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SEPT 28, 2017 - OCT 05, 2017 BUSINESS PUBLISHER Marc Sneider ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Chris Faraone John Loftus Jason Pramas SALES MANAGER Marc Sneider FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION sales@digboston.com BUSINESS MANAGER John Loftus
EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Chris Faraone EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jason Pramas MANAGING EDITOR Mitchell Dewar ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran ASSOCIATE FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITOR Christopher Ehlers STAFF WRITER Haley Hamilton CONTRIBUTORS G. Valentino Ball, Sarah Betancourt, Tim Bugbee, Patrick Cochran, Mike Crawford, Kori Feener, George Hassett, Zack Huffman, Marc Hurwitz, Marcus Johnson-Smith, Micaela Kimball, Derek Kouyoumjian, Dan McCarthy, Adam Sennott, Maya Shaffer, Citizen Strain, M.J. Tidwell, Tre Timbers, Baynard Woods INTERNS Kuresse Bolds
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Dear Reader, I have been wanting to ask this question on Facebook for months, but decided it was worth more than a grunt. So here goes: Am I the only person who exclusively appreciates just one kind of music? Really, is there anyone else out there who makes Bill O’Reilly look like Boots Riley when it comes to open-mindedness and musical preference? Better yet, if anybody reading this appreciated my using the honorable Boots Riley of the Bay Area hip-hop staple the Coup as a comparison point rather than something more contemporarily trashy, are you by any chance like me, and completely turned off by all sounds that ring outside the category of Rap Music That Would Make Any Conservative Cry? Before you hammer me for having narrow tastes, first consider that while I’m admittedly close-minded—my East Coast boom bap preference runs from around the mid-’80s to an ongoing variety of arcane contemporary rappers, though I still favor my Golden Age heroes—I have consumed a ridiculous amount of music, both live and recorded. As a hip-hop critic for more than a decade, I was serviced and stockpiled dozens of releases a week sometimes. When I did a major purge of compact discs and records two years ago, I estimated that the original trove packed approximately 20,000 pieces of vinyl and plastic. Every one of them was a rap release of some kind or another, which as you might imagine kept me pretty busy. It’s not like I was listening to the same B.I.G. and Tupac albums over and over, cursing other forms of music. I’ve just always been content with steady streams of beats and rhymes. This is a position that’s been mocked by my friends and associates for as long as I can recall. They laugh when I cringe upon having to hear a pop song in public, while some have sent group pics of the crew having a blast without me at rock shows. On several occasions, coworkers and fellow writers have made serious attempts to bend my ears, even though I’ve told them that such efforts are more futile than gay conversion therapy. They’ve never worked. I’ve enjoyed some punk and reggae shows on occasion, and definitely have a soft spot for classical, but my digital playlists, like their analogue predecessors, are hip-hop through and through. It’s the only thing that moves me. Luckily for you, I am not the DigBoston music editor, and instead rely on the talented Nina Corcoran and others with kaleidoscopic interests to sniff out national and local acts that, in total, appeal across the board. But as hip-hop melts further and further into the pop culture consciousness, for better or worse, I thought I’d go on record as one of the last stubborn dedicants left. I’m sure there are some others out there, though unless they want a heap of shit from everyone they know, they should probably keep their tastes to themselves. CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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ROBERT PATTON-SPRUILL IN THE FOYER OF 88 LAMBERT AVE. PHOTO BY TRE TIMBERS
THE BATTLE OF FORT HILL NEWS TO US
They rebuilt their Roxbury home from ruin, so now why won’t the city let them sell? BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 Even among the magnificent mansions that stagger along the Highland Park skyline in Roxbury, the six-bedroom attraction at 88 Lambert Ave is distinguished. Occupying two-thirds of an acre in the shadow of the Nathan Hale Elementary School, in addition to the 1,800 square-foot home the sprawling grounds boast garden paths around a pond, a chicken coop, and multiple one-story shacks that could fit a combined 30 cars, or roughly half that many carriages when the crude brick boxes were built in the 1910s. These days, the couple that has owned and maintained 88 Lambert for 15 years, Robert Patton-Spruill and Patti Moreno, don’t do the kind of upkeep that they used to take a lot of pride in. Patton-Spruill, an Emerson professor and director of multiple movies including the Roxbury street drama Squeeze, says he hoped to sell to a developer with an option to then buy an apartment in the main house, which he and Moreno stitched up from abandoned. Before the dotted lines were signed, though, Patton-Spruill’s deal was blocked by neighbors, who spurred the Boston Landmarks Commission to study the grounds and determine if a historic designation is warranted. All of which accelerated a complex and multifaceted skirmish over a property that, when it was listed for $2.9 million last November, the Bay State Banner reported had “the highest-ever asking price for a singlefamily home in Roxbury.” “My plan was to [keep the main house and the carriage house], get rid of these garages, and put in 4
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six units—just six units,” Patton-Spruill says. Since his buyer wanted to build within permitted constraints and therefore didn’t need approval from abutters, the only way to stop the sale was to enlist the Landmarks Commission. The owner adds: “It’s totally as of right, no variances, but all it takes is 10 people to create a petition that can potentially screw it up.” As Patton-Spruill contends that people are deliberately sabotaging one of the most cherished tracts in Roxbury during a considerable building boom, his neighbors claim they’re looking out for the integrity of the estate, which has housed some notable Bostonians since it was built around 1834. People in the area have varying intentions— some say they exclusively want to preserve history, while others are open about wanting to throw a wrench in as many new building projects as curmudgeonly possible. Regardless of their motivations, they’re all engaged in a prolonged scrum that connects several hundred years of history and exemplifies how, when it comes to urban development and gentrification, there aren’t always just two sides. Or three sides. Or even four or five. “My first interest was when it showed up in the Banner,” says one local of a few years who pushed for the landmark study. “That was when folks got engaged, because we kind of knew what the fate of this house could potentially be. [Fort Hill] has been a hotbed for development for three or four years now … What we have the biggest fear for is rogue developers.” Another person who lives nearby and opposes plans
proposed by Patton-Spruill says that organized neighbors attempted to work with the owners but were dismayed when they chose to sell to a developer of whom many disapprove. “There were many attempts to get [Patton-Spruill] to listen to competing bids, and he said it was his house, and he had done enough for the neighborhood … He backed everyone into a corner. The owner forced the neighborhood’s hand.” In the months since losing control of his home— until the study’s finished, for which there is no set or even estimated date, he can’t fix, demolish, or alter a thing—the Emerson professor has allowed the grass to grow uneven. Patton-Spruill hasn’t filled his pond in months either; over the summer, Boston police detained one of the suspects in the slaying of Mission Hill hardware store owner
“On Friday nights in the ’70s, my dad would bring out marshmallows so we could go and see whatever house was burning down...”
BATTLE OF FORT HILL continued on pg. 6
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studying at the Park School in Brookline and later at BU, the aspiring director briefly moved to Hollywood to cut his teeth in 1997. Fate and business brought him back to Boston in ’98, after Patton-Spruill sold his first feature film, the Boston-based Squeeze which he produced, wrote, and directed, to Miramax for a cool million dollars. In the years that followed, as Patton-Spruill placed more films and opened a shop with Moreno to handle commercial work, the couple invested several million dollars in abandoned Roxbury properties—a two-family on Cedar Street, a boarded-up building with six apartments and commercial space on Roxbury Street, and a graffitiscarred mess on Dudley Street. With their daughter born in ’97, he and Moreno settled in Highland Park, where Patton-Spruill was raised and his mother, Lynda Patton-Spruill, grew up before that. The buildings they bought were disasters, but with Moreno planting trees and shrubbery and Patton-Spruill directing the interior rehabilitations, they added bright new apartments to a neighborhood that others deserted. Even as gang members on Cedar Street carried literal firearms and threatened them, the couple stuck to their figurative guns. “I didn’t back down,” says Patton-Spruill, who has led and been a part of several community watch groups and Roxbury public review committees. “I doubled down.” And then he tripled down. When 88 Lambert Ave, the longtime home of seminal documentarian Henry Hampton, went up for sale in 2002, Patton-Spruill and Moreno sold their other rebuilds and moved into the Highland Park manor that once seemed elusive. As Jon Else, an award-winning cinematographer THE HIGHLANDS who collaborated with Hampton on iconic civil rights Like others in the neighborhood, Patton-Spruill grew documentaries, wrote in his 2017 book, True South: Henry up intrigued by the grand mysterious structure he went Hampton and “Eyes on the Prize”, Hampton began to on to own, and with a number of the mansions in this “produce powerful films relevant to the African American quiet neck of Roxbury (he says that “older black folks” experience” while living on Lambert. Writes Else: The still call this nook “Highland Park,” while real estate “scrappy little company [Blackside, Inc.] would eventually brokers have pivoted toward “Fort Hill”). Born in 1969, train hundreds of minority filmmakers, produce sixty Patton-Spruill describes the landscape on these twisting major projects, and become the largest minority-owned paths in Boston’s geographic center during his youth documentary film company in America” and at one point as a mountain of ash with the glowing Hub skyline “the largest independent documentary film company behind it. Despite its close proximity to rapid public owned by anyone of any color.” transportation—today the Roxbury Crossing stop of the Though Hampton worked out of the South End and modern Orange Line, back then the Dudley station on the the old WBZ-TV studios, for Patton-Spruill, a successful elevated Washington Street subway—the blocks were African-American filmmaker who admired Hampton, the pocked with desperation. opportunity to move into 88 Lambert seemed a sweet “Every building was boarded up,” Patton-Spruill says. destiny. The fact that he would follow in such illustrious “It looked like Fort Apache.” footsteps served to strengthen an affection for the manse Robert’s father, James Spruill, was a theater actor and that started before he was even tall enough to see over Boston University professor who, among other creative the wall at the edge of the yard. stripes, had been Sidney Poitier’s understudy for A Raisin “Everything was burnt, and there were just the in the Sun on Broadway. With drama in his blood, after survivors—people like my family,” Patton-Spruill says about coming of age in Highland Park. “On Friday nights in the ’70s, my dad would bring out marshmallows so we could go and see whatever house was burning down … As a young kid I would walk past boarded-up buildings—it looked like a graphic novel about the end of the world. And I would always say, ‘Why isn’t anybody doing anything?’ “And when I sold the FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY, THE GARAGES AT 88 LAMBERT AVE HAVE BEEN A first movie, I was like, ‘Oh, I NEIGHBORHOOD HOT POINT. PHOTO BY TRE TIMBERS. am supposed to.’” Andres Cruz in the Cedar Street area, with the chase spilling onto 88 Lambert. “The kid ran right through here.” Patton-Spruill and his wife, video producer and HGTV gardening guru Moreno, share some of the less savory stories from memory lane. “They had to search this place for the weapon, so we had to drain the whole pond.” There have been many such brushes with violence in Fort Hill, especially when the couple first moved to 88 Lambert. But they say the gangs they fought off back in the day weren’t able to inflict as much damage to their well-being in a decade as their new neighbors have done in less than a year. Patton-Spruill and Moreno, who partner professionally on video production, have also used their residence to record dozens of online and TV garden and home segments—from clips on building an elaborate wall out of native stones or growing fruits and vegetables to digging out the pond that was drained by detectives. Walking the grounds, they point to flower beds and exterior improvements they’ve made. “I kept chickens here until two years ago,” PattonSpruill says. “I’m a farmer at heart.” A lot of people in the area are well-aware of the contributions this family has made. Even a couple of neighbors who moved in over the past few years acknowledge that 88 Lambert was cared for while so much of Roxbury was neglected. “I think he’s somebody who cares deeply,” one resident tells DigBoston. “I’m not in his shoes, but I get a strong sense of neighborhood pride.” Such sentiments aside, under the current circumstances, Patton-Spruill’s pride, as well as his personal profit, seems to be the last thing anybody cares about in Fort Hill. “There’s so much development happening right now,” a neighbor tells the Dig. “Institutions and individuals and families want to see the wishes of the community members honored.”
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GARAGE WARS Half past midnight in the early morning of Dec 2, 1934, an East Boston liquor store proprietor named Matthew Darcy was returning to his home on Highland Street when he pulled his car into one of the garages on the property of 88 Lambert Ave. Out of nowhere, three men—one carrying a firearm—appeared and robbed him. According to a Boston Globe account from later that day, “the trio stepped from the shadows and ordered [Darcy] to put up his hands” before taking “more than $75, $85 checks, and valuable papers” and then vanishing. For more than a century, the garages at 88 Lambert Ave have been a neighborhood hot point. The robbery of Darcy was just one of countless crimes and misdemeanors that occurred in these urban cabanas over nearly a century before PattonSpruill nailed the problem shut in the aughts. In the 1910s, the city wrestled back and forth with the then-owner of 88 Lambert, a politically connected socialite named James Nolan, over his proposals to expand covered stalls. He was apparently only granted permission to renovate the facility since he lied on a building permit application, writing that the garages would be exclusively designated for private use. Newspaper reports and old city documents acquired for this article show a torrent of complaints from neighbors spanning decades, including fines for “using a yard for the parking of automobiles without having a permit” as well as reports of “walls and bricks that are in dangerous condition.” “This was a rich neighborhood,” Patton-Spruill says. “People would buy cars, and they would need a place to store them. A lot of these houses didn’t have garages, and the cars had open coaches. It wasn’t until the ’50s or ’60s, when they abandoned it and moved to the suburbs, that people of color were able to move in.” More recently, the garages have been eyed by administrators and parents at the neighboring Hale School, where a mural designed by students with professional artists covers a 100-foot-wide wall on the edge of Patton-Spruill’s property. “When [88 Lambert] came on the market, [people who attend community meetings] were naturally paying attention,” says Jen Rose-Wood, who lives nearby and has two kids at the Hale. “Henry Hampton was an incredible artist and filmmaker, and the [Hale] students should know all about him. Wouldn’t it be great to have access to the property through some kind of community arts center that could come out of an innovative community-school partnership?” Patton-Spruill appreciates the concept and welcomes a bid, but says he needs to sell as soon as possible and to date has not received an offer from BPS. Rose-Wood continues: “We think that any developer who buys the property is really benefitting from the Hale School and from any history of the amazing people who have lived in this neighborhood. So it only seems right to us that the person who buys [88 Lambert] should give back.” KING OF THE HILL When Patton-Spruill and Moreno bought the house atop the hill in 2002, the couple had only a few months earlier finished a painstaking overhaul of a two-family home on Cedar Street, just a block away. Patton-Spruill says that he recalls his daughter, still in grade school at the time, questioning her dad’s lucidity, since they had only recently completed renovations elsewhere. The director and his wife initially planned to focus on the main house, which had been left in shambles since its prior resident, Hampton, moved out nearly a decade earlier. The fragile frame was rotted out in several places, its peeling paint revealing severe skeletal fractures. Before they could address those priorities, however, they had no choice but to tend to the brick and mortar shacks, which
“I think the mayor bears some responsibility,” he says. “[Walsh] wants 53,000 [new] units of housing, and our question is, ‘At what cost?’” Like the Hale School parents who want to use 88 Lambert for a student art facility, Singleton hopes PattonSpruill will sell to a community-minded developer for an amount that is substantially less than the $2 million-plus that real estate interests are willing to pay. Others see a grave injustice in that. Jamarhl Crawford, a Roxbury activist, thinks Patton-Spruill has been unfairly impeded. “This situation is disturbing,” Crawford says. “It’s when good intentions can go bad. Who is not for the preservation of historic culture? But in this case, it seems that it goes against a person and a family, and can cause severe harm and damage. It’s a shame that a true multigeneration Roxbury family with this kind of legacy can get the shaft from a community they helped build up.”
THE MAIN HOUSE AT 88 LAMBERT AVE OCCUPIES 1,800 SQUARE FEET, OR ABOUT ONE-TENTH OF THE OVERALL PROPERTY. NATHAN HALE SCHOOL ON THE LOWER RIGHT.
had been attracting miscreants and causing aggravation for 100 years, and became a headache for the new owners immediately. For starters, there was an older man named Luther who sat in the lot of 88 Lambert all afternoon, occasionally taking payments from a range of individuals who stored their cars and other items on the premises. Plus several other sketchy characters galore who came and went. “There was a pimp who had a space and would go in there with girls,” says Patton-Spruill, who describes the state in which his family found the eyesores as a stash spot for area drug pushers. He resolved to weed them out, but he took his past collisions with the gangs on Cedar Street as lessons. “You can’t do that shit overnight,” Patton-Spruill says. “It doesn’t work that way. You don’t want any backlash.” Still, there was a backlash. Even with a teaching gig at MassArt and another feature film, Turntable, in production, Patton-Spruill now had another full-time job in keeping those who wished to do him and his family harm as far away from their castle in progress as possible. “It was crazy,” he says. On one occasion, the director says that someone threw a Molotov cocktail at the main house; another time, several burglars entered while he was away and lifted their entire kitchen right down to the stove, cabinet doors, and refrigerator. “These motherfuckers came in here in the middle of the night, right under my daughter’s window, stripped a car, and lit the car on fire,” Patton-Spruill says. “When the sparks and shit were flying at the house, I was just like, ‘You know what, I’m done with this garage shit.’” As for the main house… “It was flooded, plaster was everywhere,” PattonSpruill says, scrunching his face in mock disgust at the memories. “Henry hadn’t lived in there for decades. Everything was falling apart … He had died, and his estate was looking to get rid of it.” Soon after the pimps were eradicated and things like plumbing, floorboards, and electric were restored in their living and bedrooms, the family turned some proactive attention to the garages, which by 2003 were disheveled but rid of the dealers and renters. Patton-Spruill and Moreno spent several hundred thousand dollars moving their company, FilmShack, into the largest garage, which served as their home base for production through five feature films, including the Public Enemy documentary Welcome to the Terrordome and hundreds of commercial projects. Until that work dried up. “By ’08, all this gear was irrelevant.” Patton-Spruill points to remnants of a once-thriving studio where he and Moreno trained young people from the area in various aspects of filmmaking. He continues: “It became useless to me, because most of the people who work with me can work from home. We use laptops now. The technology changed.” He feels the same about the main house, all six bedrooms and five bathrooms of it. “I don’t want to hold on to something I don’t need and can’t afford,” says Patton-Spruill. Among other expenses, he says the roughly $10,000 in annual taxes are burdensome on his professor’s salary and that he has
insurmountable expenses from a grandmother in elder care. “I am on the broke side right now,” he says, “and there is a cloud over my title.” UNDER CONSTRUCTION By 2001, the Boston Globe home section was already giddy about Highland Park revitalization. Gushing about another gem on Lambert that was brought back to life, the broadsheet quoted an investor who transformed a burnt-out bomb into a $429,000 listing: “People who have lived in the neighborhood all their lives stop by to say how happy they are that this house is being restored. This is a very close-knit neighborhood that’s in transition.” A real estate broker added, “few homes are for sale in the neighborhood, and houses that come on the market sell quickly.” Giving a brief informal tour of the neighborhood, Patton-Spruill stops to scrutinize a nifty row of tripledeckers on the corner of Dorr Street. The razor-sharp facade looks like a structure you might see in swanky parts of Cambridge or San Fran, right down to the older white couple approaching the door holding a cake, an image that the lifelong resident of Highland Park says would have been unlikely two decades ago. “Only rich people can afford to live here,” he says. “All the new stuff is market rate.” Patton-Spruill explains that he began discussions about selling to the developer of said pointy “sustainable E-townhomes,” but says the deal did not make sense for him financially, plus he decided that the ultramodern style would look absurd on his lot. After thinking it over, he and Moreno decided to look for a buyer who would work within the codes that Patton-Spruill helped write in the late ’90s with the city and the Highland Park Project Review Committee. Even back then, active neighbors were beginning to get weary of the builders eyeing their community. Driving around, Patton-Spruill points out some of the newly built structures he finds impressive, or at least relatively inoffensive for an area where two-bedroom apartments in formerly boarded-up buildings now sell for north of $600,000. “This is all new in the last five years,” he says. On Cedar Street, Patton-Spruill identifies a relatively subtle recent buildout he says was done tastefully. The project was done by contractor Joe LaRosa, the developer to whom Patton-Spruill and Moreno are trying to sell. As even those who oppose the plans to replace the garages with six units concede, a similar six-unit LaRosa structure at 88 Lambert—in place of the current garages—is well within the current zoning regulations. Nevertheless, many say they are unhappy with LaRosa’s work on Cedar Street, as well as with his history of bulldozing old houses and renting to college students. “He’s not beholden to anything we say, that’s pretty clear,” says Rodney Singleton, who moved into the neighborhood the same year Patton-Spruill bought 88 Lambert. “We have to continually call out this kind of development for what it is.” At a macro level, Singleton blames Marty Walsh. NEWS TO US
‘ACTIVISM GONE WRONG’ On the Native American soil that merchant Captain William Lambert put a claim on in the 18th century, the main house at 88 Lambert was originally built by architect Richard Bond (it is not definitively known when the accompanying carriage house was built, though PattonSpruill says that it first appears in images of the land from the 1890s). Bond apparently designed the home for the Lambert family, but wound up buying and residing in his own creation from 1836 until his passing 27 years later. Well-regarded in early 19th-century Boston, the architect was one-half of the team of [Isaiah] Rogers & Bond, which designed First Parish Church in Cambridge, as well as Lewis Wharf. One neighbor who helped petition the Landmarks Commission says 88 Lambert “encapsulates everything about Roxbury.” In other words, the grounds that PattonSpruill wants to sell are unique because their ownership legacy reflects all of the groups that have settled in Roxbury for almost two centuries—from European settlers, to Brahmins, to African-Americans. Furthermore, Hampton may have done some documentary work there, and physical civil rights landmarks are rare and highly prized. Patton-Spruill counters: “It’s activism gone wrong.” He questions why the forces fighting him in Fort Hill haven’t made a landmark case out of another house on Lambert with the same exact skeleton, or in regards to another 19th-century home, owned by one of the neighbors fighting his sale, which has sat empty for decades. He continues: “I even brought up [the neighbor’s abandoned home] at a community meeting, and someone actually said out loud, ‘Well, at least it’s still there … Everyone is an activist and a preservation guru now. They got the neighborhood together.” Following community meetings about the potential historic significance of 88 Lambert, including tributes to the original architect Bond as well as one to Hampton on the 30th anniversary of Eyes on the Prize, the Boston Landmarks Commission started the design review process, which could go on for months or longer. On Aug 22, commissioners also temporarily rejected a proposal to demolish the garages, effectively killing any chances Patton-Spruill has of selling any part of his property soon. “We were supposed to be out of here on June 23,” Patton-Spruill says. He wants to spend more time in New Hampshire, where he and Moreno have a second-career operation distilling spirits. “We can’t afford it anymore … It’s an awesome house, no one’s denying it. But no one wants to tear down the house.” He looks at the shacks, two of which have now been totally abandoned for decades. “These garages were not made by a famous architect. A couple of filmmakers have left their junk in it, Chuck D [of Public Enemy] hung out, had a fish sandwich. That’s it. Shouldn’t that space be used as a house, with a yard, and a garden, and parking? It’s kind of ridiculous for the neighbors to say, ‘Nope, those are historical garages.’” Patton-Spruill continues: “Now it’s all about [Henry] Hampton. Since 2005, more and more of my neighbors are white, and now everyone is talking about black history.” FEATURE
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AN AMAZON NORTH ANDOVER DEAL? APPARENT HORIZON
Merrimack Valley pols courting the tech behemoth have forgotten recent history BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS
A couple of weeks ago, I criticized the possibility of an Amazon Boston deal—on the grounds that most of the jobs it would provide would be for software engineers, not our struggling local working class. And that allowing a single company to build a 50,000-employee operation here overnight would give it way too much political economic power in our region. However, it’s not just Boston politicians who are hot to dump vast amounts of public funds on the huge multinational. Several other Massachusetts cities and towns are following suit. Perhaps the strongest proposal of that group of entrants is coming from four municipalities in the Merrimack Valley region of the state: Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen, and North Andover. They are offering to broker a deal with the owners of the underutilized 1.8 millionsquare-foot industrial facility called Osgood Landing in North Andover. This could conceivably fit Amazon’s bill, although the site is not located in the midst of a major city. Which the company has made clear is a priority. Also at issue is that Osgood Landing’s owners have been working to build a giant marijuana farm on the site instead. But the siren call of ready corporate cash will likely be enough to change their minds given that they’ve already signaled their support for the new venture. Lost in most of the media chatter about the drive to “win” the Amazon deal is the fact that Osgood Landing was once a Lucent plant— and the context of its shutdown is completely absent. Lucent was the successor corporation to Western Electric. Which was better known as the old AT&T’s manufacturing division. And the North Andover plant was once Western Electric’s Merrimack Valley Works. Which built the transmission equipment that kept the nation’s phone system going. The company set up shop in Haverhill and Lawrence during World War II—just as the region’s famed textile and shoe industries began to decline. In 1956, it opened the North Andover plant and consolidated its regional operations there, becoming the new dominant industry in the area. The jobs at the Merrimack Valley Works were mostly unionized, and they raised thousands of local families into the ranks of the middle class. But the chaos following the federally ordered breakup of AT&T’s near-monopoly of the US telephone system in 1984 saw the plant’s workforce fall from over 12,000 at the height of the Western Electric era in the 1970s, to 7,000 in 1991, to 5,500 under Lucent in 2001 (well into a quick collapse five years after taking over the Western Electric business)… to zero in 2008, after the French telecom multinational Alcatel bought Lucent in 2006 and ordered the facility’s shutdown. The plant itself had already been sold to current owner Ozzy Properties in 2003. Alcatel-Lucent ended up being absorbed by Nokia in 2016. Ironically, this sad outcome was predicted by local policy experts. In 1991, according to the “History Corner” of the Lucent Retirees’ website, “the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission investigated what the potential loss of … the Merrimack Valley Works might cost the region. The study found that a worst case decline that eliminated the plant’s then 7,000 jobs would cost 15 Valley communities $880 million. Lost supply orders for smaller companies in the area would eliminate another 7,700 secondary jobs.” That all came to pass by 2008. Compounding the damage already done by the loss of the other 5,000-plus jobs at the plant between the 1970s and the early 1990s. Lucent’s unions slowed but ultimately could not stop the destruction of thousands more good jobs in the Merrimack Valley. Which highlights the problem of spending public money to attract giant corporations like Amazon. Big companies can change their plans at the drop of a dime. And, without the kind of government regulation and unionization that major companies like AT&T had to operate under between WWII and the 1970s, the promised 50,000 jobs can become no jobs in the blink of an eye. Because who’s to stop an anti-regulation, anti-union company like Amazon from shutting down an operation as fast as it sets it up in this era? No one. No one at all. And, naturally, regions that fall for this “jobs creation” shell game have no plan B. One would think that political leaders in Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen, and North Andover, informed by their own regional planners, would remember such history and focus on more sustainable economic development options. After all, the 2013 Merrimack Valley Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy produced by the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission stated, “The region’s best prospects for future economic growth are its local entrepreneurs.” Local entrepreneurs like the Osgood Landing owners, if they choose to start their marijuana farm rather than grab for the brass ring Amazon could offer them. A sustainable “growth” industry if ever there was one that could provide an estimated 2,500 good jobs to the region—two-thirds of which would not require college degrees. But it seems like local residents, perhaps with former Lucent employees in the lead, will now have to remind their elected officials. If not in lobby days and protests prior to an Amazon deal, then definitely at the ballot box come next election should such a disastrous initiative ever actually come to pass.
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APPARENT HORIZON IS SYNDICATED BY THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM. JASON PRAMAS IS BINJ’S NETWORK DIRECTOR, AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR AND ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER OF DIGBOSTON.
SKETCH OF THE MERRIMACK VALLEY WORKS PLANT AT NORTH ANDOVER WHILE UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN 1955
THE BIG BONG THEORY TALKING JOINTS MEMO
TV review: Disjointed on Netflix BY CITIZEN STRAIN
Though Disjointed is shamelessly pro-weed, the kind of pot propaganda that we typically endorse, don’t bother messing with the Netflix original comedy if you’re the kind of cannabis aficionado who wastes hours debating the origins of OG Kush, or any strain for that matter (please save your emails and terpene analyses, I won’t read any of them). As the program’s star attraction, the lines and antics brought by Kathy Bates playing an LA dispensary owner alone may excite younger heads, or perhaps people who still watch the same old stoner flicks that they adored as teens. Otherwise, the show is the sitcom equivalent to mainstream weed coverage, whereas the far more realistic HBO show High Maintenance is like High Times. Or DigBoston. It’s not a total waste; there are moments in which cannabis particulars are handled responsibly, even convincingly. But for significant stretches, Disjointed is a marijuana mallet in the same way that, to the annoyance of many, The Big Bang Theory punches with nerd joke after nerd joke, or at least did in its earliest, most irritating seasons. With Disjointed, the same comical devices turn up again and again, and pivot too directly off of easy pot tropes—namely, that someone says or does something goofy because, you guessed it, they are hella stoned. All of which gets in the way whenever Disjointed attempts to be somewhat conscious or intelligent. In one episode, dispensary workers fear that a competitor could become “the Walmart of cannabis.” And while such jabs and independent sentiments may graze the corporate establishment—particularly those which are increasingly dominating the weed world—their impact is typically blunted, pun intended. In another instance, the important issue of whether a shop owner should be responsible for somebody using their product in the parking lot comes up, only to quickly take a hard turn into sexual territory, and not for the sake of a good joke. Do you remember why That ’80s Show failed? Because unlike its ’70s counterpart, which gave us memorable characters, the spinoff lunged for every cheap punchline about clunky analog phones and Michael Jackson jackets it could muster. On that note, Disjointed writers should remember that Cheers wasn’t about beer, Doogie Howser, M.D. wasn’t about doctors, and Wings wasn’t about air travel. They should also decide if they’re going to skewer the commercial pot industry, like Silicon Valley does startup culture. If not, they should stop pretending. And disappointing. Most importantly, though, it’s never such a good idea to seed a whole entire dialogue around a single topic, and in this case, weed doesn’t need to be the centerpiece. On the other hand, there is some promising news. As episodes advance, they get funnier and reach farther outside of the cliche realm. Perhaps the actors just got better at pretending they are high throughout the tapings, or maybe they’re just faking it less. Considering that dispensary workers, from what I’ve observed firsthand in several states in both medical and legal situations, are more often than not intellectual or impressively science-minded and are rarely downright stoned, the best way for Disjointed to connect at an authentic level is for characters to play it relatively straight. Only then will its clever pot jokes blossom beyond the banality and corniness that we’ve unfortunately come to accept from stereotypical cannabis culture.
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THE FUTURE IS NOW ART NEWS
Four-day contemporary arts bonanza upon us once again BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON Boston arts community. So, while the brand has grown exponentially and continues to gain more national recognition, we’re hoping this momentum will also bring up Boston artists at the same time. What’s something that’s completely different this year versus past Future Arts events? This is the first year Future Arts has been opened up to an all-ages crowd. Being in Future Arts as a young artist, close to 10 years ago, was a pivotal point for me as a young artist and curator. I really hope other young people will be moved the way that I was, inspiring them to throw their own events and/or make more art. Oh! And one other thing that’s new this year is the art brunch on Sunday at the W Hotel. Appreciating art is not limited to staring at a gallery-styled wall—we want artists and art supporters to be able to interact and for everyone to just have a good time.
“WHAT ONCE WAS (LINDEN STREET)” BY ADAM O’DAY
It’s a noble tagline. As Future Arts organizers put it, the festival has faithfully been showcasing local and national, emerging and established artists in New England since 2008. Better yet, the annual blowout has grown right along with a number of creatives it has helped flash big bright lights on, illuminating nontraditional talents from the Bay Area to Boston. This year’s four-day schedule of events for Future Arts is baffling. From the music (ABADABAD, STL GLD, Tiger Man WOAH, as well as several kickass acts that don’t use all caps), to live painting, tangential parties, and an artist roster that includes the likes of Felipe Ortiz, Merkthose, TofuSquirrel, AngelOnce, and Dave Tree. We got the rundown from longtime Dig friend Shayna Yasuhara, the director of artist relations for Future Arts whose own work will be on display as well. This is billed as “Boston’s largest contemporary arts festival.” What is “contemporary art” by your definition, and as far as the parameters of this festival are concerned? Contemporary art is an umbrella term used to define a wide range of works, by living artists. We purposely chose to keep the term broad, leaving space to showcase a diverse range of styles and mediums, from both emerging and established artists.
I’m in San Francisco and we both still feel an incredible loyalty to the Boston arts community.
What are the roots of the Future Arts Festival, and how would you describe the evolution of events over the last nine years? This is the first year since Jon Regan, founder of Future Arts, has moved out to the West Coast. I’m in San Francisco and we both still feel an incredible loyalty to the
There are a lot of artists participating, but give us a quick run-down of a couple of people who really stand out to you and the curating team, and tell me what really excites you about their work. I can’t pick favorites! But there is good mix of international heavy hitters like Amara Por Dios and talented emerging artists such as Danielle Coenen. On top of sharing a lot of Boston talent, the show serves as a reunion, bringing together artists who may have moved out to New York or other cities. There are not just musicians playing, but in a lot of cases—STL GLD, Hayley Thompson-King, for starters— they’re artists who are deeply woven into the music scene. I’m a true believer that music and art go hand in hand, both improving and expanding on the other. We wanted this arts festival to reflect that sentiment. We’ve expanded the festival to four days and, to match a stacked lineup of artists, we needed the musical lineup to be just as robust. With all the mixing of so-called high art and so-called low art, and downtown galleries selling what used to be considered street art for big money, where are the lines still drawn between all this stuff, if at all? At this point, it feels like all the lines are blurred. I’m glad street art has been recognized in the art world and that it’s become more documented, but I try to avoid thinking too much about the money aspect of it. Traditional galleries tend to rely heavily on their art sales in order to pay their rent, so you will see the most commercial work there. We are hoping to get more creative in how we cover our costs so that the type of art we show is not jeopardized. I like to curate with a gut instinct not based on trends, and in turn, I like artists who are everevolving and not just making art with sales in mind either.
BY IAN STABER
larger, more comprehensive scenes, but when it comes to the kind of work we will be seeing at Future Arts, what are some similarities and major differences between Boston and some of the trends you’ve noticed in Cali? As an artist who was just getting their start right around the time of the first Future Arts, this was a pivotal experience for me. Future Arts was one of my first big shows. It really formed me as an artist and later as a curator. I’ve been pursuing both ever since. In the San Francisco Bay Area there [are] so many shows and art events it’s difficult to get a good lay of the land. In Boston, it seems there are still plenty of artists but less curators, so big shows seem to happen less often. One thing I will say is that when a show does come together, Boston rallies. You will see artists and art supporters come out of the woodwork. It’s truly amazing. Out of curiosity—how might an artist from out of town haul all their shit to Boston across the country for a show like this? Teamwork makes the dream work! We have members of our operational team based in Boston and receiving art shipments for the show. Since there are quite a few artists being featured, each one will be showing a sampling of their work, which cuts down on any one artist shipping a huge amount of work. The whole thing is a coming together of community.
You’ve helped organize big shows like this in the Boston area for a while. How has that changed? From the spaces that artists are able to show, to the kind of work they’re selling and that people are really looking for, to the prices that they’re getting for their work. Overall, the internet has given a lot more artists and galleries a platform to show work all the time, which is great. But not all artwork translates nicely onto a screen. You’ve got to see it in person! Art shows are an experience and should be valued as such. There’s always room for more opportunities. You’ve also worked quite a bit on the West Coast. Obviously bigger cities like Oakland and Los Angeles have
BY NICHOLAS PINCIARO
>> FUTURE ARTS FESTIVAL. THU 10.5–SUN 10.8. ARTS AT THE ARMORY AND OTHER VENUES. MORE INFO AT FUTUREARTSFESTIVAL.COM 10
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O’SULLIVAN & MOYLETTE IN THE RING PHOTO BY MAIA KENNEDY
BOXING PUNKS SPORTS FEATURE
Boston-based fighters promoted by Dropkick Murphys’ Ken Casey take the stage at House of Blues Saturday for a nationally televised boxing card BY GEORGE HASSETT @BOSCRIMEWRITER
Punk rock and boxing aren’t paired together often. Or at least not as often as they should be. Which is interesting, since for Dropkick Murphys frontman Ken Casey, the Boston punk scene of the ’90s was the perfect training ground for starting Murphys Boxing, the legendary Mass musician’s growing fight promotions company. “When the band started in the mid-’90s, the punk rock scene at the Rathskeller down Kenmore [Square] was so good and all the bands wanted to play here. We’d book seven bands from seven different cities and those bands owed us a show in their city. In building a live draw for boxing we can make other, bigger promoters come here. I’ve been able to use Boston and how awesome the people are for fights just like I did for shows.” On Saturday, Sept 30, Murphys Boxing and Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions will present a fight card at the House of Blues that will be televised live on ESPN3 at 9 pm, and on ESPN Deportes at midnight. This sort of thing doesn’t happen too often in Boston, and that’s what Casey has been trying to change since he co-founded Murphys Boxing with his friend and business partner Sean Sullivan in 2010. Prior to that, Casey had managed Danny 12
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“Bhoy” O’Connor, a Framingham-based two-time national amateur champion and 2008 Olympic alternate, and had the fire in him to hit even harder in the sports world. “Dropkick Murphys is on autopilot, and I missed the do-it-yourself mentality and wanted to take on a challenge getting into boxing,” Casey says. “It was like the early days of the band—next thing I know I had a roster of 15 fighters.” In the past seven years, Murphys has kept live boxing in Boston alive almost single-handedly, while also promoting fights at Madison Square Garden in New York and in front of 20,000 fans in the United Kingdom. Casey’s experience touring and playing countless shows with the Dropkicks means even local Murphys Boxing matches have the topquality sound, lighting, and presentation that mark major boxing cards. “There’s nothing worse to me than going to a fight in a gym and the lights are up the whole time,” Casey says. “I probably spend $4,000 on lights and the bells and whistles, and that might be the difference between making money and losing money. A lot of promoters might say, ‘Screw it,’ but coming from the entertainment side, that stuff is just as important as having a ring. We take the showmanship approach—even in Melrose, we want the fans to feel like
they’re at the Boston Garden.” Despite all his experience, Casey’s punk rock background doesn’t always brace him for the unpredictability of the ring, where all it takes is a split second for a fighter’s world to violently change. Not all injuries are equal—one boxer on a Murphys card had to cancel because he twisted his ankle on his walk to the ring. Some battle scars are deep, though; one major setback came in seeing O’Connor, Murphys Boxing’s first fighter, get beaten in 2015 on national television. Casey says that it was “heartbreaking,” with his fighter having a momentary lapse and throwing a lazy left-hand, thereafter getting knocked on the canvas. And those are just some of the challenges inside of the ring. Outside the ring, Murphys is continuously waging a war in the cutthroat business of boxing, where entrenched and powerful promoters often refuse to work with relatively new rivals. At the same time, an upstart company like Murphys additionally has an asset in its unique bluecollar fighters—from a boisterous, mustachioed Irishman with a granite chin to decorated amateurs and to North Shore tough guys.
THE LEGACY When bare-knuckle icon John L. Sullivan won the heavyweight crown from Paddy Ryan in 1882, he put Boston on the sports map in a big way. For the next 60 years, the Hub remained an elite boxing city, according to Kevin L. Smith, author of the excellent pictorial history Boston’s Boxing Heritage. Boxing in this city is “a tale of heroes and villains, gangsters and mobsters, contenders and bums, trainers and newspapermen, straight men and cheats,” Smith writes. The list of legends is long… George Dixon was a photographer’s assistant who first became interested in boxing from the conversations he had with the many fighters who visited his studio for portraits. In 1890, Dixon, fighting out of Boston, became the first black world champion in any sport GEORGE DIXON when he won the bantamweight
title. He is also credited with inventing shadowboxing. Perhaps the greatest fighter of all time, Sam Langford came to Boston as a homeless teen around the turn of the 20th century. One day, Langford was fighting a white boy on Washington Street, he said, “when a crowd gathered and became hostile at my accosting the white youth.” He continued: “When the crowd was close to mobbing me, a fine-looking gentleman came forward and silenced them.” That gentleman was George Byers, a veteran boxer who went on to teach Langford the advanced skills he used to win 180 fights, 128 by knockout, in every division from lightweight to heavyweight. Only racial discrimination kept the great Langford from challenging for a title. And then there were the promoters who ran things… From the 1930s through the ’60s, Boston boxing was essentially controlled by three men—Sam Silverman, Rip Valenti, and Johnny Buckley. All three had criminal records and could be described as “Runyonesque,” or from the underworld. Silverman lasted the longest, into the ’70s. As live boxing in Boston began to fade, he faded along with it. SPIKE, STING RAY, AND THE VILLAIN In May 2015, Murphys co-promoted the first world title fight in Boston in almost a decade. Before the main event, an Irish fighter on the undercard, Spike O’Sullivan, one of the Murphys warriors, stole the show. Dressed in a kilt, the boxer scored a second-round knockout over a challenger who had won 29 of 30 fights. Following the victory, O’Sullivan broke into an Irish stepdancing routine. None of this was a surprise for fans of the Irish fighter, who is easily one of the most eccentric characters in boxing today. O’Sullivan’s former sparring partner, Conor McGregor, recently captured the world’s attention with his trash talk and hype, but O’Sullivan can be equally outrageous and has built up a social media following of nearly 100,000 followers on Twitter with his antics. In one video, he sports a mankini and uses a Borat-style accent to taunt the feared middleweight champion, Gennady Golovkin of Kazakhstan. “Spike is such a showman,” Casey says. “His style in the ring is exactly how he is outside of the ring. He’s exciting, but I think he does it a little more tongue-in-cheek and
Spike will just lean in and give his opponent who is trying to act so serious a kiss on the cheek.
humorous than McGregor. Spike will just lean in and give his opponent who is trying to act so serious a kiss on the cheek.” That’s exactly what O’Sullivan did against Irish rival Anthony Fitzgerald, a tough Dublin middleweight who had gone the distance against championship-level competition. In the pre-fight press conference, Fitzgerald shoved O’Sullivan, and O’Sullivan responded by giving him a peck, which only further enraged Fitzgerald. O’Sullivan also bet 100 quid at 50-to-1 odds that he would knock Fitzgerald out in the first round. After one minute of the first round, O’Sullivan landed a devastating right uppercut and actually knocked Fitzgerald out. “I went back to the hotel and kept the party going,” O’Sullivan told DigBoston in his distinctive brogue. “I bought everyone a round to drink and we had a helluva party.” O’Sullivan is predicting a similar ending for Saturday’s main event at the House of Blues, where he will face Nick Quigley of Liverpool, England. “I’m going to come to fight,” he says. “I don’t run around and pick off points. Guys who do that should go do sword fencing instead. I like guys who come to kill each other, and I’m sharpening my tools for war now … Quigley will come to fight, but I’ll knock him out.” On the nontelevised portion of the undercard, another Murphys fighter will continue to build his own respective buzz. “Sting Ray” Ray Moylette is undefeated in six pro fights, and following his latest win two weeks ago, he climbed onto the ropes after a knockdown. “Now I know I can come back.” he says. “You’re going to get hit, but what you do after that defines how you’ll finish.” Moylette is one of the most decorated Irish amateur boxers in history, with more than 300 amateur fights. He won the Junior World Championships in 2008, and trains at the Celtic Warriors Gym with O’Sullivan in Dublin. “The Irish heritage of fighting means a lot itself,” Moylette says. “We were a country that was taken over by England, so the fighting spirit is in everyone. But the boxers—we’re the ones who take the mantle.” Not every Murphys fighter is an Irish transplant. Greg “The Villain” Vendetti is a rugged brawler willing to take two punches to land one. The Stoneham native turned to boxing after a rambunctious youth in which he traded punches in the street and at North Shore carnivals. “I was always drawn to the challenge of combat,” Vendetti says. “I used to work out, but I didn’t really know how to fight, so I started to go to the Somerville Boxing Club, and I realized this is where the real fighters are. I was a gritty, mean guy who got into fights, but boxing added discipline and hard work … If it wasn’t for boxing I don’t know where I’d be.” After some tough losses early in his career, some wrote off Vendetti
as an elite prospect. Casey, however, saw something more in the licensed plumber. “He’ll fight anybody,” Casey says, “and I love his style.” “Inside the boxing community I always felt like I’m the outsider, the underdog, the one everyone expects to lose,” says Vendetti, who recently won the New England junior middleweight championship title. “But I’m not afraid to lose, get knocked out, or die—people appreciate that willingness.” Vendetti fights undefeated Casey Kramlich on Saturday. “He’ll be there for me to hit,” Vendetti says. “I’ll stop him within six rounds.” FIGHT BIZ As tough as in-the-ring action can be, the business side of boxing can also bruise. Along with Casey, two other figures from the music industry have also tried boxing promotions of late. The difference—50 Cent and Jay-Z’s ventures in the fight game have faded or failed, with 50 Cent already bowing out and Jay Z’s Roc Nation Sports struggling. Murphys, however, started small and is increasingly working with the major power brokers in the sport—many of whom refuse to work with each other. “We can make fights because we do work with other promoters,” Casey says. “I’m like Switzerland … I have something they want: Boston, a viable city to put on boxing shows.” He continues: “I don’t know if Jay Z and 50 Cent got their hands dirty on the business side like I did. I’m putting up posters and setting up chairs at the fight … It’s like the difference between a major record label and an independent record label; It’s like the difference between a major record label and an independent record label.” Casey has a lot of irons in the fire. In June, Murphys held its first of four fights at Plainridge Park and Casino. Two weeks ago, Murphys fighter Niall Kennedy won the New England heavyweight championship in an entertaining bout against a fighter with just one previous loss. “When you have a good heavyweight, things open up for you,” Casey says. “These guys—Niall, Ray, and Spike— they’re the equivalent of a sports franchise in Ireland.” A sports franchise in Ireland, but in Boston they more so resemble a local band—an often underrated, hardworking, hardcore outfit that would have fit in at the Rathskeller. The Boston punk scene has certainly yielded a whole lot of tough guys, but the Murphys crew is in a class of its own.
DANNY O’CONNOR VIA O’CONNOR’S FACEBOOK
>> GET YOUR TICKETS TO THE FIGHTS THIS SAT 9.30 AT MURPHYSBOXING.COM NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
13
EATS
FIRST LOOK Best Burger Bar in Brookline BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON
CENTRAL SQUARE CAMBRIDGE
MIDEASTCLUB.COM | ZUZUBAR.COM
(617)864-EAST
THU 9/28 - 7PM JOJO MAYER / NERVE FRI 9/29 - 7PM SONEX DJ CO SAT 9/30 - 8PM
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DOWNSTAIRS
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FRI 9/29 - 8PM DESERT DWELLERS, ATYYA, CHARLESTHEFIRST, BIOLUMIGEN SAT 9/30 - 6PM HAYLEY JANE AND THE PRIMATES (ALBUM RELEASE)
SUN 10/1 - 10PM DENZEL CURRY, SHOW ME THE BODY /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
UPSTAIRS
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THU 9/28 - 8PM OPEN MIKE EAGLE, SCALLOPS HOTEL, ESH THE MONOLITH FRI 9/29 - 8PM MO LOWDA & THE HUMBLE SAT 9/30 - 6:30PM ONE TIME MOUNTAIN, LUSUS, MERCY WHITE SAT 9/30 - 11PM SOULELUJAH SUN 10/1 - 8PM SHOOK TWINS, AURORA BIRCH MON 10/2 - 5PM SOCIAL REPOSE, HOTEL BOOKS, THE FUNERAL PORTRAIT
TUE 10/3 - 7PM
CLOAKROOM, ELIZABETH COLOUR WHEEL, SNEEZE
WED 10/4 - 8PM
AMERICAN AQUARIUM, THE TRONGONE BAND /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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@MIDEASTCLUB @ZUZUBAR @SONIAMIDEAST 14
09.28.17 - 10.05.17 |
DIGBOSTON.COM
Over the past few years, burgers have become all the rage in the Greater Boston area (not that they ever went away, really), with a number of midlevel and relatively upscale burger spots opening up in many pockets of the region, while burger chains such as Five Guys and Smashburger have made their presence increasingly known in the region as well (especially the former, which seems to be everywhere now). Well, the trend seems to be showing no signs of letting up, and yet another new burger place called Best Burger Bar has recently debuted in Brookline Village, though it seemed to open its doors with not a whole lot of fanfare. A recent look at the Washington Street eatery soon after its opening indicated that this spot has some real potential, and not just for its burgers. Best Burger Bar resides in the space on the southern edge of the village where a restaurant/art gallery/events space called the Middle Gray had been until it closed down in March and went “digital,” becoming mainly a collaborative arts organization. Much like that place, the new burger spot has a funky vibe to it, almost looking like a retro diner with a brightly lit red sign out front, a mix of tables and counter/bar seating inside, and a separate dining room to the right that has lots of windows letting light in. A brick floor, large hanging lights, and an old-looking wooden ceiling with exposed beams add some extra character. A patio is also set up out front as well, giving some additional seating when the weather is nice. As hinted at earlier, there is more to Best Burger Bar than just burgers, including the fact that this is also a cocktail bar of sorts—and one interesting side note centers around the person behind the bar program here. When the word first got out that Brother Cleve would be the head mixologist at Best Burger Bar, it helped bring a bit more chatter about the spot, and for good reason—Cleve is a legendary figure within the Bostonarea cocktail scene, and he happens to be a big name on the local music scene as well, playing for local roots/garage rock band the Del Fuegos along with a lounge act called Combustible Edison. The cocktails tried on a recent visit indeed showed the influence of Brother Cleve, but even though the negroni and the manhattan were very solid versions of each, it’s probably important to keep in mind that this is by no means an upscale craft cocktail bar like the Hawthorne in Kenmore Square or Drink in Fort Point, instead being a simple neighborhood hangout for a couple of drinks and a burger. And speaking of burgers, the dry-aged Angus burgers really shine at Best Burger Bar, especially for such a low price point; two burgers that were tried on a recent visit included a gut-busting Big Tex burger with pepper jack cheese, bacon, house-made BBQ sauce, and onion rings; and a burger called Le Big Mac which pretty much blows away the McDonald’s Big Mac (which really isn’t such a bad burger when you think about it). Some of the other food items offered include an excellent version of poutine with fries, brown gravy, and cheese curds, though perhaps even more impressive is the simple but oh-so-good fries with manchego cheese on top. A veggie burger is available in addition to beef burgers, and hot dogs and wings are offered as well. For those who would rather opt for a drink other than a cocktail, Best Burger Bar has some craft beers from the local area and elsewhere available (with beers from Two Roads and Lagunitas being a couple of options), and it will also be serving boozy milkshakes at some point, though as of this writing, they were not available just yet. While really more of an unassuming local spot, Best Burger Bar does seem like a place with great potential, especially based on the burgers tried there, though the sides and cocktails also impressed for the most part. It’s interesting that this place kind of snuck into the neighborhood around the time that a highly anticipated burger spot called Worthy Kitchen was canceling its plans to open in the same block, much to the disappointment of many in the Boston area. (Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock, Vermont, and Worthy Burger in nearby South Royalton are almost cult-like places for lovers of burgers and beers.) But even though there will apparently be no Worthy Kitchen in Brookline Village after all, Best Burger Bar isn’t too far off in quality and is in some ways a similar place, so one burger place’s loss is another’s gain, and for the people who live in this little section of Brookline, this dining spot certainly does seem to fill a niche even in these burger-crazy times. [Ed note: Best Burger Bar, which offered dinner only when it first opened, began lunch service as well in mid-September.]
PHOTOS BY MARC HURWITZ
THE BOSTON SHAI PARTY:
THE ARAB AMERICAN COMEDY SHOW SUN 10/1 - 8PM TOGETHER PANGEA, TALL JUAN, DADDY ISSUES
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
15
FUZZSTIVAL 2017 MUSIC
A guide to who’s who at the 5th annual music festival BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN FUZZSTIVAL IMAGE JOHN MAGNIFICO OF MAGNIFICO DESIGN
If you put Fuzzstival from three years ago next to the Fuzzstival of today, the differences are stark—for the better. What once was a psych and punk-only music festival has morphed into a music festival about the punk mindset in general. This upcoming weekend, the festival celebrates its fifth edition, and it boasts undeniably its best lineup yet. “I just want to highlight local and regional bands,” says Jason Trefts, the founder of booking company Illegally Blind. “I try to make the festival an expansion of Boston’s music, and I feel like this year’s lineup goes much deeper than the first versions.” The three day festival, which spans Sept 28 to Sept 30, is an all-ages event, which means it truly shows attendees of all backgrounds how phenomenal our region’s music scene is. Though it hops to a new venue each day—Massasoit Elks Lodge, ONCE Somerville, and Somerville ARTFarm respectively—daily tickets cost $15, or a three-day ticket can be purchased for $30. While this year’s lineup is stacked, boasting artists like Dent, Ovlov, Kal Marks, Kominas, Horse Jumper of Love, and more, it’s the rest of the bill that has us excited. So read on for a cheat sheet of who’s who to see at the festival. Whose performance will leave a mark on the audience? Who’s an unexpected name on the bill? And which early-slotted act will blow up in years to come? To guide you through the stacked lineup, we share our must-sees alongside Treft’s own picks.
Check digboston.com for the full rundown.
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
THE STUPEFYING SET DIGBOSTON: Halfsour. There’s no faster way to uplift your mood than seeing Halfsour live. The Boston act is power pop whose melodies pack a hell of a payoff, like a seamless hybrid of early Radiator Hospital and Bent Shapes. Live, Zoe Wyner’s voice carries the exuberance that fills your body on the first day of summer, even when she’s singing about less-thanstellar life struggles.
THE STUPEFYING SET DIGBOSTON: Bat House. We’ve said it time and time again, but we mean it: This Berklee-bred band is mindblowing live. With just a tinge of math rock, oddball sampling, and indie pop thrown into their brand of feverish psych rock, Bat House hit the ground running during their live shows and refuse to let up until they’ve sprinted across the finish line. Watching drummer Pompy alone will give you the spins.
THE RISING STARS DIGBOSTON: Boston Cream. Any chance to hear nonrock bands in Boston is a welcome one, so it’s comical that newcomers Boston Cream deviate from the standard sound while claiming a quintessential moniker. Come to their set expecting disco-flavored bossa nova grooves, leave dreaming of electro-punk dance, and don’t be surprised if you hear their music circulating beyond city borders sometime between then.
ILLEGALLY BLIND: A Band Called E. It’s shocking to me how few people realize who Thalia Zedek is. Not just her, but Jason Sanford and his old band Neptune. They’re true OGs. If you sit and have a conversation with Thalia, she’s hung out with everyone’s favorite bands and played shows with them. She’s one of those people. On top of it, she’s just a badass, and I think that goes overlooked because they aren’t as young as the local bands that usually get booked at shows.
ILLEGALLY BLIND: Peach Ring. It’s all in their hands at this point. Rose has been one of the best guitarists in the scene here for years. To see her find a project that showcases what she can do on guitar? She’s very versatile. And then Ari? She’s a new performer, but how much she’s improved in a short period of time is crazy, and she also has natural energy and a cool voice on top of it. I really look forward to whatever they do.
THE SURPRISE GRAB DIGBOSTON: Way Out. The Providence punks skate under the radar, so any chance to see them on a bill is one worth taking. It’s pure ’80s post-punk, all the way down to the yelped, urgent, nearly falsetto singing. Some thick electronictoned bass holds it all together, giving Way Out a leg up on any other band on the bill determined to make you dance on your own.
THE SURPRISE GRAB DIGBOSTON: MV & EE. Part of the history of this area is the freak-folk scene of Vermont. They’re not only a great act to represent it, but they’re one of the innovators of that scene. Plus Ryley Walker spent five minutes on a Rough Trade podcast talking about how important they are to his career, in case it wasn’t vibe-approved enough already.
6-11:30PM at Massasoit Elks Lodge, 55 Bishop Allen Dr., Cambridge
ILLEGALLY BLIND: La Neve. I’m excited to see people’s reaction to that. Most people haven’t seen Joey [La Neve DeFrancesco] solo stuff outside of Downtown Boys. The style is electro-punk on record, but then when I’ve seen the show, Joey pulls it off. It has a super punk vibe that doesn’t sound like other bands I’m hearing right now. There’s no guitars. It’s just Joey and beats. I’m glad to have a little bit of that on the bill this year. THE RISING STARS DIGBOSTON: Germ House. It’s an underground supergroup of ex-Boston bands: Justin Hubbard (Turpentine Brothers), Tara McManus-Hubbard (Mr. Airplane Man), and Joe Ayoub (Marked Men). Like the rest of Trouble In Mind Records’ roster (Mikal Cronin, Omni, Negative Scanner), they manage to mix a cozy sound of jangle pop and garage slop. Their upcoming material is their best yet, and the only way to hear it is seeing ’em live. ILLEGALLY BLIND: Blau Blau. Post-punk has been the music of my life. Anytime I hear a new post-punk band that’s hitting notes like that, it grabs my attention. Lira [Mondal] is an amazing vocalist, and the way that they all play? I know that they dig deep into the music of the past and appreciate it. You can hear it in their music. The set they did with Protomartyr and John Maus, they destroyed it, and I’m sure I won’t be the only one saying that this time around. Lira is just very special, and there’s something undeniable about her talent.
6PM-midnight at ONCE Somerville, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville
ILLEGALLY BLIND: Ava Luna. I was really happy to lock them in because their music is amazing. I love that they’re willing to push the boundaries. I don’t want it to be heavy guitar bands. A band like Ava Luna, where their fan base moves throughout places, is a great representation of what Fuzzstival is—they sound different on each record, each member does different parts in the band, and they change your opinion.
1-8PM at Somerville ARTFarm for Social Innovation, 10 Poplar St., Somerville
ILLEGALLY BLIND: KXDX. It’s Kurt Heasley from LILYS’ new band. LILYS are shoegaze legends, and they were a band I was always trying to get on the bill. I knew that’s not happening much, but it just so happened that he was working with this new band and would be in the area around this time. It fell in the lap, which was perfect. I’d been trying to book one of Kurt’s new bands for a long time.
>> BOSTON FUZZSTIVAL 2017. THU 9.28– SAT 9.30. VARIOUS VENUES, CAMBRIDGE AND SOMERVILLE. ALL AGES/$15-30. ILLEGALLYBLINDPRESENTS.COM
MUSIC EVENTS THU 9.28
SAT 9.30
[Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston. 8pm/18+/$22.50. royaleboston.com]
[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 7pm/18+/$15. sinclaircambridge.com]
DANCE POP FOR DRUGGED PUNKS CRYSTAL CASTLES + FARROWS
16
09.28.17 - 10.05.17 |
THREE FUTURES, ONE POWERFUL PAST TORRES + THE DOVE & THE WOLF
DIGBOSTON.COM
SUN 10.01
HARDCORE PUNK GETS A MAKEOVER TOUCHE AMORE + SINGLE MOTHERS + GOUGE AWAY [The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 7pm/all ages/$15. sinclaircambridge.com]
MON 10.02
AUTUMN OF THE SERAPHS 10TH ANNIVERSARY PINBACK + SAVAK
[Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston. 7pm/18+/$20. crossroadspresents.com]
TUE 10.03
TUE 10.03
[Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 7pm/all ages/$12. mideastoffers.com]
[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/$10. greatscottboston.com]
SHOEGAZE DOOM FROM INDIANA CLOAKROOM + ELIZABETH COLOUR WHEEL + SNEEZE
BOSTON’S FRESHMAN CLASS OF HIP-HOP SEAN WIRE + KADEEM + ALEJANDRO BLANCO + NICK SHEA
WHEEL OF TUNES MUSIC
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opening this fall
Indie poppers Alvvays talk sleeptalking, underrated shoes, and Rick and Morty
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BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN For a sizeable chunk of indie rock, saccharine melodies and lightly strummed riffs become indistinguishable, the type of songs one learns by rote without even trying to. A few bands skate through the pleasant pastel tones, though, finding their own voices in a genre that’s often guilty of homogenization. One of the most recent bands to do so, Alvvays, makes it seem like a breeze. The Toronto indie pop band dropped its self-titled debut back in 2014. If the coy lyrics of “Archie, Marry Me” didn’t win you over, the slightly sad vocals and strangely nostalgic songs that followed certainly would. Vocalist Molly Rankin, keyboardist Kerri MacLellan, guitarist Alec O’Hanley, bassist Brian Murphy, and drummer Sheridan Riley found a way to make it their own. It’s an album that rocketed them to minor-league fame, letting listeners and critics alike place the band in a bubble of quaint indie rock. But on the band’s sophomore LP, this year’s Antisocialites, they prove they’re more than one-hit wonders or 2D cutouts. “Pride isn’t a feeling I often have, but I am proud that I’m in a band with a woman who can write melodic and lyrical circles around most of her peers. Whether you relate to the records or not, it boils down to your feelings on the songs, and ultimately the hooks are the hook,” says Alec O’Hanley. “There is a cube that people put you in. You either kick that cube to the side and find another cube to place yourself inside of, or get to know your cube. We decided to strain against the one that we’re in. At the same time, we are quite happy with our first record, we loved the response, and we wanted to see what would happen if we just subtly pushed what it is we do and the parameters of our band.” To dig deeper into the band’s backstory, we interviewed O’Hanley for a round of Wheel of Tunes, a series where we ask bands questions inspired by their song titles. Turns out Alvvays is even more inventive than its made-up name suggests. 1. “In Undertow” Where’s your favorite place to go swimming? The last place that I really had a ball swimming was in the channel on the south coast of Brighton in England. My favorite childhood swimming spot or hole would have been in Prince Edward Island. It had a nice bridge over a little fishing channel that all the kids would run up to and hop off, and the current would swirl you out on the shore before you got sucked in. You would rinse and repeat about 100 times a day. We haven’t done a ton of swimming in Lake Ontario, but I know Molly likes Gibraltar Point a lot. 2. “Dreams Tonite” What’s the weirdest dream you’ve had while on tour? I’m not a heavy dreamer, but I do recall one time with Kerri [MacLellan] and Molly [Rankin] when sharing a hotel bed a few years ago. Molly had woken before Kerri, and she heard Kerri, who must have been having some apocalyptic dream of some sort, sleep-talking something to the effect of “It’s too late. We have to leave Molly behind.” It’s one of those things we can dangle over the other’s head for a long time now. 3. “Plimsoll Punks” What’s a dependable shoe brand that doesn’t get enough love? We’re partial to Keds. It sort of isn’t thought of as often as it might be because it’s a humble shoe or that of kids and nurses. Some kids may not find it as flashy as Reebok or Nike.
10.16 10.17 10.19
MAX WEINBERG’S JUKEBOX INCOGNITO ANDERS OSBORNE & JACKIE GREENE (TWO SHOWS) RUSTED ROOT DORI FREEMAN IN THE HAYMARKET LOUNGE AN INTIMATE EVENING W/ RICKIE LEE JONES ALBERT CUMMINGS QUINN SULLIVAN LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III W/ LUCY WAINWRIGHT ROCHE ART GARFUNKEL IN CLOSE-UP KRISTIN HERSH & TANYA DONELLY CRAIG FINN & THE UPTOWN CONTROLLERS PLUS JOHN K. SAMSON RENAISSANCE: A SYMPHONIC JOURNEY COWBOY JUNKIES BLUE WATER HIGHWAY BAND IN THE HAYMARKET LOUNGE SHAWN COLVIN & HER BAND W/ LARRY CAMPBELL AND TERESA WILLIAMS HOLLY NEAR W/ TAMMY HALL & JAN MARTINELLI (EARLY SHOW) THE WEEPIES COMPLETELY ACOUSTIC & ALONE (TWO SHOWS) TALIB KWELI LOS LONELY BOYS W/ LISA MORALES LEFTOVER SALMON (TWO SHOWS) MARIZA ERIN HARPE AND THE DELTA SWINGERS IN THE HAYMARKET LOUNGE ANTHONY GERACI & THE HIPNOTICS IN THE HAYMARKET LOUNGE DAN ZANES’ LEAD BELLY PROJECT DAVID CROSBY & FRIENDS SKY TRAILS TOUR 2017 PAUL THORN HAMMER & NAIL 20TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR LLOYD COLE MARC BROUSSARD IAN HUNTER & THE RANT BAND ROBERT PINSKY’S POEMJAZZ (EARLY SHOW) POSITIVELY BOB WILLIE NILE SINGS BOB DYLAN DOYLE BRAMHALL II AZTEC TWO-STEP AN EVENING W/ MELISSA FERRICK KINDRED THE FAMILY SOUL W/ THE CURTIS MAYFLOWER RUFUS WAINWRIGHT W/ MELISSA FERRICK JOHNNY A
10.20 10.20 10.21 10.22 10.24 10.25 10.26–27 10.28–29 10.30 11.1 11.2 11.2 11.3-4 11.5 11.5 11.7 11.8 11.9 11.10-12 11.11 11.12 11.12 11.13 11.14 11.15 11.16–17 11.18 11.19 11.19 11.21 11.24 11.25 11.26 11.28-29 11.30
4. “Your Type” Do you have a type, romantically speaking? I don’t know [laughs]. I guess creative, smart folks like Molly.
9.28 9.29 9.29
5. “Not My Baby” What’s a good way to keep a baby occupied while babysitting? I did a bit of babysitting when I was younger, like looking after neighborhood kids. I remember swinging a kid around by his arms until he wet his pants, which was kind of awkward. So maybe don’t do anything too strenuous like that. Kerri has been the big babysitter as of late. I don’t know if she does it anymore. I would imagine it’s all plop ’em in front of the screen if you’re looking for a great digital tranquilizer, because there’s nothing like an iPad. You should run that by the parents first. Anything outside would be great to do anytime, though.
10.10
city winery Presents
JOHN POPPER W/ KATRINA WOOLVERTON AT LAUGH BOSTON DAN WILSON AT THE RED ROOM @ CAFE 939 THE CHURCH W/ THE HELIO SEQUENCE AT THE CENTER FOR ARTS NATICK EILEN JEWELL W/ MISS TESS AT LAUGH BOSTON
&
6. “Hey” Most people say hello or goodbye to their parents in the same way. How do you greet yours whenever you see them? I give them a hug, typically, since I only see them once a year or so. My dad is quite a vicarious hippie kid, and he’s shown up unannounced to Glastonbury, SXSW, and Coachella. He was quite well-prepared with his wellies and fishing hat tucked into his cargo pants. Parents’ presence can make an already special moment even more intense. So usually it’s a standard pat on the back or a hug of some sort. Not a ton of talking, but I nod along. 7. “Lollipop (Ode To Jim)” Have you ever made yourself sick from eating too much candy? There have been a couple Halloweens where I came home with multiple pillowcases’ worth of high-fructose corn syrup snacks. The next days were a roller coaster. I will raise my hand and say guilty to that one.
Check digboston.com for the full interview.
10.19 CITY WINERY AND AMERICAN AIRLINES PRESENT: GREEK WINE DINNER 10.21 BOSTON WINE CLASS SERIES | WINE 101 INTRO TO WINE 10.30 NAPA VALLEY THEN AND NOW WITH AUTHOR KELLI WHITE 10.31 ESPORAO WINE DINNER 11.8 BOTANICAL GIN LAB 11.10 RIDGE WINE DINNER 11.11 BOSTON WINE CLASS SERIES | WINE 102 SPARKLING TO STILL TO SWEET 12.2 BOSTON WINE CLASS SERIES | WINE 103 WINE AND FOOD PAIRINGS
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FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
17
FILM
FESTIVAL REVIEW
Did You Wonder Who Fired The Gun? BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN
chanted, repeatedly, in protest (“Walter Scott, say his name / Walter Scott, say his name / Walter Scott, say his name / Walter Scott, won’t you say his name?”) . These chapters, or movements, play out with a precisely metered rhythm. One of the movements, loosely remembered, might be organized something like this: First a verse of “Hell You Talmbout” is played, with the names and lyrics emblazoned on screen. We then cut to the road, reddened, with the title superimposed. From there Wilkerson continues narrating his journey toward unveiling whatever facts may remain about the life and death of Bill Spann. As each chapter progresses, Wilkerson continues through the state, starting from tiny counties on its southern end—including Dothan, Cottonwood, and Abbeville—then driving up the aforementioned road toward Attalla. In each location (and in each chapter), he searches for information related to the murder of Spann, conducts interviews toward that purpose, and then inevitably get sidetracked by the larger history of white supremacy in the American south. In the aforementioned chapter, the interview subject is civil rights activist and local politician Ed Vaughn, who can tell Wilkerson about the segregated medical facility that Spann was most likely sent to after the shooting (the Moody Hospital). But Vaughn also details his own family’s history in the fight against white supremacy and racialized violence—his grandfather would help at-risk African-Americans to escape klan strongholds, and he did so by way of a route through Abbeville. That note regarding Abbeville will lead us, in a later movement, to a larger digression about the radical activist actions undertaken by Rosa Parks prior to her iconic Montgomery bus boycott—which also means detailing the way that her radical past has been systematically unwritten from history—which also means considering, in a more general sense, the way that black history has been systematically unwritten from accounts of American history—which then relates back to the complete lack of information available regarding Spann and his family, and how that compares to the surfeit of media available concerning the Wilkersons. What’s
created in these paths is a spiderweb of American history: The patterns of the editing ties knots between people, architecture, landscapes, songs, films, chants, historical records, societal practices, and institutional prejudices. And like so many of the great folk narratives, its telling makes the personal inextricable from both the historical and the political. Anyway, back in this movement, Wilkerson cuts from Vaughn’s interview to the Moody Hospital itself, once again invoking the past—then cuts back into the next verse from “Hell You Talmbout,” dropping us right back into the present, before the next chapter begins this structure anew. And what this structure accomplishes is quite unlike anything I’ve experienced recently—the rhythm of the film itself becomes a chant of its own, one with sounds and images that you may anticipate or internalize, just as you would a verse. Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? recently played at the Camden International Film Festival and will play at the New York Film Festival this weekend. At CIFF, which exclusively shows nonfiction works, Did You Wonder was shown in the form of a traditional film. When it first premiered at Sundance in January, it took a different form altogether: Wilkerson sat to the right of the screen, personally deploying the “loops” and audio clips himself, and reading the film’s narration live. Wilkerson “performed” the film in this manner a few more times at festivals early in 2017, before premiering this current ‘recorded’ version at more recent screenings (Wilkerson, it should be noted, serves not only as director but also as photographer, editor, and producer). In this film version, there are still vestiges of the confrontational manner of his live performance—certain lines in the narration stick out that way, like “this is not a white savior story, this is a white nightmare story,” or, with regards to Harper Lee’s original Mockingbird, “her [story] is liberal—mine is radical.” But the structure, rhythm, and aesthetic of this piece are so inherently cinematic—they’re made of the simplest, and most classical, of cinematic techniques (tints, superimpositions, intertitles)—that it’s hard to even consider this piece existing in any other form. Since it was first performed, the film has seemingly been updated. Reviews from Sundance noted that Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman went unacknowledged in that presentation. But here Wilkerson uses that text—an early, unpublished draft of Mockingbird, featuring a characterization of Finch as a racist, prejudiced man—to further his ideas about the whitewashing of American history. His images of Peck’s Finch are tinted blood red, and Wilkerson’s narration makes his own interpretation of the material very clear: He expresses that it’s no coincidence the canonized version of the character is the one that represents kindhearted white liberalism. It becomes apparent, throughout the picture, that this story could be updated at any given time, as the subjects it investigates— the systematic integration of white supremacy into American life, the effect it has on the histories we record, and our personal culpability in its continuation—continue unabated, like the repeating clips that never reach a resolution. The loop continues on.
FRI 9.29
SAT 9.30
SUN 10.01
[Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 9pm/NR/$7-9. 16mm. hcl.harvard.edu/ hfa]
[Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/NR/$12.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]
The momentum of Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? [2017] is sustained by repetitions. The film is directed by Travis Wilkerson, and it’s ostensibly an investigative one: The filmmaker’s intention, as stated in an opening voiceover, is to research and unveil a murder that was committed by his great-grandfather, S.E. Branch, in 1946. The murder took place in Branch’s own place of business, a grocery store located in Dothan, Alabama. The victim was Bill Spann, an African-American man. And Branch— who was white, as is Wilkerson—was never convicted of the crime, despite the fact that charges were filed. The Alabama-born Wilkerson narrates his travels in the state throughout the film, though we don’t see him in the frame itself. What we do see—in addition to landscape photography, archival material, and a few interview segments—are those repetitions: specific images which repeat within the film’s structure (we return to some of them more than four or five times) and clips that literally repeat on screen (when shown, they play over and over again—they’re listed in the credits as “loops”). The contents of these images and loops vary greatly. Some are in black and white, others are tinted red. One loop features a few moments of 8mm footage of S.E. Branch himself. One features Branch’s wife, and Wilkerson’s great-grandmother, “Mama Jeanie.” One features shots of Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird [1962]. One documents the road to Attalla, Alabama—where civil rights activist William Lewis Moore was killed by a white supremacist in 1963—as seen from the dashboard of what is presumably Wilkerson’s vehicle. Folk musician Phil Ochs wrote a song about that particular crime, “William Moore”—and it’s played repeatedly throughout Did You Wonder as well, another loop contributing to the structure. The title is utilized similarly: The film is separated into chapters, and each begins with an image of the “road to Attalla” with a few words of the title superimposed over the entirety of the frame. Bookending those chapters is yet another loop: a lyric video for Janelle Monae and Wondaland Record’s “Hell You Talmbout,” wherein the names of African-Americans murdered by police are
FILM EVENTS THU 9.28
COMPOSER/MUSICIAN CHRIS BROKAW PRESENTS FIVE FILMS BY PETER HUTTON [1975-2004]
[Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harv Sq., Camb. 7pm/ NR/$12-15. Some films include live Brokaw score. Brattlefilm.org]
18
09.28.17 - 10.05.17 |
THE HFA’S CHANTAL AKERMAN RETROSPECTIVE CONTINUES WITH FROM THE EAST [1993]
DIGBOSTON.COM
COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS MICHAEL POWELL’S PEEPING TOM [1960]
SUN 10.01
AREA PREMIERE OF FREDERICK WISEMAN’S EX LIBRIS: NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY [2017]
[Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. 2p/NR/$11. four additional screenings thru 10.18— mfa.org for showtimes.]
CLOSING NIGHT OF THE SOMERVILLE THEATRE’S 70MM FESTIVAL 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY [1968]
[Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville. 7:30pm/G/$15. 70mm. somervilletheatre.com]
MON 10.02
THE DOCYARD PRESENTS MOTHERLAND [2017]
[Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 8pm/NR/$12. brattlefilm.org]
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FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
19
EVITA SO WHITE
Amid accusations of whitewashing and brownface, North Shore Music Theatre opens Evita BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS With the announcement of North Shore Music Theatre’s cast for Evita earlier this month came nearly instantaneous backlash over the decision to cast the show with almost entirely white actors. North Shore isn’t the first theater to be accused of whitewashing Evita, and questions of cultural appropriation can be traced back to the late 1970s when the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical first premiered. Both Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin, the stars of the original Broadway production, had Evita to thank for launching their careers. And although the outrage then was muted, 1979 was—in many ways—a very, very different time. North Shore’s production is will run from through Oct 8 and stars Briana Carlson-Goodman as Eva and Tony nominee Constantine Maroulis as Che. Situations like this can prove to be invaluable in terms of the kinds of conversations they inspire. But not always. Aside from the problematic way in which NSMT has chosen to cast Evita, equally disturbing has been the way that the theater and owner/producer Bill Hanney have chosen to respond. Friendly, non-confrontational comments challenging the casting of the show were repeatedly deleted from the comments on the theater’s Facebook page. Luis Eduardo Mora, an actor and activist who did not audition for the show, wrote an article for onstageblog.com condemning both the casting and the deletion of comments—which foreshadowed just how unwilling the theater would prove to be in terms of fostering any meaningful conversation. In his article, he writes that comments as innocuous as “No Latinos in the cast?” were banished. Some of the charming comments that were allowed to remain? “Left wing libtards are at it again,” “Go away snowflake,” and “I could care less what you or your liberal cohorts think.” Lovely little endorsements. Lauren Villegas, an actress and activist who founded Project Am I Right?, which seeks to increase awareness within the acting community to end the whitewashing of roles in general, quickly spoke up, and plenty of vitriol was thrown her way. I’m not just talking about disagreements, I’m talking, ugly, frightening stuff that she has asked me
ARTS EVENTS
FREE CONCERT! THE SILKROAD ENSEMBLE WITH YO-YO MA
[OBERON, 2 Arrow St., Cambridge. 9.26 @ 7 PM. amrep.org/ silkroadOBERON] 20
09.28.17 - 10.05.17 |
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FINAL WEEKEND! REVERSIBLE
not to make public. While it was already in poor taste for the theater to silently endorse confrontational and antagonistic comments, even more disturbing is how Villegas was targeted by some close to the theater. One such example came in a since-deleted Facebook post by Matthew Chappell, a (white) Evita cast member who happens to be married to Kevin P. Hill, NSMT’s producing artistic director. (Uh oh.) “Lauren, sweetie, you weren’t in the room,” wrote Chappell. “For you to say they had no intention to hire Latinx actors is not only reckless but also just plain false. Get your shit together. The delightful tirade continued privately. “The fact that they’re encouraging that sort of support by their fans and their community … that’s clearly the sort of thing they foster,” said Villegas. Hanney issued a formal statement, citing an almost 15-year-old award for diversity that NSMT received a decade prior to Hanney taking over as proof that he couldn’t possibly be guilty of whitewashing, and he then gave a few interviews and appeared on WBUR with Villegas. But Hanney didn’t allow for the possibility of any type of discussion and instead stood by his decision to cast almost entirely white actors. His best defense? Eva was played by Patti LuPone. Hanney declined to be interviewed by me, although I was encouraged to send along my questions by email. I did, and he declined to answer those, too. There have been a few official lines of reasoning given by Hanney as to why more care wasn’t taken to cast Latinx actors in these roles. One such excuse reason is that Hanney employs colorblind casting, where shows are cast irrespective of the actors’ race or skin color. Okay. So here what he’s saying is that the best person gets the job, regardless of race, unless the show is about race, such as is the case with something like South Pacific, The Color Purple, or Miss Saigon. This is bullshit. Unless NSMT’s casting consistently reflected this ideal (it doesn’t), then the implication is that all the white people that have auditioned are—across the board—more talented than actors of color. Also? It’s not actually possible to look at a person and not see their color or race. Hanney’s answer to that? A production of Beauty and the Beast that he produced had an African-American Cogsworth, a little person as LeFou, and an Asian Chip. That’s like saying, “I’m not racist, I have a black friend.” Along the same lines, Hanney told WBUR: “I never even thought about that—that type of casting.” Hold on a minute. So the owner and producer of a major regional theater is saying that it never crossed his mind to cast Latinx actors in a musical that takes place in South America. Got it.
[ArtsEmerson at Cutler Majestic Theatre, 219 Tremont St., Boston. Through 9.24. artsemerson.org]
SCOTT EDMISTON DIRECTS CONSTELLATIONS
[Underground Railway Theater at Central Square Theater, 450 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. Through 10.8. centralsquaretheater.org]
But a Latino actor was cast as Che, and he turned it down due to a prior commitment. Maroulis, who is extraordinarily talented, was called in after the fact without even having auditioned. So, yeah, that type of casting had crossed Hanney’s mind. The assertion that Evita is not about race, and can therefore be cast without Latinx actors, is another claim that Hanney has made. “The Latinx community isn’t a race, it’s a culture, so I would have to say it’s absolutely, incredibly about culture,” said Brandon Contreras, an actor who made it pretty far in the casting process for this Evita. “This woman, she came from the ‘descamisados,’ the shirtless ones, the dirty, the poor. Of course she had light skin and dark features. [One excuse] is that she was from the Basque region. Listen. Did she walk around saying she was French? No. She was an Argentinian woman.” Villegas has a similar if more pointed take on the notion that Evita isn’t about race. “By nature, Latin people are very ethnically mixed. So, yeah, I agree with them when they say this isn’t a play about race. Yup. Fine. Great. It’s not. But it is definitely a play about a shared Latin experience,” she said. “I think that it’s just really sort of scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for excuses to continue to erase things when you need to be pulling out DNA charts and telling me that her grandparents were Basque or whatever. I’m not really interested in that conversation. I don’t understand how it’s even up for debate.” Let’s just say that Evita isn’t about race. Let’s also say that Evita isn’t about culture. Why is white the default? Why do Latinx actors only get cast when there’s no choice? The general attitude is, unless it’s a show about race, then everyone can—and should—just be white. And—not for nothing—but wouldn’t you want your production of Evita to be as authentic as possible? There is an indescribable cheesiness to watching white actors pretend to be Latinx. Villegas agrees. “You think it’s going to be good for the production to have white people singing in Spanish with bad accents? You think that’s going to serve your production? Okay. That’s your choice,” she said. “White actors that take these roles and wear our culture like a coat are able to have their cake and eat it too,” said Contreras. “We are left to be okay with the crumbs.” Hanney has also implied that every effort was made to cast Latinx performers but that they didn’t really come out to the auditions. “I can’t drag them out of their homes,” he said on WBUR. But during the same interview, Hanney claims that 3-4,000 auditioned for the show. Listen. There are roughly three musicals that actors of color stand a shot to get seen for: In the Heights, West Side Story, and Evita. You better believe that the Latinx community comes out in droves for these auditions. “We’re tired of being the best friend, the supporting character, the humor, the punchline. So when we have these incredible roles, we’re like, ‘No. That’s ours,’” said Contreras. “And we’re finally speaking up. A problem that’s happening with the Latinx community is that because we come in such various colors, we’re often, at times, not considered. Our culture and ethnicity can be replaced by someone else, by a white actor who looks like us.” But, it turns out, there actually may be some truth in Hanney’s assertion. Just because you show up to an audition doesn’t mean you get seen. Sometimes, an actor’s agent will submit them to the production and the production will either grant them an audition or not. That’s to be expected. But a
GREATEST AMERICAN MUSICAL GYPSY
[Lyric Stage Company, 140 Clarendon St., Boston. Through 10.8. lyricstage.org]
LEGENDARY SONDHEIM MUSICAL MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG
[Huntington Theatre Company, 264 Huntington Ave., Boston. Through 10.15. huntingtontheatre.org]
CONSTANTINE MAROULIS (CHE) AND THE CAST OF “EVITA” AT NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE THRU OCTOBER 8, 2017. PHOTOS©PAUL LYDEN
ARTS
problematic aspect to the way that auditions are held is that—particularly if thousands of actors show up—people are sent home, or “typed out” even before they get to stand before a table and sing their 16 bars. Typing out based on a headshot alone is not legal, so, according to Contreras, Villegas, Mora, and other professional actors I talked to, those running the auditions will often eliminate based on resume. Not having a Broadway credit makes it much, much harder to get seen at auditions, even for regional productions. A recent study put out by Actors’ Equity Association says that over 70 percent of musical roles go to white actors, 8 percent to African American actors, and just 3 percent to Latinx or Asian actors. So if 70 percent of the roles go to white actors, this business of typing out based on resume disproportionately favors white actors. If an actor can’t get seen at an audition (which often has nothing to do with talent), then their resume cannot be boosted. It’s a maddening catch-22. But the theater is partly to blame for who shows up to the auditions. Nowhere in NSMT’s audition notice for Evita did the character breakdowns specify “Latino” or “Latina.” There are major productions of the show all over the country that specifically include that type of language in their notices. And guess what? It works. “Generally speaking, actors of color don’t bother going in for shows unless it’s really spelled out that they want us,” said Villegas. “If they don’t spell that out then we assume it’s because they’re going to be casting white people. That’s just the truth. If every single character description says ‘this character is not white’ then that’s a good little deterrent.” There are a lot of things that NSMT could have done that they chose not to, according to Villegas. So while it is not practical to expect that the ways in which auditions are conducted will change overnight, there is something that can be done to affect change now. Villegas contends that it has to be up to white actors to pass on roles that they should not be playing. “They have to know when to turn something down and start a conversation rather than auditioning,” she said. Contreras agrees. “This cast that [NSMT] chose is absolutely incredible,” Contreras said. “They wouldn’t have gotten the roles if they weren’t incredible. But there has to be allies. We can’t do this alone. Essentially we are relying on white creative teams or white casting, and for this we have to [have] allies. With that being said, it’s very important to say that I understand what it’s like to not have a job. I get it. But there are inherently more opportunities for you than there are for me.” For Constantine Maroulis, American Idol finalist and two-time Tony nominee who plays Che in North Shore’s production, he says that he wishes he were in a position to be able to turn down roles, as Villegas and Contreras suggest. “That’s not where I’m at,” Maroulis said. “I’m a hard-working actor. I’m a father. I understand people’s concerns, and I don’t think anyone understands it more than I do. I’ve always stood up for equality on every level, and I’m just really happy to get a chance to do this part. If I felt there was extreme prejudice going on here, you fucking know I wouldn’t be here.” Villegas has no patience for such arguments. “If you as an actor are okay with continuing to be a part of the problem, that’s fine,” Villegas said. “That’s your choice. But also know that next time you want to say something like ‘fuck Trump,’ I’m going to laugh at you because you don’t put your money where your mouth is. You can’t have it both ways. Be consistent. If you want to support silenced populations, then do it in every aspect of your life.” If the response and refusal to foster any meaningful dialogue from NSMT hasn’t been reprehensible enough, I came across something far more disturbing by way of Instagram. Greer Gisy is a member of the ensemble of North Shore’s Evita who has made a career out of performing in the likes of In the Heights and West Side Story. In several Instagram posts that were until very recently public, she is shown repeatedly covered in what appears to be some sort of bronzer or self-tanner for the purpose of passing as Latina on stage. One caption refers to the fact that she frequently plays Latina roles; a couple of photos show bad, uneven spray tans. Gisy uses hashtags like #gringa, #stillirish, #forthecraft, and #honorarylatinaproblems. The most recent photo on her Instagram account was of her in costume for Evita, looking similarly bronzed. Which begs the question, if North Shore feels that you don’t need to cast Latinx performers in Evita, then why is one of their actresses employing brownface to—it seems—“pass?” “We are a community of people who have been marginalized and erased throughout history,” said Luis Eduardo Mora, whose article on onstageblog.com ignited this entire debate. “The theater is no exception. All we ask is that our culture be respected and protected from appropriation. This particular musical was created from appropriation. Giving the community the chance to tell this story is a way to reclaim what was ours to begin with.” At a time of such cultural precariousness, the theater’s tone-deaf response to the outcry remains staggering to me. Members of the Latinx community are regularly reminded—by our lawmakers and others—they they do not matter and that their stories have no value. It’s time for North Shore to step up to the plate. Nothing is gained by being on the white side of history. >> EVITA. THROUGH 10.8 AT NORTH SHORE MUSIC THEATRE, 62 DUNHAM RD., BEVERLY. NSMT.ORG
NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
21
SAVAGE LOVE
AT THE PALACE
I had a blast hosting Savage Lovecast Live at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts. Audience members submitted questions BY DAN SAVAGE before the show, and I consumed a large pot edible right after @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET the curtain went up and then raced to give as much decent sex advice as I could before it took effect. Here are some of the questions I didn’t get to before my judgment became too impaired to operate a sex-and-relationship-advice podcast. What is the appropriate amount of side boob? This is outside my area of expertise/giving a shit. So I’m going to pass this question on to Tim Gunn. I’ll let you know what Tim has to say should he respond. I feel like all my friends resent me for getting married. How do I make them feel less insecure about my new relationship? Ask yourself which is likelier: All of your friends—every single one of them—are so petty and insecure that they resent you for getting married or you were a megalomaniacal bride-or-groom-or-nonbinary-zilla and behaved so atrociously that you managed to piss off all your friends? If it’s the (less likely) former, make better friends. If it’s the (more likely) latter, make amends. Since my man and I got engaged, we’ve been fighting about wedding planning. We never fought until now. How can we move forward with the wedding without ruining our relationship? Best sex of my life, BTW. Elope. For your own sake, for the sake of friends and family members who will inevitably be sucked into your conflict about your wedding plans, for the sake of all that excellent sex… just fucking elope. CATCH THE SAVAGE LOVECAST @ SAVAGELOVECAST.COM WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST BY PATT KELLEY PATTKELLEY.COM
THE WAY WE WEREN’T BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM
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COMEDY EVENTS THU 9.28
WOMEN IN COMEDY FESTIVAL JELLY FT. KATHY FARRIS, ELSA RIOT, SAM IKE, CAROLYN RILEY + MORE
[Hosted by Nonye BrownWest - ImprovBoston, 40 Prospect St. Cambridge. 7PM/$10 Improvboston.com] 22
09.28.17 - 10.05.17 |
DIGBOSTON.COM
FRI 9.29
FRI 9.29
MON 10.01
[Great Scott, 1222 Commonwealth Ave, Allston. 7PM/$5 cash @ door]
[Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Seaport Dist, Boston Fri: 8pm & 10:15pm, Also Sat: 8pm & 10:15pm/ $29 Laughboston. com]
[Capo Supper Club, 443 West Broadway, South Boston. 8pm/FREE. http://www. caposouthboston.com/]
ALLSTON RAUCOUS CITY THE GAS! HOSTED BY ROB CREAN @ GREAT SCOTT
SIMPLY THE BETH COMEDY BETH STELLING + MORE
LAUGHS FOR SUPPER CAPO COMEDY HOSTED BY WILL NOONAN
necann.com NEWS TO US
FEATURE
DEPT. OF COMMERCE
ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT
23
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 29TH 5:30pm – 11:00pm SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 30TH 1:00pm – 7:00pm Celebrate Octoberfest! Featuring fresh Harpoon and UFO beer, live oompah and rock bands, und German-style food. HARPOON BREWERY BOSTON, MA www.harpoonbrewery.com