Dig Boston July 1st, 2015

DIGBOSTON.COM 7.1.15 - 7.8.15

FEATURE

CORITA KENT A BOSTON ICON, A NEW BIOGRAPHY, AND A VISION THAT HOLDS TRUER EVERY DAY (AND A GAS TANK TOO)

MUSIC

N.B.S. +SNOWGOONS

NO LONGER TRAPPED IN AMERICA ARTS

SALSA!

A MONDAY NIGHT DANCE PARTY CONTINUES TO UNITE SOUTH END LATIN COMMUNITY

MEDIA FARM

MARRIAGE EQUALITY A TIDAL WAVE OF GAY PRESS RELEASES

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VOL 17 + ISSUE 26

JULY 1, 2015 - JULY 8, 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, Mitchell Dewar 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 Corita Kent’s iconic “Rainbow Swash” brightens up our cover this week on a week where rainbows rule.

Read all about the woman behind the artwork on page 10.

©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 Independence Day, in all its Bill Pullman-less reality, is a pretty spectacular time to be in the Boston area.

But this year it feels a little different. And I’m not entirely sure why. It could be due to the fact that in spite of the growing and logical force opposed to bringing the Olympics to Boston, the bid remains in play (for now), and just this week we found out ... well, not that much. The press conference (News, Page 4) did little to illustrate things like insurance against cost overruns (reminder: The average cost of the Olympics is on par with what went down in the Big Dig), specific venues to be used, or even Olympic Village plans. Meanwhile, a Boston Globe story this week detailed how a large chunk of public schools have lacked traditional water fountains since 1988, due to potential lead poisoning from school buildings decaying over the years. And yet we squabble on about a three-week spectacle of riches masked as our ticket to a myriad of local solutions...

It could be due to this weird spate of unseasonably chilly weather, which is especially depressing when you consider this region only gets a few precious months of summer per year before we’re doomed back into a purgatory of monster snowstorms and impassable roadways (and not let’s talk about the MBTA).

Whatever the reason, it’s our duty as citizens of this country to pull up our socks and for one day ignore the ills of the moment in order to properly celebrate the birth of the country that gave rise to rock and roll, the cheeseburger, and humble independent alt-weekly newspapers.

And that duty is best carried out by listening to loud music, overeating, and passing out drunk this weekend.

Happy Fourth.

DAN MCCARTHY - EDITOR, DIGBOSTON

DIGTIONARY

OXFARCE

noun äks-färs 1. The current state of the once-lauded Oxford Dictionary now that terms like “Masshole” and “twerking” have been officially added to the English lexicon, along with the term “Bae” which in Denmark means “turd”.

OH, CRUEL WORLD Dear Campus Confederate, Up until last week, you had a significantly sized confederate flag, as well as a hat with the same stars and stripes, on display in your dorm room (though not so that people passing in the hall could see). Your wack friends were too cowardly to say anything, and some even stoked your ignorance and fantasies. But now everybody knows that you are a complete asshole, and word is getting around that you’re some kind of unhinged redneck. My suggestion: Don’t just stop by removing the regalia. Cut out your dumbfuck intolerant heart and you’ll feel better off for it. Also: gay marriage, asshole! You’re losing clean across the board.

ILLUSTRATION BY AMY BOUCHARD

EDITORIAL

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NEWS US

THE CITY COUNCIL AND BOSTON 2024 DELEGATES PARTICIPATE IN QUALIFYING ROUNDS FOR THE NEW OLYMPIC SPORT OF COMPETITIVE STARING

BOSTON 2024: VERSION NUMBER TWO NEWS TO US

Dispatch from the most exhausting week in Olympic history Let’s say that you are driving to Canada with four pounds of weed in your trunk.

You arrive at the border crossing, and a nosy agent asks you to pull over so that his colleagues can inspect your vehicle and underpants.

At this point, you can’t just say to the authority figure, “You know what, I don’t really feel like going to Canada anymore,” and pull a U-turn. Do that, and chances are you’ll get your marijuana confiscated, and probably have to face a judge and serve time.

While said arrangement may be routine for those caught with a hand in the cookie jar in real life, the team at Boston 2024 lives by a different set of rules. In their world of extraordinary privilege and pay-to-play politics, they get to turn the car right around—that despite their having demonstrated an enduring lack of honesty.

From redacting critical documents on everything from financing to venues in presenting their initial plans, to 4

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blurring more lines between business and state than Dick Cheney, Olympics organizers have repeatedly shown that claiming one thing and then doing the opposite constitutes behavior worthy of a second chance. That was the lesson on display this past week, as the Hub awaited the arrival of an improved 2024 development plan.

Days before they got a chance to hit “refresh” with their new presentation though, Olympic honchos started marketing their “Version 2.0” in front of the Boston City Council. Members came with expectations that the planners would have details, but Boston 2024 CEO Richard Davey had other ideas, and instead offered a time-lapse video to demonstrate how quickly workers can erect and then dismantle temporary stadiums these days.

With more excuses than information bursting from his permanently optimistic mug, Davey dodged and weaved and did what may have been his greatest Good Guy Greg impression to date.

Asked if Boston 2024 has reached out to the 30-plus colleges in Boston besides the behemoths, Davey assured that such coordinating efforts are in place, but then proceeded to name-drop the likes of Boston University, MIT, Harvard, and Northeastern. Instead of news that may have quelled officials in the chamber, some of whom grew visibly perturbed by Davey’s lack of answers, the CEO then offered additional notes about nothing anybody seemed to care too much about, right down to the fact that several golf clubs want to host the Games, and that advancements in technology will allow architects to designate less space for the media than in London three years ago.

Whether intentional or not, Councilor Matt O’Malley highlighted the absurdity of it all by mentioning the sport of slalom kayaking. Whether you approve of critics noting the innumerable important issues to BOSTON 2024 continued on pg. 6

PHOTO BY CHRIS FARAONE

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1

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BOSTON 2024 continued from pg. 4

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60 Rowes Wharf, Boston, MA 02110 Tickets: 617.934.2610 or 888.503.5659

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which our City Council could be tending, consider how much valuable time our elected pols have already spent considering competitive badminton and horse-dancing. Councilors Michelle Wu and Tito Jackson both raised excellent points as well: respectively, that private builders shouldn’t get unbridled dibs on hot new parcels forged by Olympic development, and that planners shouldn’t get a crack at 2.0 until they atone for their sins from round one. If it’s full transparency they’re after, however, Wu and Jackson needn’t look any further than the several thousand emails unearthed by anti-Olympics activists. Thanks to individuals and the group No Boston 2024, the public is now privy to the ungodly conflicts of interest polluting the planning process.

While community members met in auditoriums over the winter, we now know that the administration of Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was collaborating in questionable cahoots with Boston 2024, as well as with researchers at UMass-Boston who cooked pro-Olympic studies, and with a third-party public relations firm hired to boost the Games. We know that reporters seeking the truth were handled, so to speak, by government employees, and that constituents were monitored for how much nonsense they could stomach. There’s no end to the subterfuge, though certain correspondence especially serves to magnify the underlying disdain for community input afoot.

Behold the following excerpt from a memo sent to Mayor Walsh about a public forum held by Boston 2024 in January …

Went remarkably smooth. Was even applause after showing the two initial videos at start of program. They had a lot of speakers … so there was less time for community input. The Q&A was only about an hour … No real awkward or tense moments. One question asked why public wasn’t consulted before this stage, and in a room of 366+ about 7 or 8 people clapped.

In the same internal update, Walsh’s community liaison expresses concern that organizers were keeping city officials in the dark. “2024 also announced their next … meeting … in Roxbury,” the note reads. “This bothers me because they never told us this schedule.” All of which should bother Boston residents the most; while on one hand members of the mayor’s media relations crew are spending hours on some days concocting comments crude enough to count as propaganda, on the other hand the Walsh administration hasn’t used its insider position to protect Bostonians.

All those gripes aside … While some easygoing people may give the benefit of the doubt to Boston 2024, and quote their spokespeople extensively, on this matter I have chosen to opt out of formal Q&A charades. However I enjoy the sport of watching these Goliaths squirm, and so I arrived early at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center in Southie for Monday’s ceremonial unveiling of the eagerly anticipated twopoint-uh-oh version of the Boston Games.

A scene out of Groundhog Day, from the very first PowerPoint slide, the presentation packed the same alternative spin on reality that curmudgeons have come to expect on Planet 2024. In this latest creative narrative, the story goes that Lowell State Sen. Eileen Donoghue was initially interested in bringing the world’s largest sporting event to Boston, followed by a legislative process and “seven public meetings,” after which a “group of citizens then explored the idea further,” therefore spurring Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish to join and “lead the effort.” Among the details omitted: the part where Fish and his cronies max-out donations to Donoghue’s campaign fund.

That foundation of trust established, Boston 2024 Chairman Steve Pagliuca then told the audience of journalists and sycophants (and some who toe the line in-between) that roughly 4,000 people had worked on the bid so far. Our heads still ringing from the number, myself and possibly some other critics scared that legions of Olympic volunteers were soon to burst into the room and bullshit all us skeptics into reluctant submission, Pagliuca then proceeded to unload a barrage of statistics— something about 100,000 jobs, 8,000 apartments, billions of dollars in revenue, and insurance claims for insurance claims, which sounds sort of like a condom for your condom. Standing in front of an Olympic banner warning, “If You Fail To Prepare, You’re Prepared To Fail,” the chairman then set up parameters that he says can ensure success, dissenters be damned.

Lowball tactics or reflexive defense, it’s hard to not admire Boston 2024 at least a little for still competing—even though they get to play by different rules than the rest of us, all while derailing municipal business and exhausting the regional media. In a moment of humility this week, Pagliuca even cracked a couple of self-deprecating jokes about being a lame accountant, a numbers guy. It was all presumably so he can easily deflect swipes similar to this one, which stubbornly skirt over trivial mathematical minutiae, but at least his number two stinks slightly less than the debut proposal that Olympics planners pinched.

BLUNT TRUTH

THE HIGH COST OF CANNABIS On budget-busting marijuana price tags in Mass

BY MIKE CANN @MIKECANNBOSTON At this rate, seasoned pot dealers have nothing to fear.

Last week, Alternative Therapies Group (ATG) in Salem became the first Bay State dispensary to open and serve patients. It was an exciting moment for those who have waited close to three years for access, but far less exciting for those who were expecting a large selection of medicine at reasonable prices, as the only two strains on the low-end of the spectrum cost $372 an ounce, which is double what I typically encounter on the black market. It’s not quite the price of gold, but the green is fetching more than silver, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol. In short: the price of weed is too damn high.

Chris Edwards, executive director at ATG, has thus far refused most media requests, but did say his dispensary is unable to discuss the issue since state regulations restrict them from advertising prices. No doubt this is disappointing news for patients looking to shop around, and for those who thought that Governor Charlie Baker’s campaign pledge for increased healthcare pricing transparency applied to their medicine too. Baker has been lauded by marijuana advocates for helping dispensaries open after a ridiculously long wait; still, with such silly regulations in place about things like having public price charts, the state remains in the business of solidifying more hardships. We’ll see what happens on the display front in the future, but so far, ATG patients on opening

day reported that they weren’t even allowed to examine their medicine before purchasing.

Last month, David Noble, president and CEO of the coming Brockton marijuana dispensary In Good Health, told WGBH News that his facility will charge up to $510 for an ounce of flower, leading many patients and local activists on social media to address the need for people to grow their own medicine, and for a system that allows independent caregivers to provide extensive services to more people. Bill Downing, a longtime marijuana advocate and member of MassCann/ NORML and the pro-legalization group Bay State Repeal, says his own experience is a relevant case study. Before his Yankee Care Givers service was shut down by the state, Downing, who has contributed to DigBoston, says he sold “loose buds of decent weed for $280,” and “never had ounces over $320, and that included free delivery to your door.”

If dispensary operators have good sense, they will aim to compete with black market growers. In any case, here’s hoping there will soon be competing dispensaries, and that they all focus on working for Commonwealth residents, rather than on the immediate recoupment of their investments. These businesses have had a tough run so far, but that’s the fault of statesmen, not patients.

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MEDIA FARM

IT’S ABOUT DAMN TIME The Media Farm marriage equality mailbag

BY MEDIA FARM @MEDIAFARM

7/6 Amy Kucharik & Tiger Moan 7/11 The FUʼs w/ The Ungraded

7/17 Superficial Future The U Project

7/10 Mr. Airplane Man

w/ The Monsieurs & Party Pigs

Doors @ 8PM - $12 7/31 The Sadies $15 Join us for Tacos Every Monday Night

5 - 10PM in the Lounge

The ONCE Lounge is coming!

Countdown to our new Lounge Bar & Menu

21, 20, 19, 18, 17, 16...

Cuisine en Locale Presents: GITANA by Bread & Salt Hospitality June 25th - July 19th

Thurs - Sat Lunch & Dinner Sunday Brunch

No exaggeration: We have never been hit with as many press releases in such a short amount of time as we were last week upon news breaking that the Supreme Court of the United States chose tolerance over ignorance, tomorrow over yesterday, and your lesbian aunt instead of your grotesque conservative uncle (which is extra funny since, for a lot of you, the latter sort of looks like Antonin Scalia in cross trainers).

Typically, the general Media Farm rule is that if there is something nice to say, then it is probably best to shut up. But when an overwhelmingly positive story like the federal nod to gay marriage consumes every corner of the reportorial echo chamber, from social media to newspapers of record, it’s actually quite moving. On that note, here are some positive press blurbs that the Dig received from gay rights advocates and talking heads of all kinds. We could have gone for pages— the press releases are still showing up by the ream—but for the sake of an abbreviated survey of public opinion across the spectrum, from capitalist opportunism, to genuine excitement, to the Grand Old Party …

-The Knot, which makes millions off of the American obsession with matrimony, understandably looked to bank on the opportunity. If you don’t believe they love gay marriage, they brought one of the other guys from *NSYNC to prove it …

The featured celebrities on the cover of The Knot LGBTQ Edition, Lance Bass and husband Michael Turchin, exemplify a personalized wedding and many of the trends revealed in The Knot LGBTQ Weddings Study. The magazine allows an all-access, VIP, backstage pass to the wedding of the former *NSYNC member.

-Clever as usual, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker further separated himself from his Republican Party …

For me, the issue of marriage equality is personal. I’m pleased the Commonwealth has already recognized samesex marriages in our state, and with today’s Supreme Court decision every American citizen across the nation will have equal protection under the law and the right to marry the person they choose.

-Evan Wolfson, president of the group Freedom to Marry, gushed over the “momentous victory for freedom, equality, inclusion, and above all, love,” but not without emphasizing the difficult work that lies ahead …

The movement will continue to harness the power of the marriage conversation and win in the work ahead – including passage of a federal civil rights bill, securing state and local protections against discrimination, tending to the needs of our youth and our seniors, and ensuring that the lived experience of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people is fulfilling, good, inclusive, and equal throughout the land.

-Craig Coogan of the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus hit a high note …

This is a momentous day for the country … The freedom to marry the person you love is precious, and having that relationship affirmed by our society and our government is essential … The Boston Gay Men’s Chorus was proud to be a part of the freedom to marry movement in Massachusetts, the birthplace of same-sex marriage in the U.S. In song, we shared the stories of our lives and our loves with state lawmakers and on stages across the Commonwealth, and had the honor of singing at one of the first same-sex weddings in the country.

-And then, of course, there was the not-so-openly-gay men’s chorus of conservative Republicans. To quote them is to float them, and so we have chosen to do neither. Well, maybe just one, since presidential candidate and future Rolaids spokesman Mike Huckabee (pronounced: My Cock-A-Bee), according to Mother Jones, “Set the Bar Really High for the Worst Reaction to the Same-Sex Marriage Ruling.” Here he goes comparing Obergefell v. Hodges to the mid-19th Century SCOTUS decision to uphold fugitive slave laws …

For a lot of believers, the question comes, do we have civil disobedience, or do we have Biblical disobedience? For many of us, civil disobedience—when we believe that the civil government has acted outside of nature, and nature’s god, outside of the bounds of the law, outside of the bounds of the Constitution—we believe that it’s the right and the moral thing to do … I mean seriously, I don’t know of anyone who believes that the Supreme Court made the right decision in Dred Scott.

FREE RADICAL

FINALLY, THE FIGHT FOR GAY MARRIAGE IS OVER

BY EMILY HOPKINS @GENDERPIZZA Last Friday, queers across the nation breathed a sigh of relief as the Supreme Court ruled that states can no longer deny the right of same-sex marriage. It’s been a long road for advocates and activists, from the troubling bedsides of victims of the AIDS crisis, where families can deny a gay person’s right to be with a loved one in their final moments, to legal battles in which states will not legitimize adoptions due to the sexual orientation of custodial parents.

I don’t believe in marriage. I have my reasons, and they’re not insignificant. But I’ve done my best to step aside for a moment, because I know how much this means to so many 8

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others. I know the change will help a lot of people, and while I may never personally understand, that’s OK. What I can share with the people who are celebrating is relief. I’m relieved that this fight is over, although I know that for some, the battle likely isn’t over yet. I’m also excited for the next fight, and for the coming days, weeks, months, and years, though hopefully not that long, of lifting the voices of and fighting for trans people, queer people of color, and homeless LGBT youth.

I am ready. When people say “love wins,” I hear something different: “solidarity forever.”

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WORD OF ART FEATURE

April Dammann’s book about Corita Kent is a masterpiece INTERVIEW BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 Every now and then but not often enough, a book that is desperately needed seemingly emerges out of nowhere.

Once in an extremely infrequent while, said gem will also be such a remarkable specimen that readers want to expose its kaleidoscopic pages to the sky in belief that the color is powerful enough to brighten dark times. In some cases, the offering is also about Boston, and Corita Kent.

Art and Soul. The Biography., out now on Angel City Press, is indeed such a significantly splendid volume.

A gorgeous 160-page spread that weighs and feels roughly the same as a four-album box set, this first Corita Kent biography is the masterwork of author April Dammann, a Los Angeles-based playwright-turned-art chronicler. Here Dammann tells the story of the legendary nun who broke from her conservative Los Angeles order and eventually wound up living in Back Bay—and the tale is every bit as jolting as Corita’s reinvention.

While Kent is probably best known for keeping company like Buckminster Fuller, and artistically for symbiotically inspiring the original King of Pop Andy Warhol, her legacy runs deeper than even many art buffs probably imagine. She’s the hand behind those ubiquitous USPS “Love” stamps, sure, and in Boston many know Corita for her rainbow stroke design for the gas tank off of I-93. We asked Dammann about all of the above, all together which make for a hardcover experience packed with lessons that remain as relevant today as they were when the artist passed almost three decades ago.

YOU DO A LOT OF THINGS, BUT WHAT ARE YOU PRIMARILY UP TO? AD: A few years ago I was fortunate enough to find my way to Angel City Press, on the UCLA campus. I had this idea for an art history and a biography—my first book [EXHIBITIONIST: Earl Stendahl, Art Dealer as Impresario] about my husband’s grandfather. In about 2007, I switched dramatically from fiction to nonfiction; before that time it was television and stage, and even radio dramas and a couple of movie scripts. But I really tuned into this niche of biography and Southern California art, which I know very much about but hadn’t really explored in the written word.

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HOW DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE FORMATTING DURING THE PROCESS? I MEAN, EVEN THE FONTS ARE INCREDIBLE— YOU’RE PLAYING WITH THREE OR FOUR IN A SINGLE CHAPTER IN SOME CASES. AD: I’m so glad you noticed that. There are also the colors, and the borders of photographs as well. I have to give credit to our wonderful book designer, Amy Inouye, who designs most of Angel City Press’s books. She lives and works in a funky studio here in Southern California, not far from me in Hollywood, and she has an eye for this. She reads the text scrupulously before she begins to approach her design ideas. I can’t say enough about her approach to books and designing.

OVER THE YEARS, EVEN LONG BEFORE YOU WERE WRITING THE BOOK, WHAT CORITA KENT IMAGES IN PARTICULAR REALLY STUCK WITH YOU? AD: Well I’m an art historian, studied French, studied art history, and then married into this fascinating family of the [Stendahl Galleries] in Hollywood. My husband’s a third-generation art dealer, and we are now 104 years never having closed the doors. I was immersed in the Southern California art scene going back to the early part of the 20th Century as far as research goes. Once I dedicated myself, it was a train that I knew wouldn’t stop. That’s how Angel City Press approached me—“April, what’s your next book? You’re our art writer.”

Over a period of months, I became excited about the story of Corita Kent—local girl makes good from right here at Immaculate Heart in Hollywood. No one had written the definitive biography, and it fit what I wanted to do next—a female subject, someone local, and this dramatic arc to her life. I tell you I come from a screenwriting background—if there was ever an act one, two, and three, this woman just fits right in with that structure … And I love the process of the research—a lot of people are still local. She died in ‘86, but there are a lot of students of hers who are now older and in their ‘50s and ‘60s who have the most wonderful memories of working with her and learning from her.

AS SOMEONE WHO KNOWS THE LOCAL ART SCENE SO WELL, WHAT REALLY BLEW YOU AWAY IN THE DISCOVERY PROCESS? AD: It was her work. These works scream HOPE, LOVE, COLOR. They were unusual, they were inventive. It’s true that Warhol was beginning to exploit commercialism

and to show irony in our everyday life, but Corita really influenced many more people than she was influenced by—I’m convinced of that. It started with her artwork— those beautiful prints on the wall, the color, the graphics, the invention of them. And I have to admit—knowing a nun, in full habit, was in a little stuffy concrete house across from the college in Hollywood turning these out every August, I find that fascinating.

WERE YOU ABLE TO MAKE IT OUT TO BOSTON IN THE RESEARCH PROCESS? AD: Sure, I went to Harvard and studied for about a week in the Schlesinger Library [on the History of Women].

What a little gem that is; I was only there for five days, but I felt I could have moved in … They have a marvelous Corita Kent archive. Then I had to take a drive on the Southeast Expressway to see that unbelievable gas tank painted with the rainbow swath that Corita did in the ‘80s, shortly before she died.

ISN’T CORITA KENT THE KIND OF HERO WHO DESERVES A RENAISSANCE? MIGHT WE SEE ONE? WHAT WILL IT TAKE? AND IF SO, HOW MUCH MIGHT YOUR WORK HAVE TO DO WITH THAT? AD: I think she was under-exposed and under-appreciated for decades. She died in ‘86, and she is thankfully enjoying something of a resurgence right now. Hopefully it will have something to do with my biography, but also due to this large retrospective exhibition that started in Saratoga Springs at Skidmore College, and it’s gone four or five places since. There are almost 300 prints on display, and it’s a beautifully-curated show. If a lot of people go to the museums, they’re going to re-discover, and in a lot of cases discover the work of Corita Kent.

She was a pop artist, but much more than that.

The way she approached social justice and anti-war [activism]—always with optimism and hope—I think the world is so ready for her right now. You know, I was driving just earlier today, and I heard about the Supreme Court and same-sex marriage, and I got goose bumps thinking about it: “What would Corita, as an independent woman living in Boston for the last 16 years or so of her life, what would she think about this today?” I think she’d be blowing up balloons. I would love to talk to Corita about these issues, so what I’ve done is try to get in her head and heart, and to share in this book what a progressive, beautiful, and big-hearted person she was.

“It’s true that Warhol was beginning to exploit commercialism and to show irony in our everyday life, but Corita really influenced many more people than she was influenced by--I’m convinced of that.”

CORITA KENT KNITTING IN HER BACK BAY APARTMENT NEWS TO US

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EXCERPT

OUT OF THE DARKNESS The following is an excerpt from Corita Kent. Art and Soul.

The Biography. by April Dammann. Published by Angel City Press, 2015.

In the summer of 1968, Sister Corita takes what might be a lifesaving sabbatical in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, staying with her friend and East Coast gallerist, Celia Hubbard (a Catholic convert) of the Botolph Gallery, where Sister Corita’s work is a centerpiece to the other offerings of contemporary religious paintings and sculpture. Unbeknownst to Corita, Celia has written to the IHC president warning her that the nun’s mental state demands a rest and a change of scene.

Celia is heaven-sent as host and companion. Not just for the environment and the space she provides, but for giving her friend a sense of well-being that Sister Corita so desperately needs, now that her perpetual safety net is gone.

As evidence of the restorative experience at the beach, Corita produces voluminous work, including two large series of serigraphs as alphabet letters: the International Signal Code flags and the circus-themed assemblage. Each set of prints covers an entire wall with color and whimsy, twenty-six squares at a time.

Sister Corita is perpetually attuned to the beauty and rhythms of nature. Unscheduled time with Celia on the Cape nourishes her to the point of a quiet but profound personal discovery: she no longer has a heart for being responsible for anyone but herself.

“I found teaching really always very hard, because I think I always maintained the feeling that I couldn’t do it, that I wasn’t quite up to it. So I worked very hard, and I think I made classes very good, because I wasn’t too sure of myself.” Sister Corita calls her teaching success “a painful bonus.”

In 1936, teenaged Frances Kent Shocked her friends by announcing her decision to become a nun. She hadn’t talked about it. She hadn’t shared her own plans, during discussions with other girls at Catholic High, who were preparing for postulancy in local religious orders. Now, in the summer of 1968, comes an unexpected decision that surprises everyone, including, to some extent, herself:

Sister Mary Corita IHM will not return to her former life.

Corita is no longer a nun.

Corita renounces the known for the unknown, thousands of miles from her cloistered home of thirtytwo years. She cannot imagine what it will mean to leave, at age fifty, the comfort and protection of her convent. Facing the mysteries of budgeting, bank accounts, bills, taxes, and rent, not to mention male companionship and the prospect of a solitary old age, Corita relies on an enduring (she would say, evolving) faith and a little help from her friends. Still, what kind of new life is she equipped to construct?

Once again, survival with style comes to mind.

There is fear. There is loneliness. But if anyone has the resources to go it alone on a path toward total reinvention, it is the woman who will be known today and hereafter as Corita Kent. *** “Powerful” might be overstating Corita’s self-concept in the months following her relocation to Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood. She moves from Celia’s living room to her own Victorian row-house apartment, with all the hopes and trepidations of any woman newly on her own. Corita’s adjustment to solitude requires an extra measure of courage, considering she had two hundred roommates in her previous abode.

Her new place is small, bright, and airy. Corita is finally in a position to surround herself, modestly, with things of her own choosing, as if creating a three-dimensional custom work of art. Accents of color contrast with a mostly white-and-black schema that could be a Charles Eames showroom, dominated as it is, with Eames furniture. One exception: a rocking chair in front of the fireplace. Corita’s eye for beauty and balance assures the simple chair’s good fit.

The house is guarded outside by a maple tree that becomes aesthetically and symbolically important to Corita. She has traveled the world in all seasons, but her Southern California life did not afford her the opportunity to enjoy a climate’s multiple personalities.

Her proprietary tree is an ever-changing yet predictable friend, whose attributes appear in serigraphs from this period. “I’ve never had time to watch a tree before,” she admits. Corita’s watching is a prayer.

Corita observes the way springtime melts snow from her tree’s branches, bringing forth tiny green blossoms.

In this iteration, the tree doesn’t look at all like a maple.

Gradually, the leaves grow into their recognizable shape, and an identity emerges. Corita sees parallels in the stages of her own life. Noticed or not by someone else, positive transformations are quietly taking place inside her. Just as new life bursts forth in nature, Corita Kent is sure of her own flowering.

TASTE THE RAINBOW

In 1971, artist and former activist nun Corita Kent was commissioned to tackle the largest copyrighted work in the world: the freestanding Rainbow Swash gas tank towering above the Southeast Expressway off I-93, overlooking Dorchester Bay under the Hub skyline.

The story behind Kent’s kaleidoscopic landmark, of course, is more complicated than that. For starters, in 1992 the iconic design was transferred from the original tank to its replacement on abutting property. The whole thing intrigues me. And so after years of driving past the monolithic concrete table coaster, currently stamped with the National Grid logo, I took an opportunity to check in on the painters touching up the Rainbow Swash—and to wheeze, cough, and ascend an acrophobe’s nightmare of spiraling iron stairs.

This was no matter of rustling up a few pails of paint and finding someone with brass balls big enough to handle such a mammoth project. The maintenance was overseen by the International Union of Painters & Allied Trades (IUPAT), whose members got to work in June and put the final coat on last week. In all, they were responsible for more than just the preservation of commissioned artwork. They also had to help prevent disaster from unfolding. Because of the variations in temperature, all products used for the protection of the tank’s aesthetic and structural integrity have corresponding data sheets to ensure safety measures are met, and to shield the environment in the area surrounding the project. A sight like the Rainbow Swash is something commuters notice, so it’s paramount that upkeep treatments come from quality contractors.

On our climb from the base to the 140-foot summit we pass several gruff painters. Some are rappelling from safety harnesses, dangling on ropes at precarious angles over the edge while stroking Kent’s masterwork down to the controversial crevices. Before their reproduction on the new tank in 1992, the stripes were criticized by some due to a rumor that the profile of Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh could be seen in the blue swath (Kent, though a peace activist, denied the charge).

Once there, the view from up top is spectacular, panoramic glory. From the recently closed Long Island Bridge to the foliage peppering Dorchester, Boston’s urban sprawl looks that much less urban from this vantage point.

Read the full feature at DigBoston.com 12

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PHOTOS BY MIKE SCHWARZ

When the painter’s union touched up the design of Corita Kent’s making on the Dorchester gas tank last fall, ‘DigBoston’ Editor Dan McCarthy climbed along with the crew. Below is an excerpt from his adventure …

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DEPT. COMMERCE SERVICES

BUS HOP

An on-demand beach (or anywhere) bus. Why not.

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

KNIFE MOVES

The next stage in knife-technology evolution may already be in Somerville

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF Nestled in one small work stall littered with the soldering irons, tools, and gizmos you’d expect to find at the personal craft desk for one of many projects in the cavernous expanse and labyrinthine maker-movement beehive in Somerville, Jeremy Fryer-Biggs is a knife-industry disrupter hard at work.

The University of Chicago and Tufts University graduate is set up in a mad genius’s enclave in the back of Artisan’s Asylum, where he tinkers and improves upon NextGen Knives, a Kickstarter project he’s behind billed as “the next evolution in cutlery design.”

“The knife industry is all about tradition,” he says. “But when technology advances it’s important to do an audit and ask, ‘Have things changed?’ I love cooking, and every chef I’d ever met in my life had these hand calluses. That means maybe there was something wrong with the design of the knives. So I started thinking about how someone could design a knife better. A year [later] and now we’re here.”

This isn’t some weekend-warrior arts and crafts project, either. Fryer-Biggs, long a builder and curious mind, got interested in prototyping during his time working on rigs and build teams for Mythbusters. He got the job after firing an email off to the well-mustachioed cohost Jamie Hyneman, who he later worked with building medic combat-training prototypes for the US military. By the time he moved on, finished graduate school at Tufts, and started his own prototyping company, he realized he could focus on creating things that could benefit people and get paid to do it.

More often than not, knives have the same handle shape to them, and yet not all knives serve the same function. So to gather data on what would make a more perfect knife handle, Fryer-Biggs and his team created clay armatures around the base of the blade on the demo knives they had created using a super hard patented

steel he and a partnering steel company created called NextSteel, and handed them off to chefs they knew (like Stacy Cogswell of Liquid Art House, among several others).

“We said, ‘Work with it, rock with it for an hour, and then let me see what it looks like.’”

From there they took that data and created a shape built around the way you’re supposed to hold a knife between your thumb and forefinger in order to support the normally empty negative space in between someone’s hand and the handle, creating an 80/20 model using foodand medical-grade dishwasher safe silicon in the nowpatented NextGrip.

“It’s basically the general geometry and generic feel to most hands,” he says. “All that research yielded this kind of grip.” Part of the patent involves the construction of the steel handle with a hole cut into the steel at the hilt in order for the molding to seal around the base, rather than being a flap of material that would peel back and fall off over time. And it’s from here things get really interesting: Chefs (or anyone) can send in a flat-scanned image of the palm of their hand, which Fryer-Biggs and his team then take and create a 3D model of to create a 100 percent custom teak handle that will be only truly functional and comfortable to the person it was created for.

At present you can pre-order one of the general base model handles for $99, and Fryer-Biggs says that if things take off there is a whole line of knives in the works. And all of them will be anchored by their obsession with handle perfection.

“They’re a reflection on who actually uses [them],” he says. “One of the things I get from chefs a lot is when you’re working in a kitchen, your knives get stolen. So this not only makes your job easier as a chef, but no one else can use it as it will feel like shit to them. And if there’s any question about whose knife it is, your handprint is laser etched onto the handle.”

>> NEXTGEN KNIVES. FOR MORE INFORMATION AND THEIR KICKSTARTER PLATFORM CHECK OUT NEXTGENKNIVES.COM 14

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>> SKEDADDLE. NOW AVAILABLE. VISIT LETSKEDADDLE.COM FOR INFORMATION AND ROUTES.

NEXT GEN PHOTOS BY DAN MCCARTHY

SHAAHP

Considering that we’re locked in what seems to be a stretch of on-again, off-again summery weather, if there was ever a time to plan your beach-going days accordingly it would be now.

And provided you’ve discovered Skedaddle, a Boston-based startup on-demand bus-sharing program, you can crowdsource a chartered bus ride that starts in the Hub and ends with you at the ocean. Or a music festival in Maine. Or Vermont. As long as you have 15 other people on board, you now have a way there and back. And it can be as cheap as five bucks.

“Getting outside of the city is a pain in the butt,” says Adam Nestler, Skedaddle CEO. “And the idea is [creating] an on-demand, social, fun experience that becomes that bus you took with friends as a kid.”

The way it works is this: Once you’ve created a route you need at least 15 people to join.

Skedaddle connects your group to one of the buses it charters (think: leather seats, Wi-Fi, beach provisions like water and snacks). Once the bus is filled, your ride is established. You can start a ride anytime and go anywhere provided the bus has been filled. As to why it’s 15 people and not, say, 10, Nestler says it’s a cost thing, but the way to do this on the cheap is to confirm early. The first five to join get to ride for five bucks. The next ten get ten percent off.

Then the rest pay between $25-40 round-trip depending on the route. For now, Skedaddle has a route to Crane Beach in Ipswich that picks up from Harvard Square, and a Kendall pickup that brings you down to Hyannis in the Cape.

Nestler says they’re also planning to roll out a special mobile app for starting routes from your phone or getting push alerts when new routes are popping up near you, and even a meetup/social component to interact with fellow riders.

Chances that could get creepy if not handled right: 50-50.

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OLDE MAGOUNʼS SALOON PRESENTS:

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FRANCHISE THIS

As the Fenway area expands, the options for craft beer provisions will as well—which is good

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

ARANCINI

Crispy Risotto Croquette / Pancetta / fontina Cheese / Amatraciana Sauce

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

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Bacon Wrapped Figs / Goat Cheese / Balsamic Vinegar Drizzle

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Waffle Fries / Cheese Curds /

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Salted Caramel Sauce / Bourbon Pecan Ice Cream

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518 Medford St. Somerville

magounssaloon.com|617 - 7 76 - 2 6 0 0 16

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A large chunk of the topography surrounding Fenway Park is peppered with a beery prideland of bars and restaurants, most of which house all manner of craft beer and small batch liquors. And in the last few years the options have swollen from tried-and-true dives and saloons with baseball on the mind and a sawdust saloon’s spirit to a range of polished oyster bars, kitschy burger joints, and killer BBQ. All of which, in some way or another, have responded to the ongoing and still upticking craft beer movement by ensuring the thirsts of the masses are well sated.

And as the residential (as well as commercial) construction explosion in that area continues, the planned early October arrival of the Craft Beer Cellar local franchise at the corner of Van Ness and Kilmarnock Streets, in the ground floor retail space of the new complex being erected in the shadow of Fenway, is well timed. Founded by Kate Baker and Suzanne Schalow in 2010, the flagship Belmont shop has since become a budding empire of craft beer and liquor emporiums around Mass. And for Schalow, the first Boston proper location to come is not only a means to enter an evolving and rapidly changing neighborhood with the business model she and Baker have to date franchised out to well over a dozen states (this one will also be under separate ownership); it’s also a dream come true.

“We’re super excited,” she says. “It’s a sports city, and everyone that’s a small business owner wants to open a store near Fenway.”

It’s that attention to selection and omniscient knowledge of inventory that Schalow says they are imparting to every new CBC owner. But more than just putting prospective owners through the wringer, it’s about ensuring the owners jibe well with the philosophy of the store—and Schalow and Baker. “Our interview process is tight,” she says. The owners of the Fenway spot to come are a local husband and wife team who Baker and Schalow brought on a year ago when plans for this location started getting off the ground. “It’s given us a lot of time with the owners; they’ve been working in the Belmont store for months, going through distributors and delivery, learning the ropes, and going through a lot of our classes and soirees,” says Schalow.

And that, she says, is really what they want the focal point to always be: great beer education and a great selection of local, national, and international beer.

But as for the Fenway spot to come, Schalow says that more isn’t always better; paring back can be a positive when the focus is on a well-curated selection, and the Fenway spot could rival the flagship in depth of knowledge the owners have about education and local product.

“Last year [in the Belmont store] we went from 1,200 beers to down to 750 or so,” she says. “We’re working hard to taste back through our inventory, know what’s on our shelf, know the story [of the product], believe in it, know the brewers and the people at the top, [so] I can look at a customer in the eye and say, ‘This is a great example of East Coast dry hopped pale ale,’ and really know what’s up with it.” >> CRAFT BEER CELLAR. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT CRAFTBEERCELLAR.COM OR FOLLOW TWITTER.COM/CBC_FENWAY

CRAFT

BEER ISSUE July 15th

digboston arts + entertainment | news | lifestyle NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

BOUTIKEY POPS UP THIS WEEK SO POP BY AND ... GO SEE THE BOSTON POPS AND ...

DRINK SOME POP WITH YOUR POP.

18

WED 7.1

WED 7.1

THU 7.2

FRI 7.3

SAT 7.4

TUE 7.7

Boutikey Summer Kick Off Event

Trident Booze & Books Indoor BBQ

Haus Slam

Crudo Now Open

Bocce Tournament and $1 Oysters

Local Headliner Showcase

Well, July is here. Now that we can agree on that, you’re also invited to check out the Twiggy mural art and paper flower design displays at the pop-up shopping event focusing on local boutiques and designers (as well as some LA talent for a mix) at the Boutikey shop that started as an independent Fenwayarea pop-up but wound up sticking around. Call it a win for the little guy. Or gal.

Sure, this weekend you’re going to have plenty of booze. And probably land a few gratis appetizers.

And most definitely BBQ. Which is great. However if you’d like to have all three of those at once, and in a bookstore in the Back Bay no less, you can check out the pre-Independence Day soiree your pals at Trident are throwing. Yes, there will be bingo. Because of course there would be.

Thursdays are great because they come right before Fridays. And this Thursday is really great considering the apparently the first-ever slam team representing Boston is headed to the National Poetry Slam in Oakland, CA, this August, and there’s a fundraiser at the Haley House that’ll feature individual poems, group slams, and a mixture of comedy and music all in a chill setting. Oh, and lip synching. No, really.

You can preface all the fireworks and BBQ and USA you’re going to be awash in this weekend by checking out the just-opened sushi and Japanese cocktailing haunt that’s landed in ... the North End, of all places.

Besides the sushi bar on the first floor, and the breezy second floor with collapsing windows for sake and people watching, something about mixing Japan, Italy, and Boston on the eve of America’s birthday feels fitting.

Maybe it’s because you ate smoked brisket for breakfast. Or maybe you just want to head to a cool city patio with a brand-new shipping container outdoor bar for $1 oysters and a few beers while you and a team you’ve wrangled together compete for glory and prizes (think: $200 gift card). Whatever the reason you’re looking to do it, know that you can do it in the South End on Saturday.

It’s no secret that Boston is a comedy battleground, which is why those that reach the headliner status on the local scene have chops that slay audiences and build careers. And the Phoenix Landing, either because they’re mad geniuses or because it’s Tuesday, have stocked a bill featuring the likes of Will Noonan, Jamie Loftus, Gary Petersen, and more local titans to make you laugh so hard you may cough up the leftover BBQ you’ve been destroying since Saturday.

Boutikey. 1369 Boylston St., Boston. 5-8pm/all ages/ FREE. For more information, visit boutikey.com

Trident Booksellers & Cafe.

338 Newbury St., Boston.

6-8pm/all ages/$5. For more information, visit tridentbookscafe.com

The Whitehaus. 10 Seaverns Ave., Jamaica Plain. 8pm/all ages/FREE

Crudo. 78 Salem St., Boston.

For more information, visit facebook.com/crudoboston

Cinquecento. 500 Harrison Ave., Boston.

4-10pm/21+/cash bar. For more information, visit cinquecentoboston.com

Phoenix Landing. 512 Mass Ave., Cambridge.

8:30pm/21+/FREE. phoenixlandingbar.com

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NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

MUSIC

NATURAL BORN GLOBETROTTERS

MUSIC

No longer trapped in America, N.B.S. spits worldwide with Snowgoons

Le Roxy Pro brings the beach to Cambridge

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

SURF’S UP

Boston loves rock music. Everyone knows that.

From the Pixies down to Rock ’n’ Roll Rumble winners Zip-Tie Handcuffs, our penchant for stormy guitars and classic riffs never fades.

Hidden away with a sunny vibe is surf rock act Le Roxy Pro—and they’re more than prepared to be your new favorite band.

“It’s not your traditional surf rock,” explains frontman Brent Battey. Ample vocals let it deviate toward beach pop like the Beach Boys instead of Dick Dale, but no matter what you take away, it’s catchy enough to land them Hollister and Marc Jacob commercial spots.

Classic inspirations like the Ventures, the Lively Ones, and Link Wray shaped Battey’s songwriting to make those subtle hooks. One listen to “Get It Out” is all it takes for them to click.

His old band, the Wandas, cut down on touring, so Battey decided to write an album as Le Roxy Pro. “This was a really good way for me to get out there and do things a little more my way,” he says. “I started calling my friends up and asking if they wanted to play.” Luckily, Sam Creager, Andrew Knox, Dave Chapman, and Greg Settino stepped up to the plate and into the studio to record at the end of 2014.

The Wandas used to sell out the Paradise every couple of months, utilizing first heavier rock and later art rock. “It was drunken craziness there,” Battey says with a grin. “I want to get that energy back with Le Roxy Pro. This is my own little twist-off of what I was doing before.”

Expect Le Roxy Pro to keep things lively when they play TT the Bear’s Place this Thursday. “We’re so upset it’s closing, but incredibly thankful to play there once,” says Battey. “Above all else, we’ll have fun with it.

That’s what we do.”

This feature is a sequel.

The last time that I visited Flash and Knuckles in Cambridge, back in 2011, they had recently decided to join the international underground rap railroad.

“Before that we weren’t thinking about a wider spectrum,” says Flash, one half of the Cambridge duo Natural Born Spitters, better known as N.B.S. “It sort of isolated us from being world renowned when you had brothers like Termanology, and Reks, and Slaine, and Virtuoso, who were doing a lot of international stuff when we were doing local stuff.”

N.B.S. is a tower of Hub rap ingenuity, an explosive mix of M.O.P. dramatics with the sociopolitical panache of Guru and Black Thought. Equally important is the hustle they endured to still be serving 15 years after their first release and to be dropping one of indie hip-hop’s toughest full-lengths this year—the longawaited Trapped In America, on which they collaborated in full with European rap production powerhouse Snowgoons. Take it from Knuckles: “It took years to make something like this.”

Flash and Knuckles met Sicknature, now one quarter of Snowgoons, back in boom bap’s digital halcyon days on MySpace.

It was before the Copenhagen-based MC/producer joined the Goonies, a primarily German outfit that’s adored by fans of Jedi Mind Tricks and other hardcore rhyme ambassadors, and his rise helped their plight as well. As recently as seven years ago, Flash and Knuckles nearly wound up getting left behind. In the time since, Snowgoons has built dozens of titanic beats for N.B.S., and helped the group become established overseas.

“When we first said that we were trapped in America, our goal was to be on tour,” says Flash. Their chance to flee came in 2012, when Snowgoons asked Virtuoso, a labelmate of N.B.S. on Big Bang Records, to rock at the annual Hip Hop Kemp blowout in the Czech Republic. But after being promised two guest spots to perform at the festival, they almost watched hope slip away when Knuckles got completely smashed and disappeared for an entire day. In something of a cross between Sex Pistols American tour lore and the Denzel Washington film Flight, N.B.S. miraculously managed to rally and knock out two sets plus an after-party.

On the strength of contacts made at Hip Hop Kemp, Flash and Knuckles took off on their debut European club tour less than six weeks later, and the following year flew to Japan for a month, then China, and have since made globetrotting a routine. “The crowds are live,” Knuckles says. “They interact. They might not understand what you’re saying, but they know your shit is jumpin’. This is our motivation now—to get other people to travel.”

“There’s a lot of people who don’t even have passports,” Flash adds. “When we’re traveling, people are always calling us and telling us to look out for ISIS and shit. When you’re there, though, it’s a lot of love.”

>> LE ROXY PRO W/ STRANGEWAYS, ELISON JACKSON, JACK O’BRIEN. THU 7.2. TT THE BEAR’S, 10 BROOKLINE ST., CAMBRIDGE. 8:30PM/18+/$8. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT TTTHEBEARS.COM

>> N.B.S. + SNOWGOONS. THUR 7.2. MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS, 472 MASS AVE., CAMBRIDGE. 617-864-EAST. 8PM/18+/$10 ADV $13 DOS. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT MIDEASTCLUB.COM.

MUSIC EVENTS THU 7.2

EXPERIMENTAL POP THE SYMPTOMS + SKINNY BONES

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

20

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FRI 7.3

ART AND LO-FI MIXED BAG DYLAN EWEN + (T-T)b + SPORTS COACH + MATT HULL + SHYTALK

[Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery, 541 Mass Ave., Cambridge. 7:30pm/all ages/$5-10. outoftheblueartgallery.com]

DIGBOSTON.COM

SUN 7.5

ALT HIP-HOP DEATH GRIPS

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

7pm/18+/$20. crossroadspresents.com]

MON 7.6

A LOT OF EMO BANDS CASPER ELGIN + SINAI VESSEL + PERSPECTIVE, A LOVELY HAND TO HOLD + PAPER SKELETONS + ME IN CAPRIS

[O’Brien’s Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston. 8pm/18+/$8. obrienspubboston.com]

TUE 7.7

SAD ALT PARTY HOLIDAY MUSIC + SOFT FANGS + SNEEZE + CHANDOS

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/$8. greatscottboston.com]

LOCAL INDIE POP MIXED BAG BEAR SALON + SALEM WOLVES + ALL TALK + EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE

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

8:30pm/18+/$9. ttthebears.com]

%RVWRQ·V Best Irish Pub

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

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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.

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6PM - 11:30PM

TUESDAYS

WEDNESDAYS

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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!

927(' %26721·6 %(67 62&&(5 %$5 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. :20(1·6 :25/' &83 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

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21

FILM

TED TALK

On the indignity of hosting Seth MacFarlane’s latest

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

What crime did we commit to earn us the indignity of playing host to Ted? It’s not insignificant that the Boston-born teddy bear has the exact same voice as Peter Griffin, the Rhode Island-based patriarch of director Seth MacFarlane’s other famous project, Family Guy. That shared accent reveals just how one-note his brand of humor is—these comedies are so broad that they span multiple states.

Ted and John Bennett (Wahlberg) are reeling from romantic setbacks: Bennett hasn’t dated since getting divorced from his wife, and Ted’s marriage to TamiLynn (Jessica Barth) is headed down the same highway. The latter pair aims to solve their strife with a baby, but their application to adopt reveals that Ted is legally considered “property,” costing him his job, his marriage, and his freedom.

He sues the Commonwealth for human status, complete with earnest nods to Dred Scott. But this isn’t a spoof or satire of courtroom dramas about civil rights, as that would require MacFarlane to have legitimate political ideas or beliefs— it’s just a half-assed example of the genre. He’s remade Philadelphia with a teddy bear in place of Tom Hanks.

To state outright that Ted 2 can’t justify its own existence as a consideration of the minority experience in America seems unnecessary. But MacFarlane also fails on a more modest scale: This isn’t even worthwhile within the genre of “Boston movies.” Aside from an exterior shot of Park Street, there’s hardly an element of the film specific to our beloved city. One lone touch feels authentic: the fact that Wahlberg’s character is a grumpy Irish guy who drinks too much because it’s easier than dealing with his feelings.

Part of the problem is that MacFarlane’s bought into the hype of his own franchise. Bennett worked a job in the first movie, and it provided a workingclass perspective that made all the random humor funnier, if only by contrast.

But in Ted 2 we don’t see him clock in once. And so when—for example—a legal study session turns into an extended Breakfast Club reference, it has nothing to stand out against. It’s not irreverent, because it’s just more references to a pop culture that’s long past its sell-by date. He may pose as a vulgar townie poet, but MacFarlane’s got the comedic chops of a mediocre late-show host. He just points at something we all know about already, and hopes that we laugh.

The climax takes us to New York’s Comic Con, where MacFarlane revels in the possibilities—all pretense at narrative goes out the window while he references Total Recall, Dragon Ball Z, and innumerable other pre-existing properties for the sake of cheap laughs born only of recognition. This is MacFarlane’s true home— not among New Englanders, but among other brands. Too bad there’s one last scene set in Boston. We were hoping he wouldn’t come back. >> TED 2. RATED R. NOW PLAYING EVERYWHERE.

FILM EVENTS WED 7.1

FRI 7.3

GILIAP

BREWSTER McCLOUD

ROY ANDERSSON’S RARELY SCREENED [Museum of Fine Arts. 465 Huntington Ave., Boston.

7:30pm/NR/$9-11. mfa.org] THURS 7.2

PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON’S FIRST FILM HARD EIGHT

[Somerville Theatre. 55 Davis Sq., Somerville. 8pm/R/$10. somervilletheatreonline. com/somerville-theatre]

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THE STRANGEST FILM YOU’LL SEE ALL WEEK [Harvard Film Archive. 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/NR/$7-9. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa] SUN 7.5

WHAT A DRAG IT IS DEALING DRUGS THE FRENCH CONNECTION

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

4:45, 9:30pm/R/$9-11. brattlefilm.org]

W/ LIVE MUSICAL ACCOMPANIMENT BY JEFF RAPSIS THE BIG PARADE

[Somerville Theatre. 55 Davis Sq., Somerville. 8pm/ NR/$12-15.]

MON 7.6

NEWLY RESTORED

THE DECLINE OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION, PART I and PART II: THE METAL YEARS

[Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

7pm/R/$11.25. coolidge.org]

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FILM

SHARK WEEK

Revisiting Jaws yearly Independence Day run at the Brattle

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

Jaws makes for a strong Independence Day movie—the Brattle plays it yearly—if only for superficial reasons: It was shot on our coast and takes place during the holiday. But there’s something deeply American about it that befits Fourth of July screenings quite well. Amity Island’s shark problem could be solved easily: Close the beaches. But that costs money, and the town’s upper-class business owners aren’t willing to take that loss.

Thus the first hour is a nightmare about high-level businessmen dictating what constitutes acceptable losses. By eating whatever comes in its path, the shark does its assigned job. And when the mayor chooses to keep the beaches open, knowing there’s a solid chance one or two kids will get chomped in the process? So is he. (As political critique, it’s as subtle as the severed head that pops out of Ben Gardner’s boat.)

How does Spielberg sort it out? By giving us a second hour dedicated entirely to three rugged men redeeming the community, by way of the sea, once they’re made independent from the corrupting forces of commercial land. The camera grants innumerable close-ups to their equipment, and the dialogue spills over with unintelligible jargon, if only to prove their bona fides. This is Spielberg’s Boy Scout-approved worldview: He’s cynical about the intentions of most organizations, but optimistic that maverick craftsmen and their elbow grease can solve any problems that crop up. Maybe it’s naive, but it’s also patriotic: The evils of capitalism get cured by a few guys who tie knots really well. >> JAWS. BRATTLE THEATRE. 40 BRATTLE ST., CAMBRIDGE. PLAYING DOUBLE FEATURES, PAIRED WITH JAWS 2. FRI, 7.3 AND SAT, 7.4. 2PM AND 7PM/PG/$9-13.

SECRET HONOR

Altman and Nixon. Happy Fourth of July.

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN For a quieter Independence Day screening, take to the Harvard Film Archive on Friday—they’ve got an all-American movie that takes place entirely in one room. Robert Altman’s Secret Honor adapts a one-man stage show (written by Donald Freed and Arnold M Stone) where Philip Baker Hall plays Nixon post-presidency: He’s raving into a tape recorder over the span of a lonely night, soulsearching and binge-drinking in equal measure. The monologue itself has him revealing a ‘secret history of America.’ But what Altman’s interested in is beyond the text: He and Hall make Dick the madman into a mere mortal.

Flanked by booze, cameras, portraits of former presidents, and a pistol, Nixon offers a speech of Shakespearean tenor, loosely sketching history from his tragic childhood (he lost brothers to tuberculosis) up to his dealings with the Bohemian Grove (extensively fictionalized, if only to provide some dramatic heft to the 90-minute rant). Nixon has a focus problem—he interrupts himself at a rate of twice-per-sentence, sometimes even to pray to his mother—and Hall puts a body to the broken psyche: His torso jerks in a new direction with each digressive thought, like a slow-starting limo stuck between an endless cycle of red and green lights.

They don’t create sympathy for Nixon, but then, they didn’t want to. (The damaging effects of Watergate loom large over the entirety of Altman’s work.) Instead Secret Honor puts a wrenched face to the concept of political back-dealing. It calculates the human cost of bureaucratic bullshitting. >>SECRET HONOR. HARVARD FILM ARCHIVE. 24 QUINCY ST., CAMBRIDGE. FRI, 7.3. 9:30PM/NR/$7-9.

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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.

Thursday JULY 2 9:30 PM

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SALUTE

DJs: Fuzzy Fotch, DJ Chandelier Genres: EDM, Party Jams $5 Friday JULY 3 10:00 PM

HITS NOT

WORK DJs: Thami Mottola and Brek.One Genres: Trap, Hip Hop, Reggae & Party Jams $10 | 21+ Monday JULY 6 7:00 PM

MMMMAVEN GRADUATION

PARTY

DJs: Mmmmaven Class of 2015 Genres: Open Format No Cover | 18+ | Downstairs Tuesday JULY 7 6:00 PM

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No Cover | 18+ until 10 PM Downstairs

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Monday night summer dance party continues to unite Latin community in the South End

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STAN RIDGWAY Wall of Voodoo

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

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Friday, July 10th 7:30PM

EMISUNSHINE 10 Year old Virtuoso Gospel & Americana Saturday, July 11th 7:30PM

WORLD GONE CRAZY COMEDY BAND Comedy

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

Every Monday night during the summer months, hundreds of dancers gather with electric energy under the banner of community and Latin heritage on an outdoor dance floor in Boston’s South End for Salsa in the Park.

Anchored by a DJ and a huddle of musicians holding down a music corner rife with conga drums, claves, and other instruments, the party invites sweaty bodies to gyrate and play counterpoint to the natural aural rhythms of the park. But more than that, it fosters a greater sense of community with local residents from the Villa Victoria community in the primarily Puerto Rican neighborhood in the South End where it all goes down.

It’s something of an after-work crowd, but as a local cultural event it’s a rich tapestry woven together with the dancers and musicians who frequent the event, teenagers from a local youth program who help run it, and nearby residents. “[In Cuba] you feel connected to music, history, dance, and people,” says Anara Frank of MetaMovements Dance Company, one of the creators of Salsa in the Park. She has been traveling to Cuba since she was a child and now leads trips there with MetaMovements. “When we leave Cuba, I tell everyone, ‘Remember what you felt here. We need to bring this [home].’”

There is a long history of such community-driven salsa and dance parties happening in Boston; this one was born at its current location in the South End when Frank started working with a director at the the Blackstone Community Center who was looking to use dancing as a “uniting tool” in the community.

Concerned that the center wasn’t properly serving the Latino population in that area (and specifically Villa Victoria), the director was looking for creative outreach programs to confront local social issues. During this time, Frank notes a conversation she had with an older Latino salsa dancer, who mentioned that one of the primary ways the Latino community stayed healthy during his “prime” dancing days in the ’60s and ’70s was through coming together at outdoor salsa events.

“He complained that this wasn’t happening anymore, and he thought that if salsa came back as a solid force, people would start to work together,” says Frank.

For Frank, this was an aha moment.The event started to take shape soon after, with the Latino man reaching out to residents in the Villa neighborhood and Frank hustling to spread the word throughout the Boston salsa community. She says in the beginning there were a lot of tightly wound nerves among authorities worried “that something negative could happen” during an open-air party in a neighborhood that was labeled as “vulnerable” to such outcomes. However, she notes that after a short time, concerns that the event would draw violence or negative energy ceased completely. “People started to realize that the event was going to [help] prevent violence in that area, not propel it,” notes Frank.

The presence of Salsa in the Park in the Villa Victoria today speaks both metaphorically and literally to the neighborhood’s strength and ability to maintain and foster a positive Latin (and specifically Puerto Rican) voice in Boston. This is significant considering the history of the neighborhood, in which residents once infamously banded together and resisted the Boston Redevelopment Authority in the ’60s amid attempts to raze their homes in favor of luxury housing. The success of the community’s resistance is why the neighborhood now has the local nickname “Victory Village.”

Aside from its bringing a top-notch community-centered arts and culture experience to Boston, Frank notes that for her, one of the most important parts of Salsa in the Park is the involvement of local youth. The event is in part produced

by MetaMovements Youth Ambassadors, part of a program the dance company runs that pays teenagers to teach, perform, market, and fundraise for Salsa in the Park and other community-oriented dance and arts projects.

“For me, this is what makes me want to keep doing this every year,” she says. >> SALSA IN THE PARK. MONDAYS. BLACKSTONE COMMUNITY CENTER. 50 W BROOKLINE ST., BOSTON. 6-9PM/ALL AGES/FREE. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT MMSALSAINTHEPARK.WEEBLY.COM

PHOTO BY CARVEN BOURSIQUOT PHOTOGRAPHY | KOYAMA BELMONT

BY MICAELA KIMBALL @MICAL218

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SNEAKY SOUNDS

Say hello to Boston’s new Converse Rubber Tracks studio

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

Remember that epic week in April when Converse Rubber Tracks Live brought the Replacements, Passion Pit, Slayer, and more inside the tiny walls of the Sinclair ... for free? Yeah, we don’t know how you could forget.

Now the sneaker company is back with another surprise, and this one blows the last out of the water: Boston is the proud parent of a permanent Converse Rubber Tracks Studio at Lovejoy Wharf.

Just like the Converse Rubber Tracks Studio that opened in Brooklyn in 2011, our studio allows emerging artists, aka bands who lack the funds for studio time and travel, to apply and record for free, all rights included. After hosting weeklong pop-ups at Q Division Studios from December of 2013 onwards, Converse is clearly committed to helping Boston’s musicians with this new installment. “[Small local bands] have done recordings in a basement; suddenly they come into this room and they literally step into the audio room and hear themselves for the first time,” says Brad Worrell studio manager of Converse Rubber Tracks’ New York facility. “I’ve had bands even look at each other and go, ‘Oh, this is what we sound like.’ These are baby bands. Sometimes all they need is to hear themselves in the monitor.”

Stephen Konrads of local electronic folk act Eternals talked about the experience with glowing words. “Normally it’s very expensive. My previous experience has been one guy in a room with small equipment and a bong,” he laughed. “Here, there’s people asking if I want coffee and stuff. It’s crazy.”

That’s because the studio itself is of the highest tier.

The 1,100-square-foot recording studio was designed by Fran Manzella to adequately host a range in genres beyond the usual rock acts, checking rap, jazz, and world music off the list. A monumental sound board designed by Rupert Neve, the 88-year-old electronic engineer behind the world’s leading audio technology, is sandwiched between two massive Ocean Way speakers, the second pair from the high-grade company to grace the East Coast. It’s enough to make audiophiles geek out from the sight alone.

So, how exactly do you play here? Book the studio one month in advance by filling out their application online and the place is yours from 11am to 7pm.

Tackle nine songs in a sitting or work out the kinks of a few; it’s up to you. Since the studio’s experienced engineers work with you to figure out your goals and inspirations before coming in, they handpick amps, microphones, and gear before you enter the studio to save time.

When finished, bands are given the Pro Tools rough takes and stems on a USB. Our advice? Remember to thank the remarkable crew when done. The next Converse Rubber Tracks Live show headliner hears all the acts that have come through and decides which band (yours!) will open for it.

“As an independent artist you can feel like you’re in a vacuum,” said Konrads, “but with this, you feel the support.” >> CONVERSE RUBBER TRACKS STUDIO. 131 BEVERLY ST., BOSTON. 11AM-7PM/FREE. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT CONVERSE-MUSIC.COM/RUBBERTRACKS 28

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NOTHING MATTRESS

BY BRIAN CONNOLLY @NOTHINGMATTRESS

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SAVAGE LOVE

GYMNASTICS

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE This is going to sound like bragging, but my appearance is intrinsic to my kink. I’m a gay male gymnast. Most of the guys on my college team are annoyed by the kind of objectification we routinely come in for. But I’ve always been turned on by the thought of being a piece of meat. I’ve masturbated for years about dehumanization. Being in bondage, hooded, and gagged—not a person anymore, faceless, nude, on display, completely helpless. It finally happened. I found a guy on Recon.com. He is into BDSM, which isn’t the goal for me, and he wanted to do some of “his stuff” to me while I was dehumanized and helpless. We had a long talk about what I was okay with (gentle tit clamps, some butt play, very light spanking) and what I wasn’t okay with. I didn’t want to be marked. He asked what I meant by that, and I said, “No bruises, no welts, no red marks.” He didn’t bruise me, but he did something that it didn’t occur to me to rule out: He shaved off all my body hair—pits, pubes, legs, ass, chest. I’m angry, but at the same time, I’m seriously turned on by the thought of seeing this guy again. I also have a boyfriend. What do I say to my boyfriend about being suddenly hairless and about my kink?

And what do I say to the guy? I want to go back and continue to explore being an object, but I don’t feel like I can trust him.

Desire Erased Humanity Until My Aching Nuts Explode 30

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DEHUMANE’s boyfriend: If you’re reading this, please know that the mistake your boyfriend made—doing this behind your back in the hopes that one experience would satisfy his curiosity forever—is a common one. A lot of people, kinky and not, believe that kinky desires don’t work the same way vanilla desires do, ie, unlike “normal” sexual desires (fucking, sucking, rimming), kinky desires (pissing, spanking, binding) only have to be acted on once. Do it once, get the kink out of your system, enjoy vanilla sex—and only vanilla sex—for the rest of your life.

But kinks don’t work that way. In the same way that “normal” people don’t wanna fuck just once in their lives, a person with your boyfriend’s kinks isn’t going to wanna be objectified and dehumanized just once in his life. Your boyfriend didn’t know that before he did it the first time, but he knows it now. If you can find it in your heart to forgive him, you could wind up with a very hot and very grateful guy.

DEHUMANE: Put Recon Guy on hold. If you do want to play with him again—because you’re single or because your boyfriend approves—have an out-of-roles conversation with him about what happened last time. He didn’t hurt you; he tricked you, and you’re understandably wary of playing with him again. If you do play with him again—a big if—this time anything you haven’t ruled in is automatically ruled out. No tricks. With any luck, your boyfriend, if he feels like he can trust you again, will be there to keep an eye on him and to enjoy the sight of your helpless, faceless body.

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