DigBoston 11.9.17

DIGBOSTON.COM 11.09.17 - 11.16.17

THROWBACK

BRICKLAYER BILL A WORKING CLASS HERO BEFORE PRO SPORTS

YOUTH VIOLENCE

THIS AIN’T NORMAL

BRIGHT DOC LIFTS AUTHENTIC VOICES COVER: MUSIC

THE PSYCHEDELIC R+B OF HAASAN BARCLAY PLUS: AUSSIE ALEX LAHEY

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NOV 09, 2017 - NOV 16, 2017 BUSINESS PUBLISHER Marc Sneider ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Chris Faraone John Loftus Jason Pramas SALES MANAGER Marc Sneider FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION sales@digboston.com BUSINESS MANAGER John Loftus

EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Chris Faraone EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jason Pramas MANAGING EDITOR Mitchell Dewar ASSOCIATE MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran ASSOCIATE FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan ASSOCIATE ARTS EDITOR Christopher Ehlers STAFF WRITER Haley Hamilton CONTRIBUTORS G. Valentino Ball, Sarah Betancourt, Tim Bugbee, Patrick Cochran, Mike Crawford, Kori Feener, George Hassett, Zack Huffman, Marc Hurwitz, Marcus Johnson-Smith, Micaela Kimball, Derek Kouyoumjian, Dan McCarthy, Adam Sennott, Maya Shaffer, Citizen Strain, M.J. Tidwell, Tre Timbers, Baynard Woods INTERNS Kuresse Bolds, Olivia Falcigno

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ON THE COVER PHOTO OF HAASAN BARCLAY BY LIV SLAUGHTER. READ THE FEATURE BY NINA CORCORAN IN THE MUSIC SECTION.

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THE MOST FLATTERING ENDORSEMENT OF ALL

Dear Reader,

I had a beautiful drive this past weekend to Falmouth, where I had enthusiastically agreed to speak at the Alliance for Community Media (ACM) northeast region conference. I regularly work with area media hubs like Cambridge Community Television and the Somerville Media Center, and have given similar presentations to the alliance before. Titled “Local Investigative Journalism on a Shoestring,” the workshop was designed by my DigBoston and Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ) comrade Jason Pramas not because we think the next Panama Papers will be leaked through a Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) access channel, but instead since these community facilities are in some cases the only eyes left watching officials, while their neighborhood media makers are increasingly drilling critical wells in news deserts.

For the record, I have some previous experience speaking in places where I expect to be ambushed. This wasn’t one of them, though. So I got a little bit tripped up when, just a few minutes into my talk, one of the audience members in Falmouth cut in with an aggressively raised hand and an unsolicited gripe. From what I can recall, their issue was threefold: The troll disliked my unflattering characterization of Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone; they took issue with my choice words for university-based journalism incubators like the New England Center for Investigative Reporting; and they had a coronary at the definition of investigative reporting I had on the screen: “journalism that tries to change what happens—not just cover what happens.”

Considering that my detractor also specifically needled a particular episode of Beyond Boston, the monthly news digest on which my team from BINJ collaborates with several ACM members, my guess is that they planned to sabotage the session all along. While the confrontation didn’t bother me too much, I will admit that I was happy when one of the attendees asked them to chill. Because after the hater eventually split, I got to spend the next hour-plus breaking down a number of ways for rookie sleuths to activate. In our short time, we examined specific project ideas that some people brought, addressed all parts of the reporting process from research to distribution, and even found time to discuss the importance of youth media.

When I said that some of the work they are doing is far more important than the garbage that mainstream commercial reporters crank out, I meant it.

As a longtime cheerleader for unorthodox and alternative media, I’m used to being told that what I do, and what my team does, “isn’t real journalism.” So I shouldn’t be surprised when an apparent hack legacy press apologist knocks me. It’s a price that I’m happy to pay for the chance to preach about things like how more funding for reporting should go to the grassroots rather than the college programs, and to point out how a lot of journos claim to work objectively, yet don’t feel that poor or working-class people are worth listening to.

You’d like to think that everybody at a community media conference is on the same page, but I suppose there’s always one.

CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Need more Dig? Sign up for the Daily Dig @ tiny.cc/DailyDig

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PROSECUTORS GET REFORM SCHOOLED NEWS

Criminal justice reformers respond to Neanderthal district attorneys

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

PHOTO BY DAN MCCARTHY Late last month, the Massachusetts Senate passed a sweeping criminal justice reform bill aiming to reduce strain on the Commonwealth. The bill, which is now at the mercy of the House of Representatives, targets a range of reform issues and would, among other things, raise the adult criminal responsibility age from 18 to 19 and address the nightmare of mandatory minimum sentences—that preferred weapon of prosecutors looking for shortcuts and a cheap binary approach to American justice.

Not surprisingly, those prosecutors are perturbed at the push for progressive reform. Nine Bay State district attorneys (including Suffolk County DA Dan Conley) even signed a letter opposing—or at the very least, expressing grave concerns about—the Senate’s sizable omnibus crime bill. “We should be especially wary of embracing supposedly ‘new ideas’ that are no more than a return to the old and discredited ways of the past,” the DAs wrote, hardly masking their endorsement of the status quo.

In response to law and order prosecutors, pastors and other criminal justice reformers rallied in Nurses Hall at the State House last week. Organized by the Union of Minority Neighborhoods, they gave pointed responses, one by one, to DA claims that the Senate bill “undermines the cause and pursuit of fair and equal justice for all” and that it would result in law enforcement “ignoring or minimizing criminal activity that is obviously detrimental to victims and communities.”

“I’m tired of the demonization that always occurs when people are trying to fight for reform,” said Rev. Jeffrey Brown of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury.

“For the DAs to write a letter like that…”

“This bill is trying to do justice with mercy,” added Rev. Willie Bodrick of Twelfth Baptist.

Among the issues that the group took umbrage with was the complexity of wrestling with the disruption and decimation of families in black and brown communities.

Andrea James, an organizer with Families for Justice as Healing who started the group while incarcerated, decried “the constant churning and unrelenting aspects of a criminal justice system that we’ve allowed to proliferate in Massachusetts.” The system, said James, “doesn’t give the opportunity to even begin to think about what happens after they get home.”

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Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry of Dorchester, who backed the measure, noted that there’s careful language in the Senate bill aimed at rebuilding people “who went off the path, and may be broken, but not done.”

“Whether you’re in for 18 months or five years, with mandatory minimums you can’t even participate in programs to better yourself—whether it’s anger management, learning de-escalation methods, or education,” Sen. Forry said. “Communities of color are over-policed, and with more charged with mandatory minimums, it limits the opportunity to engage in treatment and training opportunities to return home with skills. They’re more likely to fall back into the same behavior.”

While Sen. Forry addresses the lack of resources and funding for incarceration, especially for the treatment and education of those incarcerated, Rahsaan Hall, director of the ACLU of Massachusetts’ racial justice program, applauded the Senate for producing a “farreaching criminal reform package,” and called attention to the demonization and “offensive rhetoric” coming from prosecutors.

“DAs are some of the most powerful people in the system … but they’re not the sole voice for those in the system,” Hall said. A former prosecutor himself who calls mandatory minimums “one of the greatest tools prosecutors have,” the ACLU attorney framed it thusly: “You have a Commonwealth that is comprised of 22 percent black and Latino people … and 75 percent of those incarcerated are serving mandatory sentences for drug offenses. In the face of data that shows that blacks and Latinos use drugs at relatively the same rates as whites, there is a serious problem and a greater need for criminal reform.”

Hall then explained why DAs are so reluctant to embrace sentencing reform: “It’s a repeal of prosecutorial power … Some of the greatest rises in incarceration rates… stems from the draconian war on drugs … but also from the increased prosecution [rates] by prosecutors who have leveraged these charges to extract guilty pleas from people. If everyone charged with these offenses all went to trial, it would shut the system down. So prosecutors use those [methods] as a tool to narrow the amount of people

in the system.”

That’s not hyperbole. In 2013, Mother Jones found that, on average, a year and a half of time would be required to actually handle a year’s worth of average public-defense work. The topic has even gained ground in pop culture consciousness, with John Oliver devoting lengthy segments to highlight the strains on the system, underscoring why prosecutors heart mandatory minimums in spite of the fact that, according to Hall and other experts, “there is no empirical data that shows mandatory minimums serve as a [crime] deterrent.”

For reform advocates, the Senate bill is promising.

Prevention and intervention are major goals, as they seemingly must be to get something through the House, to the governor, and past the goal line by the last day of formal sessions on Nov 15. For his part, Baker has already publicly skewered the Senate bill and is especially distasteful of a section that would scrap rigid sentencing for drug traffickers.

While some speakers addressed such specific criticisms, on Beacon Hill last week proponents mostly addressed larger issues, like the greater good of whole communities.

“One of [the Senate bill] amendments that came through was about de-escalation training for law enforcement to talk about cultural issues,” Sen. Forry said.

“This bill is about bringing the humanity back to criminal justice reform. Just because people went down a bad path doesn’t mean we should be done with them.”

Calvin Feliciano is an example of that. A former drug dealer who grew up in the South End, he cycled through the system and fought his way to reform. For the last two years, Feliciano has been working with the Jobs Not Jails coalition, and currently serves as political director for SEIU 509. Feliciano feels the Senate bill’s work on mandatory minimums is a good start, but said there’s work still to do if the current bill and its compromises are “chipped away further.”

“The DAs talk about violence a lot [in the letter], [saying] they’re all about safety … to score political points for their next office,” Feliciano said. “They should know today that we are on the front lines actually trying to make our neighborhoods safer, and we don’t do it for political points like they do.”

Andrea James of Families for Justice as Healing also let the DAs have it: “We just had two major drug lab issues that happened in the Commonwealth,” she said, “and we have to understand that was the result of a systemic failure and result of prosecutors, even when they knew this was happening, refusing to dismiss those tainted drug lab cases. That’s a direct sign of a completely corrupt and broken system that we have to find ways of addressing.

Giving more power to prosecutors who didn’t use it properly is not the answer to that.”

Taking questions, Hall noted that in the past 20 years, Bay State DAs have gone uncontested in their bids for re-election more than three-quarters of the time.

Horace Small, executive director of the Union of Minority Neighborhoods, which organized the event, reminded reporters that Suffolk DA Conley has “counted on black voters to get re-elected.”

“We need [the DAs opposing the Senate bill] to know we see you,” Feliciano added. “We’re putting you on blast, and we are going to hold you accountable.”

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Good journalists typically have four attributes: an ability to communicate information about the world around them to other people, training in the conventions of journalism, compassion for their fellow human beings, and deep knowledge of the areas they specialize in (which we call “beats” in the journalism trade). DigBoston, like any news outlet, obviously needs good journalists. And we’re constantly recruiting new talent. Yet as a city newspaper with a mission to provide the people of Boston’s many neighborhoods with useful information about their hometown, we need more than that. We need native Bostonians working for us.

More to the point, we need working-class native Bostonians. People with deep knowledge of the streets they grew up on. Because we’re very serious about our mission to cover ALL of Boston’s neighborhoods—not just the rich ones. But there’s a problem: Most of the people who want to work for us as reporters—and who know enough to think that there’s even a possibility of them doing so—have just three of the four attributes we’re looking for. They can communicate well, they are compassionate at some level, and they have journalism training. What they don’t have is deep local knowledge. Nor do they necessarily care much about all of Boston’s neighborhoods.

Only the ones they hang out in.

These people who apply in droves to work at publications like DigBoston—and indeed all area news outlets that can pay something—are generally middle- or uppermiddle-class people in their 20s from outside of Boston that got degrees in journalism (or communications or literature or business or art and design) at one of our many area colleges. And that’s fine. They have every right to do so, and some of them end up working for us and doing a great job. But only after, and this is key, we help them learn more about the city they’re covering.

If we’re willing to work with people who have three of four qualities that make a good journalist out of the gate, then it’s only fair that we should go the extra mile and recruit local talent that has the other combination of three attributes: ability to communicate, compassion, and deep local knowledge. Because those candidates can definitely be trained in the conventions of journalism.

Readers may not realize it, but journalists did not traditionally go to college to learn their trade until recent decades. Journalists learned journalism by doing it. By becoming, essentially, apprentices to experienced journalists. Which worked well since journalism is many things, but it is not rocket science. It’s a way of collecting and presenting information. Once you learn its conventions, then you can be a working journalist.

So, are you a smart, compassionate, talkative person from one of Boston’s workingclass neighborhoods? Can you put words in rows, and maybe take some pictures on your phone? Do you want to learn to be a journalist? Do you want to tell the world about the place you grew up? About its problems and its successes? About its corruption and its virtue? Its shame and its glory?

Then drop me a line at execeditor@digboston.com. Let’s talk. You, too, could make shit money and help save the world.

Jason Pramas is executive editor and associate publisher of DigBoston. He’s a townie, and his training in journalism was, shall we say, idiosyncratic.

DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

FEDS CONTINUE HOUNDING JOURNO’S DATA

200 people to have had devices seized at inauguration protests including Cantú

BY BAYNARD WOODS @BAYNARDWOODS In documents filed last week, the US attorney’s office noted that “additional efforts are being made to obtain data” from the cell phone of journalist Aaron Cantú, who is being charged with the crimes allegedly committed by people he was covering on Inauguration Day. “A search of this defendant’s cell phone was attempted, but as this time, no data has been obtained. The government has advised defense counsel that additional efforts are being made to obtain data from this phone and the government will promptly disclose to counsel any and all data obtained if these efforts are successful,” the legal disclosure read.

Like nearly 200 other defendants, Cantú is being charged with eight felonies, including rioting, conspiracy to riot, and inciting riot, plus numerous charges of property damage. He is facing up to 80 years in prison for these crimes. The evidence against him so far consists in the fact that he was wearing black clothing and appeared to have abandoned a backpack.

Cantú was not indicted until May 30, long after most of his co-defendants. Whereas in most districts, the charges he and the other protesters are facing would be state charges, in the District of Columbia they are carried out by the US attorney’s office, which answers directly to the Trump administration’s Department of Justice. Most of the indictment is identical to those charging other defendants. “Individuals participating in the Black Bloc broke the windows of a limousine parked on the north side of K Street NW,” the indictment reads, “as Aaron Cantú and others moved west on K Street NW.” In Cantú’s case, he is effectively being charged for moving along with a group that was undoubtedly breaking news, whether or not they were breaking laws.

Cantú is a reporter for the Santa Fe Reporter and an editor at the New Inquiry. He has written for the Al Jazeera, the Intercept, and other publications.

In a Baffler piece on police use of social media, Cantú wrote: “Police ambitions on social media are totalitarian, in the sense that departments are looking to establish further control over the production of knowledge in order to secure more power.”

But here, prosecutorial ambitions are also looking pretty totalitarian as they seek to control his social media and other data. The fact that they seem to be seeking additional data from his phone alone (although they have obtained plenty of data already from others) makes it seem like an attack on the press.

Email messages, texts, social media posts, contacts, search histories, a record of all calls, logins, chats, images, videos, downloads, and more have been seized from other, unencrypted phones. This case will likely be instrumental in deciding to what extent the government can take data from our phones in order to gain information and quell dissent. It is particularly dangerous in the case of a reporter who may be in contact with confidential sources.

The notice that the government continued to seek data from Cantú’s phone came only days after the press won a major victory when Judge Lynn Leibovitz ruled that much of the police body cam footage that day was not protected and could be shared. While prosecutors argued that officers could be endangered by releasing the footage, it became clear that the Metropolitan Police Department had provided a list of arrestees to the far-right site Got News.

“We’re all standing up for Aaron, and this affects our industry and our identity as journalists,” Julie Ann Grimm, Cantú’s editor at the Santa Fe Reporter, told me recently. “But the larger sort of corralling, the kettling, the mass-arresting, is also troubling.”

But the “all” in Grimm’s assessment is still startlingly limited. While the mainstream corporate media continues to hyperventilate over every presidential tweet attacking major television networks, they have remained largely silent about Cantú’s plight..

“Police ambitions on social media are totalitarian, in the sense that departments are looking to establish further control over the production of knowledge in order to secure more power.”

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TALKING JOINTS MEMO

CANNABIZ CORNER

Rob and Danielle Smith will hold your hand from seed to harvest

BY ALEX BRANDON

Your Trusty Massachusetts Cannabis Newsletter subscribe for free at

talkingjointsmemo.com

Rob and Danielle Smith are the cofounders of Atlas Plant Trainer, a customizable all-inone system that both trains and supports growing plants from seedling to harvest, allowing for space optimization for all grow areas and styles and yield maximization of legal plant counts. With their business still in the startup phase, both currently handle all aspects of operations, from research and development to finances and sales. We tossed some questions their way for the Smiths to answer in tandem about Atlas. This is their story…

What inspired you to start your company?

We have been Maine medical marijuana caregivers for four years now. Rob performs the majority of the growing operations on his own. After getting frustrated with the current DIY solutions on the market such as bamboo stakes and trellis netting, he came up with an idea that he knew would help growers of all types. Night after night Rob would return home from the garden, talking enthusiastically about his idea and its potential until one late night when Danielle reached out to a local designer to begin what has now become the Atlas Plant Trainer journey.

What defines success for you and your company?

Our goal for Atlas Plant Trainer is to be the leader in the plant training and support category, nationally recognized throughout the entire gardening industry. While our current focus is on the cannabis industry, Atlas will be able to help gardeners with any type of plants including ornamental gardening, urban gardens, and so much more.

What was the biggest challenge you faced and how did you move past it?

The biggest challenge we’ve faced so far is a name change just prior to our crowdfunding launch through Indiegogo earlier this year. We were notified of the conflict by another company in the cannabis space. While our lawyers felt that we had a case to present, it was not worth wasting our valuable time and resources to go through a lengthy court proceeding. We made the decision to change the name of our product which at the time was a major challenge, given trademark laws and domain name availability. We are true believers that everything happens for a reason, and are much happier with our new name due to the elegance and strength it portrays.

What skill, characteristic, trait do you find most valuable to achieving success?

Persistence—not everyone is going to love what you are doing, and some may even be vocal about it. Rejection is difficult and feels so much more personal when it’s your own business. Learning to graciously take feedback and turn it into an opportunity to improve yourself or your approach is one of the best ways to show your tenacity and drive, key skills for a successful entrepreneur.

What do you find is important in connecting with and inspiring others to follow your lead?

Learning before implementing. Before beginning this journey, we absorbed as much information as possible in the business areas we were not directly familiar with, and continue to do so on a daily basis. This includes podcasts, books, seminars, and articles written by others that have achieved success before us.

Given the demands of starting a business, how do you still find work-life balance?

This one is still sometimes a challenge. Working and living together makes it difficult to stop working when you are so passionate about what you’re doing, and that passion is shared with your spouse. Given this, we’ve made schedules that chunk out both family time and self-care time. By properly caring for ourselves with things like exercise, meditation, healthy eating, and a proper supplement regimen, it allows us to continue pushing our minds and bodies for what can be very long days.

What did you learn along the way that you wish someone had told you when you started?

Everything. Takes. Longer! Fortunately, this was advice that we were given from the start, but it’s incredibly important for any entrepreneur to know prior to jumping in head first. It has proven true time and time again for us, and anticipating delays in advance has allowed us to better prepare for any hiccups along the road.

Sign up for our free cannabis newsletter at talkingjointsmemo.com to stay on top of all things green in New England.

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GUEST TALKING JOINTS MEMO

GROWING BETTER TOGETHER Why we need craft cooperative cannabis growing

BY PETER C. BERNARD PETER@MASSGROWER.ORG Craft cooperative growing is a concept brought to our cannabis laws in order to help small businesses and farmers have their rightful place in the industry here in the Commonwealth.

The Massachusetts Grower Advocacy Council believes this is the future of cannabis, and that cooperative grows hold the potential to developing a strong and healthy industry in this state.

First, let’s draw our attention to a section of the law that defines such an operations as a “‘craft marijuana cultivator cooperative,’ a marijuana cultivator comprised of residents of the commonwealth organized as a limited liability company or limited liability partnership under the laws of the commonwealth, or an appropriate business structure as determined by the [state’s Cannabis Control Commission]…”

Massachusetts already has an agricultural definition of a cooperative farm scenario. But that last little segment about the CCC forming something else—“or an appropriate business structure as determined by the commission”—gives them the opportunity to create several license types that would significantly foster a cottage industry here. There are more possibilities than some may have considered.

So, why is it so important to promote the growth of craft cooperatives? We can start with those communities that have most been disparaged by the failed war on drugs. These growers need a pathway to legitimacy, and craft cooperatives offer an excellent opportunity to pool resources and go legit. There are also hosts of others who have worked the underground for years, kept their noses clean, and have been waiting for the day when they could operate freely and legally. But the average Joe can’t entertain the costs associated with opening a registered medical marijuana dispensary (RMD) in Mass.

These kinds of limited grows are expected to be less expensive to get into. Whether we like it or not, the medical marijuana system in this state is pay to play. That needs to be different with adult use. You have to have an awful lot of money to open a RMD. If we apply the same stringent conditions on adult use small craft grows, there will be no small craft grows. There will be little if any boutique highend establishments. We will have nothing much aside from commercially produced cannabis. If that happens, the black market will continue to flourish.

Lots of cannabis aficionados consider commercially grown cannabis as “WalMart Weed” and want something better. Small craft grows are where innovation comes from. It is where new products and strains are created by inventive individuals. They put a lot of care into what they do, so that they can produce the best, and safest possible product.

Small growers like these are also part of the reason there is a market to begin with. They, and thousands of others, have scoffed a nonsensical law and have otherwise steered clear of legal trouble.

These people deserve a seat at the table without having to hit the lottery or have a rich uncle kick the bucket in order to afford to participate in the industry. There are plenty of medical patients, I assure you, who have great access to dispensaries but still seek better quality cannabis in the underground market. Craft cooperative grows will help to end that.

Commercialization is going to happen here. It already has. Big money is going to come to Massachusetts and set up commercial grows. It is already has. Is there going to be room for smaller operations to flourish? Yes, if craft cultivation licenses are rolled out effectively. Craft grows can exist just fine alongside commercial grows. We need to be sure to keep the playing field level.

These growers need a pathway to legitimacy, and craft cooperatives offer an excellent opportunity to pool resources and go legit.

MGAC is holding round table discussions talking with growers about possibilities around craft cooperative growing. Check out massgrower.org for more.

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BRICKLAYER BILL AND THE ADVENTURES OF AN AMATEUR THROWBACK

A glimpse of the days when sports stars shone closer to earth INTRO BY PATRICK L. KENNEDY

I don’t mean to knock today’s pro athletes.

Many of them came from humble origins and worked crazy hard every day for years to achieve their goals. And now they make ungodly amounts of money.

But a century ago, plenty of sports stars came from humble origins, worked crazy hard, etcetera, and made no money. Not at their sport, they didn’t. They were strictly amateurs. Plumbers, printers, or policemen by profession; serious, competitive runners, jumpers or hockey players by avocation. Their exploits were covered in the era’s sports pages alongside those of the Red Sox. (Baseball was the only team sport that paid then.) All the training these athletes did came during their precious spare time.

When my Harlem-slum-born great-granduncle William J. “Bricklayer Bill” Kennedy ran marathons, hard rules against receiving remuneration—sorry, no shoe sponsorships— 10

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were the least of a runner’s obstacles. (Heck, when he started, there weren’t even running shoes.) In a marathon in the early 20th century, just dozens of men raced along rocky, rutted roads, dodging horses, autos and bicycles, choking on clouds of dust.

In fall 1913, after winning marathons in St. Louis and Chicago, Bill Kennedy caught typhoid fever. When he emerged from the hospital three months later, desiccated and prematurely gray at age 30, his athletic club assumed he was out of contention permanently. So in spring 1915, they refused to pay his train fare from Chicago to Boston to compete in the nation’s premier marathon.

In his unpublished memoir, Bill recalled his solution, along with other harrowing journeys to races. On that note, remember the following excerpt, reprinted here in its original unedited form, the next time you hear about today’s teams traveling by private jet.

Now in order to take part in one of these marathons, it is first necessary to reach the city in which the race is being held. But only a small percentage of these athletes belong to clubs financially able to pay their expenses to take part in these out-of-town runs. How then do they get there? In a field of over a hundred probably not more than a dozen have had their expenses paid by a big club, some company they work for, and in some cases by their friends taking up a collection to send them to the race, as I have had at times from the bricklayers on the building on which I was working. . . .

Of the American competitors in my day, the Canadians would come in a car riding six or more who shared the cost, many hitch hiked their way, and others arrived via freight trains or blind baggage. Being able to tell of my own means of reaching the start, I will relate a few incidents when I was not financially able to travel de-luxe. . . .

In one of my early races I was loafing around St. Louis and decided to go to Chicago to run in an indoor race. The weather was mild in St. Louis, so I crossed the bridge to E. St. Louis and climbed into a box car. After sundown the

wind shifted north and it was down to zero by the time we reached Decatur Ill, where I unloaded and slept in the lobby of the R.R.Y. The next evening with the thermometer at 10 below I rode a box car to Chicago, jogging back and forth to keep from freezing. At every stop the end brakeman walked up to my Pullman banging on the door he would shout “Are you awake Brickey?” “Yes Sir.” “Don’t go to sleep or you will never wake up.”

Arriving in Chicago at 5 A.M. in a blizzard, I rode a Halstead St. car to the Bricklayers Hall, and slept alongside the furnace all day, down in the basement. Three days later I ran that indoor marathon at Riverside Rink finishing an hour behind the winner “Sid” Hatch. . . .

Many years later Frank Lalla and I hitched it to Boston by auto. We made it to Worcester but had to walk the last 40 miles to Boston.

In the Bunker Hill Marathon the next day, Lalla finished fifth and I walked up Bunker Hill showing the whites of my eyes in 10th place. . . .

1933 for a marathon held at Wilmington Del., six of us from the Cygnet club of E. Port Chester traveled by car, going down the Jersey side. Learning at the ferry that the charge was by passenger, we put four of our boys under the rumble seat, paying for two passengers. For lodging at Wilmington, after trying the Y, the police station and fire dept., we finally slept in the park. We all took a beating in the race the next day, which was nearer 28 than 26 miles.

Hardship meant nothing to us old time marathoners, like good steel our bodies were highly tempered to take punishment, and until a distance runner has the stamina and will power to do so, he will never become a successful winner. . . .

Back in 1915, being out of work in Chicago, and having been running on the roads all winter with the idea of again trying the Boston Race. Being out of funds, I decided to beat my way by freight – hitch hiking not then in vogue. With thirty cents in my pocket, I climbed aboard a cattle car out of South Chicago one night. It was a cold night, so I climbed up and slid in to the feed box, closing the lid down on myself. It was warm enough in there as the cattle engender heat but you can’t sleep very well with them eating your bed from under you.

I held that train down for two nights and a day, pulling into Buffalo the second morning. The only food I had in that time was at Toledo, where we stopped to take water. Raising the lid of my berth, I saw the picture of a 16 oz. schooner of beer and under it “5 cents.” I was out of that box in a jiffy, across the tracks, and downed two of those beers, grabbed two handfuls of pretzels, and back into my Pullman. It gave the high ball.

I lay over for a day and slept in a 10-cent flop house at Buffalo, making Albany the afternoon of the fourth day. Before prohibition it was the custom with most breweries that an out-of-town visitor could sample their product. So, paying my respects, I was the recipient of four schooners of brew, my vitamins for the day. Leaving Albany I arrived by freight in Springfield, Mass., at 2 A.M. I met up with a policeman who, on questioning me, took me over to a livery stable, where the night man put me up in the loft to sleep. On being roused at 6 A.M. I learned that I was not the only guest that night. I was allowed to depart with a handshake, while my fellow guests, who were members of the local fraternity [hoboes], were forced to manicure the horses and stalls.

Now within sight of my goal, and knowing the Boston section of the Twentieth Century was due shortly, I decked it into Boston, arriving on the fifth day after four days and nights on the road. -Bill Kennedy

We made it to Worcester but had to walk the last 40 miles to Boston. In the Bunker Hill Marathon the next day, Lalla finished fifth and I walked up Bunker Hill showing the whites of my eyes in 10th place. . . .

A writer in Boston, Patrick L. Kennedy is the co-author of Bricklayer Bill: The Untold Story of the Workingman’s Boston Marathon, released this fall by Bright Leaf, an imprint of UMass Press.

Join Patrick and the Kennedy clan on Sunday, Nov 12 at Doyle’s in Jamaica Plain, from 1:30 to 4:30pm, for a signing, reading, and live trad Irish music from members of Tin Can Hooley.

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11

COLLAGE PHOTOS BY MARC HURWITZ

10 ‘GETAWAYS’ WITHIN AN HOUR OF BOSTON GTFO

Accessible retreats to hit before blizzard season

BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON

It’s no secret that Boston can be a pretty hectic place, be it commuting into the city during rush hour, trying to walk through Allston, the Back Bay, or the Fenway area on a weekend night, or dealing with tourists in such areas as Faneuil Hall or the North End. For those who live or go to school in the city, it can definitely be nice to get away from it all, but it’s not always possible to head to the Maine coast, the Cape, or the Berkshires—especially without a car or if there isn’t much time to spare. Some articles here in the past have looked at hikes and picnic spots in the local area, and this one continues the “getting away from it all” theme, this time looking mostly at quiet towns, villages, and neighborhoods not too far from downtown Boston. All of these places make you feel like you’re far from the skyscrapers and endless crowds of people without being all that far from the city, and most are accessible by public transportation, so if you don’t have wheels, no worries at all—well, except for maybe the last two where it’s best to go by car. (Note that a recommended restaurant/ bar is given for each area, though for some of these, a number of other good options exist so definitely do some research on your own.)

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Old Town, Marblehead Boston tends to feel more European than any major city in America, and this certainly extends to some of the communities nearby. Perhaps the best example of this is the historic district of Marblehead, which is hidden away just north of the downtown area of this beautiful North Shore town. In some ways, Old Town feels like a Cornish village on the south coast of England, with its old homes squeezed next to each other along narrow lanes and its spectacular ocean views from various hillside parks and cemeteries. This is one of those neighborhoods where you really don’t need to do anything other than walk around, breathe in the salt air, enjoy the peace and quiet, and wonder how you can be only 15 miles from downtown Boston.

[Restaurant/Bar Option: Maddie’s Sail Loft at 15 State St—old-school local hangout for seafood and drinks] [Transportation Options: Car; commuter rail from North Station to Lynn, then 441/442 bus; Blue Line to Wonderland, then #441/442 bus]

Huron Village, Cambridge The city of Cambridge can often feel as busy and hectic as Boston, with red-hot areas such as Kendall Square and student-heavy spots such as Harvard Square having a bustling, dynamic feel to them. It doesn’t take much to get into quieter neighborhoods, however, and in the case of Huron Village, you can actually walk from the endless crowds around Harvard to this mellow area in a matter of minutes. The “village” part of the area’s name

is an accurate one, as Huron Avenue (the main drag) has a distinct village-like vibe to it and is home to one of the region’s great food shops, Formaggio Kitchen. Wandering up the streets south of Huron Avenue will take you past some huge homes, while continuing down to Brattle Street will bring you to mountain-sized mansions and historic structures as you make your way back to the crowds of Harvard.

[Restaurant Option: Armando’s Pizza at 163 Huron Ave.—classic thin-crust pizza and Sicilian slices at a tiny storefront that’s been around a long time] [Transportation Options: Car; Red Line to Harvard then walk or take #72 bus]

Hull Village/Hull Gut The Boston area has a number of peninsulas, including the aforementioned Marblehead as well as Winthrop, Nahant (see below), and Hull, and each of them has a bit of an end-of-the-world feel, as they’re mostly selfcontained and, in the case of Nahant and Hull, their main roads simply peter out at the sea. Many people hear the name “Hull” and immediately think of the honky-tonk of Nantasket Beach, but not many go all the way to the end of the peninsula, which is where Hull Village and Hull Gut (also known as Pemberton Point) sit. Hull Village looks a bit like a picturesque hamlet on the Maine coast with its little church, weathered old homes, and, from the heights of Revere Park, dizzying views of the Atlantic. Just west of the village is the end of the line where Main Street simply stops, and the views of the Boston skyline from here are particularly interesting because it’s one of the few places

in the local area where the sun actually sets over the ocean.

Don’t attempt to use subways or buses to get to Hull, but if you don’t have a car, you can actually take a ferry from downtown Boston right to Hull Gut with spectacular views along the way.

[Bar Option: Jo’s Nautical Bar at 125 Main St.—townie bar with great water views and cheap drinks] [Transportation Options: Car; ferry from Long Wharf on the Boston waterfront]

Nahant A bookend to Hull in a way, this little town sits on a much smaller peninsula north of Boston and is maybe 10 miles from Hull as the crow flies (or the boat sails) but a whopping 40 miles by car. Mostly residential, there really isn’t much to do in Nahant, but if you like to wander aimlessly through an area while catching endless views of the ocean—and seeing few people along the way—this is a very nice escape from Boston, and one that’s surprisingly easy to get to by commuter rail and bus. Some highlights include 40 Steps Beach, which is great any time of year and has scenes that look like they come straight out of Ireland; East Point, which is tough to find but well worth the effort for its rocky cliffs and endless ocean views; Baileys Point and its views of the Boston skyline; and the town wharf, which boat lovers will particularly like and which could easily be mistaken for Downeast Maine, especially when the fog rolls in.

[Restaurant/Bar Option: Tides at 2 Wilson Road— beachside American restaurant and bar with outdoor seating and water views] [Transportation Options: Car; commuter rail from North Station to Lynn, then walk the causeway or take the #439 bus (note—bus runs only on weekdays)]

Savin Hill, Dorchester It’s actually pretty easy to find quiet areas not all that far from downtown Boston, and one of the more interesting spots is the section of this neighborhood within a neighborhood that’s squeezed in between the Expressway and Morrissey Boulevard. Because it’s basically cut off from the rest of Boston by these two roads (along with Pattens Cove to the north and Savin Hill Basin to the south), the eastern part of Savin Hill is a real oasis, with beautiful old homes, narrow streets with little traffic, little-used tennis courts and a basketball court, a scenic walkway along the basin, and, in the middle of it all, a hilltop park with views of Boston Harbor and the surrounding area. There are few parts of Boston that are more peaceful than this, so if you want to get away but don’t have much time, Savin Hill isn’t a bad option at all.

[Restaurant Option: McKenna’s Cafe at 109 Savin Hill Ave.—local breakfast and lunch hangout with excellent coffee and good cheap eats] [Transportation Options: Car; subway to Savin Hill station]

Lincoln Center/Lincoln Depot Vermont is a long way from Boston even if you have a car, and parts of it can be nearly impossible to get to if you don’t. But you really don’t need to get that far out of the city to feel like you’re in the Green Mountain State. One suburb in particular that has a Vermont look to it is only four communities away from Boston and is maybe 15 miles away from Downtown Crossing, but the rolling green hills, weathered old barns, and pristine lakes and ponds could be 115 miles from the city if you have a good imagination.

Getting off the commuter rail at Lincoln Depot or driving to blink-and-you-miss-it Lincoln Center will get you to good jumping-off points for such nearby places as Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, deCordova Museum and Sculpture

Park, and Walden Pond; and if you’re into walking you can stroll to any of these via little-used streets along with well-maintained trails and logging/fire roads. Don’t forget to take your phone or camera to post pictures, so you can lie to your friends and say you’re hanging out in some of the most remote parts of northern New England.

[Restaurant Option: Country Pizza at 161 Lincoln Road—pizzeria located within an auto garage of all places, with New London-style pizza offered there] [Transportation Options: Car; commuter rail from North Station to Lincoln Depot]

Lanesville/Annisquam

Jeffries Point, East Boston East Boston is often seen as one of the most congested neighborhoods in the city, but much like Dorchester’s Savin Hill, the Jeffries Point section of Eastie is a quiet area with little traffic, mainly because it is nearly impossible to get to.

Cut off by Route 1A to the west, Logan Airport to the north, and Boston Harbor to the east, this small, hilly area is highly walkable and includes the glorious Piers Park (which has some of the best views of the Boston skyline), a section of the Harborwalk that curves along the ocean to the back of the airport where it ends, and rowhouses that wouldn’t be out of place in Beacon Hill or Charlestown. Jeffries Point also has hidden public ways here and there, including a loop off Webster Street high above Marginal Street that has more great views of the city. And if you’re someone who finds sitting and reading a good way to get away from it all, the little-used Brophy Park isn’t a bad place to do so.

[Restaurant Option: KO Catering and Pies at 256 Marginal St.—Australian meat pies and more from a funky spot that’s accessed by going through a guard gate] [Transportation Options: Car; subway to Maverick station]

Lower Mills, Dorchester Boston is a very large city area-wise, and there are parts of it that are miles away from downtown, including this historic spot that includes a charming village-like Main Street, old factories that are included within the National Register of Historic Places, an at-times raging river (the Neponset) that forms the border between Boston and Milton, and a recently expanded greenway that meanders along the river. Although Lower Mills doesn’t take up much space, there is a lot to see within this outer edge of Dorchester, and as is the case with so many options here, the best way to check everything out is by walking around while enjoying a bit of industrial-style history along the way.

[Restaurant Option: Lower Mills Tavern at 2269 Dorchester Ave.—comfort food spot including beer, whiskey, and live music, with Dropkick Murphys frontman Ken Casey being involved with the place] [Transportation Options: Car; subway to Milton station]

As mentioned earlier, you can get just a little taste of Maine in Hull Village and at the tip of Nahant without actually going there, but to get more of a true feel of what the Maine coast is like, this hidden section of Cape Ann is worth the effort. The “cape” part of Cape Ann, which is almost fully cut off from the mainland, is comprised of Gloucester and Rockport, and the tiny village of Lanesville is just over the Rockport border in a section of Gloucester that looks an awful lot like Mount Desert Island in Downeast Maine where Acadia National Park resides. The village itself looks like a movie set for a Steven King film and seems like it should be always enshrouded in fog, while the adjacent Annisquam sits on a tiny peninsula and has breathtaking views of the ocean along with beautiful old clapboard homes and a smattering of businesses on its narrow lanes.

If you have a bike, these two places are ideal for a leisurely ride, and it’s definitely worth heading into the nearby center of Rockport as well if you’re big into quaint seafaring villages.

[Restaurant Option: Roy Moore’s Fish Shack at 21 Dock Square in Rockport—classic New England seafood restaurant featuring scallops, lobster rolls, fried clams, and more] [Transportation Options: Car; commuter rail from North Station to Gloucester or Rockport, then pick up the Cape Ann Blue Line bus from either stop]

Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston This last spot isn’t a town, village, or neighborhood, but if you want to feel like you’re in the mountains without driving all the way to northern New England or the Berkshires, Tower Hill is about as good as you’ll get within an hour of the city (well, maybe an hour and five minutes).

This tranquil space—which is open year around—includes greenhouses, walking trails through woods, meadows, and garden areas, and views of Mount Wachusett and the Wachusett Reservoir from its cafe and seasonal patio as well as its trails. If you’re a lover of greenery, Tower Hill has some plants and trees that you may have never seen before, but even if you’re not, strolling the grounds of this special hilltop spot should quickly get rid of any stress that you may have.

[Restaurant Option: Armsby Abbey at 144 Main St. in Worcester—sure, it’s 10 miles away, but it’s considered one of the best beer bars in New England, and it serves Hill Farmstead beer, which is a rarity in the area] [Transportation Options: Car]

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AGREEING WITH THE OTHER NRA TERMS OF SERVICE

| RESTAURANT | INTIMATE CONCERT VENUE | | URBAN WINERY | PRIVATE EVENT SPACE |

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14

Why should a small restaurant need the same license as a downtown giant?

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I owe somebody money. I must, because I’ve lost a bet. I agreed with something Bob Luz, CEO and president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association (MRA), had to say.

The MRA is the local branch of the National Restaurant Association—that’s right, the other NRA—a coalition of (largely) business owners and higher-ups in the restaurant industry with a lobbying record nearly as slimy as that of the gun-toting nationalists who are most often associated with the acronym.

The NRA I’m talking about here favors things like tips counting toward wages, which enables the two-tiered wage system in which those who work for tips are merely paid $2.13/hour federally (in Mass, the hourly wage of tipped employees is $3.75). The group has also been impressively unresponsive to the fact that sexual harassment is rampant in the restaurant industry (according to a report by the Restaurant Opportunity Center, two-thirds of women working in restaurants have experienced sexual harassment), and has successfully enabled legislation that prohibits municipalities from voting on paid sick leave for restaurant staffers in nine states.

Right now in Boston, the MRA is fighting to keep the City Council from approving legislation that would allow more liquor licenses to be available to aspiring restaurateurs and bar owners.

The arguments against this measure, designed to bolster economic and cultural growth in the corners of Boston that need the most boosting, are disgusting. If you want to witness privilege at its most unbearable, envision a well-funded force of well-off white men complaining that allowing new applicants—many of whom are women, people of color, immigrants, and in general those who have been locked out of the lucrative side of the hospitality industry while toiling in low-wage positions—to obtain liquor licenses at a hardship prices will spoil their business. As if the rest of us can’t see that downtown thrives while the neighborhoods lag.

The argument for adding licenses to the Hub’s historically shortchanged restaurant industry is simple: If you make those permits affordable, more people who actually live in or near or care about underserved neighborhoods like Mattapan, Dorchester, and Hyde Park will be able to to open local establishments. Which will bolster walkable amenities, attract customers from other parts of town and beyond Boston, and make for a better overall quality of life for locals.

The argument against is, basically, But that’s not fair!

I digress… I agreed with Luz during a recent industry stakeholders meeting at Boston City Hall. As the discussion between Luz, local restaurant owners, Boston Licensing Board Chair Christine Pulgini, and the City Council’s Committee on Government Operations (made up of Councilor Ayanna Pressley, Chairman Michael Flaherty, and Boston’s Chief of Economic Development John Barrows, among others) commented back and forth, highlighting needs for language changes to the legislation and voicing concerns over provisions, the issue of the influx of competition from the proposed 182 new licenses (available over three years) arose.

“We are so short on help right now it is a crisis point,” Luz said. “If all of a sudden we increase the number of establishments, we won’t be able to staff what we have.”

He continued, saying conversations like the one at City Hall “always look at the number of licenses, not the number of seats… Maybe we should look at the number of seats.”

And there, ladies and gentlemen, is where my mouth fell open and I had to (briefly) reconsider everything I knew about the MRA. Holy shit, I thought. I agree with something Bob Luz says about liquor licenses. Because, on this point at least, he’s right.

Almost every new restaurant built in Boston is enormous. The number of seats is outrageous, the number of servers needed to cover them ridiculous. Places like that have two bars, doubling the number of bartenders. I don’t even want to think about what a kitchen in that kind of joint would need to run, and then there is support staff.

The shortage of eligible people to staff these places, and everywhere else in the city, is, like Luz said, a crisis.

Some of that has to do with construction: Boston isn’t New York City, where the bottom floors of apartment buildings and offices are typically retail spaces and restaurants. In order to add new things in Boston, we have to wait for an existing spot to close and be repurposed, or build new establishments entirely. Just to cover these costs, and the costs of overpriced liquor licenses.

And it’s killing us.

Ask anyone who works in a restaurant and they’ll tell you: We. Are. So. Short. Staffed. Opening three new places with 200 seats, like a majority of spaces in the Seaport, is the equivalent of opening 10 new, reasonably sized restaurants.

So, yes; I agreed with the CEO of the MRA on something.

If Boston is going to make it easier for more restaurants to open in the city, there need to be regulations on how big they can be.

This discourages giant corporate chains from setting up shop in the Hub, incentivizes folks to use existing city retail space creatively, and gives the ranks of hospitality professionals a chance to catch up.

These comments were well-received by the committee, and while it will be some time before we hear anything about changes made to the proposed petition, there may very well be a looming compromise based around limiting the number of seats in a new establishment.

Although, you know: If the MRA would quit lobbying so hard against increasing the tipped minimum wage, and restaurants were required to pay their staff better, I bet we wouldn’t have such a staff shortage.

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ALEX LAHEY MUSIC

Aussie musician talks awkward exchanges, AIM screen names, and hugs as a form of currency

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN 2. “I Love You Like a Brother” Which person in your life do you and your family consider to be an unofficial family member?

PHOTO BY GIULIA MCGAURAN Ever since she was 14 years old, Australian indie rocker Alex Lahey wanted to make music. She fell in love with the feeling of creating music with others, the buzz that comes when you and a friend start jamming, melodies finding their way naturally.

Now, at 25 years old, Alex Lahey finally recorded her debut album, I Love You Like a Brother. It’s a punchy rock record full of pop-filtered production and sing-along cleansers. On first listen, it’s easy to confuse songs like “Lotto in Reverse” for Courtney Barnett or Lady Lamb, if both were taking to the streets with a vengeance and witty words on their lips. The longer it sinks in, though, the more Lahey’s distinct style for catchy anthems finds a voice of its own. Just ask Lahey herself. The fact that she’s individualistic enough to be an internationally touring musician is still sinking in for her.

“I never once did I think I’d be making an album with my fucking name on the cover. That’s wild,” she says over the phone. “I’m just proud. I’m proud I did it, I’m proud I finished it, and I’m proud that I like it. It feels so good to accomplish something like this, especially because I’ve dreamed of it for so long. And I’m proud of the people I did it with, because they helped make the record what it is.”

To dig deeper into Lahey’s record before she headlines Great Scott, we interviewed her for a round of Wheel of Tunes, a series where we ask bands questions inspired by their song titles. Like most Australians, she was perpetually chill and it made us want to be best friends with her.

1. “Every Day’s the Weekend” What would your ideal weekend consist of?

Really good food, really good red wine, and good weather. Really just not having any obligations from one hour to the next so I can enjoy the day. Especially in tour mode, every hour is accounted for, even the hours where you’re supposed to do nothing. Recently, we were in Sydney for a day and had no obligations. It was so nice. To not worry about where you have to be or by a specific time?

That’s amazing, and that’d be a very good weekend for me.

Well, I have a pretty unusual family. I have a single mom. She goes from a blended family of sorts, so it’s like a Brady Bunch ordeal [laughs]. So my family isn’t necessarily all blood relatives. I think growing up with that very much shaped my view of family. I released this record on my own record label out here, which is called Nicky Boy Records. It’s an homage to my great-grandfather. It’s representative of the fact that family is what you make it and what it ends of being, not necessarily what you’re born into. So there’s many people that applies to, but the most obvious of which is my best friend, Julia. She lives down the road from me.

Someone like her is always hanging with my family, and to me? That’s family!

3. “Perth Traumatic Stress Disorder” What’s your least favorite thing about Australia?

Currently, the same-sex marriage debate. We don’t have same-sex marriage in Australia. For some reason, the Australian government decided to spend millions of dollars on doing a postal survey asking people if same-sex marriage should be legalized in Australia. It’s dangerous and a high-risk process to use a platform for prejudice. It’s really backwards. Hopefully, we come out the other end of it, but at the moment it makes me furious about my country. How fucked up is that? It’s a breaking point for me now. The opportunity to get your votes in is done, and I think it’s being announced in 10 days. You would think people would vote yes for marriage equality, but given all the shit that’s happened in the world, you just don’t fucking know. And that’s fucking scary.

4. “I Haven’t Been Taking Care of Myself” Is there a health routine you’ve been doing your whole life but recently found out is bad?

Apparently, Diet Coke is really bad for you [laughs]. I think it tastes better. I know that’s a controversial better, but I think Diet Coke definitely tastes better than normal Coke. It’s the worst thing in the world for you, though, and has all sorts of shit in there. I’ll still go to it during a hangover, though [laughs]. It’s a treat that I will drink every now and then on tour. We’re leaving for America soon and we’re preparing our arteries.

5. “Backpack” Are you loyal to any backpack brands?

Not consistently, but I’m loyal to a backpack at any given time. When we were at SXSW, every artist that played got a backpack. I’ve been using that one quite a bit and it’s been good so far, but I’m not loyal to it. It’s funny, though, because all my band members and I all have different ones, so that’s a good look.

6. “Awkward Exchange” What’s the most awkward exchange you’ve had recently?

There was a phoner I did, was a German bloke recently when I was in Europe, and it was bizarre. Something most have been completely lost in translation, because the interviewer said, “Oh, I read here that you extract your own teeth. Can you tell me about that?” And I was like, “Excuse me? What do you mean?” He kept pressing and asking, and I was so confused. It was a back and forth of both of us being confused. But I had no idea what could have been lost in translation?

7. “I Want U” What was your AIM screen name?

Oh my god, I don’t even remember. Actually, wait, it was Arsenal_Saints. They’re two football teams, like for London and Australia, which was definitely an homage to me being the biggest fucking tomboy ever.

8. “Lotto in Reverse” Name one moment you thought was bad luck but turned out to be very helpful or positive.

I think there are so many moments like that, where something doesn’t go according to plan but you figure out what went wrong is actually a good thing. It could be your guitar pedal failing, and then you learn how to put it back together, which is a useful skill, or breaking up with someone, but learning from it for another relationship.

Something good can come out of it. It’s a good quality to be able to reflect on those things and determine what could have made it better.

9. “Let’s Call It a Day” How do you like to cap off your evenings?

Right now since we’re on tour, it ends with my drummer and I saying goodnight to one another and switching off the lights [laughs]. But other than that—it’s really bad, but it’s probably one last Instagram check. It’s definitely using my phone, which is awful, and I wish it was something more poetic like writing in a journal, but it’s definitely my phone.

10. “There’s No Money” What form of currency would you like to see come into fashion?

Maybe hugs? That would be nice! Although, wait, you’d probably have to hug some freak or some people you don’t want to hug [laughs]. Could be creepy. Or it could be this sign of affection that my bandmates and I do to one another, like a pinky motion, but you have to see that in person to understand what I mean. Bitcoin is fucking fascinating, though. Like how baffling is that, but I don’t think anyone’s bought that anymore, so who knows.

>> ALEX LAHEY, DUDE YORK, MINT GREEN. WED 11.15. GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON. 9PM/18+/$12. GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM

MUSIC EVENTS THU 11.09

MON 11.13

TUE 11.14

TUE 11.14

WED 11.15

[ONCE Somerville, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. 8pm/18+/$15. oncesomerville.com]

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm.

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

[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Allston. 7pm/18+/$35. crossroadspresents.com]

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm.

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

[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Allston. 7pm/18+/$33. crossroadspresents.com]

REVIVING BOSTON’S ’80S HARDCORE SCENE THE PROLETARIAT + KEVIN SECONDS + MORE

16

11.09.17 - 11.16.17 |

EXPERIMENTAL ELECTRONICS AND ETHEREAL HUMS CIRCUIT DES YEUX + KA BAIRD

DIGBOSTON.COM

SHOEGAZE WITH THE LIGHTS DOWN LOW SLOWDIVE + CHERRY GLAZERR

TAPE RELEASE SHOW AND FINAL ADIEU BIRTHING HIPS + DOVE LADY + ANDREA PENSADO + BLAU BLAU

SCOTLAND’S PSYCHO CANDIES THE JESUS AND MARY CHAIN + MARK CROZER AND THE RELS

WED 11.15

PERFORMING ALL HIS SCARY FILM SCORES JOHN CARPENTER

[Royale, 279 Tremont St., Boston. 7pm/18+/$55. royaleboston.com]

MUSIC

THE MAGICAL MYSTERY CONTOUR

Boston’s own Barclay brings R&B hip-hop on a psychedelic journey

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

Rappers tend to fall into a Venn diagram of delivery styles and backing beats. Every once in awhile, you get an artist who reaches beyond the circle and digs their claws into the outer space, curious to hear how far they can blur the line between hip-hop, beats, and R&B grooves.

The latest to do so is one of Boston’s own, and he plans on dragging every listener into the unfamiliar territory with him.

Meet Haasan Barclay, the BostonPHOTO BY LIV SLAUGHTER bred artist who’s been quietly making a name for himself for the last few years. Originally from Boston, the 26-year-old spent his youth bouncing between neighborhoods, moving from Tremont Street to Mattapan to Hyde Park to Grove Hall. At age 13, he was gifted a thrift shop guitar by his father. With the radio dial set to the now-defunct rock station WFNX, he began playing along with the songs, learning how to mimic what he heard. Soon after, he fell into music making at large… and he couldn’t stop. Barclay learned how to create beats on his cousin’s Fruity Loops production software, then drums, and bass, and then keys. He was a natural-born musician, and he learned how to swing from one instrument to the next with a hearteyed fever.

By the time he reached age 22, he was comfortable behind a board. Barclay rubbed elbows with some of Boston’s rising rappers like Michael Christmas and OG Swaggerdick. So he did what any savvy multitalented musician would: offer himself up as a producer and get to work making hip-hop beats. “It was a good way for me to channel all of my energy into something positive,” he says. “I was a young kid, and I was bored. It came naturally.”

Last year, Barclay released his debut album, Heaven Is Your Last Dream, and set the tone for what people should expect. It was a surreal blend of local rapper cameos, dreamy synths, and liquid bass, swirling into a sound no one had quite heard before.

Naturally, it gained attention in underground crowds, including praise on DigBoston’s own “Best Local Albums of 2016” list. But in his eyes, it felt like he had plenty to learn.

Barclay wanted to keep pushing the boundaries, and now, it seems, he’s found out how to.

On Nov 14, Haasan Barclay will release his newest mixtape, 800 Fantasy Lane, through DigBoston’s website. It should come as no surprise that he performed the drums, guitar, bass, keys, synth, and vocals himself. He recorded it himself. He mixed and mastered it himself. The four-song EP is a tour de force on par with his last release, but it also sees him learning from that last record. Heaven gots darker as the album progresses. 800 Fantasy Lane aims to maintain a mood.

In fact, it’s best to describe his music as exactly that: an emotion, not a genre.

Barclay presents the odd sadness of nostalgia, a contented happiness, and what it feels like to change hometowns time and time again on 800 Fantasy Lane. It’s a multifaceted emotion that he struggles to explain, but it’s a fitting struggle. After all, that’s why the EP exists: to convey what’s best described through sound.

“I think about emotions a lot, but particularly nostalgia. Even in terms of the sounds I aim to use, it’s all geared through nostalgia,” he explains. “I filter it through myself to deliver it to people in a new way. I want to learn how to accept it, and I want listeners to, too.”

There’s no better way to do that than by repurposing old songs that never quite found a home. Just look at opener “Wet Dream.” What begins with a few solitary guitar strums that hang in the air quickly parts to welcome a groove-tilting bassline and percussive-dusted drumming that comes near to a few alt-rock breakdowns. It feels like a mature romp that’s both breezy in verses and heady in choruses. According to Barclay, the lyrics are nearly a decade old, but upon revisiting notes, he found a way to update them for his current self.

“I’ve been trying to look at myself with an outsider’s perspective,” he says. “I’ll look back at lyrics I wrote years ago and try to see it from a new perception and see how I can learn from it. I could use that to see how to warp a guitar differently than I planned to. There’s so many ways you can tackle a song, like it could have the same skeleton but you put a whole different body on it, and I pushed myself to try to do that.”

If he bent himself any farther, Barclay may have broken his spine while making 800 Fantasy Lane. It’s trippy but still R&B, quick moving but laid back, tropical but clearly city minded. Perhaps that’s what you get when a musician dares to break the mold and let emotions, not genre rules, dictate how he plays the game. It’s a magical mystery contour that’s a few hues brighter than anything you’ve seen before. And yet despite that, we’ve got a feeling that Haasan Barclay will only get all the more psychedelic in years to come.

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FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

‘BACH AND TALK FILM

On the films of Noah Baumbach

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

In many of the films written and directed by Noah Baumbach, individual scenes play out like clips of themselves. A representative example comes in the opening minutes of Greenberg [2010], when Florence (Greta Gerwig) briefly meets with the family for whom she works as a personal assistant. In the first shot, we see Florence at the household’s front door; in the second, she’s in the kitchen; in the third, she’s walking in a hallway upstairs; in the fourth, she’s back downstairs again; in the fifth, we see the exterior of a Rite Aid (she was sent to pick something up); in the sixth, she’s back in the home, and now in a bedroom; and in the final shot, she’s near the front door again, and ready to leave. We don’t see her travel between any of these locations. And in some instances, characters appear in these spaces without prior introduction, as though they had materialized between the shots. The film cuts through time, then, and through all sense of traditional “film continuity” along with it. In a review of the director’s Mistress America [2015], critic Vadim Rizov defined this particular tendency with great accuracy: “Most scenes are pared down to their verbal essences (moments not driven by dialogue are exceedingly rare) with the effect of making their sudden endings feel like punchlines, even if what’s being shown isn’t particularly funny.” To differing extents, this is a technique that has consistently defined the shape and rhythm of Baumbach’s movies, especially since The Squid and the Whale [2005]. Or at least, that was true until about the 40-minute point of Mistress America, at which time an entirely different rhythm gets found.

Mistress America concerns the brief friendship shared between creative writing student Tracy (Lola Kirke) and her soon-to-be-stepsister Brooke (Gerwig again, who co-wrote this film with Baumbach, as she also did on Frances Ha [2012]), and its narrative leads to a mansion in Connecticut, where the two young women are joined by more characters than I have space to detail (briefly: We add

two people close to Brooke, two people close to Tracy, a random neighbor, and something like seven pregnant women). The sequence in the mansion is an atypical one by Baumbach standards, playing out at a length far longer than pretty much any individual sequence he’d directed prior: Various characters break off into pairs and trios and then retire into smaller rooms for more private conversations, wherein their motivations and desires are revealed more clearly than they could be within the larger group (Brooke is trying to charm her way into funding for an entrepreneurial venture, for one example, and Tracy is on the lookout for dialogue and material that she can use in her fiction, for another). The scene also gains a momentum that’s unique within the Baumbach oeuvre, specifically because it’s one step more traditional than his films usually are: There’s continuity to it. We invest time in following the characters as they walk from room to room, as they silently circle each other, as they depart into new spaces, as they split into smaller groups (be it slyly or rudely), and as their conversations go through lulls and silences, the kind which these movies usually jump-cut away from. Mistress America does go on for 10 or 15 minutes after it leaves the mansion—and it does so in the speedier, clippier manner by which Baumbach’s films usually move. But never again does it find anything as complicated as the interplay between the characters in that house, nor anything as pleasurable as the same.

That immensely rare quality is refound, however, in Baumbach’s latest feature, The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) [2017], which seems to have taken the elongated group sequence in Mistress America as something like its lead-in. The film is separated into four chapters, though the last one is more of an epilogue. But the prior three are built upon elongated sequences that play out in a manner that prizes continuity—in other words, they’re closer to the mansion scene than to most other Baumbach movies—which allows for similarly complex dynamics among the comparably large amount of characters at play. On those characters, and those sequences: The first chapter introduces Danny (Adam Sandler), a newly single father moving in with his own dad, Harold Meyerowitz (Dustin Hoffman), a sculpture artist who made his living as a college professor; the chapter leads to an extended, multilayered sequence at the opening night party for a MoMA retrospective dedicated to one of Harold’s more high-profile peers, where both father and son have encounters with figures from their past. The second

chapter introduces Danny’s half-brother Matthew (Ben Stiller), a successful business manager who’s moved from the Meyerowitz’s native New York City to the West Coast; the entire chapter is comprised of a multipart sequence that follows Matthew and Harold through three separate restaurants (problems arise in each) before finally leading them to a mutual acquaintance. And in the third chapter, Harold has fallen ill, leaving his children—not just Danny and Matthew, but also Jean (Elizabeth Marvel)—to manage his care, his estate, and his placement in an upcoming exhibition for faculty artists at Bard, where he once taught; that art show becomes the site of this chapter’s extended dramatic sequence, where conversations held among the siblings right outside the exhibition inevitably bleed into the prepared statements they read aloud once inside it.

Even just within the first chapter, which is titled Danny and runs for about 35 minutes, one may find numerous instances where Baumbach’s newfound rhythm is utilized to achieve moments of great dramatic richness or to help form exceptionally distinct character details. I think of a song that Danny and his daughter Eliza (Grace Van Patten) perform together after a dinner at Harold’s apartment— one they wrote themselves, when Danny was married and Eliza was nine—and how Baumbach uses its lyrics to reveal an immense amount of information about the backgrounds and dynamics of their own family unit (it’s what you might usually call exposition, but it’s delivered in a manner that’s entirely organic to the way the characters behave). Or I think about the scene that’s staged at MoMA, which is a highlight amongst the director’s whole body of work. In that sequence, Harold meets with his more celebrated peer LJ (Judd Hirsch)—therefore bearing quietly pained witness to a level of artistic respect and prestige he’ll never achieve himself—all while Danny speaks with and crushes on LJ’s daughter Loretta (Rebecca Miller)—whom he only knew socially back when Harold was more present in the New York art scene and whom he has regrettably lost contact with since—and with all that, the sequence becomes a labyrinthian study of generational regret, one that documents with great specificity how the anxieties and traumas of a father have been passed down to his son. There is one montage sequence between the dinner scene and the MoMA scene, where little moments of character detail are presented in a discontinuous manner—short, humorous clips of Danny and Harold shooting pool, or making breakfast, or trading inside jokes. In other Baumbach films, where sequences are indeed pared down to their punchlines, these comedic asides can often appear to be the raison d’être. But in The Meyerowitz Stories, this sequence merely feels like a well-textured interlude. One may not agree that Baumbach’s growing predilection for aesthetic elegance and traditional continuity has aided the artistic qualities of his work, but one must surely concede that it’s a significant development to see him transition into moving with a longer stride.

>> THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES (NEW AND SELECTED). NOT RATED. CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TO STREAM VIA NETFLIX.

FILM EVENTS THU 11.09

‘AN EVENING WITH BILL MORRISON AND GUY MADDIN’ MY WINNIPEG [2007] AND DAWSON CITY: FROZEN TIME [2017]

[Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston 5:30pm & 8pm/NR/$11-20. mfa.org for info.]

18

11.09.17 - 11.16.17 |

FRI 11.10

FRI 11.10

[Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 8:15pm/NR/$12.

35mm. brattlefilm.org.]

[Coolidge Corner Theatre, 290 Harvard St., Brookline.

11:59pm/PG/$12.25. coolidge.org]

MATTHEW WEINER INTRODUCES MAX OPHULS’ THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE… [1953]

DIGBOSTON.COM

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS BRIAN DE PALMA’S PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE [1974]

SAT 11.11

SUN 11.12

MON 11.13

Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge.hcl.harvard. edu/hfa for info]

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

35mm., see hcl.harvard. edu/hfa]

[HFA, 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Camb. 7pm/ NR/$7-9. 35mm. , hcl. harvard.edu/hfa for info]

TWO PROGRAMS OF FILMS BY STAN BRAKHAGE (AND GEORGES MELIES) “THE BOOK OF WONDERS”/ “LUMINOSITY ECSTASY TRAUMA” [HFA, 24

THE FILMS OF WILLIAM WELLMAN CONTINUE AT THE HFA WITH OTHER MEN’S WOMEN [1931]

THE FILMS OF SHUJI TERAYAMA ALSO CONTINUE AT THE HFA, WITH THROW AWAY YOUR BOOKS, RALLY IN THE STREETS [1971]

THEGRABBACK

THE_GRAB_BACK

THEGRABBACK NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

THIS AIN’T NORMAL FEATURE

‘We lost our first friend at 15… 2004: lost another one. 2005: lost another one. 2006: lost two more.’

BY M.J. TIDWELL @MJTIDWELL781 It’s a sad reality that Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan endure a disturbing amount of Boston’s gun violence, largely in relation to gang activity. A disproportionate number of young, minority men face the daily threat of death in neighborhoods where territories span only a few blocks, often even less.

As of September, the Boston Police Department recorded 161 shooting incidents so far in 2017, up from 135 shootings in 2016. This year already, dozens have died and more than 150 have been injured. Reports of gun violence surface daily.

This isn’t a new story. While statistics sometimes change from year to year and place to place, this nightmare affects communities across the country. The Gun Violence Archive tallies 47,721 shooting incidents nationally so far in 2017. Of those, nearly 2,500 involved teenagers. With an issue this large, it’s hard to gain back perspective.

Nevertheless, no matter how desensitized one may become in the trance of so much morbid media coverage, it’s important to remember: This ain’t normal.

That’s the name and message of a new documentary from Kreateabuzz, a group of Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan natives who were also the creative minds behind PUSH: Madison vs. Madison, an outstanding doc about hoop dreams in the hub that aired on ESPN Classic. With their latest, the filmmakers aim to remind audiences that the tragic deaths and injuries caused by gun violence, well, they’re not normal. Even when they happen time and time again, they should not be normalized.

To that end, director Rudy Hypolite chose to let the people who know this story best tell it. He partnered with StreetSafe Boston, a gang violence intervention program, to speak directly with the young people whose lives hang on the line.

The resulting project, This Ain’t Normal, is a profound film that brings the audience into the homes of young men in their neighborhoods, and has them explain the multilayered, complex social and economic issues that

drive gun violence so high.

The film also shows the invaluable work done by the employees of the StreetSafe program, which has now been incorporated into the Boston Centers for Youth and Families Violence Interrupters Program. The program employs workers to intervene in youth gang and criminal activity, and to provide mentorship and resources to young people stuck in that cycle of violence.

For the StreetSafe team, it’s not a job but an investment in the community. Many of the program’s workers were once involved in gang activity or grew up on these same corners. Their experiences allow them to be mentors who understand what young people go through, something the documentary shows is in low supply.

“These are human beings,” Hypolite told DigBoston.

“These young men, if you look at their lives and what they’ve been through, the trajectory they’ve taken, [it] would be very obvious to see why they’re involved in doing this. They come from broken homes without role models.

They’re just struggling to survive. They look to other young men in their community to have a bond with, to feel like family.”

As a priority, Hypolite says that it was important for him to convey that if circumstances were different, it could be any of us living in these situations. This Ain’t Normal offers a much different perspective than, say, academic overviews of inner-city violence that are so often portrayed in the media. In one scene, a young man describes how StreetSafe helped him get a driver’s license, which in turn “validated his existence.” The film helps you imagine what it’s like to navigate the RMV without proper documents up against incredible odds. It’s subtle, and it’s powerful.

Such moments stand out in This Ain’t Normal, which does a solid job of breaking down narratives without getting lost in the overwhelming magnitude of a problem.

As Malik Williams, the film’s music supervisor, said, “The reality is, this is someone’s real life.”

>> THIS AIN’T NORMAL SCREENING AND FUNDRAISER. WED 11.15, 5:30-8PM. BLACK MARKET, 2136 WASHINGTON ST., ROXBURY. 20

11.09.17 - 11.16.17 |

DIGBOSTON.COM

“We’re these same kids,” he told the Dig. “Me and my friends … we’ve been locked up or died. We need to pull kids to the side and say, ‘This is not normal. This is what your life could be like.’”

A commingling of community members from police officers to hospital administrators, young to old, suits to sweats, watched the story play out for the first time on the big screen at an invitation-only prescreening in July.

Before the film started, audience members gathered around food and refreshments, and two men high-fived and were overheard saying they worked late the night before in order to attend the screening. Another audience member whispered loudly to the quickly filling auditorium, “Rudy is a legend, man. I can’t wait to see this.”

Along with Hypolite, the screening was co-hosted by Dennis G. Wilson, the indefatigable Madison High School coach from PUSH (who co-produced This Ain’t Normal), and executive producer Hassan K. Smith of John Legend Inc. “The only difference between myself and the young people in this film is that I had opportunity,” Smith told the audience. “This is a world-class city, forward thinking, with the best universities, hospitals, and businesses. It doesn’t make sense that there’s this disparity just a few miles away.”

After the screening, Boston rapper Rae Trilogy, who created music for the soundtrack of the film, stood to thank Kreateabuzz.

“The streets raised me. I didn’t get a hug until I was 15,” he said, “You made us not look like animals.”

As many in the audience nodded in agreement, Hypolite said that’s exactly why the team made this film.

“A lot of kids think no one even cares to get to know them. With this documentary, we want to show that they’re wrong and people can decide to care if they see the issue is right in front of them. I believe it is very possible to change this situation if we decide to care,” he said. “So this is the beginning. This is us saying, let’s listen.”

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

SAVAGE LOVE

THE DADDY FILES

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

I’m a 40-year-old bi man. I’ve been with my 33-yearold bi wife for three years and married for one. When we first met, she made it clear that she was in a longterm (more than three years) “Daddy” relationship with an older man. I figured out six months later that her “Daddy” was her boss and business partner. He is married, and his wife does not know. I struggled with their relationship, since I identify as open but not poly.

Eight months later, she ended things with him because it was “logically right” for us (her words). But she cheated with him four times over the course of two years. In all other aspects, our relationship is the greatest one I’ve ever had. I do not doubt her love for me. My wife has met her biological father only a couple of times and her stepfather died when she was 16—the same year she went to work for her “Daddy.” Their non-work relationship started 10 years later, when she was 26. It’s a complex relationship, and he is not going anywhere, as they now own a business together. While I don’t think cheating has to be a relationship-ender, dishonesty always has been for me. The final complication: I have a cuckold fetish. I believe it might be possible to meet everyone’s needs, so long as everyone is honest. I will admit that, in the heat of passion, my wife and I have talked about her having “two daddies.” Do I consider allowing this, so long as everyone is honest? Is mixing business and personal matters going to blow up in our faces? Do I ignore the part of my brain that wants this guy’s wife to know?

Distressed About Deceitful Dynamics Involving Entangled Spouse You don’t need my permission to consider this arrangement—allowing the wife to have two daddies— because you’re clearly already considering it. (You’ve moved on to the bargaining and/or writing-letters-tosex-advice-columnists stage of consideration, the final stage before acceptance.) What you want, DADDIES, is my permission to do this, not just to think about it.

Permission granted. Could it all come to shit? Anything and everything could come to shit. But your wife has been fucking this guy the entire time you’ve been together, and you nevertheless regard this relationship as the greatest one you’ve ever had. It stands to reason that if things were great when she was honest with you about fucking her boss (at the start) and remained great despite being dishonest with you about fucking her boss (the last two years), you three are in a good position to make this work now that everything is out in the open.

As for your other concerns: Most of the poly people I know started out as either monogamous or “open but not poly” (people evolve), we find out about secret workplace romances only when they blow up (skewed samples make for skewed perceptions), and you need more info about the other man’s wife before you issue an ultimatum or pick up the phone yourself (their marriage could be companionate, he could be staying in the marriage for her sake, they could have agreed to a DADT arrangement regarding affairs). But again, DADDIES, what you’re basically asking is if something that seems to be working in practice might actually work in practice.

And I’m thinking it could.

On the Lovecast, sex and weed with David Schmader!: savagelovecast.com

COMEDY EVENTS THU 11.09

YOU’RE THE EXPERT @ NEW ENGLAND AQUARIUM Featuring: Eugene Mirman, Ken Reid, and Obehi Janice Hosted by Chris Duffy

1 CENTRAL WHARF, BOSTON | 7PM| $15 - $20 THU 11.09

COMEDY FOR CAPITALISTS @ NICK’S COMEDY STOP

Touring showcase of comedians telling their best work, money, and marketing jokes.

Featuring: Lamont Price, Paul Landwehr, Carolyn Plummer, and Jiayong Li Hosted by Paul Ollinger

100 WARRENTON ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $20 FRI 11.10

HOW DID THIS GET MADE? @ THE WILBUR

Paul Scheer (The League and Veep), Jason Mantzoukas (The League and The House) and June Diane Raphael (Grace and Frankie, New Girl) gather with their funniest friends and subject themselves to a cinematic nightmare and report the results.

246 TREMONT ST., BOSTON | 7:30 and 10PM | $42 FRI 11.10

RAW FISH COMEDY @ KOTO

Featuring: Dan Boulger, Zenobia Del Mar, Matt Miller, Josh Filipowski, Allie Dick, Dom Smith, Sarah Francis, and Crew Ryan Hosted by Riley Syrus

90 WASHINGTON ST., SALEM | 8:30PM | $7 SAT 11.11

MICHAEL IAN BLACK @ LAUGH BOSTON

Actor, comedian and author Michael Ian Black began his career in legendary sketch comedy group and MTV hit show, The State. He was a series regular on the NBC show Ed; VH1’s I Love the… series; and TV Land’s The Jim Gaffigan Show, Comedy Central’s Another Period, and the Netflix’s Wet Hot American Summer. Michael’s authored 11 books, including the recent bestseller, A Child’s First Book of Trump.

425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | 8PM and 10PM |$29 SAT 11.11

DAZZLING AUTUMN COMEDY @ IMPROVBOSTON

Featuring: Hula Hooping Jen Dulong, John Higby’s yo-yo tricks, Jenny the Juggler, Anthony Zonfrelli, Clown Mike Koutrobis, and music from Osama Bin Reagan

40 PROSPECT ST., CAMBRIDGE | 7PM | $12 SAT 11.11

LAUGHING LIBERALLY @ ARTS AT THE ARMORY

Featuring: Susan Linn, Mike Dorval, Christa Weiss, Ryan Chani, Srilatha Rajamani, and Kwasi Mensah

191 HIGHLAND AVE SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $8 SUN 11.12

FREE COMEDY IN THE TAPROOM @ AERONAUT BREWERY Featuring: The Password Game Hosted by Sam Ike and Brian Agosta

3496 WASHINGTON ST., JP | 9PM | FREE MON 11.13

FREE COMEDY @ CITYSIDE

Featuring: Alex Grubard, Ryan Schutt and more Hosted by Sam Ike and Anjan Biswas

1960 BEACON ST., BRIGHTON | 8:30PM | FREE WED 11.15

COMEDY STORM @ THUNDER ROAD

Featuring: Dan Boulger, Xazmin Garza, Sam Ike, Ben Quick, Justin P. Drew, Dylan Krasinski, and Casey Crawford

379 SOMERVILLE AVE., SOMERVILLE | 7PM | $5

22

11.09.17 - 11.16.17 |

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WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY PATTKELLEY.COM

HEADLINING THIS WEEK!

Michael Ian Black

The Wet Hot American Summer Franchise Thursday-Saturday

COMING SOON Dana Gould

Comedy Central, HBO, Showtime Nov 16-18

Josh Gondelman

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Billy on the Street Nov 24+25

THE WAY WE WEREN’T

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

Sarah Tiana

Comedy Central, The Joe Rogan Experience Nov 30-Dec 2

Bassem Youssef

Dubbed “The Jon Stewart of Egypt” Special Engagement: Sun, Dec 3

OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS

BY TIM CHAMBERLAIN OURVC.NET

Michelle Wolf

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Dec 8+9

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Boston’s Biggest Ski and Snowboard • Flippenout Extreme Aerial Show presented by Killington • ELITEAM Fitness Challenge presented by Coca-Cola of Northern New England and Loon

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For more info and tickets go to Official Snow Report of the Expo BEWI Productions, Inc. For exhibit info: 781.890.3234 • bewisports.com