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SOMERVALHALLA VIKING FEAST TURNS NINE TALKING JOINTS MEMO: SPECIAL EXCERPT - A WOMAN’S GUIDE TO WEED
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BOWERY BOSTON WWW.BOWERYBOSTON.COM VOL 21 + ISSUE 03
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ON THE COVER AN EARLY VIKING COSPLAY GOD POSES AT PINGVELLIR, ICELAND CIRCA 1930. PHOTOGRAPH BY BERIT WALLENBERG. READ OUR ARTICLE ON VALHALLA IN THIS WEEK’S FEATURE SECTION.
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ROYALE
DEAR READER
SHARON VAN ETTEN
THE BOOK WAS BETTER
Of the couple of choice nonfiction numbers I was able to enjoy in print last year on the extremely rare occasions that there was enough space in my train car to hold a book six inches in front of my face without running the risk of breaking somebody’s nose when the medieval brakes inevitably stop short, none intrigued me quite as much as Walls by Eastern Connecticut State University prof David Frye. Subtitled “A History of Civilization in Blood and Brick,” it’s far less sleazy in a Holy shit this just happened like seven months ago contemporary sense than, say, the more colorful tours of President Donald Trump’s closets of barbecued skeletons. It’s the book’s subtlety, however, that drew me in. While I thoroughly appreciated shocking probes like Russian Roulette by David Corn and Michael Isikoff, Walls is like a background primer on a hundred other crackpots from the boldest empires of their day who were every bit as arrogant, dimwitted, and delusional as Donald. I appreciate that virtually any novel, show, or movie these days with a dangerous spoiled brat antagonist seems like an allegory exploring the horrifying situation at hand, but Frye’s work is miles more satisfying in that he didn’t intend or go out of his way to paint history’s unhinged tyrants with a knee-length hemorrhoid-colored necktie and a merkin combover by Frito-Lay. It just so happened that his subjects are essentially all Trump in some way or another. Here’s Frye writing about the imperfect but iconic Chinese leader who called for the first wall in that region: Having ruthlessly put down his domestic rivals, the First Emperor (r. 220-210 BC) turned to the problem of the steppe [unsettled frontier]. … It would appear merely that … commanding more workers than soldiers … [he] elected to overwhelm with productivity that which he could not defeat militarily. Wait, there’s more: It is said that [the First Emperor] ordered [the Long Wall] constructed after hearing a prophecy that his kingdom would be destroyed by northern barbarians. Simply swap out “First Emperor” for “Trump,” “a prophecy” for “Hannity,” and “northern barbarians” for “Central Americans,” and you basically have the president’s televised speech from last week. That’s no coincidence; as Frye illustrates with a small pinch of snark in tale upon tale of conquest and destruction, paranoid executives have spent the past several thousand years erecting walls to keep out populations that they feared to varying degrees of rationality. Apparently, that hasn’t changed despite us living in a world where any number of nations, even minor ones, have crafts and computers that can connect directly with our airports, infrastructure, clouds, and routers. Trump does make an appearance toward the end, as do his his predecessors in office who, as Frye describes, “had built miles of concrete walls, corrugated steel walls, and flat steel walls along the Mexican border,” but unlike the current POTUS were “always careful to refer to all barriers as ‘fences’.” Otherwise, the author doesn’t dwell on doofus too much, other than to comment on how ignorant pols generally are about wall-building elsewhere. “[US] Senators,” Frye notes without any trace of a partisan bone in his entire body, “scoffed authoritatively at the notion that the United States could ever accomplish what Saudi Arabia had done in less than a decade.” I’m sure Trump, on the other hand, knows all about Saudi’s fortifications, perhaps from communications with his family’s pals in power there. Awful as those royal oil assholes are, if the president is going to rub elbows with them anyway, it would be somewhat reassuring to learn that he finally quit looking to Tom Cruise dramas and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure for relevant history, and instead picked up a couple of books like Walls for a change. CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Need more Dig? Sign up for the Daily Dig @ tiny.cc/DailyDig
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ONLY TIME AND TAPE WILL TELL NEWS TO US
Will New Bedford finally find out what happened to Malcolm Gracia? BY EOIN HIGGINS @EOINHIGGINS_ Malcolm Gracia was 15 years old when he was shot and killed by New Bedford police Detectives Paul Fonseca and Trevor Sylvia on May 17, 2012. The teenager was shot four times: thrice in the back and once in the side of the head. The shooting took place at the Temple Landing apartments, an affordable housing complex in the city. While the events were caught on tape at the apartments, the hard drive from 16 cameras at Temple Landing was erased by state troopers on orders from the Bristol County DA’s office, leaving only one copy of the video—in the hands of the prosecutors. Fighting for access to that tape has been the singular focus of attorney Don Brisson, who is representing Gracia’s family in a lawsuit against the city. The video evidence was held by prosecutors until last month, when Brisson was finally able to force prosecutors to turn over the tape. Due to a gag order, Brisson may not publicly share or reveal the contents. But as the family’s lawsuit against the city and police department proceeds through the courts, the truth about Gracia’s shooting may come to light. Brisson told BINJ that he was extremely limited in what he could discuss about the case, though he was able to say that he received the tape on Dec 17. “At first, the defendant denied its existence,” said Brisson. “Today, we have the tape.” Events leading up to the killing are still murky. What’s undisputed is that Gracia and some friends were hanging out by the basketball courts at Temple Landing. Police officers, acting as part of the department’s “meet and greet” program, New Bedford’s name for “stop and frisk,” were surveilling the courts when they saw what officers 4
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described in the police report as an “elaborate handshake” between Gracia and another teen. Police wanted to identify Gracia. When police approached the group, Gracia began walking away. Police pursued him, there was a struggle, and Gracia was shot three times in the back and once in the side of the head. The department cleared its officers of wrongdoing after an internal investigation. Beyond that, it’s impossible for the public to know exactly what happened, which is why Brisson hopes the tape will be released to the public and the gag order be lifted. Immediately after the shooting, police portrayed the incident as the result of an attack on officers by Gracia. Describing the teenager as “an imminent and deadly threat,” cops told local media that Gracia attacked officers with a large knife that had a hooked end to it. It was a struggle for life or death, according to police, and Gracia allegedly managed to seriously wound one officer, Detective Tyson Barnes. Evidence unearthed by local activists, however, indicates that the wounds were superficial—one small abrasion, hardly the “serious knife wounds” described by police to local media. Since then, authorities have buttoned up and claim that litigation precludes them from making the same statements to the press and public they did while the case was open. “What is so frustrating is that the defendants—the city of New Bedford, the chief, and the officers, when this all happened the DA, city, and mayor had no problem talking
about Malcolm’s personal problems, his family’s personal issues,” said Brisson. “They put it all out there. But now that we have the truth about Barnes’ injuries, they don’t want to share any more information publicly.” Further, said Brisson, though he can’t talk about the content of the tape, the tape’s existence has changed the police’s original tactic from six years ago—attacking Gracia’s character. The city and police fed local media background information on Gracia and his criminal record, attacked the family by bringing up Gracia’s father (who was himself shot and killed by police only a year earlier), and bemoaned the extent of Barnes’s injuries. The police version of the story is reminiscent of how departments have justified killing black men for decades: impossibly strong, huge, and dangerous black men attacking poor defenseless police officers. Until the Black Lives Matter movement became a major civil rights struggle, police departments across the country were able to use narratives that made their victims the aggressors, oftentimes with the cooperation of local media. But now some cases, like Gracia’s shooting from six years ago, are receiving fresh scrutiny. “The narrative is out there, but it’s not the truth,” said Brisson. “That’s very frustrating to me.” This article was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. For more reporting like this check out binjonline.org, and to help support more journalism like this visit givetobinj.org.
RICARDO ARROYO INTERVIEW
The Boston City Council candidate on cannabis legalization and safe injection sites
SAVE THE DATE 2019 Winter Gateway Speaker
BY MIKE CRAWFORD @MIKECANNBOSTON
APRIL RYAN
You already recognize the name, Arroyo. That’s probably because Ricardo’s father, Felix D. Arroyo, was the first Latino elected to the Boston City Council, on which Ricardo’s older brother, Felix G. Arroyo, subsequently served. With him becoming the latest Arroyo to run for a seat, I interviewed the 31-year-old Ricardo on my Disrupt Boston radio show, The Young Jurks, about everything from his background and family—outside of the immediate political arena, Arroyo’s mother and sister are BPS educators—to cannabis and music (it’s worth noting that unlike the incumbent District 5 councilor he’s running against, Tim McCarthy, Arroyo supported the 2016 legalization initiative). Here’s what Ricardo, who until his campaign announcement was employed as a public defender for the Committee for Public Counsel Services, has to say about his inspiration and candidacy. On why he’s running: The job I had as a public defender, for me, it was a calling. … Being a public defender is so much of why I’m running. In the work that I did, we were dealing with the vast majority of clients having mental illness, dealing with addiction, with housing instability, and sometimes all three. And people who are generally not receiving the services they need. One of the things I loved about the job is we didn’t have to try to figure out where our next check was coming from—we were salaried, so I could help beyond the criminal cases, to help [people] with housing and getting treatment. Doing that work, I would find the system could make a difference in their lives. I would make this impact on an individual basis … but every day at court there were new people showing up, everyday there is somebody else there, so I could help one person, but I couldn’t resolve the greater issues that are bringing people there— not without stepping outside of that role. On whether Boston should return to an elected school committee: I think it’s a question about process. There’s a sense from the community that the process is not adequately involving them. The question of how that should happen, whether it’s a hybrid, elected, or if it stays appointed, requires study. The concern I have is with other city- and town-elected school committees, they have become politicized by charter school advocates. I certainly think you don’t decide this without taking the community response into account. I’m open to an elected or hybrid, it depends on the community sentiment on it. I believe that the stakeholders should have a transparent process, they should never feel like things are happening and they don’t know why. So the question is: How do we involve them in the process, how do we do a better job of that? On recreational cannabis dispensaries in the city of Boston: I really want these dispensaries to involve the community, the folks that were most harmed by the drug war. For me that is a sticking point. I want people of color and those from our neighborhoods involved in this. I voted yes on legalization. As a public defender, I saw the effects of criminalizing marijuana. I had cases where we had folks serving time because they couldn’t afford bail for distribution of marijuana, just wrecking lives, because it doesn’t take a long time for you to be incarcerated before you lose your job, before you lose your car. The arrest and incarceration has a real destabilizing impact on anybody’s life, so when it came up as an opportunity to legalize it, it was a yes for me. And I’m happy to be on the record as a yes for legalization. On safe injection sites in Boston: There has been research that shows it reduces overdoses, and there’s also a component in there that helps folks get treatment. I do believe in safe injection sites; I think there has to be work or study done on where it makes the most sense for these sites to be, so they are the most effective for the community, but I am for safe injection sites. As a public defender who has lost clients to drug overdoses, I’ve seen families affected by this. I want to go as aggressively as possible. I support anything that can save lives. Anything that saves lives is worth exploring and worth doing. Mike Crawford is the host and founder of Disrupt Boston’s The Young Jurks radio show and publisher of the Midnight Mass newsletter. Get your tickets now for the Young Jurks 5th Anniversary Gala and Awards Show being held on Sat 4.27 at Down the Road Beer Co. in Everett.
Correspondent and author April Ryan will visit Northeastern University as the third annual Winter Gateway Speaker to meet and talk with students, faculty, staff and members of the community. Free and open to the public! Friday, February 8, 2019 Northeastern University RSVP: northeastern.edu/ crossing For more information: 617-373-2555
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GATEHOUSE EDITORIAL FLACKS FOR MASS RETAILERS APPARENT HORIZON
Calls for undermining the rising statewide minimum wage with a subminimum wage for teens BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS A couple of days back I picked up a Cambridge Chronicle newspaper at a takeout joint I frequent. Opened it up. Skimmed the top story, and the week’s arrests. Then moved on to the editorial. And was stopped cold upon seeing its headline, “The benefits of a teen minimum wage.” Which immediately set off alarm bells in my head. I then read the missive carefully and confirmed my suspicion that it was a good deal more conservative than was typical for Chronicle staff—and that it called for a lower minimum wage for Mass 14- to 17-yearolds. Meaning it had almost certainly been written by executives at the paper’s corporate owner, GateHouse Media. Which is a serious issue worth unpacking at some length. So much so that I’ll take two columns to do it. This week I’ll look at the political implications of the editorial’s position. And next time out, I’ll focus on why the editorial is a textbook example of the many problems created by runaway media consolidation. Let’s start with the idea of a “teen minimum wage.” The thing about a minimum wage is that it only provides the maximum economic benefit to workers in a polity when it covers all of them. If some groups of workers get worse deals than others, then it’s easier for employers to exploit those groups. A very current example of that situation is happening here in Massachusetts where— in a move I’ve written critically about—labor groups negotiated a fairly weak deal last year to gradually move the state minimum wage to $15 an hour in stages by 2023. One of things that made the deal more anemic than it should have been is that tipped employees like restaurant servers are still stuck with a lower minimum wage. As are some farm workers. Which has long been the lot of both groups in the particularly vicious anti-labor industries they toil in. A problem that already hurts far too many workers—and is most damaging to immigrant laborers with fewer rights—in both restaurant and agricultural jobs. So that’s bad enough. But what if a group of workers goes from having a higher minimum to a lower minimum wage? Well, that’s much worse for many more people. Because employers can start replacing workers that are being paid the higher wage with workers who can then be paid a lower wage. Which is exactly what GateHouse, the owner of the Cambridge Chronicle and over 100 other news outlets in Massachusetts alone, is supporting with its unsigned editorial that ran in roughly 26 of its newspapers (according to my ridiculously expensive dive into its archives) in communities all around Boston between Jan 7 and Jan 10. A subminimum wage for 14- to 17-year-olds. As if a job done by a younger teenager is not deserving of exactly the same compensation as a job done by someone 18 or older. Because you know once you hit 18, you can really wash dishes or stock shelves or scoop ice cream with much more aplomb than some baby person of 17, right? And what a squirrely editorial it was. Taking a
What the unnamed Gatehouse authors don’t say is the truth. Which is that if Massachusetts passes a subminimum wage for teenage workers, then employers... will be able to replace adult workers... with kids working for a statemandated lower wage.
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policy proposal that’s mainly being pushed hereabouts by one industry group, the Retailers Association of Massachusetts (aka the mightily acronymed RAM), along with three similarly questionable “reforms.” Which GateHouse and its shadowy owner, New Media Investment Group Inc., clearly support. And attempting to jump-start a campaign for its passage at the beginning of the Commonwealth’s two-year legislative cycle. Fans of state politics may recall that RAM is the very group that was pushing labor-side negotiators on two issues in advance of last summer’s (not so) “Grand Bargain” between business and union lobbies—in exchange for its supporting the gradual Mass minimumwage increase. According to State House News Service, it wanted to put a spike in the old state law mandating time-and-a-half pay for work done on Sundays and holidays. Which it got (to labor’s shame). And it wanted a subminimum wage for teens. Which it didn’t get. Now it’s a new session at the State House, and the association of over 3,200 retailers and restaurants that is RAM is back for another swing at the teen subminimum wage. With the help of GateHouse execs. Which is funny because the newspaper industry doesn’t use many teenagers anymore. Even paperboys and -girls have been replaced by older people with cars that cover much more ground much faster when delivering papers. But you know who does use a lot of teenage labor and would use more if the labor price were right? Retailers and restaurant owners. And you know what kind of businesses advertise with GateHouse newspapers— most of which are the only game in their respective cities and towns for print advertising that reaches significant swathes of local populations across much of Massachusetts? You got it: those same local stores and eateries. Seen through that lens, the editorial is even more concerning. It’s targeted at communities with lots of homeowners sympathetic to local businesses. Its pitch is a fundamentally conservative one spun with populist overtones aimed at appealing to both left- and rightwingers. Which is played as follows: First the editorial presents a study by the very important-sounding Mercatus Center at George Mason University—which GateHouse at no point mentions is a very large think tank funded up to its gills by the hard-right Koch brothers and other anti-labor billionaires—that kind of sort of shows that maybe the pathetically tiny raises in the federal minimum wage passed in 1996 and 2007 plus similarly small raises over the last quarter century in some (but not all) states might have been one among a number of contributing factors to an 11 percent decline in the rate of high school-aged teenagers holding jobs between 1994 and 2014. [Keeping in mind that the 1996 change to the Fair Labor Standards Act that raised the minimum wage of its day also established a federal subminimum wage of $4.25 for workers under 20 during their first 90 calendar days of employment that has never been raised since.] Nothing definitive at all, mind you. Then the editorial continues by saying that the state minimum wage is going up to $15 by 2023. And tries to impress readers with its seeming journalistic objectivity in quoting the left-leaning Mass Budget and Policy Center (in the person of a guy I once did some labor organizing with, Jeremy Thompson) explaining why raising the minimum wage is good for workers and for local economies alike. After which the mysterious GateHouse authors blow the ideological cover they just attempted to establish by quoting the manager of Boston’s recently shuttered Durgin-Park restaurant claiming its demise was somehow the result of this year’s preliminary raise of the minimum wage to $12 an hour. Which it absolutely wasn’t. Since a big percentage of the staff of any restaurant is its front-of-house employees—servers, bartenders, and the like—and they’re all screwed with
a base subminimum wage mandated by state law for tipped employees. Currently at the princely level of $4.35 an hour. Which bosses are supposed to ensure makes it up to the regular minimum wage through tips. But who’s kidding who about the enforceability of that rule? The authors conclude by insisting that they’re totally down with the adult minimum wage. And agree it’s not a “job killer.” But they ask us to pity the poor teenagers. Who supposedly aren’t getting jobs because businesses aren’t willing to pay that sexy top dollar minimum wage to teeny boppers. They then bemoan how “teens who can’t find a job lose out on learning skills that will benefit them in the marketplace.” Never having proven that there was any hard correlation between minimum-wage rises and teens delaying entering the labor market to begin with. Certainly not to the satisfaction of pro-labor think tanks like the Economic Policy Institute (EPI). Which stated in a 2018 report “Bold increases in the minimum wage should be evaluated for the benefits of raising low-wage workers’ total earnings” that “Critics of minimum wage increases ignore the overwhelming evidence that prior increases have, on average, had little to no average effect on the employment level of low-wage employees like teenagers and restaurant workers.” Moving along in the editorial, the reading audience is then treated to a quote by the RAM president saying that “[t]hirty-nine states” have a teen minimum wage. Which is supposed to make Mass readers want to walk off that particular policy cliff, too. But that worthy fails to say that at least some of those states did so only after relentless lobbying by member-organizations of the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council and State Policy Network. Both of which are connected to the Mercatus Center. And both of which have been traveling from state to state for years gutting child labor laws in their wake. Increasing the number of hours teens are able to work each week and instituting subminimum wages for teens. According to a 2013 EPI report entitled “The Legislative Attack on American Wages and Labor Standards, 2011–2012” that says: “The same policymakers and business associations leading the charge against public employee unions are also trying to undo minimum-wage, prevailing-wage, and living-wage laws … and to replace adult employees with teenagers and guestworkers.” What the unnamed GateHouse authors don’t say is the truth. Which is that if Massachusetts passes a subminimum wage for teenage workers, then employers in many sectors—but especially the retail sector—will be able to replace adult workers getting the graduallyincreasing higher minimum wage with kids working for a state-mandated lower wage. Neither of which are high enough to be considered the living-wage jobs—let alone the secure long-term jobs with benefits—that so many workers desperately need in these difficult times. In doing so, state government will not be helping teenagers. It will be screwing their parents. Many of whom are minimum-wage workers trying to support their families on the meager earnings of an everchanging assortment of two, three, or even four bad contingent jobs at a time. State pols will also be fattening the bottom line of lots of retailers. Who can in turn plump up the profits of GateHouse Media by buying more ads, one supposes. A less than virtuous circle. Which would pit teenagers against their own parents. And would teach them an important life lesson unmentioned in the editorial: Under neoliberal capitalism, the only option for workers is “the war of all against all,” as Hobbes once put it… and the devil take the hindmost. Yet another reason that more and more young people are turning to socialism. Coming soon: Why the GateHouse editorial reflects the crisis in American journalism.
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NO HART: THE FOLLOW-UP OPINION
Hey Ellen—Black LGBTQ Lives Matter, too! BY REV. IRENE MONROE
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Nothing exacerbates a problem more than good intentions. With that in mind, Ellen DeGeneres had no idea that she was opening a big Pandora’s box in trying to revive talks for actor and comic Kevin Hart to host the Oscars. When DeGeneres invited Hart to her show at the start of this year, she provided a much broader platform for Hart to explain his nonapology for prior public homophobic statements. DeGeneres, however, didn’t take into account the potential outcome, since she can’t possibly speak for the entire LGBTQ community, nor can she fully grasp the struggle that the black LGBTQ community has with self-proclaimed evolved brothers like Hart. “We need to speak up for the young black kids in the LGBTQ community,” Don Lemon stated on CNN in response to the Hart controversy. “I’m saying these issues need to be addressed. Because [LGBTQ youth] need to know that they have value and it’s OK to be who they are. We have to stop low-key co-signing homophobia. It’s not cool. We won’t tolerate jokes that do otherwise.” In 2011, Lemon penned a memoir titled Transparent and came out of the closet. He knows firsthand the sting, embarrassment, debasement, and violence that comes from the Harts in our communities. “Yo if my son comes home & try’s 2 play with my daughters doll house I’m going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice ‘stop that’s gay.’” That’s Hart’s one-time parenting advice during a stand-up routine about his three-year-old son having a “gay moment.” “It’s quite different for an African-American male,” Lemon told Joy Behar on her then-HLN show. “It’s about the worst thing you can be in black culture. You’re taught you have to be a man; you have to be masculine.” There are very few safe places for GBTQ brothers of African descent to safely acknowledge their sexuality, or to openly engage the subject. Black GBTQ sexualities within African-American culture are perceived to further threaten not only black male heterosexuality, but also the ontology of blackness itself. The community’s expression of its intolerance of LGBTQ people is easily seen along gender lines. For example, sisters mouth off about us while brothers get violent—both verbally and physically—with us. In her role, DeGeneres is standing her ground in supporting Hart’s heartless apology. As is Hart. After that appearance, Good Morning America host Michael Strahan interviewed Hart about the controversy. “I’ve addressed it and said all I can possibly say,” the comic said. “I’ve done all I can do. Don’t know what you’re looking for. I’m over it. Shouldn’t have to prove who I am.” Although Hart is now a crossover phenomenon, he still plays mostly to a black audience. And I hope the young LGBTQ sisters and brothers who fell in love with him in the blockbuster hit Jumanji saw his defensiveness. Strahan pushed Hart further, asking, “How have you evolved?” “I’m over it,” he said. “I’ve said it many times. If you don’t see it, it’s you. I have nothing else to do or prove.” While I will continue to argue that the African-American community doesn’t have a patent on homophobia, it does, however, have a problem with it. As one who has purportedly evolved on LGBTQ issues, Hart squandered his elevated profile to educate the public how his evolution came about. Instead, he has become a cause célèbre by flipping the switch as an aggrieved victim of attacks on his career, rather than confronting the homophobe he purports not to be. I’m glad Hart has a friend in DeGeneres, who wants to save her pal and save the Oscars. But black LGBTQ lives matter, too. Perhaps over time, both will look back at this moment anew. Because at present, both are co-conspirators in an ongoing problem in black communities. DeGeneres not only defends Hart’s position, she also absolves him. “You have grown, you have apologized,” she said. “You are apologizing again right now. You’ve done it. Don’t let those people win—host the Oscars.” DeGeneres also sees herself as a peacemaker rather than an interloper. What she doesn’t realize is that she unleashed a monster with the simple gesture of reviving so much host talk. I’m not talking about Hart, either. The monster, of course, is black homophobia.
Balkan Beat Party
Live music by
Sarma and Gogofski
Saturday February 16 at the Somerville Armory Doors open at 6:30 Dance instruction 7 to 8 Music and dance 8 to 10:30 Drink and light food available for purchase Admission $20 at the door.
www.balkanbeatparty.com NEWS TO US
FEATURE
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9
EXCERPT: A WOMAN’S GUIDE TO CANNABIS TALKING JOINTS MEMO
How cannabis makes us healthy and happy BY NIKKI FURRER The following passage is excerpted from A Woman’s Guide to Cannabis, now available from Workman Publishing. I walked into the dispensary one day and found five women sitting in the lobby and having a heated argument. They all had notebooks in their laps and pens in their hands, and their voices were getting louder as all of them talked at one another and no one listened. I ducked into the employee break room to avoid getting sucked into the discussion before clocking in for the day. “What is happening out there?” I asked a coworker as I shed my coat and snow boots. “The patient review board finally sampled the suppositories,” he said. “And all hell broke loose. You better talk to them.” There’s a certain kind of shopper, and every retail employee has met her. She is high maintenance and demanding. As a stereotype, she is middle aged, type A, and ready to ask for the manager. She will make your life miserable if you don’t please her, but she is actually a wonderful resource if you use her powers for good. At the dispensary, we gathered all these opinionated ladies into a group and gave them new products to test. If they liked them, we stocked them in the store. If they didn’t, we didn’t. The group sampled new strains of flower, new vape pen cartridges, and new lotions. The ladies had lots of opinions on the packaging, the price, and the high, and they were always right. If they liked something, it sold like crazy. If they didn’t like a product, no one else bought it either. One lady was a cancer survivor, and another was just starting chemo. We had a Crohn’s patient, a trauma survivor with PTSD, and a woman with ALS. The fibromyalgia patient didn’t always show up to meetings, but would email her opinions to the group. None of them had tried cannabis before getting their patient card, so everything was new to them. At the first meeting, they had an idea. “We should create a list of strains and products that work for each of our conditions,” said the cancer patient as they settled into their chairs. “And put it on the internet so everyone can see it.” The rest of the group murmured their approval. “Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite work that way,” I said. “Let’s take an example. How many of you have tried Girl Scout Cookies?” More than half of the group raised their hand. “Did it work for you?” Most of the hands stayed up. “I hated it,” I said. “It made me feel foggy and dumb, but not relaxed. It didn’t help my pain, and it didn’t make me feel better.” Another woman nodded her head—it hadn’t helped her either. “I love it,” said the woman with ALS. “It’s the only thing that helps my muscle spasms.” “Maybe Girl Scout Cookies is the ALS strain,” said another, and the group got excited. They decided to set up a corkboard in the lobby so other patients could tell them which strain worked for them, and what disease or condition they took it for. Chaos ensued. None of the other ALS patients liked Girl Scout Cookies, but one arthritis patient loved it, and a single cancer patient claimed it boosted her appetite. Over the course of a month, patients filled the corkboard with notes and the product-review group tried to keep them neat and organized. Dozens of cancer patients recommended their 10
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favorite products for chemo days, and none of them recommended the same thing. Ten glaucoma patients recommended ten different strains. Debbie, the alpha of the group, stood in front of the corkboard and muttered to herself, “This isn’t working.” I came back a few minutes later and she had a new plan. “By symptom,” she said. “We’ll see what everyone uses for insomnia, for nausea, whatever.” A month later, the board was covered in notecards with no discernible way to organize the information. “No one can agree on a good strain for nausea,” Debbie said. “The insomnia list is just a list of all the indica strains in the store,
and the anxiety list is giving me anxiety.” Eventually, the group gave up on the corkboard. They still reviewed and evaluated new strains and products, and noted the effects they felt with each, but they knew that just because a particular strain made them feel sleepy and happy didn’t mean it would make everyone feel sleepy and happy. Cannabis medicine is not exact or precise. There is not one strain that works for everyone with the same condition or disease. When you find what works for you, great. Try new things, sample edibles and strains that your friends like, but make sure to listen to your own body first.
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PICTURED: WALHALL BY EMIL_DOEPLER (CA. 1905)
VALHALLAVILLE FEATURE
Gearing up for an annual Viking extravaganza BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON Horde assemble! It’s time to party and feast with Odin and his companions. The Gods welcome you to gather in Odin’s mighty hall in Asgard. Arm wrestle with Thor! Test your skills with Skadi! Feast and drink because you are mighty warriors! So goes the invitation for this year’s O.N.C.E. in Valhalla, the annual grub and imbibe fest best known for scratching your most carnal instincts (of the food and drink variety, at least). For this 10-course celebration that will feature treats like goat stew and roast leg of lamb, we reached out to the local Viking god behind the storied pop-up, JJ Gonson, as well as the brewer and the mead maker who will help gorging parties get appropriately rowdy next weekend.
JJ Gonson (Owner, Cuisine en Locale) Is the cuisine actually based on what Vikings ate at all? Yes, or at least what they could have dreamed of eating. I have had a great time in nine years thinking about the subtleties of the menu. There must have been something in the air around the third year, because I 12
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was really fortunate to have met a wonderful cook who wrote a cookbook of the food from Game of Thrones, but even before the first one, I did a lot of research and spent a lot of time talking with other chefs to come up with an ingredient list we felt good with. There are things that we are fairly sure they flat-out did not have, so we don’t use them. For example, they had a lot of root vegetables, which grow and store well in the home climate, but probably not potatoes and other “new world” foods, like eggplants. But this is not real Viking history that we are doing here. It is a reenactment of a mythological Viking place. So they certainly did not eat 10-course feasts, probably ever. We pull out all the stops on what we imagine might have been heaven for a Viking. Does there have to be any cultural sensitivity taken into account when riffing on a Viking theme? Happily, our Valhalla, which is really a riff on Norse mythology even more than Vikings, is a really fun and friendly place. The show is somewhere between dinner theater and Viking cosplay. More theater than history— Thestory? What is a contemporary yuppie food that Vikings would have absolutely hated, and why? Pizza. Aside from the texture of white flour, which would have freaked them out, I’m not sure that they
would have had the ability to grow tomatoes in the northern climate in a sustainable way. There is nothing I have read about them eating or cooking with tomatoes, which are a “new world” crop. They were more about fish dried in the salty wind. Yes, they had lots of ability to grow stuff and most certainly ate fresh vegetables in season, but I do not think tomatoes were something they experienced, and that means they would be unlikely to like them. Spaghetti would also do it. I know that you are heavily involved with the local food movement. How far outside of Greater Boston do you have to go every year to find fare fit for a brood of Vikings? Not very far for most things. I think the farthest away is Maine, where the organic oats come from, but most of our food comes from the Hadley/Montague area. We get food from New Hampshire and Central Mass, too, and we get a couple of really special oils, like roasted squash seed, from the Hudson Valley area of New York. We have quietly plugged away at buying local for 15 years, and the super big change since I started is that now the local food distributions systems have begun to work themselves out. There are a few farmers who deliver, and the rest we get through two small distributors. The oils from New York come to us through the bike delivery company Metro Pedal Power in Somerville.
The menu is quite a remarkable thrashing, but what are a few highlights that people can expect? Dessert is worth saving room for. It is called “Blood of the Gods” and is strained yogurt with a berry compote. The diner favorites are always the cheesy oats and the turkey braised in cyser, but my personal favorites are the in-house, gnome-made liverwurst and the roasted leg of lamb.
Will Meyers (Brewmaster, Cambridge Brewing Company) We understand that there will be mead on hand, so please tell us, in what order does a proper Viking consume their alcohol? What comes before the meal? During? After? A proper Viking has one alehorn full of beer in one hand and one horn full of mead in the other, at all times. What should a proper Viking brew taste like? The screaming souls of one’s vanquished enemies, of course. Are you careful to make sure it isn’t too fruity? Because, you know, Vikings. Well, we did add a little citrus peel to balance the flavor of the boiled skulls. Have you had any whiffs in the past at Valhalla? A beer that didn’t quite fit the bill? No, no “whiffs.” Do you know what Vikings do to a brewer who makes bad beer? What are you brewing for this year’s festivities? This year we’ve brewed a strong ale, golden in color like the hair of Freyja, goddess of fertility. Flavored with herbs such as elderflower (the goddess Freyja lived in an elder tree, which was sacred and was said to ward off evil), gentian (a spicy bitter root known for healing powers— it’s got Moxie!), orris root (prized for its aromatics), and red clover (favorite flower of the faeries and said to offer good luck in battle).
Garth Shaneyfelt (General Manager, Artisan Beverage Cooperative Crafters of Katalyst Kombucha and Green River Ambrosia Libations) We felt like it was just too easy to Google “Did Vikings drink mead,” so I’ll ask you: Did Vikings drink mead? Well, yes, although the brews they made back then were a bit rougher and often included many different plants with medicinal (and other) properties. Nothing like putting some heather tip infected with ergot in your drink before battle to really go berserker. They didn’t typically have horned helmets, however—that is a more modern, cinematic conceit.
What are some of the biggest misconceptions about mead? I hope one isn’t that Vikings drank it, because this whole ordeal wouldn’t be doing much to fight that stereotype. The biggest misconception we run across is that mead is super sweet and/or like a beer. “I had mead at Bunratty castle when I visited Ireland—I loved/hated/ can’t remember anything else about that week.” Mead is honey wine, and like other wines comes in a huge range of varieties, from very dry traditional (just honey, water, and yeast) or oak-aged, to sweet high-potency [18 percentplus ABV] meads fermented with various fruits to newer lighter carbonated session meads [5 to 8 percent ABV]. Interesting note about the Bunratty mead often sold around here in ceramic flagons: If you read the label closely, it is actually white wine with honey added, which is not mead. Who have been some of the biggest mead drinkers in history? We often associated mead with vikings, but in fact most ancient cultures had mead or honey brews. It started to fall out of favor in the Middle Ages as wine and beer became more accessible and honey more dear. The national drink of Ethiopia is a mead with gesho root
called Tej. Mead is also quite popular in Eastern Europe— Poland, former Czech Republic, etc.—and some Polish meads are even distributed in the US. Are there peaks and valleys in the popularity of mead stateside? Anything in particular that has given it an extra boost over the years? When we started our meadery, Green River Ambrosia, in 2007, it was to support local beekeepers, raise awareness about colony collapse disorder, and because we had been doing a little home-brew but could only find one or two meads from California and Denmark out in the local marketplace. Since that time, the number of meaderies in the US have exploded—although your percent growth always looks good when starting from almost zero—to 350-plus. A few years ago, many of the mead companies at the Mazer Cup, the largest international mead competition, got together to form the American Mead Makers Association, like the beer and wine guilds. As craft beer and cider has grown, so has mead. People are more willing to try new things and are interested in the story and terroir. Carbonated session meads—lighter and often served on draft—have been booming recently and are a bit more accessible to folks that are used to beer. Using local and varietal honeys in our mead really gives it a taste of the season. Obviously the blooms in early season—apple, clover—are different from late— knotweed, aster—and can add different flavors to the finished mead. I like to say we pride ourselves on our inconsistency. Exactly what mead will be served at Valhalla? Meads for Vahalla are still under consideration. We usually try to have two or three different ones available. This year we are considering a tangerine session mead on draft; buckwheat mead (made with buckwheat honey from Western Mass); a dry blueberry mead that’s red wine-like; or an apple cyzer, mead made with honey and cider [as opposed to] honey and water. Where else can people get them? Our meads will also be served at the Odd Bodkin storytelling events at Grendel’s Den this winter.
>> O.N.C.E. IN VALHALLA. SAT 1.26, 7-11PM. ONCE BALLROOM, 156 HIGHLAND AVE., SOMERVILLE. ONCESOMERVILLE.COM NEWS TO US
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13
ABRACADABRA COFFEE SIPS
Ice-cold brilliance, some with hemp extract, in a gorgeous can BY CITIZEN STRAIN
BOSTON, MA MARCH 22-24
Tickets on sale Nov. 12th, 2018
SPRINGFIELD, MA JUNE 21-22
Tickets on sale Mar. 1st, 2019
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It’s hard to get beyond the all-consuming aluminum cans that Abracadabra appears in. Decorated by the Los Angeles-based Dang Wayne Olsen, each piece from the Vermont roaster comes wrapped in a miniature tapestry covered in illos of jovial kitsch worth ogling intensely once the caffeine kicks in—honeycombs, dripping mushrooms, other assorted psychedelia. Once you’re finished eyeballing the wallpaper, hopefully before the can loses its chill, it’s time for sweet surprises and dark beans. I won’t be the insufferable critic who attempts to frighten art roast rookies with pretentious threats detailing reasons amateurs ought to be scared to imbibe. Nevertheless, neophytes should probably avoid these beans too close to bedtime. Or they can ease in with Abracadabra’s Chill Brew, a hemp-infused Ethiopia Gedeb bean packing 20 mg of extract. I won’t sit here and pretend it calmed me down, but I will say that I walked away from the experience feeling relatively balanced and was impressed by how the promise of tangerine and caramel came through in every sip. Of the four choices sent to us, the standout is probably Nitro Cold Brew, a single-origin pick from the Guatemalan Finca La Esperanza bean. The Abracadabra copywriter does it some justice in the marketing description, calling it a “rich, creamy, nutty, chocolatey coffee which cascades straight to your brain.” But it’s that rush right past your nasal passage that’s worth writing home about. Only bitter to the point that you can tell there is a bite without enduring too much of a tongue-curl, I posit that the Nitro is an ideal entry point for someone who may not be comfortable with the idea of sipping coffee without milk or sugar crutches. Easy on the tongue, stomach, and lips, it almost seems as if it could make for a workout beverage. Black as it is, the buzz rolls smoothly and quenches to some degree, plus serves as a lively booster. We anticipate a lot more packaged coffees—in cans and other containers, hemp-infused or otherwise—in the coming years, as more and more of our parents and grandparents seek CBD and get exhausted with the same chain garbage. Java is a natural vessel for a lot of natural aids, and those who wed the worlds of caffeine and holistic medicine will be seen as contemporary gods. For now, Abracadabra is one of the few brands I have experienced, particularly on the East Coast, that has the magic that it takes to make such a matrimony work. At $16 for a four-pack of the Nitro and $28 for that much of the Chill Brew to get shipped, I’ll probably wait until I see it surface in local stores before reupping. If you’re fortunate enough to stumble onto some cans though, grab me one.
JANUARY 22
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
15
KILL YA BOSS MUSIC
After decades in the game as a team player, a Boston rap icon finally breaks solo BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 It’s the middle of the 1980s, not yet known as the crack and rap era but fast earning the rep, and a young Jaysaun just moved to Boston from Connecticut. “I’m like 11 and a rock kid,” he says all these decades later. “At the time I’m into Kiss, the Police, AC/DC.” Hip-hop has been migrating up north from New York City for a couple years, but the music hasn’t made a major impact on him just yet. “The first rap record that really grabs me is ‘What People Do For Money,’” Jaysaun fondly recalls. The 1984 track by the group Divine Sounds is a fitting influence; though not as well-known as giants like Melle Mel who broke before them, to everybody who came up on the heels of the first generation, the Brooklyn trio’s undisputed royalty, well known as a unit that actually tackled topics before most MCs of their day even wrote their rhymes ahead of time. Reminiscing on the seminal Divine Sounds cut, which asks, “You rob the bank and make big cash / But tell me how long does that life last,” Jaysaun has a moment. “As a kid at that time,” he says, “that really moves me.” Shortly after his arrival in Dorchester as a middle school preteen, Jaysaun begins hanging with a cousin and new friends who school him on the budding local hip-hop scene and expose him to hands-on-mic experience. “I remember, I’m at this underground party in Mattapan and there’s a legendary Boston group there called the Slaughterhouse Crew,” he says. “This one guy there, MC Fantasy, raps over the turntables for like two hours. “That shit blows me away, and I want to try it. My cousin’s already fucking with the vinyl, and so now I start rapping.” As schoolyard battle wins evolve into more serious studio sessions and demo tapes, Jaysaun dips in and out of the industry, never backing out completely, but not exactly swinging for the fences either. As events often unfold amidst the ’90s gold and platinum rapper rush, in which artists from all over are offered enticing predatory contracts that in many cases wind up crippling careers before they start, Jaysaun keeps
his name known on the Boston scene, always staying far enough out of the shadows to maintain a presence as his voice matures from high and adolescent into the pitch-perfect mix of rasp and whistle. At the same time, he watches more established acts like Edo G and the Almighty RSO build the scene. Prospects mount for Jaysaun heading into the aughts, beloved among Hub rap diehards for the era’s strong commitment to a lyric-heavy sample-driven sound. Along with Big Juan, DJ G-Squared, and XL, he begins making a mark with the Kreators, a crew that boasts Mass roots but that has larger plans and aspirations, as they map out on their biggest hit, “Foreign Lands.” In addition to dropping a string of singles that earn them a fan base beyond Boston, the group makes a significant lunge toward the mainstream, even taking on investors to help push their music. But after several years without a major deal coming to fruition, the Kreators split. “I actually recorded my first solo album in the middle of all that,” Jaysaun says, “but they picked it apart to finish the second Kreators album. “I didn’t cross over, I didn’t eat my integrity, but I didn’t get to put something out with just my name on it either.” Around the time, Hub rap stalwart Edo G is in talks with storied New York beatmaker Pete Rock to record a full-length. It’s a huge deal at a time before rappers are resigned to just emailing verses to producers and working remotely; rather, Edo travels to New York for every session, and in Jaysaun he finds a road dog and accomplice through the process. When Edo G and Pete Rock’s My Own Worst Enemy finally drops in ’04, Jaysaun features prominently on four tracks. There’s clearly hip-hop chemistry between them, fans want more, and so begins the pair’s development of Special Teamz. They rotate through a couple of different lineups, one of which includes the Lawrence rapper Krumb Snatcha of Gang Starr Foundation acclaim, but eventually recruit Slaine, a rogue MC whose dark, aggressive rhymes perfectly complement those of his teammates, to fill the third and final spot.
It’s hard to overstate the impact of the Special Teamz official full-length debut, Stereotypez, which drops in 2007. Still considered by many to be the best rap release in Boston history, it’s put out by the influential New York label Duck Down and showcases the skills of all its members, both individually and as a unit. They tour America and Europe, and become a go-to supergroup and fixture on the Hub scene. Until they aren’t. By 2010, Slaine is heading to Los Angeles to act in movies and pursue his solo projects, while Edo is continuing the grind he has been on for decades, recording and touring extensively. Jaysaun, meanwhile, begins to deal with life on the homefront, which in the coming years provides the serious fodder for his debut opus. “I get to the point where I shut down and avoid my phone,” Jaysaun says. His 2009 mixtape, Game of Breath, demonstrates a raw ability to write spit relentlessly all on his own. But with tribulations that come in the wake of Special Teamz, he discovers a new side of his rap personality that in time fuels his long-awaited solo project, Kill Ya Boss, which he finally drops in late 2018. “When I’m writing these songs, I’m in the middle of a divorce, I’m on drugs, I’m sitting there at the table trying to figure out how I’m going to pay all these bills,” Jaysaun says. “Everything on this record is true. This is an autobiography of my life. My wife really left me the message on that ‘Divorce’ song. And people really do come up to me and tell me that I am the best rapper in Boston, and then I’m back at home trying to figure out which pack of Ramen noodles I want to eat, the chicken or the beef.” The entire process amounts to much-needed therapy. “It’s like on my song ‘Suicide’ … I’m telling you two ways I want to kill myself because I’m tired of the bullshit. But at the end, in the third hook, I’m talking in the third person, and I’m warning people. There are times you have these suicidal thoughts, you have these homicidal thoughts, and I want to give these kids who are acting on it a chance to hear my message. We all have these thoughts, but in the end, you’re the one who’s going to be visited.” As for the Kill Ya Boss concept …“I’ve had it for a long time,” Jaysaun says. “Ninety percent of us work for someone who is stupider than us, but who uses their power because they’ve been given it. It’s controlling people. “It’s not to encourage people to do that kind of shit, but to shed light on mental illness. People suffer from that, including me. If you watch the video, when I kill the boss, the boss actually turns out to be me. I’m trying to give a warning—you can go that route if you want, but I don’t recommend it.” In the end, the horrors of divorce and drug use yielded something that none of his career highs with the Kreators or Special Teamz directly led to—a solid solo effort, all in his distinct voice, with Jaysaun digging himself out of ruts and emerging with the kind of amazing album that his fans knew he could execute, even if the artist second-guessed himself along the way. “When you don’t have anything else, and you start going through this self-doubt shit, you don’t know where it’s gonna end,” Jaysaun says. “Things have already changed since I put this out, though—for one, I’m getting messages from people saying that this record kept them alive. “I had a lot to prove because of the delay and what people were expecting, but what I figured out was that the best shit was the real shit. “I just write exactly what’s going on. That’s what people gravitate to. “That’s what’s gotten the biggest response.”
>> JAYSAUN W/ EDO G, KRUMB SNATCHA, REKS, BLACASTAN, REEF THE LOST CAUZE, LORD WILLIN, DJ STRESS, AND DJ DEADEYE. GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON. WED 1.30. 16
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THE NEW NORMAL MUSIC
STL GLD unveil new project + artwork with landmark MFA event BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1
I honestly had no idea what was awaiting me at the Museum of Fine Arts last week. The invitation listed little more than the the host, Boston hip-hop giants STL GLD, the time, and the venue: “You are cordially invited,” the evite read, “to an exclusive unveiling of art.” It was sort of like the movie Clue; once inside the MFA, those of us who knew each other started to debate the reason for our rendez-vous. A meet and greet? A pop-up concert, perhaps? After a short wait inside the atrium, the band, along with its hookup from the museum, led us into one of the American period rooms. With founding fathers staring down at us from every angle, STL GLD producer the Arcitype broke the silence, thanking the MFA for allowing the band to unveil not only its message, but its art as well. “The world is in a strange place,” he said, standing beside what seemed to be a canvas of some kind tucked behind a sheet. “This really is far from normal for any of us. However, here we are.” As bandmate Christopher Talken pulled the drapes back on the MFA piece, painted by longtime STL GLD collaborator Alexander “Lexx” Grigoryan, Arcitype continued: “We’ve been working on this piece of art for the past year. It’s called The New Normal.’’ You don’t say. Just a couple years ago, STL GLD front man Moe Pope was sounding alarms about how Boston venues were closing their doors on hip-hop just as a new generation was making enormous strides outside the city. The scene is still imperfect here by many measures, but STL GLD’s hustled up the best imaginable outcomes, as well as some that nobody could have foreseen. They broke beyond the Hub club scene to rock at last year’s Boston Calling, as well as the Museum of Science planetarium and the Oberon, among other bold endeavors. Still, this particular museum milestone seemed to feel as unreal for the group as it did for the rest of us sitting in front of the gargantuan George Washington battle scene. “Hip-hop was never meant to be here,” Moe Pope told the crowd of family, friends, and artistic associates who came out for the event. Before passing out headphones through the crowd so heads could hear their surprise latest LP, also titled The New Normal, the MC waxed on the long journey he took from the other side of Huntington Ave to the Museum of Fine Arts, making a point to remind everybody that despite STL GLD carving out and claiming a new normal, there’s still a lot of the old bullshit to watch out for. “Hip-hop has given me so much,” Pope said. “It’s opened doors for me … it’s given me a tool in which I can take all the world has thrown at me and scream it back in a peaceful manner. … They don’t tell our stories. … Being poor, being fatherless, living inside miniature concrete boxes that are more like prison cells called projects, malnourished, and feeling like you are alone walking through war zones every day. “Hip-hop on the local level in this city has been tough. This has been a rock city for so many years, and while I love rock and roll, the playing field is not level. We’ve been shut out, and without people of color getting liquor licenses or the proper funding, the venues are slim to none. “Some,” he added, taking in the moment with a deep breath, looking at his group’s work beside that of John Singleton Copley and other American masters, “do not believe that hip-hop is real art.” With that mindset having met its match, those of us who were lucky enough to be there smiled, put on our headphones, and experienced The New Normal for ourselves.
FEB 1 & 2 - BOSTON TICKETS:
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>> STL GLD THE NEW NORMAL ALBUM RELEASE PARTY. FRI, 2.1. OBERON, 16 ARROW ST., CAMBRIDGE. AMERICANREPERTORYTHEATER.ORG NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
17
WEEKEND WARRIORS STREAMS
New Mass stoner show pulls no punches on Amazon BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON The last time we encountered Lowell cannabis rapper and movie director Myster DL was at the MassCann Freedom Rally, where he was rocking with a plant in one hand and a microphone in the other. The time before that, he was dropping a short documentary he filmed for Cypress Hill, while our hangout before that was for his first feature-length film. He’s always into something, and DL’s latest, The Weekend Warriors, pulls a lot of his usual camera antics and actors to set a new scene—namely, the backyards, basements, and back rooms that so-called grown-ups seize on when the workweek ends. The series features cameos from planet hip-hop such as Onyx, Slaine, and Termanology, and may be the closest thing to a New England spin on the Trailer Park Boys to date. We asked the maestro DL about his comedy adventure and about getting his show about “a group of immature losers” on Amazon. My first question has to obviously be: How autobiographical is this project? Besides the cannabis use this couldn’t be further from reality as far as personal drug use. I only partake in booze and weed. All-time stats: I’m a rookie. I smoke daily, but I’ve only been drunk about 30 times in my whole life. I didn’t drink or smoke until I was 19 years old. In real life, I couldn’t hang with the Weekend Warriors. As far as the dialog and content—I think and say wild stuff. I write things to be funny; that doesn’t mean I agree with what I say all the time, but I think I’m good at writing funny conversations. I don’t think I am funny off-paper, though. I don’t have the timing, but I can find humor in anything. We aren’t as rude, vicious, or selfcentered in real life. Where was it shot? And how did you get the crew and actors together? I see there are a few repeat offenders from your former projects. The show was filmed in Massachusetts, mostly Lowell, but some episodes took place in Woburn, Stoneham, and Boston. A couple of us filmed in Chicago to make the St. Patrick’s episode, which I feel had more production value. Getting the crew together is always hard because the cast is so big. Everyone in the cast I know personally. There is only one main character that I didn’t really know that well—she showed up for a small walk-on role and wound
up being a main cast member. Otherwise, I handpicked the cast from people that I thought were funny. It was pretty much that simple. The problem was, I picked funny people, not actors. I had to write a character I thought they could pull off without looking like we are acting. In the past, you shot a feature-length movie that in some regards pulled off the look of a major motion picture. This time, I presume you have better technology but are going for a more independent home video look, per the subject matter. What’s your approach to making Weekend Warriors feel just right for what it is supposed to be? I wanted the show to look like it was made by a bunch of boneheads. I wanted the focus to be wrong sometimes. I wanted the microphones to be wrong. I think mockumentaries are overproduced and it makes them not look real. Say what you will about the show, but it looks real. It looks like we are just hanging out. People have already told me they didn’t know I got down like that. I just reply, “I don’t. I’m acting. My name is Morgan and I have hair. It’s not me, bro.” I think I pulled off the look. If you notice, the camera work gradually gets better as the season progresses. Basically Morgan is learning how to use his new camera. A lot of this is actually hilarious. Which I know is a lot harder to pull off than people may realize. How much of a jump was it from drama and videos to humor for you? I find it much easier to write drama. I can write pages of dialogue in my sleep. Comedy is so much harder. More so than drama. You really have to chose your words, how many words, order of words, delivery, etc. The editing is what really makes comedy work. If it doesn’t hit right, maybe now it’s not funny. I also don’t need to take notes when I write drama. When I write comedy, I have pages of notes including on which character should say what joke, which character would have the best response. It’s all timing. How much was scripted? How much was improv? What did you learn along the way about making something funny on screen? The entire show is written. Improv is encouraged because that’s why the cast is here, to be funny. As long
>> THE WEEKEND WARRIORS IS NOW AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON AMAZON.
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as we get what is on paper, I am completely on board with improv. Sometimes they improv a funnier wording of a line, sometimes they improv a funny idea. Improv is really tough because for every funny line there’s one that doesn’t land. We always film what is on the paper, though; that way the story will still be intact. Ill Mannered Films is an independent beast, so to speak. How close have you come to stepping in establishment circles, with things like actor unions and permits, and how much do you care about going that route in bigger future projects? As of right now I enjoy making movies and shows with my friends and lady. Sometimes my friends are famous and that’s cool too. I don’t think I would like the film business as it is. I want to film, not stand around. I don’t want the suits to edit my film and give me notes just to give them. I don’t want to spend one-10th of my budget on dog massages for the lead actress’s chihuahua. I never got a permit in my life. For this specifically, we aren’t shutting streets down or anything. We mostly film off the grid or in someone’s home or backyard. Mostly. This is a pretty big move, having this accessible on Amazon. For people trying to do what you’re doing, what have you learned about distribution thus far that you applied to putting out Weekend Warriors? I’ve learned it’s hard to contact the right people and because of that it is expensive to contact the right people. The fees to submit to some of these platforms is outstanding. Thousands of dollars for someone to click on your video and hope they don’t click off after 30 seconds. If you are Universal, it’s not that big of a hit to your budget, but we are independent filmmakers. We shouldn’t have to sell our cars and homes to submit a movie or TV show. Not that I did that, but some do. After all that spending you still might not be on their platform. It’s a huge gamble. I also learned that closed caption and sound editing is a nightmare. Is there another season in the works? Yes, there is a season two already being written and planned out. We have some cool special guests lined up and it will be filmed locally.
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NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
19
SET IN 70 FILM
Roma plays the Coolidge on 70mm film BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN
IMAGE COURTESY OF NETFLIX. The question of whether or not Alfonso Cuarón’s digitally lensed black-and-white movie Roma [2018] gains anything from being exhibited on the film-based 70mm exhibition format has been a topic of intermittent discussion within a certain subsection of film culture for a couple of months now. The reasons for that discourse were recently articulated by longtime Chicago Reader film critic and current MoMA curator Dave Kehr, who on Jan 4 tweeted out the following: “Just idly wondering why a 70mm film-out of Roma would be considered superior to a 4K DCP of Roma… [when] the movie was shot on an Alexa 65 digital camera,” he wrote, in reference to the two different exhibition formats being used to show the film theatrically—it’s on 70mm for “special engagements,” while the wider majority of screenings have played via DCP, which is the standard digital projection format. Kehr’s tweet suggests what I believe to be the general consensus on the subject, which is that on a photographic level Roma has nothing to gain and perhaps even something to lose by having been transferred to 70mm (“film-outs generally lose sharpness and contrast,” he continued), quite unlike films that originated on 35mm or 65mm stock. But that consensus is now ours to either challenge or confirm, as Roma will play on 70mm at the Coolidge Corner Theatre starting this Friday, Jan 14, following its release to both multiplexes and Netflix last month. Such is the strange nature of film distribution in the United States following all the streaming-related industry shake-ups of the past few years that people in our city must now select whether to view Roma on their TVs, or their tablets, or their laptops, or to see a digital projection of it at a multiplex, or to see it projected from a 70mm print in a historic movie house, all of these options available quite legally on the very same day, the only question being which if any will actually serve the artwork best. The film is set in Mexico City in 1970 and 1971, and serves as something of a skewed autobiography for Cuarón,
who is the film’s writer, director, producer, co-editor, and cinematographer. Skewed because Cuarón was 9 or 10 at the time, and while the characters based on himself and his siblings are integral to Roma, they are nonetheless usually stationed in the background of its frames. Taking center stage instead are two older matriarchs, both depicted navigating through a particularly traumatic period of their lives: Sofia (Marina de Tavira) is abandoned by her husband, who leaves her their home and their four children to care for (the character is based on Cuarón’s mother); she is aided by the labor of Clea (Yalitza Aparicio), a maid working in the home of Sofia’s family (the film is dedicated to the woman on whom the character is based), who by the middle of the movie is also facing an uncertain future as a single mother (she’s pregnant, and her boyfriend “goes out for ice cream”). But on second thought, to say even these figures take center stage is somewhat misleading. What the film and its frames are most occupied by are not the characters but the spaces in which they move—every location in the film is drawn with a nearly astonishing level of detail, whether it’s the interior locations (Sofia’s home is marked by piles of telling clutter in every corner, credit the production design) or the exteriors and backlot sets (often livened up by a small army of extras, a true shock in an era where even movies with nine-figure budgets clearly skimp on such elements). With his most recent films, Children of Men [2006] and Gravity [2013], Cuarón established himself a filmmaker of spectacle. If Roma isn’t necessarily guided by spectacle, then it’s at least guided by an intense dedication to audiovisual immersion, which is maybe like spectacle’s cousin. In an early individual sequence that I believe is emblematic of many others in the film, we watch at length as Cleo washes some clothes on the rooftop of the family’s home; meanwhile, two of Sofia’s children play with pop guns in the foreground; once Cleo’s done working, the camera pans to follow her to a raised platform that overlooks the whole neighborhood. What the scene
>> ROMA. RATED R. OPENING IN 70MM AT THE COOLIDGE CORNER THEATER FRI 1.18–THU 1.24. ALSO SCREENING AT THE KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA, THE WEST NEWTON CINEMA, AND ON NETFLIX. 20
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develops, and this remains true across the movie, is an emphasis on senses and texture over character and narrative—the shot is held for a long time, from a far-off position, and there are no cut-ins to close-ups or other coverage. You have time to investigate the astonishing depth of the image, to take advantage of the film’s deep-focus style and peer over into the other rooftops, to become aware of the spatial layout of both the image and the sound design, to hear what’s at your left and your right. Long pan shots are the primary tool used here, showing off the sets and locations, leaving the characters adrift in the spaces sometimes like just another piece of the production design. Though Cuarón made this film in Mexico on an independently raised budget, Hollywood hasn’t left him yet. This is a showman’s take on the material, a work of old-school cinema grandiosity accomplished with new-age tech; in other words, a movie not as unlike Gravity as one might expect. I first saw Roma at the Brattle, where it was presented on DCP. But even seeing it digitally, there was only one format I was thinking of—70mm. Cuarón’s film, like so many others made for 70mm exhibition, selects for its motifs a series of images that are made unusually vivid by high-resolution projection. Reflections off water are central throughout; one whole set piece is structured around the embers of a fire, which begin as nearly indiscernible specks but eventually create their own lens flares on the frame; another sequence takes place in a body of water, which allows Cuarón to create a sensorial finale of sorts, the constant image of crashing waves matched by sound design that imitates the sound of those waves crashing from right to left. In the Boston area we’ve had numerous opportunities across the past six years to see films projected in the 70mm format (ever since the large format re-entered commercial use via new films shot on it by Anderson, Nolan, and Tarantino), thanks to new-release and repertory screenings at both the Coolidge Corner and the Somerville Theatre (the latter even holds a yearly 70mm & Widescreen Film Festival in the fall). Obviously one can not ascribe a formal or aesthetic style to an entire format, but watching a number of films specifically from the “golden age” of 70mm, the late ’50s and the early ’60s, when the Hollywood studios were producing films to be projected in that format by way of “roadshow” engagements, one does notice a number of aesthetic throughlines. Across a diverse selection of golden-era 70mm features—let’s consider West Side Story [1961]; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World [1963]; and hell, even 2001: A Space Odyssey [1968]—there are formal consistencies that seemed directly connected to the format itself. All use extremely wide aspect ratios and emphasize far-off long shots that accentuate the sets and locations and the movement of the performers within them; all used the six-track magnetic sound tracks available only on 70mm prints for spatially oriented sound design that places effects and dialogue in certain speakers that mirror where that sound is located in the frame itself. These same tendencies cross over into Roma. Not the literal technical elements, like the magnetic sound or the photographic texture of 70mm, but the manner of composition, the spatially oriented sound design, now updated for the era of Alexa 65s and Dolby Atmos cinema speakers. Perhaps Roma’s shooting format doesn’t befit a 70mm transfer. But its sense of cinematic form most certainly does.
JACKIE KASHIAN COMEDY
The well-kept secret in the Dork Forest explains it all BY DENNIS MALER @DEADAIRDENNIS Comedian Jackie Kashian describes herself as a “very well-kept secret in show business.” But to me and other comedians, she’s a household name. Between her longrunning podcast, Dork Forest, her late-night sets on Conan on TBS, and her longevity in stand-up, she’s left a significant impression. We spoke about her background in comedy, comics, and video games, as well as the different parts of the brain used when doing two different types of podcasts. Oh, and the Armenian Genocide also came up, plus a little bit about what it is like working with her co-host Laurie Kilmartin. Early in your comedy career you made jokes about growing up Armenian. Now, on your new album you joke about the Armenian Genocide. Do you wish you could recite some of your older Armenian jokes for context, for your new audiences who might not be familiar with it? I am a huge fan of doing the stand-up that I think the audience needs to hear. If there are jokes that I need to do to set up the next joke, I will do it. I only had a couple of jokes about being Armenian. On my latest album I might actually have more powerful stuff about my ancestry than anything I’ve ever previously done. I was reminded of my grandmother talking to me about the Armenian Genocide in 1915. So I tell the story of the three times that she mentioned it in my life. Two of those stories are very funny, and one of them is not. I put that one in the middle because that’s how comedy works. I do a lot of shows in Los Angeles, where there’s a lot of Armenians, and sometimes people will come see me because they see my name is an Armenian name. What’s the difference between co-hosting a podcast like The Jackie and Laurie Show with Laurie Kilmartin, and hosting Dork Forest, which is you interviewing other people?
The thing is with the Dork Forest, I’ve been doing it for 13 years and my interviewing skills have gotten much, much better. What I do is I interview somebody about something they like a lot. For example, the Hallmark Christmas Movies. It could be the band Ween. It could be anything. So, when I interview somebody, I’m essentially letting them talk about what they love a lot, and then I’m learning stuff about it. There are some anecdotes, but it’s almost never any discussion of stand-up comedy. The podcast I do with Laurie Kilmartin, we discuss being stand-up comics. There are innumerable podcasts where middle-aged white guys talk about what it’s like to be a stand-up comic, [but] very few with middle-aged white ladies. So it’s not really a step forward. It’s more of a lateral move. Essentially we celebrate and bitch about stand-up comedy for an hour. I want to talk more than I do on the Dork Forest because I don’t know anything about Jay Z. But, with stand-up, I’m literally dipped in it 24-7. When we start talking, the biggest thing I had to learn with Kilmartin is not to interrupt, to let her talk. Even though you two started around the same time, you and Laurie never really met until recently, correct? [Laurie] started in ’89. I started in ’84 and we had never met each other until 2006. I did Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn, which was her first writing job. We met super briefly on that. And then I think in 2008 she came on Dork Forest with Kathleen Madigan, and they both talked extensively about the Kennedys. Which is an American political family that I don’t know a great deal about.
We had never met each other because we were going up the same rungs of the ladder. We were both featuring when we were featuring, which was in my opinion far too long, and then moved up and were headlining. We just never ran into other women comics. When I moved to Los Angeles, that’s where I ended up meeting the other women comics. It’s been really cool getting to know her over these last three years. We’re building a friendship. She doesn’t know it yet, but we’re going to be friends. Do you find yourself to be more of a performer or more of a writer?
Both. What I can tell of my reception is most people come up to me after the show and they say, You remind me …, and it used to be of their daughter or their college roommate, and now it’s their aunt or their mom. And that’s fine. The aging process isn’t execrable. My stand-up comedy persona tends to be something that feels super likable. In stand-up comedy, you write your own material, and nobody has the experiences that I had. I hate to say this, it’s almost impossible to steal my material because it’s so personal, but I don’t want to dare anyone out there to try.
when I went to college in 1984, it was the first time I had any money. I got student loans, and I spent 75 bucks a week on video games for the first month I was there. Then I heard about a guy who had to drop out of college because he spent all of his money on video games. I don’t know if you know anything about it, but 1984 was a hell of a year for video games. They were just getting into laser disc, like Dragon’s Lair and all that stuff. It was the heyday of Q Bert, Donkey Kong, and Mario Bros. I played Tempest and Joust, and I was living in a Ready Player One world. It was not ready. Ernie Cline literally was writing a love letter to my youth, to my college years. Are there any video games you’re playing now?
The only video game I’m playing right now is on my phone, and it is Marvel Puzzle Quest. It’s the first game that I’ve done in-game purchasing. Has there ever been a question you’ve always hoped to be asked in an interview but never have? No. But there’s always a question that they don’t ask that I’m usually pretty happy about. So I appreciate you not asking that question.
Mitch Hedberg said, “When you’re in Hollywood, and you’re a comedian, they want you to do everything but comedy. They want me to do things related to comedy, but not comedy.” Have you experienced this?
Kilmartin writes for Conan, and a lot of my friends write for TV shows and stuff. I’ve never wanted to be at a writer’s room. I’ve never sought that opportunity. I’ve sought the opportunity of acting and have not really been taken up on it. I had a manager once tell me, You got a face for radio, you should definitely try for the writer’s room. But I was like, Oh, you can stop being my manager. … I mine my life for my stand-up, so I never want to give up my stories to other people. You may be the most prominent, if not the first, female voice in media to talk about video games. When and how did you get so involved with video games?
I always played uprights. I always played arcade games because
PHOTO BY LUKE FONTANA
>> THE JACKIE AND LAURIE SHOW W/ JACKIE KASHIAN AND LAURIE KILMARTIN. SAT 1.19 AT SONIA. CENTRAL SQUARE, CAMBRIDGE. LISTEN TO THE FULL CONVERSATION AT DEADAIRDENNIS.COM/PODCAST.
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
21
COMEDY EVENTS
LOST KINKSTER
SAVAGE LOVE
THU 01.17 - SAT 01.19
BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET I’m a middle-aged man dating a younger guy. He wanted to be a “boy” to a Dom top daddy, and I was happy to oblige. The sex is amazing, and we click as people, too. Then a couple days ago, he told me he wanted to explore small penis humiliation (SPH). I was taken aback—not by the request, but because his penis is NOT small! It’s not huge, but it’s at least average. And it’s thick! I’m not super hung, so it’s not that he seems small in comparison—I have maybe an inch on him. When I pointed this out, he claimed I was just trying to make him feel better about his small size! He said I was patronizing him. He ended the conversation by saying he would drop it, since it was obviously making me uncomfortable. Honestly, I am uncomfortable with it. I just can’t imagine bringing myself to go on about how small his dick is when I’m actually thinking how much that thing would hurt if he were to top me. But my bigger concern is that doing SPH might feed into possible body dysmorphia. The way he reacted to being told his penis wasn’t small was a red flag—it told me this isn’t just a fantasy. It’s not that he wants to be made to FEEL it’s small; he really believes it is small. How is this different from telling a skinny boyfriend what a big fat pig he is? I really like this guy, and I think this could go somewhere. I want to be GGG, but not at the cost of his mental health. Need Objectivity, Savage, Please Help! “The boy expressed a desire to play out a specific scene; he did not request a fact-check on his dick size,” said Dr. Reece Malone, a board-certified sex therapist with a doctorate in human sexuality. “The boy’s disappointment is understandable, especially if he was feeling hopeful that the request would be met with enthusiasm and mutual excitement.” Your boy was probably nervous when he brought SPH up, NOSPH, and his reaction to your reaction—his complaints about feeling patronized, his demand to drop the subject—was likely motivated by shame. Not shame about the size of his dick, but shame about this particular kink. He was open with you about other kinks right away, but sharing those kinks probably didn’t make him feel as vulnerable as sharing this one did. He held SPH back until he felt he could really trust you. And after he worked up the nerve to tell you about his biggest turn-on, your response was to argue with him about whether his dick is small enough to qualify him for SPH play. “I think it’s important that NOSPH revisit the conversation to examine if his reaction felt shaming,” said Dr. Malone. “While I appreciate NOSPH’s concerns,” continued Dr. Malone, “SPH scenes don’t require one to have a small dick. It’s fully engaging in the role-play itself that’s hot and exciting. It really is no different if a daddy’s skinny boyfriend wanted to engage in a fantasy where the thought of being a ‘big fat pig’ was hot and exciting for him.” Now, if he had a history of bulimia, telling him he’s a “big fat pig” could be harmful; likewise, if he had a history of bigorexia, telling him he’s a “skinny little shit” could be harmful. Your boyfriend may have a distorted idea about average dick size—most likely distorted by porn—but odds are good he’s one of millions of people out there who have eroticized their anxieties and insecurities. So long as he isn’t contemplating some dangerous or stupid way to make his cock bigger (like getting liquid silicone injected into his genitals, something that led to the death of a gay man in Seattle last year), you can engage in SPH without doing him harm. “But NOSPH should ask more questions and engage in a dialogue on how his boy wants the scene played out, and if and how it would change their sexual dynamic overall,” said Dr. Malone. “It’s also fair for NOSPH to share his own concerns about feeding into body dysmorphia. He also has the right to set boundaries or decline the scene altogether.” Agreed! Limits and boundaries aren’t just for subs, bottoms, or slaves. Doms, tops, Masters, and Mistresses get to have limits and set boundaries, too. If you can’t go there, you aren’t obligated to go there. But it might make you feel better about going there, NOSPH, if you bear in mind that you can mock his tiny cock (during sex play) and reassure him about his cock (during aftercare). If your boy doesn’t feel like he has to win an argument about how small his cock is to get the SPH he wants, he might be willing to admit—or finally be willing to accept—that his cock isn’t really that small. Dr. Reece Malone is the creator of “Last Longer in Bed: 6 Steps to Master Premature Ejaculation.” You can learn more about Dr. Malone and his work at reecemalone.com.
SALEM COMEDY & SPIRITS FESTIVAL
Featuring top area performing comedians, locally crafted spirits and cider, and related special events at a variety of renowned Salem venues.
SALEM | VARIOUS | $25 - $35 FRI 01.18
THE GREAT BOSTON MOLASSES COMEDY DISASTER SHOW @ GREAT SCOTT
Featuring: Nate Johnson, Ethan Marsh, Mark Gallagher, Nick Ortolani, Katie McCarthy, Wes Hazard, Rob Crean, Shaun Connolly and Mr. Sean Sullivan.
1222 COMM AVE., ALLSTON | 7PM | $10 FRI 01.18
S&M COMEDY @ JACQUES CABARET
Featuring: Justin P. Drew, Sarah Francis, May Keith, Casey McNeil, Liam McGurk, & Tommy O’Deed. Hosted by Stirling Smith & Mitzy Anne
79 BROADWAY, BOSTON| 7PM | $5 SAT 01.19
AMAZING JOHNATHAN @ THE WILBUR
The Amazing Johnathan is an eccentric comic magician whose bizarre humor and unscripted antics have earned him widespread recognition as one of the most original and unique performers today.
246 TREMONT ST., BOSTON | 7PM | $39 SUN 01.06
LIQUID COURAGE COMEDY @ SLUMBREW
Featuring: Dom Smith, Austin McCloud, Liam McGurk, Tom Kelly, Ethan Diamond, Brett Johnson, Mike Setlow, James Huessy, & Jonathan Tilson. Hosted by Jeff Medoff
15 WARD ST., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $5 MON 01.21
ROAST BATTLE ROYAL RUMBLE @ BLARNEY STONE
Lulz of the Irish celebrates its two year anniversary by pitting dozens of comics against each other in a free-for-all sprawling roast battle! And get this, winner receives $100 cash
1505 DORCHESTER AVE., FIELDS CORNER | 7PM | FREE WED 01.23
LUCAS BROTHERS @ ONCE BALLROOM
Comedians, actors, and writers The Lucas Bros (Keith and Kenny Lucas) continue their rise as two of the freshest, most dynamic new faces on the comedy scene.
156 HIGHLAND AVE., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $22
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
Give the gift of the magnum Savage Lovecast at savagelovecast.com
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TILDEN: HE THINKS HE’S CAT STEVENS RUTHERFORD: I WISH HE PREtended to be yusuf islam
WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST BY PATT KELLEY PATTKELLEY.COM
HEADLINING THIS WEEK!
Rafinha Bastos Netflix Friday + Saturday
COMING SOON Jiggy
Special Engagement: Weds, Jan 23
K. Trevor Wilson Roast Battle, Jimmy Kimmel Live Jan 24-26
THE WAY WE WEREN’T BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM
Greg Fitzsimmons Netflix, The Howard Stern Show Jan 31-Feb 2
Eddie Ifft
Comedy Central Presents, Last Comic Standing Feb 7-9
OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS BY TIM CHAMBERLAIN OURVC.NET
Al Ducharme + Bernadette Pauley Special Engagement: Thurs, Feb 14 (V-Day!)
617.72.LAUGH | laughboston.com 425 Summer Street at the Westin Hotel in Boston’s Seaport District NEWS TO US
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DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
23
VERY FUNNY SHOWS.
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