Worcester Magazine May 20 - 26, 2021 by Worcester Magazine

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Ryleigh Modig discusses her time on

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IN THIS ISSUE

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Featured ..............................................................................4 City Voices ........................................................................10 Cover Story.......................................................................13 Artist Spotlight................................................................17 Next Draft .........................................................................19 Screen Time .....................................................................24 Adoption Option.............................................................28 Classiﬁ eds ........................................................................29 Games................................................................................30 Last Call .............................................................................31

On the cover Ryleigh Modig discusses her time on “The Voice.” (Page 13) PHOTO BY TAJONN NICKELSON

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Worcester church organist Wesley Hall ﬁ nds unlikely TikTok fame Richard Duckett Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

“It’s time to go inside a pipe organ,” says Wesley Hall in one of his TikTok videos. What’s inside might be quite a revelation for many viewers over the next 60 seconds. While you may see the console, keyboards, pedals and some pipes sitting in the audience, opening an organ up reveals another world. As Hall shows, you can actually step inside and then descend. “Pipes, ladders, winding systems, random crap, here are my car keys inside a pipe.” Descending farther, “electric stuff , more pipes …” says Hall, or @westpiper, to give him his proper TikTok handle. There’s an invitation to follow him back up the ladder, and keep following. Which is what thousands of people have been doing since Hall, minister of music and the arts at First Baptist Church of Worcester, 111 Park Ave., started posting videos on TikTok last year mostly featuring diff erent aspects of the pipe organ. As an organist and keyboardist, Hall, who grew up in East Brookfi eld and Spencer, has given solo concerts throughout the United States and Europe. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, and holds an artist diploma and a master’s degree in historical performance from the Oberlin Conservatory. But with all that work, performance and concertizing over the years, nothing has reached people quite like one of his TikTok videos, Hall said. That they are not only necessarily brisk at the TikTok max of 60 seconds but also delivered with a sense of humor doesn’t hurt viewership. One video has had more than 340,000 views so far, Hall said.

Organist Wesley Hall inside the the pipe organ at First Baptist Church. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

“This is new ground for me. One particular day I made a video, went out on some errands, and there were 30,000 views in that short a time.” A video showing the basics of an organ consul such as what the stops actually are attracted 100,000 views, also in a short period.

“I had been able to show more people what I do in one afternoon than I had my entire life, and it really took my breath away,” Hall said. TikTok has become very popular worldwide since the video-sharing social networking service debuted in 2016. The platform sees thousands of people

making a variety of short-form videos from 15 seconds to one minute, the most time currently allowed. Hall went to Lübeck, Germany, in January 2020 for some further organ studies. He was following in the footsteps of See ORGANIST, Page 5D

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Organist none other than J.S. Bach who traveled there (on foot) in order to study the art and craft of Lübeck’s famous organist, Dietrich Buxtehude. But COVID intervened in the middle of Hall’s stay, and he found himself stuck in Lübeck for longer than expected. The music school in Lübeck is just a block from the other side of the church where Bach stayed, Hall said. “It was a bit tricky, but I used the time that I had and enjoyed it as much as I could.” Lübeck is also the home of marzipan, he noted. But with some time to spare in lockdown, Hall started to try his hand at TikTok . “At ﬁ rst I thought it was a silly thing … (Then) I started to learn things and be inspired.” He made a video of himself making coﬀ ee, adding cream and taking a sip to the sound of the “Hallelujah Chorus.” “It was a bit of fun.” And as he says on TikTok, “I’m an or-

Organist Wesley Hall has found an unlikely fame on TikTok. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

ganist who plays fun stuﬀ .” He began explaining facets of the pipe organ in his videos, and “people started

asking questions. I started to discover that the pipe organ is as interesting as I thought.” To put it another way, “Other

people are as nerdy as I am,” Hall said. “You take things for granted, but the things other people see become intensely fascinating. I would start making videos that address that.” When videos were amassing 200,000, “I realized there was something to that.” Right now Hall has about 14,000 to 15,000 TikTok followers. The algorithms put the video creator in touch with people who might be interested in the subject matter right away, he said. Hall’s met up with some people on TikTok who he also follows, including a harpist who plays requests. “She played a transcript on harp, I did organ. It was a delightful duet. This becomes this fun collaboration with a great sense of immediacy.” Another TikTok friend is RevBethany (Pastor for Youth and Mission at First Presbyterian of Birmingham, Michigan), who is committed to helping people in the LGBTQ community reconnect to See ORGANIST, Page 9D

HERE’S TO YOU To the 508. The City of Seven Hills. Wormtown. The Woo. Here’s To The Heart of the Commonwealth. To your grit and determination. Your pride and belief. And to a tradition of hard work. Here’s to a storied city. A storied franchise. And to paving the road ahead. Here’s to you, Worcester. Tomorrow starts today.

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Framingham chef Saba Wahid is now a ‘Chopped’ grand champion Lauren Young The Milford Daily News USA TODAY NETWORK

FRAMINGHAM – When Ted Allen, the host of the Food Network show “Chopped,” lifted the lid off a silver cloche to reveal a puff pastry on the chopping block, Saba Wahid felt like time stood still. The moment she saw that it wasn’t the pastry she’d made, she realized she had won the title of Chopped Grand Champion and the grand prize of $50,000 on the popular competitive cooking show. “I was thinking, ‘Holy cow, I won?’ I was still processing it,” she said about her May 11 win on national television. She suppressed her excitement as the judges talked to runner-up Jennifer Normant, a chef from Newburyport, about why she lost. “The feeling at that moment was like I was on another planet,” said Wahid. “I genuinely felt bad when (Normant) got chopped, but I was so glad I had won. But it’s very confl icting because you both worked so hard to be there and it was a ‘splitting hairs’ decision. It really came down to a tiny detail, and that’s the judges’ call to make.” And at the end of Tuesday’s fi nale, it was Saba’s name Tim Allen called to take the grand title and prize home to her hometown of Framingham. Fifteen other chefs across New England competed on Food Network’s “Chopped: Martha Rules” alongside Wahid, and she personally beat seven of them over the span of two episodes, the fi rst one airing on May 4. Filmed in Kennebunkport, Maine, with Martha Stewart as one of the judges calling the

Framingham native Saba Wahid, a chef at Yale Appliance, talks about her recent appearance on the Food Network’s “Chopped.” Wahid competed on the “Martha Rules” segment. KEN MCGAGH/DAILY NEWS AND WICKED LOCAL

shots, her accomplishment still feels surreal, said the 1998 Framingham High School grad. In the May 4 episode, Wahid beat out the other contestants with her peekytoe crab cakes with pea tendril and spinach salad; spice-crusted ﬂ ounder with heirloom tomato salsa; and carrot ice cream cake with matcha-mascarpone cream. In the last round, she went headto-head against a ﬁ fth competitor Martha Stewart introduced to the competition – Julia Cutting, a chef from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and a runnerup from a previous episode. But ultimately, Wahid came out on top.

“This was probably your best dish today, in my mind,” said judge Marc Murphy about Saba’s last dish. When judge Marcus Samuelson called it a “$50,000 dessert,” Martha Stewart agreed. “I would make that cake, because it was light, airy, well-ﬂ avored and beautifully spiced,” Stewart said.

The twist: Ravenclaw and Thea During Tuesday’s ﬁ nale, Wahid once again swept the competition, but faced a daunting task in the ﬁ nal dessert round. After opening her bas-

ket to reveal three ingredients — a giant whoopie pie, a melon and pork and liver terrine — Wahid and Normant wondered where the fourth ingredient was. That’s when Martha Stewart announced the fourth ingredient would need to come from Ravenclaw and Thea — two cows the contestants had to milk themselves. “I never in a million years expected a twist like this,” said Wahid in a cutaway scene after the reveal. Still, Wahid’s whoopie pie and bacon fritter with fresh milk crémeux with raspberry and melon divergent sauce beat out Normant’s bacon co-

conut almond tart with a melon cream sauce. After Tuesday’s fi nale aired, the Daily News asked Wahid a few questions about her experiences on the show and what’s next on her plate. Q: Now that you’re a “Chopped” champion, do you feel you’re closer toward your longtime goal to open your own restaurant? A: “It’s defi nitely getting me one step closer — $50,000 is defi nitely a good start, and I’m in the process of using this opportunity as leverage to potentially gain some further investment from people that genuinely believe in my skills and talent.” Q: What was the most memorable part of competing on the show for you? A: “I guess the experience of competitive cooking was something that had always intimidated and scared me for a very long time and it’s mainly because I’m actually a very anxious and cautious person so I didn’t think it would work out. I worry and get in my head so I thought that would work against me in a competitive cooking environment. But I think I did enough practice training and watched enough (’Chopped’) episodes that I felt I was in the right headspace for it — it was a huge challenge to overcome. I was also proving something to myself, because there’s always those questions of, ‘Did I pick the right career? Am I doing the most with what I’m able to do?’ This was validation for that.” Q: What was the most nerve-wracking round for you? A: “It was probably in the fi rst round where we had to forSee CHEF, Page 7D

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Chef Continued from Page 6D

age for our own vegetables and we didn’t get any extra time to cook, so at that end of that I was basically shaking because I felt like there was so much pressure to create something incredible — the pressure was defi nitely on. I felt like I did a lot but at the end I thought, ‘Oh my God, why did I do a salad?’ I had to make a quick game-time decision, because after foraging for kale and then having to wash it before you can start cooking it — that was a lot of time. I just had to make a gametime decision, and I knew I could make that work in that time frame.” Q: What was your favorite round? A: “Defi nitely the entrée round (in the fi nal episode, where she made a spiced and butter-basted lobster with spicy red lentils and a warm corn succotash). First of all, lobster is one of my favorite proteins in the world, and I was able to incorporate my personal style into the dish using a lentil recipe that my mom taught me. I recreated it into a puree with corn but used the same fl avor profi les that pay homage to my roots, while still being refi ned and elegant.” Q: What was the weirdest ingredient you had to use? The fl ounder was defi nitely interesting — that looked diffi cult to cut. A: “The fl ounder was the most challenging, but the red snapper hot dog was pretty weird. It’s very rubbery but fi shy — it has a strange texture. It’s similar to surimi, which can be found in California rolls, but it’s more rubbery. The matcha terrarium and the liver was also weird — that wasn’t something you’d normally cook together.” Q: What was the best comment you received from one of the judges on the show? A: “When Martha Stewart said, ‘You’re elegant, you’re eloquent, and a damn good chef.’

That was absolutely amazing. At fi rst, I didn’t hear the last part, so when I re-watched (the fi nal episode), I was like, ‘No way did that actually happen!’” Q: Are you getting that quote hung up in your kitchen somewhere? A: “I’m sure we’ll fi gure out some way to memorialize those words for years to come.”

‘It was a small sacrifi ce to make for a huge career milestone’ While cameras were always running, there were a few parts that didn’t make it to air, which included Wahid’s knee ending up in cow dung and both her and Normant’s buckets of milk being knocked over by cows startled by running cameramen. It also left out the most emotional moment for her. After time was called to wrap up the last round before the winner was announced, Wahid said she stepped off to the side and burst into tears. “There was just such a sense of relief there,” she said. “I was very happy the whole thing was over. It had been two days in a row of intensity and I just missed my baby so much. I had been away from her for almost a week and I just genuinely missed her — I just wanted to see my baby, but it was a small sacrifi ce to make for a huge career milestone.” The weekend she reunited with her husband, Micéal Duffy, and their 16-month-old daughter, Issa, last September was “the best weekend ever,” she said. Wahid said she plans to continue working at Yale Appliance in Framingham as a resident chef and culinary educator, and would continue to in some capacity if she decides to open her own restaurant down the line. Lauren Young writes about business and pop culture. Reach her at 774-804-1499 or lyoung@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurenwhy__.

Framingham Saba Wahid is the “Chopped” Grand Champion and winner of the $50,000 grand prize. THE FOOD NETWORK

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Encounters with birds and ‘Alpha Birders’ Bob Muldoon Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s spring migration season, and the birds are back in full display. And so too are the birders, especially Alpha Birders, the rarest and showiest of the species. I’m a beta birder. I’ve been birding for 50 years and have painstakingly accumulated a “life list” of 245 species. Alpha Birders turn their noses up at a paltry fi gure like that. They easily see 300 in a year. I stick to Massachusetts — maybe southern New Hampshire. They go to Costa Rica and Panama. A lot. You can spot them coming. Their binoculars are longer than yours (size matters) and camoufl age-green. Mine are black and battered — from boyhood. I carry a Peterson fi eld guide purchased then with one illustration per bird. They carry their encyclopedic knowledge in large, curved, domed foreheads — and occasionally reference their “Sibley,” the au courant guide with 8 lavish illustrations per bird by gender, age, breeding and winter plumages, nest construction, behavior etc. Each page bristles with arrows pointing to various identifi cation markers. They wear vests with many pockets — like an angler. I favor a coff ee-stained sweatshirt. Most wear a Panama hat — or a fl oppy one — for bugs, I think. I swat the bugs away — sometimes with a yelp. They are always imperturbable. But what happens out in the fi eld is what truly marks the Alpha Birder. Just yesterday I encountered one in a state forest. He came on fast. “I’m seeing yellow-rumps,” I off ered proudly, noting the common warblers fl itting overhead in plain sight. “I hear a black-throated blue,” he said, dismissing my observation, edging me aside

A Carolina wren, left, and a woodpecker share a bird feeder as it snows. GENA RIDER

and charging forward. He had already asserted his dominance — using an obscure bird song from deep in the brushes to control the scene. As a beta birder, I rely mostly on

sight. His was classic Alpha behavior. In rapid-ﬁ re, he unleashed a volley of warbler identiﬁ cations from the dense thicket (“black and white”; “female

pine”). Nota Bene: a female sighting is another Alpha technique. Females are often drab in plumage — trickier than ﬂ ashy males to identify. Ergo, such an ID reinforces domi-

nance. “Pine on the ground,” he announced. “Won’t be there long.” Another Alpha technique! Noting anomalous behavior (pine warblers typically dwell in treetops), he was lassoing in wider species knowledge than mere recognition. A fi nal technique — the coup de grace — was the maddeningly imprecise description of the bird’s location — in stark contrast to the pinpoint precision the Alpha invariably deploys in noting, say, a breast speckle marking. “Behind the log?” I beseeched, almost wailing, my black binoculars scanning wide swaths of ground in frantic search. The nebulous location leaves the inferior birder in a highly agitated state, pleading for more precision. It’s a form of taunting. Cogito Ergo Sum (Ornithological translation: “I see it but you don’t; I identify it but you can’t.”) “On the moss,” he said—but no more. The whole encounter lasted less than fi ve minutes; his dominance asserted in the initial 30 seconds. In wolf behavior terms, he bristled, sniff ed my haunches, then forced me into a supine position, underbelly exposed. Textbook alpha encounter. I felt I owed him. Textbook submissive response. Shyly I off ered a small bit of intel: “I saw hermit thrushes earlier.” He didn’t acknowledge it. Maybe my observation was too mundane? Maybe he hadn’t seen them — and wouldn’t admit it? Or maybe he simply heard them already? Thrushes are accomplished songsters. I’ll never know. Already he was heading off elsewhere, clutching his high-powered binoculars. I was left to wonder, my binoculars hanging impotently from my neck. Was he off in search of other birds? Or just other birders like me?

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Organist Continued from Page 5D

their spirituality and God. “We found we have a lot in common,” Hall said. First Baptist Church of Worcester is a welcoming place of worship for the LGBT community. Pipe organ subjects that Hall has tackled so far include “Why are keyboards black and white,” “How the organ gets pumped,” “Organ shoes” (special shoes are recommended for organists because of all the pedals), and “Organ Jokes” (including one about “Why did Bach have 20 children … “). A video “Where I work” proudly shows off First Baptist Church and its beautiful setting, while also observing the added perk of having three Dunkin’s nearby. “There’s a very strict limit on time so you have to be really creative. The upside is that videos don’t take as much to create and produce,” Hall said. “YouTube takes a lot of time and eff ort, and if no one sees it it’s very demoralizing.” In contrast, “On TikTok it’s really a democratized process in my opinion. You create it, send it out in half an hour, and then instantly get people’s ideas about it.” While 60 seconds “really focuses you,” Hall can make videos on a subject in several 60-second parts and say, “follow me and see me in part two,” he said. “You don’t have to worry about crafting a bespoke page, just create content that’s interesting to you and people will fi nd it. People will comment on mine, ‘Oh this is where pulling out all the stops comes from.’ “ That leads to the “inevitable question” of when will Hall make a video pulling out all the stops, “Which I haven’t done yet because it would be too loud,” he said. For all the fun he has on TikTok showing the pipe organ, “I do think it’s an educational service,” Hall said. “That’s not the

“This is new ground for me. One particular day I made a video, went out on some errands, and there were 30,000 views in that short a time.” Wesley Hall

only reason I do it, but it’s certainly the reason I keep doing it.” There are ways to monetize TikTok videos, including product placement and going live, he noted. “I would not do one (live) unless I had over 20,000 followers. Below that would feel egotistical and strange, but who knows?” Hall took the TikTok name Westpiper, an old nickname from playing the bagpipes when he was a little bit younger and the fact people would often mispronounce Wesley as West. He returned to the area to join First Baptist Church in 2015. In 2016 he received the Diapason Magazine’s 20 Under 30 Award as an innovator in the organ and church music ﬁ eld. Back in the Worcester for six years now, “the change is unmistakable,” he said. People such as Mark Mummert, Cantor at Trinity Lutheran Church, have helped transform the music scene, he said. “So it’s a pleasure to be back.” Hall ﬁ nally got back here from Germany last September. But he was traveling with some new friends on TikTok. “When you’re an organist you can feel you’re the only person in the world who does what you do,” he said. But when he gets messages such as “ ‘Keep making these videos,’ to hear that it means a lot. It’s something I didn’t expect and I’m very grateful for and very humbled by.”

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CITY VOICES DON LANDGREN

Worcester Magazine’s Letters To The Editor Policy

KEEPING MASKS HANDY ... JUST IN CASE ...

Letters to the editor are a great way to share your thoughts and opinions with thousands of readers and online viewers each week. There is no word limit, but we reserve the right to edit for length, so brevity is your friend. If handwritten, write legibly - if we cannot read it, we are not running it. A full name and town or city of residence are required. Please include an email address or phone number for verification purposes only. That information will not be published. Make sure your letter makes it into Worcester Magazine in a timely fashion — send it in by the Monday of the next issue. Please note that letters will run as space allows. Send them to Worcester Magazine, 100 Front St., 5th Floor, Worcester, MA 01608 or by email to WMeditor @gatehouse media.com.

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A moment of joy and peace after vaccination Victor D. Infante and Veer Mudambi Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

JANICE HARVEY

Confused about mask guidelines? Ask an expert Janice Harvey Guest columnist

I’m fully vaccinated. Are you? Yes? No? How can I trust you? Can I see your card? Should I wear my mask around you? Should you wear one around me? Do I need to stand six feet away from you, or can I move in closer? Do I want to? I’m beginning to think the CDC is trying to drive me nuts, which is a short ride, admittedly, after the year of living dangerously. The latest hip-hip-hooray

from the Center for Disease Control is a muddled message for many. Fully vaccinated adults can party like it’s 2019, unmasked. The problem is, with the country so polarized, the past ﬁ ve years have pretty much ruined the honor system. We trust no one, not even those near and not-so-near and kinda-dear to us. Confusion reigns. You know who isn’t confused about mask-wearing? Little kids. They wear their masks to school every day, and they’re okay with it. I know this because I went right to the source: an eight-year-old told See HARVEY, Page 12D

It would seem an unremarkable thing to go for a walk in Green Hill Park on a lovely May Sunday afternoon. Indeed, it seemed a goodly number of other people had the same idea, and there was an undeniable good vibe in the air. The sun was shining, people were picnicking and people were smiling … you knew that

because almost no one was masked. It was outdoors, and people seemed to be staying in their pods, but still, it’s odd after all of this time to see people’s faces. Every day, more and more people are vaccinated, despite some folks who are holding out for what seem increasingly dubious reasons as everyone around them begins to sigh in relief. It’s not even worth berating them anymore. It just See PEACE, Page 23D

A pair sits on the lawn April 25 at Green Hill Park. ASHLEY GREEN/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 11

FIRST PERSON

The joys and tribulations of real maple syrup Joe Fusco Jr. Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

I’m drizzling real maple syrup on my Eggo pancakes in my Worcester kitchen courtesy of my son-in-law Timmy, who tapped three trees in his backyard last week in God’s Country, New Hampshire. The real maple syrup tastes a tad like butterscotch, so I’m hoping the next batch has a hot-fudge tinge to it! Speaking of hot-fudge, the Ben & Jerry’s inside the Showcase Cinema I frequent with my two senior friends won’t put toppings on their ice cream because of freakin’ COVID. But I digress … Making real maple syrup is a pain-in-the-butt, I mean quite an involved process. It takes 5 gallons of sap to produce just 16 ounces of the liquid gold. I admire my son-in-law for his steadfastness. No wonder most of us just pour store-bought corn syrup over our waffl es. Timmy is the outdoorsy guy in our large family. He likes to camp, fi sh, hike, ski, and climb. Unfortunately, he’s teaching my daughter and two grandsons all these bad habits. Speaking of fi sh, Timmy’s

grandfather Bill took me casting about eight years ago when he found out catching a gillbearing animal was on my bucket list. We spent a few beer-drinking hours on a Pontoon boat until a perch surrendered to me. Bill just passed away recently and I miss our lengthy conversations about everything under the sun. Plus, he usually bought me a bottle of Tanqueray when we got together. Now, there’s only one thing left on my bucket list but my wife, Cyndi, thinks it’s too kinky. But again, I digress. Timmy is also a lover of craft beers. He would attend fancy beer festivals back when humans could mingle without killing each other and sample the various specimens of stouts, sours, IPAs and porters. Last time we visited, he offered me a wild ale he had discovered. As previously mentioned, I’m a gin guy but fairly open to most alcoholic options. “What did you think,” the Tim-man inquired. “Tastes like butterscotch,” I replied. Then, once again, I digressed … Joe Fusco Jr. is a poet and humorist living in Worcester.

It takes 5 gallons of sap to produce just 16 ounces of real maple syrup. No wonder most of us just pour store-bought corn syrup over our waffles. FILE

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday eased indoor mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people, allowing them to safely stop wearing masks inside in most places. PIXABAY.COM

Harvey Continued from Page 10D

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me so. “I don’t mind wearing a mask. My masks are soft and comfy, so I forget they’re on, I’m so used to it,” my grandson Jack told me, as he handed me his glasses and adjusted the loops of his dinosaur mask over his ears. The glasses are new, thanks to a year of remote learning. He doesn’t mind those either. “I didn’t know I couldn’t see until I got glasses,” he said. He had two masks with him. He chose the dino mask over the Mario mask for a very good reason. “I sneezed in this one. Wanna see?” No thanks. I believe you. Jack said the masks are no big deal, except when his glasses fog up. He doesn’t seem bothered by the constant hand sanitizing required at his school, either. “Yesterday I counted how many times I sanitized. Guess how many.”

I can’t guess. Tell me. “28. 28 times and my hands aren’t even bleeding or cracked. See?” Wow. That’s a lot of sanitizing. Do other kids mind wearing masks? “Not really. They leave them on except for one kid who likes to take it oﬀ and put his ﬁ ngers in his mouth.” That seems like a whole other issue. Thank goodness for 28 pumps of sanitizer. What about remote versus in-class learning? Any preference? “ Not really, though I liked remote because I like working on a computer and, you know, pajamas …” I get it. Involves less sanitizing, I’d imagine. Perhaps we should take our cues from a much younger, wiser and resilient generation, and stop whining about “freedom” and “rights.” I’m vaccinated. I’m keeping a mask in my pocketbook at all times so that I can respect businesses that require masking, and make my own decisions in crowds. Actually, I’m going to carry two masks. Just in case I sneeze.

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 13

COVER STORY Ryleigh Modig reacts to comments from the judges during “Blind Auditions..: TYLER GOLDEN/NBC

Ryleigh Modig of Spencer says ‘best is yet to come’ after ‘The Voice’

Richard Duckett Worcester Telegram & Gazette | USA TODAY NETWORK

SPENCER – Ryleigh Modig of Spencer had an eventful run on the NBC show “The Voice.” h Even when it looked like she might have struck out she was able to get a “triple steal.” h “I would probably say when I got the triple steal, I would say that was my happiest moment (on the show),” Modig said. h She had just returned to Spencer May 13 after ﬂ ying back from Los Angeles following the live May 11 broadcast of “The Voice,” when her run as a contestant did come to an end. h But that was not before stealing some hearts. See MODIG, Page 14D

14 | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

Pictured are, from left, Corey Ward and Ryleigh Modig in the “Knockout Reality” episode of “The Voice.” TRAE PATTON/NBC

Modig Continued from Page 13D

In the show’s “Knockout” round broadcast on April 19, Modig and Corey Ward had head-to-head performances as members of Team Kelly. Under the show’s sometimes rather complex rules, Kelly Clarkson had to choose which one of the singers to continue with. Ward sang Clarkson’s song “Already Gone” while Modig performed “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon. Both renditions were emotional and powerful with plenty of vocal range on the notes

Clarkson, saying it was a very close call, chose Ward, putting Modig in danger of elimination. But that was when judges/ coaches John Legend, Nick Jonas and Blake Shelton all hit their buttons to “steal” Modig, as the rules allowed. Now it was Modig’s turn to choose. She became a member of Team Legend. Legend sang to her “Welcome to Team Legend.” On the ﬁ rst week of the live performances last week, Modig found herself having to sing for the one wildcard spot available to take her to the ﬁ nal nine. Pete Mroz, Jose Figueroa Jr. and, once again, Corey Ward were the other singers.

Modig sang a notably heartfelt but subtle rendition of “It Will Rain” by Bruno Mars. The TV audience had ﬁ ve minutes to vote via “The Voice” app, but Ward won out. Still, “That (’It Will Rain’) was probably one of my best performances,” Modig said. “I really put my heart into it, so I was happy I had that one last performance on the show.” She had tweeted after the May 11 show, “the best is yet to come,” and it looks like that could be in the cards (one of Modig’s pastimes is tarot cards). Jonas had said of her voice, “You have the kind of voice that speaks to my soul.” Clarkson

applauded how Modig gets “lost in it (the song). I do that all the time.” Technically speaking, Legend noted, “the power of your vibrato. That’s your secret weapon.” “I just got back last night and already have a few gigs and things lined up. There’s some pretty exciting things going on,” Modig said last week. She said she was not allowed to get into details at this point, but she will be leaving Massachusetts again shortly. “I do have some very exciting things coming up … So keep a look out.” She knows there will be plenty of people following her. “I have received so many let-

ters. I gained 18,000 followers on Instagram. I’m so pleased with young people sharing messages with me. That’s what I wanted, young queer people to reach out to me and and share their stories,” she said. While talking to Clarkson, Jonas, Legend and Shelton following her performance on her “Blind Audition” on “The Voice” March 8, she had proudly proclaimed that she is gay. But she said her following doesn’t just have to be LGBT people. “I want to represent the young misunderstood people, that if you believe in yourself something good will come out See MODIG, Page 15D

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 15

Modig Continued from Page 14D

of it.” Modig turned 19 during her time on “The Voice,” but the show was not her fi rst vocal competition. She was a 14-year-old when she won Worcester’s WCCA TV “New Voices Awards” show fi rst broadcast in January 2017. “It turned out really well,” she has said of that contest. Modig was facing some challenges around that time, but she would set a sort of precedent for emerging stronger than ever. She recalled in an earlier interview that she has been singing for as long as she can remember. She said she was inspired to get into music by her father, Wayne Modig, who plays in a band. She grew up with a quirky sense of style, but sadly was relentlessly bullied throughout school. After switching to homeschooling her junior year of high school, she felt free to focus on her music and fi nally be herself. “I had a bit of trouble with not fi tting in,” she said. “My whole life I’ve not really fi t in with the rest of the crowd.” By homeschooling she said she graduated early with her GED, “and I think that was the best thing I did for myself.” Meanwhile, “I came out to my parents (Wayne and Kristin Modig) when I was 16. I think they had their suspicions,” she said. “They’ve been so supportive and they just want me to be happy.” Modig was visiting an aunt in Baltimore when she heard about open call auditions for “The Voice.” Fortuitously, “the open call auditions were just down the street.” From that would come an invitation to the “Blind Auditions” in Los Angeles, so called because Clarkson, Jonas, Legend and Shelton have their backs to the singers when they fi rst start performing. If the coaches/judges rotate to face

them, that means they want them on their team. Not long after Modig had begun “When the Party’s Over” by Billie Eilish, Clarkson quickly rotated her chair to face Modig. Jonas turned his chair as Modig was a little further into the song, while Legend and Shelton later oﬀ ered words of encouragement. Seeing Clarkson turn, “It felt absolutely amazing,” Modig told a reporter a few days later. “(I thought) This is so exciting. The moment I’ve been waiting for my entire life. I felt so blessed to be able to sing in front of those people and I was just overjoyed and overcome with emotion.” Modig opted to be a member of Team Kelly. Local singers have made themselves heard on “The Voice.” Worcester native Alisan Porter was the winner in 2016, and Ricky Duran, who grew up in Grafton, was the runner-up on the 17th season at the end of 2019. Sam James of Sturbridge appeared on the show in 2012. Modig’s next challenge on “The Voice” was the “Battle” round broadcast March 28. She and Gean Garcia, both members of Team Kelly, were paired to sing Ariana Grande’s ballad “pov.” Clarkson was brieﬂ y sick, and recruited country pop singer Kelsea Ballerini to keep her seat warm — and choose the winner. Ballerini chose Modig. Then came the “Knockout” round and the triple steal with Modig joining Team Legend, but things did not go so well with the “Top 17 Live Performances.” The live performance rounds of the competition began May 10 with 17 performers each singing a song. Modig sang “Driver’s License” by Olivia Rodrigo. Legend said Modig’s rendition had “so much heart and soul and sadness and beauty.” Voters via “The Voice” app then had the opportunity to participate in deciding which nine of the 17 would make it See MODIG, Page 16D

Ryleigh Modig is photographed in her hometown, Spencer. PHOTO BY TAJONN NICKELSON

16 | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

Modig

Ryleigh Modig performs during the “Live Top 17 Performances” episode. TRAE PATTON/NBC

Continued from Page 15D

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through the next round. The singers were in four teams, and after the May 10 broadcast, voters chose the top singers from each team, leaving the coaches, under the rules, with the decision of which one other member of their team to keep. Also in Team Legend were Pia Renee, Victor Solomon and Zania Alaké. Before the announcement of the audience vote, Modig said one of the things she would take away from the whole “Voice” experience was Legend stealing her. “It was such a pull to you. I had to choose you,” she said. The audience voted for Solomon. Legend then was faced with a choice, and opted to keep Renee. But all was not lost for Modig. The remaining artists with the most audience votes in each team made it to an elimination round for a wildcard spot. Modig had more votes than Alaké, and chose to sing “It Will Rain.” Legend said afterward, “I’m swooning.” How did it feel with all those ups and downs including not being chosen by your team coach or the voters? “Honestly, it’s not the best feeling,” Modig said of losing, but then immediately added, “It was an honor to lose to such talented people. Honestly, it was just an honor to be eliminated against them.” Regarding working with Clarkson and Legend, “They were diﬀ erent in their styles of coaching but at the end of the day they just wanted me to succeed and they still do,” Modig said. “I had a conversation with John Legend after my elimination, he was really sweet.” There was also tremendous mutual support among the contestants and likely lifelong friendships were made, Modig said.

“I formed really great friendships with the other contestants. We were able to lean on each other when things got really stressful,” she said. No sense of competitiveness among the competing? “I don’t think any of us at any point felt it was a competition at all. We were just putting on a performance. I feel I’ve made friends for a lifetime. Everyone who’s still there I consider one of my close friends. Whoever takes that spot, that will make me very happy,” Modig said. “I am so grateful for my time there and I think the universe has a plan for what comes next.” Back home in Spencer with her parents (her family also includes her older sister, Jordan Modig), “They were so supportive. I could not have asked for a better support system. I think they were worried I was going to be sad (about being eliminated). I know they’re proud I just did it. I could not have asked for a better family and friends.” As Modig goes out in style from “The Voice” and looks to the future, college is not part of the 19-year-old’s plans. “I’ve thought about it here and there. I personally think that for some people wisdom and life experience can go a lot further for people than college. That is my take on college. As of right now I feel I have so much to learn in the real world. I want to continue down that path.” Modig has made no secret of her hopes to become a professional singer and a “life purpose” to pursue music. She also writes songs. “Every day I’m still writing music. I plan to be working in a studio and getting my own original music out very soon,” she said. “This is only the beginning for me. I want to create a platform for people to believe in themselves and see that in me.” she said. “It can only go up from here. It’s sad to leave people from the show, but I think my platform can only grow from here and there’s more opportunity in the world for me.”

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 17

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

CITY LIVING

Get to know photographer Kaila Skeet Browning

TABLE HOPPIN’

Kaila Skeet Browning Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Rose Room Café in Webster hosts mini farmers market Barbara M. Houle Special to Worcester

Kaila Skeet Browning (she/her) is a photographer based in Worcester. She is currently a student at Clark University. Her work focuses primarily on portraiture, and she also oﬀ ers professional headshots, wedding, community event, family, and product photography. Her work as been published in The Sun Magazine, Worcester Magazine, and has been featured in the ArtsWorcester 16th and 17th Annual College Show. Her work can be seen at https://kailaskeetbrowning.org. This Artist Spotlight is presented by Worcester Magazine in partnership with ArtsWorcester. Since 1979, ArtsWorcester has exhibited and advanced the work of this region’s contemporary artists. Its exhibitions and educational events are open and free to all. Learn more at www.artsworcester.org.

Telegram & Gazette USA TODAY NETWORK

Local growers and businesses will showcase everything from produce to plants at a Farmers Sidewalk Sale scheduled May 23 at the Rose Room Café in Webster. Participants at the “minifarmers market” will have tables set up from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of the café located at 4 East Main St. The Rose Room

Café (www.theroseroomcafe.com) will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., serving breakfast and lunch. Locally sourced baked goods, coff ees, sodas and cocktails will be available. The focus of the sale is on local farms, according to Erin Anderson of Local 4 Life, a Dudley-based nonprofi t she and Wendy Kalwarczyk cofounded. The nonprofi t’s mission is “to cultivate local connections through agricultural and business partnerships and to pro-

vide educational outreach that promotes conservation and fosters community.” Visit (www.local4life.org) for more information about business partnerships, etc. Participants at the sidewalk sale include Begrowco in Uxbridge; Walnut Lane Farm in Dudley; Black Moon Hollow Flower Farm in Charlton; Window Box Farm in Tolland, Conn; Riddlebrook Farm in Douglas; Freeliving Farm in See HOPPIN’, Page 18D

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Hoppin’ Continued from Page 17D

Brookfi eld; Local 4 Life. This shopping experience off ers an opportunity to support family farms and the people who grow food and fl owers, using organic and conventional methods. Check out websites and Facebook posts to learn more about them. Some of the participants plan pre-sale for seedling that can be picked the day of the sidewalk sale. FYI: The Rose Room Café owners, Jess and Bill Sabine, source local ingredients from small farms and purveyors. Menus are based on the growing season and availability. Get ready to shop!

Brady’s reopens in Leominster Executive chef/owner Bill Brady reopened his restaurant Brady’s, 37 Mechanic St., Leominster on May 11, “emerging from COVID-19.” The award-winning chef posted a message on the restaurant’s website (www.chefbradys.com) asking guests to be patient as he expects “tables to be hard to come by” given the amount of inquiries he has received. Hours are from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, by reservation only based on ﬁ rst come, ﬁ rst served. Call the restaurant (978) 537-7111, or visit resy.com. Seating currently is in the main dining room, outdoor patio and main bar only, according to Brady. There is a “strict 90-minute table limit.” Visit the restaurant’s website for more info and menus. Rumor has it that Brady will collaborate with a Worcester chef/owner on a wine dinner to be held in Worcester. Date and place to be announced. Welcome back into the game, Bill.

Dining in available at Val’s in Holden Val’s Restaurant & Lounge,75 Reservoir St., Holden, reopened its dining room to guests earlier this month. Takeout, curbside and delivery options continue at this popular local spot. Restaurant hours are 11 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Closed Monday and Tuesday. Call (508) 8290900; visit www.valsrestaurant.com. Write a review of your favorite dishes at the restaurant for a chance to win $500. Go to the website for the questionnaire. Reviews will be entered in a drawing on June 1. Good luck! Owner Valerie James recently told us that one of the rooms at the restaurant holds a surprise renovation. New, exciting and totally diﬀ erent, she said. Stay tuned!

Fork ‘N Delicious food truck coming to Worcester New on the local food truck scene is Fork ‘N Deli-

Participants in the Farmers Sidewalk Sale include Krisanne Koebke from Walnut Lane Farm in Dudley, Wendy Kalwarczyk of Local 4 Life, Erin Anderson of Local 4 Life, Rose Room Cafe & Tonic Bar owners Bill and Jess Sabine, and Matthew Lavergne of Black Moon Hollow. The market will be held outside the Rose Room Cafe May 23. RICK CINCLAIR/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

cious owned by James Winchester of Auburn. “Coming soon to Worcester and Metro West” is word from Winchester. Chris Bairos, former executive chef at Fish Restaurant & Wine Bar in Marlboro, is working with Winchester. Bairos is a seasoned chef who also won Judges’ Choice Award in a Worcester’s Best Chef competition. The truck menu includes New England favorites (seafood and chowders), American classics like grilled cheese sandwiches and burgers and other creative dishes. I recently joined two friends (chefs) to get a taste of the menu at a family and friends event. Thumbs up for the food we ate. Winchester said Fork “N Delicious will be at Trombettta’s, 655 Farm Road, Marlboro, at 4 p.m. May 21 and May 22. In Worcester, after completion of city inspections, the truck will park at 5 Neponset St., near the building that houses Reliant Medical Group. “We plan to have the truck at Neponset street Tuesday through Friday every week,” said Winchester. Connect on Facebook and Instagram for Winchester’s updates. There are lots of reasons to love food trucks. Good food is one of them.

Take advantage of fresh rhubarb ‘Tis the season for locally grown rhubarb, whether enjoyed in a sauce or alongside strawberries in a ﬂ aky pie crust. My garden rhubarb now boasts long celery-

like stalks and very large leaves. The stalks are ready to be pulled or cut. There are so many creative recipes using rhubarb. We all have annual favorites, but here’s how home bakers can turn rhubarb and four other ingredients into a delicious dessert. From the Betty Crocker kitchens, these rhubarb squares are easy to make. FIVE-INGREDIENT RHUBARB SQUARES: 1 box Betty Crocker Super Moist yellow cake mix; 3⁄ 4 cup cold butter or margarine, cut into small pieces; 13⁄ 4 cups sugar; 3 eggs; 4 cups sliced fresh rhubarb; whipped cream, optional. Heat oven to 350 degrees (325 degrees for dark or nonstick pan). Reserve 2 tablespoons of the cake mix. In large bowl, cut butter into remaining cake mix, using pastry blender until crumbly. In bottom of ungreased 13-by-9-inch pan, pat 2 cups of the mixture. Reserve remaining crumbly mixture for topping. Bake 15 minutes. In large bowl, beat reserved 2 tablespoons cake mix, the sugar and eggs with electric mixer on medium speed until creamy. Stir in rhubarb. Pour over partially baked crust. Sprinkle remaining crumbly mixture over top. Bake 45 to 50 minutes longer or until golden brown and center is set. Cool slightly before serving. Serve warm or cold with whipped cream, if desired. Store covered in refrigerator. Not into baking? Check out what local bakeries have to oﬀ er. If you have a tidbit for the column, call (508) 8685282. Send email to bhoulefood@gmail.com.

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 19

THE NEXT DRAFT

Draft beer no longer a dirty business Matthew Tota Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Next time you order draft beer, particularly an ale or lager, take a moment to inspect your glass before taking it back. Look for small spinning bubbles consistently rising from the bottom, rushing heavenward toward a creamy, roughly 1-inch foam head ﬂ oating delicately above. These signs indicate you have received a beer poured perfectly from a draught beer system pressurized with the correct blend of gases. Few things in this life are as beautiful or tantalizing. Now taste it. You should only pick up the ﬂ avors and aromas the brewer intended. If you detect something like sulfur or popcorn, stop drinking and ask your

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server for a new beer, but in a can or bottle. More than likely, the beer came from dirty draft lines, and you should not expect your next one from the taps to taste better. Given we’re all getting vaxxed and venturing out more to bars and restaurants, it is a good time to consider how much draft beer has improved in this country over the years. Before craft beer, distributors, restaurant and bar owners, and even big breweries rarely treated draft with the respect it deserves. And the situation only got better when more local brewers, kegs in hand, emerged to educate everyone on how to care for their brews. David Swift, president of Clean Beer Co., a Milford com-

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David Swift says draft beer in the U.S. used to be a dirty business, but the emergence of craft beer has prompted bars and restaurants to improve. PHOTO BY MATTHEW TOTA

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20 | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

Draft Continued from Page 19D

pany that has installed and serviced draught beer systems for 30 years, is an expert on draught beer, what he calls “the last leg of distribution.” He maintains six taps in his home, two dedicated to Wormtown Brewey’s Be Hoppy, and the Worcester Restaurant Group has turned to him to outfi t and clean most of its draft systems. These days, you are less likely to go to a restaurant or bar with an inferior draft system or unsanitary lines, Swift told me, but throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s, most in the U.S. were abysmal. “People would always say the beer is better in Europe,” Swift said. “There may be some alchemy to it, but I would say our brewers are just as good as their brewers. The diff erence was the quality of products around to maintain the integrity of the brewers’ product. You had big major beer companies that wanted to patchwork the last leg of distribution. They would spend all this money on their product, but then chintz out at the end.” In Europe, pubs and restaurants used stainless steel for their taps, while we had beer fl owing through chrome-plated brass, prone to rust. The story was the same with the plastic tubing below the bar. “We were using plastics that allowed for gas and fl avor migration into the plastics: Beer migrating in causing off fl avors, then gases that would seep out of the plastics, so you had beers that were tasting fl at or sour,” Swift said. And there was little care given to how draught systems pumped beer through the lines, he said. Most places would have compressed air mixed with C02, which led to rusty air compressors. “The air compress reservoir would fi ll up with rusty water, leading to nasty, nasty beer. Beer that would make you feel sick after drinking it. We would tell people, ‘Your air compressor is pumping rusty moisture into your kegs,’ and they would say, ‘So what?’” Swift said. Now, nearly all restaurants and bars use stainless steel and plastic tubes with protective barriers. They also are careful to have a blend of gases – CO2 and nitrogen – to push the beer through the lines. The blasé attitude that plagued the beer industry – mostly a result of willful ignorance and a desire to save pennies –

David Swift, the founder of Clean Beer Co., shows off one of his two home draft beer systems. Swift has been cleaning and installing draft beer systems since 1991. PHOTO BY MATTHEW TOTA

no longer exists, Swift said, which means companies like Clean Beer Co. have never been busier. More often than not, Swift ﬁ nds that most restaurants and bars are willing to have their draft lines regularly cleaned. Getting the lines cleaned regularly can be costly, Swift said. Depending on the system, conscientious bar and restaurant owners should have their draft lines cleansed anywhere from once a month to every two weeks. The process is dangerous, involving circulating chemicals through the pressurized system. As more restaurants and bars open

again, Swift ﬁ nds himself traveling the state for work again. Last year, right around the state shutdown, he got frantic calls from many of his customers for him to come out, clean their lines and prepare them for a then-unknown period of dormancy. “Some places didn’t get the message and now they have horror shows,” he said. “I don’t drink draft when I go out now unless I know the place.” A simple test to determine whether you’re drinking beer from a clean draft line is by starting with a solid lager, like Jack’s Abby’s House Lager, he said. “You order it, and there’s no head on

it, or you put it up to your nose and you smell sulfur or an almost popcorn-like smell: Now you know the draft line isn’t clean,” he said. “We blew it on our end, even though these world-class brewers made this incredible lager. It’s not their fault, it’s our fault.” When you get an attractive, clean tasting lager on draft, though, you know almost immediately. “If there are no problems, everyone is happy: You have a nice clean glass, a beer with a 1-inch head that looks appealing, and you see the bubbles spinning up to the top of the glass,” he said. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 21

CONNELL SANDERS

The plastic surgery ‘Zoom Boom’ Sarah Connell Sanders Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

When Dr. Frank Fechner said the words “Zoom Boom,” in his light German accent, I laughed. It sounded like the title of a Doja Cat song or some kind of industrial super cleaner for tough stains. It turned out, the sheer number of hours Dr. Fechner’s patients had spent staring themselves down on Zoom during the spring of 2020 had left some feeling insecure, or at the very least, self-refl ective. They wanted a quick fi x. A “Zoom Boom” ensued. “We sit in front of the camera and we see our own image on the computer screen and for some people it initiates an interest in certain parts of their face,” Fechner observed. Blepharoplasty, eyelid surgery, fl ourished during the pandemic. At fi rst, Fechner feared that lockdown would bring an end to elective surgeries. It did — for 14 weeks. But, then, something surprising happened. Millennials accustomed to relentless work schedules found themselves with a lot more time to recover. “I only do facial surgery,” explained Fechner. “The most common surgery I perform is face and neck lift surgery, and for such a procedure, you really need at least a two-week period of time to recover — that’s not easy for a person in the workforce.” Suddenly, everyone was homebound and Fecnher was booked solid. This time of year, he gets a lot of young patients seeking a rhinoplasty or a chin enhancement before heading off to college, and 2021 has proved no diff erent. It isn’t just women leaning on plastic surgery and

Dr. Frank Fechner’s office is an accredited surgical center, located on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester. SUBMITTED PHOTO

medical spa treatments to make a big change. Men now make up approximately 20% of his patients, up from 5% in the mid-2000s. Last week, I found myself chatting with Dr. Fechner over Zoom, basking in what I thought would translate to a post-workout glow. “I am confi dent in my appearance,” I thought. “No plastic surgeon could shake me,” I told myself. I piled my hair high in a glorious messy bun and fl icked my laptop to life. That’s when I began questioning everything. Was he judging the dark circles under my eyes? Could he see the lines on my forehead from years of turning my “teacher look” on whenever a class got out of hand? Was he autotuning my hefty jaw bones and my chubby cheeks with his mind’s eye? And, what diff erentiates “chubby” from “plump” anyways? But Dr. Fechner wasn’t examining me. In fact, he prides himself on staying clued into See SURGERY, Page 23D

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LISTEN UP

Jafet Muzic presents masterful album ‘Art of Embracing Damage’ Victor Infante Columnist Worcester Telegram & Gazette USA TODAY NETWORK

Didn’t Jafet Muzic just put an album out fi ve minutes ago? The dust hadn’t even settled on his recent collaboration with K’Nen and Danny Fantom, “Stanton Capitol Records Presents: Vol. 1,” when suddenly Jafet turned around and dropped a solo album, “The Art of Embracing Damage.” What’s more amazing, though, is that the album is absolutely astounding. Jafet performs a balancing act throughout “Damage,” weaving through political, personal and social fault lines with deliberation and delicacy. His lens expands to catch historical inequities in society in one moment, then contracts to paint a brief, visceral portrait of a stranger’s pain. That he’s able to do both with intelligence and compassion is nothing short of remarkable. The album begins with “The Great Khan,” which begins with a clip from what is clearly an old corporate instructional video: “Worcester, Massachusetts, is the third largest city in New England. 150,000 people live here, but most of the poor and the Black people live in one section, where once gracious homes are falling victim to disregard and disrepair. No one was doing anything about it. This fi lm is about a company that did do something about it.” It’s a fascinating intro, one that signals how personal the album is, but which highlights a form of hypocrisy: Most corporate eff orts at aid for Worcester’s poorest, most vulnerable communities have been less about substance and more about PR exercises. When Jafet raps, “This for my brothers living gutter in the streets, peace/It’s time to build, unite like police behind the shield in fi ghts,” it’s hard not to draw immediate connections to the nationwide pandemic of slayings of unarmed people of color by police offi cers. It’s just the fi rst fault

Jafet Muzic’s latest album is, “The Art Of Embracing Damage.” PROMOTIONAL IMAGE

“Worcester, Massachusetts, is the third largest city in New England. 150,000 people live here, but most of the poor and the Black people live in one section, where once gracious homes are falling victim to disregard and disrepair. No one was doing anything about it... ” Jafet Muzic

line of pain Jafet identifi es. Then the rapper pivots, with “Give,” rapping, “The truth is I give too much,” switching from the external to the internal. “The truth is I don’t live enough/ excuses I gotta give them up one day … invested into equipment before I paid rent/(expletive) living in fear, I’ll deal with eviction with a statement.” Throughout “Damage,” Jafet weighs outside social forces and his own ambitions with a sort of equanimity, without trying to oversimplify. One minute, in “Flight,” he talks about his origins, and his drive to be the best at what he does, rapping how he was “born in (Great Brook Valley)/Worcester, Mass. is where I’m from that’s the 508/like the suburbs and the slums still our vibe holds weight.” Then, in the next song, “Answer,” he shows the fl ip side of ambition, rapping, “I swear to God I’ll never spend another day in a offi ce/where corporate bosses abused their fortunes for extortion/Make a certain amount, tax you and take a portion.” Drive doesn’t exist in a vacuum. For Jafet, it’s a product of environment, and he peels away the layers of those forces with each song. When he moves from there into “Overtime (Benefi ts),” he balances a sort of rugged individualism with a

need for collective action: “We gotta protect our rubble,” he raps, “build a solid foundation from the bottom that’ll bubble/If it ain’t equal on both sides, we gotta part ties/everybody wants the beneﬁ ts while working part time.” It feels on the ﬁ rst few listens that he’s referring here to people who want to share in his success without contributing to it, a common enough theme in hip-hop, but then in “Super Natural,” he ups the ante. On one level, it’s a straightup, old-school battle rap proclaiming skills, and then he turns the song over to a sample of Ice Cube saying, “Everybody likes the truth. The truth is good for your brain, and a society that feeds you so many lies isn’t trying to help you grow as an individual at all, this is the uncut raw truth, and that’s what the rappers are providing for the people: The real deal … the community’s going to all hell because poverty and frustration does not mix.” In the space of a few songs, Jafet draws a line between a desire for personal success to a need for societal change, and then overlays how that feeds into the culture and history of hiphop. It’s subtly and masterfully done, and the genre tropes are so subtly played you can almost miss that he’s

subverting them to create a deeper picture. And he doesn’t stop there, moving on to “Realize,” an addicting and aff ectionate love letter to early hip-hop, particularly DJ Kool Herc, Grandmaster Flash and Afrika Bambaataa. With its cool-fl ow beats and the refrained sample, “Respect to Kool Herc,” it’s easy to get caught up in this song, but the message is clear: Jafet feels there’s a history to hip-hop that the listener needs to know and understand. Nothing, not even music, exists in a vacuum. It’s all one narrative. It’s no coincidence that the next song, “Dream,” begins with a sample of Martin Luther King Jr. being introduced, with King’s “I Have a Dream” speech later sampled. Indeed, there are no coincidences on this album: Personal dreams and social change are inextricably intertwined. There’s a soaring, inspirational feel to the song, which makes the small, human tragedy he portrays in the next song, “Silent ill (Who),” so poignant. Here, Jafet discusses a woman he met in the street one time, pushing a baby carriage, and then seeing her photo some time later in the Telegram & Gazette. It’s a story song that one doesn’t want to spoil, save to say it’s not a happy ending. This is an enormously dense album, although it actually moves with a sort of breeziness if you’re not listening closely, but by the time the listener gets to the meditative “Lotus (Hope),” it’s diffi cult not to pay attention. It’s skillfully done, but by this point, the album is extremely magnetic. Jafet gives the listener a moment of peace, of refl ection, before launching into the more aspirational “Blue Bird,” which is buoyed by a song hook by Worcester singer-songwriter Molly-Jane Gain. Gain provides backup vocals throughout the album, lending a great counterpoint to Jafet’s rap, but here she’s in top form, and the explosion of song elevates the album even further before the fi nal song, “More or Less,” which feels like a cooling epilogue. It’s a grounding end to an ambitious album, one which fi xes its gaze out at the horizon, and doesn’t fl inch once.

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 23

Peace Continued from Page 10D

makes them dig their heels in. If you or their doctor or their clergy person or whomever can talk some sense into them, ﬁ ne, but honestly, the best way to prod people toward the needle is to do it gently, and to be honest about both the positive and negative aspects of the experience. Personally, I was lucky: I got the Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which is only one dose, so the worst thing that happened to me was that I had to sit by myself in the middle of the Worcester Walmart for 15 minutes. I was a little tired all day, and a little achy, but I’m not sure I can totally attribute that to the vaccine: I’d also been working a bit too much the few days beforehand, so likely I would have been tired anyway. I know others had a rougher time, but in any case, all of it paled before the sense of relief I felt that it was over, that I had a modicum of protection against the disease which had killed more than half a million Americans. It’s a miracle of modern science, and yeah, it gets frustrating when people in your life take it for granted it, saying, “I’m not sure I’m going to get it” in the same tone they use to indicate that they’re not going to subscribe to Disney+ or HBO Max. Guilting them doesn’t work, screaming at them REALLY doesn’t work. Maybe the best you can do is to let them see you be happy. Because in this moment, where the sun seems to be breaking through the clouds, the moments of joy are small and profound. Often, we had gotten so used to the fear and anxiety in the air that we had kind of collectively forgot it was there, and feeling it abate is amazing. It doesn’t happen in one big bang — it’s more a series of little epiphanies — but the end result is the same. You go to

the park, and a little kid waves to you from her family picnic and you wave back, laughing, and you watch a teenager try to teach his girlfriend to ride a skateboard and an older couple is walking around with a parrot perched on one of their shoulders, and you take a deep breath and … yeah. This is real life. I had missed this. (VDI) LGBTQ students ﬁ nally represented in health class: After years of resistance, Worcester Public Schools will begin teaching a 21st-century sex ed program next year, and by that, I mean something more than just abstinence. Studies have long shown that practical sex education leads to decreased rates of STDs and pregnancy among teenagers. But what I’m really happy about is that the Rights, Respect, Responsibility curriculum also covers LGBTQ issues, the inclusion of which is unfortunately still an ongoing debate across the country. Like their straight counterparts, LGBTQ students, who have been ignored far too long, are entitled to information that equips them to make healthy and safe decisions. The attitude that parents, not schools, should deal with the “birds and bees” places these kids especially at risk because it assumes that parents know everything. If students don’t feel comfortable coming out to their family, they are in less of a position to learn this information. That makes school the most appropriate place for them to learn these facts. Worcester resident and freelance journalist Bill Shaner discussed in a recent blog post how a great deal of the opposition to diﬀ erent aspects of RRR has religious underpinnings — but quite honestly, queer people have been held back far too much by religion in the public square. The whole point of school is to teach kids — all kids — how to function in society, and issues of consent and safety certainly fall under that heading. (VM)

Surgery Continued from Page 21D

his patients’ wants and desires free of his own personal judgement. At every consultation, he asks, “Is this something you want to do for yourself?” If the answer is “yes,” he assures patients, “Then, it doesn’t matter if someone calls you superﬁ cial or your mother-in-law doesn’t approve; there will always be barricades. Do what’s right for you.” I liked his attitude, but I was still skeptical. “What about ‘Instagram face?’” I questioned. The New Yorker and The New York Times have both granted extensive coverage to the rise of “Instagram Face” in recent years — a poreless countenance with sky rocketing cheekbones made famous by the Kardashian sisters whose eerily similar likeness is by design more than genetics.

Dr. Fechner smiled. “I love practicing in New England because plastic surgery trends in places like Beverly Hills very rarely transcend to this area,” he said. “Our average patient wants to look like themself; they are not chasing someone else.” From time to time, he admitted, a prospective patient will arrive with pictures of models and unrealistic expectations. “I don’t have faces on a shelf,” he told me. “I have to work with the anatomy each patient brings with them, and a good facial procedure will leave others unaware that the surgery even took place.” Not everyone is demanding serious surgery. “Most of the time,” he explained, “patients start with some kind of injectables, whether it’s to soften forehead wrinkles, soften the number 11 between their brows, or maybe even ﬁ ll in some deeper lines.” Dr. Fechner estimated that most inject-

ables last between eight and fi fteen months. I know plenty of women who swear by Botox. I’ve thought about it myself, but the upkeep frightened me almost as much as the price tag. In the end, I decided I’d earned my wrinkles the old fashioned way and would like to keep them, but vowed not to pass judgment on any woman who preferred to have the smooth fl awless forehead of a slippery freshwater eel. If it’s right for you, you’ll know because you’ll be doing it for yourself and if you’re not sure, then it’s probably not right for you. Dr. Fechner’s offi ce is an accredited surgical center, located on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester. Fechner is a Double Board Certifi ed Facial Plastic Surgeon trained at Harvard, Cornell Columbia Presbyterian, and NYU. He has completed more than 10,000 facial procedures over the course of his career.

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24 | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

SCREEN TIME

Hitchcock’s presence felt in ‘Woman in the Window’ Jim Keogh Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Alfred Hitchcock is the gift that keeps giving. Directors have been paying Hitchcock homage for years, though few signal their intent to rip off his legend as early and boldly as Joe Wright does at the outset of his Netfl ix thriller “The Woman in the Window.” In the opening shot, as the camera pans the interior of a lonely and vast apartment, it settles on a TV freeze frame of James Stewart’s anguished face from “Rear Window.” The message: Get ready for some peeping. That barren brownstone belongs to a child psychologist named Anna Fox (Amy Adams) whose agoraphobia and depression have made her a virtual prisoner for the past 10 months. Anna is separated from her husband, who has custody of their 8-year-old daughter, and she battles her demons with mindnumbing meds washed down with generous goblets of wine. Sometimes her therapist (Tracy Letts, who wrote the screenplay) visits her yet can’t seem to make headway. Her phobia is as acute as Stewart’s fear of heights in Hitchcock’s “Vertigo.” Anna spends her days in “Rear Window” fashion, peering into other people’s apartment windows in this tightly clustered New York neighborhood. Like Stewart’s character, she even owns a camera with a high-powered lens to get a closer look at secret moments. Nobody seems to draw their blinds, so fair game. Though her haze of pills, booze and fear, Anna becomes intrigued with the new family who has moved in across the street. One day, the couple’s 15-year-old son Ethan (Fred Hechinger) shows up with a gift for her, which is odd because newcomers to a neighborhood typically receive welcoming gifts rather than offer them. In fact, Ethan himself is a little strange — childlike to a fault, unaware of boundaries. He alludes to a troubled relationship with his father, a stern businessman played by Gary Oldman, who devours the scenery the way the great white chewed up Quint’s fi shing boat. I’d be surprised if a crew member didn’t wander over to Joe Wright at

James Stewart and Grace Kelly star in “Rear Window.” COURTESY OF PATRON INC

some point during ﬁ lming and suggest, “You’re gonna need a bigger set.” “The Woman in the Window” may hold some modern-day record for Big Actors playing small parts. Oldman only has a couple of scenes. Julianne Moore pops in for a brief-but-critical conversation with Anna. Anthony Mackie alights for a quick ﬂ ashback as Anna’s husband. Jennifer Jason Leigh, as Oldman’s wife, does little more than stare weirdly into the camera. Only Wyatt Russell, as Anna’s bohemian tenant, gets substantial screen time to allow us to guess whether his increasingly menacing demeanor is a legitimate threat to Anna or a red herring.

There is a murder, of course. Anna is sure of what she’s witnessed through her apartment window, but too many others, including the cops, are either skeptical or openly derisive toward her version of events, leaving Anna doubting what she’s seen and heard. It’s another classic Hitchcock trope, where the protagonist’s reliability is called into question and the truth of their account can only be conﬁ rmed through dreadful means. No spoilers, but one witnessed homicide typically leads to the attempt of another. For all its high-octane acting talent, “The Woman in the Window” feels ﬂ at and far too tidy. Adams, who is always

game to de-glam herself — as she did playing the alcoholic reporter in HBO’s “Sharp Objects” — is fi ne. But the fi lm’s details, for all their Hitchcockian aspirations, are so off that they’re distracting. (Does the roof of a brownstone really collect so much water in a rain storm that you can potentially drown in it? Would this detail show up in a Zillow profi le?) Nothing here hasn’t been dealt with in an array of better movies. As a viewing option for a boring weekend evening, “The Woman in the Window” is okay at best. You’ll certainly feel you’ve seen it before, because you have.

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 25

NEW ON DVD

Oscar-winners ‘Minari’ and ‘The Father’ Worcester Telegram & Gazette USA TODAY NETWORK

A scene from “Minari.” ASSOCIATED PRESS

nari,” but lost out to Anthony Hopkins for his devastating portrayal of a man with dementia in “The Father,” the week’s other award-season release. “Florian Zeller’s ‘The Father’ is not the dementia drama one might expect,” Tribune News Service critic Katie Walsh writes in her review. “Rather than deliver anything treacly or maudlin, the French playwright, adapting his own play for his directorial debut, has crafted an M.C. Escher-esque looping maze of the mind on screen, placing the audience directly within the point-ofview of dementia itself. This lived experience is beautifully, and heartbreakingly, expressed by star Anthony Hopkins, playing a man named Anthony who is grappling with his disintegrating reality and unreliable memories.” In addition to Hopkins’ surprising Oscar win, Zeller took home the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.

Also new on DVD May 18 “Tom and Jerry”: An origin story for the titular cartoon cat and mouse that explains how their paths ﬁ rst crossed in New York City. With human co-stars Chloe Grace Moretz, Michael Pena and Colin Jost. “Supernova”: Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci star as a couple traversing England after Tucci’s character is diagnosed with dementia. “The Nest”: Jude Law plays a businessman from the U.K. who returns from across the pond with his American wife and kids, moving into an English country manor and leading to diﬃ cult times. “Above Suspicion”: Emilia Clarke’s character, a woman in a bleak Kentucky coal town, becomes an informant for a dashing young FBI agent, with deadly consequences. “Cosmic Sin”: In the year 2524, an elite team of soldiers led by Bruce Willis launch a preemptive attack against a

newly discovered alien race. “Hunted”: A kidnapped woman escaped to a forest, where she must turn the tables on her captors and become the hunter. “S—house”: A college tale in which a freshman goes to a party and ends up connecting with

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Two best picture nominees featuring Oscar-winning performances top the DVD releases for the week of May 18. “Minari”: Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, this semi-autobiographical story follows a Korean American family that moves from California to rural Arkansas to start a farm. “The movie ... takes its name from a hardy Korean herb that thrives if given time, an apt emblem for what this family — and most immigrant families — must sacrifi ce to pursue the American dream,” critic Glenn Whipp wrote in his review for the Los Angeles Times. “The story is mostly seen through the eyes of the precocious youngest child, David (newcomer Alan S. Kim), something of a stand-in for Chung himself,” explains Whipp, “as he based the screenplay on his experience of growing up on a small farm in Lincoln, Arkansas, in the 1980s.” In addition to Kim’s breakout debut, the fi lm also stars Steven Yeun and Yeri Han as the parents, and Yuh-Jung Youn as the family matriarch who arrives midway through the fi lm. Youn, a star in South Korea, largely swept the awards season for her performance in “Minari,” culminating in a historic win for best supporting actress at the Academy Awards last month. “For all the struggle that takes place in this movie, it is its quiet grace that you most remember,” Whipp writes. ‘Minari’ shares its secrets with a whisper, and as it unfolds, you fi nd yourself leaning into it, enraptured.” “The Father”: Yeun was nominated for best actor for his performance as Jacob in “Mi-

an RA. “Son”: A mother with a cultfi lled past must contend with her son’s mysterious illness in this horror fi lm. “Star Trek: Lower Decks — Season One”: This animated entry in the “Star Trek” canon explores the support crew on the “Lower Decks,” away from the command bridge. “The Alienist: Angel of Darkness”: The limited series, adapted from the novel by Caleb Carr, follows the investigation of a serial killer prowling New York in the late 1800s. Stars Daniel Bruhl, Dakota Fanning and Luke Evans. “The Salisbury Poisonings”: A dramatization of the poisoning of a former Russian spy and his daughter in Salisbury, England, in 2018. Out on Digital HD May 18 “616 Wilford Lane”: Eric Roberts plays a grieving father who moves into a seemingly normal house with his two daughters in this horror fi lm. “Take Out Girl”: A young woman who delivers Chinese food turns to a drug dealing to help save the family restaurant.

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26 | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

5 THINGS TO DO

WILL NOONAN, ‘BLESSINGS FROM THE PANDEMIC’ AND MORE Richard Duckett and Victor D. Infante Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Getting a reaction Comedian Will Noonan has a routine where he talks about quitting drinking. When he discloses that he’s quit, he responds to the silent reception by saying it just didn’t agree with him. “It made me kind of sleepy,” he says. “It made my cars crashy.” That one got him a reaction, as did another, recorded in front of a New York accident, where he says, “I’m from Boston, but you might have noticed I don’t have that much of a Boston accent, right? That’s because I’m not drunk right now.” Noonan has a knack for taking a crowd’s preconceptions and turning them on their head, with hilarity ensuing. (VDI) What: Comedian Will Noonan When: 7:30 p.m. May 21 and 22 Where: Where: The WooHaHa! Comedy Club at the Beer Garden, 64 Franklin St., Worcester How much: How much: tickets can only be sold by tables of two (at $50 for two seats) and four (at $100 for four seats). Comedian Will Noonan PROMOTIONAL IMAGE

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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 27

P.E. James PROMOTIONAL IMAGE

Up on the Hill A scene from “Blessings From the Pandemic,” by Rich Orloff. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Counting ‘Blessings’ “Blessings From the Pandemic” by Rich Orloff is described as a one-hour theater piece in five movements, “a mosaic of reflections on the events since March 2020: the big, the small, the challenging, the humorous, and even the inspiring.” The Central Massachusetts Jewish Theatre Company will present a livestreamed production at 7 p.m. May 25 that was recorded in February in New York City and directed by Orloff in association with Romemu, a Jewish community dedicated to opening body, heart, mind and spirit. The production has received widespread acclaim. People can register for free, but donations can be made to the Central Massachusetts Jewish Theatre Company. (RD)

Not Just Standard Fare Comprising three talented three talented veteran local musicians – David West on guitar and vocals, Walter Crockett on guitar and vocals and Bill Fisher on bass and vocals – Stillwater String Band has a self-described repertoire of, “Songs from our past tell us who we were. New compositions tell us who we’ve become. This is the music our forbears listened to on the front porch. Our parents listened on the radio.” Considering they might play anything from a folk stanThe Stillwater String Band PHOTO BY DAN BARNARD dard to something as offbeat as Dan Bern’s “Marilyn Monroe,” this one makes for an enjoyable and often surprising night of music. What: Stillwater String Band When: 7 p.m. May 22 Where: Timberyard Brewing Company, 555 E Main St, East Brookfield How much: Free

What: “Blessings From the Pandemic” When/How much: 7 p.m. May 25. Free; donations welcome. Register at https:// cmjtc.org/blessings-from-pandemic.

It’s hard to say what’s more remarkable: That local singersongwriter P.E. James is playing his 11th year of summer shows at Grill on the Hill, or that we’re back to shows at all. But if you’re looking for a gentle way back into live music, James may well be your man. His guitar work is rich and beautiful, and there’s a warmth in his vocals that’s extremely inviting, even when he takes a bluesier tack on songs such as “Third Degree Burns” and “Get in Line.” James is one of the scene’s most stalwart and steadfast players, and there are good reasons for his longevity. What: Singer-songwriter P.E. James When: 6:30 to 9 p.m. May 22 Where: Grill on the Hill, 1929 Skyline Dr., Worcester How much: Free

A Time of ‘Reflection’ The Hanover Theatre Conservatory’s endof-year “Spring Reflection” showcase reflects back on what students have learned throughout the year, focusing on the proficiency, growth and talent of the student body. Most dance The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the classes will be feaPerforming Arts. COURTESY OF THE HANOVER THEATRE tured, as well as presentations by select theater classes and voice students. (RD) What: “Spring Reflection” When: 1 p.m. May 23 Where: The Hanover Theatre and Conservatory for the Performing Arts, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester. How much: Tickets are $25 each. Please review The Hanover Theatre’s current socially distanced seating chart and safety protocols. Seating is offered in groups of two or four to maintain safe distance and to adhere to state guidelines. Contact the box office at (877) 571-7469 for more information.

28 | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

ADOPTION OPTION

Meet Corrie Welcome to Adoption Option, a partnership with the Worcester Animal Rescue League highlighting their adoptable pets. Check this space often to meet all of the great pets at WARL in need of homes. WARL is open seven days a week, noon-4 p.m., 139 Holden St. Check them out online at Worcesterarl.org, or call at (508) 853-0030. Corrie was transferred to WARL by a veterinary hospital that got him from people who found him unable to walk. He had a fractured pelvis, which has healed, but he needs pain medication for his arthritis. We also discovered he has food allergies and will be on special food and medication for the rest of his life. We put Corrie in a foster home. His foster parent said, “Corrie is the most wonderful cat! He is friendly, lovable, quiet, playful and chilled out.” He spent his evenings in his foster parents’ laps and gave kisses. He had a good relationship with the foster parents’ two older cats after their initial introduction. Even with his old injury, Corrie enjoys jumping up to get a wand toy or chase a laser beam. Give him a catnip toy, and he is in heaven! Corrie would not be a good playmate for young children and hasn’t been in the company of dogs during his foster care. However, given his even temperament, Corrie would be comfortable in most homes. He will need medical care for the rest of his life, so just be aware that Corrie will be on a ﬁ rstname basis with his veterinarian. WARL COVID-19 Procedures As of Nov. 9, 2020

Corrie is available for adoption through WARL. PHOTO COURTESY OF EAST DOUGLAS PHOTO

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve, we want to share with you some changes we have implemented so that we can continue to serve the pets and people of our community while keeping our team protected. • ADOPTIONS: At this time, adoptions are being held BY APPOINTMENT ONLY. If you are interested in adoption, please visit our website worcesterarl.org/ adopt/ to learn more about our available animals then call us at (508) 853-0030 ext.0 or email us at info@worcesterarl. org to schedule an appointment. • CASUAL VISITS TO THE

SHELTER are prohibited. We will strictly enforce this in order to keep our animal care team protected while still maintaining the most essential function of our operation ... ﬁ nding homes for animals in need. • ANIMAL SURRENDERS: Our business practice for surrendering a pet remains the same. All pet owners must contact WARL in advance of surrendering a pet. Please call (508) 853-0030. • SPAY/NEUTER CLINICS: All scheduled appointments will be honored. If you have a scheduled appointment, we will be contacting you to dis-

cuss changes to our drop oﬀ / pick up procedures. • DONATIONS ACCEPTED except for open bags of food. • Pet food, cat litter, and other shelter supplies will be essential in continuing to provide for our animals and to assist community members in need. To avoid unnecessary travel and exposure, items can be purchased online from our Amazon Wishlist - https:// www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3AX342JIL73M0 • Weekly training classes are going on for adopters. • The WARL Volunteer Program is temporarily suspended. All regular volunteer shifts

are on hold. We look forward to welcoming you back as soon as we can. We have many animals in our care who depend on us to stay healthy and well. The above measures help to protect our staﬀ and community from the spread of COVID - 19 by minimizing face-to-face interactions while continuing to operate only core essential services. Please continue to follow our Facebook page for additional updates. Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact the shelter at (508) 853-0030 or info@ worcesterarl.org.

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 29

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Across 1 Deceptive maneuver 6 Wine bar choice 9 Bolivia’s constitutional capital 14 Singer Lennox 15 Zamboni surface 16 Thees and ___ 17 *Oldest of the five original MTV VJs, and host of the KISS “unmasking” special 19 Gridiron kicks 20 “Next one’s on me” 21 “Bali ___” (“South Pacific” song) 22 A long time 24 “Pericles, Prince of ___” 26 Angry Birds box that goes boom 28 *American Samoa village which is home to the territory’s only movie theater 31 Until this moment 33 “Monty Python and the Holy ___” 35 “Robin Hood: ___ in Tights” 36 Elephant-snatching bird of myth 38 Amazed acronym in chats 39 News station 40 Track and field athletes during the Tokyo Olympics (and a hint to the starred theme answers) 44 T as in testing? 45 “Hazy” beer variety 46 Installation in a bar, maybe 47 Line up a cornhole bag 48 Goes around 50 Game with numbered balls 54 *1997 Hanson chart-topper 56 Word before cow or horse 58 Prison film weapon 59 “We Have the Meats” advertiser 61 Big flightless bird 63 Carbon compound suffix 64 Harmon of “Rizzoli & Isles” 66 *Program you might use in a smartphone emulator (otherwise, they’d run on their own) 69 “___ say more?” 70 Get the picture 71 Missile monitoring gp. 72 Air Force student 73 Possessed 74 Final Oldsmobile model

“That Tracks”--and yeah, it’s a bit of a stretch. by Matt Jones

Down 1 Tex-Mex offering 2 Takes pleasure in 3 Harm 4 “Boyz N the Hood” actress Long 5 Silicon Valley industry, briefly 6 Ascendant 7 “Foucault’s Pendulum” author Umberto 8 Prohibit 9 Twin city to Minneapolis 10 ___ Peak, Kilimanjaro’s highest point (and Swahili for “freedom”) 11 Buyer and user 12 Wagon wheel groove 13 Curvy letter 18 “Call Me ___” (Mayim Bialik sitcom) 23 Puzzling riddle 25 Chilling 27 USC athletes 29 Not so much 30 Printer fluid 32 Over the ___ 34 ___ Darya (central Asian river) 37 “It looks like you’re writing a letter” Microsoft helper 39 How-to presentations 40 Quick haircut 41 Rooted (through) 42 Dermal opening 43 ‘70s-’80s “Club” mentioned in “The Eyes of Tammy Faye”

44 Tim ___ (Australian cookie) 48 “Whatever happens, happens” 49 Leaked slowly 51 “___ here!” (“Poltergeist” catchphrase) 52 Musical ineptitude 53 Be extra, with “it” 55 Wedding cake figurine, maybe 57 Fuse box unit 60 Broad band? 62 Arm bone 64 Mandela’s former org. 65 Org. for teachers 67 Shepherd’s pie bit 68 ISP your grandparents might still use

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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | 31

LAST CALL

Stephen Harutunian, general manager of Fox & The Knife Victor D. Infante Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK

I ran into fellow Doherty graduate Stephen Harutunian last week at Ralph’s Rock Diner on one of my very ﬁ rst ventures back into the “real world.” Harutunian was kind enough to entertain my many questions about working in the Boston hospitality scene amidst a global health crisis. With great admiration for the restaurants who have pivoted toward takeout and leveraged social media, Harutunian is prepared to take on the post-pandemic era in stride. Can you tell us about a restaurant job where you learned a valuable lesson that you have carried with you throughout your career? One thing that comes to mind wasn’t even from a job I ended up taking. I staged for a serving position when I was young and starting out at a restaurant in Boston I really loved. The kitchen was tiny and cramped, and on the tour the manager introduced me to the dishwasher and said, “Don’t ever get in his way; that’s the most important person in this building.” That’s always resonated with me for a number of reasons. First, I made it my mission to be able to understand and navigate any space I might be in so that I’m never in anyone’s way — that’s an undervalued skill that not everyone might think about, but an awareness of a space and your movement through it is paramount. When I ended up passing on that job for another, I really found it to be true that the dishwasher was the hardest working guy in the room. He was 17, going to high school and coming straight to the restaurant from school every day, and doing doubles on the weekends, and doing homework by midnight at the earliest. Seven days a week, and all to help his family with money. I’ll never forget him and I’ll never complete a service without checking in with everyone in the restaurant to see how they’re doing and making sure they feel seen and appreciated, especially the dishwashers. How do you predict the industry will change in the post-pandemic era? Where do I start? Most obviously, I think that many restaurants — the ones that are taking this seriously — have adapted sanitation practices that maybe should have been more common anyway, and I see that continuing. It will be nice when one day we can run food and drinks to guests without wearing gloves, but I think we’ll have an even greater emphasis on responsible practices moving forward. I think there will also be a pretty signiﬁ cant step away from the “yes-culture” of the hospitality industry as well. Don’t get me wrong, the whole idea of hospitality is obviously being hospitable, but the philosophy that we can’t ever say “no” or that we aren’t the ones in charge is kind of crazy

Stephen Harutunian is the general manager of Fox & The Knife. PHOTO BY DYLAN AZARI

and I see that changing. The pandemic has shown the world that restaurants are businesses, vulnerable ones at that, and like with other businesses, there are considerations that aren’t unreasonable to ask of our guests. Ninety-minute reservation windows? I'm all for it. Most of all, I think when people start to feel more comfortable and start to go out they are going to be looking to have fun. I know I am. I want to run every service like I’m throwing a party and I want everyone that comes in to feel like they're at one. I think we’ll see many many more of these kinds of places — a relaxed, hip and youthful atmosphere — pop up, and less and less white tablecloths. Eleven Madison Park just announced it's going vegan. Do you think others will follow or is this a misstep for Daniel Humm? I’m in no position to say that Daniel Humm is making a misstep. I certainly understand the reasoning behind the decision, and I’m sure the dining experience will remain a fantastic one. Other than that, though, I haven’t put much thought into it, and I don’t see it be-

coming too common a trend, other than the fact that there are lots of great vegan places and I’m sure they will continue to open. What would be your last meal? Oh, just a big pile of my mother’s rice pilaf. I wouldn’t need anything else. She took the recipe from my grandmother on my dad’s side, the Armenian side, and somehow just made it so much better. I think it was more butter. I can still smell it cooking and it brings me right back to my childhood whenever I think about it. I’d probably realize I only ate rice though, and order a pizza an hour later. If I’m being honest. As a seasoned member of the Boston restaurant scene, what is the outside perception of Worcester? Overall it’s a positive one, for sure. You hear the phrase “up-and-coming” a lot. There are defi nitely the places people know and celebrate. Word gets out to Boston when something cool is happening in Worcester. Believe it or not, they aren’t that far from each other. I think, for some reason, there’s a lot of misunderstanding about that. Some people talk like it’s Western Mass. I’d really love for the city to keep growing culturally. I feel like there’s a lot of opportunity for progress in the Worcester restaurant culture, especially when it comes to beverage programs. It’s going to take people embracing it though. When you are back in your hometown, what establishments do you like to frequent? I don’t get out too much these days, but when I can, I defi nitely have some favorites. Though it’s take-out only right now, I really love Sushi Miyazawa. It’s the real deal. And if you’re like me, when you pick it up you can drive by 335 Chandler Street and pretend it’s still Tatnuck Bookseller. As long as I live I will never forget the smell of that place. Crompton Collective kind of hits that vibe, and I think it’s a fun store to get lost in. As far as bars go, there’s something about the charm of Vincent’s that does it for me, and I'm sure a lot of people know what I'm talking about. And there’s a lot to love just outside of Worcester, too. Timberyard Brewing is so much fun and well worth the quick trip west on Route 9. Hudson’s got a great thing going with Less Than Greater Than as well. Where can we fi nd you this summer and what should we order? I am the general manager at Fox & The Knife, Chef Karen Akunowicz’s South Boston Enoteca. You have to try the Tagliatelle Bolognese, with wild boar and thyme. It’s so delicious and vibrant and herbal and surprisingly light. It pairs perfectly with a glass of La Tollara Frizzante, a slightly sparkling red blend of Bonarda and Barbera. Oh, and if it’s a nice day, we have a lovely patio, and all the frosé.

32 | MAY 20 - 26, 2021 | WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

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