Dig Boston June 10th, 2015

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NEWS

COMEDY

TRICIA AULD

AND THE STRUGGLES OF BREAKING INTO BOSTON STAND-UP BLUNT TRUTH

MAYOR MARTY WALSH

ON WEED

THE STRANGE CASE OF

USAAMAH RAHIM BOOKS

SUMMER READING LIST

BEACH READS FORTHE MUSIC OBSESSED

W E I V E R P R E M M U

20 1 5

S

, G N I V I D Y K S , S L L O R R E T S B O L TS, R E C N O N C O E S H A T E S S I ALL H T IT H O T S O I T A P D BEACHES, AN bonus

S R E T A E H DRIVE-IN T STILL A THING

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VOL 17 + ISSUE 23

JUNE 10, 2015 - JUNE 17, 2015 EDITORIAL EDITOR Dan McCarthy NEWS, FEATURES + MEDIA FARM EDITOR Chris Faraone ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran CONTRIBUTORS Boston Bastard, Martín Caballero, Paige Chaplin, Christopher Ehlers, Emily Hopkins, Micaela Kimball, Jake Mulligan, Cady Vishniac, Dave Wedge

DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Tak Toyoshima DESIGNER Brittany Grabowski INTERNS Michael Zaia COMICS Tim Chamberlain Brian Connolly Pat Falco Patt Kelley

ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Nate Andrews Jesse Weiss FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION sales@digpublishing.com

BUSINESS PUBLISHER Jeff Lawrence ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Marc Shepard

DEAR READER As far as seasons go, it takes no stretch of the imagination to think summer is the one that local denizens most look forward to each year. And that makes sense, considering the range of big fun for the taking for those with the want to have such things in their lives. And, for that matter, anyone with a desire to take the three or four months of good weather and squeeze every ounce of life out of it to combat the crushing depression that sets in during the snowy hell that can be winter in Boston.

As such, we’ve gone to great lengths this issue to put together a choice preview of what should be on your radar and your mind while taking advantage of the Hub’s best happenings in June, July, and August.

Be it a roster of arts events and world-premiere theater experiences, music concerts to hit, or the summer reading to devour on the closest beaches (which, as you’ll find on Page 20, are a lot closer than you may think). Additionally, we have a roundup of the different restaurant openings, skydiving opportunities, and even the patios and pools to know about for when the sun is high and you’re looking to be the same, just on a patio or while in a pool.

And since we’re all about balance here, we tempered our wanton exploration and hyping of the light-hearted summer fun that abounds in the Hub with our normal mix of biting media criticism, heavy news (see: Page 4), and also a screed on the struggles of making it in Boston as a female comic.

Welcome to summer.

DAN McCARTHY, EDITOR

OPERATIONS MANAGER John Loftus

DigBoston, 242 East Berkeley St. 5th Floor Boston, MA 02118 Fax 617.849.5990 Phone 617.426.8942 digboston.com

ON THE COVER

Aly Morrissey is a Boston-based photographer, writer, dreamer, and music junkie. She yearns for her days as a college radio DJ and still feels the need to tell you how long she knew the artist before they became a Starbucks Pick of the Week. See her work at alymorrissey photography.com. ©2015 DIGBOSTON IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY DIG PUBLISHING LLC. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION CAN BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT. DIG PUBLISHING LLC CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. ONE COPY OF DIGBOSTON IS AVAILABLE FREE TO MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS AND VISITORS EACH WEEK. ANYONE REMOVING PAPERS IN BULK WILL BE PROSECUTED ON THEFT CHARGES TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW.

DIGTIONARY

XENUPHOBE

noun zee-nu-phobe 1. Someone who is afraid of Scientologists.

OH, CRUEL WORLD Dear Sunglass People, I am not talking to people who wear sunglasses in general. I am talking to people who wear gigantic shades that cover their entire cheeks and even sometimes a significant part of their forehead. I’m talking to people with specs so enormous that when they put them on their stupid heads - which they inevitably do, since they’re among the most annoying people on earth and, like I said, they’re stupid - it looks like they have a goddamn Darth Vader helmet on, some kind of moon roof on their hollow skull. It’s not a fashion thing; titanic shades have gone in and out, that’s neither here nor there. Anyway, you people, the people who I’m talking about, I hope you’re all forced to wear cataracts glasses one day.

ILLUSTRATION BY AMY BOUCHARD

ADVISOR Joseph B. Darby III

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NEWS US

DO THE RIGHT THING NEWS TO US

The horror show framing the killing of Usaamah Rahim At least for my generation, there are few more memorable movie moments than the riot scene in Do The Right Thing.

Building to this climax, the classic New York film moves slowly, almost predictably toward violent conflict between African American residents of Bedford-Stuyvesant and white police and shopkeepers, the latter of whom at the time and still to some extent today are seen as intruders by natives of that corner of Brooklyn. After the boomboxblasting character known as Radio Raheem is choked to death by NYPD, virtually Eric Garner-style to a tragic T, the neighborhood erupts into a frenzy, a summer of harassment boiling over.

That Spike Lee joint comes to mind whenever I hear news that a young person of color was choked, shot, or beaten by authorities, and has weighed especially heavily on me since the recent death of Boston resident Usaamah Rahim, at the hands of police, by a bus stop off of Washington Street in Roslindale. I initially hung on the comparison due to the similarity in their names—Rahim, and Raheem. But in watching so much blatant bigotry unfold in plain sight over the past week, I’ve realized that as far as many Muslims are concerned, this shooting signifies a breaking point in relations between their community and the police who hound them.

I drove out to the CVS parking lot where Rahim was 4

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killed for a press conference on Thursday, days after he reportedly lunged at officers with a knife in a fashion that warranted deadly force. His family wanted to get their story on the record, and it was no surprise. Up until that point, most of what the public heard came from a media that, as usual, acted as little more than fiber optic cable for the statements of police brass. As international security reporter Glenn Greenwald observed on The Intercept: Literally within hours of the killing, both the Boston and national media had uncritically published multiple, wholly uncorroborated accusations about Rahim based solely on the claims of the law enforcement agencies that had just killed him. Some law enforcement officials were even granted anonymity by these journalists in order to smear their victim. Rahim was almost instantly convicted by the media of being a dangerous terrorist preparing to carry out an ISIS-inspired attack.

On the ground last week, a rabid pack of journalists were on hand to greet the 26-year-old Rahim’s fam and their spokespeople. Some sat crisscross applesauce on the blacktop; others fiddled with their hair and tested levels by a row of satellite trucks. Cars screeched by, and in one

case a passing motorist screamed out of an SUV window, “Free Tom Brady.” Police, though not intrusive, watched on—from the street, as well as from a nearby Burger King, on the fire escape of a utility building abutting the lot, and probably remotely from the camera on which the Rahim shooting was captured. One sensed that most of those in attendance, police and reporters alike, were merely tolerating the press conference; as suggested by The Intercept, they already had their minds made up about what happened.

I’m not saying Radio Raheem is Usaamah Rahim, or vice versa. Frankly, I don’t know very much about either of them. All I know from the family’s side is what I saw and heard in that parking lot—they say they are surprised to learn of Usaamah’s alleged radicalization, and are curious as to why authorities did not have an arrest warrant. I’m sure a lot more information will shake out soon—some reliable, some not so much—as the screws get put to Rahim’s friend, David Wright, who is currently in lockup. Until then, and perhaps throughout the whole deliberation and investigation process, I plan on heeding the request of the Rahim family attorney Ronald Sullivan, who in Roslindale asked that people keep an open mind DO THE RIGHT THING continued on pg. 6

PHOTO BY CHRIS FARAONE

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1

Parkway Cycle 1865 Revere beach Parkway

Everett, MA | 617-389-7000 | parkwaycycle.com

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DO THE RIGHT THING continued from pg. 4

REAL FOOD every night TILL ' CLOSE

until all facts are on the table. At the least, it’s probably best to avoid taking the route of resident Boston Herald xenophobe Howie Carr, who following the press conference described the deceased as a “shiftless, leeching” “dead thug” and “Islamist savage,” and his friend Wright as a “wide load” and “obese layabout.”

Speaking at the presser, Rahim family advocate Imam Abdullah Faaruuq, of the Mosque for the Praising of the Lord in Roxbury, took reporters to task, saying the media—but really American pop culture in general—is “teaching us a great many things about what the world is today instead of what it could be.” I would argue that the best media, for example most if not all Spike Lee joints, does a little bit of both—it shows us what we did wrong yesterday so that we’ll do the right thing tomorrow. Take, for example, the scene in his iconic portrayal of Brooklyn in which the director has Raheem, still full of youth and vigor, explain the four-finger “LOVE” and “HATE” rings wrapping his knuckles.

The right hand: the hand of Love. The story of life is this: Static. One hand is always fighting the other hand, and the left hand is kicking much ass. I mean, it looks like the right hand, Love, is finished. But hold on, stop the presses, the right hand is coming back. Yeah, he got the left hand on the ropes, now, that’s right. Ooh, it’s a devastating right and Hate is hurt, he’s down. Left-hand Hate KO’d by Love.

Maybe on Spike Lee’s block, but in Boston, at least for the time being, love is down for the count.

BLUNT TRUTH

MARTY WALSH ON WEED

BY MIKE CANN @MIKECANN

9 2 H A M P S HIR E S T, CA M B R ID G E , M A | 6 1 7-2 5 0 - 8 4 5 4 | L O R D H O B O.C O M

With Boston Mayor Marty Walsh expected to lead the 2016 ballot initiative campaign against legalization in Mass, it’s as good a time as ever to look back at some past statements from the recovering alcoholic who has pushed to keep some city bars open later, all the while opposing cannabis reform.

“I heard somebody comparing marijuana to alcohol, they’re two different substances. If we want to outlaw alcohol, let’s do it. Look what I can tell you, marijuana is a gateway drug … The next step after marijuana potentially could be Oxycontin, heroin, and then the next step after that as we all know, jails, mental institutions, or death.” -March 2008 “It’s absolutely ridiculous … The ballot put zero teeth in the law so there’s no way to enforce [fines in the wake of decriminalization].” -July 2009 “The people standing behind us are in recovery and they are trying to make sure their life gets better. Mixed in with that group are some young people. They got started by smoking a joint, which means it was a gateway drug. They didn’t start by sticking a needle of heroin in their arm, they didn’t start by smoking crack, they started with a joint.” -October 2012 “I have family members that have passed away because of the use and abuse of drugs, and people start with marijuana. People start by smoking that innocent joint.” -October 2012 “I have concerns about it, the intent of the law when it was first passed. I think it passed under false pretense. I was never a big supporter of the [medical marijuana] law.” -January 2014 “Well, I’m dead set against legalizing marijuana. I was dead set against the marijuana dispensaries, and I was dead set against all the marijuana laws … I have made it very clear to the state that I don’t want these dispensaries in our city.” -April 2014 “I just think it’s a slippery slope. I’ve spent a lot of time in my career working on issues around substance abuse and marijuana is a gateway drug and I am very clear in my opposition to it.” -November 2014 “So because of racial disparities we legalize a drug that potentially could kill people, lead to death? I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to do it.” -May 2015 “There are also concerns about smoking, I mean people, we’re out there fighting the tobacco industry about reducing smoking and now all of a sudden we’re going to legalize marijuana. It’s another form of smoking.” -June 2015 “I drank plenty but I never smoked pot … I never have, which is amazing.” -June 2015

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MEDIA FARM

PLOT HUB TIME MACHINE Three old books show us how nothing ever changes

BY MEDIA FARM @MEDIAFARM Though the internet is loaded with old documents, location information isn’t always parsed very well; as a result, when looking to the past for answers, the most revealing narratives are often those that are bound or on microfilm. For this reason, some of us dig for relics about Hub life in every cultural nook and corner imaginable, and last week secured some obscure paperback gems at a used book oasis in Maine.

As usual, we perused our picks for signs of progress on the Boston front …

‘Car-Free in Boston and all Massachusetts’

We’re pretty sure this book of maps and facts from 1984 was intended as a handy pocket tool for tourists without wheels, as opposed to a Utopian how-to guide for weaning the Bean off of gasoline. In any case, the rainbow-riffic throwback pocketstuffer is essentially still up to date, give or take a couple of Green Line stops and the old elevated Orange Line stations. The same goes for other modes of transportation …

While driving in any part of Boston can be difficult, traveling downtown by car is guaranteed to be frustrating. Most streets are one-way and narrow, and many even change names. Even the most experienced Bostonians have trouble driving downtown, and agree that the best way to travel is by ‘T.’ We wouldn’t change a word, so long as we can assume “best way to travel” was a relative phrase then as it is now.

‘Jeremiah Murphy’s Boston’

Here’s a cliche so applicable in this case that we don’t mind using one: They no longer make Boston Globe reporters like Jeremiah Murphy, who wrote more than 1,800 columns including those in this 1974 compilation. Despite the writers of today being cut from more designer cloth though, going by Murphy’s descriptions, politicians are the same as always …

Mayor Kevin White came up with a memorable line when I asked him during last fall’s campaign about $2500 in campaign contributions from a Toronto businessman … ‘But I’ll call you back on that one,’ he said, and I waited a week but no call came … Finally, ... I learned that the Toronto man was a building contractor and his company was sharing a substantial school building addition contract in—guess where?—the City of Boston.

‘The Alienated Voter: Politics In Boston’

Finally, we thoroughly enjoyed this 1960 study by then-Boston University political science professor Murray B. Levin. As you may suspect from the title, The Alienated Voter is about Bostonians who “feel angry, resentful, hopeless, and politically powerless.” You know, like a lot of Dig readers in 2015. Based on post-election surveys, Levin’s work found …

A large proportion of the electorate feels politically powerless because it believes that the community is controlled by a small group of powerful and selfish individuals who use public office for personal gain …

The more things change …

FREE RADICAL

THE LOWS OF HIGHER ED

BY EMILYHOPKINS @GENDERPIZZA Penn State recently withdrew its recognition of a chapter of the Kappa Delta Rho fraternity after it was discovered that the group used a Facebook group to display, among other things, photographs of nude, unconscious women. The university seems to have acted swiftly in its decision to ultimately suspend the chapter rather than to relegate matters to the Interfraternity Council. Good. But what about the women who were abused? Are we so accustomed to campus rape culture that we can mention such transgressions without the hint of concern for the victims?

I think it’s safe to say by now that there is a frat like this on every major campus in the United States. And where there’s one there might be others. It is time for an audit of Greek life, a complete overhaul and examination of the culture that plagues our campuses. We cannot call these isolated incidents, and we cannot sweep these under the rug. Penn State seemed at least convinced that that frat had to go, at least for now. But if schools are really serious—and if they’re dedicated to eradicating campus rape culture—then it’s time to examine all of their fraternities.

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SUMMER

MUSIC

Changing lives for the better has never been more punk. democracycenter.org ‘80s COMEBACK KID

MUDHONEY

July 11 @ Brighton Music Hall, Boston, MA Seattle’s iconic indie rock staples are still going hard three decades later.

Expect lots of extra dirty, high-distortion, punkstyled songs that went on to inspire grunge acts like Nirvana big time. Just remember to leave to air guitar at home. No one wants to see that (this time, at least). crossroads.com/ brighton-music-hall MINIMALISM MAKEOVER

JAMIE XX

August 9 @ Royale Boston, Boston, MA The xx beat-maker is riding the wave of his debut solo album, and it’s full of gorgeous, shy, colorful ideas all delivered through minimalist means. This is the one show where you will be dancing nonstop thanks to London house music, but you can actually feel professional while doing so (twerking not allowed). royaleboston.com

HARD NIPS AT SMASH IT DEAD FEST

LIVE-LY SHOWS

Get these large, medium, and small venue shows on your radar this summer

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

LARGE NOSTALGIA HELPS THE MEDICINE GO DOWN

SPOON

June 18 @ House of Blues, Boston, MA Austin’s favorite indie rock band is ready to claim their return to fame.

Summertime is about taking it easy, and there’s no poppy songs quite as chill as “The Underdog”, “The Way We Get By”, or last year’s Popsicle-wielding hit “Do You”. This is the only indoor event where you’ll need your sunglasses. houseofblues.com

ROADTRIP TO RHODE ISLAND

NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL

Five albums from local acts to obsess over this summer

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

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SLOW MOTION LOVE

BEACH HOUSE

UP THE PUNXX

July 24-26 @ Fort Adams State Park, Newport, RI Grab your lawn chairs, fill the cooler with beers, and truck on down to Rhode Island for this year’s installment of Newport Folk Festival. The last thing you want is to hear how great Roger Waters and Sufjan Stevens’ sets on the water were when you chose to sit in your cramped Boston apartment instead. newportfolk.org

COMIN’ IN HOT

10

MEDIUM SMASH IT DEAD FEST

June 19-21 @ The Democracy Center and the Cambridge YMCA, Cambridge, MA When you’ve got a good thing going, you keep it running. Smash It Dead Fest is Boston’s annual punk and hardcore music festival that draws local acts from around the US to perform to help raise money for the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. Not only that, but they offer a series of workshops, too.

LADY BONES - DYING

There’s rock, and then there’s helpican’tstoplistening rock. The members of local rock trio Lady Bones have been playing together since they met as high school students in 2011, but their rapid speed and tight riffs speak as if the band is three times its actual age. The last EP had filthy grunge mixed with poppy hooks, so we’re expecting this one to be even more contagious.

DROPPING: JUNE 30

August 25 @ Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel, Providence, RI Dream pop act Beach House are gearing up for their brand new album, but Boston isn’t on their tour list. Providence, however, is. Make a day trip down to explore the shops and cuddle with your cutie before the house lights drop. It’s time to fall in love all over again. lupos.com

SMALL FOLK GODDESS

JESSICA PRATT

June 23 @ Great Scott, Allston, MA Celebrate the summer sun with San Francisco’s best rising guitarist. Jessica Pratt plays beautiful classical guitar that falls in line with the classic ‘50s folk sound.

Live, she hunches over her instrument, mesmerizing the crowd and her own self alike. Stay focused, though.

One song samples Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” and the melody is a perfect sing-a-long moment you can’t miss. greatscottboston.com ACOUSTIC BREAKDOWNS

SOFT FANGS

July 7 @ Great Scott, Allston, MA We miss Elliott Smith a lot, but artists like Soft Fangs let us pretend he’s still around. Come early for the show’s great openers, stay for the upstairs attic vibes of Soft Fangs when he whips out his guitar and hits that note that makes you feel something special. greatscottboston.com

ELECTRONICA FOR ART KIDS

SON LUX

July 22 @ Brighton Music Hall, Boston, MA Son Lux makes sweeping electronic songs that creep with foreboding gloom only to reveal a colorful, emotional center; his sets almost make you want to paint in the middle of his performances. We didn’t see art supplies on the “Restricted” list for this, so... crossroads.com/brightonmusic-hall HEAVY-HEARTED RAP

EARL SWEATSHIRT

August 21 @ Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA Odd Future is one of the biggest rap collectives in the world. Tyler, the Creator and his gang may be full of idiotic antics and immature pranks, but the rappers know wit better than most. Earl Sweatshirt, however, isn’t afraid to get straight up honest. This is the rescheduled date of his spring show because he was struggling with depression at the time. It’s likely he will only be realer onstage this time around. crossroadspresents.com/ paradise-rock-club

EMO WITHOUT THE EYEROLLS

MEWITHOUTYOU

July 18 @ The Sinclair, Cambridge, MA Philly has the best emo rock scene of the last decade, but the best band to come out of there feels like a New York act. And mewithoutYou mix art with intensity, playful lyrics with dirty bass lines. It’s vivid songwriting at its best without any of the whiny, groan-inducing vocals. sinclaircambridge. com EARL SWEATPANTS AT THE PARADISE

VUNDABAR - GAWK

After spending the last two summers blasting Vundabar’s jangle-pop tunes, we’re eager to finally get out hands on a new album. Gawk is composed of sun-drenched indie rock melodies akin to Best Coast and The Shins coated in their lo-fi polish. So, yes, there’s no way you can’t like it.

DROPPING: JULY 21

VARIOUS ARTISTS HOUSE OF THE RISING FUZZ

Black Beach’s Ben Semeta has been silently curating the best compilation this summer will see. Boston’s beloved garage rock scene is relentlessly motivated (and losing its collective hearing in the process), and, as such, everybody had no problem forking over a new song for his 10-song LP. With The Barbazons, Miami Doritos, and New Highway Hymnal on the list, it’s a shoo-in for album of the year.

DROPPING: AUGUST

THE DROP

Local acts call out the summer albums and shows they’re most excited about

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

SPEEDY ORTIZ

Sadie Dupuis of Speedy Ortiz

Smash It Dead Fest is a hugely important annual music festival and series of workshops benefiting the Boston Area Rape Crisis Center. And this year’s lineup is dope-nasty beyond belief, featuring some of my current favorite bands— Ursula, Aye Nako, and Malportado Kids, to name a few. I’ve been counting down for this one since it got announced and can’t believe it’s almost here.

Catherine Woodcock of W00DY

Dis_locate by Solid State Entity, which is being released on GROVL Tapes on June 17.

Carl Shane of Kal Marks

The new Gnarwhal album!

Marissa Nadler

Chris Ewen’s Heroes’ Night is having its last nights at TT the Bear’s because of the club’s closing. Chris is an awesome guy and I know that the DJ night will probably be moved to somewhere else, but I thought it [was] worth noting the end of this incarnation of it.

Latrell James

I’m really looking forward to attending [the] leedz Boston Hip Hop Fest at Middle East on July 11.

Sami Martasian of Puppy Problems

I’m extremely excited for Stumpf to be putting out their first set of recordings at the end of the summer. These guys have been playing incredible shows all year, and I’m so stoked for more people to have access to their powerful, beautiful songs.

Fuzzstival will be great. Jason is great at what he does and has the right intentions so it should be a good one. The Migs are getting back together for it, which’ll be nostalgic for me; they played the first house show in Boston I went to as a nervous li’l high school kid. Very excited!

Ellen Kempner of Palehound

I’m gonna say I’m most excited for TTYL by Fleabite (even though it already came out) because it’s great.

PALEHOUND - DRY FOOD

There’s an innocence to Palehound’s music that makes every song feel confessional, despite the snappy rock riffs that suggest a stiff upper lip. Frontwoman Ellen Kempner’s intricate guitar parts and tempo change-ups keep the listener guessing, while her lyrics stick in your head just as easily as the melodies. As such, Dry Food is a full-length that will grow on you with each listen. We’re smitten already.

DROPPING: SUMMER

ILLUSTRATION BY AMY BOUCHARD

Brandon Hagen of Vundabar

MICHAEL CHRISTMAS - WHAT A WEIRD DAY

Wit shines even brighter when the mouth it’s leaving is oh-so-young.

Michael Christmas started rapping in Cambridge back when he was 16, but the 21-year-old has sharpened his skills enough to perform along the likes of Chance the Rapper and Action Bronson. After the success of “Michael Cera” and “Fuck Wit Me,” we’re prepared for even more contagious hits on What a Weird Day. DROPPING: SUMMER NEWS TO US

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SUMMER ARTS EVENTS

SUMMER

ARTS

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS MAY 22 - JUNE 20

After All The Terrible Things I Do

The Huntington Theatre Company @ The Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA The world premiere of up-and-coming playwright A. Rey Pamatmat’s newest drama about bullying and second chances, directed

by Huntington artistic director Peter Dubois. $25-83 www.huntingtontheatre.org JUNE 12 - JUNE 27

The Farnsworth Invention

Flat Earth Theatre @ The Arsenal Center for the Arts Aaron Sorkin’s play about the invention of the television. We’ll say it again: Aaron Sorkin, about the invention of TV. Enough said. $20-25 www.flatearththeatre.com JUNE 4 - JUNE 27

Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them

TRUTH, BE TOLD

Company One @ The Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA A New England premiere, in celebration of A. Rey Pamatmat’s work, in conjunction with the Huntington Theatre Company, which is producing his “After All the Terrible Things I Do.” $25-38 www.companyone.org

Former “The Slab” artist opens first gallery with a distinctive style

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS the aforementioned orange straw. It’s this kind of dogged determination and razor-sharp focus that has brought Landon to this point.

The art of Landon Richmond is, by his own accounts, confrontational and dark. Often resembling a cross between the creatures of Pan’s Labyrinth and a Marilyn Manson album cover, the images can be disturbing and harsh. Landon encourages the viewer to look beyond superficial first impressions: his work, though dark, is generally thematically poetic, introspective, and haunting. The walls of the gallery, generously adorned with some of his best work, contain a mural of sorts featuring what could be called Landon-esque figures. For sale are a myriad of paintings and prints, some t-shirts and decorative pillows.

His distinctive style is something to be celebrated. Most people can look at a Warhol and will know it’s a Warhol—or at a Dalí and know it’s a Dalí. The same can be said for Landon’s art. His work is fiercely memorable and provocative.

While the poetry of Know No Truth’s location is intact, it does present a unique challenge to Landon: remaining true to himself as an artist while being commercially successful on a street such as Newbury. And that’s a new territory for Landon to conquer, though he’ll likely be just fine. He’s an enigma of artistic sensibility and business savvy.

“It’s a difficult time for small business and I’m on a difficult street, so naturally this is going to be difficult. But whatever, I’m going to work as hard and as smart as I can, and give it a shot,” Landon says. So pay him and his art a visit. If you like what you see, you can even take a piece of it home: A lot of his work is attractively priced, making art ownership exciting and accessible, a rare feat for a gallery on Newbury Street.

“Bad art makes you think about the artist … good art makes you think about yourself,” Landon says.

With such a litmus test, Landon’s art is more than good— it’s superb.

>> KNOW NO TRUTH GALLERY. NOW OPEN. 228 NEWBURY ST., BOSTON. 857.317.4139.

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JULY 8 - JULY 26

Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin

ArtsEmerson @ The Cutler Majestic Theatre at Emerson College Hershey Felder has garnered rave reviews across the country for his performance as Irving Berlin, one of America’s foremost songwriters. $35-75 www.artsemerson.org JULY 9 - AUGUST 2

Saving Kitty

Central Square Theatre Jennifer Coolidge (American Pie) is making her Boston debut in Marisa Smith’s hilarious new comedy. Jennifer Coolidge reading the phone book would be hilarious, so this performance should be no exception. $15-44 www.centralsquaretheatre.org ILLUSTRATION BY AMY BOUCHARD | PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS

“Hey, do you want some bourbon?” artist Landon Richmond asked me as we stood chatting at the opening party for Know No Truth, his brand new gallery on Newbury Street, which opened at the end of May. “Hand me one of those champagne glasses,” he said. He filled the glass and after glancing at the results of his pour, said, “I can’t tell if that’s a lot or not.” We nodded in a sort of silent cheers and drank, me from my glass, and him from an orange straw poking out of his champagne flute.

Seven years ago, Landon began selling his art on what is known as “the Slab,” a large rectangular piece of concrete near the corner of Newbury Street and Mass Avenue. It was there that he cut his teeth and relished in the opportunity to engage and connect with different people. There’s one particular day on the slab that sticks out for Landon, though.

After a 12-hour day he saw a morose-looking man walk by and he shouted out to him: “Hey, you dropped your smile.”

The sad man looked back at Landon, smiled, and struck up a conversation. This man turned out to be Johnny Earle, of Johnny Cupcakes fame, who then, over the next hour, gave Landon some advice. “As we parted ways I knew I wanted a store on Newbury Street,” Landon recounted. “Nowhere else would do. The poetry wouldn’t be there.”

Two nights before the big opening Landon sleepwalked into his bathroom and fell into a shelf, causing his teeth to slice through his bottom lip. He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance; by 4am he was all stitched up, and by 12:30pm he was back at the gallery finishing up the mural. “I’ll probably be wearing a surgical mask at the reception,” he joked the night before. He didn’t end up wearing the mask, but his accident accounts for

JULY 17 - AUGUST 15

Colossal

Company One @ The Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA Part of a National New Play network rolling world premiere with four other companies across the country. And if that’s not unique enough, Colossal is a play about football that will actually be performed in four quarters, complete with a half-time show. $25-38 www.companyone.org

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SUMMER

ARTS

continued from pg. 12

SUMMER ARTS EVENTS JULY 22 - AUGUST 9

King Lear

Commonwealth Shakespeare Company @ The Boston Common Now in its 20th season doing Free Shakespeare on the Common, CSC will be presenting King Lear for the first time. And if you need a reminder of what King Lear is about, you should just look it up. Or read a little more.

FREE and Open to the Public www.commshakes.org

BOSTON HARBOR HOTEL

GREAT OUTDOORS Free. Outdoor. Films. All Summer.

AUGUST 11 - AUGUST 30 THE COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE ON THE GREENWAY

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN If you’re better suited to walking downtown than you are to driving out of it, then there are other outdoor film screenings—no cars necessary—that you can catch within the city proper. Bonus: They’re free.

The Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Rose Kennedy Greenway have teamed up to present a series of outdoor films at Wharf District Park this summer (located between Milk and India Streets), and they’re showing them the old-fashioned way—from finely textured 35mm prints. The series starts with George Lucas’ tribute to hot roddin’ and hangin’ out, American Graffiti (Tue. 6.13 at sunset), before returning in July and August with movies by two masters of American commercial filmmaking: Hitchcock’s The Birds (Tue. 7.14), and Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (Tue. 8.4).

At the Boston Harbor Hotel, the Friday night outdoor screenings cut a wide swath, with scheduled ’70s tearjerkers (Kramer v. Kramer, Fri. 6.12), pop-culture classics (Big, Fri. 7.10; The Princess Bride, Fri. 6.26), and even some Humphrey Bogart (The African Queen, Fri. 7.17; The Big Sleep, Fri. 8.7). It’s not a bad way to cap off summer walks along the waterfront.

Likely, most of these are films you’ve seen many times before, which is probably for the best. Like going to a drive-in, watching a movie in a communal outdoor setting is as much about the experience as it is about the film itself. Considering you’re stuck watching movies indoors for the other nine months of the year, watching with a rowdy crowd is a small trade-off for some cheap warm-weather fun. And any opportunity to see The Birds—which remains, in its steadfast refusal to adhere to any conception of logic, the most purely terrifying of all Hitchcock’s films—is one that you should take.

As always: Don’t forget your flask.

DRIVE OUT, DRIVE-IN Yes, drive-in theaters still exist in Mass

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN Hollywood saves its biggest, its loudest, and its dumbest for the summer months. But we love moviegoing during this season anyway. One of the reasons why—aside from the special effect that is central air conditioning—is that summer is the best time to leave the city for a night and see these big, loud, dumb movies in a setting other than a corporate multiplex. And considering the Bay State still brandishes a selection of legit drive-in movie theaters, you can screen wide releases old-school style until the winter goosesteps its way back into our lives.

Drive-ins, traditionally, have their downsides as far as purity in presentation and audio goes. But you go to places like these for the experience—the leisurely mood you settle into while watching two movies, the food coma that the over-buttered popcorn sends you into, the feeling that this is as close as you’ll get to time-traveling back to the ’50s—not just to see Mad Max for the fourth time.

So we here at the Dig film department (read: me) plan to spend the next few months running reconnaissance missions on drive-ins throughout New England. One of the stops: Leicester Triple Drive-In (leicesterdrivein.net). Situated in the eponymous town, they’re open on Fridays and Saturdays, and offer double features on their three screens. A visit costs $25 per carload, so be sure to squeeze in friends to split the cost.

On the Cape, the Wellfleet Drive-In (wellfleetcinemas.com) is open seven nights per week, offering double features on a single 100-foot wide screen (currently Pitch Perfect 2 and Mad Max). If you’ve ever been stuck in Cape traffic and gone, “I wonder how we could have just killed a couple of hours instead of being locked in this mess,” consider blowing off Route 3 for a show.

On the other side of the state is Mendon Twin (mendondrivein.com), a kitschy, retro-style throwback owned by the Andelman brothers of Phantom Gourmet fame. They’ve tricked the place out: There’s a bar garden, a fire pit, a “snack bar,” the works. The place is open seven nights per week, plays double features on two screens (for instance: Spy and Poltergeist), and charges $25 per carload. Again, adding friends = cheap movie night.

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Kinky Boots

Broadway in Boston @ The Boston Opera House Broadway’s smash hit, six-time Tonywinning musical arrives in Boston. With a score by Cyndi Lauper and a book by Harvey Fierstein, you’d be a fool to pass this up. $30-170 broadway.boston.com AUGUST 7 - SEPTEMBER 20

Waitress

The American Repertory Theatre @ The Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University This is major: ART artistic director and Tony award winner Diane Paulus (Pippin, Finding Neverland) is at the helm of this world premiere musical with a score by Sara Bareilles. Rumor has it there are already plans for a Broadway transfer. See it in town before anyone else. americanrepertorytheater.org AUGUST 11 - AUGUST 23

Saturday Night Fever The Musical

North Shore Music Theatre If you’ve ever wondered how the dulcet sounds of The Bee Gees would fare during a live stage production of Saturday Night Fever, your time has come. The NSMT is presenting a New England Regional Premiere based on the 1970s classic disco film. $54-79 nsmt.org JUNE 18 - JULY 18

Moby Dick

Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre A world premiere of Herman Melville’s classic novel, performed by an ensemble cast of five. what.org/moby-dick JULY 23 - AUGUST 22

Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre A recreation of one of Billie Holiday’s last performances. Part concert, part memoir, Lady Day is heartbreaking and unforgettable. what.org/*lady*-*day-at-emersons*-*barand-grill*/

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BOX’D UP

The Outside The Box festival returns this July.

And it’s bringing a lot.

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>> OUTSIDE THE BOX. JULY 14-19. FREE. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT OTBBOSTON.COM

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If there’s one thing that brings a smile to your face in the sunny months that bestow pleasant temperatures and instill in you the want to do as much fun stuff outdoors as possible, it’s the knowledge that there’s a massive free music and performing arts festival in town.

And now that millionaire philanthropist Ted Culter and his team have resurrected the Outside the Box festival, which according to him drew over 650,000 visitors during it’s last run in 2013, you definitely have something to smile about this summer. “2013 was such a big year for us, and learned an awful lot,� says Cutler. “There was a lot of seeing what we did right and wrong, what we could’ve done without.

It takes time to do that. We never expected that, and we did a great job with it.

The idea is to make it sustainable.�

And this July when the event goes down over six days, there will be over 70 acts and performances running the gamut of music, dance, arts and more. Think: B-boy shows from local spinners Floorlords, an opening ceremony involving 60 dancers from Turkey, Japanese taiko drummers, musical concerts from Guster, New Politics, Atlas Genius, as well as the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus, among loads of others. “This year was about how can we make it better, different, and then sustain it,� says Culter. “Like every other city, Boston is divided [between] haves and have nots, and there are [locals] that attend where this is the first time they have seen a concert. They should be able to see that type of thing.�

With 14 different countries being represented and the spread of performance, music, and even puppeteers, there’s something here for everyone. When asked how Cutler and his team went about selecting the acts given the sheer range of participants, he says “If it’s good it’s good, if it’s bad it stinks. We didn’t want anything that stinks. Want to bring a show Boston hasn’t seen before.

And everyone in the city is welcome.�

WITH EVERY PINT OF HELLES OR VIENNA LAGER CHOSEN A RAFFLE TICKET WILL BE GIVEN.

THURSDAY JUNE 11TH THROUGH SATURDAY JUNE 13TH

518 MEDFORD STREET SOMERVILLE, MA 617-776-2600 OLDEMAGOUNSSALOON.COM

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SUMMER

EATS ROLL CALL

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF What would a summer preview in Boston be without Lobster rolls? We didn’t have an answer to that either, so consider this our obligatory list of the best places in which to eat this New England summertime traditional food.

WOODMAN’S OF ESSEX

Considering this is the well-documented birthplace of the “fried clam” you’d think the lobster roll at famous Woodman’s would be an afterthought, but ho no, friends. Theirs is a beauty of buttery toasted bun and hearty meat/mayo mix, which, if you were a lad or lass growing up in this area and didn’t have one anecdote about going here as a kid, well, that’s just a pity.

121 Main St., Essex. woodmans.com

WEBB’ SLINGING

A step by step to making a killer epic party sub, courtesy of Moody’s in Waltham

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

STEP THREE: Add your fresh charcuterie, which you can grab in pre-sliced and assembled portions at Moody’s. Genoa salami, coppa, bologna. Lay those down on the cheese. Andrew says: “It’s important to ask to get it thin-sliced. If it’s thick it’s not only difficult to eat, but a big chunk of meat changes the flavor and experience, too.”

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Legendary. Hyped. Beloved. Pricey. Worth it.

Words used over the years to describe the North End’s most hallowed ground of Lobster Roll nirvana. You can go hot or cold (meaning butter topped or with mayo, respectively), but no matter what, you’re getting heaps of claw, knuckle, and tail meat on a perfect brioche roll.

63 Salem St., Boston. neptuneoyster.com

THE WEBBER

JAMES HOOK + CO.

STEP ONE: Get a baguette. Slice down middle but not all the way through, so you can fold it open like a book.

STEP FOUR: Add a mix of marinated and pickled peppers. Lay those across. Wipe the drool from your bottom lip.

Try and talk to any local about lobster rolls in town, and inevitably James Hook is mentioned.

For good reason, too. It’s been around long enough that everyone from tourists to transplants to students to politicos has reveled in the affordable celery-laden glory of their meat-stacked (and properly mayo’d) rendition of this warm weather classic. Go ahead. Eat two.

15 Northern Ave., Boston. jameshooklobster.com

STEP TWO: Lay down provolone cheese in “shingle” formation along the bread. Ever so lightly. Then melt the cheese and toast the bread at the same time, heating at 325 degrees for one or two minutes. Can also use a grill. You’re looking to melt the cheese and crisp up the outside of the bread, keeping the inside chewy.

STEP FIVE: Add the Holy Trinity of Italian sandwich construction: Drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, chosen herbs.

Cut the pieces diagonally and to size, depending on how many you’re feeding.

The sandwich could feed six or more people depending on the sizes of the cuts. Or just you, you animal.

ALIVE AND KICKING LOBSTERS

A touch of mayo, healthy portions of fresh meat, and salt and pepper are the only things Alive and Kicking’s hidden-in-plain-sight lobster sandwich (so, not a roll, still … awesome) boast besides the Scali bread it is served on. Be sure to nosh on the picnic benches in the sunshine for the full experience.

269 Putnam Ave., Cambridge. aliveandkickinglobsters.com ILLUSTRATION BY AMY BOUCHARD | PHOTOS BY DAN MCCARTHY

This summer, you may find yourself entertaining some friends at your place. Since you’ve got the aquatic activities locked down (kiddie pools, man), the bar stocked (cooler + ice + beer = bar), and the backyard games meticulously prepared and ready to go (cornhole, baby), it’s time to take stock of your finger food provisions. So let Andrew Nicholls from charcuterie pleasuredome and all-around salted meat heaven, Moody’s Deli in Waltham, guide you as you throw together something as awesome as it is huge.

NEPTUNE OYSTER

YANKEE LOBSTER COMPANY.

Next time you hear that there’s a concert going on at the Bank of America Pavilion along the Seaport, or you just have a hankering for a lobster roll light on the mayo, spiced, and on a well-grilled hotdog bun, Yankee is your spot.

Wash it all down with the near-mandatory pint of beer, or skip the suds at your own peril.

300 Northern Ave., Boston. yankeelobstercompany.com

DAWG GONE DOGS

SUMMER RESTAURANT OPENINGS

Get these on your radar. Your stomach will thank you.

Wednesday’s June 3rd – 24th 5-11pm

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

Coopersmith Hall

After an extended incubation and buildout process, the restaurant-food-truckcoffee-cafe hybrid (featuring an actual working food truck within the space) will turn Southie on its head when it opens around early July. Between the multiple food trucks and 200-plus seating capacity, not to mention the killer roofdeck, owner Travis Talbot is sure to have a winner on his hands, as will you when you finally get in here for a meal. facebook.com/coopersmithbos

MENU CHILI CHEESE DOG

Wicked good chili cheddar cheese scallions tater tots

HOT DOG SLIDERS

America cheese grilled potato roll fried egg hand cut fries

WINDY CITY

Mustard tomato onions sport peppers neon relish celery salt onion rings

Hojoko

Committee

Finally unveiling its look just last week, the new Fan Pier addition from the folks behind Cafeteria on Newbury is bringing some serious Greek-leaning Mediterranean eats to the Seaport.

There’s a futuristic “scented cocktails” component at work, which will showcase with the shared-plates approach of the menu devised by web-cooking series host and Greek cookbook author Diane Kochilas. Fan Pier continues to get better season by season. facebook.com/committeeboston

Tasting Counter

Peter Ungar’s long-awaited tastingmenu restaurant is finally about to open. Between the unconventional setup of ticketed dinners with only 20 seatings per service (two seatings nightly), open kitchen with all staff performing cooking and serving duties, the partnership with Aeronaut Brewing for suds (there will be sake and wine as well), and a proprietary chocolate blend created by Somerville Chocolates, this sustainable-practice eatery stands to inject new life into the Somerville dining scene. Fun fact: There will be no tipping here thanks to the liveable wage and collaborative structure set up for staff. facebook.com/tastingcounter

Saltie Girl

A sibling spot to MET Back Bay from owner Kathy Sidell, the svelte 30-seat spot will be brandishing seafood and “Barcelona-inspired” tapas-esque cuisine with casual aplomb. Think: a lot of lobster, international spices, and jarred food of various origins, such as Italian tuna and sardines. facebook.com/saltiegirlboston

BAHN MI WEENIE

Asian sausage crispy vegetables Red curry mayo cilantro baguette fried wontons

TWO PIGS IN A BLANKET

Bacon wrapped jack cheese diced tomato avocado mayo chicharrones

The Frogmore

For a while, Centre St. Sanctuary was open in Jamaica Plain, featuring a mishmash of flavors and a lot of religious pews for seating. But it’s no more. Instead, the Fairsted Kitchen team is bringing a taste of the lowcountry (think: South Carolina) for a lot of good home cookin’, Southern chow, and the flavors of the Caribbean. Expect frogs.

Not just because of the name, but because people eat frogs down south. thefrogmore.com

GERMAN SHEPHERD

Beer steamed knockwurst Swiss sauerkraut mustard pretzel roll potato salad

ROAD DOG

Smoked hot dog pulled pork coleslaw crispy onions fried pickles

Rina’s Pizzeria and Cafe

CORNDOG

The new pizza joint by Nick Varano— of Strip by Strega, Nico, and Strega Waterfront fame—is less a cathedral to Italian kitch and overindulgence and more a great spot to land a slice in the North End. Considering the recent news that Pizzeria Regina has fiscal problems, and the long lines at Ernesto’s on a Saturday night, it’s nice to know a new spot for killer pizza on Hanover Street will make everyone smile this summer.

Battered fried hot dog on a stick honey mustard sauce hand cut fries

MAGOUNSSALOON OLDEMAGOUNSSALOON

Banyan Bar + Refuge

Goodbye legendary South End spot Hamersley’s Bistro, and hello this. The Gallows and Blackbird Doughnuts team are bringing this Asian-tipped gastropub to life with some help from Phillip Tang, who was behind East by Northeast in Cambridge (RIP). Expect an open kitchen and a lot of seafood. There’s no way this will be bad. No way. facebook.com/banyanboston

PHOTO BY STEPHANIE BUONOPANE

COMMITTEE

An imminent opening from O Ya restaurateurs Tim and Nancy Cushman, this dynamite Japanese izakaya gave a peek of what’s to come at the Create Boston art and food event last weekend.

The “fun, high energy Japanese izakaya” is coming to the rock-themed Verb Hotel behind Fenway Park, which means your pre- and post-Sox game noshing is about to get a whole lot better. hojokoboston.com

518 Medford St. Somerville magounssaloon.com 617-776-2600 NEWS TO US

FEATURE

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SUMMER

FUN

POOLS OF NOTE

COLONNADE HOTEL

Boston, please don’t axe Addison Groove

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON

Still gleaming from a makeover last season, with sprightly cabanas, outdoor waitstaff for snacks and drinks, and WiFi for those convincing themselves they’re going to get any work done when sitting poolside. colonnadehotel.com/roof-top-pool

ROOFTOP AT REVERE

Technically covered by a glass atrium, it’s a rooftop pool nevertheless.

Take advantage of it and then hang around for the full bar, DJs spinning, and breezy cabana lounging. reverehotel.com/rooftop

INK BLOCK

Hidden elevated pool deck on the shared roof of the posh new apartment complex above Whole Foods in the South End. Find your way in here and you may not want to leave, unless you’re being forced out for not being a tenant. inkblockboston.com

RISE AND FALL OF (A) MAN

VERB HOTEL

Hurl yourself out of a plane an hour outside of Boston

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

>> SKYDIVE NEW ENGLAND. SKYDIVENEWENGLAND.COM. VISIT DIGBOSTON.COM FOR THE FULL REPORT (WITH VIDEO!) 18

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SKYLINE POOL DECK AT INKBLOCK

PATIO CITY

Drink in the sunshine on these new patios all summer long

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

Townsman

Matt Jennings promised there would be a 20+ seat outdoor patio at his dynamite new downtown digs for its first summer. And it was so. townsmanboston.com

SELECT Oyster Bar

You’d be hard pressed to find a cooler 22 seat heated floor atrium patio with hanging herb garden in an old Back Bay brownstone while taking down a plate of mollusks. Get there. selectboston. com

Naco Taco

Michael Scelfo’s already popular new Cambridge project with its vibrant outdoor patio has quickly won fans desiring both awesome tacos and sunbathing among tacos. nacocentral.com

Barcelona Wine Bar

Hard to miss when passing by on Tremont street, with 10-12 tables (all four-tops) for great evening al fresco noshing. Stays open till kitchen closes at 1am. barcelonawinebar.com/southend

Loyal Nine

Lined with sustainably harvested MA lumber, the Cambridge newcomer is hitting this season running with a new 32-seat outdoor space. loyalninecambridge.com

Committee

A newborn to the Seaport dining scene, Committee is opening strong with an 80-seat patio that you should use to eat all the Greek food there. facebook. com/committeeboston

The Barking Crab

A classic if there ever was one in town, this bastion of lobster rolls and fish and chips has added 40 more seats, which means more room to drink beer and eat shellfish. barkingcrab.com

Brewer’s Fork

Charlestown newbie purveyor of killer pizza and solid suds, they’ve kicked off their first summer with a 25-seat patio and will have a local artist create some graffiti art on one of the walls. Tagging makes patios more fun. brewersfork.com

LOYAL NINE

ILLUSTRATION BY AMY BOUCHARD | LOYAL NINE PHOTO BY DAN MCCARTHY

There’s a moment that hits you when you’re seated on a Super Otter airplane climbing past 10,000 feet, strapped to another human being who will be responsible for whether you live or die in a moment, when the novelty of “Wouldn’t it be fun to go skydiving?” wears off. Replacing that thought is something to the effect of: “Oh fuck, I’m about to go skydiving.”

A few minutes later, you’re falling back down to Earth in free-fall, with a tall skydiving instructor clamped to your body, wind and air pressure turning your face into mush and inflating your lungs as you try to yell and scream and squeal as you adjust to the fact that you’re not floating, but falling. Fast.

That’s a good primer to what you’ll experience by taking the hour or so drive from Boston to Lebanon, Maine, where Skydive New England has been a garrison post for skydivers and adrenaline junkies of every stripe for over 30 years. The entire facility sits on 200+ acres of private Maine wooded land, with a huge airstrip of manicured grass and well-defined “no cross” lines in the drop zone where, should you be so bold, you’ll at some point be floating down under the safe deployment of your parachute and skidding to a stop on your butt in the grass.

There is a colorful mix of people hanging out there between the jumpers, the instructors, and what is something of a skydiving hippie-commune replete with barefoot children trotting around free and happy. You may even notice a group of kids playing with devil sticks, which few (until recently including myself) are aware still exist outside of Burning Man and select Dispatch shows.

And sure, you can head on up with some pals for a daylong excursion, but you’re at the whim of mother nature. Sometimes the winds can be too harsh or the weather can take a turn for the worst, and for the good of all, planes are grounded and jumps called off. But that’s the mark of a responsible skydiving outfit, and Skydive New England not only has the fantastic safety record to back that up, but also ensures that all of their instructors hailing from points worldwide are licensed through the US Parachute Association.

The good news is when your jump is pushed (or if you just want to make a night of it) they also offer simple overnight camping bungalows with communal bathrooms and showers, and they welcome anyone who just want to pitch a tent on the grounds for a stay. At night, the central outdoor cafe turns into a raging party, with a massive bonfire and live music. BYOB. Note: Going hard on the hooch the night before a jump is not advised.

Outdoor heated pool in the shadow of Fenway Park. Caveat: It’s for guests only, so consider this spot next time a mid-summer staycation is on the mind. Or just get good at sneaking in for a dip. theverbhotel.com

NEWS TO US

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

SQUANTUM?

SQUANTUM

Warning: There are no girls, or boys, gone wild on either of the Squantum Beaches— Orchard, or Nickerson. There’s hardly even any actual beach, though there are spectacular views of the Boston skyline, which the other beaches in Quincy are mostly lacking. It’s not just the water’s edge that’s great about this nook, though. The whole area is worth walking around, complete with hilly streets that reveal spectacular angles of the Hub from afar, and locals who always seem to be watering their lawns and waving with a smile.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Sightseers, Picnickers AFTER BEACH: Marina Bay Peer past the fields of frozen hair on the swollen Guidos who frequent the establishments at Marina Bay, and hit up the neighborhood joint Captain Fishbones for libations and laughs. Before you know it you’ll be partying with over-tanned Mustang drivers at any number of the surprisingly rad establishments along the boardwalk.

NEVER HEARD OF HIM Quincy’s beaches in the summer: a field guide.

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON

“The truth is that you probably don’t deserve for us to tell you anything about the Q. After all the jokes you’ve made about Quincy being Whitey Bulger’s dumping ground for victims and just generally some kind of white trash hellhole full of silly bigots, you’re not exactly worthy of learning the truth. Still, the mighty Q is actually one of the most beautiful (and historically rich) cities in America, with beaches accessible by bicycle, T, or even walking (at least if you start in the Dorchester area). So for the sake of summer take advantage of the sunnier stretches listed below, all of which are well worth exploring.”

NICKERSON BE ACH CAPTA IN FISHBONES

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This is the Big Kahuna, the Quincy beach that many have heard of, or that maybe you’ve been to once, but for some reason have an excuse for not frequenting. Our message: Get over yourselves. It’s Wollaston, man. Some of the swimming holes are muddy, sure, and studies have shown that despite continued efforts to steer human shit farther and farther off the shore, too many people still allow their dogs to poop in the Wollaston sand. That said, one day you’re going to say you’ve been going to this beach for years, so you might as well start now.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Hanging, Gaming, Tanning, Sporting AFTER BEACH: The Clam Box To mention Wollaston and not pay homage to this Mecca of fried fish is sacrilegious, and around here we’re not prone to blasphemy (depending on who/what we’re blaspheming). Make your way next door to the Beachcomber afterwards for drinks. Warning: You may find yourself cursing God the next morning.

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What awaits you as far off of the beaten track as it gets: breathtaking views. Lots of quiet, with folks nice enough that even though they wonder why you’re in their midst, they keep it to themselves (still, they wonder). It’s all good though; there are no less than four strips of beach worth visiting around Hough’s Neck, and we especially love the mellowness of Back Beach off Delano Ave. Caveat: Parking is tough (although Front Beach is not too far away).

Suggestions: a bus and then walk. Or hovercraft. Whichever.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Swimmers, Walkers AFTER BEACH: Manet Lunch We won’t lie to you—we didn’t have the balls to walk into this place. And ironically, they allegedly don’t serve lunch either, unless the knuckle sandwiches presumably served on the regular in there count. If you decide to check it out, let us know how that goes. Bring a friend.

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GERMANTOWN

Make no mistake about it: You’re driving out here: And while you’ll feel like you’ve crossed some kind of border to another region, you’re actually still in Greater Boston. You pretty much need a car to get to the secluded Sandy Beach in Germantown, but while it’s not exactly lovely for sun-tanning, the Snug Harbor side of this inlet is tucked away on the Quincy Town River.

Great for those moments of quiet introspection. Or if you just want to get stoned and watch the giant tankers drift into port. For hours.

RECOMMENDED FOR: Readers, Watchers AFTER BEACH: Punjab Cafe Something about a hot day on the sand makes certain types crave killer Tandoori Chicken and Tikka Masala, and this our spot. One of the best joints in the region (fun fact: It supplies a lot of the cheese you get at Indian restaurants in downtown Boston), so if you’re already making the haul halfway to Hull, we figure you might as well pop in for some garlic naan.

20

HOUGH’S NECK

THE CLAM BOX

NORTH QUINCY

06.10.15 - 06.17.15

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MANE T LUNCH #214 #216

#216

#214

BAKER BE ACH

GERMANTOWN

BACK BEACH PUNJAB CAFE

3A #220

#221

Edgewater Dr i ve Be ach

#222

AVALON BEACH

MOUND STREE T BEACH

SA ILORS SNUG HARBOR

Parkway Cycle

1865 Revere beach Parkway

Everett, MA | 617-389-7000 | parkwaycycle.com

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

22

WED 6.10

THU 6.11

FRI 6.12

SAT 6.13

SAT 6.13

SAT 6.13

Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them

Musical Eyes: Photography

by Musicians

EN-ER-GY

2015 Boston Pride Festival

Amy Schumer @ The Wilbur

New Blue Maker’s Market

How often is the protagonist of a play a nomadic 12-year-old girl named Edith who regularly wields both a pellet gun and a gigantic stuffed frog? Well, not often … which is why you should go see this Company One production, running until the end of the month.

Think: comedic nostalgia for those who still yearn for the reclaiming of youth. So you, basically.

Each week until the end of the month, Brickbottom Gallery will give to the public an artsy melting pot combining music and photography. The exhibition will showcase photographs by eclectic artists Ellen Band and David Barnes, who both advocate for the existence of music and visual art on the same plane. Band will be debuting a new sound sculpture complete with random audio samples as well as her own compositions, called Hot Tip. Use your imagination.

If you’re trying to squeeze a poetry slam, concert, and visual art show complete with copious pole dancing into one evening, we’ve got you covered. Well, the Oberon does, as per usual. The annual EN-ERGY showcase explores an insane amount of local artistry, but don’t make the mistake of lumping it into the same category as a run of the mill talent show. It’s sort of perfectly designed for those of you who are too indecisive to pick something to do on a Friday night.

Amidst the wonderful slew of LGBTQ Pride events happening this month, we are especially looking forward to the Pride Festival ... AND the Pride Parade, of course. Copious amounts of food, live music, dancing, and meet & greets with esteemed members of the LGBTQ community like Mary Lambert (the “she keeps me warm” girl) and Billy Gilman. Come show your support and party your rainbow-painted faces off, kids.

Comedy Central’s own femme force of nature has been blowing up lately and she’ll be gracing the Wilbur stage in all her hilariously honest vulgarity. She’s the star of her own sketch comedy show, which pokes fun at, well, basically everything. So if you like to make fun of other people on a regular basis, you might want to get a ticket.

We love her, you will too.

Never has there been a more abundant time for supporting local art.

Luckily, the Central Square staple Out of the Blue is still around (having recently relocated to a much bigger space) and the gallery will now be able to house a smorgasbord of extensive pop-up shops, with The New Blue being only one of them. Live music, free coffee and tea, and endless artsy goodies for sale. Art, man.

Deane Hall. 527 Tremont St., Boston. 7:30pm/all ages/$26-38. For more information, visit companyone.org

Brickbottom Art Gallery.

1 Fitchburg St., Somerville.

12-5pm/all ages/FREE. For more information, visit brickbottomartists.com

Oberon. 2 Arrow St., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/ $10-20. For more information, visit americanrepertorytheater.org

City Hall Plaza.

1 City Hall Plaza, Boston.

11am-6pm/all ages/FREE. For more information, visit bostonpride.org

The Wilbur. 246 Tremont St., Boston. 9:45pm/all ages/$59. For more information, visit thewilbur.com

Out of the Blue Art Gallery.

541 Mass Ave., Cambridge.

11am-5pm/all ages/FREE. For more information, visit outoftheblueartgallery.com

06.10.15 - 06.17.15

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PHOTO BY TAK TOYOSHIMA

GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY. SERIOUSLY.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

23

MUSIC

TAKE TWO

MUSIC

Drenge revisits America with high(er) hopes

Alex Chilton gets the honor treatment at Brighton Music Hall

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

BY BLAKE MADDUX @BLAKESMADDUX

FINE TRIBUTE

On Saturday, June 13, scores of Bostonians will gather at Brighton Music Hall to honor a musician who was born and raised in Memphis, lived in New York City, and died in New Orleans.

Alex Chilton became famous at age 16 in 1967 when he sang lead on “The Letter” (“Gimmie me a ticket for an ae-ro-plane”)

by The Box Tops. In 1971, Chilton joined three other Memphis lads to form Big Star. Never a commercial success, Big Star became a major influence on REM., which means that they directly or indirectly inspired almost every worthwhile indie and alternative act of the past three decades. (Ever wonder whom “Alex Chilton” by The Replacements was about?)

When I asked Jody Stephens, Big Star’s lone surviving member, how the Boston Tribute to Alex Chilton came about, he said, “I don’t really know, other than I am sure the instigator was Holly George-Warren.”

Not quite, actually. In 2014, Chilton biographer George-Warren and Stephens participated in the Americana Music Conference in Nashville. Boston-area digital marketer and musical manager Dino Cattaneo, who was in attendance, approached GeorgeWarren about being part of the Alex Chilton event that he had come up with the idea for only a few weeks earlier.

“When she accepted,” Cattaneo told me via email, “I knew that I had to actually put the show together.”

In doing so, he recruited the Big Star cover band Sister Lovers, Berklee professors Bonnie Hayes and Susan Cattaneo (his wife and tribute co-mastermind), 2014 Boston Music Award winners Ruby Rose Fox and Will Dailey, and fellow Beantown musicians Dennis Brennan, Jenee Halstead, and Christian McNeill. Before any of them take the stage, however, GeorgeWarren will read from her book A Man Called Destruction.

Oh, and that Jody Stephens fella, the one who played on all three Big Star albums … he’ll be there, too.

ALRIGHT, WHICH ONE OF YOU GUYS ATE MY COOKIES IN THE BREAK ROOM? If there’s a single thing English duo Drenge is good at, it’s getting loud. The grunge rock twosome recently roped in a third member, bassist Rob Graham, to help the band’s sound reach unfathomable levels, but before they did, things were hitting a wall.

Their first US tour last summer saw them hitting the bottom of the sonic well. “Last time was really stressful,” says guitarist Eoin Loveless. “A lot of vehicles broke down, there wasn’t much sleeping, and well, it all got a bit dark towards the end. Everyone had a mental breakdown in San Francisco.”

With this year’s full-length, Undertow, under their belts, Drenge is looking to re-do the last US tour with melodic rock at twice the volume. “I think it’s musically more pleasing but thematically darker—and less funny,” Loveless laughs, referencing the transition to chorus-based songwriting. “Last time, some bits of our songs lost all meaning when we went into the studio and the producer would be like, ‘Is that the chorus?’ and we were like, ‘Well, not technically, but yes.’ And this time there’s definitely a chorus there.”

It all began when they sat down to record “The Snake,” a song whose tough edges recall The White Stripes. “I could feel something,” recalls Loveless. “If we spent five minutes, we could have had [a chorus], so we sat down in the studio, worked at it, and there it was. It still sounded like me, but it was musically positive.”

Undertow is injected with all sorts of hidden sweets like that. From the hand claps in “Side by Side” (“I wanted it to sound like Kanye West’s ‘Power,’ but our version sounds like a beached whale flapping its fins, so not epic at all.”) to the guitar-heavy structure of “The Woods,” the new lineup allows Drenge to flesh out the makings of songs ready for stadiumsized crowds. “It’s very strange to make something out of nothing, and that’s what songs are,” says Loveless.

The upcoming tour will see the group’s members blow out the walls of Great Scott once again, this time with Graham by their side. Given he’s responsible for introducing the duo to the likes of The Cribs and Yeah Yeah Yeahs via mixtapes, his addition will make both the crowd and the band happier, although possibly everybody will risk hearing loss. As long as the guys keep their health in good shape, their second time around will make up for whatever shadows shrouded the last one. >> DRENGE W/ MADE VIOLENT. SAT 6.13. GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM AVE., ALLSTON. 617.779.0140. 9PM/21+/$12. GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM

>> BOSTON TRIBUTE TO ALEX CHILTON. SAT 6.13.

BRIGHTON MUSIC HALL. 158 BRIGHTON AVE., ALLSTON. 617.779.0140. 6PM/18+/$15.

MUSIC EVENTS FRI 6.12

CALI SURF JAMS BEST COAST + BULLY

[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm Ave., Boston.

8pm/18+/$20. crossroadspresents.com]

24

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SAT 6.13

BIG STAR 4EVER BOSTON TRIBUTE TO ALEX CHILTON

[Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston.

8pm/18+/$15. crossroadspresents.com]

DIGBOSTON.COM

POST-HARDCORE PUNKS TRASH BIRDS + KISS CONCERT + VOMITFACE + I EAT ROCKS [O’Brien’s Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston. 8pm/21+/$6. obrienspubboston.com]

MON 6.15

MATH ROCK W/ AMBIENCE I/O + SPORTS + SHAKUSKY

[T.T. The Bears, 10 Brookline St., Cambridge.

8:30pm/18+/$8. ttthebears.com]

CUTE CLEVER POP GREAT GOOD FINE OK + PAPERWHITE

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/ $10. greatscottboston.com]

TUE 6.16

INDIE POP FROM OVERSEAS THE GRISWOLDS + URBAN CONE [Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston. 7pm/ all ages/$13. crossroadspresents.com]

Boston’s Best Irish Pub

512 Mass. Ave. Central Sq. Cambridge, MA 617-576-6260 phoenixlandingbar.com

SUNDAYS

MONDAYS

DOUBLE TAP

MAKKA MONDAY

Weekly Gaming Night: The same guys who bring you Game Night every week at Good Life bar are now also running a special Sunday night.

14+yrs every Monday night, Bringing Roots, Reggae & Dancehall Tunes 21+, 10PM - 1AM

21+, NO COVER,

6PM - 11:30PM

TUESDAYS

WEDNESDAYS

THIRSTY TUESDAYS

GEEKS WHO DRINK

Live Resident Band The Night Foxes, Playing everything Old, New & Everything Inbetween 21+, NO COVER, 10PM - 1AM Live Stand Up Comedy from 8:30PM - 10PM with no cover!

Free Trivia Pub Quiz from 7:30PM - 9:30PM

RE:SET WEDNESDAYS

Weekly Dance Party, House, Disco, Techno, Local & International DJ’s 19+, 10PM - 1AM

THURSDAYS

FRIDAYS

SATURDAYS

ELEMENTS

PRETTY YOUNG THING

BOOM BOOM ROOM

15+ Years of Resident Drum & Bass Bringing some of the worlds biggest DnB DJ’s to Cambridge 19+, 10PM - 2AM

80’s Old School & Top 40 Dance hits 21+, 10PM - 2AM

80’s, 90’s, 00’s One Hit Wonders 21+, 10PM - 2AM

THE BEST ENTERTAINMENT IN CAMBRIDGE 7 DAYS A WEEK! 1/2 PRICED APPS DAILY 5 - 7PM RUGBY WORLD CUP SHOWN LIVE, STARTING ON SEPTEMBER 17TH WATCH EVERY SOCCER GAME!

VOTED BOSTON’S BEST SOCCER BAR ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Saturdays & Sundays Every Game shown live in HD on 12 Massive TVs. We Show All European Soccer including Champions League, Europa League, German, French, Italian & Spanish Leagues.

WOMEN’S WORLD CUP Come watch the Womens World Cup at The Phoenix Starting June 6th CHECK OUT ALL PHOENIX LANDING NIGHTLY EVENTS AT:

WWW.PHOENIXLANDINGBAR.COM NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

25

FILM

SIGN UP

FOR THE

CLASS TRIP

On Heaven Knows What and Sullivan’s Travels

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

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ORIGINALLY THE DIRECTOR WANTED TO CALL THE FILM “WORST ROOMATES EVER” Heaven Knows What fills the screen with the sort of occurrences that urban bureaucrats work tirelessly to obscure: drunken kids verbally laying into each other from opposite sides of the street. Homeless people cycling through all-night stores—perpetually stalked by hired help—searching for a stand isolated enough to steal from. Or a drug-addled beggar nodding off high behind an empty bucket.

Sure, we can throw aspersions at those interested in covering these people up, but how often do we do anything more than drop a few coins their way ourselves? This is movie made up of the places, the actions, and the people that we look away from.

We’re in New York City, but a more accurate description of the setting would be to say we’re “street-level.” The film—directed by Ben and Josh Safdie, shot by cinematographer Sean Price Williams—starts by staring at Harley (debuting actress Arielle Holmes) as she contends with twin addictions. One is to Ilya, with whom she shares a room at a couple’s shelter. The other is to shooting heroin. We catch up with her en media res, so we don’t know if Harley chose the drugs, the crime, the day-to-day uncertainty—or if it chose her. All that matters here is that she’s in it.

Before the opening credits start, she slits a wrist, searching for catharsis in vain after cheating on Ilya. Before they finish scrolling on screen, she’s out of the hospital and back on the street, pushing Ilya out-of-mind while she fiends for her next fix. She turns to Mike (Buddy Duress, another non-professional), a dealer who’s both small-time enough game-wise and smitten enough Harley-wise to front her a dose or two per day. Though considering his low station in the hierarchy of street dealers, handing out free bags probably isn’t an advisable move. Duress has the thinned-out droop face of a man who eats most of his meals off the value menu.

If Ilya is Harley’s rockstar stud, then Mike is her stoned-out steady. There’s a charming bluster to Duress’ performance, betraying that the character’s heart is a notch or two softer than he’d care to admit. (There are three moments of horrific violence in the film, one for each of the primary characters. When Mike gets his, it’s met not with fury, but with an incredulousness that borders on the goofy.)

Harley maintains a similarly guarded softness. Battle-hardened though she may be, she seems to indulge the belief that she’ll eventually be carried out of this asphalt dungeon. She rides a rival dealers’ motorcycle like a Disney Princess riding horseback—her eyes taking in the setting sun, imbued with misguided hope, convinced someone will eventually lead her to the right side of the street.

That hope is, by all accounts, the genuine article. Josh Safdie met Holmes while scouting locations for an unrelated movie about New York’s Diamond District. He spied this raggedly beautiful girl—who could pass for the disaffected daughter of a wealthy merchant any day of the week—and then he found out she was living on the street. Like Harley, Holmes was homeless and addicted (to both heroin and a real-life Ilya), and appeared quietly driven to escape it. The brothers, perhaps selfishly, asked her to write about her experiences. She typed a scroll she

“Men will reappropriate anything--even and especially the culture of the lower classes--if it’ll provide an extra dollar in their pocket and another pat on their back.”

FILM SHORTS BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN called Mad Love in New York City. And then the Safdies adapted it into Heaven Knows What.

That alone is a story fit for cinema screens—in fact, it already was. The Coolidge Corner Theatre will be playing one of comic auteur Preston Sturges’ most enduring pictures on Monday night, the screwball Hollywood-satire Sullivan’s Travels, which plays out a plot eerily similar to the aforementioned Safdie scenario. Joel McCrea’s title character is a director who decides his next picture needs to dramatize the lives of those noble poor that rich people like to imagine. But he knows little of the Depression that plagues the nation his films are playing to. He figures the only solution is to hit the streets with a dime to his name, struggling until he’s “suffered enough” to make a movie about it. That’s an all-American thing to do. Mad Men just ended with this: Men will reappropriate anything—even and especially the culture of the lower classes—if it’ll provide an extra dollar in their pocket and another pat on their back.

So Sullivan finds his very own Arielle Holmes, in the form of Veronica Lake. She’s plays an actress who’s failed her way through the whole town, and runs into Sullivan on her way out of it. He asks her to buy him breakfast. She asks him for an introduction to Lubitsch. He counters that he just may be able to make that happen. She ends up seeing his mansion, realizing his profession, and tagging along as he tries to make nice with vagrants and hobos.

Sturges’ flights of verbal fancy are as close as the American cinema comes to Shakespeare, and his turns of phrase are as sharp as a shuriken. That’s reason enough to see his films early and often—without even mentioning his elegant visuals, or his master’s eye for slapstick.

But for 20 minutes near the end of Sullivan’s, all that disappears. An audaciously dramatic sequence sees Sullivan cast out into the lower class without the help of his smartaleck beauty to talk him out of each complication. Sullivan’s is the one Sturges film remembered not for what its characters say to each other but for what it has to say: that any director who sets out to make hay of the lives of the downtrodden can’t possibly understand them. And that putting misery up on the screen in search of plaudits is the falsest thing any faux-artist can do.

What is it about Heaven Knows What that keeps us from leveling that charge its way? You hear the one-sentence description—”white middle-class directors put homeless girl and her friends onscreen, make their lives into melodrama, then go on to make their next movie about the diamond district”—and you write them off as tourists. They’re riding through the slums in a limo. But their movie doesn’t deny that. It works—it astounds, it wrenches, it becomes tragic poetry—precisely because they recognize it.

Heaven film is startlingly honest about where these people would hang out—at McDonald’s, Starbucks, White Castle, Dunkin’ Donuts. Anywhere with affordable food, all-night hours, and a big enough bathroom to get high in. And we’re always looking at Harley and her friends from the outside in: They’re obscured by windows, by ads for iced coffee, or by more presentable patrons throwing shade their way. Even when they’re outside, they’re often concealed in long shots by the commuting masses, who walk by each frame not even caring to take note of the protagonists’ existence. The Safdies recognize the Sullivan in themselves, and build it into the very language of their movie that plays out from the perspective of a privileged outsider, who—at any moment—can choose to look away.

Then the end credits roll, and we do. >>HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT. RATED R. OPENS FRI 6.2. AT THE KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA, 355 BINNEY ST., CAMBRIDGE. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT LANDMARKTHEATRES.COM/ BOSTON/KENDALL-SQUARE-CINEMA

FILM EVENTS SATURDAY JUNE 13

REEL WEIRD BRATTLE PRESENTS

JACKIE BROWN

M*A*S*H

[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge.

11:30pm/R/$9-11. brattlefilm.org]

THE MASTERPIECE OF BOYS-BEHAVINGBADLY CINEMA

[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/ R/$9-11. brattlefilm.org]

[Harvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/ R/$7-9. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]

FRIDAY JUNE 12

DARIO ARGENTO’S BLOODY BELOVED DEBUT

FRIDAY THE 13th

[Coolidge Corner. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/R/$11.25.

Also plays Sat 6.13. coolidge.org]

The lady vanishes—who’s to blame?

The title character of Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi’s mystery disappears like a kite let go with the wind. Her acquaintances reverseengineer her psyche—arguing about the way she was treated by men, family, and society at large—so they can deduce where she may have gone. The most notable flaw is its pedigree: Farhadi has made two other mystically intoned socially minded melodramas since shooting this one (A Separation and The Past), and they both feature densely allegorical compositions that compare favorably with Elly’s more functional photography. But if Farhadi’s name is foreign to you, don’t let it stay that way.

This documentary portrait of 94-yearold fashion icon Iris Apfel—directed by the late Albert Maysles—is hardly an all-encompassing one. Health scares and major events occur entirely offscreen, while we watch Iris playfully palling around with her director, her husband, and a number of well-known admirers. (Yeezy’s a fan.) If there’s a constant here, it’s the subject’s beautiful bluster. She may not show much vulnerability, but she, and this film, have no need for things like “truth.” They’ve got charm.

ALOHA Here’s a sampler of the brazenly incoherent new Cameron Crowe movie: Bradley Cooper and Emma Stone frolic about Hawaii doing date-movie stuff, Cooper meets up with The One Who Got Away and finds out he fathered her teenage daughter, Bill Murray secretly sends a nuclear weapon into space under the nose of the US government, then Cooper saves the entire planet by blowing the orbiting satellite up with—we’re serious about this— weaponized pop music. Aloha’s a hot mess—it does very few things right, but you can never call it boring.

ENTOURAGE

I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS

THURSDAY JUNE 11

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS

IRIS

There’s a moment where the non-plot pauses so a series of supermodels can stare directly into the camera’s frame—just so we can stare back. But it also gives us a moment to wonder: Why did I pay to watch this mediocre TV show on the big screen? Entourage: Movie Version is but a failed act of career maintenance perpetrated by its already forgotten actors, as embarrassing to watch as it must have been for Mark Wahlberg to appear in.

He plugs Ted and Wahlburgers in his two minutes onscreen—his shameless salesmanship becomes the film’s sole impressive quality.

>>SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS. NOT RATED. MON 6.15 AT 7PM. COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, 290 HARVARD ST., BROOKLINE. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT COOLIDGE.ORG .

QUENTIN TARANTINO’S (SURPRISINGLY MATURE)

ABOUT ELLY

THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE

[Harvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 9:30pm/ R/$7-9. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]

DARKMAN

SUNDAY JUNE 14

ALTMAN AND NEWMAN TAKE DOWN THE OLD WEST

BUFFALO BILL AND THE INDIANS, OR: SITTING BULL’S HISTORY LESSON

[Harvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/ R/$7-9. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]

You hear that this stars Blythe Danner as an elderly woman being seduced by the gentleman from the country club (Sam Elliot), and you think you know what to expect: romance so gentle that it could be knocked over by a slight wind. But you’re wrong.

Writer/director Brett Haley swings between subplots ranging from the innocuous (Danner meets a drinking buddy, played by Martin Starr) to the tragic (we start off with a dead dog,) painting a portrait of the character’s life. He slowly stuns you with sneaky, life-sized expanse.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Max is almost mute. Car chases fill the entire running time. Backstories are illustrated using only the scars and wounds on character’s bodies.

Fury Road speaks to us visually—it’d work entirely without sound. There’s only one verbal motif: Who killed the world?, shouted by the film’s six heroines toward the patriarchal figures who scorched their planet.

Scoff at the inclusion of progressive politics in a film this unashamedly violent, but everything eventually clicks together. We see a world in need of tearing down. Fury Road finds great cinematic beauty doing exactly that.

RESULTS Personal trainer Kat (Cobie Smulders) spurns smitten customer Danny (Kevin Corrigan), expecting him to politely terminate their working relationship. Instead, he befriends her boss Trevor (Guy Pearce) and buys half of the gym. The love triangle that emerges is standard—but the way it plays out is anything but.

Danny’s plagued by lust, Kat by fury, and Trevor by an inability to let anyone into his life as easy as they’re let into his bed. Genre cliches get imbued with the messiness of sexual psychology. Results takes the romcom and makes it human.

WILD TALES Six stories survey the separation between rich and poor, with the conceit being that everyone is depicted as equally amoral. (It’s a comedy.) None of the stories intersect, but motifs recur: explosions, people trying to bust through shatterproof glass, victims growing so traumatized by vile behavior that they keel over and vomit. One story stages a street fight between two egotists on the side of the road. Blood and spit and viscera—all the ugliness of the human condition—splatters onto the lens. The movie rubs our faces in it.

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

27

COMEDY

BREAKING IN Thursday June 11 7:30 PM

CHICK SINGER NIGHT

Tricia Auld and the struggles of breaching Boston comedy

BY ALY MORRISSEY @ALYMORRISSEY

(Singer/Songwriter) Thursday June 11 10PM

SHOW ʻN

SELL Art Gallery

Artists & DJs TBA FREE | UPSTAIRS | 18+

PVRPLE Friday JUNE 12th - 10pm

DJs: Sicko Mobb (chi-town), Amadeezy, Moneyworth, Knife + Stenny & Nick Stamz Genres: Trap, Trill, Crunk, Chopped & Screwed $10 | DOWNSTAIRS | 21+ Saturday JUNE 13th - 10pm

SHAKE!

#TBT THROWBACK THURSDAY DANCE PARTY hosted by DYSKO (Dance Party)

Friday June 12 6:30PM

AMY BLACK CD RELEASE

Singer Songwriter/Soul/Country/Blues Friday June 12 10PM

BOOTY VORTEX

(Disco/Funk) Saturday June 13 6:30PM

WUMB MEMBER CONCERT: AMY BLACK CD RELEASE

(Singer Songwriter/Soul/ Country/Blues) Saturday June 13 10PM

LIZ FRAME & THE KICKERS + LUDDY MUSSY (Americana)

Wednesday June 17 9PM

MEN WITHOUT HATS + PARTY BOIS, TELECTRIX (New Wave)

17 HOLLAND ST., DAVIS SQ. SOMERVILLE (617) 776-2004 DIRECTLY ON T RED LINE AT DAVIS

DJs: Wheez-ie, Lindale + deMC, Damian Silva, Fens Genres: Techno, Grime, Bass, Dubstep, Footwork $5 before 11, $10 after DOWNSTAIRS | 21+ Satuday JUNE 13th - 10pm

SUMMER

SMOKE DJs: Jay K The DJ & Madd Miks Genres: Hip-Hop, Trap, Party Jams $5 before 11, $10 after UPSTAIRS | 21+

GAME NIGHT Tuesday JUNE 16th - 6pm

FREE | DOWNSTAIRS 18+ until 10pm

Wednesday June 3rd

THE BLACK LILLIES Americana / Roots

Friday June 6 10PM

JOE FIRSTMAN OF THE CORDOVAS + THE QUINS Rock

28 KINGSTON STREET

DOWNTOWN BOSTON GOODLIFEBAR.COM

617. 4 51 . 2 6 2 2 GOODLIFEBOSTON GOODLIFEBAR GOODLIFEBAR 28

06.10.15 - 06.17.15

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Every Thursday in June at 10PM

Free Bar-side Series

#TBT DANCE PARTY

Old School Funk / Soul / Disco

17 Holland St., Davis Sq. Somerville (617) 776-2004 Directly on T Red Line at Davis

How do you know when you’ve “made it” in the Boston comedy scene? For Waltham native Tricia Auld, it’s when you start to receive photos of male genitalia from comedians more established than you. At least that’s what she’s hanging on to as she navigates the complex and difficult-to-penetrate world of comedy.

Auld, who has been trying to crack the comedy nut in the Hub for more than two years, knows she has a long road to endure. Though Boston is eclipsed by entertainment meccas like Los Angeles and Manhattan, the deep wellsprings of talent within our own city create a competitive landscape for aspiring comedians.

In short: It’s no easier to find success here. And in some ways, it may be even harder.

The 30-year-old admits that she “foolishly thought that success would be based on skill alone,” and that a great open mic appearance could rocket a person to fame. She quickly realized her mistake once she began to network with the many talented veterans who monopolize setlists in the Greater Boston area. Now she laughs about, recalling a letter she once wrote to Chelsea Handler: “I assumed that she would immediately identify my talents and I would rise to fame shortly thereafter. I actually remember feeling slighted when she didn’t dignify my wellcrafted note with a response.”

Though she acknowledges her current place on Boston’s comedy totem pole, Auld has performed at several popular venues, such as Dick’s Comedy Den, The Middle East, Phoenix Landing, and Davis Square Theater.

Today, Auld continues to make her mark with honest and often raunchy accounts of “tormented, self-inflicted, and excruciating heartbreak.” Her openbook approach makes her relatable, despite the frequency with which she claims to give blowjobs. She strikes an impossible balance of self-deprecation and overthe-top confidence with an unapologetic, feminist bent. Her sets are stacked with sex jokes that would—and do—make her parents blush. You can always find them in the front row of her shows.

As a vivacious blonde with a racy sense of humor, it is impossible to deny the parallels between Auld and female comedians like Chelsea Handler and Amy Schumer, both of which she admits influence her style. But she’s also a unique individual following her own inspiration: Comedy has been a part of her life for as long as she can remember, whether it was making her four sisters laugh growing up, or using humor to secure her high school softball team a two-page spread in the paper, she has, in a sense, been preparing for the stage her whole life.

Auld vividly remembers the day she “came out” as a comedian. “It was something that I held very close to me and was protective of for a long time,” she explains of her quiet desire to trade in a desk job for a microphone and a stage.

She took her first plunge toward a career in comedy when she launched her blog Never Been More Single under the pseudonym Peaches Wyola.

“I used it as a creative outlet but wasn’t fully ready to take on the responsibility of owning the content,” says Auld, which mostly featured sexually explicit material and descriptive tales of the Tinder world. It wasn’t until a post titled “Reasons I’m Crying in my 20’s” went viral that she decided to go public with her dream.

Success in comedy rarely follows a clear path, and while she no longer feels the need to be Comedy Central famous, Auld says she wants to enjoy the ride and connect with people.

“What fuels and fulfills me is when I put the most raw, honest, and pure form of myself on display and another human being identifies with that,” she says.

“It can be challenging and scary to put yourself out there in that way, but I do it because I know that it might turn someone’s day around, or make someone in a similar situation feel like they aren’t alone.”

Auld’s fanbase is still growing, and she is proud of—and freaked out by—her “creepy” followers. She laughs, “Does it ever occur to people that before they acquire fans, they just have crazy stalkers? Well, it has occurred to me.” >> TRICIA AULD. PLAYS THE RIOT THEATRE IN JAMAICA PLAIN JULY 16, IMPROV BOSTON IN CAMBRIDGE JULY 25. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT FACEBOOK.COM/COMEDIANTRICIAAULD

PHOTO BY ALY MORRISSEY

Wednesday JUNE 10th - 8:30PM

BOOKS

HOT READS

Books + music + beach = your summer reading roster

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic

by Jessica Hopper

Feminism isn’t about helping women get to where they need to be; it’s about shining the light on women who are already at the top but denied their praise. Jessica Hopper is the no-mercy writer behind countless music essays, reviews, and thinkpieces that have shaped the last two decades. When you read through The Pitchfork Review editor-in-chief’s collection of grade-A rock criticism, don’t be surprised if you find yourself wondering how the book’s title is true, and how many other female authors are right in line behind her.

Do Not Sell at Any Price

by Amanda Petrusich

Forget about the trend status of vinyl today and look into the truly quirky subculture surrounding 78rpms. As critic and teacher Amanda Petrusich meticulously details, the obsessive hunt for the world’s rarest 78rpm records is a hobby with an expensive receipt given the fragile 10-inch shellac discs are nearly impossible to find. Collector or not, you will get wrapped up in the nitpicky world from page one—especially when you find out a particular record sold on Ebay for $37,100.

Girl In A Band

by Kim Gordon

Sonic Youth bassist, vocalist, and allaround badass Kim Gordon is more than an icon; she’s a role model for musicians around the world striving to be effortlessly cool with unabating talent. Her new memoir tracks candid stories about her suburban childhood, run-ins with mental illness, and the frail threads of her marriage with Thurston Moore. Even the toughest humans have a soft core, and Gordon articulates her with beautiful prose.

Last Night a DJ Saved My Life: The History of the Disc Jockey

by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton

When Reginald Fessenden became the first person to play a record over the radio back in 1906, everything changed. While most radio stations today cue up mp3s, club scenes around the world still whip out wax to get sweat beading on the crowds’ foreheads, and Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton pay homage to history’s greats in this classic book. Slip through the ’60s, check out the disco scene, and read up on hip-hop in a thorough, approachable read on the everlasting role of DJing.

In The All-Night Café

by Stuart David

Belle and Sebastian are the twee band that shook—and continues to shake— the music world. In his brand new memoir, frontman Stuart David opens up about his beginning days in the band, life in Glasgow, and the highs and lows that come with doubly dark songwriting in the guise of carefree melodies. Pour yourself a cup of tea and forget about the price. It’s worth it, but you didn’t need us, or Stuart, to tell you that.

How Music Works

by David Byrne

Talking Heads are to music as dancing is to children. The band’s contributions to the field illuminate emotions in a way that often escape us. So when frontman David Byrne writes about the advent of recording technology and the way in which we listen to music, it should come as no surprise that the resulting explorations float between buoyant ebullience and provocative ponderings. The cover may be sleek minimalism, but prepare for some heavier breakdowns. Byrne prowls through the cultural and physical context of music in a way contemporary books have yet to try out.

Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove by ?uestlove

Get punch drunk with ?uestlove’s equally doozy memoir for a rowdy tale of love, music, and late-night storytelling. The Roots drummer is well known for his extensive music knowledge. As such, his memoir goes into detail about the lates and greats from black art and pop culture, most of which information is related with engrossing details that don’t alienate casual listeners. Of course the Late Night with Jimmy Fallon bandleader knows how to entertain as well as he does educate. We think he keeps all that knowledge stored in his fro.

Out of the Vinyl Deeps: Ellen Willis on Rock Music

by Ellen Willis

The New Yorker’s first-ever popular music critic was the one in only Ellen Willis. Hired in 1968, she went on to become a cult classic and cultural commentary pioneer whose work still holds true today. For Willis, discussing music isn’t just about the originality and cultural impact of works by David Bowie or The Who; it’s about how the music makes you feel, and why you’re so compelled to share it with those you love immediately after hearing it.

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SECRET ASIAN MAN

BY TAK TOYOSHIMA @TAKTOYOSHIMA

THE STRANGERER

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM

OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS

BY TIM CHAMBERLAIN OURVC.NET

SAVAGE LOVE

TRANSITIONS

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE I’m a 23-year-old man. I left an abusive relationship a year ago, and I’m currently in therapy dealing with the fallout. This abusive relationship really affected me negatively. On the one hand, she was the first person I was ever really intimate with.

And when I say intimate, I mean pretty much everything you can think of—holding hands to kissing to intercourse to kinky sex. I identify very strongly as a submissive man, but she coerced me to be way more dominant than I actually am, among other shitty things she did to me. This has made me even more desirous of expressing myself submissively in bed, because I never really got to be who I actually am. How can I explore my submissive desires in a place that doesn’t really have much in the way of BDSM-related meet-ups, munches, clubs, etc.? How do I meet a Dominant who is respectful and kind? I may need more time away from relationships to recover and get my life in order, but being a submissive is more and more on the forefront of my mind.

Seeking A Dominant If you don’t live someplace with kinky clubs and social organizations—no classes, no munches, no dungeons—you have three options.

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DIGBOSTON.COM

1. Look for kinky people in your area on kinky dating sites.

Mention that you’re looking for kinky friends, too, not just dates or lovers, because a kinky friend could invite you to a private party in your area.

2. Date women you’ve met on non-kinky sites or in non-kinky venues and roll out your kinks in good time. I’ve been to lots of kink events, SAD, and I’ve met two kinds of people there: people who were always kinky, and people who fell in love with someone kinky and then fell in love with kink. You know from personal experience that being coerced into playing a certain role is no fun—it can even tip over into abuse—so your mission is to find one of those women who loves being Dominant but won’t realize it until she falls in love with a submissive guy.

3. Move someplace that has kinky clubs, social organizations, and BDSM-related events and play parties.

Your previous advice to FACTS, the guy who cheated on his wife, was spot-on as usual. He should not tell a woman on a first date about the number of women he cheated on his ex-wife with before his divorce. You might also let him know to not mention the “crying myself to sleep every night” bit, either. But then, I am just a middle-aged gay man—so what do I know?

Just Saying Middle-aged gay men—what do we know about anything?

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» Bella Luna Restaurant & Milky Way Lounge

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» Stingray Body Art » Kulturez » I Hate the Green Line T-Shirt » Hunting Theatre

» Skydive New England » Brooklyn Boulders

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