Dig Boston June 24th, 2015

DIGBOSTON.COM 6.24.15 - 6.31.15

NEWS

REPLACING THE PATRIOT ACT

ASK NOT HOW YOUR COUNTRY CAN SPY ON YOU...

G

ININ D R E M M SU

S U O I C I A DEL Y A S S E O PHOT

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VOL 17 + ISSUE 25

JUNE 24, 2015 - JUNE 31, 2015

EDITOR Dan McCarthy NEWS, FEATURES + MEDIA FARM EDITOR Chris Faraone ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran ASSOCIATE FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan CONTRIBUTORS Nate Boroyan, Martín Caballero, Paige Chaplin, Christopher Ehlers, Bill Hayduke, Emily Hopkins, Micaela Kimball, Cady Vishniac, Dave Wedge INTERNS Oliver Bok, Emily Tiberio

DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Tak Toyoshima DESIGNER Brittany Grabowski INTERNS Amy Bouchard, Stephanie Buonopane, Kelsey Cole COMICS Tim Chamberlain Pat Falco Patt Kelley Tak Toyoshima

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

BUSINESS PUBLISHER Jeff Lawrence ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Marc Shepard OPERATIONS MANAGER John Loftus ADVISOR Joseph B. Darby III DigBoston, 242 East Berkeley St. 5th Floor Boston, MA 02118 Fax 617.849.5990 Phone 617.426.8942 digboston.com

ON THE COVER

Our very own Kelsey Cole and Amy Bouchard have teamed up to bring you this scrumptious treat of a cover.

Now hop on over to page 11 and try not to eat the paper. ©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.

DEAR READER I experienced a quintessential Boston summertime moment last week while assembling this issue.

I was driving in the city on E Berkeley Street, coming from the South End, and while crossing Columbus Ave on my way to the Back Bay, I was ambling through slow-chug traffic. Gorgeous out.

The air tunneling up Columbus and through my car was gusting, and I passed through the crosswalk in harmony with the car in front of me. A bearded biker was carefully pedaling toward the line of cars, leaning to cut across, and just when my car approached he smiled and screamed a thorny “NIIIICE JAHB” practically inside my driver’s side window before calling me an asshole over his shoulder while he cut in behind me.

I smiled, and not just because I saw the rider scream more gibberish at another happy motorist soon after. Here was this gorgeous day, with all the smells of summer in the air, a bit of added bounce to everyone’s step—hell, there were even decent parking options (the holy unicorn of any mid-day trip in said area)—and yet one of us still made sure to cast a stink eye on everything, sending both a sweet smile and a nasty bite to his fellow Bostonians. Maintaining the right balance.

It’s in that spirit that we present the current issue, filled with the sights, sounds, and urban stank of summer in the Hub. And be sure to check out our very special Media Farm this week, which details the birth of BINJ, the newest journalistic celestial body in the local media universe.

Feels like there’s a Uranus pun that I could end with here, but I can’t think of one. Happy reading.

DAN MCCARTHY - EDITOR, DIGBOSTON

DIGTIONARY

PAGLIUCANOE noun Pagliuca-kəˈno͞o

1. The vessel you are in when you’re paddling a failed Boston Olympics bid up Shit Creek.

OH, CRUEL WORLD Dear Brian Williams, You smug son of a bitch.

You beanpole pretty boy bastard. You probably shave your chest. You notalent hacktacular geek bot. You lying no-tellingthe-truth bullshit artist, you, mister I ain’t never seen a second on the front lines, you sir are everything that’s wrong with the American media. May your hair designer jizz in your conditioner, your personal chef spit in your soup, and your steady decline into laughingstock oblivion status commence with your return to television.

ILLUSTRATION BY AMY BOUCHARD

EDITORIAL

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NEWS US

MASS SURVEILLANCE SCORECARD NEWS TO US

Ask not how your country can spy on you …

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 In 2015, people are increasingly aware that the government is watching their backs. And their fronts, and their sides, and in many cases quietly perusing their computer metadata. Lucky for us, there are surveillance reformers who are dedicated to preserving certain constitutional amendments that mobs of protesters in camouflage rarely vocally defend, but that we all defend in some sense every time that we get vocal. Or wear camouflage.

In Greater Boston, researchers at Digital Fourth, “the Massachusetts campaign to protect digital data from warrantless government surveillance,” are on the front lines of perpetual state deception, often taking on the thankless task of deciphering reality through lies through and noise. Only a fool would get their news on these intensely granular issues from traditional news sources, which often fail to acknowledge the concerns of privacy advocates who warn outside of the Democrats versus 4

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Republicans narrative. So in the wake of so much hubbub over the final passage of the USA Freedom Act, now that certain dust has settled and there has been time to parse the votes, we contacted Digital Fourth President Alex Marthews—not only for his expert perspective, but for his group’s statistical tracking of Congressmembers on surveillance reform issues.

In the past few weeks, voices ranging from the New York Times to the group Demand Progress have blasted the Freedom Act as an insignificant change from, if not an even bigger insult to privacy than its much-maligned predecessor, the USA/Patriot Act. We asked Marthews if this latest measure, as derided by the GOP as it was praised by leading Dems, is as awful as it seems, and whether our entrusted Massachusetts delegates in Washington D.C. are watching after us, or just watching us from hidden cameras.

DB: What did this scorecard show you? What were you surprised about?

AM: [With] the 114th Congress … we were able to determine for everybody a good measure of where they stood [on surveillance reform]. One thing that surprised me was that there are people who vote very well on surveillance matters, and people who vote very poorly on surveillance matters, [and neither have] been very vocal or written about in the press [for those votes].

DB: What was covered as far as the USA Freedom Act? Do you believe that members of Congress got off the hook for their positions?

AM: When you’re talking about any political subject, if you’re talking about what people in general know, they don’t have a strong incentive to learn deeply about SURVEILLANCE SCORECARD continued on pg. 6

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SURVEILLANCE SCORECARD continued from pg. 4 politics. I think it’s not hugely different for surveillance …

If you asked people in the street what Congress was doing about the Patriot Act, most wouldn’t know …

There was quite a bit of coverage, but certainly earlier on a lot of it was oversimplified, particularly on TV news, as a fight between reformers as represented

by Democrats and President [Barack] Obama and the people who want the USA Freedom Act, and opponents represented by Republicans who want the Patriot Act to continue to keep us all safe—and then you have and Rand Paul, who is the crazy guy. That was pretty much the level of the coverage, but the efforts Paul went to in delaying the [voting] process made it necessary for the media to go a little bit beyond their usual coverage of these issues.

So you had people actually asking, ‘Is this really reform?

Is something that the CIA and NSA come out in support of really a significant change?’

DB: What are some things that really stand out about the Massachusetts delegation?

AM: We see in two [newer members], [Congressman Seth] Moulton and [Congressman Joseph] Kennedy, that for Democrats they are pretty opposed to surveillance reform. For Moulton, this may relate to his military background, and for Kennedy, this may point to his having higher aspirations for office someday … [Congresswoman

DB: How about Elizabeth Warren? How surprising is her low grade?

AM: I think it’s clear that this is not a core issue for Elizabeth Warren, or that she doesn’t perceive it as a core issue, and that she’s really focused on economic issues and financial reform, and she is not strongly motivated where it comes to the surveillance state. What you do have though is a strong tradition in Massachusetts of our long-term legislators like [Congressman Richard] Neal, and [Congressman Jim] McGovern, and [Congressman-turned-Senator Ed] Markey who are very passionate and are committed to reform and have been doing something about this for a long time. That’s great—the Massachusetts delegation on average is much stronger than the delegation for the average state [on these issues].

DB: What does any of this mean for constituents?

AM: When it comes to actions on the ground, we want to be looking at ways the state government can take steps to protect our privacy [in ways] the federal government is not necessarily yet willing to do. We can do things

like [advocate for] warrants for the use of drones, make sure that local communities get a vote on the ways that drones are used, and make sure officials get a vote—we have a bill on that [in the Massachusetts legislature].

When it comes down to the local level, the issues have more to do with police accountability, and how they share and use information. We’ve been keeping an eye on how law enforcement resources are used to investigate peaceful groups, and there are a variety of measures that are in the state legislature that deal one way or another with that issue.

This is something that all people in Massachusetts can come together around. Dealing with the harassment [of surveillance] in local communities is deeply important to African-Americans, and it’s very important to people in the tech sector … We should also look very closely at the discussion around cyber security. There are lots of round tables and discussions, and it’s important for people to understand that the federal government is trying to get companies to share information on you. That’s not really security at all, and it needs to be called out.

SCORECARD: Marthews: The scorecard ‘incorporates all relevant votes on and sponsorships of legislation from the last Congress and this one.’

MICHAEL CAPUANO

JIM MCGOVERN

RICHARD NEAL

KATHERINE CLARK

ED MARKEY

A+

A+

A+

A+

A+

ELIZABETH WARREN

JOSEPH KENNEDY

27 points

STEPHEN LYNCH 14 points

A 6

Katherine] Clarke has gone in a very different direction, and she has voted at more or less every turn she could to strengthen surveillance reform. That’s praiseworthy.

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27 points

NIKI TSONGAS 14 points

A DIGBOSTON.COM

27 points

WILLIAM KEATING 10 points

A-

15 points

8 points

B

15 points

5 points

See me , after class Joseph!

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BLUNT TRUTH

BROWNIE POINTS Politicians find edibles hard to swallow

BY ANDY GAUS ANDYGAUS@SPRYNET.COM

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While we typically use Blunt Truth to rail against the government, specifically in reference to politicians who are reluctant to advance marijuana in the Commonwealth despite the current medical cannabis law, this week there is actually good news. That’s right—in the state where Democrats can’t get out of their own way, Republican Governor Charlie Baker, who is of course flawed in his own right on a number of other important issues, did what nary any donkey prior to him has had the audacity to do, and used his power to push ahead on dispensaries. We’re usually dead against printing press releases (unless we’re mocking them), but this one from last Friday felt remarkable enough to quote extensively …

Governor Charlie Baker today approved the issuance of a one-time, temporary waiver that will allow the first medical marijuana dispensary to begin selling its product after meeting final inspection protocols.

One of the Commonwealth’s first medical marijuana dispensaries, Alternative Therapies Group (ATG) of Salem, MA had requested the waiver because labs in Massachusetts are not yet able to complete the array of quality testing required by Department of Public Health protocols.

Tickets: 617.934.2610 or 888.503.5659

8

RED TEAM GIVES GREEN LIGHT

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON

FLOATING BEER HAUL Every Friday (boarding 5:30pm, departing 6:00pm, returning 7:30pm)

Andy Gaus is an activist with Bay State Repeal, which is advocating for the legalization bill mentioned herein.

FELIPE ESPARAZA @ LAUGH BOSTON

Fridays:

New selections wekly

When they legalized weed in Colorado in 2012, something bad was bound to happen in terms of public perception, and soon enough it did: a man killed his wife after consuming a massive dose of cannabis-infused sweets. Since then, edibles have been the focus of some extreme bursts of Reefer Madness. Most memorably around here, Michael O’Keefe, the district attorney for the Cape and Islands, described Denver as a place where the streets are littered with marijuana gummy bears—a stern warning to those who pick up half-eaten candy off the ground without considering the health risks.

In fairness, edibles do present some particular dangers: they look and taste like regular food to you, your baby daughter, and your dog. And whereas you take a pill out of a bottle and keep the bottle with the label, it’s likely that somebody would toss away the packaging for an edible, making it difficult to track dosing information.

On the latter note, the legalization bill that is currently stalled in the Massachusetts legislature offers a simple solution: no edible in a single wrapper should contain more than 20mg of THC, which might be considered two “servings.” It has also been proposed that no edibles should have the appearance of children’s candy. In any case, both proposals would need medical exceptions, as some patients need a higher dose of THC, and can’t eat 10 cupcakes to get it, while others may need lollipops and gummy bears as convenient forms of cannabis delivery.

The biggest problem, of course, is not the edibles but impatient human nature: while you’re waiting for the high to kick in, you’re tempted to take another dose, or two, or three, therefore producing way more of a high than you bargained for. What do you do about that? You could have a law that edibles are only available at movie theaters with a ticket purchase and must be consumed before taking your seat. Barring such a law, impatient types like me may be better off leaving edibles alone. For everybody else, the unofficial rule should probably just be: Always wait at least an hour before asking, “Are we having fun yet?”

“Patients have waited to access marijuana for medical purposes for far too long,” said Governor Baker. “This waiver will allow industry laboratories a little more time to reach full operation while providing safe amounts of medical marijuana for qualifying patients who need it.”

Well it’s about time …

MEDIA FARM

TIME TO BINJ

Introducing the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 Hello there. I’m Chris Faraone, the News + Features editor of DigBoston, and one of the many trash-talkers behind Media Farm. Every week, one of my duties is to spelunk into a slag heap of repulsive nuggets and news items that co-workers and readers send along, and to synthesize the symphony of outrage into one obnoxious stream-ofconsciousness rant. It’s kind of a dream job for a columnist, so long as you’re OK with sabotaging all future career prospects within 500 miles.

Which brings me to the reason that I had to forge another path, and to why I’m writing in first-person this week. While I’ll continue in my role as editor and resident kvetch at the Dig, I am also embarking on a related adventure on which we will hopefully cross paths. It’s called the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, BINJ for short, and it’s my attempt to right some of the wrongs that I eviscerate in this column regularly.

To facilitate the change we want to see in local media, BINJ will contract with reporters of all types to produce features that are relevant to one or more of five general editorial departments: Investigative, Tech & Innovation, Arts, Engagement Narratives, and Intercultural. We will operate with rigor, and drill hard on difficult issues, while structurally BINJ will rely on a vast network of independent media makers (of various skill levels and interests), and distribute through a matrix of deeplyrooted commonwealth press institutions—from scrappy outer-borough weeklies to hyper-local blogs and podcasts.

Most importantly, we are not establishing from scratch or staffing yet another mill to feed the hourly news cycle and rat race. Rather, our model is designed to yield projects that learnedly step back to glimpse the big picture. We will facilitate content-sharing, particularly between foreignlanguage and English outlets, but most story components will be unique to the publication with which they are being produced. For readers of the Dig and of any of the other 20-plus outlets that have already expressed interest in working with BINJ, all you really need to know is that you will be getting free and easy access to thoroughly reported multimedia features on topics that are not adequately represented elsewhere. Resources are scant in the alternative and community press, but our hope is that BINJ can help diversify a Hub media landscape that is increasingly dominated by a few elite entities.

We will divulge more details as they are available, including a tip line and a number of other mechanisms through which we can connect with the public. This will only work with the help of you, the readers. If you check Media Farm regularly, then you already know that what passes for news in the mainstream around here is unconscionable tripe. At the same time, you hopefully have faith in the literally dozens of local outfits that are working hard to reflect views from the ground. With extra muscle from a third-party booster like BINJ, our hope is that they can all broaden their reach and impact, and in the process form a chorus that connects various facets of Hub culture.

FREE RADICAL

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

More than just a plot line

BY EMILY HOPKINS @GENDERPIZZA

By now, many of you have plowed through the third season of Orange is the New Black. Even if you haven’t, it should come as no surprise that characters in the show are sometimes sent to solitary confinement, or the “shu” (segregated housing unit). The series has used this form of punishment (or, as some prison officials call it: “protection”) in a number of ways that drive the plot forward, and that attempt to familiarize viewers with the horrifying reality of this process.

The government has maintained that there is no systematic use of solitary confinement in America, but evidence shows otherwise. Tracking the issue can be difficult, as MuckRock’s Beryl

Lipton pointed out last week, because the practice has a number of different names, depending on the institution.

We do know, however, that long-term solitary confinement— considered by many to be a form of torture—is used in our nation’s prisons, and that it carries disastrous consequences. Earlier this month, for example, Kalief Browder, who was imprisoned when he was 16 years old, committed suicide. During his three years at Rikers Island, he spent more than 400 days in solitary confinement.

Say it out loud: America has a torture problem. It’s alive and well in our broken prison system.

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SUMMER DINING

SUMMER DINING When we first hit a nice stretch of summer-y weather, we wanted to take every single DigBoston reader in town out for a meal to clink glasses together and celebrate being alive in Boston. But then the staff collectively pulled their pockets inside out and shrugged and batted away moths and realized we couldn’t afford that. (Sorry.) So instead, we decided to present you with a beautiful and delicious photo essay highlighting some choice locales for summer dining.

Maybe it’s because we wanted to give you a look inside a hot new restaurant. Or maybe it’s because a photograph of a giant plate of fritos covered in wild game chili reminds you that it’s all going to be okay. Doesn’t matter.

It’s summer. So here’s to eating your feelings around the Hub all season long.

DAN MCCARTHY - EDITOR, DIGBOSTON

CLUCKIT! WHAT: Chef Brian Poe’s justrebooted Estelle’s Southern Kitchen space, this time focusing on Portuguese-African chili-based marinades and dishes of Piri Piri anything.

FEATURED: piri piri pork loin, chorizo and clams, and grilled chicken wings with Piri sauce.

PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE BUONOPANE

782 Tremont St., Boston. cluckitboston.com

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SUMMER DINING

Rina’s Pizzeria and Cafe

WHAT: Brand new North End house of killer espresso, paninis, and Neapolitanstyle pizzas courtesy of local budding restaurant tycoon Nick Varano (Strip by Strega, Nico).

FEATURED: prosciutto di Parma pizza (pomodoro, prosciutto di Parma, buffalo mozzarella, fresh Basil), caprese salad with vine ripe tomatoes, homemade mozzarella and baby greens.

PHOTOS BY MELISSA OSTROW

371 Hanover St., Boston. rinasnorthend.com

LOYAL NINE WHAT: Cambridge “East Coast revival” rustic restaurant from Marc Sheehan, a vet of both the fine dining scene (Menton) and supperclub pop-ups (Brasstacks), now in the throes of its first summer.

FEATURED: fried clam and pig ear eggroll, bluefish soused and served on horseradish and brown bread.

PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE BUONOPANE

660 Cambridge St., Cambridge. loyalninecambridge.com

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BACON PALOOZA

WEDNESDAYʼS • JULY 1ST-29TH 5-11PM

SUMMER DINING

OLDE MAGOUNʼS SALOON PRESENTS:

ARANCINI

Crispy Risotto Croquette / Pancetta / fontina Cheese / Amatraciana Sauce

HOG WILD RANGOON

FIG-ALICIOUS

Bacon Wrapped Figs / Goat Cheese / Balsamic Vinegar Drizzle

BACON POUTINE

Waffle Fries / Cheese Curds /

Bacon Onion Gravy / Soft Fried Egg

Committee

WHAT: The gorgeous new 300-seat addition to Fan Pier, barely a week or so old, courtesy of Bijou and Cafeteria owner George Aboujaoude. Greek and Mediterranean flavors and dishes divided up between hot and cold plates, with banquettes constructed from wood reclaimed from the old Anthony’s Pier 4 (RIP).

FEATURED: A snapshot of the space, jars of dried-fruit goodies for the cocktail program, and a whole lot of reason to get to the waterfront for some noshing amongst the constant party vibe of Fan Pier in the summer.

50 Northern Ave., Boston. committeeboston.com

CHICKEN & BISCUITS

Fried Chicken / Buttermilk Biscuits / Country Bacon Gravy

BACON BOA

Pan Fried Asian Bun / Slab Bacon / Kimichi / Korean BBQ Sauce

BACON WRAPPED PORK TENDERLOIN

Roasted peach & Shallot Gastrique

BACON BOMB MAC & CHEESE Apple wood Smoked Bacon / chicharones / Jalapeño Bacon / Pancetta

WARM BACON AND BREAD PUDDING

Salted Caramel Sauce / Bourbon Pecan Ice Cream

@MAGOUNSSALOON OLDEMAGOUNSSALOON

Steinbones BBQ Sauce at Commonwealth

WHAT: Call it a preview to some of the flavors that will arrive when Commonwealth and former Fenway Park chef (and Bravo TV alum) Steve "Nookie" Postal opens his long-awaited Jewish BBQ and deli, Steinbones. The sauces have just been bottled and stocked at Commonwealth in Cambridge, ready to liven up your next backyard cookout. Or slather on your toast.

FEATURED: One $12.75 bottle of the stuff. Think: organic tomatoes, grape wine reduction, garlic, tumeric, chili peppers, molasses.

518 Medford St. Somerville

magounssaloon.com|617 - 7 76 - 2 6 0 0 14

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11 Broad Canal Way, Cambridge. commonwealthcambridge.com

PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE BUONOPANE

Black Pepper Bacon / Charred Jalapenos / Cream Cheese / Plum Sauce

CRAFT

BEER ISSUE July 15th

digboston arts + entertainment | news | lifestyle NEWS TO US

FEATURE

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SUMMER DINING

SELECT OYSTER BAR WHAT: Neptune Oysters vet and newcomer to the Back Bay Chef Michael Serpa’s lunch-only twist on the lobster roll, best enjoyed on the patio or at the slick bar for that “Let’s go have lunch in an eclectic old brownstone” feel.

“It’s a polished take on the kind of summer lobster sandwich you’d slap together from a cooler at the beach,” says Serpa.

FEATURED: Maine lobster sandwich on warm ciabatta with avocado salad and roasted tomato aioli.

PHOTO BY DAN MCCARTHY

50 Gloucester St., Boston. selectboston.com

LULU'S ALLSTON

FEATURED: s’more’s tart and wild game Frito chili pie.

421 Cambridge St., Allston. lulusallston.com

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PHOTOS COURTESY LULU’S ALLSTON

WHAT: The barely year-old Allston bastion of junk food done with a twist (not to mention a healthy craft beer selection) has been sating the appetites of all who pass through the doors and belly up to the bar for some of Sarah Wade’s pure-fun foodie inventions.

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ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

IF ANYONE DESERVES A TRIBUTE NIGHT IT’S NINA SIMONE

18

WED 6.24

FRI 6.26

FRI 6.26

FRI 6.27

SAT 6.27

SUN 6.28

Nina Simone Tribute

Revenge of the Robot Battle Nuns

All at Once

Great Boston Beer Marathon

Short Path Distillery Grand Opening

HackCycle

It’s a new dawn and it’s a new day, but it’s literally always a perfect time to pay tribute to one of the most influential vocalists ever: Nina Simone. Trust us, this isn’t a lame cover band scenario—local musicians and Berklee alums, featuring Raquel Quinones on vocals, are responsible for channelling the mysterious spirit of the soulful and crooning Simone herself. All you have to do is listen ... and try the toasted couscous.

Craving Halloween in the summertime? Love burlesque, but wish there was a little more ... violence? Well, the title of this show speaks volumes.

The Oberon and brilliant apocalyptic burlesque troupe Slaughterhouse Sweethearts have teamed up to make all your spooky, freaky, sexy dreams come true before your horrorstricken eyes. Some things to remember: there will be a lesbian spider cult, lots of fake blood, and probably a nipple tassel or two ... or 10.

Described as “grotesque, hilarious, and lovely,” Arlene Shechet’s newest and first major sculpture exhibition at the ICA is proving itself to be anything but ordinary.

This beautiful plethora of sculptures spans 20 years of Shechet’s art endeavors, including all her experimental approaches to clay, paper pulp, and glass. If you’ve ever been drawn to art that makes you stop and ask yourself, “How the hell ... ?” you are going to eat this up.

Picture this: a relatively normal pub crawl, except everyone is wearing viking helmets and drunkenly running around Fenway and Allston. Perhaps you find this strange, or maybe it’s right up your alley.

Either way, this “marathon” of sorts only happens once a year and is something you shouldn’t sleep through.

Endless food and drink specials at 26 different local bars; free ping-pong, bowling, and billiards; access to DJs, contests, and raffles; and much more.

This brand spankin’ new gem will be the first draft distillery to open in Everett since, well, Prohibition.

This weekend’s opening shebang will be complete with showroom tours and free locally distilled gin and rum tastings. Don’t forget the Roving Lunchbox food truck, either: Tasty local eats to go alongside tasty local spirits. Why on Earth would you pass that up?

If you can’t answer that question, we’ll see you on the 27th.

Recycling is great, but recycling things and making art out of them is certainly better.

Somerville’s own Nave Gallery has a new exhibit consisting of 100 percent recycled art of techy origin.

If you’ve ever pondered building a sculpture with parts from broken electronic gadgets, check out the gallery’s schedule for HackCycle workshops hosted by Melissa Glick, curator, artist, and recycler extraordinaire. One man’s trash, another man’s art.

Beat Brasserie. 13 Brattle St., Cambridge. 8pm/all ages/ FREE. For more information, visit beatbrasserie.com

Oberon. 2 Arrow St., Cambridge.

7:30pm/18+/$13-20.

For more information, visit americanrepertorytheater. org

The Institute of Contemporary Art. 100 Northern Ave., Boston.

Runs until 9.7 during normal museum hours.

For more information, visit icaboston.org

Various Venues all throughout Fenway and Allston. 10am-8pm/21+/ $30-75. For more information, visit greatbostonbeermarathon. com

Short Path Distillery.

71 Kelvin St., Everett.

12-9pm/all ages, 21+ to drink/FREE. For more information, visit shortpathdistillery.com

Nave Gallery.

155 Powderhouse Blvd., Somerville. Saturdays + Sundays 1-5pm/all ages/ FREE. For more information, visit navegallery.org

06.24.15 - 06.31.15

|

DIGBOSTON.COM

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

MUSIC

COWARDLY LION RISING

MUSIC

Torres faces her fears like a pro

Aeuronaut Brewery transforms into a sound garden this Saturday

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

DRUNK SCIENCE

THAT CLOUD LOOKS LIKE A PILLOW. I REALLY COULD USE A PILLOW. Torres is a fearless singer-songwriter who stuffs her songs with heart-ripping honesty, but Mackenzie Scott, the 23-yearold resident of New York via Tennessee behind the moniker, is full of nervous anxieties. As such, she’s got a list of fears: isolation, mortality, immortality, aging. Better phrased as, you know, life.

Her new album, Sprinter, reads like she’s darting away from her fears, but get a few songs in and it’s clear that reading is backwards. “The goal is to turn around and run straight back into them,” she explains.

That’s where Scott has changed. Usually, she uses songwriting as her only mode of communication, but the past year saw her open up to friends and family—only to discover those fears aren’t as scary as she’d assumed. “You have to give people the chance to be there for you,” she admits. “It’s about taking the risk and giving your loved ones a chance to comfort you and communicate that with you. I’m not good at that. I was never good at that. When people can relate, they’re empathetic and they’re there for you. I’ve found that I’m much less alone than I always thought.”

In putting forth the effort to communicate, Scott cleared up health issues, too. “Fears manifest in the most incredibly terrible ways,” she says, a bit shaken up. “It’s incredible what fear does to the body and what dwelling on negativity does to the body: You gain weight, you lose sleep, your digestion messes up, everything becomes terrible. Communicate and your body benefits.”

Opening up allows her to empathize deeper, namely through experimenting with various points of view. On Sprinter, Scott gives herself the vantage point of an outsider, even if it’s a self-imposed character play, while still distancing herself from, well, herself. “Maybe it makes the songs feel a bit less myopic,” she says. “When I’m writing that way, it’s because you’re only remembering things the way that you think they happened. You’ve only seen things through your eyes. It’s about empathy.”

She may be a mere 23 years old, but Scott is as brave as someone twice her age when it comes to facing her fears—she just doesn’t need the bruised skin of a seasoned adult to get there. “I did end up having to drink a whole bottle of whiskey and still managed to get the performance I wanted on ‘Strange Hellos’ though,” she laughs, “so maybe I’m just proud of not just falling down drunk.” >> TORRES W/ ANCIENT OCEAN. THURS 6.25. GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON. 617.779.0140. 9PM/18+/$12.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM

MUSIC EVENTS WED 6.24

THU 6.25

MOZZY IS BACK! MORRISSEY

[Hanover Theatre, 2 Southbridge St., Worcester. hanovertheatre.org]

20

06.24.15 - 06.31.15

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HOLY SHIT NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK + TLC + NELLY

[TD Garden, 100 Legends Way, Boston. 7pm/all ages/$20-90. tdgarden. com]

DIGBOSTON.COM

FRI 6.26

UR NEW FAVORITE BOSTON BANDS FIDDLEHEAD + DEATH INJECTION + BURGLARY YEARS

[Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge. 7pm/all ages/$7-10. democracycenter.org]

>> CURIOUS SOUND OBJECTS VOL III - THE SPACE BETWEEN. SAT 6.27. AERONAUT BREWING COMPANY, 14 TYLER ST., SOMERVILLE. 617.987.4236. 6PM/21+/FREE. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT CURIOUSSOUNDOBJECTS.COM

SAT 6.27

SUN 6.28

[Middle East Downstairs, 480 Mass Ave., Cambridge.

6pm/all ages/$20. mideastclub.com]

[Cuisine En Locale, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. 7pm/all ages/$13. cuisineenlocale.com]

POST-R&B SOUL BAD RABBITS + HAYLEY KIYOKO + THE METRO

CALI PUNKS CEREMONY + PITY SEX + TONY MOLINA

SONGWRITERS YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT BIG THIEF + JEFFERSON HAMER

[Club Passim, 47 Palmer St., Cambridge. 8pm/all ages/$15. passim.org]

TORRES PHOTO BY SHAWN BRACKBILL

Aeronaut Brewery is Somerville’s first craft brewery in more than a century. Step inside the hoppy hallways this Saturday though, and the positivity of its cofounders takes second place to something even more radiant: sciencebending sound objects.

Meet Nickolas Peter. The designer and curator is the brilliant mind behind Curious Sound Objects, a series of shows themed around collections of magical “sound objects”—sculptures or installations that make sound—which spark conversation about how things feel rather than how they work.

“You eat with your eyes as much as your mouth, and sound is a vibration of air in space and is about touch as well,” says Peter of his upcoming third installment, The Space Between.

An art show where the works are touchable and playable solves issues of sterile detraction and emotional distance. The ever-changing characteristics of sound itself help redefine the frigidity art has come to represent. “It’s easier for our brains to chunk away something that is purely physical because we can see where it starts and ends,” Peter explains. “We see a car, think ‘car,’ and move on. But sound is only experienced in the now.”

Emotionally speaking, this has been a growing process in which Nickolas Peter learns to be comfortable with the unknown. “The submissions [for The Space Between] range from already finished works to ideas someone has been cooking for a while,” he says. “I now understand how my parents felt when I stayed out late. Sure, everything is probably going to be fine, but there’s an inherent feeling of things being up in the air until it all comes together— and it always does.”

Remember: If the contributions that explore sensuality and boundaries overwhelm you, turn around and grab a beer. There’s a reason this is at a brewery, not a gallery. Now raise your glass and repeat after us: To science!

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FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

FILM

We’re a little bit Kitchen, we’re a little bit Rock and Roll.

HEY ‘PAH

The masterful, artistic cruelty of the great Sam Peckinpah

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

Fleabite Record Release Show 6/23 SLF Presents 1950's Prom Back to the Future 6/26 GRCB's Five Year Birthday Bash!!! 6/27

Bowery Presents: Ceremony 6/28 w/ Pity Sex/Tony Molina $13 presale/$15 day of

Join us for Tacos every Monday night 5-10pm in the Lounge The ONCE Lounge is coming!

Countdown to our new Lounge Bar & Menu 27, 26, 25, 24, 23, 22...

Cuisine en Locale Presents:

GITANA by Bread & Salt Hospitality June25th - July19th Thurs-Sat Lunch & Dinner Sunday Brunch

IF NO ONE KNOWS, NO ONE SHOWS.

It’s no leap to say that the conversations we’re having now about sexism and gender representation—in art and in life—are growing perpetually louder. So when we look back at Sam Peckinpah, who directed masculine-minded genre pictures defined by their resolutely cruel tone, we look with a microscope: Was he getting off on the explicit violence? Was he as spiteful of women as he was of the men in his movies? Was he a caricature of John Wayne-era machismo—has his time passed? Many of his films are playing the Somerville Theatre this summer.

So while we can’t speak to his character, we can speak to his work. And there’s artistry in his cruelty.

When we talk about that artistry, we often do so by talking about aesthetics: The discontinuous, shell-shocked editing of the gunfights in The Wild Bunch (July 15), or the blood-streaked textures of the cinematography in Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (August 5). But Peckinpah’s voice is also defined by an abiding interest in the darkest pockets of male existence—in the intricacies of codes of honor among thieves, in the effects of combat on body and mind, and in the psychological causes of sexualized violence. And those interests were clear even back when his movies were filmed with a more functional eye.

Take 1962’s Ride the High Country, which—save for some stunning moments set in a preacher’s shack, where Peckinpah shades everyone as though they were under candlelight—visually resembles many other Westerns of its era.

The narrative also seems typical: Joel McCrea plays an aging gunman hired to transport gold from a mining colony, and he brings an old outlaw friend (Randolph Scott) and a young buck (Ron Starr) along with him. The latter pair plan to double-cross him for the loot, but then the young one falls for the aforementioned preacher’s daughter (Mariette Hartley), awakening all his moral impulses in the process.

We’ve heard this one before. But then the rhythm drops out from under us. Hartley’s character is engaged to one of the miners, and she marries him.

It’s only after “I do” that she realizes her beau intends to share her with his snaggletoothed cousins. Peckinpah shoots the whole ordeal from her perspective, lingering on the details as she’d notice them: The tackiness of the local madam, then the shabbiness of the bar they’re in, and then—as the camera shakes with a wildness it never possessed before—the brazen passes of her new relatives. We stay with her point-of-view the whole way through.

It’s a sequence that recontextualizes similar incidents in other Peckinpah films, like the traumatic assaults that send Straw Dogs (July 22) into its own fits of furious violence. Beyond the blood, the gore, and the brutal displays of misogyny, there’s a melancholy and a terror, embodied by sequences like this wedding— there’s a lament that a man’s world is the one we’re stuck with. >> RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY. SOMERVILLE THEATRE. 55 DAVIS SQ., SOMERVILLE. JULY 1. 8PM/NR/$10. DAVISSQUARETHEATRE.COM

FILM EVENTS WED 6.24

SAT 6.27

MON 6.29

THE SEVENTH SEAL

TREMORS

VERTIGO

INGMAR BERGMAN’S

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

5:30, 7:30, 9:30pm/NR/$911. brattlefilm.org]

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

11:30pm/PG-13/$9-11. brattlefilm.org]

FRI 6.26

SUN 6.28

THE BURNING

[Museum of Fine Arts. 465 Huntington Ave., Boston.

11pm/NR/$9-11. mfa.org]

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS

digboston 22

06.24.15 - 06.31.15

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DIGBOSTON.COM

YES, WITH KEVIN BACON

[Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

Fri 6.26 and Sat 6.27.

11:59pm/R/$11.25. coolidge.org]

ROXBURY FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS AN AMERICAN ASCENT

MASTERPIECE [Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

7pm/NR/$11.25. coolidge. org] TUE 6.30

FREE SCREENING OF JACQUES TATI’S PLAYTIME

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

6pm/NR/FREE. brattlefilm. org]

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

23

FILM

DARK EDEN

Like a ’90s-rave-meets-Goodfellas in reverse

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

AND THEY LAUGHED WHEN I SAID KRAFTWERK SPUN IN REVERSE IS DANCE-ABLE. We’re in France, early ’90s, bouncing with garage ravers. Two of these kids will someday be known as Daft Punk. The lights flash, the dancers sway, the bass drops—this is our cinematic summer jam! But then we stay with Paul, a kid left behind while Thomas and Guy make millions. Eden concerns the people on the margins of a rags-to-riches story—the people left in rags.

Director Mia Hansen-Løve follows Paul’s nightly pilgrimage out of the bourgeoisie darkness of his parent’s house and into the neon lights of underground rave clubs. Images dissolve into one another, cuts come with a jagged quickness, and drug hazes are represented with trippy—sometimes animated—flourishes. When the camera does linger, it tends to be on a seminal novel, record, or comic book. The narrative is loose, but the aim is clear: HansenLøve is prodding sense memories.

1992 becomes 1995, then 1998, then the 2000s. Paul holds parties and composes mixes, but they never provide him with a living that can support his cocaine and champagne habits— much less with any fame. And Hansen-Løve’s direction calms down as Paul grows up: The pace slows, and the images lead to one another in a more linear (which is to say, sober) fashion.

It’s like watching Goodfellas in reverse: That film works its way up to a glorious crash, while this one starts off invigorated and then, scene by scene, burns itself out. Hansen-Løve gives us a man growing up and a high that wears off—conceding, for better or worse, that it’s basically all the same. >> EDEN. RATED R. OPENS FRI 6.26. KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA. 355 BINNEY ST., CAMBRIDGE.

HALL MASS

Midnight movie fun with Kids in the Hall in Somerville

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN A midnight movie can come from any era or genre, so long as it has strangeness on its side.

Because a beautiful thing can happen when you watch a movie that late: The substances you’ve inhaled take hold, your eyes sag, and then—if the events onscreen are inexplicable enough—the line between waking and dreaming becomes hopelessly blurred. When you watch a movie, you surrender your attention. When you watch a movie at midnight, you’re surrendering your whole state of consciousness.

That’s probably why the Somerville Theatre’s programmers chose Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy, a cast-off curiosity from the mid-’90s, to start the theater’s summer midnight slate: It’s just weird enough to alter that consciousness. The five cast members of the eponymous sketch comedy program play almost every role, indulging in more costume changes than a Kanye West concert. And the “narrative” allows for further all-over-the-place-ness: A scientist develops a pill that transports depressed patients back to their happiest memories. So whenever we’ve gone a few minutes without an uncalled-for non sequitur gag, a memory dredged up by the pill provides one.

There’s a boardroom satire on the margins—scenes set among pharmaceutical executives play like a genericized, over-the-counter Network. But then Brain Candy interrupts itself, twice per scene, so that Kids’ side characters can enjoy random walk-ons. Imagine an SNL film that included all of the show’s characters rather than expanding just one segment: that’s Brain Candy. The slapdash incoherence of it all quickly has you longing for commercial breaks.

But then, it’s midnight—incoherence is exactly what we ordered. >>KIDS IN THE HALL: BRAIN CANDY. SOMERVILLE THEATRE. 55 DAVIS SQ., SOMERVILLE. SAT, 6.27. MIDNIGHT/R/$10. SOMERVILLETHEATREONLINE.COM/SOMERVILLE-THEATRE 24

06.24.15 - 06.31.15

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DIGBOSTON.COM

FILM SHORTS BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN BIG GAME Sam Jackson playing the president was inevitable—that he plays him as an inexperienced weakling is the surprise. Air Force One is shot down by terrorists over a Finnish forest, and the commander crash lands next to his only hope: an equally inexperienced 13-year-old hunter who knows the unmappable terrain perfectly. We get a goofy throwback to the Die Hard era of action filmmaking—character flaws are illustrated in the first half, then get redeemed by heroic acts of violence in the second. It’s a bloody, apolitical romp, and it goes down very easy.

Whether those are favorable qualities is up to you.

JURASSIC WORLD If you didn’t know that ’90s nostalgia has hit critical mass, then see the new Jurassic Park film—judging by the box office receipts, you probably have already. Every single sequence in the Chris Pratt-led sequel is centered around callbacks to Steven Spielberg’s original film. Have you been waiting 20 years for another look at the dino that blinded that film’s secondary villain? You’re in luck! Then the film has the nerve to make jokes about the overbranding of stadiums and theme parks. This whole film’s a branded advertisement—reinforcing our reverence for a film we already saw 20 years ago.

HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT Harley, a New Yorker, is an addict.

Directors Benny and Josh Safdie observe her whole routine—reselling stolen goods, negotiating for couch space, begging for a fronted bag. But they do so from the outside looking in. Shots are composed from across the street, or from outside glass windows. And the views are obscured by uncaring commuters or by ads for Dunkin’ Donuts and Duane Reed.

What other movie is this astute about urban life? Corporations mark the territory, the poor scurry through gathering scraps—and the working class walks by, apathetic, considering themselves lucky.

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.

I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS 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, lifesized expanse.

INSIDE OUT It’s a head trip: The new Pixar movie takes place inside a teenage girl’s psyche, where characters like Joy (Amy Poehler) and Anger (Lewis Black) dictate her actions. The stakes are low—her family moves, and some non-humans get lost, just like Toy Story—and the resulting drama is inevitably inert. But who cares? The beauty is in the details, like in the way the emotions’ bodies are rounded off into amorphous blobs of energy rather than structured by hard lines.

Dramatizing chemical imbalances is admirable, but doing it with such aesthetic vigor? That’s beautiful.

ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL Earl is a racist’s caricature of an African-American teen—he never goes to class, and considers women solely on the basis of “dem titties.”

The “Me” is Greg, a white highschooler suffering from Max Fischer syndrome. (He’s charming and creative, but also self-centered, and needs to get laid.) And the dying girl is just that—an ill classmate who exists only to teach Greg about what matters in life, Fault in Our Stars-style. This is the nadir of years of post-Rushmore bildungsromans about sad-but-quirky boys who flourish thanks to the help of otherwise-disposable side characters.

Just the worst.

THE WOLFPACK Documentarian Crystal Moselle saw five brothers with modelish good looks walking the street, dressed like the cast of Reservoir Dogs. She followed them to their home to find that they rarely left it: Their father raised them as shut-ins, letting them spend their time obsessing about and reenacting movies instead of socializing. Moselle gives them this film; their recreations and visual art command entire passages. The resulting profile is often shapeless, but the story itself—drawing together mass-level commerce and street-level cultishness—is irresistably beguiling.

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NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

25

THEATER

SHOOT THE CRITICS

A Boston Globe review of Edith Can Shoot Things ignites a topical discussion on criticism

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

Wednesday JUNE 24 8:00 PM

Host: Zach Cohen and Featured Artist TBA

18+ | No Cover | Downstairs Thursday JUNE 25 10:00 PM

ALL GOOD

DJs: Thaddeus Jeffries, Eastman, Yvng Pavl Genres: Hip Hop, Reggae, Caribbean, R&B, Party Jams No Cover | 21+ | Downstairs Friday JUNE 26 9:30 pm

BOOTIE BOSTON

DJs: Spencer4Hire, McFly, Tom Boates Everybody, Jabilani Genres: Mashups $10 | 21+ | Upstairs

Friday July 10 7:30PM

EMISUNSHINE

(10 Year old Virtuoso Gospel and Americana) Friday July 31 7:30PM

TED DROZDOWSKI’S SCISSORMEN PLUS

PETER PARCEK (Americana/Roots)

Wednesday August 5 7PM

STAN RIDGWAY (Wall of Voodoo)

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

SOCIAL STUDIES

DJs: Carlos Souffrant, Alfredo, Brenden Wesley Genres: House, Techno, Disco $10 | 21+ | Downstairs

Wednesday, June 24th 7PM

PAPA MALI RECORD RELEASE Saturday JUNE 27 10:00 PM

FRESH PRODUCE X THE BUTCHER’S BLOCK DJs: Bodega Bamz, Knife, Braun Dapper, Tommee Genres: Hip Hop, Reggae, Party Jams, Trap, Trill $10 | 21+

Blues/Soul/Funk Thursday, June 25th 7PM

LEE ANN WOMACK Country Thursday, June 25th 10PM

#TBT THROWBACK THURSDAY DANCE PARTY HOSTED BY DYSKO Free Dance Party Friday, June 26th 7:30PM

FAT CITY BAND Blues/Swing

Tuesday JUNE 30 6:00 PM

GAME NIGHT

No Cover | 18+ Until 10 PM Downstairs

Friday, June 26th 10PM

WE DIG IT FRIDAYS AFROPOP NIGHT FEAT. OPPOSITE PEOPLE Afropop Saturday, June 27 7PM

DENNY LAINE & THE CRYERS + STEVE HOLLEY FROM WINGS Saturday, June 27 10PM

FREE SATURDAY: KOA Party Rock from Nashville Tuesday, June 30 7:30PM

NOVALIMA Afro Peruvian, Latin Alternative, Dub

17 Holland St., Davis Sq. Somerville (617) 776-2004 Directly on T Red Line at Davis 26

06.24.15 - 06.31.15

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Boston Globe correspondent Jeffrey Gantz’s June 10 review of Company One Theatre’s production of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, by A. Rey Pamatmat, has caused quite a fuss.

In the review, Gantz infuriated some readers by saying the characters “make the occasional reference to their favorite Filipino dishes, but I wish more of their culture were on display.” Pamatmat is Filipino American, as are the play’s two main characters.

Almost immediately reactions started pouring in online, seemingly from as many people who had seen the play as had not. And this past Sunday, the Globe printed a letter from Company One saying, “The criticism that the play lacks Filipino culture ‘on display’ ... is troubling.” Spiro Veloudos, artistic director of the Lyric Stage, also sent a letter to the Globe in which he groused: “This poor choice of words suggests that there is a singular Filipino-American experience.” Unless there is an alternative version of Gantz’s review floating around somewhere, I remain unable to extract any such suggestion.

It is perplexing to me that Gantz should be chided for his opinion, especially when the content printed in the show’s program is decidedly Filipino-centric.

While the main characters are of Filipino descent (“They’re American, you know?” says Pamatmat in the show’s program), Company One has confusingly chosen to include a two-page history of Filipino-Americans, as well as two pages of Filipino recipes. It is far from calamitous for one to wish that some of the culture had been on stage rather than curiously immured to a program. “I agree about the recipes,” said Nick Dussault, theater critic for the Boston Metro. “It was an odd choice.”

I find the outrage over this kerfuffle to be misguided and unreasonable.

While watching the play, the ethnicity of the characters never crossed my mind.

They are, first and foremost, American, so while I don’t find Gantz’s comments inappropriate, it’s obvious that he looked at the play through a different lens than I did. But so what? Are we in a time of such cultural and social sensitivity that even a theatre critic should sanitize his opinion so as not to offend the vox populi? Is honesty in one’s work less important than fear of backlash? Is nothing safe from the outer realms of PC-ness? And if so, isn’t that an inversion of what makes people think about and discuss art?

“The value of any criticism is that it opens things up, stimulating ideas and conversation ... what happened here is exactly what should have happened. The critic spoke and those critiqued spoke back. You gotta love the give and take!” said Joyce Kulhawik, president of the Boston Theater Critics Association.

Overall, the whole matter feels like a case of manufactured controversy and labored outrage. I ran this by Ben Brantley, chief theatre critic for The New York Times. “Every era has its landmines for a critic, but this time is especially fraught.

This is partly because social media has created such a dangerous echo chamber, in which people can fire off instant opinions before they’ve properly read what they’re complaining about,” he said. “But I also think we’re in a period of linguistic readjustment ... so, yes, being careful before you speak is more essential than it has ever been for a writer.”

Adam Feldman, president of the New York Drama Critics Circle and theatre critic for Time Out New York, said of the matter: “I don’t think the reviewer should be pilloried, but I do think it’s fair to point out the assumptions that go into such a critique. We all have blind spots and it can be useful to cast light on them,” he said. “And yes, it raises both the issues and the profile of the production, which is probably a net win.”

If there is anything regrettable at all about this entire rumpus, it is that Gantz’s praise of the play is light. I found Edith to be one of the most satisfying and winning productions in Boston this year, with top-shelf performances from three very gifted young actors. Gantz’s remarks are incontestably those of a man much older than I am, so perhaps there’s a generational aspect to this as well. You’ve got until Saturday to check it out for yourself, and I wholeheartedly suggest you do.

If there’s a general takeaway from the whole matter, it would be that while Edith can shoot things and hit them, others should probably stick to target practice.

PHOTO BY PAUL FOX

OPEN MIC NIGHT

Cycles 128 107 Brimbal Avenue Beverly, MA 01915

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

27

VIDEO GAMES

CRANK THAT CUPHEAD Fallout comes to Boston and other E3 highlights

BY NICK MOORHEAD

Held every year in Los Angeles, E3 is the biggest gaming conference hands down.

With over 50,000 registered attendees, this year’s gala was the largest in a decade. As the mass hysteria indicates, and as many of those attendees and the millions of us watching online will confirm, it was indeed the most amazing E3 in a long time.

Locally speaking, after years of speculation, Bethesda Softworks confirmed Boston as the setting for Fallout 4 in the weeks leading up to E3. Anyone into Western RPGs who lives around the Hub should be extremely psyched for this announcement. Who needs the Olympics in 2024 when we will have a chance to virtually explore landmarks like Fenway Park, the MFA, and perhaps even the Lawn on D in the aftermath of an apocalypse that transforms Boston into an abandoned wasteland crawling with human-size insects? In Fallout 4, that dirty water will be officially irradiated, which sounds like way more fun than watching people in short shorts circle a track. Less gentrification involved too, since it’s a video game. In any case, the expected release date is November 10.

Also of note: Microsoft announced that the Xbox One will be backwardscompatible with the Xbox 360, allowing you to play all of your old games on your new system. Besides your typical AAA titles—Halo 5, Gears of War, you name it—one of the coolest new Xbox adventures at E3 was an indie called Cuphead.

A throwback to 16-bit Genesis games like Alien Soldier and Gunstar Heroes with the visuals of a cartoon from the 1930s, Cuphead seemed to be one of the most inventive launches on display. In a video that you can find online, Soulja Boy, who is either decked in full-out Cuphead cosplay or is doing his impersonation of an Easter basket, gushes sillily about the game. I concur; the visuals are fresh and colorful, and I’m excited to engage. My only concern is that, like a certain rapper’s hip-hop career, there may be some style-over-substance issues afoot.

And don’t forget Sony, which revealed a long-rumored remake of Final Fantasy VII and surprised fans of the iconic puzzlers Ico and Shadow of the Colossus by announcing that The Last Guardian is still in development. One of the coolest Sony games at E3 is Horizon: Zero Dawn, which may be the most visually spectacular new choice for any console. Horizon stars a young woman who looks right out of Game of Thrones and is set in a lush, vibrant world that is overrun by machines. Overall it’s an eclectic mix of ideas and influences, and they appear to coalesce beautifully.

On the downside of all this, Nintendo embarrassed itself. The company refused to address the elephant in the room: NX, its next console. Instead, it announced a bunch of half-baked games for its current console, the WiiU, and for the handheld 3DS. Star Fox Zero, developed by Nintendo in partnership with Platinum Games, which is almost certain to be garbage. The level of design looks nearly identical to Starfox 64, and that’s tantamount to terrible. Meanwhile, hardcore gamers were waiting for a new Metroid on WiiU, and instead Nintendo gave us Metroid Prime: Federation Force, a 3DS game that looks to be equal parts ugly and mediocre. The company’s game Mario Maker has won some “best of” E3 awards, but to my mind it’s an insult. Not only do you have to buy the latest spinoff from a franchise that Nintendo has been pimping out since the mid-’80s, but you have to design your own levels before you can play them. For aspiring game designers, this is probably great news. For the rest of us, it’s a middle finger.

Otherwise, it was a great year for E3, with far too many awesome games to mention in this space. It’s disappointing to yet again hear nothing about Half-Life 3, but there’s enough action to ensure that the average gamer will have No-Life for at least another year.

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BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE I am a male grad student who is technically engaged to a female grad student. She has numerous positive qualities, but she is repulsed by sex. She is very sensitive about her repulsion and becomes distraught when I broach the subject. She says that even the thought of doing anything sexual with me elicits a panic attack. She also insists that she is “broken” because, in the hopes of preventing me from leaving her, she forced herself to go further than she felt comfortable. We are both virgins, and the furthest that we ever went sexually was cunnilingus.

She has never seen me completely naked or expressed any interest in making love to me. When she revealed that any form of sexual affection prompted panic attacks and psychological distress, I decided to call off our engagement.

She proceeded to threaten to kill herself and blame me for her aversion to sex. I agreed to continue the relationship but insisted that we postpone marriage. She refuses to go to couples counseling. I love her and enjoy her companionship, but my sexual self-esteem is devastated. I feel rejected and bitter, and I am still with her mainly because of guilt. Although she denies that this contributes to the situation, she also holds strong religious convictions. She claims that she always had a weak libido and that bodily fluids (especially semen) disgust her. Finally, despite her use of oral contraceptives, she fears 30

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pregnancy. She also disapproves of my family and friends, my interest in science, my distrust of religion, and my use of antidepressants. My questions: (1) If I did cause or contribute to her sexual aversion, do I have a lifelong obligation to remain with her? (2) Barring cheating, the impetus for her decision to break up with a previous boyfriend, what other options do I have? (3) Could her sexual aversion ever dissipate? (4) Could her sexual aversion stem from asexuality?

Gradually Escalating Threats Obligate Unending Togetherness 1. You are not obligated to stay with this unpleasant woman for the next 50 years just because you made the mistake of proposing to her. And even if she started fucking you, GETOUT, do you really want to be with her?

2. Why bar cheating? If taking herself hostage is so intimidating that it prevents you from breaking up with her (threatening to kill herself = taking herself hostage), then go ahead and cheat on her, or pretend to cheat on her, and let her break up with you.

3. Her sexual aversion may dissipate over time. Or it may not.

But someone who doesn’t want to fuck someone—and she clearly doesn’t want to fuck you—rarely starts wanting to fuck that someone down the road. So she may get over her sexual aversion in time, but she’ll probably be fucking someone else when she does … even if she’s married to you.

4. Could be that, sure. But unless you’re willing to live a sexless life with a manipulative spouse who disapproves of your family, friends, meds, etc., the root cause of her sexual aversion is irrelevant.

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