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DIGBOSTON.COM 8.4.16 - 8.11.16

NEWS

THE HIGH AND THE MARTY

WALSH GRANDSTANDS AGAINST DRUGS

FILM

SUICIDE SQUAD

AND ITS MANY TRANSGRESSIONS

KIRBY WARD ARTS

FEATURE

PROHIBITION DEPARTMENT

LAWMAKERS SCREW BOSTON ON LIQUOR LICENSES

STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS

®

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VOL 18 + ISSUE 31

AUGUST 4, 2016 - AUGUST 11, 2016 EDITORIAL PUBLISHER + EDITOR Jeff lawrence NEWS + FEATURES EDITOR Chris Faraone ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran ASSOCIATE FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITOR Christopher Ehlers COPY EDITOR Mitchell Dewar 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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DEAR READER As we go to print, the new GE headquarters update slash press release has been bouncing around local the website walls online and within the respective social media threads that follow. The buzz, of course, has been heavily focused on how it plans on incorporating the old Channel nightclub’s ethos and nostalgia into its design in an attempt to localize its cred. The only thing missing from it is a cafe called the Rat. The problem with this approach is that it mimics past behaviors of those that have tried to ingratiate themselves within the local culture, and almost all have failed. If only it were that simple. The fact is, using local colloquialisms and hitching a ride on the storied past of our fair city does not convince anyone that you’re authentic. If anything, it makes you sound like an idiot.

I saw a post online that seemed to sum up how this hollow effort will likely play out; instead of defining Boston by the homage to these music clubs from our past, we should do our best to make sure they survive to begin with. We’re at a cultural crossroads right now, and it’s never been harder to define who we are as a city because of it. Let’s make sure the answer to that conundrum isn’t paying respect to it through a corporate eulogy. We already have the Verb Hotel. We don’t need another one.

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Mike Lawrence Comedy Central Aug 12+13

Dear Parking Lot Pig, What kind of filthy animal cleans out their SUV in a parking lot instead of at their own home or near an actual trash can? You do, that’s who, you goddamn pig. I know, I was at Target too, so I am also worthless scum, but compared to you I am a king, a jet-setting aristocrat extraordinaire. Because unlike me, you pulled an empty shopping cart up to your car door, then proceeded to transfer no less than two dozen coffee cups plus assorted other teeth-rotting trash.

Leaving behind a leaking heap of brown ooze on wheels that, if there was a god, would be heated into molten lava and ladled into your eyeballs like gravy.

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NEWS US

THE HIGH AND THE MARTY NEWS TO US

Boston Mayor Walsh is a lousy anti-addiction spokesperson

BY BRITNI DE LA CRETAZ @BRITNIDLC Last week at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh invoked his personal struggle with substance abuse in the opening line of his prime time speech, “My name is Marty Walsh, and I’m an alcoholic.” In doing so, Walsh was making a statement about second chances, as well as taking a big step towards shattering the stigma of addiction as the opiate crisis rages in our country. They were powerful words from a prominent politician.

As a Bostonian and an alcoholic and drug addict in recovery myself, there was something incredible about watching a local official embrace his own addiction on such a public stage. It was like he was telling all of us that we have nothing to be ashamed of, that we can be and do anything. And there, standing on one of the largest platforms in politics, he seemed to be living proof of what is possible when one overcomes alcoholism.

It was no surprise to see Walsh standing at the DNC to endorse his party’s nominee, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He appeared with her last fall when Clinton was in Boston to attend a forum on substance abuse, where the presidential candidate applauded Walsh’s local efforts to address the issue. The mayor was also named to head a national task force on substance abuse last fall, making him a leading public figure in the field. Walsh’s personal experience with alcoholism makes him an obvious choice to front the charge; consider the activist adage, “nothing about us without us.” Experience can uniquely qualify someone to tackle such issues, as people in recovery are more likely to seriously listen when 4

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the person helping has suffered themselves.

Walsh positions himself as the champion for the every man, a working class hero. We heard that in his DNC speech: “I followed my father into the building trades when I was 18 … Labor gave my immigrant family a chance … The labor community got me the help I needed.”

He’s a hometown boy, born and raised in Dorchester, who started with very little and overcame cancer and alcoholism and became mayor. It’s a narrative compelling enough to make many residents believe that he has their best interests at heart.

That story played well for the prime time audience.

But for those of us who know that Walsh campaigned on the promise that his experience in recovery would spur him to make addiction services a priority, sometimes such claims are hard to believe. There have been positive developments—Walsh created the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Services, the city’s first-ever municipal arm to focus on these issues, and he has also helped save many lives by getting first responders Narcan, the opiate blocker that can instantly reverse an overdose. But there have also been developments that raise the question of whether he is the best person to be preaching about drug and alcohol treatment on national television.

Less than a year after taking office, Walsh abruptly closed the bridge to Long Island, where more than 100 of the city’s treatment beds were located (including nearly two-thirds of the available beds for women in Boston). Long Island was also home to several hundred homeless beds, a detox, and multiple halfway houses.

Almost two years later, many of those beds have yet to be replaced while, as was recently illustrated in detail by a Boston Globe investigation, access to treatment in the city is dangerously inadequate. Walsh also supported Republican Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s opiate bill, which included no money for new treatment beds, even though they’re desperately needed. The champion for the “every man” has seemingly forgotten those at the bottom .

Perhaps just as damagingly, Walsh recites outdated, fear-mongering “science” claiming marijuana is “a gateway drug” and merely one step away from opiates, and says he’s doing everything he can to stop cannabis legalization. The mayor even prioritized his own mythology over the statistical reality of biased policing: “So because of racial disparities we legalize a drug that potentially could kill people, lead to death?” His misguided, and, frankly, racist response continued, “I don’t think that’s a good enough reason to do it.”

This would all be bad enough if only Boston was affected by Walsh’s archaic views on addiction, and by his willingness to overlook the people who need the most thelp, all while pleasing donors and developers.

But Walsh’s role as the head of a powerful national substance abuse task force, plus his appearance at the DNC to champion his friend Clinton has thrust him into the national spotlight as an expert and leader in the field. And that is a scary proposition for Americans who desperately need help.

Walsh should stop using his alcoholism as a selling point to garner votes and sympathy, and start using it to guide the way he addresses the addiction crisis that our city—and country—is currently facing. His name is Marty and he is an alcoholic. It’s time he refer to his Big Book, and specifically the 12th Step, which charges us to act compassionate and help those who are suffering “in all our affairs.” Because I know his recovery principles taught him better than this.

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APPARENT HORIZON

PARTY POOPERS

Blue and Red stalwarts should stop attacking minor party supporters for remaining independent —and start debating ideas

The quadrennial whinefest has already begun.

The RNC and DNC pageants are barely over, the presidential election is still over three months off, and yet major party stalwarts are already trying to police the growing margins of their parties and guilt trip them into voting against their consciences. Sadly, this behavior has become a ritual of American politics. One that needs to end if we’re ever going to have a system that offers voters more choices than “Column A or Column B.” Or, as comedian Barry Crimmins once put it: “Do you want to get hit over the head with a hammer or a mallet?”

In the last few days, I have read at least a dozen impassioned pleas from people on the broad political left in my social network begging anyone who will listen to not be “stupid” and “throw their votes away” by backing the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, or any party other than the Democrats this fall. When begging fails, they turn to hectoring—usually based on the Reductio ad Hitlerum fallacy: 2016 is 1933. Trump is Hitler. If you don’t vote Democrat, you’re letting the Nazis win.

When hectoring tanks, they start the insults. Which soon devolve into digital shouting matches. Convincing no one who wasn’t already convinced. But solidifying their belief that they’re the only ones possessing the relevant facts and the “maturity” to take “rational” action. That their political equation is the only political equation. That their choice is the only “sane” one. But that’s incorrect.

People can share some of the Democrats’ stated “progressive” views and still vote for minor party candidates, or for Trump, or for “None of the Above”—an option that many Americans choose on a regular basis. Because they understand that, in practice, Democratic presidents often back reactionary policies in the interest of multinational corporations and the rich. And they prefer to vote for the best candidate possible, or simply lodge a protest vote. Which they have every right to do.

I’ve also seen similar arguments being made from the political right—if not as vociferously—mostly concerned about the Libertarian Party “stealing” votes from Republicans. (Although, at the moment, it’s looking like Libertarians will woo voters away from both the Democrats and the Republicans. Providing the potential for umbrage from Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump supporters alike, one supposes).

So just a reminder to all major party supporters—including the Boston Globe’s Yvonne Abraham, whose hatchet job on Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein this week is a textbook example of the behavior in question: people in minor political parties are not in your political parties. They are Greens. They are Libertarians. They are Socialist Party (yes, they’re running national candidates, too), et cetera. And while they certainly have to figure out their relationship to other parties as part of their political strategy, they are not required to do what you want them to do. They are also not “idiots” for hewing to their own political course. Or for failing to fall into line behind the current duopoly.

Even though so-called “third” parties haven’t had a chance at winning PARTY POOPERS continued on pg. 8 6

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PARTY POOPERS continued from pg. 6

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“That’s politics, folks.

It’s real life. The more power that’s at stake, the uglier it gets. As we just saw (and perhaps are still seeing courtesy of Wikileaks) with the highly questionable Clinton victory over Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination.”

***

Also, a quick shout-out to Black Lives Matter Cambridge and Somerville allies for organizing this week’s “Setting the Record Straight” counter-demonstration in Union Square. That in response to the protest rally called by the Somerville Police Employee’s Association (SPEA) and the Mass Municipal Police Coalition (MMPC) in support of removing the “Black Lives Matter” banner that Mayor Joe Curtatone—in a welcome turn from his more problematic political stances— refuses to take down from Somerville City Hall. And replacing it with an “All Lives Matter” banner. A position based on the myth of “seemingly daily protest assassinations of innocent police officers around the country,” according to the original SPEA letter to Curtatone.

Yes, cops are people, too. But the city’s support for Black people’s humanity— and their demands for justice in an unjust and structurally racist political economic system that has historically been defended by police (and their often virulently racist unions)—takes nothing away from that.

More to the point, as the current excellent BLM slogan puts it: “If All Lives Matter, #Prove It!” Let’s see SPEA and MMPC support punishing killer cops and admit that there is literally no comparison between police deaths in the line of duty—which are actually in decline—and the ongoing execution of Black people by cops. Then there will be grounds for some genuine dialogue between area police and Black Lives Matter.

Apparent Horizon is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.

Jason Pramas is BINJ’s network director.

PHOTO VIA BLM CAMBRIDGE| COPYRIGHT 2016 JASON PRAMAS. LICENSED FOR USE BY THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM AND MEDIA OUTLETS IN ITS NETWORK.

LIVE MUSIC • LOCAVORE MENU PRIVATE EVENTS

major national elections for a long long time, and even though we don’t have a parliamentary system in the US, that doesn’t mean their efforts are wasted. Or that their votes are “thrown away.”

Small parties run national elections for any number of reasons, but two big ones are to qualify for federal election funding and to earn a slot in the presidential debates. Others include: support for lower level candidates, demonstrating that their party has a national presence, the possibility of forcing one of the major parties to cut a deal on a key policy issue, and gaining visibility for their ideas. Whatever the reason, they are not stealing votes from anybody.

They are vying for constituencies like any other party and trying to win them over and gain their support.

That’s politics, folks. It’s real life. The more power that’s at stake, the uglier it gets. As we just saw (and perhaps are still seeing courtesy of Wikileaks) with the highly questionable Clinton victory over Bernie Sanders in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Therefore I suggest that major party backers remember that fact in the coming months and beyond. You all can try to convince minor party members and independents to join your party based on the strength of your ideas. But, given the degeneration of the Democrats and the Republicans into caricatures of their past politics—the social democracy of the former morphing into neoliberalism, and the conservatism of the latter descending into a chaotic stew of fauxpopulism, racism and nativism—and given that both parties have long stood for militarism, imperialism, and state capitalism, it should be no surprise at all that more and more people are looking for political alternatives.

I certainly am.

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SUMMERTHING, BOSTON’S OG ARTS FESTIVAL FEATURE

BY SEAN L. MALONEY It’s festival season and Boston has been aflutter with the latest news, from the Madison Square Garden company purchasing a controlling interest in the biannual Boston Calling, to beer festivals and barbecue festivals, not to mention festivals with beer and barbecue. We’ve got two installments of Porchfest, not to mention a fiesta for marshmallow Fluff. Greater Boston loves its festivals but seems to have forgotten about the original citywide community arts spectacle that was Summerthing.

Founded in 1968, Summerthing was focused on bringing art, theater, and music into the neighborhoods.

The goal was to not only provide culture but to provide opportunities for creative types and community members, to provide outlets for creative impulses and entertainment that could counteract the stresses of summertime. It was an extension of newly-elected Mayor Kevin White’s neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach to campaigning and a counterpoint to the parochial townie-ism that makes Boston, well, Boston. It began with murals and public art in public places — not just in the center of the city, not just where the tourists could see it. It expanded to plays, concerts and performances of all types.

In an August 2, 1969 article titled, “Summerthing a Success in Community Creativity,” the Boston Globe reported: Promoters of Boston’s Summerthing met responses like: “Summer-WHAT?” or “You Represent WHAT-thing?” at this time last year…City people just didn’t know what to make of Boston’s Neighborhood Festival.

But now reactions are different — “What Time shall I be there?” or “When does the show start?”

Summerthing is a Greater Boston household word …

It isn’t the kind of success you measure with dollar signs, though.

Summerthing’s prosperity is in terms of people. Like a neighborhood getting together to build themselves a park.

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Or more than 15,000 children learning arts and crafts, singing and acting, emphasizing personal creativity.

Summerthing’s staff — nearly 2000 volunteer teachers, coordinators and program directors — has brought entertainment and workshops to more than a million Bostonians in its first six weeks of operation.

By the Summer of 1970, the festival expanded to include not just concerts in the neighborhoods and on the Common, but, with the help of Schaefer Brewing Company, major concerts at Harvard Stadium in Allston.

Check out this listing from Harvard student newspaper The Crimson on June 29, 1970. This could be the single greatest run of shows to ever hit our city.

June 29- B. B. King. Butterfield Blues Band; James Cotton Blues Band July 1- Ten Years After — Matt The Hoople July 6- The Four Seasons July 8- Miles Davis Buddy Miles, Big Band, Seatrain July 13- The Grateful Dead, John Hammond July 15- Ike and Tina Turner, Voices of East Harlem July 20- John Sebastian, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends, Manhattan Transfer July 22- Van Morrison, Great Speckled Bird with lan and Sylvia, Tom Paxton July 27- Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Ramsey Lewis, Carla Thomas, Leon Thomas, Percy Mayfield July 29- Jose Feliciano August 3- The Johnny Mathis Show August 10- The Supremes August 12- Janis Joplin August 17- Tom Rush, Melanie Sadly, it would be Janis Joplin’s final performance.

Otherwise, what we have here is a prime example of how truly phenomenal a line-up can be. And despite constant budget troubles — convincing public and private sources to cough up cash for the arts wasn’t easy then, and it isn’t easy now — Summerthing managed to bring some of the era’s most important artists to town at the height their powers,

Summerthing is about 1500 things to about a million different people. In spite of vandalism, in spite of rain, in spite of its own bureaucracy, Summerthing brings music, theaters, art, dance and parties to people in every neighborhood in Boston.

Summerthing is the city’s privately funded public summer arts festival. In this its eighth season, 1000 performances and 500 workshops are to happen everywhere in Boston. If this year is like other years Summer thing will attract large audiences.

In other words, Summerthing works. It does the summer thing it’s supposed to do — bring lots of cultural fun to lots of people. It works for three reasons: it moves, it listens and it’s free.

Summerthing would fizzle out by decade’s end, a victim of budget cuts and bureaucracy, but not without leaving its impact on the city itself. Summerthing murals still adorn walls across Boston, while the spirit of the era echoes through every free concert and event in town. The Summerthing model would also be copied around the country, becoming a model for making art accessible in cities all across America.

These days, the idea of a summer-long arts festival is about as standard as they come, but at one point it was a unique concept and one of Boston’s most innovative. Next time someone tries to tell you their party idea is “outside the box,” remind them that this city’s done this sort of thing for nearly half a century.

Sean L. Maloney is an author in Boston. Look out for his upcoming 33 1/3 book on The Modern Lovers’ The Modern Lovers.

This throwback was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. For posts connecting old headlines with contemporary news stories, check out medium.com/binj-reports/tagged/throwbacks.

PHOTO BY NICK DEWOLF (COURTESY OF THE NICK DEWOLF PHOTO ARCHIVES)

The idea of an enormous arts bonanza is standard these days, but at one point it was a unique Hub innovation

whether it was the Allman Brothers or Aretha Franklin.

As the decade wore on and the city became more and more divided over busing and desegregation, Summerthing was essential for maintaining some sort of unity. Like the playground basketball leagues of days past, Summerthing offered a forum for young people to express themselves, to interact with each other in peaceful, productive ways when there were so many other influences pulling them in less savory directions. From kung-fu demonstrations in Chinatown, to arias in the North End and dance recitals in Dorchester, Summerthing brought opportunity and entertainment for almost every interest. As Christina Robb wrote in the June 26, 1975 edition of the Globe:

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THE THIRSTY GAMES CONTINUE FEATURE

After failed attempt by Boston to gain control over licenses, liquor laws still stuck in last century

BY HALEY HAMILTON @SAUCYLIT Earlier this year, DigBoston and the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism published a two-part feature, The Thirsty Games, investigating the Hub’s antiquated liquor license quota, and the confusion and disparity the limited number of licenses has caused.

The series laid out the sordid history that’s led to Roxbury having but a handful of wet establishments, while much wealthier neighborhoods like Back Bay have more than a hundred spots to imbibe. Also addressed in the articles was “An Act to Modernize Municipal Finance and Government,” proposed earlier this year by Gov. Charlie Baker. Among the wide-ranging items included in the omnibus bill was wording that would remove the state-appointed cap on liquor licenses, and allow municipal boards in all cities and towns to distribute permits and set limits. Except for the city of Boston.

Flanked by a supportive Boston City Council, Mayor Marty Walsh attempted to encourage legislators at the State House to amend Baker’s proposal to include Boston.

With additional licenses the Walsh administration would make available, they argued, opportunities would come to neighborhoods like Hyde Park, Mattapan, and others that have been starved for nightlife. But after a pissing match with state representatives from Boston who are loath to surrender Commonwealth oversight, lawmakers on Beacon Hill put the transfer of liquor-licensing authority on ice, much to the dismay of Walsh and other city leaders.

Why does any of this matter? As explained by Erin Anderson and Malia Lazu of Epicenter Community, a nonprofit that advocates for disenfranchised neighborhoods and entrepreneurs, the liquor license 12

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application process is deeply flawed. The Roxbury-based Epicenter dispatches to every meeting of the Boston Licensing Board, and has assisted DigBoston and BINJ in the research and reporting of this ongoing story. Says Epicenter, if applicants can demonstrate a public need for an alcohol-serving establishment in a particular neighborhood, have met with community boards and held public hearings, and are able to garner community support, then they should be granted a stamp of approval.

But because of the state-imposed cap on licenses within the Hub, an aspiring restaurateur can jump through bureaucratic hoops for months only to be denied “without prejudice,” which means their business passes muster but is out of luck because there are no licenses

available. As Christopher Lin, co-owner of Seven Star Street Bistro in Roslindale, told BINJ, “It’s super frustrating to have all the support you need but getting a license can still be uncertain because of confusing laws.”

As The Thirsty Games explains in detail, in 2014 Boston City Councilor-at-Large Ayanna Pressley championed a bill that freed up 25 new licenses a year for three years (75 in total). In practice, a majority of those licenses were awarded, as called for by Pressley’s bill, to businesses in traditionally underserved neighborhoods. Which is progress, except for that the last 25 licenses will be released in September. After that the city’s back to square one, where a liquor license can sell for in excess of $350,000 on the open market, and where dining and nightlife entrepreneurs often take their business across the river to Cambridge and Somerville, neither of which is constrained by the state’s arbitrary cap. Meanwhile, 17 restaurants—from Jamaica Plain to East Boston—have been denied a license “without prejudice” by the licensing board in Boston since September 2014. In many cases, they were established local restaurants looking to expand their beverage program, but were denied because of a state-imposed cap from the 1930s.

This latest news from Beacon Hill is dispiriting, since what’s at stake is more than where Bostonians can grab a beer. A lifted cap would would benefit everyone who wants to experience a more diverse dining culture in all parts of Boston, starting with the small business owners who want something bigger, not just for themselves but for forgotten corners of the city.

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EATS

ASHLEY’S

True local flavor in Braintree

BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON

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It is easy to pin the label “neighborhood restaurant” on a dining spot, and in fact you could say that nearly every restaurant not within a mall, major shopping center, or office park could be called this—at least one chain is known for using this term even though many of its locations are nowhere near any neighborhoods. Some eateries, however, are true neighborhood spots that attract locals day after day and week after week while the rest of the world doesn’t even know of their existence, and Ashley’s in Braintree fits this description to a T. And in a town known in part for a huge mall and lots of commercial development, it makes this tiny greasy spoon even more appealing in some ways.

Braintree has several “village centers,” including Braintree Square, Weymouth Landing (which is at the Braintree/Weymouth line), and South Braintree Square, which is home to Ashley’s and a number of other independent dining spots and stores. Like most of the storefronts in South Braintree Square, Ashley’s is very small, and it doesn’t take long for lines to form out the door, especially on weekend mornings. Although it resides in a narrow space, it goes back quite a ways, so it has more tables than you might expect. As all good diners and breakfast joints seem to have, there is a good amount of counter seating off to the left where old codgers are often seen reading the paper (and muttering under their breath if the local sports teams aren’t doing so well).

You would think that an old-fashioned neighborhood breakfast and lunch spot such as Ashley’s would focus on familiar dishes, and while this is true to an extent, the menu here is quite long and features a few items that range from interesting to head-scratching (but in a good way). Mixed in among the waffles, pancakes, omelets, and bacon and eggs are such breakfast items as a stuffed French toast, which looks a bit like a grilled cheese sandwich but is in fact two slices of French toast with sweet cream cheese in between; a breakfast skillet that includes eggs, cheese, bacon, tomatoes, and home fries in a white-hot plate; a Portuguese omelet with linguica, peppers, and onions; and a New England Patriots pride omelet, which includes hot Italian sausage, steak, and cheese. The lunch menu at Ashley’s includes the usual burgers, hot dogs, BLTs, and tuna melts, but it also features an Italian sausage with spinach, American chop suey, liver and onions (which is what some might call a “generational dish”), and a steak marsala. Prices for most of the meals at Ashley’s are extremely low, with some items being paid for with pocket change, while service is about as quick and efficient as you will find anywhere.

Every community should have a dining spot like Ashley’s; indeed, there is something special about a place where workers and customers often talk to each other on a first-name basis while also being welcoming to people outside the neighborhood and first-timers. There are neighborhood restaurants and then there are true neighborhood restaurants, and this little eatery most definitely fits into the latter category. >> ASHLEY’S. 916 WASHINGTON ST., BRAINTREE. ASHLEYSBREAKFAST.COM

©2016 Goose Island Beer Co., Goose IPA®, India Pale Ale, Chicago, IL | Enjoy responsibly.

T:9.5 in

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NEWS TO US

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

15

GOT AN EVENT? LIST IT.

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MUSIC

SIMPLE MATH

Why the world (aka you) needs math rock

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN Music often introduces itself to us in the form of pop. The radio filters in your ears as a child. You learn the traditional structure of songs, the need for a chorus, the ease of simple lyrics, of percussion you can air drum to, of a melody you can sing in the shower the next day. Pop music takes time to format, but, when done right, those simple melodies stay in your head for days.

As we age, most of us start looking for music a bit grittier, music with verbose monologues (hey, hip hop) or winding guitar solos (hi, classic rock) that offer more to chew on. Hidden in the depths of subgenres lies a sound so colorful and inventive that most people, upon first listen, feel turned off. That’s math rock, and when given a second chance, it changes the way you listen.

This isn’t a Shakespearean dramady. We mean it. Math rock pushes listeners to listen deeper. Like the King Crimson and Genesis prog-rock acts before it, math rock takes complex rhythms in one hand and odd time signatures in the other, combining the two so that angular melodies get padded out with finger-tapped guitar lines. The feel-good nature of pop choruses becomes heightened when juxtaposed with dissonant chords. Think about post-rock songs by Explosions In The Sky and their ability to make a seven-minute wait for tension relief to feel worth it simply because the build-up to a payoff feels justified. Math rock does the same, but by toying with your expectations. It’s a Picasso painting cut up and displayed as puzzle pieces, and the more frequently you return to it, eager to solve the layout, the faster the painting begins to come together and, in turn, rewards you with beautiful artwork worth staring at.

That stimulation can’t be taught. It must be learned through personal experience. By now, you DigBoston music junkies are knee-deep in emo math rock records (American Football and Slint) and noisier variants (Shellac and Foals). What we suggest you grab copies of are records by Tera Melos or Maps & Atlases.

Better yet, there’s an easier way to get this musical education. Grab a ticket to Great Scott’s most addition-based, multiplication-heavy night yet. On Tuesday, Aug 9, TTNG (formerly This Town Needs Guns) will celebrate the release of its new record, Disappointment Island, with Lite and Giraffes? Giraffes! set to open.

If you can’t follow along on record, watching these bands hammer out dicey time signatures and rubbery guitar parts live will be a live demonstration. Fair warning, your brain will buzz with musical satisfaction for at least one month after. Is it worth it? Well, you do the math. >> TTNG + LITE + GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES!. TUES 8.9.

GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON. 9PM/18+/$15. GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM

MUSIC EVENTS THU 8.4

SAT 8.6

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

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

[Once Somerville, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville.

8pm/all ages/$18. oncesomerville.com]

FRI 8.5

MON 8.8

EQUALITY FOR ALL PUNKS DOWNTOWN BOYS + SHOPPING + GAUCHE + URSULA

BRAZILIAN PSYCH ROCK BOOGARINS + THE TELEVIBES + MAGIC SHOPPE + MORE

[Middle East Upstairs, 472 Mass.

Ave., Cambridge.

8pm/18+/$12. mideastoffers.com] 16

8.4.16 - 8.11.16

|

DIGBOSTON.COM

STARDUST TO BLACKSTAR: THE LIVES OF DAVID BOWIE BOSTON ROCK OPERA

THE FAREWELL TOUR THE GO-GO’S + KAYA STEWART

[House of Blues, 15 Lansdowne St., Boston.

7pm/all ages/$35. houseofblues.com]

TUE 8.9

THE PINK SIDE OF METAL BORIS + EARTH

[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Allston. 7pm/18+/$20. crossroadspresents.com]

TUE 8.9

MATH ROCK MADNESS TTNG + LITE + GIRAFFES? GIRAFFES! [Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston.

9pm/18+/$15. greatscottboston.com]

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

FILM

TRIGGER WARNINGS On Suicide Squad and its many transgressions

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

When we first meet Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, she’s hanging from the bars of her jail cell like a Cirque du Soleil performer, or a stripper. We’re introduced to her within the roll call of character intros that makes up the first twenty minutes of David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, wherein we see agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) describing the eponymous team to a couple of otherwisemeaningless subordinates. Each of the squad-ers gets their own introduction, stylized out of the FukasakuTarantino-Wright playbook, with personalized fonts and theme songs. Davis spends the whole conversation lowering her tone and pausing dramatically, as if she were threatening somebody’s life or trying to coin lines that would fit in a movie trailer. “You’re playing with fire, Amanda,” they say. “I fight fire… with fire.” The restaurant is empty, but there must be a cook in the back, because Amanda is eating steak. That’s the movie winking at you.

It knows how vulgar it is. It knows that it’s chewing.

The rest of the team is as follows.

Will Smith plays Deadshot, aka Floyd Lawton, whom we first meet in prison, displaying a build that resembles a block of wood. His backstory is that he’s a crack shot assassin, and his weakness is that he values the life of his own preteen daughter. We see him walking with her, discussing the exposition of their own lives (“Mom says I can’t live with you because you kill people”).

Joel Kinnaman plays Col. Rick Flag, the special operative assigned to lead the team. If this is the Dirty Dozen—which the narrative and alliterative title suggests—then he is our Lee Marvin. He is our Lee Marvin. Let’s just move on from that, rather than consider its implications regarding the variety of leading men in Hollywood today and how it compares to the era of men like Lee Marvin. Yes. Let’s move on.

Cara Delevingne plays June Moone, a famed archeologist who discovered the existence of an ancient witch. She also plays the Enchantress, because said witch took partial control of Moone’s body at

that same moment. Her spirit is controlled, with an obvious nod to old voodoo myths, by the Waller character, who maintains literal physical possession of the Enchantress’ heart. Moone and Enchantress trade places at various moments during the movie, which strikes fear into the heart of the Moone half; Delevingne illustrates this emotion by mimicking the expression that small animals make when they hear thunder.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje “plays” Killer Croc, an anthropomorphized crocodile.

Karen Fukuhara plays Katana, who wields one.

Jay Hernandez plays Chato Santana, aka El Diablo.

He is a fiery Hispanic, in the truest sense of that ugly stereotype; he is littered with tattoos that purposefully evoke Latin gangs, and also he can set himself on fire at will. Sample dialogue: “You trippin’, homie?”

Jai Courtney plays Boomerang, an avowed hooligan.

Tom Hardy was unable to appear in this movie, so Jai Courtney also plays Tom Hardy.

Witches converse in subtitles, Americans converse in wisecracks, Katana converses in killshots. And the tonal shifts that all engenders reminds you of another superhero-team-up movie. On that same note, Croc is our Hulk, Katana is our Black Widow, Will Smith is our Robert Downey Jr, and Viola Davis is our Samuel L. Jackson. This leaves out the villains, comprised of Leto’s Joker—who matches Davis’ performance by invoking the voices of those people who narrate television commercials—and an ancient god-sibling awakened by a rogue Enchantress—who very much looks like a character from Thor, which can’t exactly be an accident.

These are unmistakably weirdo analogues of the Avengers mythos, which gives this whole thing an effect borrowed from Alan Moore’s Watchmen: You turn the page or you take a bathroom break, and you’ve entered into a new

subgenre, and it’s been warped by bad taste, too. There is an overarching theme here—all these antisocial summer campers are actually closet homebodies who Deep Down Really Need Each Other—but the overriding principle of the movie is illogic. If Guardians of the Galaxy crossbred The Avengers with Flash Gordon, then Suicide Squad brings in the influence of Takashi Miike and makes it a threesome (one of Katana’s killshots is borrowed from Ichi the Killer, framing and all). A binder labeled “top secret” gets left in an unzipped bag; a wife berates her husband about his murderous arson outbursts as though they were unpaid cable bills; a flashback returns us to a sequence that we’ve already seen in full. The comparison is not to Audition or 13 Assassins or to any of Miike’s more respectable films, but rather to the deliberately gonza manga and video game adaptations he’s made. Suicide Squad recalls Miike movies like Ace Attorney, For Love’s Sake, or Crows Zero 2—which is also to say that it recalls pretty much nothing else.

Nothing in the contemporary cinema, that is. What it also recalls is the sensationalism of popular comic books produced throughout the 20th century—the fetishes for big boys with big guns, the punchlines masquerading as dialogue (“I want you to kill him, and then I want you to clear my browser history”), the ugly stereotypes, the repetitive nature of the action sequences, and especially the unbridled leering toward the female characters.

There’s a moment where Ayer’s camera pans up Robbie’s body while Harley puts on a shirt, and you best believe that he catches her bra in the frame before the thin texture covers it up. And her chest is only his secondary interest. Her backside is what truly compels him, and the movie follows along. She wears belted shorts that ride up higher than most panties, and Ayer’s most notable compositional choice is to keep a lot of his frames at waist level. All the cycling characters and combat pairings make this something like a stream-of-consciousness superhero movie. But it keeps getting distracted—and it’s always by that ass.

With David Ayer, that’s almost expected. In the films he’s contributed to—Training Day, End of Watch, Fury, Sabotage, and now Squad, on which he is the sole writer and director—raging masculinity is made into competitive sport. He’s not a particularly adept visualist. He usually stays in the one-shot and the overthe-shoulder; his action is deliberately choppy and makes the easy choice to skew away from establishing comprehensive geographic spaces; and he uses slow motion as a crutch to create interest in his otherwise banal action-movie hallmarks. He doesn’t have the qualities of an aesthete, but rather quite the opposite.

He’s so fascinated by filth that he doesn’t even care how it’s framed—the most evocative moment of Fury sees a new military recruit having to clean the brain matter of his predecessor off his new post. Viscera is his guiding light, and while the themes aspire to righteousness, his eyes betray his truest interests. In Suicide Squad, his moralizing side emerges in critiques of the US government, which come in the form of gleefully sensationalized black sites or via agents who murder ostensible innocents for the sake of security protocols.

Like so many movies and comic books before him, he’s exploiting legitimate ills for the sense pleasures of saving us from them—and he’s going to take in whatever other sensual pleasures he can find in the process, other moral standards be damned.

>> SUICIDE SQUAD. RATED PG-13. OPENS EVERYWHERE ON FRI 8.5.

FILM EVENTS FRI 8.5

SAT 8.6

MON 8.8

MON 8.8

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

7 and 9:30pm/NR/$9-11.

Screens through 8.8. See brattlefilm.org for other showtimes.]

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

11:30pm/PG-13/$9-11. 35mm.

Also screens on 8.7 at 12:30pm.]

[Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

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

[Harvard Film Archive.

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

35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/hfa]

AREA PREMIERE KAILI BLUES

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ROBERT ALDRICH’S VERA CRUZ

THU 8.11

REWIND! PRESENTS BRING IT ON

[Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

7pm/PG-13/$11.25. 35mm.]

THU 8.11

“PLAY IT COOL” DOUBLE FEATURE GET CARTER and POINT BLANK

[Somerville Theatre.

55 Davis Square, Somerville.

7:30 and 9:45pm/R and NR/$10 for both. 35mm. somervilletheatre.com]

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ARTS

STILL ‘CRAZY’ AFTER ALL THESE YEARS Two decades after creating the role of Bobby Child in the West End, Kirby Ward brings Crazy for You to Reagle

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS Reagle Music Theatre is closing out its 48th summer season with Crazy for You, the Gershwins’ 1992 Tony-winning Best Musical that ran for over 1,600 performances and launched the career of choreographer Susan Stroman.

Actor Kirby Ward originated the role of Bobby in the 1993 West End production, earning himself an Olivier Award nomination.

(Ward can also be heard on the cast album.)

Now, Ward is not only stepping back into Bobby’s shoes, but he is directing Reagle’s production, which will also recreate Stroman’s Tony-winning choreography.

It’s been about 20 years now since you originally played Bobby.

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What does it feel like to return to the show after all these years?

It reminds me of how much I loved doing it. It just brings back all of the memories of my time in England and all of the great experiences that I have associated with the show. It’s like putting on your favorite comfy, old pair of shoes.

Now you’re not only playing Bobby again, but you’re directing the show. How much of the original production are you honoring here?

It’s very close. We’re doing Susan Stroman’s choreography, we have Robin Wagner’s original set, William Ivey Long’s original costumes, and the original orchestration—so it’s very, very close.

You can’t beat that, though.

No, you can’t. If you missed it 15-20 years ago, it’s your chance to see it, really, as it was.

What did it feel like to see all of that stuff again?

Oh, it’s really fun. It’s just like I said, very nostalgic. This show brought me to London. I had an opportunity to meet the Queen of England; I got to play tennis with Prince Edward. It was once in a lifetime.

How does it feel to return to Susan Stroman’s choreography?

It’s just genius stuff. It’s not just the choreography; it’s all the ideas behind the choreography, the motivating forces. I learned a lot from working with Susan about motivating the choreography—choreography that comes from story line. There are sections of the show that I do that were actually created on me by Susan: bits of choreography that are mine. So I’m returning to her material, but in returning to her material I’m also revisiting my own original stuff, too, so that’s kind of fun.

You really have your fingerprints all over this role.

I do! I do. They really wanted to highlight everything that I was able to do. Everything I knew how to do, everything they saw me do, they found a way to work it into the material, which was really fun, because now 20 years later, I’m going, “Oh, that’s right, I remember that!”

There are 20 years between your first Broadway show—Woman of the Year—and your last, Never Gonna Dance. Just looking at your first and your last, how has the business changed?

It’s hard to say. You look now at what’s going on with Hamilton, it’s really exciting because when you look back to the ’50s and ’60s, the music that they were writing for musicals back then was popular music of its day. I think that at a certain point, Broadway kind of got away from popular music, and so to see something like Hamilton, which is bringing popular music back to Broadway, I think that’s really a great trend and I hope that we see more of that. But there are a lot of differences in terms of the casting structure. In the old days, if you wanted to audition for a Broadway show, you could show up and be seen and possibly get cast. When I was young, you’d see the audition in the trades and say, “I’m going to go for that audition.” You’d go and the director and choreographer would be there and they would see you audition. Nowadays, you show up and the casting director might have sent their assistant to run that audition. The people auditioning don’t even get to be seen by the director or the choreographer—they’re screened maybe three or four times before they actually get into the room with the real director.

You were talking about how Broadway got away from pop music, but Crazy for You is a great celebration of old-fashioned pop hits.

Yeah, pop hits from the ’30s absolutely. That’s what was so revolutionary. The music is just glorious. Now you look at it and go, “Aw, all those corny old songs.” In the 1930s, this was the new, cutting-edge stuff

>> CRAZY FOR YOU. 8.4-8.14 AT REAGLE MUSIC THEATRE, 617 LEXINGTON ST., WALTHAM. REAGLEMUSICTHEATRE.COM

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SAVAGE LOVE

USE YOUR WORDS!

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

I hooked up with this hot married couple. We’d done it before, and my expectations were shaped by previous (fun) experiences with them. But the sex wasn’t good this time. That would be fine—sometimes it just doesn’t work, and I am an adult about it—but for the specific reason it wasn’t good: The husband came on my face after I specifically told him not to do that. I used my words. He still blew a load in my face and then sheepishly kinda apologized afterwards. He said he didn’t mean to do it and that he was aiming at my boobs. I do not believe it for a second. It was an “ask for forgiveness, not for permission” kind of thing—I could see that on his face. He looooves facials. So that sealed my decision to not sleep with them again, which I told them about.

I consider a load in my face against my will to be a big violation of my trust/friendship. The couple thinks I’m overreacting and that a load in your face should be a forgivable offense. I’m not going to change my mind, but I am curious what you think about sneaky facials.

Unwanted Semen Angers! Unicorn Seeking Advice!

Sneaky facials are sneaky, and I don’t approve of sneakiness in the sack. People should be straightforward and direct; they should communicate their wants, needs, and limits clearly; and we should all err on the side of solicitousness, i.e., drawing new sex partners out about their wants, needs, and limits, because some folks have a hard time using their words where sex is concerned.

You used your words, USA!USA!, and this dude violated your clearly communicated wants, needs, and limits. I’m glad you let them know you were upset and why you weren’t going to see them again. Single women who want to hook up with married couples are hard to come by and in—that’s why you’re called unicorns—and his selfish disregard for your limits, his clear violation of your trust, cost them a unicorn.

savagelovecast.com On the Lovecast, Dan chats with MTV’s Ira Madison III about sex and race: savagelovecast.com.

THE STRANGERER

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

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BOWERY BOSTON

For show announcements, giveaways, contests, and more, follow us on:

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SUNDAY, AUGUST 21

W/ CJ RAMONE, THE WARNING SHOTS, STOP CALLING ME FRANK

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W/ THE WIND AND THE WAVE, SUZANNE SANTO

SATURDAY, AUGUST 27

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 24

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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 31

WALTER SICKERT & THE RUBY ARMY OF BROKEN TOYS ROSE FOX

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W/ LANDLADY

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ON SALE NOW!

ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON!

ON SALE NOW!

THE MARCUS KING BAND

PSYCHIC ILLS

Lydia Loveless

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10

w/ Marc Orrell, Ted Hutt

SLOW CLUB FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11

≠ 8/6 BRUVS ≠ 8/13 THIS CAR UP ≠ 8/16 GAY SIN ≠ 8/21 USLIGHTS ≠ 8/23 MILEMARKER ≠ 8/24 GRINGO STAR ≠ 8/25 HUMMING HOUSE ≠ 8/26 & 8/27 EMILY RUSKOWSKI ALBUM RECORDING ≠ 8/26 BENT KNEE

OTHER SHOWS AROUND TOWN:

ON SALE NOW!

THU. SEPTEMBER 15 ARTS AT THE ARMORY

MINIATURE TIGERS SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23 MIDDLE EAST UP

ON SALE FRIDAY AT 10AM!

SUN. NOVEMBER 13 MIDDLE EAST DOWN

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

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

ON SALE FRIDAY AT NOON!

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18 AGGANIS ARENA

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND A COMPLETE LIST OF SHOWS, VISIT BOWERYBOSTON.COM