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ROYALE
DEAR READER
TORO Y MOI
LET’S MAKE A DIEHL
If you’re a fan of Howie Carr, New England’s top conservative radio jock and newspaper guy for several decades, then the smart bet is that you will vote for anybody other than Sen. Elizabeth Warren next Tuesday. Hell, if you regularly tune into Carr’s show, broadcast around Greater Boston on WRKO AM 680, then you probably have a full quiver of cheap Native American jokes strapped to your satchel of ignorant bullshit. It’s likely similar for readers of Carr’s Boston Herald column; while he may take an occasional week off from Warren-flaming to pen learned humanitarian lullabies such as “We are all Brett Kavanaugh” (Oct 17, 2018), his stock in trade for months has been cold bashing the liberal senator from Massachusetts and shamelessly flanking her Republican opponent in the upcoming election, state Rep. Geoff Diehl, who is best known for his lawn signs littering the suburbs and for chairing Donald Trump’s campaign for president in the Bay State. As his routine goes, choice installments off the overused Carr lot pack in a lot of Pocahontas pokes—“It’s been 4 years, Liz Warren. Take a DNA test” (March 16, 2018), “Liz Warren to join tribe of losers” (July 25, 2018), “Fake news matched only by the fake Indian’s fake math” (Oct 16, 2018). There’s also a miniseries on the senator reporting “$50,000 in used clothing and ‘household items’” on her taxes—“Fifty grand worth of clothes! Donated! In one year.”—featuring gems like “Elizabeth Warren’s return taxes imagination” (Oct 10, 2018) and “Elizabeth Warren’s castoffs? Priceless!” (Oct 3, 2018), peppered with the nonstop assaults on her policies and person. A lot of this Carr talk is over-the-top gushy; take, for example, the pathetic “Trump can make Geoff Diehl— and tweak Charlie Baker—with endorsement tweet” (Sept 2, 2018), and a personal favorite of mine, “Geoff Diehl has done more for Massachusetts than Liz Warren” (Sept 5, 2018). And while I have no doubt that Carr at least somewhat believes the horrendous xenophobic trash that flows from his and Diehl’s jowls and bowels, it’s nonetheless worth noting that the jock and author profits handsomely off advertising purchased by the Diehl campaign. As Federal Election Commission (FEC) data shows, Diehl for US Senate has spent in excess of seventy-five grand on “Radio Spots” with the Howie Carr Network. That’s more than 80 percent of its terrestrial radio buys (most of the rest went to the station that broadcasts Carr’s show in Mass, WRKO, and its parent company), and for a candidate who has a mere $319,388.28 on hand heading into the election. Think about that—they spent all that money to reach conservative radio listeners. People who already have their cars decked out with Diehl stickers. I could go on and on about the disgraceful hypocrisy in play, starting with how the host actively and openly helps fundraise for the Diehl campaign; in September, he actually hosted an event for the candidate at the Howie Carr Studios. It may not be worth my time to rant any further, though, since Howie’s sycophants and Diehl voters probably don’t care. When your supporters are the same people who back a toxic president despite his inability to tell the truth and penchant for nihilistic, childish behavior, there’s no reason to believe they are above getting their news from a media con man who is motivating check writers on one hand and filling his pockets on the other.
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NEWS+OPINION THE CASE FOR KATJA NOVIN
NEWS TO US
Will the healthcare system save this patient’s life, or end it? BY SARAH BETANCOURT @SWEETADELINEVT
“for the first time,” she was properly diagnosed with anorexia and was given a therapist who understood the complexities of her eating disorder. But her elation was short-lived. According to her medical records, Novin was asked to leave right after beginning trauma therapy. She says it was her first time in trauma therapy and that she was “experiencing a hard time completing 100 percent of my meals.” Novin was told she could return to the facility in a week. “I begged them not to send me home because I was afraid for my life,” she told DigBoston. “I was medically unstable,” Novin added, describing herself as suicidal, and saying she should have been sent to a hospital “at the very least.” LT: KATJA (W/ GLASSES ON RIGHT) AND EMMA IN NEW HAMPSHIRE, OCT 2018 | RT: LETTER FROM KATJA TO COMMONWEALTH CARE ALLIANCE According to emails reviewed by DigBoston, Klarman administrators When you have an eating disorder, time is of the essence. for significant trauma. declined taking Novin back in for treatment, saying, “Your Twenty-eight-year-old Katja Novin understands that, Novin’s appeal for insurance coverage to the team has decided not to bring you back at this time. They but she’s still waiting at home to die. Renfrew Center of Philadelphia was initially denied by feel given the complexity of your medical issues precludes Novin was discharged from Beth Israel Deaconess Commonwealth Care Alliance in September, with the you from coming to a Residential program.” Five days later, Medical Center three weeks ago after suffering reasoning being her eating disorder could be treated at she was admitted to a hospital for eight weeks, and left complications to her organs from anorexia nervosa, and an in-state facility. But both of the two in-state facilities with a surgical feeding tube. has been waiting in an attic in Belmont for her insurance mentioned by CCA, Walden and Klarman Eating Disorders That was 60 pounds and 10 months ago. company to approve treatment for the disease that has Center, have declined to admit Novin due to the complexity Repeated requests to Klarman for comment about plagued her since she was 10 years old. of her situation. It’s a Catch-22. Novin’s case were answered with the comment, “Due to Four mushrooms, four ounces of broth, tea, and Conor Yunits, a spokesman for CCA, said, “While we patient confidentiality laws, we are unable to provide any black coffee. Those are the things Novin ate the first day cannot discuss individual cases, we can say that we work comment at this time.” DigBoston interviewed her, convincing herself to consume directly with all of our members to explore every option When offered a release signed by Novin to allow them only so that she could be coherent enough to talk and ensure they are receiving the highest quality of care.” Klarman to speak about all details of her medical case, about her situation. Renfrew has accepted Novin into its Philadelphia Adriana Bobinchock, public affairs senior director, said, Novin is a recipient of health insurance through program, which offers specialized residential treatment “We’re declining the opportunity to participate in your Commonwealth Care Alliance, a MassHealth plus Medicare tracks. Doctors there have the expertise to deal story.” program. While the company has partially paid for with advanced eating disorder complications that Novin cites the denial to return to Klarman as the hospital visits to BI that are a result of complications of her Massachusetts facilities claim to not have the expertise to reason why she decided to enter palliative care this spring. condition, she has been denied repeated requests during a solve. Novin’s case is also complicated by the fact that she “Before Klarman, I had been told my eating disorder had months-long fight to take advantage of something called has Crohn’s disease. reached a terminal phase. Klarman was an effort to save the single-case agreement. This part of an insurance policy Novin, along with medical providers whose records and allows Novin to be seen out-of-state by a provider, one time. notes DigBoston reviewed, agree that Renfrew Philadelphia me life. When I ‘failed’ at that, then spent two months in the hospital being force-fed … I decided enough was She has never taken advantage of it, because she’s never is the best place for her. She said, “They have a high success enough. I couldn’t do it anymore.” needed it. But with her eating disorder progressed to its rate, have a lot of one-on-one therapy, and a trauma track Then came a hospital stay in August, during which extreme, this is the goal. which could allow me to work on the root of my eating Novin contracted sepsis. She could have died, but Novin began restricting food after experiencing sexual disorder. Most places don’t treat trauma.” instead she endured, and credits Beth Israel doctors with and physical trauma. She’s been in and out of psychiatric subsequently “saving her life.” and eating disorder programs since she was a teenager. “I decided I was willing to go back to treatment one DISAPPOINTMENTS MOUNT Anorexia nervosa is a physical and psychiatric illness more time, and give it my all before deciding to stop that results in extremely low body weight. People with the treatment,” she explained. Novin was at Klarman Eating Disorders Center from disorder fear gaining weight, can have a distorted body image, and often use weight loss as a coping mechanism
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Nov 30 of 2017 to Jan 25 of this year. She told the Dig that
Image Courtsey of AAUW.
JUMPING THROUGH HOOPS Novin is now three months into that effort and on her third health insurance appeal. The first, to CCA, was rejected. The second, forked over in an “independent review process” to out-of-state for-profit healthcare business process service Maximus, was also denied. Continuing through that labyrinth, Novin appealed to the Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, a part of the US Department of Health and Human Services. A spokeswoman for OMHA sad the office “cannot comment on the merits of an appeal pending before an administrative law judge.” Novin’s third appeal was initially supposed to be heard in January 2019 by a judge in Kansas City. She’s convinced she will be dead by then. But since repeated requests for comment by DigBoston, the date has been moved to a teleconference hearing on Nov 5. As time slips by, Novin loses more and more weight, restricting calories and occasionally giving in to the temptation of laxatives. She wakes up with her heart feeling like it’s beating out of her chest. She thinks about therapy and tries to stay distracted. But at this point, it’s mind over matter, and it’s beyond time for a specialized medical provider to step in. A former nutrition provider also confirmed that Novin’s eating disorder would probably not be as advanced if she had just received the right level of care. “Her limited access to care is absolutely related to a lack of funding based on her personal finances, which dictate what insurance she has,” the provider said. “Therefore she has been unable to access care in the way that others have.”
“SHE’S FIGHTING FOR HER LIFE” Why will this time be any different for Novin? For one, her eating disorder has never been this extreme. And despite the years in and out of treatment, she’s capable of living a life outside of her disease. Terri Trafas is a licensed clinical social worker who recently consulted with Novin. Due to the severity of her case, Trafas cannot provide the amount of intense therapy that Novin needs. She insisted that Novin has been diligent in advocating for her own patient care. “She struck me as extremely motivated for treatment,” Trafas said. “The evidence has been how hard she’s worked. It’s like a full-time job.” Trafas, who has decades of experience working in eating disorder treatment facilities, has seen many instances where patients fall through the cracks because of insurance problems. Novin is not the exception. “You have to get on the phone and beg them [insurance companies] every day,” she said. “They don’t look at people as individuals and what is needed to recover.” Trafas said it’s common for patients to be discharged early from eating disorder facilities because of limited insurance coverage, only to go home, lose weight, and end up psychologically where they began. Meanwhile, patients end up in emergency rooms and in long-term hospitalizations, paying thousands more a night than they would during inpatient or residential eating disorder treatment programs that treat the disease, not just the complications. In the past year, Novin has had over 9 hospitalizations at BI. “When Katja says she’s fighting for her life, I believe her,” Trafas said. Novin had a year-long period of what most would consider to be remission. In spring of 2016, she and her former partner, now-friend Emma Sturz, travelled to Ohio for a week-long scholarship-funded retreat for people with severe eating disorders. The result was Novin getting a full-time position as a nanny, complying with her meal plan, staying healthy, and leading the active life of a woman in her 20s. Sturz told DigBoston, “It was incredible. She had a life outside of her eating disorder. She was working, which was fulfilling for her. It’s important for her to feel like she has purpose.” Novin is currently living with Sturz and Sturz’s parents. “It’s heartbreaking to see her denied over and over and basically be told her life isn’t worth the money,” Stutz said. “And the long hospital stays they’re paying for are far more expensive than treatment.” A review of Novin’s medical bills and insurance information shows that in the past year, CCA paid more than $2.1 million for her to be hospitalized, mostly at BI. That’s an average of $3,500 a night—plus meds and fluids. The cost of a specialized eating disorder center like Renfrew is about $1,200 a night. Renfrew has an outpatient facility in Boston, where Novin could continue care in a day program, and eventually just an evening program, once she is medically stable. That costs even less. To Novin, her friends, and medical providers, the answer seems clear. In an open letter to CCA posted on Facebook in October, Novin wrote, “Please help me save my life.”
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DEPT. OF COMMERCE
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5
AFTER PITTSBURGH APPARENT HORIZON
How we defeat the hard right BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS
In August 2017, over 40,000 Bostonians marched on Boston Common to tell a small gaggle of nearly incoherent hard-right louts that they were not welcome in our city. Especially in the wake of a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that resulted in the murder of a left-wing counterdemonstrator by a young Nazi. At the time, I was concerned that by drawing too much attention to the tiny rally, protestors risked giving the local hard right more power than they deserved— and helping them grow their numbers in the process. But I understood why so many people reacted so viscerally to it, and supported their decision to call what turned out to be one of the largest political actions of any kind in Hub history against it. With Saturday’s slaughter of 11 older parishioners at a Jewish house of worship in Pittsburgh by a heavily armed, raving anti-Semite—literally screaming for the death of all Jews—we’re not precisely entering a new era. After all, we’ve seen a number of mass shootings by the same kind of white guy in the brief period since Boston’s big protest against hate. Including the killing of two African-Americans in a Louisville, Kentucky, Kroger supermarket just three days before the Steel City incident. But events are starting to look increasingly similar to the dawn of an earlier era. The Nazi era. And any moderately well-educated adult that failed to hear the shattering glass of Kristallnacht in the bullet casings that hit the floor of the Tree of Life synagogue as the killer pumped lead into the bodies of innocents has learned precisely nothing from history. So, I think it would have been appropriate for Bostonians from all walks of life to call an even larger rally this week than last year’s to take up an old slogan, “Never Again,” in memory of the honored dead of Pittsburgh. And to put all latter-day Nazis, fascists, and white supremacists on warning that we will not allow them to take control of Boston, or Massachusetts, or the United States. However, the Red Sox won the World Series the day after the attack. Making it less likely that the kind of rally we need—a show of force that would inspire people around the nation—will happen here in this critical moment. Which is a pity. Since this is one killing spree that we can absolutely blame President Donald Trump for instigating with his disgusting and completely fallacious attacks on the caravan of asylum-seeking refugees fleeing government persecution in countries like Honduras and poverty in general. As Adam Serwer put it in an excellent Atlantic piece (“Trump’s Caravan Hysteria Led to This”), “The Tree of Life shooter criticized Trump for not being racist or antiSemitic enough. But with respect to the caravan, the shooter merely followed the logic of the president and his allies: He was willing to do whatever was necessary to prevent an ‘invasion’ of Latinos planned by perfidious Jews, a treasonous attempt to seek ‘the destruction of American society and culture.’ “The apparent spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax inflamed by a U.S. president seeking to help his party win a midterm election.” So Trump needs to pay a political price for his propagandizing in the service of increasing the rightwing turnout on the sixth of November. And a lot of big protest rallies—perhaps galvanized by a successful Boston action—right before one of the most important elections in decades would have gone a long way toward exacting that price where it hurts him the most. But it was not to be this time around. Which is OK. As there is a lot more that people of good conscience can do to deflect the rise of the hard right before they become 6
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strong enough to take more direct and long-term control of significant American political institutions… and start legally murdering their opponents in great numbers. Because if there’s one attribute that Nazis and fascists and white supremacists have in common, it’s a thirst for the blood of their many enemies. As such, they must be defeated politically—and defeated definitively—by people from across the compassionate political spectrum to forestall that possibility from ever becoming a reality. While they are still a small force relative to the population. Before I continue, though, let me just lay out a couple of ideas that are important to any discussion of defeating the hard right. First, the perpetrators of the recent wave of deadly attacks on African-Americans and now Jews (and other targeted groups) aren’t crazy. Sure, they have psychiatric issues. Lots of people do. But they’re generally quite clear about what they’re doing and why. And they are not lone nuts. They are soldiers. Even if they’re not members of a hard-right organization. Second, the attacks these killers are carrying out are not random. Even if, as with the recent massacre, some of them seem to be done on the spur of the moment. They are part of a strategy. The killers are not generally the authors of that strategy. Hardright leaders are. The strategy and the tactics that comprise it are laid out every day across thousands of channels of communication—most obviously social media discussions. The basic directive of the strategy is to attack “soft targets”—unarmed people who are members of groups deemed enemies by Nazis, fascists, and white supremacists. To kill as many of those people as possible. To spread fear in those enemy communities and beyond. And, most importantly, to encourage an armed response from those communities and/or their allies. Allies like young left-wing activists who sometimes put on on masks and try to defend vulnerable communities. Often called “antifa” rightly or wrongly. And demonized by right-wing pundits up to and including Trump as some kind of massive army ready to undermine the very foundations of our republic. Which is purest fantasy. But absolutely a truism in current right-wing circles… be they hard or soft. The goal of the strategy is to trigger a civil war. Which the hard right—being armed and trained and having infiltrated the military and many police forces for decades—fully expects to win. Once it’s won, democracy can be replaced with dictatorship. And the bloodbath they so desire can begin. To stop that strategy from succeeding, the overwhelming majority of Americans and immigrant residents that are not on the hard right must outorganize them politically. And here we arrive at the work that everyone can do. Whatever walk of life you come from. Whatever your background is. Whatever age you are. Study. If you don’t have a basic grounding in history and politics relevant to the fight at hand, get one. If you’re rusty, brush up. We have lots of great public libraries and bookstores in the Boston area. Use them. Look for works by academics and researchers recognized as experts in their fields. If you need suggestions, ask librarians and bookstore clerks. If you need formal instruction, and you’re not a student, enroll in courses at adult education centers and community colleges. If that’s too expensive—or as an adjunct to coursework— form study groups with friends, read key texts together, and discuss them.
Organize. Either start or join political groups that are committed to democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and tolerance for the broad array of political, economic, religious, social, and cultural views that don’t involve slaughtering other people. If you’re launching one in your community, and you already started a study group, you can build your organization out of that. It’s also great to start chapters of existing organizations. Definitely don’t “reinvent the wheel” unless you have to. Whether you decide to work with an existing political party or start your own is purely up to you. Political groups can do a lot of useful work outside of political parties. You can also both join or start a political party and join or start extraparliamentary political organizations. Just don’t spread yourself too thin. Educate. You’ve got some knowledge. You’re doing political organizing. Now get out there and talk to as many people as you can. Hold public educational events on important issues of the day. In election years, hold candidate forums and panel discussions on referendum questions. The important thing is that you don’t just do this in neighborhoods already friendly to your core ideas. Go to places that the harder edge of the right wing is known to dominate. Talk up your positions. Spread the word that there is more than one way to think about the world. Also, work with democracy-friendly media outlets (like BINJ and DigBoston). Write opinion pieces for publication. Get on talk shows. Start your own news outlets if necessary. At least a blog and a podcast can be a great start. Use social media judiciously. Build an audience carefully, and encourage its members to join your organization. Debate. This is key. Constantly engage in debate with the broad right wing. You may not exactly win hearts and minds every time. But you may very well stop runof-the-mill conservatives from turning into hard-right fanatics. You will also learn more about their ideas in conversation than most anything you could glean from your readings. And you will learn to better express your own ideas through practice under some duress. Mobilize. Defend and expand democracy through direct political action. Hold rallies, marches, and pickets against the hard right. Don’t let vulnerable communities struggle alone. Join with them. Work with them. Meet the threat of violence with determined nonviolence. Then beat politicians that support the hard right at the ballot box. Build. Establish small- and large-scale institutions that enshrine democratic values and make them part of everyday life. Social clubs. Sports facilities. Cultural centers. Institutes. For the long haul. In short, create the more democratic society that you want to live in. Run the hard right to ground with the force of your ideas and the people you mobilize politically. Not with guns. Make it impossible for Nazis, fascists, and white supremacists to find significant audiences for their rhetoric of hate for the foreseeable future. And you will have won. We will all have won. 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.
THE BOYS FROM NOWHERE DIRTY OLD BOSTON
The rise and rage of Boston punk in the ’70s, on film BY PETER ROBERGE
As millenials (like me) are learning in these increasingly nostalgia-hungry times, Boston was insanely different in the 1970s. From the crap economy, to Vietnam shock, to the Nixon presidency, and so on. Add middle-class (read: white) flight to that mix in the wake of court-ordered busing, and you have a city riddled with hostility, arguably in crisis. Yet despite those conditions, or perhaps largely because of them, various new fascinating subcultures took root, and in many cases channeled problems of the era into powerful and memorable music. Boston rock has always had its heroes in the limelight—Aerosmith, the Cars, you know all the big names. But bubbling below the mainstream, the city’s punk scene and its offshoots had famously unique cult followings that speak to what was popping in the clubs back then. Most subterranean icons never got much recognition in their day, but there have been some consolations in the decades since, in part thanks to the hard work of Chris Parcellin and Lenny Scolletta and their film, Boys From Nowhere: The Story of Boston’s Garage Punk Uprising. With said intimate look at the nuances of grassroots local rock, complete with input from the circuit’s esteemed veterans, set to screen at the Regent Theatre in Arlington on Nov 10 with a question and answer period to follow, we took the liberty of beginning the inquiry. What got you into this project? What were some goals and motivations behind the documentary? LS: I got into the scene in ’77. I was a drummer for some local bands and actually opened up for the Real Kids at the Rat. After seeing them, I always wondered why they never broke out nationally. They always had a fanbase in Europe where they could tour, and groups like Blondie and the Ramones down in CBGB were getting good deals. I had worked in the field doing public access stuff, so I knew how to be a camera guy. I thought, Would someone like me be able to get this together? I had a camera and some experience, so I figured why not at least reach out to the bands. [Parcellanris] reached out to them, the response was good, and one thing kinda just led to another. We set up as many interviews as possible. I really wanted to get to the bottom of this question that had been lingering in my head as to why these bands fizzled out when they were such great musicians. CP: My older brother went to see the bands at local clubs, so I heard them through him when I was about 13 or so. I remember thinking how different the sound was from what was on the radio. It was new and refreshing to hear local musicians with such a passion for the sound. I think what I wanted to accomplish was to show how the bands weren’t getting the appreciation they deserved. They had been forgotten in time and they made some great music, a lot of which can still be heard and enjoyed today. … New York is a national media center. Boston became a secondary market to all that. Boston bands always needed to work a little harder to get that national coverage, and these bands just weren’t in it for the fame, they had no desire to put out number one hits, they did what they wanted to do, which was to show Boston a good time and foster the scene. Were the musicians and groups easy to get in contact with? They must have been scattered. CP: It definitely was difficult. Some of the guys didn’t want to talk—understandably, too, considering
we had no track record. They thought, Who the hell are these guys? I have to credit Rick Harte [of Ace of Hearts Records] because he helped communicate to them that we were legit and just wanted to celebrate the music. I ran into him at a Classic Ruins show so I interviewed him and we spoke a bit. He saw that we were in this for the right reasons. The scene was plagued by unfortunate circumstances that ultimately led to the lack of widespread attention. What would would you say contributed to that? LS: Sire Records was signing the bulk of the bands like DMZ and the Nervous Eaters. What was so strange about it was how much better of a grip they had on the New York sound. The producers just weren’t matching up and the bands were so happy to get signed that they kinda just went along with it. They weren’t given enough creative control. They were victims of the industry. The producers … wanted something to throw on the radio, but what they didn’t realize is these bands were the antithesis of that marketable sound. Maybe if the ball had got rolling they’d have been able to produce better recording in the future. It wasn’t until they started pressing their own records that they finally captured what they were going for. Had Ace of Hearts been a major label, things would be much different. CP: There was never a lack of interest locally, but so many intangibles can go wrong. They weren’t given enough say in the final product, ultimately. That’s one of the unfortunate parts of being in a band, ya know, even down to the album covers. It comes with the territory, never getting that big, it does. What’s unfortunate here is these bands were so good.
CP: I think WBCN is important to mention here. While it wasn’t a venue, it played a hugely important role in the scene in terms of radio broadcasting. WBCN had always played alternative music. Charles Laquidara came through in the ’70s and basically broke the Cars into the scene, playing their demos before they were even signed. They were doing stuff other stations just wouldn’t do, and from there played local bands religiously. From there, stations like WERS, Emerson’s station, played local shows that widened the audience. The main college stations didn’t play big Top 40. What were some of the contributing factors to the Rat’s doors closing? LS: By ’97, the scene was done, and no one took the torch. There just wasn’t the same type of community with the regulars and all that. CP: As the local revenue got harder to generate, people weren’t as apt to seeing live shows as they used to. Boston wasn’t a pretty place to be at the time. Do you think the music was a response to that? LS: Yeah—’77 and ’78 were tough times musically, with punk and disco getting big followings that were part of such different sounds. I had a record store in Malden and was selling a lot of those local records. I think it helped that I was right down the street from the high school. The kids would come in for the local music and would ask me where they could see them play as I played them in the store. From there they’d go see the bands at the Rat and such, and the energy was infectious. The city was just so much different, it’s almost unfeasible that it used to be like that. The fanbase was just so passionate. CP: Well, the drinking age was 18, so younger kids could go see the music. There weren’t as many distractions back then. Today with the internet it’s less of a big deal when you hear about a show or a band because it’s so oversaturated. There was more mystique because you couldn’t just check out the band online beforehand.
What hindered the movement, if anything? LS: The hate came from misunderstanding because it didn’t sound like the status quo, but it was so influential on the sound to come. It became mainstream from London BAND PHOTO OF DMZ (JJ RASSLER, PAUL MURPHY, JEFF CONOLLY, and New York bands, but our unique RICK CORACCIO, PETER GREENBERG) COURTESY OF BOYS FROM NOWHERE Boston sound wasn’t received well. The progress was a lot like hip-hop, it just took awhile for it to stick. Legendary Kenmore Square club the Rat was obviously a major part of this, but what were some CP: There was definitely a culture clash between other memorable places to see the music? locals who didn’t seem to understand what was going LS: There was Cantone’s on Broad Street, which was on. It was something new that didn’t sit well. The disco more of a divey place. A lot were centrally located— fans felt infringed upon, especially because that big there was Storyville, a lot of bands played there, and disco club Narcissus was right across the street from the the Channel. These venues usually didn’t last very long, Rat, and punk just didn’t mix well in the era of Saturday unfortunately. The Channel was good because bands Night Fever. … There were a lot of fights between the on the way up were playing there along with bands on punks and the disco fans. It got pretty violent at times. the way down, and they could fill up the place. Now it’s Check out the next screening of The Boys From Nowhere a parking lot by South Station. Another great place was at the Regent Theatre in Arlington on 11.10 with a special Chet’s Last Call in the West End; I saw the Ramones there. performance by the Nervous Eaters. NEWS TO US
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ALL’S WELL AT PETWELL TALKING JOINTS MEMO
Helping dogs get better using CBD BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON
It’s rare that we respond to press releases at DigBoston and Talking Joints Memo. We’re reporters; we like to come upon new things organically. At the same time, not every email we get from a budding business involves cannabis and dogs getting healthier. And so our ears perked up upon hearing from Emily Lagasse, the founder and owner of the new store Petwell Supply in the Spring Hill neck of Somerville. Lagasse is a respected small biz owner around here, having already sold her own brand of dog food nationally for four years before opening the Somerville shop. From that experience, she came to understand that “many pets continue to suffer from ailments despite being fed healthy food.” Our main interest: Among a smorgasbord of other doggy goodies and essentials, Petwell sells “unique products from CBD oil for anxiety to flower essences for dogs adjusting to a new home.” As well as “homeopathic remedies for everything from butt scooting to hairballs.” We asked Lagasse to break down the whole operation, right down to these intrepid treatments. Where did the idea for this company come from? Tell us about your dog, Fenway. I founded [the dog food company] Fedwell [Pet Foods] after returning from my Peace Corps experience with my African dog. Once we arrived in the US, Fenway got sick on all foods here, and his health declined rapidly. After taking classes and learning to cook for him myself, his health improved, and I got inspired to bring that same quality food to pets everywhere. Through my [Fedwell] experience I learned that many of my customers were struggling to fully support their pet’s health. Issues ranged from diabetes to allergies, and although vets were good at diagnosing these issues, and prescribing medication when necessary, they didn’t offer much ongoing support. As a result, I opened Petwell Supply to provide access to the products and services to support these health issues. What were the first steps you took in becoming an expert in this field? When I returned from my peace corps experience and my dog got sick, I began taking classes to learn how to cook well-balanced meals for him. I studied dog nutrition and anatomy with local experts. I attended many trade shows over the years, and met many vets and enthusiasts making holistic products to support pet health, which gave me a great start for my store. You have been involved in various business incubators and programs. How have supports helped you along the way as a small business owner? The entrepreneur network in the Boston area has been tremendously helpful. It’s nice to have a group willing to share resources freely and offer advice and support when it’s needed.
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You say that your products are “natural alternatives to prescription pet food diets.” Tell us a bit more about the benefits and about why it is worth it for pet owners to go out of their way to find such alternatives. The products in the store are not an alternative to a prescription diet for pets. My ultimate goal is to create foods under the Fedwell brand that would be the natural alternative to prescription diet for pets. Currently, the remedies carried in the store would be complementary to any prescriptions or prescription foods. How are things in Somerville? Why’d you pick the area? Somerville is a great place. I have enjoyed living here and believe that the community and demographic here is open to trying new products, and curious about natural alternatives. Tell us about CBD and pet meds. Is it a controversial topic? What’s your take? What is your business doing along these lines? I don’t see it as controversial, but we are in the early stages of understanding CBD uses and effects, and it is important to source and use products from credible brands. We carry a range of CBD products in our store that I have carefully vetted. Our customers have seen dramatic results using CBD for everything from arthritis to anxiety. And finally, are you related to Emeril? We had to ask. I’m not!
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UNCTUOUS PILOT FEATURE
Students, councilors turn up heat over broken payment promises by nonprofits BY ZACK HUFFMAN On a cool, Friday afternoon in mid-October, about 100 elementary, middle, and high school students descended upon Northeastern University’s campus. The crowd, most of which was brought there by the St. Stephen’s Youth Programs, drew their ideal classrooms or schools in chalk and wrote notes to the Northeastern administration demanding that the university fulfill its decade-old promise to make payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) to the city. As a nonprofit institution of higher learning, Northeastern isn’t required to pay property taxes to Boston, which generates most of its revenue through property taxes. Because the university benefits from city-funded resources, like trash collection and the fire department, in 2012 the school agreed to make such payments, but has never fully paid the amount of its original promise. “It’s not confusing to young people,” Sarah O’Connor of St. Stephen’s said. “It’s unfair that wealthy institutions like Northeastern get to choose to not pay taxes.” The student-led direct action on campus was just the latest in a growing campaign to pressure major universities and nonprofits to honor their PILOT agreements. Northeastern is one of 23 schools, 16 medical institutions, and 10 cultural institutions that signed onto the city’s PILOT program in 2012. The agreement would be generating north of $50 million in annual revenue for the city, with an equal amount of community benefits if those institutions all lived up to their agreements, but at the end of Fiscal Year 2018 (June 30), the city had collected a mere $33.6 million. The universities, which account for over half of the PILOT pie, paid less than half of what the city requested. Medical institutions paid about 80 percent, while cultural institutions, which account for about 4 percent of the total, only paid about 25 percent of their overall pledge. All of which means less money for things like potholes, parks, and public schools. In their effort to shed light on this issue and spur change, the students from St. Stephen’s are working with the PILOT Action Group, which is a coalition of unions, housing and education activist groups, and faith-based organizations that was formed about a year ago to combat the deficiencies of Boston’s PILOT program. The coalition seeks to pressure nonprofits into paying their full share of the promised allotments while also seeking to push city leaders to do a better job of collecting and holding the payers accountable. “Our economy is totally an Eds and Meds economy,” said Enid Eckstein, while testifying before the City Council on behalf of the PILOT Action Group. “At the same time, it creates challenges for us, since these institutions do not pay property taxes.” Universities and the medical institutions are significant components of the Hub economy, to be sure, but both can cut into the city’s ability to generate tax revenue. Eckstein was just one of many representatives from various organizations who spoke before the City Council back in August at a hearing on the issue sponsored by councilors Annissa Essaibi-George and Lydia Edwards. Their goal: find more ways that the city can encourage compliance. For decades, nonprofits made individual agreements with the city regarding annual payments to offset their burdens on services. In 2010, then-Mayor Tom Menino appointed a task force, including representatives for both the city and the institutions, to organize a more official PILOT program. 10
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“We asked all of the nonprofits to come in and sit down and work with us over an 18-month period to develop a fair framework,” said Stephen Murphy, who represented the city on the task force as a city councilor. According to Murphy, the first step the city took in getting the nonprofits to the table was to have the assessor calculate how much the tax-exempt property would be valued as taxable. “We presented it to them and then we told them what their tax bill would be, and their eyes bugged out,” Murphy said. “It was like a telephone number, it was huge. Then, we began negotiating with them.” By the end of the 18-month process, each of the 49 organizations had agreed on a formula by which they would owe 25 percent of what their tax bill would be if they were not exempt. Half of that would be cash, while the other half would be in the form of community benefits. “The city is handcuffed by state tax code, because the only thing we can really guarantee is revenue from property taxes,” Murphy added. “We could fight the fight at the federal or state level to take away tax exemptions, but there’s no guarantee we could win that fight.” Each year, federal regulations mandate that the city must produce a comprehensive financial statement. According to the FY17 edition of that report, which was released last December, the entire value of taxable property in the city had reached $143.94 billion. Meanwhile, the city still uses FY10 values to calculate PILOT contributions; in FY10, taxable property in Boston was only valued at $87.25 Billion. Assessing the effectiveness of the city’s PILOT program since it was formalized in 2011 is tricky; for starters, the city has multiple sources for the accounting of PILOT, and they don’t match up. According to its FY17 financial statement, the city collected $80.5 million in PILOT, but according to a seperate PILOT report, Boston only received $32.4 million in cash payments and the equivalent of $52.2 million in community benefit credits. When contacted for clarification on why the payment-in-lieu-of-tax amount in the annual PILOT report doesn’t match the amount in the financial statement, a spokesperson from the mayor’s press office emailed a PDF of the FY18 PILOT report. As it turns out, from 2012 to 2017, the amount of uncollected PILOT funds jumped from about $2 million in 2012 to $17 million in 2017—partially due to the nonprofits having agreed to slowly increase the payments over a five-year span. “Every institution agreed that after five years they would get to the level where they needed to be,” Murphy said. The nonprofits agreed to this gradual increase, but failed to
keep up with it, resulting in the city losing out on an estimated $60 million over five years. What’s even murkier than the cash payments, it seems, are the community benefits. In FY18, 39 of the 49 nonprofits submitted community benefits reports—a record number following FY17’s 27 reports. Despite this, all 49 organizations claim the credit. In their reports, some organizations cite their offering the free use of facilities as a community benefit, while others—Boston College High School, for example— claim their community benefit is that the students who enroll in its private school are not burdening the coffers of Boston Public Schools. Other nonprofits in the program continue to charge the city for the use of their facilities for sports programs or graduations, which does not sit well with Councilor Essaibi-George. “Right now PILOT is out of date and we have not reassessed the property values in years,” Essaibi-George said. While the Council considers an update to the PILOT formula, the precedent shows that won’t likely be enough to motivate giant nonprofits to dig deep in their pockets. For that to happen, it will take a coalition of students and residents to pressure institutions to live up to their promise to support Boston beyond their tax-free buildings and campuses.
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THIS IS IT ANALYSIS
Your 2018 election guide, from the big federal picture to the ripple impact in Mass BY PATRICK COCHRAN
Anybody who felt sick to their stomach at this point in the 2016 election cycle ought to be purging their entire system through these dreary final days of 2018. Regardless of how bleak a view one may have held for this country circa 2015, the facade that began to fade with the emergence of Donald Trump has been shredded to bits as his minions, whether slimy opportunists or true believers, have busted through the gates and zeroed in on the incompetent opposition. Midterm elections are far more fascinating than general elections (and I find both fascinating, gross and depraved as they may be). Whereas the fight for the presidency usually forces both sides to refine their rhetoric a bit to promote something a little more palatable for the mainstream constituency that comes out just once every four years, it’s a different story in the off years. Historically speaking, smaller state and local elections are more likely to bring out a ravenous minority that votes for everything—from president to attorney general to dog catcher. While not exclusively, it’s a particularly prominent phenomenon on the right; conservative voters are generally more affluent than liberal voters, so they don’t face the same obstacles getting to the polls. Also, older voters tend to be more conservative and vote at a higher clip, while younger, more liberal voters tend to be more transient and lack the same material connection to their local government. Add that all together and it makes sense that the most recent midterms were defined by anti-Obama racism (2010) and anti-immigration xenophobia (2014). Politicians prop up the irrational fears of this small and fervent group, and they respond by electing or reelecting the politicians. And just when everything seems to be on the brink of collapse, when our government inched ever so close to being completely irredeemable, a presidential election would take place and reasonable minds would prevail. It was a dangerous formula, but one that seemed provide some sort of stability. Then 2016 happened, and that formula was tossed in a blender when Trump rolled down an escalator to proclaim that Mexicans were rapists to a paid group of “supporters.” And then won. On the somewhat bright side, this year hasn’t been entirely dystopian. For the first time in American history, a large swath of mainstream politicians have begun 12
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articulating real support for a nationalized healthcare system, and the top conservative argument against it is that such a program would destroy Medicare—the closest thing we have to a national healthcare program. Beyond electoral politics, teachers strikes across the country have shown not only the need for properly funding the most basic of educational systems, but also the universal value of organizing. In Boston, the City Council recently voted to back striking Marriott workers. Social Security, once a whipping post for both Republicans and conservative Democrats, has become a staple of more mainstream Dem campaigns and the foil to the GOP tax cuts. Notably, regardless of the eventual big-picture outcomes, it has become clear that at nearly every level, the number of women in government is primed to skyrocket (though still won’t hit 50 percent representation anytime soon). But for all the rays of hope provided by activists and grassroots campaigns, 2018 has stood out for the rash of awful actions spurring from a political system rotten to its core. At every corner, on a seemingly daily basis, politics promote and coddle violence, cruelty, intense voter suppression, sexual assault, racism, authoritarianism, nationalism, and jingoism—purely and unapologetically. It’s especially prevalent in places like Florida, where GOP gubernatorial nominee Ron DeSantis warned that his African-American opponent Andrew Gillum would “monkey this up,” or in Pennsylvania, where Republican House candidate Rick Saccone declared that liberals have a hatred for America and God. Of course, the darkest center of this season isn’t reserved for one batshit pol or region of the country. It’s easy to point to a Florida, or Montana, or Alabama, or rural Pennsylvania and think that the madness is at arm’s length—but it isn’t anymore, and probably has never been. Polls say that the madness won’t breach the gate in Mass, and so the Commonwealth has not received the same attention. But it’s here all the same, on the doorstep, waiting for a chance.
ON THE STRAIGHTAWAY Shortly after the September primary, US Sen.
Elizabeth Warren headlined a “unity” event in Cambridge with soon-to-be congresswoman-elect Ayanna Pressley, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Jay Gonzalez, and a large slate of other Dems who will appear on the Nov 6 ballot. “For almost two years now, the only thing the American people have gotten from Donald Trump and the Republicans is chaos, corruption, and hatefulness,” Warren said to a packed room at the Cambridge Community Center. “But listen up, Mr. President: Tick tock, tick tock.” Warren gestured to her watch as the crowd of a couple hundred or so supporters broke into a tick-tock chant. The Dems have been hosting events like this all around the Commonwealth since September, and if there’s anything that has truly unified the ticket, it’s been the campaign effort to frame Donald Trump as the real opponent in every race. “Why is [Gov. Charlie Baker] supporting Geoff Diehl?” Gonzalez said, referring to the GOP Senate nominee, a Trump ally. “By supporting Diehl, Baker is supporting Trump.” In Mass, the race for governor has been the one election where linking the GOP candidate to Trump has been slippery. When it comes to rhetoric, Baker has said the right things to appease the Bay State’s deep-blue constituency. On policy, he has picked his battles to come off as a moderate independent who can work with politicians on both sides of the aisle and fight for some liberal social issues. All while soft-pedaling his conservative colors on issues like charter schools and transportation privatization and ignoring the hard-right bigotry dominating the national party. But his independence has limits. Most recently, Baker’s decision to endorse the Republican ticket in Mass stands in opposition to his image as a moderate. Beyond Diehl, who chaired Trump’s presidential campaign in the Commonwealth, the GOP ticket includes attorney general candidate Jay McMahon, who promotes “extreme prosecution” for drug crimes and wants to target so-called sanctuary cities like Cambridge. “I said during the primary season that I would support the ticket because a lot of people were concerned in the party that I would play favorites,” Baker
said at a recent debate. Linking Baker to Trump has mostly failed, at least according to polls. But putting him on the spot for his blanket support of Diehl has yielded at least one significant moment in this campaign. At a WGBH debate in Brighton, Baker dodged some questions about his endorsement. Before the moderators could move on, Gonzalez jumped in. “One more question for him. Governor, are you going to vote for Geoff Diehl?” The pause was excruciating. Five long seconds passed before co-host Jim Braude jumped in. “Governor?” “I’m gonna vote for me,” Baker said. “I’m gonna vote for [Lt. Gov.] Karyn Polito. And I’m gonna, um, vote for a series of other candidates as well. I don’t know what I’m going to do yet with respect to that one.” Braude pushed, “You don’t know if you’re going to vote for the guy you endorsed?” To which Baker replied, “I haven’t made a decision.” Then in jumped Gonzalez: “So you’re asking people in Massachusetts to vote for Geoff Diehl, and you’re not even gonna vote for him?” “I said I was gonna support the ticket and I do,” Baker responded. “I’ll make my decision eventually and I’ll make sure people know.” After the debate, Baker clarified that he would, in fact, vote for Diehl. Diehl’s been easier for Dems to tie to Trump. Not only for the obvious reason that the state rep worked for the Trump campaign, but also because every candidate running in a Republican primary other than Baker had to spend months proving that they supported Trump to win the nomination. The perception of the “Massachusetts Republican”—socially liberal pro-Chamber of Commerce types—was shattered this year. Nothing more perfectly illustrated this shift than the Mass Republican Convention. Whereas in 2014, business-minded wonk Republicans and some Ron Paul libertarians gave speeches at the state GOP summit that focused on how Democrats can’t manage a budget, in 2018 they showed up at the DCU Center in Worcester with a new game plan, focusing on immigration and NFL players kneeling during the National Anthem. One shirt for sale implied that Colin Kaepernick is a traitor; another one read, “Never apologize for being a patriot” and featured a Revolution-era minuteman firing a modern assault rifle. At least two people wore stickers depicting Baker as a clown that read: “I’ll never vote for a cuck.” Diehl was the star of that convention. There was outrage when he failed to win the party’s endorsement on the first ballot, even though he won with ease on the second ballot and won the primary in a landslide. “I am not a Mitch McConnell Republican,” Diehl said. “I’m a Massachusetts Republican.” One interpretation of Diehl is that he’s an opportunist on the Trump train. A registered Democrat until 2009, Diehl was elected to the statehouse as a Republican in the 2010 Tea Party wave and rose to political prominence after leading the effort to repeal the state gas tax in 2014. Now, with the exception of a few tweaks to the GOP tax bill, Diehl has adopted the full hard-right platform. He touts his support of the controversial Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency; opposes Question 3, a transgender rights ballot initiative; and is a champion of Trump’s proposed wall along the Mexican border. Outside conservative circles, Diehl has failed to gain momentum. It was long expected that his campaign would get big-time cash for the sake of damaging Warren’s chances to run for president; Diehl’s loudest point of attack has been that Warren shouldn’t be re-elected because she is apparently mounting a 2020 presidential bid and won’t be devoted to the state. But as of last week, Diehl has less than $400,000 on hand to take on Warren’s multimillion-dollar reelection effort.
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DOWN BALLOT The major races in Mass offer little room for an upset. Polling has looked very good for the two incumbents, the most recent indicating that 30 percent of voters intend to split their ballot and reelect both Baker and Warren. But a look down the ballot shows potential for a much more competitive and consequential midterm election. Polling shows that at least one of the ballot initiatives is likely to be a close fight. Question 1, which would force hospitals to limit the amount of patients a nurse may be assigned to assist, would both provide for safer treatment and relief to overworked nurses. That race is in a dead heat, with the “no” campaign arguing that it would raise costs. (Another potential 2018 bright spot is the fact that questions 2 and 3, which seek to overturn Citizens United and protect transgender rights in Massachusetts, respectively, appear likely to win handily.) In the race for Suffolk County District Attorney, Rachael Rollins, who emerged victorious from a five-candidate Democratic primary, faces independent Michael Maloney. Considered the most progressive candidate in the primary, Rollins has since published a list of 15 petty offenses that she has vowed not to prosecute. The more conservative Maloney has referred to the list as “crazy.” North of Boston, Tram Nguyen has mounted a credible challenge to Rep. Jim Lyons (R-18th Essex), a fierce anti-choice conservative. “Jim Lyons is a Tea Party Republican who was the campaign chair of Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign in Massachusetts,” Nguyen told Patch. “His extreme views do not reflect the values of this community.” Come Election Day, we’ll know for sure.
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PHOTO BY MARC HURWITZ
LUCY’S AMERICAN TAVERN, DORCHESTER EATS
“Elevated comfort food” and a killer beer list right off I-93 BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON Restaurants and bars tend to be endlessly categorized to the point of causing people’s heads to spin, with a few you might hear including “places to eat near Fenway Park,” “Italian restaurants outside of the North End,” “cheap eats for college students,” “dark and dank neighborhood bars where no one knows your name,” “food court restaurants that aren’t horrible,” and so on. One lesser-mentioned category that actually is useful to commuters is “dining and drinking spots to hit when your commute is too hellish to continue.” A few friends and acquaintances have talked about this type of late, and one that seems to pop up on the radar is Lucy’s American Tavern in Dorchester’s Adams Village, perhaps because it’s about as “easy-on, easy-off” for drivers on the Southeast Expressway as you can get (not including chains, of course). Some recent visits to this cavernous place indicate that it is indeed a convenient spot to hit if you drive on this nightmare of a highway often, as it’s almost within walking distance of the Expressway (pro tip—don’t do that), has its own parking, and is rarely crowded on weekday evenings. So is it also a good establishment to go to in general, if you’re looking for maybe a Saturday night date spot or a place to watch a game on a lazy Sunday afternoon? Well, it depends, but for those who aren’t looking for the hottest spot in town or a high-end place to get a meal that you’ll remember for years, the answer is a definite “yes.” When you hear that a restaurant resides in a former Hollywood Video space, it might not inspire much
confidence, but while you might be disappointed if you’re expecting the place to look like Deuxave or Menton, Lucy’s is actually quite attractive in a rustic and simple kind of way, with nearly all aspects of the video store being scrubbed from the space. The interior is quite spacious with its high ceiling tending to absorb some of the noise, and when it isn’t filled to capacity, it can be downright quiet. A large wraparound bar sits in the middle of the room with the bar top being deep enough to make it pretty comfortable option for eating dinner, and one feature that’s noticeable to drivers in the warmer months is the long porch-like patio that runs along Granite Avenue. A parking lot mostly surrounds Lucy’s, and even though it is valet-only, it is a free service from the place, unlike so many other restaurants and bars—especially those closer to downtown Boston. The term “elevated comfort food” is used much too often these days, but it tends to fit Lucy’s pretty well; here you’ll find a mix of new American and classic American including pub grub, and the dishes tend to be scratch-made. Some of the highlights include outstanding wings that can be had with a Memphis dry rub; fried dill pickles that are guaranteed to ruin your appetite for an actual meal (hint—get these with a beer or two and call it dinner); spicy dips, including a buffalo dip and an artichoke/jalapeno dip; an old-fashioned macaroni and cheese with add-ons being a sweet-tasting pulled pork and smoky burnt ends; a huge portion of nachos with two cheeses, jalapenos, black bean and corn salsa, and Mexican crema, and with options for pulled
>> LUCY’S AMERICAN TAVERN. 13 GRANITE AVE., DORCHESTER. LUCYSAMERICANTAVERN.COM 14
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pork, burnt ends, and grilled chicken offered; woodgrilled steak tips with a “secret” marinade; a plate of fish and chips with a salt-and-malt vinegar potato chip batter; chicken and waffles with sweet potatoes used for the waffle fries; and a variety of burgers, including a salmon burger and, as hinted at above, some BBQ items that are cooked in Lucy’s smokers, including brisket, St. Louis ribs, and house-made chorizo. Beer lovers certainly have a reason to come to Lucy’s, as it offers some of the best that New England and the Northeast have to offer, with possibilities (depending on the season) being options from Fiddlehead, Lawson’s, SingleCut, and Maine Beer, while cocktails include a mix of retro and modern concoctions. Brunch is available on weekends, and a late-night menu features a limited list of pub grub and BBQ options. Lucy’s American Tavern might not blow you away with their food or drink, but there are some standouts among both—an order of wings or mac and cheese with a glass of Fiddlehead is tough to beat—and this place really isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel, instead simply being a comfortable neighborhood spot that also happens to be within shouting (and swearing) distance of the Expressway. If you ever find yourself going 1 MPH between Neponset Circle and East Milton Square and have decided that enough is enough, Lucy’s is there for you, offering up above-average sustenance in a relatively mellow and (depending on when you go) not overly loud space.
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BILLY DEAN THOMAS MUSIC
The Queer B.I.G. creates a night of American Gothic hip-hop BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN In 1930, famed painter Grant Wood would create arguably his most famous piece of work: American Gothic. When he trekked out to a small town in Iowa, he fell in love with a small white house, its curved windows and straight wooden planks built in the Carpenter Gothic architectural style. Wood imagined what type of people would live in the house. Almost immediately, he set to work painting them: a white, elderly farmer holding a pitchfork with a white, collared woman next to him, presumably his wife or daughter. Their lips are thin, their expressions grim, and the landscape dreary from the weather of work. Though the painting initially earned him a bronze medal and $300 cash prize from a competition at the Art Institute of Chicago, it’s since achieved iconic status, becoming one of the most familiar images in 20th-century American art. Yet as memorable as American Gothic is, the emotions it prompts come from a nearly completely fabricated background. The people weren’t farmers or even those who lived in the house. The house’s history went unexplored. And the small town in Iowa never got a chance to explain its contextual backstory. Wood combined personal imagination with limited public knowledge to generalize a Midwestern lifestyle and, in the process, simultaneously makes his lack of understanding of such apparent. That’s what makes American Gothic by Gordon Parks, the first well-known parody of Woods’ creation, feel twice as powerful in its imagery. In Washington, DC, in 1942, Parks created his own version of American Gothic: a black-and-white photograph of a black cleaning woman named Ella Watson standing before a draped American flag, a straw broom in her right hand and a mop leaning against the wall behind her left. It was a bitter slice of commentary on American racism; Parks went on to call his work “an indictment of America.” It exemplified the anger and dejection that stand in the wake of racism and the gutting betrayal of America’s so-called promise. Art history may have felt like it dragged on during your school days, but it’s one of the few subjects in the American school system that weds history with pop culture as vividly as it does. It documents its surroundings and then questions them. It uses a canvas to eventually double as a mirror. You’re left wondering not only why things got to the point they did, but how someone could let that happen—and what you would have done different. Art can impact you whether you expect it to or not. That’s exactly what happened with Boston-based rapper and composer Billy Dean Thomas when Gordon Parks’ version of American Gothic flashed before their eyes. “I was so inspired by this image of a black woman in front of an American flag with a broom and a mop in her hands,” says Thomas. “It stuck with me for years. It still does. And a few years back, I wanted to personify that woman, to write a song from her perspective.” Thomas went on to create that song, yes, but, over time, it fell into the cobwebs of a computer storage
system, sandwiched between faded song ideas and various unfinished lyrics. It wasn’t until Thomas, now 27 years old, stumbled across that ode in their iTunes library a few months ago that they came to a new realization by way of old inspiration. “We’re living in a time right now where a lot of these racial injustices are front and center,” says Thomas. “Feeling that discomfort of labor, to have a job where you’re doing more admin work and feeling exploited in a way using labor. So I wanted to bring that back, to specifically highlight what it means for me as an artist and a queer artist of color to personify that idea, of what it truly means to be an American Gothic. I wanted to create a big event that delves into all of that.” On Nov 2, Thomas is throwing a massive show at Oberon, aptly dubbed American Gothic. Joined by creatives like Anson Rap$ and Rilla Force, Thomas’ event will be a tour-de-force evening of live music, silent films, and storytelling, a dazzling culmination of Thomas’ talents to highlight the important, but dark, periods of their artistic journey as it relates to American history. And to top it all off, the audience is advised to arrive dressed in all black—which is how you know it’s going to be a party. This idea has been culminating for a year. In its early stages, Thomas just knew that they wanted to do a production with vocalists they love and new talented folks to work with. That idealized roster of collaborators took shape faster than expected thanks to a long list of nearby artists who had inspired Thomas in passing. The biggest component of American Gothic is the massive amount of new music. Over half of the event’s runtime will be taken up by new music, nearly all of which Thomas wrote and recorded over the past few months. While it’s true that older songs will pepper the set, like “Rocky Barboa” or “Jab,” Thomas tweaked them compositionally to carry a new vulnerability, giving those songs the feeling of something new. In addition to the live band that will back Thomas throughout the night, there will be a live quartet playing along to the visuals. Before these new songs took shape, Thomas needed inspiration. By digging into their background in filmmaking, Thomas was able to highlight the cinematic aspects in music by playing off specific images. A film shaped together from music videos, old and new, will tell the story at American Gothic. By music-directing their own videos, Thomas was able to better understand how to fit the vibe of the event and shape the songs to deepen it. Then, the material was passed off to videographer Malcolm Digital to paint special effects and darker images in the videos. Thomas calls them “video flips,” a play on the term of producers remixing tracks. The finished products will be projected behind Thomas while they perform. Given Thomas is nominated for Music Video of the Year at the Boston Music Awards this year, it’s no surprise they went all in creating the American Gothic short films. Ambitious dreams like these were always penned in
Thomas’ notebooks growing up. Seeing those dreams play out in real time, however, was always capped with a question mark. It wasn’t a lack of desire or determination that got in the way of Thomas creating more art early on in their career. It was a lack of representation, and American Gothic is a step forward to help fix that. “When I wrote the song “The Queer B.I.G.,” it was because [The Notorious B.I.G. and I] were both from NYC, he’s my favorite rapper, and we’re both heavier black folks who oppose the Western beauty standards of what people would like to see,” says Thomas. “I’m really into finding ways to have a space in popular culture, because there aren’t as many queer artists of color that—well, I don’t want to call myself plus-sized—aren’t skinny or appealing in the traditionally marketed sexual way. I connected to Biggie in that sense. I had confidence that you learn to place on yourself because society isn’t going to show you that support. I was practicing that self-love and confidence, and I felt like he had it and so did I. The only difference was that I was queer.” “I’m in the middle of some crazy growth spurt,” says Thomas. “I’m breaking out of every label I set on myself. I’m breaking out of every idea of what I thought I wanted. I love the big projections and the big showcases. But I’m really starting to understand that everything I thought I liked and wanted is shifting to the opposite direction. I’m finding beauty in the intimate and stripped-down approach, and how great that can be on its own.”
PHOTO BY BRANDON JOHNSON
>> AMERICAN GOTHIC: BILLY DEAN THOMAS AND FRIENDS.FRI 11.2. OBERON, 2 ARROW ST., CAMBRIDGE. 9:30PM/ALL AGES/$15. AMERICANREPERTORYTHEATER.ORG
MUSIC EVENTS THU 11.01
MATINEE EMO PARTY MOM JEANS. + JUST FRIENDS + AWAKEBUTSTILLINBED
[ONCE Somerville, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. 3pm/all ages/$15. oncesomerville.com]
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FRI 11.02
PSYCH ROCK FROM DOWN UNDER POND + JUAN WAUTERS
[Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston. 6pm/18+/$20. royaleboston.org]
DIGBOSTON.COM
SAT 11.03
DOOM METAL FOR FRIENDLY STONERS WINDHAND + SATAN’S SATYRS [Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston. 7pm/18+/$15. crossroadspresents.com]
MON 11.05
THE SELF-DECLARED GREATEST BAND IN THE WORLD TENACIOUS D + WYNCHESTER
[House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston. 7pm/all ages/$50. houseofblues.com]
MON 11.05
CAR WHEELS (STILL) ON A GRAVEL ROAD LUCINDA WILLIAMS AND HER BAND BUICK 6
[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Allston. 7pm/18+/$38.50. crossroadspresents.com]
TUE 11.06
DOSE YOUR POST-HARDCORE DREAMS FUCKED UP + CANDY + BAD WAITRESS
[Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston. 7pm/all ages/$17. crossroadspresents.com]
YOUNG JESUS WHEEL OF TUNES
Los Angeles emo act talks grandmother genes and Saganism BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN If you grew up in the Midwest but didn’t attach part of your identity to the everpresent crop of emo bands birthed there, congratulations! You’re in the minority. John Rossiter liked his fair share of sappy albums growing up, which explains why his band, Young Jesus, sounds like they do: a cross of the mopey Mineral, eager Christie Front Drive, and the looseness of Cap’n Jazz. Though Young Jesus is now based in Los Angeles, the band is churning out the type of downtrodden, slacker-style emo that one could expect to find in Omaha. That may explain why they were recently signed to Saddle Creek for their newest record, The Whole Thing Is Just There. Over the years since forming, the members of Young Jesus developed a mode of playing together that’s comfortable enough to push one another to reach their goals. When those goals aren’t met, they talk about it. They continue to grow together to build stronger roots because they know life is busy throwing wrenches into the timeline. Though this record marks the first time Young Jesus didn’t struggle to get through the songwriting process, it did find its frontman juggling bigger highs and lows than expected. “When [the signing] was happening, there was a lot happening in my life,” says Rossiter. “The deal happened right before we went on a tour we had planned and booked ourselves, the usual situation. It was pretty amazing. At the same time, my grandmother got really sick. So for the first five shows of the tour, Marcel [Borbon], Kern [Haug], and Eric [Shervrin] drove through Texas improvising for the first time while I went home to say goodbye to my grandma. That came through basically the day after she passed. I remember very vividly sitting in my parents’ front yard, hiding away from them because I was smoking and they don’t like that, just thinking about all of this. It was such a collision of joy and sadness and mourning. It was a beautiful thing because my grandma plays piano, sings at church, and has been so supportive of me playing. It’s a lineage I feel was passed down to me. So while my cousin had her new baby at the funeral, you realize these cycles are regenerative. It just keeps going.” To show the sunnier side of Young Jesus, we interviewed John Rossiter for a round of Wheel of Tunes, a series where we ask musicians questions inspired by their song titles. With The Whole Thing Is Just There as the prompt, his answers are honest and raw—traits that will appear in the band’s music when they play Great Scott this Saturday. 1. “Deterritory” If you could exile two states or regions of the US right now, which would you kick out and why? Oh man. That’s a… woof. You’ve got me in a bind. I have some thoughts and kneejerk reactions that I feel would be great to exile, but that would go against what I believe and what the band believes. You’re kinda stuck. You gotta work with the context that’s provided for you to exile anything out of your life. The thing is, it can reflect on your own self. You may want to exile part of yourself, but you can’t. There’s shitty and sticky things about all of us. It’s about incorporating it in ways that’s responsible and thoughtful other than trying to just never look at that part of yourself again. I’ve been in states that I never want to go back to, and in fact I recently passed through one of them, but we’re still going to go back. We’re going to give those states another chance. Because they should have opportunities to prove themselves, or to just be less PHOTO BY KELSEY HART racist and anti-Semitic than in the past. Read the rest of the article at Digboston.com >>IAN SWEET, YOUNG JESUS, SEAN HENRY. SAT 11.3. GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON. 6PM/18+/$13. GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM
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THEATER REVIEW PERFORMING ARTS
BY JILLIAN KRAVATZ @JILLIAN_KRAVATZ
PHOTO BY NILE SCOTT STUDIOS.
A SOARING FUN HOME AT SPEAKEASY STAGE
Based on the 2006 best-selling graphic memoir of the same title by Alison Bechdel, Fun Home recreates Bechdel’s childhood and adolescent memories: how she loved drawing and despised dresses, how she came out in college, and how, a few months after revealing her sexuality to her parents, her father killed himself by jumping in front of a truck at age 43. Written by Jeanine Tesori (music) and Lisa Kron (book and lyrics), Fun Home begins in the present, as 43-year-old Alison (Amy Jo Jackson) grapples anew with her father’s death and closeted homosexuality, searching for answers by drawing cartoons. As she picks up her pen, other characters burst onto the stage—her father, Bruce (Todd Yard), and a younger, 8-year-old version of herself (played by bright-eyed Marissa Simeqi)—as real-life animations
of her art. The show is complex, weaving in and out of time with three differently aged Alisons—young, college-aged, and adult—playing side-by-side. As the show flips from scene to scene, we forget whether we are watching Alison’s memories or seeing her transformation of them onto the page. The actors’ performance is a complicated fusion of the two. SpeakEasy’s production, directed by the company’s artistic director Paul Daigneault, navigates these switches flawlessly. By playing in the round, Daigneault lets the audience in on the characters’ secrets. We, like adult Alison, can peer over her younger self’s shoulders to peep at what she is drawing or writing. In one early scene we play the mirror, as Bruce peers into the darkened audience and adjusts his tie, regarding himself as “not too bad”—a small taste of the obsessive need to selfassess that his daughter takes after. In many ways, Fun Home is about the struggle to remember and express personal experiences. Alison is always stopping the action to try to caption it. She often falls short, announcing “Caption…” and throwing her hands up. How to capture her father—at once a husband and funeral home director who enjoys restoring old homes, and a closeted English teacher who lusts after and picks up young, underage boys? Where Jackson’s performance sometimes feels a bit tired—the repeated frustrations of the stuck memoirist— her younger counterparts shine. Simeqi’s performance as young Alison hits all the right notes—from attentionseeking, to playful, to curious and confused—and reaches its peak during “Ring of Keys,” her most demanding musical solo that describes the first time Alison saw a lesbian woman dressed not like other women, but as “an old-school butch.” Alison struggles, at first, to express what is so captivating about the woman. “I feel… I feel…”
she stammers. When words fail, she opts for description, cataloging the woman’s “lace-up boots,” “short hair,” and “ring of keys.” In the end, what young Alison sees is a reflection of herself in the woman, her first moment of self-identification with someone other than her father. The more self-conscious, college-aged “Al” is not so keen to align herself with other lesbians until she falls hard for a classmate, Joan (played by a funny, confident Desiré Graham). Ellie van Amerongen plays Al with a superbly intentional awkwardness that reeks of the indecisiveness, excitability, and independence of college. Her frustrations and joys are the most clearly rendered of the three Alisons. Yard, as Bruce Bechdel, has perhaps the most difficult character to portray. He must shift from cheerful to demanding, vain to vulnerable, persnickety to lustful in a beat. When he, like his daughter, fails to capture what he’s feeling, he leans on description, describing the house he is fixing up—how the light shines through the window, how he will make it look wonderful. Even if we don’t believe him, his daughter does. She works tirelessly for her art as he did for his house, and is left with it in the end. The set, designed by Cristina Todesco, is scant at first—some decorative gable trim hangs from the ceiling, a writing desk sits upstage, books loom on the back wall and, on the floor, several white rectangles outlined with chalk surround a central rug, dividing the stage into small sections. They look like blank cartoon cells, a nod to the musical’s source. In the end, the empty rectangles are all that remain. Alison goes back to the drawing board to piece it all together, and we are left to fill in the blank cells in with our own memory of the show: its spunky dance numbers, its joyful ballads, its complicated solos. Fun Home is about memory, and SpeakEasy’s graceful production is one that will linger with anyone who sees it, long after it closes its doors on Nov 11. FUN HOME. THROUGH 11.24 AT ROBERTS STUDIO THEATRE, STANFORD CALDERWOOD PAVILION, 527 TREMONT ST., BOSTON, MA. SPEAKEASYSTAGE.COM
MICHAEL GREIF, IN THE RING
The A-list director readies Man in the Ring at Huntington Theatre Company BY JUAN A. RAMIREZ @ITSNUMBERJUAN
For Michael Greif, it’s all about context. The fourtime Tony Award-nominated director behind shows like Rent and Dear Evan Hansen is no stranger to creating works that define generations, both onstage and off. In town working on Man in the Ring for the Huntington Theatre Company, Greif is once again looking to cultures past and present to tell the story of Emile Griffith, the late, bisexual boxer whose deadly blows sent a rival to his death after a 1964 match. “Every play is a part of its moment,” said Greif during a phone interview. “In many ways, you’re trying to illuminate the differences between how we look at things now and how we looked at them however many years ago.” Best known for his work on productions that capture the zeitgeist of their times, whether past (Grey Gardens) or contemporary (Next to Normal), Greif was drawn to the ways in which the play explores one man’s identity as it is shaped and defined by its surroundings. “Shows like Dear Evan Hansen and Rent were very much of their moments, and there were things in those exact cultural moments that informed those musicals,” Greif says. “In the case of this play, it moves through time,, so it’s been very interesting keeping an eye on how the mores of the time affect the characters and how they work in concert or in obligation to those
mores.” Written by Greif’s friend and collaborator, Pulitzer Prize-winner Michael Cristofer, Man in the Ring sees an aging Griffith, long retired from public life and ravaged by physical trauma from the head injuries that would later claim his life, reflecting upon his past. “The approximately 15 years he spent in the ring and the incredibly severe bashing he received in the early ’90s left with him real brain impairment,” Greif says, referring to a 1992 incident in which Griffith was beaten within an inch of his life while leaving a New York City gay bar. “What this play does is allow Emile, as a much older man, to look back on his life through some mental incapacitation.” Greif defers often to Cristofer’s words and intentions when discussing the play, a tendency that highlights what he believes is a director’s essential role as a link between script and audience. Though the work involves a celebrated public figure dealing with extreme circumstances, Greif holds that Cristofer’s play is a profoundly human story. “There’s a wonderful tension in the play between how Emile, as a character, sees himself in those time frames and how he is finally able to integrate a full picture of himself as a fighter, as a CaribbeanAmerican, as a gay man living with a partner,” Greif says. “He reconciles that he can be both a loving,
affectionate gay man and he can also be a hyper masculine boxer, someone capable of that kind of power and violence.” Themes of sociopersonal integration are central to most of the works Greif has directed, something of which he is keenly aware and seeks to incorporate into this most recent work, which highlights Griffith’s native Saint Thomas as a key figure in his life. “The plays I’ve had the greatest success with are plays about community,” Greif says. “There’s a lot of music and childhood chants from Saint Thomas that infiltrate this play.” Though there is no official word on whether Man in the Ring will have a life post-Huntington, as many of Greif’s regional and off-Broadway productions have, he notes the importance of mounting several productions of a work as instrumental for its development. “I think the art benefits from multiple productions,” Greif says. “The works get better and it gives the artists the opportunity to make them better. There’s a lot of different venues and opportunities for the works I choose, so there’s not just one goal. I would certainly love for this play to have more productions, though.”
>> MAN IN THE RING. THROUGH 12.22 AT CALDERWOOD PAVILION AT THE BCA. 527 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 18
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CYCLING FOR DUMMIES BOOKS
Daniel De Visé on his new book The Comeback BY JILLIAN KRAVATZ @JILLIAN_KRAVATZ
The Sox have done it again this week, winning the fourth World Series in 15 years. You can’t walk down the street without seeing a proud fan sauntering with a Red Sox cap cocked on their head. A little over a hundred years ago, though, baseball wasn’t the biggest sport in town, journalist Daniel de Visé told DigBoston. It was cycling. De Visé is the author of a new book on American cycling called The Comeback: Greg LeMond, the True King of American Cycling, and a Legendary Tour de France. His book chronicles the ups and downs of LeMond’s cycling career—from his humble California beginnings, to becoming the first American to win the Tour de France, to his remarkable recovery from a near-fatal hunting accident to win the tour again. De Visé is coming to Boston to talk about his book at Trident Booksellers and Cafe on Sunday, Nov 4. DigBoston talked to him about his book, cycling in Boston, and how cycling makes for thrilling reading even when it’s boring on TV.
motivated the organization of your book?
I wanted the book to be not just understandable but potentially gripping to somebody who wasn’t necessarily into cycling. I wanted to set out all the terms of cycling to someone who might not know them. Over the course of the book, I break away from my narrative to describe the history of cycling and to describe the weird, bizarre spectacular that is the Tour de France. I wanted to highlight the fact that in Boston in 1905, say, bicycle racing was a lot more popular than baseball. You note the first recorded bicycle race in the United States was held on May 24, 1878, in Beacon Park here in Boston. What is the history of the sport here?
A lot of the first activity in bicycle racing was in that part of the country. A Bostonian named Frank Weston founded the American Bicycling Journal in 1877. The next year saw the founding of the nation’s first bicycle club, the Boston Bicycle
In the author’s note, you recall the moment you had the idea to write the book as a “jolt” when you realized the 1989 Tour de France was perfect for a book as a “great forgotten story.”
Greg LeMond’s victory by eight seconds that year was the greatest bicycle race of them all, but I think it’s not just a great cycling story. I think it’s actually one of the all-time greatest narrative sports stories in any athletic endeavor. It’s not just one comeback. Really it’s multiple comebacks. The first is how Greg survives sexual abuse as a young man. Riding hundreds and hundreds of miles on his bike helped him overcome that pain and shame. Then he goes to Europe, and he’s almost the first American to go there and rise to the top, and becomes the first American to win the Tour de France. All of Europe was against him. The third was when he gets shot in a hunting accident—almost dies—and has to recover. Then, after Greg retires, he has this terrible faceoff with Lance Armstrong for many years. LeMond is the first to question whether Armstrong was for real.
Club. Massachusetts winds up being a particularly hospitable place for Major Taylor, the first AfricanAmerican world champion in cycling and really in any sport. He was based out of Massachusetts because it was the only state where he was allowed to participate in racing. After bicycling faded as a US sport, Boston and Massachusetts remained vital to the racing network that remained, much of it concentrated in the Northeast. The Tour of Somerville, run since 1940, is the oldest continuous bicycle competition in the country. If cycling isn’t big in this country anymore, books about it certainly aren’t. Where does your book fit in?
In Europe, in France, England, Ireland, Holland, Germany—there is a large body of nostalgic literature about cycling. In this country there’s no such thing. Most of the cycling books you find in bookstores are like Wheelman, they are scandal books about doping. I’m pretty sure this book is the only one that is a nostalgic book about cycling. I wrote it to be something that would celebrate cycling and provide some uplift to those who feel kind of bitter about what cycling has become. The bigger ambition of my book was to try to write a work of narrative nonfiction that reads like a novel. I aspired to make this read like Seabiscuit, Moneyball, or The Boys in the Boat. All of these books broke out of their niche genre and people who didn’t necessarily know much about the sport still read it. Likewise, I want people who aren’t even cyclists to think it’s just a good read. You mention loving cycling in the authors note—“the hypnotic rhythm, the bucolic scenery, and the rush of accomplishment that came after a long ride” (pg. 329). How does writing a book about cycling compare?
I’m now, more than ever, convinced that bicycle racing is a great sport to read about. Watching it can be challenging. When you watch the Tour de France, it’s almost more like watching French scenery for a while. The action often comes in the last 10 minutes. Ninety percent is just guys riding their bikes around. It’s really cool to read about bicycle racing, though. If you write it up you can harness all the drama and suspense. It’s better than just sitting and watching for five hours.
You begin the book with a dramatic retelling of the final time trial that would determine the champion of the 1989 Tour de France between LeMond and Laurent Fignon. Then you leave us hanging and dive into the details of LeMond’s family. Ten pages later, you take us to an athlete’s banquet in 1927 New York. What >> THE COMEBACK. SUN 11.4, 7PM. TRIDENT BOOKSELLERS & CAFE, 338 NEWBURY ST., BOSTON. TRIDENTBOOKSCAFE.COM NEWS TO US
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MELT WITH YOU FILM
The latest midnight program at the Coolidge is all about liquefaction BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN
The ever-reliable web resource Wikipedia credits the Now, one can obviously find examples of “special about the Coolidge lineup. Four of the six films decisively coinage of the oft-used phrase “body horror” to a 1983 effects shots where human bodies seem to melt” that belong to the melt film category, if one accepts such essay written by the Australian-born artist/academic date from long before this subgenre was codified (with a thing: Incredible Melting Man is about a man who is Philip Brophy, titled “Horrorality: The Texture of the examples ranging at least as far back as Il Caso Valdemar exposed to Saturn’s atmosphere and returns to Earth Contemporary Horror Movie.” Said essay draws a line [1936] and, yes, The Wizard of Oz [1939]). But with where he murders people while dripping to pieces; Body connecting a series of films made between Night of the regards to the establishment of the melt film as a horror Melt (Saturday, Nov 3) is about a community outside Living Dead [1968] and the then-present, with specific concept, credit really may belong to the aforementioned Melbourne that unknowingly becomes the test grounds attention paid to the work being done by horror-specific Incredible Melting Man—which is the earliest film in the for a new dietary supplement that immediately causes auteurs including George A. Romero, Dario Argento, Coolidge program and the very first one they’re showing just about everybody to die in violent manners including, Wes Craven, David Cronenberg, and John Carpenter. The (Friday, Nov 2 at 11:59 pm)—as it establishes a number yes, death by liquefaction; The Stuff (Friday, Nov 16) piece goes on to identify a number of commonalities of standards that recur through pretty much every features characters being chomped down to dead skin shared between the films made by those artists and their comparable film produced afterwards. An occasionally husks from the inside after they’ve eating a deadly treat peers, chief among them being an interest in depicting comedic exploitation movie carried almost entirely by sold as dessert; and Street Trash (Saturday, Nov 17) has a “the destruction of the body”—and indeed, just a the effectiveness of its special effects, the film (which scenario involving a group of homeless people falling few paragraphs later, Brophy does make use of that is credited to writer/directed William Sachs but was victim to gone-bad booze that transforms them into aforementioned phrase, noting that “The Thing [1982] partially reshot and completely re-edited without his piles of malformed human goop. The remaining two took to its logical limit the Body-horror that was initiated input) tracks a radioactive astronaut who stalks his features are outliers, distant cousins more so than fullin Alien [1979] with that infamous scene where the alien victims slasher style, chasing them from frame to frame fledged family members: As many of you surely already bursts out of a crew member’s stomach”. until they each meet a uniquely gory end. know, The Fly (Friday, Nov 9) is a mad-doctor bodyIn writing about movies I’ve never had much use There’s not much here in the way of artistry, except transformation movie, and The Thing (Saturday Nov 10) is for the phrase “body horror,” for pretty much the same for the makeup and effects work done by the legendary an alien-invasion body-transformation movie. reason I don’t have much use for the word “noir.” The Rick Baker, which just drips with it. His melting man But I’m glad they’re here, because for me terms describe general ideas, modes, tones, aesthetics, looks like a zombie from a Fulci or Romero film, but one Cronenberg’s Fly and Carpenter’s Thing are two of or even a set of recurring interests, depending on the that’s decomposing in fast motion as opposed to slow, a the greatest English-language movies about the specific film in question, but don’t so much describe layer of skin peeling off his feet with each step taken, a decomposition of the human body—Brophy’s essay, genre or subgenre. “Noir” might refer to a crime story, portion of his face glopping away with each new closeto wit, goes on to connect the depiction of flesh in The or a tragic romance film, or a detective mystery, or an up. The movie does fail to offer much beyond Baker’s Thing with depictions of the same in Stan Brakhage’s action-oriented potboiler, or even certain kinds of horror contributions. But, well, you know—does it really need autopsy film The Act of Seeing With One’s Own Eyes [1971]. movies. And “body horror,” in turn, can be applied to to? The monster’s gelatinous, corpse-adjacent look is And within the context of studio cinema, Fly and Thing innumerable subgenres of the horror film, sitting right entrancing, an image in constant (grotesque) motion, are bafflingly scarring pictures, each drawing singularly in the center of their collective Venn diagram. In my and the general visual idea of it recurs in most other disquieting images from relatively simple narratives estimation Brophy’s essay suggests that body horror examples of the subgenre that one might find. The about bodies going through changes that are both films are primarily defined by their blunt onscreen Incredible Melting Man’s poster even advertised the title inevitable and unknowable (a description one could depictions of the human body as it is being harmed, character as if he were the successor to the Universal just as easily apply to death itself). I can’t help but think damaged, mutilated, or altered, either by others or by Studios horror legends of yore, with a tagline promising such fears and concerns are about as close to “universal” oneself—“the contemporary horror film tends to play “The First New Horror Creature.” And one might even as such things can get, just as I can’t help thinking that not so much on the broad fear of death,” he writes, “but say that Sachs’ film delivered on its posters’ carnieriffic The Fly, and The Thing, and most of these melt movies, more precisely on the fear of one’s own body, of how one promise. even at their worst, find a uniquely cinematic way to controls and relates to it.” Since I’m being rather strict about genre represent that very idea. Like a radioactive astronaut’s This exact quality can, of course, be found across specifications, it seems necessary to note one thing flesh melting onto an open field, they leave a mark. the spectrum of horror movies, with examples readily available in just about every imaginable subgenre, including, for instance, in slasher movies (Halloween [1978]), alien movies (The Thing), zombie movies (Night of the Living Dead), transformation movies (An American Werewolf in London [1981]), and certainly in “melt movies”—that last one being the subject of the latest Coolidge After Midnight repertory program, which is titled “Midnight Meltdown” and runs for the next couple weeks. The melt film catalog, so much as there is one, is drawn from a series of exploitation movies produced between the late ’70s and the early ’90s, many of which follow characters who have become infected by or exposed to something that causes their entire body to literally melt into a lifeless, gooey liquid. The Coolidge program will include six features that fit that bill to varying degrees: The Incredible Melting Man [1977], The Thing, The Stuff [1985], The Fly [1986], Street Trash [1987], and finally Body STILL FROM THE INCREDIBLE MELTING MAN. Melt [1993], which is written and directed by none other than Philip Brophy. >> “MIDNIGHT MELTDOWN” REPERTORY PROGRAM AT THE COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, FRIDAYS AND SATURDAYS AT 11:59PM FROM 11.2–11.17. 290 HARVARD ST., BROOKLINE. INDIVIDUAL TICKETS $12.75. ALL SHOWS 35MM. 20
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Curtis Williams focuses on liberating art in Dot group show BY WALDELL GOODE
Photo: Alicia ayo Ohs in NERVOUS/SYSTEM. Credit: Andrew Schneider.
THE LIGHT OF MIDNIGHT FUNK ARTS REVIEW
LEFT TO RIGHT - SAGIE VANGELINA, MATTAYA FITTS, CURTIS WILLIAMS, RIXY FZ
Curtis Williams is Black, independent, and illustrating with a fiercely uninhibited nonconformist mentality. I was eager to join him at the Dorchester Art Project this month for a community show featuring him and other local African-American artists. Born in 1992, Williams said, “I’ve always been a creator,” and has been excited to focus on work that is liberating for a change. “I did a show at Converse [headquarters] for their diversity network a few months back,” Williams told DigBoston. “It was cool, but I really feel like it was a springboard into other ideas. Now I don’t do too many murals, and that’s just really about adding more space to adjust yourself.” Moving around the space, the artist tagged his trademark “Curtistic” signature in the corners of the showcase walls. Williams moved swiftly and evenly, appearing in the places where complexity required him to be. Creative moments aside, there was a tangible reality in play as well. Altering the straps of his bespeckled overalls, Williams smirked and said, “My uncle’s coming tomorrow.” The product of a law enforcement family in Florida, I wondered how his relatives viewed his professional pursuits, unconventional as they are. “You know how it is,” said Williams. “My family was never real negative, but they wanted me to keep realistic expectations about my future. It took some convincing, but now they have some sense of what I do, and the main thing for both of us is that I am able to take care of myself as a man. They understand how seriously I take opportunities like this, and do what they can to support it.” For this opening of Midnight Funk, a “contemporary and street art group show” packing “a collection that fuses dynamic visuals of a dope group of emerging artists,” the venue in Fields Corner attracted a millennial crowd filled with people of color—other than the bartender, Williams’ aunt and uncle were the only other faces I spotted that were noticeably white—with many who were already familiar with each other from some art scene or another. Shades of beauty filled various nooks, interlocking hues connecting and disproving monolithic misconceptions of the African-American experience in Boston. One of the standout Williams abstractions, beside an entryway, caused some congestion, as clumps of people gathered to discuss its intent. Haiku, a 22-year-old poet, said, “It feels like freedom. I like how unrefined this all is. It gives you the nerve to feel something, but I don’t feel like I’m being spoon-fed a proselytize narrative.” A couple hours into the show, Williams stood in front of said verbally lauded piece as people walked past, taking photos of the craftsman and the work. Through it all, Williams kept the installation running, at one point walking into a back room, emerging with a ladder, and modifying the surrounding lights. From on high, the artist looked more like a handyman. He shrugged, sighed, and said, “This is my life,” before descending to check out the lighting himself. Williams’ talent was on full display all night. Properly illuminated, it was that much easier to recognize.
NERVOUS/SYSTEM
By Andrew Schneider & Company November 9-11, 2018 performing.mit.edu
This product contains zero THC
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FLOORED SAVAGE LOVE
THU 11.01 - SAT 11.03
BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET I’m a 40-year-old married straight woman. I gave birth to our first kid in 2015 and our second earlier this year. My perineum tore and was stitched both times. I have not been able to have sex with penetration since having our second child. My OB/GYN said I’m “a little tighter now” due to the way the stitching was performed. My husband is very well endowed and I can’t imagine how on earth I’m ever going to get that thing back in me, let alone enjoy it. We have a history of pretty hot sex and I really miss it. I’ve been searching online for some sex toys to help me. I’ve never used sex toys before. I’ve always been able to have thrilling orgasms easily without any devices. I still can with manual stimulation. But I want to have sex with my husband. I’m confused and I just don’t know what I need to help me open back up and get through the pain. Please help! Thanks In Advance “Unfortunately, this situation is very common—but luckily there are options to help her get her groove back,” said Dr. Rachel Gelman, a pelvic floor physical therapist at the Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center (pelvicpainrehab.com). Also sadly common: OB/GYNs shrugging off concerns like yours, TIA. “I see that all the time,” said Dr. Gelman. “Part of the problem is that the pelvic floor/muscles aren’t on most doctor’s radar. That’s due to many factors—cough, cough, insurance companies, cough, our dysfunctional health care system, cough—but to water it down, it’s the OB/GYN’s job to get someone through pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby. And when that’s accomplished, the feeling is their job is done.” But so long as you’re not able to have and enjoy PIV sex with your hung husband, TIA, there’s still work to do. “TIA needs to see a pelvic floor physical therapist,” said Dr. Gelman. “A good PT would be able to assess and treat any pelvic floor dysfunction, which is often the primary cause or a contributing factor for anyone experiencing pain with sex, especially after childbirth.” At this point Dr. Gelman began to explain that pushing a living, breathing, screaming human being out of your body is an intense experience and I explained to Dr. Gelman that I’ve had to push a few living, breathing, screaming human beings out of my body, thank you very much. Dr. Gelman clarified that she was talking about “the trauma of labor and delivery,” something with which I have no experience. “Labor and delivery can have a significant impact on the pelvic floor muscles which can cause a myriad of symptoms,” said Dr. Gelman. Pain during PIV sex sits high on the list of those symptoms. “The fact that TIA had tearing with the deliveries means she most likely has scar tissue, and a PT would again be able to treat the scar to help decrease any hypomobility and hypersensitivity,” said Dr. Gelman. “A pelvic floor specialist can also instruct her in a home program which may include stretches, relaxation techniques, and dilators—dilators are graduated cylinders that are inserted vaginally to help stretch the vaginal opening and promote relaxation of the pelvic floor.” A set of “graduated cylinders” is essentially “a bouquet of dildos,” TIA. You start with the smallest dilator/dildo, inserting it every day until you can insert it without any pain or discomfort, and then you “graduate” (nudge, nudge) to the next “cylinder” (wink, wink). You can order a set of dilators online, TIA, but Dr. Gelman wants you to find a doc that specializes in sexual medicine first. “There are some good medical associations that she can check out for resources and to help locate a provider in her area,” said Dr. Gelman. “The websites of the International Society for the Study of Women’s Sexual Health (ISSWSH), the International Society for Sexual Medicine (ISSM) and the International Pelvic Pain Society (IPPS) are where she should start.” Follow Dr. Gelman on Instagram, @pelvichealthsf.
TOM GREEN @ LAUGH BOSTON
You know Tom Green from his innovative, anything-goes run as the most unpredictable personality on MTV, and his unforgettable, deliciously loony roles in uproarious film comedies including “Road Trip” and “Freddy Got Fingered”. But that was just the beginning. The multi-talented Canadian comedian, actor and broadcaster graced the cover of Rolling Stone, commandeered the coveted guest-host chair on “The Late Show with David Letter”, and conquered the World Wide Web.
425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | VARIOUS | $25-$29 FRI 11.02 - SAT 11.03
PATRICK GARRITY @ NICK’S COMEDY STOP
After starting comedy at an early age Patrick Garrity has developed into one of the hardest working comics in the business. He’s been on his never ending tour since 2010. He tours the country nonstop, with no actual residence, in his car that he let’s people sign after the show. Come check out one of the funniest comics you’ve never heard of.
100 WARRENTON ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $20 SAT 11.03
THE MENDOZA LINE @ THE DUGOUT CAFE
Featuring: Zach Armentrout, John Baglio, Katie Que, & more.
15 WARD ST., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $5 SUN 11.04
LIQUID COURAGE COMEDY @ SLUMBREW
Featuring: Ethan Diamond, Liam McGurk, Brett Johnson, Doug Fitzgerald, Erin Spencer, Jonathan Tillson, James Creelman, & Mike Settlow. Hosted by Janet McNamara
15 WARD ST., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $5 MON 11.05 - TUE 11.06
MCGREEVY’S COMEDY @ MCGREEVY’S BOSTON Hosted by Brian Higgenbottom
911 BOYLSTON ST., BOSTON | 8PM | FREE WED 11.07
LIMELIGHT COMEDY CLUB
Hosted by Vally D. and Elisha Seigel
204 TREMONT ST, BOSTON | 7:30PM | FREE
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… RUTHERFORD BY DON KUSS DONKUSS@DIGBOSTON.COM
On the Lovecast, Is there a urologist in the house? Yes, yes there is: savagelovecast.com
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