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Bill Blumenreich Presents

BILL BLUMENREICH PRESENTS

MENFEAT. FROM MAINE BOB MARLEY

VOL 17 + ISSUE 40

OCTOBER 7, 2015 - OCTOBER 14, 2015 EDITORIAL EDITOR + PUBLISHER Jeff lawrence NEWS + FEATURES EDITOR Chris Faraone ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran ASSOCIATE FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITOR Christopher Ehlers COPY EDITOR Mitchell Dewar CONTRIBUTORS Nate Boroyan, Renan Fontes, Bill Hayduke, Emily Hopkins, Micaela Kimball, Dave Wedge INTERN Oliver Bok

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OCT 9

DEAR READER

BOB MARLEY

There’s a reason that we have an article about a new book, What We’re Fighting for Now Is Each Other, in the news section this week. It’s because the goddamn planet is burning, the arctic ice caps are melting, and some people, like Wen Stephenson, are doing more than just talking and writing (though they’re doing that too). They’re standing up to power, coal and natural gas alike, and storming the establishment.

As Stephenson acknowledges in his interview with us (read the long version at digboston.com), with so many other pressing daily issues percolating, it’s hard to ask people to drop everything and join the new environmental movement. We’re not doing that—this issue includes goodies on everything from craft beer to Kraftwerk—but we did feel that news regarding the future of our planet warranted prime real estate in this week’s news hole.

OCT 10

FULL SCREEN LIVE PRESENTS GIRLS NIGHT IN OCT 11

WAR

& THE FAMILY STONE OCT 13

THE SPINNERS

CHRIS FARAONE - NEWS+FEATURES EDITOR, DIGBOSTON

OCT 14

DES BISHOP

DIGTIONARY

BERNED

OCT 24

verb 1. That feeling you get when you finally realize the [insert party] doesn’t give a shit about you and all those years of aimlessly waving the [insert party]’s flag were a complete waste of your time. Thankfully, your blind faith and failed sense of self led you to the BCEC last Saturday night, and you’re now on your way to a full recovery.

des bishop

Kraftwerk rolled through town with their visually intense, musical brain fuck and we’ve got some choise things to say about it.

Check it out on page 16.

©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.

JOEL MCHALE

OH, CRUEL WORLD

OCT 25

Dear Johnny Depp,

LAST COMIC STANDING

Only an asshole would doubt that you are indeed one of the great American actors. From Scissorhands to Benny to Jack Sparrow, you have wowed us. And as Whitey Bulger, you are spectacular in many ways, right down to the accent. But can somebody explain why your elaborate makeup job in Black Mass keeps you looking the same age for the entire flick, and why you essentially do a Christopher Walken impression for two hours?

OCT 31 SECOND SHOW ADDED

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NEWS US WEN, THE LEVEE, BREAKS NEWS TO US

A conversation with Mass author Wen Stephenson about community, his new book on climate justice, and the battle for our future

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 As this week’s DigBoston goes to print, residents of West Roxbury and Dedham—many of whom are comfortable suburbanites who never thought they would be protesting encroaching pipelines, let alone laying down in front of heavy equipment—are pursuing a direct action against the Texas-based natural gas behemoth Spectra.

Last week, members of the MIT community who are demanding action on the climate change front rallied outside of their college corporation’s annual board meeting. Their demonstrations piggybacked more than a year of initiatives at Harvard University and other institutions where students and faculty are demanding swift divestments from fossil fuels.

As the temperature in climate justice circles heats up even faster than our oceans, in New England and elsewhere, an increasing number of people are

awakening to the importance of the struggle. In many cases, they’re committing themselves fully to related causes, and even putting their livelihoods and in some cases their lives on the line.

Among this growing battalion, Greater Boston activist and author Wen Stephenson stands apart. A former Boston Globe editor and NPR producer, he speaks to the enduring failure of media trendsetters to cover and address the climate crisis. His reportorial chops also allow Stephenson to write about earth crusaders in ways that inspire readers to take up causes themselves.

In anticipation of the release of his new project, What We’re Fighting For Now is Each Other: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Justice, we asked Wen about what he describes as “waking up, individually and collectively, to the climate catastrophe that is upon us—truly waking

up to it, intellectually, morally, and spiritually, as the most fundamental and urgent threat humanity has ever faced.”

You really crank the volume on the science at the beginning of your book, arguing that the impacts of climate change could in fact be even much worse than is already predicted. To what extent are you pushing the boundaries, and trying to set a new baseline?

I’m not saying anything new about the science or the policy, though in some ways it’s all about policy and the much more radical policies that we actually need. I’ve been struck during the time frame I have been writing the book by the way climate scientists have become far more outspoken in their warnings, and are more willing to say things that in the past have seemed like going out on a limb.

There is a chapter in your book about Port Arthur, Texas that really ties the economy to the larger environmental picture. How hard is it to make that connection between everyday issues and the erosion of the planet?

That chapter, “Organizing for Survival,” is where I deal head-on with racial justice, and what I mean by climate justice. It’s an important teaching moment for folks who aren’t familiar with the movement on this level, but for decades in this country there has been an environmental justice movement that’s all about the disproportionate impact of mostly fossil fuel pollution, especially in communities of color … In the Latino community and the African-American community, these have been real issues for decades. In the front line communities, the poorer you are, the more vulnerable you are to the coming impacts of climate change.

Is the political left the enemy? There are some points in the book at which it feels that way.

I want to be really clear: the left is not my enemy. The only people who actually are taking the climate crisis seriously are on the left. The right is completely hopeless on this. I’m not just preaching to the choir, but it’s also too late to convert the far-right. What we have to do now is defeat them.

I also get that there are a lot of people, especially on the left and on the grassroots level, who are working on really immediate issues that are affecting lives. How do WEN, THE LEVEE, BREAKS continued on pg. 6 4

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PHOTO COURTESY OF BETTER FUTURE PROJECT

You have some really biting stuff about corporate culture and those who work in it. How much shaming is needed to spur more people into action?

Hopefully it’s clear that this is as much a self-indictment as anything else. There’s plenty of blame to go around, and I try to really accept my share of the blame. I feel like my generation, the Gen Xers, we really came of age when global warming became an issue. I know that I bear a special kind of responsibility in the sense that I was an editor and producer of national media for two decades in the very time period when this crisis was getting out of control, and like a lot of my colleagues, I didn’t focus on it. I figured it was something environmentalists were on top of.

Part of the book, running through it, is my personal narrative. The arc of my personal story is that selfabsorption, that I navel-gazed as the planet burned. So it’s an engagement. A political engagement. It’s about the “radicalization” of a privileged white mainstream centerleft liberal. It’s about the wellsprings of that and where that came from. In that, there’s an analogy that what really has to happen, if we’re really going to address this thing we need a “radicalization” of the mainstream.

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WEN, THE LEVEE, BREAKS continued from pg. 4 you tell somebody who is struggling to get by day to day that they need to join the climate movement? At the same time, it’s also a myth that working class people and people in communities of color don’t care about climate change.

As a journalist, I have found your story to be very inspirational. Do you see it that way?

I want to be very clear that I haven’t sacrificed all that much. I’m in an incredibly privileged position that my wife works and can support our family. I did make a deliberate choice to walk away from my career, but I also want to make it clear that I did not quit [NPR] to become an activist. I left because I was completely burnt out. Everybody knew I was burnt out, but everyone was good to me, and I had a very amicable departure from WBUR. I have a line in the book about how this forces us to lay everything on the line, like our relationships, like our careers, our reputations, our bodies, and maybe even our lives. And when I say our lives, I have done profiles of people who have actually risked their lives. What I mean though is committing our lives, and I do feel like I have done that at this point. I am in this ‘til my last breath. I don’t see how there is any turning around at this point.

See Wen read from What We’re Fighting For Now is Each Other on Monday, October 10 at 4:45pm at the Hyatt Regency on Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

BLUNT TRUTH

DOES THE POPE TOKE IN THE WOODS? Pope Francis, the Golden Rule, and marijuana reform

BY MIRIAM BOERI, PHD MIRIANBOERI@GMAIL.COM

Last month, to great fanfare and some protest, Pope Francis made history by being the first Pope to address a joint meeting of Congress. Frequent standing ovations interrupted his talk, delivered in English, slowly and deliberately, with one of the most moving turns in the Pope’s speech being a reference to the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

While Pope Francis was referring to immigrants and refugees, his words apply to all who are disenfranchised by their situations. He appealed to all of us to listen their stories. As a sociologist who listens to the stories told to me by people who use drugs, the Pope’s words led me to reflect on the possibility of bridging our differences of opinion to make medical marijuana available to those who need it to relieve their suffering.

Healthcare professionals in Boston have been at the forefront of integrating behavioral and medical care with policy, with naloxone (Narcan), buprenorphine, and methadone being used as primary solutions in addressing overdoses.

Naloxone is an effective antidote, but not a cure or a preventative therapy.

Buprenorphine is a narcotic agonist and antagonist and used as a substitute for heroin. It has abuse potential and is addictive. Methadone, the most widely used substitute for opioids, is not only extremely addictive, but also has a very narrow therapeutic index, which is the ratio between the toxic dose and the therapeutic dose of a drug. In contrast to the approved but addictive substitutes for opioids, marijuana has one of the widest (and safest) therapeutic ratios of all drugs.

Perhaps the Pope’s words will influence the hearts and minds of policymakers in Mass, the state with the highest percentage of Catholics. Or maybe if we moved to “listen to their stories,” like one told to me by a homeless young man who spent the last five years in and out of treatment homes and jail for opioid addiction. He now uses marijuana illegally to help relieve his craving for opioids, and says, “I think that medical marijuana would be a great thing, especially in treatment. Obviously you have to try something else ‘cause not a lot of it worked so far, and I’ve seen a lot of death in my life.”

Check DigBoston.com for the full version of this column. Miriam Boeri is an associate professor of sociology at Bentley University.

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THE PORTLAND

CANNABIS

CONVENTION presented by THE NEW ENGLAND CANNABIS CONVENTION

Nov. 6th-8th

USM Sullivan Rec Center, Portland $15/day or $25 for a two-day pass

Buy Tickets at: NECANN.com

60+ vendors

Dispensaries and care givers, growing & lighting systems, smoking and vaping accessories, schools, labs, staffing groups, entrepreneurs, investors, and more!

Industry programming & live demos

Cooking with Cannabis, Making an organic super soil, Cloning, Tincture making, Medical Marijuana & Maine law, hemp, maximizing yields, testing, and so much more!

Event partners: Medical Marijuana Care-givers of Maine and The New England Grass Roots Institute Sponsored by:

NECANN.com

@NE_CANN

NE.Cann.Network

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BEHIND BARRY’S CORNER: How the BRA, Harvard and Allston Residents Battled Over a Neighborhood

PANELISTS Jim Vrabel author of A People’s History of the New Boston — Rachel Hock writer at DigBoston and resident of Lower Allston — +1 More Panelist TBA — with Emily Hopkins

Residents of Lower Allston watched as construction crews from Harvard and other developers built up the area once known as Barry’s Corner, where North Harvard and Western Ave meet. This plot of land has a storied past with development. In the 1960s, a battle broke out between residents and the Boston Redevelopment Authority as the BRA tried to raze their homes in the name of urban renewal.

Fast forward to today—residents watch as Harvard’s ivy creeps in, with a luxury condo renting studios at more than $2,500 a month.

Join the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism for a panel discussion on development, the expansion of higher ed, and gentrification in Allston.

BINJ Projects Coordinator as moderator

OCTOBER 20TH – 5:30 PM doors/meet and greet

MEDIA FARM

GET SMART

With a war over charter schools raging, it helps to know who’s full of shit

BY MEDIA FARM @MEDIAFARM The fix is on. It’s too late for the copout claim that “the charter school issue is complicated.” Everybody needs to clean the shit out of their eyes and see that cutthroat profit-driven corporate interests calculated every inch of astroturf propping the current crop of increasingly callous charter crusaders, from corner store window ads to cable commercials, clean across the Commonwealth.

Fortunately, with a National Week of Action on School Pushout underway through October 11, there is an arsenal of helpful data and resources available with which one might silence the pro-charter cacophony. Check DigBoston.com for a full rundown.

Don’t take our word for it though. Anyone who thinks the corporate charter movement arcs toward success or equality is encouraged to join Youth on Board, a Boston-based empowerment and leadership incubator, on Thursday, October 8, when young people will share their stories—at bus stops and train stations citywide—about slapdash zero tolerance policies in charter systems. Forget Waiting for “Superman.” If any documentary title describes the National Week of Action on School Pushout, it’s An Inconvenient Truth.

6 - 7:30 PM panel discussion & q&a

FREE RADICAL

Josephine A. Fiorentino Community Center Charlesview Residences 123 Antwerp St. Brighton, MA 02135 Accessible by 70/70A/86 buses.

10-minute walk from the 66

‘NO MORE THAN FOUR’ NO MORE Ordinance fails to address student housing crisis

BY EMILY HOPKINS @GENDERPIZZA In the winter of my junior year of college, I found myself having to interview dozens of potential tenants vying to occupy one of the four other bedrooms in my duplex. After spending a year living with roommates whose lifestyle choices differed from mine, to say the least, I put a lot of work into making sure that didn’t happen again. Of the seven people who ultimately lived in that apartment, a few of us sharing spacious bedrooms, five of us were undergrads. It was the best living situation I encountered during my college years, and technically it was against the law.

Boston’s “no more than four” rule was introduced to the zoning code in 2008 as a way to address overcrowding in student housing. As a city, we’ve seen how serious this issue can be, and the 2013 death of a Boston University student— who was one of more than a dozen people living in a house on Linden Street in Allston—is often cited in this conversation. But while that house was inarguably overcrowded, with almost every living area reportedly converted into sleeping space, it was not the number of people living there that led to fire and fatalities. The house lacked the appropriate number of exits; the fire detection system was not up to code. In short: the place was a hazard because the landlord fashioned it that way.

City officials want to give the “no more than four” ordinance more teeth because the Boston Inspectional Services Department currently finds it difficult to enforce. (There was not a single citation issued under this rule during the most recent September 1 turnover.) But focusing on overcrowding in this arguably discriminatory fashion hurts students who can hardly afford rent to begin with. When the seven of us packed into that five bedroom house, just a toss away from Linden Street, we built a happy and healthy community that defied most common assumptions about student housing. The rent was lower, yes, but more importantly, we came together under cooperative living arrangements, with each of us contributing to the house as a whole by rotating chores and cooking shared meals.

If Boston is serious about addressing the student housing crisis, then leaders need to get creative. Slapping the wrists of scofflaw landlords on the myriad violations that put tenants at risk is like playing rental whackamole.

Facilitating cooperative networks that help build safe and healthy communities, on the other hand, can help students learn their rights, would foster better relationships between this subsection of tenants and the city, and could provide a better incentive for landlords to keep their units up to code. At the very least, officials should look not at the number of students in any given unit, but rather at how many rooms, closets, and basement corners in a house have been converted into bedrooms.

There is no top-down solution for this crisis. We, as a city, are all in this together, and until Boston finds a more radical student housing fix, more fines, ordinances, and worse will stem from this enduring plague of extremely shady business.

Free Radical is a biweekly column syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Emily Hopkins is BINJ projects coordinator.

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COPYRIGHT 2015 EMILY HOPKINS. LICENSED FOR USE BY THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM AND MEDIA OUTLETS IN ITS NETWORK.

Panel Discussion with Q&A

dinosaur dinosaur comics dinosaur comics comics

FEATURE

MASSACHUSETTS INDEPENDENT COMICS EXPO THE THE MASSACHUSETTS INDEPENDENT COMICS EXPO THE MASSACHUSETTS INDEPENDENT COMICS EXPO PORTER SQUARE OCTOBER 17-18PORTER SQUARE OCTOBER 17-18 OCTOBER 17-18 PORTER SQUARE SAT 10AM SAT 10AM - 6PM- 6PM SUN 11AM SUN 11AM - 5PM- 5PM

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coming to town, teamed up DINOSAUR with DINOSAUR COMICS creator and three With With MICEMICE coming to town, we’vewe’ve teamed up with COMICS creator Ryan Ryan NorthNorth and three cartoonists tellwhy you comics, why comics, free things and mice so flippin’ over 150 local local cartoonists to telltoyou free things and mice are soare flippin’ great!great!

MeetMeet over 150 With MICE coming to town, we’ve teamed up with DINOSAUR COMICS creator Ryan North and three independent comic from the Boston area and With MICE coming to town, we’ve teamed creators up with Dinosaur Comics creator Ryan North and three independent comic creators from the Boston area and FULL EXHIBITOR LINEUP ANDover SCHEDULE EXHIBITOR LINEUP AND SCHEDULE AT local cartoonists to comics, tell you whyandcomics, free great! things miceFULL are so flippin’ great!

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byNorth Ryan North - qwantz.com Art by Braden - bradenlamb.com WrittenWritten

by Ryan - qwantz.com | Art by| Braden Lamb -Lamb bradenlamb.com DINOSAUR COMICS X MICE continued on pg. 10 Written by Ryan North - qwantz.com | Art by Braden Lamb - bradenlamb.com NEWS TO US

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DINOSAUR COMICS X MICE continued from pg. 9

free nights where you wake up at 3am going over all those free regrets you got over and over, for even in your own mind you will find no escape Written by Ryan North - qwantz.com | Art by Patt Kelley - pattkelley.com

sorry for calling prose “baby books�, prose writers. i look forward to your thousand tear-stained words on the matter

Written by Ryan North - qwantz.com | Art by Mitra Farmand - mitrafarmand.com 10

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oktoberfest

HONEST PINT

TALKING HONEST

A terse manifesto about the coming weeks for Honest Pint

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON

Wednesday’s 5-11PM OCT. 7th - Oct. 29TH THU Oct. 8th 8PM

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Fresh Baked Soft Pretzel / Mustard Dipping Sauce

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Bavarian Beer Cheese Soup / Crispy knockwurst / Rye Croutons

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Breaded Pork cutlet / Crispy Onions/ Lemon Butter Sauce Dill Spaetzel/ Sweet & Sour Cabbage

HAUS WURST PLATE

Bratwurst / Knockwurst / Weisswurst / Ale braised sauerkraut

ROULADEN

Bacon wrapped Beef Loin Filled with Pickle / Caramel Onions / Mustard Potato Dumpling / Sweet & Sour Cabbage

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Knockwurst Burger / Sauerkrauts / Mustard / Pretzel Roll / Potato Salad

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It’s been an interesting few weeks, both here at DigBoston and in the craft brewing industry in general.

And in the columns to come, you’ll be noticing some new changes to the paper as well as the kind of news you’ll be consuming in this space. But don’t worry: They’re good changes. However, we’d be remiss if we didn’t give you a proper bout of explanation in order to not have you lose your mind at the first sign of something being different with the Honest Pint column. So observe the following rundown…

First: While DigBoston prides itself on being at the cutting edge for all manner of hyperlocal industry news that informed and well-palated readers look for in the weekly Honest Pint column, it’s time to mix things up. As part of this change and new layout, we’re going to be experimenting with a range of ideas in this space. Sometimes it may be a straight-ahead New England beer industry news report, say, touching on stuff like the recent news that the Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) has set events in motion to purchase a minority stake in Nantucket’s own Cisco Brewers (which is happening).

Or it may be something a little more nationally focused within the beer world. Say, the news that in the last several weeks SABMiller and Molson Coors’ joint venture MillerCoors bought the young Saint Archer San Diego brewery (MillerCoors is also reportedly examining the polarizing popularity of sour ales).

Or that Heineken NV landed a 50 percent stake in the 22-year-old Lagunitas brewery. Note: Such news isn’t necessarily the harbinger of doom for the craft beer industry purists often portray it to be. (Or is it?)

Second: This space will also float all manner of local lifestyle, food, dining, shopping, parties, and other normal content you’d see splashed across a more robust filing of our usual Department of Commerce section, now compiled here.

This serves two purposes. Namely, to be more selective in the kinds of content that go into the valuable print real estate week in and week out and to be sure that whatever we’re presenting to you each week in this column is the kind of call-to-action news you can use. Be it a new offering from a local brewer we think you should know about (see: Narragansett Double Chocolate Porter), a new brewery coming to you very soon (see: Winter Hill Brewery in Somerville), or a rundown of the local restaurants (both new and old) that are doing interesting things with regards to their assembling of stellar craft beer lists. Either way, we’ll have you covered.

And in the coming weeks, you may see a host of new names in this space, as the Honest Pint column has for some time now been the go-to for local hop heads intent on gleaning the best beer news in the region as told by some of the most exciting established or up-and-coming beer writers in the land.

Until then, keep an eye on this column , as well as the online portal, to maintain your normal levels of beer in-the-know-ness. Because that’s where you live.

You also live on Earth. But you live in the know, too.

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

Mystic Learning Center • Somerville Local First • Second Chances • RESPOND • Groundwork Somerville • Boys & Girls Clubs • Somerville Community Corporation • SCATV • Arts at the Armory • MAPS • The Welcome Project • Somerville Homeless Coalition • Community Action Agency of Somerville • Door2Door Support these 14 local non-profits!  





September 28—December 1, 2015 Each partner organization is highlighted for a week throughout the season Event on December 1st at the Somerville Armory Help to raise $50,000 for the participating non-profit community of Somerville http://bit.ly/givelocalsomerville

Checks can be made out to Groundwork Somerville at 24 Park Street # 7, Somerville, MA 02143. Please put GivingTuesday Somerville in the memo line.

Online giving coming soon.

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ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

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THU 10.8

FRI 10.9

FRI 10.9

SAT 10.10

SUN 10.11

MON 10.12

Rubber Tracks Studio + HUBweek

Makeover! Party with BLAA

The Blair Witch Project

DIIV, No Joy, Sunflower Bean @ The Sinclair

Harvard Sq. Oktoberfest + HONK! Parade

Feel the Bern!

Every time you buy a pair of Chuck Taylors, you not only up your game but also help support a company that gives a shit about music. In fact, Converse loves music so much, it’s partnered with HUBweek and is offering, among other things, access to its Rubber Tracks sample library for free. Producer Obey City will be leading a workshop, open to the public and anyone awesome, on Thursday and Friday as part of the partnership and festivities.

The Boston LGBTQIA Artist Alliance (BLAA) is not your gay father’s group anymore. With the loss of its permanent gallery and in an effort to broaden its scope and become more inclusive, the BLAA has partnered with Sübsamsøñ to present 18 Boston-based artists to help reshape its identity. With queer identity in constant evolution, the exhibition looks to highlight this transformative community. The reception is Friday night.

Be honest: The first time you saw this movie, you weren’t sure what the hell was going on. As the saying goes, everything you’ve heard is true. Well, obviously it wasn’t, but it scared the shit out of you so who cares! Thanks to the fine folks at the Coolidge, and their menace to your mind, the After Midnight series, you can relive the joy of fright and embed your fingers into the seat cushions all over again.

What to do, what to do…

It’s a Saturday night and you’re looking for something… different.

You love music and enjoy catching a few bands, but you’re looking for something unique, aweinspiring… different. Well, have we got something for you! Brooklyn-based DIIV is not your ordinary band.

Steeped in hallucinatory sounds and musical shapes, the music will transform your mind and calm that itch for something… different.

How much fun can you have bouncing back and forth between six live music stages and hundreds of street vendors selling funky crafts and vintage goods, stopping along the way to polish off a Spaten or three at one of the five beer gardens? As much as you want! Spread out over the entirety of Harvard Square, this annual brouhaha is a must-attend for the young and old. Plan accordingly, however, as a few hundred thousand friends are likely to join in.

Politics these days is no laughing matter, which is why it’s important to laugh occasionally at politics as usual. Host Shawn Carter will do just that while raising funds for the decidedly antipolitician Bernie Sanders.

Joined by special guests Tony V, Rick Jenkins (owner of the Comedy Studio), our favorite Dan Boulger (Boston Comedy Festival winner), and a very special guest, this fundraiser should be a hellraiser.

Converse Rubber Tracks Boston. Lovejoy Wharf, Boston. 6-9:30pm/all ages/ FREE.

Samsøn Gallery. 450 Harrison Ave., Boston.

6-8pm/all ages/FREE.

Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

Midnight/17+/$11.25.

The Sinclair. 52 Church St., Cambridge. Doors 8pm, show 9pm/18+/$18 advance, $20 door.

Harvard Square Oktoberfest. Harvard Square, Cambridge. 126pm/all ages/FREE. Check out harvardsquare.com for complete schedule.

The Somerville Theatre. 55 Davis Square, Somerville.

8-10:30pm/all ages/ minimum donation $35. All proceeds go to the Bernie Sanders Campaign. Tickets available at www.actblue. com/contribute/page/ standupforbernie

10.7.15 - 10.14.15

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DIGBOSTON.COM

PHOTO BY LEONARDO MARCH

IF YOU’RE ONE OF THOSE WEIRD PEOPLE WHO ENJOYS LOUD MUSIC AND BEER, WE’LL SEE YOU AT THE HONK! FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND!

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

15

MUSIC

MUSIC

KRAFTWERK SELLS OUT

THAT WHICH WE CALL A ROSE

Jesus died for you, Ralph Hutter

Jenn of Carissa’s Wierd on ditching her “Ghetto” moniker

BY TOM KIELTY @THETOMKIELTY

Part of the excitement for fans of live performances of any type—be it theater, athletics, or music—is the anticipation in advance of the event. When the performers are as legendary and reclusive as the German quartet Kraftwerk, one can count on that ballyhoo heightening considerably.

You can add in the fact that the Beatles of the Krautrock set—an act for whom such cult acts as Can and Neu! assumed the roles of the Rolling Stones and the Who in the early 1970s—had not visited Boston since 1981 (true devotees had the option of a 2013 pilgrimage to New York for a series of shows at the Museum of Modern Art), and it becomes even more obvious that this kind of thing doesn’t happen every Saturday night in the Hub. On this limited outing, there would be a mere 12 dates, including shows in such virginal territory as Nashville and Calgary; there were no New York, Los Angeles, or Chicago performances. Toss in the mystery of a mostly-unknown 3D component and you have the type of electric atmosphere that was palpable outside a sold-out Wang Theatre on Saturday evening. As one fan commented, “I waited 35 years for this.”

Having been alerted that the performance would be begin at eight o’clock “sharp”—no surprise given Kraftwerk’s penchant for an often stereotypical Teutonic precision—most of this widely varied audience was seated when the curtain rose. The site was a familiar one to hardcore fans of these techno-music pioneers: four straight-backed performers (on this occasion outfitted in matching black jumpsuits that were equally skeletal and mechanical) positioned behind modernized music

stands, each identically lit up and shaped in the form of a letter “T.” The result was akin to a space-age television game show: all equal, all without emotion.

As the 1981 track “Numbers” shifted into play, so did the remarkable 3D presentation with numbers floating out and toward an assemblage outfitted with Kraftwerkspecific 3D glasses. Glancing about the opulent theatre at a capacity crowd, all smiling behind their cardboardframed white glasses, gave one the impression of traveling back in time to the movie houses of the 1950s.

The dichotomy of this spectacle with the beats and synths driving the music in a decidedly futuristic fashion provided a wonderful juxtaposition.

A term like “groundbreaking” is not one to be thrown around with abandon; however, very few acts can count such a diverse roster of artists claiming a debt of influence as Kraftwerk can. Peers as varied as David Bowie—who named his Heroes album track “V-2 Schneider” for departing founder Florian Schneider— and Blondie—who admitted its enormous hit “Heart Of Glass” was transformed from reggae to disco under the influence of Kraftwerk—sing their praises. More contemporary acts from U2 to Daft Punk hold the band in remarkably high esteem, and it can be argued that modern techno was conceived by Detroit’s Belleville Three, who combined the funk of the band’s own home environment with the acknowledged influence of Kraftwerk’s metronome repetition.

Check out DigBoston.com for the full length article and review of the October 3rd show at the Wang Theatre, Boston.

MUSIC EVENTS THURS 10.8

FRI 10.9

SAT 10.10

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

[First Baptist Church, 633 Centre St., Jamaica Plain. 7pm/all ages/$10. bostonhassle.com]

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston. 9pm/21+/$10. greatscottboston.com]

IMPORTED POST-PUNK GLOOM MAKTHAVERSKAN + LOWER

16

10.7.15 - 10.14.15

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FADED OUT FOLK WIDOWSPEAK + SOFT EYES

DIGBOSTON.COM

SWIMMING IN SYNTH TEEN DAZE + HEAVENLY BEAT

SUN 10.11

NEW POP TIMES TWO MEW + THE DODOS

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

7pm/all ages/$20

When Seattle indie rock act Carissa’s Wierd formed back in 1995, the last thing frontwoman Jenn Champion was worried about was her name. Back then, she ditched her real last name, Hays, for one to give her a bit more anonymity, Ghetto. Almost 20 years later to the day, Jenn has, after lots of debate and discussion, decided it’s time to change her last name again—but this time for serious reasons.

“Over the last few years, I’ve been working with a lot of people in the activist community that raise more awareness about language and how much it affects people,” she says. “People say, ‘Oh, but Jenn Ghetto is your name. I don’t think people think you’re being racist by having it.’ But Ghetto is used today with negative connotations … I never picked it up to give myself any kind of edge. Racism is really scary. You don’t want to perpetuate that.”

To Jenn, Ghetto was just a last name, six letters, a word she chose for its sonic value. Once she began writing new songs for her solo act, S, in the wake of Carissa’s Wierd’s 2003 split, conflicted fans began to speak up. Her folk pop songs were appealing, but they couldn’t get over the issue of her name. Thankfully, we have the power to change things in small ways; we just have to choose to.

“When I’m doing stuff now, I’m thinking about the origins of where those actions or words come from,” she says. “Is this racist? Is this okay? Will everyone feel safe with this? Certain words or images we become desensitized to. This conversation has been going on for a really long time, and I’m so grateful to get to be part of it at this point.”

So this is where she finds herself: sitting on top of a charming new LP, Cool Choices, with her own cool choice finally implemented for good.

No matter how things end up moving forward, Champion knows S will allow her to funnel positive change through everlasting rock—and hopefully she won’t be the last to do so.

>> S (JENN OF CARISSA’S WIERD) + GEM CLUB + LITTLEFOOT + IAN. TUE 10.13. LILYPAD, 1353 CAMBRIDGE ST., CAMBRIDGE. 9PM/ALL AGES/$10. LILYPADINMAN.COM

MON 10.12

TUES 10.13

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$25. sinclaircambridge.com]

[The Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$12. mideastoffers.com]

REVVED UP PSYCHEDELIA MERCURY REV + THICK WILD

WATERFALL OF FUZZ PROTOMARTYR + GROWWING PAINS

KRAFTWERK PHOTO BY TOM KIELTY | JENN CHAMPION PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER WILSON

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

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

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FRI 10/9 - 6:30PM DOORS

THE LIGHTHOUSE AND THE WHALER 10:30PM DOORS

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14

MIKE DUNN SAT 10/10 - 7:30PM DOORS

THAT 1 GUY SUN 10/11

KEN MODE MON 10/12

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28 10/14 10/14 FOR FOR TODAY TODAY 10/23 10/23 STRAY STRAYFROM FROMTHE THEPATH PATH//COMEBACK COMEBACKKID KID 10/30 10/30 NEW NEW FOUND FOUND GLORY GLORY 10/31 10/31 BLIND BLIND GUARDIAN GUARDIAN 11/20 11/20 GHOST GHOST TOWN TOWN 11/29 11/29 DANCE DANCE GAVIN GAVIN DANCE DANCE

All shows, All ages. Tickets available in person at the Palladium Box Office, FYE Music and Video Stores, online at Ticketfly.com or by phone at 877-987-6487.

www.thepalladium.net

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.

ONWARD, ETC, AMERICAN OPERA TUE 10/13

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

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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

POWER TRIP

On two new horror films by Eli Roth

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN In Cabin Fever, it happens when the clean-cut hero takes a shovel to his sweetheart’s face. (It’s a mercy killing.) In Hostel, it happens when the frat-ish Paxton is kidnapped overseas and sold to a john, who then tortures him for fetish’s sake. And in The Green Inferno—one of two new films by Boston-born horror filmmaker Eli Roth—it happens in the jungles of Peru, just as the cannibalism begins. Before these moments, his characters are beholden to maintaining their identities: middle-class, American, heterosexual. But after those scenes, all they worry about maintaining is their own consciousness.

These Roth films don’t have turning points. They have points of no return.

Hostel, the most notable of the bloody bunch, got tagged as the granddaddy of “torture porn.” But it was cinema nonetheless: We spent the first half of the movie gallivanting through the bordellos of Amsterdam with two Americans—one ecstatic, one hesitant—who were searching for Europe’s best breasts. The second half sent the pair to the other side of that transaction: They became unwilling products, with johns drilling and killing them for kicks. All the hallways in the torture dungeon were designed to look exactly like the ones seen in the brothels.

So we smartened up. We realized we were watching a morality play about two men paying back their sins. The misbehaving one will die horrible, and the hesitant one will leave scarred—but alive. But then the hesitant kid dies horribly. And Paxton, the ecstatic one, survives only because he abandons that which normally saves people in horror movies: his dignity, his morals, his innocence. He survives because he has the capacity to get even worse.

There are horror films. There are books about horror films. And then there are horror films that have read the books about horror films. The first couple Eli Roth movies fit into that category. They don’t indulge the studied mind—they play with it. And at first glance, The Green Inferno looks like it does too. Justine (Lorenza Izzo) is an NYC college kid who hangs out with the kind of people who like to say “that’s so gay.” But she gazes out her window at Alejandro (Ariel Levy), a student-activist who protests daily, as though he were a bird perched outside her jail cell. These stateside scenes have a blueish tint to them. That would be a callback to Cannibal Ferox, one of the handful of late ’70s/early ’80s Italian horror films that featured the titular act. Cannibal Holocaust and Jungle Holocaust are two others. Any of those titles would work as an alternative moniker for The Green Inferno.

And that’s the raison d’etre, really. Hostel and Cabin Fever fucked with us when they disregarded all the “rules” that horror academics had identified in their books, and gave us brutal realpolitik instead. But Inferno—well, it’s more like a footnotes page.

What Roth does to modernize Ferox and Holocaust is the same thing most filmmakers do when they modernize an old idea: He works social media into it. Alejandro and his crew—among them are the Smitten Fat One (Aaron Burns), the Incorrigible Pothead (Daryl Sabara), the Street Smart One (Nicolas Martinez,), and Alejandro’s Mean Girlfriend (Ignacia Allamand)—are what you might call “hashtag activists.” The plan is to elevate themselves (into

THE GREEN INFERNO both the real world and the trending ranks) by blocking the razing of untouched rainforest in Peru. A militia is protecting the corporate interests, wiping out any natives who come into the bulldozer’s path. And these guys figure they can stop it via streaming video.

One of the prevalent forces driving Eli Roth narratives—alongside misdirection—is irony. Every Roth film thus far concerns creatures of privilege stranded in a locale where the “natives” are far more barbaric than the “heroes” can comprehend. (As an interpretation of “check your privilege,” that’s solid irony in its own right.) So the kids save the rainforest. Their plane home crash lands.

They’re taken into the hands of the very tribe they just saved. And that tribe—seeing people who look exactly like the loggers destroying their environment—decides that it’s hungry. Roth works in a few more nihilistic surprises (there was a hidden motive for the trip, as there often was in the cannibal films of exploitation cinema past), but it’s mostly reversal-of-fortune stuff—everyone’s explicitly professed worst nightmares come true—engineered for the sake of maximum bloodletting.

Roth’s technical talents have not receded. The cinematography, by Antonio Quercia, makes the most of the provocative imagery provided: the white bodies covered by the painted-red hands of the native tribe, or the crayon-red bloodshed against the puke-green of the overgrown trees. And the makeup work, by the legendary team of Gregory Nicotero and Howard Berger, is pleasurably revolting. (There’s a disturbingly unprecedented tenderness to the skin being skinned.) But the crimes committed against cinema are nonetheless galling. Roth takes a scene from Apocalypse Now—the one where the soldiers venture into the jungle for quotidian

>> THE GREEN INFERNO. RATED R. NOW PLAYING AT AMC BOSTON COMMON. >> KNOCK KNOCK. RATED R. OPENING AT HOLLYWOOD HITS 7 (DANVERS) AND AVAILABLE VIA VOD OUTLETS ON FRI 10.9.

KNOCK KNOCK

FILM EVENTS FRI 10.9

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT

[Coolidge Corner. 290 Harvard St., Brookline. Also screens Sat 10.10. Midnight/R/$11.25.

35mm. coolidge.org]

18

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BEN RIVERS IN PERSON

THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS [Harvard Film Archive.

24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/NR/$12.

35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]

DIGBOSTON.COM

reasons, only to almost be eaten by a tiger. In Roth’s version, the pothead has to take a leak, and his penis is nearly bitten by a tarantula. All sorts of movies are getting referenced here. Apparently what they needed was more dick jokes.

The pleasure of Cabin Fever and Hostel—if you’re the type of person who derives pleasure from Cabin Fever and Hostel—was that they removed all semblances of human decency from horror movie formulas. They worked themselves up into a fever, drawing their characters into bloody, all-must-go conclusions, leaving no sensibility or ideology unoffended. The Green Inferno works the same playbook. It draws everyone into a bloody battle royale— then doesn’t know what to do with them. Roth abandons the misdirection and doubles-down on the irony, paying things off with a punchline instead of a gut-punch. Then he borrows his ending from Ferox, instead of topping it.

His first films really were fevered—morally, structurally, conceptually. But Inferno just has a mild cold.

The other Roth movie opening this week is Knock Knock. It’s another retread—a remake of the ’70s feature Death Game. This one has Keanu Reeves as a married gentleman architect who opens his doors to two young women (Izzo and Ana de Armas). They’re very lost, and very hot. Roth, again, updates the script via technology: They ask for an iPad to find an address. Then they needs to wait 45 minutes for an Uber driver. Then they’re blown away by Reeves’ record collection. They spend the time seducing him. It’s a great start: Reeves darts about the frame while they close in on him. He plays responsible man. But the unacknowledged fact is that he wouldn’t be so accommodating if they weren’t so attractive. This is a formal consideration of the unspoken mind of the penis.

But this is a Roth movie—the dynamic shifts. The pair terrorize Reeves the way that vandals terrorize a store owner. They smash all his property. They spraypaint what’s left standing. Then they find a way to vandalize his family life. We end, again, with a punch line. Those points-of-noreturn used to induce delirium. Now they’re just funny.

SAT 10.10

A GREAT FILM BY JOSEF VON STERNBERG UNDERWORLD

[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 4 and 7:30pm/NR/$9-11. 35mm. brattlefilm.org.]

SUN 10.11

ANOTHER GREAT FILM BY JOSEF VON STERNBERG THE DEVIL IS A WOMAN

[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 3 and 7pm/NR/$9-11. 35mm. brattlefilm.org.]

THE LEGENDARY CINE-ESSAY, FINALLY SCREENING LEGALLY

TUE 10.13

[Harvard Film Archive.

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

35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]

YOU AND ME

LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF

FRITZ LANG’S MUSICAL COMEDY ABOUT EX-CONS (!)

[Brattle Theatre. 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 5 and 8:45pm/NR/$9-11. 35mm. brattlefilm.org.]

GRADE A. ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR!”

“

Chris Nashawaty,

“

BRIGHT-SPIRITED AND PROFOUNDLY MOVING!” Joe Morgenstern,

FOR GROUPS OF 25 PEOPLE OR MORE, BOOK YOUR GROUP TICKETS TODAY EMAIL MALALAFILMGROUPSALES@FOX.COM OR CALL ( 310 ) 488-6003

STARTS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9 IN THEATRES EVERYWHERE CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATRES & SHOWTIMES NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

FILM SHORTS BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

Tues 10/6 7PM - (Folk-Rock/Americana/Soul/Blues)

FRUITION Wed 10/7 8:30PM - (World)

CHRISTIANE KARAM + RAKIYA Thur 10/8 7:30PM - (Funk)

THE AMERICAN SYMPHONY OF SOUL Sat 10/10 7:30PM - ( Rockabilly) - $12

ROY SLUDGE Sat 10/10 10PM - (Rock)

PETER PRINCE & MOON BOOT LOVER Tues 10/13 7PM - (Doo-Wop)

BILLY D AND THE ROCKITS Wed 10/14 8PM - (Hip-Hop)

BRIAN THOMAS/ ALEX LEE-CLARK BIG BAND Thur 10/15 10PM - (Blues)

THE WAIT Fri 10/16 7:30PM - (Cajun Zydeco/Americana)

BOOGALOO SWAMIS Fri 10/16 10PM - (Bob Marley Tribute)

THE DUPPY CONQUERORS Sat 10/17 8PM - (World)

CIMARRON Sat 10/17 10PM - (Tribute to Grateful Dead)

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

Sat 10/31 7:30PM, $35

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE + PARTY BOIS (15th Anniversary Tour) Tues 11/3 7PM

HOWARD JONES SOLO (Synth)

Sat 11/14 7PM

ZACH DEPUTY (JAM FUNK, SOUL)

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

GOT AN EVENT? LIST IT.

Use our self-serve listings page to get your event online TODAY!

digboston.com/listings We offer a free basic listing as well as enhanced and premium listings to really get you noticed.

20

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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-on-thetown farce. It’s extremely agreeable, especially when Sam Elliott shows up as a literal patriarch in need of an insult-laden 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 soonto-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.

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 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.

SICARIO Emily Blunt is an idealistic law enforcement officer accompanying men of higher rank on an ethically dubious mission to crash a cartel that’s operating stateside. (Which is to say she’s our embattered national conscience.) Josh Brolin is her ask-noquestions handler (he’s overreach).

And Benecio Del Toro is the spiritually defeated hitman tagging along to kill the bad guys (our reliance on militaristic responses to international crises’ made flesh). It’s a Very Serious Movie about Very Serious Topics. But then you get to the sub-Hitchcock suspense (Sicario doesn’t hesitate to mine real-world violence for actionmovie pleasures) and the FX-dramaready dialogue (“We live in a land of wolves now”), and you find that you have trouble taking any of it seriously.

BLACK MASS The depositions bring us to 1975, and we walk forward from there—biopicstyle—hitting the moments big enough to earn placement in the litany of autobiographies authored by Bulger’s sewing circle of button-men. A feud with the North End’s mafia leads Bulger (Johnny Depp, looking like a CGI version of himself) to cooperate with the FBI. Billy Bulger (Benedict Cumberbatch, doing an accent closer to “Backlot James Cagney” than “Boston”) works his way up the state senate. Bulger’s son dies of an unexpected reaction to aspirin. Then the kingpin recedes further into his own ruthless psyche. The ’80s arrive. Everyone is wearing ugly shoes and getting into jai alai. Bulger murders a corporate stooge, Stephen Flemmi’s stepdaughter, and a few others. We skip through them like a playlist, never seeing workaday crimes, only their repercussions. Call it Greatest Hits.

OFFICE The setting is Jones & Sunn, a financial institution looking to launch an IPO at the wrong time—2008. And the look of the movie is as brazenly fake as the “future money” these corporations were trading. Director Johnnie To sets everything among an explicitly artificial backlot of beams and bars. 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.

THE MASSACHUSETTS INDEPENDENT COMICS EXPO

THEATER

LAND OF CHOICE

A riveting, timely play opens Company One’s 17th season

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

october

& SATURDAY 10AM - 6PM SUNDAY 11AM - 5PM

FREE! admission

>> DRY LAND. RUNS THROUGH 10.30 AT COMPANY ONE THEATRE AT THE BCA. 527 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. WWW.COMPANYONE.ORG

over 150 comic creators & cartooning workshops

at lesley university in

PORTER SQUARE 1815 Mass ave. cambridge, MA PHOTO BY LIZA VOLL PHOTOGRAPHY

With Dry Land, Company One again proves that no other theater company in Boston has its finger on the pulse of culture and society quite like it does. Written

by Ruby Rae Spiegel, who was a 21-year-old Yale University student when she wrote the play, Dry Land premiered last fall in a Colt Coeur production at OffOff-Broadway’s HERE Arts Center. The reviews were glowing, and it earned the coveted “Critics’ Pick” stamp of approval from both the New York Times and Time Out New York.

Set almost entirely in the girls’ locker room at a Florida high school, the play introduces Amy and Ester, newish friends who are both on the swim team. Amy is pregnant with a child that she doesn’t want, and she enlists Ester to help her get rid of it. In Florida, minors must obtain their parents’ consent to get an abortion, and that isn’t an option for Amy. Instead, she’s going to do it herself. The play is simultaneously uncomfortable, hilarious, and important: Layered portrayals of female relationships play out amidst wrenchingly stark circumstances.

“Dry Land is about the courage and resiliency of two teenage girls trying to deal with a very difficult situation alone. And it is about the journey of a friendship that develops from something new and awkward to one of deep trust, vulnerability, and kindness. I hope audiences will experience the profound friendship that develops with the two young women,” said director Steven Bogart.

“From the beginning, we knew we had to approach the play as realism and try to avoid sentimentality. There isn’t anywhere to hide in a sterile high school locker room, and we approached our work embracing that feeling of exposure.”

Once again showing off Company One’s gift for timeliness, the stakes of Dry Land are perhaps even higher now than they were when the play premiered last year, due to the current witch-hunt of Planned Parenthood. We are shown the honesty and the horrors of a DIY abortion in a climate where women’s health issues continue to be threatened. “The current situation with women’s rights in our country has made our work feel more intense and necessary. These are courageous young women trying to take care of their future,” said Bogart.

Actress Alex Lonati, who plays Reba, a schoolmate and pseudo-friend of Amy and Ester, agrees: “This play is always important, but especially now that Planned Parenthood’s funding is up for debate. Access to information and resources is incredibly necessary, and I believe this play and the struggles that our heroine goes through is the perfect example of why that is.”

To enhance the audience’s experience, Company One has a handful of community partners that will participate in post-show conversations after virtually every performance. Partners such as the Boston Doula Project, Planned Parenthood, and Peer Health Exchange will work together with the artists to engage the audience further and deepen their understanding of the show’s issues and artistic vision. “Our partners also come from such varied backgrounds—we have abortion doulas, adolescent behavior experts, a sports psychologist, women’s rights activists, teen health educators, a competitive swimmer—there are so many points of entry to this play,” says dramaturg Jessie Baxter. “With Planned Parenthood in the headlines so much, I’m even more thrilled we are partnering with them on the show—our audiences get the chance to talk to them directly about how the play connects to these big-picture issues.

I’m always the most excited when we can connect our work to the world outside the theater in really tangible ways, and we have a great opportunity to do that with this show.”

SPONSORED BY: LESLEY UNIVERSITY, DIGBOSTON, & THE MILLION YEAR PICNIC 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

GAY TIMES

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE I’m a gay man who is ready to start cheating on my boyfriend.

We’ve had a wonderful 3.5-year-long relationship full of respect, affection, support, and fun. I love everything about our relationship, and our sex life was great… until he moved in eight months into the relationship. At that point, he lost all interest. I’ve tried everything: asking what I can do differently, being more aggressive, being more passive, suggesting couples therapy, getting angry, crying, and breaking up twice. (Both breakups lasted only a few hours because I honestly don’t want to leave him.) When I bring up an open relationship, he just goes quiet. I’ve moved past most of the anger, frustration, hurt, embarrassment, and sadness. But I won’t accept a life of celibacy.

I would like to get some discreet play on the side. My boyfriend is very perceptive, and I’m a bad liar. I don’t want to get caught— but how should the conversation go if (when) I do? I’m leaning toward something like this: “I’m sorry it came to this and I know we agreed on monogamy, and I gave you monogamy for 3.5 years, but part of agreeing to monogamy is the implicit promise to meet your partner’s sexual needs. Everything else about our relationship is wonderful, but we couldn’t fix this one thing, so instead of continuing to push the issue, this is what I decided to do.” Good enough?

Can’t Help Exploring Another Tush 22

10.7.15 - 10.14.15

|

DIGBOSTON.COM

The speech you’re planning to give after you get caught is lovely, CHEAT, but you should give it before you get caught. Tell your boyfriend you love him—you would have to, considering what you’ve put up with for nearly three years—and that you have no desire to leave him. But while your relationship is wonderful in many ways, it’s not sexual in any way. And while you’re willing to settle for a companionate relationship, you’re not willing to settle for a sexless existence.

Rather than being threatened by your occasional, discreet, and safe sexual adventures, CHEAT, your boyfriend should be grateful for them. Because those sexual adventures, and your boyfriend’s acceptance of them, will make it possible for you to stay together. Hopefully he’ll see that the men you’ll be fucking on the side aren’t a threat to your relationship but its salvation.

If your boyfriend can’t see that, if he insists that your relationship remain monogamous and sexless (wouldn’t that technically mean he’s the only person you don’t have sex with?), give breaking up another try. The third time might be the charm.

On the Lovecast: Fox News on transgender issues. Fair and unbiased? Listen at savagelovecast.com.

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BOWERY BOSTON

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Tickets for Royale, The Sinclair, and Great Scott can be purchased online at Ticketmaster.com or by phone at (800) 745-3000.

No fee tickets available at The Sinclair box office Wednesdays - Saturdays 12:00 - 7:00PM

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