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DIGBOSTON.COM 8.19.15 - 8.26.15

FEATURE

SOMERVILLE

BOXING LEGACY CHAMPS, CHOPS, AND THE BARTENDER WHO SOCKED ALI MUSIC

HOLY SONS AVANT FOLK FOR THE METAL SOUL

ARTS

FEMINIST FIBER ART LAUNCHES IN SOMERVILLE

NEWS EATS

N E D R O W HOUTAHIEL’SLNEW

S VERN A T D O O H R NEIGHBO ES RIS

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VOL 17 + ISSUE 33

AUGUST 19, 2015 - AUGUST 26, 2015

EDITOR Dan McCarthy NEWS, FEATURES + MEDIA FARM EDITOR Chris Faraone ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran ASSOCIATE FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan CONTRIBUTORS Nate Boroyan, Mitchell Dewar Christopher Ehlers, Renan Fontes, Bill Hayduke, Emily Hopkins, Micaela Kimball, 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

Fighting out of the Somerville Boxing Club, Olympic hopeful Rashida Ellis graces our cover. Read all about the SBC and it’s rich fighting history on page 10. Photo by Stephanie Buonopane. ©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 …Ah, hey there. Glad you could join us. We were just talking about the issue you currently hold in your hands and what to look forward to. Here’s what you missed: 1. A thoughtful long(ish) read on the much-hyped and now insanely financially successful Straight Outta Compton by our resident film overlord Jake Mulligan on Page 22.

2. An outstanding feature on the enduring legacy of local boxing in the Hub, from the future women’s champ back to the bartender in Somerville who clocked Muhammed Ali in his prime (with the picture to prove it) during a longforgotten exhibition match on Page 10.

3. A chat with the Italian immigrant making some of the most incredible mozzarella you’ll find on this side of Molise on Page 14.

4. A recap of the only art show you’re likely to find knitted vaginas at debuted last week on Page 28.

5. A rousing piece about how the mainstream media in Mass sides with lying and abusive police departments on Page 4. …that about does it, but we’re out of time. Feel free to continue to devour this entire issue over a frosty beer in your most well-air-conditioned environment.

We’ll reassemble next week to discuss our annual Student Guide.

That’s right. It’s almost move-in day, people.

Prepare yourselves.

DAN MCCARTHY - EDITOR, DIGBOSTON

DIGTIONARY

TRUMPON

noun trəmp/ôn 1. A golden plug that can magically stop a presidential campaign from bleeding out from its eyes in spite of the fact said campaign is making everyone stab their own eyeballs out.

OH, CRUEL WORLD Dear Judge, Wipe that smile off your fucking face. And that frown too. While you’re at it, get rid of the cheer, the jeer, and all other emotions, because you are supposed to be a picture of unbridled objectivity, free of any prejudices whatsoever. But that’s not how it works, because you’re in cahoots with the moronic bottom-of-their classes cheap attorney bozos who buy beers for jerks like you at shitty chain restaurants in the hellish suburbs. And I don’t care what you say - I’m not paying this goddamn speeding ticket under any circumstances.

ILLUSTRATION BY AMY BOUCHARD

EDITORIAL

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NEWS US

COUNTERING COUNTER-SURVEILLANCE NEWS TO US

How the mainstream media in Mass sides with lying and abusive police departments

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 You wouldn’t know it since most hacks in the local media are still pretending that police around here are respectful and in check, but four months ago, DigBoston ran a bombshell feature on the right to record authorities in Massachusetts. Despite acknowledgment by some departments in the Bay State that they are legally required to allow people to tape their actions, there have been several instances in which the opposite has transpired.

Don’t allow disarming public rhetoric to fool you; though members of law enforcement in this seemingly tolerant state talk a good game, civil liberties and basic rights remain in jeopardy across the Commonwealth.

Among the cases noted in our April round-up, a collaboration with Andrew Quemere of the Bay State Examiner: that of Northeastern student Tyler Welsh, who in 2013 was arrested and charged with wiretapping for recording police near Fenway on the night the Red Sox won the World Series, as well as that of Max Bickford, who last year had his phone snatched away by a Boston cop who was mad about being recorded. “Bickford,” we reported, “said cops handcuffed him, wiped blood on him, and smashed his phone on the ground before he was released.”

Said feature, “You Gotta Fight For Your Right To Record Police,” dropped as America was digging deeper into what has since become a wide and ranging conversation about hideous police activity and counter-surveillance. In the time since, at Boston City Hall and at the state level on Beacon Hill, grassroots citizens groups have made themselves heard, and in response, politicians reaching as far up as state Sen. President Stanley Rosenberg have set legislative wheels in motion toward solutions.

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Nevertheless, in light of Boston Police Commissioner William Evans calling for a law that would criminalize the recording of authorities in action, in the face of foul behavior or otherwise, it’s important to acknowledge news from the independent media on this topic.

Mainstream tools have looked the other way, the entire time enabling our police state to metastasize, batons to crack, and thousands of surveillance cameras to scan both cars and crowds in spite of ongoing attempts to outlaw the recording of cops. In certain cases, otherwise respected outlets even fondle the perversely swollen scrotum of Big Brother from the sidelines; take, for example, the Boston Globe’s reporting on increasingly ubiquitous license plate tracking, and this lead from a 2014 piece in their metro section: After years of planning, months of construction work, and a weeks-long trial run with new license plate detection equipment, the Maurice J. Tobin Memorial Bridge officially switched to cash-free tolling Monday morning, and, just as promised, morning rush hour traffic moved a little faster than usual.

In almost all related matters, the Globe is shamelessly asleep on the job, like in their long reports and ruminations on police brutality which fail to mention a single incident in Boston. Others are no better, as deferential non-reporter clowns like Margery Eagan and Jim Braude of WGBH allow Commissioner Evans to regularly spin and lie to the public. To put their journalistic malpractice in perspective, one might say

that such reporting is no different from that of comedian Daniel Tosh, who in a sense recently covered the right to record in Mass on his juvenile Comedy Central show.

In highlighting a video of a protester from Ashland, Massachusetts who threw a handful of uncooked bacon at a service window inside of a Framingham police station, Tosh, whose program (like every news show in America, sensational or otherwise) relies on the right to record in public, completely missed the point of the direct action, and instead made fat jokes about the journalist on hand who taped the bacon toss.

With such maturity dominating the conversation, from basic cable all the way to NPR, we once again turn to the likes of Andrew and his partner at the independent Examiner, Maya Shaffer, who explain: “If a law like the one Evans hopes to see passes, it could potentially make it illegal to record police in almost any circumstance. Any time a police officer approached a person, it would be illegal for that person to record the interaction if the cop got close enough to them.” They should know, since in his speaking out against those who watch the authorities, the commissioner actually noted an instance in which the Examiner caught footage of his gang in goon mode.

“I’m glad Evans finally admits that the public needs legal protection when they record his officers,” says Shaffer. “I’ve needed protection from the Boston police for years as they have threatened me with false arrests, with ‘physical removal’ from a public building, and [when they] shoved me around.”

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BLUNT TRUTH

A PLEA FROM THE PIRATES Benevolent Mass political party needs YOU!

BY MIKE CANN @MIKECANNBOSTON

Celebrating 50+ Years!

Lucia Fiero, secretary and quartermaster of the United States Pirate Party, reached out to us last week in hopes of drumming up support in general, and for their upcoming booth at the Boston Freedom Rally on September 26 and 27. Fiero’s been a fixture doing outreach at the annual festivities, and this year she needs extra support in the booth on Boston Common. We shot over some questions, and promised to publish her plea for the Pirates. Here goes …

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CONTACT: tak@digpublishing.com and please include your school name, area of interest, and samples of/ links to your work.

Why does the Massachusetts Pirate Party come to the Boston Freedom Rally?

Pirates are all about freedom of information and personal privacy; we get out to [the Freedom Rally] every year to let everyone know that if a tree falls in the forest but nobody hears it, things don’t change. What do I mean by that? If the news doesn’t report on something, does that mean it isn’t true? Of course not! The media cannot be counted upon to report on the safety and efficacy of cannabis without pressure from the public. The evening news is [owned] by big pharma (and Big Oil and Big Insurance). Count how many times you hear, “Ask your doctor about …” as you flip from network to network.

Big Pharma’s big profits depend upon patents, and Pirates oppose patents on principle. Patents necessitate turning away from the cures that nature gives us and turning to chemical compounds and altered seeds. If we can grow what we need to live in the backyard, how do these gangsters, essentially, get their cut of the action? Their business model necessitates employing the state to kill the natural competition. This goes too for the private prison industry. Their business model depends upon prohibition to keep prison populations up. This is insanity on a mass scale, but the “news” cannot be counted on to report on this insanity in the public interest. This is why the power of the internet has to be applied to the issue, with blogs and social media and email lists, by citizens talking to each other rather than paid emissaries of big business preaching to us from private, secure “news” studios that “Drugs are bad, m’kay?”

The way around this information blockade: A free and open internet. We need to get out to the Freedom Rally to spread the word about how to best spread the word that doesn’t fit the corporate picture.

Why do you especially need more help this year at the Rally?

Since 2013, my husband and I have taken the lead with the MPP presence. One or both of us would be there all weekend, from set up to break down. This year though, I was diagnosed with cancer in March, and I am on chemotherapy and very weak. My husband needs to spend the time he has off work, the weekends, looking after me and our son. So we are short, not just my husband and myself, but short the people who would otherwise come out to see us. But we have a lot of other great Pirate people to meet and hang with, some new this year. So it’s worth coming out.

Let’s talk a bit about your medical situation. What have you been diagnosed with, and what treatments have you done and continue on? What’s the hope for your health going forward?

Stage two invasive ductal carcinoma. Breast cancer, essentially, and no, I am not using cannabis to fight the cancer. I am going the medical industry sanctioned route. I was frightened by the story of Steve Jobs’ demise and of my best friend’s mother, who survived breast cancer once through medically approved methods only to die employing natural cures when the cancer returned years later. I do sincerely believe that cannabis kills cancer, but because it cannot be properly researched, exactly how cannot not definitely be determined. I have kids who still need me, and my husband, too, so as far as pioneering, I am not that brave.

Why is the Pirate Party important in the context of all this?

There is no more powerful weapon in any battle than information. The pirate party wants that information to be free and not locked down by copyright, which can be used as a backhanded means of censoring important information, or by patents, which are essentially a tool to control what belongs to all of humanity. Information also, as you know, can be used against you, and that is why our Constitution maps out ways we can protect our personal information from the state. With the rise of the internet comes the pitfall of the ease of spying on the average citizen, in violation of our right to privacy. The state told us that this was ostensibly meant to fight “terrorism,” but the government has used its post 9/11 surveillance powers primarily for investigating drug cases.

Pirates believe that what consenting adults do with their own bodies isn’t anyone’s business but their own.

New England’s Largest MMJ & Cannabis Industry Expo Series Returns to Boston Sept. 12th & 13 at The Castle @ Park Plaza

SATURDAY SEPT.NOON-6PM 12TH SUNDAY SEPT: 11AM-5PM 13TH At the Castle @ Park Plaza, Downtown Boston Tickets now on sale at: www.necann.com $25 per day, or save $10 with a $40 2-day pass!

The New England Cannabis Convention will bring together over 60 vendors from every aspect

of the MMJ & Cannabis industries; Doctors, caregivers, counselors, soil, lighting, and growing specialists, consultants, investors, entrepreneurs, and advocates. And of course, a wide assortment of the latest and greatest smoking, vaping, and storage accessories will be available for purchase. Admission includes access to a full line-up of educational speakers, panels, and workshops!

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MEDIA FARM

STREET BINJ

A pop-up newsroom grows in Dudley

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 Ed. note: DigBoston News + Features Editor Chris Faraone started the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism to facilitate more feature writing and grassroots reporting for independent publications, including this one. A recent post of his about BINJ (excerpted below from the nonprofit’s blog), specifically about their pop-up newsroom in Dudley Square, went viral in the geeky media world last week, and was even covered by the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard—all of which convinced us that his findings belong down on the Media Farm …

There are perks to being a burgeoning nonprofit news outfit that must use our donations wisely. In forgoing the expense of leasing traditional digs in this early phase, our nomadic habits often bring us to Roxbury, where Future Boston Alliance (FBA) has been kind enough to give us meeting space, and to Workbar, where we’ve met people ranging from young programmers to one new friend who tracks politics from ward to ward and square to remote square, West Roxbury to Eastie.

On the notion that our being thrust into community hands was a blessing, we thought to leverage BINJ to facilitate even more engaged experiences. It only makes sense — people often think the media’s detached from what actually happens on the ground, and showing up in person seems like a good start to changing that perception. The concept is simple — take a desk, some chairs, a rug, and office supplies, and set up shop in public. From there, the idea is to converse with residents. If the process sounds familiar, that’s because it’s what reporters used to do before their publishers began demanding that they file twodozen blog posts a day.

This first opportunity to introduce BINJ MOBILE, as we’re calling our engagement project, came thanks to Press Pass TV, a Boston youth media nonprofit that is helping BINJ get started. After meeting and debriefing Chris Krewson of the Philadelphiabased Billy Penn about a pop-up they did pegged to an election, I asked Press Pass if my team could crash their August movie night in Dudley Square. They obliged, and the next thing we knew, we were scrounging up some scenery that might convince folks to sit down with us.

We’re happy to report that people were happy to talk; as we told person after person at the pop-up, none of this is lip service on our part. Along with many of the freelancers who are collaborating with us, I have personally built my career on listening to those who aren’t being heard by others. Jeff Jarvis recently noted that, with so many newsrooms shrinking, reporters need to stop recycling the next guy’s trash, and hit the pavement for original stories and sources. In doing that in Dudley, here are a few things we heard: These conversations came on the heels of an especially bloody couple of days in Greater Boston, and in speaking with people about violence, some brought up initiatives in community policing, with residents of Dorchester and Roxbury reporting to have seen more cops on the street this year — out of their cars, on foot and on bike — than in past summers.

Other than violence, the overwhelming concerns among those who sat with us were related to housing and employment. “They need to put businesses in the community,” one person scribbled on our giant note pad. They continued: “It seems like all they put around here is new housing.”

The comments and concerns go on, and on, and on, and our plan is to keep adding to the list and to use the info in developing and cultivating features.

We also brought an old-fashioned Rolodex, and attached phone numbers to topics people know especially well. For example, a woman who lives close to an increasingly controversial complex soon to be under development is filed under the name of that construction project.

As for leads … among others, we look forward to speaking further with Allen Curry, who served as one of the first African-American firefighters in Boston following a 1973 court decree that forced minority hiring. The hostility he faced back then was brutal, and his resulting struggle with the city still endures today, more than 40 years later, as do comparable employment nightmares for countless younger people of color who have come after him. It’s hard to find that kind of community memory online; had BINJ not popped up in Dudley, and approached Curry in person, we may have never heard about his story.

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SOMERVILLE FIGHT NIGHT FEATURE

The enduring legacy of local boxing, from the bartender who clocked Ali to the future women’s champ

MUHAMMAD ALI PHOTO COURTESY SOMERVILLE BOXING CLUB | PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE BUONOPANE

BY GEORGE HASSETT

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In October 1972, Muhammad Ali came to Greater Boston, and the Greatest was tossed by a Somerville bartender in a long-forgotten exhibition scuffle.

At the time, Ali was in the midst what some called a boxing resurrection—he had finally overcome his battles with the government for famously refusing to fight for the US Army, and was on a quest to regain the heavyweight championship of the world.

Meanwhile, in Somerville, Paul Raymond was beating his way toward a deserved reputation as the undisputed toughest guy in town. The New England heavyweight champ had notorious brass balls that clanked when he hobbled, and bolstered that rep by pulverizing his share of troublemakers at Pal Joey’s, the bar at 318 Broadway where he served cocktails and knuckle sandwiches to everyone from mouthy sailors to Winter Hill Gang founder Buddy McLean.

Raymond wasn’t really seen as a serious obstacle to Ali’s quest—just one of four area pugilists who were selected to box Ali in a night of two-round exhibition matches at the Boston Garden. By the time of the event, though, Ali had already gotten embarrassingly pushed around in another exhibition earlier that month, leaving room for a respected local goon like Raymond to make an impression. He planned to do just that.

At a press conference before the spectacle, Raymond appeared to show respect, and asked the Greatest for his autograph. In doing so, however, he also called Ali by his birth name, “Cassius.” Ali corrected Raymond, “That’s not my name anymore, fella,” then took a playful swipe at the Somervillian’s face. In a split second, Raymond landed a quick counter-slap and, suddenly, the exhibition started to feel like a real fight.

FIGHT NIGHT COMETH

These days, the Somerville Boxing Club is located in the basement of an old school building on Otis Street, smack in the middle of a section of East Somerville that leads the city in poverty, violent crime, and home overcrowding.

The meager setting seems appropriate for the hardscrabble background leading up to this. On a typical day, one of the training outfit’s resident professors, Bobby Covino, can be found sitting at a desk in the center of the gym before it opens, reading from any number of his boxing history texts. Since 1978, Covino and the leathery Norman Stone (better known as Stoney) have trained young people who are in danger of embarking down the wrong path. Boxing options had dwindled at the time Covino opened, and so he rented space in an industrial nook and set out to expose new generations of kids to the sport.

Before long, Stoney and Covino’s old boxing buddies were working with them, creating an each-one-teach-one environment that continues today. Somerville District Court officers often refer youth to the gym for community service. When I ask how many boxing hopefuls have come through the courts, Stoney’s eyes open wide as he searches for an approximate number: “Fucking tons.”

If outsiders know anything about the world of boxing, either from the movies or from real life, it’s that the ring has rehabilitative power. Noting the number of world champions whose paths to fame and stardom started from behind bars, Covino explains, “It’s not just boxing. It’s discipline, working hard toward a goal.” He pauses, raises his voice, leans in, and jabs, “And don’t be an asshole!”

The transition isn’t always easy. Over the past three months, conversations around the East Somerville club have frequently turned to Jelarme Garcia. A 20-year-old middleweight prospect with a devastating right hand, Garcia had three knockouts in his first three pro fights, but is now doing a bid for deploying his increasingly feared hook outside of the ring.

While stories like Garcia’s ring familiar in a sport wracked with as turbulent a past as boxing, there’s hope on the horizon as well. In this culture where macho men are prized above all, their hulking pictures hung on barbershop and barroom walls long past the sport’s mass

market heyday, there is a welcome new twist in the saga of the Somerville Boxing Club—as the local fight world anticipates the fourth annual Somerville Fight Night this Friday at Dilboy Stadium, all eyes are on Rashida Ellis, a 2016 Olympic hopeful in women’s boxing who will fight at the upcoming 2016 Olympic trials in Colorado.

While Ellis is the most accomplished fighter swinging out of Somerville these days, most of the amateurs in this gym won’t battle for world supremacy or ever fight professionally. All their hope, all their passion has been channeled toward Friday’s bouts under the blinding outdoor lights. Over the last three months, the trainers and boxers of the Somerville Boxing Club have welcomed me into their world and shared their stories, from tales of old school barroom brawls to memories from Raymond vs Ali and lessons from their work teaching tomorrow’s champs how to earn respect on both sides of the ropes.

EXHIBIT ALI

The 1972 exhibition matches were a blip in a historic time for Ali—that year he fought six times all over the world, and started his way back to reclaiming the championship title taken from him in 1967—but a milestone in Raymond’s own comeback. As an amateur, Raymond had been the New England light heavyweight champion; after that, as an 18-year-old, he went undefeated in his first five pro fights. While stationed in North Africa with the Marines Corps, though, Raymond broke his ankle, and would not return to the ring for eight years. During that time, he trained fighters like Covino, then a bouncer at Pal Joey’s, while a young Norman Stone tagged along.

When he did climb through the ropes again, Raymond had a noticeable limp, but that didn’t slow his rise to the top of the local heavyweight rankings. Within four months, he was the New England champ in his class.

“He was a tough, tough fucking guy,” Stone says all these years later. “I’ve been all over the world, and Paul Raymond was the toughest guy I ever met. You’d see him with his bad ankle limping up and down the street doing road work every morning.”

Though memories have faded over time and no tape of the fight exists, photos from the legendary Boston Garden bout show the bartender landing at least one left and pushing Ali to the ropes. Sports writers noted that while Ali clowned around all night, he had no choice but to take Raymond seriously. Ali “pounded his foe a little harder[,] acting out a vendetta,” one columnist opined.

“Raymond had slapped Ali a week earlier at a luncheon.”

The single show of strength should not undermine other Somerville boxing feats of the time, but should rather serve to magnify all great ring wins. Raymond came of age along with a deep crop of bruisers, the lot of which area fight promoter Sam Silverman began calling the Mod Squad, named for their stylish young fans. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, in almost every division, Somerville fighters led the class of New England—from lightweight Gabe LaMarca, a slick showman of a boxer who won his first 11 fights and also fought a world champion, to middleweight Johnny Coiley, who used his lethal jab to go undefeated in his first 24 fights, and to their formidable sparring partner, Georgie Holden, who rocked 9 out of his first 15 opponents and pulled three draws.

At light heavyweight, Bobby Covino was the crowd favorite. Labeled “Somerville’s Boxer-Bartender” by sports writers for his performances at the legendarily rough and tumble Pal Joey’s, Covino honed his unrelenting aggression through years of unsanctioned melees.

“Three fights a week I used to have,” Covino once told Boston Globe reporter Bud Collins. “Regular. I had to straighten guys out who came in looking for trouble. I guess you could say it was good training. It was the only training I had.”

It was at Pal Joey’s that Covino met Raymond, the bartender, and from there the latter started coaching the young Covino at the fabled New Garden Gym in North Station. In 1970, the new jack Covino won all of his 11 fights, six by knockout. His punching power, in particular a devastating left, electrified New England boxing. After Covino’s 15th straight win, another brutal knockout, the former middleweight world champion Johnny NEWS TO US

Wilson turned to a reporter and said, “I don’t go to fights anymore, but I heard he could punch. He could punch.”

In short time, an entourage of Somerville fighters started to attract a new, invigorated crowd to the fights, which had become stale since the bright lights of the 1950s. “The Covino clique was startlingly different, a young crowd,” wrote Collins in the Globe. “It was strange to see such a young gathering at a prizefight, some longhairs and sandals too.”

With so much momentum, it’s said the high point for this era of Somerville boxing came on Dec 15, 1970, at the Boston Garden’s annual Christmas show. Before a crowd of thousands, Somerville fighters conquered three divisions, and established their dominance. The Globe sang: Joy to the world of Somerville was the theme of last night’s many-splattered boxing program at the Garden … Those from Somerville loved it as three of their local boys—middleweight Johnny Coiley, light heavy Bobby Covino, and heavyweight Paul Raymond—made good in bloody 10-round decisions.

On that holy evening, Pal Joey’s rocked in celebration, as the city’s three star fighters won props on the regional stage. It wasn’t long, however, until trouble found some of the city’s greatest. After being suspended for getting in the ring to fight while drunk, Georgie Holden got involved with low-level organized crime. On Aug 23, 1973, the durable sparring partner’s weathered corpse was found washed up along the shoreline of the Mystic River, a single gunshot doing what no number of uppercuts ever could.

A little more than a year later, in December 1974, the best fighter in Somerville, Paul Raymond, was killed in a shootout in the North End.

PAUL RAYMOND, IN TOP FIGHTING SHAPE HERE AS A MIDDLEWEIGHT, WAS A SOMERVILLE LEGEND.

STONEY AND COVINO

By 1975, it seemed the heyday of New England fighters had passed. That year, in an article headlined “Where Have You Gone, Tony DeMarco?” in reference to the 1950s middleweight world champ from the North End, the Globe asked, “What happened to all the fighters who thrilled and entertained Greater Boston fight fans?” The paper chalked up the decline, in part, to the many violent deaths of fighters, including Raymond.

Thanks to Stoney and Covino, as well as to their tight cadre of students and trainers, a significant piece of this legacy endures. Walking into the Somerville Boxing Club, the first person you’re likely to encounter is Covino, who at 71 still throws a thunderous left. A perpetual student of boxing history himself, the former bouncer sums up his philosophy: SOMERVILLE FIGHT NIGHT continued on page 12 FEATURE

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SOMERVILLE FIGHT NIGHT continued from page 11

him to the gym in 1992, and in the time since, he’s advanced to become a trainer and to work alongside world class fighters. “I started helping out John Ruiz’s team as the gofer kid—go for this, go for that,” Rivera says. When Stoney was ejected from a title defense between Ruiz and Andrew Golota in 2005, he shouted to Rivera, who went on to mount a comeback victory, “Alex, you’re in charge!” Rivera continues: “I was so happy to be part of what I love to do it didn’t matter what I was doing. Spitbucket, towel boy—I did it to the fullest because I was doing what I love.”

AND IN THIS CORNER …

Rivera’s next chance for a world championship might be Rashida Ellis—the five-foot-three-inch phenom bound for the Olympics. Rashida, who fights on Friday’s card, lost a narrow decision in 2012 to miss those Summer Games, and plans to set things straight during the trials in Colorado. It’s a legacy thing, as she was introduced to boxing by her brother Rashidi Ellis, another local fighter on the cusp of boxing stardom who has won each of his 14 pro fights and holds a minor title as the Latin American Welterweight champion.

With so much talent having climbed through his ropes over the years, I ask Covino who he deems to be the best Somerville fighter of all time. “Jake Kilrain!” he

exclaims, propping the the city’s first boxing star who, under the Mississippi sun in 1899, fought John L. Sullivan, the Boston Strongboy, in the final bare-knuckle title bout ever before fighters started wearing gloves. Kilrain drew first blood, but after an excruciating 75 rounds and two hours and 16 minutes of fighting, he could barely lift his arms, and his trainer ended the fight.

Looking forward, Somerville fighters are now male and female, technicians and back alley brawlers, bartenders and college grads. In common, they all seem to share a willingness to take a shot, so long as that is what it takes to advance. On one of my last days at the gym, a fighter who’d been AWOL for a few months returned, apparently relieved, at the prospect of resuming boxing to stay out of trouble.

“I used to fuck up every day,” he says. “Now I fuck up twice a week. It’s not perfect, but it’s a lot better. I had a problem, and everybody here stood by me. I can’t wait to put on a good show at the fights next week. I know I’m not one of the good fighters here, but I’ll bring the action.” >> SOMERVILLE FIGHT NIGHT. FRI 8.21 AT DILBOY STADIUM ON ALEWIFE BROOK PKWY. TO GET THERE

BY T, TAKE THE RED LINE TO DAVIS SQUARE, THEN TRANSFER TO THE 87 BUS.

PHOTOS BY STEPHANIE BUONOPANE

“It is better to give than to receive—and in the fight game, that goes tenfold. What is the fastest way to avoid a straight right hand?”

I shrug. He tucks his chin in toward his chest, and shoots a quick straight left upward at the imaginary opponent.

As I’ve come to learn, there is a Somerville method of fighting. In following some fighters to a “smoker” in Allston—these are off-the-books exhibitions that give fighters experience beyond sparring—it seems their way is direct, one might say street-savvy, but not without nuance. Although fighters on both sides were evenly matched in size and experience, the Somerville kids dizzied their opponents with combinations of punching and technique. After the bouts, Covino tells me that he works to emphasize particular skill sets.

“That’s why people can’t believe what I did with this kid Peter Maher,” he says, nodding toward one of his promising young fighters who packs an especially stiff jab and practices precise footwork, as opposed to Covino’s style of slugging. These guys walk the walk; at the smoker, Maher knocked down a tough opponent by parking a right into his skull.

If Covino’s a professor, head in the books, Stoney is the Somerville Boxing Club’s vice principal, often busy welcoming the newest pupils and holding court in his office. Stoney earned his stripes in the fight world by guiding Chelsea’s John Ruiz to two world heavyweight titles, including a 2000 win over the iron-chinned former champ Evander Holyfield. Stoney is a cult figure of sorts in the boxing world, a profane and mustachioed former bus driver who once made history by brawling outside of the ring during a 2005 heavyweight title fight at Madison Square Garden. After a controversial loss to Nikolai Valuev, Stoney snatched the championship belt, hoisted it triumphantly, and told 8,000 screaming German fans, “You suck!”

Though now the kind of stories that you tell your grandchildren, Stoney’s outbursts probably obscured the job he did in returning Ruiz to the ring after a humiliating, nationally televised 19-second knockout loss in his first big fight back in 1996. And his antics have also overshadowed his decades of community involvement in Somerville. Today, throwback boxing fans might be surprised to see Stoney in family mode at the club— coaching local kids, his own grandkid perched on his lap.

Alex Rivera is Stoney’s son-in-law, and the father of the next generation of Stoneys. Rivera’s father brought

12

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Celebrating 50+ Years!

Daily 7:00pm-8:30pm Daily 12:00pm-6:00pm Fri & Sat 9:00pm-10:30pm

Sensational Sunset Cruises

$22/person*

Historical Harbor Tours

Starlit Evening Cruises

$20/person*

Mondays: WINDUSTRY NIGHT

Perfect for the weekend worker!

Wednesdays:

HARBURLESQUE burlesque show! (21+)

$22/person*

Thursdays: HIGH SEAS HUMOR

We cruise the harbor with the All-Star comedians from Improv Asylum they will have you laughing all night long! (21+)

Fridays:

FLOATING BEER HAUL New selections weekly

Mass Bay Lines

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

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

13

DEPT. COMMERCE EATS

WOLF PACK

Boston Public Market golden ticket for Italian cheese master

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

WORDEN COMIN’

100 whiskies, 40 craft beers on tap, and deep dish pizza across from the T in Southie

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF The arrival of Worden Hall, the new 160-plus-seat tavern and deep-dish pizza stronghold opening a stone’s throw away from the Broadway MBTA stop in South Boston, should be welcome news for weary commuters of the Red Line after it opens next week.

Owner Dylan Welsh has already found success and fans with his two previous neighborhood enclaves—Five Horses Tavern in Davis Square and the South End—and judging by the neighborhood buzz about the opening, the third time may indeed be the charm. And yet Welsh says all along he wanted this new project to be a fresh start, rather than an attempt to drop another Five Horses into the ever-changing new face of Southie.

“I wanted to take the Five Horses concept to the next level,” says Welsh. “For starters, the food. I like challenging myself, and doing another Five Horses would’ve been the easy way out.” Welsh says after talking with over 20 chefs he eventually settled on Tim McQuinn, who has manned the lines at The Merchant, Banq, and Craigie on Main, and will be doing a 100 percent from-scratch kitchen, from the burgers to the pâtés, terrines (“We’ll be doing a lot of charcuterie and making our own sausages down the line,” says McQuinn), and the range of vegan and gluten-free focused items Welsh says will be integral to the overall menu.

However, when things first got underway in the new construction where Worden Hall now sits, the original space was half the size it is now. After a deal was reached to procure the space of the newsstand that would have been next door, Welsh and his team knocked the wall between the two down to allow for the full shape of the restaurant to take hold.

They added their private dining space in the back (adorned with a 20-foot mural of a horse race in Saratoga Springs, NY, where Welsh is from, done by a Quincy-based artist) and outfitted the space with an exposed kitchen, custom booths made using reclaimed factory flooring wood, and a dramatic brand-new bar to house over 100 whiskies and 40 rotating drafts that will feature local (think: Cambridge Brewing Company, Wormtown, Jack’s Abbey) as well as national craft beers.

“We’re going to support the local Mass craft beer scene as much as possible, but all 40 lines are rotating, and we’re going to give everyone a shot as long as their juice is good,” says Welsh.

And like all interestingly named restaurants, this one has a story behind it. Welsh spent two weekends in his native Saratoga Springs doing research in the local library, meeting with local historians to find the right name for his new spot that would evoke the region he grew up in with some nuance. Eventually he met with a nonagenarian with a house like a museum and heard stories about the old Worden Hotel, a favorite hangout spot for locals, celebrities, jockeys and trainers from the Saratoga Springs racetrack, and even gangsters alike (an original coaster from the hotel’s tavern is laid into the bartop here; look for it in the corner).

Given the previous layout of his new restaurant and the legacy of the hotel which survived 60 years and three fires without a dent to its place in the local hospitality scene, the name “Worden Hall” was a clear winner. “You gotta have a story,” says Welsh. “So many people open restaurants without a lot of thought to the concept or the passion or story behind it, and that’s why you see a lot of turnover.”

Recently it’s been less about turnover and more about the ever-expanding roster of chef-driven restaurants popping up in Southie. Some say it’s welcoming; others see it as creating a cutthroat environment.

“I’m a competitive person, so I welcome the competition,” says Welsh. “The more good restaurants and talented chefs in Boston … it raises the bar for everyone. And the people that can’t hang will fall off.” >> WORDEN HALL. OPENING 8. 27. 22 WEST BROADWAY, BOSTON. FACEBOOK.COM/WORDENHALL 14

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>> WOLF MEADOW FARM CHEESES. NOW OPEN AT BOSTON PUBLIC MARKET. 100 HANOVER ST., BOSTON. WOLFMEADOWFARM.COM

PHOTOS BY DAN MCCARTHY

EATS

If you ask Luca Mignogna—the brain behind the stellar cheese Wolf Meadow Farm pumps out of Amesbury on the North Shore—about his first impressions of finally operating an outpost in Boston proper, he’s quick with a wide smile and an accented quip.

“There’s a lot of attention and curiosity for what we’re doing,” he says at the farm’s operating station within the new Boston Public Market. “It’s been a kind of challenge for us to reach Boston. We’re closer to New Hampshire, so [to] spend time talking to customers about what types of cheese we have, letting them try for themselves, it’s great.”

Mignogna, a legacy cheesemaker from Campobasso in the small Molise region of Italy, says that the homemade caciocavallo, scamorza, and ricotta cheeses he carries were a daily part of his life and meals, with his grandfather making dry farmer’s cheeses just to share with family and friends. And growing up around the creation of cheese has shaped his love of the stuff to this day, including what he calls an “unconditional love of mozzarella.”

“It’s a beautiful piece of cheese,” he says.

“It’s our best seller. We do it in the oldest methods and tradition, with the passion and love and sacrifice of hundreds of cheesemakers working to make those cheeses perfect.”

But for Mignogna, his perfect, daily made mozzarella also has to be fresh. Insanely fresh. He and his team buy raw milk from local farmers in the morning, which in about 45 minutes to an hour is taken right to their facility, pasteurized, and twelve hours later they have something that was still in the cow the night before. The dry cheeses will age up to a year and a half, depending on style, but it all comes down to the mozz here. “Mozzarella is a culture in Italy, not just a cheese you sell,” he says.

“For us from Campobasso and Molise, [mozzarella] is like New England with maple syrup. Everyone has his own little recipe. We’re not doing anything super crazy. We’re just trying to do it right.”

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

15

HONEST PINT

READY TO LAUNCH Medford is about to get a new craft beer

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

The ONCE Lounge is here!

Open 5-11pm every Thurs, Fri & Sat Night with a New Bar & Drink Menu 8/22 Rose Union & Friends 8/23 A Glowing Goodbye Festival 9/4 Parlour Bells + The Rationales Live Music in the ONCE Lounge: 8/20 5pm Dylan Jack Jazz Trio 8/21 9pm The Laszlos & Friends 8/28 9pm Big Big Buildings & Gina Alibrio

UPCOMING:

8/27 End of Summer BBQ Bash!

9/25 Brian Carpenter & the Confessions 10/25 Here We Go Magic

Part of the beauty of the relatively spore-like spreading of newly minted craft beer projects, brewpubs, and full-scale breweries opening the last few years is just that. There’s a lot more great beer out there.

And more often than not, what’s actually out there accounts for only a sliver of what’s being conceived as the next tide, in whatever form it takes, comes in.

Speaking of which: Let’s talk Medford, Mass.

And more importantly, Medford Brewing Company, the newest of the craft beer crop that has just started an early push for visibility on the scene. Founded by Nick Bolitho and Max Heinegg, the project has only recently gotten a web presence up and created the logo based around Medford’s rich historical maritime construction roots. An ocean-going vessel built around 1850, The President, is emblazoned on the logo (fun fact: “Medford-built” ships were considered to mean “the best” in the late 1900s). Now they’re putting the finishing touches on the first style of suds that will be hitting the market in late fall or early winter 2015. That is, provided Bolitho and Heinegg find a place to start making it in commercial quantities.

“We are very early on in the stages; right now we’re finalizing the flagship recipe, but also in the middle of trying to secure a contract brewery somewhere where we can actually brew the beer,” says Bolitho, who notes the labyrinthine nature of getting the appropriate legal paperwork sorted out being “all part of a big jigsaw puzzle you’re trying to put together, almost at the same time.”

Aside from navigating the legal maze of brewing beer in Mass, Bolitho says Heinegg—a seasoned homebrewer with over 20 or so homebrewing medals under his belt—is going the route most brewers do when bringing their vision for a new beer to life: He’s brewing it all in his basement. What that will be is still hush-hush, as both are keeping quiet on what their flagship style will be, but Bolitho says not to expect a heavy-hitting hop monster.

“There’s a lot of ‘extreme beers’ out there, and that’s not what I’m going for.

What I want to achieve is good beer that’s got a bit more of a universal appeal,” says Bolitho. “If going into a bar or restaurant and you’ve got some ‘hop heads’ with you and normal people with you, I want [to create] a beer that hop heads as well as normal people are into. It’s a small target … the extreme ‘let’s get hoppy’ appeals to. What we’re working towards are more flavorful beers with a more universal appeal, that others would actually like, not just the elite hop head.”

“But I don’t want to alienate the hop heads, as I’m one of them,” he adds. >> MEDFORD BREWING COMPANY. LAUNCHING FALL/WINTER 2015.

FACEBOOK.COM/MEDFORDBREWINGCOMPANY

BEER FEST ALERT There’s nothing worse than living in a city with a constant lack of killer Oktoberfest-style megaevents happening at the Park Plaza Castle, replete with loads of local and national brewers armed with dozens of Oktoberfest beers, authentic Oktoberfest foods and vendors, and music. Well, don’t fret. Oktoberfest Boston is coming September 18 and 19, and presale tickets go live Friday Aug 21. Prost!

Locavore Tacos Done Right, Every Monday Night 5-10pm in the Lounge

>> OKTOBERFESTBOSTON.COM 16

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

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

18

FRI 8.21

FRI 8.21

SAT 8.22

SAT 8.22

SAT 8.22

WED 8.26

Mykki Blanco at ICA

Vintage Motorcycles at La Brasa

Red Bull High Stakes Rowing

The Sheila Devine with Dirty Bangs

Uhh Yeah Dude Live Podcast Recording

“Untitled (Coming Soon)” in the Harbor

Normally when someone rolls up to you, leans into your shoulder, and says, “Hey man, wanna go see a punk hip-hop act that fuses rap, performance art, ambient noise, electronic music, and gender-bending stage visuals while occasionally spouting riot grrrl poetry?” you look upon them with caution, because something that interesting is sure not to exist. But good news: It does. And Mykki Blanco is performing at the ICA on Friday to show you how it’s done.

You’ve made it through another week. Congrats.

You deserve something.

We’re thinking a welcomed partnership with woodfired-grill masters La Brasa and a vintage motorcycle company that allows you to view a custom installation of various vintage and antique bikes while noshing on a special “moto menu” from the La Brasa chefs, and—while we’re at it—live rock and soul to offset all the handrestored bikes and glorious bites. La Brasa is doing just that.

Rowing and Cambridge. As synonymous as hipsters and Somerville. And if you consider heading to the banks of the Charles River to watch 16 teams compete in a head-to-head relay-style race around a perilous 180-degree stake turn while revelers chug Red Bull and scream their heads off alongside you as your definition of a fun little afternoon in August, head to the Riverside Boat Club this Saturday. Because that’s all happening.

This relentless heat is getting oppressive. You could use a little get-outof-town-to-the-ocean time this weekend. As such, you may want to consider booking it to Wellfleet on Saturday night. The Beachcomber is hosting the Sheila Devine with Dirty Bangs for the night, which means you can both watch locally bred bands and be close to the ocean while partying all night.

We’re not saying you should participate in some 2 am skinny-dipping while there, but we’re not not saying it either.

If you’ve ever wondered what a top-rated iTunes live comedy podcast recording from a duo that has been doing these out of a small apartment in Hollywood for eight years was like, head to Royale on Saturday night. Seth Romatelli and Jonathan Larroquette (son of Night Court actor John Larroquette) will distill the week that was in America as if they were still on their couch in LA. Fun.

Between the time you’re reading this and this coming Wednesday, you’ve got two options. 1: Grab a ferry from Long Wharf in the North End to the Boston Harbor Islands for the final stretch of the large-scale art installation by local subversive artist (and DigBoston weekly comic strip provider) Pat Falco that recreates a Boston city block, touching on gentrification and old Boston. Or 2: Don’t do that, and be sad you missed it.

Your call.

ICA. 100 Northern Ave., Boston. 6:30pm/all ages/$20. icaboston.com

La Brasa. 124 Broadway, Somerville.

10pm-1am/21+/$12. labrasasomerville.com

Riverside Boat Club. 769 Memorial Dr., Cambridge.

1-6pm/all ages/FREE. redbull.com/highstakes

The Beachcomber. 1120 Cahoon Hollow Rd., Wellfleet. 9pm/21+/$15. thebeachcomber.com

Royale. 279 Tremont St., Boston. 6pm/18+/$25. uhhyeahdude.com

George’s Island in Boston Harbor. South picnic area. Ends 8.26. bostonharborislands.org

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PHOTO COURTESY PAT FALCO

I’LL HAVE A LARGE AWESOME WITH MILK AND SUGAR

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

MUSIC

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES:

Exploding in Sound Records throws a weekend extravaganza

MUSIC

HOLY SONS

Avant-folk for the metal soul

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN Some 20 years ago, a 16-year-old Emil Amos wandered Jamaica Plain in fear of the city surrounding him. Violent crime scenes and glamour-free drug addicts crowded street corners. It’s not too dissimilar from Portland, Oregon, his home of 13 years until his recent move to Brooklyn, New York—optimistic stories detailing the city’s food and music light up visitor’s eyes, but if you look at the past, you see a secretly dark underbelly.

Naturally, Amos turned to music. Over the next few decades, the singer-songwriter began releasing genrebending albums on the regular, pushing himself to learn as many instruments as he could. “You have to be consumed with and totally curious about music,” he tells us. “At some point you will get weeded out if you’re not.” In no time, he found himself a member of post-rock band Grails, doom metal act Om, downtempo electronica duo Lilacs & Champagne, and his own genre-spinning band, Holy Sons, immersed in sounds that mirrored the shadowed world he grew up in.

Between these bands, Amos is constantly releasing albums, but Holy Sons—the more personal of his projects— allows for more leeway. “The process of listening to your album and deciding what is important enough to give to other people goes on for a few years, usually,” he says. “As a songwriter, you’re trying to update your outlook like a diary, updating a chapter of your life so you properly express your entire value system of how you see the world. It’s a dense job cataloging your thoughts into 10 songs.” Some material off Fall of Man, his newest album, is six years old.

As months pass, he picks up songs and remixes them. For others, he slips headphones on and walks through Prospect Park, feeling out what’s important enough about each song to justify listeners paying for it. When you’ve written so much, refining what the album actually means takes time.

Fall of Man sees Holy Sons at their poppiest. “It would seem outrageous to write as much work as I have without writing an inviting entrance to suggest they get into this stack of records sometime,” Amos laughs. “When you’re dealing with the raw inquiry of where art comes, you’re always running through larger cycles of themes that you never actually know why you’re running through them—and they like a certain kind of melody that has an underlying philosophical aspect representing your life in that chapter. You’re living with this virus, pop melodies, until it goes away.”

The darker days of Jamaica Plain still appear in Amos’ mind from time to time, but Holy Sons’ 12th album to date sees him moving on toward brighter times, replaying these very songs and the sunny refrains they boast. >> EARTH, HOLY SONS, AND 27. MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS, 480 MASS AVE., CAMBRIDGE. 8PM/18+/$15. MIDEASTOFFERS.COM

MUSIC EVENTS WED 8.19

THU 8.20

FRI 8.21

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

8pm/18+/$13. mideastoffers.com]

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

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

7pm/all ages/$20. crossroadspresents.com]

HIP HOP HEADS DOPPELGANGAZ + MR. MFN EXQUIRE

20

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SWEET INDIE ROCK ST. NOTHING + SKINNY BONES + SPORTS COACH

DIGBOSTON.COM

BUMMER BEATS RAP EARL SWEATSHIRT + REMY BANKS

SAT 8.22

EXPLODING IN SOUND BONANZA KRILL + BIG UPS + UNHOLY STRENGTH + STOVE + PALEHOUND

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 7pm/ all ages/$12. sinclaircambridge.com]

Exploding In Sound is an ever-growing family—and now it’s time for a reunion.

The New York-based record label was started in October of 2011 by Dan Goldin and Dave Spak when the two were head over heels for Boston’s local scene. Our city had guitar rock bursting its seams, and they were eager to spread the talent.

To say thanks for the support they’ve gotten over the years, a slew of the bands they’ve worked with will play the Sinclair, O’Brien’s Pub, and Great Scott on Aug 22 and 23 for their “Thank You For Being a Friend” weekend extravaganza.

Above all else, EIS fosters a friendly, approachable, and honest community. “I try to be pretty transparent as a label,” says Goldin. “There’s nothing secret or intimidating about the label. It’s all right in front of you. A lot of what we do comes from the fact that we’re huge fans of the music, the same as anyone that’s a fan of the label—we’re right there with ’em.”

Originally, Goldin and Spak planned to have all of their acts come back to play the weekend extravaganza, but that proved nearly impossible.

“It would be hard to get Disco Doom to come from Switzerland,” laughs Goldin. “That was in talks, actually, but I understood it wasn’t the smartest investment if they weren’t touring.” The lineup they landed comes pretty damn close, roping Pile, Krill, Kal Marks, Palehound, Gnarwhal, and more into the mix.

Golden Girls references aside, the event is an honest thank-you to those who have supported them over the years. “Who knew if this label was going to work?” says Goldin. “No one could have cared if we fell apart in a year. The audience keeps it going. And the bands, too. Thanks to them for wanting to be on it because, really, they could all do better.”

>> EXPLODING IN SOUND “THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND” WEEKEND EXTRAVAGANZA. THE SINCLAIR, O’BRIEN’S PUB, GREAT SCOTT. EXPLODINGINSOUNDRECORDS.COM

MON 8.24

EMO OF THE AUGHTS THE SPILL CANVAS + THE PRESS WAR + BONFIRES + PULITZER + PRIZE FIGHTER + BEAUTIFUL TUESDAY [Middle East Downstairs, 480 Mass Ave., Cambridge.

7pm/all ages/$15. mideastoffers.com]

MON 8.24

GREEN WITH GIRL POWER ENVY COLLEEN GREEN + MANNEQUIN PUSSY + IAN + DIGITAL PRISONERS OF WAR + URSULA [Middle East Upstairs, 480 Mass Ave., Cambridge.

8pm/all ages/$12. mideastoffers.com]

FLYER ART BY PRESTON SPURLOCK

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

FILM

STRAIGHT OUTTA CORPORATE

On the contradicting philosophies that course through Straight Outta Compton

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

THU 8/20

RANN

CHAMELEON CULTURE EYE ON ATTRACTION, JOHNNY FURY FRI 8/21

THE TIMBERFAKES

JAY N BEY (JAY Z & BEYONCÉ TRIBUTE)

100 CLICHÉS AND RUNNIN’

SAT 8/22 - LEEDZ PRESENTS:

JOELL ORTIZ & !ILLMIND

FEAT. CHRIS RIVERS (SON OF BIG PUN) SUN 8/23

THE SPILL CANVAS SOLD OUT MON 8/24

THE SPILL CANVAS WED 8/19 - LEEDZ PRESENTS:

DOPPELGANGAZ MR. MFN EXQUIRE THU 8/20

JOHN NOLAN JEFF TICONDEROGA (OF YO TICONDEROGA) (OF TAKING BACK SUNDAY)

FRI 8/21

TRAP THEM FULL OF HELL I AM BECOME DEATH ASCEND/DESCEND

SAT 8/22

RADLIB

BRIGHT PRIMATE, SAM MULLIGAN

SUN 8/23 - BOWERY PRESENTS:

EARTH

HOLY SONS, 27 MON 8/24 - ILLEGALLY PRESENTS:

COLLEEN GREEN

MANNEQUIN PUSSY, IAN TUE 8/25

WORTHWHILE HOTEL BOOKS

The most subversive thing about Straight Outta Compton—the N.W.A biopic released last week—is that it treats police officers to the same indignities that most Hollywood movies afford to black characters: They’re just archetypes and exist within the narrative only so that we can better understand the actions and reactions of our main characters. The cops here are tokens, plot devices, and villains—and are all born of sadism and racism. Some officers go around nowadays saying, “I Am Darren Wilson.” This movie takes them at their word.

They harass and arrest the five rappers at this film’s center numerous times in the opening scenes. The only crime being committed, of course, is the rappers’ color. One of the conceptual jokes buried under the surface of Straight Outta is that, aside from Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), none of the group’s members even lived the criminal lifestyle they rapped about until after they rapped about it. We find Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), MC Ren (Aldis Hodge), and DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr) doing odd jobs in the West Coast DJing scene, and we meet Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr) in high school. There’s a scene where an “OG” Crenshaw gangster warns an entire bus—he hijacks it after one student throws up Crip signs—to stay off the streets and “gangbang those books” instead. Even that joke turns so that it comes at the LAPD’s expense: Safer to be pulled over by a killer than by a cop.

A needle drop starts off that school-bus-set Scared Straight: “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” First it registers as a jokey commentary on Cube’s oversized ambitions. But then its synthy white sound continues, until it becomes a reminder of just how foreign a sound as black as the N.W.A’s must have been during this era of Tipper Gore-approved pop tracks. That’s the whole reason they need manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti), a noted sleaze who’d eventually break them up, even if the movie never explains it this bluntly: He can get them through the studio’s doors—the ones still emblazoned with “Whites Only.”

When those doors creak open, the group kicks them right in. The film—it’s directed by F Gary Gray (Friday) and edited by Billy Fox, who both make a couple of

STRAIGHT OUTTA CORPORATE continued on pg. 24

FILM EVENTS FRI 8.21

MON 8.24

IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS

CHRISTMAS IN JULY and THE GREAT McGINTY

JOHN CARPENTER’S

[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 5, 7, and 9pm/R/$9-11. 35mm. brattlefilm.org] SAT 8.22

SAM FULLER’S WWII EPIC THE BIG RED ONE

[Harvard Film Archive.

24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/R/$7-9.

35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]

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TWO BY PRESTON STURGES

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

Also screen 8.25. 3:30 and 5pm, respectively/NR/$9-11.

35mm. brattlefilm.org]

ROBERT ALTMAN DIRECTS ROBERT DOWNEY JR IN

THE GINGERBREAD MAN [Harvard Film Archive.

24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/R/$7-9.

35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa] WED 8.26

HEART-STOPPING SPIELBERGIAN FUN

SAM PECKINPAH’S RARELY SCREENED

[Coolidge Corner.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

7pm/PG/$11.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]

[Somerville Theatre.

55 Davis Sq., Somerville.

8pm/R/$10. 35mm. somervilletheatreonline. com/somerville-theatre]

INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM

CROSS OF IRON

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STRAIGHT OUTTA CORPORATE continued from pg. 22 fascinating decisions within otherwise perfunctory work—trades on the group’s mythology, treating images like “Eazy-E puts on his shades” with the same reverence a Batman movie affords to the cape and cowl. The whole thing becomes something like a four-letter-wordladen folk ballad: the five black boys who—for themselves, if not for anyone else—slayed the white supremacist dragon guarding the gates of pop culture.

Production on this movie began just days before Michael Brown was shot and killed in Ferguson, an event that galvanized the national conversation about race in a way that’s not incomparable to what the Rodney King tape caused in N.W.A’s era. And Gray’s film is infused with a rage—one that was surely fueled by the news reports emerging out of Missouri nightly—against any and all conceptions of white-approved civility. One scene sees a cop taking issue with the name granted to the group’s subgenre of music: “I’m the only ‘gangsta’ out here,” he maintains. But then you see the sequence where the five rappers pause a group orgy to chase away an involved groupie’s jilted boyfriend with assault rifles at their hips, and—for better or worse—you want to respond to that cop yourself: No, sir, you are not. This worldview isn’t “hands up, don’t shoot.” It’s more like “guns out—fuck you.”

And that cinematic fury is purely—even ecstatically—amoral. Sing along! As Eazy-E drops classic verses like “So what about the bitch who got shot / fuck her!” Laugh! As the group’s innumerable romps with anonymous women lead to many a homophobic in-joke among bros. And applaud! As Suge Knight and his army of bouncers threaten violence against anyone who obscures the interests of Death Row Records. Every instance of unethical behavior, to this point, is trumped by the fact that white oppression was trounced on the way there. These are gangsta rappers—Dre, Cube, and Eazy-E’s widow are among the credited producers— offering a political justification for the unrestrained parameters of gangsta rap: When society denies your decency, why not reap the benefits of filthiness?

If we left the movie there, this’d be a fresh twist on an old standard: a rap-era jukebox musical. But this isn’t that—it’s a biopic. And that’s a genre that comes with cliches attached, no assembly required. Like the goofy way each artist spits their verses fully formed during the very first take. Or the way that luminaries like Snoop Dogg and Tupac show up for negligible scenes, if only so the audience can shout, “Hey, Snoop!” Or— especially—the way that Eazy-E’s terminal illness (AIDS) is handled. His sickness is displayed in the same sanitized way that it was for Greta Garbo in old Hollywood movies: He just starts placing a cough in between every three lines of dialogue. These touches aren’t realistic or political—they’re just for the sake of safeguarding the iconography. They’re reputation maintenance.

Speaking of vanity, that ties into the biggest biopic cliche that Gray and his crew indulge in: the “artistic decline and moral decline occurring simultaneously” sequence. Suge Knight, rather hilariously, becomes an externalized devil-on-the-shoulder: As the diss tracks get meaner and the parties achieve peak hedonism, his suit grows increasingly red. By the end of the movie, he seems to be wearing a puddle of blood.

And so when Dre abandons him in favor of a pseudo-N.W.A-reunion, it’s not just office politics—it’s a spiritual redemption. Is it a crowd-pleasing moment? Most definitely. But as you sit there, watching a film produced by Dre wherein all his worst transgressions have been omitted—a movie where the end credits are literally overshadowed by clips of Eminem talking about how great Dre is and on-screen text noting just how rich he got by selling his Beats brand to Apple—you can’t help but feel funny about the whole damn thing. Maybe we shouldn’t be so pleased.

That’s a particularly American fable: the boys who got kept out of the corporate game until they succeeded enough to sit behind the locked doors themselves. Resting alongside the ad for Dre’s overpriced headphones are clips of Cube’s performances in many mediocre—but very high-grossing!—Hollywood comedies. That’s where these bastions of realness ended up. And then we all clap and go home happy? It’s a contradiction that the movie can’t resolve—the kind caused by the intersection of ego, reputation, and history. That’s why the movie wants to revel in amoral fun while also redeeming everyone from its sins. That’s why the whole group gets celebrated both as street kids and as executive geniuses. That’s why major record labels are painted as both false idols and titans to aspire to. That’s why it’s all a mixed message, one old and radical, one new and corporate-friendly—fuck tha police, yes, but buy some Beats, too.

That’s a particularly American fable: the boys who got kept out of the corporate game until they succeeded enough to sit behind the locked doors themselves.

>> STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON. NOW PLAYING. RATED R. 24

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FILM SHORTS BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN ANT-MAN So far as we can tell, all Marvel superheroes have the same damn ability: They fly into the air and punch people really hard. So bully for AntMan (title role played by Paul Rudd), if only for its scale—the strongest moments of this action-heist-comedy involve toys, insects, and a keychain.

The sequel setups (endless nods to a second insect superhero we never see) and extraneous world-building (Anthony Mackie’s Falcon, from Captain America: The Winter Soldier, arrives for a throwdown) feel as factory-produced as ever. But at least there’s something new on this joint’s dollar menu.

THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL Sexually frank films about teenage female subjects tend to draw a specific response: “Nobody would bat an eye if this were about a boy.”

That’s certainly not true of Diary, wherein Minnie starts sleeping with her mother’s boyfriend (Kristen Wiig and Alexander Skarsgård, respectively) before branching out into one-night stands and pseudo-sex work—there’s no male equivalent for this. Wiig’s character alternates between feminist politics and fat-shaming (we’re in San Francisco circa ’76) while Minnie tries to find her own place on those sexual and political spectrums. The incidental framing may scream “Sundance darling,” but the moves this movie makes between the sheets? They’re not in any playbook.

THE END OF THE TOUR David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) interviews David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) right after Infinite Jest is published—meaning Lipsky has to unravel the impenetrable mystique while Wallace works to protect it.

One beautiful moment ensues: They go to see Broken Arrow, and a single composition gives us the story of the entire movie. Wallace looks forward, his strange psyche entirely engaged, while the befuddled journalist can’t help but stare—awed and somewhat annoyed—at his peer. Otherwise, the camera pans, moves, and searches for a way of telling this talky story in a visual manner, never finding one. It’s as lost as Lipsky is.

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.

IRRATIONAL MAN A sexually frustrated passiveaggressive pseudo-intellectual college professor (Joaquin Phoenix) mopes around while trying to sleep with the sprightliest of his students (Emma Stone) in what appears to be a curiously antiseptic romcom. Then, with almost no dramatic justification, the professor attempts to commit the perfect murder. And that transgression produces a creative spark that sex never provided, though the film— unlike the character—has no idea what to do with it. (Slapstick intrudes, but only intermittently.) We end with a reminder that we live in a Godless universe with no order. Irrational Man is a film by Woody Allen.

LISTEN TO ME MARLON Brando’s diary-style recordings get edited against public footage of the actor in Listen—a movie born of the generation accustomed to Wikipedia deep-dives. The editing structure freeassociates the way we do when clicking through links: There’s a passage on The Method, which leads to acclaimed performances, and then to backlash, then to The Godfather, and on to the end. Don’t come for revelations, because the most off-color claims— that he thought via his penis, or that he phoned in much of his late-period work—aren’t revelations at all. But if you often lose two hours to online trivia pages, there are worse ways to lose them than this documentary.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE—ROGUE NATION Nothing in Rogue Nation works except for Tom Cruise—but oh, how he works. There’s an opera house shootout where he’s rappelling through everything (across moving light fixtures, into back rooms and onto the sets of the stage), and what sells it is his sheer exasperation: He’s one of the only action stars whose facial expressions are calculated to reveal that he can sweat, too. Cruise isn’t the sort of actor we believe can actually save the world. But in scenes like that, he provides a more moderate salvation: His charisma can still save otherwise forgettable action movies.

RICKI AND THE FLASH Meryl Streep’s eponymous would-be arena rocker—she never made it, and now covers Tom Petty for regulars at a San Fernando dive—gets called home to provide emotional support for the millennial daughter she left behind decades earlier. So the script is mining laughs from the faux pas traded between 20-somethings who care about going green and a child of the ’60s who’d rather be smoking it. It’s director Jonathan Demme, so adept with building character, who makes this into more than a grounded Freaky Friday: He hangs on to each scene for moments longer than necessary, and finds explanations for even the most unreasonable plot machinations. He cares, and it plays.

New England’s Largest MMJ & Cannabis Industry Expo Series Returns to Boston Sept. 12th & 13 at The Castle @ Park Plaza digboston.com

/weeklydig

SATURDAY SEPT.NOON-6PM 12TH

@digboston

SUNDAY SEPT: 11AM-5PM 13TH At the Castle @ Park Plaza, Downtown Boston

@digstagram

Tickets now on sale at: www.necann.com $25 per day, or save $10 with a $40 2-day pass!

Programming highlights include:

Hardship Cultivation Options | Growsite Construction | Analysis & Testing Legislation & Legalization | MMJ Patient Services Cooking with Cannabis | Extract & Concentrates | Glassblowing | Investing/Valuation | Packaging/Storage | Security

Presented by:

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THEATER

ABSO-BLOOMIN-LUTELY My Fair Lady and Eliza Doolittle get a fresh face for fall courtesy of the Lyric Stage

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

Thursday AUGUST 20tth 9:00 PM

MANNERS

Tuesday August 25th 8PM THIS YEAR’S MODEL: AN ALL FEMME TRIBUTE TO

Genres: Hip Hop & Turntablism Cover: none | 21+

ELVIS COSTELLO

Friday AUGUST 21st 9:30 PM

Sat 9/5 7:30PM

PICO PICANTE

VS

UNITY

DJs: Riobamba, Oxycontinental, Ultratumba Francesco Spagna, Cruzz, Omulu, Big Bear Genres: Upstairs: Classic, Soulful, Afro and Latin House / Downstairs: Global Bass, Tropical, Digital Cumbia $5 before 11 $10 after | 21+

ON HIS BIRTHDAY

ERIN HARPE

& THE DELTA SWINGERS + LIZ FRAME + LOVEWHIP (Blues)

Wed 9/16 7:30PM

YOUNG DUBLINERS (Celtic Rock)

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

Saturday AUGUST 22nd 10:00 PM

SWEET

SHOP

DJs: Alfredo, David Paglia, Brent Tactic upstairs Genres: Techno, House + Hip Hop, Party Jams & Reggae Upstairs | $10 | 21+

Wed 8/19 8PM

ALEX MEIXNER BAND + BRITT CONNORS & THE BOURBON RENEWAL (Jazz/Folk/Fusion) Thu 8/20 7PM

THE PRETENTIOUS FOOLS + MEI OHARA (Rock)

Fri 8/21 7PM

JAREKUS SINGLETON (Rock/Soul/Blues)

Tuesday AUGUST 18th 6:00 PM

GAME

NIGHT No Cover | Downstairs 18+ until 10 PM

Fri 8/21 10PM

THE UPPER CRUST w/ Special Guests THE CYCLONES (Rocque & Roll) Sat 8/22 8PM For the Sake of the Song:

A TRIBUTE TO SUN STUDIO (Tribute) Tues 8/25 8PM

THIS YEARS MODEL - ALL FEMME BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE TO ELVIS COSTELLO (Tribute)

Fri 8/28 10PM

PRESSURE COOKER (Reggae) Sat 8/29 7PM

MISS FAIRCHILD + JOHNNY BLAZES & THE PRETTY BOYS + GOLD BLOOD & ASSOCIATES + THE LIZA COLBY SOUND 17 Holland St., Davis Sq. Somerville (617) 776-2004 Directly on T Red Line at Davis 26

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STAR JENNIFER ELLIS AND DIRECTOR SCOTT EDMISTON Despite being one of the most enduring, beloved musicals of all time, My Fair Lady isn’t performed terribly often: The last Broadway revival was over 20 years ago, and there hasn’t been a professional production in Boston for at least a decade. On the eve of the musical’s 60th anniversary—and just a few years after the 100th anniversary of Pygmalion—the Lyric Stage Company of Boston reinvents Lerner and Loewe’s timeless classic, which will kick off their brand new season on Sep 4.

With one of the best scores ever penned for the stage, My Fair Lady tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a cockney flower seller who meets Henry Higgins, a chauvinistic linguist who bets that he can transform Eliza into a “proper lady” by teaching her upper-class English. The original production, called “one of the best musicals of the century” by New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson, broke records on Broadway and made a star out of Julie Andrews.

Edmiston isn’t only reimagining the show for the Lyric’s intimate space but has also chosen to update the setting of the play from 1912 to the 1930s. It’s a bold, inspired decision that Edmiston hopes “will give new resonance to the economic and class issues which are so prominent in the musical.” The 1938 film version of Pygmalion, with a screenplay by George Bernard Shaw, is what sparked this idea for Edmiston: Shaw treated the film as contemporary, rather than set in the usual 1910s.

By the 1930s, England was a vastly different place than it was during the Edwardian era, and moving the story ahead a few decades undoubtedly raises the stakes for many of the play’s characters. In 1912, the English hadn’t yet experienced the horrors of war—the innocence of Edwardian England was all but destroyed by the 1930s; there was also rampant unemployment by that point, which inserts the possibility of a more somber history for many of the characters. “The depression was a time of contrasts: top hats and empty pockets, P.G. Wodehouse and breadlines,” explained Edmiston.

The role of Eliza is dizzyingly demanding, and it’s a role that carries a certain amount of audience expectation: Most are used to either the singing of Julie Andrews or the charming performance of Audrey Hepburn, who starred in the 1964 film.

When asked about recreating such an iconic role, Edmiston said, “In the film, Hepburn is exquisite, but her delicate beauty shifts the feeling of the piece to more of a Cinderella story: We are just waiting for her to put on a gown and reveal her true elegance … She is essentially a street beggar who wants to be able to improve herself so she can get a job … She doesn’t dream of being a princess, she wants to have a room with heat … She wants an education. In the end, she becomes the equal of Higgins, and that makes their relationship difficult and interesting. Shaw was a huge proponent of women’s rights, and we mustn’t lose sight of that.”

Recently, the Lyric has demonstrated remarkable skill at reimagining big musicals for its cozy space; its Into the Woods was one of the finest productions in Boston last year. The confines of the physical space, when used well (which the Lyric almost always does), can gloriously enhance an audience’s intimate connection with a piece, and that’s what Edmiston is counting on here.

“I was intrigued by the idea of shifting the focus from spectacle to character … What we love most about My Fair Lady is not the grandeur but the complex, rather mysterious relationship between Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins. Are Eliza and Higgins in love? People have been debating that since 1914.” >> MY FAIR LADY. RUNS 9.4-10.10 AT THE LYRIC STAGE COMPANY, 140 CLARENDON ST., BOSTON. FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.LYRICSTAGE.COM

JENNIFER ELLIS PHOTO BY NILE HAWVER

TABLE

OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE DEFINITELY SLOWER THAN THEY APPEAR.

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ARTS

FIBER ONE

Feminist art exhibit launches in Somerville Hosted by Iris Nectar Studio, the traveling Feminist Fiber Art exhibit opened in Somerville on Friday, Aug 15, and featured female artists with a focus on art pieces created with various forms of fibrous material.

The opening took the form of an art crawl throughout Somerville.

It began with artwork on display at Washington Street Art Center from 5 to 6 pm.

Throughout the hour, the art center was at maximum capacity, with visitors only allowed to enter upon people leaving in order to not crowd the venue.

“It’s not just an exhibit: It’s a budding community project.” So greets the poster at the front entrance of the gallery. The very nature of this gallery is an attempt to promote art within the community, encouraging local artists to share their work and make what they want to make.

And it was that impressive craftsmanship that was on full display at the gallery during opening night. The work gives viewers the unique experience of seeing embroidered, woven, knitted, and crocheted works made in unconventional ways, with many of the pieces touching on sexuality and feminist themes. Featured artists included the likes of Michelle Gauthier, Sally Hewett, Jess de Wahls, and Michelle Kingdom.

The second stop of the art crawl took patrons to Aeronaut brewery. There, more art was on display, along with a table of fresh produce for sale courtesy of Ground Somerville.

With good beer on hand and unique art on display, Aeronaut garnered an even larger turnout than the maximum capacity at the Washington St Art Center.

A particularly interesting piece on display at Aeronaut was New York artist Kjersti Faret’s hand-embroidered set Adapt or Survive. Consisting of three pieces, Adapt and Survive featured a naked woman with her hands wrapped by two snakes and her neck dressed with a deer, a wolf drinking a bottle of wine that then poured out from its missing stomach, and a couple staring at a giant troll-like creature in a river with a trail of blood coming either toward or from the figure.

Rounding out the last of the crawl was the live music component located at Arts at the Armory. In keeping with the night’s theme of feminism, each band was fronted by strong women attired in their own handmade costumes.The show featured a lineup of local Boston bands like Feral Jenny, Ellen Siberian Tiger, and Dent.

On the balcony at the final venue of the crawl was a life-sized replica of a woman lying down on a plank. Another life-sized model was sitting on a block looking downward, with a series of wires and strings leading down to an open and empty carton of soy milk behind the figure. The piece garnered a great deal of attention, inviting gallery visitors to sit down and discover their own meaning for the piece.

While a good chunk of the artists were from Massachusetts, most were from places all around the world, creating a sense of universal solidarity between the art and the feminist themes peppering the projects. It’s this very sort of DIY art collectives that are popping up with increasing frequency in the Hub that inspire younger audiences in need of motivation and artistic inspiration to go out and display what drives them. And if the opening crowds were any indication, the city is ready for a lot more of this.

Your move, artists. >> FEMINIST FIBER ART. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT FEMINISTFIBERART.COM 28

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PHOTOS BY RENAN FONTES

BY RENAN FONTES

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NOTHING MATTRESS

BY BRIAN CONNOLLY @NOTHINGMATTRESS

THE STRANGERER

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM

OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS

BY TIM CHAMBERLAIN OURVC.NET

SAVAGE LOVE

BOYFRIEND EXPERIENCE

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE My boyfriend of six months tied me up for the first time a month ago. He didn’t know what he was doing, and I didn’t get turned on because it hurt. I got him two sessions with a professional bondage top as a gift. I was the “model,” and I was very turned on as the instructor walked my boyfriend through safe bondage techniques and positions. The guy was attractive, but not as attractive as my boyfriend. At one point I shuddered, and my boyfriend is convinced I had an orgasm. He says I cheated right in front of him, and now he wants to dump me. What do I do?

Helplessly Explaining My Predicament Call that attractive instructor, HEMP, and tell him you’re single now so you’ll be coming to that second session alone.

I’m a bed wetter and am super embarrassed about it. My boyfriend knows, and I know he doesn’t mean to hurt me, but he makes jokes about it. He even once saw me wet myself and made a joke. I know I should say something, but I’m afraid to.

Wants Emotional Tenderness There are only two reasons your boyfriend would be making jokes about your bed-wetting problem: He is trying to be nice (he mistakenly believes these jokes put you at ease; he’s trying 30

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to make you feel less self-conscious, not more; he wants to make the bed-wetting seem like no big deal, i.e., something you two can laugh off together) or he is a giant asshole (he knows you’re sensitive about it and makes these jokes anyway because HE’S AN ASSHOLE; he makes jokes expressly to demean you because HE’S AN ASSHOLE; he is intentionally shredding your self-esteem so that (1) you’ll think that no one else would ever want you and (2) you’ll settle for this guy even though HE’S AN ASSHOLE).

There’s just one way to figure out whether he’s a nice doofus who’s accidentally hurting you or a giant asshole who actually does mean to hurt you: USE YOUR WORDS. Tell him the jokes hurt your feelings—no smile, no ambiguity, no gloss—and then see what happens. If he knocks it off, WET, he was a nice doofus and the relationship may be salvageable. If he keeps it up, if the jokes don’t stop, he’s a giant asshole and he actually does mean to hurt you and the relationship isn’t worth salvaging. (Please bear this in mind: An asshole might claim to be a nice doofus— he’ll tell you he was just trying to make you feel better about the bed-wetting thing with humor—but if the jokes don’t stop… he’s not a nice doofus. He’s a giant asshole.)

The reason you’re afraid to say something is that you don’t want to lose him. But you need to flip that on its head: If your boyfriend is a giant asshole—even if he’s just a medium asshole—you should be in a big fucking hurry to lose him. Say something.

ON THE LOVECAST, SPECIAL GUEST PETER SAGAL FROM WAIT WAIT… DON’T TELL ME!: SAVAGELOVECAST.COM.

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