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DEAR READER THE MERRIMACK FRONT

By the time you read this, it will have almost been a whole week since natural gas lines blew up, causing havoc and destruction in Lawrence and Andover. That is beyond our usual coverage area, sure. But I have always felt the best way to ensure I follow up on life and job goals is to share them publicly with all my readers, and so I’m saying right here that, along with other editors and writers at DigBoston and affiliated outlets, I am determined to pursue this issue into 2019, both because it is critical and worthy and since I can see already that a seriously deceptive narrative is taking hold.

I arrived in Lawrence in the middle of the afternoon on Monday. My first stop was the lot of the abandoned Showcase Cinemas where first responders mobilized a huge command post during the explosions, which are now said to have been caused by abnormally high pressure settings.

Five days later, the scene was significantly less cinematic, other than a monstrous 18-wheeler that the State Police apparently rolled off the set of a Transformers movie to help with their operations.

Our next stop was a short ride toward the heart of Lawrence and away from I-495, to where the first blast was reported on South Union Street last Wednesday. By a longabandoned fountain at a six-way intersection lacking any signage whatsoever, two staties watched over a grounded mapping drone, while workers in hard hats and cargo pants consulted with men in black shirts from Columbia Gas. The company that supplies energy to the affected area, Columbia’s been scrambling to save face as Eversource, a rival of their parent company NiSource, has embarrassingly been brought in to help with the effort.

Next we visited Columbia’s claims servicing center.

While it was first set up at a library downtown, the deluge of complainants forced the company to move into a larger space inside the high school right across the street. They also underestimated the amount of time that it would take to process all the claims, extending hours into Wednesday as it became clear that Monday wouldn’t be enough. At one point, a woman in a collared polo with a Columbia Gas logo asked if anybody was holding a red ticket. A waiting woman who still had one from her prior trip reacted like she won the lottery, then toned down her excitement after realizing that she was surrounded by hundreds of others in the position that she was in seconds earlier.

Standing among other journalists who came to witness this unfold, I realized just how easy it is to see that people who were impacted are relatively calm and to report out that there appears to be a certain progress. But it’s shortsighted to speak anything about this whole ordeal without considering the causes and effects of everything that’s happened.

The morning following my visit, Mass Gov. Charlie Baker joined Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera, and others at a press conference to provide updates. What transpired amounted to little more than PR for the company responsible for the mess, with Polito thanking Columbia Gas for its “significant $10 million commitment” to recovery efforts. “I hope it’s a message of comfort for people to hear today,” she added, even thanking CEO Steve Bryant by name.

“It’s not just words. There is money behind it to support your needs.”

While we’re on the topic, there’s also money behind Baker, Polito, and any number of the other pols who are allegedly seeking an equitable cleanup. Those two alone have received tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from individuals and PACs tied to Columbia, its parent company NiSource, and its subcontractors, including the Dorchester-based Feeney Brothers. Columbia has spent in excess of half a million dollars lobbying in Mass over the past five years, while execs at Eversource, which Baker tapped to save the day, have pumped more than $40,000 into Baker and Polito’s war chests since 2015.

Until those relationships and power plays are widely acknowledged, I’m afraid that real recovery will not be possible.

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THE CITY OF LAWRENCE CAN’T BREATHE NEWS TO US

Environmental justice must be at the center of recovery efforts

BY BEYAZMIN JIMENEZ Last week, the Merrimack Valley suffered a catastrophic gas explosion resulting in extensive fire damage in Lawrence, Andover, and North Andover. The incident has been blamed on overpressurized gas lines that ran through the affected areas. One death has been reported, and more than 20 others have reported related injuries.

The aftermath of the event has been chaotic, as city and state officials grapple with the details of what occurred. Last Friday, Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency and directed another energy company, Eversource Energy, to lead the recovery—removing Columbia Gas as the primary service provider due to its initial response to the crisis.

Environmental injustice can be measured by the level of unequal access to healthy and clean environments. For this case, far more amenities could have been provided in terms of a more efficient response from Columbia during the crisis. What’s more important, though, are the preventative actions that utility companies can take to ensure safe systems for our residents and their homes.

As has already been reported, Columbia Gas has been fined tens of thousands of dollars by the state’s utilities regulator in recent years, and its corporate parent has been linked to serious blasts in other states. One of

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the communities that faced a similar gas explosion is Springfield, another community with a high concentration of Hispanics.

These issues are presented in a larger scope in a 2015 report by Northeastern University sociology professor Dr. Daniel Faber, who is the director of the Northeastern Environmental Justice Research Collaborative. Faber found the Commonwealth has some of the most profound racial and class disparities with respect to the unequal exposure to ecological hazards that you will find anywhere in the United States. According to his research, communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately exposed, while residents in these places lack access to not only healthy options but also the political clout and resources needed to fight back. Furthermore, “highminority” communities face a cumulative exposure rate to environmentally hazardous facilities and sites that is nearly nine times greater than that for “lowminority” communities. In a measure of how intensively overburdened different cities and towns are by hazardous environmental sites, Lawrence ranked 14th out of 368.

These patterns are national, with race and poverty being the two most critical demographic factors for determining where commercial hazardous waste facilities are located in the United States. With that in mind, the Northeastern report recommends that overburdened areas should be granted additional protections by the state, which include but are not limited to providing incentives for preventive behavior. Our communities do not deserve to be a dumping ground for corporations.

There is a stark difference between the needs of Lawrence residents and their neighbors in Andover and North Andover. Most affected in the latter are presumably homeowners, which may enable them to get compensation for damages through insurance. In Lawrence, many people rent and are less likely to have such protections in place due to more limited personal means. As such, a delay in recovery

from a crisis of this magnitude is especially detrimental, with increased risks of insecurity at work and home for many residents, as well as delays in school services and revenue hits for our small businesses. The aftermath also involves residents dealing with displacement pressures and trauma.

Overall, these overpressurized gas lines—likely a result of neglect from a major gas company—have had a molotov effect on our community. The lack of transparency from Columbia Gas has only added insult to injury.

There is hope. As shown by the volunteers who showed up at the Lawrence Senior Center to help the affected families within hours of the explosions, the residents of Lawrence know what it takes to make it through yet another day, another night. I am filled with pride for the strength of our first responders and know we can move forward, but we still deserve answers about what happened and about how we will prevent such a crisis from happening again. How will we ensure safety for all who live here?

We know that our public environment shapes our health and well-being, and addressing systemic racism and its effects on low-income people and people of color requires a long-term and multilayered process. Meanwhile, what are leaders in the Commonwealth doing to ensure that our communities get equal access to healthy and clean environments? Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, who visited a command center in Lawrence on Friday, urged Congress to hold hearings on the disaster, saying regulators and executives from Columbia Gas must explain “how this incident occurred,” “and what must be done to ensure these types of dangerous accidents do not happen again.” I urge state officials to go one step further and look for solutions that include a focused lens on principles that address environmental justice concerns.

Let’s also amplify the work of grassroots organizations that care about these issues such as Groundwork Lawrence, and which empower people, businesses, and organizations to promote environmental, economic, and social well-being. As well as the Mass Sierra Club, which has called for more state regulatory oversight of gas and utility companies for years.

I hope our city’s future has clean air and safer spaces.

But today, the city of Lawrence can’t breathe.

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THE MERRIMACK VALLEY DISASTER: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT OLD PIPES APPARENT HORIZON

BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS

The events of last week in the Merrimack Valley were unfortunate by any measure. Something bad happened to the natural gas distribution system in parts of Lawrence, North Andover, and Andover that resulted in dozens of homes being damaged or destroyed by explosions and fire, at least 25 people getting injured, and one person (tragically, an 18-year-old) getting killed.

The leading theory for the conflagration is that it was triggered by a pressure spike in area gas pipes. But until the National Transportation and Safety Board concludes its investigation—which could take up to two years—we likely won’t know the cause of that spike. According to ThinkProgress, the Mass Department of Public Utilities will be conducting its own investigation, and Attorney General Maura Healey will oversee that effort to ensure transparency.

The company responsible, Columbia Gas of Massachusetts—a division of NiSource Inc. of Indiana— was so slow to respond to the crisis that Gov. Charlie Baker put Eversource Energy in charge of the cleanup effort.

But the magnitude of the disaster is just starting to sink in. About 8,500 homes were affected, and its occupants are being told that it will take months to replace the cast iron gas pipes under city streets and restore service. Pipes so old, and so prone to rusting, leaking, and failure, that the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration started pushing gas utilities nationwide to replace them over a decade ago, according to USA Today. Yet despite being allowed to recoup such costs—which run about $1 million a mile—from their customers, utilities like Columbia have been slow to complete the needed work.

Meanwhile, the thousands of residents that officials have allowed to return to their homes are forced to stay in apartments and houses that use gas for heating and cooking… with the gas shut off for the foreseeable future. As winter approaches.

This highlights the danger of using methane, an obviously flammable and explosive gas, as a fuel source for homes and businesses.

Notwithstanding being in continuous use at millions of sites in the United States for well over 150 years, “natural” gas is not as safe as many people believe.

According to the New York Times, “Since 1998, at least 646 serious gas distribution episodes have occurred across the country, causing 221 deaths and leaving nearly a thousand people injured. …” And the reasons for such episodes are not always found.

Perhaps it could not be otherwise, since America has allowed private companies to control the production and distribution of natural gas from the industry’s beginnings. Sure, we call those companies “public utilities” and tell ourselves that federal and state government regulate them. But, like all corporations answering to the siren call of the market, gas companies exist to make profits for their shareholders. To the exclusion of all other considerations—be they health, safety, environmental, or economic. Even though the small local gas companies of the 1800s have long since

We’re in a world where energy corporations control the politics of the US

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merged to become large and powerful combines, and even though they are allowed to be monopolies in the areas they control, they continue trying to save money on costs and make as much profit as regulators allow.

Often quite a lot, since the phenomenon of “regulatory capture”—where a revolving door sending top staff back and forth between utilities and regulatory agencies generally assures that utilities have fat bottom lines— continues unabated. Including here in the Bay State.

Whether utilities provide good service or bad.

Which is why National Grid—another one of the seven companies that have gas monopolies in parts of Massachusetts—is getting away with locking out 1,200 union gas workers who are trying to get a better contract for the difficult and dangerous work they do day in and day out. And why Columbia, which has already been dinged for recent safety issues in the regions of the Commonwealth gas infrastructure under its control, according to the Boston Globe, was allowed to continue business as usual until the Merrimack Valley fires brought international attention to the consequences of its malfeasance. Leading WGBH’s Jim Braude to wonder aloud on the Sept 17 episode of Greater Boston what would have happened if the gas network in Lawrence, North Andover, and Andover had been owned by National Grid. A company currently trying to service its infrastructure with ill-trained scab labor—some of them managers with little or no field experience. The better to bust the labor unions that protect the livelihoods of its workers, and permanently replace them with un-unionized workers that will make its stockholders even bigger profits.

If all these developments were taking place in a period where there were no demonstrable environmental consequences for burning fossil fuels like natural gas, they would be dire enough. But, unfortunately, that is not the case. True, burning methane as an energy source only produces about half as much carbon dioxide as burning coal, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. However, there are so many methane leaks in the production and distribution of both oil and gas that any relative advantage to the environment that burning it provides are mostly erased, according to a Washington Post article on a key study in the journal Science. Given that methane is a much stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So even the 2.3 percent of methane estimated to be leaking away into the atmosphere before it can be burned is enough to ruin its oft-hyped potential as a more “green” fossil fuel source that can be leaned on for decades while carbon neutral energy sources like solar are brought online on an industrial scale. Not because we don’t have the technology to do so faster, but because energy multinationals don’t want clean energy systems deployed until they’ve made all the money they can make by burning carbon.

Worse still, more than half of the natural gas being used in the Greater Boston area is now coming from fracked gas, according to Boston University earth and environment professor Nathan Phillips in BU Today article. Fracking (more correctly, hydraulic fracturing) is an incredibly destructive and ecologically disastrous method of squeezing oil and natural gas out of vast underground shelves of shale rock by injecting massive amounts of water and any number of often-toxic liquid chemicals into them. Direct environmental impacts include ground, water, air, and noise pollution in those areas unfortunate enough to have lots of shale. And the

technique has even been known to trigger earthquakes.

Phillips also explains that fracked methane contains many impurities that may be making consumers sick.

But the indirect impacts are far more problematic because fracked gas and oil have flooded the planet’s fossil fuel markets with cheap product at exactly the time we need to move away from burning carbon.

In a better world, the Merrimack Valley disaster would be a clarion call to move more decisively toward clean energy alternatives—at least in the affected communities as a useful demonstration project. In advance of doing so swiftly across the country, and in every corner of the globe. But we are not in that world.

We’re in a world where energy corporations control the politics of the US and many other countries to their own advantage. And they want to ensure that humanity squeezes every last possible joule of energy out of fossil fuels like natural gas before allowing alternatives to finally become the dominant mode of energy production. Regardless of the fact that doing so will very likely result in a planet that’s unable to sustain advanced human civilization, and perhaps unable to sustain human life at all. If the worst global warming scenarios are allowed to become reality.

That’s why I have repeatedly called—most recently in a column about Eversource, the utility called upon to “fix” the Merrimack Valley crisis—for bringing energy companies to heel on both the environmental and economic fronts by winning the huge political struggles necessary to make them all genuinely public utilities.

With a mission to provide cheap, clean, green energy like advanced wind, solar, and hydroelectric (ideally not from environmentally destructive mega-dams) power to America, and phase out all fossil fuel production, distribution, and usage as soon as possible. If we could accomplish that sea change in our energy system, other countries would be likely to follow at speed.

And we might actually stand a chance of minimizing the damage from global warming, already on display with increasingly alarming frequency in the form of catastrophic storms like Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Mangkhut.

So if you want to help the Merrimack Valley disaster victims, certainly donate to the best local charities you can find. But also join environmental groups like Mass Sierra Club, Resist the Pipeline, and HEET (Home Energy Efficiency Team) that are working to end the ability of privately owned energy utilities to harm communities like Lawrence in particular and our planet’s ecosphere in general going forward. Also, be sure to make your house, condo, or apartment as energy efficient you can and do whatever you can do to convert your dwelling from reliance on burning fossil fuel to using genuinely clean energy sources. Every little improvement helps. Just remember, we won’t really be able to ensure our survival as a species until the fossil fuel megacorps are stopped.

Cold.

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.

CHARLIE ON THE BRT TRANSIT

Bus rapid transit is no longer a pipe dream in the Boston area

BY TOM ASHTON

As long as you’re not in a place where you can get hit by a car, bus, or train, close your eyes and imagine a “gold standard” bus rapid transit (BRT) line: prepaid fares, all-door boarding, dedicated lanes, and level boarding platforms.

These services get drivers off the roads, and for just a fraction of the cost of building a new train line. It’s a worthy goal; currently, even the best American BRT doesn’t rank as highly as those in South America, for example, where it has grown to be reliable in several cities. Which is why Boston’s Barr Foundation has been working with the MBTA in seeking more and improved rapid routes around here.

In determining where BRT would be most beneficial, Barr selected corridors with typically low speeds and high ridership rates. These include Harvard-toDudley and Haymarket-to-Dudley—places where an easy pass through traffic would shorten the most commute times, and where there is already a strong ridership. Researchers also considered the width of roads, eliminating routes that are too narrow for BRT. Though it didn’t make Barr’s list of Greater Boston corridors that are perfect fits for BRT, as a result of a Mass Department of Transportation action plan for Everett, that city auditioned a BRT lane on congested Broadway during morning rush hours in late 2016, then made it permanent after it was found that more than 10,000 daily riders had their commute times significantly shortened.

It’s a similar scene up in Arlington. Thanks to a push from Barr, there will be a BRT lane on the eastbound side of Mass Ave in that town this fall from 6 to 9 am on weekdays, from Arlington Center to Alewife Brook Parkway. The pilot was designed to minimize disruptions for other commuters, though that hasn’t stopped a petition against it. The opposition has drafted an alternative proposal that would exclude the bus-only lane and implement smarter traffic signals. Their main concern: a loss of parking.

Back in Everett, Dempsey’s Restaurant was worried about losing business due to fewer spaces from a BRT lane. Asked about how things have panned out, owners say their business in the morning hours has suffered only a minor blow.

In Arlington, Quebrada Bakery remains concerned about losing parking, while Barismo, a coffee shop a block away, is less scared, citing spots available on side streets.

Hollers of petition signers reflect just how difficult it is to please the masses when designing infrastructure. In this case, BRT advocates remind their haters that parking with this pilot will only be removed from one side of Mass Ave, and that an anticipated increase in bus ridership will bring more customers to some of the concerned businesses.

Transit advocates generally take the stance that if BRT is to be implemented, it should be an all-or-nothing operation. Just imagine, they say, how fast the Silver Line to Dudley would be if it didn’t have to share the road with traffic. A major reason to have a bus-only lane on Mass Ave is to prevent buses from having to weave through traffic. That would obviously be nice, but should and will trigger debate about how this will work for cyclists. It is possible that fast buses will make it harder for cars turning onto the main drag to see cyclists.

These community reactions to bus-only developments are common for the inevitable feedback loop that develops when parking spots are removed to support noncar forms of transit. To make sure that public deliberation is as positive as possible, Barr has vowed to be transparent in connecting with communities. In the process, they will hear from people who say they cannot afford to lose the current infrastructure they depend on daily and from others who believe that bicycles are a far better gateway to mobility than BRT. Regardless of the results from the upcoming Mass Ave trial, one major milestone in Greater Boston is that funding is now coming from both the public and private sectors for new BRT. With so much worsening congestion and pollution, Barr has plans to partner with Everett, Cambridge, and Watertown for upcoming rapid endeavors, all as part of a much larger mission to help spur an overall rethinking of our transit system.

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LOWERING THE BOOM GUEST OPINION

The burden of proof is on luxury developers and the city to explain how the luxury building bonanza will benefit ordinary residents and neighborhoods

BY CHUCK COLLINS The luxury boom is in full swing, with thousands of new rental units and condos in the development pipeline. A decade from now, our city’s skyline and demographics will be fundamentally changed by decisions being made today.

Constructing luxury skyscrapers does create jobs and brings in additional tax revenue. And the city has done a diligent job negotiating for affordable housing setasides and collecting funds for the city’s linkage fund, which helps finance affordable housing. But is it enough to offset the considerable risks identified in a new report that I co-authored with Emma de Geode, “Towering Excess: The Perils of the Luxury Real Estate Boom for Bostonians”?

Here are six questions Boston should grapple with before greenlighting thousands more luxury units: 1. How will bringing in thousands of multimillionaires and billionaires reduce inequality in Boston and our unseemly racial wealth divide?

We live in one of the most unequal cities in the country, with a dizzying gap between the wealthiest 1 percent and everyone else. And the racial dimensions of these inequalities are staggering. According to a Boston Fed study, the median wealth for whites in Boston is $247,500. The median wealth for nonimmigrant blacks is $8 (not a typo) and for Dominicans it is zero. In other words, half of US-born blacks and Dominicans in Boston have essentially zero wealth; they owe as much as they own. In 2015, not a single home mortgage loan was issued for African-American and Latino families in the Seaport District and the Fenway, two Boston neighborhoods with thousands of new luxury housing units.

2. How does the luxury boom help address Boston’s acute affordable housing crisis?

Luxury construction drives up the cost of land in central neighborhoods, with a ripple impact on the 8

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cost of housing throughout the city. Affluent, but not superrich, households in Boston find themselves pushed to outer neighborhoods, increasing competition for scarce affordable and moderately priced housing. A UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index warned, “Soaring home prices come with a downside. They nudge low- and middle-income earners out of the market, increase the gap between rich and poor, and even lead to a rush to build homes that critics say can make us sick.”

3. How will adding hundreds of “wealth storage units” purchased with cash by anonymous shell corporations prevent the flow of illicit funds and criminal activity into the city, a plague that luxury housing has brought to cities like New York, Miami, and Los Angeles?

There is a risk that Boston will become a new center of money laundering and wealth hiding. Over 35 percent of Boston luxury units are owned by shell companies and trusts that mask the real owners. With European countries now insisting on greater levels of corporate transparency, illicit cash is now cascading into the United States. And with greater criminal oversight of other cities, Boston is even more attractive for secret cash.

4. How will these luxury housing projects help Boston meet its greenhouse gas emission targets?

Luxury projects such as the energy hog One Dalton Place require the construction of a new fossil fuel energy infrastructure at a time when Boston should be moving aggressively to transition toward 100 percent renewable energy in order to meet our clean energy commitments.

As a sea level community, it is our interest to do our part to reduce carbon emissions and the possibilities of catastrophic climate change.

5. How will towering gated communities contribute to Boston’s culture and neighborhood vibrancy?

These buildings reinforce trends of neighborhood apartheid—as luxury residents opt out of actual neighborhoods. As an Architectural Digest article that featured One Dalton Place observed, “Who Needs a Neighborhood When You Can Have These Wild Amenities?” What happens when the uber-rich denizens of Boston realize they are tired of paying property taxes for schools, parks, and public transit services that they don’t use? Will they use their oversized political resources to elect a tax-cutting mini-Trump like Toronto’s bombastic Rob Ford, or his Ontario premiere brother, Doug Ford?

6. What will the city do to protect its nonwealthy residents and capture some of this global wealth to fund city services and affordable housing?

In exchange for providing a safe haven to global capital, Boston should tax real estate transactions on properties selling for over $2 million and dedicate revenue from that taxing to the city’s affordable housing linkage fund. Boston could discourage high-end vacant properties by taxing buildings that sit empty for more than six months a year. We can learn from other jurisdictions such as Vancouver and Washington, DC, that have created incentives to use their city’s housing stock to house people, not wealth. The city could require property owners, as part of recording deeds, to disclose the actual human being who owns the property. The city could also require all future luxury properties be state of the art “net zero carbon emissions” green construction, not requiring any additional fossil fuel inputs.

Now is the moment for a rigorous debate about whether the luxury building boom helps or harms Bostonians. We should question the assumption that the benefits of these luxury towers will trickle down to reduce inequality and expand affordable housing. The burden of proof falls on the city and policymakers to show there is no harm.

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CALL FOR COMMUNITY CURATORS

The Somerville Museum is pleased to announce the second bi-annual competition for Community Curators, two of whom will be selected to install their proposed exhibits in the Museum’s gallery spaces at 1 Westwood Road, Somerville, MA. Those selected will also receive seed grants of $2,500 for exhibition costs.

The Museum welcomes proposals and encourages applicants to visit both the Museum and its website at www.somervillemuseum.org to learn more about the Museum’s wide-ranging exhibition history.

Information Session

Your local food store!

Dinner made easy and fabulous Staples and special treats Gift baskets and snacks Tastings every weekend

575 Washington St Oak Sq, Brighton

Monday - Saturday 10 am to 8 pm Sunday 10 am to 6 pm

wildflowerpantry.com

Thursday, September 27, 2018 at 6 pm Somerville Museum 1 Westwood Road, Somerville, MA RSVP to alison@somervillemuseum.org

Deadline

INFORMATION SESSION

Friday, November 2, 2018 Friday, October 12, 2018 at 6pm (by 11 pm EST)

Somerville Museumforms can be found at Application 1 Westood Road www.somervillemuseum.org/curator-application.pdf Somerville, MA RSVP: somemuseum@gmail.com

Upcoming Exhibits Triple Decker Ecology: Somerville’s Urban Landscape

Curated by Pennie Taylor, with David Buckley Borden October-December 2018 Opening Reception: Thursday, October 11, 2018

Our Stories, Our Stuff, Our Somerville

Curated by Bess Paupeck February-April 2019 Opening Reception: Thursday, February 14, 2019 For more information check out our website.

Somerville Museum

1 Westwood Road Somerville, MA 02143 www.somervillemuseum.org

SomervilleMuseum somervillemuseum

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

9

2018 BOSTON FREEDOM RALLY

TALKING JOINTS MEMO

Each photo is worth a thousand herbs

“If Blue Dream is in high demand, but is unavailable, we can network”

CHECK OUT TJM ON INSTAGRAM: @TALKINGJOINTSMEMO

BY NATE HOMAN

TALKING JOINTS MEMO

We’ve heard haters ask why there must still be such a massive rally in the name of cannabis when Massachusetts has already decriminalized (2008), medicinalized (2012), and even legalized (2016) cannabis.

Our answer to the naysayers, of course, is in every article we publish—for starters, in case you haven’t noticed, rec dispensaries are not yet open, and it takes the gusto and experience of a knowledgeable force like MassCann to keep feet to flames.

Also—holy cow can these cats throw a party!

And it’s only getting better every year. In fact, haters can suck regs.

Here are some of our best pics. Be sure to check the Talking Joints Memo Instagram (@ TalkingJointsMemo) and Facebook for videos to back this crop up.

QUICKIE: LEAFLY PICKUP

When we heard that canna-giant Leafly launched its pickup service in Mass last month, we figured we should wait a minute to see how it goes. Such cool things, after all, can get spoiled in Mass, where prohibitionists still run amok. It looks like there’s been progress, though; for starters, Leafly Pickup started with just 12 dispensaries throughout the state using the feature (which gives customers “real-time text updates from the dispensary,” among other perks) and is already up to 15 with more on the way. We spoke briefly with Leafly Mass General Manager Adam Cavanaugh, formerly of the Boston-based Wayfair, about the convenient new options and the slow rollout of recreational.

On what’s new (besides just Leafly Pickup)…

We’re adding shopping pages so consumers can be more educated about cannabis products.

Six months into the transition [we’re] setting up networks with dispensaries, like the Skip the Line app.

So the consumer can breathe easy.

On access…

Patients can find what will help their comfort.

Fifteen stores are live now with potentially 10 more, bridging the gap between physical and digital. [Leafly has applied] a big influence on data to better capture what strains people are looking for, which stores have certain strains. If Blue Dream is in high demand, but is unavailable, we can network.

On the wait and regulation…

Blessing and a curse. We thought we were in a dead sprint towards the initial July finish line. The growth has been a little slower as the legislation stumbles along, but it is giving us a chance to work kinks out. We’ve been able to build better infrastructure and communication.

The CCC Board wanted to create a means for education, hopefully. Initial planning for what a data share would want to see from us. We are starting to figure out how to give them information about the products. The commissioners are coming at the industry with varying knowledge, they form like Voltron. Well-rounded group. They’re looking for the long run.

On public consumption…

There’s places to buy, but not consume. Social consumption lounges are coming down the road.

They’re either smoking in their house or out on the streets. Having an environment to smoke would help break down the stigma. It won’t just be a bar/club look.

It’s a calm, quiet. Many people are professional. …

[It’s about] destigmatizing from Cheech and Chong and Phish concerts so the community can know what is there. More like WeWork than a club. … If these places are just boxes with chairs and nothing else, no one will want to go there. There needs to be more than that.

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MYSTIC BREWERY BOSTON BETTER BEER BUREAU

Tropical magic, weekly releases, and table beers in Chelsea

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON1

IF IT’S NOT NECANN IT’S NOT NEW ENGLAND 2018 FALL CONVENTION SCHEDULE

PORTLAND, ME PROVIDENCE, RI

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.

OCT 6-7 OCT 20-21

2019 SPRING CONVENTION SCHEDULE

SPRINGFIELD, MA JAN 12-13 BOSTON, MA MARCH 22-24

If you’re a beer nerd in the Greater Boston region, then you may have made a pilgrimage to Mystic Brewing on a Friday afternoon or evening. The place can get quite nuts, what with its releasing something new and tasty at the end of every week. Knowing this full well, we visited on Thursday, when the place was still a scene but when we could enjoy the Chelsea beer hall’s quaint vibe.

The room comfortably fits a few dozen drinkers and features a spread of board games and accoutrements that smaller breweries are required by law to have these days. A simple partition splits up the barroom and the brewmaking facilities, kind of like a ghost town in the Wild West—only behind this saloon’s facade they are concocting products that are much more refined than your grandpa’s moonshine.

We launched with the Tropical Chelsea IPA, a local classic of sorts that makes for a clever fool’s errand to sip. We mean that in a good way, but really, if you have a full day of meetings lined up, don’t chug this deliciousness for breakfast. You see, Tropical Chelsea is one of those expertly engineered double IPAs that waterfalls into your throat if you let it. The hops are mosaic, citra, and galaxy, and the takeaway is splendid, even refreshing—not just for a hoppy double, but for any micro. There’s something of a boomerangish bite that may fondle your palate for a span of seconds following your swig, but it’s really rather pleasant, far more of a bonus than a burden. To use the word “aftertaste” would do it disservice.

As for other picks, Mystic’s trademark Table Beer, a 4.3 percent alcohol day brew they call an “everyday,” is far more refreshing than, say, Gatorade, and is ideally suited for pleasing the crowd at any party, whether there are beer snobs in the house or not. Mystic uses this term “table beer” a lot, not just as the proper name of this flagship. While the branding may do something of a slight disservice to their more dynamic offerings, we appreciate and understand the sentiment that these are products you can totally enjoy without thinking too hard about them.

Until we really dig into its great saisons, which begs for a further upcoming column entirely.

Tropical Chelsea is one of those expertly engineered double IPAs that waterfalls into your throat if you let it.

NEWS TO US

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

11

PHOTO BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN

HEAVY LEATHER TOPLESS DANCE PARTY FEATURE

The most fun you can have in your clothes on TV

BY BARRY THOMPSON Most of the best-known modern “metal” bands play what can be best described as angry pop music with distorted guitars, and there’s an important reason for that: Actual metal resonates with too much vitriol to stick in a casual social setting.

Metal isn’t party music. You can pogo hop to it, you can mosh to it, but you can’t dance to it.

Except for on community access TV, where all things are possible.

On the cable set in Somerville in August, Elsa Riot is doing her damndest to sync up an impromptu rendition of the herky-jerky Beach Blanket Bingo routine with a ruthless sonic pummeling by way of a group of apparent Motörhead adherents. Riot—a staple of Boston’s burlesque scene—looks happy, whereas members of the band PanzerBastard, a staple of Boston’s metal scene, look angry. There’s little to no rhythmic or visual cohesion happening here. A few feet away, a man in a red rubber demon mask punches the air and bounces merrily in place.

On the surface, none of this makes sense. Yet it becomes rational once you explore the context—in fact, if you glimpse the bigger picture,the scene crosses the threshold into galaxy-brain logic.

The aforementioned demon individual is Ken McIntyre, the co-creator and host of this so-called Heavy Leather Topless Dance Party, a weekly musiccomedy-performance hour that launched on Somerville Community Access Television (since renamed Somerville Media Center) in 2016. Beneath the baked-in zaniness you would expect from a Wayne’s World-meets-Vampira Show amalgam with no budget, Heavy Leather and like-minded operations serve a practical—perhaps increasingly important—cultural function.

“The reason we started this show is because Strange Fuzz tried to burn down O’Brien’s,” McIntyre tells DigBoston. He’s not totally kidding. According to 12

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Vanyaland, the garage rock trio tried to ignite a bass uncertain for the independent venues in the region, and guitar during a set at the Allston club, and in all fairness, a day may come when it’s preferable to get booked on that’s not quite the same as purposefully trying to Heavy Leather than on a stage in a nonexistent club. destroy the building. In any case, McIntyre, who has For obvious reasons, the “topless” aspect of the been doing TV and radio in this town since forever, says show’s title is mostly figurative. There’s too much the genuine (and warranted) controversy surrounding camaraderie and professionalism afoot for much Strange Fuzz at the time inspired him to launch a new genuine, deliberate sleaze to unfold at Heavy Leather. show for the specific purpose of featuring “the most Still, accidents happen. They’re on at 10 pm instead of dangerous band in town.” Co-creator and director8:30 nowadays due to a wardrobe malfunction that was producer Stacey Dawn, on the other hand, clarifies that too slight to notice during production but that caught a project in the vein of Heavy Leather was in the air well the ire of their cable overlords. If the incident prompted before that fateful night; perhaps Strange Fuzz lit the the gang to relax, they’re not saying so in public. In fact, spark, but the metaphorical guitar was already soaked they’ve said the opposite. in gasoline.

“We never know if we’re going to be in trouble or As seems inevitable in retrospect, creative differences not,” McIntyre says. “’Cause if you go, ‘Hey, can we light forced Strange Fuzz to part ways with the program, and the drums on fire this week?’ Of course they’re going to the comparatively less insane Black Leather Lagoon took say, ‘No.’ But if you light the drums on fire, and then they over as the Heavy Leather house band. Apart from that say, ‘Never do it again,’ at least you lit the drums on fire small change, it’s been a productive few years. Since one time.”

2016, with help from assorted crew members, McIntyre, Words to live by… as long as they aren’t taken Dawn, longtime co-host Stacy DC, and more recent literally. co-host Riot have cranked out 84 episodes syndicated through community access stations across Mass. That means the total number of acts—musicians, comedians, dancers, fashion designers, magicians, a contortionist, a spirit medium, and at least one stunt dog—featured on Heavy Leather is into the hundreds.

But anyone with a phone can make a show now! So you say? Weren’t you also the guy who told us vinyl records wouldn’t make a comeback? In any case, McIntyre tells us that technology has yet to neutralize the psychological and emotional boost one experiences PHOTO BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN while being on TV. Also, the future looks

OCTOBER 7

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

13

SOUL SURVIVORS DIRTY OLD BOSTON

A deep look at the Hub’s obscure disco scene with Eddy Barnett and Serge Gamesbourg

BY PETER ROBERGE in the market. For example, Cojo’s “Play It by Ear,” that could’ve been a hit. Larry Wu’s “No More Games” was supposed to be a hit—it was originally written as the official song for the Celtics, but it never really stuck.

Another great example is Second Wind; they came out of Worcester. When I talked to them they said they were recording original tunes all the time, and Arista records was actually looking to sign them. … Another great example would be Andre Evans and his Royale record “I Want Your Body.” I mean, the guy was literally a genius, he played every instrument on that record. You listen to it and you’re just awestruck, considering these were the days when you had to do a straight pass [one take]. It was just too time-consuming to do multiple takes; nowadays you can do as many takes as you want.

Boston has been known primarily as a rock ’n’ roll city thanks to major bands that got their start here such Aerosmith, the Cars, and (obviously) Boston. But as those who were around back in the day know, disco and soul had major followings around here as well. Most are aware of Boston native Donna Summer, our claim to fame within the genre, yet beyond her work a lot of bands never got the recognition they deserved.

To that end, we sat down with Charlestown native, disco aficionado, and 45 collector Eddy Barnett (affectionately referred to as Eddy B by those who know him) to ask about his experience during Boston’s disco fever in the ’70s and ’80s, as well as with local DJ and fellow vinyl lover Serge Gamesbourg, whose latest mix project, Boston Goes Disco, is the product of his strong desire to illuminate the classics that got lost in history.

New York and Philly obviously played the most influential role in the disco scene. Where does Boston fit into that influence?

EB: Boston played a very little role. Of course there were always groups around like the Energetics, Larry Wu and the Ambitions. We had a group called the Nine Lords. They did a few things, made a couple 45s. … There’s no doubt that Disco was popular. Radio stations like WILD … it was kind of an underground thing.

As a music fanatic, what drew you to disco?

EB: I’ve been listening to black music my whole life.

In ’54 I heard a song at my cousin’s house, “Gee” by the Crows. I said to my cousin, “What is that, that’s great,” and she said, “That’s rhythm and blues.” Right then and there, I loved it. …

I was always a big dancer. … Charlestown really has a deep appreciation for soul and disco music. A lot people there know their stuff, even the younger generation. …

Which is ironic, considering the racist history. But the clubs all over the city brought locals in from Southie, East Boston, everywhere. It brings people together and I love that.

You’re considered somewhat of a record detective.

What are some of the biggest resources for your collection?

EB: Well, a lot of the sources now don’t exist [laughs].

But when I started getting into this very heavily, Philadelphia is a city I’ve been to many, many times and gotten some great stuff down there. Locally there was 14

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always Skippy White’s, places like that.

What were some of those areas and venues that fostered the scene?

EB: The best of the best, hands down, was a place called the Sugar Shack. It’s been closed for 40 years and people still talk about it, so I’d say that’s a pretty legendary club. Other than that you had the Carousel lounge, you had Lane’s Lounge in Mattapan. Estelle’s later on had some great entertainment. … But I basically lived at the Sugar Shack. … I saw many great bands there.

What were some of the early places you spun at?

EB: The Hampshire House, which was up above the old Cheers place. It opened in 1972, and that was a place where the college crowd went to hear a disc jockey. Zelda up in Allston on Comm Ave, one in Revere called Friends, there were like 14-year-olds going there.

This comp took three years to make. What were some of your biggest resources?

SG: I found the majority of the tracks locally. Of course I found some online, ya know, Discogs was a huge resource along with the local community. It wasn’t easy considering a lot of these are real rarities, and I definitely had to shell out some dough. It took a lot of patience. It wasn’t an easy three years to get the records I wanted before I could start making the actual mix.

What kind of problems did you run across getting ahold of them?

SG: Finding the artists and the people involved was the biggest challenge. Of course, people wanted more money because of licensing fees, but ultimately most of them were just happy to get the recognition and exposure after all these years. This one Ambitions record took two years to finally get my hands on. I spoke to Allen Day [of Cheapo Records], and he only knew the first name of the guy, so from there I spoke to Larry Wu [of the Ambitions] and he gave me more information.

Which artists in particular do you think deserves more recognition?

SG: Ah man, All these groups were really amazing. It’s tough to pick any over the others. Looking at the listing, everyone was top-notch, and that’s what I was going for.

Part of the reason a lot of these artists never really got bigger recognition was because of an oversaturation

Locally, who would you say went on to meet greater success, in terms of Boston disco groups?

SG: Thank God Donna Summer put Boston on the map, I’ll say that. Tavares, they came out of New Bedford.

Certain groups were popular, like the guys from Gypsy— they were selling out local shows. When the band split up the guitarist actually went onto play with Rod Stewart for years. Larry Wu and the Ambitions, obviously, they played at the Sugar Shack with the other big name groups in the ’70s. His song “Let Me Show You What My Love Can Do” was released by Atlantic records, and that’s a song that people love all over the world. It met a lot of success in Europe as well as in the US. Did the feel and flow of the mix come naturally to you, or was it a grueling process?

SG: As I was working on the project the flow came naturally. I wanted something cohesive sonically, so I pulled from my DJ background. I actually kept the project under wraps for so long because as I mentioned before, tracking down these artists was no easy task, with licensing and stuff, so I didn’t want to get people all excited about something that I wasn’t sure would even happen. … For those who want solid listening, the second CD has all the tracks unmixed and untweaked. A lot of it is in the edits; I wanted to breathe life into these tracks for clubs without taking away their authenticity. A few tracks I left untouched because there was nothing I could do to make it better.

Tell me a little bit about your hiphop background and how that played into your passion for Disco music.

SG: In the ’90s and early 2000s hip-hop was my forte for DJing. The hip-hop stuff is so instrumental to me because of samples, ya know, you find one you really like, do some more listening on the artist and find they did a solo project, or had a limited release of some really good stuff. Early hip-hop were disco records, and disco is the mother of hip-hop. It’s funny, the title of the mix is actually a homage to a hip-hop mix that came out called Boston Goes Def. Did a lot of those bands go on to see larger audiences, or did they become obscured into history?

SG: The majority went to see larger success after their local thing, but quite a few stuck around Berklee and became professors. John Cline, for example, he was a scoring professor for 30 years there. The keyboard player for Second Wind [Bob Christopherson] went on to teach piano at Berklee. Certain groups definitely had to find work where they could given how much of a hustle music is as a living.

A couple of these guys still play professionally like Cojo, but a lot did get obscured into history, so that’s a huge inspiration for this project.

9.13.19 Medical cannabis comes to Fresh Pond.

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NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

15

SO HAPPY TOGETHER MUSIC

Boston’s low-key electronic music festival returns bigger and brighter

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

45s that he mixes together effortlessly.

THE LOWDOWN: Catch him at the Sinclair on Sept 24 along with Midnight Magic and Underground System.

This year he’s playing as part of the Soul Clap Records Revue tour. “I play all 45s, warm up at the beginning, and then play in between the bands,” he says. “If we’re lucky, there will be a dance party at the end too.

PHOTO OF DJ LENORE COURTESY OF TOGETHER FESTIVAL VIA EVAN SMITH Each year we try to bring something a little different to Lose yourself to dance… again. the festival, and this year is extra special!”

Together Festival is gearing up for its first fall edition. For those who have yet to be initiated through the communal sweat of a blissed-out dance floor, the electronic and dance music festival plucks the best artists from Boston and beyond to keep people grooving for a week straight. Everything kicks off this Sunday, Sept 23, and runs through the following Sunday, Sept 30. Festival passes can be purchased for $175, though attendees can pay about $20 to attend individual events instead of the entire festival. That said, we highly recommend attending at least one event each night of the festival, as there’s plenty to revel in and discover at each show—even if you’re completely unfamiliar with the electronic scene.

The reason Together feels so magical is because it spreads the festival sets across smaller venues in the city.

The result lets you experience intimate shows instead of oversold fields riddled with drugs. Wanna see the Black Madonna, Honey Dijon, and Kon at Allston hideout Zone 3? You can. Do you dream of watching Sophie and Doss perform on a boat? That’s a thing you can do. Still kicking yourself for missing Jon Hopkins at the Sinclair a few years ago? You have another chance to. This year’s schedule places fabulous artists—Aurora Halal, Jay Tripwire, DJ Pierre, Derrick Carter, Denis Sulta, Life on Planets—in these nontraditional spaces and venues that prioritize acoustics.

To give you an insider look into the best tips and overlooked parts of the festival, we asked several of the local acts to prime you on what to expect at this year’s event. From set changeups to must-see namedrops, their suggestions are worth cutting out to keep in your pocket all week long.

BAMBOOZLE (AKA ELI FROM SOUL CLAP)

VENUE VERDICT: “This is our third year at Sinclair,” he says. “It’s great for live shows. Good sound and just the right size.”

TRYNA PEEP: “I’m most excited to see all my friends!

But I’ve heard Denis Sulta is an excellent DJ. Definitely looking forward to seeing him.”

ADVICE FOR FIRST TIMERS: “Try to check out all the smaller venues and local DJs for the real experience.

Together is a great time to celebrate everything that the Boston and Cambridge dance music scene has to offer.”

LENORE WHO IS SHE: New England’s drum & bass scene has a little unsung hero who goes by the name Lenore. She’s been DJing since the early ’90s, her seamless mixing style of which has earned her respect across the scene, and co-founded Elements, a DnB night known around the world that welcomes guest DJs and more.

THE LOWDOWN: Catch her at Middlesex Lounge on Sept 23 opening the first night of the festival. The twist?

That her DnB trademark will be swapped out for house, techno, and disco edits. “It’s gonna be an all-vinyl set,” she says. “I have a house and techno record collection spanning back to the early ’90s; it’s the sound that drew me to electronic music originally and continues to be a source of inspiration.”

VENUE VERDICT: “I have never performed at Middlesex before, but I would say my favorite things about Middlesex are the layout of the booth with space for gear and records, and the really cool staff.”

WHO IS HE: Boston residents should know Soul TRYNA PEEP: “Firstly, I am thrilled to be opening Clap well, as they grace the city with a dash of funk for Floorplan and to see their performance,” she month after month. So it’s no surprise that Soul Clap’s says. “Robert Hood is a name that got the reverential own Eli, better known as Bamboozle, has made a name treatment during my early days of hanging out in record for himself spinning funk, disco, hip-hop, and reggae >> TOGETHER FESTIVAL 2018. 9.23–9.30. VARIOUS VENUES. TOGETHERBOSTON.COM

stores, and everyone in that close-knit scene was quite taken with Underground Resistance and the artists behind it. I feel like that sound helped shape Boston and its overall penchant for dark and edgy vibes. Over 20 years later, for him to continue to draw inspiration and innovate, making some of the best techno that comes out, is just really intense. And he’ll be performing with his daughter as Floorplan, so it will be exciting to experience the dynamic they have with each other and the dance floor!”

ADVICE FOR FIRST TIMERS: “I suggest definitely reading the bios for the acts,” she says. “Knowing their backgrounds and what hooked them onto that particular kind of music adds another dimension to the performance, and is a solid way to inform which shows to catch. It’s a condensed version of what goes on in Boston and Cambridge all year, so a festivalgoer can see which nights resonate with them as an entry point.”

JOHN DEBO WHO IS HE: With roots in the analogue days and work as a manipulator of modular tech, John Debo is a New York-born and Boston-bred DJ/producer who swims in the simplicity of it all. He’s one of the pioneers of the underground dance music culture, hence why his headlining sets at the old Avalon are a time people still talk about.

THE LOWDOWN: Catch him at Middlesex Lounge on Sept 30 at the festival’s final wrap-up: Together’s Closing Party. Expect the unexpected, too. “The dance floor always dictates where I take things,” says Debo.

“The fact that it is both the closing party and a day party will definitely be of influence when it comes to curating music for my set.”

VENUE VERDICT: “Middlesex has such a warm, welcoming, intimate, family vibe to it,” he says.

“Whether your first or 100th visit, the sense of culture and community felt there is overwhelming. That DJ booth on the floor is a huge plus.”

TRYNA PEEP: “I foresee a week filled with very little sleep ahead,” he says. “Floorplan, Derrick Carter, Jon Hopkins, Lenore, Honey Dijon, the Black Madonna, Denis Sulta … and the list goes on and on. The real question is, who am I not excited to see?!”

ADVICE FOR FIRST TIMERS: “Sleep when you can.

Stay hydrated. Arrive early. Stay late. Have an open mind,” he says. “Personally, I am always one of the first people at the venue. I want the entire story. Some of my favorite sets are the ones I hear before the headliner. In traditional Together style, there is just so much quality music being showcased, in a variety of quality venues around the city. If you are looking for a gateway [to electronic music], this is the week to find it.”

MUSIC EVENTS THU 09.20

THU 09.20

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

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

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge.

8pm/all ages/$16. sinclaircambridge.com]

MOURNFUL MOODS GET A FACE-LIFT EMMA RUTH RUNDLE + JAYE JAYLE

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THE PERFECT MELLOW POP FOR BEDROOM DWELLERS SALES + HANA VU

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FRI 09.21

FRI 09.21

[The Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn St., Camb. 7pm/all ages/$7. democracycenter.org]

[O’Brien’s Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston.

8:30pm/18+/$8. obrienspubboston.com]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MAINE’S ALT HIP-HOP PINK NAVEL + THE MICHAEL CHARACTER

THE FRENCH ARE COMING EN ATTENDANT ANA + ETHERS + STRANGE PASSAGE + HALFSOUR

SUN 09.23

WED 09.26

[ONCE Somerville, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville.

3pm/all ages/$15. oncesomerville.com]

[Lilypad Inman, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge.

8pm/all ages/$15. lilypadinman.com]

SHEER QUEER FEST 2018 THE BREATHING LIGHT + PRIMITIVE RAGE + GOOLAGOON + MORE

THE SUPERWOMAN OF JAPANESE FREE JAZZ SATOKO FUJII + THIS IS IT!

WHEEL OF TUNES

JPEGMAFIA

Glitch rapper talks shocking news, Mass Effect, and the Air Force

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN At 28 years old, Barrington Hendricks—the man behind the JPEGMAFIA moniker— has seen it all. He bounced around between the Northeast and the South as a kid.

He learned about the stark side of racism at age 13 while living in Alabama. He got a master’s degree in journalism. He served four years in Iraq as part of the Air Force before being honorably discharged. Then, in 2015, he finally settled in Baltimore, the place where he took his music to the next level while reflecting on every troll-ridden, hate-driven, fear-bitten moment around him, both personal and televised.

Lyrically and musically, JPEGMAFIA will shake your expectations until every ounce of judgement and double-edged stereotypes are flat on the floor, leaving you to face them head-on while he dances around you, unbothered. On this year’s Veteran, Hendricks swaps traditional beats and perspectives with something far more experimental and inflammatory. It’s equal parts hip-hop and glitchy noise. “Real Nega” sounds like Autechre on an angry day, and “Baby I’m Bleeding” sounds like the blissfully warped world of Arca and a more subversive version of Das Racist. While his words tackle racism and bigotry head-on, his music skitters about, all nerves and pentup energy shooting off in every direction possible.

“Because this was made over the course of a year, there’s no telling where the influences came from,” he says. “I was listening to all sorts of stuff, like country music.

When I hear something, I don’t try to replicate it. I try to take it and spit it out in a weird way. But the biggest influences are things I listened to a lot, like The Life of Pablo. There’s a Brad Paisley song that I loved not because of the music, but because it was funny as fuck. Stuff like that. So going into this record, I wanted to make sure I showcased all sides of myself instead of just my angry hard side. I used to focus on this rage aspect of my music. When I was making earlier stuff, I was like, ‘Alright, niggas know what I mean by this. It’s cool.’ So Veteran was a break. I got to try other shit that I usually wouldn’t release. That, ironically, was what people seemed to like the most.”

To understand the complex personality behind JPEGMAFIA, we interviewed Barrington Hendricks for a round of Wheel of Tunes, a series where we ask musicians questions inspired by their song titles. With Veteran as the prompt, his answers are genuine and jittery—qualities that will appear in his music when he headlines Great Scott this Sunday.

1. “1539 N. Calvert”

Where was the first place you lived that truly felt like home?

Damn. That actually felt like home? The first place I lived that felt like home was Baltimore. Honestly, it was that address, because it felt like my home. I moved around so much in life that I couldn’t comfortably call anything home. I was born in New York originally, but because I left when I was so young I couldn’t claim that. North Calvert is probably the first address where I felt like I was home. I still feel like it’s home when I walk by it. That’s basically how I view it.

2. “Real Nega”

Looking at your group of friends, either those you made in Baltimore or those in LA, what’s a uniting factor or shared trait between you all?

Well, broke. Honestly though. Not having money is a big uniting factor because you can’t move like other people do. We all scrape together and do whatever we need to do. And I’m talking mostly about my Baltimore friends. I called ’em out. But scraping together and being in a survivalist situation with a group of people will always draw you closer to them rather than when everything is going okay. It wasn’t the common bond, but it was an instrumental one for sure. Money is a big factor.

3. “Thug Tears”

When was the last time you cried?

I watched this movie on Netflix called The Boy with the Striped Pajamas. I thought it was a movie about gang life in the ’50s for some reason.

But it was a sad-ass movie. I think that was the last time I cried, like literally last week. At a damn movie. I can’t remember the last time before that.

Maybe a while back, actually. I think I played a show with a bunch of people in the crowd and I PHOTO BY ROZETTE RAGO might have cried. Nobody noticed because I was sweaty. I just looked moist in general. You’d be surprised all the things you can hide when you’re drenched in sweat. It gives you a license to do whatever.

Read the rest of the article at Digboston.com >> JPEGMAFIA, JOY AGAIN. SUN 9.23. GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON. 8:30PM/18+/$15. GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM

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THEATER REVIEWS ARTS

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

GROSS INDECENCY BEING EARNEST AT GREATER BOSTON STAGE COMPANY

Of all of theater’s enduring comedies, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest has stood the test of time remarkably well; Wilde’s wit all these hundred-plus years later is still legitimately funny and razor sharp.

But it’s a mystery why Paul Gordon and Jay Gruska, co-writers of Being Earnest, a newish musical adaptation of the great farce, thought it even a halfway decent idea to displace the story out of Victorian England and into the 1960s. Even more curious is why the Greater Boston Stage Company, where Being Earnest is now receiving its New England premiere, thought that this inconsequential musical was worth producing at all.

Wilde’s romantic comedy of mistaken identities is, for better or for worse, mostly intact, and Gordon’s book for the musical is largely verbatim, though he has done some splicing from other Wilde works. (Again, that question of why.) Gordon’s score, which he co-composed with Gruska, achieves the miraculous feat of vanishing from the mind nearly as instantly as it enters it. (This is also disappointing since Gordon is capable of much more: His stunning score for Jane Eyre is one of my favorite scores of the 2000s.)

Wilde’s Earnest is, among other things, scathing commentary on Victorian society. To that end, it isn’t clear what Gordon and Gruska thought they’d be gaining or challenging by setting the musical in 1965. But other than the music and the design elements, the social and political goings on of the 1960s are never inserted into the play, and there is no payoff or legitimacy to the concept; it would be like setting Rent in the Civil War South yet still having the characters fight AIDS and order tofu hot dogs at the Life Cafe.

Directed by Ilyse Robbins, this big ol’ wink of a production can’t be blamed for the defective adaptation, though some— forgive me—earnestness could go a long way toward grounding the musical in a bit of reality. Michael Jennings Mahoney is a smooth, charming Algernon, and Ephie Aardema plays Cecily with an admirable Anna Faris-like goofiness. Other actors struggle with the corniness of the material, which can hardly be said to be a bad thing, though it isn’t helpful here.

To borrow from Wilde, I hope I shall not offend you if I state quite frankly and openly that Being Earnest seems to me to be in every way the visible personification of absolute schlock.

but surprising choice for the sleepy Watertown theater company. Straight White Men, a provocative new work by experimental downtown darling Young Jean Lee, is both newer and more electric than what we’ve come to expect from New Rep. This is a good thing: The performance that I attended looked nearly full, a stark contrast to the noticeably empty houses I’ve been a part of over the last several years.

This satirical comedy, which recently closed in New York (making Lee the first Asian female playwright to have a play on Broadway), centers on three grown brothers who congregate at their recently widowed father’s house over Christmas. This may be a play about straight white men, but the show’s puppet strings, ever present throughout, are being controlled by people who are not male and (mostly) not white.

Lee successfully deconstructs the theater experience beginning with the booming rap music that blares before the play begins: The almost entirely white, upper-middleclass audience’s chatter is drowned out entirely by lyrics like “lick my pussy and my crack.”

“Normally when you pay money you can expect to be comfortable,” says Person in Charge (Dev Blair), who takes center stage in a sort of preshow announcement. “We are well aware that it can be upsetting when people create an environment that doesn’t take your needs into account,” this black, gender nonconforming performer says with a gleam in their eye.

And as the actors take the stage, they are posed and positioned by Person in Charge, arranging the straight white men in the cozy but unstylish living room diorama (designed by Afsoon Pajoufar), not terribly different from a caveman exhibit at a natural history museum. Such arranging will continue between the play’s other scenes, where Person in Charge orchestrates the scene changes with two female stagehands.

Brothers Drew (Michael Kaye), a successful author, and Jake (Dennis Trainor Jr.), a douchey, barely divorced banker,

roughhouse and tease each other, tribal traditions they’ve known since childhood. They are barely housebroken humans who make as much noise and take up as much space as possible; they are obnoxious. Their youngest brother, Matt (Shelley Bolman), was his high school valedictorian who graduated from Harvard but is now working a temp job and living back at home with their dad, Ed (Ken Cheeseman), who is recently widowed.

During their traditional Chinese Christmas dinner, Matt breaks down into tears out of nowhere and for the rest of the play, Drew, Jake, and Ed try to figure out why. Is he clinically depressed? Is it his crushing student loan debt?

Did his brothers take their taunting too far? They refuse to believe that Matt could possibly be happy living at home and cannot wrap their minds around the fact that one of their own could have been born with every advantage and yet has failed to make anything of himself. It doesn’t just confuse them, it angers them. To throw their straight white masculine world even further off its axis, Matt has been doing the cooking, cleaning, and shopping since his mother died, woman’s work that his father finds repugnant.

For all of the intellect behind Lee’s play, the finished product only half works. Part of the problem is that much of the play is joyless, unfunny, and so downright obnoxious that I can only assume it is intentional. Elaine Vaan Hogue’s production is similarly pseudo-successful, though there is no chemistry between the brothers and the glacial pacing makes the show feel interminable.

Straight White Men divided critics and audiences during its Broadway run, a fate that also undoubtedly awaits this New England premiere. More admirable than enjoyable, it’s a fascinating and provocative theatrical social experiment.

If only it were more articulate.

STRAIGHT WHITE MEN. THROUGH 9.30 AT NEW REPERTORY THEATRE, 321 ARSENAL ST., WATERTOWN. NEWREP.ORG

BEING EARNEST. THROUGH 10.7 AT GREATER BOSTON STAGE COMPANY, 395 MAIN ST., STONEHAM. GREATERBOSTONSTAGE.ORG

A PROVOCATIVE BUT PATCHY STRAIGHT WHITE MEN AT NEW REP

New Repertory Theatre has kicked off its new season with a play that is a welcome 18

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IMAGE CAPTION: MICHAEL KAYE, KEN CHEESEMAN, SHELLEY BOLMAN, AND DENNIS TRAINOR JR. IN STRAIGHT WHITE MEN. PHOTO BY ANDREW BRILLIANT.

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CAMDEN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2018: REPORT #1 FILM

On highlights from Maine’s exceptional doc fest

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING. 2018. USA. DIRECTED BY RAMELL ROSS. COURTESY OF RAMELL ROSS.

The nonfiction feature Hale County This Morning, This Evening [2018] is first and foremost a sensorial experience, not a narrative one. Having said that, RaMell Ross does utilize main characters, and they do recur throughout the film’s running time: Daniel and Quincy, two young basketball players on the come-up in Hale County, Alabama, and then Boosie, who is Quincy’s wife, and Kyrie, their first child (Ross himself was a basketball player through college, before he took up photography and before he moved to Hale County). But while the filmmaker documented this group for something like five years, the film itself deliberately leaves the passage of that timespan unclear. So when Hale County begins, Kyrie is but a small child being cradled by her parents, and yet just minutes later, we cut back to Kyrie, and we see that she is walking, scratch that, now running, back and forth across a single room, looking years older than she did just a minute ago. This is how Ross plays it throughout: Births, deaths, relocations, and most (but not all) significant life events seem to sneak by between the film’s edits, along with the years themselves. Hale County privileges the texture of the character’s lives far more than it privileges the events that populate them—something it does by emphasizing, for example, an extended shot of a child running back and forth between the walls of a relatively typical workingclass home in the South. “One of the core ideas of the film is if you don’t show a person’s decisions, then you can’t judge their decisions,” Ross explained to the Los Angeles Times in an interview following the film’s premiere at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “By fractioning Daniel and Quincy’s narratives, concentrating only on the beautiful, spontaneous moments, you don’t have a chance to judge them—aside from the way in which you would judge a black person because they’re black.”

Ross’ purposes are demonstrably ethnographic, then, but the form he employs toward said purposes vary

greatly. Hale County is broken down into movements wherein footage is arranged to suggest a progression from sundown to sunset, and even within those individual movements, formal qualities often shift at a moment’s notice: A single 10-minute stretch of the film is likely to include shots where characters testify directly to the camera, shots where characters behave as if a camera isn’t present, shots that utilize heavy color grading, landscape photography, time-lapse photography, slow-motion effects, and even archival footage (at one profoundly important moment in the movie’s rhythm). As the title implicitly suggests, we’re not seeing much from the middle of an average day (rarely are the characters seen at a school program or at a workplace), but are instead mostly seeing representations of the rituals that sit on the margins of those days (family gatherings, basketball practices, downtime in living rooms and on front porches, watching TV). Sound elements also show off a wide range: Sometimes it’s clear, sometimes it’s muffled by wind, sometimes Ross is heard conversing with someone offscreen, or sometimes it’s just nearly silent—that is until a thunderstorm or a basketball or a tossed-off statement breaks up the tone.

I was reminded of programming notes recently written

by Nathaniel Dorsky regarding his own editing practices: “A montage,” Dorsky wrote, “bringing together associations and subject matter through a variety of moods and energies and juxtapositions, is what propelled and inspired these ongoing cinematic investigations.” Though his silent/16mm/18fps films are obviously far removed from the relatively more traditional sound-cinema form that Ross employs in Hale County, I feel there’s something of a kinship between the way the images in their respective films interact with one another all the same. For instance, Ross’ film is not explicitly critical of its characters, but it does use this very quality (highly associative editing

patterns) to create rich and sometimes even troubling connections between his scenes (I think specifically of one moment where a shot of parishioners crying and singing at church then cuts directly into another shot of a person very dispassionately selling movie theater-style popcorn) without ever giving off a sense of the prescriptive.

On certain occasions, this Ross is able to create that everything-altogether feeling without even having engaged in editing: For an exceptional long take where Ross’ camera studies an entire basketball team for a pregame minute in the locker room, with the faraway composition allowing the body language of pretty much everyone in the room to register deeply and create a true gestural impression, there’s probably no descriptor more apt than the same one that Dorsky often uses to describe his own films—“polyvalent.”

Hale County This Morning, This Evening first played in Boston last week courtesy of the DocYard, and it played again in Camden, Maine, this past weekend as part of the Camden International Film Festival, one of the premiere nonfiction film festivals in the country. When Hale County played at Camden this Sunday, it was presented with Into My Life [2018], a film by Ivana Hucíková, Sarah Keeling, and Grace Remington that pays tribute to Super 8 home movies shot in Brooklyn’s Lindsay Park during the ’60s and ’70s by the Bromfield family (as well as showing off the new edits of those home movies, which one Cassandra Bromfield has been crafting for Youtube in recent years). And when Hale County played at the Brattle last week, it played with Kamau Bilal’s Baby Brother [2018], another short film that revolves around family relations, and another film that played at CIFF 2018. Bilal’s piece offers an ultra-droll depiction of the minor chaos inflicted when his younger brother Ishmaeel moves back in with their Missouri-based parents after a failed stint living in “the city.” Ishmaeel quickly incurs a series of damages just from typical chores and errands, which Bilal then documents in a series of insert shots: a broken glass, a busted lawn mower, and an utterly demolished car tire (meanwhile, close-ups survey the ceaselessly patient nature of the Bilal’s elders). Bilal recently described some of his own formal strategies to Filmmaker Magazine, which just named him as one of this year’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film”—a group that RaMell Ross himself was part of back in 2015, when he was still in the process of producing Hale County. In that feature, Bilal describes plans for his own feature-length directorial debut, which he hopes to shoot in St. Louis. I hope that he gets it made, and that I get to see it, maybe even in Camden.

For more of our reports and reviews from the Camden International Film Festival (including a longer version of this one), visit Digboston.com.

>> THE CAMDEN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IS A PROGRAM OF THE POINTS NORTH INSTITUTE. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT POINTSNORTHINSTITUTE.ORG/CIFF. >> HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING IS CURRENTLY PLAYING IN NEW YORK CITY AND LOS ANGELES (FURTHER EXPANSION MAY FOLLOW). >> BABY BROTHER IS AVAILABLE TO STREAM FROM THE OP-DOCS SECTION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES. 20

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COME COME NOW SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

COMEDY EVENTS THU 09.20

JAY MOHR @ CITY WINERY

Featuring: Jay Mohr & Lamont Price.

80 BEVERLY ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $35-$50

I am newly divorced and have started a relationship with a man I’ve known and deeply cared about for decades. The sex is amazing—from start to finish, I feel better than I ever did even in the best moments with my ex. And in the most intense moments? He makes me see stars. He is a very generous lover—he turns me on like crazy and I regularly come while sexting with him. But I have yet to have an orgasm with him. In the past, I have had an orgasm with a partner only from oral or very occasionally from digital clit stim. My ex-husband was not skilled at oral, so I always had to fantasize pretty hard to get there (and regularly chose not to bother). My new partner has amazing moves and amazing oral skills. And he is willing to keep at it for as long as it takes. But regardless of how amazing I feel when he’s going down on me, every single time I eventually hit a wall where I am just done. I haven’t had a single session with him where I’m left feeling unfulfilled, despite the lack of orgasm. In contrast, any sex with my ex that didn’t end in an orgasm left me feeling frustrated or, worse yet, bored. (There were also times when I’d ask my ex to leave the room so I could masturbate after sex.) Do you have any ideas as to why I can’t get over that hump? I wonder if I just need him to be more boring and repetitive so that I can focus.

But if that’s the case, is it even worth it? Why would I want to make the sex worse to make it “better”? Or should I just be satisfied with the mind-blowing sex I am having, even if it means I don’t have an orgasm? Is it OK to give myself permission to give up on partnerbased climaxing?

No Orgasm Possibly Ever Beware of those self-fulfilling prophecies! If you sit there—or lie there—telling yourself that being with Mr. AmazingMoves means giving up on “partner-based climaxing,” NOPE, you’re increasing the odds that you’ll never have an orgasm with this guy or any other guy ever again.

Here’s what I think the problem is: You had tons of shitty sex with your ex, but you could climax so long as you focused, i.e., so long as you were able to “fantasize pretty hard.”

Your ex provided you with some half-assed oral and/or uninspiring digital clit stim that didn’t interfere with your ability to focus/fantasize. In other words, NOPE, with your ex you were able to—you had no other choice but to—retreat into your own head and rely on your own erotic imagination to get you there. You may have been physically present during sex, but you were not emotionally or erotically present.

Because Mr. AmazingMoves’ moves are so amazing—because he turns you on like crazy, because whatever he’s doing feels great, because sometimes you see stars—you aren’t able to retreat into your own head. For years, you had to figuratively leave the room so you could focus/concentrate on whatever it was you needed to focus/concentrate on in order to come; sometimes you even asked your ex to literally leave the room. You created a powerful association between going to a private, safe, sexy place—pulling away from your partner emotionally, erotically, and sometimes even physically—and climaxing.

You aren’t able to pull away from your current partner in the same way. Nor do you want to. And, hey, wanna know why you come when you sext with him? Because sexting is assisted fantasizing. You’re alone when you’re swapping those dirty messages with Mr. AmazingMoves, NOPE, kind of like you were alone when you were having sex with your ex.

It’s going to take some time to carve a new groove, i.e., you’re going to have to create a new association, one that allows you to be fully present (emotionally, erotically, physically) during partner-based sex and able to climax during it. The trick is not to rush it and, again, not to box yourself into negative self-fulfilling prophecies like the one you ended your letter with. So instead of telling yourself you’re never going to come again during partnered sex, tell yourself that your orgasms will come again. It may take some time, sure, but trust that your body and your brain are already hard at work carving that new groove.

THU 09.20

WHAT’S SHAKIN’? STAND-UP COMEDY @ SHAKING CRAB Hosted by A.J. Glagolev

1815 MASS AVE., CAMBRIDGE | 9PM | FREE FRI 09.21 - SAT 09.22

TOM DUSTIN @ NICK’S COMEDY STOP

If you’re reading this, you probably are considering going to a comedy show featuring a guy you’ve never heard of: me. Well, I’m Tom.I’m from Boston and I do stand-up comedy for a living. I’ve won a few competitions including a big one in Canada which was televised in 2010. The Comedy Network (Canadian Comedy Central) paid me $25,000 that I quickly squandered.

100 WARRENTON ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $20 FRI 09.21

SCOTT ROGOWSKY @ THE WILBUR

Scott Rogowsky is quickly making a name for himself across the media landscape.

Whether you know him as the host of the wildly popular live mobile game show HQ Trivia, or have streamed one of his two shows currently airing on Verizon’s Go90 – Start Talkin’ produced for Complex Networks and Weird World of Sports produced for Whistle Sports, he is seemingly popping up everywhere. Prior to joining HQ, Scott cohosted the ABC Primetime series Would You Fall For That? with Nick Watt and Sasheer Zamata.

246 TREMONT ST, BOSTON | 8PM | $32 - $52 FRI 09.21

JIM BREUER @ THE CHEVALIER THEATRE

With over 20 years of stand-up comedy experience, Jim Breuer remains one of today’s top entertainers and continues to win over audiences with his off-the-wall humor and lovable personality. Named one of Comedy Central’s “100 Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time,” Breuer is one of the most recognizable comedians in the business, known for his charismatic stage antics, dead-on impressions, and family-friendly stand-up.

30 FOREST ST., MEDFORD | 7:30PM | $35 SAT 09.22 - SUN 09.23

ILIZA: ELDER MILLENNIAL @ THE WILBUR

Iliza is one of today’s leading comedians with a fan base who show their loyalty by creating their own Iliza inspired swag to wear to her shows. She recently completed hosting her late night limited run talk show “Truth & Iliza,” on Freeform (formerly ABC Family). The self styled talk show is a cross between social commentary, politics, pop culture and Iliza’s specific brand of feminism. In November 2017, she released her first book Girl Logic: The Genius and the Absurdity (Hachette Book Group) a subversively funny collection of essays and observations on a confident woman’s approach to friendship, singlehood, and relationships.

246 TREMONT ST., BOSTON | 7 & 9:45PM | $37 - $102 SAT 09.22

BOSTON COMEDY FESTIVAL PRESENTS: COMEDY AND CABERNET @ CITY WINERY Featuring: Dan Boulger, Dave McDonough, & Peter Martin.

Hosted by Jim McCue

80 BEVERLY ST., BOSTON | 7:30PM | $20

On the Lovecast, Dan can’t do it alone this week! Hola, Papi! savagelovecast.com

SUN 09.23

LIQUID COURAGE COMEDY @ SLUMBREW

Featuring: Peter Martin, Mike Settlow, Alex La, Brett Johnson, Liam McGurk, Janet McNamara, & Brianna Classen.

Hosted by Ellen Sugarman

15 WARD ST., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $5 MON 09.24

MONDAY NIGHT COMEDY IN THE SUPPER CLUB @ CAPO Hosted by Will Noonan

443 WEST BROADWAY BOSTON | 8PM | FREE

savagelovecast.com

22

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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…

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY PATTKELLEY.COM

HEADLINING THIS WEEK! The Naked Magicians

Sept 17-23

Tom Arnold

VICELAND’s The Hunt for the Trump Tapes

Special Engagement:

Fri, Sept 21

Andrew Schulz

The Brilliant Idiots Podcast

Special Engagement:

Sat, Sept 22

THE WAY WE WEREN’T

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

COMING SOON Aida Rodriguez

Showtime, HBO, Joey Diaz’s The Church of What's Happening Now Sept 27-29

The Taylor Strecker Show Special Engagement: Sun, Sept 30

OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS

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Craig Shoemaker

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