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VOL 18 + ISSUE 8

FEBRUARY 25, 2016 - MARCH 3, 2016 EDITORIAL

DEAR READER

EDITOR + PUBLISHER Jeff lawrence

In 2013, for the first time in Dig history, we threw our support behind a political candidate, Marty Walsh for mayor of Boston. We were the only citywide paper that endorsed him … and he won. The next day, Walsh stopped by our loft and talked to every single person in the office. It was an important and impressive moment for us, and we soaked it up.

Unfortunately, almost three years later, it appears we were the ones who got soaked. If you start from the top and work down the list, you’ll find he’s been a bust. Housing is more expensive and definitely more scarce than ever before. Corporations are getting new and exciting tax breaks and preferred status under some dumb trickle-down ideology we long ago threw away with our belief in Bigfoot. GE? FU! Walsh was also a champion of a new kind of 24hour Boston, which turned out to be another empty promise. The MBTA still closes before most bars close, and there’s little hope on the horizon. Finally, the mayor has capitulated to the draconian drug warriors and pounded his chest against the progress of medical and now recreational marijuana, and in doing so has ignored the will of countless people who voted in favor of the law and put him into office.

We bought it all, hook, line, and sinker. Shame on you, Mayor Olympics, but more to my point, shame on us.

As we slog deeper into our Year of Electionshitcrap, think about that and what the candidates are currently saying to you so they can convince you to vote for them, as opposed to what you hope they really mean and will actually do.

Because they will likely never be congruent. What they’re saying is pure bullshit. Depressing, isn’t it?

NEWS + FEATURES EDITOR Chris Faraone ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran ASSOCIATE FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITOR Christopher Ehlers COPY EDITOR Mitchell Dewar CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Emily Hopkins, Jason Pramas CONTRIBUTORS Nate Boroyan, Renan Fontes, Bill Hayduke, Emily Hopkins, Micaela Kimball, Jason Pramas, Dave Wedge INTERNS Becca DeGregorio, Anna Marketti

DESIGN CREATIVE DIRECTOR Tak Toyoshima COMICS Tim Chamberlain Pat Falco Patt Kelley

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ON THE COVER Quilt poses yearbookly for our cover this week.

Read all about them on page 16. Photo by Daniel Dorsa.

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OH, CRUEL WORLD Dear KW, I refuse to acknowledge your name because it seems ALL you care about is seeing your name everywhere.

Congratulations!

Mission accomplished! You are famous, or should I say infamous, but not in the B.I.G. kind of way. He had talent. Nobody likes you.

You’re fucking clueless. You clearly believe there is no such thing as bad publicity. That just puts you in the same category as Justin Bieber and Vanilla Ice. A blowhard. A trainwreck. You will be remembered, sure, but not as the second coming. That’s something though, right?

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NEWS US JOB BLOWS NEWS TO US

real explanation, just they win and I lose. Stunned, I filed an appeal to the appeal.

THE REAPPEAL

A man, a mission, a modern Massachusetts unemployment odyssey

BY D-TENSION A lot of people know me as a hip-hop artist. A rapper and producer and radio DJ. But like most entertainers, I need a year-round job to feed my family. And like a whole lot of Americans, and rappers for sure, I am currently unemployed.

Some people are embarrassed to be unemployed. Not me. And so I have been pretty vocal about recent struggles with the Department of Unemployment Assistance. A trip to the Registry of Motor Vehicles pushes the limits of human patience. The DUA, meanwhile, makes the RMV feel like TGIF. I first considered this topic to be too obvious to write about. Clearly, I thought, the state’s joke of an unemployment system has been covered and gutted.

But it hasn’t been gutted enough. And so I’m sharing my own nightmarish experience, as well as some that I’ve collected from my equally perturbed Facebook friends.

THE INTERVIEW

My first check arrived two weeks after I applied. Not bad.

All I had to do was visit the DUA website every Sunday, request my benefits, and report my work search activity.

It seemed simple. On the first Sunday, though, I found a perplexing error message: “DUA Online is currently unavailable for scheduled maintenance. Please try back again later.” It’s not a complicated site, but the state shuts it down every night. The same is true for its career portal, Job Quest.

The madness was just beginning. Three weeks after receiving my first check, I was randomly selected to participate in a job training class and something called a Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) review.

If I didn’t participate, I would lose my benefits.

At the job training class, the first thing we learned was the infinite P’s of the job search: Positive, Punctual, Progress, Participate, Precipitate, Perspiration, Proper appearance. We then spent an hour mastering the art of the handshake and greeting each other: “How do you do?” I guess some people need to learn such skills, but my resume suggests otherwise.

At the end of three hours, the instructor actually gave us a multiple choice quiz with questions like, “What is the most appropriate way for a man to dress for a job interview? A) Shirt and tie. B) Shorts and T-shirt. C) Summer attire. D) All of the above.”

THE REVIEW

But at least I can keep my checks, right? Wrong. I still had to go through an REA review, which requires me to log at least three examples of my job search every week before I can be paid. But when I attempted submit my info on the DUA page, I clicked the link and nothing happened. Over and over. I tried my wife’s PC, my Mac, and my kid’s iPad. No luck.

The next day I went to my review at a job assistance organization that works in conjunction with the DUA. There I explained that I could not access the required data and was in turn told that the organization’s career center couldn’t access the work search log I had successfully filed anyway. She said I couldn’t be reviewed as a result and that I’d lose my benefits without my logs.

Which I’d already sent to DUA. Bananas.

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Next the DUA rescheduled my REA class, but for a day on which I had a job interview—which the department told me to reschedule! Isn’t the point of this entire runaround to find a job? I asked, “Do you want my first impression with a potential employer to be me canceling a job interview?” She stared at me blankly. “Don’t bother coming in if you don’t have your work logs.”

THE APPEAL

When it came time for the new REA appointment I had the flu, and I still couldn’t access my logs, so I emailed and was informed that I could reschedule. But a few days later I received notice that I was kicked off of unemployment.

This is when I filed an appeal and took to social media.

Turns out I’m not alone. I was bombarded with posts and messages from friends who are afraid to use their real names. People who fear the DUA like it’s the DEA. “I ended up giving up on unemployment a couple months ago after a month of trying,” one guy lamented. “I could never get anyone on the phone and the website was zero help. Luckily I had friends or I would have been homeless.”

My appeal was on the phone with a sympathetic fellow who admitted that the DUA site has issues. I begged for mercy, and he told me that people who use Safari or Internet Explorer have a hard time. Isn’t that almost everybody? Two of the most popular browsers in the world don’t work!? It’s like a practical joke.

To quote another Facebook friend, a former Lowell School Committee member, “They were absolutely horrific to deal with. They spoke down to you like you were ignorant.”

Google Chrome worked, but the appeal didn’t.

The sympathetic guy decided against me. No

I lost the appeal to the appeal. There was no conversation, no meeting, and no transparent process. Paul Fitzgerald, chairman of the state Board of Review, simply dismissed it. Sort of like he denied my request for an interview for this column. I never got to give my side. I simply lost.

Again, because access to these resources is inadequate.

I can’t feed my family because the Commonwealth can’t build a working website in 2016. I now have one last option for appeal. I can take the DUA to civil court. At this point I am owed over two thousand dollars.

Out of options, in a moment of despair I reached out to my state rep (and the former president of my high school) Tom “Tipa” Golden. He got right back and referred me to the clandestine-sounding Office of Constituent Services, where somebody was actually able to reschedule my class and get me back on track.

No owed checks, but she got me current and answered some questions. A miracle.

But the checks stopped after a week. Turns out I was randomly selected for a resume-building class, which ended up being taught by a singer who literally said “literally” 50 times in an hour, not once correctly.

She also used the phrase “references refurbished upon request.” Twice.

The singer saw that my resume was mostly radio and journalism experience and found me a job listing at RadioShack. I explained that this wasn’t the same thing as an actual job in radio, but she made me go anyway.

The manager at RadioShack looked at my resume and said, “You’re going to quit in a week.” Then pretty much asked me to leave.

I got the stupid REA certification, but was told that if I lied about anything I would be forced to pay back all the money. Plus interest! Like another friend noted under one of my rants, “They treat you like animals. It’s degrading.”

Not everyone chimed in. The DUA and Gov Charlie Baker declined to comment for this article, but maybe if enough of us scream out, we can at least get their attention.

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WORKING TOGETHER Arlington moves closer to cannabis dispensary

BY DAVE GENTRY

The idea might have seemed doomed from the get-go. For starters, the early February public hearing was called to address the “Regulation of the Arlington Board of Health Restricting the Sale of Marijuana.” Furthermore, the occasion came as the result of a punt, as town selectmen voted four months earlier to postpone the issue of addressing their first dispensary opening until “further discussion.” Despite supporting medical cannabis in 2012, it looked like Arlington was stalling when the reality of a dispensary hit home.

At this public forum, however, the overwhelming sentiment in the room favored action, and the residents who spoke up had concerns over how—not if—a medical dispensary should open in their town. In their opening statements, board members reminded the crowd that their body doesn’t decide “if” or “where” a dispensary can open, but rather “how to regulate one, should it come to that.”

Up for discussion was the actual wording of formal guidelines. The procurement, storage, handling, licensing, and dispensing of cannabis fall under the purview of the Arlington Board of Health; as such, this was not the appropriate forum for debates over zoning, community, or morality.

Anyone who came for a heated town hall shouting match probably left disappointed. One vocal resident voiced a broad concern about the alreadygranted rights of individuals to obtain a “hardship cultivation permit” to grow cannabis. “What is the town regulating,” she asked, “and are these regulations discriminatory?” To which a board member responded, “This is a financialadministrative issue,” adding, “What has been proposed by the state [regarding the obtaining of a hardship permit] is not burdensome.”

The next issue was over the “30-day supply” rule, which stipulates a maximum purchase limit of five ounces in a month. A concerned resident, who emphasized that she was not a medical patient or recreational user herself, said she hoped the town would consider pushing the supply limit to 60 days because “the difference between 30 and 60 days matters if you’re not well.” In response, a board member said, “We designed these regulations not to be prohibitive. We’re trying to be kind.”

Only two shades of doubt dimmed the sunny prospect of an Arlington dispensary. One very pro-medical marijuana resident did not want a possible recreational dispensary piggybacking the same retail space, should marijuana become legal in the future. Another wanted a way to limit the number of dispensaries in the area, and to extend the state buffer zone required—between such operations and school zones and parks—from 500 to 1,000 feet. Both issues, however, fell outside the purview of local health officials.

Moving forward, albeit slowly, the board’s final item was regarding a proposal to reconvene at a later date and review comments made throughout the evening. Members agreed that more discussion is necessary to address certain regulations, and they set an agenda to fine-tune stipulations before a vote is even scheduled. So while the people of Arlington wait for consensus on some minor points, at least the wheels of bureaucracy are grinding toward the will of residents.

Dave Gentry is a content marketer and freelancer. He’s a fan of progress and recess who answers to #davertido.

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THIN BLUE PAYWALL BPD drags its feet, charges hundreds for files

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The name Henry Staines probably means next to nothing to most people. But this may ring a bell—last April, a video surfaced online of the Boston Police Department sergeant threatening a man filming the arrest of a 14-year-old carrying what turned out to be a fake gun.

In the recording, Staines approaches the man and offers to give him a ride in a cruiser. After the guy asks if he’s doing anything wrong, the sergeant replies, “No, just I always question when you’re taking video of us.” Staines continues, “I’m not giving you permission to film me”—before walking away. He then returns with the realistic-looking toy gun and pushes it up to the camera as another cop points his own camera at the man filming.

That video prompted an internal affairs investigation. Shortly thereafter, the Boston Globe noted that there had been nine cases brought against Staines between 1993 to 2014. A department spokesperson told the Globe that none of the allegations stuck, so I went ahead and requested the related internal affairs files, plus a log of all investigations for the last 15 years. I sent that request to the BPD on May 2, 2015. They finally responded earlier this month, and are asking for $200 to pay for more than 200 pages of documents.

This case exemplifies one of the biggest problems that journalists and the public face in the pursuit of truth and accountability. A man on the street is menaced—and himself filmed in apparent petty retribution—for exercising his right to record police. The incident is investigated from within the department, as is common protocol elsewhere across the country. But instead of being released to the public, the documents produced from those investigations—public records—are kept inside the department, behind a $200 paywall that you only find out about months after asking in the first place.

If my public records request had been an embryo, my paper baby would be a month old by now. People conceive and birth new people at a faster clip than the Boston Police Department could cough up a cost estimate for fulfilling this very inconvenient request.

It’s time to see the fruits of those investigations, and for the public to peruse the log of all internal investigations. We should not have to wait months and we should not have to pay for information that is rightfully ours. The police department collects untold amounts of surveillance data on us. What’s a few hundred pages in return?

Payment for these documents is currently being crowdfunded on MuckRock.com.

MEDIA FARM

INFO WARS

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The perils of reporting in Mass

BY CHRIS FARAONE @MEDIAFARM Two things in particular have happened in the past week that led me to appeal to readers directly in this week’s column. One involves a story that a friend and colleague is researching about a sensitive police issue with a department that shall remain unnamed for now. You will read about the matter in these pages and in other newspapers soon, but at this point the public should know that our serious and informed queries were met with remarks such as, “Be careful where you’re going with this.”

The other is an apparent okey doke that Boston Public Schools attorneys are pulling on our education reporters. We had already filed Freedom of Information Act requests related to questionable administrative behavior at Boston Latin School before drama erupted over racial tension on that campus.

Since BPS quoted us a price more than a month ago and we sent them a check though, we have received nothing but excuses in return.

We promise to get back to chiding our peers soon. At the moment, many of us are busy in the professional fight of our careers. Please excuse any sentimental camaraderie, but we do hope that you’ll join the chorus and echo our complaints, as we’ll need as much public opinion on our side as possible in order to win this for everyone.

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TOUCH DOWN

TOO LEGIT TO QUIT

FEATURE

The Hub’s unlicensed radio stations spin their wheels in the face of adversity

BY BASIM USMANI With Santa’s helpers all around and kids holding slices of pizza, a toy drive at a union hall is a strange place for Team Jerk to be spinning. A partnership of three area DJs, the crew represents some of Boston’s most popular unlicensed radio stations—Big City 101.3 FM and Boston 87.7 FM—and is generally known for spinning the latest hip-hop and soca “chunes” and for its erudite scholarship of Jamaican dubplates and dancehall riddims. Today, however, the three are playing the roles of neighborhood activists and elves.

“While our radio presence focuses on music first, and generally Caribbean music, we end up being involved in community events because of the listenership we’re attracting,” says Deejay Dex, who in his early 30s is the youngest of the trio.

Along with partners Jeff2Timez and Ill Neil, Dex has held down urban radio for years in the Hub. Despite its underground arrangement, Big City, where Dex commands the decks on weekday afternoons, is a decade old. Jeff and Neil’s station began broadcasting in 2008 to fill the gap left since Hot 97.7 FM, a commercial hiphop outpost owned by the national giant Entercom, switched formats in 2005. As individual artists, Neil and Jeff have been active since the early ’90s, the latter having produced several classic Hub rap tracks for acts including the Almighty RSO. Unlicensed frequencies often fall into the category of Low Power FM (LPFM), a label that includes any station that broadcasts with a signal of less than 100 watts, which generally reaches between three and five miles.

Though the digital revolution has changed listening habits for many people, in Massachusetts, immigrant communities in urban centers like Boston, Lowell, Brockton, and Worcester still rely on these outlets for critical information and entertainment. For people who are just starting in the Commonwealth, unlicensed frequencies—sometimes dismissed as pirate stations, a characterization their listeners and DJs eschew—offer 10

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programming in Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Portuguese that can’t be found elsewhere on the dial.

Despite the importance of stations that connect with underserved communities—a point even noted by the mainstream press in Boston and elsewhere, albeit seemingly reluctantly and certainly infrequently—the Federal Communication Commission (FCC), which regulates airwaves, continues to rain down on operators like Big City. A few days after Team Jerk held its holiday toy drive in Dorchester, the FCC in New York City summoned three unlicensed stations to shut down immediately.

Nationally, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler has made closing such operations a priority and has even asked Congress to hold broadcasters criminally liable (instead of only issuing fines).

Meanwhile in Greater Boston, authorities have shuttered more than ten so-called pirates since 2011, with United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz proudly noting, “As prosecutors we work in conjunction with the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau to identify violators of federal communications law. It is a public safety hazard for illegal radio stations to broadcast, potentially interfering with critical radio communications.”

Not surprisingly, the Ortiz version failed to acknowledge the importance of these resources.

About an hour into their holiday gift drive, the members of Team Jerk ask the Santa on stage to step aside and make way for a dance-off for young people to compete for extra presents. Fifty or so kids, ranging from oblivious toddlers to eight-year-old tryhards, gather at the foot of the stage. Dex flips on “Drop that #NaeNae,” the viral dance of 2015, and the crowd erupts. Young cats “whip” their fake steering wheels around with the confidence of a goomba in a Cadillac. Meanwhile, a group called Divas Mentoring Divas holds a winter vacation “feminar” to teach young girls the basics of modeling, acting, and performing. Globe Santa, this is not.

On April 17, 2014, US Marshals accompanied by FCC officials entered the offices of TOUCH 106.1 FM near Grove Hall on the Dorchester-Roxbury line. In the raid, they seized all of the equipment connected to the station’s transmission board, crippling its ability to broadcast over airwaves.

TOUCH billed itself as “the voice of Black Boston” and provided up-to-date city news, as well as a platform for local politicians and government employees to discuss issues with their listeners, plus various musical and educational programs. Station owner Charles Clemons, a former police officer and candidate for mayor of Boston who is known to friends and listeners as Brother Charles, was forced to move TOUCH entirely online, a transition he says negatively impacted the size of his listener base, which skews older and toward the analog side of the digital divide. In addition to being a vocal advocate for embattled stations like TOUCH, Clemons has run for public office in two cycles—once for mayor, another time for city council—and suggests the resulting heightened profile put a target on his back.

“I walked [more than 200 miles] on foot to raise awareness on this issue,” Clemons says in an interview at his office in Dorchester, speaking to the plight of unlicensed stations looking for a way to go legit. “While I was widely credited as drawing attention [that led] to the Local Community Radio Act, we were also made out to be an example a few years later.”

The Local Community Radio Act, signed into law in 2011, bars stations that have operated illegally in the past from obtaining new licenses. Though the measure came as a result of lobbying by groups like the Philadelphiabased Prometheus Radio Project that advocate for such operators—as well as local operators like Clemons—this stipulation disqualified hundreds of unlicensed stations serving communities around the country.

Since 2011, only two radio licenses have been offered up by the FCC in Boston. One of those bands—102.9 FM—was split three ways between Lasell College, the community and religious programming of Boston Praise Radio, and Boston News Network, a public-access cable channel controlled by the city. For Clemons, the ordeal has amounted to a slap in the face.

“It was probably a message the FCC wanted to send to the other 22 or so unlicensed stations that broadcast from Blue Hill Avenue,” says Clemons. TOUCH focused on a lot of talk, political and otherwise, and catered largely to the baby boomer generation and older, but also featured younger personalities and Boston hip-hop icons like Rusti Pendleton, who used his platform to highlight neighborhood issues and local talent.

“I had a weekly show on TOUCH called The Councilor’s Corner,” says Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson, who says many of his constituents in Roxbury, Dorchester, and the South End rely on unlicensed frequencies for news. Jackson’s not alone in tapping such lines of communication; while on one hand the government drives the likes of TOUCH out of business, on the other, even pols like Boston Mayor Marty Walsh have made appearances on TOUCH and other stations embattled with the FCC. Adds Jackson: “Solutions to problems usually exist closest to those problems. LPFM stations have a real potential to reach specific places, individual neighborhoods, and allow for us to hear directly from constituents … It’s a very critical service for our distinct immigrant communities. It empowers those who need information about resources, jobs, legal ramifications.

There’s a whole host of reasons why these communities need these stations that may seem trivial to those who have access to money.”

HAITIAN IDENTIFICATION

Radio Concorde is one of Boston’s longest-running unlicensed stations, having first signed on in the 1980s. Its home base in Dorchester is only about two rooms, approximately 150 square feet total, located in a nondescript two-story office building on Blue Hill

THE BLACKLIST

“When TOUCH went away, where is that platform?” asks Neil of Team Jerk. “Where is that older crowd that was listening?”

The seizure of equipment at TOUCH, news of which reverberated loudly in the local media, sent a chilling effect through many low-power operators in Boston. Neil continues: “I had just signed off the air when we got a phone call from one of our friends at TOUCH, and she said, ‘Let the people know they’re here.’ They were telling us what was happening as it was happening over the phone, and it was scary.”

“It was scary for all the DJs who are volunteering their time to do this,” adds Dex, who explains the looming threat faced by on-air personalities. “If the FCC comes along and takes your equipment, what [am I], as a DJ who is supporting my family, going to do? We do this for the love of it. We all have day jobs.”

For the members of Team Jerk and others on the music side of unlicensed radio in Boston, significant motivation comes from the lack of local representation on local commercial airwaves. Among innumerable other factors, including contemporary forms of payola—in which DJs are paid, directly or otherwise, by record companies to play certain tracks—the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which deregulated the radio industry for the worse, has given way to unprecedented homogenization in music programming.

“On paper, there’s only one radio station catered to an urban audience, and that one is corporatized and won’t play anything that’s not Top 40,” says Neil in reference to JAM’N 94.5 FM, a Clear Channel-owned enterprise that has historically ignored local artists. Neil says corporate rap radio here slept on the latest New Edition album, “which should be getting more attention in the city [where] they were born and bred.” By comparison, when New Kids on the Block reunited in 2008, local frequencies

like Kiss 108 FM propped the aging, white boy band relentlessly. Adds Neil: “And [New Edition is] famous. The corporate stations don’t give the black community in Boston real representation.”

The FCC has made attempts, however superficial, in the past to check businesses for using public airwaves without also providing a community service, namely supporting local indie performers. In 2007, four of the biggest broadcasters—a group that included Clear Channel and Entercom—paid more than $12 million to settle a payola scandal and in doing so agreed to designate 8,400 half-hour blocks of airtime for independent labels. Nearly 10 years later, however, you’d be hard-pressed to hear leading Hub rap artists like Dutch Rebelle, Cousin Stizz, or Rosewood Bape on corporate rap radio. As a result, says Neil, “It’s hard for black artists in Boston to take their careers to the next step.”

Dorchester native Rey Royale, a soul singer from Dorchester, says he owes much of his popularity thus far to Big City. “Dex is one of the first DJs to spin my solo music—they’ve gotten pretty big spinning new artists,” Royale says. “Stations like Big City make it a lot easier and [are] even instrumental in making people’s careers.”

Nevertheless, the FCC has remained frustratingly opaque about when there may be another opportunity for operators to win LPFM licenses. While for those who have operated stations without licenses, extenuating regulatory hurdles remain. “The [Local Community Radio Act of 2011] was so important for us,” says Neil. “There’s a dying need for it.”

As they proceed with business as usual in 2016—hiphop, soca, community events—the Team Jerk DJs remain optimistic about the new year. Neil continues: “We’re in the works of figuring out if there’s a station or outlet where a license gets freed up. I dunno if there’s gonna be a pool or how they do it. We’re trying to research which one of those outlets is the most realistic … The goal for 2016: We’re trying to find a home.”

Curtis Henderson, Jr.—the general manager of BNN, which will share an LPFM frequency with Lassell and Praise Radio—says Boston’s city station will launch before March. “We’re still in the process of deciding our exact programming,” he says. Considering the television side of BNN boasts more than a dozen languages in its varied programming, there will be plenty to cram in between college and religious programming, including a possible show from TOUCH owner Clemons, who already produces a show on the network’s cable access channel.

All things considered, it’s a small win for the underserved communities of Boston. Asked about the need for more low-power licenses across the board, Henderson welcomes additional competition without hesitation. “The more the merrier,” he says.

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.

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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

PHOTO BY CHRIS FARAONE

“When you get here, it’s as if you’re obligated to listen to radio or watch TV that you don’t understand,” he says. “If they allow TeleBoston [another unlicensed Haitian station] or Radio Concorde, you can slowly work your way into the system, because you can understand the language the speaker is speaking in. Without these stations, it’s almost like taking your right to know away from you.”

Beausejour Antoine, a Brockton-based photojournalist who has appeared regularly on stations including Concorde, echoes the laments of Osias.

“I’ve been doing radio since 1998 in Boston,” says Antoine, “and our stations have really served the community, especially in regards to immigration and police. It’s very important for the community, because we speak in French or Creole, and a lot of people get in trouble because they are not informed. It would be great if we could just get one license for a dedicated legal station, [rather] than have to rely on a dozen smaller ones.”

PHOTO BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN

Avenue. It started decades ago to serve the growing Haitian diaspora, which is now estimated to number 150,000 in the Commonwealth. For an operation that isn’t recognized by the FCC, Concorde is relatively significant, broadcasting out of two cities, on 106.3 FM in Boston and on 102.9 in Brockton.

“We’ve been on for 24, going on 25 years,” says program manager Samuel Osias, who boasts about the influential guests the station has had despite its lack of a license. He adds, “We’ve had Deval Patrick, the current Gov [Charlie] Baker, and many city council members, especially from the 4th District … When Wyclef [Jean] was running for president of Haiti, we even had him over a few times.”

Like many other low-power and unlicensed stations that broadcast in French Creole or Spanish, Radio Concorde serves mostly as a talk radio station, offering a forum for hosts, guests, and callers to riff on current events and providing a platform through which members of the local Haitian community, many of whom are new to America, can stay informed.

“Today we discussed the racial tension at Boston Latin,” said Osias, referring to the recent conflict between administrators and a group of black students at the elite test school over racist remarks on campus. “Many community elders have been calling in to say, ‘Are you guys surprised?’”

By mission, Concorde has historically been both a vital information source and a rallying point for the Haitian community. “We organized so many protests,” Osias says.

“Back in the 1980s when health organizations were saying Haitians brought HIV to the USA, we organized a protest down in Dedham … outside the Red Cross. When there was a coup d’etat in 1991, Haitians flocked [to] downtown Boston in front of the JFK building.”

And when the 2010 earthquake sent shockwaves through the Haitian population and their extended families, Concorde became a clearinghouse for everything from financial to emotional support. “Our airwaves were open to all people who had family in Haiti and were worried about their loved ones,” Osias says. “Many would come to the station to donate items, which we shipped at our own expense.”

Despite the importance that Radio Concorde has in the community—Osias boasts that 90 percent of Haitians in the state have heard of the station—the enduring lack of official sanction is a constant source of anxiety. “[Being shut down by the FCC] is always on our minds because this is all about money,” he says. “It’s about protecting the interests of the big guys.”

Osias continues, “It’s not that different than gentrification. Now, Mattapan Square is dead. So the black folks are being pushed out so whites can move in and come in with their investments.”

Without immigrant centers or community stations being protected, Osias says government and culture in general in Boston stand to grow less friendly toward immigrants and people of color.

11

EATS

KELLEY SQUARE PUB

OLDE MAGOUNʼS SALOON PRESENTS:

A Place for Lovers of Old-School Dining and Drinking

BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON

SOUL FOOD Wednesdays 5-11pm February 3rd-24th

ONCE Lounge & Ballroom 156 Highland Ave. ONCEsomerville.com

PAN FRIED CAT FISH

4/3-4/22 The Rock & Roll Rumble

SMOTHERED PORK CHOPS

2/29 The Splinters (Bluegrass/Americana) 3/7 Brenna Carroll and G-Force (Blue Fusion) 3/18 Count Zero, The Shills & Bury Me Standing

Red Eye Gravy, Pork Belly, Pearl Onions

3/19 ARCHGOAT (Finland) Black Metal Legends, 1st show in Boston w/ Valkyrja & more TBA | $20 adv/$25 dos | 18+ | 7pm Doors

STEWED OXTAILS

3/25 Petty Morals, Muck and the Mires + more 4/1 Drop ya mic, pick up yer paintbrush (Art Show) 4/2 Black Tusk, Holy Grail, Gozu + more

CHICKEN & WAFFLES

Locavore tacos done right every Monday night 5-10pm in the ONCE Lounge

Cornmeal Crust, Spicy Shrimp Remoulade

Local Root Vegetables, Moxie Pan Gravy

Fried Chicken, Waffles, Rosemary Maple Syrup

COUNTRY STYLE BABY BACK RIBS

is here @ ONCE! Bands to be announced soon Presented by Boston Emissions/WZLX Fullboat ticket on sale for limited time

Presented by Cuisine en Locale

www.enlocale.com 617-285-0167 NOW BOOKING PARTY & WEDDING CATERING

Ginger, Garlic Herbs & Spices, Secret Sauce

CHOICE OF 2 W/ ENTRÉE A LA CARTE SIDES - Down Home Potato Salad - Uncle Danny’s Mac & Cheese - Candied Yams w/ Pecans & Pork Candy - Bumpy’s Skillet Cornbread w/ Honey Butter - Braised String Beans w/ Pork Belly & Onions - Collard Greens w/ Smoked Turkey - Black Eyed Peas & Rice

Before placing order, please inform your food server if anyone in your party has a food allergy *consuming raw or undercook meat poultry seafood shellfish & eggs my increase risk of foodborne illness

@MAGOUNSSALOON OLDEMAGOUNSSALOON

Fri 2/26 - (Songwriter, Soul, Country, Blues) 7PM

Amy Black Heavy Metal Horns 10PM

25th Anniversary Reunion Sat 2/27 - (World Music) 7:30 + 10PM

Pedrito Martinez Group Sun 2/28 - (Rock) 4PM

The Pretentious Fools 8PM

Noam Weinstein On Waves record release feat.

Tim Gearan + Anita Suhanin Mon 2/29 - (Last Stand Up Show Ever!) 8PM

Johnny D’s Comic Meritus Showcase 518 Medford St. Somerville

magounssaloon.com|617 - 7 76 - 2 6 0 0 12

2.25.16 - 3.3.16

|

DIGBOSTON.COM

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

There has been a lot of talk lately about Boston-area dive bars closing at an alarming rate. And while this is certainly true, the same can be said (though perhaps to a slightly lesser degree) of old-school dining and drinking spots that lean more toward being neighborhood joints than true dives, which are often seen as dark, rough-around-the-edges watering holes that you don’t go to for their food. And while many mourn the closings of such stalwarts as Finian’s in Quincy, Salem Wood Cafe in Malden, Sadie’s in Waltham, and the Paddock in Somerville, a good number of similarly old-fashioned spots still exist; one such place is a classic neighborhood spot called Kelley Square Pub, which is hidden away in a densely populated East Boston neighborhood and isn’t all that far from the iconic Santarpio’s Pizza, which may get all the press (and rightly so), but it also gets some serious competition in the pizza category from this eatery.

If you don’t know East Boston all that well, good luck trying to find Kelley Square Pub, as the myriad of one-way streets, twisty highways like Route 1A and Route 90, and lack of landmarks can get you lost in a hurry even though the tunnels and the airport are almost within sight of the restaurant. Once you find it, you will see a parking lot to the right of the building, but unless you have mad parking skills and enjoy doing 15-point turns, it may be a better idea to find a space on the street. The squat exterior of Kelley Square Pub gives off the appearance of a rather small place, but it is actually quite roomy inside, with a strip of booths along the front windows, a long and sometimes raucous bar to the right of the booths that is mostly partitioned off from the dining section, another small dining area beyond the booths and the bar, and, further off to the right, a relatively quiet and spacious dining room that is called the “Andelman Room” after sports radio legend Eddie Andelman.

Much like the aforementioned (and now-closed) Salem Wood Cafe and the terrific Pearl Street Station in Malden, Kelley Square Pub serves up a mix of American classics and Italian-American fare at very reasonable prices, and like those two spots, the red sauce here is outstanding. It’s therefore no surprise that such items as the chicken parmigiana (one of the best in the Boston area, by the way), baked gnocchi, ravioli, eggplant sub, and meatball sub are so popular here, and this extends to the pizza as well, with both the thin-crust and the Sicilian sheet-pan pizza being so tremendous that it is tough to come here and not order one or the other. Among appetizers, the almost comically big bacon-wrapped scallops are a real highlight, while the old-world stuffed peppers and nongreasy garlic bread are also worth getting. Meat lovers will probably enjoy the substantial pork chops, nicely marinated steak tips, and sublime Italian sausages at the Kelley Square Pub, while diners looking for something a bit lighter can choose from such items as a Caesar salad with chicken, a BLT, a tuna sub, and a turkey wrap. Don’t expect to find high-end beers or wines at Kelley Square Pub, but there are decent options for both, and the well-stocked bar allows for a variety of mixed drinks.

Dive bars and neighborhood joints continue to get fewer and farther between with each passing year, and unfortunately there seems to be no stopping the closings of these places. One can only hope that a spot like Kelley Square Pub will remain in operation for years to come, as it serves a real purpose, bringing locals together to enjoy food and drink in an environment that is comfortable and completely unpretentious. It may not be the easiest place to find, but this decadesold hangout in Eastie is one that you definitely won’t want to miss if you yearn for restaurants and bars that have that timeless feel to them. [Ed. note: Another location of Kelley Square Pub can be found on Washington Street in Peabody.] >> KELLEY SQUARE PUB. 84 BENNINGTON ST., BOSTON. KELLEYSSQUAREPUB.COM

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

13

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

EVERY SATURDAY THERE IS A RIDICULOUS PARTY AT OBERON. IT’S CALLED THE DONKEY SHOW AND YOU NEED TO EXPERIENCE IT.

14

THU 2.25

FRI 2.26

SAT 2.27

SAT 2.27

SUN 2.28

MON 2.29

Sweeney Todd @ The Berklee Performance Center

Death of a Salesman @ Roxbury Community College

Old School Game Show @ Davis Square Theatre

The Donkey Show @ Club Oberon

Eat Your Heart Out Boston w/ Bad Rabbits @ Sinclair

Wolfmother @ Paradise Rock Club

We didn’t read the book, and we’re not fans of Stephen Sondheim. We didn’t see the movie, and we’re sick of Johnny Depp.

We love the BPC, however, and we love the idea of a deranged barber who’s hell-bent on revenge and visceral satisfaction, so this is a great night out.

Student-run and directed

by Asher Denburg and Justin Gates, this is a unique lens into future talent as well as past. Do yourself a favor, though, and head to KO Pies in Southie first and gorge yourself on meaty morsels of crumbly goodness, then head over to see the show.

You’ll thank us later. But now that we’re on the topic, a nice goddamn meat pie would totally hit the spot. Juicy flakes crumbling under thumb…

Mmmmmmurder.

Willy Loman is the antihero of our new gig economy, amirite? Watching his downward trajectory from a philosophic perch between hope and desperation, he slides into the abyss further once realizing there’s no turning back… sound familiar? Congratulations, then, you’re part of the last generation to even smell success; but now everything you’ve planned for hasn’t come true and everyone lies to you about your broken future. Oh well! Get over it and step outside of your comfort emozone for this amazing production. Artistic director Robbie McCauley brings a classic to life and hopefully humbles those who think they have it all now and will forever.

Tomorrow never knows.

Swipe right and get to OSGS for some happy happy joy joy. Aesthetically anchored in the ’70s, the crew at OSGS bring interesting, authentic, and honest comedy sketch to the stage. Part theater, part game show, and part acid, the Old School Game Show offers some of the weirdest, most dope shit on that side of the river. If you love waking up drunk and watching The Price Is Right once you call in sick, this is for you. If you appreciate Pat Sajak in all his sexiness, show up early and grab a front row seat. If you like dressing up as a stuffed animal and making love to strangers behind tall bushes, keep on keeping on comrades… this show is for you too.

Have you ever woken up facedown in a pile of sugar booger, latex undies halfway to your ankles, while looking up at the couch? Neither have we, but suppose you have—would the logical next step be to attend the Donkey Show? Yes. Yes it would be. Now in its 132 millionth year as the coolest gender-bending theatrical performance in Harvard Square, the brood at the American Repertory Theater, under the genius mind of Diane Paulus, have turned this bacchanalian celebration into a bucket list item.

Check it off more than once, we won’t tell anyone.

Hey! Let’s get a bunch of kick-ass chefs together and rock out with our croquettes out! If that sounds like a better plan than our sorry-ass rhymes, then join Keenan Langlois (The Sinclair), Tim Cushman (Hojoko), Michael Scelfo (Alden & Harlow), Suzi Maitland (Trina’s Starlite Lounge), and a ton of other amazing chefs, plus Blackbird Donuts, Island Creek Oysters Raw Bar, and a sweet Ketel One Ice Bar (I am told) at the Sinclair, and while you’re at it, you can listen to Bad Rabbits rip shit up. Wait… what?!

Bad fucking Rabbits!! Did I mention all of this madness benefits area nonprofits and also offers a VIP ticket that gets you front and center to the food and groove before the place is fucking mobbed? Your Sunday is all set. You’re welcome.

Apparently they don’t celebrate Leap Year in Australia, so these boys think we’re a bit daggy, but no worries, there’s no need to go cacking yourself over the extra day.

Wolfmother is in town, and it’s gonna fucking rock your Canadian passport.

Regardless, and absolutely ignore our cheap attempts at humor and puns this week, get your butt down to see Wolfmother. These guys have been around for barely a decade and are still very much just hitting their stride and blowing eardrums. On the heels of Coheed and Cambria coming to town, you’d think the dark, dank, heavy neotrash of the aughts was having a comeback. And you’d be right. The new album Victorious is fucking cracker, by the way!

Berklee Performance Center. 136 Mass. Ave., Boston. 7:30pm/all ages/$12. berklee.edu/bpc

Roxbury Community College. 1234 Columbus Ave., Boston. 8pm/all ages/$10. rcc.mass.edu/media-artscenter

Davis Square Theatre.

255 Elm St., Somerville.

8pm/21+/$15. oldschoolgameshow.com

Club Oberon. 2 Arrow St., Cambridge. 10:30pm/21+/$25. americanrepertorytheater. org

Sinclair. 52 Church St., Cambridge. 6pm/21+/ $50, VIP $75. eatyourheartoutboston. com

Paradise Rock Club.

967 Comm. Ave., Boston.

7pm/18+/$25. paradiserock. club

2.25.16 - 3.3.16

|

DIGBOSTON.COM

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

15

MUSIC

PURPLE BAT WINGS

Local rockers Bat House talk breaking into the Boston scene

MUSIC

BOSTON BREAKOUTS

Quilt return home to set its breezy grooves free at the MFA

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN The more Quilt grows, the more it actually does resemble a quilt. The four-piece moved from Boston to New York. Their music was written everywhere from Jamaica Plain to Atlanta. The musical style captures the breezy guitar of Real Estate and the funk-driven groove of ’70s jams. “We’ll always be a Boston band,” says singer-guitarist Anna Fox Rochinski. It’s assuring to hear straight from her mouth. Now that the band’s third full-length, Plaza, comes out Feb 26th via Mexican Summer, it’s stitching its parts together into an even more colorful image. To celebrate, she and the rest of the band—guitarist Shane Butler, drummer John Andrews, and bassist Keven Lareau—take over the Museum of Fine Arts this Friday.

Plazas are the strip malls of America, where the smells of a neighboring KFC float into a hyper-local vintage store placed next door to a dog groomer. It’s a community where neighbors have no connection to one another. It’s common culture—yet it’s also the beautiful park at New York City’s Union Square Plaza.

“When we were in Atlanta, Anna goes, ‘I have the word ‘plaza’ floating in my head,’ and I just said, ‘Yes,’” Butler says of the album title. “From the first time you said it, I was like, ‘Yeah.’ There was no question about it. It just made sense.”

Where Plaza excels is in its use of string arrangements. Songs like “Eliot St.” and “Hissing My Plea” saw Simon Hanes, a staple of Boston’s avant-garde scene, work his magic in subtle ways—a fate-like collaboration after Rochinski and co. tried to help him design a logo for Kishi Bashi, a multiinstrumentalist for whom Hanes also does string work. “We did not anticipate having the opportunity to have such beautiful and professional arrangements done on them,” she recalls. “I suddenly remembered this time that must have been two summers ago when we met. I remember him immediately being really excited about music and saying ‘I want to be a professional arranger. That’s my goal.’” Despite only meeting twice before, the band asked Hanes if he could arrange string parts for the record. He, of course, said yes. “It was super professional,” Rochinski laughs. “He has such a great ear and we were singing some of our ideas into his voice memos on his iPhone, and then he just nailed it.”

It’s hard to tell that the four are from Boston. Then again, Quilt’s sense of home is split. They finished college here, most of their friends moved shortly after, and then fellow musicians relocated, too. Because Quilt’s members find themselves split in location, they’re holding album release shows in both Boston and New York City.

“The Boston one’s way cooler, though,” Butler laughs. “Anna and I both went to school at the Museum of Fine Arts. To get to do that performance … well, I remember seeing a few projects there when I was in school and going to the MFA to see concerts. The vibe there is incredible.”

Perhaps what makes Quilt such a Boston band is the fact that the four still miss the city. Other groups make no effort to hide a good-riddance attitude after relocating. For them, it’s a home they think back on fondly. “The fact that Boston is so small really works to the advantage of the art and music community,” says Rochinski. “I just miss riding my bike all around the place, seeing all the neighborhoods and all my friends in the different little pockets. It’s like this cast of characters who are really easy to see all the time.”

Of course, they couldn’t forget the notorious, nonstop supply of house shows. “I really miss going all over the city to really random people’s houses for shows, like who I have never really met before,” laughs Butler. “You go into this really intimate space, like a living room with 15 people there, where you’d have a 40 or somebody’s shitty two-dollar wine and you’d be sitting on the rug watching somebody perform on acoustic guitar. Half the songs might be well-written and half of them would be totally pulled out of the bag. Having this kind of intimate experience with a bunch of strangers and all being young, I think it’s a nostalgia for being young.”

Luckily for Quilt, Boston’s as nostalgic for its return as the members themselves are. Can we really say we’re surprised? >> QUILT, TREDICI BACCI. FRI 2.26. MFA,465 HUNTINGTON AVE., BOSTON. 7:30PM/ALL AGES/$20. MFA.ORG

Under the guise of a name that evokes vampires, Bat House is made up of four easygoing kids who “happen to go to Berklee.”

The typical Berklee sound they described is jazz, blues, R&B, and funk—and yet their sound doesn’t necessarily align with that archetype. In that, they’re outsiders to the Boston scene.

“The fact that we go to Berklee isn’t really smiled upon in the [Boston] community,” says guitarist Shane Blank. “Berklee puts out great music and a lot of great musicians, but there [are] a lot of people who feel like we’re privileged in a way. We just want to be viewed as a band and not as a Berklee band.”

Guitarist Ally Juleen explained that they feel like a lot of the Berklee community is separated “from the huge and flourishing rock scene that’s going on in Boston.” All four of the members graduate in May, and they’re all from different parts of the country. “[But] we decided to stay here, just because of the music scene in Boston and how generous it’s been to us,” Juleen says.

Though they’ve never encountered issues personally, the two women in the band discussed the displacement they sometimes encounter.

“My biggest problem is when someone comes up to me and congratulates me for being a female drummer in a band,” says Pompy. “That really grinds my gears, because there are many other things you can say other than, ‘I’m so happy for you because you’re a girl.’”

“I don’t want gender to have anything to do with our music,” Juleen adds.

“Girls rock!”

Formal education or not, Bat House knows how to rock. It just finished recording in Boston’s Converse Rubber Tracks studio—an opportunity Juleen says happened by chance. After hearing a song that caught her attention, she researched Rubber Tracks, discovered it had a studio in Boston, and applied for a session—all on a whim. Setting down the foundation for its upcoming album, the band recorded base instrumentation for about 10 songs over its three days at the studio. The band had the chance to work with Replacements guitarist David Minehan.

Naturally, working with him was the cherry on top of Bat House’s time there, and the four took his assistance in stride with the level of production they were newly exposed to. The conditions they usually record in? “Basement,” says Pompy. The process can take weeks, given they can only use the equipment they have.

“There’s a charm to recording in the basement,” says Juleen, “and there’s a charm to recording in a high-end studio.”

Vocalist and bassist Emmet Hayes describes the trial-anderror process of recording in the basement and notes how, with the advanced production quality available to them at Converse, they weren’t sure where to go from there. “We’re used to correcting what didn’t sound good, and now we have these things that sound great,” he says. Juleen is quick to add that all the work they have left to do may be daunting, but, ultimately, it’s exciting.

MUSIC EVENTS THU 2.25

LOCAL LEGEND AT LIZARD LOUNGE THALIA ZEDEK BAND + BRIAN CARPENTER & THE CONFESSIONS

[Lizard Lounge, 1667 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.

8:30pm/21+/$10. lizardloungeclub.com]

16

2.25.16 - 3.3.16

|

SAT 2.27

LAGUNITAS PRESENTS COUCHTRIPPIN’ FOR FREE BADBADNOTGOOD

[Brooklyn Boulders Somerville, 12 Tyler St., Somerville. 7:30pm/21+/ FREE. opositivefestival.org]

DIGBOSTON.COM

SAT 2.27

SUN 2.28

[The Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge. 7pm/18+/$10. mideastoffers.com]

[Berklee Performance Center, 136 Mass. Ave., Boston. 7:30pm/all ages/$12. berklee.edu]

SATURDAY NIGHT POP-ROCK FEVER SUNFLOWER BEAN + HONDURAS + SECRET LOVER

TANGLED UP IN BERKLEE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK: THE MUSIC OF BOB DYLAN

MON 2.29

MON 2.29

[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston. 7pm/18+/$25. crossroadspresents.com]

[Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Boston. 7pm/18+/$15. crossroadspresents.com]

LEAP DAY ROCK WOLFMOTHER + DEAP VALLY

LEAP DAY METAL CANNABIS CORPSE + S.N.A.F.U. + COAGULA

QUILT PHOTO BY DANIEL DORSA | PURPLE BAT WINGS PHOTO BY EVAN XINER HONG

BY ANNA MARKETTI @ITSANNABANANNA

Boston’s Best Irish Pub

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

FRI 2/26 HARMONIX: AMPLITUDE LIVE

FREEZEPOP

SYMBION PROJECT WEDS 3/2 - LEEDZ PRESENTS

MIGOS TAUK

WOBBLESAUCE FRI 3/4

SAT 3/5 ICELAND NATURALLY PRESENTS

REYKJAVIK CALLING -FREE SHOW-

50% OFF FOOD MENU

DIRTY CHOCOLATE

MONDAY - THURSDAY DINE IN ONLY 5-7PM

PLAYING DEAD

MONDAYS

THU 2/25 - BEANDREAM PROD. FRI 2/26 - ROCK ON! PRESENTS SAT 2/27

SUNFLOWER BEAN HONDURAS, SECRET LOVER SAT 2/27

SOULELUJAH! SUN 2/28

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UXO

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SPACE AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE PARTIES CALL TODAY FOR $300 OFF

GRIZZLOR MON 2/29 - COMMUNION PRES. AXEL FLOVENT TUES 3/1 - LEEDZ PRESENTS

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

THU 3/3 - CROSSROADS PRESENTS

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MONDAYS

MAKE RESERVATIONS AT ZUZUDINING.COM 474 MASSACHUSETTS AVE CENTRAL SQ., CAMBRIDGE 617-864-3278

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FEB 9

CROSSWALK ANARCHY, ALLBE

FEB 16

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

RE:SET

WEDNESDAYS

Weekly Dance arty, ouse, Disco, echno, ocal & nternational D ’s 19+, 10PM - 1AM

THURSDAYS

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CHECK OUT ALL PHOENIX LANDING NIGHTLY EVENTS AT:

WWW.PHOENIXLANDINGBAR.COM NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

FILM

A MATTER OF CRAFT

Talking to the director and star of The Witch

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN Neither had been to the theater before, but for Robert Eggers and Anya Taylor-Joy—the director and star of The Witch, which bills itself as A New England Folktale— premiering their film at the Brattle was like returning home. “Witch country,” they called it, before noting the delight they felt at fielding the audience’s highly specific questions. Their film is similarly particular: It watches, with an unblinking gaze inherited from the silent cinema, as a Puritan family is violently dissolved circa the 17th century. Father William (Ralph Ineson), mother Katherine (Kate Dickie), daughter Thomasin (Taylor-Joy), son Caleb (Harvey Scrimshaw), and two younger siblings cast themselves out into the wilderness after finding that their chosen community doesn’t meet their protofundamentalist standards. But in isolation they’re picked apart, psychologically and physically. The blame for the troubles goes to the goat—we mean that literally; his name is Black Phillip—but Eggers finds his horror in Taylor-Joy’s stony face. The narrative of the picture keeps circling around issues of institutional sexism (within religion, within communities, within culture, within the home), but this performance dives directly into it.

Taylor-Joy plays early scenes with a hardened manner that’s clearly been instilled in her by male elders and retains that visage until it’s much too late. By the time her performance widens to allow shrieks and shouts and emotive facial expressions, judgments have already been levied and spells already cast. We talked to the pair after their Brattle debut, focusing on the way that Taylor-Joy helped the material to develop on set. It’s a controlled performance, in more than one sense of the phrase.

What’s Rob like as a director?

Taylor-Joy: Rob really took me under his wing and taught me what it was to be an actor. I knew I wanted to act, but I didn’t know what I loved about it.

And Rob showed it to me. He was incredibly patient. As an actor, it’s your job to hop into the brain of the director and understand whatever it is that they want. I hope I did.

One of my favorite memories was—[to Rob] I don’t know if you’ll remember this—we

were doing a scene with the whole family. And Rob walked in, completely silently, and just smoothed down Kate’s face. And all of us just said, “Got it. Totally understood. We know what we’re doing now.”

Eggers: It’s funny, because she’s saying. “It’s the actor’s responsibility to get what the director wants,” but it’s my responsibility to find the right way to work with each of those actors. And everyone requires different kinds of techniques … the children, on the other hand, need to be protected from all this stuff psychologically. So, you know, talk about technical acting—working with them is like puppetry and dance choreography, more than anything else.

It’s probably the same with the goat, right?

Eggers: There’s two different ways of working with animals that I’ve encountered over the years. One is working really closely with trainers really far ahead of time, knowing that the animal is at an intelligence level where you can train it. That becomes about creating a really controlled environment to get exactly what you want, so that everything is right on. With the raven and the hare, that’s how we proceeded.

But then there’s other animals, like cows, and goats.

With them, they’re just going to do their thing. It was really a nightmare working with the goat. Yeah. But even though it was painful, I was so glad we didn’t have a computer-generated goat.

I’m not sure the movie would’ve worked, if you did.

Eggers: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Even watching the film, and maybe the goat is part of this, I got the feeling that the cast and crew must’ve conjured a sort of “method atmosphere” during the production.

Taylor-Joy: Ralph and Kate and I really talked about this while we were in London for the film awards. This [film] would have been so different if we had shot it anywhere near normal life. [Ed. note: Production of the film took place in Kiosk, a rural location within Ontario, CA.] We literally cut out everything. We didn’t have our families.

There was very little Wi-Fi or cell service. We were living together, we were eating together every day—we only had each other, all the time. I saw that as a positive, because we all really liked each other. But now I see … in the film, you need to see the unconditional love that runs

throughout the family, to be able to fully invest in their breakdown. And luckily, we got that part down, I think.

On a scene-by-scene basis, what’s Rob’s directing like?

How would you work, from the start of a day’s work to the finish—what’s it like to be blocked by Rob? Taylor-Joy: I’m still a very instinctual person. And back then, I was working only on instinct. So I guess I would just show up, and we’d talk about it for one second, and then we’d do it. But that’s just my memory of what happened. I don’t know if that’s what actually happened.

Eggers: Everything was very meticulously blocked, beforehand. But the idea was: Prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, so that it would allow for some flexibility on the set itself.

The cinematic language of the film is ultra-specific.

We shot-listed the whole film. My editor just emailed me to say, “You’re using [the phrase] ‘cut in camera’ wrong,” but I’ve been saying that the film is almost entirely cut in camera. And what I mean by that is, there is no additional coverage in the footage. Each shot is by design. In fact, there were times where we’d be editing a scene and trying to do it instinctively. But then we’d go back to the order we had in the original shot list, and it worked much better. So that’s all I mean to say [with that phrase.]

However, Caleb’s possession scene is one where [cinematographer] Jarin [Blaschke] and I threw up our hands. Even though I wrote it myself, when you get to the set and you’re staring at it, you realize it’s 11 straight pages of screaming. We realized we couldn’t do this without the [deeper involvement of] the actors. It’s a scene we all found together, the most collaborative scene.

Taylor-Joy: Harvey is 12 years old. Even when we were filming it, he didn’t really want to touch me in any way, you know … he’s a kid, in that sense. So when we were talking about what we wanted out of that scene, we couldn’t really state it so point-blank. He couldn’t know.

Eggers: He couldn’t know the subtext of the things he was saying or the positions he was in. And so I’m very grateful to Ralph, and Kate, and Harvey’s parents, in working on it with us … This might be a little precious, but our approach was that everything has to be personal. This has to feel like we’re articulating a memory of our Puritan childhood.

What our forefathers felt like in the cornfield on a given day—down to that level of specificity.

>> THE WITCH. RATED R. NOW PLAYING EVERYWHERE.

FILM EVENTS THU 2.25

FRI 2.26

[Brattle Theatre.

40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/NR/$911. brattlefilm.org]

[Harvard Film Archive.

24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/NR/$79. 35mm. hcl.harvard. edu/hfa]

DENNIS HOPPER IN THE AMERICAN DREAMER

18

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JEAN EPSTEIN’S THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER

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GRINDHOUSE RELEASING AND COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENT PIECES

[Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline. Midnight/ UR/$11.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]

SCANTILY CLAD DOUBLE FEATURE MAGIC MIKE and MAGIC MIKE XXL

[Brattle Theatre.

40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7 and 9:30pm, respectively/R/$9-11, $13 for both. Also screen 2.27.

35mm. brattlefilm.org]

SAT 2.27

STANLEY KUBRICK’S EYES WIDE SHUT

[Museum of Fine Arts.

465 Huntington Ave., Boston. 2pm/R/$11. Also screens on 2.28.]

SUN 2.28

‘INNOCENCE ABROAD’ CONTINUES W/ BILLY WILDER’S A FOREIGN AFFAIR [Harvard Film Archive.

24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/ NR/$7-9. 35mm. hcl. harvard.edu/hfa]

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FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

ARTS

261 MAIN ST., WORCESTER, MA

TELLING STORIES

Eugene Lee and August Wilson return to the Huntington

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

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You’ve done several August Wilson plays at the Huntington, so this is like a homecoming for you.

Yeah, it is. I did Gem of the Ocean, Fences, and Radio Golf.

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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 2.25.16 - 3.3.16

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Intimidating?

No. I’d say not. It’s such a wonderful learning experience, to have him there and to have a firsthand insight into the inspiration, the nuances, if you need them.

For most of the people that I’ve worked with with August, especially the quoteunquote “Wilsonian Warriors,” as we’re known, it’s nice to have him around just for confirmation, in some cases. It was a joy to have him around. He’s a great guy and a wonderful teacher.

Do you consider it an honor to be doing this play?

Very much so.

J. Will$, Killer Kowalski, Fumesco GOLDEN ERA HIP HOP, TURN UP TRAP, FUTURE BEATS, FEELGOOD GROOVES

20

How involved was Wilson with Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf here in Boston?

Very much so. The plays, they traveled around to regional theaters, and he was working on them constantly at each of the stops. And actually, the last stop before Broadway for both of those two plays was the Huntington. And at the Huntington, for example, for Gem of the Ocean, he was there and the play was running over three hours. He was being told from all angles and all sides that we can’t go to Broadway and keep those union workers after 11 at night. [laughs] The week before we left Boston, he came in and he cut like 45 minutes out of that play. The week before we left.

What was it like having him present through the whole rehearsal process?

It’s great, man. That’s the source, if you know what I mean.

THU 3/3 10PM

LEVEL UP

Beginning on March 5, actor Eugene Lee returns to the Huntington Theatre Company in How I Learned What I Learned, a one-man show about—and written by—August Wilson.

Both Lee and the Huntington have a long, rich history with Wilson and his plays. It is hard to think of an actor—or a theater company—more suited to bring this story to life.

On the phone the day before he arrived in Boston, Lee spoke to me about working with Wilson in Boston and the enduring appeal of Wilson’s plays.

Why do you think that people continue to flock to his plays?

Any number of reasons. The language is beautiful to listen to; the characters are recognizable. It’s, “That’s my cousin,” “That’s my daddy’s baby sister.” And it’s the truth. They’re characters that you understand even though you don’t like what they do, for example. That’s the kind of thing that people want to go to the theatre to see. They want to see themselves; they want to see their strengths, their pain. They want to see people grappling with the same kinds of demons.

And they want to see their history. That’s another part of what August has done in a wonderful way: He’s documented what these newly freed slaves in this experiment called America did with their freedom over a decade. One 10-year period at a time. And it’s wonderful to me to experience all 10 of these plays and watch these people move further away from Africa with each decade. And even in the rhythms in the language, from freshly freed slaves in 1902 in Gem of the Ocean to playing golf, Radio Golf, at the end of the next century. Just what these people did with their freedom is amazing to me, and I think that’s what so much of what those 10 plays, that cycle, is about. And it’s history and it’s knowing who we are and where we came from. It helps us make it to tomorrow in a lot of ways. >> HOW I LEARNED WHAT I LEARNED. RUNS 3.5-4.3 AT THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY, 264 HUNTINGTON AVE., BOSTON. HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

SAVAGE LOVE

CROSSWORDS

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET I’m a 36-year-old hetero male, into BDSM and polyamory. I’ve been drinking deep from the bowels of the internet lately, getting laid more than I ever thought was possible. I’m open about the fact that I fuck around a lot and that monogamy would never work for me. I use condoms with everyone except my primary partner, and I abide by your campsite rule. I don’t want to be anyone’s wonderful husband; I want to be the Casanova who climbs in through the window. Last week, the internet was good at delivering. Usually I can talk to 10 women who all seem interested, but in the end, only one or two want to actually meet. But last week, I had sex five times in five days with five different women.

And that just made me feel awesome, turned on, and wonderful. Is there a term for someone who gets turned on by finding new people to have sex with? Have I discovered a new kink? Is there a name for people like me? If there is, I couldn’t find it. Google failed me. Can a person have a kink for finding new sex partners? What would it be called? Or am I just a slutty man-whore?

Dude Drinking Deep I don’t think “drinking deep from the bowels of [blank]” is a good way to describe something you enjoy, DDD. Watching a GOP debate?

Perhaps best described as drinking deep from the bowels of the terrifying American id.

Enjoying consensual sex with people you’re into? Better described as “drinking deep from Aphrodite’s honeyed mouth” or “licking Adonis’s jizz off Antinous’s tits” or simply “killing it”— really, anything would be an improvement.

As for what your kink is called…

“What DDD describes is consistent with a motivational style once called Don Juan syndrome,” said Dr. David Ley, author and clinical psychologist. “It has also been called Casanova or James Bond syndrome. Essentially, these are folks most excited by the quest/hunt for novelty in sex partners. This was once viewed as deeply dysfunctional from a heteronormative, monogamy-idealizing therapeutic culture. What I appreciate about DDD is that, even though he uses sex-addiction language, it’s clear he has accepted himself and his desire. I’d say he has adapted fairly well, and responsibly, to that tendency in himself.”

On the Lovecast, Dan and a doc from Planned Parenthood answer your medical questions: savagelovecast.com.

THE STRANGERER

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

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BOWERY BOSTON

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