this artsy and delicious canister would make your week, month, and year. As long as civilization is such that you can safely walk to the bodega and purchase your favorite four-pack, we recommend you do so often.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

9

FIELD OF GREEN TALKING JOINTS MEMO

Catching up with the Dorchester dispensary hopefuls from Holistic Health Group

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 Which dispensaries will open their doors this year?

Where will they be located?

What about priority applicants?

Of the zillion questions swirling around recreational cannabis in Mass, those three top the list. They also spur discussions that Holistic Health Group, which is building a cultivation center in Middleboro plus dispensaries in Dorchester and Worcester, should be front and center in.

The composition of the company alone makes HHG unique. Namely, it boasts that in addition to being “a registered marijuana dispensary priority applicant under the state’s [Cannabis Control Commission] regulations”—a designation it earned by way of prior provisional approval as a Registered Medical Dispensary (RMD)—“a majority of its owners are also individuals who qualify under the State’s economic empowerment priority application guidelines.”

One of those owners, Colonel Boothe, qualified as a person of color. Another, Tim McNamara, had been arrested for possession, which also afforded him a spot toward the front of the line.

Such prime placement is just one piece of a labyrinthine puzzle, though, and for this pair it is just the latest step in a process that’s already consumed years and has no certain end in sight.

“You start with the application of intent, you throw your hat in the ring, and you realize how big of a thing you’re getting into,” McNamara told DigBoston.

With Holistic Health Group working overtime to set up shop in Fields Corner, and in the middle of a 10

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complex zoning variance process as well as commencing community outreach efforts, we asked Boothe and McNamara about their plans for the neighborhood.

On choosing Dorchester…

TM: We have been looking at Dorchester for about a year and a half. I spent time in Fields Corner myself as a child, our CEO was raised in Dorchester, and we knew that areas like that had been disproportionately impacted [by the War on Drugs]. … We believe the area is in line with a lot of the goals that we have.

CB: Essentially, given that urban areas have been more negatively affected by the War on Drugs, we chose to be the group that focuses on trying to open cannabis businesses within urban areas where we can provide economic opportunities.

We’re really focused on places like Worcester and Dorchester that have been hit hard. … A lot of people of color in those areas haven’t really had the opportunity to even get into the cannabis industry, so we’re looking to Fields Corner, where we can work with a community [where people have] been through years and years of harassment for smoking cannabis.

TM: Dorchester also has some pretty unique commuter rail access to Middleboro [where their cultivation facility is located]. Even if somebody doesn’t have their own vehicle, [they can get to Middleboro using MBTA trains].

On the breadth of opportunities they hope to offer…

TM: There’s the retail aspect of the industry, and there’s definitely skill to listening to what people are looking for and making suggestions. But in Massachusetts, which is a medical hub, we want to offer people who are in places like Dorchester a chance to not just work at the dispensary but to understand the whole business and be able to, number one, explain what goes into the growth and process of the product, and number two, if they have the motivation and a certain type of skill, that they have an opportunity to perhaps work in a different field within our company or industry that would match their goals. That’s the building up of the knowledge base.

On next steps…

TM: We’re really looking for support from folks who understand the industry and those who see this as an opportunity.

CB: As we spend more time in [Dorchester and Worcester], we’ve been meeting and talking with older folks, a lot of whom were very averse to cannabis, and I’m finding that the more time you spend educating them on the benefits of cannabis, the more they’re showing interest. We do anticipate some apprehension from the older community, but we know that there are people in that age bracket that are open-minded.

Anyone interested in employment is encouraged to attend HHG’s open house taking place at 1548 Dorchester Ave. in Dorchester on Thu, Aug 16 from 5 to 7pm.

GUEST OPINION

THANKS BUT NO THANKS A letter to the Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition

BY SHALEEN TITLE @SHALEENTITLE

Ed. Note: The following is a copy of an email sent by Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) Commissioner Shaleen Title, writing on her personal behalf, to Christine Ianuzzi of the Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition (CWCBE), in response to that company’s soliciting the commissioner to participate in its upcoming Boston convention as a keynote speaker. As a frame of reference, in August 2017 DigBoston contributor Mike Crawford covered the controversy around CWCBE Boston’s extending a speaking invitation to political pariah Roger Stone, a move that spurred a boycott by members of the Minority Cannabis Business Association, among others. Title’s letter to CWCBE appears below, unedited and with permission from the commissioner.

Dear Ms. Ianuzzi, Thank you for inviting me to serve as a keynote speaker at your convention.

I’m curious if you are aware that I helped lead a boycott of this same event last year. When a group of advocates of color initially raised concerns about your choice to honor Roger Stone, your company representative referred to us as “dumb” and “you people.”

Only after a widespread backlash that saw numerous sponsors withdraw in horror, threatening your financial success, did you uninvite Mr. Stone. Even then, you dismissed the entire conversation as a “distraction” to the “growth and legalization of the cannabis industry.” You took no responsibility, demonstrated no understanding or reflection, made no commitment to improve, and failed entirely to recognize that activists fought for decades and risked their freedom to fight the unjust laws whose repeal now makes possible your event and your profits.

So no, absent a demonstrated commitment to improve, you may not use my name or my credibility towards repairing your damaged reputation. I am unpersuaded by your ludicrous suggestion that it is “critical” for me to use your platform to discuss the future of cannabis. But, I can make some recommendations if you are sincere about putting in the necessary work to become a respected member of the cannabis community.

If you are willing to make an effort to move forward constructively, here are some suggestions for how to start: Train your company representatives in bias and cultural sensitivity.

Promote diversity in your staff and in the line-up at your events.

Ensure that social-justice perspectives are represented throughout the various topics to be discussed at your convention.

Allocate a portion of the event proceeds to harm reduction efforts, such as bail funds.

Invite a formerly incarcerated person as your keynote speaker to discuss how the drug war has affected them.

Should your company make a good faith effort to take such steps, people whose work in the cannabis industry and legalization movement is centered on social justice will be much more likely to accept your invitations to speak at next year’s event, if there is one.

This product contains zero THC

Sincerely, Shaleen

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

11

PRESSING MATTER FEATURE

Some places to look (besides the Dig) when the mainstream media fails you

BY TIM DEVIN We’re deep into a year that isn’t going so well.

There’s tangible effects of climate change. There’s a president who is apparently impervious to any repercussions at all. And then there’s… pretty much everything else clogging up my newsfeed. Us citizens of 2018 could use some inspiration and a whole lot of alternative approaches.

But where can we look?

Lucky for us, a growing number of small presses are putting out books about grassroots groups that have found creative ways to change their world. And unlike academic publishers who also sometimes cover this subject, these small press’ publications are affordable by design; small presses want their books to be accessible, so they keep their prices low.

For instance, Jane: Documents from Chicago’s Clandestine Abortion Service 1968-1973 (60 pages, $4 from Eberhardt Press) looks at the underground network of volunteers who helped women get abortions in Chicago before Roe v. Wade made it legal in 1973. Here in 2018, this book provides a pretty stark warning about why we need to protect the right to abortion—as well as a potential toolkit for action if the right keeps having its way. It’s also an interesting look at how an underground network can successfully function below the radar.

Half Letter Press also provides some inspiration with its reprint of 1975’s Trying to Make the Personal Political: Feminism and Consciousness-Raising (52 pages; print for $7, or PDF for $3). This booklet shows how to start and participate in a feminist consciousness-raising group—a 12

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common tactic in the ’70s that saw women gathering to discuss issues (both personal and political) in a group setting that was designed to foster mutual support.

Given the hard push against women’s rights that we’re seeing lately, it seems like some people might want to re-examine this tactic. This booklet will also appeal to people like me who want to find ways to discuss ideas with folks outside of their everyday circles—but are losing interest in an increasingly hostile social media world.

As the EPA sheds its regulations and responsibilities, small publications about past environmental actions seem pretty good road maps for helping to preserve what’s left of this planet’s nature. Take the anti-nuke movement, for instance. The Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism recently printed a free stand-alone newspaper by Miriam Wasser, called Pilgrims: 50 Years Of Anti-Nuclear Mass.: An Oral History, which detailed community resistance to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant and provided fascinating details about how the groups succeeded and how they handled challenges.

Interference Archive’s small pamphlet about the allwomen Greenham Common anti-nuke protest camp in England (“Documents from the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp,” $5 from Justseeds) shares similar insights—and also includes information about how the protestors addressed internal conflict.

Last up and closest to home, Jake Carman’s Nine Years of Anarchist Action (262 pages, $12 from AK Press) tells the story of a now-defunct anarchist group called Boston

Anarchists Against Militarism and reprints a number of articles it wrote. BAAM formed shortly after 9/11 as a response to America’s sudden surge towards militarism, but the network later went on to organize around a variety of issues. Its DIY approach should be pretty inspiring for anyone who’s frustrated with what’s going on now but can’t find people to connect with outside of their immediate circles; like many other community groups, BAAM shows that you don’t necessarily need to join an existing group—you can organize your own.

It’s safe to say that none of these stories are being promoted by larger presses, which is what makes small presses so timely—and important. If you’re looking for some inspiration, take a look at what presses like these have to offer.

Where can you find more books like this? Try these online distributors:

• Half Letter Press. halfletterpress.com • Justseeds. justseeds.org • Microcosm. microcosmpublishing.com • Printed Matter. printedmatter.org\ Tim Devin works in a local public library and is the author of Mapping Out Utopia: 1970s Boston-Area Counterculture. An earlier version of this article appeared in Half Letter Press’ book What Problems Can Artist Publishers Solve?

soleful bliss:

THE YEAR TO MANAGE UP!

ARTS & MUSIC AND TECHNOLOGY SERIES

SAT. SEPT. 15, 2018

Hibernian Hall, 5PM - 10PM This production is a tribute to Nina Simone an American Music Icon!

Ballroom, 3rd Floor, Hibernian Hall, 184 Dudley Street, Roxbury purchase tickets online: http://sbamt.eventbrite.com

All age show!

Produced by AfroDesiaCity. Sponsored by The Boston Foundation, with support and partnership from the Barr Foundation.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

13

KOUNTRY WAYNE COMEDY

In Wayne’s world, comedians make more scratch than rappers

BY DENNIS MALER @DEADAIRDENNIS It’s easy to dislike someone like Kountry Wayne because, well, he was a Facebook star before becoming a comedian.

Then I found out that he used to be a rapper, but switched to comedy to make more money? Unheard of. And so it’s even easier to hate him for being successful. But once I spoke with him, I realized he’s a person who respects the dedication it takes to make it in comedy. He’s no flash in the pan; rather, Wayne’s a genuinely gifted entertainer who used his charm and quick wit to his advantage— and the advantage of his nine kids. Seriously, my loins ache just hearing that.

If you had to use one of these two songs as your intro music going on stage, which are you coming out to every night: “Country Grammar” by Nelly or “Thank God I’m a Country Boy” by John Denver?

John Denver, because I never heard it before. It’s so unique it’ll catch people’s attention. If I use “Country Grammar” they gonna be like, “Oh, he think he’s cute.”

You were a rapper in Atlanta before you started doing comedy. Why did you make the switch?

I was rapping with a DJ in Atlanta, and we had this song called “Twerk Alert,” you know? I had money ’cause I had two nightclubs at the time. … I had lost some money rapping, you know? And since I had nine kids to feed, I decided to try out comedy to make some money.

How did you get started in the club business?

I used to be a party planner, and I used to get 50 percent of the door. Then I eventually started renting buildings myself and getting 100 percent of the door, because I put my own money. That’s when I saw the profits of alcohol, because I didn’t know how much money alcohol made at the time, so once I see that I said, “I’m gonna open my own club.” My first club only cost me $10,000 to open up, and made $144,000 in profits after the first year.

What do you think makes a club successful club?

You got to have a relationship with the people.

Basically whatever area you in, you basically have to go hang out. You got to go to the cookouts. You got to help build your community. You got to get involved, because those are the people, and once you get involved with the people, only thing you got to do then is make sure your business is ran good, because the people are gonna come. I took that same technique and brought it to the comedy world. I bring out large crowds and never been on TV. Never been on Hollywood, but I bring that large crowds because I’m involved with the people.

When you made the transition from music to comedy, what was the reaction from the people around you?

They thought it was a trend. Eventually I’d get back into music. They say, okay, let’s use the fans on the comedy and bring them back over here. And that’s cool.

But after long it was like, shoot, the comedy is what it is.

Why did you made a conscious decision about being a clean comedian?

Seinfeld. He’s the most successful comedian. He’s never been in a big movie. He just kind of walking on beat and he did it, clean. I heard an interview where he said that you reach a wide audience being clean. So I’m like, I got nine kids. I need as wide as an audience as I can get. I’ve been dirty my whole life, so I might be clean at something. >>SEE KOUNTRY WAYNE AT LAUGH BOSTON FROM 8.16–18.

TICKETS CAN BE PURCHASED AT LAUGHBOSTON.COM. FOR A FULL LISTING OF COMEDY SHOWS IN BOSTON VISIT BOSTONCOMEDYSHOWS.COM. PHOTO BY ELTON ANDERSON JR. 14

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Do you see a parallel between the music and the comedy industries?

Oh yes. There’s definitely a parallel. Music is figuring it out faster, comedy is trying to figure it out. Find your audience first, and when you find the audience then you evolve.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

15

LYSTEN UP MUSIC

How a music promoter convinced a massive South End complex to embrace local music

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

If you live in Boston or any of its surrounding neighborhoods, we’re sorry your rent has gone up.

Though if you’ve lived here for a couple of years, you know that’s bound to happen, often annually, because of all the construction. Rapidly gentrifying sections of Boston that were previously left untouched, like quiet worlds for an urban getaway, look like brandnew sections of the city meant for the wealthy and the wealthy alone. All of these apartment complexes and high-rise condos are starting to seem like the type of construction nobody can infiltrate… unless you’re Alyssa Spector.

Though few people want to go around sporting, much less accepting, superhero capes, Spector is someone who deserves one. She runs Lysten Boston, a music agency that’s been booking shows, promoting shows, and managing local artists, all with the intent to highlight our city’s emerging artists. Spector runs the agency these days with the same passion she did back when she founded it in 2014. That’s why she’s been nominated twice at the Boston Music Awards as one of the city’s best music promoters.

A few weeks ago, Spector went out for an afternoon walk to soak up some of the summer’s better weather.

That’s when she saw it: Underground at Ink Block. For those who can’t tell one rapidly appearing residential complex from the next these days, Ink Block is a trendy upscale apartment complex that occupies multiple blocks on Harrison Avenue as of late 2015. Right beside it, hidden beneath the snaking highway lanes of I-93 and the concrete pillars holding it up, is the converted area known as Underground at Ink Block. An urban park that softens the divider between the South End and Southie, it boasts a sprawling series of murals, dog parks, bike paths, picnic tables, and more. It’s managed by National

Development, the same team behind the Ink Block complex. It also cost MassDOT a casual $8.5 million.

“Anytime I’m somewhere new and see an open space, indoors or outdoors, I wonder if it’s possible to host live music there,” says Spector. “So after checking their website and sending an email, I asked if they would be open to hosting a live music show there. They responded saying they were super interested but didn’t know how to approach it. We decided to combine forces to make it happen.”

Spector quickly began organizing a dream event, one that will take place in reality, for this Friday, Aug 17.

Underground at Ink Block will christen its space with music from a string of local all-star emerging acts: slam poet-turned-hip-hop star Oompa, garage rock charmers the Maxims, experimental pop genius Ed Balloon, and blissful soul singer-songwriter Aubrey Haddard. The event, dubbed “Underground Sounds,” will be free, all ages, and open to the public—including pets.

“I wanted to keep the lineup as diverse as possible, because that’s exactly what Boston’s music scene is like,” she says. “I’m looking forward to seeing the people who show up, people who wouldn’t usually see these artists, and seeing their reactions. I can’t wait to see them be blown away. Like Ed Balloon is one of the most incredible dancers ever and it’s so unexpected when you hear his music online, so that alone will be a treat to watch others witness for the first time.”

Having never worked with the company before, Spector had a few growing pains in planning Friday’s free event, like figuring out how to maximize the PA sound in a structurally awkward space, or securing food trucks—don’t worry; veggie favorite the Chubby Chickpea will pull up—because of neighborhood-specific food truck licenses. The event also doubles as the first outdoor live music event she’s ever thrown, a tricky feat in itself. But those road bumps feel minor when she remembers the event will act as a bridge for diverse Boston communities, a goal she, like many members of the city’s local music scene, have wanted to see come true for a while.

“One of the reasons I was so set on bringing live music to this space is because one of the many goals of my business is to bring live music to different spaces,

to expose our community outside of our local music scene,” Spector explains. “My hope was that by bringing an event to a space like this—somewhere more known by the people outside of our scene than the people in our scene—that they will discover there’s these great, talented artists in their backyard, that you don’t have to pay $60 to see someone at the Garden or House of Blues that you could see for free or a cheap price at a venue around town. When you ask people what they’re thinking of doing this weekend, people usually say they’re going to the movies or going to a bar or going to a sporting event. Live music doesn’t usually come to mind for the everyday person. I want to help change that.”

What Spector is getting at (and trying to slowly solve) is true. Boston needs increased opportunities for local artists to play to Boston residents who don’t actively seek out music. An event like the one Lysten Boston is throwing is, no contest, a great step in the right direction. Though the divide between the music communities in Boston’s neighborhoods isn’t as stark as that of the neighborhoods’ racial segregation issues, there continues to appear to be a problem booking local artists in downtown spaces, or at least with any regularity. You’ve got your random acoustic guitar set in an Irish pub here and your all-ages DIY set at a hostel there, but otherwise the central zone of Boston’s hub doesn’t welcome local acts unless they’re capable of selling out venues like the Royale (Hi, Converge) or the House of Blues (Hi again, Dropkick Murphys). There’s a disconnect between the necktie-wearing crowd of South Station or granola-plus moms of the South End and the artists consistently killing the game out in Roxbury, Allston, Jamaica Plain, and Somerville. Local outlets like Allston Pudding, Vanyaland, or Sound of Boston do a phenomenal job of covering rising artists from our community, but that doesn’t mean everyone is reading them, especially residents who think the Paradise Rock Club is intimate and Soundcloud is an Apple product extension. Boston deserves to make it easier for people to discover local music without breaking their backs to do so. We need more cross collaboration between traditionally nonmusic spaces and local music bookers.

A few outlets are already putting in the effort to make this happen, like local brewery Aeronaut running a free outdoor music series at Zone3 in lower Allston or Fenway Park’s recent dive into ticketed rooftop concerts by local musicians. We just need more of them.

“As an arts community, it feels like we’re constantly being pushed out from the city and our surrounding areas,” says Spector. “Everything is more expensive now.

Seeing high-rise luxury condos and boutique hotels take up space that could have been used for the arts is upsetting. But to know that there’s a developer like the one at Ink Block who is open to renting space and letting a unique space house music is great. I just wish there was more of that more often.”

>>OOMPA, THE MAXIMS, ED BALLOON, AUBREY HADDARD. FRI 8.17. UNDERGROUND AT INK BLOCK, 90 TRAVELER ST., BOSTON. 7PM/ALL AGES/FREE. LYSTENBOSTON.COM

MUSIC EVENTS THU 08.16

AN ELECTRIC RECORD RELEASE SHOW PHOTOCOMFORT + MINT GREEN + BILLY DEAN THOMAS

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston.

8:30pm/18+/$12. greatscottboston.com]

16

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FRI 08.17

INDIE ROCK WITH A CHILL PILL COVEY + JACKSONVILLE KID + LADY PILLS

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm.

Ave., Allston. 10pm/21+/$10. greatscottboston.com]

DIGBOSTON.COM

SAT 08.18

WERS THROWS A WICKED GOOD FESTIVAL BLEACHERS + BUFFALO TOM + JULIANA HATFIELD + MORE

[Boston Common, Charles St., Boston. 12pm/all ages/ free. wers.org]

SAT 08.18

THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD GYM CLASS HEROES + CLIFF NOTEZ [Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston.

7pm/all ages/$26.50. crossroadspresents.com]

SAT 08.18

IS THIS LIVE THING CURSED? ALKALINE TRIO + TOGETHER PANGEA + OGIKUBO STATION

[House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston.

7pm/all ages/$28. houseofblues.com]

WED 08.22

GOSPEL CONCERTS IN THE GORGEOUS COURTYARD LIZ VICE

[Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston.

7:30pm/all ages/$30. mfa. org]

RA RA RIOT WHEEL OF TUNES

New music, cemetery crows, and the periodic table

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN Ra Ra Riot was the little indie rock band that could, even when it didn’t seem like they would persevere. This isn’t the type of shadow-shrouded doubt that tumbled from the mouths of critics or wavering fans. Instead, it’s the reality the five-piece band was confronted with right from the start when John Pike, the original drummer, passed away PHOTO BY NICOLE BUSCH during the recording of their debut album, The Rhumb Line.

It’s been a decade since The Rhumb Line came out. Since then, Ra Ra Riot—now consisting of vocalist Wes Miles, bassist Mathieu Santos, guitarist Milo Bonacci, violinist Rebecca Zeller, and drummer Kenny Bernard—have not only continued to write music, but the band has grown to significant new heights. The original sound—a combination of mello orchestrated strings with soft indie rock guitars and vocals—has morphed over the years to fit their personal interests as they age. Now, the band is hitting the road for a short stint of dates to honor the 10th anniversary of The Rhumb Line, during which several new songs will be played. The tour is at once a stepping stone forward to look back on the ways in which they’ve matured, a way to commemorate Pike, and a chance to admire the bold mark their debut record left on the indie rock landscape.

“This tour could have been depressing, because we’re revisiting an artifact without a future left for it, but what helps me is knowing that we’re not done, that we can fit it into new things within the context of the past,” says Miles. “So this tour will help us to figure out why this record was so successful and why it spoke to so many people. It was a really emotional time for us while making [Rhumb Line], way more so than anything else we’ve made. We wrote more than half of it with John—who is from Massachusetts, and was an amazing songwriter and person—so finishing it without him was really emotionally difficult, but it also felt like it had to be done. It would’ve been a disservice to the stuff he did to not finish the album.

There will be a lot of emotions like that.”

To explore what Ra Ra Riot was like back then versus now, we interviewed Wes Miles for a round of Wheel of Tunes, a series where we ask musicians questions inspired by their song titles. With The Rhumb Line as the prompt, his answers dip into nostalgia while noting growth—a peek into what the band will be like while headlining the Sinclair this Thursday.

1. “Ghost Under Rocks” When is the last time you picked up a rock and what did you find under it?

I probably was gardening in the backyard.

Well, you know, my super made-up garden given I live in Brooklyn and the backyard is small. So I lifted a rock up once and there were all sorts of bugs and stuff under it.

I also moved one recently and my dog found something dead under it, like a bird or something, because he was digging and rolling in it. That’s one of my zen activities: trimming plants, watering plants, or planting new ones. Actually, the other week, I was grilling in the backyard and I noticed a stationary flicking light, just floating in the middle of the backyard. I was confused what it was. But then I saw it was a spider that had wrapped up a lightning bug that was still flashing without its head! It was floating between one huge plant and another, just standing there at head-level. It was pretty wild. It blinked for another hour after that.

2. “Each Year” How have your New Year’s resolutions or general goals for yourself progressed over the years?

I occasionally make New Year’s resolutions, but I’ve never stuck with them. I don’t even know what they are anymore. As for goals, though, one goal I had this year was to get a lot better at guitar, and I think I’ve done okay. I’m more of keyboard player and singer. I think I’ll be playing some guitar on this tour, but I have to ask the rest of my band first if I’ve gotten better.

READ THE REST OF NINA’S INTERVIEW AT DIGBOSTON.COM >> RA RA RIOT. THU 8.16. THE SINCLAIR, 52 CHURCH ST., CAMBRIDGE. 9PM/18+/$25.

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JENNA POLLACK AS GIRL IN THE POLKA DOT DRESS. PHOTO BY ANDREW BRILLIANT.

THEATER REVIEW PERFORMANCE ARTS

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

THE CORNERS OF HER MIND Dark Room at Bridge Rep

Francesca Woodman is one of the 20th century’s greatest photographers who you’ve probably never heard of. Born into a family of artists, she had it instilled in her from a young age that nothing was more important than making art.

Woodman had an intense, enigmatic personality and as a student at the Rhode Island School of Design quickly earned a reputation for producing work that was in a completely different league that that of her peers. She didn’t just seem ahead of her time, but ahead of her years.

As so many preternaturally gifted artists are, Woodman was a tortured soul who suffered from severe bouts of depression, and it became difficult for her as a young artist to understand why the New York art world had not caught on to her yet.

And then at the age of 22, Woodman jumped out of the window of her New York loft. Her face was so beyond recognition that her body was identified using not dental records but the clothing that she was wearing.

Appropriate, then, that clothing should be our way of identifying the main presence in Dark Room, a new play

by George Brant that is currently in its world-premiere

production at Bridge Repertory Theater.

A girl in a polka dot dress, based on one of Woodman’s many self portraits, is an anxious ball of terror, peering fearfully through a pair of thick curtains and running— sometimes forward, sometimes backward—around the ruinous-looking props that litter the large playing space, a ground zero of Woodman’s artistic mind. (The eerie, sparse set is designed by Ryan Bates.)

Though she doesn’t ever speak, it is clear that this girl (played by Jenna Pollack) is meant to represent Woodman, and it is she that connects the 11 different scenes that make up the play, scurrying all around and up and down Cambridge’s gorgeous Multicultural Arts Center.

Each inspired by one of Woodman’s photographs, the vignettes do not necessarily tell one interconnected story.

Rather, Dark Room is a work of art in totality, one that audiences are invited to let wash over them without trying to think too hard about how all the pieces fit together.

But, of course, they are connected—by Woodman, yes, but also by grief, memory, love, Joni Mitchell, and that poor young girl in the polka dot dress.

Some scenes are wrenching, as when a grieving mother recounts her daughter’s death, and others are almost absurdist, as is the case with a pair of subjects waiting on the beach for their photographer to arrive. There’s a tense meeting of ex-lovers at a cafe, a trio of bickering corpses in a graveyard, a pair of sisters taken on a journey to the afterlife, and an angel who tries to lend her wings in hopes

>> DARK ROOM. THROUGH 8.16 AT BRIDGE REPERTORY THEATER, 41 SECOND ST., CAMBRIDGE. BRIDGEREP.ORG 18

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that she can foil a suicide. (You can imagine how that last one fits in.)

Not all the vignettes are successful, and several overstay their welcome, but director (and Bridge Rep artistic director) Olivia D’Ambrosio has put together one of the strangest and most fascinating productions in recent memory. The massive cast of 22—all of them women—is excellent, particularly Jennifer Rohn and Celeste Oliva.

Woodman’s photographs were dark and introspective, almost like a gothic Man Ray, and to that end Dark Room has succeeded in bringing this to life. Stephen Petrilli’s lighting and Elizabeth Cahill’s sound design are vital assets here, as is the movement by Doppelgänger Dance Collective. But should the striking visuals have been less captivating, the play would struggle to stand on its own.

And it is not so much a complaint as it is an observation that Woodman was an unapologetically sexual person and that much of her work was nude self-portraits, so it seems odd and a little off-brand for none of Brant’s scenes to explore this.

Still, Dark Room is a visually stunning, moody, and intriguingly abstract play about perspective, loss, and the way that we are remembered—and forgotten—by those whose lives were once connected, in big ways and in small ways, to our own, and D’Ambrosio’s gorgeous production aches with thrilling tenderness and profound melancholy.

Regardless of what it makes you feel, I doubt that you’ve ever seen anything quite like it.

THEATER

THIS PLACE/DISPLACED Displacement, gentrification, and housing inequality in Boston

BY DENNIS MALER @DEADAIRDENNIS

VERY FUNNY SHOWS.

Seven Nights A WWk. It’s almost Allston Christmastime, and you know what that means—streets crowded with moving vans! Armies of ignorant motorists driving in circles, cutting people off, and making illegal turns because they can’t follow their GPS. Sidewalks littered, literally, with mountains of broken and abandoned cheap Ikea furniture. And don’t forget the trucks getting scalped by Storrow Drive overpasses despite warning signs every couple of inches.

Nevertheless, if these are the horrors you’re primarily concerned about, maybe you’re one of the lucky ones. For some, Aug 31 is a date that rents go up, a time that is sometimes synonymous with survival.

With Emerson and Harvard buying more and more property for student housing, greedy landlords, and room-share operations becoming a more common quick fix for some families attempting to save their own homes, affordable housing for noncoeds is increasingly scarce. And so in taking on gentrification in a way that goes beyond griping about losing their favorite mom and pop shop, the Artists’ Theatre of Boston, in conjunction with housing rights nonprofit City Life/Vida Urbana, are telling the stories of those who are being pushed farther and farther away from the city.

This Place/Displaced is a documentary-minded show shining a spotlight on displacement, gentrification, and housing inequality in Greater Boston. Combining theater, prose, and verse with music, the writers, cast, and crew tell stories about space and place for those whose voices have been lost as they relocate to the farthest reaches of the T and beyond.

Few people understand this troubling dynamic quite like advocates at City Life, and community organizer Ronel Remy has helped focus the play’s messaging. A Boston resident who immigrated from Haiti 30 years ago, Remy’s faced eviction and displacement in multiple forms, both here and in New York, and brings the tenacity of a man who has had to fight for his home.

In preparation for this run, ATB producers went to City Life meetings to partner with those who were interested in sharing stories of displacement. In doing so, they were shocked by the number of people who wanted to participate. With help from director Josh Keaton, they sought out playwrights who were committed to telling such stories. The resulting roster is a veritable panel of experts, including awardwinning playwright Kirsten Greenidge, who is also an assistant professor of theater at Boston University’s Center for Fine Art, as well as Zahra A. Belyea, an adjunct professor of writing for film and television at Emerson College. Producers Anneke Reich and Maurice Palmer paired up writers with community partners via City Life, all in the name of mixing art with truth and social justice.

Most folks have had nightmares dealing with shady landlords, run-down crap buildings, and high broker and realtor fees. Still, there’s a wide range of experiences, as is displayed in the diverse cross-section examined in This Place. As playwright Stephanie Brownell recalls, landlords in her hometown of Racine, Wisconsin offered tenants new appliances as an incentive to resign their leases.

In Boston, such thoughtfulness is absolutely unheard of in 2018.

IMPROVASYLUM.COM | 617.263.6887

>>THIS PLACE/DISPLACED AT THE CHARLESTOWN WORKING THEATRE, 442 BUNKER HILL ST., CHARLESTOWN. FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS, 8.17, 18, 24, AND 25.

TICKETS ARE $10 AND CAN BE PURCHASED IN ADVANCE AT ARTISTSTHEATER.ORG/PRODUCTIONS/THIS-PLACE-DISPLACED. NEWS TO US

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REEL OF FORTUNE FILM

The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds arrives from Florida by way of Harvard

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds [1965] starts out hazy and gets part of an as-yet unrealized streaming platform which clearer upon further study. But that start is as hazy as they will include another classic of trashy Floridian film, Shanty get—Nest has one of the most disorienting first reels I’ve Tramp [1967].” That blog post was published in May, and ever seen in a narrative film. It begins cold on a shot of last month, byNWR.com launched officially, with The Lieutenant Johnson of the Florida Beverage Department Nest of the Cuckoo Birds leading the way as “Volume (lifelong actor Bert Williams, who also serves as writer, One, Chapter One.” And it’s an impressive venture from director, and producer) and then watches him get assigned the jump, albeit one saddled with a truly obnoxious to go undercover with some moonshiners operating at moniker. Subscriptions are free, movies are set to be Florida’s outermost edges (much of the film was shot in released monthly, and three were made available on North Miami). But in the middle of this first conversation, day one (Cuckoo Birds, Shanty Tramp, and Hot Thrills and Johnson brings up how much he’s going to miss his special Warm Chills [1967]). Each film gets its own “chapter” on lady, and we suddenly flash back (or forward?) to a scene the website, and each chapter begins with the film itself where that woman is lying on his bed, kissing him, and before extending out by way of articles and other adjacent engaging in some B-grade romantic banter. There’s a multimedia. For the Cuckoo Birds section, guest editor beautiful shot here where the camera tracks alongside Jimmy McDonagh has curated 11 additional “features,” the woman as she paces through his room, with the cheap and they’re main-attraction material, not a sidebar in lighting and the black-and-white photography coalescing any way: They include an exhaustive biography of Bert to create all these shadows and high contrasts, lending Williams by Bob Mehr; a sizeable collection of Williams’ a real sense of dreamy energy to this played-out cliche sketchwork, paintings, and design work (ranging from his of a scene—that is, until the dialogue kicks back in and childhood doodles to his late-in-life portraits of friend and Williams enters the frame and disrupts all that magic by regular costar Charles Bronson); a piece written by Harvard looking directly into the camera as he delivers his tired Film Archive director Haden Guest on “Discovering the lines. Following that is a harsh blackout and an opening Lost Cuckoo Bird”; and a number of articles that have no credits sequence featuring totally uncontextualized shots direct relation to Nest of the Cuckoo Birds but nonetheless of Johnson sprinting through misty Florida swampland. contribute to the project’s general “artists on the outer In the next scene we meet two scheming bootleggers fringes” vibe (standouts include journal entries by Brian and realize that Johnson was sprinting because the O’Hara, who recalls his time editing porn films made movie jumped forward a long while—we skipped the by the notorious Avon Productions, and the memoirs part where he infiltrates the group, and we skipped the of longtime garage rocker Margaret Doll Rod, as told to part where they found him out, and we’re already at the McDonagh). part where he’s running for his life. There’s a foot chase, Each chapter ends with a brief entry from “The a boat chase, a shootout, and an explosion, all of which Restorationists,” penned by film preservationist Peter leaves Johnson floating alone and presumed dead in the Conheim. And it’s here at the very end of the chapter that swamp, where he’s stalked by alligators and eventually we get an explanation for the 20 minutes we saw at the chased onto a barren shore. And it’s on that shore that the very start. “As anyone who views the film can tell you, there film’s actual narrative takes shape: He encounters a young is something a bit awkward about its first act,” Conheim woman brandishing a knife and wearing only a blank writes of Nest, before offering some information elided mask—think Eyes Without a Face [1960]—and she attacks until this point: The last surviving 35mm print had itself him erratically, and effectively, sending him back into the been chopped up—probably by Williams himself, but water once more, where he floats until he’s rescued by the potentially by some other “unofficial collaborator.” “The shotgun-brandishing concierge of the Cuckoo Bird Inn decision was made to leave it exactly as we found it,” right around the 20-minute mark.

Conheim continues, “And experiments at reordering the There’s a potential explanation for why this opening stretch is so totally discontinuous, but it requires a few prefaces. First of all, you need to know where this movie emerged from. The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds was made independently by Williams and his collaborators (many of whom were family and/or colleagues from the Florida dinner theater circuit), and was then distributed on the exploitation circuit. After 1967, it disappeared from circulation, and was considered “lost” until the 21st century—at which point this story takes a local turn. The Little Art Cinema of Rockport, Maine, donated a collection of film prints to the Harvard Film Archive, and within that collection Harvard’s conservators located an intact 35mm exhibition print of Cuckoo Birds, presumably the last one in existence. “I looked through the print on the rewind bench and was instantly in love,” wrote Harvard film conservator Liz Coffey in a recent blog post. But discovering a lost film is not equivalent to preserving one—the latter task requires a benefactor.

Enter writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn COURTESY BYNWR.COM (Drive [2011]), who funded Nest’s digital restoration with “[plans] to stream the film,” per Coffey, “as >> THE NEST OF THE CUCKOO BIRDS IS AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON BYNWR.COM WITH A FREE SUBSCRIPTION.

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footage simply didn’t work at all, so I am led to believe that this was, indeed, Williams’ own revisionist editing attempt, and that he probably carried it out on the few release prints that were made, one by one.”

I’m not too concerned with whether or not this is the “complete” Cuckoo Birds because I’m quite sure that any efforts to make the film more comprehensible would only dull its legitimately oneiric powers, which continue to emerge whenever Nest escapes its own dialogue. To wit, once the film gets to the inn, it does gets bogged down nodding toward a number of genre hallmarks—maddoctor stuff and hothouse-psychodrama stuff—but its “action” passages remain imaginatively constructed, with some truly arresting formal techniques giving each one distinction (the first attack on the shore, for instance, mixes ramped-up speed and deliberate stillness to create an uncanny effect that almost resembles stop-motion photography). The chapter entries accompanying the film put this in some historical perspective: One collaborator notes that Williams was surely aware of the foreign and experimental movies that were available on the theatrical circuit during the ’60s, and even cites moments where Cuckoo Birds might be entering into a conversation with those kind of films. But the real value of the ByNWR project is beyond historical context—it’s even beyond practical context, like when it explained what happened to that last remaining print—it goes so far as to find spiritual partners in crime for this renegade movie. McDonagh, Refn, and their collaborators situate The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds within an ethos, a very specific tradition of low-budget rule-breaking artistry: They really see and articulate a lineage, for instance, which connects people like editor Brian O’Hara—who spliced drops from the Halloween [1979] soundtrack into BDSM cheapies that were playing on 42nd Street—to their auteur-of-the-hour Bert Williams—who seems to have done some renegade editing himself, though we’ll never quite know for sure.

It’s a credit to The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds that nobody was capable of navigating through all its mysteries—but one must also credit the ByNWR team with getting damn close.

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SECRET PERVING SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

My boyfriend of one year has refused to delete photos from his Instagram account that show him with his ex-girlfriend. They were together for three years and briefly engaged, and they broke up two years before we met. They aren’t in contact in any way, so I don’t have any worries there, but I think making photos of him with someone else available to his friends and family—and now my friends, too, as many are now following him—is incredibly disrespectful. We’ve had numerous arguments about this, and his “solution” is for me to “stop thinking about it.” He also insists that no one is looking at five-year-old pictures on his Instagram account. If that’s true, why not delete them? He refuses to discuss this issue, even as I lose sleep over it. I’ve tried calmly discussing this with him, I’ve tried crying, I’ve tried screaming my head off—nothing works.

Personal Insult Causing Stress There’s definitely something your boyfriend should delete, PICS, but it’s not old photos of his ex.

The man I’m going to marry has a huge boot fetish. He has about 200 pairs of boots in his size. His size also happens to be my size—and I’m half convinced he wouldn’t have proposed if we didn’t have the same size feet and I couldn’t wear his boots. I want to surprise him with a very special bachelor party (that we’ll both attend): It would be all guys with the same size feet as us, and everyone will be wearing different pairs of boots from his collection. I’m picturing a big group of guys doing for him what I do for him: stand on him, let him lick my (actually, his) boots, make him crawl and grovel. His feet aren’t an uncommon size (11.5), and I’m guessing enough of our mutual friends would fit into his boots that I could actually make this happen. He’s the only fetishist I’ve ever been with—all my other boyfriends were vanilla—and I’m wondering how he would react if he walked into a room and found a bunch of his friends wearing his boots and then I ordered him to start licking. I think it would be way better than going to a strip club or a drag show.

Boyfriend Obsesses Over Tall Shoes P.S. He’s not really “out” about his kink.

Wow, BOOTS, you saved the most salient detail for that postscript: Your boyfriend isn’t out to his friends about his kink. So unless you’re talking about a small subset of his friends—only old friends that once had benefits—do not out your boyfriend as a boot fetishist to all his friends with size 11.5 feet. If your fiancé has fantasized about some sort of group boot-worshipping session, and he’s shared that fantasy with you, and you want to help him realize it, that’s great. But he needs to be involved in determining where, when, how, and with whom he’d like to make this fantasy a reality.

My bi girlfriend and I are getting married in a month. We’re in a cuckold relationship— she sleeps with other men and women, while I am completely monogamous to her—and “my” best man is one of her regular male sex partners and her maid of honor is one her girlfriends-with-benefits. No one else at our big traditional church wedding (that her mother is paying for) will know. But I wanted to let you know, Dan, since reading your column is what inspired me to be open about my kinks, and our relationship—the best I’ve ever been in—wouldn’t exist without you.

The Happy Couple Permissible secret perving at its finest/hottest, THC. Thanks for sharing, and be sure to send me a photo of the wedding party for my records.

On the Lovecast, a sex toy expert’s husband’s favorite sex toy: savagelovecast.com

COMEDY EVENTS THU 08.16 - SAT 08.18

KOUNTRY WAYNE @ LAUGH BOSTON

Raw, real and wickedly-hilarious, “Kountry” Wayne Colley’s 2500 (and counting!) microformat digital videos have catapulted him from life in small town Georgia to mega social media superstar and comedy sensation, selling out clubs and theaters across America. Since his first Facebook post in October 2014 went viral, the charismatic comic has amassed over 4 million followers across Facebook and instagram.

425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | 8 & 10PM | $25-$29 THU 08.16

OLD SCHOOL GAME @ THE ROCKWELL

Part game show, part live theater experience, Old School Game Show never holds back. With live music, sketch comedy, and a real game show, the audience can expect the same kind of raucous energy a three-ring circus and truly inspired entertainment brings.

Featuring: Ginny Nightshade, Will Smalley, Sake Toomey, Nick Chambers, Kaitlin Buckley, Ethan Marsh & more. With musical guests: Mary Widow, Gene Dante, Nonye Brown-West.

The Cubic Zirconia Dancers & OSGS House Band.

Hosted by Michael DeAngelo

255 ELM ST., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $18 FRI 08.17 - SAT 08.18

JAMES DORSEY @ NICK’S COMEDY STOP

After receiving his first D- for conduct in the second grade, James realized school was not his cup of tea and took his “disruptive class clown” trademark to the stand-up stage and never looked back! He shares life experiences through high energy, witty act outs and facial expressions. His use of imitations and characters is incredibly vivid and entertaining. James was the national winner of the Catch a New Rising Star competition, the winner of the Plymouth Rock Comedy Festival and has performed at the Boston Comedy Festival . James has been featured on the cover of Worcester Magazine, in Pulse Magazine, The Boston Herald, & on Spike TV.

100 WARRENTON ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $20 FRI 08.17

THE GAS! @ GREAT SCOTT Lamont Price & more.

Hosted by Rob Crean

1222 COMM AVE., ALLSTON | 7PM | $5 SAT 08.18

BOSTON COMEDY FESTIVAL SUMMER SERIES @ HARD ROCK CAFE Hosted by Jim McCue

24 CLINTON ST., BOSTON | 9PM | $20 SUN 08.19

WILL SMITH 2: A COMEDY VARIETY SHOW @ OBERON

Featuring: Lamont Price, Chanel Ali, Rob HaZe, and Alyssa Al-Dookhi; burlesque from Jolie LaVie, Femme Brulée, Dark N’ Stormy, Maggie Maraschino, Benji Bombay, and Butch Sassidy; and special guests Nick Chambers & more.

Hosted by Nonye Brown-West

16 ARROW ST., CAMBRIDGE | 8PM | $15-$25 SUN 08.19

LIQUID COURAGE COMEDY @ SLUMBREW

Featuring: Janet McNamara, Kwasi Mensah, Pete Andrews, Liam McGurk, Brett Johnson, Mike Settlow, & Paul Roseberry.

Hosted by Stirling Smith

15 WARD ST., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $5 MON 08.20

FREE COMEDY @ CITYSIDE

Featuring: Alingon Mitra & more.

Hosted by Sam Ike & Anjan Biswas

1960 BEACON ST., BRIGHTON | 8:30PM | FREE WED 08.22

8 O’CLOCK AT 730 @ 730 TAVERN, KITCHEN, & PATIO

Featuring: RA Bartlett, Kathryn Gironimi, Zachary Brazao, Dan Hall, Rob Crean, Liam McGurk, & more.

730 MASS AVE., CAMBRIDGE | 8PM | FREE savagelovecast.com

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Lineup & shows to change without notice. For more info on everything Boston Comedy visit BostonComedyShows.com Bios & writeups pulled from various sources, including from the clubs & comics…

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GET YOUR LAUGH ON ALL SUMMER (AND FALL!) AT LAUGH BOSTON, YOU GUYS!

KOUNTRY WAYNE THURSDAYSATURDAY

KATE QUIGLEY AUG 23-25

MELISSA VILLASEÑOR AUG 30

ROB LITTLE AUG 31-SEPT 2

BOS POD FEST SEPT 2-10

ROBERT KELLY SEPT 7 + 8

MATTEO LANE SEPT 13-15

THE NAKED MAGICIANS SEPT 17-19 + 21-23

TOM ARNOLD SEPT 21

ANDREW SCHULZ SEPT 22

AIDA RODRIGUEZ SEPT 27-29

CRAIG SHOEMAKER OCT 4-7

JOSH WOLF OCT 11-13

CARLY AQUILINO OCT 18-20

COMING SOON

OCT + NOV

laughboston.com | 617.72.LAUGH

DULCÉ SLOAN | OCT 26-28 TOM GREEN | NOV 1-3 MICHAEL QUU | NOV 6 + 7 JESSIMAE PELUSO | NOV 8-10 SAM TRIPOLI | NOV 15-17 JOSH GONDELMAN | NOV 23 + 24 DAN SODER | NOV 29 - DEC 1

DEC

CHAD DANIELS | DEC 6-8 APRIL MACIE | DEC 13-15 MARK NORMAND | DEC 27-31

425 Summer Street in Boston's Seaport District