NAOMI KLEIN On climate » KEN BurNs On the central park Five » thE hOBBIt On screen
december 14, 2012 >> Free WeeKLY >> thePhoenix.com
LIFE
AFTER DEATH ROW Free at last, the West Memphis Three’s Damien Echols is starting over . . . in Salem.
Page 26.
“i got two stoves and a dishwasher out on the front lawn.”
p 68 chad stokes also has two bands, a solo tour, and a nonprofit to run. We caught up with him at his new house in Jamaica plain.
on the cover illustration by tim lane/jackienoname.com :: this page photo by charlotte Zoller
This week AT ThePhOeNiX.COM :: MARiNA, MARRY Me? you can ask marina & the Diamonds almost anything; just don’t ask her to settle down :: A VeRY PHOENIX ChRisTMAs Get on the list for our free December 18 bash with mean creek and the scrooges! :: shOP LOCAL last-minute giving ideas that don’t suck, at thephoenix.com/giftguide
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THEPHOENIX.cOm :: 12.14.12 3
opinion :: feedback
From thephoenix.com RE: “ thE casE foR John KERRy” (EditoRial, 12.7.12)
What is not being talked about, and is possibly the reason Obama was considering Rice over the more qualified and deserving, Kerry, is to not risk losing an important Dem. vote in the Senate. Dems fear that Scott Brown would win Kerry’s seat, which could also increase the chances of Democrats losing the Senate in 2014. _“JERRy25”
_“maRgi E VogEl”
RE: “columnists ushERing mEnino out,” By daVid s. BERnstEin (11.29.12)
I am glad to already be supporting Will Dorcena for Mayor. I pray that Mayor Menino does decide to run so that there
instagram us
can be a true discussion about the future of this city. I hope that Mayor Menino will have the intestinal fortitude to debate his opponents. _“BostonBoys2”
RE: “stEphEn King on fEaR and politics,” By Josh niland (11.30.12) In the future, PCs and Macs will battle together in a postapocalyptic war zone for the inheritance of earth from the longextinct human populace! Feel free to use that story idea if you’d like, Mr.King, lol XD _“Zumi E Zumi ”
Tag your photos @bostonphoenix
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4 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm
kerry phoTo: reuTers
“Why settle for second best?” Exactly. I can’t figure out why the president is even hesitating; the most qualified, experienced and respected person for this post is Senator Kerry. Ms. Rice should not be offered this post simply because she is friendly with the president nor because she has been unfairly associated with the Benghasi attack. No one comes closer to the description of Secretary of State than Senator Kerry.
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in this issue editorial
p8
now & next
p 11
p 12
» Giving your best beloveds something you obviously scraped off the floor of your closet? Not a good look. Neither is sprinting through the dollar store in a blind panic en route to the holiday party. Procrastinators, rejoice. Better options for you eleventh-hour types await on page 12. » round-the-world beauty care p 12 » Jamaican heat, in condiment form p 12 » last-minute gift-giving 101 p 12
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» After its long dormancy, has the Pax newsletter resumed its vitriolic screeds? Is the Massachusetts Medical Society embracing medical marijuana? Will time travelers’ attempts to stop the Will.i.am/Karmin collabo accidentally create a cosmic rift that triggers the Apocalypse? This week, we answer two out of three of these questions.
*PLEASE NOTE: Not Valid Holidays or Feb. Vacation Weeks. Does NOT include Tax or Gratuities. Subject to Change.
p 14
spotlight
» Big hurt p 14 » talking politics p 16 » scream on p 18
p 20
» However heartfelt, that “Reduce, reuse, recyle” mantra’s not gonna save us — Naomi Klein lays out the plan for the real battle for climate justice. And we travel to Salem to spend some time with recently released West Memphis Three inmate Damien Echols, whose cause has been championed by the likes of Peter Jackson … who happens to have directed a film that inspired a really frightening Denny’s menu. » naomi Klein on climate justice p 20 » damien echols on a new start in salem p 26 » there and Back again: denny’s hobbit gobbles p 34
p 34 6 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm
p 14
p 26 big hurt illustration by steve weigl, hobbit food by ariel shearer
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food & drinK
p 37
the field effect photo by Johnny anguish of daykamp music, west bridge coffee grog photo by Joel veak, redneck reindeer photo by michael von redlich, hobbit illustration by mauricio salmon
» Clio’s new pastry maestro has created a dessert so excruciatingly fancy, we had to scientifically diagram it for you. On the heartier side, we’ve got mouthwatering Greek eats and upper-crust potpies. » food coma p 38 » hot plate p 40 » liquid p 42 » Blackbird savory pies p 44 » the week in food events p 45
p 42
arts & nightlife
p 47
» In which Tegan and Sara unveil the hazy ’80s fever dream that is Heartthrob; vintage porno posters get a new lease on life in Sexytime; and Bilbo Baggins embarks on a very, very long journey indeed.
this holiday
there’s more than magic in the air
p 66
» Boston fun list p 48 » welcome to dtx p 50 » Boston city guide p 52 » visual arts p 53 » Books p 55 » dance & classical p 58 » theater p 60 » film p 62 » Music p 66 » nightlife p 75 » get seen p 76 » Back talk: Ken Burns p 78
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THEPHOENIX.cOm :: 12.14.12 7
opinion :: Editorial
WrIte
vol. lXXvIII | no. 47
EDITORIAL
managing EDiTORs Shaula Clark,
Jacqueline Houton
aRTs EDiTOR Jon Garelick FiLm EDiTOR Peter Keough music EDiTOR Michael Marotta assisTanT music EDiTOR Liz Pelly sTaFF EDiTORs Thomas McBee, SI Rosenbaum sTaFF WRiTERs David S. Bernstein, Chris Faraone EvEnTs EDiTOR Alexandra Cavallo assOciaTE FOOD EDiTOR Cassandra Landry LisTings cOORDinaTOR Michael C. Walsh cOnTRiBuTing EDiTORs Carolyn Clay [theater], Lloyd
Schwartz [classical] , Louisa Kasdon [food] cOnTRiBuTing WRiTERs Matt Bors, Daniel Brockman, Lauryn Joseph, Scott Kearnan, Dan Kennedy, Mitch Krpata, MC Slim JB, Tom Meek, Brett Michel, Robert Nadeau, Luke O’Neil, James Parker, Gerald Peary, Ariel Shearer, Marcia B. Siegel, Harvey Silverglate, Karl Stevens, David Thorpe, Eugenia Williamson
NEW MEDIA
sEniOR WEB pRODucER Maddy Myers sOciaL mEDia pRODucER Ariel Shearer
MARkETINg/pROMOTIONs
DiREcTOR OF maRKETing anD pROmOTiOns
Shawn McLaughlin
inTERacTivE maRKETing managER
Lindsey Mathison
pROmOTiOns cOORDinaTOR Nicholas Gemelli
CREATIvE gROup
pRODucTiOn DiREcTOR Travis Ritch cREaTivE DiREcTOR Kristen Goodfriend aRT DiREcTOR Kevin Banks phOTO EDiTOR Janice Checchio aDvERTising aRT managER Angelina Berardi sEniOR DEsignER Janet Smith Taylor EDiTORiaL DEsignER Christina Briggs WEB DEsignER Braden Chang pRODucTiOn aRTisT Faye Orlove FREELancE DEsignER Daniel Callahan
ADvERTIsINg sALEs
sEniOR vicE pREsiDEnT A. William Risteen vicE pREsiDEnT OF saLEs anD BusinEss DEvELOpmEnT
David Garland
DiREcTOR OF BEvERagE saLEs Sean Weymouth sEniOR accOunT ExEcuTivEs OF inTEgRaTED mEDia saLEs Margo Dowlearn Flint, Howard Temkin aDvERTising OpERaTiOns managER Kevin Lawrence inTEgRaTED mEDia saLEs cOORDinaTOR
Adam Oppenheimer
gEnERaL saLEs managER Brian Russell DiREcTOR OF Dining saLEs Luba Gorelik TRaFFic cOORDinaTORs Colleen McCarthy,
Jonathan Caruso
cLassiFiED saLEs managER Melissa Wright RETaiL accOunT ExEcuTivEs Nathaniel Andrews,
Sara Berthiaume, Scott Schultz , Daniel Tugender, Chelsea Whitton
CIRCuLATION
ciRcuLaTiOn DiREcTOR James Dorgan ciRcuLaTiOn managER Michael Johnson
OpERATIONs
iT DiREcTOR Bill Ovoian FaciLiTiEs managER John Nunziato
FINANCE
DiREcTORs OF FinancE Scotty Cole, Steven Gallucci cREDiT anD cOLLEcTiOns managER Michael Tosi sTaFF accOunTanTs Brian Ambrozavitch ,
Peter Lehar
FinanciaL anaLysT Lisy Huerta-Bonilla TRaDE BusinEss DEvELOpmEnT managER
Rachael Mindich
HuMAN REsOuRCEs
REcEpTiOnisT/aDminisTRaTivE assisTanT
Lindy Raso
OFFicEs 126 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215, 617-536-5390, Advertising dept fax 617-536-1463 WEB siTE thePhoenix.com manuscRipTs Address to Managing Editor, News & Features, Boston Phoenix, 126 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215. We assume no responsibility for returning manuscripts. LETTERs TO ThE EDiTOR e-mail to letters@phx.com. Please include a daytime telephone number for verification. suBscRipTiOns Bulk rate $49/6 months, $89/1 year, allow 7-14 days for delivery; first-class rate $175/6 months, $289/1 year, allow 1-3 days for delivery. Send name and address with check or money order to: Subscription Department, Boston Phoenix, 126 Brookline Ave., Boston, MA 02215. cOpyRighT © 2012 by The Boston Phoenix, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission, by any method whatsoever, is prohibited. pRinTED By Cummings Printing Co.
8 12.14.12 :: THE PHOENIX.cOm
The GOP’s New KOmmissar The WashingTon esTablishmenT got all riled up last week at the news that South Carolina Republican Jim DeMint was leaving the US Senate to take charge of the Heritage Foundation, a once-respected conservative think tank that today is largely — but not yet exclusively — a shill for right-wing revolutionaries and a toady for the greediest and most socially insensitive corporations in America. It is a perfect fit for DeMint, the most conservative member of the Senate. The DeMint/Heritage union is a marriage conceived in Dante’s fourth circle of Hell. If you need to brush up on your Italian literature, that is where the insatiably greedy torture one another without mercy for all eternity. A talent scout for the Tea Party, DeMint is a recognized Washington power broker. A quintet of conservative Republicans owe their Senate seats to DeMint: Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, and Marco Rubio of Florida. Excepting maverick libertarian Paul, these are new-style GOP clones, slick on the outside, deeply reactionary at heart. At the moment, Republicans are very much like a skunk paralyzed in the middle of a back road by oncoming headlights. The shock of losing the election is still incomprehensible to them. Party leaders were so out of touch before the election that now, almost a month after their defeat, they still have not regained their bearings. Within this context, DeMint’s departure seems not so much another blow, but certainly a demoralizing slight. How, the DC ruling class wonders, can anyone abandon the Senate for a mere think tank, even one — like Heritage — that offers an annual salary of more than $1 million? The answer is simple: independent thought has no place in today’s national Republican Party (although there are some signs of it back in the state governments).
Discipline is all. Republicans receive their marching orders from their leadership, who are heavily influenced by think tanks and lobbyists. With rare exceptions, they are expected to follow them. That is, after all, why Republican Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine is retiring at the end of this year. A woman of conscience and competence, Snowe couldn’t tolerate the charade of free thought any longer. Pay no attention to what DeMint says he is going to do at Heritage, that he’ll keep politics and policy separate. Our prediction is that DeMint will continue to steer Heritage along the road to right-wing purity, just as Stalin snuffed out all traces of independent thought from the Kremlin. In terms of Washington influence, Heritage arguably is a rung above the Senate. Unless they miraculously acquire a spine in the coming weeks, DC Republicans will continue to dance to the ideological tenor and tone established by the likes of Heritage. Meet Jim DeMint: yesterday’s political foot soldier, tomorrow’s kultural kommissar.
OBama’s sEcOnD inauguRaL
Although the crowds are expected to be smaller than the first time around, and the parties fewer and less lavish, Team Obama has said that it will accept unlimited corporate contributions to stage a gala kickoff for the next four years. One reason for this is that so many Democratic fat cats are tapped out after the last mind-bogglingly expensive election. We think Obama is missing a chance to stage a teachable moment. To underline the seriousness of the nation’s economic plight, Obama’s second swearing-in should be a model of Jeffersonian frugality, a speech — we recommend a corker heavy with political specifics — and a motorcade. In other words, set the agenda and then begin fighting for it the next day. The rest of January 21 can then be dedicated to celebrating Martin Luther King, whose remembrance also falls on that day. P
The DeMint/Heritage union is a marriage conceived in Dante’s fourth circle of Hell.
PhoTo-IlluSTRATIoN By BuDDy DuNCAN
Stephen M. Mindich, Publisher & Chairman Everett Finkelstein, Chief Operating Officer Carly Carioli, Editor in Chief Peter Kadzis, Editor at Large
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Almost good enough to eat. Page 12.
THEPHOENIX.cOm :: 12.14.12 11
Now & Next :: oN our radar
InternatIonal BeautIes
You’re doing it Wrong: laSt-minute holidaY Shopping Don't worry. Our expert is here to help.
EvEryonE lovEs a good drugstorE bargain. But sometimes you’ve got to look beyond
the aisles of CVS and Walgreens — and into another time zone. Take Arianna Skin Care, which just set up shop on Tremont Street. Founded by Israeli nA AriAn re transplant Miri Torres, Arianna uses minerals from the Dead Sea to slough A C Skin onT ST, off dead skin without being too harsh on that shayna punim of yours. (The m e r 151 T 7.0784 :: 857.27 spot also stocks finds from a couple of other brands, like Swanky Sweet BoSTon riannaor a Pea’s double-take-worthy cupcake bath bombs, shown on page 11.) After m o .c e r Skinca testing out Arianna’s Exfoliating Shower Milk Refiner ($69), we got to wondering about other interesting beauty imports, so we tapped some Boston pros for picks from around the globe. Bon voyage. ARMEniA » Drawing on old-timey remedies from her native Armenia, Violet Mkhitaryan of Violet Skin Boutique puts everything but the kitchen sink into her handmade products and spa treatments — think ingredients like egg yolks, honey, olive oil, and rose water. Her latest confection: Coffee Face Polish ($39), which exfoliates and firms with Armenian coffee beans and organic dark chocolate. 1362 Beacon St, Brookline :: 617.264.7546 or violetskinboutique.com AuStRAliA » The land down under brings us a remedy for limp, lifeless hair. A favorite of clients at trephin salon, Evo Haze Styling Power ($29.95) is the perfect pick-me-up for days when lathering up just isn’t an option. Make like a dingo and snag yourself a bottle. 25 Temple Place, Boston :: 857.233.2363 or trephin.com CAnAdA » There’s a reason our friends from the Great White North DiY, itAliAnlook so damn happy. At Skoah Boston — the skincare spatique’s only StYle outpost outside Canada — owner Whisk olive oil with a touch of honey Pete Dziedzic recommends Skoah until creamy. add dewlux Face Kream lite 30 rosemary, slather onto ($70). “People love it because it’s a wet hair, and let it sit for an hour under a great mid-weight moisturizer,” he plastic grocery bag. says. Made with coenzyme Q10 to ciao, bella. stimulate circulation and lipoic acid to calm redness, it’ll have you smiling like a Molson-drinking native in no time. 641A Tremont St, Boston :: 857.350.4930 or skoahboston.com SoutH AFRiCA » Down in Cape Town, Dr. Des Fernandes created a cult skincare line called Environ. Now, Bostonians are lining up for its C-Quence Eye Gel ($88) to reduce their fine lines. “It’s very results-oriented,” says Brad Duncan, owner of Brad duncan Skin Care. “Their eye gel is one of our best-selling products.” 530 Tremont St, Boston :: 617.482.1700 or bradduncanskincare.com _Megan Johnson
Spread the love
Since 2006, Jamaica-born chef Patricia Kiernan has brought locals a taste of the Caribbean with her Weymouth catering business, Stir It Up. Now home cooks can get in on the action: this year, she unleashed her small-batch Caribbean Pepper Jellies, sweet and spicy numbers that pack explosive flavor without scalding your taste buds. Highlighting the elusive zing of Scotch bonnet peppers, they come in three flavors: original, orange mango, and lime zest (our personal favorite). Kiernan just unveiled a gift-wrapped holiday trio ($20), should you wish to spread it around. Or save it for yourself: slather it on your morning bagel with cream cheese, use it as a spicy and subtle base for stews, or nibble it out of the jar if you’re so inclined. We definitely were. Order online or find a local retailer at stiritupcuisine.com. _ C a s s a n dra la ndry
12 12.14.12 :: thephOeniX.cOm
We’re the kind of people you see sprinting frantically around the mall on Christmas Eve, mainlining food-court coffee with sweat streaming down our red faces as we elbow other hapless procrastinators out of our way because WE SAW THAT SCARF FIRST AIGHT? But we’re not proud of it. So we tapped shopping expert Christine Mitchell, former Rue La La copywriter and the scribe behind hyper-local style blog NEastStyle.com, for tips on getting our down-to-the-wire shopping done this year (especially for those difficult giftees we leave for dead last) without stepping foot inside a mall. Call her the Blogger Who Saved Christmas. _alexand ra Cavallo
On shOpping fOr in-laws (Or pOtential in-laws) yOu really like: “Get them something that shows them how happy you are that they aren’t psychos — something that’s thoughtful and reminds them that you’re awesome, too. Commission a portrait of the family pet, painted by Somerville artist Natalya Zahn. Every time they gaze at it, they’ll think how adorable Butch is, and how wonderful you are.” On shOpping fOr in-laws yOu really dOn’t like at all: “Bring a six-pack of Pretty Things beer from Somerville . . . and then drink four of them yourself.” On shOpping fOr the bOss man: “Shopping for the boss is kind of the worst. What’s your budget? What’s appropriate? What’s inappropriate? Best bet is a gift card to a local restaurant like Area Four in Cambridge. Definitely worth the investment when your boss raves to your colleagues about your gift and how fantastic the meal was.” On shOpping fOr that special sOmeOne yOu’ve been casually dating (Or sleeping with — we dOn’t judge): “This can be a really awkward gift, and people tend to overanalyze it. Give the gift of a fun experience you can share, like a class with City Chicks [citychicksboston.com] in Somerville. There is a course for everyone, from sausage making and beer tasting to canning techniques. Love will certainly blossom while you’re learning how to cleave a pig from head to tail.” On shOpping fOr the persOn whO has everything: “I bet you they don’t have a Cuppow lid [cuppow.com] for their mason jar! This clever gadget designed by a couple of design/engineer guys in Somerville enables you to convert your mason jar into a travel friendly, spill-proof mug/cup.” that’s not all. go online to thephoenix.com/phlog for even more of christine’s holiday-gifting know-how!
WEAR WHAT YOU WANT.
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FASHION SUPERSTORES NATICK MALL SOUTH SHORE PLAZA IN BRAINTREE NORTHSHORE MALL IN PEABODY
now & next :: voices big hurt
PoP-culture news in brief, from tyga’s busta to Katy Perry’s scents By DAVID THORPE
DTHORPE@PHX.cOm :: @ARR
Pusha T has announced that his new album will be called My Name Is My Name. Pusha Tautology? In news of an exceedingly ominous nature, billboard.com reports that Karmin and Will.i.am have met, exchanged numbers, and had a nice chat, 14 12.14.12 :: Thephoenix.com/bighurT
ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE WEIGL
if ever i besmirched the journalistic necessity of TMZ, I take it back. This week, they’ve unearthed some incredible treasure: an episode of a scrapped 2008 MTV game show called Bustas that, based on the out-ofcontext clip TMZ released, seemed to pit a few really lame guys against each other to see which one was most raplike. Contests included identifying a rapper by a close-up of his grill, determining whether a Rolex was real or fake, and a freestyle rap competition. What makes TMZ’s clip exceptional, however, is that it features a teenage Tyga humiliating himself utterly and permanently. We all had a good laugh when footage of Game getting dumped on Change of Heart surfaced, but this is on a whole other level. Tyga claims to be from Compton now, but back in 2008 he was bragging about how he grew up in the Valley with Range Rover–driving parents. He manages to recognize a real Rolex, but fails to correctly identify a rapper by his grill; he’s booed offstage during his freestyle rap segment, ultimately losing to a dorky-looking white dude. Tyga, on film, lost a contest to see which busta was least of a busta. Now that this thing is out in the world, all he can do is be super nice to everyone and avoid confrontation at all costs — he just lost every beef by default, forever.
“possibly about a future collaboration.” My time-travel agenda has been updated to reflect this artistic supervillainy. First priority: prevent Karmin/Will.i.am meeting. Second priority: smother Baby Hitler. Oh, and the Killers have just released their seventh (ugh) annual (urrgghh) Christmas single. Third time-machine priority: spare the world more of this by preventing the birth of Christ. After holding out for years, AC/DC have finally made their valuable catalog available on iTunes. In their first week online, they sold 48,000 albums and 696,000 individual songs. The Aussie rockers have been notoriously shy about going digital, but maybe their hefty iTunes payday will convince them to sign up with services like Pandora and Spotify — if they can do the same kind of numbers over there, they stand to make upwards of 16 additional dollars. Coming soon to your finest odor merchants: Katy Perry, probably in a playfully sexy lab coat, is nearly finished with the painstaking formulation of her third celebrity fragrance. The yet-unnamed scent will follow her smash-hit perfumes “Meow” and “Purr.” No word yet on whether she’ll be sticking to the kitty theme with something saucy like “Hiss” or “(graphic hairball retching noise).” Meanwhile, fragrance upstarts One Direction have just signed a deal with Olivann Beauty to create a stink of their own. Naturally, they’re “really excited,” and “closely involved in the creation,” et cetera, which I absolutely always believe whenever I read it in a press release. My big yearly roundup isn’t until next week, but I’ll give out one award early. The Mobile Bay Convention and Visitors Bureau of Mobile, Alabama, wins the highly coveted Most Charming Shoehorning of a Band’s Song Titles into a Press Release Award for their masterful work in “Giant MoonPie To Fall New Year’s Eve in Mobile to the Sounds of the Commodores.” Check this out: “Instead of celebrating in a ‘Brick House,’ Mobile will hit the streets in the Central Time Zone’s premier New Year’s Eve.” Yes! Nailed it! And here’s an even better one: “Just like the Commodores song, making New Year’s Eve plans is ‘Easy,’ just head to downtown Mobile for a fun and safe celebration to remember.” P Thephoenix.com/bighurT :: 12.14.12 15
now & next :: voices Talking PoliTics
Smoke SignalS B y D av iD S. B ern St e i n
d b e r n st e i n @ p h x .c o m :: @ d b e r n st e i n
juana by May 1, just 120 days after the law takes effect. People at DPH profess confidence in meeting the goal, but as of this writing, a month after the election, no decision had been made about who in the department will head the effort, and through which office or agency. In fact, conversations about postponing the deadline have already begun. Doing so would probably require a legislative bill, which, given state lawmakers’ historical preference for delay on this issue, might seem like a no-brainer. However, the law stipulates that, until the regulations are in place, patients may grow their own supply with a physician’s recommendation. Giving DPH a few extra months to work would essentially green-light rampant basement cultivation in the Commonwealth; I would bet heavily against that making it out of the Public Health Committee.
Doctors speak up
The medical-marijuana law, passed by ballot initiative last month, lays the hard work of fleshing out regulatory details on the doorstep of the most beleaguered entity in Massachusetts government: the Department of Public Health (DPH). The department has very little time, many issues to cover, a world of distractions, and some very concerned interest groups trying to influence its decisions. DPH is currently in the hands of an interim commissioner, Lauren Smith,
The MMS has officially shifted its focus to influencing the DPH.
since John Auerbach left amid a still-growing scandal at the state crime lab. And that fiasco, with indictments expected soon, has been overshadowed by the meningitis outbreak traced to the New England Compounding Center. Last week, in just the latest shoe to drop, DPH announced an overhaul of the Board of Registration in Pharmacy. In the midst of all this and more, the department must now create a full regulatory scheme for medical mari-
The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS), representing 24,000 physicians and medical students, is accustomed to holding a lot of sway on Beacon Hill — partly because they are the leading authority on medical issues, and partly because doctors write a lot of campaign-contribution checks. MMS’s strident opposition to medical marijuana helped prevent passage in the legislature, but could not defeat the ballot initiative. So, earlier this month, it officially shifted its focus to influencing the DPH regulations. It issued a slate of resolutions, outlining the priorities MMS will lobby DPH to include. Much of the concern, MMS president Richard Aghababian tells me, stems from the vagueness of the criteria for doctors to issue certificates to their patients. As he notes, the state demands strict accountability for physicians prescribing other pain medications. But with marijuana, doc-
For more on changes at BORIM, see the Talking Politics blog: thePhoenix.com/talkingpolitics
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tors have virtually no guidance, from the state or medical research, to screen out patients who might be poor candidates for the drug; to compare expected efficacy with other available treatments; or to determine appropriate dosage for a particular condition. But some medical-marijuana advocates suspect that MMS is actually trying to ensure that its members get the influx of business from patients seeking certificates. Many of the MMS resolutions certainly seem designed to exclude the kinds of specialty clinics that have opened in some other states with medicalmarijuana laws. It only adds to the skepticism to learn that the MMS resolutions were written by Dr. Jay Broadhurst, who chaired the coalition opposing the ballot question and was frequently quoted in the media denouncing the proposed law in harsh terms.
BoarD games
There is also some amount of ass-covering behind the MMS concerns. In particular, physicians don’t want to end up in front of the state’s Board of Registration in Medicine (BORIM), facing possible fines or license suspension, for improper distribution of medicalmarijuana certificates. According to MMS, current BORIM guidelines would make it effectively unethical for physicians to give medical-marijuana certificates to patients, under the definition of “bona fide physicianpatient relationship,” a term used in the new law’s language. As it happens, BORIM is yet another part of DPH in a state of flux — three of the seven board seats are vacant, and the other four were all newly appointed in the past two years; the executive director has just resigned. There are signs that the Patrick administration is using this turnover to move BORIM in a more patient-centered direction, after years of criticism that it is overly influenced by physicians — and MMS specifically. That sense was heightened at last Wednesday’s BORIM meeting, where chair Candace Lapidus Sloane gave a speech about the Board’s mission, focusing on protecting the public, ensuring that all physicians are of “good moral character,” and achieving full transparency. That might suggest more broadly that the DPH might not be ready to accede to the new MMS demands on medical marijuana regulations. For the moment, of course, that’s just reading tea (or perhaps other) leaves. P
With marijuana, unlike other pain medications, doctors have almost no guidance from the state.
THEPHOENIX.cOM :: 12.14.12 17
now & next :: voices Scream On
Still Battling the BPPa B y C hr is Fa r a on e
c fa r ao n e@ p h x .c o m :: @ fa r a 1
The laST Time that the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association dropped an issue of its official newsletter, the Pax Centurion, the outcry was immense: Mayor Tom Menino called the publication “garbage,” advertisers fled, and a subsequent dust-up revealed that most of the publication’s revenue passed through a company run by felons. The revelations were so ugly that the BPPA tried to disappear the evidence, pulling all Pax archives off their site entirely. Minority union members and activists have long decried the Pax; the rag has been a font of misogyny and thinly veiled racism since the 1970s. But this time around, it looked like the newsletter had gone the way of Andrew Breitbart. Not so fast. Two weeks ago, after a six-month hiatus, the BPPA joined Twitter while simultaneously releasing its first Pax since the controversy. This latest tract stays true to form, this time with extra vitriol aimed at black and female cops. For this, Pax editor James Carnell can expect lots of criticism, and just like last time, he’ll probably claim that detractors are out to choke his First Amendment rights and silence union members. It’s the old Sean Hannity hoodwink, conflating opposition with oppression — and it’s utter bullshit. Pax is not merely repulsive on the surface — it’s offensive because of the sad reality that it confirms. In adamantly touting their right to free speech, as if that were the critical issue here, Carnell and his equally guilty enablers have ignored the real criticism — that the Pax reflects a troubling disparity within the department. SHIT BOSTON COPS SAY: Read Chris Faraone’s continuing coverage of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association newsletter scandal at thePhoenix.com/phlog
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I don’t think I’m crawling far out on a steep limb by suggesting that the lack of female and minority superior officers within the BPD is alarming. Among captains and lieutenants, for example, blacks and women represent less than 10 percent of the workforce. In 2012, it’s no longer radical to think that police departments should increasingly resemble the populations they protect and serve; whether the BPPA likes it or not, this is the stated goal of BPD brass. The only stakeholders who don’t agree with that objective — if Pax’s propoganda is to be taken at face value — are the officers themselves. For the new issue alone, Carnell contributed a whole two columns to deriding his black and female colleagues. In one colorful offering, Carnell flexes his creative chops by writing from the perspective of the BPD promotions exam (“I Am a Test”), which the department plans to overhaul in an effort to bolster diversity among the higher ranks. Gunning from the viewpoint of a sheet of paper, he claims that the city is “prepared to spend $2.5 million to transform me into an abortion of an exam.” He also pins further angst over affirmative action on recently retired BPD Deputy Superintendent Gladys Gaines. Speaking as the test, Carnell says Gaines “whined” to the Boston Globe “about alleged discrimination,” and was “bedecked with gold stars [she] never earned.” Furthermore, in specifically hitting Gaines — who once served as head of the BPD Domestic Violence Unit — they’ve shown their interest in keeping her kind down. Next time Carnell wishes to attempt another literary exercise, the veteran street cop should step into the shoes of a woman, or perhaps an officer of color who gets regularly ravaged by his or her own union’s newsletter. Because so long as he keeps writing from the point of view of an oblivious Caucasian asshole, he’ll never understand the attacks against the Pax. P
After a six-month hiatus, the latest Pax stays true to form, with extra vitriol aimed at black and female cops.
THEPHOENIX.COm :: 12.14.12 19
spotlight :: Climate justiCe
‘I’d rather fIght lIke hell’ Naomi Klein has a new baby, a new book in the works, and a fierce new resolve to fight for climate justice: “the human-rights struggle of our time.” By W eN StepheNSo N @w e n st e p h e n s o n
>> kleIN on p 22
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photo by ed kashi
N
aomi Klein, black-clad and sharp-tongued mistress of the global anti-corporate left, friend to Occupiers and scourge of oil barons, stood outside a dressing room backstage at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre one night last month, a clear-eyed baby boy on her hip. “I’m really trying not to play the Earth Mother card,” Klein told me over the phone the week before, as she talked about bringing Toma, her first child, into the world. But she didn’t need to worry. Inside the dressing room, she’d been fielding questions from a small gaggle of young reporters alongside 350.org’s Bill McKibben, who had invited her to play a key role in the 21-city “Do the Math” climate-movement roadshow that arrived at the sold-out Orpheum that night. With a laugh, Klein noted to the reporters that McKibben’s devastating
spotlight :: Climate justiCe << kleIN from p 20
Rolling Stone article last summer, “Global Warming’s Terrifying New Math” — revealing that the fossil-fuel industry has five times more carbon in its proven reserves, which it intends to extract, than the science says can be burned if we want to avoid climate catastrophe — had received no industry pushback. “I mean, that’s remarkable, for a piece like that, to not feel the need to correct the record in any way? Actually, we don’t plan to destroy the planet.” Then she offered an anecdote, as if to dispel any assumptions that she’s a conventional green, planet-saving type. Fresh from the Superstorm Sandy disaster zone, she described visiting an “amazing” community farm in Brooklyn’s Red Hook that had been flooded. “They were doing everything right, when it comes to climate,” she said. “Growing organic, localizing their food system, sequestering carbon, not using fossil-fuel inputs — all the good stuff.” Then came Sandy. “They lose their entire fall harvest, and they’re pretty sure their soil is now contaminated, because the water that flooded them was so polluted.” “So, yeah,” she said, “it’s important to build local alternatives, we have to do it, but unless we are really going after the source of the problem” — namely, the fossil-fuel industry and its lock on Washington — “we are gonna get inundated.” For McKibben and Klein, going after that source means, to begin with, going after the industry’s business model and its very legitimacy. To that end, they’ve used the sold-out national tour, which ended on December 3 in Salt Lake City, to help launch a student-led divestment campaign calling on universities to stop investing in fossil fuels. As of early December, that effort had already spread to more than 150 campuses around the country, including more than a dozen in New England. The point of divestment may not be whatever economic leverage it can wield over some of the richest companies on Earth, but instead a kind of moral leverage, as a rallying point for a broad-based movement — committed to mass protest and nonviolent direct action — that aims to delegitimize what McKibben calls a “rogue” industry and its lobby. 22 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm
Later that night, on the Orpheum stage with McKibben, Klein told the audience: “Remember this moment. This was the moment we got serious.” and Naomi Klein BtheirillhaveMcKibben been plenty serious, in respective ways, for a long
time. McKibben, one of the world’s leading environmental writers and activists, has fought the climate fight in every conceivable way. In 2007, together with a small band of students at Middlebury College, where he teaches, he founded the global 350.org network. Last year it spearheaded the campaign against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, resulting in the largest civil-disobedience action in a generation at the gates of the White House. (The week after the election, they were back, thou-
a year, the warmest on record, in which we lost half the Arctic ice cap and saw off-the-charts global weather extremes, while the political and media establishments seemed not to notice. It also says something about the direction the climate movement may be taking — or, rather, the direction McKibben and Klein argue it should be taking, as they seek to merge climate and economic justice in a way that goes beyond both traditional environmentalism and the old-school, climateclueless left. Each has a tough-love message for their own constituency — McKibben for an insular environmental movement that’s been woefully ineffective on climate; Klein for a left, including many in the Occupy movement, that has failed to grapple with the seriousness and urgency
“RemembeR this moment,” Klein tells heR boston audience. “this was the moment we got seRious.” sands strong, pressuring Obama to kill the pipeline once and for all, and a major action is planned for Washington on February 18.) For her part, Klein “came of age politically,” she told me, with the 1999 protests against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, when she was 29, shortly after which her international best-seller No Logo made her an intellectual star of the anti-globalization movement. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, her 2007 magnum opus, exposed the ways neoliberal free-market profiteers have exploited chaos and catastrophe in disaster zones, from hurricane-shocked New Orleans to “shock-and-awe”-shocked Iraq. So seeing McKibben and Klein on stage together, launching a mathematical and moral assault on the carbon corporatocracy, says something significant about the charged atmosphere of this particular moment — as we end
of the climate crisis. Look, they’re saying, this is it: science tells us that time is running out, and everything you’ve ever fought for is on the line. Climate change has the ability to undo your historic victories and crush your present struggles. So it’s time to come together, for real, and fight to preserve and extend what you care most about — which means engaging in the climate fight, really engaging, as if your life and your life’s work, even life itself, depended on it. Because they do. as it happens, is at work on kall lein, a book in which she hopes to tie of this together. Due to appear
late next year, it’s part of a joint project with her husband, documentary filmmaker Avi Lewis. In a long interview from her home in Toronto before coming to Boston, Klein explained how the book and film — separate but interrelated pieces of a larger whole — make an ambitious argument, one she first
laid out in a cover story for The Nation last November, “Capitalism vs. the Climate.” “The climate crisis,” Klein told me, “is the ultimate indictment of capitalism, certainly the model of capitalism that we have, and the solutions to the climate crisis are the same as the solutions to the economic crisis.” That means restoring democracy and reinvigorating the public sphere, reining in and re-regulating corporations, re-localizing our economies, taxing polluters and the wealthy to put a stiff price on carbon and bring basic fairness into the system, and building alternatives to limitless profit and unsustainable growth. The book’s argument, she said, is “an attempt to weave together disparate movements under the banner of rising to meet the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced.” To illustrate, she pointed to a community in El Salvador, one of the many places where she and Lewis have researched and filmed. Set in a floodplain, the residents now find themselves regularly inundated. “It’s a community that was born out of the civil war, a community of refugees,” she explained, “and they bring their revolutionary history — and their history of fighting for economic justice — to the climate fight. They’re finding ways to respond to climate change that really transform their community in every way, from housing to health care.” For Klein, it shows that the climate fight can and must be about “deepening democracy.” Indeed, Klein wants to see more young activists, inspired and galvanized by the Occupy movement, making the same connections. “If I had a role in Occupy Wall Street, it was to try to push the climate issue,” Klein said. She told me about Yotam Marom, one of the many OWS organizers she’s met in New York. “Yotam, who’s an amazing organizer, was one of the more resistant” to integrating climate into his worldview, she said. Not that he didn’t think it’s important, “but he just couldn’t find a way to connect.” She’s found this fairly typical. “For a really long time,” said Klein, “lefties thought climate was the one issue they didn’t have to worry about, because big, rich green groups had it covered. And now it’s like, actually, they >> kleIN on p 24
spotlight :: Climate justiCe << kleIN from p 22
really don’t. That was a dangerous assumption to make.” But she had just spoken to Marom again the day before. “Obviously, Sandy has changed the game for New Yorkers,” she said. Marom told her he was writing an article that would be a kind of “12-point recovery program for leftists, about what they need to do to engage with climate.” “But he said something so insightful,” she told me. “When he thinks about why he was resistant, he realized that if he accepted the reality of climate change, truly accepted it into his body, his soul, then he would have to drop everything he was doing. And he doesn’t want to drop everything he’s doing.” What Klein is trying to say to those like Marom is that they don’t have to drop everything. “In fact,” she said, “you need to do it even more.” “Climate change lends urgency to our fights for social justice, like nothing else before,” Klein said. “We have to win these battles against free trade, we have to win these battles to re-localize our economies. This isn’t just some little hobby. “So it’s not about abandoning all of those fights, it’s actually about supercharging those fights, and weaving them all into a common narrative. That’s the story we need to tell. “It’s a ‘go big or go home’ moment.” I asked her what she thinks it signifies to see Bill McKibben and Naomi Klein working together so closely. “Climate change is the humanrights struggle of our time,” she said. “And it’s too important to be left to the environmentalists alone. I mean, we need the environmental movement — but not if they’re going to be afraid of the left.” f there’s a central idea driving Ihistoric Klein these days, it’s that the projects of economic and
social justice and the urgency of climate justice are interdependent and inseparable — from the local level on up to the global. Klein’s entry point into the climate issue was her interest in reparations for slavery and the historic crimes of colonialism. In 2008, covering the United Nations conference on racism known as “Durban II,” she realized that the reparations movement had shifted
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its focus to the idea of “climate debt” — that is, what the developed world, in tangible economic terms, owes to the people of developing nations who will bear (and are already bearing) the brunt of climate change, but have done little or nothing, historically, to cause it. “The refusal to accept the importance of economic justice is the reason we have had no climate action. It’s just that simple,” Klein told me. “What has bogged down every round of UN negotiations on climate is the basic principle that the people who are most responsible for creating this crisis should take the lead and bear a heavier burden.” And for poor nations, “there should be a right to develop a certain amount, to pull oneself out of poverty.” The issue
things like that. It’s inconvenient — an inconvenient truth that can’t be sold to the American public.” “So I was surprised when Bill invited me to be on the board, because I sort of thought that I was toxic,” she said. “I think it just speaks to 350’s deep understanding that these movements have to come together.” Klein is known for saying that the job of the left is to “move the center.” I asked if that’s what she and McKibben are up to with “Do the Math” and the divestment campaign. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “And when I said ‘Move the center,’ you know what I was always saying is, let’s nationalize the oil companies.” She laughed, and so did I, and I
“climate change is the human Rights stRuggle of ouR time. and it’s too impoRtant to be left to the enviRonmentalists alone.” remains a sticking point for any global climate treaty, as witnessed again last week at the UN conference in Doha, Qatar, where wealthy nations failed to make concrete commitments to help the most vulnerable countries deal with climate change. lein first met McKibben and the Kdisastrous 350.org team in late 2009 at the UN climate confer-
ence in Copenhagen, where she was pushing these issues. She was profoundly impressed, a friendship formed, and in April 2011 she joined 350’s board. “I’m sort of used to the environmental movement seeing me as a pain in the ass,” she told me. “You know, when I talk about reparations and climate debt — it’s seen as being off-message. You’re just supposed to shut up about
reminded her that she’s also been known to say that “moving the center” can require “saying some crazy shit.” “When I say that,” Klein replied, “I mean stuff that sounds crazy to other people. But it doesn’t sound crazy to me. I think we will get to a point where saying we should nationalize the oil companies won’t sound crazy. Because the bills are just going to add up.” “You know what’s crazy,” she said, “is letting the corporations who’ve left us with the most expensive mess in history just keep all the money they’ve made for themselves,” instead of paying to clean up the mess, and helping fix it. “No. That’s insane,” she said. “This economic model is failing us spectacularly, on multiple levels,” she added, “but we’re still acting as if our goal is to save
it,” rather than transform it into something that won’t destroy us. Indeed, I suggested, that appears to be the case even among progressives who still prioritize economic growth at the expense of the climate. “The levels of denial are so complicated,” she said. “We are all in denial. All of us. People are holding back a tremendous amount of anxiety. You don’t let yourself care about something that you have no idea how to fix. Because it’s just too terrifying. And it would derail your whole life, as Yotam was saying. “That’s why there has to be a narrative, a plan, for how we integrate so much of what we’re already doing into a common project. Because so long as people feel like nothing that they know now applies, then they will work really hard to keep this information at bay. “This is our meta-issue. We’ve all gotta get inside it. Because this is our home. We are already inside it, like it or not, and it’s inside us. So the idea that we can somehow divorce from it is a fantasy that we have to let go of.” I asked about her decision to have a baby, in spite of everything she knows. She got quiet. “For a long time,” she told me, “I just couldn’t see a future for a child that wasn’t some, like, Mad Max climate-warrior thing.” Somehow, though, her engagement in the climate movement seems to have changed that. Another future seemed possible. She and Lewis decided to have a child, but struggled with infertility. Then, having given up, surprise: along came Toma. If anything, the experience has made Klein all the more a fighter. She now believes that denying her desire to have a child, because of the mess being made by those willing to destroy the planet for profit, would be a form of surrender. “I guess what I want to say is, I don’t want to give them that power,” she told me. “I’d rather fight like hell than give these evil motherfuckers the power to extinguish the desire to create life.” P Wen Stephenson, a freelance journalist, serves on the board of cambridge-based Better Future Project and is a co-founder of 350 massachusetts (350mA.org), both allied with 350.org. His Phoenix cover story, “A convenient Excuse,” appeared in the November 2 issue.
Damien Echols, photographed October 19, 2012, in Salem, Massachusetts
LIFE
AFTER DEATH ROW
Free at last, the West Memphis Threeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Damien Echols is trying to start over . . . in Salem, Massachusetts. By NiNa MacLaughLiN n m ac l a u g h l i n @ g m a i l .c o m : : @t h e _ c a r p e n t r i x
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Spotlight :: WeSt MeMphiS three
D
amien Echols is having trouble with some bookshelves. They’re cheap ones, from Target, and he’s supposed to be able to put them together himself. But the instructions don’t make sense, the diagrams are useless. Echols struggles to attach one piece to another in the study of his new house just outside the center of Salem. The leaves outside are bright and haven’t fallen; it’s morning in October. The pieces do not fit together.
This is the same Damien Echols who was once the most feared and hated figure in a small Southern town. Damien Echols, who spent 18 years on death row. In an HBO documentary about the case, parents and citizens, fire in their eyes, call for Echols and his alleged accomplices to rot in hell, and worse. “If I had the chance to talk with Damien Echols,” the mother of one of the victims tells the camera, “I would tell him that I hope he bust hell wide open. Period. And that if I could get my hands on him, I would eat the skin off of his face.” He gives up on the shelves. The books and letters and small statues and drawings Echols did in prison will remain in their boxes another day. The shelves end up heaped on the curb for the garbage collectors to take away.
main photo by joshi radin
after his release from prison, aforyear Echols has chosen to settle in Salem a reason: he feels a kinship with the
history of the place. He knows what it’s like to be the object of a witch hunt. In 1993, three hundred years after the first witch was accused in Salem, Echols was tried, along with Jessie Misskelley Jr. and Jason Baldwin, for the murder of three eight-year-old boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. They were convicted in early 1994. It was a famously botched investigation and biased trial. Coerced statements, lying witnesses, DNA evidence ignored. Once the town’s anger had settled on teenagers who wore black and listened to heavy metal, their fates were sealed. Baldwin and Misskelley were given life sentences; Echols, age 18, was sentenced to die. It took 18 years, numerous appeals, three documentaries, and the public shaming of the court by dozens of celebrities to free the West Memphis Three. In 2011, they were released after offering an Alford plea, a guilty plea with the profession of innocence. Which is to say, the three men asserted their innocence, but acknowledged that there was evidence enough to convict them. It got them out of jail, and also let Arkansas off the hook; the men are still guilty as charged and cannot sue the town or the state for their imprisonment. Not everyone calls this justice.
Salem is supposed to be a new life, in this city with a past as troubled as Echols’s own. He says it’s getting easier. Less waking up screaming. Fewer panic attacks. “It’s the product of living in absolute fear 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he says. At 38, Echols is tall and lean with pale skin and black hair that falls just above his shoulders. He wears black pants and a black button-down shirt. He owns 10 pairs of black pants. He owns 10 of this same black button-down. He wears this every day, a new sort of uniform, not state-issued, but one that nonetheless eradicates the daily decision, What should I wear today? Tattoos in dark ink mark his forearms. He wears blue-tinted glasses that, when removed, reveal dark eyes — not brown, darker, as though all pupil. It’s a striking feature. His voice, with a hint of the South, is that of a younger man, as if it’s been preserved by underuse. “You should make everything art,” Echols tells me, “even down to the way you look. Art shouldn’t be something you do, it should be something you are.” He swirls his cappuccino. “It’s hard. Life is hard. When you’re having to think about paying the electric bill, or put together a bookcase, or clean out the cat-litter box, that doesn’t seem very magic. That doesn’t seem very creative. And it’s easy to fall into that giving up, that giving in to whatever’s necessary to survive, but I don’t want to ever be like that.” He’s sitting across from me in a small café in downtown Salem. His wife, Lorri Davis, sits next to him. Rattled in the aftermath of the shelving fiasco, he asked her to accompany him to this interview. “Please go with me,” he said. She has. They are laughing now, both of them, even though it wasn’t funny a few hours ago. Davis, 49, strawberry blonde and high of cheekbone, with good curves and an appealing gap between her two front teeth, has a girlish laugh and the classic beauty of a black-andwhite Hollywood actress. “I’m just here so Damien can talk about his book,” she says at the start of the interview. She sits a little to the side, playing Scrabble on her phone. Echols talks of nesting with Davis, setting up their home. “We’ve been doing the
Damien Echols, under arrest for murder in 1993
best we can to fill it with really good, really positive energy, so it’s already starting to feel like an extension of ourselves. There’s nothing alien or bizarre or frightening.” Think of the way you might talk of moving into a new place. Well, we’re almost unpacked, there’s a few things that are bizarre and frightening, but we’re dealing with it. Is it defensiveness, a lingering urge to dispel the conception that he was involved with Satanic cults? Or does it speak to the wonder of someone who, for the first time in his adult life, has the chance to live in place that is not alien, bizarre, or frightening? Davis wrote Echols in prison after she saw Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills, the HBO documentary on the West Memphis Three (the first of three documentaries HBO made — nearly seven hours of film in all). Their correspondence started in early 1996. Davis, a landscape architect at a Manhattan firm, flew from her home in Brooklyn to Arkansas to meet Echols for the first time five months after the first letter. Echols was 21. She was 33. They were married in the prison a few days before Echols’s 24th birthday. Their wedding day was the first time they touched. Now Echols jokes about the thermostat, about battles over how warm it is. “It’s like a hot loaf of bread when you take the covers off Lorri. The heat just rolls out,” he says. He teases her, mocks her voice: “It’s freezing in here.” It’s a domestic scene repeated over centuries, but new to him, and there’s a relishing in the telling, the novelty of it. A Look at us, we’re just like everyone else. Davis giggles. Echols and Davis spent many years divided by plastic and glass. There’s a certain romance to love letters and living in anticipation. Love and life outside the walls is harder. How could it not be? When the other person has existed in words on a page, weekly visits, and your imagination for so long, the domestic reality of trying then to share a life — the snores, chores, smells and sounds and needs of another human body — might yield more than the usual challenge of the collision of two people. “I didn’t have the slightest idea of what to expect or how it was going to be, so I wasn’t prepared. How can you be?” says Davis. “Damien owned his world in prison, as much as anyone could. He carved out an existence and a way to survive. I was used to dealing with someone who knew what to do,” she says of the adjustment. “Everyone just expected Damien to be the capable, selfassured, strong man that he was in prison. I’m included in that. I thought he was going to come out like a ready-made man.” “We thought the hard part was getting me out,” Echols says, “and then we realized the hard part wasn’t anywhere near over.” If he could go back to West Memphis, age >> echoLs on p 28
thephoenix.com :: 12.14.12 27
Spotlight :: WeSt MeMphiS three 18, and never have been picked up by the cops that evening, never have gone to jail, had followed instead the trajectory he was on, as a teenage father, high-school dropout, would he take that, follow that path, or go through again what he has gone through? He looks into his mug, holding it in both hands, and looks up again, dark eyes locking in a firm gaze. “If there was no other way to be with Lorri, then I would go through it again.”
chols’s life after his release has taken on ereleased the irrational arc of a dream: after being from prison, his ride out of Arkansas — the first plane ride of his life — was on a jet to Seattle provided by Eddie Vedder; a month after his release he was paragliding in New Zealand with Peter Jackson. He calls Johnny Depp a brother; they have matching tattoos. Henry Rollins and Patti Smith, among others, are also part of the star-studded list of supporters of the West Memphis Three. Jackson and his partner, Fran Walsh, have helped perhaps most of all. While Echols was in prison, they hired Davis to work on the case full-time. She would wake up to 20 emails from them directing her on what to do, whom to contact. “You know, drive to Missouri and look into this legal file, and on your way back, go to Memphis and look through so-and-so’s garbage. Which I did,” explains Davis. “In the end it’s what won us our freedom.” In New Zealand, “Peter was trying to make me make up for 18 years of lost life in a month,” Echols says. They went luge sledding. They went jet boating (“People have died doing this!”). They went up in a WWI fighter jet (“Basically, this plane is made of Irish linen and cables”). They went on a helicopter flight into an active volcano (“You could literally see the ground boiling while we’re sitting there eating sandwiches”). Jackson provided the pair with more than just adventure: when Echols was released — with no home, no clothes, no money — Jackson offered up his New York apartment for a year. When they moved to Salem, he bought them a bed. And Jackson has also co-produced West of Memphis, a new documentary about Echols’s case, being released on Christmas Day. This is not a life Echols could’ve imagined for himself, so alternately cursed and charmed. And yet Echols has long had a sense that he would be remembered. “It’s something I don’t talk about with a lot of people,” he says. “It’s that I don’t feel like my life is pointless. I feel like there’s meaning behind it.” It’s something he talks about in the HBO documentaries: a teenage Echols tells the camera that he’s had a sense that he would be remembered. He’ll have another documentary to be remembered by, West of Memphis, opening Christmas Day, which he and Davis co-produced with Jackson. Here’s a story: Davis and Echols are hanging out in Patti Smith’s recording studio.
28 12.14.12 :: thephoenix.com
She’s making her new record. The three of them are talking together about Echols’s life. “I try to tell Damien that this isn’t normal life,” Davis says to Smith. And Patti Smith says, “Yeah? When has he ever had a normal life?” n his new book, Life After Death, written ismall largely in prison, Echols looks back at the horrors and daily details of a “white-
trash” childhood in a provincial place: a cruel and bullying stepfather; living in a shack for a time with no heat, no running water; a grandfather who chuckled and sipped his beer as Echols’s flesh was chewed by fire ants; a first love; a teenage girl he got pregnant; watching horror movies; catching snakes; listening to Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Metallica. He writes about his life in prison: an executed man who left him his dentures as a memento; a fellow inmate who taped crickets to his skin, called them his “babies”; mental discipline; meditation; marrying Davis in a small Buddhist ceremony in prison; and the annual watching of It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. He often writes about late fall and winter, pumpkins and scarecrows, and maintains a childlike reverence and excitement for the stretch of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. He is someone to whom Victor Hugo’s definition of melancholy — the pleasure of being sad — might appeal. He writes of the wind now and then carrying a radio signal for a country station to the prison: “It’s like drowning in some kind of beautiful, velvet pool of despair.” For 18 years, Echols was told where to go, when to eat, what to eat, what to wear. He witnessed depravity and insanity. He was beaten, assaulted, chained. He watched men walked off to die. He has seen things that most of us will never, never see. A few months after his release, Damien Echols walks into a bank. It’s his first time
With Johnny Depp at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival
in one since he was 18 years old. He needs to make a deposit. Dressed in black, blue-tinted glasses on his face, Echols picks up a deposit slip and holds it in his fingers. What are all these boxes? What are you supposed to write? Where are you supposed to write it? What’s my account number? What am I supposed to do? Echols puts himself in line, a few people in front of him, doing their business the way they have a hundred times before, money in and out, classic errand. His heart quickens. The pores on his scalp open; a prickle of sweat begins on his forehead, the back of his legs. He rushes from the bank, experiences the rest of his panic attack outside on the sidewalk.
In prison, Damien Echols prison, Echols became a Red Sox fan. ihen“Like this place is the epitome of autumn,” became a says of Salem, “the Red Sox came to be embodiment of baseball. They’re so enRed Sox fan. the riched with history and tradition.” And the he said, such oddballs: Papelbon, Underdogdom characters, Varitek. Underdogdom is appealing. So is a curse. is appealing. breaking So the first thing he wanted to do when he was released — the first thing — was to go to So is Fenway and see the Sox play. While he was here, he tacked on a side trip to Salem. Echols had learned about the witch tribreaking als in middle school, American history, the way everyone does. “West Memphis is the a curse. second Salem,” says an 18-year-old Echols
in the HBO documentary. “I’m all for burning them at the stake,” says a father of one of the murdered boys of Echols and his friends. “Like they did in Salem.” Before Salem became a figure of speech, before the Wiccan boutiques and haunted tours and psychic shops, before the silhouette of a witch on a broomstick marked the front doors of all the cop cars, before Gallows Hill had a basketball court on it, before Salem cashed in on its past, Disneyfied it, made it palatable and appealing to tourists and teenagers and pagans, a dark and inexplicable frenzy took hold in this old seaport town. It started with three young girls. Winter, 1692, and nine-year-old Elizabeth Parris, daughter of a reverend, her cousin, 11-year-old Abigail Williams, and their friend Ann Putnam, age 12, started acting weird. The adults claimed they were possessed, that the devil was afoot. Accusations erupted; trials were held. Over a hundred were accused; those accused were not allowed legal counsel. Nineteen people were hanged on Gallows Hill. One man was crushed to death under the weight of stones. When the hysteria lifted, apologies were offered, monuments erected, money made. Out of something very bad, lessons, infamy, fame. On that first visit to Salem, Echols took a ghost-walk tour. The tour guide “was talking about the witch hangings,” Echols says, “and he said, ‘That’s why Massachusetts is such a blue state now, because we learned our lesson from that.’ ”
>> echoLs on p 30
photo: ap/wide world
<< echoLs from p 27
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Spotlight :: WeSt MeMphiS three << echoLs from p 28
That sentence struck Echols hard. “It already happened here once,” he goes on. “They learned from their mistakes. They won’t do it again.” He and Davis plan to live there the rest of their lives. In his short time here, Echols has come to recognize a dividing line in Salem between those who embrace its history and those who want to forget it. “You even see bumper stickers — Salem’s future does not lie in its past, crap like that,” Echols says. “You’re kidding yourself if you think you can just cover something that powerful up.” To forget it, to deny it, is to risk repeating it. Echols picked a place to live where witch hunts are more than a metaphor. Salem calls to people, Echols says today. “It calls to people who feel disenfranchised, people who feel discriminated against, people who feel like they don’t fit in anywhere else. It’s the one place in the world where I’m in the majority.”
with witchy commerce. Booths line the brickand-cobblestoned way, selling haunted tours and custom Dracula fangs, New Age equipment, wigs and masks and flower garlands. There are tourists in long capes, peaked witch hats, zombie make-up. A sandwich board announces Shalimar the Spiritual Advisor. Gina DiBenedetto, with wavy blonde hair and eyelashes like wings, sells jewelry and spell candles from a booth outside the Broom Closet on the upper part of pedestrian Essex Street. Her eyes are a pinklavender, with a cream-colored center. “Contacts,” she says. “Barbie pink.” The effect is enchanting. She is likable, the sort of person who pulls you in with an immediate sense of intimacy. She says she came to Salem after the death of her daughter in a house fire. Does she know who Damien Echols is? “I was obsessed with the case,” she says. “Saw all the movies, researched it. I studied forensic psychology in college. It’s funny that you ask — he was at this booth two weeks ago.” She points to the bracelet he was looking at, a large gold colored skull bracelet with eyes made of sparkly black jewels. “He was standing right there by the scarecrow. I recognized him and said, ‘It’s Damien Echols.’ He went racing off down the street with his long trench coat flowing behind him.” She shakes her head. “I was very disappointed to hear he was released.” She won’t come out and say he’s guilty. “Let’s just say I think there was involvement,” she says. “There are too many contradictions. I can’t explain it. It was just in my gut the whole time.” “There is black magic,” she says. “I don’t practice it.” She pauses. “It does involve sacrifices. But I wouldn’t know.” She says her daughter had been interested
>> echoLs on p 32
30 12.14.12 :: thephoenix.com
Echols, in Salem: “It’s the one place in the world where I’m in the majority.”
photo by joshi radin
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Spotlight :: WeSt MeMphiS three << echoLs from p 30
in Echols too, before she died, and even wrote Echols a letter while he was in prison. “It wasn’t a very nice letter,” DiBenedetto says. “If she had seen him here, she would’ve chased him down the street.” Suspicion has followed him, even in this place of refuge. Gut feelings and shadows of doubt ghost around him still, even in Witch City. One of the candles on the table has a binding spell written on it: “No more harm shall come to me/From your grasp . . . I AM FREE.”
Damien Echols and wife Lorri Davis, in August 2011
conversation between Echols and Amnesty International’s Joshua Rubenstein, doesn’t start for an hour. At 20 to seven, a bookstore employee maneuvers to the microphone and apologizes, but they’ve sold out of the book. “Tonight’s event will be miked throughout the store,” she says, “so even if you can’t see it, you can hear it. We’ll be getting started soon.” The crowd fills every part of the first floor of the store. The line to have Echols sign books is 150-deep or more. The audience in the seated area is 60 percent women, more than average with black or magenta hair. Two women discuss the eating habits of their cats. “I had a cat behaviorist come in because of the problem, and she said that each can of tuna is different.” Another woman explains her reading preferences to her companion: “The only books that interest me are old textbooks about mental illness.” Echols, when he appears, in his black pants and black button-down, looks spent. He removes his dark glasses briefly and rubs his eyes. Shadows pool beneath them, obscured again as the glasses go back on. He has described the attention — the interviews, the book, the touring, the talking and talking about the case, answering over and over what it’s like being out of a prison — as a “necessary evil.” “It’s hellish,” he told me, using a word that he repeats often, in speech and in the book. “You become the fact that you’re out of prison. It’s like you can’t even heal because you keep having to rip the wound open.” There’s no sense of closure. “People are always saying, ‘You’re so strong, you’ve made it through this situation I couldn’t have,’ ” Echols says. “And I always think, ‘You have no earthly idea how broken I am inside, how bad this destroyed me inside.’ ” At the reading, Davis sits in the front row, directly across from Echols; they are less than four feet apart. She chats with fans, purses her lips in a nervous way, a flush on her cheeks to match her crimson shirt, knowing she is very much part of the show. Echols chews his thumb as the bookstore employee and then Rubenstein introduce him. The conversation begins about writing. Echols is flat, his answers rote, lacking the
32 12.14.12 :: thephoenix.com
energy and animation he radiated less than a month before in Salem. This distance doesn’t come off as nerves, as caution or anxiety in front of a crowd; it looks more like exhaustion. He’s been on the road, a string of cities and speaking engagements, a rock star on tour, and it’s started to show. He does not smile. He’s a little softer about the jaw than he was a month ago, a string of hotel meals and sandwiches on the go and little chance to exercise or lift weights, one of his new passions. Rubenstein recounts the details of the case, names the boys who were murdered, runs through the bullet-pointed facts of the murders, the trial, the injustice. Echols nods. Here is Echols’s “necessary evil”: the wound ripped open again and again. Rubenstein calls Davis “the heroine of the book,” for having labored so diligently to get Echols out of prison. She worked on the case, he says, while Echols worked on maintaining his sanity. There is applause. She looks at her lap and gives a coy smile. The first question from the crowd comes from a Harvard librarian who mentions the letters between Echols and Davis written while Echols was in prison — they exchange a smile at the mention — and whether he has been approached by any libraries about his plans for his papers, journals, and letters. Right now, he explains, what wasn’t confiscated by guards is sitting on a shelf in Salem. “We were considering burning them,” he says. Oh no’s! and Don’t do it’s! rise from the crowd. “Please don’t do that,” pleads the librarian. Davis mouths across the room to her: “Do you want them?” Echols is visibly lightened after this exchange, smiles now, jokes about how being around so many people after a decade of solitary confinement is “sort of hellish.” A man asks if Echols is in touch with Misskelley and Baldwin. Echols answers,
A new documentary about Echols’s case gets a theatrical release at Christmas
saying that Misskelley is agoraphobic, doesn’t leave his house, too afraid he’ll be put back in jail. Echols says he does talk to Baldwin, though, who is in college studying to be a lawyer even though he won’t be able to practice law unless he is exonerated. A 13-year-old girl, with the Led Zeppelin IV symbols Sharpied onto the toes of her gray Converse sneaks, asks the kind of question that would sound hokey in the mouth of an adult, stale and sappy, but is so sincere coming from her, honest and curious, blood rising to her cheeks as she speaks. “Can you describe what it was like to feel rain for the first time, or feel the wind?” “There are no words,” he starts. But he finds them, and it’s his best, longest, and most genuine answer of the evening. His descriptions of weather and its moods are some of the most evocative in the book; this is just the sort of emotional register Echols works best at, the romance and melancholy of a teenage girl. “It’s like a fairy tale,” he says, leaning forward in his seat. “It was too good to be true. To finally be able to feel and see these things again, it’s so big you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. You don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Most people have nothing in their frame of reference they can compare it to.” Rubenstein asks him to explain the difference between “ordinary” death row and solitary confinement, “so that we mere mortals can understand.” If we are mere mortals, does that make Damien Echols a god? As the event winds down, Echols implores the crowd not to feel heartbroken. “I don’t want you to leave thinking we live in a fucked-up world.” He hopes, if nothing else, that the book will inspire people to do something with their lives. And he apologizes. “I might’ve come off as a little somber tonight,” he says. “I’m kind of wore out.” P
photo: ap/wide world
ive minutes after six on a Friday night FHarvard in mid-November, and every seat at the Book Store is filled. The event, a
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spotlight :: second breakfast
there and back again W
hen we heard Denny’s had released a special menu in honor of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, our first collective thought was “Uh, gross.” Our second was “We need to try it. All of it. Now.” Which is how I found myself on a fast-food odyssey to Danvers (home of the closest Denny’s to Boston). “Where there’s life, there’s hope, and need of vittles,” and all that. While my trek from Central Square wasn’t as arduous a passage as, say, Frodo’s journey from Hobbiton to Mount Doom, it was as epic a journey as I’ve ever undertaken. I set off for parts unknown, armed only with a burning hunger for adventure (and greasy diner fare). Join me, won’t you?
Nobody said this journey would be easy, and the Ring Burger ($8.49) was proof. It arrived ready for a fight, covered with Pepper Jack cheese, bacon, sautéed mushrooms, and mayo and served atop another grilled cheddar bun with more potatoes, this time fries that would have been appealing had I not been wounded in my earlier tussle with the Potatoes of the Shire. But what’s this? The wooden toothpick jutting stoically from the top of the burger, purported to hold three golden onion rings, was bare. The precious! Gollum would have lost his shit. My waitress informed me that they were out of rings, but I knew she was hoarding them in the kitchen for herself. Good thing I was too stuffed to protest.
The journey wasn’t over yet. My penultimate peak to scale took the form of the Lonely Mountain Treasure ($2.49), a bowl of lemon-poppy French-toast nuggets with a side of vanilla frosting that, on the menu, looked more like oversized croutons with a side of mayonnaise. At this point in the saga, I might have preferred croutons. But I forced my broken, bloated stomach onward, dipping the spongy bites into the creamy frosting and swallowing them practically whole.
34 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm
A Quest for the Treasure of Mount Denny’s
AlA menu d s, this o ever on esn’t go And on it runs thro
Januar ugh early y. and T hobbiT: An Unex he JoUrney pecTed h screens its o decemb n er 14.
By A l ex An d r A CAvA l l o ac ava l lo @ p h x .c o m
Upon arriving at the mostly deserted Denny’s, I appraised the menu — designed to look like a map of Middle Earth, with photos of items like “Gandalf’s Gobble Melt” positioned next to QR codes that directed me to videos of nerds in LOTR gear geeking out over Denny’s meals — with a mixture of awe and horror before deciding to dive in. I fell head over hoof down the Hobbit Hole ($5.99), which seemed a fitting place to begin. Composed of two fried eggs nestled snugly in two grilled cheddar buns, the Bilbo breakfast is served with sizzling bacon and hash browns that glistened greasily under the fluorescent lights. The whole mess is topped with mounds of melted cheddar, more bacon, and two Asiago biscuits — because what we need here is a few more carbs. But one imagines you’d need to carbo-load before risking life and limb in Mordor, so it made sense. And those egg-filled cheddar buns were good.
My final reckoning awaited. The Radagast’s Red Velvet Pancake Puppies ($1.99), six fried balls of redvelvet cake, leered at me from their bowl. Deep-fried and weighty, they came with a side of cream-cheese frosting for dipping, offering a lusty challenge even to a seasoned Denny’s warrior like myself. I made it through one. (I actually would probably have loved these things if I hadn’t just eaten my way through the better part of Middle Earth.)
THEPHOENIX.cOm :: 12.14.12 35
photos by ariel shearer
What made less sense was the Shire Sausage Skillet ($7.49), a monstrosity that I trudged into reluctantly, despite my wish to linger at the safe haven of eggs and bacon. Better named, maybe, the Tolkien Tater Skillet (that one’s a freebie, Denny’s), it arrived in a steaming cast-iron skillet loaded with cheese-covered potatoes, two well-fried eggs, more cheese-covered potatoes, a single (but girthy!) sausage, and a few more cheese-covered potatoes. Methinks Fredegar “Fatty” Bolger might have indulged in one too many Shire Skillets. Sausage consumed, eggs nibbled, I bid the potatoes a not-sofond farewell, steeled myself for battle, and headed for the badlands of meat and mushrooms.
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The art of the apple crumble. Page 40.
THEPHOENIX.cOm :: 12.14.12 37
Food & drink :: dining
Food Coma
Grilled lamb Skewer at daddy JoneS B y MC sl iM J B
IF there’s a word that annoys me in restaurant reviews, it’s “authentic,” as the writer is usually assuming some authority on the cuisine that is probably unmerited. But I like it just fine when used to describe how a place feels, as in sincere: not arch, like the hipster joint that winkingly apes a dive bar, or pretentious, like the restaurant that thinks a velvet rope makes it “upscale and exclusive.” Authentic joints pursue their chosen concepts without irony. Among my favorites of this type is the modest local bar with very good food and drinks and a minimum of high-concept cuteness. That pretty much describes the new Daddy Jones in Magoun Square. For example, Daddy Jones features updates on retro dating-bar drinks like the ’60s-vintage Harvey Wallbanger ($10, here using ice cubes made from OJ and subbing ouzo and amaretto for 38 12.14.12 :: Thephoenix.coM/food
DaDDy Jones 525 Medford St, Somerville 617.690.9095 or daddyjonesbar.com
Galliano) without feeling the need to hang black-light posters. Its Greyhound ($9) returns this classic highball to its original gin and grapefruit base and adds hints of thyme and honey, with tasty results. The Dirty Dill Infused Gin ($9) reads like a very dry martini; a garnish of pickled green bean, olive, and cocktail onion practically makes it a boozy hors d’oeuvre. The beer list leans crafty, with six drafts ($5–$7) and 15 in cans and bottles ($4–$6, large format $16–$18). Most of the thoughtful 19-bottle list of wines ($25–$40) is available by the glass ($8–$10). This includes bargains like the 2010 Elios Mediterranean White ($34/$9), a crisp, lemony moschofilero/ chardonnay blend from the Peloponnese, and the 2011 Bodegas Volver Tarima Monastrell ($30/$8), an inky, spicy-hot red from Jumilla. The short menu centers on home-style
Greek classics, executed sensationally. Appetizers include beautiful stuffed phyllo ($6), fried turnovers of spinach, mushrooms, and cheese with a thin redpepper dipping sauce. Dip & pita ($6) puts wedges of excellent grilled flatbread around coral-tinged whipped feta and roasted pepper, at once bright and briny. House-made smoked herring ($5), served atop grilled romaine with fried capers, lemon, and olive oil, is one memorable little starter: intensely salty and smoky, with a hint of open-flame char. Among the mid-courses is roast stuffed baby eggplant ($8) filled with a mix of ground beef, rice, and a few peas under a light blanket of roasted red pepper and melted kasseri, flanked with cherry tomatoes and sprinkled with fried parsley: hearty and delicious. Entrées include a superb grilled sausage sandwich ($8) of first-rate loukaniko (a Greek pork sausage accented with orange peel and fennel seed), caramelized onions, and roasted peppers, wrapped in pita alongside excellent hand-cut fries (a few of which are also tucked into the sandwich). It’s dressed with a fabulous tzatziki of thick Greek yogurt, cucumber, garlic, and lemon. The grilled lamb skewer ($14) could not be simpler: big chunks of rich, slightly chewy, cooked-to-order marinated lamb alternating with red onion and peppers atop grilled transverse slices of eggplant and zucchini and a turmeric-tinged pilaf, with more of that fine tzatziki on the side. The space is dimly lit and handsomely done — dark-stained woods, exposed ductwork, Deco pendant lights, one wall display fashioned from a gentleman’s hat rack, others from kid-sized gym lockers. The long 16-seat granite-topped bar dominates; the dining room seats another 24 at tables, including a far corner charmingly decorated to resemble a kitchen. A couple of TVs show old sitcoms with the sound muted in favor of music from the PA or occasional DJ. The staff is unfailingly friendly and attentive, working together with the apparent ease of old friends. Daddy Jones is, as they say, what it is. In this case, what it is is a refreshingly low-key, hip-without-trying neighborhood joint, something every neighborhood could use more of. P
photo By Joel veak
@McSliMJB
Food & drink :: hot plate
Crumble aux Pommes
C
370A lio Co 617.53 mm Ave Clior 6.7200 or :: estA u .Com rAnt
Clio’s new pastry chef breaks it all down for us B y C a ssa ndra L a n dry c l a n d ry@ p h x .c o m :: @ E at d r i n k W r i t E
clio’s newest Pastry goddess, monica glass, arrived at the Back Bay institution in September after stints at Gotham Bar and Grill and Le Bernardin in NYC and 10 Arts Bistro & Lounge by Eric Ripert at the Ritz-Carlton, Philadelphia. Not a bad résumé for someone who set out for a career in PR, despite the nickname her Penn State peers gave her: Chef Moni, a moniker earned for her habit of whipping up stuff infinitely more tempting than any dining-hall grub. Ultimately,
the lure of the kitchen proved stronger than that of the corporate office (and thank the good lord of all things sugar-spun and sweet for it). If Clio’s plates are all about telling a story, Glass says she wants to be the exclamation point at the end of it, not the afterthought. She’s on the right track, wethinks. Apple crumble has always been her favorite dessert, and you’ll never see her turn down a glass of rye on the rocks. Put ’em together, mix in a little Clio magic, and this is what you get.
buttermilk sorbet Pickled yamamomo Plums shaved walnuts
fresh aPPle batons
chicory caramel
buttermilk foam
chicory cream
40 12.14.12 :: thEphoEnix.com/food
rye-caraway crumble
aPPle tuile
photo by janice checchio
roxbury russet aPPles slowcooked in rye whiskey & riesling
New YeAR’s eve 2013
City Slickers’
Country Rodeo!!! wiN TiCkeTs To THe 2013 CouNTRYFesT AT GilleTTe sTADiuM
y Music r t n u o C e v Li from
wg Digger Da
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Contest to Crown the
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Mechanical Bull Riding Contest
when: Monday, December 31st, Doors open at 8pm where: 1265 Boylston street, Fenway, Boston Cost: $40 before 12/24, $50 after 12/24 Get your Country Gear at Rick Walker’s | 306 Newbury Street, 617.482.7426
1265 Boylston street Boston, MA 02215 617.236.ReMY (7369) | www.jerryremys.com
Cotton Can dy Bobbing foand r “Apples” Bar Pong by Snatch Alley Prod uctions
Food & drink :: liquid
Dram On B y L u k e O ’N eiL
West Bridge Coffee Grog
While We take them for granted now, if you remember a bit of your history lessons, you know spices were a very hot commodity throughout much of the last millennium. In fact, our country might not exist as we know it if European merchants hadn’t been looking for more direct trade routes to India to re-up on that good shit. So you can imagine how thrilled the British must have been when they came across the pimiento (or pimento) berry in Jamaica sometime around the early 17th century. The dried, unripe berries made for a spice that seemed to combine the flavors of clove,
nutmeg, cinnamon, and pepper in one tiny package — hence the name “allspice.” Its flavor may be most familiar to our palates from Caribbean cooking, but the Jamaicans, doing what any culture does when it’s got an abundance of a crop, also made booze out of allspice by macerating it in rum, creating a liqueur that’s wellsuited to both the flavors we associate with the winter season and the tropical tiki drinks in which it’s often been mixed. Today the most readily available form of the stuff is the imported St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram. “Part of the reason why I’m so drawn to it is it adds unbelievable
“It adds unbelievable depth of flavor to anything you put it into.”
depth of flavor to anything you put it into,” says Fanny Katz of Kendall Square’s Belly Wine Bar. “It has this incredible drying effect from the pepper-forward notes, but it is also pretty sweet. It adds sweetness and a dry, almost tannic quality to cocktails.” Katz employs it in her whiskey-sour riff the Cedric Street Sour, made with Bully Boy American whiskey, Amaro Montenegro, Noilly Prat dry vermouth, and Demerara syrup, a mix that changes the sour’s character from a fresh summertime cocktail into a rich winter one. Allspice, she says, for all its warmweather connotations, actually evokes Christmastime to her. “It tastes like all the hard spices you get when you think of a wassail or a hard cider, [which are] other good things to use it in, like hot wine-based punches.” The cocktail it’s most commonly used in — though “commonly” may be overstating it — is the 1930s classic the Lion’s Tail, which also features bourbon, lime juice, and Angostura bitters. Josh Taylor made an intriguing version of it for me at the neighboring West Bridge. “You can go a bunch of different ways with it,” says Taylor. “The Lion’s Tail is a great way for people who like bourbon but want something totally different to try it. I think as far as specific tiki cocktails, if you’re a fan of the Zombie, for example, you can probably find yourself drinking allspice dram pretty soon after that.” Just be sparing with the stuff, he says. “It’s so pungent that using any more than a little bit can take over a drink. But you can use it like a bitters almost, it’s such a robust flavor, and add a few drops at the end. It has an aromatic quality like Angostura, and it’s cool to bring depth to an otherwise monotone cocktail.” At the moment, Taylor is mixing it in a hot cocktail of his own, the West Bridge Coffee Grog, whipping the allspice dram into a butter-and-honey batter and adding coffee, chocolate-infused Batavia Arrack, and Averna. It’s a cross between a tiki-style cocktail and a traditional coffee grog, which might sound like a contradiction in terms — but when you’re talking about allspice, a lot of different things happening at once is kind of the whole point. P
WHERE TO DRINK :: Belly Wine Bar, 1 Kendall Sq, Cambridge :: 617.494.0968 or bellywinebar.com West Bridge, 1 Kendall Sq, Cambridge :: 617. 945.0221 or westbridgerestaurant.com
42 12.14.12 :: THEpHOENIx.cOm/fOOD
photo by joel veak
lu k e o n e i l 47@ g m a i l .c o m :: @ lu k e o n e i l 47
Boston’s Finest Hookah Bar! – try our award winning blends – 20+ Flavors! 6pm - 2am, 7 days a week. Last seating at 1:15am, 18+ w/positive ID
A NICE PLACE TO RELAX FOR PRE OR POST PARTY LOUNGING
HOOKAH RENTALS $25 OR ABOVE Sun-Wed, for the month of December.
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417 Cambridge St. Allston . 617-782-7433 www.sheeshaboston.com
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The BosTon Gardener
learn to
grow your own medicine
The Boston Gardener 2131 washington Street
Boston, mA 02119 617.606.7065
for more info contact: bostongardener.net
not-so-humble pie
The frozen-food aisle doesn’t flavor profile for each recipe, using allseem like a likely place to find asanatural ingredients and all five tastes: fetida. Ditto for harissa, mustard seed, sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and, yes, or habanero chillies. But you’ll find umami. In the summer of 2012, they them all under the crusts of Blackbird launched five single-serving varietSavory Pies, a local biz that’s reimagies: the Carolina-style BBQ pork pie, ining that cuddle-up-in-frontthe Italian-style chicken pasta of-the-tube comfort food, the pie, the New England–style che the ck frozen potpie. chicken pie, the gluten-free visit m ou While frozen chicken Venezuelan-style chicken piec blackb t omp ir any.c dpotpies may be a good pie, and the vegetarian and o m. match for chilly winter gluten-free Indian ratanights — all that crispy, buttouille pie. All are interesting tery crust to pick apart obsesand well balanced, quirky with sively or mash into the chunky, what-is-that-I-taste profiles that soupy goodness beneath — you command attention even when you don’t expect them to be oozing with are zoned out on the couch. umami. They’re dependable, but a bit The Klines were an unlikely duo boring. But they don’t have to be. As to take on the frozen-food business. Blackbird CEO Matthew Kline puts it, While Sarah had some background “You can take almost any great recipe in the professional food world, and make it better when you put it Matthew was, in his own words, under a crust.” “all over the place,” with a degree When the Acton resident and his in philosophy from Johns Hopkins sister, Sarah E. Kline of Cambridge, and a career that included stints decided to develop a frozen-pie comworking as a jazz pianist, teaching pany, they wanted to create a complex high-school math, and running a
household where “every meal was an occasion, and everything was made from scratch.” Sarah had the idea for a pie company. “There are so few good pies on the market, but she wanted to do sweet pies,” Matthew explains. “I said, only if I can do savory pies as well.” They spent the next two years working on recipes, whittling 50 down to the winning five, writing the business plan, and learning the ins-and-outs of frozen foods. “The gluten-free pie crusts were especially challenging,” Matthew says. Since the summer launch, Blackbird’s pies have been picked up by smaller gourmet and specialty stores in the Boston area, including City Feed and Supply, Foodie’s Urban Market, Fresh Pond Market, DeLuca’s Market, Broadway Marketplace, and Harvest Co-op. And by January, they’ll be available at local Whole Foods Markets and Roche Bros. Not bad for a humble pie.
training company that specialized in the Japanese philosophy of Total Quality Management. But the siblings grew up in a food-obsessed
_Loui sa Kasd on » Loui sa@Loui saK a s d on .c om
restaurant spotlight
36
“The way it OTTO be.” - The Boston Phoenix 1432 mass ave cambridge, ma 617 499 3352
Rotating DRafts
BRUnCH
289 harvard st brookline, ma 617 232 0014
and over
130
served saturday & sunday 11am-3pm
888 comm ave boston, ma 617 232 0447
Bottles 400 Highland Ave Davis Square | 617-764-1655 fivehorsestavern.com
576 congress st portland, me 207 773 7099 225 congress st portland, me 207 358 7870
www.ottoportland.com
TASTE
OF
KOREA
KOREANA RESTAURANT “A Neighborhood Spot in Newton Center”
Brunch. Lunch. Dinner. Late Night. Live Music Monday. Tuesday. Friday. Sunday Brunch. 796 Beacon St. Newton Center • 617-332-8743 • www.bstreetnewton.com
44 12.14.12 :: Thephoenix.com/food
Specializing in Korean style barbecue, each table has a built in cooking grill with custom designed smoke ventilation. Koreana focuses on customer service with attention to your dining needs while offering the best traditional food possible. Sunday-Thursday: 11:30am to 10:30pm Friday & Saturday: 11:30am to midnight
617-576-8661
www.koreanaboston.com 158 Prospect St., Cambridge
photo by joel veak
Food & drink :: LocaL biz
Food & drink :: calendar
Chew Out FRIDAY 14 HANUKKAH MENU
SuNDAY 16 BOSTON CHOCOLATE
AT UPSTAIRS ON THE SQUARE
WALKING TOUR
The best part of this? All the chocolate you devour during the tour barely counts because you’re walking between each stop. Of course, since the tour includes Teuscher Chocolates, DeLuca’s Market, Pinkberry, Lindt, Kickass Cupcakes, Robin’s Candy, and Gourmet Boutique, you may want to jog between locations — just in case. Head online to reserve your spot or check out other tour dates and times.
Sure, homemade latkes are divine, but you know what’s even better? Leaving the frying to the pros and not getting oil splotches all over yourself. This way, you can focus 100 percent on enjoying the perfect potato-to-onion ratio of those latkes, not to mention delish brisket and doughnuts, at everyone’s favorite holiday spot. Make those reservations now: this is the last night to get your hands on this menu!
12:15 and 3:15 pm @ Teuscher Chocolates, 230 Newbury St, Boston
UpStairs on the Square, 91 Winthrop St, Cambridge
$40 $58 617.955.2228 or bostonchocolatewalking tours.com
617.864.1933 or upstairsonthesquare.com
WEDNESDAY 19
BeerAdvoc ate pick
12 BREWERS OF CHRISTMAS
Beer and kids. Usually not the best combo, but here’s an exception: Meadhall is turning over its 110 taps to 12 craft brewers (Allagash, Brooklyn, Dogfish Head, Ommegang, Geary’s, Lagunitas, Left Hand, Oskar Blues, Sierra Nevada, Smuttynose, Tröegs, and Victory) to support Toys for Tots. Aside from entry and that warm, fuzzy feeling, a donation gets you access to 12 rare offerings poured on the mezzanine, plus a silent auction for a slew of beery items.
thuRSDAY 20 HOT DRINKS BEYOND THE TODDY
If Luke O’Neil’s recent hot not-toddy primer left you thirsty, you’re not alone. But here’s the thing about hot drinks — if it’s cold enough outside to merit one, we’re usually not exactly raring to go out in search of it. That’s where ArtBar’s latest cocktail class comes in. Nail techniques for making your own hot cocktails at home, and you can keep the embarrassing slippers on. 6:30 pm @ ArtBar, 40 Edwin H. Land Blvd, Cambridge $20 617.806.4122 or artbarcambridge.com
7 to 10 pm @ Meadhall, 4 Cambridge Ctr, Cambridge :: $10 donation or a toy of equal value; cash bar :: 617.714.3879
Put your business in the Spotlight! Contact Sberthiaume@phx.com | 617-859-3202
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20 Winthrop Square Lane Boston, MA 02110 857-250-4946
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Lulu’s Bakes fresh on the premises all day, with pure and natural ingredients.
now open! 1019 Needham St needham 781-455-8882
Off
Your order of
$25 or more
Not valid with any other offers and/or lunch specials / DINE IN ONLY / Tax and gratuity not included / Wine and beer excluded.
www.garifusion.com
187 Harvard St Brookline 617) 277-2999
Burritos • Tacos • Quesadillas • Enchiladas
$1.0 0 OFF
Your purchase of any Mexican plate tamales, quesadilla, enchiladas or our famous B.u. Loc ati on
1294 Beacon St Brookline (Coolidge Corner) 617-739-3900
Burrito Grande
642 Beacon St, (Kenmore Square) 617-437-9700
1728 Mass Ave Cambridge (near Porter) 617-354-7400
149 First Street Cambridge, MA 617-354-5550
366 Washington St Brighton Center 617-782-9600
NO DOUBLE DISCOUNTS. CANNOT BE COMBINED WITH OTHER OFFERS. Coupon Expires: 12/31/2012 | One coupon per customer
Dumpling Café Boston Phoenix gives us 4 stars! We a re t h e n e w D U M P L I N G C a f é i n B o s to n ’ s C h i n a tow n . Co m e t r y o u r s i g n a t u re m i n i j u i cy b u n s ( X L B) , pork leek dumplings, and mango shrimp.
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Minimum of $25 dollars for 10% off. *One coupon per table Good with this ad. DINE IN ONLY . excluding twin lobster special* DINE IN ONLY . Cannot be combined with other offers. Expires 12/31/2012 Expires 12/31/2012 695 Washington St. Boston, Chinatown • Open- 11am to 2 am 7days • 617-338-8858 Visit us at WWW. DUMPLINGCAFE.COM
THEpHoENix.CoM/food :: 12.14.12 45
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5AM - 9AM, 6PM -10PM M-F
9AM - NOON M-F Boom Goes The Marmalade A music experience with a free format playlist celebrating musical diversity from Portishead to Motorhead and exploring an eclectic mix for your morning.
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THIS IS WHAT’S F’N NEXT.
DO
“AmericAn VAnguArDs” » The hObbiT » TegAn AnD sArA » Ken burns
NIGHTLIFE + ARTS
photo by natasha moustache
Boston Music Awards. Page 76.
THEPHOENIX.cOm :: 12.14.12 47
Arts & Nightlife :: get out
Boston Fun List
LEONARD COHEN:: Well, Hallelujah, the legendary Canadian singer-songwriter is playing a show tonight. He’ll play that song, right?:: Wang Theatre, 270 Tremont St, Boston:: December 15 @ 8 pm:: $75-$253.75:: citicenter.org
Mo
For m re fun ore Follo events, w us on t @Bos witter tonFu nshit or lik FaceB e us at ook.c o Bosto nFuns m/ hit
C o MP iL ED B Y A LE X A n DRA C AVA L L o
Hot tix
the BOOK OF MORMON :: April 9-28 at the Opera House, Boston :: tickets start at $43 :: On sale Monday at 10 am @ broadwayinboston.com AUGUSTANA (ACOUSTIC) + LAUREN SHERA :: January 18 at Paradise Rock Club, Boston :: $15 :: ticketmaster. com BLONDE REDHEAD :: January 19 at Brighton Music Hall, Allston :: $20 :: ticketmaster.com THE WAILERS :: January 22 at Brighton Music Hall, Allston :: $22.50 :: ticketmaster.com BIG FREEDIA :: January 26 at Brighton Music Hall, Allston :: $18$25 :: ticketmaster.com REEL BIG FISH + THE POLFERS + POTTHAST :: January 27 at the House of Blues, Boston :: $20 :: livenation.com GIN BLOSSOMS :: January 29 at Royale, Boston :: $25 :: boweryboston. com Mellow Bravo
BUKE AND GAS :: January 31 at Brighton Music Hall, Allston :: $12 :: ticketmaster.com EOTO + CRIZZLY :: January 31 at the House of Blues, Boston :: $20 :: livenation.com MANRAY REUNION!:: February 1 at Brighton Music Hall, Allston :: $12 :: ticketmaster.com DESAPARECIDOS [FT. CONOR OBERS] + JOYCE MANOR :: February 24 at Paradise Rock Club, Boston :: $25 :: ticketmaster.com
SAT
’Tis the season for locally-billed holiday shows, and this weekend 15 has a bunch of ’em. Follow up either last night’s Boston Band Crush holiday spectacular at BMH or The Lights Out holiday show at Radio with tonight’s OldJack Holiday Show featuring bands we like: Gentlemen Hall, Parlour Bells, Mellow Bravo, and, of course, Old Jack. Rocking around the Christmas tree all weekend long.
The Sinclair, 52 Church St, Cambridge :: 8 pm :: $15; $13 advance :: boweryboston.com
EVERY TIME I DIE + THE ACACIA STRAIN + VANNA + HUNDRETH + NO BRAGGING RIGHTS: March 15 at Royale, Boston :: $17 :: boweryboston.com NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS + SHARON VAN ETTEN :: March 24 at the Orpheum Theatre, Boston :: $39.50-$45 :: livenation.com THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN + SALLIE FORD & THE SOUND OUTSIDE :: March 24 at the Sinclair, Cambridge :: $15 :: boweryboston.com JUANES :: June 23 at the House of Blues, Boston :: $49.50-$79.50 :: livenation.com
48 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENix.COM/EvENTS
The Hobbit hits theaters tomorrow, y’all! Better get your Elvish garb cleaned and pressed. 13 But first, brush up on your Tolkien knowledge at the Geeks Who Drink-presented One Quiz To Rule Them All: A Middle-Earth Quiz. You’ll have to trek out to Malden to prove that you and you alone (or, you know, your team) are the one and only Lord of the Quiz. (But, if you compare it to Frodo’s epic journey, that doesn’t seem so bad.) The winning team leaves with a cash prize between $200 and $500, so you’d better bone up on your Bilbo pre-quiz.
THU
Hugh O’Neill’s, 45 Pleasant St, Malden :: 7:30 pm :: $5 :: geekswhodrink.com
On the agenda 15 for tonight’s Amy Schumer show? Mostly sex stuff, the endearingly raunchy comedienne’s favorite topic, which also happens to be the title of her debut Comedy Central stand-up special. Schumer, who gained attention after placing fourth on the 5th season of Last Comic Standing, is sort of the everyman for the chick set, her sweet, girl-next-door looks belying straight-faced lines like “So, my mom’s a cunt.” Not a show for the kiddies, clearly.
SAT
FEATURING
THE HARLEM GOSPEL CHOIR AT SANDERS THEATRE 45 QUINCY STREET, CAMBRIDGE (HARVARD SQUARE)
SAT UR DAY JA NUA RY 1 9 , AT 7:30PM
At long last, the day of reckoning has arrived. A final, epic showdown to determine, once and for all, what ’hood doth reign supreme: JP or Somerville. Actu15 ally, we weren’t even aware they were feuding, but any reason for a pub crawl, right? Thus, the Welcoming Committee’s (née Guerrilla Queer Bar) Jamaica Plain V. Somerville Bar Crawl this afternoon — two tandem fabulously gay (though, of course, all are welcome) boozy crawls on opposite sides of the river. If you’re ambitious, you might be able to take part in both. Tickets include TWC swag and your first brewskie. Choose your side! SAT
First bar announced the day before :: 1 to 6 pm :: $25 :: jpvsvillecrawl.eventbrite.com +++++
Not to be confused with The Slutcracker, tonight’s debut of The Buttcracker is a raunchy holiday ode to the derriere in all its glory. Presented 8 1 by Johnny Blazes and TraniWreck’s Madge of Honor, the Buttcracker is a free-wheelin’ variety show featuring drag performances, aerial feats, burlesque, music, spoken-word odes to the tuchus, and more. The cast includes local personalities like Maggie of the Bunny Collective, Madame Psychosis, Amy Macabre, and more. The event page promises “in-depth discussions of buttholes,” a prospect that intrigues us, even against our better judgment. TUE
Presented by THE MULTICULTURAL ARTS CENTER 41 SECOND STREET, EAST CAMBRIDGE, MA 02141 617-577-1400 | MULTICULTURALARTSCENTER.ORG
Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St, Boston :: 7 + 9:45 pm :: $32 :: ticketmaster.com
CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF REV. DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Tickets: Via Harvard Box Office: (In person or online) http://ofa.fas.harvard.edu/boxoffice/
Oberon, 2 Arrow St, Cambridge :: 8 pm :: $15 :: americanrepertorytheater.org
If you can endure all the frat bros jockeying for viewing space at tonight’s Dave Matthews show, this might be your one chance to catch 9 1 indie folk-phenoms the Lumineers in town this year. Their headlining show at the House of Blues in February sold out in record time (under two hours), testament to how quickly the Denver band’s star has risen. But it’s well-deserved, their self-titled debut album is all kinds of excellent. They’re opening for the ever-touring Dave tonight. WED
verizon Wireless Arena, 555 Elm St, Manchester, NH :: 7 pm :: $65-$75 :: livenation.com
HoLiDAY FUN SHit WiNTER SALAD OPENiNG :: Group exhibition of small-to-medium-sized works for sale by mostly local artists. Reception tonight with DJ Alan Manzi :: Lot F Gallery, 145 Pearl St, Boston :: Reception December 14 from 7 to 11 pm; shop open through Dec 28 :: lotfgallery.com FORT POiNT SiP, SHOP, N’ STROLL :: Shops, restaurants, and galleries, keep their doors open late for this holiday event with free treats along the way including chowder, wine tastings, and more :: Fort Point- A, Congress, Farnsworth + Channel Center Streets :: December 14 from 4 to 8 pm :: friendsoffortpointchannel.org HOLLY FAiR 2012 :: Cambridge’s oldest craft fair, with items for sale including jewelry, handbags, clothing, photographs, paintings, food, and more :: Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 42 Brattle St, Cambridge :: December 15 from 10 am to 5:30 pm :: ccae.org/holly-fair/index.html
7th ANNUAL HOLiDAY ON iCE :: Free admission for a holiday ice skating show and free skate with professional skaters from the Ice Capades, and more. :: Kendall ice Rink, 300 Athenaeum St, Cambridge :: December 15 from 11 am to 9 pm; show @ 2 pm :: blog.paddleboston.com/category/kendall-ice-rink BAZAAR BiZARRE WiNTER FAiR :: Annual craftfair with handmade and vintage goods. :: Cyclorama, 539 Tremont St, Boston :: December 16 from noon to 6 pm :: bazaarbizarre.org/boston BOSTON FOOD SWAPS’ 2ND ANNUAL COOKiE SWAP FOR A CAUSE :: Admission is free with at least four dozen homemade cookies to swap.. For every cookie swapped, $1 will be donated to Cookies For Kids Cancer :: Space with a Soul, 281 Summer St, Boston :: December 16 from 2 to 5 pm :: boscookieswap12.eventbrite.com
THEPHOENix.COM/EvENTS :: 12.14.12 49
arts & nightlife :: get out
’h o o
Meet the Mayor Good LiFe
>> 28 Kingston St :: 617.451.2622 ::
goodlifebar.com
Alex Goulet
foursquare.com/obeygoulet Tell us about the shirt you’re wearing. This is a vintage, probably ‘92, shirt I found at Goodwill. I always try to keep it stylish when I come to Good Life. Stoddard’s
WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD
DOWNTOWN CROssING 5 PLACEs WE LOvE
1
For the unitiated, it can be difficult to spot DTX’s hidden gems amid the jewelry shops hawking fake gold necklaces that shout “Foxy” and crowded chain stores, but Downtown Crossing is home to some damn fine eating and drinking establishments. One of our favorites is Stoddard’s Fine Food & Ale, which boasts — among other draws — a beautiful, sprawling hardwood bar, cool old-school vibe, topnotch cocktails, fine beer list, and delicious bar bites. Perfect place to pop in and wet your whistle before a show at the Orpheum down the street. 48 Temple Place :: 617.426.0048 ::
stoddardsfoodandale.com
2
Speaking of excellent beer lists, you’ll find one of the best in the neighborhood at JM Curley, which also happens to be one of our favorite hangouts in the area. Said list has some 40 beers to choose from, so you’d better be prepared to do some time there. Luckily, it’s a great place to pass a few hours — chill ambience, a cozy back room for private hanging, and great food to pair with all those beers. 21 Temple Place :: 617.338.5333 :: jmcurleyboston.com
3
You might not expect to find an oldschool barber shop tucked away amid the commercial
GettING there subWaY: oranGe line to doWntoWn crossinG or red line to park street :: bus: #7, #11, #92, #93, #sl5
50 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.COM/EvENTS THEPHOENIX.COM
hustle and bustle downtown, but that’s just what you’ll discover at Court Square Styling Shop, a retro barber shop where discerning gents can get an authentic hot lather shave with a straight razor for a very reasonable price. Plus, cappuccinos (and wine after a certain hour) while you wait and an impressive magazine selection (including some dirty ones). 15 Court Square :: 617.623.7755
4
If it’s a quick bite amid a hectic day of shopping at H&M or DSW you’re after, you won’t do better than Sam LaGrassa’s Sandwiches, whose tagline proclaims that they’ve got “The World’s #1 Sandwiches.” We
aren’t about to refute it. If not the world’s best, Sam’s hearty sammies are certainly among our top picks in the city — do your taste buds a favor and get after one of their pastrami sandwiches. 44 Province St :: 617.357.6861 :: samlagrassas.com
Is there anything funny about being a DJ? There’s all sorts of embarrassing shit people do when they’re dancing that they don’t know about, so being able to see that at all times [is funny]. The clearest example is any white male dancing. What’s the deal with this neighborhood? The Downtown Crossing area’s one of the most complex neighborhoods in Boston. I’ve never understood it. I worked right around the block for quite some time. During the day, it’s corporate office people milling around, doing their thing. But I’ve been coming here since I was little, and you always see something interesting. _Barry Thompson
5
Video stores are now but relics of a bygone era — but a kung fu-specific video store? We can’t believe that Kung Fu Video still exists. Exist it does and, what’s more, serves a fairly steady stream of clientele who frequent the little-shop-that-could for mixtapes, magazines, karate flicks, and nunchaku. 365 Washington St :: 617.451.3336 :: kungfuvideoanddvd.com
#FF @jmcurleYbar @stoddardspub @brattlebookshop @Grillospickles @bostonbreWin45
DON’TLestMIss... you forget
1
that there’s actually quite a bit of history buried beneath the neon store lights in the X-ing, you should check out the 239th Anniversary Boston Tea Party Annual Reenactment this weekend. The nE equivalent of the epic Civil War reenactments in the Deep South, it starts with the protests at Old South Meeting House, followed by a march down to Boston Harbor, and culminates in the big tea-overboard finale. December 16 from 4 to 6:45 pm :: Old South Meeting House, 310 Washington St :: $15 :: BTPReenactment. bpt.me
2
Sure it’s more than a few months off, but you’d best mark your calendars for The Book of Mormon, the riotously funny, satirical play from the wacked minds of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The multiple Tony awardwinning play sold out all the shows in its much-buzzed about new York run, so we suggest you get your tickets (they just went on sale) aSaP. April 9-28 :: Opera House, 539 Washington St :: tickets start at $43 :: boston.broadway.com
3 Want to be interviewed about your Foursquare mayorship? Give us a shout: tweet @bostonphoenix or email listings@phx.com. And for tips, friend us: foursquare.com/bostonphoenix.
Word oN the tWeet “cute violinist at doWntoWn crossinG! and his doG? named bartok. #adorkable” via @diabola
Get your game on at Game over, every Tuesday night, at Good Life. They’ve stocked up on games of every genre for the night — totally free (unless you enter the Magic the Gathering booster draft), including board games, just about every gaming system imaginable, a full rock Band setup, nerd games, and more. Tuesdays from 5 pm to close :: Good Life, 28 Kingston St :: free :: goodlifebar.com
PHOTOS BY DErEk kOuYOuMjIan
Got d ale neiG a favor rt it h spo borho e t? t od abo ell us ut it list c o m i n G s@p : hx. or @ pho boston enix
Arts & Nightlife :: get out
to-do list
more at thephoenix.com/events
ActivisM
tHURsdAY 13
BLINK! › Six-week, state-of-the-art, LED light and sound show featuring the music of the Holiday Pops that runs once every halfhour › Thurs-Wed 4:30 pm › Faneuil Hall Marketplace, 4 South Market Building, Boston › Free › faneuilhallmarketplace.com HOLIDAY 2.0 POP UP › Three innovative fashion companies — Bow & Drape, Project Repat, and Ministry of Supply — come together for a “fashion-tech pop-up shop” › Open through December 22 from 10 am- to 8 pm › Newbury Street, Boston › holidaypopupstore-es2.eventbrite.com HOLIDAY MARKET › Pick up one-of-akind prints, artwork, and more gifts (all under $150) created by past and present Fourth Wall artists › Open through December 30 › Fourth Wall Project, 132 Brookline Ave, Boston › Free › fourthwallproject.com LEADING WOMEN AWARDS › Breakfast with the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts recognizing six remarkable role models › 7:30 am › Sheraton Boston Hotel, 39 Dalton St, Boston › $150 › 617.236.2000 or › girlscoutseasternmass.org THE SLUTCRACKER › “Nutcracker” themed burlesque performance › ThursSat + Mon 8 pm; Sun 2 + 8 pm › Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville › $25 › 617.625.5700 or theslutcracker.com
FRidAY 14
FORT POINT ARTS COMMUNITY HOLIDAY SALE › Twenty local artists exhibiting jewelry, paintings, prints, pottery, photography, handcrafted clothing and accessories, and more › Fri 4 pm; Sat-Sun 11 am › Midway Studios, 15 Channel Center St, Boston › Free › 617.851.8321 or fortpointarts.org JIMMY TINGLE’S AMERICAN DREAM TO BENEFIT THE AMERICAN RED CROSS DISASTER RELIEF FUND › Screening of the documentary followed by a short Q&A and live stand-up performance › 7:30 pm › Regent Theatre, 7 Medford St, Arlington › $25 › 781.646.4849 or regenttheatre.com “VIOLET JAM: A POP & ROLL COCKTAIL PARTY”› Party with live show by Aerosmith tribute band Draw the Line plus a DJ, dancing, creative cocktails, and hors d’oeuvres › 7 pm › Verve at the Crowne Plaza Boston-Natick, 1360 Worcester Rd, Natick › $15 › 508.653.8800 or bos-natick. crowneplaza.com BLINK! › See listing for Thurs HOLIDAY 2.0 POP UP › See listing for Thurs HOLIDAY MARKET › See listing for Thurs THE SLUTCRACKER › See listing for Thurs
sAtURdAY 15
CHARITY GIFT GALA TO BENEFIT TOYS FOR JOYS › Festive, semi-private holiday event with cocktails, music, and more to raise money for the charity › 8 pm › Artists For Humanity, 100 West 2nd St, Boston › $10 + three gift donations › 617.268.7620 or toysforjoys.org COOKIES AND CAROLS › Winter holiday sing-a-long and seasonal craft and a cookie potluck › 3:30 pm › New School of Music, 25 Lowell St, Cambridge › Free › 617.492.8105 or newschoolofmusic.org CULTURAL SURVIVAL BAZAAR › Unique, handmade gift items including art, jewelry, clothing, crafts, and decor from Africa, Asia, and the Americas › Sat-Sun 10 am › Harvard University Center for Government and International Studies,
sAtURdAY 15
FEMINIST LETTER WRITING CAMPAIGN › In conjunction with Amnesty International’s annual letter writing campaign, New Wave: Young Boston Feminists are holding a group letter writing meet-up. Two of the main causes they’ll be focusing on are Pussy Riot and Noxolo Nogwaza › 4 pm › Andala Café, 286 Franklin St, Cambridge › Free › 617.945.2212 or meetup.com/bostonfeminists/events/94228512/
tHURsdAY 20
FILM SCREENING AND DISCUSSION: PRECIOUS KNOWLEDGE › Boston’s Anti-Racist’s My Knapsack Is Not Invisible activism group sponsor tonight’s screening of the documentary Precious Knowledge, followed by a discussion and debriefing of the film › 6:30 pm › Community Change Inc., 14 Beacon St, Room 605, Boston › Free › 617.523.0555 or communitychangeinc.org For more ways to get involved, check out our full activism listings at events.thephoenix.com/Boston/Events/ Search/?cat=Activism or our “Activist’s Notebook” on the Phlog
For tons more to do, point your phone to m.thePhoenix.com 1730 Cambridge St, Cambridge › Free › bazaar.culturalsurvival.org HOLIDAY ON ICE › Ice show featuring professional performers at 2 pm followed by free skate for attendees › 11 am › Kendall Square Community Ice Skating Rink, 300 Athenaeum St, Cambridge › Free › blog. paddleboston.com/category/kendall-ice-rink HOLLY FAIR › With more than 70 vendors exhibiting handmade jewelry, bags, sweaters, scarves, natural beauty items, soaps, and more › Sat 10 am; Sun noon › Cambridge Center for Adult Education, 42 Brattle St, Cambridge › Free › 617.547.6789 or ccae.org/holly-fair/index.html SMALL WONDERS 2012 › Holiday art and craft sale, with refreshments, music, performance art, open mics, and more › SatSun 10 am › Gallery at the Piano Factory, 791 Tremont St, Boston › Free › 617.437.9365 or galleryatthepianofactory.org BLINK! › See listing for Thurs FORT POINT ARTS COMMUNITY HOLIDAY SALE › See listing for Fri HOLIDAY 2.0 POP UP › See listing for Thurs THE SLUTCRACKER › See listing for Thurs
sUNdAY 16
BLINK! › See listing for Thurs CULTURAL SURVIVAL BAZAAR › See listing for Sat FORT POINT ARTS COMMUNITY HOLIDAY SALE › See listing for Fri HOLIDAY 2.0 POP UP › See listing for Thurs HOLIDAY MARKET › See listing for Thurs HOLLY FAIR › See listing for Sat THE SLUTCRACKER › See listing for Thurs SMALL WONDERS 2012 › See listing for Sat
MoNdAY 17
EAT BOSTON HOLIDAY PARTY TO BENEFIT THE HOME FOR LITTLE WANDERERS › Enjoy bites from Chef Michael Scelfo and a specialty cocktail featuring Privateer Rum › 6 pm › Russell House Tavern, 14 JFK St, Harvard Square, Cambridge › $11 + a teenager appropriate gift donation › 617.500.6055 or wheretoeat.in
52 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm/EvENTs
BLINK! › See listing for Thurs HOLIDAY 2.0 POP UP › See listing for Thurs THE SLUTCRACKER › See listing for Thur
tUEsdAY 18
BLINK! › See listing for Thurs HOLIDAY 2.0 POP UP › See listing for Thurs
WEdNEsdAY 19
BOSTON SEO TRAINING COURSE › Two sessions: “How to Optimize Your Website” and “Link Building – Build Search Engine Trust & Increase Sales Through Your SEO Efforts,” with a catered lunch › 9 am › Brick Marketing, 101 Federal St, Suite 1900, Boston › $450 › boston-internetmarketing.eventbrite.com BLINK! › See listing for Thurs HOLIDAY 2.0 POP UP › See listing for Thurs HOLIDAY MARKET › See listing for Thurs
tHURsdAY 20
“BRITISH ARROWS AWARDS” SCREENING › Selection showcasing the year’s best television advertisements › 7 pm › Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave, Boston › $10; $6 students › 617.478.3100 or icaboston.org BLINK! › See listing for Thurs HOLIDAY 2.0 POP UP › See listing for Thurs HOLIDAY MARKET › See listing for Thurs THE SLUTCRACKER › See listing for Thurs
tRiviA
tHURsdAY 13
COMMON GROUND › 85 Harvard Ave, Allston › 8 pm › “ Think Tank Trivia” SPIRIT BAR › 2046 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 8 pm › “ Geeks Who Drink”
FRidAY 14
TRIDENT BOOKSELLERS & CAFÉ › 338 Newbury St, Boston › 8 pm › Trident Trivia Night
sUNdAY 16
21ST AMENDMENT › 150 Bowdoin St, Boston › 8 pm › “ Stump!” CHARLIE’S KITCHEN › 10 Eliot St, Cambridge › 8 pm › “ Stump!” COSTELLO’S TAVERN › 723 Centre Street, Jamaica Plain › “ Geeks Who Drink” GEOFFREY’S CAFE › 142 Berkeley St, Boston › 8 pm › “ Trivia Sundays” hosted by Rainbow Frite + Raquel Blake THIRSTY SCHOLAR PUB › 70 Beacon St, Somerville › 8 pm › “ Sunday Night Trivia”
MoNdAY 17
BATTERY PARK BAR AND LOUNGE › 33 Batterymarch St, Boston › 7 pm › “ Geeks Who Drink” COMMON GROUND › 85 Harvard Ave, Allston › 8 pm › “ Stump!” JOHNNY D’S › 17 Holland St, Somerville › 8 pm › “ Stump!” MILKY WAY › at the Brewery, 284 Armory St, Jamaica Plain › 8 pm › “ Stump!” PIZZERIA REGINA ALLSTON › 353 Cambridge St, Allston › 8 pm › “ Geeks Who Drink” TOMMY DOYLE’S AT HARVARD › 96 Winthrop St, Cambridge › 8 pm › “ Geeks Who Drink”
tUEsdAY 18
AN TUA NUA › 835 Beacon St, Boston › 7:30 pm ›” Geeks Who Drink” COMMON GROUND › 85 Harvard Ave, Allston › 8 pm ›” Geeks Who Drink” GREATEST BAR › 262 Friend St, Boston › 8 pm › “ Friendly Feud” JOE SENT ME › 2388 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge › 7:30 pm › “ Stump!” LIVING ROOM › 101 Atlantic Ave, Boston › 8 pm › Trivia Night SWEET CAROLINE’S RESTAURANT & BAR › 1260 Boylston St, Boston › 8 pm ›” Geeks Who Drink” SWEETWATER CAFÉ › 3 Boylston Place, Boston › “ Medulla Oblongata”
WEdNEsdAY 19
BLARNEY STONE › 1505 Dorchester Avenue , Boston › 8 pm › “ Think Tank Trivia” BRIGHTON BEER GARDEN › 386 Market St, Brighton › 8 pm › “ Stump!” DRUID › 1357 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 8 pm › Druid Trivia Night JEANIE JOHNSTON PUB › 144 South St, Jamaica Plain › 8:30 pm › “ Stump!” JOE SENT ME › 2388 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge › 7:30 pm › “ Geeks Who Drink” KINSALE › 2 Center Plaza, Boston › 7 pm › “ Stump!” PHOENIX LANDING › 512 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 7:30 pm ›” Geeks Who Drink” Trivia ROSEBUD DINER › 381 Summer St, Somerville › 9:30 pm › “ Trivi-Oke: Trivia & Karaoke Night” SPIRIT BAR › 2046 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 8 pm › “ Stump!” TAVERN IN THE SQUARE › 161 Brighton Ave, Allston › 8 pm ›” Geeks Who Drink” Trivia TOMMY DOYLE’S AT HARVARD › 96 Winthrop St, Cambridge › 8 pm › “ Stump!” TOMMY DOYLE’S KENDALL › 1 Kendall Square, Cambridge › 6:30 pm › “ Geeks Who Drink”
tHURsdAY 20
COMMON GROUND › 85 Harvard Ave, Allston › 8 pm › “ Think Tank Trivia” › 8 pm › “ Thinktank Trivia” SPIRIT BAR › 2046 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 8 pm › “ Geeks Who Drink”
Arts & Nightlife :: visuAl Art
openings
review
BOSTON SCULPTORS GALLERY › 617.482.7781 › 486 Harrison Ave, Boston › bostonsculptors.com › Wed-Sun noon–6 pm › Dec 19-Jan 27: “Height Width Depth Time: Boston Sculptors Celebrates 20 Years” GALLERY AT SPENCER LOFTS › 617.902.2372 › 60 Dudley St, Chelsea › By appointment only › Dec 15-28: “The 2012 Boston Biennial” LOT F GALLERY › 617.426.1021 › 145 Pearl St, Boston › lotfgallery.com › Sat noon-4 pm › Dec 14-28: “Winter Salad” MILLS GALLERY AT BOSTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS › 617.426.8835 › 539 Tremont St, Boston › bcaonline.org › Wed + Sun noon-5 pm; Thurs-Sat noon-9 pm › Dec 14-Feb 3: “Process Goes Public”
galleries
Arshile gorky, Organization
AbstrAct-ExprEssionist nEw EnglAnd “AmEricAn VAnguArds” at the Addison Gallery tells
how a tiny group of New York friends — Stuart Davis, John Graham, Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, “and their circle” — inspired by Picasso and Surrealism, exploded the last ties between Modernist painting and realism as they helped invent American Action Painting between the mid 1920s and mid ’40s. The triumph of New York School Abstract Expressionism helped the Big Apple supplant Paris as the capital of Western art. But a wall in the exhibit of 1930s paintings of Gloucester, Massachusetts, by Davis and Adolph Gottlieb, hints at a little-noted fact. After New York, Massachusetts might be the most important crossroads in the development of American Modernism. In the crucial years between 1940 and 1947, when Jackson Pollock made his first drip paintings, stars of the new New York abstraction — Pollock, Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, Aaron Siskind, Hans Hofmann, and Elaine de Kooning (with occasional visits from Willem) — summered in Gloucester or Provincetown. Gorky studied art in 1920s Boston. David Park and John McLaughlin, who would pioneer Modernist painting in California, lived in Boston from the late 1930s to around ’41. Gloucester, Davis wrote in 1945, “was the place I had
been looking for.” It wasn’t simply a picturesque working waterfront. The rigging of fishing schooners helped him divide the sky into Cubist planes, before he set it all to the syncopated rhythms of jazz. Gloucester obviously influences Davis’s motifs, but how to trace Massachusetts’s effect on others? Pollock’s curving drips echo his teacher Thomas Hart Benton’s mobius-strip compositions, which evoke the shores of Martha’s Vineyard, where Pollock visited Benton and painted in the summers of 1934 to ’37. Gottlieb’s Pictographs of the early 1940s seem to have evolved from still-lifes he painted of shells and starfish he arranged in boxes he found on Massachusetts beaches. Siskind pioneered abstract photography with close-ups of gloves, rope, and seaweed he found lying on the streets, wharves, and beaches of Provincetown and Gloucester. Newman summered in the Bay State during the years he began painting vertical stripes and daggers that would evolve into his trademark “zips.” Their summers in Massachusetts were a retreat from the pressures of New York, a time to recharge their art among friends. Not long before Rothko took his own life in 1970, he reportedly (perhaps apocryphally) said, “Let’s all go to Gloucester and paint.”
_G r e G Cook » GreGCookland .Com/journal
>> “AMERICAN VANGUARDS” :: Addison Gallery, 180 Main St, Andover :: Through December 30
Admission to the following galleries is free, unless otherwise noted. In addition to the hours listed here, many galleries are open by appointment. ARSENAL CENTER FOR THE ARTS › 617.923.0100 › 321 Arsenal St, Watertown › arsenalarts.org › Tues-Sun noon-6 pm › Through Jan 4: “Artists Talk About Art” › Through Jan 10: “Small Works 2012” ART INSTITUTE OF BOSTON › 617.585.6600 › 700 Beacon St, Boston › aiboston.edu › Tues-Wed + Fri noon-5 pm; Thurs 3-8 pm; Sat noon-5 pm › Through Dec 16: “MasterWork” AXELLE FINE ARTS › 617.450.0700 › 91 Newbury St, Boston › axelle.com › Daily 10 am-6 pm › Through Jan 6: “Michel Delacroix at 80” BOSTON ATHENÆUM › 617.227.0270 › 10-1/2 Beacon St, Boston › bostonathenaeum.org › Mon 9 am-8 pm; Tues-Fri 9 am-5:30 pm; Sat 9 am-4 pm › Through Jan 12: “Chromo-Mania! The Art of Chromolithograhy in Boston, 1840-1910” BOSTON CYBERARTS GALLERY › 617.290.5010 › 141 Green St, Jamaica Plain › bostoncyberarts.org › Wed-Thurs 6-9 pm; Fri-Sun 11 am-6 pm › Through Dec 14: “COLLISION18:Present” BOSTON UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY › 617.353.4672 › 855 Comm Avenue, Boston › bu.edu/art › Tues-Fri 10 am-5 pm; Sat-Sun 1-5 pm › Through Dec 20: Vlatka Horvat: “Also Called: Backbone, Anchor, Lifeline” BRICKBOTTOM GALLERY › 617.776.3410 › 1 Fitchburg St, Somerville › brickbottomartists.com › Thurs-Sat noon–5 pm › Through Jan 12: “Spectrum! A Selection of Artists from Joy Street Studios” BSA SPACE › 617.391.4039 › Boston Society of Architects, 290 Congress St, Boston › bsaspace.org › Daily 10 am-6 pm › Through Dec 31: “City of Mirages: Baghdad, 1952–1982” CAMBRIDGE ART ASSOCIATION › 617.876.0246 › 25 Lowell St, Cambridge › cambridgeart.org › Lowell St: Tues-Sat 11 am-5 pm; Mount Auburn St: Mon-Fri 9 am-6 pm, Sat 9 am-1 pm › Through Jan 10: “Blue” CARPENTER CENTER FOR THE VISUAL ARTS AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY › 617.495.3251 › 24 Quincy St, Cambridge › ves.fas.harvard.edu › Mon-Fri 10 am-5 pm; Sat-Sun 1 pm-5 pm › Through Dec 20: Christian Boltanski: “6 Septembres” › Through Dec 20: “Parsis: The Zoroastrians of India” › Through May 29: Hans Tutschku: “Unreal Memories” CHASE YOUNG GALLERY › 617.859.7222 › 450 Harrison Ave, Boston › chaseyounggallery.com › Tues-Sat 11 am-6 pm; Sun 11 am-4 pm › Through Dec 22: THEPHOENIX.COM/ARTS :: 12.14.12 53
Arts & Nightlife :: visuAl Art
museums
FAmily Album In 1969, Wendy Ewald traveled to northeastern Canada to invite Innu adolescents to photograph their community. An indigenous people who had traditionally followed and hunted caribou, the Innu had recently been forced by the government to settle on a reserve. “This is something that has happened to other native North American communities, but this is really quick,” says Cambridge’s Eric Gottesman, 36, whom Ewald, now 61 and living in Red Hook, New York, invited to return with her to lead Innu youth to again (now digitally) document their community beginning in 2007. “The culture is still there within the older generation, with people who grew up in the country and lived that nomadic lifestyle.” “Pekupatikut Innuat Akunikana/ Pictures Woke the People Up” at the Addison Gallery collects Innu snapshots from Ewald’s trips — often “PekuPatikut augmented by drawings innuat — as well an akunikana/ Innu phoPiCtures tographic Woke the archive they have begun PeoPle uP” to assemble Addison Gallery, 180 Main St, for the Andover native community. Through January 13 Forced settlement fractured the Innu, sparking alcoholism, domestic violence, and suicide. “A sort of collective depression had set in,” Gottesman says. The photo project was a way, Ewald says, for the community to do something positive and “an opportunity for them to talk about where do we go from here.” _GC
patrick (Etuetis) rich, Self Portrait
54 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.COM/ARTS
Conquest of Tangier is on view at the Peabody Essex Museum as part of “The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries” through December 31. “Winter Group Show of Gallery Artists” DTR MODERN GALLERY › 617.424.7001 › 167 Newbury St, Boston › dtrmodern.com › Mon-Fri 10 am-6:30 pm; Sat 10 am-7 pm; Sun noon-6 pm › Through Dec 21: “Dalí” 808 GALLERY › 617.358.0922 › 808 Comm Ave, Boston › bu.edu/cfa/visual-arts/ galleries › Tues-Sun 1-5 pm › Through Dec 16: “On Sincerity” LA GALERÍA AT VILLA VICTORIA CENTER FOR THE ARTS › 617.927.1717 › 85 West Newton St, Boston › villavictoriaarts.org/gallery.html › ThursFri 3-6 pm; Sat 1-4 pm › Through Dec 30: “Paredes en Fuego: The 2012 Cacique Youth Art Show” GALLERY NAGA › 617.267.9060 › 67 Newbury St, Boston › gallerynaga.com › Tues-Sat 10AM-5PM › Through Dec 15: Gregory Gillespie: “Transfixed” KINGSTON GALLERY › 617.423.4113 › 450 Harrison Ave, #43, Boston › kingstongallery.com › Wed-Sun noon- 5 pm › Through Dec 23: “Big HUGE Small Works” LACONIA GALLERY › 617.670.1568 › 433 Harrison Ave, Boston › laconiagallery. org › Fri-Sun noon–4 pm › Through Jan 13: David Curcio: “I Wouldn’t Worry About It” LINCOLN ARTS PROJECT › › 289 Moody St, Waltham › lincolnartsproject. com › Wed-Fri 4-9 pm; Sat 2-8 pm › Through Jan 12: “The Hundreds Show” MIT LIST VISUAL ARTS CENTER › 617.253.4860 › 20 Ames St, Cambridge › web.mit.edu/lvac › Daily noon-6 pm › Through Jan 6: “In the Holocene” MIT WOLK GALLERY › 617.253.7334 › 77 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Mon-Fri 9 am–5 pm › Through Dec 28: William Wurster: “Frames for Living” MULTICULTURAL ARTS CENTER › 617.577.1400 › 41 Second St, Cambridge › multiculturalartscenter.org › Mon-Fri 10:30 am-6 pm › Through Dec 14: Martin Karplus: “South and Central American Kodachromes of the 1960s” › Through Dec 26: Sylvia Stagg-Giuliano: “Transit of Venus” NEW ENGLAND SCHOOL OF PHOTOGRAPHY › 617.437.1868 › 537 Comm Ave, Boston › nesop.com › Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm › Through Dec 14: Paul-Jude Guillaume: “Never Let Me Go” ROBERT KLEIN GALLERY › 617.267.7997 › 38 Newbury St, Boston › robertkleingallery.com › Tues-Fri 10
am–5:30 pm; Sat 11 am–5 pm › Through Dec 22: Michael Kenna: “A Decade in Review” ROLLY-MICHAUX GALLERY › 617.536.9898 › 290 Dartmouth St, Boston › rollymichaux.com › Tues-Sat 11 am-4:30 pm › Through Dec 29: Robert Castagna and Ksenia Mack: “A Soundtrack for Still Pictures: Lost Across America” SHERMAN GALLERY AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY › 617.358.0295 › 775 Comm Ave, Boston › bu.edu/cfa › Tues-Fri 11 am-5 pm; Sat-Sun 1-5 pm › Through Dec 16: Stephen A. Frank: “Exploring My Kodachrome Dreams, You Can’t Go Home Again” TUFTS UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY AT THE AIDEKMAN ARTS CENTER › 617.627.3094 › 40 Talbot Ave, Medford › artgallery.tufts.edu › Wed-Sun noon-5 pm › Through Dec 16: Katie Tyler and Rebecca Wallach: “MFA Thesis Exhibitions” › Through Dec 16: Lucy+Jorge Orta: “FoodWater-Life” WASHINGTON STREET ART CENTER › 617.623.5315 › 321 Washington St, Somerville › washingtonst.org › Sat noon-4 pm › Through Dec 22: Danielle Festa: “Fabricating Realities”
ADDISON GALLERY OF AMERICAN ART AT PHILLIPS ACADEMY › 978.749.4015 › 180 Main St, Andover › andover.edu/addison › Tues-Sat 10 am-5 pm; Sun 1-5 pm › Through Dec 30: “American Vanguards: Graham, Davis, Gorky, de Kooning, and Their Circle, 1927 – 1942” › Through Jan 13: “Pekupatikut Innuat Akunikana / Pictures Woke the People Up: An Innu Project with Wendy Ewald and Eric Gottesman” › Through Jan 13: “People, Places, Things: Symbols of American Culture” DECORDOVA SCULPTURE PARK AND MUSEUM › 781.259.8355 › 51 Sandy Pond Rd, Lincoln › decordova.org › TuesSun 10 am-5 pm › Admission $14; $12 seniors; $10 students and youth ages 13 and up; free to children under 12 › Through Dec 30: Jean Shin and Brian Ripel: “Retreat” › Through Dec 30: Julianne Swartz: “How Deep is Your” › Through April 21: “Second Nature: Abstract Photography Then and Now” › Through Oct 1: “PLATFORM 10: Dan Peterman” HARVARD ART MUSEUMS › 617.495.9400 › 485 Broadway, Cambridge › harvardartmuseums.org › Tues-Sat 10 am-5 pm › Admission $9; $7 seniors; $6 students › Through Dec 29: “Recent Acquisitions, Part III: Kerry James Marshall” › Through June 1: “Re-View” INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART › 617.478.3100 › 100 Northern Ave, Boston › icaboston.org › Tues-Wed + SatSun 10 am–5 pm; Thurs-Fri 10 am–9 pm › Admission $15; $10 students, seniors; free for ages under 17; free after 5 pm on Thurs › Through March 3: “This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s” ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM › 617.566.1401 › 280 the Fenway, Boston › gardnermuseum.org › Wed-Mon 11 am-5 pm › Admission $15; $12 seniors; $5 students with ID; free for ages under 18 › Through Jan 7: “The Great Bare Mat & Constellation” MIT MUSEUM › 617.253.4444 › 265 Mass Ave, Cambridge › web.mit.edu/museum › Tues-Fri 10 am-5 pm; Sat-Sun noon-5 pm › Through Dec 31: Berenice Abbott: “Photography and Science: An Essential Unity” › Through March 17: “Rivers of Ice: Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya” › Through Sept 28: “The Jeweled Net: Views of Contemporary Holography”
Robert Venturi’s Project for the Competition for a National Mosque of Baghdad is on view at the BSA Space as part of the group show “City of Mirages: Baghdad, 1952-1982” through December 31.
Arts & Nightlife :: BOOKs MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS › 617.267.9300 › 465 Huntington Ave, Boston › mfa.org › Mon-Tues + Sat-Sun 10 am-4:45 pm; Wed-Fri 10 am-9:45 pm › Admission $22; $20 students, seniors; free for ages 7-17 and under during non-school hours [otherwise $10]; free for ages 6 and under › Through Dec 31: Edward Weston: “Leaves of Grass” › Through Dec 31: “The Allure of Japan” › Through Jan 6: Ori Gersht: “History Repeating” › Through Feb 3: Mario Testino: “In Your Face” › Through Feb 18: “Artful Healing” › Through Feb 18: “Cats to Crickets: Pets in Japan’s Floating World” › Through March 31: Daniel Rich: “Platforms of Power” › Through April 14: “The Postcard Age: Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection” › Through June 16: “Kings, Queens, and Courtiers: Royalty on Paper” › Through June 16: Mario Testino: “British Royal Portraits” › Through June 23: “Divine Depictions: Korean Buddhist Paintings” › Through July 7: “Art of the White Mountains” › Through Sept 8: “Chinese Lacquer 1200–1800” › Through June 1: “Jewels, Gems, and Treasures: Ancient to Modern” MUSEUM OF SCIENCE › 617.723.2500 › 1 Science Pk, Boston › mos.org › Sat-Thurs 9 am-5 pm; Fri 9 am-9 pm › Admission $22; $20 seniors; $19 children 3-11 › Through Jan 13: “Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age” › Through March 3: “Shipwreck! Pirates & Treasure” NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM › 413.298.4100 › 9 Rte 183, Stockbridge › nrm.org › Daily 10 am–5 pm, May through Oct. Nov through April, 10 am-4 pm and weekends 10 am-5 pm › Admission $16; $14.50 seniors; $10 students with ID; $5 for kids and teens 6 to 18; free for ages 5 and under › Through Jan 21: Norman Rockwell: “Home for the Holidays” › Through Feb 24: “Heroes and Villains: The Comic Book Art of Alex Ross” PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM › 978.745.9500 › 161 Essex St, Salem › pem. org › Tues-Sun and Mon holidays 10 am-5 pm › Admission $15; $13 seniors; $11 students; free for ages 16 and under › Through Dec 31: “The Invention of Glory: Afonso V and the Pastrana Tapestries” › Through Jan 31: “Auspicious Wishes and Natural Beauty in Korean Art” › “Fish, Silk, Tea, Bamboo: Cultivating an Image of China” › “Of Gods and Mortals, Traditional Art from India” › “Perfect Imbalance, Exploring Chinese Aesthetics” › Through Feb 3: “FreePort [No. 004]: Peter Hutton” › “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones” › Through May 27: “FreePort [No. 005]: Michael Lin” › “Natural Histories: Photographs by Barbara Bosworth” RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN MUSEUM OF ART › 401.454.6500 › 224 Benefit St, Providence, RI › risdmuseum. org › Tues-Sun 10 am-5 pm; third Thurs per month until 9 pm › Admission $10; $7 seniors; $3 college students and youth ages 5-18; free every Sun 10 am–1 pm, the third Thurs of each month 5-9 pm, and the last Sat of the month › Through Jan 13: “America In View: Landscape Photography 1865 to Now” › Through Feb 24: “Everyday Things: Contemporary Works from the Collection” › Through May 19: “Grisogorious Places: Edward Lear’s Travels” › Through June 9: “RISD Business: Sassy Signs and Sculptures by Alejandro Diaz” › Through June 30: Angela Bulloch, Anthony McCall, and Haroon Mirza: “Double-and-Add” WORCESTER ART MUSEUM › 508.799.4406 › 55 Salisbury St, Worcester › worcesterart.org › Wed-Fri + Sun 11 am-5 pm; Sat 10 am-5 pm; Third Thursday 11 am8 pm › Admission $14, $12 for seniors and students. Free for youth 17 and under and for all on first Sat of the month, 10 am-noon › Through Feb 3: “Kennedy to Kent State: Images of a Generation”
More n so Patteravid
Read d ’S e n b e Rg SchaRf iew inteRv meS t. with Ja n at PatteRSo .com/ enix thePho Son PatteR
EVEn thE JordAn riVEr hAs bodiEs FloAtin’ stylE AsidE, thE 1960s — the era that spawned sex, drugs, and rock and roll — are still with us. For me, the ’60s began in November 1963, when I heard my mother gasp as the radio announced that President Kennedy had been shot in Dallas. A sense that the horizons of public life were unlimited began to darken that day, not just in my blue-collar neighborhood, but across America as well. While politics were fractured, private life was redefined, as Pulitzer Prize–winning historian James T. Patterson argues in his insightful new book, The Eve of Destruction: How 1965 Transformed America. Patterson sees 1965 as a pivot, a point of no return. Forces, trends, undercurrents that percolated with varying intensity since Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, through Truman’s stormy post–World War II tenure, and into Eisenhower’s deceptively placid years in office coalesced. The series of explosions that followed recast race relations, cultural norms, sexuality, and civil society. The Eve of Destruction is not a study in determinism, as some critics have suggested.
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Rather, it is a bottom-up study of how mass impulse collided with received opinion. What John Kenneth Galbraith in 1958 called “conventional wisdom” splintered after 1965. For better or for worse, 47 years later we are still rearranging the shards. The sexual revolution is a case in point. Federal regulators approved the birth-control pill for contraceptive use in 1960, but as Patterson reports, it was in 1965 that the Brown University health service became the first in the nation to prescribe its use — to two unmarried 21-year-old college students. History followed. President Lyndon Johnson’s outsized ambition provides the glue that binds The Eve of Destruction. The exorbitant promises of Johnson’s war on poverty and the myopia of his strategic vision in Vietnam birthed a cynicism that is still potent today. _Peter kad Zi s » Pkad Zi s@P hx.Com » @ k a d Zi s
THE EVE Of DESTRUCTION: HOw 1965 TRANSfORMED AMERICA By James T. Patterson :: Basic Books :: 310 pages :: $28.99. THEPHOENIX.COM/ARTS :: 12.14.12 55
Arts & Nightlife :: Books
56 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm/arTs
the cheap near-thrills of Sexytime With porn so privately accessible now, we don’t worry about the stigma attached to its consumption, the thought of someone pausing to peruse the art in front of an adult movie theater (hell, the thought of an adult movie theater) instead of just ducking in before being seen is almost touching. Which is why there’s something incongruous about the existence of posters for porn movies. You can skip the text in Sexytime (sample: “You remember a 1970s when a movement called Porn Chic took big pink shits of fuck all over the place”) and head right for the graphics. There are few attempts in these collected one-sheets to achieve anything like the spare, striking look of the poster for Behind the Green Door. Many of them, illustrated in cheap garish colors and made before photos of the performers listed (among them John Leslie, Leslie Bovee, Annette
Haven, the delightful Serena) would be a draw, look like slightly more naughty versions of posters for R-rated exploitation movies. The poster for Breaker Beauties would look at home next to the poster for Truck Stop Women; blink and you might mistake Pussycat Ranch for Meatballs. Maybe it’s false nostalgia to pine for the tease of the titles and posters for these movies. The one-sheet for Hot Lunch, with its silver serving platter over a busty waitress’s crotch, isn’t exactly subtle (at least it isn’t Box Lunch). But next to the box covers of today’s DVDs — most of which aren’t even trying to be movies — there’s something kind of sweet about the promises they hold out, even if those promises were only sporadically kept. You can pore through this book the way some of us used to pore over horror-movie ads in the paper, trying to imagine what the reality of these movies are, wondering if our imaginations were even up to it. _Ch ar le s Tay lor
>> sEXYTImE: THE POsT-POrN rIsE OF THE POrNOIssEUr :: By Jacques Boyreau :: Fantagraphics :: 120 pages :: $29.99 THEPHOENIX.cOm/arTs :: 12.14.12 57
Arts & Nightlife :: ClAssiCAl & dANCe
CLASSICAL ConCertS
ClAssiCAl
tHUrSDAY 13
HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY CONDUCTED BY JOHN FINNEY › Cantatas I, II, and VI from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio › Thurs 8 pm; Sun 3 pm › Jordan Hall, 30 Gainsborough St, Boston › $20-$84 › 617.585.1260 or handelandhaydn.org
FrIDAY 14
BAY COLONY BRASS › “Christmas Concert” › 7:30 pm › Saint Peter Parish, 96 Concord Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.491.2759 or baycolonybrass.org BOSTON CECILIA CONDUCTED BY AMY LIEBERMAN › Selection of works by Monteverdi, Poulenc, de Morales, Victoria, Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Distler, Praetorius, and Sandström › Fri 8 pm › Church of the Advent, 30 Brimmer St, Boston › Sun 3 pm › All Saints Parish, 1773 Beacon St, Brookline › $15-$62; $11$58 students, seniors › 617.523.2377 or bostoncecilia.org SCHOLA CANTORUM › Selection of works by Josquin, Victoria, Joubert, Sheppard, and Pärt › 8 pm › Church of St. John the Evangelist, 35 Bowdoin St, Boston › $25; $20 seniors; $8 students › 401.274.5073 or scholacantorumboston.com
The BSO’S cOnducTOr rOuleTTe The fall SeaSOn’S laST BSO concerts have had their occasional pleasures and raised some questions, especially about who might be the next BSO music director, one of Boston’s — indeed, the country’s —major cultural positions. The season included three unforgettable concerts: the second annual program led by British composer Thomas Adès and the enchanting double bill of one-act operas by Stravinsky and Ravel (the poor attendance still has me scratching my head), both following Vladimir Jurowski’s thrilling Shostakovich Fourth Symphony, in October. Thanksgiving week returned pianist-conductor Christian Zacharias to the BSO for some smaller-scale rarities. Haydn’s consistently surprising 76th Symphony (a BSO premiere!) preceded Mozart’s B-flat Piano Concerto, K. 456 (Zacharias especially limpid at the keyboard in the poignant loneliness of the Andante), and Beethoven’s familiar overture and selections of less familiar incidental music from the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus — its charming un-Beethovenian slow movement with flute and harp and its finale that gives us Beethoven’s first (albeit lightweight) use of the theme that became the finale of his Eroica Symphony. The season concluded with French conductor Stéphane Denève, one of the BSO’s most frequent recent guests, who started with a bang: the first BSO performance since 1989 of Berlioz’s exhilarating early (Opus 3) overture to his forgotten first opera,
Les francs-juges (“The Free Judges”), foreshadowing his Symphonie fantastique. Denève also supplied supple accompaniment for Jean-Yves Thibaudet in Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concerto No. 5, the Egyptian, all conventional prettiness except for its uncanny slowmovement harmonies and echoes of Middle Eastern melismas. The cheering for Thibaudet’s effortlessly breathless finale won us an encore, a restrained yet mysteriously moving Debussy “Claire de lune.” Denève took the microphone to introduce the Scottish composer James MacMillan’s dour Three Interludes from “The Sacrifice,” excerpts from his grim 2006 opera. Denève, who used to direct the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, said he loved his friend’s score and charmingly repeated the plot summary already in the program. The music seemed longer on rhetoric than lyricism. Denève concluded with Albert Roussel’s Bacchus et Ariane Suite No. 2 — actually the entire second act of Roussel’s 1931 mythological ballet. Roussel is a Ravel-like colorist without Ravel’s inspired melodic gift, but this intriguing score, with its rousing Bacchanale, last played here in 1993, deserves more regular hearings. Denève is a dynamic musician of limited range and excitement; the players evidently like him, and he’s been invited back for three Tanglewood programs. But Jurowski still tops my own list of hopefuls. _LL oy d Schwartz
>> More BSo :: read more of Lloyd Schwartz on the BSo fall season at thePhoenix.com/classical 58 12.14.12 :: THePHoeNIX.coM/arTS
SAtUrDAY 15
BAY COLONY BRASS › “Christmas Concert,” with Merrimack Valley Ringers › 7:30 pm › St. Malachy Church, 99 Bedford St, Burlington › Free › 781.272.5111 or baycolonybrass.org BOSTON CAMERATA › “The Brotherhood of the Star: A Hispanic Christmas,” with Les Fleurs des Caraïbes › Sat 8 pm › First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough St, Boston › Wed 8 pm › First Church, Congregational, 11 Garden St, Cambridge › $22-$46; $10 students › 617.267.6730 or bostoncamerata.org BOSTON CHAMBER SYMPHONY CONDUCTED BY AVLANA EISENBERG › Schubert’s Symphony No. 5; Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll; Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances › 2 pm › St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church, 239 Harvard St, Cambridge › Free › 617.354.8582 or stbartscambridge.org CONCORD CHORUS › Michael Schachter’s Oseh shalom bimromav; “Felices ter” from Randall Thompson’s Six Odes of Horace; selections from Thompson’s Frostiana; selection of works by Mendelssohn, Brahms, Rutter, and Hassler › 4 + 7:30 pm › Middlesex School Memorial Chapel, 1400 Lowell Rd, Concord › $25; $20 seniors; $10 students › 978.371.6550 or concordchorus.org MUSICA SACRA › Handel’s Messiah, Part I, with vocal soloists Brenna Wells, Thea Lobo, Matthew Anderson, and Ulysses Thomas › 7 pm › First Church, Congregational, 11 Garden St, Cambridge › $27-$57; $15 students, seniors › 617.547.2724 or musicasacra.org SERVICE OF LESSONS AND CAROLS › Selection of carols and anthems by Brewer, Reed, Wood, Vaughan-Williams, Palestrina, Stadlmayr, and Bach › 5 pm › St John’s Church, 27 Devens St, Charlestown › Free › 617.242.1272 or stjohns02129.org
ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN TAYLOR
Stéphane denève
SUnDAY 16
BOSTON CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY › Beethoven’s Clarinet Trio in B-flat, Op. 11, and Violin Sonata in F, Op. 24 [Spring]; Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps › 4 pm › Kresge Auditorium at MIT, 48 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $35; $32 seniors; $10 students › 617.253.3913 or bostonchambermusic.org GILA GOLDSTEIN › Works for piano by Bach, Chopin, Liszt, and Ginastera › 2 pm › Newton Free Library, 330 Homer St, Newton › Free › 617.796.1360 or newtonfreelibrary.net BOSTON CECILIA CONDUCTED BY AMY LIEBERMAN › See listing for Fri HANDEL AND HAYDN SOCIETY CONDUCTED BY JOHN FINNEY › See listing for Thurs
tUeSDAY 18
CASSANDRA EXTAVOUR, PAUL MAX TIPTON, ANDRÉ O’NEIL, AND HEINRICH CHRISTENSEN › Selection of arias and duets from Bach cantatas › 12:15 pm › King’s Chapel, 58 Tremont St, Boston › $3 › 617.227.2155 or kings-chapel.org
WeDneSDAY 19
BOSTON CAMERATA › See listing for Sat
tHUrSDAY 20
CALLITHUMPIAN CONSORT › Cage’s Song Books; Cardew’s The Great Learning, Paragraph 7; Wolff’s Changing the System › 7 pm › Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 280 the Fenway, Boston › $27; $24 seniors; $12 students › 617.278.5156 or gardnermuseum.org
DAnCe PerForMAnCe tHUrSDAY 13
BOSTON BALLET › Nissinen’s The Nutcracker › Thurs-Fri + Wed 7:30 pm; Sat
1 + 7:30 pm; Sun 1 + 5:30 pm › Opera House, 539 Washington St, Boston › $35-$172 › 617.259.3400 or bostonballet.org
FrIDAY 14
“12 DANCERS DANCING...A CHRISTMAS IN CAMBRIDGE” › Featuring performances from Rainbow Tribe, Kelley Donovan, Sydni Lockeby, Cambridge Dance Company, Brookline Academy of Dance, Bside, Disco Brats, Contemporarily Out of Order, Shawn Paulling, Dance’n Feet, Boston Community Dance Project, Embrace, Steffani Bennett, and Derrick Davis › Fri 8 pm; Sun 7 pm › Dance Complex, 536 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $18; $12 seniors › 617.547.9363 or dancecomplex.org BOSTON URBAN BALLET › Anthony Williams’s Urban Nutcracker › Fri 7:30 pm; Sat 1 + 7:30 pm; Sun 3 pm › John Hancock Hall, 180 Berkeley Street, Boston › $20-$60 › 617.524.4381 or urbannutcracker.com BOSTON BALLET › See listing for Thurs
SAtUrDAY 15
PROMETHEUS DANCE › “25th Anniversary Retrospective Concert” › 7 pm › Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St, Cambridge › $100 › 617.577.1400 or prometheusdance.org BOSTON BALLET › See listing for Thurs BOSTON URBAN BALLET › See listing for Fri
SUnDAY 16
“12 DANCERS DANCING...A CHRISTMAS IN CAMBRIDGE” › See listing for Fri BOSTON BALLET › See listing for Thurs BOSTON URBAN BALLET › See listing for Fri
THE ACTION-PACKED BLOCKBUSTER FRANCHISE RETURNS WITH AN EXHILARATING NEW INSTALLMENT & AN ALL-STAR CAST INCLUDING JEREMY RENNER & RACHEL WEISZ To enter-to-win a Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, please visit: THEPHOENIX.COM/CONTESTS
Responses will be entered to win a copy of THE BOURNE LEGACY on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack. Deadline to Enter: Monday, December 17 NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. PLEASE NOTE: Late and/or duplicate entries will not be considered. Limit one entry per email address. Winners will be drawn at random and notified via email.
AVAILABLE DECEMBER 11 ON BLU-RAY COMBO PACK, WITH DVD, DIGITAL COPY AND ULTRAVIOLET TM
TM
WeDneSDAY 19
BOSTON BALLET › See listing for Thurs
tHUrSDAY 20
BOSTON BALLET › See listing for previous Thurs
John Finney leads the Handel and Haydn Society in Handel’s Christmas Oratorio.
75 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116 617.357.4810 • www.davios.com THePHoeNIX.coM/arTS :: 12.14.12 59
Arts & Nightlife :: theAter
play by play
review
compiled by maddy myers
OpENING
blacK NaTiViTy › John Andrew Ross, original music director of the National Center of Afro-American Artists’ annual production of Langston Hughes’s nativity play, reprises his directorial role again for this annual performance that infuses the original scripture with music and dance. The cast of more than 50 actors includes experienced adult performers as well as young children, some of whom will be performing publicly for the first time. › December 14-22 › Blackman Auditorium, Northeastern University, 342 Huntington Avenue, Boston › $18-$45 › 617.442.8614 or blacknativity.org THe cHrisTmas reVels › Patrick Swanson directs the annual Revels celebration of the Winter Solstice, with George Emlen as the music director. The show includes the talents of piper Paddy Keenan and fiddler Sheila Falls Keohane, musician and song leader David Coffin, Steven Barkhimer, soloist Mary Casey, the O’Shea Chaplin Academy of Irish Dance, the Pinewoods Morris Men, and Cambridge Symphonic Brass Ensemble. › December 14-27 › Sanders Theatre, 45 Quincy St, Cambridge › $25-$52; $15-$40 children 11 & under › 617.496.2222 or revels.org FUlly commiTTed › Gabriel Kuttner stars as Sam, a would-be actor working at a 4-star Manhattan restaurant, in Becky Mode’s comedy about serving New York’s upper crust. Bridget Kathleen O’Leary directs the production for New Repertory Theatre. › December 19-30 › Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St, Watertown › $36 › 617.923.0100 or newrep.org
NOW playING
Culture Clash: Chinglish not lost in translation As David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish demonstrates, negotiation among Americans and Chinese is seldom as snappy as the play’s title. In this “new comedy about the misadventures of miscommunication,” which is in its New England premiere at the Lyric Stage Company of Boston, an Ohio businessman travels to Guiyang, China, hoping to land a contract for signage at a new cultural center. His pitch: that his company’s signs will be correct rather than risible to foreign visitors. Unlike placards recently erected in Shanghai, he assures, his handicapped-bathroom sign will not read “Deformed Man’s Toilet.” Hwang gleans a paddy’s worth of humor from this stuff, as he does from the freewheeling translations of a winsome young Chinese interpreter (translations from the Mandarin appear as supertitles above the action). When the hustling Clevelander, Daniel Cavanaugh, launches into why his company is worth its hefty fee, the translator announces, “He will explain why he spends money so recklessly!” But there is more to Chinglish than amusingly butchered language. In ricocheting between English and Mandarin, the playwright (who won a Tony
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for M. Butterfly) sets up a challenge not only for his actors but also for himself. It’s hard to fully develop characters and relationships when there are so many gaps as well as gaffes in their communication. Yet the denizens of Chinglish manage to be both stereotypical and surprising. I’m not sure I buy the romance between Cavanaugh and Xi Yan, a Chinese vice-minister of culture with more ambition than hearts and flowers about her. But it demonstrates fundamental differences between a rigid culture steeped in tradition and a brash adolescent one. And Cavanaugh’s backstory, when it emerges, is as poignantly allAmerican as the Chinese reaction to it is a riot. Larry Coen is at the helm of the sharp Lyric production, which trips smoothly between linguistic farce and lyrical episodes that hark back to ancient arts and the Cultural Revolution. Barlow Adamson whips up a convincing mélange of sincerity and dissembling as the Every Businessman looking for a fresh start. Celeste Oliva bristles with exasperated life as Xi Yan, ascending in the new China even as she questions her progress. And the whole cast — none of them fluent, but all well coached — manage to act while speaking Mandarin.
_CAR OLYN CLAY
CHINGLISH :: Lyric Stage Company of Boston, 140 Clarendon St, Boston :: Through December 23 :: $25-$28 :: 617.437.7172 or lyricstage.com
60 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.COm/arTS
arabiaN NiGHTs › The Central Square Theater reprises Daniel Gidron’s successful staging of Dominic Cooke’s theatrical adaptation of the ancient Persian folk tales of King Shahryar and his new wife Shahrazad. She tells her husband a new story each night in an effort to distract him from his panicked vow to murder any woman the night after she weds him, in an effort to prevent adultery. The production is co-staged by the Nora Theatre Company & Underground Railway Theater. › Through December 30 › Central Square Theater, 450 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $15-$45 › 866.811.4111 or centralsquaretheater.org bye bye liVer: THe bosToN driNKiNG play › Hennessy’s hosts the Boston chapter of Bye Bye Liver, a show about drinking culture, from wine snobs to wildly fun (and occasionally terrifying) booze parties. The performance also incorporates audience interaction with social games like “Would You Rather” and “Never Have I Ever.” › Indefinitely › Hennessy’s, 25 Union St, Boston › $20 › 866.811.4111 or ByeByeLiver.com cHesapeaKe › Full of fervor for public funding of the arts, Lee Blessing’s 1999 oneperson testament is silly, but it isn’t boring. And in New Rep’s staging, it’s having the stuffing acted out of it by Georgia Lyman, who portrays, among other personae, a performance artist named Kerr and a cur named Lord Ratliff of Luckymore. Kerr becomes the target of Therm Pooley, a fulminating Southern congressman running for the Senate. By decrying the “poor-nography” of Kerr’s performance while wagging his beloved dog along the campaign trail, Pooley manages to win. Kerr resolves to kidnap the senator’s pet, the grand plan being to turn the caper into a guerrilla act of outlaw art comparable to those of the early-20th-century Futurists. Alas, things go awry, and Kerr is reincarnated as a woofer. Doug Lockwood directs. › Through December 16 › Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St, Watertown › $36 ›
From a brand you trust. Half off all the time.
RUDOLPH THE RED NECKED REINDEER Having had his holiday way with the Virgin Mary and the Grinch, Ryan Landry is now toying with everybody’s favorite bit of blinking venison. A glittering, dancing, singing travesty of the Rankin/Bass television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (which has been on every year since 1964!), Rudolph the Red Necked Reindeer turns deer meat into beefcake, then runs it through the Gold Dust Orphans’ roaster basted with sequins and smut. This is not Landry’s most ingenious show — perhaps because the original, with its unlikely trio of beacon-nosed reindeer, elf who wants to be a dentist, and random prospector, is so loopy it’s hard to parody — even if you do throw in Drew Barrymore, The Lion King, and a trailer-park Santa who likes plugging squirrels. But like most pranks at the Gold Dust Orphanage, Rudolph is a lot of bawdy, showboating fun. And the costumes by Scott Martino are worthy of Cher — or Liberace as a Munchkin.
This is Jill’s Holiday.
_C A R O LYN CL AY
RUDOLPH THE RED NECKED REINDEER PHOTO by MICHaEL vON REDLICH
Through December 23 › machine, 1256 Boylston St, Boston › $35-$45 › 617.536.1950 or facebook.com/golddustorphans
617.923.0100 or newrep.org a cHrisTmas carol › Arianna Knapp takes on Jon Kimbell’s stage adaptation of the Charles Dickens novella, featuring original music composed and arranged by Alby Potts and James Woodland. David Coffee stars as Scrooge in this North Shore Music Theatre production. › Through December 23 › North Shore Music Theatre, 62 Dunham Rd, Beverly › $45-$60 › 978.232.7200 or nsmt.org HalF ’N HalF ’N HalF › Kyle Fabel helms John Kolvenbach’s farcical parody of life at a repertory theatre, from behind-the-scenes drama to on-stage theatrics. Jim Ortlieb, Carol Halstead, Zoë Winters and Andrew Pastides star in the Merrimack Rep staging. › Through December 23 › Merrimack Repertory Theatre, 50 East Merrimack Street, Lowell › $15-$47 › 978.454.3926 or mrt.org/halfnhalfnhalf.html Holiday memories › New Rep stages Truman Capote’s holiday play about his experiences growing up during the Depression in the deep South. The piece is based on two of Capote’s short stories, “The Thanksgiving Visitor” and “A Christmas Memory.” Russell Vandenbroucke directs. › Through December 23 › New Repertory Theatre, Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal St, Watertown › $28-$58 › 617.923.8487 or newrep.org THe HoW aNd THe WHy › Shana Gozansky directs Trinity Rep’s production of Sarah Treem’s drama about a generational clash between two female evolutionary biologists, one well-established in her field and one about to begin her career. Barrie Kreinik and Anne Scurria star. › Through December 30 › Trinity Repertory Company, 201 Washington St, Providence, RI › $28-$34 › 401.351.4242 or trinityrep.com mempHis › Christopher Ashley directs the Broadway tour of Joe DiPietro and David Bryan’s musical set in the 1950s and loosely based on the life of Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips. Earl Darrington, Felicia Boswell, and Bryan Fenkart star. › Through December 23 › Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St, Boston › $34-$129 › 617.426.9366 or boston.broadway. com oF mice aNd meN › Moonbox Productions presents a theatrical adaptation of John Steinbeck’s Depression-era novel about two migrant workers named George and Lennie, the latter of whom is mentally disabled. Although George tries to downplay Lennie’s
disability and hopes for a normal life, a tragic accident causes George to realize that this can never be possible. Allison Olivia Choat directs the production, which features incidental music composed by Dan Rodrigues. › Through December 22 › Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre, 539 Tremont Street, Boston › $25-$30 › 617.864.0841 or moonboxproductions.org THe piaNisT oF WillesdeN laNe › Mona Golabek is an award-winning concert pianist, not an actor. But she placed the incipient one-woman show inspired by her mother (also commemorated in The Children of Willesden Lane, written with Lee Cohen) in the hands of that master of yak-and-play, Hershey Felder, known for his musical portraits of George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein. The result, adapted and directed by Felder, is an uplifting if pat piece of writing bolstered by some virtuosic and emotive tickling (well, pounding) of the ivories. Between bouts of Beethoven, Debussy, Chopin, and Grieg, Golabek takes on the youthful persona of her mother, aspiring Jewish pianist Lisa Jura, who at 14 escaped Naziinfested Vienna, the musical capital she loved, by way of the Kindertransport. Landing in a youth hostel on the titular London street, Jura, however beset by bombs and fears for family, continued to forge in her music a talisman she could pass down to her daughters. And Golabek shows more than tells how powerful that can be. › Through December 16 › Paramount Theatre, 559 Washington St, Boston › $25-$69 › 617.824.8000 or artsemerson.org pippiN › Diane Paulus helms the A.R.T.’s staging of Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson’s musical about a young prince who believes he’s destined for greatness but can’t decide what sort of great feats will suit him best. Gypsy Snider of Les 7 doigts de la main choreographs the staging, which stars Matthew James Thomas and Patina Miller. › Through January 20 › Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle Street, Cambridge › $25-$85 › 617.547.8300 or amrep.org TWo GeNTlemeN oF VeroNa › Robert Walsh directs Actors’ Shakespeare Project in the Bard’s romantic comedy about a love triangle, cross-dressing maidens, and couples engaged to be married against their wishes. › December 12– January 6 › Davis Square Theatre, 255 Elm Street, Somerville › $28-$50 › 866.811.4111 or actorsshakespeareproject.org
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Arts & Nightlife :: film Ringing it dRy?
Some thingS weRe meant to be shorter, like up singly and in groups (one after the other and Hobbits, and The Hobbit. Whether from love of with repetitious pratfalls) unexpectedly at the the subject, or the studio’s desire for another Hobbit hole of Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman is multibillion-dollar franchise, Peter Jackson has a pleasure). They lay waste to their fussy host’s endeavored to inflate J.R.R. Tolkien’s larder, stuffing themselves, guzzling ale, ++1/2 children’s novel into three two-and-a singing tedious songs, throwing food, the hoBBIt: AN half-hour-plus epic films. yammering, and belching. They overBy including Tolkien material not stay their welcome, both Bilbo’s and the uNexPecteD incorporated into his other texts, and viewer’s. Then they offer Bilbo a contract JourNeY extrapolating bits into mini-epics of to be their “burglar” in their quest to reDirected by Peter their own (see sidebar), Jackson has trieve the stolen Dwarf gold hoarded by Jackson :: Written by Fran Walsh + Philippa achieved with this first installment the dragon Smaug in the lost Dwarf kingBoyens + Peter an entertaining 85-minute fantasy. dom of Erebor deep beneath the Lonely Jackson + Guillermo Unfortunately, there are 85 minutes Mountain. . . . Del Toro; based on the Yes, the jargon gets a bit much. But the more to go. Then it seems that the tale novel by J.R.R. Tolkien :: With Martin Freeman, character arcs of Bilbo, from stuffy stay-atdoesn’t grow so much with the telling, Ian McKellen, Andy home to plucky adventurer, and, surprisas with the selling. Serkis, Richard That’s not how it looks at first. It beingly, that of Gandalf (the superb Ian McKelArmitage, Ken Stott, gins with old Bilbo (Ian Holm) reading len), from doubt to determination, keep it Graham McTavish, Hugo Weaving, Ian in voiceover his memoirs, in which he grounded. Plus some of the action sequences Holm, Sylvester describes the Middle Earth–shaking will amaze even the jaded, like one in an unMcCoy, Elijah Wood, events that set up his own adventure. derground goblin city that combines Jackie Cate Blanchett, and These episodes from days of yore Chan with The Temple of Doom. Christopher Lee :: 170 minutes :: Warner Bros equal in spectacle similar scenes in But by the third time someone hangs the previous trilogy (this time enby his fingertips over a gaping void, or BOSTON COMMON + hanced by 3D). Gandalf shouts “Run!” so they can flee FENWAY + CHESTNUT But then Jackson tries to recreate the latest CGI monstrosity, the Lonely HILL + SUBURBS Tolkien’s version of slapstick, a mode Mountain seems far away indeed. The best avoided by both. Seven dwarves are barely road to franchise gold marches ever onward. _P e t e r Keough » PKeough@P hx.com manageable, but 13 are way too many. They show 62 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.COM/MOvIES
_PK
ILLUSTRATION BY MAURICIO SALMON
ShoRt Subject
Are 13 dwarves too many? Is one book not enough? These were questions raised at the press conference for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It’s the first of three two-and-ahalf-hour films adapting J.R.R. Tolkien’s prequel to his Lord of the Rings trilogy, which Jackson had also adapted into three epiclength movies. “It kind of surprised us a bit, too,” said Jackson at the press conference for the film. “At the beginning, there were only two films. But the book was written at a very breathless pace. Really major events are covered in just a few pages. Plus, in The Return of the King there are a hundred pages of material that Tolkien meant to include in The Hobbit. All this gave us a lot to work with.” So it wasn’t just a way to squeeze out another franchise? “It’s not a franchise!” stormed Ian McKellen in his most intimidating Gandalf voice. “These are films! This isn’t X-Men. Anyone who thinks that Peter Jackson operates in response to market forces doesn’t know him very well. Ask any nine-year-old. They haven’t just seen Lord of the Rings once. They’ve seen it three times. In one day!” Besides, he added, the films let him explore Gandalf’s romantic side. “There’s a scene in which Galadriel [Cate Blanchett] adjusted my hair,” he says. “I’m still a little shaky.”
BILL MURRAY IS FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT LAURA LINNEY
★★★★! A THRILL TO
“
defendant antron mccray and his mother, Linda, outside the courthouse, july 17, 1990.
DISCOVER AND BEHOLD! HUGELY ENTERTAINING AND FUNNY! Bill Murray is awesome. He channels the enormous humanity and popularity of FDR with enchanting grace and infectious dazzle. Laura Linney gives a warm and intelligent performance. A revelation in every frame. One of the season’s don’t-miss events. Guaranteed to enthrall.” – Rex Reed, THE NEW YORK OBSERVER
BILL MURRAY’S SPECTACULAR, OSCAR®-CALIBER PERFORMANCE IS ONE OF THE YEAR’S DELIGHTS!” “
– Lou Lumenick, NEW YORK POST
LAURA LINNEY GIVES A PERFORMANCE OF SUBTLE BEAUTY AND DEEPLY FELT REALIZATION!” “
– Thelma Adams, YAHOO! MOVIES
BILL MURRAY DAZZLES IN AN OSCAR®-WORTHY PERFORMANCE!
“
Rough juStice it waSn’t the Mississippi the testimony of a stream of Delta but enlightened, libNYPD. Two trials ended with eral New York City where, the Central Park Five found in 1989, five Harlem and guilty and sent to long prison Bronx teenage boys, black terms, even as DNA tests and Latino, were arrested, showed conclusively that bullied by the police, and none were at the scene of intimidated into making the crime. But we learn here false confessions that they a terrible lesson in judicial had raped and brutally proceedings: confessions to injured a female a crime (even when jogger in Central obviously coerced, +++ Park. As the Big as seen here) will the ceNtrAl Apple quickly trump scientific PArK FIVe learned via the DNA evidence in excitable tabloid the eyes of a jury. Written and directed by Ken Burns, David media, the victim Filmmaker Ken McMahon, and Sarah was an educated Burns takes a break Burns white woman, and from the teacup this inflamed the world of PBS, At the Kendall Square city to a rush to where his historijudgment. cal documentaries reign, to These were the “crack tell this gritty, miserably dewar” days in an unsafe, depressing story of the failure teriorating Manhattan, and of justice in America. (Sarah it was ex-mayor Ed Koch Burns and Kevin McMahon who kept up with the Post are co-directors, co-writers.) and Daily News in his meanWhat keeps the film from spirited public attacks on being an impossible downer the arrested. Meanwhile, the is the guts and spirit and Central Park Five, defended smart words of the Central by the worst of lawyers (one Park Five, four of whom, slept during the proceednow freed, are interviewed at ings), had no chance against length. Creepiest of all: the the sophisticated team of real rapist and criminal, the prosecutors representing Central Park One, was all the Robert Morgenthau’s distime in plain sight. _gerAlD PeArY trict attorney’s office, and
One can’t help but smile along with him. An expertly acted crowd-pleaser.” – Marlow Stern, THE DAILY BEAST
BILL MURRAY’S FDR COMES ALIVE.”
“
– Kenneth Turan, LOS ANGELES TIMES
BILL MURRAY DELIVERS A CAREER-BEST PERFORMANCE! “
Laura Linney is perfect.” – Karen Durbin, ELLE
BILL MURRAY GIVES A TRULY PRESIDENTIAL PERFORMANCE!” “
– Graham Fuller, VANITY FAIR
EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENTS START FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14 AMC LOEWS
BOSTON COMMON 19
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PROMISED LAND
Cambridge 617-499-1996 West Newton 617-964-6060 FROM THE DIRECTOR OF “GOOD WILL HUNTING” MOBILE USERS: For Showtimes – Text HYDE with your ZIP CODE to 43KIX IN SELECT THEATRES 12/28 ★ NATIONWIDE 1/4 (43549). Msg & data rates may apply. Text HELP for info/STOP to cancel.
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BOSTON PHOENIX
Arts & Nightlife :: film
opening this week
phX piCks >> Can’t Miss
++ HYDE PARK ON HUDSON › Lurking beneath Hyde Park on Hudson, the latest film to repurpose historical icons for Oscar-bait melodrama, is a screwball comedy trying desperately to break though. Franklin D. Roosevelt, played by Bill Murray, seems chiefly interested in escaping his motorcade so he can score a handjob from his distant cousin (Laura Linney). King George and Queen Elizabeth visit in hopes of securing help for England during WWII, but spend most of their time fretting about the social implications of being served hot dogs at a picnic. The First Lady (Olivia Williams) spends her time debating whether it’s impolite to refer to Her Royal Highness as “Elizabeth.” Sometimes — as in a very suggestive scene involving the aforementioned hot dogs and a slow application of mustard — it’s all played for droll, knowing laughs. But most of the time it feels like an SNL sketch with all the punchlines removed. › 94m › Kendall Square _Jake Mulligan + PLAYING FOR KEEPS › Gabriele Muccino’s misogynistic family sports film stars Gerard Butler as has-been Scottish footie star George Dryer, a man who once “got more ass than a toilet seat,” according to screenwriter Robbie Fox, who bends it like Beckham to present George as the willing victim of oversexed soccer moms making advances toward their kids’ new coach. Pity poor Judy Greer, Uma Thurman, and Catherine ZetaJones, who play, respectively, the pity fuck, the boozy trophy wife, and the former sportscaster who can help George land a commentator gig at ESPN. Alas, this third-act conflict would take him away from the ex (Jessica Biel) and young son (Noah Lomax) he’s hoping to win back. Fox hasn’t penned a script since 1993’s So I Married an Axe Murderer, and he apparently hasn’t left his home, either, as made evident by his belief that kids still go to arcades, answering machines are still in use, and land lines are the way to contact women without sad-sack fiancés finding out. › 106m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + suburbs _Brett Michel
now playing
++1/2 ANNA KARENINA › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 130m › Boston Common + Kendall Square + Coolidge Corner + West Newton +++ ARGO › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/ movies for a full review. › 120m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Somerville Theatre + Coolidge Corner + Chestnut Hill + Embassy + suburbs
WINNER Best NoN-FictioN Film NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE
WINNER FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARD nat’l board of review
WINNER BEST DOCUMENTARY NEW YORK ONLINE FILM CRITICS
NOMINEE BEST DOCUMENTARY INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS
HHHH! REqUIRED VIEwINg “
“
’’
- Joshua Rothkopf, TIME OUT NEW YORK
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THE
CENTRAL PARK FIVE
A FILM BY KEN BURNS & DAVID McMAHON & SARAH BURNS
EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENT STARTS FRIDAY, DEC 14 LANDMARK THEATRES KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA 1 KENDALL SQ (617) 499-1996 CAMBRIDGE fAcEbook.com/ThEcENTrAlPArkfivE
64 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm/mOvIEs
• IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN Two trademarks of Michelangelo Antonioni’s career, obscure plots and visual beauty, reach their peak in his penultimate film, Identification of a Woman (1982). Oh, and beautiful naked women, too. It’s got a lot of that. Harvard Film Archive, 24 Church St, Cambridge :: 7 pm :: $9; $7 students, seniors :: 617.495.4700 or hcl.harvard.edu/hfa • CHEERFUL WEATHER FOR THE WEDDING The tony, uppercrust ambiance of Downton Abbey comes to the big screen, as does one of the show’s stars, Elizabeth McGovern, in Donald Rice’s Cheerful Weather for the Wedding (2012). Set in a British country manor in 1932, it’s a drawing-room comedy in which McGovern plays the mother of a bride (Felicity Jones) who is having second thoughts. It screens through December 23 at the MFA. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston :: 7:30 pm :: $11; $9 students, seniors :: 617.267.9300 or mfa.org FRI
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• THE PIANIST Cinema genius and convicted pedophile Roman Polanski bounced back from ignominy to film glory with The Pianist (2002), which may be the crowning achievement of his career. He won a Best Director Oscar, and Adrien Brody took Best Actor for his portrayal of real-life Jewish musician Wladyslaw Szpilman, who evaded capture by the Nazis in occupied Warsaw. Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St, Cambridge :: 5 + 8 pm :: $9.75; $7.75 students, $6.75 seniors :: 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org • BAD SANTA Not a moment too soon comes Terry Zwigoff’s sublimely black comic and cynical Bad Santa (2002) to cut through the obligatory holiday cheer and treacle. In it Billy Bob Thornton plays the title role of a department store St. Nick who sidelines as an asshole and a thief. Best movie Santa since Dan Aykroyd donned a beard and a salmon in Trading Places (1983). Somerville Theatre, 55 Davis Square, Somerville :: 8 pm :: $9; $6 seniors :: 617.625.6700 or somervilletheatreonline. com TUE
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• THE CINEMA OF JULIETTE BINOCHE The 19 face of foreign cinema, and the icon of suffering beauty and sublime longing, is celebrated at the MFA in “The Cinema of Juliette Binoche.” It opens today with Abbas Kiarostami’s Certified Copy (2011; 5 pm) and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors: Blue (1993; 7:15 pm). In the latter she gives what might be her best and most wrenching performance. The program runs through December 30. Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave, Boston :: $11; $9 students, seniors :: 617.267.9300 or mfa.org • LOST IN TRANSLATION + BROKEN FLOWERS After proving himself one of Hollywood’s best comic performers in films like Meatballs and Ghostbusters, Bill Murray established himself as one of the screen’s most appealing dramatic actors, refining his sardonically tragic persona in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation (2003; 7:15 pm) and Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005; 5 + 9:30 pm). Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St, Cambridge :: double feature $12; $10 students :: 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org WED
+++ BRAZIL › 1985 › Terry Gilliam’s manic fantasy may be the first visionary epic that’s also a no-holds-barred black comedy. Set in a vast, looming, Orwellian metropolis “somewhere in the 20th century,” it’s about a humble everyman (Jonathan Pryce), an anonymous drone in the vast totalitarian machinery, who catches a glimpse of the girl of his dreams and accepts a post in the sinister Information Retrieval department to find out who she is. Gilliam’s Orwell-meetsMonty-Python visuals are at once funny and spectacular, and though the picture doesn’t have much emotional grip, it offers a bitingly hilarious view of modern bureaucratic man clutching at the last fragments of his identity. › 142m › Brattle: Sat CHEERFUL WEATHER FOR THE WEDDING › 2012 › Set in a 1932 English countryside, Donald Rice’s comedy stars Felicity Jones as Dolly, a young bride-to-be who locks herself in her bedroom on her wedding day. Downstairs, both her fiancé and former lover wait her arrival while her mother (Elizabeth McGovern) tries to sort the situation. › 90m › MFA +++ THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN [LA CITÉ DES ENFANTS PERDUS] › 1996 › Set in a Batman-like futuristic society of the bizarre, Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s The City of Lost Children finds childhood ending quickly. A gauzy scene of toys and snowflakes metamorphoses into nightmare, as a circus strongman’s sweetly gluttonous six-year-old foster brother (Joseph Lucien) is kidnapped by the Cyclops, a cult of apocalyptic freaks. They in turn sell children to the dream-stealing Krank (Daniel Emilfork), whose gaunt, hairless physiognomy makes Nosferatu look like Tom Cruise. The imagery, camerawork, and sets are almost exhaustingly striking in this dazzling postmodern fairy tale of mythic implications from the makers of Delicatessen. › French › 112m › Brattle: Sun +1/2 CLOUD ATLAS › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 272m › Boston Common + Arlington Capitol + suburbs + THE COLLECTION › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 82m › Boston Common + suburbs ++ DEADFALL › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix. com/movies for a full review. › 90m › Kendall Square +++ DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL › 2011 › Visit thePhoenix.com/ movies for a full review. › 86m › West Newton: Sat-Sun +1/2 DISNEY’S A CHRISTMAS CAROL › 2009 › Charles Dickens made a mint with readings of A Christmas Carol, but a century and a half of technological progress has not been kind to the property. Thanks to Robert Zemeckis’s state-of-the-art 3-D performancecapture animation, audiences can now enjoy the spectacle of Jacob Marley’s ghost (Gary Oldman) spewing spit in their laps. Or Bob Cratchit (Oldman again) looking like Gollum in a waistcoat. Or endless sequences of the camera flying over a snow-globe-like London. And there’s something about the process that frees up actors to deliver their hammiest performances, especially Jim Carrey as Scrooge and all three Ghosts. Man, that Ghost of Christmas Present sure can laugh. Zemeckis does conjure his canny Back to the Future period when he plays games with the notion of time. But the best part of this Christmas Carol is the end, when the ugly animation metamorphoses back into the pages of a book. › 95m › BPL: Mon +++ 8 WOMEN [8 FEMMES] › 2001 › A runaway popular hit but not an award winner at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, François Ozon’s campy musical/soap opera/countryhouse murder mystery provides star turns for eight celebrated French actresses in
a hilarious story that encompasses three Merci non, Luc, we have enough big-budget, generations and embraces incest. The time no-brain hacks here already. › 126m › Coolidge is the 1950s, and the setting is an isolated Corner: Fri-Sat midnight mansion in the snowy French countryside, ++1/2 FLIGHT › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix. where a family have gathered to celebrate com/movies for a full review. › 139m › Bosthe Christmas holidays. But then patriarch ton Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Marcel gets bumped off ? Whodunit? Wife Somerville Theatre + Embassy + suburbs Gaby (Catherine Deneuve), who seems fonder ++1/2 GREMLINS › 1984 › Produced by Steof her bourgeois comforts than she is of her ven Spielberg and directed by Joe Dante, this daughters or her husband? Gaby’s mother horror comedy is about a pack of malignant (Danielle Darrieux), who’s moved into her house pets that look like Yoda’s delinquent daughter’s home? Gaby’s repressed old-maid half-brothers. At first, as they invade the sister, Augustine (Isabelle Huppert)? Elder home of a bland American teenager (Zach daughter Suzon (Virginie Ledoyen)? Younger Galligan), they seem to embody the instinct daughter Catherine (Ludivine Sagnier)? Then for mayhem hidden in even the most charmthere’s Marcel’s glamorous sister, Pierrette ing beings; but then, thanks to the dozens of (Fanny Ardant), who shows up unexpectedly ironic film references that Dante works in, — and don’t overlook long-time housekeeper the gremlins come to caricature an AmeriMme. Chanel (Firmine Richard), or steamy can youth besotted by mass culture. Dante new chambermaid Louise (Emmanuelle Béorchestrates the details like a Stokowski of art). You’ll also want to ask yourself whether the cutting table, but his jaunty, inventive Marcel is really dead, since we hardly get to movie would have been better if he weren’t see the body, and of course the house has so blind to everything outside the hermetic been cut off by the snowstorm, so there’s no world of cinema. With Phoebe Cates and Hoyt doctor to confirm the death and no police to Axton. › 106m › Brattle: Fri investigate it. Not that it’s easy to focus on the +1/2 HITCHCOCK › 2012 › Visit thePhoemurder mystery — or the closetful of secrets nix.com/movies for a full review. › 98m › Bosthat come out — the way the eight ladies keep ton Common + Kendall Square singing and dancing their hearts out. You may 1/2 HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA › 2012 › Visit not be edified by this lightweight effort, but thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › you will be entertained. › French › 104m › 91m › West Newton: Sat-Sun Brattle: Thurs ++++ IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE › 1946 › + END OF WATCH › 2012 › Visit thePhoeFrank Capra’s classic gets a little sentimennix.com/movies for a full review. › 109m › tal at the beginning (God talking from a spiral Boston Common + Fenway galaxy) and the end (angel Clarence getting ++1/2 THE FAMILY STONE › 2005 › Diane his wings). But the film also shows us Capra — Keaton and Craig T. Nelson head the Stone and American moviemaking — at its best. Not family, a large brood in the New England libmany directors would let their hero — Jimmy eral model whose kids are coming home for Stewart, yet — behave as abominably as It’s a the holidays. Into their self-satisfied world arWonderful Life does (Stewart’s George Bairives Sarah Jessica Parker as the uptight girlley to Donna Reed’s Mary: “Why do we have friend of the prodigal son (Dermot Mulroney), to have all these kids?”). Capra is telling us and the family’s cruelty to her, though unjusthat it can also be a pretty horrible life, and tified in terms of plot, at least gives the cast a that the line between the two is razorblade few opportunities to wax nasty. In a move that thin — the absence of one good guy can bring makes little sense outside a screenplay semiout the worst in an entire town. Yet it’s Stewnar, she calls in her sister (Claire Danes) for art, all spontaneous goodwill and unblinking support, and of course the newcomer proves faith, who makes what could have been just the family favorite. Rachel McAdams another treacly postwar morale builder endears here even as the bitchy into a cinematic statement that, in sister; Luke Wilson refines his its naive decency and optimism, is affable slacker persona as the uniquely American. › b&w › 129m E r O youngest son. Director Thom› Brattle: Fri-Sun FOr M M as Bezucha enjoys staging the +++1/2 KILLING THEM FIL s g noisy family donnybrooks, but SOFTLY › 2012 › Visit thePhoeLIsTIN OENIx. H P E the film buckles under the nix.com/movies for a full review. H GO TO T OvIES /M formulaic screenplay, which › 97m › Boston Common + FenCO M insists on tying up every loose way + Kendall Square + West end no matter how untidy the Newton knot. › 100m › BPL: Thurs ++1/2 A LATE QUARTET › 2012 › FAUST › 1926 › F.W. Murnau turns Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full the story of Dr. Faustus into a battle of review. › 105m › Coolidge Corner light and dark. The great Emil Jannings ++1/2 LIFE OF PI › 2012 › Visit thePhoeis Mephistopheles; Gösta Ekman is Faust. › nix.com/movies for a full review. › 127m › b&w › silent › 90m › Coolidge Corner: Mon Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond THE FIFTH ELEMENT › 1997 › Luc Bes+ Chestnut Hill + Embassy + Arlington son’s film aspires to the sophomoric but barely Capitol + suburbs attains the puerile. It’s the 23rd century in New ++ LINCOLN › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/ York City, and retired special-forces major and movies for a full review. › 120m › Boston current cab driver Bruce Willis has an autistic Common + Fenway + Kendall Square + woman with orange hair and dressed in BandWest Newton Aids (Milla Jovovich) fall through his taxi roof. NICELY SCARLETT JOHANSSON’S ++ She’s “The Fifth Element,” whom God sends MAHLER ON THE COUCH › 2010 › Visit forth every 5000 years when the evil powers of thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › destruction start acting up. She’s pursued by Zorg German › 98m › Coolidge Corner (Gary Oldman in his worst performance), a cor++++ MOONRISE KINGDOM › 2012 › Wes porate mogul in the pay of the bad guys; Cornelius Anderson should always make movies featur(Ian Holm), keeper of the cheesy cult that’s suping characters who are pubescent or younger posed to enact the Stargate-like ritual that saves — like Rushmore, which until this film was his the universe; and the usual government morons. best. That limits his range, perhaps, but who Witlessly stealing from every sci-fi movie that’s else can capture with such chilling accuracy made a buck, from Metropolis to Independence that fragile period between childhood and Day, Besson manages to be misogynist, racist, disillusionment, the time when the novelty and religiously offensive. He’s already done his bit of true love overwhelms the heart with its imto reduce French cinema to a second-rate clone mensity and futility? The stricken youth here of bad Hollywood (La femme Nikita, The Profesis Sam (Jared Gilman), a somber 12-year-old sional); now he’s seeking to expand to America. orphan enduring a stint of summer camp with
Bill Murray is Franklin Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson. the “Khaki Scouts” on a quaint island off the New England coast in 1965. Unlike Max in Rushmore, here the object of Sam’s ardor, Suzy (Kara Hayward), is not too old for him, but the same age. It doesn’t make any difference. In both cases, their love is socially unacceptable. Nonetheless, the underaged pair are determined to fulfill their destiny and arrange to run away from the disapproving real world to a place where they are free to live happily ever after. This plan liberates Anderson’s imagination as well. › 94m › Brattle: Mon ++1/2 THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL › 1992 › Where Muppets creator Jim Henson went for character interaction, his son Brian goes for slapstick. And so the Muppets’ take on the Dickens classic fails to rise to the comic heights of previous Muppet excursions or plunge into Dickens’s terrifying dark night of the soul. The Mups (Kermit as Bob Cratchit, Miss Piggy as his Mrs., Fozzie Bear as “Fozziwig”) do an admirable job of staying in character, without losing the traits each is known for. But as Scrooge, Michael Caine seems to be having too much of a good time; his conversion to niceness isn’t much of a conversion at all. › 89m › Mattapan Branch Library: Tues +++ THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/ movies for a full review. › 102m › Somerville Theatre +1/2 RED DAWN › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix. com/movies for a full review. › 93m › Boston Common + Fresh Pond + suburbs +++ RISE OF THE GUARDIANS › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 97m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Chestnut Hill + Arlington Capitol + suburbs +++ THE SESSIONS › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 95m › West Newton + Arlington Capitol +++ SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 122m › Boston Common + Fenway + West Newton +++ SKYFALL › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix. com/movies for a full review. › 143m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Somerville Theatre + Chestnut Hill + Embassy + suburbs ++ SUDDEN FEAR › 1952 › Lester Blaine (Jack Palance) thinks he’s got the lead in Myra Hudson’s new play, but then Myra (Joan Crawford) decides he’s not the romantic-hero type. What, is she holding out for Wally Cox? Anyway, Lester gets on the train that’s taking her from New York to San Francisco determined to prove her wrong, and she has to
decide whether he’s legitimately interested in her or just a great actor. Turns out Lester’s already hitched (to Gloria Grahame) and is planning to marry Myra in order to kill her off and grab her fortune. Unfortunately, director David Miller coasts along on the plot twists rather than plumb Crawford’s darker impulses. But the scenes with Grahame are in the noir spirit — she has a casual erotic insolence. › b&w › 110m › South Boston Branch Library: Thurs ++1/2 SWIMMING POOL › 2003 › This elegant suspense piece from François Ozon (Sous le sable/Under the Sand; 8 femmes/8 Women) stars Charlotte Rampling as a successful, ill-tempered British mystery novelist whose publisher lends her his house in Provence so she can work on her next book. She’s dismayed to find that she must share the place with the publisher’s nubile daughter (Ludivine Sagnier), who is given to bringing home older men and having loud sex with them. Then she becomes interested in the girl as possible source material for her novel, and mayhem erupts. Ozon is, as always, a remote, mechanical director with a dry and cold style, a neat stack of chips on each shoulder, and every intention of keeping several sinuous steps ahead of his characters and his audience. Here, his chilliness is perfectly suited to the ambiguous relationship between the two main characters. The flat, airy, sinister quality he generates (as in Sous le sable) remains interesting and pleasurable, if not deeply compelling. Rampling’s performance gets better as her character loosens up, and the plot reversals in the last section will fuel many a post-film conversation. › English + French › 102m › Brattle: Thurs ++ THE TWILIGHT SAGA: BREAKING DAWN — PART 2 › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 115m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Chestnut Hill + Embassy + Arlington Capitol + suburbs WAGNER AND ME › 2012 › Documentary in which actor and writer Stephen Fry examines the legacy of controversial composer Richard Wagner. Jewish himself, Fry attempts to disassociate the man’s music from the anti-Semitism and the Nazi movement with which he’s come to be associated. Patrick McGrady directs. › 89m › MFA: Fri-Sun +++1/2 THE WAITING ROOM › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 83m › Kendall Square ++1/2 WRECK-IT RALPH › 2012 › Visit thePhoenix.com/movies for a full review. › 93m › Boston Common + Fenway + Fresh Pond + Embassy + Arlington Capitol + suburbs THEPHOENIX.cOm/mOvIEs :: 12.14.12 65
Arts & Nightlife :: Music
WFNX » What’s F’N NeXt Listen live at wfnx.com
THE FIELD EFFECT, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
it’s cliché to write about music having a “driving”force, or describBcouldyingnownot. it taking you to a certain place where mundane daily occurrences But there’s something about the Field Effect that just feels like
movement. Impassioned guitar-rock that’s more sophisticated than the power-chord party-bro sounds coming out of the far corners of North America, it’s mature without being grounded, excitable without overextending itself. It’s just smart, driven rock and roll that creeps under your face and lets you see the world from their musical cockpit. “I can see the Field Effect leading a new generation of classic Boston rock,” says Jim Gilbert of the Sheila Divine. “They are an old-fashioned four-piece putting everything they have into making an impression on the audience.” The first true Boston band to be put in regular rotation on the re-launched WFNX.com (apologies to the since-relocated Passion Pit), the Field Effect’s debut full-length, Cartography, is indeed a relentless rock crusade. Led by the skinny-riffed single “Ogunquit, ME” (choice lyric: “I fell for you like rain”), the record is putting an exclamation point on the band’s first two years together
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after meeting at Berklee. If the band is going places, Cartography could be the (literal) roadmap. “It’s the art of making maps,” says frontman/guitarist Doug Orey, defining the album’s moniker. “For some reason, my last couple of relationships have been long distance, some longer distance than others, some more serious than others. We discussed the themes in the lyrics, and the things that kept coming up were maps, distance, and locations.” But as Gilbert suggests, the Field Effect’s home is the stage, where they rarely stay still. “We get very wrapped up in it, we get very involved,” says Orey. Adds bassist Annie Hoffman: “A band’s live show has to make you love the record even more.” _MI CHAEL MAROTTA »MI CHAEL@pHx.COM
THE FIELD EFFECT + FREEZEPOP + EMILY PEAL + SIDEWALK DRIVER :: Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston :: December 14 @ 8 pm :: 18+ :: $12 :: 617.779.0140
photo by johnny Anguish
ISTEN
L e Field Hear tH over c eFFect’s st oF “la as” cHristm on m! by WHa m o WFnx.c
ElEctro-pop
ElEctro-pop
TEGAN & SARA PhoTo bY LINDSEY bYRNES, ETERNAL SuMMERS PhoTo bY SAMuEL LuNSfoRD
TEGAN & SARA SET A NEW SOUND If ThERE WERE ANy qUESTION that confessional pop darlings Tegan and Sara were heading in a new direction with their forthcoming album, Heartthrob (Warner Bros), the upbeat new single “Closer” dispells these doubts: plush layers of frosty keyboards and electronic twinkles surge underneath romantic lyrics flush with dizzy desire. The rest of Heartthrob is just as luxurious: the album references gentle soft rock, lush synthpop, and strident new wave, as well as artists like Prince (“Now I’m All Messed Up”), Kate Bush (the airy “Shock to Your System”), and even ’Til Tuesday (“I Was a Fool”). To achieve this hazy ’80s fever dream, Tegan and Sara worked with a trio of producers: Greg Kurstin (Kelly Clarkson, Ke$ha), Justin Meldal-Johnsen (M83, Neon Trees), and Mike Elizondo (Eminem, Regina Spektor). All three men supported the pair’s desire to stretch beyond guitar-based music. “They were like, ‘Don’t worry about the past, don’t worry about the fans, don’t worry about what you sounded like in the past,’ ” says Tegan Quin, by phone from Vancouver. “‘You guys are the consistent force through your records. It’s been 13 years, you’ve grown and developed as artists — don’t look backwards so much, look forward. Let’s talk about what you want to do, how you want to be perceived as artists.’ All three had different ways of saying that, but ultimately, I left my meetings with all three of them thinking, ‘These
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are producers who aren’t going to be afraid of being too precious with the Tegan and Sara sound — because the Tegan and Sara sound is us.’ ” With that confidence in hand, the Quins also pushed themselves as songwriters. Although the sisters have always been beloved for their honest dissections of relationships — both the good and bad parts — Heartthrob is perhaps the most direct they’ve ever been. Using clear, precise language, they look back on past romances with the type of wisdom gleaned only from having had plenty of distance from the relationship. “It’s definitely a very vulnerable record, and I’m sure it’s probably for a lot of different reasons, but probably a combination of age and time and experience,” Tegan says. “I also think we’re really confident — I don’t feel as worried to say what I feel anymore.” She adds: “As a band, we felt like we needed to explore other sides of our experiences. I definitely tried to be a little more romantic — tried to remember the time period in my life long before rejection and tried to be pretty nostalgic about it. It was nice to think back to crushes and romance and not feel so depressed. Sara’s side of the record is still romantic, but it’s really dark and depressing. I think [Heartthrob] is going to be a fan-favorite, because it’s going to be an emotional record for people.”
ETERNAL SUMMERS fIND TRUST IN OThERS Eternal Summers started as a guitarand-drums duo in Roanoke, Virginia, in 2009. Soon after, singer/guitarist Nicole Yun and drummer Daniel Cundiff began releasing scrappy mid-fi indie pop and post-punkinspired tracks, along with punky, collaged artwork that floated around the Internet with each song. Throughout these first few formative years as a band, the DIY ethos and home-recorded feel were a defining element of their punchy indie pop, an aesthetic that filtered into their debut long-player, Silver. So their more hi-fi sophomore LP, Correct Behavior, released this year via Kanine, was a bit of a deETERNAL SUmmERS + parture, mixed by Sune Rose NADA SURF Wagner, of the Paradise Rock Raveonettes, Club, 967 Comm and Dum Dum Ave, Boston Girls producer December 13 Alonzo Vargas. @ 8 pm :: 18+ :: “We were $22.50 so emotionally charged 617.562.8800 or thedise.com about trying to collaborate Tune into WFNX. with other com on 12.13 to people,” says hear a live session from the band Yun. “When you work with the same people who happen to be your friends for so long, it doesn’t seem safe working with people who are basically strangers.” The resulting LP, though, is their best, most realized record to date; see “Millions” and “You Kill” for proof. “In a way, we were kind of closed-minded,” says Yun. “I feel glad that we’ve grown. I think we didn’t realize our mindset was so closed until we went through that process. Part of the scariness of collaborating is also what makes it so good. It challenges you.” _LI Z PELLY » LPEL LY@ P h x.c om Eternal Summers
_AN N IE ZALESKI » ANNI Ex@ANNI EZ.com
TEGAN & SARA + THE KILLERS :: Agganis Arena, 925 Comm Ave, Boston :: December 17 @ 7:30 pm :: All-Ages :: $33 to $63 :: 617.358.7000 or ticketmaster.com THEPHoENIX.Com/muSIC :: 12.14.12 67
Arts & Nightlife :: BostoN AcceNts
cellArs By stArlight
Playlist
TO SAy THAT THIS IS a busy time for Chad Stokes is an understatement. Having wrapped up a stateside tour with New England–based indie heroes Dispatch in October, he’s on the road now fronting State Radio while mixing in a few solo dates and gearing up for another Dispatch jaunt next month, this time in Europe. Then, in March, he returns to the Continent with State Radio. Oh, and while his Calling All Crows nonprofit hosts two gigs this weekend, he’s also attempting to get settled into a new house in Jamaica Plain. “We moved in here, and I got two stoves and a dishwasher out on the front lawn,” Stokes says with a laugh. “I just try to compartmentalize things so that it’s not too crazy. Trying to navigate that, it just uses up a lot of my brain, I guess. With this State Radio tour, we’ve been playing all the new songs, and it’s been 10 years since we released our first EP, so we’re relearning all the old songs that we haven’t played for years.” At a recent State Radio two-night stand in Boulder, Colorado, the band went straight-up Grateful Dead and did a completely different set each night. But despite the fairly Phishy audience for Dispatch, Stokes’s somewhat crunchy demeanor, and the fact that he has a dog, Lefty, that’s allegedly a direct de-
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scendant of the San Francisco acid eaters’ legendary touring canine Karma, the guitarist and singer is not about to get up on stage and noodle for hours on end. “I like the Dead, but I was never a fan of the jam . . . that whole thing,” Stokes says. “I actually went to a show at the old Garden and fell asleep during the drum jam. But it’s great to know that as we’re touring with Lefty there’s a bit of legacy there.” With Dispatch, Stokes says he’s “always surprised by the relevance, that we can take time off and then come back and have people still care about the band.” And as the rougher-edged State Radio continue to gain momentum, it’s the solo gigs that end up the most challenging, since the set list is culled from both bands and is being decided night-to-night by the notoriously devoted fans. Like the new digs he’s trying to organize in his personal life amidst the touring chaos, there’s much to be done. “There’s some deep cuts and tunes that I never even really finished that are being requested, so I got a little work I gotta do for that,” Stokes says. “I gotta basically finish the tunes or at least get them to some kind of playability.” _MICHAEL CHRI STOPHER » MICHAELCHRI STOPHER22@HOTMAI L. COM
CHADWICK STOKES + FRIENDS :: The Sinclair, 52 Church St, Cambridge :: December 14 @ 7 pm :: All Ages :: $25 :: 617.451.7700 or boweryboston.com :: STATE RADIO :: House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St, Boston :: December 15 @ 7 pm :: All Ages :: $25-$100 :: 888.693.2583 or hob.com/boston
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»
GRAb THE MIx AT bOSTONPHOENIx. bANDCAMP.COM
• Stephie Coplan “No Assholes On Christmas” • The Field Effect “Last Christmas” [12.14 @ Brighton Music Hall] • The Hush Now “I’m Always Broke in December” • Emily Peal “Have Yourself…” [12.14 @ Brighton Music Hall] • Oldjack “The Christmas Song (10th Anniversary Remix)” [12.15 @ the Sinclair]
_MI CHAEL MAROT TA
Stephie Coplan
CHAD STOkES PHOTO By CHARlOTTE ZOllER
CHAD STOKES EMPOWERS HIS RADIO
Ho ho whoa! Our second-annual Phoenix Holiday EP is another seasonal serving of Christmas songs that will help you forget Pomplamoose ever existed. Former Tufts University student STEPHIE COPLAN and her PEDESTRIANS demand “No Assholes on Christmas” this year, and two acts on the bill for the Boston Band Crush Holiday Spectacular Friday at Brighton Music Hall, the FIELD EFFECT and EMILy PEAL, turn in two distinct bell-jingling covers. A new track by holiday-minded THE HUSH NOW finds the band broke in December, and a 10-year-old cut from OLDJACK (at the Sinclair on Saturday) enlists festive help from Parlour Bells, the Rationales, and Mellow Bravo.
Arts & Nightlife :: Music
ALbum REvIEws
Mo want re re alb Che v i ew u M C reC k out s? en m at t t rele ore he as Co m P h o e n e s ix /m u siC .
+++1/2 YOUNG FATHERS, TAPE ONE
Anticon » Scotland does boldly inventive/ wildly playful indiepop (and prior to that, post-punk) with such machine-like efficiency that it’s been a detriment to the country’s other genres. Righting this wrong requires worthy torchbearers; Young Fathers are poised to assume this role for Scottish hip-hop. On debut Tape One, the Afro-Scot trio — comprising a Liberian, a Nigerian, and an Edinburghian — disputes the notion that its country of choice is a rap backwater. Lyrics are joyfully standoffish (“Don’t you turn my home against me/Even if my house is empty”), even poetically saucy (“Plant your seed in your maiden’s bower” wickedly evokes Robert Burns). Young Fathers are both catchy and alienating. The polyrhythm and chanted vocals from “Sister” evoke Soundway’s compilations of ’70s Nigerian disco and funk. The beats on “Dar-Eh Da Da Du” sound like hissing steam pipes and oil drums pummeled with rubber mallets. Calculated yet impulsive, Young Fathers prove Scottish hip-hop’s viability. _RYAN FOLEY
++++ MAJICAL CLOUDZ, TURNS TURNS TURNS +++ BIG BOI, VICIOUS LIES AND DANGEROUS RUMORS Def Jam » “Been a handsome-ass nigga since my mama wiped my bottom,” raps Antwan Patton (a/k/a Big Boi, a/k/a Sir Lucious L. Leftfoot, a/k/a Daddy Fat Sax, a/k/a Billy Ocean) minutes into his schizoid sophomore album. A modest boast for most multi-platinum rap titans, but it’s quintessential Big Boi: smooth, casually cocky, and weirdly inviting. Vicious Lies and Dangerous Rumors is all those qualities at once — but it’s also Patton’s most eclectic batch of tunes since his Outkast peak, branching out into mildmannered indie rock, bright electro-pop, and psychedelic soul. Back in the Outkast days, Big Boi (along with his partner-in-rhyme, Andre 3000, and Atlanta’s Dungeon Family production crew) constructed dazzling, musically adventurous hip-hop monuments — one after another, from 1996’s ATLiens to 2000’s groundbreaking Stankonia to 2003’s Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. But the duo’s neck-breaking counterbalance (Big Boi’s effortless cool and Andre’s superhuman flow) was always center-stage. On Vicious Lies, Big Boi’s rhymes often feel misplaced amid the sonic shuffle: Wavves sits in on “Shoes for Running,” but their surf-y, snarly hook overpowers Patton’s verses; meanwhile, dreamy closer “Descending” is more or less a stunning Little Dragon track (with its feathery acoustic guitar figure and Yukimi Nagano’s angeldiva croon) bogged down by Patton’s tortured, nails-on-chalkboard moaning. But more of these collaborations pay off than tank: Kelly Rowland adds sensual flair to the funk-pop work-out “Mama Told Me”; Kid Cudi’s typically strained vocals actually make sense in the spacey, synthy melancholy of “She Hates Me”; and the Phantogram-produced “Objectum Sexuality” and “CPU” (in which Patton romanticizes virtual “role-play” while, of course, listening to “Coldplay”) are dazzling forays into electro-pop — ideal launching pads for Patton’s easygoing charms. “I’ma keep it straight-up player, like a gentleman,” Patton promises at one point. Fascinating speed bumps aside, it’s a mission still very much accomplished. _RYA N R EE D
Staff SpinS
What we’re listening to
DAUGHTER “Smother” [4AD] Daughter come off as a more subdued, broken the xx. Over a sparse instrumentation, singer Elena Tonra delicately intones, “In the darkness I will meet my creators/And they will all agree, that I’m a suffocator.” It’s perfect holiday music for kissing under a hemlock leaf instead of mistletoe. _mICH AE L CH R Is T OP H E R
Arbutus Records » Devon Welsh is a frequent collaborator with his best friend Grimes, but he’s also been recording introspective songs by himself for years. His latest four-song collection of slow-building electronic confessionals is the most recent output of Montreal’s brilliant underground music community. The first single, “Turns Turns Turns,” feels catchy despite its sorrowful build. At times it’s hard to decipher Welsh’s words, but there’s something moving about the intrinsic frailty of his swelling vox. “What That Was” is a quick shift to something more hopeful and upbeat: “Me and my friend Neil, when we’re out together/Nothing could be better,” he sings. It’s a song about friendship, but sung with as much passion and sincerity as a song about romance. In a way, this EP’s sparse and simple electronic instrumentals paired with a powerful voice and cutting, emotional songs help to accomplish what was previously the work of poignant acoustic singersongwriters. _LI Z PELLY MAJICAL CLOUDZ + THE SOFT MOON + RIBS | T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | January 9 @ 8:30 pm | 18+ | $10 | 617.492.0082 or ttthebears.com
BEACH FOSSILS “Careless” [Captured Tracks] The first track off February’s Clash the Truth LP finds the Brooklyn dreamy guitar-rock band instantly catching up on all that ground made by colleagues DIIV in the past year. “Careless” is a soaring, shining bout of underwater love that throws the pop gauntlet for Best Record of 2013 while we’re all still busy crafting 2012 lists. _mI CHAEL mAROTTA THEPHOENIx.COM/MUSIC :: 12.14.12 69
Arts & Nightlife :: music
Lupo’s
79 Washington st, providence complete schedule at
THURSDAY 13
lupos.com
Friday, January 18
get the Led out saturday, January 19
MARTIN SEXTON
Friday, January 25
citizen cope the Met - saturday, dec. 29
the Neighborhoods tickets at LUPOs.cOM, F.Y.e. stORes & LUPO’s
\] A HOLIDAY TRADITION RETURNS! ]\
®
friday dec. 14 • 9:30 pm – 2 am
Social StudieS
dJs: runaway (dfa), alfredo, Brenden Wesley+Brek.One upstairs music: House, Techno, disco, + Hip Hop, reggae & party Jamz upstairs $5 saturday dec. 15 • 9:30 pm – 2 am
FreSh Produce
THE FAKE BOYS + INK & SWEAT + GREAT LAKES USA + TKC › 8 pm › O’Brien’s, 3 Harvard Ave, Allston › $8 › 617.782.6245 or obrienspubboston.com “AN DIE MUSIK” › With Ragnar Kjartansson › 5 pm › Institute of Contemporary Art, 100 Northern Ave, Boston › Free › 617.478.3100 or icaboston.org ANDREW GEANO + BEN BULLOCK + DR. STROMBERG AND THE NURSES + ANDREW MARTIN › P.A.’s Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave, Somerville › 617.776.1557 “ANNUAL BOSTON X-MAS CAVALCADE FOR THE HOMELESS” › 7:30 pm › Johnny D’s, 17 Holland St, Somerville › $20 › 617.776.2004 or johnnyds.com ARAABMUZIK › Middle East Downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $20-$23 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com “BRANDED AUTHENTIC SHOWCASE” › 8 pm › Church of Boston, 69 Kilmarnock St, Boston › $10 › 617.236.7600 or churchofboston.com CORIN ASHLEY + DAVID AARONOFF › 10:30 pm › Plough & Stars, 912 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.576.0032 or ploughandstars.com ELLIOTT MURPHY AND THE NORMANDY ALL STARS + SCOTT KEMPNER [THE DEL LORDS] › 7 pm › Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center St, Northampton › $15-$18 › 413.586.8686 or iheg.com/iron_horse_main.asp ESTHEMA › Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville › 617.718.2191 or artsatthearmory.org FRIENDLY PEOPLE + BEAR LANGUAGE + WE AVALANCHE › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $8 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com GRADE A GRAY DAYS + RICK BERLIN & HIS NICKEL & DIME BAND + CASK MOUSE › 9 pm › Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.547.0759 or lizardloungeclub.com “JOURNEY, MERCY” › With Haruka Yabuno › 1 pm › Café 939, 939 Boylston St, Boston › Free › 617.747.6038 or ticketmaster.com KING ORCHID + SAND RECKONER + BLACKBUTTON + YELLABIRD › 9 pm › Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston › $9 › 617.566.9014 or ticketweb.com “MARCOS VALLE MEETS BERKLEE” › 8:15 pm › Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass Ave, Boston › 617.266.7455
MATES OF STATE + IN THE VALLEY BELOW › 9 pm › Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston › $15-$17 › 617.562.6000 or ticketmaster.com NADA SURF + ETERNAL SUMMERS › 9 pm › Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm Ave, Boston › $22.50-$25 › 617.562.8800 or ticketmaster.com RYAN KOWAL ENSEMBLE + JENI JOL + TODD MARSTON & TONY MAIELLA/TOM › 7 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 TODD THIBAUD › 7:30 pm › Toad, 1920 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.4950 or toadcambridge.com
FRIDAY 14
APAAR BANGLA › 10:30 pm › Middle East Corner, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $5 › 617.864.3278 or ticketweb.com “A VERY GK! HOLIDAY FESTIVAL 2012” › With A Loss For Words + Transit + The Dangerous Summer + Hit the Lights + With the Punches + State Champs + Kid Jerusalem › 3:30 pm › Royale, 279 Tremont St, Boston › SOLD OUT › 401.831.8831 or boweryboston.com BIG ’OL DIRTY BUCKET + GNARLEMAGNE › 9 pm › Milky Way, at the Brewery, 284 Armory St, Jamaica Plain › $10 › 617.524.3740 or milkywayjp.com BLACK SEA SALSA COMBO › 9 pm › Ryles, 212 Hampshire St, Cambridge › $12 › 617.876.9330 or rylesjazz.com “BOSTON BAND CRUSH HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR” WITH FREEZEPOP + SIDEWALK DRIVER + THE FIELD EFFECT + EMILY PEAL AND THE BAND OF SKINNY MEN › 9 pm › Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston › $12 › 617.779.0140 or ticketmaster.com CLUB D’ELF › 10 pm › Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.547.0759 or lizardloungeclub.com DAR WILLIAMS + MIKE + RUTHY › 7 pm › Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center St, Northampton › $30-$35 › 413.586.8686 or iheg.com/iron_horse_main.asp DEAR LEADER + TED BILLINGS + THE BEATINGS › Middle East Downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $12 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com ENVY DWARF + STRANGERS WITH KNIVES + SWEATSHOP + SH & THE SITTING DUCKS › 8 pm › Midway Café, 3496 Washington St, Jamaica Plain › 617.524.9038 or midwaycafe.com
fridAy 14
dJs: Low Budget (Hollertronix), Tommee, Knife, Just Joan music: Hip Hop, reggae, 90s, Trap, crunk, party Jamz $5
wednesday dec. 19 • 9 pm – 1 am
Bold SPrintS (indoor Bicycle racing) dJs: mayhem and pajaritos music: Techno, Global Bass, digital cumbia, Tropical
thursday dec. 20 • 9:30 pm – 2 am
night Wave
TICKETS:
617.496.2222 OR REVELS.ORG
dJs: Kerry Leva, d-Lux, Jaminic, dusty digital music: Nu disco, progressive House, Tech House, Tropical Bass $5
Sidewalk Driver play the Boston Band Crush Holiday Spectacular at Brighton Music Hall. 70 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm/EvENTs
fridAy 14 & sAturdAy 15
› Out of the Blue Gallery, 106 Prospect St, Cambridge › Donations › 617.354.5287 or outoftheblueartgallery.com THE APACHE RELAY + THE BALLROOM THIEVES › 9 pm › Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston › $12-$14 › 617.566.9014 or ticketweb.com AVIATIONS + REPLACIRE + NATIVE CONSTRUCT + BURIED ELECTRIC + WATER’S EDGE › 1 pm › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $8-$10 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com “BOSTON POPS HOLIDAY CONCERT” › 7:30 pm › Verizon Wireless Arena, 555 Elm St, Manchester, NH › $41-$76 › 800.745.3000 or verizonwirelessarena.com
>> live music on p 72
The Lights Out (and many friends) play a two-night holiday show at Radio. THE FIGGS › 8 pm › Church of Boston, 69 Kilmarnock St, Boston › $10 › 617.236.7600 or churchofboston.com FORWARD MOTION + ALEJANDRO AND THE FAME + DJ SCRATCH ‘N SNIFF › 6 pm › All Asia, 334 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.1544 or allasiabar.com A GREAT BIG WORLD WITH IAN AXEL + ALLIE MOSS + BESS ROGERS › 8 pm › Café 939, 939 Boylston St, Boston › $10 › 617.747.6038 or ticketmaster.com HEE HAWK + NICK SANDERS TRIO › 7 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 “THE LIGHTS OUT HOLIDAY SHOW” › 8 pm › Radio Upstairs, 379 Somerville Ave, Somerville › $10 › 617.764.0005 or radiobarunion.com “JEFF PLATZ PRESENTS FORBIDDEN FRUITCAKE” › With Junko Fujiwara + Scott Getchell + John McLellan + Kit Demos + Andy Voelker › 8 pm › Outpost 186, 186 1/2 Hampshire St, Cambridge › $10 › 617.876.0860 or zeitgeist-outpost.org JENNIFER HICKS › 10:30 pm › Plough & Stars, 912 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.576.0032 or ploughandstars.com JUGGHEAD + BYRNE’S BIG SUIT + DJ SKITZ › 10 pm › Tommy Doyle’s at Harvard, 96 Winthrop St, Cambridge › $5 › 617.864.0655 or tommydoyles.com LOUNGE CHAIR ALL-STARS + MY NEW DISASTER + DEMONS ALLEY › 9 pm › Ralph’s Diner, 148 Grove St, Worcester › 508.753.9543 MEG HUTCHINSON › 7 pm › Oberon, 2 Arrow St, Cambridge › $15-$35 › 866.811.4111 or cluboberon.com THE SOUL DRIVERS › 9 pm › Cantab Lounge, 738 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.354.2685 or cantab-lounge.com RADIOACTIVE RUSTLERS › 6 pm › Sally O’Brien’s, 335 Somerville Ave, Somerville › 617.666.3589 or sallyobriensbar. com/frameset.htm THE RAFT + SWIFT TECHNIQUE › 10 pm › Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center St, Northampton › $10-$13 › 413.586.8686 or iheg.com/iron_horse_main.asp RAZORMAZE + HUMUNGUS + LED TO THE GRAVE + MISTRESS › 8 pm › O’Brien’s, 3 Harvard Ave, Allston › $7 › 617.782.6245 or obrienspubboston.com RYAN MONTBLEAU BAND + MIKE DOUGHTY › 9 pm › Paradise Rock
Club, 967 Comm Ave, Boston › $20-$25 › 617.562.8800 or ticketmaster.com SAM CHASE BAND › 10 pm › Toad, 1920 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.4950 or toadcambridge.com THE SIFT + THE AMERICAN SYMPHONY OF SOUL + THE CASUAL › 9 pm › Cantab Lounge Downstairs, 738 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $8 › 617.354.2685 or cantab-lounge.com “THE CALLING ALL CROWS 5TH ANNUAL BENEFIT” › With Chadwick Stokes & Friends › 7 pm › The Sinclair, 52 Church St, Cambridge › $25 › 617.451.7700 or ticketmaster.com “THE FORCE 4TH ANNUAL CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR” › With Ichabod + The Force + Das Muerte + Mammathor + Frostbite › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $10 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com “‘THE SILENCE OF THE SCRAMS’ MIXTAPE RELEASE PARTY” › With Outland Camp + Weird Die Young + Zombie Death Squad + Wayne da Payne + Hostile Figures + Funny People Makin’ Funna People + DJ Turnament › 8 pm › Palladium Upstairs, 261 Main St, Worcester › $10-$12 › 978.797.9696 or tickets.com/venue_info. cgi?vid=3802 TOKYO TRAMPS › 10 pm › Howling Wolf Taqueria, 76 Lafayette St, Salem › 978.744.9653 or feedyourwolf.com TONI LYNN WASHINGTON › 10 pm › Beehive, 541 Tremont St, Boston › 617.423.0069 or beehiveboston.com VANDAVEER + PATRICK COMAN & THE LO-FI ANGELS › 7:30 pm › Johnny D’s, 17 Holland St, Somerville › $10 › 617.776.2004 or johnnyds.com WINTERBLOOM › 7 pm › Oberon, 2 Arrow St, Cambridge › $25-$35 › 866.811.4111 or cluboberon.com
SATURDAY 15
“AARDVARK JAZZ 40TH ANNUAL CHRISTMAS CONCERT” › 8 pm › Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St, Boston › $15 › 617.536.3356 “A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS” › With the Heather Pierson Quartet › 7 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 AJDA THE TURKISH QUEEN › 9:30 pm
472-480 MASSACHUSETTS AVE CENTRAL SQ., CAMBRIDGE (617) 864-EAST
mideastclub.com | zuzubar.com ticketweb.com
by William Shakespeare directed by Robert Wals h**
Dec. 12 – Jan. 6, 2013 Davis Square Theatre Somerville
** This director is a memb er of the stage directors and choreograph a national theatrical labor ers society, union
DOWNSTAIRS
THURS 12/13 LEEDZ / CRUSH BOSTON PRESENTS: ARAABMUZIK FRI 12/14 ROGUE PRESENTS: DEAR LEADER TED BILLINGS (OF AGE RINGS, CD REL), THE BEATINGS SAT 12/15 - 7PM DOORS FIGHTING FRIDAY, CRAVING LUCY, SILENT SEASON, FAULTLINE, A SIMPLE COMPLEX
866-811-4111 or actorsshakespearep roject
.org
SUN 12/16 - NOON ALL AGES HARRY AND THE POTTERS 8TH ANNUAL YULE BALL, POTTER PUPPET PALS THURS 12/20 - 7PM BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY! MATH THE BAND, AND MORE ALL AGES
UPSTAIRS THURS 12/13/12 LT LIVE PRESENTS: FRIENDLY PEOPLE BEAR LANGUAGE, WE AVALANCHE FRI 12/14/12 THE FORCE (X-MAS SHOW) ICHABOD, FROSTBITE SAT 12/15 ALL AGES 1PM AVIATIONS SAT 12/15 LEEDZ EDUTAINMENT PRESENTS: RISE AND GRIND TOUR J-LIVE, MC KABIR SUN 12/16 THE DRUNK NUNS (ALBUM RELEASE) SALITA, THE FAKE BOYS, HOOKERCLOPS MON 12/17 MAGIC MAGIC CREATUROS, HALLELUJAH THE HILLS TUES 12/18 DREAMTIGERS READY, STEADY... TORPEDO! WED 12/19 SINS OF THE LOOSE BUTTONS THE INDECENT THURS 12/20 THE JAUNTEE MANGO BOBSLED, THE SOUL PANACEA, MOXA /mideastclub /zuzubar @mideastclub @zuzubar
You maY know SaV-moR fRom ouR famouS SignS... HeRe’S wHat You maY not know: • We carry 600+ types of craft beer • Wines from around the world • Massive selection of craft spirits • Plus kosher, organic, sulfite-free and celiac-friendly beverages All at the very best prices! Cambridge | Medford | Somerville and “Locke Liquors”in Malden www.facebook.com/savmorspirits @SavMorSpirits www.savmorspirits.com THEPHOENIX.cOm/EvENTs :: 12.14.12 71
Arts & Nightlife :: music << live music from p 71
CRAVING LUCY + SILENT SEASON + FAULTLINE + A SIMPLE COMPLEX › 7 pm › Middle East Downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $10 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com DALA › 8 pm › Center for Arts In Natick, 14 Summer St, Natick › $18-$20 › 508.647.0097 or natickarts.org DAN FOX BAND › 9 pm › Ryles, 212 Hampshire St, Cambridge › $10 › 617.876.9330 or rylesjazz.com DAR WILLIAMS + MIKE + RUTHY › 7 pm › Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center St, Northampton › $30-$35 › 413.586.8686 or iheg.com/iron_horse_main.asp DIANE BLUE › 9 pm › Cantab Lounge, 738 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.354.2685 or
cantab-lounge.com ELEANOR KAUFMAN › 10 pm › Plough & Stars, 912 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.576.0032 or ploughandstars.com ELEPHANTS + JAKE MCKELVIE & THE COUNTER TOPS + FOUR POINT RESTRAINTS + THE WOODROW WILSONS › 8 pm › Midway Café, 3496 Washington St, Jamaica Plain › 877.282.2182 or midwaycafe.com ELLEN BAND + JEREMY FLOWER + GRAU GARTEN + ANDREW NEUMANN + BOLT › 8 pm › Third Life Studio, 33 Union Sq., Somerville › Donations › 617.817.5625 or genevievedance.com/thirdlife.html GEORGIA ENGLISH + BANE AND DOE + ARIELLE VAKNI + HEAD
DOWN + MILLER’S ENGLISH + DJ DANNY SATORI › 6:30 pm › All Asia, 334 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.1544 or allasiabar.com GOLD BLOOD & ASSOCIATES + STRANGE CHANGES + ELLIS ASHBROOK + PEOPLE WITH INSTRUMENTS › Precinct, 70 Union Sq, Somerville › 617.623.9211 or precinctbar.com “HURRICANE SANDY FUNDRAISER” › With Morgan Knockers + Live Fast Die Fast + Energy + The Old Edison + Mark Lind › 4 pm › Midway Café, 3496 Washington St, Jamaica Plain › 617.524.9038 or midwaycafe.com “THE LIGHTS OUT HOLIDAY SHOW” › 8 pm › Radio Upstairs, 379 Somerville
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• DEAR LEADER 14 + TED BILLINGS Aaron Perrino’s indie-rock crew headline tonight’s Boston-flavored bill in the big room downstairs, but it’s the release of Ted Billings’s new solo record that has our attention. The former Age Rings frontman is channeling Arcade Fire on his new track, “House of Fire,” which is getting love on WFNX’s Boston Accents. • BOSTON BAND CRUSH HOLIDAY SPECTACULAR One of the finest music blogs in Boston stacks the deck with holiday cheer and fills the halls with sounds of the city for their eclectic Holiday Spectacular starring Freezepop, Sidewalk Driver, the Field Effect, and Emily Peal and the Band of Skinny Men. Look for Sidewalk Driver’s glam-kissed frontman Tad McKitterick to steal the show, as usual. Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston :: 9 pm :: $12 :: ticketmaster.com FRI
eItHer / OrCHeStra
PlayS tHe MuSIC Of JOHN tCHICaI (9:30PM) raNDI’S HOlIDay / bIrtHDay baSH PerfOrMING: DIrty truCkerS JOHN POwHIDa, MarC PINaNSky, aNDrea GIllIS & MaNy MOre! SaturDay, DeC 22(4PM) StuDeNt SHOwCaSe
real SCHOOl Of MuSIC (9:30PM) r&b / rOCk’ N rOll
fuNky wHIte HONkIeS COMING SOON: 12/26 HellO eCHO 12/27 PeaCH eaterS / Delta GeNeratOrS 12/28 POwer Of lOve 12/29 (7PM) MIeka Pauley (10PM) SOutHerN luSt Club 12/31 bOOty vOrtex 1/3 JOe fletCHer / NIkkI laNe 1/4 aMy blaCk 1/5 lutHer JOHNSON 1/13 freakwater
www.johnnyds.com Info: 617-776-2004 concert LIne: 617-776-9667 johnny d’s 17 hoLLand st davIs square somervILLe. ma 02144 72 12.14.12 :: THEPHOENIX.cOm/EvENTs
13
• THE LIGHTs OUT HOLIDAY SHOW Boston rock veterans the Lights Out need two nights to stuff all of this awesome into our aural stockings, enlisting indie-pop stalwarts the Fatal Flaw, the Luxury, and Hey Now Morris Fader for night one, then rolling harder rocks with Planetoid, Dead Cats Dead Rats, and BrownBoot on Saturday. The Lights Out promise different sets each night and maybe a Queen track or two thrown in for good measure, a leftover from their recent Halloween show. Radio, 381 Somerville Ave, Somerville :: 8 pm :: $10 :: radiobarunion.com FRI
SAT
14 15
• AARDvARK JAZZ ORCHESTRA One of Boston’s musical treasures, the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra celebrates its 40th anniversary Christmas concert with its extremely hip arrangements of traditional fare, jazz classics, and originals. So you can mix your jazz arrangements of Advent hymns with hard-bop genius Duke Pearson, a bit of the Ellington-Strayhorn Nutcracker, two world premieres by AJO leader Mark Harvey, and more. The magnificent orchestra is rounded out by the magisterial singing of Jerry Edwards and gospel-fired vox of Grace Hughes. And proceeds for this year’s edition of the annual charity event go to Community Works. Emmanuel Church, 15 Newbury St, Boston :: 8 pm :; $15 :: 617.776.8778 or aardvarkjazz.com SAT
15
• MMOSS Allston Pudding brings us the Boston release party for MMOSS’s psych-fest of a new record, Only Children. As we wrote a few weeks ago in 17 Staff Spins, the New Hampshire folk crew’s new effort is an “aural mind-melt séance . . . a backyard fire pit of droning ambiance.” They’re joined tonight by Paperhead and Asteroid #4’s M Reverdy Rhodes, who just released a solo record of his own, Azaleas & Blackberries. Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston :: 9 pm :: $8 :: ticketweb.com
MON
ArAAbmuzik photo by AkirA riuz
Le Couturier House of Alterations
luxDeluxe
SuNDay, DeC 16 JaZZ bruNCH 8:30 aM - 2:30 PM OPeN blueS JaM 4:00PM - 7:00 PM
• ARAABMUZIK It’s all about the hands. Abraham Orellana’s dizzying display on stage, creating live dubstep, or ghettotech, or whatever, is mesmerizing — he’s one of the few artists out there who demands you have a full view of him to fully appreciate what he does. The formerly Providence-based master of the MPC is straight-up captivating. Middle East downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge :: 8 pm :: $23 :: ticketweb.com THU
Ave, Somerville › $10 › 617.764.0005 or radiobarunion.com JAMES MASSONE + THE FONTAINE BROTHERS › 8 pm › Café 939, 939 Boylston St, Boston › $10 › 617.747.6038 or ticketmaster.com J-LIVE + MC KABIR + SO SICK + KYLE J + DLUX + EMAYE › 9 pm › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $13 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com JOB FOR A COWBOY + CEPHALIC CARNAGE + I DECLARE WAR + ALLEGAEON + LEGION + A WANTED AWAKENING + SEXCREMENT + THE SUMMONED + CARNIVORA + YOUR PAIN IS ENDEARING + BEGAT THE NEPHILIM › 4 pm › Palladium Upstairs, 261 Main St, Worcester › $13-$15 › 978.797.9696 or tickets.com JOSH LEDERMAN & THE CSARS › 6 pm › Sally O’Brien’s, 335 Somerville Ave, Somerville › 617.666.3589 or sallyobriensbar.com/frameset.htm LIZ MORRISON + JUGGHEAD › 7:30 pm › Toad, 1920 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.4950 or toadcambridge.com MARK ERELLI › 8 pm › Narrows Center For the Arts, 16 Anawan St, Fall River › $22-$25 › 508.324.1926 or narrowscenter. org MARTINA MCBRIDE › 7:30 pm › Lowell Memorial Auditorium, 50 East Merrimack St, Lowell › $61.50-$81.50 › 978.454.2299 or lowellauditorium.com MCALISTER DRIVE › 8:30 pm › Foundry24, 24 Spice St, Charlestown › $28 › foundry24.com MIRI MESIKA › 8 pm › Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass Ave, Boston › 617.266.7455 “OLDJACK HOLIDAY SHOW” WITH GENTLEMAN HALL + OLDJACK + MELLOW BRAVO + PARLOUR BELLS › 8 pm › The Sinclair, 52 Church St, Cambridge › $13-$15 › 617.451.7700 or ticketmaster.com ONE MASTER + NACHZEHRER + HAXEN + LUSTRUM + GRUE › 8 pm › O’Brien’s, 3 Harvard Ave, Allston › $7 › 617.782.6245 or obrienspubboston.com ONE THIN DIME › 9 pm › Sally O’Brien’s, 335 Somerville Ave, Somerville › 617.666.3589 or sallyobriensbar.com/ frameset.htm OTIS GROVE › 11 pm › Middle East Corner, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.864.3278 or ticketweb.com “PRINCE!” › With One Happy Island + New Million Box + The Daily Pravda + John Powhida International Airport + The Cover Up › 9 pm › Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $12 › 617.547.0759 or lizardloungeclub.com RYAN MONTBLEAU BAND + LAKE STREET DIVE › 9 pm › Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm Ave, Boston › $20-$25 › 617.562.8800 or ticketmaster.com “SESSION AMERICANA: YEAR IN REVIEW” › 10 pm › Club Passim, 47 Palmer St, Cambridge › $20-$22 › 617.492.7679 or clubpassim.com SHROUD OF BEREAVEMENT + SONIC PULSE + SEREN › 9 pm › Ralph’s Diner, 148 Grove St, Worcester › 508.753.9543 SKYFOOT › 10 pm › Johnny D’s, 17 Holland St, Somerville › $10 › 617.776.2004 or johnnyds.com SOME LIKE IT HOTT › 10 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 SPEAK! + HOME BODY + STROBE HORSE › 10 pm › Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center St, Northampton › $8-$10 › 413.586.8686 or iheg.com/iron_horse_ main.asp
“THE LIZ BORDON BAND HOLIDAY PARTY” › With The Syphlloids + The Liz Bordon Band + Sugar Coma › 10 pm › Cantab Lounge Downstairs, 738 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $8 › 617.354.2685 or cantablounge.com TOM HAGERTY BAND › 4 pm › Plough & Stars, 912 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.576.0032 or ploughandstars.com TYLER WARD + NAIA KETE › 7 pm › Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave, Allston › $15 › 617.779.0140 or ticketmaster.com
SUNDAY 16
“8TH ANNUAL YULE BALL” › With Harry and the Potters + Potter Puppet Pals + Jason Anderson + The Whomping Willows + The Home Alones › 5 pm › Middle East Downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $18-$20 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com AUDIRE SOUNDTRACK CHOIR › 3 pm › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com BLUE SCHOLARS + BROTHERS FROM ANOTHER › 8 pm › Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm Ave, Boston › $15-$17 › 617.562.8800 or ticketmaster.com BOUBA & SAMBALOLO › 8 pm › Sally O’Brien’s, 335 Somerville Ave, Somerville › 617.666.3589 or sallyobriensbar.com/ frameset.htm “BRIDGING THE MUSIC LOCAL BAND SHOWCASE” › 4 pm › Midway Café, 3496 Washington St, Jamaica Plain › 617.524.9038 or midwaycafe.com “COVER YOUR B.A.L.L.S!” › With Gordo And Friends + Andy Wesby + EricJon + Jon Marco + Shannon Corey + Jared Salvatore › 8 pm › Burren, 247 Elm St, Somerville › 617.776.6896 or burren.com “DREAMERS’ NIGHT” › With Eunjeong Hwang + Jared Henderson + Roberto Giaquinto › 9 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 ERIN HARPE & ROSY + DANIELLE MIRAGLIA + THE DELTA SWINGERS › 8 pm › Johnny D’s, 17 Holland St, Somerville › $10 › 617.776.2004 or johnnyds.com INDIGOSUN › 8 pm › Church of Boston, 69 Kilmarnock St, Boston › $8-$10 › 617.236.7600 or churchofboston.com JEN KEARNEY & THE LOST ONION › 9 pm › Toad, 1920 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.4950 or toadcambridge.com KEVIN HARRIS PROJECT › 7:30 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 “MEMPHIS BOUND FUNDRAISER FOR ERIN HARPE & ROSY” › With Danielle Miraglia + The Delta Swingers › 8 pm › Johnny D’s, 17 Holland St, Somerville
› $10 › 617.776.2004 or johnnyds.com THE NATURAL WONDERS › 5 pm › Plough & Stars, 912 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.576.0032 or ploughandstars.com RAUL MALO + SETH WALKER › 7 pm › Iron Horse Music Hall, 20 Center St, Northampton › $30-$35 › 413.586.8686 or iheg.com/iron_horse_main.asp RICHARD ANDERSSON + GEORGE GARZONE + JERRY BERGONZI + RAKALAM BOB MOSES › 2 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 THE DRUNK NUNS + SALITA + THE FAKE BOYS + HOOKERCLOPS + BREAD LOSERS › 7 pm › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $10 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com SECRET HOUSE OF PANCAKES › 9 pm › All Asia, 334 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.1544 or allasiabar.com “THE POCKETBUSKERS HOLIDAY PARTY” › 8 pm › Outpost 186, 186 1/2 Hampshire St, Cambridge › $10 › 617.876.0860 or zeitgeist-outpost.org TRUSTY SIDE KICK + KANGAROO COURT + DOUG MACDONALD BAND + SATIN KITTENS › 9 pm › T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge › $8 › 617.492.2327 or ticketweb.com “YOUTH BATTLE OF THE BANDS FINAL BATTLE” › 11:30 am › Hard Rock Café, 22-24 Clinton St, Boston › Free › 617.424.7625 or hardrock.com/boston “YULEGRASS” › With Brittany Haas + Lauren Rioux + Tim O’Brien + Scott Law + Corey DiMario › 8 pm › Club Passim, 47 Palmer St, Cambridge › $23-$25 › 617.492.7679 or clubpassim.com
MONDAY 17
ALL OF THE ANIMALS › 9:30 pm › Cantab Lounge, 738 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.354.2685 or cantab-lounge.com CHOOSE TO FIND + OLD SOLDIERS OF THE PRAIRIE + SONIC EXPLORERS › P.A.’s Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave, Somerville › 617.776.1557 THE DAVID GALLAGHER BAND + JESS SAADE › 9 pm › Middle East Corner, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.864.3278 or ticketweb.com IRON HARVEST › 10:30 pm › Plough & Stars, 912 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.576.0032 or ploughandstars.com JERRY BERGONZI GROUP + THE FRINGE › 8 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 JQTRIO › 8 pm › Outpost 186, 186 1/2 Hampshire St, Cambridge › $10 › 617.876.0860 or zeitgeist-outpost.org “JUMP TONE” › With Ssu-Yun Wang › 1 pm › Café 939, 939 Boylston St, Boston › Free › 617.747.6038 or ticketmaster.com/
THE KILLERS + TEGAN & SARA › 7:30 pm › Agganis Arena, 925 Comm Ave, Boston › SOLD OUT › 617.358.7000 or ticketmaster.com MAGIC MAGIC + CREATUROS + 14 FOOT 1 + HALLELUJAH THE HILLS › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $10 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com THE MICHAEL WARREN QUARTET › 8 pm › Beehive, 541 Tremont St, Boston › 617.423.0069 or beehiveboston.com PAPERHEAD + MMOSS + M REVERDY RHODES › 9 pm › Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston › $8 › 617.566.9014 or ticketweb. com POOR EVERYBODY + THE CHARMS + OTP › 8 pm › Charlies Kitchen, 10 Eliot St., Cambridge › $5 › 617.492.9646 or charlieskitchen.com SNEEZE + LUAU + LUBE › 8 pm › O’Brien’s, 3 Harvard Ave, Allston › $5 › 617.782.6245 or obrienspubboston.com THRUST CLUB + ATOMIC SAVANTS + MALIBU GAZE › 10 pm › ZuZu, 474 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.864.3278 or ticketmaster.com/venue/8547
TUESDAY 18
BAGELS THE DOG › 8 pm › Beehive, 541 Tremont St, Boston › 617.423.0069 or beehiveboston.com BRIEF AWAKENING + ALTERNATIVE RIOT + AMBER LADD › 8:40 pm › T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge › $8 › 617.492.2327 or ticketweb.com DIRTY VIRGINS + ABADABAD + KRILL + SLIMERS › 9 pm › Great Scott,
>> live music on p 74
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Please contact Nicole Wade at 617-636-6791 to schedule an appointment Space is limited Tufts University School of Dental Medicine
Is located at 1 Kneeland Street • Boston 02111 THEPHOENIX.cOm/EvENTs :: 12.14.12 73
Arts & Nightlife :: music << live music from p 73
1222 Comm Ave, Allston › $8 › 617.566.9014 or ticketweb.com DREAMTIGERS + READY, STEADY... TORPEDO! + COLIN BUGBEE + SOUND ASSOCIATION › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $8 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com G.C. & THE MIGHTY LONESOME + JUST AIN’T POSSUM › 8:30 pm › Cantab Lounge, 738 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.354.2685 or cantab-lounge.com “JENNIFER KIMBALL’S HARMONIC CELEBRATION OF WINTERY SONGS” › 8 pm › Club Passim, 47 Palmer St, Cambridge › $18-$20 › 617.492.7679 or clubpassim.com
MIRIAM › 7:30 pm › Toad, 1920 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.4950 or toadcambridge.com SESSION AMERICANA › 8 pm › Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $15 for both sets;$5 for later set › 617.547.0759 or lizardloungeclub.com TOM O’CONNOR › 8 pm › O’Brien’s, 3 Harvard Ave, Allston › $7 › 617.782.6245 or obrienspubboston.com TRACK SUIT MAFIA › 8 pm › Church of Boston, 69 Kilmarnock St, Boston › $3 › 617.236.7600 or churchofboston.com WE ARE OCEANS + EMPTY PHRASES + OF THE MONARCHS + RAYMOND MCNAMARA › 8 pm › Midway Café, 3496 Washington
NOTICE OF PETITION FOR APPOINTMENT OF TRUSTEE Docket No SU12P2292EA
Commonwealth of Massachusetts | The Trial Court | Probate and Family Court To all persons interested in the trust estate under the will or a certain instrument dated of the above named decedent of Massachusetts in the County of Suffolk Probate Court for the benefit of
Harry Tiomkin, Sarit T. Benichou
a petition has been presented requesting that: Sarit T. Benichou of Aix en Provence, FR or some other suitable person be appointed trustee of said estate to serve Without Surety Suffolk Probate and Family Court| 24 New Chardon Street | Boston MA 02114 | (617)788-8300 IF YOU DESIRE TO OBJECT THERETO, YOU OR YOUR ATTORNEY MUST FILE A WRITTEN APPEARANCE IN SAID COURT AT BOSTON ON OR BEFORE TEN O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING (10:00AM) ON: 01/03/2013 Witness, Hon. Joan P Armstrong, First Justice of this Court | Sandra Giovannucci, Register of Probate Date: November 28, 2012
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located in WAtertoWn, MA is recruiting for the following conditions: ·COPD ·HYPERLIPIDEMIA ·OCULAR NEUROPATHY ·MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS ·TYPE 2 DIABETES WITH VASCULAR PROBLEMS ·IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME WITH DIARRHEA For details about these studies and compensation, please contact Marina at (617) 393-1929 or email atlanticclinicaltrials@yahoo.com
St, Jamaica Plain › 617.524.9038 or midwaycafe.com
WEDNESDAY 19
AEOLIAN RACE + WHEN THE DEADBOLT BREAKS › 8 pm › O’Brien’s, 3 Harvard Ave, Allston › $6 › 617.782.6245 or obrienspubboston.com BAKER THOMAS BAND › 10 pm › Toad, 1920 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.4950 or toadcambridge.com CHERYL ARENA + ALIZON LISSANCE › 7:30 pm › Smoken’ Joe’s BBQ, 351 Washington St, Brighton › 617. 254.5227 or smokenjoesbbq.com CHURCHILL + COWGILL › 8 pm › T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge › $10 › 617.492.2327 or ticketweb.com DAN BERN + DAN BLAKESLEE › 8 pm › Johnny D’s, 17 Holland St, Somerville › $20 › 617.776.2004 or johnnyds.com DAVE MATTHEWS BAND + THE LUMINEERS › 7 pm › Verizon Wireless Arena, 555 Elm St, Manchester, NH › $65-$75 › 800.745.3000 or verizonwirelessarena.com THE DENNIS BRENNAN BAND + JESSE DEE › 8:30 pm › Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.547.0759 or lizardloungeclub.com FANDANGO › 7 pm › Toad, 1920 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.4950 or toadcambridge.com HARBORLIGHTS + THE FREE HATS + THE SPERM WHALES + MIKE BURKE › 7:30 pm › Church of Boston, 69 Kilmarnock St, Boston › $7 › 617.236.7600 or churchofboston.com “HIRO HONSHUKU’S A-NO-NE CHRISTMAS” › 9 pm › Ryles, 212 Hampshire St, Cambridge › $10 › 617.876.9330 or rylesjazz.com JAMEY JOHNSON › 8 pm › Royale, 279 Tremont St, Boston › $30 › 617.338.7699 or boweryboston.com JEFF FELDER QUARTET › Darryl’s Corner Bar & Kitchen, 604 Columbus Ave, Boston › 617.536.1100 or darrylscornerbarboston.com MATT SAVAGE + THE GILL AHARON TRIO › 8 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 SINS OF THE LOOSE BUTTONS + THE INDECENT + WE ARE OCEANS + PRAY FOR SOUND › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $10 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com SWIFT TECHNIQUE + SARAH FARD › 9:30 pm › Middle East Corner, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › Free › 617.864.3278 or ticketweb.com TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA › 7:30 pm › Dunkin’ Donuts Center, 1 LaSalle
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Sq, Providence, RI › $43.50-$73.50 › 401.331.6700 or ticketmaster.com WE’RE ABOUT 9 › 8 pm › Club Passim, 47 Palmer St, Cambridge › $16-$18 › 617.492.7679 or clubpassim.com
THURSDAY 20
“AINE MINOGUE’S CELTIC MIDWINTER CELEBRATION” › 7:30 pm › Club Passim, 47 Palmer St, Cambridge › $20-$22 › 617.492.7679 or clubpassim.com ALMOST RIGHTEOUS + TIK TOK › 9 pm › Milky Way, at the Brewery, 284 Armory St, Jamaica Plain › $5 › 617.524.3740 or milkywayjp.com BEARSTRONAUT + LETTERDAY › 8 pm › Church of Boston, 69 Kilmarnock St, Boston › $10 › 617.236.7600 or churchofboston.com “BOMB THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!” › With Math the Band + The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die + Sean Eldon & The Greatest Date › 7 pm › Middle East Downstairs, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $10 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com CANCER KILLING GEMINI + DAS MUERTE › Radio Upstairs, 379 Somerville Ave, Somerville › 617.764.0005 or radiobarunion.com DAVES ENERGY GUIDE › Precinct, 70 Union Sq, Somerville › 617.623.9211 or precinctbar.com THE DEEP NORTH + AS THE SPARROW + AJ EDWARDS › 9 pm › T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge › $9 › 617.492.2327 or ticketweb. com HIVESMASHER + VATTNET VISKAR + FAMILY › 9 pm › Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave, Allston › $10 › 617.566.9014 or ticketweb.com THE JAUNTEE + MANGO BOBSLED + THE SOUL PANACEA + MOXA › Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $10 › 617.864.EAST or ticketweb.com KIMON KIRK + DIETRICH STRAUSE + BRIAN WEBB › 9 pm › Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.547.0759 or lizardloungeclub.com KOBIE ALI › 9:30 pm › Middle East Corner, 480 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $5 › 617.864.3278 or ticketweb.com MELVERN TAYLOR & HIS FABULOUS MELTONES › 7:30 pm › Toad, 1920 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.4950 or toadcambridge.com MIKE YARSKY + CHARLOTTE BASH › 8 pm › Cantab Lounge Downstairs, 738 Mass Ave, Cambridge › $6 › 617.354.2685 or cantab-lounge.com PREACHER ROE › 10:30 pm › Plough & Stars, 912 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.576.0032 or ploughandstars.com SERIOUS JACK + TALL BOYS + WE WERE ASTRONAUTS › P.A.’s Lounge, 345 Somerville Ave, Somerville › 617.776.1557 SPIRIT ANIMAL › 6 pm › All Asia, 334 Mass Ave, Cambridge › 617.497.1544 or allasiabar.com STORMIN’ NORMAN AND FRIENDS › 7 pm › Lily Pad, 1353 Cambridge St, Cambridge › 617.497.0823 “THE SUFJAN STEVENS CHRISTMAS SING-A-LONG SEASONAL AFFECTIVE DISORDER YULETIDE DISASTER PAGEANT ON ICE” › Sufjan Stevens + Sheila Saputo › 7 pm › Royale, 279 Tremont St, Boston › SOLD OUT › 617.338.7699 or boweryboston.com TAMMY LYNN & MYLES HIGH › 8 pm › Midway Café, 3496 Washington St, Jamaica Plain › 617.524.9038 or midwaycafe.com
Arts & Nightlife :: Clubs THURSDAY 13
BOND › Boston › 9 pm › “Taste Thursdays” CURE LOUNGE › Boston › 10 pm › “Cure Thursdays” DISTRICT › Boston › “In Thursdays” EMERALD LOUNGE AT REVERE HOTEL › Boston › 9 pm › “Top 40s & House” ESTATE › Boston › 10 pm › “Glamlife Thursdays” with Chris Harris + Rafael Sanchez GOOD LIFE › Boston › 9:30 pm › “Velvet” with DJ Thami Mattola + DJ Sture JACQUE’S CABARET › Boston › 10:30 pm › “Jacque’s Cabaret” with Kris Knievil M BAR & LOUNGE › Boston › 9 pm › “Lotus Thursdays” MIDDLESEX LOUNGE › Cambridge › “Make It New” with Ben UFO + B-Tracks + General Motor MIDWAY CAFÉ › Jamaica Plain 8 pm › DJ Hogtrophonic › 10:30 pm › “Women’s Dance Night” with DJ Summer’s Eve › NAGA › Cambridge › “Verve Thursdays” OM RESTAURANT & LOUNGE › Cambridge › 10:30 pm › “Late Night Lounge” with DJ Pensive PHOENIX LANDING › Cambridge › “Elements” with Crook & Lenore RAMROD › Boston › 10 pm › “Trainwreck Thursdays” with DJ Brian Derrick ZUZU › Cambridge › 10:30 pm › Big Digits presents “B.O.S.S.- Dance Jam Party”
FRIDAY 14
BIJOU NIGHTCLUB & LOUNGE › Boston › 10:30 pm › Funkagenda BOND › Boston › 10 pm › “Play Fridays” COMMON GROUND › Allston › “90s Night” CURE LOUNGE › Boston › 10 pm › “VIP Fridays” with DJ Eric Velez DISTRICT › Boston › “Latin Fridays” EMERALD LOUNGE AT REVERE HOTEL › Boston › 9 pm › “Top 40s & House” ESTATE › Boston › Triarchy GREAT SCOTT › Allston › 10 pm › “The Pill” with DJ Ken + DJ Michael V MIDDLESEX LOUNGE › Cambridge › DJ Frank White NORTHERN NIGHTS › Lynn › 8 pm › “Madonna Fridays” with DJ Jay Ine OM RESTAURANT & LOUNGE › Cambridge › 10:30 pm › “Pachanga Night” PHOENIX LANDING › Cambridge › “PYT” with DJ Vinny PRECINCT › Somerville › “Oh Snap! 80’s 90’s DJ Dance Party!” PRIME › Boston › 10 pm › “VIP Fridays” RISE › Boston › 9 pm › “Wonderland” with Damien Paul + JK THE DJ + Mike Sweels › 1 am › Joe Bermudez + Kia Mazzi + Chadley + Coralcola
TUESDAY 18
fridAy
ALL ASIA › Cambridge › 9 pm › “Scooby Snacks Psych Night” DARRYL’S CORNER BAR & KITCHEN › Boston › DJ Sham EMERALD LOUNGE AT REVERE HOTEL › Boston › 6 pm › “Wicked New Music” MACHINE › Boston › 9 pm › “Psyclone Tuesdays” with Stevie Psyclone MIDDLESEX LOUNGE › Cambridge › “DISCOnnection” NAGA › Cambridge › “Fiesta Tuesdays” PHOENIX LANDING › Cambridge › “Elecsonic” RAMROD › Boston › 10 pm › “Punk Night” ZUZU › Cambridge › 10 pm › “Zuesday Dance Party” with DJ Leah V + Black Adonis + Swelta
WEDNESDAY 19
Triarchy spin at Estate. ROYALE › Boston › 10 pm › “Full On Fridays” SPLASH ULTRA LOUNGE & BURGER BAR › Boston › 10 pm › “Privilege Fridays” with DJ Asho + DJ Nico TOMMY DOYLE’S AT HARVARD › Cambridge › midnight › DJ Skitz T.T. THE BEAR’S PLACE › Cambridge › 9 pm › “Xmortis” with DJ Chris Ewen ZUZU › Cambridge › 11 pm › “Solid!” with DJ Durkin
SATURDAY 15
BOND › Boston › 10 pm › “Flaunt Saturdays” COMMON GROUND › Allston › “Millenium Night” DISTRICT › Boston › 10 pm › “Clique Saturdays” EMERALD LOUNGE AT REVERE HOTEL › Boston › 9 pm › “Top 40s & House” ESTATE › Boston › “DJ Costa’s House Party” GOOD LIFE › Boston › 9:30 pm › “Fresh Produce” with DJ Low Budget MIDDLESEX LOUNGE › Cambridge › Caserta MILKY WAY › Jamaica Plain › 10 pm › “Mango’s Latin Saturdays” with Lee Wilson
more Clubs and Comedy at thephoenix.Com/events
COMEDY Lisa Lampanelli is at the MGM Grand at Foxwoods on December 15.
For tons more to do, point your phone to m.thePhoenix.com
NAGA › Cambridge › “Chemistry Saturdays” with DJ Mozes + DJ D Say + Miss Jade OM RESTAURANT & LOUNGE › Cambridge › 10:30 pm › “Saturdays @ Om” with DJ Lady Spindrift PHOENIX LANDING › Cambridge › “Boom Boom Room” with DJ Vinny RAMROD › Boston › 10 pm › “Revolution Saturdays” RISE › Boston › 1 am › Erphun + Subfractal + Juan D + John Bruno + Juan Jara + Axel ROYALE › Boston › 10 pm › “Saturdays at Royale” SPLASH ULTRA LOUNGE & BURGER BAR › Boston › 10 pm › “Sold Out Saturdays” with DJ Bamboora T.T. THE BEAR’S PLACE › Cambridge › 10 pm › “Heroes” with DJ Chris Ewen ZUZU › Cambridge › 11 pm › “Soulelujah” with PJ Gray
SUNDAY 16
COMMON GROUND › Allston › 9:30 pm › “Country Night” EMERALD LOUNGE AT REVERE HOTEL › Boston › 9 pm › “Svedka Sundays: Industry Night” PHOENIX LANDING › Cambridge › “The Drop” RAMROD › Boston › 10 pm › “The Den” ZUZU › Cambridge › 10 pm › ‘All You Can Eat Dance Party Jam Buffet” with DJ Paul Foley
MONDAY 17
AN TUA NUA › Boston › 9 pm › “Ceremony- Goth Night” CHURCH OF BOSTON › Boston › 8 pm › “Motivate Mondays” with Mark Merren MIDWAY CAFÉ › Jamaica Plain › 9 pm › “Rebirth of the Cool” with DJ Mike Chris NAGA › Cambridge › “Industry Mondays” with DJ D Say + DJ Mozes PHOENIX LANDING › Cambridge › “Makka Monday” with Voyager 01 + DJ Uppercut RIVER GODS › Cambridge › 8 pm › “Weekly Wax”
COMMON GROUND › Allston › 10:30 pm › “Reggae Night” DISTRICT › Boston › “Classic Wednesdays” with DJ Tanno EMERALD LOUNGE AT REVERE HOTEL › Boston › 8 pm › “Mondo Wednesdays” with DJ Kon + Whiskey Barons MIDWAY CAFÉ › Jamaica Plain › 9 pm › “Dancehall Lounge” with Jagga Movements Intl. + StarTym + Mark Merren PHOENIX LANDING › Cambridge › “Re:Set” with DJ Bamboozle ROYALE › Boston › 8 pm › Jamey Johnson RYLES › Cambridge › “Wild Honey” SPLASH ULTRA LOUNGE & BURGER BAR › Boston › 10 pm › “EDM Wednesdays” WITH DJ Bamboora STORYVILLE › Boston › 9 pm › “MySecretBoston presents Dub Apocalypse” ZUZU › Cambridge › 10 pm › “Penguin Club” with DJ Infinite Jeff
THURSDAY 20
BOND › Boston › 9 pm › “Taste Thursdays” CURE LOUNGE › Boston › 10 pm › “Cure Thursdays” DISTRICT › Boston › “In Thursdays” EMERALD LOUNGE AT REVERE HOTEL › Boston › 9 pm › “Top 40s & House” ESTATE › Boston › 10 pm › “Glamlife Thursdays” with Chris Harris + Rafael Sanchez GOOD LIFE › Boston › 9:30 pm › “Nightwave Session 2” with Kerry Leva + D-Lux + Dusty Digital + Jaminic JACQUE’S CABARET › Boston › 10:30 pm › “Jacque’s Cabaret” with Kris Knievil M BAR & LOUNGE › Boston › 9 pm › “Lotus Thursdays” MIDDLESEX LOUNGE › Cambridge › DJ Coralcola + Alan Manzi + Baltimoroder + John Barera MIDWAY CAFÉ › Jamaica Plain › 10:30 pm › “Women’s Dance Night” with DJ Summer’s Eve NAGA › Cambridge › “Verve Thursdays” OM RESTAURANT & LOUNGE › Cambridge › 10:30 pm › “Late Night Lounge” with DJ Pensive PHOENIX LANDING › Cambridge › “Elements” with Crook & Lenore RAMROD › Boston › 10 pm › “Trainwreck Thursdays” with DJ Brian Derrick ZUZU › Cambridge › 10:30 pm › “Rude Sounds” with Selector Nathan + DJ Dandy Dan THEPHOENIX.cOm/EvENTs :: 12.14.12 75
arts & nightlife :: parties
GET SEEN » » At the Boston Music Awards at the Liberty Hotel
Music and fashion have long been inextricably linked. And the Boston scene is no exception. The 25th annual Boston Music Awards were a celebration of that intersection of music and style, with five floors of performances, drinks, and creative expression. Here, the fashion statements came through as loud and clear as the songs.
Top: Dan Peraino; Sarah Baker and Carmen Correia; Tad McKitterick clockwise from left: Nicole Nelson; Allison Bailey and Kristie Chirgwin; Albana Ze and Sandy Poirier
More s! parthioeenix. At theP ties. r com/PA ut o see you t h e r e!
AAron “Mr. CAMpbell” CAMpbell MusiCiAn
From the ground up, he wore leopard loafers from Thom Brown, black Levi’s, a thrifted blazer (from a $15 three-piece suit), and a custom studded-collar shirt from Asha Isabella. Like iconic artists from early hip-hop’s heyday, Mr. Campbell is all about statement jewelry. And there’s a lot of sentimental value to his everyday essentials: a ring from his grandmother and one from a close friend, plus a necklace and a bracelet the Urban Nerdz designed with local line Ari by Aryana. His gold grill makes appearances at special occasions only (the BMAs qualify, of course). _Eri N Souza- rEzENd ES
76 12.14.12 :: Thephoenix.com/parTies
PHOTOS BY NATASHA MOUSTACHE
“I’m inspired by old-school style: early hip-hop and jazz,” says Aaron, one-half of hip-hop duo the Urban Nerdz.
sing your heart out tonight
with Coors Light at: The Hong Kong features KARAOKE Seven Nights Per Week!!
Plus Ice cold 16oz coors lIght drafts for only $1.75!! Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t miss the fun!!
The Hong Kong at Faneuil Hall ~ 65 Chatham Street, Boston 617.227.2226 ~ www.hongkongboston.com
Arts & Nightlife :: bAck tAlk Th Cen e ParkTral Read Five G
Do you remember how you responded to this eRa PeaR y’s R ld story when it first came on Pa eview Ge 63 out? I was working on The Civil War at the time, and I felt outraged and thought, what is this city coming to? Like everyone, I bought the police story that these five kids were guilty. It wasn’t hard to convince people at the time, because the city was rife with crime and racial tension and fear. But I also remember being outraged later, in 2002, when the truth came out and the five were exonerated and that got almost no coverage at all. Do you think the media bears some responsibility for this miscarriage of justice? They depicted them as monsters, using terms from the days of Jim Crow and the lynch mobs like “wolf pack” and “black beast.” That included liberal writers like Pete Hamill and Rob Herbert, who is black; they wrote terrible things. And then Pat Buchanan said that they should take the oldest of the five and hang him in Central Park in front of the other four to teach them a lesson.
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any recall the “wilding” incident in 1989, in which five non-white teenagers were convicted of raping and nearly killing a woman jogging in Central Park. But few paid attention when they were found innocent in 2002. Sarah Burns, daughter of documentarian Ken Burns, learned about the injustice while an intern for the firm filing a suit for the five against the NYPD. She brought the idea to her dad, and the two, along with Sarah’s husband, David McMahon, tell the story in The Central Park Five. It’s a departure for Burns: instead of recording history, he’s trying to change it.
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“There are instances where society deems someone an ‘other’ and treats them as such.”
This is different from your previous films, a little like Errol Morris’s The Thin Blue Line. I’m a great admirer of Errol Morris, but I can’t say I was influenced by his film. Some of the techniques are similar, like the rapid editing. It’s shorter than my other films, and there are no voiceover narrators. On the other hand, I didn’t do the recreations. Still, this is the most journalistic of my films. Just the facts and no commentary. Do you think that, like The Thin Blue Line, this film might help bring justice, forcing the NYPD to concede their mistake? From your lips to God’s ear. How about an Oscar? [Laughs.] From your lips to God’s ear. P
PHOtO: rEUtErs
History lesson
In the same issue as your interview we are also running a profile of Damien Echols. What are the similarities and differences between this case and that of the West Memphis Three? Basically both are instances where society deems someone an “other” and treats them as such, contrary to the actual facts of the case. And you can also compare the Central Park Five to the Duke University lacrosse players, three rich white boys who were mildly inconvenienced by rape charges that proved to be false. In no time the prosecutor of that case was fired, disbarred, and put in jail, and the three ended up getting a huge settlement.
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