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NEWS

IT’S SPRING! AND DEMOCRACY IS AWAKENING!

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DARCY’S VILLAGE PUB

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POWERPUFF GIRLS SAVE THE DAY!

IRISHER THAN THOU ARTS

MEREDITH FORLENZA

AN INTERVIEW WITH THE STAR OF CAN YOU FORGIVE HER?

FEATURE

TRACKING WILD COOMBA THE

THE ADVENTURES OF DOUG COOMBS BIOGRAPHER ROBERT COCUZZO

速

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HEADLINING THIS WEEK! Big Jay Oakerson Thurs-Sat

VOL 18 + ISSUE 14

APRIL 7, 2016 - APRIL 14, 2016 EDITORIAL

DEAR READER

EDITOR + PUBLISHER Jeff lawrence

This November, Massachusetts voters will have a chance to vote on a ballot question that would legalize marijuana for recreational use. Medical marijuana is currently legal in the state, and it’s long been decriminalized for small personal possession, but this next step is part of a substantial shift in our approach to marijuana use in Massachusetts as well as the country.

Currently, there are 24 states that have medical marijuana or recreational use laws on the books, and this fall we could see even more, possibly a dozen, that will join the ranks and further tip the scales of justice in a more progressive, modern direction. With all of this momentum, it should be a slam dunk, but other state questions have failed to pass such as in Ohio, and there’s a chance that Massachusetts may be in jeopardy of that as well, and that’s completely unacceptable.

The War on Drugs has been a massive failure and needs to end now, but partisan bickering among weathered and disparate activists are getting in the way. Hopefully that won’t happen here and it may not since it appears that competing groups have put aside their differences and stand united with the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Massachusetts initiative and question.

Now more than ever, we need more unity, which includes politicians and self-interested groups that support criminalization. Polling suggests that voters continue to favor a change in the laws, and these representatives need to support the will of the people, but not because a majority of their constituents are in favor of it. They need to because it’s the right thing to do.

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

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ON THE COVER Robert Cocuzzo gears up and heads out on this week’s cover.

Read all about his adventures chasing after his skiing idol Doug Coombs. Photo by Joshua Simpson

Comics 2 Cure SPECIAL ENGAGEMENT: SUN, APR 17

Dear Guy with “No Fatties” Bumper Sticker, The thing is, you don’t even look like that much of a total prick. You have more of an Oregon snowboarder look than a post-college lacrosse guy thing going for you, so I was somewhat surprised at the absurd collection of stickers on the back of your souped-up snorkel-kitted Wrangler (which was surprisingly missing a pair of Truck Nutz). While we’re on the topic of judging dolts by their covers, you must have no idea what your “No Fatties” and other dumbass decals say about you. I guess the snorkel comes in handy when the whole world is praying that you drive off of a bridge.

Feat. Donnell Rawlings from Chappelle's Show ILLUSTRATION BY ALINA MACLEAN

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NEWS US IT’S SPRING NEWS TO US

And democracy is awakening!

BY JIM HIGHTOWER @HIGHTOWERNEWS

The jig is up, and my time has come. I’m about to be arrested. They’ll be hauling me away in mid-April.

Not for doing anything wrong, really. In fact, the authorities will arrest me for standing up for what’s right.

Or, more accurately, I’ll be sitting down for what’s right— by participating in a peaceful sit-in at the US Capitol. I don’t yet know the details of the process, but I am certain of why I’m doing it: To help reclaim our People’s democratic rights from the moneyed elites who have bought our elections and deeply corrupted our government.

I’m also certain I will not be alone in the wagon. That’s because thousands of mad-as-hellers will be converging on Washington in mid April to launch a nationwide mass mobilization of people power to halt Big Money’s control of our political system—and I’d like to see you there, too!

But you don’t have to risk arrest to join this democratic moment, for April’s “Democracy Awakening” will offer a wide variety of ways to protest the plutocrats without leaving your comfort zone. Saturday afternoon, April 16, will feature workshops, teach-ins and art aimed at the connections between voting rights, political money, and the democratic struggles for a healthy living planet, a fair economy, and more. On Sunday, April 17, there’ll be a big, colorful march, followed by a “Rally for Democracy” on the Capitol lawn; and the 18th will be a day for us commoners to team up, sit in, and by other means lobby our congress critters, demanding in person that they end their corporate money addiction. Find out details at DemocracyAwakening.org.

Throughout this People-A-Palooza, there will be an energizing balance of seriousness and fun: how-to workshops, tub-thumping speeches, cultural exchanges, concerts, pop-up musical performances, direct-action trainings, art exhibits and shows, teach-ins, and other activities. Organized by such disparate groups as the Sierra Club, NAACP, Common Cause, Public Citizen, Greenpeace, and the Communication Workers of America, the Democracy Awakening expressly recognizes that progress on all of our issues has been walled in by corporate bribery funds, K-street lobbyists, crony capitalism, and nefarious voter suppression. From climate change to the Walmartization of our economy to racial justice, they understand that none of us can advance until we all team up to tear down that wall.

WHY NOW?

The time has come. Six years after the Supreme Court’s malignant Citizen’s United ruling, nearly every American plainly sees how our nation’s historic “one person-one vote” political ethic of citizen equality has been buried in a roaring avalanche of money from corporations and the ultra-rich. Moreover, nearly nine years after Wall Street thieves wrecked our economy, the great majority also plainly sees that the Court’s turbo-charge of money politics has produced economic policies that richly reward the plutocratic robbers and coldly abandon the robbed. Americans know they’re being stiffed, for they’re experiencing it personally, and they’re furious at the business-as-usual/politics-as-usual establishment that has done it to them.

This powerful anti-Big Money sentiment is also what 4

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has fueled 2016’s establishment-stunning Bernie & Donnie presidential runs, and it’s why we democracy rebels should shift now from complaining about the plutocratic corruption of our country to stopping it. This hyperpolitical year is the time to move, for (1) the presidential and congressional elections will focus public attention on the political system for months to come, and (2) corporate and political cash will be on full display (from the Koch Brothers’ Billionaire Money Bash to the garish corporate sponsorship of both parties’ national conventions).

While all of the establishment forces have dourly told us commoners that we must resign ourselves to the New Citizens United Order of court-sanctioned rule-bymoney, the people themselves have not accepted that.

But where could they turn for help, since the leadership of both political parties either enthusiastically welcomed government by and for the 1-percenters (GOP) or – with a wink and a nod – agreed to go along with it (Dems) in exchange for getting their own share of big money donations? For six years, the broad public has been yearning for some one, some thing, some moment, to

arise and rescue the founding ideals of 1776.

Well, here it is! And who are our rescuers? Us! You, me, and all the thousands of mavericks around the country ready to fire a new democratic “shot heard ‘round the world.” This will signal to the millions of frustrated Americans that they are not helpless in the face of plutocracy.

The moment is ripe to rally a People’s rebellion and make this election year the turning point for fundamental change. Simply getting such a diverse group of reformers to join hands in such an effort is an auspicious sign that maybe – just maybe – we can bind our forces into an effective populist movement for the long haul, rebuilding America’s democratic promise for the greater good of all.

Given the opportunity, don’t we have to go for it? I hope to see you in Washington!

Speaker, author, and radio commentator Jim Hightower writes the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown.

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NEWS

REGULATORY MARIJUANOPOLY

Entrepreneurship is the antidote to cronyism

BY KEVIN MCKERNAN There has never been a better time to be alive. We are witnessing three of the fastest growing economies emerge and collide. The cannabis green rush is booming just in time to benefit from the era of personalized medicine.

Generation of DNA sequencing information related to human health is more than doubling every year, while every six months we witness more global data generation than in all of human history.

Meanwhile, we have more security on cannabis grow operations than on some prisons. All for a plant that is less toxic than the caffeine found in the soda served in schools. It is also less toxic than aspirin given to children.

If there is one thing evident in the history of innovation it is that open competition drives progress. We far too often give the regulation side of the market a hall pass on monopoly. We don’t trust a monopoly in the private sector.

There is less reason to trust a monopoly in the public regulatory sector as it is very clear that it is also up for sale to the highest bidder but, today, harder to change once captured. Centralization of power, private or public, has a dismal track record. Decentralized networks offer a competitive safeguard.

Many digital economies have demonstrated novel ways to provide decentralized competitive regulation. Amazon and eBay, for example, both have community-driven peer review on buyer and seller’s reputation. When the people seeking political power siren fear, the public should step back and ask who holds the political class accountable when regulators fail. Are there competitors nipping at their heels or do their mistakes take four years to clear? In the private sector, investors walk, stocks tank, and managers get fired, while competitors come in to sweep up the new business with an assurance to not make the same mistakes. The exceptions to this generalization usually involve large businesses with tight political connections.

In Mass, the regulatory system falsely incarcerated 34,000 people on manufactured drug testing results and years later many of these people are still in jail waiting for the zero accountability structure to work overtime to clean up the mess. Nevertheless, the Department of Public Health budget has steadily increased while placing all liability for this scandal on a single employee. This same organization was given the reigns for managing the state’s cannabis industry and has been criticized by patients for the prolonged rollout of regulations.

It might be an impossible centralized task and the structure we vote for is thus fragile by design.

Fortunately, there has been a refreshing changing of the guards in Mass with the administration of Governor Charlie Baker, but the business sector is still operating under a handful of disparate cannabis dispensaries given temporary monopolies for their respective regions of the state. Meanwhile, some state-certified and doctor-stamped patients still need to drive at least two hours just to get to and from a dispensary with a line out the door for inflated prices. Getting cannabis for pain is actually a real pain. It’s no wonder the heroin epidemic continues.

We must contrast this slow rollout in the state with the continued SWAT raids of activists’ homes for non-psychoactive cannabinoids like CBD that can now be purchased on Amazon. CBD dispenser Bill Downing not only had his home raided by militarized police but his assets were seized. Under asset forfeiture laws, you are guilty until proven innocent and your assets require an expensive legal fight to re-acquire. This continues in 2016 despite voters signaling an end to this madness in 2012.

On the positive front, once money enters the market, the political system becomes quite responsive. More hyper-connected and aware individuals are approaching the system with good intentions for change. With more cryptographically protected peer to peer networks, we may see just as much innovation in how we vote, poll and govern as we can see in how we manage global currencies. Maybe some people seeking office will choose to embrace this trend in entrepreneurship and lead with free market thinking. It’s a good time to be alive.

Kevin McKernan is the Chief Science Officer at Courtagen Life Sciences, Inc. and Founder at Medicinal Genomics. These opinions are his own and do not represent any current or past employer.

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PAST INCARCERATION Remembering Charlestown’s forgotten prison

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Malcolm X was imprisoned there. Sacco and Vanzetti were executed there, as were that last people ever to receive capital punishment doled out by the Commonwealth. Yet when you visit the site of the old Charlestown State Prison, where Bunker Hill Community College now sits, there’s no sign of the penitentiary that once stood there. When you visit the Bunker Hill Monument Museum, just half a mile away, you’ll find no sign of the penitentiary’s past on the walls there either.

Massachusetts is a state that’s proud of its history, and not just in a patriotic sense. Take one trip out to Georges Island, former home of Fort Warren, and you’ll be well-steeped in the geeky delight this state takes in its past. And while a state prison doesn’t exactly tickle the same sense of entitlement, it has its own stories that are worth noting.

There were escapes, like that of bank robber Theodore Green in 1953, who snuck out the old-fashioned way—in a packing case of rags taken out by a delivery truck. An escape attempt that same year brought itself to an end when four prisoners’ homemade ladder didn’t stand up to the job. In 1892, an escape attempt that earned nine prisoners the nickname the “Sewer Gang” commenced when the crew went through a manhole in pursuit of freedom.

These, of course, are some of the more pulp fiction bullet points of Charlestown’s 100-year history that seem, perhaps, a little more friendly with time and a side glance from under a fedora. But they also raise questions about the way we consider our past. In 1937, for example, riots broke out over allegations that “rotten frankfurts” were being served in the mess hall. Today in Michigan, over 1,000 prisoners are protesting rotten food on their plates.

Similarly, Boston’s notorious pen was known for near-constant violence toward the end of its existence, prompting one one op-ed writer to remark, “Rioting, murder and sudden death have become routine news items from Charlestown Prison.”

They go on: “The observant citizen outside the walls has long been forced to the conclusion that the grim institution does not perform its primary purpose, which is removing convicted criminals from society and preventing them from doing harm.” Likewise, when we look at the state of the American prison system nowadays, we see something concrete, bland, beige and overcrowded. Or we see nothing at all. Because that’s how America’s prison system—and its operators— would prefer.

It’s important to look backwards if we are going to look forwards. The Charlestown State Prison is an important part of our history, one that we continue to repeat. And it’s worth knowing enough to ask why.

There were escapes, like that of bank robber Theodore Green in 1953, who snuck out the old-fashioned way--in a packing case of rags taken out by a delivery truck.

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COCUZZO WILD COOMBA Q+A

AND THE

On the 10th anniversary of the death of iconic Mass skier Doug Coombs, a Q&A with his biographer

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1

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You had a similar background to Coombs, both in where you’re from and where you grew up skiing. What were some of the stories you had heard about him?

Growing up in Bedford, Mass, Coombs was a wild child. He’d skip school and hitchhike up to the White Mountains to run amok with his buddies, sometimes streaking down the trails barefoot and naked under the moonlight. He had boundless energy, and his infectious charisma drew a devoted tribe of friends with him wherever he went. Most of all, Coombs loved to ski. He made his first turns down the pebbled pavement of his driveway before eventually graduating to Nashoba Valley—where I learned to ski.

The fact that Coombs went from that tiny molehill in Western Mass to charting descents down the biggest, steepest, most terrifying mountains in the world was what ultimately set me on my quest.

What’s the most ridiculous or scary thing you’ve ever done in chasing ski dreams?

Living and skiing in La Grave, the tiny French Village where Coombs was killed in 2006, was without question the scariest period of my life. I’m talking rawcold-sweat-kind-of-fear. La Grave has no ski patrol, no avalanche control, no signs marking runs, no ropes marking cliffs. The mountain is strewn with glaciers, crevasses, and gargantuan icefall that can rip away at any second and destroy everything and anyone in its path. It’s basically a lift to the most extreme skiing in the world. And in true French fashion, it’s entirely up to you to get down alive.

What are the dreams and aspirations of your average extreme skier?

I don’t think there is such a thing as an average extreme skier. Anyone pushing themselves into these wild, remote mountains belongs to an elite class of athletes, each of whom has his or her own deeply personal reasons for being out there and taking those risks. These skiers find themselves in extreme terrain

PHOTO BY JOSHUA SIMPSON

Any extreme skier will tell you their season never ends.

The men and women of New England’s mountains relish longer Vermont and New Hampshire winters, and certainly don’t mind April snow showers like most of us, but when you are addicted to the airlessness and liberation that is found at several thousand feet in the clouds, you’re always jonesing for your next brush with gravity.

You can count Massachusetts native and Nantucket Magazine Editor Robert Cocuzzo among such enthusiasts. In fact he spent the last several years chronicling the life of his skiing idol, Doug Coombs, who was killed in the French Alps a decade ago this month. Cocuzzo’s upcoming account of Coombs’ international pursuits, Tracking the Wild Coomba, is a book for all seasons, an impassioned tale that spans from Boston’s suburbs out to Jackson Hole and eventually to France. We asked the author all about his own adventures studying one of the Commonwealth’s most celebrated modern athletes.

because their progression in the sport led them there. They didn’t just wake up one day and decide to ski runs where if they fall they die. These athletes have a burning desire to explore and chart first descents, skiing slopes that have never seen a track before. Coombs amassed hundreds around the world.

EXCERPT

Some of the detail in here is remarkable—including what places and patterns people had on certain runs 20 years ago. How did you piece a lot of that together?

I spent three solid years doing research before I ever set pen to paper. I interviewed Coombs’ friends, family, fellow guides, and former clients—a network that went on and on and on. I read everything I could get my hands on about Coombs and the world in which he existed. But ultimately, it was in going to these places myself, skiing some of the runs he skied and living in the mountain towns that he made his home, that I began to really appreciate and understand the tracks Coombs left behind. My job then was to recreate those tracks for the reader.

Excerpted from Tracking the Wild Coomba: The Life of Legendary Skier Doug Coombs by Robert Cocuzzo. Mountaineers Books, 2016.

The whole story of the beef between the ski patrol at Jackson Hole and the Air Force in the area is crazy.

Did you have any whiff of that beforehand? What was that story like to dig up?

A fantastic documentary by [Teton Gravity Research] came out while I was living in Jackson Hole called Swift. Silent. Deep., which tells that story supremely well. After watching that, I would see these guys from the Jackson Hole Air Force in the lift line and just quiver with intimidation. They were Hells Angels with goggle tans—absolute badasses. It took some time infiltrating their ranks, but once I did their stories of evading the ski patrol, outrunning avalanches, and exploring the dark and forbidden corners of the Jackson Hole backcountry had me entirely gripped.

Besides you, who could play Coombs in a movie about his life?

Ha! Well I could never fill Coombs’s boots to play him on the big screen. So I’d have to say Daniel Day Lewis just because the actor would have to entirely transform himself to accurately portray Coombs.

He’d have to go full-on-Abe-Lincoln method. Coombs was such a unique personality—fun, gregarious, and insatiably adventurous. He was truly a once in a generation kind of guy.

After experiencing everything you went through in France in writing this book, but being able to come back to earth here in Greater Boston, what do you suppose separates someone like Coombs from you or even just your average insane extreme skier?

Beyond his incredible athleticism and utter aplomb in the face of peril, Coombs possessed unwavering optimism. He just didn’t allow negativity to enter his mind, and with that came the confidence to ski impossible slopes. You can be the most physically gifted skier in the world, but if you don’t have the brain capacity to manage fear and weigh risk, it’s all for naught in the mountains.

At this time of year, when the sun comes out in Boston, where can an extreme skiing junkie fly for the quickest fix?

They don’t even need to fly! A three-hour drive up to New Hampshire (followed by a two-hour hike) will deliver them to some of the rowdiest skiing on the planet. Tuckerman Ravine is arguably the birthplace of extreme skiing in the U.S., and it’s right in our backyard. Just beware: a fall in Tucks can be gruesome and potentially deadly.

FIRST TRACKS Bedford, Massachusetts, 1970s

Carved into the east face of Mount Washington, Tuckerman Ravine was as close to the Alps as a kid from Bedford could get on a tank of gas. Many ski historians point to Tuckerman as the birthplace of extreme skiing in the United States. While the steep glacial cirque saw its first ski track in 1913, it wasn’t until the 1920s and ’30s that Tuckerman Ravine became a wild proving ground for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of skiers during the spring season. Collegiate slalom races, Olympic tryouts, and grueling endurance races known as the American Inferno were held in the ravine’s natural amphitheater.

In April of 1939, Austrian-born skier Toni Matt dusted the American Inferno’s eight-mile course in six minutes and twenty-nine seconds, hitting speeds of up to eighty-five miles per hour. Matt’s straight-line descent became the stuff of legend, and Tuckerman emerged as the earliest theater for extreme skiing in North America.

After 2.4 miles of switchbacks, the trail from Pinkham Notch gave way to the sight of a magnificent bowl, so steep and snow filled that it looked designed for no other purpose than skiing. Due to Mount Washington’s violent winter weather, most skiers waited for the spring to hike up to test themselves on Tuckerman’s steeps. When the sky was clear and the sun was out, hundreds of people sprawled out on the Lunch Rocks at the bottom, sunbathing, drinking, and watching the skiers above.

This lightheartedness vanished once a skier reached the top of the ravine and looked down its headwall. Spectacular falls were common. Botch one turn, and gravity took care of the rest. Then there was the avalanche risk. Pitched at upwards of sixty degrees in some spots, the slope could have a winter’s worth of snow precariously clinging to it, like dynamite just waiting for a trigger. Massive slides carried skiers eight hundred feet to the bottom. Of course, this element of danger was part of the appeal, and not surprisingly, Coombs took to the ravine instantly.

“There’s nobody out there with signs. There’s no ropes. There’s no patrolmen. There’s nobody taking care of you on the slopes like all the ski areas,” Coombs said of Tuckerman Ravine years later. “You’re on your own.

You have to make decisions on your own. And when you’re sixteen years old, you make a lot of bad ones.”

One of those bad decisions came when he and his buddy Frank Silva decided to ski Tuckerman one February. Although people do ski the ravine in the winter, it’s attempted only in ideal weather conditions. Mount Washington is one of the deadliest mountains in the world due in large part to its ferocious, unpredictable weather. Winds can gust over two hundred miles per hour, while the temperature can drop to thirty below. As far as Tuckerman itself is concerned, avalanches are an especially violent killer “We were clueless on avalanches, we didn’t know anything about the stuff,” said Silva decades later.

“We knew there were such things as avalanches, but we were never worried about it at all.” It was snowing heavily as the two boys set out hiking up the ravine.

When they were halfway up, Coombs and Silva dug a hole in the face and climbed inside to eat lunch.

As they chewed on their sandwiches, snow began cascading over the opening of their snow cave, lightly at first, and then harder and harder. The two boys shot each other a look. Suddenly a massive avalanche

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ripped by the opening of their hole like a freight train.

When the snow settled, Coombs and Silva popped their heads out of the hole. Blocks of snow and debris were strewn all over the slope. Down at the base, people were frantically searching for them. They thought the two boys had been buried. “We pop out of this little hole and start hiking again,” remembered Coombs, “and all of a sudden they start screaming at us, ‘Get off the mountain! Get off the mountain!’”

Tuckerman Ravine became the backdrop for the inspired skiing of Coombs’s adolescence. The chutes and steeps honed all his abilities as a racer, while his imagination allowed him to pioneer new routes that no one had ever considered. He and his buddies camped at the base of the ravine for days on end, spending hours hiking up and skiing down. One sunny afternoon in 1973, Coombs set off up the ravine by himself. “We’re down at the Lunch Rocks having a snack, and we heard this ripple go through the crowd,” said one of his buddies, Bill Stepchew. “People were yelling, ‘Look! Look!’” Every set of eyes shot to the cliff band at the summit to find a lone silhouette perched over a steep and narrow chute that cracked down the center of the rocks like a lightning bolt. “Oh my God . . . it’s Coombs!” Stepchew yelled out.

Silence passed over the crowd of hundreds. Coombs plunged into the chute. The snow came up to his neck and immediately avalanched. From below, the crowd could make out only his arms punching out from the rushing river of white, his head bobbing side to side like a prizefighter’s. He executed a number of precise turns in the chute before bombing out the bottom in an explosion of sluff. The crowd erupted. Their cheers reverberated off the snow walls and filled the ravine with an electric buzz that gave his buddies goose bumps. Pride burst through their chests. “Everybody is looking over at us and clapping,” remembered Stepchew. “We couldn’t have been more proud of him and ourselves for just being with him.”

Entering the spring of his junior year of high school, Coombs was poised for a promising skiing career. His prowess on the racecourse would likely earn him the attention of college scouts, and then perhaps he’d point his skis on the professional race circuit. Coombs’s future looked bright and boundless, but then the unthinkable happened.

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

11

EATS

DARCY’S VILLAGE PUB

OLDE MAGOUNʼS SALOON PRESENTS:

A Bar Straight Out of Central Casting

1950’s

ITALIAN/ Wednesdays April 6th-27th 5p.m. Till gone

ONCE Lounge & Ballroom 156 Highland Ave. ONCEsomerville.com

TOASTED RAVIOLIS

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

Flash Fried Breaded Cheese Raviolis with Tomato Gravy

ANTIPASTI

Imported Cured Meats, Marinated Vegetables, Assorted Cheese

EGGPLANT PARMESAN

Pan Fried Breaded Cutlet, Tomato Gravy, Mozzarella Cheese, Linguini Pomodoro

CHICKEN PARMESAN

Pan Fried Breaded Cutlet, Tomato Gravy, Mozzarella Cheese, Linguini Pomodoro

BEEF BRACIOLE

Chianti Wine Braised Beef Roulades Stuffed With Prosciutto Ham, Fontina, Rosemary Potatoes, Sautéed Broccoli Rabe

LINGUINI & CLAMS

Imported Pasta, New Zealand Clams, Shaved Garlic, Chile Flakes, White Wine, Italian Parsley

SPAGHETTI & MEATBALLS Veal, Pork, Beef Meatballs, Imported Pasta, Tomato Gravy Parmesan Cheese

CHICKEN SALTIMBOCCA Sautéed Chicken Cutlet Prosciutto Ham, Fontina Cheese, Crispy Sage, Roasted Rosemary Potatoes, Sautéed Broccoli Rabe, Brown Butter Sauce

CANNOLI

Sweet Ricotta Cheese, Shaved Chocolate, Fresh Berries

@MAGOUNSSALOON OLDEMAGOUNSSALOON

518 Medford St. Somerville

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

4.7.16 - 4.14.16

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DIGBOSTON.COM

is here @ ONCE! Check out the bands at ONCESomerville.com. Presented by Boston Emissions/WZLX Every day is Taco day during the Rumble!

4/3 - 4/9 Rock & Roll Rumble Preliminary Nights 4/10 Rockin Spring Flea Market & Bloody Mary Bash 4/11 New Music (Taco) Night w/ DJ Bad Squirrel

4/13 Milk & Bone (Montreal, Canada) w/ Andre Obin & Skinny Bones | $12 adv/$15 dos | Doors 8pm/Show 9pm |

4/14 Resonance (Down tempo dance night) 4/15 & 4/16 Rock & Roll Rumble Semi-Finals 4/17 Grudge Match Poetry Slam Locavore tacos done right every Monday night 5-10pm in the ONCE Lounge

Presented by Cuisine en Locale

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

A lot of drinking spots have a generic “placeless” vibe to them, but there are some that feel like places that could only exist in that particular region. Take some of the old watering holes found in New York’s Greenwich Village or a few of the classic beachside surf bars located in San Diego, or in the case of the Boston area, various dives and Irish pubs that have a distinctly Boston feel. One such place in Quincy fits the bill so well that a popular local band (Dropkick Murphys) reportedly wrote a song about the spot, and whether this is actually true or not (and the Dropkicks do hail from Quincy), Darcy’s Village Pub is indeed a bar that seems like it would be out of place nearly everywhere else in the country but feels right at home in the Boston area.

Darcy’s is part of a rather odd food complex in West Quincy called the Common Market Restaurants, which lines both sides of Willard Street just south of East Milton Square (and a stone’s throw from the Southeast Expressway), running the gamut from a cozy French bistro and a family-friendly New England seafood restaurant to a yogurt bar, an Italian takeout spot, a fish and chicken joint, a place featuring healthy dishes, and Darcy’s. There are basically three sections to Darcy’s, including a relatively family-friendly dining room; a long, very dark, and very narrow bar area; and in the warmer months, a patio with a TV and some relative privacy thanks to a rock wall and some bushes. The bar area can be a bit intimidating to some, but the bartenders run a tight ship here—and between the storytelling and the old-school style of dress, they could pretty much play bartenders in almost any movie that takes place in the Boston area.

Darcy’s is also perhaps more of a drinking spot than a restaurant, but being that Quincy is the gateway to the South Shore, the place has some excellent bar pizza— though oddly enough, it also features Italian-style thin crust. (The small pizzas are bar pies while the larger pizzas are Italian thin-crust.) And while both styles of pizza are worth getting, the place also offers a tasty treat that you rarely see in a local restaurant or bar—pasties, which are a bit like British or Irish versions of calzones that can be ordered with steak and cheese or buffalo chicken. Chicken pot pies are also available at Darcy’s, as are the usual pub grub faves such as chicken wings and tenders, burgers, wraps, and panini, and a few meals such as fish and chips, meatloaf, grilled salmon, and a particularly good plate of steak tips.

While it may not be for everyone, Darcy’s is a great option for many, including those who are looking to dine outdoors without having to wait for a table, lovers of classic South Shore bar pizza, and folks who want the flavor of an oldfashioned townie-feeling bar in an era where such establishments seem to be getting more and more difficult to find. >> DARCY’S VILLAGE PUB. 97 WILLARD ST., QUINCY. COMMONMARKETRESTAURANTS.COM/DARCYS_PUB/DARCYS_PUB.HTML

PHOTOS BY MARC HURWITZ

AMERICAN

BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON

Easter Rising Centenary Party April 24th, 12PM The Rising Bar 1172 Cambridge St Inman Square's Newest Neighborhood Establishment

✓ Live Irish Music with Tony Giblin and Friends ✓ Toast with Glendalough Irish Whiskey ✓ Proper Chicken Fillet Rolls ✓ A Full Day of Craic agus Ceoil!

Cork Boston GAA Jersey Unveiling

Guinness Glass Engraving

P RESENT S ®

Thunder Road, Somerville Boston’s newest rock n’ roll club

Friday April 15

Saturday April 16

Tearing through 1975’s seminal EARL’S COURT

Performing 1972’s amazing LONG BEACH CALIFORNIA concert!

These shows are widely regarded as two of Led Zeppelin’s finest classic performances, and you will not want to miss Lez Zeppelin’s amazing re-creations and jams!

Reading of the Proclamation

Tickets to Friday: http://bit.ly/0415LezZepHarpoon Tickets to Saturday: http://bit.ly/0416LezZepHarpoon 379 Somerville Ave., Somerville, MA (617) 776-7623 | thunderroadclub.com

www.TheRisingBar.com

Tel: (617) 714-4130

PRESENTS

B-MOVIES & BURGERS

Certified

WEDNESDAY APRIL 13 7:30PM

Beer Sniffers 1 KENDALL SQUARE • CAMBRIDGE, MA FACEBOOK.COM/BMOVIESANDBURGERS 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

A N O T H E R M O V I E E V E RY 2 N D W E D N E S D AY O F T H E M O N T H ! t h e f r i e n d ly t o a s t . c o m

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

•

M O N S T E R S A R E G O O D . C O m

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

13

ARTS ENTERTAINMENT

14

THU 4.07

FRI 4.08

SAT 4.09

SUN 4.10

MON 4.11

TUE 4.12

Level Up @ Good Life

ART @ First Church Boston

Boston Tattoo Convention @ Hynes Convention Center

Scavenger Hunt @ Boston Common

Opening Day! Red Sox @ Fenway Park

Remembering Ken Kelly @ Brass Union

If you’re into old-school hip hop fused with new-school beats and grooves, this third installment by the Bad Decisions Collective is your home away from home. True to its form and creative approach to booking and delivering on unique sounds and cool vibes downtown, Good Life once again taps into some ass-shaking fun with this crew. Show up early and grab some grub from the solid kitchen and menu before sneaking into the room (and before you can’t), but definitely show up on the tip as the house will be packed and it’s always free before 11pm. If you’re late for work Friday, you can thank us later.

Now in its fourth season, Hub Theatre Company of Boston asks yet again the unanswerable question of “what is art?” in its production ART. Running from April 8 through April 23, the timeless curiosity of evaluating and understanding the world of art is examined with humor, insight, and maybe a pinch of sarcasm. Directed by Daniel Bourque and created by playwright Yasmina Reza, the play’s cast ponders the questions and subsequent feelings inherent in the subjective nature of art.

The production is paywhat-you-can and will be accepting donations of art supplies for local afterschool programs.

Once upon a time, it was illegal to get a tattoo in Massachusetts, and we’re not talking about the 1800s. We mean well into the 1990s. Thankfully, someone had the balls to sue the state for a person’s right to get a tattoo, and the courts had the wisdom to agree. Almost overnight, all of those seedy back alley needle joints came out from the shadows and an industry was born. Not long after, the Boston Tattoo Convention happened; now in its 15th year, it’s the largest of its kind in New England.

Packed with vendors and live tattoo booths, this three-day expo is the place to be for the inky type.

It’s Sunday morning. Your head is pounding and the hangover is in its very early stages. You could A) grab a bottle of vodka and wash away the jitters the natural way, B) head over to a greasy spoon and soak your body in bacon fat and scrambled vomit, or C) take a quick shower, rope in a few friends, and head over to Boston Common for a good old-fashioned scavenger hunt. With the help of your cell phone, this supposedly fun and interactive tour around Boston actually sounds like a pretty cool day out and about, even for a lifelong townie.

While the Celtics locked up a playoff appearance and seem to be a sleeper beast in the east, and the Bruins are falling apart just in time to miss the playoffs and implode on cue, the boys of summer are finally back in town as the Red Sox play the Baltimore Orioles on opening day at Fenway Park. Aside from the usual talk of whether or not this will be another run for the pennant with newbie David Price on the mound, this is David Ortiz’s swan song season and all eyes will be on every swing of his bat until there’re no more outs to count. We’re gonna miss you, Big Papi!

In 2001, Ken Kelly opened the Independent in Union Square, and the world was a better place.

Affectionately referred to by many as the Indo, Kelly put great food and beer together with an amazing staff and never looked back. Over the next decade, he would open several other bars and restaurants including Foundry on Elm, Saloon, and Brass Union, all of which quickly became go-to places as well. Kelly would eventually lose his long battle with cancer, but his legacy and incredible network of friends and family lives on. Join them and many more as they celebrate his life and raise money for the Pan-Mass Challenge and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Good Life. 28 Kingston St., Boston. 10pm/21+/$5. goodlifebar.com

First Church Boston.

66 Marlborough St., Boston. 8pm/all ages/ donations accepted. hubtheatreboston.org

Hynes Convention Center. 900 Boylston St., Boston. 12pm/18+/$25. bostontattooconvention. com

Boston Common. 139 Tremont St., Boston.

10am/all ages/$9+. urbanadventurequest.com

Fenway Park. 4 Yawkey Way, Boston. 2:05pm/all ages/$$. boston.redsox. mlb.com

Brass Union. 70 Union Sq., Somerville. 5pm/21+/$25+. eventbrite.com/e/ fundraiser-to-honor-kenkelly-tickets

4.7.16 - 4.14.16

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DIGBOSTON.COM

TATTOO BY TIFFER WRIGHT AT PERCEPTION FINE BODY ART

THE 15TH ANNUAL BOSTON TATTOO CONVENTION IS UPON US. GET INKED.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

15

MUSIC

PURRFECT GIRLS

Tacocat talks Cartoon Network

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN Over this past weekend, Cartoon Network dusted off the beloved early ’00s TV show The Powerpuff Girls. A new reboot of the animated series aired to high viewership, letting the trio of child superheroes soar into the air once more to protect their town from villains and sexism simultaneously.

Cue Tacocat’s entrance, the band that recorded the show’s new theme song. The Seattle-based quartet creates the most infectious feminist pop punk on that side of the country ever since it was founded in 2007. With three full-lengths to its name, including this year’s Lost Time, it’s garnered a cult following. A few staff members are fans, so they asked the band to record a new version of the theme, crossing their fingers for an equally spunky rendition. That’s exactly what they got.

“Our singer has never returned a phone call so fast,” guitarist Eric Randall tells me over the phone. “Emily [Nokes] was calling the number listed before she even finished reading the email.”

When Nokes, Randall, bassist Bree McKenna, and drummer Lelah Maupin went into the studio, a composer handed them sheet music. The four laughed. They couldn’t read it. After spending half a day listening to a demo the composer recorded, they then practiced the material until they could record takes. Eventually, they reworked the song to sound like a Tacocat song.

Their Powerpuff Girls contribution feels logical given the quartet keeps feminism at the heart of their material. Now, the band’s music soundtracks a show where three young girls save the whole city without sporting revealing superhero outfits.

“You look around and see the way women get treated constantly—it’s awful,” says Randall, well aware that he’s the only man in the band. “I absolutely consider myself a feminist. I don’t think I ever thought this much about feminism when I first joined this band, though. I grew up with four aunts that were constantly around, my grandmother, and my mother in a family that was naturally matriarchal. A lot of men who don’t grow up with women don’t even know how to speak with women or act towards them—like your friends. I see the way guys act and understand that it has to do a lot with male fragility where they don’t want their pride to be hurt.”

All their energy spent fighting for women’s rights, be it in the form of mocking street harassment in “Hey Girl” or seizing menstruation metaphors in “Crimson Wave,” pays off. They get letters from younger girls who are fans, including, most recently, a 14-year-old girl from the ex-Soviet Union asking for an autograph in broken English. “Those are the emails that melt all of our hearts,” he says. “It’s tough between recording an album and releasing an album, because it’s all work that you can’t show anyone. Getting emails like that remind you that people are listening and they care.”

With the theme song getting regular TV play and the new album, Lost Time, on store shelves, it’s safe to say there are more people than ever listening to Tacocat—and more people feeling empowered as a result.

MUSIC

THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN Uplifting listeners with some help from tUnE-yArDs

Thao Nguyen has always been a happy force in music. Ever since she started Thao & the Get Down Stay Down back in 2003, the folk rock musician has been channeling perky, bouncy, melody-driven music through the streets of San Francisco. But suddenly, something changed. Nguyen went from songs inspired by prison outreach programs and bountiful optimism to songs about a broken relationship with her dad.

Her new album, A Man Alive, is dark, and it’s heavy, but musically, it’s the most fun thing she’s ever done— and she’s clearly having fun while singing, too.

“Selfishly, if I were to play this music every night, I couldn’t sing these songs if they didn’t mask the words,” she says. “It was emotionally challenging in a lot of ways to write this. That’s why we kept the crew so tightly knit on this. I couldn’t [have] explored this territory without feeling that I was in a safe space with friends.”

That buoyancy comes from Nguyen’s decision to bring Merrill Garbus, the brain behind freak-folk act tUnE-yArDs, on to produce. It allowed for songs like “Nobody Dies,” which was written as a country-like song, to become dance oriented. “The whole time I was writing ‘Meticulous Bird’ I kept asking myself, ‘Am I writing a rock song right now? Is this dance? Is this really happening… and from me?’ But it did! Writing these songs was like that: a great combination of premeditation and fruitful spontaneity.”

A musician’s relationship with the music changes over the songwriting process. For Nguyen, she allows her emotions about her rocky relationship with her father to be morphed by the listeners she hands them to. A Man Alive is as much a personal narrative is it is one for others to claim as their own. “I made these songs to be shared,” she says. “At the end of our last tour, I realized our strengths were now that we were beat-driven and engaging listeners to move. I wanted to capture that on this record and explore it to new lengths.”

To strengthen that bond between the listener and the musician, Nguyen and the rest of her band are hosting a dinner at The Sinclair before their show this Tuesday. The meal, in partnership with Oxfam, is inspired by the Five Principles For Feeding the Planet. As such, it sees seasonal produce, local farmers, and the fight against global hunger hold hands, walking forward to serve the country and feed fans at the same time by donating all proceeds to support Oxfam’s work around the world.

“I’m proud of how much confidence I have now and how much sureness it took to get there with such horrible content,” she says. “To do that on a stage in front of people is hard. Sure, we have progressed past our folkier sound, but I must say that the way this record sounds and the way we perform now is much more representative of the way I am and the way I want to be. Actually, it’s the way I choose to be—it just took a minute to figure out how loud my voice could be.” >> THAO & THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN, LITTLE SCREAM. TUE 4.12. THE SINCLAIR, 52 CHURCH ST., CAMBRIDGE. 8PM/18+/$17. SINCLAIRCAMBRIDGE.COM READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW ONLINE AT DIGBOSTON.COM

MUSIC EVENTS THU 4.7

2 PIECE PART 1 URSULA + OJ + MOTHER TONGUE + DEATH DEALER + MORE

[Out of the Blue Too Art Gallery & More, 541 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.

6pm/all ages/$10. outoftheblueartgallery.com] 16

4.7.16 - 4.14.16

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FRI 4.8

GROOVY DUDES BRON DON + THE BLACK MOONS + MIGRANT MOTEL

[Red Room @ Cafe 939, 939 Boylston St., Boston.

8pm/all ages/$12.50. berklee.edu]

DIGBOSTON.COM

SAT 4.9

MUST BRING EARPLUGS RESTORATIONS + CREEPOID + THE DIRTY NIL

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Boston. 9pm/21+/$15. boweryboston.com]

PHOTO BY MARIA KANEVSKAYA

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

>> TACOCAT, BOYFRIENDS, MINI DRESSES. THU 4.14.

MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS, 472 MASS. AVE., CAMBRIDGE. 8PM/18+/$12. MIDEASTOFFERS.COM READ THE EXTENDED INTERVIEW ONLINE AT DIGBOSTON.COM

MON 4.11

DON’T LET THE NAME DECEIVE YOU YUCK + SAINTSENECA

[Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$15. sinclaircambridge.com]

MON 4.11

TUE 4.12

[Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.

7pm/all ages/$12. wzbc.org]

[Middle East Downstairs, 472 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.

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

WZBC SPRING SLAMMER FOXES IN FICTION + EMPEROR X + EMILY REO

COOL HAIR COOLER MUSIC ALEX G + PORCHES

THU 4/7 - LEEDZ PRESENTS

CORMEGA FRI 4/8

XMORTIS

SAT 4/9 10PM

HEROES

WITH DJ CHRIS EWEN TUES 4/12 - SOLD OUT

ALEX G / PORCHES WEDS 4/13

MONDAYS

CONSIDER THE SOURCE

INDUSTRY NIGHT

THU 4/14 - CROSSROADS PRESENTS

(NO TIME LIMIT, UNTIL KITCHEN CLOSES AT 10)

THU 4/7

GEOGRAPHER + THE CROOKES

50% OFF ALL FOOD

LIVE MUSIC @ 9PM

HOST YOUR MEET-UP OR GROUP OUTING HERE

CALL TO RESERVE YOUR SPACE

PLAN YOUR

GRADUATION PARTY WITH ZUZU!

SPACE AVAILABLE FOR PRIVATE PARTIES CALL TODAY FOR $300 OFF

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

JIMKATA FRI 4/8

PETER & THE TEST TUBE BABIES SAT 4/9 - BOWERY PRESENTS

HUMANS SUN 4/10

LADIES ROCK CAMP SHOWCASE MON 4/11 WZBC SPRING CONCERT TUES 4/12 - BOWERY & LEAGUE PODCAST PRESENT

DJ DOUGGPOUND & BRETT WEINBACH

WEDS 4/13 - LEEDZ PRESENTS

PROF MIKE MICTLAN (DOOMTREE)

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

FILM

GOOD FORM, BAD CHOICES

On The Invitation, Karyn Kusama’s dinner-party killer-thriller

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN The drawing room mystery usually gathers a handful of acquaintances and strangers into a locked space, leaving them to determine who among them has villainous intentions. Typically, social codes and standard courtesy become plot points in their own right—the question being how long it’ll take for these tiny representative oneroom societies to break themselves down into savagery.

In The Invitation, it’s a long-gone couple who’ve invited their old friends to a dinner party, where the warning signs should be sounding off as loud as sirens. The man of the house prefers to keep all the doors locked. Everybody’s cell phone is far out of service. A mysterious seductress arrives like an apparition. The estranged hostess strikes one of her guests with the force of a street fighter. Then her husband plays a promotional video for the spiritual group the couple now belongs to. It culminates with the onscreen death of a seemingly healthy woman. That one’s enough to freak everyone out—the host even has to apologize for playing his infomercial-slash-snuff film— but it doesn’t freak them out so much that they feel the need to leave. One guest is even comfortable enough to respond by asking for some cocaine to help her straighten all those nerves out. There are chamber dramas where these implicit tests of courtesy play out like character traits. But here they’re like mental deficiencies.

Against any form of better judgment, this group of Hollywood Hills hipsters have nothing but patience for their clearly scheming friends. But for their partners, they can barely spare a breath. Will (Logan Marshall-Green) often turns his shoulder to new girlfriend Kira (Emayatzy Corinealdi), closing himself off before he even arrives at

the dinner party. He’s preparing to re-meet his ex-wife Eden (Tammy Blanchard), the aforementioned hostess of this highly suspicious shindig. She and her new husband David (Michiel Huisman) are all smiles, but they’re the only attending couple who can claim that. Gina (Michelle Krusiec) has been stood up by her own boyfriend, which sets Will’s suspicions aflare. Partners Tommy and Miguel (Mike Doyle and Jordi Vilasuso) snipe at each other in between stops at the drink bar. Eden’s somewhatmysterious and clearly insidious new friend Pruitt (John Carroll Lynch) tells a story, with total sincerity, about the time he accidentally murdered his first wife. And the one person who does dare to leave early is immediately ridiculed as a sexual nonstarter. This whole motif of stricken relationships gets its purest exemplar from one of the more trustworthy dinner guests. Will’s longtime friend Ben (Jay Larson), there alone, talks about how marriage has drained away his lifeblood. All that’s left is bitterness and regret. And his reason for not divorcing fits the theme extremely well. “The sex is so angry,” he says, “that I can’t get away.”

For anger, Eden and her pseudo cult claim to have the answers. They explain it to their friends over a round of drinks. During their time away, she and David joined the Invitation, along with Pruitt and the seductress. It’s a Mexico-based collective (don’t call it a cult) led by a charismatic personality (seen during that infomercial) who promises an inner peace (which Eden feigns having achieved). The group traffics in early-Scientology-style mind games, have a decidedly spiritual element to their thinking, and claim to have unlocked the hidden mental

capacities required to overcome the effects of human trauma. And for anybody who doesn’t listen, they’ve got a threatening look, with more to come later. The film is directed by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Jennifer’s Body) and written by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (Ride Along, R.I.P.D., Kusama’s own Aeon Flux). Together they’ve devised a structure that ensures the audience often knows even less than most of the characters do. Traumas themselves are rolled out like dinner courses, at a deliberate pace. For Will, the visit to his old home triggers snap-cut flashbacks of the ’70s-psychological-thriller variety. We deduce, as the flashbacks are served, that he and Eden lost a child to a freak accident a few years ago. Now he has to deduce why all these smiley snake-oil salesmen are so dedicated to keeping him and his friends locked up in this mansion, with nothing but awkward conversation and fine wine to busy them. He searches the cabinets for drugs and stares out the window for clues. He screams out unheeded warnings and stays alert for poison in every drink. He plays Hercule Poirot to their L. Ron Hubbard.

Kusama has the artistry needed to orient the geography of both the house and the people inside of it.

If Will is snooping through a room, then you know where that room is in relation to everybody else; and in terms of filmcraft, that’s a major talent. The screenplay is rarely as deft, leaning on an allegory as blunt as a baseball bat.

As the cult’s nature reveals itself and the guests begin to fight back, the audience separates them all into one of two camps: those who face trauma and want to die, up against those who are steadfast in their survivalist nature. There’s a whole cycle of independent horror films now where the subtext itself physically manifests within the villain (The Witch and It Follows come to mind, among a handful of others). It happens in The Invitation, where the manifestation of willpower (named Will) fights against the manifestation of a spoiled inner life (named Eden), with the weight of all those snakebitten relationships on their shoulders. They’re stuck in this home—implausibly, illogically, and against all sense of intelligence—because there are metaphors that demand sorting out. They’re fighting out a fable.

If there’s texture beyond that, it’s provided by the paint on the walls. The home supplies a class element to the text; the place “wasn’t ever mine,” says Will, who’s decidedly scruffier than his counterparts. Little is done in the text to expand on the subject, but the general disposition of the conversations suggests that social bias might explain the rash decision to stay all night— Will is always riled up and behaving with no regard for social codes (“Why is everybody acting so fucking polite?”), while Eden is always hiding her true motives behind gentility (pouring another glass of Rothschild wine for one of her yet-unconvinced guests.) You can call her Bougie Bitch, and you can call him Working Class.

But just don’t ask where he works. Beyond the walls of that house, the screenplay is a barren text, driven by a nearly nonexistent offscreen mythology. The metaphor is all. If these characters have lives beyond Eden—and if the Invitation has an operating principle beyond the one sold in the infomercial—then it’s been left deliberately blank. The Invitation’s constructed world is as constricting as its closed-door setting. Maybe that’s why nobody thought to leave.

>> THE INVITATION. UNRATED. OPENS FRIDAY, 4.8, AT BRATTLE THEATRE. 40 BRATTLE ST., CAMBRIDGE. PLAYS THROUGH THURSDAY, 4.14.

FILM EVENTS FRI 4.8

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS HIGH TENSION

[Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

Midnight/NR/$11.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]

18

4.7.16 - 4.14.16

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SUN 4.10

SUN 4.10

[Harvard Film Archive.

24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 5pm/NR/$7-9.

35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/ hfa]

[Harvard Film Archive.

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

Various projection formats. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]

GUY MADDIN PRESENTS ANOTHER LURID B-MOVIE MASTERPIECE WICKED WOMAN

DIGBOSTON.COM

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MON 4.11

MON 4.11

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40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/NR/$9-11. brattlefilm.org]

[Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

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

[Museum of Fine Arts.

465 Huntington Ave., Boston. 7:30pm/NR/$9-11.]

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FRIDAY, JUNE 17

THIS SATURDAY! APRIL 9 Two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Gina Gionfriddo’s latest play, Can You Forgive Her?, is being given its world premiere at the Huntington Theatre Company in a production directed by artistic director Peter DuBois.

Meredith Forlenza stars as Miranda, an impossible young woman who has taken on a sugar daddy to help relieve her astronomical debt. Here, Forlenza opens up about creating Miranda and appearing on Broadway with Christopher Walken.

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Miranda must be such a fun role to play.

She is a fun role to play. I quite enjoy playing badly behaved women.

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What do you think the play is trying to say?

Something along the lines of, “You can only run from your demons for so long.”

Every time I think about it as we work on it more and more, things emerge, but I think that’s a big theme in the play. There’s something about the narratives that we create for ourselves, because I think Miranda is someone who has created this narrative, and it’s how she gets up in the morning.

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Did you address Miranda’s likability at all during the rehearsal process?

Yeah, we talked about it a little bit. I think she’s someone that you love to hate, so she’s sort of a delightful character to laugh at because she’s so outrageous. I think that’s part of the reason that she’s able to survive the way she does: There’s something magnetic about her, but there’s deep darkness under that magnetism, and she’s someone that really keeps her demons at bay with humor and with sarcasm and, in her mind, telling it like it is. But what I think she’s really doing is trying not to deal with the reality of her life, not to “go dark,” as she says in the play.

SATURDAY, MAY 21

SATURDAY, MAY 14

4 4//114 4 5 5//11 5 5//4 4 5 5//6 6 5 5//118 8

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What do you think is at the heart of Miranda’s ways?

Well, I think she’s someone who has pretty much gotten herself into the unfortunate position she’s in because she’s someone who refuses to take responsibility for things. It’s always not her fault.

What has it been like creating Miranda in this world premiere?

It’s been freaking awesome! I’ve admired Gina’s work for years and years and years, so I feel incredibly lucky. I’ve been very lucky in my career to have worked on a few brand-new plays, and being able to be in the room with a writer before the play is published and have some kind of input on what ultimately becomes the play, it feels like a very important responsibility, and I just feel very, very lucky to be a part of it.

THU 4/14 8:30PM

COMEDY

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FRIDAY, APRIL 29

SAT 4/9 9:30PM

OVERLOAD

Sprinkling sugar on the Huntington Theatre

What was it like working with Christopher Walken (in A Behanding in Spokane)?

Oh my God, so cool. I was understudying Zoe Kazan, and I went on one night because she hurt her back, and he was so kind and supportive. I have this very clear memory of looking up at Christopher Walken’s face and thinking, “This can’t be my life, it’s too good,” as I’m handcuffed to this radiator and he’s pouring gasoline on me [laughs] Hopefully my career will be full of cool moments like that, but I can’t imagine one that would really top that. It’s pretty great. >> CAN YOU FORGIVE HER? RUNS THROUGH 4.24 AT THE HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY AT THE BCA, 527 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG

PHOTO BY T. CHARLES ERICKSON

THU 4/7 10PM

BECOMING MIRANDA

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SAVAGE LOVE

LESS IS MORE

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET I’ve been in a fantastic monogamous relationship for almost eight years, but I used to be like a lot of your other readers. I had what I would consider an adventurous sex life, with lots of partners who were GGG, and I enjoyed continually pushing my sexual boundaries as long as everything was consensual and honest.

Fast-forward to my current life: I’m now married to a wonderful vanilla woman. The transition to monogamous and vanilla was difficult at first, and I had fears about not being sexually content.

As it turns out, it was a great move and I’m a better man for it. My desire to have every kind of sex under the sun has settled down considerably, and the benefit is that I have much more energy and mental focus for other areas of my life. I want your readers to know that the answer to their happiness may not be the pursuit of more outlandish sex—for some, it just might be less.

Monogamous In Montana Your letter reminded me of Saint Augustine’s prayer as a young man: “Lord, make me pure— but not yet!”

You’re pure now, MIM, but first, like Augustine of Hippo (354–430), you had yourself some impure fun. Perhaps you would be just as satisfied, happy, and smug if you’d been in a monogamous/vanilla relationship all along.

But it’s possible you wouldn’t be satisfied and happy now if it weren’t for the adventures and experiences you had then. To paraphrase St. Agnes Gooch of Mame (1966): You lived! You lived! You lived! You see all that living as time wasted, MIM, but it’s possible—it may even rise to the level of probable—that the perspective and self-awareness you gained during the fuckanything-that-moves stage of your life made you the man you are today, i.e., a guy who was ready to make a monogamous commitment and capable (so far) of honoring it.

Finally, monogamous/vanilla types routinely cross over into the ranks of the sexually adventurous/nonmonogamous and vice versa. (And monogamous/vanilla and sexually adventurous aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive categories.) Instead of disparaging the choices others make—or disparaging the choices we once made—we’re better off encouraging people to make the choices that are right for them. And choices that are right for someone now may not be right for them always—and that goes for you too, MIM, even now.

On the Lovecast, Dan chats with the filmmakers of the documentary Give Me Sex Jesus: savagelovecast.com.

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