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SPECIAL REPORT

SOMERVILLE’S TURF WAR THE SAGA OF GENTRIFICATION IS PLAY ING OUT IN THE CI TY'S YOUTH SPORTS LEAGUES

HONEST PINT

TREE BEER

BOSTON HARDCORE LEGEND GETS KEGGED

ARTS

ANNE HAWLEY LONG-TIME DIRECTOR BIDS GARDNER MUSEUM ADIEU

MUSIC

OUGHT

GROWING PAINS AND TONAL LANES

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VOL 17 + ISSUE 38

SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 - SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 EDITORIAL 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

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

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

BUSINESS PUBLISHER Jeff Lawrence ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Marc Shepard

DEAR READER This week marks the start of a few different things.

First, it’s not your hands. The paper is indeed a touch lighter than normal, down to a couple dozen pages in a temporary redesign of the sheet you’ve come to know and love week in and week out for some of the best biting local investigative features on topical local issues around. Like the barn burner on gentrification and youth sports in Somerville by Douglas Yu, a former local turned Chicago resident and contributor to the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ), with which DigBoston partnered up with to produce the story. You’ll find it on Page 4.

And second, the 26th Annual MASSCANN/NORML Freedom Rally commences on the Common this weekend. We’ll see you there.

Lastly, it’s fall. You may want to ignore it and clutch on to summer like a rat yoinking a slice of pizza down a set of subway stairs. Or embrace it. But there’s no escaping it any longer. With increasing frequency you’ll start seeing foodstuffs bloated with pumpkin this and that, Autumn-man sightings seemingly a week or so too early (you know who you are), and, for many, a day of the week lost to the gridiron gang.

All the more reason to keep a print version of the Hub’s best outlet for the best in local politics, investigative features, beer, music, and film writing always at the ready, still flying the flag of corporate independence through the stomp and whipsong of an evolving media landscape.

Never know when you’ll need it.

DAN MCCARTHY - EDITOR, DIGBOSTON

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

DIGTIONARY

FAWKFACE

noun 1. A terrible, shit eating asshole who wears a Guy Fawkes mask after watching V for Vendetta too many times, and then tries to blow up an Orange Line MBTA train before getting busted. Ex: the asshole who threatened to do that last week.

ON THE COVER There’s some pretty insidious dealings going on in Somerville.

Read all about it on page 4. Complete with photos by the one and only Derek Kouyoumjian.

©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.

OH, CRUEL WORLD Dear Residents Only Spot, You think you’re pretty hot shit, don’t you? Exclusive city, hey! Pretty funny how you’re right there on a public street, beside the public sidewalk, and yet you’re more or less a private spot. It’s also funny how until recently you only really existed in the wealthy neighborhoods around Boston, but are now popping up in working class areas like Dorchester and Roxbury. Or should I say “formerly” working class areas, since half of the new resident spaces near my apartment in Dorchester have cars worth more than $50,000 parked in them.

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NEWS US

SOMERVILLE’S TRUM FIELD

TURF WAR NEWS TO US

The saga of gentrification in Somerville is playing out in the city’s youth sports leagues Longtime volunteer Bob Schofield, well known to his neighbors for greeting Somervillians who show up in the stands for neighborhood baseball action, is frustrated.

As the Somerville Youth Softball president who also helped launch the Babe Ruth baseball program for boys, he’s fed up with community athletics, petty politics, and most of all, with the city where he grew up circling the bases himself. Schofield’s not alone, with the commotion over changes in Somerville sports reaching a fever pitch as of late.

This past summer, Schofield says his goal was to develop the next crop of rising seniors. Instead, after being denied an opportunity to expand Babe Ruth in Somerville, the coach and mentor has grown increasingly suspicious of efforts to coddle the Show Baseball & Softball Academy, a program affiliated with the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). Unlike his Babe Ruth and softball leagues, the AAU is a powerhouse with regional outposts that partner with the United States Olympic Committee.

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According to Somerville Recreation Department Program Director George Scarpelli, in working with the AAU-related enterprise, the city is trying “to give the kids an opportunity to play at the highest level possible.” The Show, he adds, “is more of a tryout-based program, where kids have to make the teams by level of ability.”

Schofield scoffs. “I’m already providing what the Show is doing,” he says, defending the quality of Babe Ruth coaches. Along with others in his network, Schofield is concerned that the major league lure of the Show will result in misguided priorities, both for players and the city. Parents who play sidelines in the springtime aren’t alone in their gripes, as the conflict over baseball has become the latest in a string of similar scrums.

Whether or not Schofield is squeezing sour grapes, the youth sports struggle in Somerville seems to mirror larger issues around housing and affordability, and around who has access to what in the booming city. In a place where natives and lower-income earners are being displaced at

an alarming clip—according to Zillow, the average home cost has jumped from $339,000 in 2009 to $517,000 today, with average rents surpassing the overall Boston Metro median cost of $2,500 a month—political debates around activities like football speak volumes. The formerly decrepit city now has spectacular sporting infrastructure, complete with Trum Field in its magnificent night-lit glory, but some are questioning why more and more tax money is going to activities for a special few. While a long-term master plan calls for creating more than 100 additional open acres in the next 15 years, at the moment Somerville remains strapped for space, with less than 7 percent of its approximately four square miles fit for frolicking. According to the state Office of Geographic Information, that’s less than any other Mass municipality.

Rather than address their logistical conundrums through teamwork and consolidation, as parents TURF WAR continued on pg. 6

PHOTO BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN

BY DOUGLAS YU @DOUGLASREPORTS

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TURF WAR continued from pg. 4

BIG SHOW

Before Joe Curtatone ascended to the top of Somerville’s political pyramid, the Prospect Hill native displayed formidable chops on the football field himself in high school in the early ’80s. In the time since, he’s entertained pastimes about which he is passionate in his professional career, from traveling to Washington, DC, in 2011 to toast the Bruins Stanley Cup victory with President Barack Obama, to enthusiastically supporting First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative. On one occasion, the mayor expensed $390 for New England Patriots tickets to his campaign account.

It seems Curtatone, who at one point simultaneously served as mayor and as an assistant football coach at Somerville High School, would like his hometown to become a world-class sports city on his watch and as his own sons bat through the system.

Ask Schofield about the current talent pipeline in his programs, however, and he respectfully says, “None of

“The Show, however, reportedly charges thousands of dollars per member (a spokesperson would not provide an exact number). As such, with an elite league consuming increasingly scarce resources, many residents have shown concern that such disparities reflect an enduring gentrification.”

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those kids are going to get an athletic scholarship to play softball and baseball at any university, because you only get scholarships for Division I. We’re not good enough.

We’re not quite there yet.”

Enter the Show, which promises to “give players the best opportunity to play college level baseball or beyond.”

While Somerville’s Babe Ruth coaches, hired directly through the city’s rec department, include players from nearby Lesley University in Cambridge, their shiny new rival boasts the likes of former Red Sox catcher Steve Lomasney, as well as other former pros.

Some baseball parents who were interviewed for this story have come to accept the Show. Nonetheless, the ensuing rift between Babe Ruth and city honchos has intensified since Schofield threw an inaugural fastpitch softball tournament this past summer. The three-day competition received high marks from many players, while organizers say that almost all visiting teams have committed to next year’s event. The exception is the softball leg of the Show Baseball & Softball Academy. As revealed in a public records request filed by Schofield, a top administrator from the Show emailed the city to deride his rival, claiming—among other things—that both the Somerville umpires and players essentially stunk.

It’s a tale of two leagues. Babe Ruth Baseball charges less than $200 per year, and is in fellowship with the Somerville Recreation Department, which means that the municipality furnishes all facilities with taxpayer money. The Show, however, reportedly charges thousands of dollars per member (a spokesperson would not provide an exact number). As such, with an elite league consuming increasingly scarce resources, many residents have shown concern that such disparities reflect an enduring gentrification.

In an email response to questions about these matters, Scarpelli wrote, “The Show will actually be coming in to give all interested kids, not just kids who make the team, more advanced baseball training at a younger age … they will come in with their pro staff and give high-quality clinics to our youth such as hitting clinics, pitching clinics, which will support their development as players.” He added, “These will be offered through the Recreation Department, and our programs are always kept low cost and no one is turned away based on their ability to play.”

Nevertheless, Scarpelli claimed that he could not disclose the fee structure. He also wrote that “no one will be turned away as long as they follow the protocol set up by Recreation for fee waiver or discount” and claimed that he “will keep [the Show] accountable.”

But detractors, many of whom declined to use their names due to a fear of retribution from the city, say not everyone would get to benefit, and argue that scholarships for AAU would decimate recreation budgets for critical youth programs.

“We only help those kids who can prove their financial hardship,” says David Mangan, president of the Somerville Youth and Recreation Foundation, which formed in 2006 to supplement rec programs. “I like AAU, but there are only a handful of kids we funded to play at AAU. There was one kid who plays baseball at an AAU team, but his father, I believe, was having a lung transplant, so we provided him with help.”

There also appears to be a conflict of interest.

Curtatone and Scarpelli worked together coaching sports in Medford long before the former became mayor of neighboring Somerville and before Curtatone hired his old chum to run the rec department. At a recent campaign kickoff for Scarpelli, who is currently running for a Medford City Council seat, Curtatone called the coach and educator a close friend, and did the candidate the honor of introducing him to the crowd. Both Curtatone and Scarpelli were present, along with their sons, at the Show’s debut tryout at Dilboy Stadium last month.

In a sit-down interview that he eventually gave to address tensions between the Show and Babe Ruth, Scarpelli lamented the plight of MLB and DI hopefuls in Somerville. “Kids want to try out for AAU programs, but there isn’t a place yet,” he said. “They need to go to North Reading, or to the Show in Peabody and Lawrence. They leave our area if they can afford it.”

Curtatone was less willing to talk. Approached at the aforementioned Show tryouts in August, the mayor issued this reporter an ultimatum.

“I’m just having a good time with my kids,” he said. “If you keep asking questions about my kids, you are shut off.”

POP GOES THE WEASEL

Babe Ruth isn’t the only sports front in Somerville that’s shouldered outside pressure from competing alternatives. As was extensively reported in area newspapers and feverishly discussed by gossiping locals, in 2013 the city, with enormous fanfare from Curtatone, announced the creation of a new organization to be operated through American Youth Football (AYF). Out of nowhere, AYF stood to rival Pop Warner, which has traditionally run football in town.

“In our eyes, Somerville has done what they want to TURF WAR continued on pg. 8

PHOTO BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN

are complaining about everything from cost to oversaturation with new leagues joining the fray, officials seem especially focused on widening the professional career path for star jocks. Strange as that may seem considering the growing gap between haves and havenots in Somerville, there appears to be unwavering support from politicians who are wildly enthusiastic and even ruthlessly competitive about youth sports.

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TURF WAR continued from pg. 6

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SOMERVILLE’S TRUM FIELD do to block Pop Warner every way they can,” local Pop Warner President Roger Desrochers told the Somerville Journal last year. “They’re acting like they’re accommodating our needs but they’re not.” In response to questions at the time, Somerville officials offered the same justification they are now giving for boosting the Show. Daniel DeMaina, a city spokesperson, told reporters, “It’s nothing against Pop Warner. It’s providing another option out there.”

For hardcore parents, Pop Warner has a major flaw compared to AYF; whereas the former parses players by their age and weight, AYF allows children of smaller sizes to advance with their peers. In any case, with the arrival of another league, Somerville Pop Warner was lowered to second-class status, with players given practice fields without proper goalposts or bathroom facilities. Officials went to great lengths to welcome AYF, even bucking aldermen who tried to block the league from using city funds. Following a yearlong grudge match, though, Pop Warner prevailed, with the Somerville AYF board disbanding this month after more than half its players quit.

According to Beverly Schwartz, a local representative of Pop Warner, “despite the many advantages that [AYF] had,” the league for which she roots has “only gotten stronger.” In a relatively small urban community like Somerville, she says, “there just aren’t enough kids to fill two football leagues,” and the addition of a second show means the “two leagues are going to be weaker.” Says Schwartz, “Having a program that’s designed to serve the few kids that could excel in a certain way … doesn’t seem to meet the good use of taxpayer funds.”

Meanwhile, in the search for unity and possible solutions, there have only been more disagreements. There is a spat over a proposed $500,000 turf field at Lincoln Park, which some believe presents significant financial and health burdens, while the longstanding Somerville Youth Soccer League stands to lose some bodies to another new private club in town.

In an email interview, a Somerville spokesperson wrote that the city “works to accommodate the needs of the full community and the wide range of sports that our residents and their children play that require field space.” Still, the turf war continues, with parents and officials facing off, and other elected pols who sympathize with Babe Ruth and Pop Warner families expressing anger over infringing elite leagues. In an open letter to the Show and Schofield last month, Somerville Alderman Matt McLaughlin wrote, “What we really need to do is organize all the youth sports teams to fight these encroachments on voluntary organizations.”

If it’s a fight they want, that’s what they’ll get.

“No solution is perfect,” according to Schwartz, the Pop Warner rep, who also argues that the “population at large” should take priority. As for whether Somerville should cater and cut checks for a select cadre to pursue the big leagues: “I think not,” Schwartz says, “but the city makes it otherwise.”

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This article was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. For more info on this and other projects, visit medium.com/@binj and follow on Twitter @BINJreports.

PHOTO BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN

“Having a program that’s designed to serve the few kids that could excel in a certain way ... doesn’t seem to meet the good use of taxpayer funds.”

BLUNT TRUTH

BLUNT TRUTH

Ignorance, from the GOP debate stage to Beacon Hill

BY MIKE CANN @MIKECANNBOSTON

= At the most recent GOP presidential debate, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul bravely attempted to educate his party on the use of medical cannabis oil for children suffering from daily seizures. As one would expect, his words were not welcomed warmly. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush warned that ending the war on marijuana users was a non-starter in this era of rampant opiate abuse. Paul argued that Bush was supporting the removal of children from parents who merely provide life-saving cannabis oil, and then this happened …

“We are misleading young people when we tell them that marijuana is just like having a beer.”

Those were the words of candidate Carly Fiorina, whose statement is actually factual, but not for the reason she thinks. Excessive alcohol use is responsible for 88,000-plus deaths every year, while cannabis—of course—kills nobody. Still don’t get it? Fiorina was attempting, lamely, to make the case that marijuana is more dangerous beer, but that is patently false. She is either an ignoramus, which is doubtful since she’s an accomplished businesswoman, or a damn liar. As they say in politics, you decide.

The morning after the debate, local radio host Jon Meterparel opined about how silly it is for Paul to claim that “bathing” children in cannabis oil can help calm seizures. Paul said nothing about “bathing” anyone, still Meterparel and his equally clueless co-host Kim Kerrigan completely missed the point. Why should they know any better? After all, it’s not like Massachusetts doesn’t have more than a few moms—Lisa Cole, Cindy Gedick, Jill Hitchman-Osborn—who have been clamoring to get access to this medicine for their children.

It makes you wonder: How can somebody be paid to talk about local and national news, and still be so behind the times? That Meterparel and Kerrigan are completely ignorant to the plight of these parents while being paid to wax on relevant topics is beyond sad. It’s tragic. They’re even behind the national likes of Dr. Sanjay Gupta, whose CNN work on medicinal cannabis they should watch immediately. When they’re done with that, the duo should have local parents who are advocates come on their show and set the record straight once and for all.

Elsewhere on the provincial medical marijuana front, the Beacon Compassion Center was recently dealt a setback when the Board of Selectmen in Bellingham denied their proposal to open a cultivation center in town. Bob Lobel, the legendary sports broadcaster, is serving on the board of directors for Beacon, and noted that the small town legislators had no reservations about transferring liquor licenses at the same meeting, all while claiming to lack enough information about the potential impact of a medical marijuana facility. Their loss. Beacon has an upcoming hearing in Foxborough to seek an opportunity to open in that town, while Framingham has already approved Beacon’s proposal to open there.

This coming weekend, reform activists will gather on Boston Common for the annual MassCann/NORML Boston Freedom Rally.

The delayed rollout of medical marijuana is sure to be a talking point for many of the event’s speakers, but so are the dueling campaigns for marijuana legalization in the Commonwealth. In that battle, both sides are expected to have people canvassing the event for signatures. Finally, some good news for a change.

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MEDIA FARM

BOSTON DOT C’MON

Someone has to say out loud the shit we all know about Boston’s most pathetic news site

BY CHRIS FARAONE @BINJREPORTS I’ve been known to get inebriated with reporter friends at bars and break into soliloquies about how I would run Boston.com if I took over as its editor. Some versions involve me strolling in behind a cloud of smoke and reinstating typewriters, while other incarnations have me sporting a Carmen Miranda hat for easy banana-flinging action whenever the Boston Globe bosses dis me. In any case, my spiel typically goes something like this: I’ll tell you exactly how I’d turn that sinking ship around …

On day one, I would invite all of their perpetually humiliated writers and editors into a conference room …

Then I’d have a waiter in a tux come in passing hors d’oeuvres, and I’d fire anyone who actually thought that BDC deserved a party for their efforts in polluting the Hub media ecosystem …

Next I would project an image of the Greater Boston region, with which I suspect few of their writers are familiar, and guide the flock with great vengeance and furious anger: “Anyone who writes about a single thing that happens outside of this area will be put to death!”

That goes for television recaps that can be found in innumerable other places, spot news about dead celebrity car auctions, and anything else not particularly relevant to Eastern Massachusetts.

My imaginary monologue goes on and on. I would tar and feather those who lazily regurgitate old lists, pile-drive reporters for recycling ridiculousness from elsewhere, and shame overpaid designers who apparently lack chops or proper guidance to at least mask shallow prose with clever graphics. Of course, since I can’t actually inflict corporal punishment upon every newsroom that deserves hazing— there’s just not enough time in the day—for Media Farm this week, I thought to do the next best thing, which, in

the wake of BDC freeing more than a dozen slaves from its content farm last week, means verbally condemning the most hideous pandering beast among us.

It’s taboo to applaud mass firings of journalists. “I hate to see any reporter lose their job,” we are supposed to say. But in this case, it is hard not to see the casualties as better off for it. BDC’s fumbles are infamous, like when editors exhausted an insanely desperate scoop about Chinese food until their fortune was reversed and the staff embarrassed. Likewise, it’s hardly any secret that the mother ship Globe is ashamed of its malnourished bastard. But even though the word is out about their depraved ways—behaviors that predictably result in negligent and meaningless journalism, a reputation soiled beyond any significant recognition—it seems unlikely that managers have learned any lessons that may help reverse their cursed course. For proof of said reluctance, one needn’t look any further than the statement issued by one of their so-called digital strategists, as well as from the site’s recently decamped general manager, a clueless Harvard Business schooler who cares so much about journalism that he left to help scam overgrown neanderthals at DraftKings.

We have spent much of the past few months rethinking an operational vision for Boston.com that both maintains our autonomy as a standalone business and reinforces our partnership with the Globe. Today, we

announced a restructuring of Boston.com’s newsroom and the reduction of 12 full-time staff positions.

This is a business decision that is part of a larger effort at Boston Globe Media Partners designed to put Boston. com in a stronger and more sustainable position for growth. That said, we would be remiss to overlook the fact that this was also a people decision, one that affects the lives of many who have worked tirelessly to support our operation. We are deeply grateful for that work.

You’re damn right it was a business decision. Every last decision made on Morrissey Boulevard appears to be driven by business first and journalism last, and look at the pile of reportorial rubble in which that has landed BDC. As for all that junk about appreciating media makers, we must be living on entirely different planets.

From where I’m standing, as one of the few reporters in Boston who openly don’t give a fuck about ever working for Evil Corp, I’m happy to echo the laments of every BDC expat who has spilled their guts to me over beers, and told me how demoralizing every day of their existence really was within the confines of that lowly pop culture dictatorship. If any of the Globe honchos want to hear more of their stories, complete with my routine about taking over as the BDC editor, I’m happy to perform at the bar of their choice, Carmen Miranda headwear and all.

FREE RADICAL

SHAME OF OUR CITY

How Boston failed Bella Bond and beyond

BY EMILY HOPKINS @GENDERPIZZA For months, Boston has been on edge over the mystery surrounding an unidentified toddler found off of the Deer Island peninsula in Boston Harbor.

Now, with law enforcement reportedly finding answers this past weekend, the story of the baby’s short life has been overshadowed by the sordid past of her guardians, or lack thereof.

Bella Bond’s birth parents had run-ins with the law, her mother a history of drug use. In recent days, her biological father told reporters that she was conceived at Occupy Boston while he and her mom, back then a couple, were homeless. Not long after, Bella was born while her mom 10

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was living in a shelter in Roxbury.

Boston failed Bella and her mother, and they’re not alone. In the past year, we’ve seen a spike in homeless families in Boston, according to the city’s annual count. This tsunami of inadequate infrastructure and opiate rehabilitation options collides with continued fallout from the closure of Long Island, and with and the resulting suspension of transitional treatment programs, for which the Boston Public Health Commission is still searching for a suitable replacement site.

Meanwhile, the total number of homeless persons (men, women, and

children) in the city has increased by about 18 percent, while the number of homeless adults in treatment since the aforementioned interruption has significantly decreased. Mayor Marty Walsh has lauded the city’s efforts to respond quickly, as have many parrots in the media, and certain praise may be in order. But for individuals and families on the street, eight months is an excruciatingly long time to wait for a bed, especially during the winter. That’s how long it took to replace some of the Long Island services with a new facility on Southampton Street.

Spin the story any way you wish, and the fact remains that Mayor Walsh severed a lifeline for many of Boston’s homeless right before one of the worst winters in history. Blame whomever you want, but in our cruel city, where we struggle to find shelter and affordable housing for those in

need, many luxury apartments built using taxpayer-funded subsidies are left empty for months while realtors hold out for top dollar. Another inconvenient fact: Boston rolls out welcome mats for developers, and scrambles to provide basic services for its most vulnerable residents.

We just passed the autumn equinox.

The days are getting shorter, and the temperature is beginning to cool. Many people are still complaining about last winter, yet the fearful prospect of another bunch of blizzards is already the talk of the town. With another cold front coming, the city doesn’t only need a better plan; instead, our leaders need to try imagining what winter feels like on the street.

Without that basic sense of humanity, the trends in place right now will surely lead to more unspeakable deaths that could have been prevented.

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TO THE TREES

Legendary Boston hardcore rocker and visual artist teams up with local brewer for first craft beer project

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

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Novel passion projects in the beer world tend to have charming backstories associated with their birth.

Take, for instance, the story of how Tree Beer, the brand new Blue Hills Brewery offering, came about. And if you ask Dave Tree, band member of legendary Boston hardcore group Tree, it comes down to a fateful day at a preschool bus stop.

“My brother’s son has a buddy at preschool, and that kid’s father shows up one day to drop off his kid while wearing a Tree t-shirt,” says Tree. “My brother says, ‘Hey, that’s my brother’s band,’ and the guy turns out to work for Blue Hills Brewery, and I called him that day and was in the brewery by end of week.”

That Blue Hills Brewery employee turned out to be Jim O’Neil, director of operations for the brewery, who was keen to chat about what kind of beer they would potentially collaborate on. If a Tree beer was going to exist, named after the band, the two of them wanted to make sure it was something they both liked and could stand behind as both craft beer aficionados and general beer drinkers.

“I always wanted to do a beer with a band,” says O’Neil. “Smuttynose did a beer with Scissorfight out of Portsmouth, NH. Many people have asked me when we’re doing a beer with a band, [so] maybe it was fate I had my Tree shirt on that day.”

And now that Tree and O’Neil have spent the last month working on the project, with an earlier iteration coming out with a massive 8 percent APV (“I wanted to make it 9 percent and bars were like, “9 percent beer? I don’t know dude…’”), they’ve come up with a Kolsch-style brew that’s a tweaked spin on a previous version Blue Hills Brewery had been making. After Tree conducted taste tests and even had some sample trial kegs at a few recent art shows (Tree’s artistry and design eye graces the logo and label for the beer itself), the two brought the APV down while still keeping some punch (7.5 percent) and tweaked the recipe, resulting in a Kolsch flavor profile with a light, hoppy finish.

“We don’t want to trick people; we had a taste-testing here in the art gallery after we got the tester keg, and everyone liked the high APV, but a lot of people wanted to bring down the APV and the hops,” says Tree. “The brewery wanted that too. I’m not normally in the [brewing] seat, but it’s nice to be on both sides of the keg now. We tried to design a beer that’s for the masses but still a craft beer.”

Tree and his new band See This World will be performing at the annual Boston Freedom Rally on Boston Common this weekend, where kegs of Tree Beer will be on-site for people to try out the new brew firsthand. Additionally, O’Neil says he’s working through Tree’s connections at local bars and art shows, but after the Freedom Rally there will be kegs going into local bars throughout the Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Allston/Brighton areas during October and November. If things go well, the brewery will plan to start bottling it as well.

“People may buy for the novelty at first, should they remember my band Tree,” says Tree. “But after that they’ll buy for the taste. And they’ll like it.” >> TREE BEER. TASTE IT AT THE 26TH ANNUAL BOSTON FREEDOM RALLY ON BOSTON COMMON 9.26-27. BLUEHILLSBREWERY.COM

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Certified Beer Sniffers 9 2 H A MP S HIR E S T, CA MB 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

13

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

14

THU 9.24

THU 9.24

FRI 9.25

FRI 9.25

SAT 9.26

SAT 9.26

Pints Of Order: MApoli Trivia

Your Summer Art Show Closing Party

Boston Calling

The House Slam

26th Annual Freedom Rally

VivaLatino Cambridge

Attention all local politics junkies and fans of bickering about the goings-on around Beacon Hill: Your night has come.

On Thursday at the Kinsale across from Government Center, you can join WGBH State House reporter and hardcore-enthusiast Mike Deehan for a night of pubstyle team trivia covering everything from local political dynasties to MA State Senate history, with even a few rube-centric general trivia questions to keep everyone playing. Yes, there will be nachos.

It’s a sad fact, but the changing winds of the last week should alert you that summer is all but over. If you need a way to both confirm that and cope with it, hit the closing party for Your Summer Art Show, featuring the works of local artists like Adam O’Day and Dave Tree, as well as live music from Dug McCormack.

There’s even some comedy thrown in amidst the drinks, drawings, and general good times. Saying goodbye to summer with art > not doing that.

The lauded and extremely popular three-day outdoor music fest rife with food trucks, beer gardens, multiple stages, and killer acts (see: Dirty Bangs, Alabama Shakes, The Avett Brothers, Doomtree, Walk the Moon, etc) returns this weekend starting on Friday.

And if you’ve been to any of the past incarnations, you know that if there is one way to kick off fall in the Hub with a massive outdoor festival involving all of the above, well, this is it.

If the last time you found yourself in attendance at a killer twice-monthly poetry slam featuring local wordsmiths ranging from the novices grasping at greatness during an open mic to polished pro poets laying down verses that will make you sweat and even a house slam team that recently won a National Poetry Slam is… never… it’s time you fix that. And you can do so in Roxbury on Friday with House Slam Boston.

There’s only a slim chance if you’re a regular reader of this paper that you aren’t aware of the legendary annual pot rally happening on the Common this weekend. But for those that need a reminder, this Saturday and Sunday the 26th Annual MASSCANN/ NORML pro-legalization festival for all things MMJ is happening, replete with live bands, speakers, the ability to sign the petition to get the issue on the ballot for 2016 locally, and a lot more. Happy smoking.

When it comes to Hispanic heritage in the Hub, there’s a lot to celebrate, and plenty of ways to do so individually. But if you’ve been lacking in that department, or if you’d just like to go to a massive outdoor party in Central Square featuring live Salsa dance performances, five live bands, art, futbolito games, food, and drinks among the sculpture gardens of University Park at MIT, you should just go ahead and check out VivaLatino.

Kinsale Irish Pub. 2 Center Plz., Boston. 6-9pm/21+/ FREE.

Cuisine En Locale. 156 Highland Ave., Somerville.

6-9pm/all ages/FREE.

Government Center. 11am11pm/all ages/tickets start at $85. bostoncalling.com

Haley House. 12 Dade St., Boston. 6:30-11pm/all ages/ FREE. houseslamboston.org

Boston Common. 12pm6pm/all ages/FREE. masscann.org

University Park Common.

64 Sidney St., Cambridge.

12pm-6pm/all ages/FREE. VIP food event: 21+/$21. vivalatinocambridge. eventbrite.com

09.23.15 - 09.30.15

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DIGBOSTON.COM

PHOTO BY BEZA MEHIRET

NO PANCAKES, NO HARKONNENS, JUST THE HOUSE OF SLAM THIS FRIDAY AT HALEY HOUSE.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

15

MUSIC

NO OBLIGATIONS

The growing pains and tonal lanes of Ought

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

MUSIC

GET LOW

Slowcore giants share the secrets of their 30-year career

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN Low, the band of slowcore indie rock giants, turned whispered fumbling into artful music when it first began playing in 1993. Now, over 30 years later, no matter how often it hopes to distance itself from the title, Low has returned to a sound of slouched tempos, minimalist arrangements, and emotive lyrics that impress with their simplicity. It turns out guitarist and singer Alan Sparhawk, drummer and vocalist Mimi Parker, and bassist Steve Garrington are ready to share the secret to their slow, slow success.

This year’s Ones and Sixes came to fruition when Sparhawk changed the drum machine’s BPM from numbers divisible by fives to numbers divisible by—you guessed it—ones and sixes. “Once that happened, numbers started coming up a lot, like the number pi,” he explains. “This idea of ones and sixes was, to me, the symbol of controlled randomness, of creating organized spontaneity. Time’s going to move forward and everything is always going to be in flux. What are the things we have control over? How do you steer that chaos in a way that it still goes where you want it to go? What do you control in your life? Oftentimes you think you’re in that position, but it turns out you actually aren’t.”

When Low began, 10-minute songs were the norm, especially if they captured a solemness. On this album, the band not only trims with sharp scissors, but places the emphasis on minor key changes, lending crescendos or simple chord shifts a massive blow of tension. It’s mastery that comes from decades’ worth of persistence.

“I remember coming across an effects pedal by Red Panda that’s like an echo pedal, except it cuts up that echo sound and randomizes it,” says Sparhawk. “Eventually it disappears in its own white noise. It fed into this idea of what do you control? What happens once someone leaves your mouth and your hands? A person’s hearing will interpret dialogue or a song differently than you thought every time. In some ways, you have to let go of that and realize it’s out of your control.”

Album cut “What Part of Me” asks what there’s left to discover in one another as bandmates, as romantic partners, and as humans coming to terms with existentialism. “It’s like you’re looking at yourself as someone who has moaned and groaned about music for 20 straight years,” Sparhawk laughs. “You wonder who on earth wants to hear you whine about something else.” And yet their fans continue to turn up, eager to hear songs full of beauty and sadness equivalent to that of “Amazing Grace” (which, it should be noted, the band covered back in 2002).

“I feel really lucky that we’ve been around long enough to take all this time to learn,” Sparhawk says with the utmost sincerity. “It’s true, a lot of people figure it out quicker—by, like, record one. Unfortunately, that fades. People forget. We stuck around—and honestly, I think that’s most of the battle. If you keep doing it, whether you’re a writer or a musician or filmmaker, and keep going, it will rotate and turn so it keeps paying you off.” >> LOW + ANDY SHAUF + DJ CARBO. WED 9.23. BRIGHTON MUSIC HALL, 158 BRIGHTON AVE., ALLSTON. 7PM/18+/$20. CROSSROADSPRESENTS.COM/BRIGHTON-MUSIC-HALL

MUSIC EVENTS THU 9.24

FINGER TAPPIN’ GOOD EL TEN ELEVEN + SEGO

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$16. sinclaircambridge.com]

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FRI 9.25

FRI 9.25

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 9pm/18+/$27. sinclaircambridge.com]

[The Middle East Downstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$14. mideastoffers.com]

POST-PAVEMENT SLACKER-ROCK STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS

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ELECTRONIC TRIP-HOP LITTLE PEOPLE

Few artists rocket from zero to a hundred without a PR machine pumping iron behind them. Ought happens to be one of those rare gems. The Canadian post-punk quartet formed in 2012, spent a year and a half recording its debut LP, More Than Any Other Day, and released it in October of last year to immediate critical acclaim. After that, the four were off and running faster than they could have ever imagined.

“When we played Primavera [Sound], I remember feeling so overwhelmed,” recalls keyboardist Matt May. “There comes a point where you see a massive crowd at your show and you realize, while you’re still surprised, that it has normalized.”

After that winter tour ended, the band spent a few months regrouping daily and writing new material before entering the studio this March to record Sun Coming Down, Ought’s excellent sophomore LP. They were writing on a high, powering through the process compared to the group’s last record. “The four of us decided it feels like change,” says May. “There’s a perception of time that feels a lot different. The last year and a half has gone by in what feels like three months, and the temporal aspect of it sat with me well.”

As the four work through the tension of their own songs, they dig deeper to the root of their work and the realizations that come with that.

“There’s points in our songs that don’t get me as much, but then one night it hits you out of nowhere,” says May, recalling his disconnect from “The Weather Song.” “I read an article about it where the author said it feels like what it’s like to handle depression and anxiety. That night, I was listening to Tim’s words and it abruptly changed for me. Everything made sense.” The longer he talks about this sensation, the clearer it becomes that Ought benefits from live shows as much as a firsttime listener. Making life align, even if only for an hour-long set, is the type of magic bands can only hope to create firsthand. Ought just happens to do so on the regular.

>> OUGHT + LVL UP + DIET CIG. WED 9.30. GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON. 9PM/18+/$12.

GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM

FRI 9.25 - SUN 9.27

TUE 9.29

[Government Center, 1 Congress St., Boston, 12pm/all ages/$60-175. bostoncalling.com]

[House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston. 7pm/ all ages/$40. houseofblues. com/boston]

CITY OF BLINDING LIGHTS BOSTON CALLING MUSIC FESTIVAL

30TH ANNIVERSARY OF PSYCHOCANDY THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN

WED 9.30

EXPERIMENTAL MATH ROCK MADNESS BATTLES

[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston. 7pm/18+/$18. crossroadspresents.com]

%RVWRQ·V Best Irish Pub

THU 9/24 - NV CONCEPTS PRESENTS:

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

SUNDAYS

MONDAYS

DOUBLE TAP

MAKKA MONDAY

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

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

21+, NO COVER,

FRONTLINER

6PM - 11:30PM

FRI 9/25 - CRUSH BOSTON PRESENTS:

LITTLE PEOPLE

TUESDAYS

WEDNESDAYS

BUKU NICO LUMINOUS + THE FUNGINEERS

THIRSTY TUESDAYS

GEEKS WHO DRINK

SAT 9/26

WED 9/30 - BOWERY PRESENTS:

THUNDERCAT SOLD OUT

FRI 10/2 - CRUSH PRESENTS:

MITIS WED 9/23

UNLEASH THE ARCHERS CRIMSON SHADOWS THU 9/24/15

SKINNY LISTER (UK) BEANS ON TOAST (UK) FRI 9/2

BOOGIE BOY METAL MOUTH THE TELEVIBES, BLACK BEACH SAT 9/26 - 1PM

CONTINENTAL

THE NERVOUS EATERS THE CHARMS SAT 9/26 - 7pm

SHEER TERROR

MON 9/28 - LEEDZ PRESENTS:

KING LOS TUE 9/29

ETERNALS

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

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

RE:SET WEDNESDAYS

Weekly Dance Party, House, Disco, Techno, LoFDO ,QWHUQDWLRQDO '-·V 19+, 10PM - 1AM

THURSDAYS

FRIDAYS

SATURDAYS

ELEMENTS

PRETTY YOUNG THING

BOOM BOOM ROOM

15+ Years of Resident Drum & Bass Bringing some of the worlds ELJJHVW 'Q% '-·V to Cambridge 19+, 10PM - 2AM

·V 2OG 6FKRRO 7RS Dance hits 21+, 10PM - 2AM

·V ·V ·V 2QH +LW Wonders 21+, 10PM - 2AM

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

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

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

FILM

TRUE/FALSE

FILM

On the DocYard’s screening of Heaven Knows What

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

Johnnie To proves why he’s worth following anywhere

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

OFFICE MUSICAL

Like a droning hardstyle beat that suddenly erupts with bone-throbbing bass, Mike emits all of his noises in one of two varying volumes. He’s a heroin dealer in Heaven Knows What, played by non-professional actor Buddy Duress.

And when he’s performatively orating stories about his street toughness, he flows like an open fire hydrant, with each word rushing out on top of the prior one. But otherwise he’s got a one-phrase-at-a-time stutter. His diction is marked by brief pauses and redundant words—like when he calls the earliest part of the day “morning-time.” So he’s got the tongue of a freestyle rapper: Each sentence sounds either over-prepared or under-practiced.

We’ve never been the paper to play the “best _____ since _____” game, because obsessing over awards and nominations for something like movies is to treat art as though it were the NFC East. But if we can agree that Heaven Knows What is according-to-Hoyle fiction, then our next step would be to say that the big screen hasn’t seen a performance invoked as naturally as Duress’ for longer than we’d care to remember. Look at the way, true to a certain mode of speech, that he uses “fuckinnnnnn” as though it were a comma, allowing him the moment needed to think of the words that are going to follow it. That stumbling phraseology makes it sound like he’s discovering the dialogue as it happens. Maybe he is.

Heaven Knows What released onto home video and VOD outlets in the past couple weeks, and it’s screening at the Brattle Theatre on Sept 24 courtesy of the DocYard film series. (Directors Benny and Josh Safdie will be in attendance for a post-film Q&A.) Now, DocYard announces itself as a program that “shares and promotes cutting edge work in documentary” and “groundbreaking nonfiction cinema.” And the screenings, which have proven indispensable to Boston film culture, more than live up to those promises.

But Heaven Knows What is not nonfiction—not literally, at least. It follows Harley (Arielle Holmes), another addict, as she processes her first-love longing for “black-metal dirt-bomb” Ilya (Caleb Landry Jones), who’s already pushed her toward one failed suicide attempt. Mike is the guy-on-the-side she turns to—because he doesn’t abuse her and, perhaps more importantly, because he can front her bags every night. One lover opens her veins, the other one fills them. The Safdies’ picture, constructed with literary verve—the screenplay was adapted from an unpublished memoir

by Holmes—is filled with those kinds of rhymes and flourishes. The electronic score and ambiguous use of ellipses attaches a wafting dreaminess to the passage of time. And then sometimes we seem to be outside of time entirely.

A cut brings us from Mike and Harley talking toward the hazy skylines of the city. The transition turns them into wanderers above the sea of fog. It’s Romantic, with a capital R. And it’s playing via DocYard because the Safdies staged their Romantic painting in the center of an uncaring New York City. Long lenses and zooms allow cinematographer Sean Price Williams to set his cameras blocks away from the action—and so Mike’s shouted expletives play out all while “extras” pass by the drama unfazed. Each shot is defined by the people who walk by it without noticing. And—this one hits you like a haymaker, for it’s so rare and unexpected—the background is also populated by the brand names that do business on the streets that Harley finds herself sleeping on: midnight hangouts at White Castle. Lifting energy drinks from Duane Reade, then reselling them to newspaper stand managers. Shooting up in the Starbucks bathroom.

And that brings us back to Mike, and to the extraordinary cadence of Duress’ performance. It’s not the use of slang that strikes you—it’s the rhythm with which he delivers his goofy insults and threats. That’s why the film apprehends the nature of nonfiction while telling a Romanticized tragedy: Because it gets the rhythm right. The way a crowd walks by a public fight, pretending they can’t see it, so they need not intervene. The way a Dunkin Donuts advertisement overlooks a bench that will later serve as somebody’s bed. The symphony of car horns and cash registers that plays out under the screaming and the musical score. These scenes may have been staged. But the movie strikes you as having been stolen. >> HEAVEN KNOWS WHAT. RATED R. THU 9.24 AT 7PM. BRATTLE THEATRE. 40 BRATTLE ST., CAMBRIDGE. $9-11. ALSO AVAILABLE ON DVD, BLU-RAY, AND VOD OUTLETS.

FILM EVENTS FRI 9.25

FRI 9.25

SAT 9.26

THE QUAY BROTHERS IN 35MM

HELLIONS

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY

CREATED BY CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 4, 5:45, 7:30, and 9:15pm/NR/$911. 35mm. Screens all week at different showtimes; see brattlefilm.org for more.]

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COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS [Coolidge Corner. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Also screens Sat 9.26. Midnight/NR/$11.25. coolidge.org]

DIGBOSTON.COM

PRESENTED IN 70MM

[Somerville Theatre. 55 Davis Sq., Somerville.

Also screens Sun 9.27. 3 and 8pm/G/$15. 70mm. somervilletheatreonline.com/ somerville-theatre]

SUN 9.27

FEATURING 10 WORKS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE MANHATTAN SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

[Museum of Fine Arts. 465 Huntington Ave., Boston. 3pm/ NR/$9-11.]

There are some filmmakers that you’ll follow anywhere. The ones who can apply their style and signature to any genre—the Tarantinos, the Takashi Miikes, the Steven Soderberghs. Hong Kong commercial-filmmaking titan Johnnie To is one of them. And lately, he’s been taking us back to 2008.

He’s set a number of romantic comedies (and even an action film) around the time of the Lehman Brothers meltdown, and with Office—now playing in multiplexes, concurrently with its Hong Kong release—he’s made a musical about it.

The setting is Jones & Sunn, a financial institution looking to launch an IPO at the aforementioned wrong time. The characters include Chairman Ho (Chow Yun-Fat), CEO Chang (Ho’s mistress), Kat Ho (his daughter, working clandestinely at the entry level to earn respect), Lee Xiang (a real-deal entry-level worker), David (who’s gaming the market that will soon bring them all down), and a fair few others working at salaries in-between the rest. And the attitude is best described by a verse in one of the opening numbers: “I purchase / therefore I am.”

And the look of the movie is as brazenly fake as the “future money” these corporations were trading. To sets the entire film among an explicitly artificial backlot of beams and bars—even the trains look like a caged, bizarro-world model of the genuine article. The word for To is virtuoso: The view from the “roof” lets you see through the buildings it overlooks. The eponymous office is visible through the transparent walls of the local bar. And the workspace itself is a spiderweb of vertical lines: skinny fluorescent lights and unending rows of aligned lintels, each one as anonymous as the crew of workers who join in on the musical numbers when it’s time for the chorus.

Speaking of those numbers: Office is an adaptation of a four-hour stage musical by Sylvia Chang (she plays the CEO here), and the vestiges of what was left behind stain the sets. (Characters reach their climax three scenes after we meet them.) And the musical sequences feel unnecessary (“She’s an investment / worth buying into,” is sung about our CEO, an hour after we’ve realized as much) rather than being the spiritual necessities that this genre demands. But don’t listen—look at the To’s vision.

There may be no commercial filmmaker so effortlessly imbuing his politics and his philosophies into the visual form of his films. And we’re still following. >> OFFICE. UNRATED. NOW PLAYING AT THE AMC BOSTON COMMON, 175 TREMONT ST., BOSTON, AND REGAL FENWAY THEATERS, MULTIPLE LOCATIONS.

MON 9.28

MON 9.28

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON

CRUMB

ELEMENTS OF CINEMA PRESENTS

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

8:30pm/R/FREE. 35mm. brattlefilm.org]

TERRY ZWIGOFF’S [Coolidge Corner. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. 7pm/R/$11.25.

35mm. coolidge.org]

FILM SHORTS BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN GOODNIGHT MOMMY A once-benevolent mother returns home to her twin sons following an unspecified procedure, now wrapped in bandages that obscure her entire face. She pits the pair against each other via separation, and her other punishments grow increasingly inexplicable too. The twins start to suspect a con artist has taken their matriarch’s place. Their attempts to involve the police or the church in protecting their young selves are thwarted—both institutions are in on the take, so to speak. And before you can say, “Another austerely shot European genre movie that’s sort of about authoritarianism,” a Shyamalan reversal swaps the meaning of the images we’ve seen thus far. Post-twist, the gore keeps coming—but little else follows.

GRANDMA Lily Tomlin fills the unisex shoes of the title character: a bomb-tossing take-no-prisoners feminist poet who’s accompanying her granddaughter to the abortion clinic, because the teenage girl’s mother (Marcia Gay Harden) never leaves the treadmill desk at her office. So it’s three waves of feminism—the radical,

the working woman, and the millennial— letting their beliefs fight a verbal battle royale within the confines of a day-onthe-town farce. It’s extremely agreeable, especially when Sam Elliott shows up as a literal patriarch in need of an insultladen tearing-down. But “agreeable” isn’t why we go to the movies: These aren’t actors playing people, but people playing symbols.

MISTRESS AMERICA Being a woman of Fitzgeraldian bombast, Brooke (Greta Gerwig, who co-writes alongside director Noah Baumbach) can’t simply ask her soon-to-be-stepsister Tracy if she has a boyfriend. Instead she phrases it the way Katherine Hepburn might have: “You got a honey?” The plot of this farce sees Tracy turning Brooke into the subject of a short story—the film’s second half leads the pair to a home filled with friends, crushes, exes, and neighbors, so the drama is easy to adapt—but the pleasure of it comes from watching those oddball turnsof-phrase spin themselves in circles. They end up earning the movie a designation rarely used since the Jazz Age: This is verbal slapstick.

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.

SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie play a pair of “just friends” fighting off their desire for each other—and the rest of the romcom genre’s hallmarks are here too, right down to the wacky BFF who’s here only to offer Brie dating advice. Writer/director Leslye Headland follows the blueprint, then, but she works blue while she does it: On the NEWS TO US

FEATURE

path to its inevitable conclusion, her script pauses for zipped-up arguments about fingering techniques, surprisingly-straight faced sex scenes, and sexting banter represented via text on screen. It might not be an upgrade, but it is an update.

THE TRANSPORTER REFUELED Most revealing is a shot where a man’s face fills the right side of the frame, while a woman’s ass fills the equivalent space on the left. This reboot has a faux-feminist narrative straight outta Fury Road—an amoral hero is hired as a wheelman by vengeful females and eventually fights for them pro bono—but its eyes reveal that it’s just in this for the sake of leering. Some creative fight scenes (one in a file cabinet!) might get you into the exploitation-movie mood, but then you see the four heroines have their focus seduced away from them (producing more ass shots!) and you remember the sad side of those movies. Refueled, maybe.

But matured? Certainly not.

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

BOOKS

DEEP CUTS

Papercuts JP is celebrating its one-year birthday with its first anthology

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF It’s been a year since Papercuts J.P., the Green Street-located independent bookstore, burst onto the scene to the delight of word nerds and bookworms all across the Hub. With such a milestone reached (no small feat in the digital age’s bookstore landscape), the team led by owner Kate Layte—a former associate production editor at Little, Brown and Company of the Hachette Book Group— decided to mark the anniversary in the most apropos manner: They’re launching their first literary anthology.

Titled What Happened Here: Year One at Papercuts J.P., the book will be published through the crowdsourced publishing company Inkshares. I caught up with Papercuts media and events coordinator Katie Eelman to get the rundown on reflections on the first year and about what to expect in the forthcoming tome.

What are some of the high watermarks of your first year (besides this project)?

We’ve had some really fantastic events, like the ones with Joan Wickersham and Celeste Ng, Jabari Asim and Emmett G Price III, and Edan Lepucki. We’ve also won [awards], and on Oct 3, PCJP owner Kate Layte will be giving a TEDx talk on the vitality and importance of the indie bookstore. It’s been a phenomenal year.

Describe how you selected the pieces for the anthology from the different writers.

We actually solicited works from the authors we wanted to participate in the collection. We reached out to every author who has been kind enough to visit us in the store in our first year of business. Many of the authors responded enthusiastically.

How did you break up the new versus collected material?

We asked authors to consider writing something new, but to please submit something for reprint if they were pressed for time. The anthology will be about half and half new to collected.

Do proceeds go to the store, or the writers, or both?

The proceeds go to both the bookstore and to the author contributors.

Could local writers, upon hearing about the anthology, submit their own work for a future anthology? What are the criteria to be included?

We are not currently accepting submissions for future anthologies, but readers and writers can keep an eye on our website, Facebook, and Twitter pages for updates on additional contributors in this anthology.

Who picked the winning selections?

Was it a team effort or lead by you/another?

Kate and I are editing the anthology, but there was no contest with winners.

What’s your pick for one of the pieces in the anthology that is a good representation of the anthology as a whole and why?

I’m excited about Christopher Irvin’s new story that will be published in the anthology. Irvin is a local author writing crime and noir fiction, and his new book of shorts, Safe Inside the Violence, will absolutely have readers asking for more. The one that we are lucky enough to include is an original, never before published, and takes place in Boston. It’s unique and nuanced, and expertly crafted, which is a great representation of the writing in What Happened Here.

Kate Layte is most excited for a short story by Paul Tremblay, author of the terrifying novel A Head Full of Ghosts.

Do you have plans for a yearly anthology, or is this a one-off?

We hope that this anthology is the first of many. >> WHAT HAPPENED HERE: YEAR ONE AT PAPERCUTS J.P. FOR MORE INFORMATION AND PREODERS, VISIT PAPERCUTSJP.COM/THEBOOK

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ARTS

BEAUTIFUL EXIT

Wed 9/23 8PM

Gardner Museum Director reflects back

BOBBY WHITLOCK (of Derek & The Dominos) & COCO CARMEL

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

(Rock) Thur 9/24 7:30PM

NEWPOLI (Mediterranean Pulse) Thur 9/24 10 PM

LATE SHOW: DAVID ALIGUAR International Fri 9/25 7:30PM

PORCH PARTY MAMAS (Urban Folk) Fri 9/25 10PM

LOVESEXY: A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF PRINCE + LATE GUNPOWDER GELATINE (Tribute) Sat 9/26 7PM

TRIBUTE TO THE BAND ft. The THE BAND Band (Tribute) Sat 9/26 10PM

FORRO ZABUMBECA Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum director Anne Hawley broke the hearts of Boston art lovers earlier this year when she announced that she would be stepping down from the post she has held for the past 26 years.

As her time at the Gardner comes to a close, Hawley graciously reflects on her proudest achievements, new generations of art lovers, and, of course, the theft.

Hawley, on behalf of art lovers everywhere, we salute you.

(Brazilian Dance) Tues 9/29 8PM

MELANIE + EVA Wed 9/30 7PM

BILLY D AND THE ROCKITS

Which of your achievements at the Gardner are you most proud of?

To have a new generation finding pleasure and fulfillment in the experiences only the Gardner Museum can give is what I sought to do. For I think that the mysteries and the meaning of life can be found and experienced through great art. It helps you ask and answer the questions of “Why am I here? What is the meaning of this journey? How can I contribute to this mystery of life?” I sought to bring the great legacy of the founder’s patronage of art and artists back to life, to give the public the chance to have this engagement with art. When I arrived, I found the museum a tomb, and I leave it a lively cultural center as it was at its beginning.

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

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FRESH

Due to the theft, you were severely tested during the earliest days of your tenure. What was going through your head at the time? You could give a master class in composure.

When I arrived at the museum the morning of the theft, I found the museum had been violated. Staff members were in shock, and I must admit that when I saw what had happened that I too was in a state of shock, flooded with anger and a determination that this was not going to destroy the museum nor defeat it. It was, and is, a tragic loss, not just to the art world and the visiting public, but to culture as a whole. They stole a part of civilization. We have never lost hope that our works will find their way home again.

PRODUCE

Survival of the arts is contingent upon the interest and support of younger generations. Has this been a particularly important initiative for you?

Yes, of course! Students visit many times during the year, and our museum teachers also go into their classrooms. It is powerful. The second initiative was actually conceived by the under-30s on the museum staff who pushed us to think of a special night for the 18-35[-year-old] young people who live in Boston.

They worked closely as a team and proposed Gardner After Hours … It has evolved into a program now called Third Thursday, where there is special evening programming every month on the third Thursday.

Tues 9/29

MELANIE with special guests

Beau Jarred and EVA (folk /singer -songwriter)

Tues 11/3 7PM

HOWARD JONES SOLO

What’s next for you?

Ah, a great question. I’m not making any decisions until after I’ve taken a break!

(Synth)

To what extent, if at all, will you remain involved with the Gardner?

It will always be in my heart.

DJs: special guest : DJ Babu of Dialated Peoples / Beat Junkies The Bladerunners & Knife Genres: Hip Hop, Reggae, Trap, Dirty South, Party Jams $10 | 21+ TUE Sept. 29th 6PM

GAME NIGHT

NO COVER | Downstairs 18+ until 10pm

Sat 11/14 7PM

PHOTO BY CHERYL RICHARDS

If you could only impart one bit of advice to your replacement, what would it be?

Surrender.

If you could take any of Mrs. Gardner’s paintings with you when you leave, which one would you take?

WOW. I’ve never thought about such a thing. That’s hard because the Gardner Museum was really conceived as a total work of art. The pictures, sculpture, and architecture are all of one piece: one work of art that she created… So one would have to take the whole museum!

THURS Sept. 24th 9PM

ZACH DEPUTY (JAM FUNK, SOUL)

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

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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

FRIENDS WITH VIOLATIONS

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE What does it mean when you find a pair of tit clamps in your “vanilla” boyfriend’s dresser?

Told Him I’m Not Kinky It means he’s the pope—what the fuck do you think it means?

It means he owns a pair of tit clamps. It could mean he’s slightly less vanilla than he’s let on, THINK, or it could mean he has a kinky ex who left a pair of tit clamps behind, or it could mean he got a pair of tit clamps as a dirty Secret Santa gift and isn’t phobic about being perceived as even slightly kinky so he tossed them in a drawer without a second thought.

Straight man, married for 12 years, love my wife very much.

We have a great relationship, and I cannot see myself being with anyone else. A few years ago, she came out to me as bisexual. At the time, it hit me harder than I would have expected. Part of the reason was she explained that she often fantasizes about women when we have sex in order to come.

She says she is attracted to me and loves our sex life. We have exhausted the topic of bringing someone else into our relationship and recommitted to monogamy. Is it inevitable that she will cheat to satisfy her curiosity? She says she 22

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wouldn’t, and I have to trust that, but it is always in the back of my head. What do I do?

Just One Exception I can’t promise you that your wife won’t ever cheat—not because she’s bisexual, JOE, but because she’s human. Women who are 100 percent straight cheat on their husbands every day; husbands who are 100 percent straight cheat on their wives every day. And while on the one hand, it’s unfortunate your wife told you she sometimes has to think about women to get off during sex with you (not everything has to be shared, people), the fact that she trusted you/burdened you with that information says a lot about your relationship.

So what do you do? Two things: Continue to put your trust in your wife, while at the same time reassuring yourself that your absolute worst-case scenario—your wife sleeps with a woman—will result in the destruction of your marriage only if you define a single infidelity as a relationship-extinction-level event. A pass to fuck a woman at some point in her life may not be something you can let your wife have, JOE, but it may be something you could let yourself forgive.

On the Lovecast: It’s the dick show! Listen at savagelovecast.com.

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