Worcester Magazine August 20 - 26, 2020

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CULTURE • ARTS • DINING • VOICES

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Beyond Shrewsbury Street Revisiting Worcester’s Italian-American heritage

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A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020 • V O L U M E 45 I S S U E 52 Find us on Facebook.com/worcestermag Twitter @worcestermag Instagram: Worcestermag

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the cover Beyond Shrewsbury Street Revisiting Worcester’s Italian-American heritagea Story on page 10 File Photos ; Design by Kimberly Vasseur

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The Red Hot Chili Peppers (and the USA) have an Anthony Kiedis Problem ...

ALEX CHARALAMBIDES

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A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020

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rologue: December 2019, seminal SoCal funk-punk darlings turned Grammywinning, 80 million recordselling rock megastars the Red Hot Chili Peppers announced the return of guitarist John Frusciante for a third stint with the band, preparing for a 2020 world tour, including a March 31 headlining date for the annual Boston Calling Music Festival. The show was canceled in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Throughout the band’s tumultuous 35-year career, the RHCP’s only constants have been acclaimed bassist Flea and rapper-turnedsinger Anthony Kiedis, best friends since high school who founded the band along with guitarist Hilel Slovak, who died from a heroin overdose in 1988, almost ending the band and cornering front man Anthony into his first attempt at sobriety. Guitar prodigy, high school dropout and number one Chili Peppers fan John Frusciante was selected to replace Slovak. He was 18 years old.

Frusciante returning to the Chili Peppers again almost got past me. The 1998 Alex would have pumped a tennis fist up in the air at such news, but like a lot of fans, I’d lost my enthusiasm since he left the band for a second time in 2009. For context, Frusciante’s entrance into the band scored them their first gold record for 1989’s “Mother’s Milk” and their first platinum breakout album, 1991’s “Blood Sugar Sex Magik,” launching the band into the

mainstream and signaling the ’90s decade-long “alternative rock” era, with the lead single “Give it Away” released on Sept. 4, 1991, six days before Nirvana’s radio release of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Frusciante has been

voted one of the top 20 all-time rock guitarists by Rolling Stone Magazine.

By comparison, the band’s 2011 record with guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, “I’m With You,” sold only 2.2 million copies, and 2016’s “The

Getaway” sold a paltry 1.3 million.

But this isn’t really about the band’s waning sales or popularity.

Not really. This is about mentorship and influence, about seeing a parallel to yourself in a rock star, and what happens when the toxicities of that rocker’s reality are laid bare.

1.

Dear Anthony Kiedis, I’ve been thinking about second acts, about the decisions I’ve made and the forces that informed them.

I’ve been thinking a lot about this country to which my family emigrated to as refugees. I’ve been thinking about influence and the fact that I didn’t have many chosen mentors growing up. My family was busy assimilating and working. My teachers were quick-study Pez dispensers for grades. Even my oldest brother, John, my protector and hero at the time, joined the Air Force when I was 12, guaranteeing that I would have no cool record collection to inherit. I was desperate for a voice to confirm that I wasn’t crazy for suspecting that reality, as presented to me through the framework of the United States of America, was some sort of beautiful lie.

Like many firstgeneration Americans, almost every part of my childhood and adolescence was structured for me.

No

WARNER BROTHERS RECORDS

sleepovers at my American friends’ houses, a private all-boys high school. Most social interactions revolved around the church. My folks didn’t listen to music, read books for fun or go to movies or museums much. They were working extra hours, then extra hours on top of that, committing themselves to political organizing. The ironic dualities were astounding to me, even as a child. The person I spent the most time with was my grandmother, my YiaYia, who spoke zero English, my tri-lingually challenged mind mostly comprehending that she only wanted for me to be “good,” (then eat something) so I did and have been making that my primary occupation in life, through all the jobs, all the projects, I’ve been trying my damnedest to be good.

By 1990, the one area of my life that wasn’t strictly enforced was what I rocked on my headphones as I studied. One day, my 16-yearold sheltered self discovered an opportunity to grab a treasure trove of cassette tapes in one shot from the Columbia House Music Club, all for a penny! I finally had the freedom to take exciting chances and listen to stuff I might not have been able to afford otherwise. There were the standard rock tapes, but I was also enamored with rap and R&B, and then … there was this irresistibly manic sound blend coming from Southern California … The Red Hot Chili Peppers unwittingly became the music I chose to mentor me.

Because that’s what we’re talking about, right? Mentorship. Role models. Heroes. That’s what I was looking for, someone to tell me that thinking differently was not just OK, but necessary, righteous and joyful.

At some point, I looked at the world and told myself “there’s something’s not quite right here. There’s gotta be something else.” It was more a suspicion than anything else. At the start of my poetry career, one of my favorite pieces to perform was about my search for a mentor: “I must be truly demented, I actually sent away in the mail for a ready made mentor,” never realizing I had subconsciously alluded to that record club purchase from years back.

So, Anthony, your band became my mentor. Whether you wanted it to or not. I was a teenager.

FEATURED

Anthony Kiedis, left, and guitarist John Frusciante of The Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2006.

AP PHOTO/CHRIS PIZZELLO

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“Funky Monks,” the documentary about the recording of the seminal RHCP album, “Blood Sugar Sex Magik.”

The band had sequestered themselves into a haunted mansion in the Hollywood Hills for two months and did nothing else but work on that acclaimed record. A teen musical prodigy, Frusciante was in prime form, creating electrifying chord progressions, a perfect pairing with a matured Flea, whose approach to playing evolved from showing off to a “listening first” mentality. They were alchemists producing a new language. It looked like wizardry. But then, Frusciante’s absolute mentee devotion to you was on full display in the film, like when he explained his process on the hyper erotic psychadellic track “Sir Psycho Sexy”: “The main thought that I was concentrating on in my head was that there was this really beautiful girl there at the studio and I was thinking ‘If Anthony doesn’t (expletive) tonight, then I’m not doing my job as a guitar player.”

He idolized your band for years before he joined. He was a shy guitar nerd who finally found a big brother.

He sought your approval. But Anthony “can’t stop, addicted to the shin-dig” Kiedis, I know that you are an addict. At the time I discovered you, you were a recovered addict.

And I know addiction is a disease and I fully empathize with those who struggle with that disease and have infinite love for my friends and peers in the recovery community and understand that an important part of your story is that of addiction and (mostly) overcoming that addiction.

A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020

I was at, what I like to call, a catchpoint, cognitively developed enough to engage with new ideas while young enough to fully run with them.

Now, I’m a 45-year-old straight cis-het white male poet and educator, who’s approaching the 20th anniversary of the first time I ever read a poem in front of strangers at the old Java Hut. We have some things in common: I’ve also mentored.

Your band’s Boston Calling show got canceled, and the first annual Wicked Loud Youth Poetry Festival got canceled too. Wicked Loud is a re-imagined continuation of the spaces I’ve been helping to build for years through a nonprofit I co-founded (with poet Amanda Torres) called Mass LEAP. Hundreds of teens from across Massachusetts were slated to speak their stories into microphones, listen to one another and lift each other up, regardless of style, content or where they come from. Since 2003, these spaces have become my life’s work.

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I was bothered by how indifferent I was to Frusciante rejoining the band, which I once would have seen as exciting news. MTV was shocked when Frusciante left the Chili Peppers mid-tour in 1992. I only knew of the fallout, the well-documented heroin hell ride he went on after leaving. It got dark. I wanted to get a better understanding of why Frusciante left in the first place, Anthony, so I bought a copy of your 2004, New York Times best-selling autobiography “Scar Tissue,” co-written with Larry Sloman, at the Lincoln Square Plaza Barnes & Noble and rewatched

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A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020

“John was so young and inexperienced, he came in for a lot of good-natured ribbing,” you said in your book. Years later, Frusciante confided that it made him “incredibly self-conscious,” and to the best of your hind-sight, you still believed it was all a sign of love and respect to make him feel included. “If you look at it like, whose phone number are you dialing the most and who are you sharing the most experiences with, it was clear I was completely in admiration of this young man.”

You’d made the band your ad-

diction when you got clean. All he wanted was to be in the best band in LA and make music with a family.

It got too much too quick and he had to go … or else he was “going to die.” Your expectations and needs and need silenced him. You replaced him as fast as you could and kept touring. You didn’t connect for years, and upon learning that Frusciante had gotten clean and with Flea introducing the idea that he might be interested in rejoining the band, the two of you were finally going to hash it out.

“We went to the Farmer’s Market, one of my favorite places in LA, and sat down for some salmon tacos. I broke the ice. ‘Do you have a problem with me about anything?’ ‘No not really’ he said, ‘What about you, are you mad at me for anything?’ I thought I was but I don’t feel mad right now. I thought we should probably go over all this stuff but I don’t feel bothered by it anymore.’ ‘Me neither,’ John agreed.”

3.

But nothing can stop you alt-bro!

I’ve spent the last couple weeks gutting my nauseous way through your poorly written tome. Like, how did the #MeToo Movement even miss you, even though you officially confess to instances of statutory rape in your own autobiography? I know I’m 16 years late to the book review press junket party, but I could write a book twice as long as yours, unpack every truth you failed to face in your stupid lucky Dionysian playground of a maniac life.

jargon.” Instead you idealized your father as a mentor who showed you true soul respect by allowing you to become his undying partner in literal crime.

That guy messed you up bro. Like … for real.

America is kind of over your band, especially the young people. I remember chaperoning and chauffeuring three teenaged genius poet mentees from a youth social justice conference at UMass Boston, dropping them off at their respective homes in different parts of the state, after securing honorariums to perform for their peers. I usually encourage them to take over my USB cable to play whatever music they want, but on this day for some reason, low cell batteries left us with what was in my CD player, one of your records. A 16-year-old, first-generation Haitian American poet bopped her neck up from the back seat upon recognizing a blazing funk bass line and asked, “who is this?” By the time I was done answering, you started rabid scatting some semi-intelligible lyric, and the learning moment was over. She was over it.

I work with a lot of young people. I do not know one young person who loves your band. I also don’t know one young person who fully trusts Generation X to have their back, while they’re forcing long overdue conversations on white supremacy, patriarchy, toxic masculinity, homophobia and transphobia.

Our nonprofit has a theory of change logic model, as best as I can describe, it’s a process through which an organization comes to understand the why and the how of their work, naming the inputs and What’s still the most amazing thing to me, even more amazing than outcomes to develop a vision statement. Mass LEAP’s theory of change the fact that you’re still alive, or that includes adults as participants who he’s still alive, or your band is still are also changed by the process of alive, is the fact that even after you interaction through brave and safe got clean, you couldn’t rock climb arts spaces. Until recently, I’ve never your way to any real self-reflections focused enough on how I’ve come to about yourself. embody this theory of change, too.

Your failure to understand your These young people’s brilliance and own origin point is crucial here. You describe your experiences living with perspectives and care have changed me to the point where I didn’t write your father in the ‘70s as a magical poems for years, because I valued time. You proudly display pics of their voices so much over mine. I’m the first joint you smoked when you lucky. I unpacked a lot. I’m grateful to were 11 years old, with your pops and his 18-year-old girlfriend. Do you them. I will always work for them.

Revisiting “Funky Monks,” I really not understand that spendhappened upon a deleted scene I’d ing your formative years serving as never seen before, a quiet meditative wing-man for your drug-dealer to moment where a young Frusciante the stars, party monster of a father teaches you how to sing the chorus perhaps caused you real harm? I’m for “Under the Bridge,” a throw-away no psychiatrist, not even overly Anthony addiction poem that promoralistic, but it seems like you had ducer Rick Rubin insisted was actuevery rehab opportunity to delve ally a song. A song that catapulted into the underlying traumas of your you past the fame stratosphere. The life with a trained therapist, but you passed, dismissed it as “psychiatric first No. 1 hit! That young person had

Anthony Kiedis, left, and Dave Navarro of The Red Hot Chili Peppers perform at the Worcester Centrum in 1996.

STAFF FILE PHOTO

to teach you how to actually sing your own story. “No, Anthony, like this … ( falsetto) “Under the Bridge Downtown … Is where I drew some blood … ” Anthony, you spent the first third of your career speed-rapping clownishly on cocaine. It was a scene. Frusciante’s ascendancy in particular, and the dynamic with Flea he created within the band, taught you melody, if not directly shaping your scribblings into something that sounded like music. And sure, you worked on it. You’re better at it now. You are a privileged alt-bro who was allowed and encouraged to develop your craft by patient geniuses who saved you … over and over again; because friendship? guilt? potential? fear? Who actually knows? The only thing I do know for sure, is that it kept going … and it keeps going, as you sang in “Can’t Stop,” “Ever wonder if it’s all for you?”

4.

And isn’t that effectively America, generation after generation of entitled white straight cis-het men acting recklessly, then viciously punishing the people they rely on the most, and then claiming they’re not

aware of what the problem even is?

Anthony, no one’s ever checked you, or had the power to check you properly and that started at home, which is real. I agree with the notion that hurt people hurt people. Seems you still need to hit the kind of rock bottom clarity that would make you even see the real problem and/or ask for real help to understand that you fundamentally don’t even understand the problem.

Not everyone’s a mentor. I’ve needed to evolve and educate myself and am constantly questioning whether or not I’m doing the best job I can do. But it seems your brand of mentorship was a constant hunt for some developmentally challenged hunger you were raised into, whether your bandmates fell under your spell in high school, experimented with stronger drugs, jumped off buildings into swimming pools, or just followed your musical tastes, to the myriad — again, I really can’t believe I have to point this out — seriously underaged girls that you preyed upon, that you laid a lifetime of unchecked angst on, in the name of some karmic connection. The toxicity oozes from each page in

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your book to the point where I wanna rinse my eyeballs in pandemic hand sanitizer.

In the 1993 Quentin Tarantino scripted film “True Romance,” Christopher Walken’s gangster character interrogates Dennis Hopper for information, explaining the pantomimes of liars. “Right now you’re playing a game of ‘show and tell’, like you’re telling me everything, but you’re showing me nothing” — and I challenge you, Anthony, to show us something other than your addictions, including an addiction to painting yourself as the hero in your story. You do habitually humble brag throughout your book about your ability to lie and manipulate people.

There’s too much at stake right now for this newest generation and for all of us. They are literally in these streets and schools and institutions trying to resolve a simple historical truth that this country has ignored for the entirety of its “post-racial” history. The

“reality bites,” “slacker,” sarcastic Generation X to pick up our tools and help the young people more, instead of telling them to get off our newly acquired lawns. A lot of us are realizing or beginning to realize that we didn’t honestly earn all that we have. And right now we have so much, like some knowledge and some naming (the young people are so good at naming things) and some resources and enough energy to aid the demands for actual systemic change. If we don’t help them or offer authentic respectbased mentorship, or accept their mentorship, then we risk them being drained and losing the spark and they may not actually even be interested in helping us save ourselves.

I’ve been going to the park to run and do pushups every day. I’m eating vegetables for breakfast bro.

I’ve become a hydration fascist and read books instead of the internet.

I’m trying to get back to basics, build stamina in an effort to create solid

CITY LIF E

TLI GHT ART IST SPO

Fair warning, ousemedia.com. s WMeditor@gateh tion digital copie local artist, emailde a small bio and high resolu tion and what will , or know of a If you are an artist your work, you’ll need to provie what will run, based on resolu sh in order to publi We reserve the right to choos art. of some of your newsprint. on reproduce best

AP PHOTO/KENT GILBERT

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nging Aime ghout her upbri a ballerina. Throu New York. Musicians, acKent,

WORCES M

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s as well as art schoo and aristo had all kinds lf going on to in gallery shows and event creative poets, painters e found herse of ry tors, dancers, over the count herself with the same types she is today. Aime now shows all the artist that und BFA in 2006. She als. She continues to surro surrealistic world. that receiving her and arts festiv the luminous colors of her the Harlequin, a magical being l and music s variou of at paint are sexual, playfu ng with the idea inspire her to people which has been worki it. These esoteric Harlequinsour world and their own to she now For several years the world that surrounds beyond the boundaries of and ing can change itself us in their thoughts of travel s: following event Greenfield. . sometimes devio sly elastic points of views om/coletteaimee or at the in al: Sept. 13-15 reach tremendou of her work at rawartists.c Aug. 24, Wormtown Festiv Check out more town Spencer: Party in down Spencer Street

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wanted of an actor and

ter in to create small town of ée is the daugh that Colette took her life in the Colette Aim in and out of of the influencesSUNY New Paltz in New York, of art flowing l at crats were many

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action plans for being the best human I can possibly be for the second half of my privileged Gen-X life. And to support that, I’ve needed to look at and understand and name every toxic system and perception that raised me, including every mentor I chose to engage with. A young poet helped me understand that once we understand what the problem is, we can finally seek real wellness, heal, find freedom, or at least enough to do something about it, instead of living in a self perpetuating cycle of harm.

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origin point that too many deny is white supremacy and that its imprint is still alive in all of our systems. In your book, you brag about your social awareness, then decide that the Chilis were never going to be a political band. Even now, I don’t think I’ve seen a cursory #Black Lives Matter support statement on your band’s website or social media. My thesis here is that you’ve never had the capacity for actual mentorship, so the best thing you might do now, take it from me, is to take a step back, like all the way back.

It might save rock n’ roll.

It might inspire clever, sardonic,

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Red Hot Chili Peppers band members from left: Anthony Kiedis, John Frusciante, Michael “Flea” Balzary, and Chad Smith pose for photographers during a press conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2002. The Red Hot Chili Peppers arrived in Costa Rica on a stop on their world tour to promote their new album “By the Way.”

artists

CITY VOICES

HARVEY

No postage required — or allowed JANICE HARVEY

America.

Using that essential service to erry Christmas! I’m saying suppress votes — during a pandemic — is a maneuver both vile and it now because if Donald corrupt. It doesn’t take a scholar to Trump has his way, the see that Trump’s usual bag of tricks Christmas cards I mail has a hole in it this time around, won’t arrive until Easter. If ever. and he needed to explore another I must say, of all the disastrous route to continue as president. His messes I envisioned for America campaign has no message, offers no when the electoral college stuck us plans for solving the myriad crises with a bankrupt game show host, we face. “It’s gonna be great!” isn’t I did not have “Destroy the United States Postal Service” on my Trump cutting it with thinking Americans.

To-Do List. How badly does this guy His familiar penchant for namecalling has grown stale this time want to stay in the White House? around. He can’t seem to gain any What awaits him as an ordinary traction with his efforts to demean citizen to go this far to suppress Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. votes? Trump hired a megadonor Nothing seems to be sticking; hence with no experience in the Post Office — Louis “DePalma” DeJoy — to voter suppression most blatant! remove sorting machines and drop It’s the only trick left in the bag, boxes. If Trump walked around car- but “Thou Shalt Not Mess with the rying a sign that read “I’M TRYING USPS” should be the 11th Commandment.

TO STEAL THE ELECTION” he By the weekend, public outcry couldn’t be more obvious.

Yesterday, I went for a walk with over the USPS travesty was beginning to rise. Speaker Nancy Pelosi my grandkids. The mail carrier we met along the way was so cheerful, announced that members of the he broke my heart. He commented House will cut short their summer recess and vote to block any policy on the cooler weather and added changes DeJoy is cooking up with that he parked his truck nearby, Trump. DeJoy stated that he’s not choosing to walk and enjoy the removing any more sorting marefreshing temp change. After chines, though he didn’t say he was we passed, I turned and shouted: returning them, either. Proposed “We’re with the Post Office all legislation would freeze current the way, my friend!” The look of gratitude on his sunburnt face was services until either the pandemic is over, or Jan. 1, 2021. Something unmistakable. He thanked me. tells me January will roll around “That means a lot,” he said. before coronavirus packs its bags.

Seeing this man walk from I’ve decided that I’m not mailhouse to house made me recall ing my vote. I will wear a mask, Joe Servideo, the mail carrier who gloves — hell, I’ll don a Hazmat for 40 years walked the Burncoat area route that included Uncatena suit to vote in person if I have to. I Avenue where I lived. A kinder, fun- want to experience the satisfaction nier and more thoughtful employee of leaping over Trump’s barriers never wore the uniform. Before the to democracy even if it means standing for hours in famously days of online deposits, Joe would crappy New England weather. It’s make sure my paycheck from almost always cold and wet on Worcester Magazine got to me before the credit union closed. Seri- Election Day. I saw Joe Servideo ously? Who does that? Who leaves deliver mail in the worst weather a note in your mailbox, along with imaginable and never whine about it — through snow, rain, heat and the keys you thought you lost?

People like Joe, who took their jobs over poorly shoveled sidewalks, seriously, and understood how the likely making his rounds at dusk Postal Service, for all its flaws, was in winter. The way I see it, I owe it to Joe to do my duty and brave the the backbone, the lifeblood and elements, even if it takes me into every other cliche that suggests just how essential that service is to the gloom of night.

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FIRST PERSON

The Library of Disposable Art: The Penny

DAVID MACPHERSON

I

have a penny collection. I don’t know where it is. It’s kind of small. It was one of those little portfolios that had indentations so you can put the coins in.

The idea to this wee grouping was that I would have one penny from each year. I was going to have a century of pennies. Each penny has the year it was minted.

The other part of the collection was that all the pennies were to be found in everyday transactions. I was not to purchase from a coin dealer. I just had to get them from the change I was given, from the “leave a penny — take a penny” dishes by the cash register, on the ground, in the change jar in the kitchen.

All the pennies were to be found in the wild.

I think this little project came about when I emptied my pockets filled with, keys, coins, wadded tissues and whatever detritus nestled in there (my wife has said that I am the boy with the frog in his pocket) and discovered a few old pennies.

It was amazing to see how the humble penny had changed, from heavy dark metal of the 1940s to the shiny pliable penny of 2002.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

One was from the ’70s. Another was 1969. Then I noticed a penny from 1946.

I was shocked. There was a lot of hard living right there resting in my palm. So, for a few years, I was determined to get a penny from every year. I think the earliest penny I got was from the 1920s.

It was amazing to see how the humble penny had changed, from heavy dark metal of the 1940s to the shiny pliable penny of 2002. The older ones seemed more valuable.

Though, point of fact, they still were just a cent.

I never finished it. Hell, I don’t C O N T I N U E D O N N E XT PA G E

CITY VOICES

WORCESTERIA

The mask looks stupid on your chin VICTOR D. INFANTE

WHO WAS THAT UNMASKED MAN?: My wife and I made

it out to Nick's Bar and Restaurant last week for their Monday trivia night. It's out on the back patio, and surprisingly low key and fun. Which is good, because I fully admit, I'm still weirded out by going places.

Even Nick's, which is one of my favorite bars, and where one of my favorite bartenders can still make the best Manhattan around. Everyone was great about social distancing and wearing masks when not at their tables, but it's going to take some adjustment. I'm happy though that the amount of people wearing masks in This is not a helpful way to wear a mask. public places seems higher, VICTOR D. INFANTE lately. People, on the whole, seem to be behaving better. But you still come across people walking around stores with their mask only covering their chin, and it's like, “Really?!?!” Not only is that not helpful, it looks ridiculous. There are both safety and fashion etiquettes, and you are breaking them both.

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C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 8

even know where they are. I hope I didn’t sacrifice them to the false god of CoinStar, one of those days I was feeling poor and thrifty. I think it’s been a decade since I found a coin that could be added to the collection.

But I think of those stout little guys often. I can hold a penny from 1943 pinched between my fingers and wonder on the long history it has had.

Did kids gamble with it, pitching it up against the wall?

Was it thrown into a cup to help the war effort?

Was it collected with other likeminded coins so that the ragged man can get a room, with a clean bed, for the night?

Was it pin money for a house-

wife?

Was it thrown up in the air as someone shouted “heads.”

Was it picked up lucky?

How many comic books did it help purchase?

How many times was it used to buy some penny candy?

How many times was it thrown into a dirty coffee cup sitting in front of a bearded man holding a cardboard sign asking for change?

How many pairs of penny loafers was it a part of ?

All of these coins have a long life.

They are worn and beautiful. This century of pennies has a long story to tell us.

This penny has a history that is rich and valuable. And it is worth, almost, nothing.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY 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. A full name and town or city of residence are required. Please include an email address or phone number for verification purposes only. 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@gatehousemedia.com.

DISTANT, BUT SOCIAL: On the other hand, Tower Hill Botanic

Garden, which we also visited last week, is definitely a tonic amid this pandemic. You have to make an appointment in advance to visit, and they check your ticket through a closed car window, but from there on out you barely have to deal with other people at all. It's just you and a whole lot of plants, and right about now, that's about my speed.

MUST-SEE TV: More on this later, I'm sure, but is anybody else watching

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“Lovecraft Country” on HBO? The recontextualizing of famed horror novelist H.P. Lovecraft's work does a bang-up job so far of not just centering people of color in a great horror story, but also of interrogating the notoriously racist writer's work and legacy. This is particularly relevant to us because 1.) Loving extremely problematic artists is hard; and 2.) There are some overt Worcester connections in the show. Like I said, we'll get into it later, but suffice it to say, it's must-see watching so far.

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

frustration most voters feel when they reach the bottom of the ballot and have no idea who the people listed are, or even what the jobs do. Many people appreciated this, except for people who found the story while Googling the candidates, trying to educate themselves. For them, my column proved frustrating, and I apologize. If it's any help, Lance Harris, of the Central Mass Politics blog, pointed out on Twitter recently that, “The Charlie Baker-aligned Mass Majority PAC has made its first expenditure of the fall … in the Dem primary for the #CMass Governor’s Council seat, of all races. This mailer touting Padraic Rafferty arrived today. There are no GOPs vying for Jen Caissie’s vacant seat.” Hmmm.

Makes one wonder if some people aren't just wearing masks at the supermarket. On the other hand, his rival Paul M. DePalo's website shows endorsements from the likes of Harriett Chandler, Anne Gobi, Jim O'Day, Kate Toomey, Joe O'Brien, Sean Rose, Gary Rosen and, most importantly, comedian Jimmy Tingle. So make of that information what you will.

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TEPID COMPETITION: In last week's Worcesteria, I tried to reflect the

COVER STORY

Beyond Shrewsbury Street Revisiting Worcester’s Italian-American heritage CRAIG S. SEMON

grandmother would look at me and say, ‘What do you want to do?’ I said, “I don’t know?” “All right, let’s make some polenta” et me say a word about and she’d make polenta or she would bake Shrewsbury Street. This was, a loaf of bread or pasta or pizza fretta and and will forever be, the heart show me how to do it. She made all this stuff of the Italian community of and I just became so infatuated with the fact that you didn’t need a grocery store other Worcester. The very name is integral with than to get the real essential essentials. And the Italian Community. Anyone in WorcesI was so proud of them. If I had an opportuter who thinks of the Italians, instinctively nity when I visited my father’s side, I go visit thinks of Shrewsbury,” according to Rev. John my grandfather. He’d teach me Italian card J. Capuano (deceased), pastor of Our Lady of games like Scopa (broom in Italian). But, he Mount Carmel-St. Ann Parish, in “A Brief His- wouldn’t just play cards with me. The funny thing was he was a great teacher and he tory of the Italian Americans of Worcester, would talk to me while we played cards.”

Massachusetts from 1860 to 1978.”

“I grew up down on East Central Street.

So we were right in the center of the Italian There are four absolutes for any true section. Growing up, I thought there were Italian who grew up in the Italian section only Italians and Irish because that’s all I of Worcester in the 20th century – a strong knew,” Bello said. “And I went to school up work ethic, a devotion to family, a belief in a the hill at Sacred Heart Academy and the good education, and, of course, a passion for church was across the street, Mount Carmel. food, fabulous, homemade food.

The church was the social center. That’s While those absolutes still hold true how people met their spouses. My family today, some Italian-Americans argue that lived in the same neighborhood. My mother the younger generation has lost sight of the had nine in her family. My father had five. significance of some of these inherited prin- We’d walk up and down Central Street and cipals – but, not the food, no, never the food. Shrewsbury Street and everybody knew you.

When you ask Mauro DePasquale and We had the first social media because no Carmelita Bello what does it mean to them matter what I did, my mother would know to be an Italian-American growing up in about it before I came home … I remember Worcester, they both simply say “Everything,” looking out my living room window, right before rattling off their personal family down Hill Street, and in those days, when history for the next 10 minutes that truly somebody died or it was a feast day, they had captures the 20th-century Italian-American the little parades down Shrewsbury Street experience. and I watch them from my window. And DePasquale and Bello, who are both 100 they had the band and the woman in the percent Italian (and very well known in the black and the statue going down … My aunt Italian community and beyond), have fond Gladys was very active in the (Christopher memories that go back when they were very Columbus Lodge No. 168 Order of) Sons of young.

Italy and she got my sister and I involved. I “I lived off Bell Hill. There were mostly became the president of the State’s Sons of Italians. And I thought everybody was ItalItaly. My grandfather was the first one bringian,” DePasquale said. “I can remember one ing Sons of Italy to Worcester. So we were of my grandfathers holding me when I was very involved in the parades and making the one year old and he had a tattoo of Christ floats … I have great memories of it. I am tied to an anchor. I have a chain with that fond of my Italian heritage. I’ve been to Italy right now that I’ve worn since I became eight or nine times, supposed to go again in old enough to buy one. I remember visiting May but that blew up.” my grandparents and them taking me into As one can clearly see, DePasquale and the garden. One of my grandmothers made Bello both take great pride in being Italianwine. She showed me the machine when I Americans. was just a little kid. And I thought this was “Being an Italian-American, it was this so cool. These people didn’t need anything. pride. It was this ability to be self-sustaining.

They could make stuff. When I was hanging It was the ability to take care of yourself, around my grandmother, she would come not cry about things, do what you have to and visit and help my mom out when we do, have faith in God that you’re going to be were little kids. My mother had six kids. My OK,” DePasquale said. “And, when they spoke

L

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“

about the Blessed Mother or the Christ, I actually thought the Blessed Mother was right there, like she was a tenant or something.

She was going to come down and if I was a fresh kid, she was going to yell at me or something. This is how real and strong our faith was. My grandparents instilled in me the faith and honor and all the family values that are really important.”

When talking to Italians about family memories, it doesn’t take long for food to slip into their thoughts.

“My grandfather had this huge garden up on Franklin Street. He had this beautiful grapevine and every day I went up visiting there. We would sit at the grapevine at three o’clock and would have coffee and Italian cookies,” DePasquale said. “So I look up at the hill. I look at the backyard where the house used to be and my grandfather’s grapevine is still standing there strong. And I think of my grandfather all the time.”

“Everybody had a garden, even though they lived in a three-decker and had a postage-stamp (size) yard,” Bello added.

Jonelle Garofoli is 50 percent Italian.

Garofoli’s grandparents (on her father’s side) are from Italy and her father’s family grew up off Shrewsbury Street, in a house built by her grandfather, complete with a yard with a big vegetable garden and fruit trees.

“The cooking’s the number one thing about Italians,” Garofoli said. “Let’s be honest.”

Garofoli said the Italian traditions that were passed down to her, especially from her Nana, are very important to her.

“The seven fishes on Christmas Eve. I still cook like that,” Garofoli said. “I still cook the same Italian cookies for Christmas. I give them out to anybody and everybody I can find that needs cookies. I bake a lot and I make limoncello from scratch. I do everything that my Nana did. I picked up a lot from my Nana because I was always with her.”

Garofoli said all families used to be closeknit and everybody knew everyone in the neighborhood.

“They all came over from Italy and settled in the same neighborhood. They knew their parents, and the grandparents and the grand kids. My cousins were like my brothers and sisters,” Garofoli said. “Today, we don’t have the same kind of neighborhoods. There’s a lot of change. You need two incomes. There are two people working. Back then, women that were from Italy stayed at home took care of the house and kids. That was their job.”

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Also instilled in her was strong emphasis on being a hard worker and the benefits of a good education, Garofoli said.

“My father, the eldest of four, had to work because his father died young,” Garofoli said. “He had to quit college so he could support his siblings and my Nana. Education for him is important because he doesn’t want us to have to work like he did.”

Shrewsbury Street, and where his parents lived on the second floor while her grandmother lived on the first floor.

“I still live in that home. So I still feel very connected to the old neighborhood,” Lucci said. “We all stayed together but, now, I don’t think that’s true for everybody. It doesn’t feel there’s a true Italian neighborhood anymore. Shrewsbury Street is the remnants of the

Jonelle Garofoli stands with her son Lorenzo and daughter Nicolina Pasquale in the cross room of Boucher’s Good Books.

SABRINA GODIN

Barbara Lucci, who considers herself an “American of Italian descent” (and not an “Italian-American”), also said her Italian heritage means everything to her.

“Being an American of Italian descent, I knew exactly who I was,” Lucci said. “I knew exactly what the expectations were. You had to do well in school to succeed. You were supposed to do better than the generation before. But, most of all, you had to be loyal to family, and family was everything.”

Lucci, who is 50 percent Italian from her father’s side, lives in the home that her father grew up in, off

Italian-American neighborhood.

The farther along that an ethnic group has been here, of course, they’re going to be more assimilated, integrated. So I think that’s progress. I don’t see that as bad.”

When it comes to being an American of Italian descent, Lucci said she’s most proud of the way her family has maintained closeness.

“If we would fight, my dad would say, ‘Hey, you don’t know it now.

But, when you’re older, they’re going to be your best friends,’” Lucci said. “You know what? He’s so right.

They’re my best friends.”

COVER STORY

Mauro DePasquale and Carmelita Bello.

SABRINA GODIN

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three years later, today’s Italians are now finding out.

“Going to church at Mount Carmel, you couldn’t get away from it.

That was the Italian neighborhood for us,” DePasquale said. “Everybody went to church on Sunday.

You could smell the macaroni and gravy on them. You were hungry, just walking into the church.”

“Once the church is down, that area is going to lose the Italian flavor,” Bello said. “After the church came down, then we had to fight for the Columbus Day parade and statue.”

On July 21, the City Council voted 8-2 to “file” a motion made by Councilor Sarai Rivera that called on the city manager to work with the local Italian-American community to remove the Christopher Columbus statue and replace it with an “appropriate” one.

While the federal holiday honoring Columbus has sparked controversy today, no one seems to speak of the racism and violence against Italians documented in our country (but not necessarily in Worcester) leading up to Columbus Day. According to “How Italians Became ‘White’” by Brent Staples (published Oct. 12, 2019 in the New York Times), President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed Columbus Day as a one-time national celebration in 1892 — in the wake of a bloody New Orleans lynching that took the lives of 11 Italian immigrants. The proclamation was part of a broader attempt to quiet outrage among Italian-Americans, and a diplomatic blowup over the murders that brought Italy and the United States to the brink of war.

With last year’s demolition of the church and last month’s rally for the removal of the Christopher

A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020

DePasquale and Bello said there is a “disconnect” in today’s ItalianAmericans.

“My mother was home most of the time. She didn’t have to go to work. And then when she was home, my grandmother would help,” DePasquale recalled. “We had a strong community and I think that’s missing. Although it might still exist in certain pockets where there’s new ethnic groups that come in, Italian-Americans are splitting up and moving out.”

“My younger cousins, they identify with the food more than anything. But a lot of the other Italian traditions, they just don’t feel it,” Bello added. “Today’s society, it’s more materialistic. Now, it’s what am I going to make? What am I going to show? What am I going to wear? Where am I going to go?”

Although the demise of Worcester’s Italian-American neighborhood probably started with the construction of Interstate 290 many years earlier, it was the demolition of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church that symbolically meant the end, DePasquale and Bello said.

Bought from the Swedish Baptist Community, Our Lady of Mount Carmel opened its doors on Sunday, Nov. 4, 1906. Twelve years later, the thriving Italian community raised $232,000 to erect “our magnificent Romanesque church, still majestic with its matchless architecture,” according to Capuano in “A Brief History of the Italian Americans of Worcester, Massachusetts from 1860 to 1978.”

“If it had not been for the Mount Carmel Parish, things would have been much harder for early Italians in Worcester,” Capuano concluded.

With the church’s closure in 2016 and its subsequent demolition

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Columbus statue at Washington Square, DePasquale and Bello said it’s hard for Italian-Americans in the city not to feel like they are being attacked.

“Columbus didn’t go where he landed to invade. He went with 82 guys. They went on an exploration,” DePasquale said. “Columbus went into the abyss without a map. My grandparents came to this country without a map. They had no idea

Left: Singer Joe Cariglia belts out Frank Sinatra songs from the back of a Direnzo Towing & Recovery flatbed truck on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester during the annual Columbus Day Parade Sunday October 13, 2013. Below, Our Lady of Mount Carmel-St. Ann Church on Mulberry Street in Worcester - which has since been torn down due to structural concerns.

what they were going to do. And they made a life for themselves for generations of people to follow. So that’s what the Columbus story is about. He might have done some bad things but we are the sumtotal of our history, warts and all.”

“History is made by the people who write it. We have 10 different histories and 10 different perspectives on Columbus. What they’re saying he did, this guy had to be

FILE PHOTOS

the most powerful man in the world for him to destroy cultures that they’re putting on him,” Bello said. “Columbus was a brave man.

He had a lot of courage and faith in trying to do something different. He had no idea where he was going. You cannot put 21st-century sensibilities onto the 1400s. If you do that, you have to wipe out all of history.”

Unlike DePasquale and Bello, Lucci doesn’t thinks Columbus is a good representative of Italian culture.

“Growing up, Columbus Day was just celebrating being an American of Italian descent. No big deal. But when I learned what Columbus did, I thought, why are we doing this,” Lucci said. “I think we can just have a day to celebrate Italian ethnic pride. I think we can celebrate that without pulling in this guy that exploited people. I’m not that tied to it. People get so upset.

I’m not suggesting not celebrate Italian culture, just celebrating without Columbus.”

DePasquale and Bello said there should be some due process and discussion before the Columbus statue is removed and Columbus Day parade is banned.

“I don’t think some group should just come in and say, we’re going to change it now, have Indigenous Day and the heck with the Italians,” DePasquale said. “And, why does it have to be at the expense of the Italians. Why can’t we have Indigenous Day and Columbus Day, separate days?”

“People have to do their research because they can find histories that support Columbus. You can find histories that are in the middle. You can find histories that are against him, just like any other historical figure in the world,” Bello said. “That’s where you have to have the conversation, not just wipe it out. Conversation, not annihilation.”

CITY LIFE If you are an artist, or know of a local artist, email WMeditor@gatehousemedia.com. Fair warning, in order to publish your work, you’ll need to provide a small bio and high resolution digital copies of some of your art. We reserve the right to choose what will run, based on resolution and what will reproduce best on newsprint.

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020 WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

Worcester-born artist Kayla Wyman has been honing her art for years. Inspired by sharing her passion of creative expression, her street art and her cartoon style collide. Through her use and love of bright, bold colors, she focuses on bringing her creativity to life and inspiring art.

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CITY LIFE

LIFESTYLE

I dared to download Randonautica; it messed with my head SARAH CONNELL SANDERS

Free Library stocked with books.

Make no mistake, I found what I was looking for because I was looking for first heard about Randonautica two weeks ago from an article in it. All logic aside, I have experienced a few eerie moments.

The New York Times. A group of The first time I used RandonauTikTok teens in Seattle had used tica, I set the intention of “desire” and the random coordinate-generating followed the coordinates to a place app on a lark, only to discover a I have thought about thousands of suitcase full of human remains. The times since I was a kid — The Spanresulting video has been viewed 29 ish House. A year ago, I wrote about million times. my obsession with The Spanish Randonautica maintains that asHouse for this very column in hopes signed locations are always random that the owners would turn out to and cannot provide specific destinabe an eccentric rich couple willing tions based on a user’s private data. to hand over the keys. It didn’t quite “Randonauts” simply focus on an happen that way, but I still have a intention in their minds as the app feeling that some day, somehow, The spits out an arbitrary spot and advenSpanish House will be mine. ture ensues. An Atlantic article calling A few days later, I asked for “guidRandonautica “the app of the summer” ance” and the app brought me to purports that it has been downloaded my oral surgeon’s office. I was sort 6 million times since April. of underwhelmed until I started to Not all of the stories are morose.

Most of them relay karmic experiences think about our fluke meetings. He’s performed two surgeries on me in that I have chalked up to the user’s the last year; the first time, he told own creativity. In one case, a woman set the intent of “lost dog” and the app me, “You can only eat soft foods for the next few weeks — no pizza.” Days sent her to a location in the desert where, by gosh, she found a stray mutt. later, he spotted me at Revolution Pie & Pint; I was caught red-handed. AfIn another case, a user’s intention was “red” and he stumbled upon a crimson ter the second surgery, he said, “I better not run into you at another pizza sofa along the train tracks. joint.” Not a week later, I bumped I have tried the app nine times into him at Volturno Pizza Napolenow, for the most part, to identify tana. We have no mutual friends and new running routes. When “appreI’ve never seen him outside of our ciation” was my intent, I arrived at a appointments except on those two rushing river behind a low-income housing co-op. When “discovery” was occasions. During the run home, I convinced myself I was overthinking my intent, I found a Greek Revival it. Then, my phone rang. It was the mansion tucked into a row of threedeckers on Bell Hill. When “whimsy” oral surgeon’s office calling to schedule a six-month follow-up. was my intent, I came upon a Little

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I

On my next Randonautica run, I focused on “luck” and it brought me to the first spot I ever got dumped. The culprit was an unabashed rebound who drove a motorcycle. After two months, he told me he thought I might be the “kind of girl” who would want to get married. “Like, to YOU?” I responded, “Definitely not.” That was the end. I suppose it was lucky in a sense.

Everyone should have their heart broken by a dashing young lawnmower salesman at least once. Plus, the split paved the way for a chapter I called, “Summer of Sarah” during which time I met the love of my life.

Yesterday, my husband joked, “Why don’t you ask for something fun? How about wealth? Maybe you’ll find a treasure.” On the route that followed, I discovered a field of Queen Anne’s Lace, a fort in the woods, and a baby beaver. Then, the path opened up to the backside of my old elementary school. “I get it,” I thought, “Education is wealth.” I rolled my eyes at the universe and threw my hand to the sky. “Verrrrry funny.”

I’ve been waiting for something spooky or outlandish to happen to me on Randonautica so I could write about it. Finally, I just straight up asked. I requested, “a strong ending” for this article in hopes of making my Sunday deadline. The app responded with a residential address about a mile from my home. I went on the City of Worcester website to consult property records. The owner’s name sounded familiar. When I clicked on her Facebook profile, I figured out why. I knew her by another name, but

I asked for wealth and the Randonautica app led me to a field of Queen Anne’s Lace, a fort in the woods, and a baby beaver. What does it all mean?

SARAH CONNELL SANDERS

the faces staring back at me from her profile photos were unmistakable.

These were people I recognized from a difficult period of my life that I have tried hard to forget. I closed out of the app and ran to tell my husband.

“I thought this might happen

eventually,” he said, “that you’d come across a coincidence and feel tempted to read into it. You realize that’s all it is — a coincidence.” I know he’s right, but that was the end of Randonautica for me. Better not to tempt fate in 2020.

THE NEXT DRAFT

At least for breweries, pretzels should be enough MATTHEW TOTA

D

id Gov. Charlie Baker take a veiled shot at breweries two weeks ago when he chastised “bars masquerading as restaurants” and grumbled about pretzels and potato chips?

I don’t think so. But it is unfortunate that now brewers, who have faithfully followed the Baker

administration’s ever-changing policies for safe dining and drinking, must scramble again to stay open after having just begun to pick up the pieces from months-long closures.

For breweries, Baker’s new mandate requiring food orders with draft beers feels like a poorly aimed punishment at businesses that have never condoned the kind of behavior the governor believes may lead to

another coronavirus outbreak in Massachusetts.

That level of raucous, unchecked drinking that Baker worries may spill out from one location to another simply doesn’t happen at breweries.

Not to mention people have been spending less time at taprooms and beer gardens, either because of the restriction on how long you have a table or because they would rather

drink a beer at home.

This unnecessary guideline has already forced several breweries, which just a couple of weeks ago had been following the rules, to temporarily close because they had no time to prepare for it and could not find a food vendor.

Once again, the state has painted breweries with too broad a brush. It always makes me laugh when state

officials become craft beer experts when, to promote tourism, they describe the many amazing breweries around Massachusetts or when they recognize their achievements in manufacturing, but then lump them into the same category as bars for the purposes of policymaking.

Reacting to his brewery having to close its beer garden for two days

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CITY LIFE

TABLE HOPPIN’

Lock 50 executive chef building ‘dream team’

BARBARA M. HOULE

M

Rick Araujo, left, and Tim Russo at Lock 50.

RICK CINCLAIR

(508) 379-3400.

Lock 50 is among the restaurants located in the busy Canal District.

Enjoy!

Franklin Street Fare opens in downtown Worcester

Worcester Grid Hospitality Group opened Franklin Street Fare, 72 Franklin St., Worcester, Aug. 17.

Executive Chef Terrell Wilson helped create the menu for this quick service restaurant that offers “something for everyone.” Wilson joined Grid Hospitality’s team in 2019 and helped revamp the company’s Craft Table & Bar at 50 Franklin St., Worcester. The restaurant remains

closed during the pandemic.

Wilson in a telephone interview said the concept of Franklin Street Fare is something he’s really excited about. The restaurant is inspired by the current food truck culture and powered by the flavors of international street food, he said. Wilson, who “loves” international cuisine, has personally worked and trained with chefs worldwide.

The new restaurant has its menu written on a huge wall, said Wilson, and customers (assisted by people behind the counter) order food such as banh mi sandwiches, grain bowls, gyros and tacos, finishing dishes with sauces and toppings. “It’s a cool thing and food is made in-house,” said Wilson. The food is representaC O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 19

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Russo’s.

Araujo took home the 2019 second place Judges’ Choice Award in WBC competition. His food has been featured on the Phantom Gourmet, Chronicle and other food outlets.

On a personal note: Russo and his wife will soon celebrate their first wedding anniversary; Araujo and his wife have been married several years.

Lock 50 at 50 Water St., Worcester, has held onto its local fan base during the coronavirus pandemic. The restaurant has a comfy and spacious outdoor patio and offers indoor dining and take-out. Reservations are highly recommended. Check out patio igloos in late fall and winter.

For more information, visit https:// lock50.com or Facebook. The restaurant is closed Mondays. Telephone:

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

farmers and producers.

FYI: Ask about wine pairings when ordering Lock 50’s chef ’s tasting menu.

Russo first met Araujo at The Worcester’s Best Chef competition in Worcester. “We weren’t competitors,” said Russo, who recalled he judged the event at the time.

Russo won the title of Worcester’s Best Chef in 2015 when he worked at Volturno in Worcester. He also has won WBC People’s Choice and Judges’ Awards, in addition to other local and national culinary awards.

Russo as executive chef goes between Lock 50 on Water Street and Russo’s Italian Restaurant (across the street), restaurants owned by his uncle, Ed Russo.

David Erickson is sous chef at

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overs and shakers on the local restaurant scene include Rick Araujo, who has taken on the role of chef de cuisine at Lock 50 in Worcester, working alongside executive chef Tim Russo.

Araujo was the executive chef who helped open Civic Kitchen & Drink in Westboro in 2016, leaving the position in the fall of 2019 to consult on the development of a new restaurant concept in downtown Worcester. The project was put on the back burner amid the coronavirus pandemic, and a decision of when to move forward is yet to be determined, according to Araujo.

Both award-winning chefs, Russo and Araujo are taking the opportunity to brainstorm and work closely on special projects and menus. “Rick is my extra set of hands in the kitchen,” said Russo, who’s building a “dream team” to bring Lock 50 to the next level. Russo plans to hire another experienced chef within a couple of weeks, but the person first will work the line to see if he is compatible with staff before any announcement is made, according to Russo. There’s also some restructuring of the front of the house.

“We’re not focused on re-inventing the wheel,” said Russo about changes.

“We already have talented key players on the team, and we’re building from it. The restaurant is not just that special-occasion spot, as some people might view us. The restaurant is casual and totally approachable.”

Lock 50 currently offers small plates, entrees and weekly specials such as $1 oysters on Wednesdays.

The restaurant’s five- and sevencourse chef ’s tasting menus are something a little extra, allowing guests to get to enjoy a variety of flavors and the chef a venue to showcase his culinary talents. The adventurous chef ’s tasting menu speaks for itself.

“Rick and I work closely on tasting menus and bounce ideas off each other,” said Russo. “It’s sometimes a surprise to us what we decide to plate.” Both chefs support local, sustainable agriculture and have built a strong connection among local

CITY LIFE

FILM

Lame baseball season no match for Hollywood bats JIM KEOGH

I

need a good baseball movie.

Quickly.

Because the real thing just doesn’t isn’t doing it for me.

Going into this season, I knew the Red Sox would not be special.

Mookie Betts and David Price had departed for the Dodgers. Chris Sale is hurt. Manager Alex Cora languishes in exile for his role in the Astros cheating scandal. Mediocrity was to be expected.

What I hadn’t anticipated was that the 2020 edition of this team would be — as Westly describes his nemesis Humperdinck in “The Princess Bride” — a “miserable vomitous mass.” The hitters approach the batter’s box with the tentativeness of someone about to receive a nasal swab. The pitching staff is a sad parade of never-will-be’s. Every time I turn on a game the Red Sox are either withering at a key juncture or they’re already down by seven runs.

I’m not asking for greatness, just

a little grace. And it doesn’t have to be anything sustained. I’d settle for a few captured moments, like ... (“Moneyball”) Journeyman catcher/first baseman Scott Hatteberg (Chris Pratt) launches a monstrous home run to earn the Oakland A’s their 20th straight victory, helping prove the metrics-driven philosophy of baseball management championed by A’s executive Billy Beane (Bratt Pitt). (“The Bad News Bears” 1976 version) It’s the championship Little League game. The Yankees hitter blasts a ball deep to center field.

Timmy Lupus drifts back. Timmy’s a nice kid, but he’s got a glove made of stone. His back to the wall, he raises his left arm and the ball miraculously settles into his mitt. It’s a wondrous occasion, rivaled only by any instance when Walter Matthau cracks open a beer in the dugout. (“The Natural”) Brooklyn Knights slugger Roy Hobbs (Robert Redford) is mired in a horrible slump.

Without his bat, the Knights are lost.

Roy waves at two pitches, and steps

out of the batter’s box to gather himself. Suddenly, a mysterious woman dressed in white rises in the stands, silently urging him on. If she was any more angelic she’d be wearing wings.

Inspired, Roy wallops a shot to the deepest reaches of Wrigley Field, the ball shattering a giant clock and momentarily, gloriously, stopping time. (“A League of Their Own”) Penny Marshall’s film about the sisters Dottie and Kit (Geena Davis and Lori Petty) and their memorable season with the Rockford Peaches baseball team has ended with a tribute to the fictional players who helped keep the sport alive during WWII. But there’s one last piece of film still to be shown. As the credits roll, we see footage of the real women who played for the AllAmerican Girls Professional Baseball League, reunited for a game on the field behind the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. They are old women now and their bodies don’t cooperate they way they once could, but the skills haven’t flagged. They can bring it.

Brad Pitt, left, and Jonah Hill star in “Moneyball.”

COLUMBIA PICTURES-SONY

(“Field of Dreams”) No, the moment is not Kevin Costner playing catch with his dead father or James Earl Jones pontificating about baseball’s soaring beauty. It occurs just before, when aged Burt Lancaster, as Doc “Moonlight” Graham, has realized his lifelong dream of playing Major League ball (as his ghostly

younger self) and must now depart into the mystical corn rows beyond the outfield. Just before he wanders into the stalks, Shoeless Joe Jackson (Ray Liotta), the greatest player of his generation, calls out. “Hey, rookie!”

Doc turns to him. “You were good.”

To the old man, they are the most exquisite words ever spoken.

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NEW ON DVD

‘Sometimes Always Never’ a fascinating play on words KATIE FORAN - MCHALE TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

A

family tries to use words to fill a void in their lives in the top new DVD releases for the week of Aug. 18.

“Sometimes Always Never”: Emotionally distant but idiosyncratic Alan (Bill Nighy) embarks on an awkward long car ride with his son Peter (Sam Riley). It’s clear Peter’s dreading the trip, as Alan taps away on a game on his phone. When they arrive at their accommodations, Alan makes a bet with a fellow guest (Tim McInnerny) over a game of Scrabble after playing dumb. As it turns out, the game appears to be his life, and after walloping the irate guest, the guest’s wife (Jenny Agutter) reveals they’re both on edge, only staying there that night to visit the morgue the following morning to see if a recently found body is that of their missing son. And as it turns out, Alan

and Peter are there for the same reason. Alan’s missing son, Michael, left in anger during a game of Scrabble, which explains the whole family’s obsession, and Peter resents being the son who stayed behind.

Directed by Carl Hunter and written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, “Sometimes Always Never” shows power in how this family’s relationships appear Bill Nighy, right, and Sam Riley star in “Sometimes Always Never.” frozen in time since MiHURRICANE FILMS chael’s disappearance, a weight that fills the aesthetic doesn’t quite fit the tone or First Season”: Kate Kane (Ruby void of what their present and future the weight.

Rose) takes over Gotham’s vigilante could look like without the inertia.

Still, the film succeeds in showing duties years after Batman’s disapNighy and Riley keep their grievpearance in this CW series. the family’s love language: Words ing characters restrained, but with “Blue Bloods: The Tenth stick in their throats, maybe, but they pain visible just beyond the surface.

Season”: The CBS series stars Tom flow out onto the board game.

Alan’s quirks are endearing, though Selleck as the patriarch of a family of ALSO NEW ON DVD AUG. 18 the film’s quirky editing and overall police officers.

“Batwoman: The Complete

“Cursed Films”: Documentary series follows behind-the-scenes tragedies of iconic horror movies including “The Exorcist,” “The Crow” and more.

“Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons”: Animated web series follows Deathstroke’s (Michael Chiklis) quest for atonement and to take down the evil Jackal (Chris Jai Alex). Also stars vocal talents of Sasha Alexander and Asher Bishop.

“Emperor”: Enslaved man on the run Shields “Emperor” Green (Dayo Okeniyi) raids Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, with the help of abolitionist John Brown (James Cromwell).

“Military Wives”: A group of women married to troops in Afghanistan start a choir on their base. Stars Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan and Emma Lowndes.

“Open 24 Hours”: A woman recovering from a relationship with a serial killer (Vanessa Grasse) faces C O N T I N U E D O N N E XT PA G E

CITY LIFE

THE NEXT DRAFT

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 16

because of the new guideline, Kelsey Roth, general manager of Exhibit ‘A’ Brewing Co. in Framingham, described the state’s thinking perfectly.

quick bites, to serve draft pours. Then Baker called out the aforementioned snacks in his Aug. 7 press conference.

“The governor specifically pointed out pretzels and chips; that was very specific. And at least here in Framingham, soft pretzels, even though

TA B L E H O P P I N’

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 17

tive of what is traditionally served in places such as Vietnam, Argentina and Mexico, he said.

“With no inside seating, it’s strictly an in-and-out-the-door operation, providing quick take-out service,” added Wilson. Customers can enjoy their food with one of the 56 draft offerings at the nearby Worcester Beer Garden, also operated by Grid Hospitality, he said.

Franklin Street Fare is open daily from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Visit https://

NEW ON DVD

C O N T I N U E D F R O M P A G E 18

Gov. Charlie Baker is tired of “bars masquerading as restaurants,” where people are only eating pretzels and potato chips.

terrors at her new gas station convenience store job.

“Prevenge”: A pregnant woman (Alice Lowe) suspects her baby is leading her on a homicidal rampage to avenge her husband’s death.

“S.W.A.T.”: Shemar Moore stars in the CBS series centering on a Los Angeles lieutenant who struggles with the conflicts between his job and his roots.

“The Terror: Infamy: The Complete Second Season”: The AMC horror anthology series takes

www.franklinstreetfare.com for more information. For catering information, contact catering manager Sara Jean-Louis: sarajeanlouis@gridhg. com.

The opening of Franklin Street Fare has allowed Grid Hospitality to bring staff back to work, according to Wilson.

New hours for Bentley Pub in Auburn

Bentley Pub, 602 Southbridge St., Auburn, has new hours. place in a Japanese internment camp. Stars include Derek Mio, Kiki Sukezane and George Takei.

OUT ON DIGITAL HD AUG. 18 “A Life of Endless Summers: The Bruce Brown Story”: Documentary traces the life of the legendary director who examined surfer culture.

“Pretending I’m a Superman”: Documentary examines the legacy of the widely popular 1999 video game “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.”

“Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies”: Documentary explores factors that have influenced the appearance of onscreen actors in the

The restaurant is open from 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Friday; 11:30 to 8 p.m. Saturday. It’s closed Sundays. Call (508) 407-8880 to reserve or visit www.bentleypub. com.

Belated birthday greetings to noted restaurateur and Bentley Pub’s owner William C. (Billy) Martin, also co-owner and founder of the former Piccadily Pub chain of restaurants in Massachusetts.

If you have a tidbit for the column, call (508) 868-5282. Send email to bhoulefood@gmail.com. buff since the silent era.

“Tracks”: April Pearson and Chris Willoughby star as a couple gallivanting around Europe in an attempt to repair their relationship.

OUT ON DIGITAL HD AUG. 21 “The Unfamiliar”: An ex-Army doctor (Jemima West) mistakes supernatural horrors in her home with a mental health condition.

OUT ON DIGITAL HD AUG. 23 “Superman: Man of Tomorrow”: Animated film follows Daily Planet intern Clark Kent as he makes early attempts to save his city. Look for it on DVD and Blu-ray Sept. 8.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

19

they’re reheated, doesn’t count as food prepared on site.”

Now Exhibit ‘A’ has had to rush to find food vendors for two extra days of service. Not only that, it has to find vendors that will stay at the beer garden the entire day, 3 to 9 p.m. both Wednesday and Thursday. If the vendor runs out of food or has to leave for another booking, Exhibit ‘A’ has to shut down that day.

Exhibit ‘A’ could try to apply for a commercial food license to prepare food in the taproom. Only, that process would take weeks, and the season for outdoor drinking is nearly over.

“It’s just one more hurdle that we would have to jump,” Roth said.

While I hate to bring this up again, why do quesadillas, French fries and mozzarella sticks fit the requirement for food prepared on site, but toasty, salty, golden brown pretzels do not?

My guess is Baker has never had a pretzel at a brewery, because they’re always delicious. Sure, they’re not typically baked fresh there, but there is an art to reheating them perfectly.

And, of course, they go well with a cold one.

A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020

“A lot of these rules are either for restaurants or bars. Taprooms and their beer gardens are neither: We’re somewhere in between,” Roth said.

“Sometimes the rules don’t quite fit with what we do. But that’s the world we live in. We just have to be creative to figure out how to comply.”

Roth did not have a shred of bitterness or anger in his voice about the two days of lost revenue. Most breweries feel the same way. While slightly perturbed, they will push on and adapt without complaint. They’re unfailing, indefatigable.

I do not have the same poise and find this food order an unnecessary burden. What happens when a brewery can’t find a food truck or caterer because they’re all booked at other taprooms? Or when a vendor cancels last minute because its food truck broke down? In most cases, the brewery would have to close.

Exhibit ‘A’ had slotted food vendors in for Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

On Wednesdays and Thursdays, they got by serving, well, pretzels and chips. The previous guidelines only required breweries to have food available at their taprooms, including

CITY LIFE

ADOPTION OPTION 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.

* Special needs adoption *

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Meet Crumpet. This little guy was found as a stray in Worcester.

Upon his arrival, Crumpet was coughing and wheezing quite a bit. Our vet determined that in addition to being around 12 years old, Crumpet has a condition called collapsing trachea. This can be common in smaller breeds and is often why harnesses are used. However in Crumpet’s case the severity of his condition is much worse than most. Crumpet is on two types of medications as well as a cough suppressant to help relieve the discomfort. Even with these efforts, Crumpet still coughs, wheezes and occasionally his tongue will even turn blue from loss of oxygen. Crumpet is a happy and loving little dog. He is content to sit on your lap and give you kisses. Ideally his next home will be a quiet, relaxing one with a person who is home to watch him often. He cannot be walked on a collar or harness and should not be outside when it is warm out. Crumpet may not have a lot of time left, but we want to make sure what time he does have is spent in loving arms and being spoiled. The medications Crumpet takes can be a bit costly and he needs to take them daily. If you would like to know more about Crumpet and his special needs, please contact our Dog Coordinator at Sara@worcesterarl.org

WARL COVID-19 Procedures As of March 25, 2020

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... finding 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 discuss changes to our drop off/pick up procedures.

• DONATIONS: We will not be accepting linens of any kind or used, stuffed dog toys. While we are grateful for your thoughtfulness, we will not accept these donations if brought to the shelter.

• 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 suspended until further notice.

• 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.

Thank you for your continued FURiendship and support.

GAMES

J O N E S I N’

40 Ostrich or kiwi, e.g.

41 “First Do No ___” (Meryl Streep TV film) 44 Sallie ___ (student loan provider) 47 Site of a 1949 European “Convention” 48 Takes to the soapbox 49 Wishes 50 Carreras, Domingo, or Pavarotti 51 Etch away 52 Harold of “Ghostbusters” 53 “To Live and Die ___” 54 Twist, as statistics 57 AOL or MSN, e.g., once ...

58 ... and where to find them 59 “___ be my pleasure!”

60 Sorority letter

Last week's solution

21

©2002, 2020 Matt Jones (jonesincrosswords@gmail.com) Reference puzzle #1002

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

Down 1 It’s made to step on 2 Obey Viagra?

3 San Francisco and New Orleans, for two 4 Frequent NASCAR sponsor 5 Uses an iron, maybe 6 Quick stretch in the alphabet song 7 Article written by Voltaire?

8 List-ending abbr.

9 Web design option that’s obsolete 10 Thighbone 11 “The Greatest Story ___ Told” 12 Stopper for the bubbly 13 Singing syllable 18 Cowboy’s rope 24 Hockey great Bobby and family 25 Summer sign 26 Service station owned

by BP 27 Arizona City, today 30 Cost-friendly 31 Bookish type 32 Cooked to perfection 33 Off-kilter 34 Elisabeth of “Leaving Las Vegas” 35 Woody Allen “regular guy in famous situations” movie 38 Old paint additive

A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020

Fun By The Numbers Like puzzles? Then you’ll love sudoku. This mind-bending puzzle will have you hooked from the moment you square off, so sharpen your pencil and put your sudoku savvy to the test!

Here’s How It Works: Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes. To solve sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box. Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box. You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes. The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

Across 1 Drains, as energy 5 R&B singer Cantrell 8 Cause counterpart 14 Jog like a horse 15 Presidential monogram during the 1960s 16 “Starlight Express” director Nunn 17 Gigantic bird with a stone passenger cabin 19 Item with an image-chiseling bird 20 Suffix for McCarthy 21 With a tilde, “year”; without, something nastier 22 Darkness and obscurity 23 Musical item using a pointy-beaked bird 28 Eye color location 29 Birds on a ranch Down Under 30 Word after tight or rear 33 “Ad ___ per aspera” (Kansas state motto) 35 PBS kids’ show that taught Ubby-Dubby 36 Fortune 500 member, most likely 37 Signaling item, when the bird’s tail is pulled 39 Motorist’s signal, when the bird is squeezed 42 Parisian street 43 Annoying “Sesame Street” muppet 45 “Biography” network 46 “Abso-friggin-lutely!”

47 Mother of all, in Greek mythology 48 Other, to Osvaldo 49 Garden tool, when the bird’s legs are squeezed 53 “The Heat ___” 55 Dig in 56 Pension plan alternative 57 Writing implement using a bird’s beak 59 Talking bird flying back and forth between stone boxes 61 Cover for a platter 62 “Little piggy,” really 63 “___ but known ...”

64 Tousles, like a puppy 65 AMA members 66 Corrida cheers

“For the Birds”--multi-tasking for the “modern Stone Age family.” [#34, Feb. 2002] By Matt Jones

CLASSIFIEDS

LEGALS

SERVICE DIRECTORY PUBLIC AUCTION NOTICE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF M.L.C. 225 SEC. 39A THE FOLLOWING VEHICLES WILL BE SOLD AUGUST 29,2020 TO SATISFY OUR GARAGE LIEN THEREON FOR TOWING AND STORAGE CHARGES AND EXPENSES OF SALE AND NOTICE: 1997 TOYOTA RAV-4 VIN# JT3HP10V6V0132031 2011 DODGE DURANGO VIN# 1D4RE2GG3BC720758 2016 HYUNDAI ELANTRA VIN# 5NPDH4AE5GH665288 THE SALE WILL BE HELD AT EARLY’S ON PARK AVENUE, INC. 536 PARK AVE. WORCESTER, MA 01603

Where do I find such cool stuff and helpful services?

Place your ad here!

Call 888-254-3466 or email classifieds@ gatehousemedia.com

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WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020

My secret is CLASSIFIEDS!

Over 90,000 Readers!

Call 888-254-3466 or email classifieds@gatehousemedia.com Sudoku Answers

classifieds@gatehousemedia.com • 888-254-3466

LAST CALL

Etel Haxhiaj Woman of Consequence O DY

LA N

AZ

AR

I

n Aug. 27, the City of Worcester’s Advisory Committee on the Status of Women will celebrate Etel Haxhiaj as 2020’s Woman of Consequence.

Haxhiaj was selected as this year’s recipient of the prestigious award based on her strong leadership and pivotal work as a change agent across the community. The ceremony will begin streaming on Facebook at 6 p.m. and feature a keynote address

by Boston At-Large City Councilor Julia Mejia and a reading from Worcester Youth Poet Laureate Amina Mohammed. In addition, Safiya Nafai will be recognized as this year’s Young Woman of Consequence.

What does the future look like for you?

The future won’t look much different in terms of my commitment to continuing to lift up issues that affect women, girls, women of color, the LGBTQIA community, and personally supporting women and girls who are doing amazing work that needs to be spotlighted.

If you had secured a position on City Council, what would be your top priority right now?

That’s a really good question. During the election, I spoke a lot about issues that I feel are often not discussed through an equity lens. Obviously, one of the things that is really important to me — not only because of the daily work that I do, but also because it’s one of the critical needs — is the demand for affordable housing opportunities for families as well as individuals who are on the margins of the housing crisis. We cannot divorce the climate crisis from the housing crisis. We know that there are intersections between those two. Generally speaking, I think every policy that I would have advocated for or supported, would have centered racial equality.

What would you like to say to the women of Worcester?

As a woman who ran for office, one of the things that was really surprising to me and that hurt during the election was that some folks still think, including male candidates, that a single mother couldn’t do the job of city councilor. It is really hard, as a female candidate, and as a mother running for office, to watch how hard all of the mothers in the race worked with access to fewer resources. When we talk about the status of women, it’s just disheartening to see that out of the one hundred highest-paid municipal employees in Worcester, only three happened to be women, and they’re all white women.

There’s no Black or brown or indigenous women represented.

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– Sarah Connell Sanders

WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM

When you arrived in Worcester, how did you pursue an education and what has your career trajectory looked like?

I arrived here because of Clark University. I studied international development and social change as an undergrad, and community development and planning for my master’s degree. In the 22 years that I’ve been in the city, my career and my vocational trajectory has focused on serving our community. I’ve been a youth mentor.

I’ve run conflict resolution and peer mediation programs for young people in our schools. I have worked as a mediator in the Attorney General’s office making sure that our elders and our consumers were protected from scams and keeping an eye on patterns of abuse across Worcester’s consumer field. I’ve worked with the homeless population. I currently work for Central Mass Housing

Congratulations on your recognition as this year’s Woman of Consequence. What do you think renders you uniquely qualified as a recipient?

Well, when you have really good women friends in your life who support you and cheer for you and are there for you at times like this, you end up being nominated for some of these awards. I was nominated by Robyn Kennedy, who was one of my campaign managers during my run for office last year.

She is also a really good friend of mine. The nomination was supported by a lot of community members who I’ve had the privilege of organizing and working with. It’s really exciting. I want to say that as I sit here and think about what it means to me, I feel there are so many women of consequence and girls of consequence in our community that I personally know, supported, mentored, and look up to. I just feel very blessed to have them in my life. I definitely want to share this award with every single one of them.

A U G U S T 20 - 26, 2020

You’ve spoken quite a bit about your experience as a new American. Would you be willing to share the story of your parents fleeing their native Albania because of civil and political unrest?

The story of myself and my parents is not that different than a lot of families who have escaped political and civil unrest in their home countries. We were forced to leave in 1997. I was 17 years old. We fled to neighboring Greece where we lived undocumented for two years before making our way to the United States. My parents chose to leave because they were worried about my safety as a young woman. There was a lot of trafficking of women and girls happening at the time. They made the very difficult choice of uprooting our lives in search of safety and better economic outcomes for themselves and for me.

Alliance as a director of public advocacy and education. I have also done a lot of community organizing, most recently, supporting Mothers Out Front. We fight climate change and try to bring about local and state policies that bring us closer to a hundred percent renewable energy through a just transition.

I’ve also volunteered for the YWCA Board of Directors where I currently serve and have been involved in different community efforts regarding racial justice and issues impacting families.

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