The 2015 Market in Review...
It was another busy year. Sale prices again reached record highs in the spring, and the summer market remained busy. The fall was a bit quirkier, with some properties selling quickly with multiple bids but others sitting on the market a bit longer than expected. There were noticeably fewer active buyers (lots of people “just starting to look”) in the fall, as is typical, but the inventory was still limited, so sale prices stayed strong.
...What Can We Expect in 2016?
The long-anticipated rise in interest rates will probably stimulate buyers to look for property early in 2016 in the hope that they lock in a good rate before they rise higher. To put it in perspective, interest rates are still at historic lows, and many local banks are offering long-term adjustable rate mortgages (ARMs) at very good rates to help buyers keep their monthly payments low. I expect the spring season—starting in February and going through June—to be robust, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the summer and fall markets were quieter than they have been for the past 3 years.
~ Thalia
New Listings 1 Summer Street #5, Somerville $2,950,000 Stunning, award-winning renovation of an historic church in the heart of Union Square. Grand living and entertaining space with 65 ft. ceiling in LR; 3 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths on 3 levels; wine storage for 500 bottles in the dining area; chef’s kitchen; 2 garage parking spaces.
73 Prichard Avenue #1, Somerville ~ $tbd
6 Highland Avenue #2, Somerville ~ $tbd
Lovely, renovated first-floor condo between Davis and Ball Squares. Bright 2-bedroom, 1 bath condo with parking. Close to everything!
Walk to Union Square from this beautiful second floor 2-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath condo with open floor plan, central air, in-unit laundry, basement storage, and 2 (!) sideby-side parking spaces.
Coming Soon
Thalia Tringo 24 Appleton Street, Somerville ~ $1,375,000 Beautifully renovated single family on a Davis Sq. side street with 4 bedrooms and a study; 2.5 baths; large designer kitchen; LR w/gas fireplace; fenced backyard with bi-level deck off DR, patio, garden/play area, and shed; and driveway for 2+ cars. Large unfinished basement makes a great workshop/studio.
20 Hicks Avenue #1, Medford ~ $tba Adorable first floor, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, pet-friendly condo with parking near the Somerville line.
Commercial
President, Realtor ® 617.513.1967 cell/text Thalia@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Todd Zinn
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.852.1839 cell/text Todd@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Niké Damaskos
Residential Sales and Commercial Sales and Leasing 617.875.5276 Nike@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Jennifer Rose
FOR LEASE – ASSEMBLY ROW 96 Middlesex Avenue, East Somerville /Assembly Row
Steps from Assembly Row Orange Line T stop and just off Rt. 93. This 4,500 sq. ft. space on 2 levels has exposed brick walls and abundant natural light from windows on 3 sides and comes with 12 parking spaces. Lease terms subject to build-out requirements and whether the property is leased wholly or subdivided.
Free Classes
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.943.9581 cell/text Jennifer@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Lynn C. Graham
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.216.5244 cell/text Lynn@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
How to Buy and Sell at the Same Time for homeowners contemplating a move Tuesday, January 12th or Monday, February 8th
6:30-7:45 pm
If the logistics of selling your home and buying a new one makes your head spin, this workshop will help make the process understandable. This workshop, led by our agents and a loan officer from a local bank, will include a 45 minute presentation and 1/2 hour Q&A session. Handouts and refreshments provided.
Brendon Edwards
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.895.6267 cell/text Brendon@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
How Individuals Can Buy Property Together as a Group: a primer for non-traditional homebuyers Thursday, January 21st or Monday, Jan. 25th
6:30-7:45 pm
When two or more people, whether or not they are related, buy property together, what are their options for taking title? How do you determine each one’s financial contributions, percentage legal interest in the property, and expense allocation? What kind of arrangements can be made in the event one or more parties want to move on but others want to keep the property? What type of financing is available? We will address these and other questions in this class with a follow-up Q&A session. Lead by our team and a local real estate attorney.
Prepping Your House for Sale
for homeowners preparing to list their house Wednesday, January 27th or Monday, February 1st
6:30-7:45 pm
What do you need to do to get your home ready to put on the market? Is it worth updating a kitchen or bath? Finishing basement space? Landscaping? Decluttering? Repainting? Which repairs do you get your money back on? Which ones make your house sell faster? Get your questions answered in this short, informative session. Handouts and refreshments provided.
First Time Home Buyers:
an overview of the buying process Wednesday, February 10th
6:30-7:45 pm
If you’re considering buying your first home and want to understand what’s in store, this is a quick and helpful overview. Led by our agents, it includes a 45-min presentation and 1/2 hour Q&A session. Handouts and refreshments provided.
To reserve space in any class, please email Adaria@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com. Admission is free, but we appreciate donations of canned goods or coats/gloves/hats for the Somerville Homeless Coalition.
Adaria Brooks
Executive Assistant to the President, Realtor ® 617.308.0064 cell/text Adaria@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
About our company... We are dedicated to representing our buyer and seller clients with integrity and professionalism. We are also commi ed to giving back to our community. Our agents donate $250 to a non-profit in honor of each transaction and Thalia Tringo & Associates Real Estate Inc. also gives $250 to a pre-selected group of local charities for each transaction. Visit our office, 128 Willow Avenue, on the bike path in Davis Square, Somerville.
JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2016 ::: VOLUME 18 ::: SCOUTCAMBRIDGE.COM
contents 6 // EDITOR’S NOTE 8 // WINNERS & LOSERS You don’t even want to know how expensive it’s getting to book a hotel room in this city. 10 // NEWS: THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT Can for-profit companies fix social ills? 14 // WHAT’S NEW? Skate parks and sushi and solar panels and such.
THE L VE ISSUE
18 // FEATURE: LOVE IN CAMBRIDGE
28 22
19 // ON THE ROCKS “I can hear everything you say.” Behind the bar with Puritan & Co.’s Colin Kiley. 20 // YOU REALLY SHOULD’VE KEPT THAT TO YOURSELF Kenice Mobley on dating and stand-up. 22 // LOVE ON ICE Local athletes are building the National Women’s Hockey League from the ground up. 24 // BANDS ON BREAKUPS The best sad songs, chosen by area artists. 26 // THE SOUND OF SIBLINGS Jocelyn and Chris Arndt talk making music with your oldest friend. 27 // ALLSTON PUDDING’S CRUSHIN’ PLAYLIST Our favorite music bloggers made a mix for lovesick lads and lasses. 28 // LOVE, FACTUALLY Cambridge love stories that’ll melt your frigid heart. 34 // FINDING AN INNER SPACE Meditation as a means to self-love. 36 // LOVECRAFT Take a break from reading and start stitching! 38 // SCOUT OUT: BIOTECH IN THE BASEMENT EMW blends art and science, builds community. 40 // CALENDAR 43 // MARKETPLACE 46 // SCOUT YOU
Photo, top: Lovebirds Austin Wigley and Amelie Kharey. Photo by Jess Benjamin. Photo, bottom (clockwise from top): The Boston Pride’s Jillian Dempsey, Corinne Buie, Kelsie Fralick and Marissa Gedman. Photo by Mary Schwalm. On the cover: A grinning Buie, Fralick and Gedman. Photo by Mary Schwalm.
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scoutcambridge.com January | February 2016
5
EDITOR’S NOTE
PUBLISHER Holli Banks hbanks@scoutmagazines.com
M
an, 2015. Here at Scout, we spent the last year profiling some pretty incredible people and places in our city. We descended into Formaggio’s cheese caves and heard from Toscanini’s Gus and Mimi about their place in a changing Central Square. The team behind the nonprofit gym InnerCity Weightlifting explained to us how they’re helping high-impact young people rise above unfortunate circumstances. We tested e-bike wheels, asked Toni Bee about Black Lives Matter Cambridge and sat down with Junot Díaz to talk about getting older. We needed these silver linings, because as a city, we were suffering through some stuff. There was the snow. So, so much snow. We won, then battled against, then killed the 2024 Olympic bid. We cheered on the Pats as they took home another ring at Super Bowl XLIX—then spent the summer locked in the great Deflategate debate. Not to get all, “What a year, am I right?” on you, but… what a year, am I right? We were thinking about all of this—the good, the bad, the ugly, the cold—when we settled on the pieces for this love-themed issue, our first of 2016. It felt right to take some time in these dark, frigid months to celebrate warm and fuzzy feelings, which is why we profiled local couples who are the definition of #relationshipgoals (p. 28) and caught up with sibling songwriters Jocelyn and Chris Arndt to talk brotherly (and sisterly) love (p. 26). But it also felt disingenuous to stick to sappy, sugarcoated stories. Love is complicated, and there are just so many different kinds of it. Self-love, for example, which we discussed with the team behind Inner Space Meditation Center (p. 34). Or the love of the game, which has come through every time the Boston Pride has taken to the ice during the inaugural season of the National Women’s Hockey League (p. 22). It was love for our community that made us push back against the Olympic games, and love for Tom Brady that caused us to have his back even when it started to look like he miiiiight have been involved in a little bit of football tampering. (Seriously, why did you destroy the cell phone, Tom?) And while I don’t know for sure what pulled us through last winter—that steely New England resolve? Pure stubbornness?—I’ll say that the love of my friends (and a little bit of whiskey) sure helped me. So, hey, Happy New Year. Here’s to all the ways that love will bring us together in 2016.
EDITOR IN CHIEF Emily Cassel ecassel@scoutmagazines.com emilycassel.me MANAGING EDITOR Emily Hopkins ehopkins@scoutmagazines.com genderpizza.net OFFICE MANAGER Melinda LaCourse mlacourse@scoutmagazines.com ART DIRECTOR Nicolle Renick design@scoutmagazines.com renickdesign.com CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Frederick Choi, Rebecca Joy, Sean Maloney, Dan Richards, Hannah Walters, Allston Pudding Staff CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Jess Benjamin jessbenjaminphoto@gmail.com Mary Schwalm instagram.com/maryschwalm David Sun Kong COPY EDITOR Maura Gaughan
Emily Cassel, Editor in Chief ecassel@scoutmagazines.com
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January | February 2016 scoutcambridge.com
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HERE ARE 4 TIPS FOR SELLING YOUR HOME IN THE FIRST FEW MONTHS OF 2016
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FIRST IMPRESSIONS MATTER Make sure you present the best curb appeal possible, that your entryway is inviting and not just utilitarian, and make sure the first and only photos are professionally taken.
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Win over buyers coming in out of the blustry winter weather by greeting them with a bright and warm home. Make sure each room is well lit and that there are no drafts making heating in the home uneven.
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Know your marketplace, what’s sold, and what hasn’t to bring your home on at an appealing price. Buyers are savvy and many have been following the market for months - knowledge is power.
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scoutcambridge.com January | February 2016
7
W&L WINNERS
LOSERS
WAITRESS CREATIVE TEAM After a well-received first run at the American Repertory Theater, Waitress is preparing for a historical Broadway debut, where director Diane Paulus (also the artistic director of the A.R.T.), choreographer Lorin Latarro, composer Sara Bareilles and author Jessie Nelson will make up Broadway’s first all-female creative team. “It’s really fun to be an example of the way it can look,” Bareilles told the Associated Press. “We’re a bunch of women who are deeply committed to finding a way to build a unified vision.”
“WHEELED DEVICES” Bicycles, skateboards, Segways, roller skates and other “nonpedestrian devices” were among the transportation options banned from university hallways by MIT police in December. Citing an “unprecedented increase in the amount of people using wheeled devices inside buildings,” officials warned that students caught rolling through the halls would face a $25 fine. Yet another blow to the oncerobust Heelys brand.
ZAGAT’S 30 UNDER 30 Big ups to all the Cambridge young folks who made Zagat Boston’s 2015 list of notable area restaurant industry standouts, including Alden & Harlow manager Mary-Kate Jurek (27), Shepard pastry consultant Mareena McKenzie (28), Central Bottle Wine and Provisions GM Fanny Katz (28), Harvest Restaurant executive chef Tyler Kinnett (26) and Alex Tannenbaum (28), co-owner of Naco Taco. Thanks for making our city such a tasty place to be! BILLY RUANE “I was always inspired by the way he lived his life and the way he supported artists,” says Brian Coleman of Billy Ruane, the local legend who helped shape the city’s music scene for nearly three decades. Ruane passed away in 2010, and Coleman wants to honor his memory with a public art piece in Central Square. In an initial fundraising effort, he’s working to create a coalition of Ruane’s family and friends and selling shirts featuring a photograph of the late icon. He’s also seeking ideas for the piece from local artists, who can submit their ideas to the “Billy Ruane Forever” Facebook page. “This is a bit of a crazy idea,” Coleman adds. “But Billy was never afraid of crazy ideas. It suits him in that manner. He was the definition of a free spirit.”
TOURISTS It isn’t just getting more expensive to own or lease a home in our city—it’s also getting pricier to rent a a room for the night. The Globe’s Tim Logan wrote in December that while six new hotels brought another 846 rooms to Cambridge and Boston last year, average nightly rates in the region increased 7 percent to $255. Area hotels are also considering accepting arms and legs as payment. RED LINE PASSENGERS We hit peak “WTF, MBTA?” on December 10, when a Red Line train—one carrying passengers—departed from Braintree station with no operator. The ghost train made it four stops before MBTA personnel shut off the third rail, bringing it to a halt at JFK/UMass. No passengers were hurt, but one T employee was struck by the train and sustained minor injuries. You know what they say: Life imitates Ozzy Osbourne singles.
Someone rustle your jimmies or tickle your fancy? Let us know at scoutcambridge.com/contact-us, and we just might crown them a winner or loser. 8
January | February 2016 scoutcambridge.com
SCOUT STATS
250
2
Pads distributed to the women visiting and staying at the women’s shelter Rosie’s Place each week (p. 10)
New Barismo locations opening up in the city (p. 15)
$24,000
Annual savings thanks to recently installed solar panels on the Cambridge Water Department building (p. 16)
25
Years Maggie McNally and Alex Krutsky have been married (p. 32)
12
Tracks handpicked by Allston Pudding staffers for our “Crushin’” playlist (p. 27)
519 Somerville Ave., Somerville | 617-591-0199 | store4978@theupsstore.com www.theupsstorelocal.com/4978 | http://store4978.upsstoreprint.com | facebook.com/theupsstore4978
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9
NEWS
Harvard undergrad Eudora Olsen, founder of the Hygiene Campaign.
THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT CAN FOR-PROFIT COMPANIES FIX SOCIAL ILLS? By Hannah Walters Photo by Jess Benjamin
O
n its surface, the tech industry is one that’s steeped in optimism and altruism. Thousands of the world’s smartest people are teaming up to find solutions to even the most minute problems. They’re building apps that aim to make customers’ lives healthier, easier, more organized, more peaceful—or even more meaningful (yes, there are apps for inspiration, meditation and mindfulness). Everyone is scrambling to find the Next Big Idea—the one that will revolutionize or disrupt an industry, much like Uber did to taxis. But sometimes, it’s not an industry that startups are set on disrupting; sometimes it’s a social construct, a void of service. This task is traditionally left to government, nonprofits or community activists, but more and more, the private sector is shifting its focus toward social impact causes. There’s Drinkwell, a company trying to fill the gaps in global water purification supplies; GuideOn, a web application aimed
10
January | February 2016 scoutcambridge.com
at helping veterans turn their military background into a civilian résumé; and Sisu Global Health, which created a medical device that will drastically lower the cost of a procedure called autotransfusion, just to name a few. This is a capitalist dreamland. But while the free market might be beating NGOs at their own game, the landscape is fraught with both ethical and logistical questions. That autotransfusion device is aimed at emerging markets in Africa, where its founders note that this is a $6 million industry. And their profit comes from “selling a packet to wholesalers at an 80 percent margin.” How do you marry social consciousness and financial gain? Can a charitably minded startup attend to the needs of an underserved population and still meet its bottom line? It was in this climate that two groups of Harvard students—one a for-profit microbusiness, the other a nonprofit, donation-based
advocacy organization—set out to help homeless women in the Boston area. While their approaches differed, each sought to solve a problem very few ever think about—including, ironically, those who work with these women the most.
A DIRE—YET UNSPOKEN—NEED During the winter months, especially those close to the holidays, boxes appear in offices and schools, awaiting donations of canned foods and winter clothing for those in need. But as thoughtful gifts of socks, toothbrushes and non-perishables begin to pile up, one category of item is conspicuously and routinely overlooked: feminine hygiene products. It’s an oversight that hurts women in need, and it hits the pocket books of already strapped relief programs. Rachel Klein, who runs the women’s center at the St. Francis House homeless shelter in Boston, explains: For women without a home, “[getting your period] changes your whole day until you can take care of yourself.” Even for women who do have shelter, “a box of tampons could be $7 to $10 each. If you can’t make ends meet, that’s not your top priority, even if you wish it could be.” According to data collected by the Department of Human Service Programs, 153 women were homeless within Cambridge’s six square miles last year. That number is only a fraction of the homeless population in the Greater Boston area who rely on shelters and other relief programs for daily needs, including tens of thousands of tampons and pads, each year. Because they are so rarely donated, the cost of providing these hygiene products to homeless and low-income women inevitably falls on shelters and the people who staff them. Rosie’s Place, a women’s shelter in Boston, serves 12,000 women per year. The staff distributes 750 pads per week to the women visiting and staying at Rosie’s—a costly service. Michele Chausse, director of communications at Rosie’s Place, said that the expense is “easily over $5,000 per year” when both tampons and pads are taken into account. Even outside the shelters, human services staff feel the quiet but persistent need for feminine hygiene products among their clients. One case manager at a prominent local homelessness prevention center (who requested that her name be withheld) said she’ll give out several of her own tampons to clients each month, usually when a client’s benefits have run out or when they would have to choose between food and feminine hygiene.
ENTER TWO BIRDS Upon realizing how widespread this problem was, and how little was being done to combat it, a group of Harvard Business School students
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AE/AC: SC/AS Request for PDF to be put in WorkZone Holding Tank Media: Scout Magazine scoutcambridge.com January | February 2016 AE/AC: Size: 3.625” x 4.725” Color: 4C PDF uploaded to WorkZone Holding Tank Date: 12/2015 Artist:
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News
decided to try and solve it. They founded Two Birds Post, a one-for-one feminine product delivery service, as a class project early last year. For every box of pads or tampons a customer purchased, Two Birds would donate a box of feminine hygiene products to Rosie’s Place. They had a strong start: By early summer, The New York Times had highlighted the company as one of a few initiatives that were quickly mobilizing to address an oft-overlooked but critical issue. The group opted not to make Two Birds a nonprofit. Instead, cofounder Natalie Allen said her group wanted “a for-profit, social impact business that [could] sustain itself and not be reliant on outside funding.” She and her classmates thought that if the business could depend on its own revenue, as opposed to soliciting donations and competing for grants, it would be more autonomous. Moreover, they reasoned, when too many nonprofits are tackling the same issue, the competition for funds becomes more intense. Resources are spread too thin. Identifying the need and a recipient for their donation proved easier than getting new customers to sign up for their service. Of the women they approached, only 25 percent actually signed up, and much of that participation was linked to a promotion that gave women Pinkberry gift cards for enrolling. Despite the lackluster response from potential clients, professors deemed Two Birds viable. Yet the group decided to discontinue the business, in part because of diverging interests, but mainly because of the business model itself. “The unit economics just didn’t work,” Allen says. For Two Birds or a similar model to work, the key would be the cost structure. “At the same price, people want to choose products that have a social mission,” says Caroline Boulos, another of Allen’s cofounders. “As soon as you charge more than what someone would otherwise pay at a pharmacy or grocery store, it becomes a lot harder to convince customers, even if you have a really compelling social cause.” Since Two Birds essentially had to provide two boxes of tampons for the price of one, the company would have to stock tampons in volumes “like Amazon” to get a price break from a tampon manufacturer and keep prices competitive, according to Allen. Moreover, they would have had to find their own tampon manufacturer, most likely in China, and create a fulfillment system. For their scholastic experiment, the five team members were their own factories, opening packages of Tampax products, placing the correct amount in boxes and shipping them to customers all by themselves. Overall, Allen seems upbeat about the experience. It felt good, she said, to be able to give a much needed and appreciated donation at the end of the class, when they could have created a non-social impact venture. Other businesses created in the same class included apparel companies, fitness wearables and dog treats made with cricket powder. Even with the coolness of prospective customers that Allen and Boulos approached in Harvard yard, at the end of that semester, she and her team members delivered a pallet’s worth of tampons and pads from Costco to Rosie’s Place. “They seemed confused when we showed up,” Allen laughs. “Our contact [at Rosie’s] wasn’t there that day.”
THE NEW COLLEGE TRY You might say that Eudora Olsen, also an undergraduate at Harvard, is carrying the Two Birds torch. As business school students pursued their social impact business project last spring, Olsen simultaneously started The Hygiene Campaign. (Neither of the groups would hear about each other until later.) The Hygiene Campaign is not a business at all, but rather an organization that’s part donation model, part women’s advocacy group and part public health education platform. Olsen’s mission is to not only supply women with donated feminine hygiene products, but also to further stimulate public consciousness about the issues low-income and homeless women face during menstruation. Working with a friend at Tufts, Olsen started a GoFundMe campaign over the summer to raise money to purchase tampons, pads and diva cups for women in need—she believes it gives a “sense of 12
January | February 2016 scoutcambridge.com
empowerment and ownership” for women to be able to make a choice about how they manage their periods. She’s also bought products using funds from selling used clothing on the campaign’s site, pricing items in increments of $7, which is about the price of a box of tampons. Still, she prefers receiving donations of the products themselves to taking cash contributions. She wants the public to physically handle the products and to engage directly with the fact that there is still shame about women’s periods and the needs surrounding them. As the fall semester began, Olsen took it upon herself to collect feminine hygiene products directly from students. Olsen’s campaign has not been without its own challenges. When she requested to place collection boxes for tampons and pads in accessible student areas—near dining halls or bathrooms—facilities managers refused, telling her the boxes would either block traffic or be burgled, or that they would be a sanitation issue (the latter point was not elaborated upon). “I’m not sure where [the denial of my request] stems from, but I have my speculations,” Olsen says. “People are not used to seeing tampons and pads readily donated.” Whatever the reasons, that initial setback has not kept Olsen from pushing forward with The Hygiene Campaign, and she explains that, overall, Harvard has been “very supportive” of the university intermail system that she currently uses to collect donations. In this model, Olsen has tutors collect donations from students in large envelopes and then send the envelopes to the university’s inter-office mail center, where she can collect them. In an email, a Harvard facilities official confirmed that he had “been working closely with Eudora on her important Hygiene Project,” and even referenced initiatives in other states that might be of interest for this article. If Olsen was met with some pockets of stigma or discomfort, it was not universal. The expense of these necessary goods is a fact that Olsen says has caused resentment among the low income and homeless women she has spoken to about the issue. “Men’s razors have come up multiple times in my conversations with women,” Olsen says. She explains that women have witnessed men being given razors—which are apparently donated on some level of regularity to shelters—while women struggle to come by a tampon or a pad in a shelter. Rosie’s Place, for example, has always simply incurred the expense of feminine hygiene products. To their rep’s knowledge, until Two Birds Post, no group had ever donated tampons or pads to the shelter. Olsen hopes to make The Hygiene Campaign an initiative that could easily transfer to other universities. She envisions bundling a campaign starter package and sending it to other schools for their own student body to establish and manage. Olsen is currently running the Hygiene Campaign at Harvard on her own, although she plans to create a formal club for the campaign this spring. Thanks to the GoFundMe campaign, Olsen has around $1,000 worth of feminine hygiene products stacked up in her room, which she carries over piecemeal to the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter on her way to class. She recalls the bemused and bewildered looks bystanders gave her recently as she waited in line at the dining hall and called Costco to see if they had $1,000 worth of tampons and pads in stock before she went all the way to their Everett store to spend the donated funds. Olsen doesn’t mind these moments of notoriety, of course. With a chortle and an easy grin, framed by her somehow still subtle pink hair, she says she’s fine with becoming “the tampon girl” on campus. It’s feasible that a one-for-one operation like Two Birds Post will one day deliver thousands, even millions, of boxes of pads and tampons to women in need. After all, TOMS shoes, which is probably the most famous one-for-one model, has given over 45 million pairs of shoes to children in need since 2006. In the meantime, however, campaigns like Olsen’s get at the hereand-now need without having to also appease a consumer. One box at a time, gifted from one person to another. It’s slow and steady, but it’s dutifully chipping away at the mountain while we wait for disruption.
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WHAT’S NEW?
EAT IT EAST CAMBRIDGE
KIMCHI KITCHEN
I
f you’re easily overwhelmed by big menus when you go out to eat, then the new Kimchi Kitchen (847 Cambridge St.) is the place for you. The family-friendly Korean restaurant from the mother-daughter team of Helen and Jeanette Park debuted in November with just 12 menu items, which Jeanette says they focus on “preparing excellently,” NORTH CAMBRIDGE
THE TABLE AT SEASON TO TASTE
Chef Carl Dooley had a busy 2015. He left Craigie on Main, spent the summer filming Top Chef along the California coast and developed a new restaurant, The Table at Season to Taste (2447 Mass. Ave.), which opened in early January. The contemporary French venture boasts a $65, four-course prix fixe menu, and if you’re planning to dine here you’d better make a reservation— Eater Boston reports that the restaurant only seats about 20 and that Dooley plans to serve just 40 to 45 people per night. HARVARD SQUARE
COMING SOON
EN BOCA
Initially slated to open last summer in the former Sandrine’s Bistro space (8 Holyoke St.), it looks like En Boca is gearing up for an early 2016 debut. Expect flavorful, Mediterranean-inspired small plates made with artisanal ingredients.
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January | February 2016 scoutcambridge.com
as well as a handful of rotating specials that show off another side of Korean fare. “We’re aiming to serve homestyle Korean food in a casual atmosphere,” Jeanette adds. “For people who grew up eating Korean food … I think it really reminds them of an authentic taste.”
HARVARD SQUARE
YENCHING
“It has been a great pleasure serving you,” read a sign posted to the door of Yenching COMING SOON Restaurant (1326 Mass. Ave.) in late November. “Thank you not only for your patronage but also your friendship.” The Szechuan-style Chinese restaurant was a Harvard Square staple for close to 40 years, and there’s no word yet on what will take its place. KENDALL SQUARE
MAMALEH’S DELICATESSEN
Despite numerous accolades and rave reviews from the Globe, GQ, Food &COMING Wine SOON and the Improper Bostonian, Westbridge (1 Kendall Sq.) closed at the end of December so that owners Alexis Gelburd-Kimler and chef Matthew Gaudet could “pursue new opportunities,” the duo said in a statement. The good news is that a new restaurant from the Hungry Mother/State Park team, Mamaleh’s Delicatessen, is coming to the space. The spot will be a classic Jewish
deli—think pastrami, corned beef and matzoh ball soup—complete with soda fountain. Mamaleh’s should open this spring. KENDALL SQUARE
LAUNCH
Launch, a new restaurant from the Briar Group (Gather, City Table, O’Connor’s) is headed to 450 Kendall St. Details are still scarce, but Eater Boston notes that the proposed menu is heavy on seafood with other options including poutine, pork sandwiches and croquettes. CENTRAL SQUARE
PAGU
PAGU, you had us at “Japanese tapas.” The forthcoming restaurant from Tracy Chang (formerly of O Ya in Boston) will open this summer at 310 Mass. Ave. with fare that blends Chang’s experience with Spanish techniques and Japanese cooking. Also adorable? PAGU means “pug” in Japanese. So, yeah, we’re already ready to love this spot.
Photo, top, courtesy of Kimchi Kitchen
JUST BREW IT COME IN AS A CUSTOMER, LEAVE AS A FRIEND
THE PORT
LAMPLIGHTER BREWING CO.
After a lengthy search for real estate in Cambridge, Lamplighter Brewing Co. founders Cayla Marvil and AC Jones started readying their taproom (284 Broadway) in November. The goal for this dynamic brew-o is to be Cambridge’s brewery—a space as inseparable from this city as Sam Adams or Harpoon are from Boston. “What we see as the personality of Cambridge is a lot of history, which is awesome, but it’s also a town that’s super innovative and at the forefront of education and medicine and science,” says Jones, a scientist who has a degree in molecular biology. “We are really looking to be more forward-thinking with our personality and our product.” If all goes well, they hope to be serving suds by May.
VOLTAGE AND DWELLTIME BECOME BARISMO
Barismo will add two new locations to its original space in Arlington as it transforms Dwelltime (364 Broadway) and Voltage Coffee & Art (295 Third St.). “Voltage has been a mainstay of the coffee community for many years under Lucy Valena,” Barismo’s Jaime van
Schyndel wrote in a blog post. “Lucy was getting married, looking for a change, and with the renewed momentum and energy we had, we have been in a unique position to get more involved. It became a natural fit for us to go one step further and bring that space into our family and continue its vision.” CENTRAL SQUARE
INTEAHOUSE
If Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that the substances most often associated with venture capitalists are caffeine and cocaine. But that’s not really so—just ask the team behind InTeahouse (727 Mass. Ave.), who are working to build a global network of incubatorslash-accelerator spaces connecting startups, investors, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists based around tea. COMING SOON in Chinese “Our story is rooted culture,” InTeahouse business development manager Laura Steglich tells us. Company founder Hong Jo is from China, and it’s that connection that she says sets this space apart, especially considering their access to a particularly elusive market. “We’re able to bridge that and really help them enter the Chinese market,” Steglich says. “For startups, especially, this is a fantastic opportunity.”
“Years ago, my brother bought a car from John’s Auto. I could see how much he loved it, so I had that John’s Auto sticker in my mind when I recently decided to find a new car. The service at John’s is unrivaled. I gave him my down payment, and I told him to pick out a car for me. It was that simple. When the process was over, I went in and he pointed out a BMW in the parking lot. I said, ‘that’s not my car, there’s no way,’ and he just smiled. I was stunned! You know how it feels when a friend just lands himself in a great situation? You see what your friend has, and you think, man, I wish that were me. For the first time in my life, thanks to John’s Auto, I’m that guy! I’m so proud of the car John found me. John’s kindness, and the eye he has for his customer’s taste is exceptional. It’s an honor to be able to speak to my experience with him and recommend him to others. Would I return? Of course. Would I recommend John’s Auto to a friend? Absolutely. They got me the car of my dreams.” - Alan Kinbell
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15
What’s New?
TECH DECKS EAST CAMBRIDGE
LYNCH FAMILY SKATEPARK
T
he skateboarding community of Greater Boston has a new haven in the Lynch Family Skatepark, which opened in November with an array of equipment: ledges, railings, stairs, three bowls and something called “the volcano.” More than 10 years of planning went into the park, the biggest of its kind on the East Coast at 40,000 square feet. It’s open from dawn to dusk on Education Street, and safety gear is encouraged!
CITYWIDE
OPEN DATA REVIEW BOARD
Cambridge’s Open Data portal (data.cambridgema. gov) is intended to increase government transparency and foster community engagement by providing easy-to-access, easy-to-understand datasets for citizens. But how do you determine the appropriate levels of access? Or decide what data should remain confidential? That’s where the newly formed Open Data Review Board comes in. Three members of the public will sit on the board, which “will help ensure that the program balances its goals of transparency and accessibility with the City’s obligation to
protect private, confidential and sensitive information,” the city said in a statement.
FOOD + FUTURE COLAB
An international retailer, a global design firm and a Cambridge university walk into a bar… or, more accurately, onto a farm. In October, Target announced that it was partnering with the brainiacs at MIT and IDEO for a multiyear investigation into the future of food that will explore food transparency, urban farming and more. Fortune reports that the trio will “use data to monitor how the public discussion about food is evolving and get a leg up on how food will be grown, consumed and sold in the next 15 years.” They’re
also launching the Food + Future coLab this spring, which will use MIT Media Lab research to tackle these problems. “We know more about what’s in our smartphones than we do in the last meal we ate,” Food + Future coLAB leader Greg Shewmaker said in a statement. “And that’s something we want to change.”
and will save the department around $24,000. The financial rewards aren’t huge, but then, the department isn’t doing this for money—they’re doing it for nature! KENDALL SQUARE
IBM WATSON HEALTH FACILITY
The Water Department is the latest city institution working to go green, thanks to new solar panels on the roof of its building at 250 Fresh Pond Pkwy. The Cambridge Chronicle reports that, annually, the solar panels will conserve 205,000 kilowatt-hours of energy
IBM’s new Watson Health Facility (75 Binney St.) isn’t your standard doctor’s office—in fact, the center won’t be diagnosing or prescribing medicine to anyone. Instead, BetaBoston reports that the division will use IBM’s “cognitive computing” technology to analyze large amounts of data and “provide insights to doctors and medical workers.” The new facility, which will employ about 700 workers, should be open by March.
pizza ten times a week, probably six or seven times at Upper Crust and two or three at other places.”
foosball and pool. Basically, it’s a Chuck E. Cheese’s for grownups, and we are ready for it.
CAMBRIDGE WATER DEPARTMENT
SOLAR PANELS
PIECE OF THE PIE PORTER SQUARE
UPPER CRUST PIZZERIA
“We’re happy to be in Cambridge!” says Upper Crust Pizzeria Operations Manager Bob Hennessee. The shop just opened at 1782 Mass. Ave., but that won’t be its newest storefront for long. The eatery is going national, with a new location in Arlington, VA and upcoming openings in Beverly Hills and Washington, D.C. “I love pizza,” laughs Hennessee, who’s thrilled to be sharing Upper COMING Crust’s mission ofSOON serving fresh pies made with local ingredients throughout the country. “I eat 16
January | February 2016 scoutcambridge.com
CENTRAL SQUARE
ROXY’S & AREA FOUR A4CADE
“I think I dreamed you into life” is both a line from a lame Savage Garden song and exactly how we felt when we heard that Roxy’s Grilled Cheese and Area Four were teaming up for a restaurant with the working title Roxy’s A4cade (300 Mass. Ave.). In addition to bar food, this upcoming collaboration will have games like Skee-Ball, pinball,
EAST CAMBRIDGE
DOMINIC’S FORNO
After more than 30 years dishing out delicious subs, pizza, pasta and more in Waltham, the owner of Domenic’s Italian Bakery & Deli is opening a new establishment, Domenic’s Forno, in East Cambridge (75115 Binney St). Now you don’t even need to leave the city to get your hands on “the greatest panini,” as awarded by the Phantom Gourmet.
Photo, top, by Skate Catalyst, photo, bottom, courtesy of Upper Crust Pizzeria
GETTIN’ AROUND
A new and
MBTA
growing
PAINT SCHEMES
elementary
H
ere’s something we never thought we’d add to the list of MBTA woes: voter fraud. In November, the public got a chance to weigh in on new paint jobs for the 132 Red Line cars, 24 Green Line cars and 152 Orange Line cars that will be added to the T’s fleet over the next few years. But after announcing the winning designs, “evidence of irregular voting patterns” in the Red and Green Line contests surfaced. The MBTA eventually determined that 25,000 people participated in the survey rather than the initially reported 177,000, and removing the fraudulent votes resulted in a different paint scheme for both lines. You’ll have to wait a bit to see the rightful winners in real life—the first of the new Green Line trolleys won’t hit tracks until 2017, while the Red Line cars will arrive in 2019. KENDALL SQUARE
HAWK PEDESTRIAN SIGNAL
Where else but Kendall Square would we see the debut of a traffic light so high-tech it comes with instructions? The new HighIntensity Activated crossWalK (HAWK) in front of Biogen at Sixth and Binney Streets is accompanied by a rather odd traffic light, one with two lights on top and one on the bottom. Here’s how it works: When a pedestrian hits the walk button, a yellow light flashes before turning solid yellow in order to get drivers to slow down. The two top lights will then turn red, meaning—obviously—stop. Lastly, the red lights start to flash, a signal to drivers to remain stopped but proceed (with caution) once the crosswalk clears. The HAWK is meant to protect pedestrians, but not everyone is so sure it’ll work. “I have no idea how cars are going to know,” Jennifer Dovey, a Biogen employee, told the Globe. “I drive down this street, and I would have no idea what these lights mean.”
PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING ROUND TWO
The second round of Participatory Budgeting wrapped up in December, with more funds to spread around ($600,000, up from $500,000), a greater number of project
proposals (540 rather than 380) and a 53 percent increase in overall voter participation. Many of the big winners this time around were transportationfocused, including a faster, better #1 bus thanks to a Transit Signal Priority system at intersections that will let buses extend green lights. Also victorious: new bike lanes separated from traffic and shared lane markings and signage for Mass. Ave. cyclists. To find updates on these projects, track their progress and stay up to date on the next round of participatory budgeting (which will give citizens the power to spend $700,000 in funds!), head to pb.cambridgema.gov.
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CITYWIDE PLAN
Boston has “Imagine Boston,” Somerville has “SomerVision,” and now, finally, Cambridge is developing a long-term Citywide Plan of its own. The comprehensive plan will address everything from transportation to housing to climate change to economic opportunity and will guide the city’s growth over the coming decades. Community engagement will be crucial as the plan progresses—after all, don’t you want to have a hand in shaping the city’s future? Residents can head to cambridgema.gov to sign up for email updates and learn how to get involved.
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17
E U S S I E V L E H T W
hat is love? Depending on the pop culture you consume, love is an open door (Anna and Hans in Frozen), a battlefield (Pat Benatar) or a losing game (Amy Winehouse). Music journalist Rob Sheffield wrote that love is a mix tape, John Mayer says love is a verb. And to the poet Charles Bukowski, love is a dog from hell. We’re taking our own stab at defining the sappy stuff. Rihanna may have found love in a hopeless place, but we found it in a comedy club, on the ice and behind the bar—and we even gave you a playlist to soundtrack it all. As Nat King Cole famously sang, “love is more than just a game for two.” You don’t have to be in love to love this issue.
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SUE THE L VE IS
On the Rocks
LOVE IS A BATTLEFIELD—AND HE’S POURING THE SHOTS Words and photo by Emily Hopkins
C
olin Kiley, bartender at Puritan & Co., has seen a lot from behind the bar. Good dates, bad dates, blind dates—you name it, he’s gritted his teeth through it. Fortunately, he was willing to sit down with us to tell us what he’s seen—and share some of his wisdom. THE FIRST DATE Walking into the bar for a first date is basically like walking onto a stage, in your underwear, without knowing your lines. “There’s the deer-in-the-headlights moment when people will walk in and just kind of look around. The lights hit them and it’s like, ‘Gotta make a decision, gotta make a decision, wherrrre are they?!’” says Kiley. The first thing you should know is that a little confidence goes a long way, even if you have to fake it. Kiley remembers one particular love story when woman fronted a “femme fatale” exterior and totally saved the date. This was still in the early-ish days of online dating, and Kiley says it could have gone so, so wrong. “This guy’s sitting there waiting for his date, and his date gets there, and you could immediately tell that he … didn’t expect her to be as tall as she was or as curvaceous as she was. He was starting to get a little weird right off the bat,” says Kiley. But without hesitation, she put her best foot forward and got the date started. “She was boss. Thirty-five, forty-five minutes into the date, he was a changed man.” They left together after two beers. THE S.O.S. “I’ve seen some unmitigated disasters, for sure,” Kiley says. “There was this guy who was really, really into Call of Duty … I think she had done Peace Corps, or something like that. That was a one-beer date.” Sometimes there are just no buts about it—the two of you aren’t meant to be, and you’re stuck on this date until the end of the meal. Never fear, your bartender is here. “Someone might be on a roll talking, and the other person wants to kill themselves. That’s when they’re really, really hoping that you’re
going to be there to pour that second glass of wine,” laughs Kiley. “When you’re behind the bar, you’re essentially waiting for people to make eye contact with you to let [you] know that it’s okay to interrupt,” Kiley says. “People will steal just a second and look at you. It can be a funny little moment you can share.” THE BAD AND THE UGLY A bartender’s job is to be there when they’re needed and otherwise disappear, according to Kiley. Some people take that a little too literally. While most people would probably never admit to talking about such sensitive things in front of s stranger, Kiley says he’s heard some repulsive rhetoric. He didn’t elaborate, but he said that this especially comes up when people talk about family (yikes). “A lot of people are surprised to learn just how many things you’re paying attention to,” Kiley says. “I hear everything you say.” THE BAIT AND SWITCH “That is definitely an occupational hazard, especially if you’ve been nice, if you’ve done your job well,” says Kiley. “You [the bartender] are the first thing they see, and if you don’t look so bad, you will get some phone numbers.” This might seem like a classy move, and maybe it works in the movies. But in real life, leaving your number after you’ve just been on a date does not make you look like James Dean or a femme fatale. “They may have just smooched the person, and you’ve kind of seen that, and then they’ll stop at the bar before leaving. These are the ones where you’re like, ‘Yeah, not interested in getting my face broken open.’” Asked if he or someone he knows has ever taken the plunge into these murky waters, he said, “Without going into details or specifics, I would say most people could answer yes to that. And you quickly realize to never do it again.”
scoutcambridge.com January | February 2016
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SUE THE L VE IS
You Really Should’ve Kept That to Yourself
KENICE MOBLEY ON DATING AND STAND-UP By Emily Cassel Photo by Scott Lovejoy
K
enice Mobley got into comedy the old-fashioned way—she was bored at her marketing job, downloaded Spotify to kill time and started devouring stand-up albums while she answered emails. And as she fell deeper and deeper into the comedy rabbit hole, she found herself learning the trade almost by osmosis. “After you’ve listened to straight stand-up comedy for, like, a month, you’re just like, ‘Oh, I have this thought. How is it automatically coming out with a punchline?’” she laughs. A frequent performer at comedy clubs throughout Cambridge, including the Comedy Studio and ImprovBoston, Mobley often riffs on dating, relationships and all the absurdity that comes along with them. We sat down with her to talk baring it all onstage, staying employed and the ultimate sacrilege: mixing candy with your popcorn. Scout Cambridge: Was there any initial hurdle when you started doing standup with getting up in front of people and talking about your personal life? Kenice Mobley: No, not at all. I think it comes from a lack of shame. What I mean is, I did debate in high school and that sort of thing, so I’m used to speaking publicly. I say very deeply personal things onstage, and people will either care or they won’t. As long as they don’t come up to me on the street like, “Hey, you’re the chick who said this about your vagina!” I mean… I did say that, but we do not need to talk about that in this coffeeshop. 20 January | February 2016
scoutcambridge.com
SC: I think that would be the hardest part of comedy—getting behind a microphone and being like, “Hey, here’s all my stuff.” KM: It’s weird, there’s, like, a layer of separation from it. I’ve crafted the words very specifically, and I know how to say them in such a way that—even if it’s not an exact flow from this idea to this idea—that the audience can understand the connection that I’m making. I’m focusing on those things more than I’m focusing on, “Oh, these people know all the weird stuff that has happened in relationships of mine.” There’s this layer of separation where that was a joke, and you recognize that it was a joke and isn’t the most sincere representation of me. SC: Has anyone ever reacted badly to a joke you made about them onstage? KM: Thankfully, no. The thing that’s more annoying that me and my female friends talk about with frequency is: We’ll be dating someone, they’ll come to a show, they’ll be like, “That was really cool.” But instead of saying, “It’s awesome that you do that,” their first thought is, “I can do that.” I appreciate that you’re suggesting that I make this look easy, but I’ve worked hard to get to this level, and for you to be like, “Eh, this broad did it, so I can do it…” I’ve been working on this pretty hard. SC: So do you think it’s easier or harder—or does it not make a difference— to be in a relationship versus dating and find the humor in that?
KM: I’d say more of my jokes come from dating, although… when you’re dating, you’re exposed to a number of people who have a variety of quirks. But when you’re in a relationship, you can get into some of that deeper weird stuff where they’re exposing thoughts that they’ve never told anyone. And you’re like, “Yeah, there’s a reason why you’ve never told anyone that. You really should’ve kept that to yourself—I don’t even want to know!”
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I was on a date with this guy at the Somerville Theater, and he was acting like he was so gracious because he was buying popcorn. Like, ladi-fucking-dah! [Claps] He bought some candy, and he was like, “Do you like when people mix candy with their popcorn?” And I was like, “Nah, it’s not for me.” And then he just did it! It’s like, why are we here? I want to see this movie, and I already bought my own ticket. You’re just here. And afterwards, I’m going to act like you don’t exist. SC: When you’re on a date like that, do you ever find yourself, like, looking for the comedy in it? KM: That usually happens after something like the popcorn incident, where I’m like, “Okay… I’m going to write about that.” What’s frustrating to me is when I’ll go on a few dates with someone and they’ll be like, “So. Are there jokes about me yet?” It’s like, most of my jokes about dudes and dating are when they do completely crazy, off-the-wall things that make me never want to talk to them again. Did you—did you want to be a part of my jokes? SC: So people find it... flattering? KM: One guy, I wrote a horrible joke about him, and he loved it. He was like, “Oh my god, write more jokes about me!” And then I stopped seeing him. He was, like, too into it. I mean, between three and five nights a week, I’m doing comedy. The last thing I want, when I’m not doing that, is for someone to be like, “Okay, you’re doing comedy work with me right now. Entertain me, monkey.”
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My coworkers found out that I did comedy, and this guy who’s pretty high up in the organization wanted me to say something funny. Like, I’m trying to stay employed here! I would like to keep this job! I don’t think that you want me to say the things that I think are funny. I’m busy working—I’m trying to make you money right now! SC: What is it about relationships and dating that makes them really rich fodder for comedy? KM: I think it’s the fact that everyone can kind of relate, even if you haven’t been in the same type of relationship or this weird thing didn’t happen to you. I could talk about my experiences studying psychology, I could talk about doing experiments on kids—like, safe ones. Your face did a thing. (Ed. note: My face did do a thing.) Not anything sinister. But there’s a certain amount that people wouldn’t relate to some of that. It’s harder to make that connection for them than it is with a relationship. Because everyone’s been like, “There’s this person that I like, but also sometimes hate.” SC: So in addition to dating, what else hits that comedy sweet spot of being specific to you and still universally relatable? KM: I write quite a bit about race, some about politics and a lot about, just, weird situations. Strange things will just happen to me. This is a joke that I tell pretty frequently: Within the span of a month, four people told me that I look like Harriet Tubman. Like, unconnected to one another. After the first two, I had written a joke about it, and then it happened two more times! For the record, I don’t look like Harriet Tubman. You guys are reading this—maybe you don’t know, you think there’s some Harriet Tubman-looking person just hanging out—but that is not the case.
TEL: (617) 547-0212 | MIXITRESTAURANT.COM 1678 MASSACHUSETTS AVE, CAMBRIDGE MIDWAY BETWEEN HARVARD SQ. AND PORTER SQ.
WE DELIVER LUNCH & DINNER scoutcambridge.com January | February 2016
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HILARY KNIGHT, BOSTON PRIDE AND U.S. NATIONAL TEAM FORWARD 22
January | February 2016 scoutcambridge.com
Love on Ice U.S. WOMEN GO PRO FOR THE FIRST TIME By Sean L. Maloney Photo courtesy of the NWHL
W
hen you’re a kid in small town New England, “The more [Moore] talked, the more viable it you’re going to spend a disproportionate seemed. They had a business plan and all sorts amount of your life playing street hockey. of resources...And when I learned about the Even if your parents aren’t crazy enough to players, who was actually on the roster, the more commit to the early morning practices and threat impressed I was.” of potential injury that comes with actual hockey, The concentration of talent was too much to they’re definitely going to put a stick in your hands turn down. “It’s just so much fun to coach at such a and send you out to shoot around once the weather high level that I couldn’t really say no to it.” gets nice. It’s a rite of passage and an integral part McAuliffe joins head coach Bobby Jay, who of the typical New England childhood—even your has worked with the women’s Olympic team and author, arguably one of the least athletic people on Merrimack College, in guiding this upstart bunch into earth, participated in this tradition. uncharted territory. The team itself features What isn’t typical, though, is when some of the burgeoning sport’s biggest a kid from the neighborhood actually names, including U.S. National Team makes it beyond your little podunk forward Hilary Knight and University town to the big leagues. Even less of Maine alumna goaltender Brittany typical than that? When that kid Ott. It’s a team that has McAuliffe from the neighborhood doesn’t feeling confident that fans are going just hit the big leagues but actually to enjoy what they see. helps build the big league from the “Honestly, the hockey itself bottom up. is just impressive. Anybody that’s Lauren McAuliffe is that kid a hockey fan will absolutely enjoy in my neighborhood, the one who watching these women play,” says actually stuck with the sport through McAuliffe. “They are very skilled and very thick and thin, through college and fast. If you like college hockey, if you like BOSTON PRIDE beyond, to become the first assistant NHL hockey [you’ll enjoy the NWHL].” ASSISTANT COACH coach for the Boston Pride, the city’s LAUREN MCAULIFFE She says that there are some material new professional women’s hockey differences in the way these teams play— team. The Pride joined three other teams—the less clutching and holding, for example, and none of Buffalo Beauts, the New York Riveters and the the official body checking of men’s hockey. “It’s based Connecticut Whale—for the inaugural 2015 season on skill. If that defenseman can stop you or that of the National Women’s Hockey League. forward can get by you it’s based on skill rather than “It’s been kind of a learning process for a their size and their strength—it’s neat to watch.” lot of people,” McAuliffe says as she drives to a McAuliffe isn’t the only one that thinks it will Wednesday night practice. “But it’s been a good be neat to watch. This fall, the Pride inked a deal experience for people to have, especially for the with local cable network NESN, home of Boston’s girls.” The Pride practice in nearby Everett, but marquee sports franchises the Bruins and the Red home ice is Harvard’s Bright-Landry Hockey Center. Sox. And on New Year’s Eve, the team took to the McAuliffe, a Somerville resident, rose through ice at Gillette Stadium for a Winter Classic exhibition the ranks from player to high school coach to college match against Les Canadiennes of Montreal (a coach before being recruited by Boston Pride GM Canadian Women’s Hockey League team). McAuliffe’s Haley Moore this past spring to join the NWHL. excitement is infectious, her genuine enthusiasm for The formation of the NWHL marks the first time the sport, for her team, for her players underlining a truly professional women’s league had formed in every word that comes out of her mouth. the U.S.—like, with people actually getting paid and “The determination of the girls is just great to everything—and so begins a new era in local sports. watch. A lot of them are just committing their lives “I had heard a little bit about the league but to this right now,” says McAuliffe. “Just to see that didn’t know exactly what the deal was or where level of commitment and how that shows itself in the money was coming from,” says McAuliffe. their performance has been pretty neat to see.”
THE BOSTON PRIDE TAKES ON THE CONNECTICUT WHALE ON VALENTINE’S DAY AT 3 P.M. AT THE HARVARD BRIGHT-LANDRY CENTER. scoutcambridge.com January | February 2016
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BANDS BY EMILY CASSEL
0N
BREAKUPS
S
ometimes, love can change your life, affirm your existence, shift your worldview. Sometimes, in the words of the immortal J. Geils Band, love stinks. In case your romantic life is currently trending toward bitter rather than sweet, we asked some of our favorite Cambridge-based artists to share their most-played breakup songs with us. Because misery loves company.
Bent Shapes) (bentshapes.bandcamp.com THE MAGNETIC FIELDS, “I DON’T REALLY LOVE YOU ANYMORE”
Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys GORILLAZ, “EL MANANA”
hes my sad bone in a good “Something about these monkeys touc ncholy mind grapes. It’s mela my to ks way. The song really spea eable. Sometimes I like to climb simultaneously depressing and danc cockatoos.” — Walter Sickert the a tree in the jungle and sing it to
ana ic r e m A n io s Ses SES” EAR FOR THE RO
, “A GOOD Y akup songs,’ it is really difficult GEORGE JONES ‘bre a full spectrum variety of styles of
titles presents “With such a wide or ‘I just a short list of , hy W e. on t ,’ ‘Cry Me a River’ jus to choose ‘It Ain’t Me Babe is ,’ ge ain ria Ag ar in m W e u os ‘Yo of man wh of points of view: . I chose a portrait estic life. m tic as do nt of fa ils st ta Ju de .’ Fall To Pieces th the mundane ble him as painted wi by the incompara crumbling around The Roses’ is sung r uld Fo wo ar I Ye at th od , Go ely A ‘ et , mpl Released in 1970 ge inhabits so co later in is character Geor red—many years ve co re r ve ne George Jones. Th s ha ho —w an m e sam tting argue we visit the r Today.’” — Jim Fi opped Loving He St e ‘H hit 80 19 his
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“Stephin Merritt & Co. deserve unending praise for their landmark triple-album 69 lost Love Songs (which has plenty of songs of The by song kup brea ite favor my love), but Love Magnetic Fields has to be “I Don’t Really ks brea itt Merr i. ’s 2004 You Anymore” from acts: three into song cy boun ly ptive the dece most the first verse runs with the expectations title, the from d lope deve have listeners will ing the second reveals that the speaker is work the and title the of lf to convince him or herse final verse finds the subject reveling in their sa own maudlin self-pity. It’s a lyric that elicit lly usua t emen amus and combo of sympathy dging misju cats cute of s video for ved reser kus epic leaps on YouTube.” — Benjamin Potry
Cuffs
(cuffs.bandcamp.com)
BAND” CHAVEZ, “BREAK UP YOURnd relationships are just
in nature. Inner-ba “Not all breakups are romantic song significant others. We love this as complicated as those between ise or dem own r thei g Chavez are predictin because you’re not quite sure if plet cou last the , ased rele was g r the son .’” that of another band. 20 years afte can you le whi loud and vague; so stop is still very relevant: ‘Stale, sexless, — Andrew Churchman
ngs a B y t r i D gs.com) n
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IND” N, “IDIOT WThe Tracks BOB DYLAth n e Blood O
om ur Record’) is o “This song, fr an’s ‘Divorce up yl D ak re ka b (a l ta album and bru most biting it all e of th n r ur fo b k st ic p igge ritten. The b ifully song ever w poetry; beaut e ur p is ng le to so e ub o th tr at IG th is d be in B ul o w n u yo ut ur om yo mai written, b a mix tape fr n o so ng al so ng is so This hear th e out to you. en: squeeze mad e best lyrics ever writt th of ne o features e very last ed now for th ss ro -c le ub ‘I been do time, . I’m finally free on the w no d an st ea b wling dbye the ho om me.’ fr u yo I kissed goo ed ch separat hi w e lin er bord ss gut. Needle u right in the yo ay ts aw hi t r fa ha Damn. T he Tracks Blood On T Day.” to say, Keep n Valentine’s o r ye la p rd co re y from your — Evan Kenne
Fedavees
(thefedavees.bandcam BEAT AWFULS, “MY OW
PHOTO CREDITS: • Walter Sickert & the Army of Broken Toys photo by Liza Voll Photography • Bent Shapes photo by Mary Lewey • Dirty Bangs photo by Adam Salsman • Cuffs photo by Arwen Downs • Fedavees photo by Daykamp Music
p.com)
N LITTLE WAYS” “I’m a sucker for the lo-fi recordin gs. A simple, pretty riff and straight forward floor tom and snare beat with a shaker that never seems to stop shaking. It’s the lyrics that take you inside the feelings of the songwriter. You can tell he had to get the song out—and quic kly. The long pause at the start of the song feels like a deep breath, and the click of the pause button on the 4 track at the end is the mic or the pen drop. The story, the music, the melody, the honesty. It’s a perfect song. It just happen s to be heartbreaking.” — Johnny Fedavee scoutcambridge.com January | February 2016
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THE SOUND OF SIBLINGS
JOCELYN AND CHRIS ARNDT ON MAKING MUSIC WITH YOUR OLDEST FRIEND By Emily Cassel Photo courtesy of Jocelyn and Chris Arndt
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ocelyn and Chris Arndt have a lot in common. They’re both musicians, they’re both Harvard undergrads—they even share some of the same DNA. Like Duane and Gregg Allman, Eddie and Alex Van Halen or Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson before them, their sibling bond extends beyond family game night and into their creative collaboration. With a new record, Edges, slated for release in late February, Jocelyn and Chris are poised to accomplish big things in 2016. We caught up with the pair to talk about the good, the bad and the unexpected about writing songs with the person who’s known you longer than anyone else. Scout Cambridge: Normally when I interview musicians I ask how they met, but I guess with you two that’s pretty self explanatory. Jocelyn Arndt: Yeah, it was like, right around when Chris was born. [Laughs] SC: Then I guess I’ll fast forward a bit: How did the two of you get into music, and when did you decide that you’d like to play together? JA: The music thing started around fourth grade. For Chris, that would be third grade. When I was little, I took tap lessons, and I was terrible.
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I was like, “Mom, I want to play piano!” And she was like, “Um, cool, but not until you’re older so you’ll actually practice.” I started playing piano in fourth grade, and Chris wanted to play an instrument, too, so he started playing guitar. Chris Arndt: Actually, I specifically wanted to play the piano, but our parents didn’t want us to be competing or anything. So my dad just bought me a guitar—he surprised me one day. And I’m very grateful that he did that. JA: It really worked out! We started doing talent shows together, and in high school we formed a band. We played a lot of, like, family fun days, the local fair. That was how we cut our teeth on music. SC: When did things start taking off beyond that? CA: We were actually playing with our high school band at a fair, and the guy who’s our current manager, producer and drummer was there with another artist. He saw us, he called us up the next day and we just kind of started working with him. He said he’d like to sign us with his company for development, and we were like, “What? Can this actually be a career?” I thought I’d just end up playing bars when I was 40.
SC: So what is it like to be in a band with your sibling? JA: I’d say around 99 percent of the time, it’s awesome. And then there’s that 1 percent, when Chris eats the last piece of pizza… CA: Or Jocelyn doesn’t take out the trash... JA: We have our sibling moments. Everybody’s like, “Wow, I can’t believe you’re in a band together. That must be where all the emotion comes from.” And it’s not, really. It’s great though, we’ve known each other literally since infancy, so we know each other better than anybody else. I think that really helps when we go to start writing songs. CA: It’s really nice to know each other so well because we’re comfortable airing our full opinion without sugarcoating it. That’s what you need to do to make a good song. SC: You also hear about bands whose members get to an impasse, or have a power struggle, and end up breaking up thanks to “irreconcilable differences.” That probably doesn’t happen with you two. JA: Right, we still have to go home for Thanksgiving and cut the turkey together. That still has to happen. CA: Unresolved conflict isn’t really an option, which is a great thing. SC: So where does the emotion come from, if not your relationship? JA: The emotion comes from… anything. You can write a song about anything. I’m your typical, garden variety, emotional artist girl, so I can get drama out of anything. We look all around for inspiration, and sometimes writing a song helps us understand things better. SC: Was it a conscious decision for you to both attend Harvard? Did you know that you wanted to do that? JA: It sort of just happened, and in the end, I’m really glad we chose to go to the same school. We’re constantly there for each other—to hang out or to write music or to play games. It makes everything easier. CA: Other than the fact that we are actually best friends, it’s ridiculously helpful to both be at the same place. Any time I want to work on a song or practice I just go up to her door with my guitar like, “Hey! Stop what you’re doing!” SC: “Pay attention to me now!” JA: He’s like a cat. SC: Do you have any other thoughts for aspiring sibling musicians about what this kind of collaboration is like? JA: I would say it is the best thing in the world. It’s also, sometimes, the hardest thing in the world. It’s like… picture this: You’re five, and you’re on the playground, and you just made up a secret language that only you know. But there’s one other person that also knows the language. We still speak in our own secret code. CA: Having been around each other—Jocelyn for the majority of her life, me for the entirety of my life—we just understand each other on a level that I don’t think could happen with anyone else. It’s an integral part of how we write songs. JA: He just gets it.
ALLSTON PUDDING CRUSHIN’ PLAYLIST
L
ove is in the air—or maybe it’s in your stomach after a nice first date with your recent crush. You swiped right to find out that he/she/they dig well-curated playlists about love, and your ol’ pals at Allston Pudding have you covered! We asked our favorite local music bloggers to share their top tracks for sensitive, sappy suckers. Check out their picks below, then grab your headphones and stream the whole mushy mixtape at 8tracks. com/allstonpudding/crushin-onscout-magazines. Get ready to have feeeeelings.
this song is how my crush makes me feel sometimes, but honestly, GBV is simply my girlfriend’s absolute favorite band and this is for her.
SWEARIN’, “JUST” I just want you to love me.
A SUNNY DAY IN GLASGOW, “CRUSHIN’” Pretty much every song in their catalog feels as recklessly liberating as yelling a crush’s name from your rooftop, but how could we not pick a song that is literally called “Crushin’?”
FRANKIE COSMOS, “ON THE LIPS” This song goes out to all the awkward weirdos who didn’t kiss someone on the first date, immediately regretted it on the way home, but then realized it’s for the best. BIG BOY CLUB, “KISS ME” (SIXPENCE NONE THE RICHER COVER) With mushy-gushy lyrics about wanting to smooch under the stars, this cover is gonna make your heart flutter. SAT. NITE DUETS, “HANG OUT WITH ME TONIGHT” This is a great song for the best kind of healthy crushin’—the feeling of being okay alone but finding someone you like spending time with so much that you wanna be around them all the time anyway. GUIDED BY VOICES, “TEENAGE FBI” I could say the typical “I grew up in the ‘90’s,” or tell you that
YO LA TENGO, “OUR WAY TO FALL” Crushin’ is the hard, fast process of memorizing everything about a person and hoping said person does the same for you, “even if it lasts an hour.” LOS CAMPESINOS, “YOU! ME! DANCING!” All those exclamation points are just so rich with meaning.
KEVIN MORBY, “ALL OF MY LIFE” This song is so simple and romantic and just oozes yearning for an unknown companion who never seems to come. MITSKI, “I WILL” Love can be too much work and desperate but somehow still worth it... maybe? OBERHOFER, “YR FACE” I used to put song lyrics in my AIM buddy profile and hope my crushes would find them, actually talk to me and then our love would finally blossom. LADY LAMB, “ATLAS” After the gut-wrenching heartbreak detailed on Lady Lamb’s debut album Ripely Pine, “Atlas” seems like a bright nod to a crush that worked out after all. scoutcambridge.com January | February 2016
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y ll a u t c a F , Love By Frederick Choi Photos by Jess Benjamin
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V
alentine’s Day is arguably the most political holiday we celebrate all year. If you’re in a couple, you might be faced with the societal expectations of the day: the card, the gift, the dinner reservations. If you’re uncoupled, you’re all but forced to weigh in on the holiday, like a pundit trying to find new takes on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. But when you peel away the trappings of Valentine’s Day, it really is a time to celebrate the people you care about. To that end, we searched Cambridge for some good ol’ love stories. From an MIT student who got a mohawk from her boyfriend on their first date to an entrepreneurial pair of running enthusiasts, these duos get right to the heart of what this holiday is all about.
Amelie Kharey & Austin Wigley TOGETHER FOR: ONE YEAR
Amelie Kharey (MIT ‘18, Materials Science) doesn’t actually remember first meeting her now-boyfriend, Austin Wigley (dog walker and astronomer). She was with friends on her way to a party on campus to celebrate her 18th birthday. “I happened to be in the lounge at the time,” says Austin, “and they all came through and she introduced herself.” Amelie has no memory of this, and months passed before the two bumped into each other again at another event on campus. Amelie, a Baton Rouge native, was having a bad day. She wasn’t used to New England winters, and she was missing Mardi Gras. A mutual friend had organized a House of Cards marathon that lasted the whole day and into the night, and afterwards the couple ended up in Amelie’s dorm room alone for another 16 hours. “We read together,” Amelie remembers. “We did that New York Times ‘How to fall in love’ article. We told our life stories and bonded. Oh, yeah, I did skip class.” After several days spent pining, Austin texted Amelie asking if she wanted to hang out. To his surprise, instead of a movie or something more typical, Amelie asked him to give her a haircut. “When people in the dorm need haircuts, they tend to come to me,” Austin says. “I’ve given a couple dozen mohawks, and I just got good at it. She decided on a mohawk, and we’ve had matching hair since.” “I let him shave it really short because I wanted to impress him,” Amelie admits, laughing. The two count Beantown Taqueria as one of their favorite “date night” spots in Cambridge, but for a good first date, they recommend an evening out in Central Square. “If I were trying to do our first date over again and trying to really impress I would totally do the Central Square Theatre and then Tosci’s,” Austin explains. “I would be impressed,” says Amelie with a smile.
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The Love Issue
Mary Ting Hyatt & Wilbur Hyatt MARRIED FOR: 3 YEARS
There are some advantages to long, cold New England winters— just ask Mary Ting Hyatt and Wilbur Hyatt. The two initially met on the dance floor of a party, where Wilbur’s attempts to impress with his humorous dance moves left what Mary calls a “lasting impression.” “I thought his dancing was funny, but I didn’t think much of it at the time,” she says. Although the two are New England natives, the winter of their freshman year at Middlebury College in Vermont was unusually cold. “We really couldn’t leave the dorm other than to run to class,” says Mary, who today is the owner of Porter Square’s Bagelsaurus. With the students mostly confined to the dorms, Wilbur confesses the boys would use Nintendo games to get the girls to come over and hang out. The two ended up seeing each other with groups of other people, but before long they took the step of going to dinner off campus alone. While Wilbur’s dancing may have been questionable, Mary did find herself touched by the “gusto” with which he would sing in front of people. “There’s a lot of singing in our household,” laughs Wilbur, now a commercial insurance underwriting manager at Liberty Mutual who helps out at Bagelsaurus on weekends. The two enjoy restaurants like Area Four and India Pavilion, and would count State Park as one of their most frequented places and a great place for a date. “It’s super casual and fun,” says Mary. “And if you’re lucky, you can get on the shuffleboard table.”
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Brandon & Katelyn Williams MARRIED FOR: ONE YEAR
Many couples share hobbies, but along with their love of running, Katelyn and Brandon Williams have a somewhat more unusual common interest: entrepreneurship. The two met in their hometown of Baton Rouge, where Brandon had started an online running magazine and was working to organize a new running club. Katelyn found out about the group through Facebook, and, despite the rain, attended the first meeting. Brandon was photographing the event and caught Katelyn in his camera’s viewfinder—much to her chagrin. “I saw the camera pointed at me, and I was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ and I ducked behind my friend,” says Katelyn. “Afterwards he came up to me and was like, ‘Why are you dodging my camera?’ We just started seeing each other around at running events, and he asked me out.” The couple moved to Boston after Brandon’s success in building a running community was recognized by Saucony, where he is now a Global Product Line and Social Media Manager. In the summer of 2014, Katelyn launched a business of her own: a dairy-free ice cream retailer called Scoop Sights, which recently completed a successful Kickstarter campaign to bring her concoctions to local stores. The couple stays connected to their Louisiana roots thanks to Felipe’s Taqueria, which has outposts in New Orleans in addition to its Harvard Square location. The spot is high on their list of date recommendations. “It’s super cheap and great and fast,” Katelyn enthuses. “In the summer they have a whole rooftop bar that looks over Harvard Square, which would be so great for a date.” The two stay active, and their advice for singles is to meet people through activities like a running club or the November Project, a free, public exercise group in Boston. As for the key to a successful relationship? “Communicating,” says Katelyn. “And Nerf guns,” Brandon adds. “You need Nerf guns.”
Lisa Daggett & Alex Georgeady MARRIED FOR: HALF A YEAR
Lisa Daggett, a showroom manager at National Furniture, and Alex Georgeady, a real estate sales broker at Coldwell Banker, took the modern route to their relationship by meeting online. Alex was initially taken with Lisa’s profile, and found its humorous invitation to “Pack your pheromones and let’s go on a journey” particularly memorable. “I talked a lot about how I’d travelled a lot, and she was interested in that,” Lisa remembers. The two were both of the mindset that it was better to meet in person rather than exchange endless messages online. “We both believe in chemistry. You only know that in person,” says Lisa. For their first date they met for dinner at Cuchi Cuchi in Central Square, which they have considered their “special spot” ever since. “I chose it because it’s so full of fantasy and personality and charm and character. It’s ornate. It’s over the top, a little bit, and sexy—the decor and costumes,” Alex says. The two hit it off immediately, and the evening passed quickly. “I dropped her off back in the South End where she lived,” Alex recalls. “We had a perfect little good night kiss. Just the right amount of romantic sparks. We both respected that we wanted to see each other again.” Since Alex had messaged her first when they met online, Lisa figured it was her turn when it came to the proposal. Lisa decided to use the first of a set of stacking rings. “We were in Provincetown and spent the whole day on the beach,” says Lisa. “I proposed to her with the ring inside a shell I’d found on the beach. It was dark, and she was confused, and she couldn’t tell what was inside of the shell...” Alex laughs. “It wasn’t a traditional engagement ring, so when I saw it, I just didn’t know. I was like, ‘Did you find this little ring?’ I thought maybe she’d found it.” Lisa ended up having to repeat her proposal several times to Alex. “When she started crying, I realized that it was real, it wasn’t joke,” Alex remembers. “And then she said, ‘Yes,’” Lisa concludes simply.
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The Love Issue
Maggie McNally & Alex Krustky MARRIED FOR: 25 YEARS
Maggie McNally and Alex Krustky met through a mutual friend who was “playing cupid.” “Maggie used to have a restaurant,” explains Alex, a custom woodworker at akwoodworks.com. “My friend Louise—she was a sculptor—had the space upstairs.” Maggie and Louise had become friends, and Louise brought Alex in with ulterior motives. “I didn’t know it was a setup, but he knew he was being brought in to meet me,” Maggie says, smiling. “We ended up talking a lot.” Maggie, who is an operations manager in the development office at the New England Conservatory, felt serious about the relationship pretty quickly, but she was cautious about making a commitment too soon. “I was an old hippie, so I didn’t value marriage until I got further along,” she explains. After about a year, the two attended Alex’s niece’s christening. Alex recalls the blizzard that day and remembers being moved by the ceremony and his brother’s decision to have a child. On the creeping drive back, with the blizzard still raging, Maggie brought up her view of marriage as “a statement to the world.” Alex realized the significance of the moment. “I could have tried to avoid it or something, but I didn’t. I decided to be decisive about it.” He proposed shortly after. “It was the smartest thing I ever did,” he says laughing. The couple’s favorite date night spot was Steve Johnson’s now-defunct Rendez-vous in Central Square, but the two recall it fondly. “It was so good,” says Maggie. “It was beautiful.” The couple recount the time they needed to learn how to shuck oysters, when Johnson took them to the back of the restaurant to teach them. “That’s just the kind of restaurant owner he is. We haven’t found our replacement yet,” says Maggie. When it comes to having a successful relationship, the two recommend being supportive and sharing new experiences. “There’s nothing like going to a place where you’re just completely out of your norm to enrich,” says Maggie. Alex confirms her sentiment. “We went to Japan for two weeks for our 25th anniversary, which was amazing.”
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TREAT YOUR GUESTS TO ALL THE AMENITIES AN AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT CAN OFFER. From intimate cocktail receptions to multi-course dinners in our elegant dining room or new private event space, our team will treat each of your guests as our own. Our event coordinator, Rebecca, is waiting to help you plan your special event! www.puritancambridge.com | 1166 Cambridge St. | Inman Square | Cambridge | (617) 615-6195
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e c a p S r e nn I n Finding a By Rebecca Joy Photo by Emily Hopkins
I
nner Space Meditation Center & Gallery, located at 1110 Mass. Ave., is not situated in what one would call a peaceful space. The traffic level is steady outside their glass storefront, and it’s a little hard to believe that anything relaxing can go on in a place that borders the urban essence so closely. But all it takes is a few steps inside for anxiety and tension to start melting away. “What we’re really hoping to do,” says Rita Cleary, a facilitator at Inner Space, “is to have people come in and experience their own true nature, the nature of their mind and of their consciousness.” The volunteer-operated mediation center has had a home near Harvard Square since 2012. The center is sponsored by the Brahma Kumaris, 34 January | February 2016
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an international organization focused on spreading spiritual awakening across the globe. But regardless of your beliefs, this is a place where you can take some time to get in touch with yourself. The magic of Inner Space happens in a small and soothing meditation room, where a painting of a point of light helps meditators steady their gaze during the open-eyed practice. In guided meditation— what they call Rāja yoga—the facilitators lead groups of two to ten people through the several stages: becoming quiet, relaxing the body, going deeper into the self and ultimately experiencing the peace that lies within. Rather than trying to empty the mind—which can backfire—visitors keep an active mind and learn to redirect negative
thoughts. “It’s like training,” says Hener. “You use your mind to create the connection to yourself and to bring up feelings of peace, love and happiness. As you practice for a period of time, you’ll find your thought patterns naturally start to shift.” “We wanted to open Inner Space as an initiative to help bring meditation to the general public in an informal, practical, readily available way,” says coordinator Merrillyn Hener. Facilitators like her and Cleary staff the center purely on their faith in the benefits of the meditation. Cleary, a coordinator of the Brahma Kumaris Boston chapter, has practiced this type of mediation for 27 years, and Hener, a physical therapist, came to it from the more physical Hatha yoga in 2007. Through individual and group guided meditations, courses and speaker programs (all offered free of charge), the facilitators at Inner Space share their experiences and serve as resources for visitors. For the advanced meditators or the tentatively curious, the center acts as a city oasis for those searching for a way to unwind. “People are so stressed out,” Hener says, “and they don’t teach you tools to manage that anywhere else. How can people have peace of mind? How can they deal with day-to-day challenges?” The benefits of the practice range from relaxation and stress relief to a deeper spiritual understanding and connection to a divine source. At Inner Space, course offerings cater to all levels, with everything from a three-part beginner class on the basics to intermediate and advanced teachings on the philosophy behind the practice. Because Rāja yoga meditation is both a seated practice and an in-the-world practice, the introductory class sets goals for time spent alone, both at home and while out-and-about. Besides finding time and space within the home to meditate, students are encouraged to work Rāja yoga check-ins into their day: a few minutes to reconnect and keep the mind stable. As a third goal, Rāja yoga teaches meditators how to observe themselves in larger situations, a ripple effect that brings the benefits of the practice to a wider community. Cleary distinguishes Rāja yoga from other meditations in that “it really invites you into a state of getting to know the deepest part of yourself. Bringing that forward in your daily life then enables you to experience lightness in the face of challenges.” By engaging with Rāja yoga, meditators can learn to step back from
stressful situations and thoughtfully respond rather than react. Inner Space visitor Maria Shabanova agrees: “It helps me re-center and gain valuable perspective on what matters and what doesn’t. Just a moment of awareness can help avoid unnecessary conflicts.” Shabanova, who drops in for midday meditations, adds, “it really helps me to get centered before heading back to the workday.” “I personally feel that some kind of meditation practice is essential at this time,” says Hener, “because life is so chaotic. We really need a way of taking care of ourselves.” She cites Rāja yoga meditation as a way to reconnect with oneself in a state of peace and, by tapping into inner reserves, to maintain an integrity, love and respect for oneself, “regardless of what’s going on with outside influences.” Inner Space’s program of talks, which feature a range of international and local speakers, the courses, and the facilitators present a unique opportunity to find quiet in the bustling hubbub of the Hub. Within the welcoming atmosphere of the meditation room, visitors can find the quiet within their minds and connect to an inner power, an inner peace, an inner space.
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SUE THE L VE IS
W
hether you’re feeling a little strapped for cash or you just want to show your loved one (or crush) that you’re ready to put in the extra effort, making your valentine from scratch can win you major points. We’ve tapped the crafty mind of Virginia Johnson, owner of Gather Here, for a simple but beautiful project. We’ll let Virginia take it from here: This embroidered valentine was inspired by vintage tattoos. Once embroidered, mounting the paper onto a blank card will hide the web of stitches on the back of the valentine. Cut out the valentine (right), or make a copy. We found that the card is more stable when printed on card stock so if you are making a copy, use heavier paper. Write a message for your valentine in the banners. It can be simple: “Be My Valentine” or “Call Me.” The longer the message, the smaller the letters, and the trickier to stitch. You can use the Sailor’s Tattoo Font by taping the alphabet to a window and putting your valentine on top, tracing the letters you need for your message. Pre-prick all the “dots” on the pattern. You can do this with a darning needle. We found that placing the valentine on a thick cushion or large dense sponge helped immensely with the pricking. Thread your embroidery needle with two to three strands of embroidery floss and using the back stitch, follow the lines in the illustration. You can add more stitches to fill out the illustration or color it in. Make the valentine your own!
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SCOUT OUT!
IN THE BASEMENT A R T A N D S C I E N C E M E E T AT E M W By Dan Richards Photos by David Sun Kong
t first glance, the basement of EMW’s building on Mass. Ave. looks like that of any apartment complex in Cambridge— stucco walls, laminate wood flooring, fluorescent lights. But instead of coin-operated washers and dryers, most of the space is taken up by folding tables holding pipettes, centrifuges and test tubes. On the sole empty wall is a whiteboard with step-by-step instructions for how to do... something with strands of DNA. EMW began as East Meets West, a Chinese-language bookstore run by the husband-wife professor duo of Wen Kong and Jin Au Kong. They opened the bookstore in 1999 with the intention of creating a space for the Chinese American community. In 2004, their son, David Sun Kong, along with a number of community organizers, revitalized EMW as an artist collective.
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Now a self-described “community center for the 21st century,” EMW has grown into a diverse and, at times, sprawling community organization. They’re at the nexus of Cambridge’s arts and tech scenes, whether they’re hosting open mics, bringing synthetic biology to a mainstream audience or strengthening the Asian-American population in Boston. This wide range of offerings is informed by Kong’s own eclectic interests. He got his PhD in biology in the early 2000s, and during that time also got involved with social justice organizations within Boston’s Asian-American community. He helped found Boston Progress, an AsianAmerican artist’s collective, and started hosting open mic nights out of his parents’ bookstore shortly after it closed. As Boston Progress’s programs began to grow, the bookstore got a second life. Sort of. “We had this funny identity crisis period,” Kong explains. “We had all the old Chinese language books up, but then we started bringing my generation’s art stuff: CDs, chapbooks, T-shirts.”
In 2011, spurred by his graduate studies and experience working at biotech startups, Kong says he “became possessed with this idea— let’s turn this whole building into a art/technology/community center. Let’s expand the artistic forms beyond art and music.” Having studied at MIT’s Media Lab, Kong was no stranger to the idea of blurring art, tech and community development. “This building is sort of like a mini Media Lab,” Kong explained, looking around. “It’s kind of a convergence of all these different interests into a physical space and programming.” The inclusion of biology into EMW’s programming wasn’t just a result of the founder’s professional interests, though. Citing the field’s massive technological and economic potential, Kong and other EMW staff are quick to compare the growth of biotechnology today to the digital revolution of the last half-century. “Computers went through this trajectory, first with mainframe computers … then to hobbyist machines that left the traditional institutions,” Kong explained. EMW wants to create a space that will bring biotechnology out of its current “mainframe era” and help open the field to hobbyists and tinkerers. That transition in computing helped bring about innovations ranging from laptops to smartphones. “With biology,” Kong asks, “who knows what that’s going to be?” In the last few months, EMW has collected donated lab equipment and has worked closely with the city of Cambridge to figure out how to create a “makerspace” for amateur synthetic biologists. It’s no surprise, though, that building out a science lab is more capital-intensive than hosting an open mic night or gallery opening, and EMW has begun to grapple with how to better support their development. Rent from the tenants of the floors above EMW has sustained some of its programming, but Kong believes that there are more efficient ways to support the space. “We’re trying to figure out … how to grow it up to the next level,” he says. The folks at EMW don’t seem too worried, perhaps because despite their big future plans, they are pretty content with the relatively inexpensive work they’ve been doing for years: creating a space where
people can express themselves, learn and connect with others, be it through visual arts, political activism, synthetic biology or electronic dance music. Talking about the organization’s ever-evolving identity, Kong paused while scrolling through photos of past events and workshops. “We find a lot of misfits and pariahs. A home for the ‘other.’ I guess you could call us that.” What drew Amanda Zhang, assistant director of EMW, to the organization wasn’t the promise of a biotechnology revolution, or the renowned artists who occasionally rolled through the front door. “I started by coming to the open mics, and they were a completely transformative experience,” Zhang said. At one such monthly open mic, on a Friday night in November, members of the EMW network huddled in the basement of danger!awesome in Central Square. Normally held at their own space, EMW was finally getting the 100-year-old building insulated, rendering their storefront unusable. Before the performances, in a space filled with workbenches, 3D printers and plotters, the atmosphere was so casually vibrant as to seem staged. People were clumped into small groups talking and laughing, evenly dispersed throughout the room, music pulsing behind them at a low, subtle volume. Everyone who walked in seemed to be greeted with at least one enthusiastic wave. After a few announcements, the show began. The acts ranged from original poetry to unaccompanied singing to beatboxing, performed in front of an attentive audience who only broke their silence in eruptions of applause. “[EMW is] very intentional and explicit about making this a safe space … we really ask people to come and be their best selves,” says Zhang. Maybe that’s why, on a blustery Friday evening in the basement of danger!awesome, everyone seemed so happy.
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CALENDAR
1 BOOKS | January 14
Tanwi Nandini Islam 7 p.m., Free Porter Square Books, 25 White St., Cambridge Tanwi Nandini Islam’s debut novel, Bright Lines, is a globe-spanning story of adventure, family and self-discovery. Stop by Porter Square Books on January 14 to hear more about the book the Denver Post calls “A Brooklyn-by-way-of-Bangladesh Royal Tenenbaums.”
3
VOLUNTEERING | January 18
Martin Luther King Day of Service 2-5 p.m., Free Central Square, Cambridge Anyone can help out at the sixth annual Many Helping Hands MLK Day of Service—whether it’s by making fleece scarves and blankets for the homeless, decorating Valentines for elders and veterans or sorting food, winter clothing and other necessities for those in need. Register to serve online at manyhelpinghands365.org.
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ATHLETICS (& BEER!) January 20 and February 17
Bike Talk Social Hour 5:30-7 p.m. and 6-7:30 p.m., respectively, Free Aeronuat Brewing, 14 Tyler St., Somerville Nothing goes hand in hand(lebar) like bikes and beer, which is why the Somerville Bicycle Committee has been hosting a series of monthly meetups with community cycling experts at Aeronaut Brewing. Join them in January to hear from Metro Pedal Power’s Wenzday Jane, or stop by in February for a presentation from Stephen Carrabino, deputy chief at the Somerville Police Department.
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THEATER | January 17-February 7
“Nice Fish” 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., $25 Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge Minnesota’s ice fishing season is drawing to a close, but two men are out on the creaking, cracking frozen lake for one final angling session. Of course, this play isn’t just about fish—it’s based on the prose poems of Luis Jenkins, who writes that this pair is “after something big, something down there that is pure need, something that, had it the wherewithal, would swallow them whole.”
ARTS | Every day beginning February 5
Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia 10 a.m.-5 p.m., $10-$15 (Free to Cambridge Residents) Harvard Art Museums, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge HBO’s True Detective may have made famous the phrase “time is a flat circle,” but it’s Aboriginal Australians who developed the concept of “everywhen,” in which the past is understood to be part of a cyclical and circular order. This latest exhibit explores that idea, with more than 70 works from some of the continent’s most significant contemporary indigenous artists, and many of the pieces have never been displayed outside of Australia. Runs through September 18.
FOOD | February 6
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Eighth Annual “Some Like it Hot” Chili Tasting Contest 1-2:30 p.m., Free Brattle Plaza, Cambridge Pregame Sunday’s Super Bowl with a bowl of a different kind— namely, one that’s full of chili. Harvard Square’s best chefs bring their spiciest game to this annual food festival, and one eatery will walk home (or waddle home, depending how much food they fill up on) with the ultimate prize: the Harvard Square Chili Trophy.
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FILM | February 5-15
41st Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival Times vary, $112.50 Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Sq., Somerville One of the oldest genre-specific fests in the world, the Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival returns to Somerville in February for 11 days of classic, campy, cutting-edge and defining works of cinema. Can’t commit to the full festival? Consider alt-Valentine’s Day plans with a ticket to the closing event: a 24-hour sci-fi marathon ($57.50), that kicks off at noon on February 14.
#2: Photo by Randy H. Goodman, #4: Photo by Richard Termine
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MUSIC | Tuesdays
PILATES
Heavy Metal and Pizza Night 8-11 p.m., No cover The Lounge at ONCE, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville Heavy metal? Great. Pizza? Also great. Heavy metal and pizza... I mean, do we have to spell it out for you? Every Tuesday at Cuisine en Locale’s ONCE Lounge, guitar shredding meets shredded cheese in a most delicious way.
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POETRY | February 23
To Keep Us Warm: A Night of Poetry with Sarah Kay, Clint Smith and Hanif WillisAbdurraqib 7-10 p.m., $25 Davis Square Theatre, 255 Elm St., Somerville No offense, February, but you’re kind of the worst: cold, dark, wet and generally just, like, full of despair. The one thing getting us through the month is the promise of this evening spent huddled together with the warm words of the incredible poets Sarah Kay, Clint Smith and Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib. This is a can’t-miss evening full of poetry powerhouses, so grab your tickets on Eventbrite.
Valentine’s Day
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Scout L vefest
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Scout Lovefest 6-10 p.m., No Cover Aeronaut Brewing, 14 Tyler St., Somerville You love Scout, we love you—and we’re showing our appreciation with the first ever Scout Lovefest! We’ll have music from the Funky Bubblers, a Valentine’s Day crafting station and beer. Plenty of beer. Come share the love!
February 14
Valentine’s Day for the Haters Dinner from 5-9 p.m., Bar until 10 p.m., No Cover Area Four, 500 Technology Sq., Cambridge Does your player hating rival that of Silky Johnson? Avoid cloying couples this February 14 and join your bitter brothers and sisters at Area Four. In addition to anti-lovers menu specials, they’ll be spinning a heartbreak playlist—that’s right, this is a shame-free environment to belt those emo lyrics that speak to your angst and agony. Rather sulk silently? Turn your attention to the TVs, where they’ll be screening films of the enraged persuasion all night.
February 14
2nd Annual Back Alley Blackheart’s Ball 5 p.m., $30 Night Market, 75 Winthrop St., Cambridge For a unique V-Day experience, take your date to a spot that’s underground—literally. At Blackheart’s Ball, guests can feast on specialty Asian street food dishes designed by chef Jason Tom and the Night Market kitchen staff and wash it all down with fun and funky Valentine’s Day-themed libations.
February 11, 6-10 p.m. Aeronaut Brewing • 14 Tyler St. If you haven’t gotten enough love from Scout, we hope you’ll join us for beers and cheers on February 11. Aeronaut is hosting and The Funky Bubblers will be around to be both funky and bubbly. We’ll have craft stations and a show-your-love photo booth. But most importantly, there’ll be beer and fun times to be had with the Scout staff.
#ScoutLovefest
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January | February 2016 scoutcambridge.com
MARKETPLACE Second Chance cambridge real estate spring 2014: Dog Walking Spring Market Surges On & Sitting • Prices are already up quite a bit over 2013, which was Thalia Tringo the strongest market in years. More inventory has a Join President, Realtor ® started to appear, but it is still not enough to satisfy 617.513.1967 cell/text demand. Consequently, prices should continuetoday! to pack things 617.245.3902 Shiny vm/efax
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Thalia@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Please call us for more information on the market, or to get a sense of the current value of your home. ~Thalia, Todd, Niké, Jennifer, and Lynn
secondchancewalking.com
Our New Listings
Todd416 Zinn Highland
Ave | 617-623-3330 www.magpie-store.com
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.852.1839 cell/text 617.245.3902 vm/efax Todd@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
204 Morrison Ave., Davis Square, Somerville ~ $1,495,000
Residential Sales and Commercial Sales and Leasing 617.875.5276 Nike@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Jennifer Rose
64 Prentiss St. #3, Cambridge ~ $519,000
FULL BREAKFAST, BURGERS, Lovely Agassiz 2 bedroom/2 bath condo with private porch on a pleasant side street between Harvard and Porter Squares. Near great shops, restaurants, and Harvard campus. SANDWICHES, PASTA AND SALADS 35 Putnam Road #1 , Somerville ~ $349,000 All made to order • Free wifi Roomy Ten Hills 2 bedroom/1 bath condo with charming details, reonvated kitchen, parking, and storage.
Near Medford Sq., this 1 bedroom/ 1 1/2 bath condo is in an elevator building with parking.
Coming Soon 30 Chester St. #8 , Somerville
In the heart of Davis Sq., this 2 bedroom/1 bath condo in a brick building has a parking space.
Location TBA , Somerville
Equidistant from Davis and Porter Squares, this 3 bedroom/1.5 bath condo on two levels has in-unit laundry, 2 porches, private yard, and exclusive driveway for 3 cars.
69 HOLLAND ST, SOMERVILLE | (617) 718-2999 THEBOSTONSHAKER.COM
Niké Damaskos
This is a very rare opportunity to own a single family home with garage on one of the largest lots in Davis Square (9,143 sq.ft.). The Victorian-era house has 4 bedrooms and one and a half baths on two levels. The detached garage sits in the rear of the lot at the end of a long driveway. To the left of the driveway, at the corner of the Morrison Ave. and Grove St., is the very large, open, level yard. Owned by the same family since 1955, this unspoiled home is ready for a new family to make their own updates and memories.
24 South St. #33, Medford ~ $229,000
CATERING TO THE SEASONED MIXOLOGISTS AND THE COCKTAIL CURIOUS ALIKE
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.943.9581 cell/text Jennifer@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
Lynn C. Graham
Residential Sales Specialist, Realtor ® 617.216.5244 cell/text Lynn@ThaliaTringoRealEstate.com
About our company...
We are dedicated to representing our buyer and seller clients with integrity and professionalism. We are also commi ed to giving back to our community. Our agents donate $250 to a non-profit in honor of each transaction and Thalia Tringo & Associates Real Estate Inc. also gives $250 to a pre-selected group of local charities for each transaction. Visit our office, 128 Willow Avenue, on the bike path in Davis Square, Somerville.
Location TBA , Somerville
Renovated 1 bedroom/1 bath near Prospect Hill with central air, in-unit laundry, private porch, and shared yard.
PERFECT BREAKFAST SPOT IN MAGOUN SQUARE 501 Medford St, Somerville 617-625-2868 • www.modelosmarket.com
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PATTY CHEN’S DUMPLINGS ARE FULL OF LOVE.
Dedicated to representing our buyer and seller clients with integrity and professionalism. Committed to giving back to our community. Our agents donate $250 to a non-profit in honor of each transaction and Thalia Tringo & Associates Real Estate Inc. also gives $250 to a pre-selected group of local charities for each transaction.
30 Newberne St. | 617-616-5091 | thaliarealtor.com
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Sunday Roast Monday Meatloaf Tuesday Trivia Wednesday Mac & Cheese Thursday BBQ Friday Fish & Chips Saturday Fajitas 518 Medford Street, Somerville, MA 617.776.2600 • magounssaloon.com follow us!
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www.olsonhomes.net | (617)470-5077 lolson@robertpaul.com scoutcambridge.com January | February 2016
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SCOUT YOU
Photos by Jess Benjamin
Participants at HackHarvard show off their skills.
Torrance Dunbar, a librarian at the Cambridge Public library’s main branch, peeks out from behind a stack of returns. A student takes a sunny stroll through the Harvard Science Center.
46 January | February 2016
scoutcambridge.com
The scene at HackHarvard, the college’s first Hackathon.
Getting work done at the Northwest Building on Harvard’s campus. A multitasking HackHarvard participant eats lunch while he codes.
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