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SCALISE POLICE SHOULD CEASE

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NICOLAS JAAR

Dear Reader, “Never say that you hate anyone.”

“I know it’s true, but this really isn’t the time to bring that up.”

“You should never be excited that somebody died.”

All of the above expressions and the whole lot like them are productions of pathetic sentimentalists, often the sort of people who cannot be bothered to stand up to real oppression but who are the first in line to smack down or correct an individual who bucks some ridiculous societal convention, like removing one’s hat for the National Anthem.

My latest outrage simmering along these lines is clearly stemming from the nonsense storm of sweetheart rhetoric spit in support of Republican Congressman Steve Scalise, who was shot by an apparent deep-end extremist during a congressional baseball practice last week in Virginia. In the time since, we’ve heard the expected niceties out of liars and frauds like President Donald Trump, who claimed the Louisiana congressman is somehow now a hero since he took a bullet, but also from more liberal voices that, for a number of reasons, are simply better off remaining silent when such awful things happen to horrible people.

Before you fire up your hate mail machine, please allow me to explain. As you may be well aware, there are innumerable people who deserve and actually need your compassion—they range from down-and-out veterans to those who have been brutally screwed by corrupt lenders. In any case, Congressman Scalise is not one of them. This is a scumbag who is pro-life, supports mandatoryminimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, opposes the federal regulation of greenhouse gases, voted to make horrid tax cuts for the rich put forth by George W. Bush permanent, backed the Keystone XL pipeline—the list goes on. He’s a bull on immigration and, perhaps most significantly in these circumstances, has been a darling of the NRA.

I have no doubt that some dolts will accuse me of endorsing last week’s shooting. Hardly.

Rather, I am simply drawing attention to how, in the time since those shots were fired, we have heard innumerable positive statements—including from alleged lefties—about what a decent person Scalise is. I’m just calling bullshit. And wondering out loud how anybody with a single progressive bone in their body could care about such a monster.

Instead of “never say that you hate anyone,” I recommend that everybody stop pretending. We all hate some people, and that’s perfectly okay.

And instead of not bringing things up when they are apparently sensitive to particular parties, if the revelations that you wish to expose are worthwhile, scream them from the roof and mountaintops.

Because if you don’t have anything negative or critical to say when an asshole who preys on the environment and oppressed people gets shot or dies, then you might as well say nothing at all.

CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR

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NEWS US OMNIBUST NEWS TO US

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

The most recent recitals of the Beacon Hill Cannabis Follies have been taxing.

That’s not just a swipe at the contested revisions that some members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives are looking to add to the recreational weed law. It’s a knock on the feet-shuffling of local pols in the half a year since Question 4 passed, and on how so much procrastination has now thrown all efforts to revise the law into an overheated hyperdrive, with the countdown clock ticking intensely.

If House and Senate members are to ensure that legal retail sales get underway by July 2018, as is currently the plan, they will have to reach agreement on amendment details by the end of this month. Never mind that the people of Mass voted overwhelmingly for specific provisions that, in many cases, have been disregarded and maligned by several lawmakers.

For a quick refresher on contested details, a House revision introduced last week would have more than doubled the tax rate on recreational cannabis from 12 to 28 percent, as well potentially added a 21.75 percent tax on medical marijuana. Also, either thanks to a clerical fuckup or for insidious reasons, language in said House revision could have led to even higher taxes on some cannabis products. House Speaker Bob DeLeo yanked that rewrite from a scheduled floor vote last week after drawing the ire of pot advocates, but this Monday members of the Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy advanced a

“Even if you want to have your parking lot plowed, the plow driver would have to have a background check.”

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hideously similar version anyway.

Among other serious setbacks, the House bill calls for shifting banning abilities in municipalities from actual voters to aldermen, selectmen, and councilors.

With all this news swirling around, earlier this month activists gathered on the State House staircase to voice their concerns about, among other things, the fact that commercial tobacco industry lobbyists reportedly want cannabis producers in Mass to sell products through them. It’s just the latest example of an industry with something to lose trying to meddle on Beacon Hill, and a reminder that trade groups and large corporations are never for or against pot on moral or safety grounds, but are rather always about the dollar.

At the June 7 rally, which was organized by the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition (MassCANN/NORML), Bill Downing, a longtime activist, said, “The overarching issue of stupidity really is the whole idea we need to set up a separate infrastructure for the taxation [of cannabis] and that it should be handled by the people who do tobacco.”

Downing is a longtime activist who has run afoul of the Bay State’s murky cannabis laws for providing medicinal oils to patients, and he sees the wonky tax biz nitty-gritty as interventionism masquerading as sensible regulation.

“This is basically stupid simple,” Downing added.

“The people that collect money are the Department of Revenue, and it should be no different for cannabis as it is for anything else. It has to do with power here.

[Legislators] haven’t even decided who is going to make the decisions yet, much less what the regulations will be, so once they’ve decided who is going to make the regulations, they should leave it to that group to make it instead of making them [the regulations] all themselves.”

Cambridge Rep. Mike Connolly, a legal cannabis supporter, was also on hand at the rally, calling for constituents to contact their elected officials to let them know how they feel about pending revisions to Question 4. He also noted the importance of keeping major trade groups in check.

“I think it’s an ominous sign,” Connolly said about reports on Big Tobacco’s push in the Commonwealth.

“I think we have to be skeptical and cautious about what their intentions are. In election after election after election, we’ve seen voters say we want to move away from the war on drugs, we want to have a progressive attitude … I’m skeptical of any sort of big corporate entity that wants to come in and sort of introduce its own oppressive regime on this new industry.”

Jim Borghesani, communications director for the Yes on 4 coalition that helped write and is protecting the current voter-approved law, slammed the revisionist twists and turns, which he sees as demonstrative hostility toward the marijuana industry.

“The Senate respected the will of the voters by

• Expungement of criminal records for nonviolent marijuana offenders.

• Legislation to ensure weed users are treated like alcohol users.

• Giving cultivation oversight to the Mass Department of Agriculture.

• Ensuring that retail operations begin to open in July 2018.

Yes on 4 and Borghesani back the Senate’s version of things, which was released last Friday. Introduced

by Somerville Sen. Pat Jehlen, who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy, her proposal stays much truer to the law passed by Mass voters. In a radio interview over the weekend, the senator explained why voters should support her Senate bill: “My principles were: 1—To respect the will of the voters and; 2—To drive people [away] from the illegal market [and] into the legal market and; 3—To see what we can do to remedy the damage done to communities by the war on drugs …”

It’s anybody’s guess how legislators will synthesize these so-called Senate and House omnibus bills— amalgamations of dozens of cannabis bills pushed by various lawmakers this session—but in the meantime advocates are speaking out loudly about the significant insult that the House move amounts to.

“It looks like they assume criminality of anyone who wants to enter the industry,” Borghesani said, referring to language that allows the state to deny a cannabis retail, testing, cultivation, or manufacturing license to people “convicted of a felony or other crime involving embezzlement, theft, fraud or perjury,” as well as to those who “have not been prosecuted or … convicted but form a pattern of misconduct … or has affiliates or close associates that would not qualify for a license.” In other words, if they don’t like your friends, no pot biz for you.

“There are onerous review processes,” Borghesani added. “Even if you want to have your parking lot plowed, the plow driver would have to have a background check.”

And the list of problematic language goes on. Take, for example, how the House version would make personal possession of hemp seeds and the cultivation of hemp for personal use a crime.

“The House bill, even with its most egregious flaws addressed, adopts a hostile approach that would not serve any system of commerce well, much less the fledgling legal marijuana market,” Borghesani said.

“I want people to know that I have taken the results of last year’s elections to heart, and I am really trying to support the spirit of what was adopted last year,” Rep. Connolly said. “I don’t want to see us get too far afield …

If anyone has a concern about a particular provision, they should let myself or their own legislator know.”

Or you can do nothing, and simply allow the powerful to get their way and the chips to fall where they may.

Which will likely result in recreational marijuana in Mass being overrun by corporations that care much more about profit than they do about consumers.

Which would just be shocking.

PHOTO BY DAN MCCARTHY

On ridiculousness, rancor, and the vulnerable Mass cannabis law

engaging in a transparent and collaborative process that yielded slight changes targeting municipal and legislative concerns,” Borghesani wrote in a statement. “The House bill doesn’t respect the will of the voters at all; in fact, it repeals the will of the voters.”

Amidst all the political and regulatory hand-wringing, advocates like MassCANN Director Jeff Morris are trying to keep in the center lane. At the rally he laid out what his group wants the members of the House and Senate to consider:

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GETTING TO BIKE APPARENT HORIZON

Urban multimodal network needed to make bicycles a viable alternative in the ’burbs

BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS

ALLSTON: 180 Harvard Av.• 617 -779-7901 (Green Line @ Harvard) SOMERVILLE: 238 Elm St.• 617 (Red Line @ Davis Square) -629-5383 BUFFALOEXCHANGE.COM •

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There are many merits to backing legislation, regulations, and customs that make it easier for people to use bicycles to get around. Improving individual health by getting more people more exercise, improving public health and global warming prospects by reducing carbon emissions, and relieving traffic congestion to name just a few. And over the last four decades, many communities have created bike lanes and bike paths, installed bike racks, and limited certain streets to pedestrians and bikes for those very reasons.

The problem is that the societal benefits that come with an expanding bike culture are unevenly distributed. In the car-centered suburbs—meaning most of the US—using a bike as a primary transportation mode is more difficult and significantly more dangerous than it is in many cities. And the distances people have to pedal to get to jobs or shop are longer—stopping more people from getting out of their cars and onto bikes day to day.

Ameliorating that situation will require better regional planning with an eye toward creating bigger, better public transportation networks that link to bicycle infrastructure in their “last mile.” Then building bike lanes from the network hubs where buses, trains, and trolleys converge. Out to the neighborhoods where people live.

It will also require a change in thinking by millions of people who are used to jumping into their cars anytime they need to go anywhere. Be it 100 miles or, all too often, only a few blocks away. Such a change means that people will need a pretty big incentive to begin to do things differently.

So here’s one important incentive: life is easier when you don’t have to rely on a car to get around. In cities like Boston, more and more people are riding their bikes to subway stops or bus stops in the morning, parking them there, taking the T to work, and reversing those steps in the evening. Many others ride their bikes all the way to work—moving much faster on average than the cars stuck in traffic around them. Still more use our growing rental bike system, Hubway.

From my perspective, living and working in the city spares me the expense of a car. And, more importantly, I don’t need to own one to get around. I live a couple of blocks from four bus lines, and a 10-minute walk from two T stops. With a bike, that 10 minutes plus any wait time becomes two or three minutes. And skipping the T and biking across town takes 20 to 30 minutes. Even in busy traffic.

When it’s time to shop, one can either use a bike equipped with a basket or trailer. Or take a bus or train both ways. Or walk or bike to the nearest market and take a cab back, if buying heavy stuff. Or take a cab both ways. Or use a car sharing service like Zipcar to rent cars and vans by the hour. Myself and fellow urbanites have all these options, and more, because Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Brookline all have dense public transportation networks—augmented by quasi-public and private transit options. And a fast-growing separate bicycle infrastructure. Businesses and public services cluster around transportation hubs; so there’s much more for me to do much closer to home than when I lived in the suburbs.

In general, this means that I have more leisure time in the city than many people in the suburbs do because I’m commuting less—and I have more money in my pocket because I don’t have to own a car to get around. I’m also not sitting in traffic for big chunks of my day—so my life is that much less stressful (understanding that every form of transportation has its own problems). Best of all, I can take comfort in the fact that my “carbon footprint” is very small. The amount of carbon that’s burned in the form of oil and natural gas to allow me to be a modern person in an advanced industrial society is much lower than someone who has to own a car. True, housing prices are higher in the city than the ’burbs, but the difference is definitely offset by cheaper transportation costs. And having more free time is invaluable.

My point here is simple. More folks need to get behind policies that make an urban multimodal transportation network possible for the vast majority of US residents—instead of just a minority of Americans in mostly coastal cities. That’s going to require large numbers of people to be more aware that life with bikes and public transit is easier and better in some important respects than life in the current suburban car culture.

And that’s why I’m recounting my daily transportation experience here. So that you all think it over, and consider joining advocacy coalitions like MassBike in backing policies that improve transportation options in your city or town. And then help fight for more money to vastly expand our public transportation system.

Two reforms which will, in tandem, transform suburban biking from a recreational activity, sport, or idiosyncratic form of commuting into a commonplace.

APPARENT HORIZON IS SYNDICATED BY THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM. JASON PRAMAS IS BINJ’S NETWORK DIRECTOR, AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR AND ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER OF DIGBOSTON.COPYRIGHT 2017 JASON PRAMAS.

The following column was written as commentary for the June 2017 episode of the Beyond Boston monthly video news digest—produced by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and several area public access television stations. It’s aimed at suburbanites, but fun for the whole Boston area family.

DREAM DARKER DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

The indictment of journalist Aaron Cantú portends grim future for First Amendment

BY BAYNARD WOODS @BAYNARDWOODS Dozens of defendants, each sitting with their own lawyer, fill a Washington, DC courtroom, looking like college students wearing their nicest clothes for a job interview. It is far more serious than that. They are all facing charges of felony rioting, conspiracy to riot, and destruction of property on the morning of Donald Trump’s inauguration, when they were scooped up en masse by police with a controversial crowd-control technique which corrals protesters in a “kettle.”

This is only one of the four groups among the 215 defendants who have been indicted on nearly identical charges. Many had to travel back to the District to be arraigned today.

One man who traveled from Santa Fe is sitting with his lawyer off to the side. He wears a black suit and has a black goatee and identifies himself as Tejano. He looks around the room like he is taking notes. Everyone else has already been arraigned before Judge Lynn Leibovitz. But this man, Aaron Cantú, wasn’t indicted until May 30, just a week before the hearing. He is a journalist, who has written about policing, propaganda, drugs, and politics for The Intercept, Al Jazeera, The Baffler, and many other publications. Reporting from the RNC on the possibility of a Trump presidency, Cantú wrote, “dream darker.”

Now, like the others being charged, he’s facing 70 years in jail.

As various protests spread through the city on the morning of the inauguration, one group used “black bloc” techniques—wearing all black and acting in concert to attack symbols of multinational capitalism in a semi-anonymous fashion—in an attempt to disrupt the spectacle of the event, breaking windows of businesses like Starbucks and Bank of America.

“Individuals participating in the Black Bloc broke the windows of a limousine parked on the north side of K Street NW, and assaulted the limousine driver as he stood near the vehicle,” the indictment reads, “as Aaron Cantu and others moved west on K Street NW.” These black blocs have received widespread media attention in America since 1999, beginning with the Battle of Seattle at the World Trade Organization summit. A black bloc action is newsworthy. And yet, according to the indictment, Cantú is being charged for moving in proximity to the group he was covering.

The indictment alleges that Cantú wore black and discarded a backpack as further evidence of his part in the conspiracy. Because members of a conspiracy to riot wore black, anyone wearing black, it seems, is a member of the conspiracy.

It is a crazy, complicated, sprawling case involving evidence from somewhere around 200 cell phones and various cameras. The discovery process will take months.

In Washington, DC, criminal cases that elsewhere would be handled by the state are prosecuted by the US Attorney’s office—so each prosecutor here ultimately answers to the President of the United States. Although the charges were first brought by an Obama appointee, this is a perfect example of what justice may look like in the Trump era. Like the travel ban, it is a grand draconian gesture followed by a lot of confusion.

During the arraignment, prosecutor Jennifer Kerkhoff expressed concerns about finding herself in a “Brady trick bag,” referring to the law that requires the prosecution to turn over all relevant evidence in discovery. How does she know what material on someone else’s phone might be relevant to another’s case? And how does the prosecution protect the privacy of co-defendants with data that is not relevant?

“Can I just stop you?” Judge Leibovitz says to Kerkhoff as she talks about efficiency. “You brought charges against 215 people.” She does not have to finish. Her look says “so deal with it.”

Leibovitz set most of the trial dates for October 2018, so that all evidence can be properly dealt with.

“It’s concerning and confusing,” says Christopher Gowen, an American University law professor and partner at his own firm who was appointed to the case. “The fact that we are already here and the amount of resources being spent to get to where we are now leads me to believe we are going to have to sit through all these trials. All this taxpayer money is going to be wasted.”

Gowen says that his client, Cabal Bhatt, was charged on the basis of wearing a bandana on his face to protect from police pepper spray.

As the names of each of the defendants are called—Cantú and his co-defendants all plead not guilty—I think about how I was almost arrested reporting on the same events that day. I watched as the black bloc came around the corner, flanked by police.

Trash cans rolled through the street.

Pepper spray came out. An officer ran at me with her stick. I held up the media credentials hanging around my neck and and yelled “Press!” and she went around me. I was lucky.

At the advice of his lawyers, Cantú isn’t talking to the press. I ask Julie Ann Grimm, his editor at the Santa Fe Reporter, which hired him in April, if the impending charges makes her more reluctant to assign him to certain stories.

“His arrest was scary, the threat of being imprisoned for the rest of your life for just doing your job and observing a protest is … I don’t even know how to finish that sentence,” she says over the phone.

“I think Aaron is nervous about covering protests.

I’m slightly nervous about sending him out to them.

But we’re really not going to let this action by the federal government or by the prosecutors in Washington, DC slow him down or to put a muzzle on his voice as a journalist.”

Still, she says, he might do a couple things differently now. “He will probably try to stay very separate from the people who are a part of the news event, and he will probably wear something like a tie.”

But Grimm is quick to stress that Cantú is not the only one in this case whose rights are being violated.

“We’re all standing up for Aaron, and this affects our industry and our identity as journalists,” Grimm says. “But the larger sort of corralling, the kettling, the mass-arresting is also troubling.”

“Imagining the worst possible future your mind can conjure is an essential step to avoiding a world you do not want to live in,” Cantú wrote from the RNC. “Things are bad, very bad, and we will fuck them up even worse if we can’t acknowledge how very bad they are.”

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“The fact that we are already here and the amount of resources being spent to get to where we are now leads me to believe we are going to have to sit through all these trials.

All this taxpayer money is going to be wasted.”

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BOSTON’S UGLIEST INTERSECTIONS FOR CYCLISTS VICIOUS CYCLE: DATA EDITION

Are they getting any better?

BY EVAN C. ANDERSON @TW0HEADEDB0Y If you’ve visited the streets of Boston for all of five minutes, you know that each commute is a gamble for those of us who ride on two wheels.

An hour spent navigating the Hub’s bike-hostile infrastructure teaches the average cyclist how to anticipate threats—an adjacent car blindly drifting into the bike lane in preparation for a signal-free right turn, for example. With such unforgiving circumstances, many crashes seemingly aren’t preventable absent a change in the way that drivers feel about cyclists.

As a former daily cyclist who now drives a four-wheel deathmobile, I’ve seen it from all angles, and the attitude of many drivers toward cyclists is clear: Your ability to ride on the same road as me is a privilege.

You are responsible for anticipating my actions. Get out of my way, I’m late for the red light 100 feet ahead.

Such attitudes aren’t unique to Boston. Loathing for cyclists brings more people together than the United Nations and has reportedly helped pro-car goons like former crack-smoking Toronto Mayor Rob Ford get elected to high office. Still, it seems that the Hub is particularly unfriendly toward cyclists, so we looked to the numbers. And the studies. And the data. A whole bunch of it.

The US Census Bureau conducts a perpetual poll called the American Community Survey, which tracks, among many other things, how many workers commute by bicycle in cities with populations of 100,000 or more. While Cambridge in 2014 was one of the top places for biking, with nearly 8 percent of people riding to work, Boston failed to make the top 20. (It wasn’t all kudos for Cambridge, where accident data for that same year shows that 26 percent of all crashes involving cyclists occurred on the same notorious concourse—Mass Ave.) In 2015, only an estimated 1.6 percent of Bostonians commuted by bike. And that’s not because everyone else just loves taking the T. It’s often said that Boston is a city built for cars, with other modes of transportation not even an afterthought until recently.

Taking into account the proportion of workers in various cities who commute by bike, Boston cyclists are more likely to be involved in a crash than their counterparts in comparably urban Portland, Seattle, and Washington, DC. (I calculated a rate of crashes per 100 “cyclistworkers,” and found that the sum of the rate in those three cities is about 8 per 100, whereas in Boston alone it is 8.9.)

All of these realities and dangers have spurred Greater Boston area advocacy groups to fight tooth and nail for piecemeal improvements; meanwhile, far too many cyclists continue to die and get injured.

There’s no starting over and no way to redesign an already-built city, 8

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so minor impacts may be all we’ve got, though changes sometimes miss the mark.

According to a 2013 Boston Police Department report on collisions between 2009 and 2012, 60 percent of crashes involving cyclists occur at intersections. In other words, bike lanes that end where an intersection starts aren’t sufficiently effective at preventing tragedy ahead of time.

This while bike lanes that force cyclists to squeeze between traffic and parked cars are likely to do more harm than good; the aforementioned study also found that the second

most common cause of crashes between cars and bikes was “dooring”—when a driver or passenger of a parked vehicle opens the door without checking the bike lane for an oncoming cyclist.

Data also shows the merits of bike lanes that place cyclists between parked cars and the curb: A cyclist can avoid being doored by veering toward the sidewalk, instead of toward moving traffic, and can also be more visible to drivers by occupying their peripheral vision, instead of their blind spot, at intersections. Even better is a bike lane that is wholly separated from the road, the type that will soon be installed on parts of Comm Ave in Boston—though not at the intersections with Mass Ave or Beacon Street, which are two of the most dangerous intersections in the city, according to the same report.

Nor will the critical initial phases of the separated cycle track stretch into Allston/Brighton, the most dangerous neighborhood for cyclists.

Despite apparently enthusiastic planning by the City of Boston in a few token places, by certain measures nil has changed since the BPD report four years ago. A map of traffic crashes created by Vision Zero, a group working to “eliminate fatal and serious traffic crashes in the city by 2030,” shows no significant reduction in crashes involving cyclists in the most problematic intersections over the past seven years.

As for whether cyclist behavior is a major factor in crashes: According to the City of Boston’s 2013 Cyclist Safety report, 38 percent of crashes between 2009 and 2012 were primarily caused by behavioral factors—a cyclist ran a red light, blew a stop sign, or rode into oncoming traffic. The same report also states that drivers were at fault only 45 percent of the time in that span, though it should be noted that in its analysis, the city attributed zero percent of the blame to negligent municipal planning.

Needless to say, every bit of data suggests that, just as drivers should obey the rules of the road—lest they kill someone—so too should cyclists.

Because while roads cut for cars pit cyclists against drivers in a battle for chunks of pavement, it’s no surprise that the former are often aggressive and careless toward cyclists, while cyclists can be provocative and daring in their own right. I should know. I’ve been both.

I am both. For cyclists, it’s a battle for visibility and even survival. For drivers, it’s a struggle to get to work on time and to brave tight streets clogged with traffic.

Which can seem like a good reason to bike after all.

Or not.

This article was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism as part of its ongoing Vicious Cycle series. Learn more about the project and how you can contribute at binjonline.org, and share your stories about cycling in Greater Boston at facebook.com/binjnetwork

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ICE COLD DEMOCRACY A TERMS OF SERVICE FEATURE

Can a progressive new brewery help power the local labor movement?

It behooves every American to encourage home manufactures, that our oppressors may feel through their pockets the effects of their blind folly. -Samuel Adams What’s more innovative than another app for delivering food? Well, almost anything, really, but a brand-new venture, the first of its kind in Boston, that’s opening early next year on Temple Place in Downtown Crossing should set new standards for innovation around something very important—beer.

In addition to a hangout with its walls adorned in inspirations from the Revolutionary War period, Democracy Brewing will be a 100-percent worker-owned establishment, a business model that will take all decision-making and problemsolving power out of the traditional corporate hierarchy— where employees typically must seek permission to make changes from bosses who are blind to the need for change—and put it in the hands of workers on the ground level.

The founders of Democracy Brewing come from two

Not every little thing will be voted on–if chef wants to switch up the menu because the kitchen’s short on kale, he needn’t consult the whole team. But major decisions are decided jointly.

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worlds that intersect often: alcohol and activism. James Razsa is a former labor and community activist; Jason Taggart was head brewer for eight years at John Harvard Brewery in Cambridge. Both aim to make their project not only a place that makes and serves great beer, but a pillar of the Boston worker’s community and a space to foster conversation, education, and empowerment.

If they pull it off, Democracy Brewing will be one of the most innovative businesses in the city. An illustrious spot with an honorable mission: to recreate the public house culture that Boston’s forefathers drank and debated in, a scene where problems are solved, ideas are generated, and people fight for, well, democracy.

The business “will operate as a worker-owned cooperative, which grants employees equity shares in the business after one year of employment. In addition, all workers will begin at $15/hour, plus tips.”

Razsa and Taggart first met through a fellow activist and beer guru who works at Lord Hobo. Razsa had been conceptualizing a co-op brewery for about three years, and Taggart was an obvious ideal complement to come onboard.

“James really had the business side together, and he needed someone who knew beer,” Taggart says. “We hit it off right away. The project really appealed to me.

Promoting the idea that if a problem arises we work on it and fix it together, that appeals to me dramatically.”

Their partnership—marrying Taggart’s 15 years of brewing knowledge with Razsa’s extensive career in activism—was a no-brainer. Taggart took on Razsa as an intern at John Harvard’s, and they began putting the pieces in place for their benevolent enterprise.

“Democracy Brewing came from the idea of two American dreams,” Razsa says.

It’s his pitch; you’ll hear him say it often, but he seems more than earnest about it. “One, that you’d be able to own your own business, and two, that democracy belongs everywhere. By bringing those ideals together we came up with a worker’s collective, something that is worker owned and democratically run.”

The brewery will run like so: Initially, everyone will be hired as an employee, just like any other bar or restaurant.

But after one year, all staff members who have been at Democracy Brewing for at least one year (and have gone through this process themselves) have a vote. If you’re ICE COLD DEMOCRACY continued on pg. 12

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voted in, you then become eligible to buy a Class A share of the business, which earns you voting rights. The voting process steers much more than who is added to the payroll.

Everyone with voting rights can cast their vote in decisions on things like wage adjustments and participate in discussions around policy.

Not every little thing will be voted on—if chef wants to switch up the menu because the kitchen’s short on kale, he needn’t consult the whole team. But major decisions are decided jointly. To prepare for such responsibilities, in addition to running the brewery and pub, employees will also work to build the business and community of Democracy Brewing.

“In a perfect world, a person will spend 30 hours bartending [or managing or cooking] and 10 hours a week helping the business grow by booking events, getting a band to come down, helping with marketing, doing tours or classes,” Razsa says. “The idea is to turn on its head the model that, in the service industry, many are part-time employees who leave their work at work at the end of the day … Now, it’s a full-time job, and part of that job is running the business and helping it grow.”

A lot of what they’re doing is in a similar vein to Hub icon Harpoon, which three years ago allocated 48 percent of the company to its employees through an Employee Stock Ownership Program. The difference in Democracy Brewing’s approach, at least in this point of their planning,

is in the kind of involvement that non-employees could have.

“We’re really trying to push that this is a community,” Taggart says. If they are successful, a portion of the profits will be put into expanding that involvement. “A portion of profits will pay for on-site education and organizing,” Razsa adds.

Along those lines, the menu at Democracy Brewing will pack more than just food options and featured beers.

You’ll also find a lineup of weekly meetings and business courses geared toward empowering the public to counter the workplace ills that Razsa spent years trying to right as an activist.

“After fighting so long against problems, I wanted to focus on solutions,” he says.

Razsa explains further: “Monday night at six, when we’re slow, come to our event space, and if your boss isn’t paying you fair wages, you’re facing discrimination, sexism, dangerous conditions, or you’re just not happy, come here and we’ll teach you your rights. Then, on Tuesday, come in and we’ll have classes on running your own business.”

And the rest of the money from sales? That will be divided equally and dispersed to employees as end-of-year bonuses.

“If we do a good job, we get a sweet bonus at the end of the day,” Razsa says. “At the same time, if we do make bad decisions, we pay for them. In the traditional business

model, people make bad decisions all the time and the workers pay for it. We want the people who actually make the decisions to get the good stuff and bad stuff from that.”

All of which is drastically different than standard operating procedure at most corporations, including many in Boston’s booming economy. This region may be home to more startups than anywhere else in New England, but all too often just the founding members or those in the top managerial ranks make the decisions.

That’s not the best idea. According to a Forbes analysis of why 90 percent of startups fail, the second leading cause of closings is the failure of teams to approach business collectively.

When “the CEO thinks, ‘It’s my job to lead.’ The CMO thinks, ‘It’s my job to market.’ The lead developer thinks, ‘It’s my job to code,’” businesses fail, according to Forbes.

As has been noted by area business blogs and some other outfits since Democracy Brewing raised $20,000 in a crowdfunding campaign last year, the effort isn’t quite a startup in the traditional corny sense. You don’t need new technology to make or sell beer, and their business model is unique, if not downright daring. Even if service industry co-ops aren’t all that new.

Regarding inspiration for this undertaking, Razsa tips his hat to, and plans to emulate the model of, the Arizmendi Bakery in San Francisco, a network of cooperatively owned franchises throughout the Bay Area.

Their Cheeseboard operation opened in Berkeley in 1997, and fast became a local hit. Operators then helped open the first Arizmendi, in Oakland, shortly thereafter, and in 2000 Arizmendi San Francisco came to be. There are now five locations, including the original Cheeseboard.

Elsewhere, last year Liberty Bar in Seattle transitioned to a cooperative model, with ownership citing, among other things, an undying love for the industry as spurring the need to find a new way of doing things.

“I could not imagine just selling the bar to the highest bidder,” Liberty’s owner, Andrew Friedman, told Seattle’s alt-weekly The Stranger. In an interview with Tales of the Cocktail, one of the industry’s leading organizations and publications, he further explained: “A lot of bars, especially cocktail bars, have a tough time making the kind of profits we see around the rest of the industry … And often the recourse of the owner is to close the bar, walk away, or sell it. But in this case, here’s the opportunity for the staff— who do not necessarily have the same profit directives—to be able to take over and operate.”

Liberty’s staff is now cooperatively organized and kicking, as are various other co-ops in Boston—Harvest CoOp Markets, Red Sun Press, and the South Shore Recycling Cooperative, to name a few.

“Boston’s changing,” Razsa says. “Boston used to be a city of small towns, where every neighborhood was its own town. Gentrification has destroyed that, and a lot of things that used to help communities to build communities have died away.”

So while technology connects a lot of people who never would have crossed paths without Twitter or Reddit, online networking has also kept some people whose rights are most likely to be violated—day laborers, the undocumented, the underpaid in general—from accessing the information and relationships they need to better their situation. A place like Democracy Brewing can help mend some bridges there.

Which if you think about it sounds just like the publicity strategy of innumerable startups. But without the hero executive worship. “[Modern society puts] people who run businesses on a pedestal,” Razsa says. “[What Democracy Brewing is doing is] not rocket science. We want to distinctly create a space that connects people. Both for fun and for getting shit done.”

Copyright 2016 Haley Hamilton. Terms of Service is licensed for use by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and media outlets in its network.

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EATS

BRICCO PANETTERIA AND BRICCO SALUMERIA/PASTA SHOP North End twofer hidden in an alleyway

BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON

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Too often, the North End is seen as nothing more than a tourist trap that no true Bostonian would be caught dead in. This has always seemed a bit of a head-scratcher, because while sure, a number of Italian restaurants and food spots indeed cater to out-of-towners and not all reach the quality of some of the truly outstanding places found in such communities as Medford, Revere, Everett, and Malden, this very old neighborhood still has plenty to offer if you love Italian food. And it’s not only such stalwarts as Al Dente on Salem Street or Mother Anna’s on Hanover Street that cater more toward the neighborhood than tourists, but also some of the newer places, including a couple of real gems with a familiar name that are buried in the back of a narrow alleyway. Ever hear of Bricco? Many have indeed heard of this upscale restaurant on Hanover Street, but not nearly as many have heard of Bricco Panetteria or Bricco Salumeria & Pasta Shop as Bricco restaurant—though locals have certainly started to discover both.

Both Bricco Panetteria and Bricco Salumeria & Pasta Shop are extremely easy to find, but they are also extremely easy to miss, especially when the sidewalks on Hanover Street are busy (which is basically all the time). If you find yourself at Bricco restaurant—which is located a few storefronts from the Rose Kennedy Greenway on the south side of Hanover—look to the right of the dining spot and you will see a dark alleyway with a street sign saying “Board Alley.” Walk down the alley to the end and you’ll come to the bakery entrance to the left and the food shop entrance to the right. Bricco Panetteria is actually down a staircase in a basement space, and it basically consists of a small ordering counter at the bottom of the staircase and behind it, the breadmaking area of the bakery, and that’s about it.

Coming back up the stairs, the entrance to Bricco Salumeria & Pasta Shop is a bit more obvious, with the store being front and center at ground level and being an attractive little space with display cases and shelves full of food throughout, salami hanging from hooks, and blackboard menus behind the ordering area. A doorway in the shop leads to a four-season patio at Mare Oyster Bar, which is under the same ownership (DePasquale Ventures, headed up by Frank DePasquale), and here’s a little secret that not many know: Mare’s patio can also be used by Bricco Panetteria/Bricco Salumeria & Pasta Shop customers if they want to sit down and enjoy some of the foods that they have purchased at the stores.

The breads offered at Bricco Panetteria are nothing short of extraordinary—old-world loaves made fresh and sold to customers as well as used for the restaurants run by DePasquale Ventures (Bricco, Mare, Trattoria Il Panino, Quattro, Aqua Pazza). A few options at the bakery (depending on the day and what time you show up) include ciabatta with olives, ciabatta stuffed with prosciutto and parmesan, French and Italian baguettes, a round country bread called “miche,” a sunflower bread, a raisin bread, and more. If you like focaccia, Bricco has one of the best in the city, and while it may look like pizza, it definitely isn’t; it’s actually a soft, spongy bread that is a bit salty and oily, and it’s topped with such items as mozzarella cheese, basil, and tomato. And while Bricco Panetteria is a bit of a one-trick pony (as bread bakeries tend to be), Bricco Salumeria & Pasta Shop— which used to be known as DePasquale’s Homemade Pasta Shoppe before moving from nearby Cross Street a few years ago—is where you get everything else, including olives, salami, croissants, cheeses, olive oil, house-made tomato sauce, and a variety of freshly made pastas, along with antipasti, salads, and sandwiches, with the latter including an Italian sub so delicious that it may make you weep.

In a way, Bricco Panetteria and Bricco Salumeria & Pasta Shop feel like places you might find in an ancient Italian city, with their alley location and oldworld products giving them a certain uniqueness that can’t be overstated. Some may pooh-pooh the North End, but there are some real destination spots in this charming Boston neighborhood, with the two Bricco shops heading up the pack.

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MUSIC

THE BEST LOCAL ALBUMS OF 2017 (SO FAR) Pile, Che Ecru, Lilith, Avenue, and more top the list

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN Somehow, June is here and so is the halfway mark of 2017.

It feels both too soon and too slow, like summer should have come earlier but all the things that come with it—like blistering temperatures and overlooked records— shouldn’t have.

Because some things fall by the wayside, we’re here to help remind you about one of the best parts of the year: Massachusetts’ remarkable music releases. Our scene is bursting with talent, whether “local” holds a positive or negative connotation in your mind. There are bands that spread by word of mouth to staggeringly cult-level status, like Pile or or Elder, and talented artists too modest to push their press, like Sidney Gish and BABY! There’s an overflowing community rich with hooks and talent, and, honestly, it can feel overwhelming at times. We’re here to make navigating it all a bit easier.

If your favorite release isn’t on here, know that trimming down the list was difficult. It’s no exaggeration to say Boston’s churning out incredible music on a weekly basis. Think of all the memorable releases that would’ve been on here otherwise. Passion Pit released Tremendous Sea of Love for free after riding a newly revived wave of electropop joy. Dump Him carried the torch of Kathleen Hanna’s no-fucks-given punk on Venus In Gemini, an LP about everything from being anxious to being queer, with Aye Nako’s Jade Payne behind the board. We got a punchy but sorrowful farewell EP from Daephne. Ginger Sunburn introduced themselves as an indie rock romp for the garage with the full-length Sleepwalk. Creaturos continued their parade through garage psych with their long-awaited self-titled LP. Black El dropped summer-ready singles like “Another Dose” but not technically an album.

And of course, there was Dispatch, who did what they do best and all the white guys still rocking appropriated dreads loved it.

At the end of this year, we’ll have a long list of albums that summed up our area best. Instead of feeling overwhelmed with 30 records on your plate at the end of December, do yourself a favor and study up now. Here are 15 of the best records to come out this year from Boston- or Massachusetts-based artists. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself bumping their songs more often than the new Lorde or Kendrick. Just sayin’.

Palehound A Place I’ll Always Go Polyvinyl Records Grieving is hard.

It’s even harder when death visits twice in a row. Ellen Kempner, the frontwoman of indie rock trio Palehound, lost a close friend and then her grandmother when she was 22 years old. Though much of the band’s sophomore record rides of catchy melodies and gruff guitar, it’s Kempner’s struggle to deal with the weird guilt of moving on with life postloss that sticks with you long after the record finishes its runtime. Be it the dissonant hums of “Carnations” or

the painful details in “If You Met Her,” Kempner penned a follow-up LP to one of our 2015 favorites, Dry Food, that feels like both a step forward and a deeper nuzzling into the sounds that make her one of Boston’s standout musicians.

Elder Reflections of a Floating World Armageddon Label It’s been two years since Elder last won us over with their transcendent brand of stoner doom. On Reflections of a Floating World, they manage to leave us flat on our backs once again, but this time it feels strangely peaceful, like a country-tinged midlife catharsis led by flourishes of prog and post-rock. Toss riff-loving ’80s prog in a blender with ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, a couple steel pedals, and your favorite mid-aughts quintessential “alternative” band, all shaken and stirred by a couple of metalheads. It’s a curious mix, but Elder have both the intensity and stamina to pull it off, turning 11-minute tracks into blissful escapes you’ll wish were even longer.

sees frontwoman Kaley Honeybun flexing her songwriting skills with the enthusiasm, cadence, and harmonies of Vagabon or early-era Best Coast. “down to the wire” sees her strumming through vocal slides. “hard time” is an unofficial reprise of Paramore’s similarly-titled hit. No matter which song you put on, BABY! pushes a positive glow out of your speakers and into the palm of your hands.

Avenue Mass Ave & Lenox East Coast Rap Of all the rap releases so far in 2017, none sits with you quite like Avenue’s Mass Ave & Lenox. The South End rapper pays tribute to the fixtures of his city—not necessarily traditional Boston figures—through slick strings of words that prioritize respect above all else. It’s a 15-track release where a shout-out to defunct sneaker mecca Harry the Greek’s or a Roxbury sidestreet sounds just as familiar as a much-needed reminder that Boston’s hip-hop scene is bursting at its seams. Put on “Aint Shit Funny” on the way to a packie. Call the radio request line and tell them to blast “Nobody.” It’s the soundtrack Boston’s been craving. Avenue tells his story with deft lyricism above timeless beats, propelling verbatim about this history of Boston, a tale only he could tell.

Lenderson Lenderson Self-released Cambridge band Lenderson fill their sound out with shimmering guitar and steady percussion, but when they reveal themselves to be a duo, suddenly it triples in sound. On their debut selftitled EP, the two whittle through breezy indie rock that sounds like it comes from veteran musicians. Do some digging and it turns out there’s a reason. Guitarist-bassistvocalist Jesse Brotter and drummer-keyboardist Jonathan Gilad are half of jazz psych poppers Crumb. So when they’re swimming gracefully through the lyricless grooves of “Blastoff/Exploder” or the sunny doubletime shift in “Cutglove,” know it comes with the experience of two guys who bounced through the jazz, funk, and hip-hop circuits of Tufts’ underground music scene.

BABY! Pick Me Self-released Carefree summer tunes are hard to come by, if only because Boston devotes itself to pummeling rock and bass-heavy rap like it was born to do so. Thankfully, beach rock four-piece BABY! steps in to save the day, though it’s possible that’s in part due to some ties to Orlando, Florida.

Mixed and mastered by Palehound’s Jesse Weiss, Pick Me

Lilith Apology Plant Disposable America Look, there’s enough ’90s revival within the music industry as it is, especially in the alt-rock category. So when a band holds a candle to that time, they better light a long-lasting flame and make sure theirs burns brighter than those before it. Not only does Boston trio Lilith do so, but they one-up themselves by avoiding feel-good cliches. Five-song EP Apology Plant is at once energizing and mesmerizing, holding interest despite putting you in a daze where you want to lay on a bed, stare at the ceiling, and let the guitar solo in “Loaded” walk all over you. With patient rhythm work and raspy vocal harmonies like Now, Now, the three tread through the record with a comforting familiarity, cementing the sound as their own while never once hiding their influences—a winning combination that puts them at the forefront of ’90s revival rock.

Milk Horsetown Threshold Midnight Werewolf Records There’s not a lot of room for Americana in Boston.

Those who pursue it do so with an invisible cowboy hat on their head, like they would yearn for the southern sunset no matter what heat they’d get from New England sports

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6:30pm/18+/$10. mideastoffers.com]

SUN 6.25

POST-PAVEMENT PROJECT SPIRAL STAIRS, GROOMS, VIC FIRECRACKER

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm.

Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/$13. greatscottboston.com]

TUE 6.27

THE MELVINS SIDE PROJECT BIG BUSINESS + KAL MARKS

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm.

Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/$12. greatscottboston.com]

WED 6.28

LATINA POP FOR DANCING NONSTOP’ XENIA RUBINOS

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm.

Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/$10. greatscottboston.com]

fans. Milk saddle up on Horsetown Threshold, a record that’s not full-frontal country, but places just the right number of desert pangs and dusty guitar solos at its center to relocate listeners to Tennessee for an hour. Don’t let that mislead you. Horsetown Threshold climbs every valley and mountain in sight. There’s slow-burning blues in the second half of “Horsetown,” stoner metal-style weight on “Fishin’,” and a classic rock chase scene in “Vietnam.” It’s the way locals would want Americana to sound: raspy, twisted, and with a devilish grin.

Che Ecru Buries Self-released For the love of Papi, stop listening to The Weeknd already. There’s better R&B out there—and you don’t have to look very far for it. Put on Che Ecru, the backyard crooner who’s been making late-night rounds with Buries, his debut tape. Over the course of 14 tracks, Che Ecru makes a name for himself, laying the foundation with silky groove “Lonely” before swapping over to “2AM,” a bass-thudding jam primed for remixes, and minimalist dance beats on “Luckily.” With over 2 million plays and counting on Soundcloud, his tape is spreading through word of mouth, a discussion we’re proud to be a part of—and honestly, you should be talking, too.

ad removed from PDF version of this issue at the request of the advertiser

Sidney Gish Ed Buys Houses Self-released How can we summarize the understated genius of Sidney Gish in a way that we haven’t already? For starters, she’s a freshly-minted 20-year-old who’s got the talent of a young Regina Spektor with the peppiness of Vampire Weekend and DIY heart of Frankie Cosmos. Secondly, she recorded all of it through an iPhone earbud and a USB microphone, neither of which you could guess based on her immaculate tone and production. Third, she released Ed Buys Houses mere hours before the end of 2016, but it’s fair game to include it in the world of 2017 music because you won’t get sick of it over the course of an entire year. Really, it’s that good. Sidney Gish is all that—sliced bread, a bag of chips, various grocery items used to measure impressiveness—and then some. No, we don’t know how she does it either.

Pile A Hairshirt of Purpose Exploding In Sound Records Boston’s long-beloved rock band Pile turns 10 this year, and their unofficial celebration included the release of a highly-awaited new LP. A Hairshirt of Purpose is the band’s most complete work to date, one that manages to both out-do their early work while simultaneously paying homage to it. The stripped down country blues of Jerk Routine and anthemic guitar rock of Dripping take on new shape with their most thematically solid, well-transitioned, intentionally ordered album. The band tries its hand with orchestral strings. There’s clunky piano interludes. It’s an album of new steps (“Dogs”) sandwiched by comforting shredders (“Fingers”). Pile not only earned the title of your favorite band’s favorite band, but pushes itself forward, both in regards to iconic musical feats and in regards to the unrelenting acrobatics of frontman Rick Maguire’s modesty.

The Solars Retitled Remastered Self-released Those who love Fruit Bats and Portugal. The Man should turn towards newcomers The Solars. Self-described as a chamber folk rock band, The Solars is a quaint mixture of spirited instrumentals, from flute on “Help Me to My Hometown” to the warm organ on “Potter’s Field / Dockery.” Miles Hewitt and Quetzel Herzig create a layered world of cascading percussion and filtered vocals amid jaunty keys. If you aren’t listening close enough, it’s easy to mistake them for a triple-A radio staple. Who knows. Give them some time, and Retitled Remastered could be the first of several signs that The Solars would, and then did, make it big.

CHECK DIGBOSTON.COM FOR NINA’S COMPLETE LIST

NEWS TO US Boston Dig 06-22-17.indd 1

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

6/9/17 11:11 AM

FILM

BURNING DOWN THE BATCH

Ana Lily Amirpour speaks on how her latest film was inspired by that particular arts festival

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN Ana Lily Amirpour is a writer/director who has made two movies in America, A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night [2014] and The Bad Batch [2017]. The latter film opens theatrically in Boston this week. It stars Suki Waterhouse as Arlen, who finds herself navigating a vaguely post-apocalyptic wasteland somewhere outside Texas, wherein inhabitants are quick to cannibalize all wanderers (she is soon without one arm and one leg). Amirpour’s film sees Arlen forced to choose between two potential futures—either live in Comfort, a relatively welcoming trash-village overseen by “The Dream” (Keanu Reeves), or settle alongside the Miami Man (Jason Momoa), a more threatening outsider figure whom Arlen finds herself attracted to nonetheless.

We spoke to Amirpour following a screening of her film at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, which was presented by the Independent Film Festival Boston.

To me The Bad Batch felt very connected to youth culture. Is it for you?

What do you mean when you say youth culture?

What I mean is that one of your set pieces involves a vehicular boom box, which you said you found at Burning Man. And… Well, that’s a very specific aspect of the movie. And I don’t know how young it is either. Because you kind of have to have a lot of money to go to Burning Man. And so I find it’s more of a bourgie thing. Coachella is for young people.

Going to Burning Man takes a lot of planning and money and work. It’s not cheap at all.

Maybe I’m wrong to connect this to youth culture, then, but I was also sensing a rave atmosphere, or a club atmosphere, from the scenes that are set in Comfort.

Visually and in world-building, there was something about the look of this desert gathering at Burning Man. That was definitely a reference [point]. And obviously the boom box came from there. But the whole thing about this story … [it’s] about looking at American civilization, and the development of American towns and cities … it’s almost like I see these stages. You’re in these rural,

unsophisticated areas. But then they start to become cities. And then come distractions … it’s like, Comfort could become Las Vegas in 50 years.

Which also connects the film to westerns.

The development of things from the primitive to society building. That’s something I’m very interested in. In my first film, too [A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night]. [That film’s setting] Bad City is like a city that is left to waste away. Because they don’t all develop at the same rate. You need someone like the Dream (Reeves) … you need someone who’s bringing an economy to a place. It’s just so strange watching how civilizations form and develop around the resources they have.

And Burning Man is that too! Because in 1980-whatever-it-was, that’s how it started. It was a group of people who were like, I know a great spot to go and camp for a week and be creative. And it grew, and grew, and grew, and grew. Now it’s this massive thing with 100,000 people going from all over the world. And it’s got this infrastructure—and it’s changed. It’s still a great and wonderful one-of-a-kind thing to experience, but it’s just interesting to watch that change.

A lot of people in Comfort are old. I don’t know if you noticed.

Of course, but youth culture is not necessarily always about young people.

Right. It’s about the party. Or rebelling. If anything, I would say that one of my thoughts is that Comfort, and that kind of distraction/diversion/party/rave/whatever … it’s proof of why Burning Man would never work in the real world. It works as an elitist bougie vacation.

There’s also a lot of neon in this movie. That seems to be coming back into vogue. It’s an ’80s aesthetic, to some extent, with that neon usually against electronic music. To be specific, I’m thinking about Nicolas Winding Refn’s movies, the Ryan Gosling film Lost River [2014], Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers [2013]…

That one for sure. But I think it’s ’80s and ’90s, ’90s too.

I just think of Tangerine Dream.

I haven’t seen that!

No, it’s a music group; they did a lot of film scores in that period, like Risky Business [1983]. Anyway. Neon is prominent in your movie. What does it mean to you?

Like you said, there was this Burning Manesque look and tone to how Comfort comes alive at night. Venice Beach is also one of my big inspirations visually.

There are weightlifters in this movie.

The weightlifters, but also how it looks. It’s got this … eternally ’80s … but now it’s mixed … it’s got something post-apocalyptic and futuristic about it at the same time … retro and futuristic. It reminded me of Blade Runner [1982], in the time that movie was made. It’s this futureyou that somehow feels ancient and retro—that’s what Venice Beach is like to me. And at night! It’s the thing with Comfort, where you saw it in the day, and it’s just dried up, a shell, a desert …

It’s a beach on a weekday.

But with no ocean. Just hot dirt and a dried-up noodle cart and that one sad stripper pole. But then at night, the building lights up, and that boom box lights up … even that boom box looks different in the day, when you see it [parked] back there. So there was something fun about lighting it up at night.

And the [Reeves character] is passing out this psychedelic substance, so it’s just like, take this. And it’s not just to be like, oh, let’s take acid and open our minds. It was a really conscious choice. Imagine you’re the Dream.

And you’re trying to keep some of the craziest … and the derelicts … and the most violent people of society, who are populating this place. How do you do something to keep bringing this community together, how do you [institute] law and order? And it’s like … that’s a good drug to give to get everyone kind of neutralized. There’s so many different people who can all get along for a second. But then it’ll go away.

>> THE BAD BATCH. OPENS FRI 6.23 AT THE COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE (LATE SHOWS ONLY, PLUS MIDNIGHT SHOWS ON 6.23 AND 6.24).

ALSO AVAILABLE ON VOD OUTLETS BEGINNING THE SAME DAY. RATED R.

FILM EVENTS THU 6.22

OPENING NIGHT OF THE 2017 ROXBURY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL TEAR THE ROOF OFF: THE UNTOLD STORY OF PARLIAMENT FUNKADELIC [2016] [MFA. 465 Huntington Ave., Bos. 8pm/NR/$15. mfa.org]

18

06.22.17 - 06.29.17

|

FRI 6.23

SAT 6.24

SAT 6.24

MON 6.26

[The Brattle. 40 Brattle St., Harv Sq., Camb. See Brattlefilm.org for info]

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

35mm. hcl.harvard.edu/ hfa]

[Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

Midnight/R/$12.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]

[Coolidge Corner Theatre.

290 Harvard St., Brookline.

7pm/PG-13/$12.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]

A FULL WEEK OF SPAGHETTI WESTERNS STARTS AT THE BRATTLE A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS [1964] AND FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE [1965]

DIGBOSTON.COM

THE FILMS OF ERNST LUBITSCH CONTINUE AT THE HFA THE LOVE PARADE [1929]

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS FULL METAL JACKET [1987]

NICHOLAS RAY’S REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE

WED 6.27

JEAN-LUC GODARD’S WEEKEND [1967]

[Somerville Theatre. 55 Davis Square, Somerville.

7:30pm/NR/$10. 35mm. somervilletheatre.com]

WEDNESDAY

June 28 at 6pm Workbar Cambridge 45 Prospect St., Central Sq.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

ARTS

DANCING IN THE STREETS The Dance Complex turns 25

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

94 will come together for a massive performance of 25, 6, 7, 8 Flash Mob, which was choreographed by both the Dance Complex teachers and DiMuro’s dance company, Public Displays of Motion. 25, 6, 7, 8 Flash Mob will last for 25 minutes, one minute for each year that the Dance Complex has been in operation. More than 15 genres of dance will be on display, everything from hip-hop and ballet to West African and bhangra. It will be performed to a combination of live and recorded music, including live West African drumming and live vocals by Carl Alleyne.

Early work on the flash mob (or, as DiMuro calls it, “the non-flash-mob-flash-mob”) began in January when DiMuro gathered about 30 faculty members together and bribed them with wine, beer, and pasta. He paired the faculty off, ensuring that each person was paired with someone whose expertise was totally different from their own. The cha-cha teacher, for example, was paired with the flamenco teacher and the hula hoop teacher with a modern dance teacher.

He asked them to come up with 30 seconds of collaborative movement. This movement was recorded on video and would also become the basis for the other massive showing of the evening: the illumination.

Just before 9 pm, the Dance Complex’s historic building—a five-story building from the late 1800s that was originally built as a meeting space for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows—will be illuminated using lighting and projections.

“I’ve been so taken by the geography of this building

that I feel we need to celebrate the building as much as possible,” said DiMuro. “We had the ability to make the building dance and that was really important to me.” Live music played by Maria Finkelmeier and Drew Worden will accompany the spectacle, called Dance Happens Here. After the initial “performance,” the illumination will run on a loop until just after midnight.

Dance Happens Here is inspired, in part, by the fact that a number of people told DiMuro that until a studio opened with a window facing the street, they had no idea that there was dance happening in the old building. “There’s a strong connection for me about where dance happens,” said DiMuro. “If we don’t hide ourselves, we can really stake the claim that dance happens here in a big way. I think it’s just putting dance in a place so people don’t ignore it and people start to value it,” he added.

He’s got dreams of expanding this notion, via similar illuminations, throughout the city of Boston and to various organizations, like theaters and museums. “If we can get people to realize that dance is all around them and if it kind of infiltrates their lives in that way, it will be better for all of us.”

ED. NOTE: Also check out Dig writer Micaela Kimball’s reporting on the Dance Complex, with more features in her series about the connective and healing powers of movement for immigrant communities coming soon.

>>DANCE COMPLEX’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION. BLOCK PARTY, FLASH MOB, AND ILLUMINATION 6.23. SHOWCASE 6.24–25. DANCECOMPLEX.ORG

ARTS EVENTS FINAL WEEKEND!!

FAT PIG

[Flat Earth Theatre, 321 Arsenal St., Watertown. Through 6.24. flatearththeatre.com]

20

06.22.17 - 06.29.17

|

DIGBOSTON.COM

FINAL WEEKEND! DAYS OF ATONEMENT

[Israeli Stage, 527 Tremont St., Boston. Through 6.25. israelistage.com]

POWERFUL DRAMA LOS MEADOWS

[Boston Public Works Theater Company, 527 Tremont St., Boston. Through 7.1. bostonpublicworks.org]

HIT COMEDY RIPCORD

[Huntington Theatre Company, 527 Tremont St., Boston. Through 7.2. huntingtontheatrecompany. org]

SMASH HIT WICKED

[Broadway in Boston, 539 Washington St., Boston. Through 7.23. boston.broadway.com]

PHOTOS BY CHARLES DANIELS

There’s gotta be something pretty remarkable going on to convince the city of Cambridge to shut down a city block at rush hour on a Friday.

But that’s exactly what’s happening on June 23 when Mass Ave between Pearl and Brookline Streets will be closed off for Festival of Us, You, We & Them, a massive celebration in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Dance Complex. While the bulk of the celebration will be Friday evening, there will also be a teaching artist and student showcase on Saturday and Sunday evenings.

Peter DiMuro, executive artistic director of the Dance Complex, has been thinking about ways that this milestone could be commemorated since he came on board as artistic director four years ago. It was paramount, he thought, that the celebration be as diverse as the Central Square community itself, as well as the dizzying array of dance classes taught on a daily basis. From West African dance to classical ballet to bhangra, there’s not much that the Dance Complex doesn’t cover.

The festivities will kick off Friday, June 23 at 5 pm with dancing in the streets and in the windows of local businesses. Beginning at 5:30, the Dance Complex faculty will offer various dance lessons and demonstrations, both inside and outside. At 6, Boomerangs, a local thrift store, will present a fashion show on the main stage. Live music, courtesy of the Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band, will begin after 8 pm.

At 8:30, over 100 dancers between the ages of 3 and

coming soon to TV, print, radio, and online news outlets

A New Multimedia Series About

Bicycle Safety, Risk, and Solutions in Greater Boston visit binjonline.org & facebook.com/binjnetwork

for crowdfunding info and updates NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

SAVAGE LOVE

SNEAKERS

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY WHATS4BREAKFAST.COM

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET I’m gay and married. My husband regularly messes around with this one guy who treats me like I’m a cuckold. He will send me a pic of my husband sucking his cock, for example, and a text message meant to degrade me. But I’m not a cuckold and I don’t find these messages sexy. My husband wants me to play along because it gets this guy off. Advice?

Can’t Understand Cuckold Kink It depends, CUCK. If you’re upset by these messages—if they hurt your feelings, are damaging your sexual connection to your husband, are traumatizing—don’t play along. But if you find them silly—if they just make you roll your eyes— then play along. Respond positively/abjectly/ insincerely, then delete. Not to please the guy sending the messages (who you don’t owe anything), but to please your husband (who’ll wind up owing you).

I am a straight male grad student in my mid-20s.

My girlfriend wants to have sex with another girl in our class. Neither of us have had a threesome before, but both of us are game. Unfortunately, I am not attracted to this girl. When we started dating, my girlfriend told me that she is sexually attracted to women. We agreed to be monogamous except that she could have sex with other women as part of a threesome with me. She is not hell-bent on having sex with our classmate, but she would like to and says it’s up to me. I don’t want her to suppress her same-sex tendencies, but I am jealous at the thought of her having sex with someone else while I am not participating. What should I do?

Feeling Out Moments Orgasmic You should take yes for an answer, FOMO—or take your girlfriend’s willingness to say no to this opportunity for an answer. She’s into this woman but willing to pass on her because you aren’t. There are billions of other women on the planet—some in your immediate vicinity—so you two have lots of other options. Unless you find a reason to object to every woman your girlfriend finds attractive, you aren’t guilty of suppressing her same-sex tendencies.

On the Lovecast, Michael Hobbes on gay, middleaged dating: savagelovecast.com.

THE STRANGERER

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

22

06.22.17 - 06.29.17

|

DIGBOSTON.COM

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Standard APR 15.99%-23.99%. **Fuel economy estimates are based on US EPA exhaust emission certification data obtained by Yamaha. Your actual mileage will vary depending on road conditions, how you ride and maintain your vehicle, accessories, cargo, and operator/passenger weight. Offer good in the U.S., excluding the state of Hawaii. Dealer remains responsible for complying with all local and state advertising regulations and laws. Professional riders depicted on a closed course. Dress properly for your ride with a helmet, eye protection, long sleeves, long pants, gloves and boots. Do not drink and ride. It is illegal and dangerous. Yamaha and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation encourage you to ride safely and respect the environment. For further information regarding the MSF course, please call 1-800-446-9227. Š2017 Yamaha Motor Corporation, U.S.A. All rights reserved. • YamahaMotorsports.com NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

23

’S U L U H F O THE STAR T PEOPLE’ ‘DIFFICUL NEW SHOW ER BRINGS H MBRIDGE TO CA

ON O S G N COMI

TO

"50 PALOS"

JARABE DE PALO 6/21 — 7PM

MASCULINITEASE: SO FRAGILE 6/22 — 8PM

A N I K A SH CK A F Y NA

SHAKINA NAYFACK MANIFEST PUSSY 6/23 & 6/24

THE STORY COLLIDER 6/28 — 8PM

50 SHADES OF BEY 6/29 & 6/30

WILL SMITH

A COMEDY VARIETY SHOW 7/7 — 8PM

MORTIFIED 7/8 — 8PM

WITNESS THE WASTELAND:

ATION R E B I L * TRANS F UP TO O G Y N E I N D R A U E A JO IME L ION. T T I E S H N T A S R LOW ER T THAT FOL HAKINA'S GEND G EDGE SPOKEN UTTIN UGH S C O SSY R H U T H I P T W T D S G E N AN F I MANI YTELL , R S E. O L T N A S A C F O G O V N R I K P N I R-ROC D AND COMB E E T R T C I L A G S HE ND WORD, A INES BETWEEN T HE L T S R U L B

2 FAST 2 FURIOSA 7/13 — 8PM

BLONDE SIDE OF THE MOON 7/14 & 7/15

M P 0 3 : 7 — 4 2 $15 M & O FR 3 S 2 T E E K TIC JUN

clubOBERON.com

YOUR BODY AND YOU 7/16 & 7/20

JUSTIN VIVIAN BOND 7/27 — 7:30PM & 10PM

THE DONKEY SHOW

EVERY SATURDAY NIGHT

A.R.T.’s club OBERON 2 ARROW ST. HARVARD SQ.

@americanrep #clubOBERON