DigBoston 1.4.18

DIGBOSTON.COM 01.04.18 - 01.11.18

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DON’T FORGET THE EPS A FINAL BELATED YEAR-END LIST NEWS TO US

HOW SCREWED ARE WE IN 2018?

HOPING FOR AN ASTEROID

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THE LAST UMBA PAINTER UMASS METAPHOR

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01.04.17 - 01.11.17 |

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JAN 04, 2018 - JAN 11, 2018 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

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HOLIDAY HIT LIST

Dear Reader, I am not going to rub it in about how I was fortunate enough to visit family in South Florida last week while many of you shivered in subfreezing temps. That would be moronic, since I’m right back with you in the cold now.

So while this rather trite and obvious lament about the nightmare of flying may sound insensitive to those who did not travel out of the tundra over the holiday season, I just can’t help myself. I must vent, I must rant.

In case you haven’t noticed, flying summons the most evil poison boiling in all of us.

People are typically awful, that’s hardly news, but when forced to endure the punishing precautions put forth by the TSA, the foulest puds among us show their most hideous stripes. It begins outside the terminal, along the curb where drivers fight to wedge their way between competing vehicles, often with no regard whatsoever for those who are arriving behind them.

On this recent trip of mine, some dick made quite a mess out of the bag drop line, which he got in despite not yet having attained a boarding pass. He spent nearly 10 minutes pulling junk out of his mammoth duffel in order to shrink it to fewer than 50 pounds, only to then reveal that his wife was still at the check-in counter.

Next up—and this could have happened anywhere with fast food, though, like I said, airports inspire the savage inside of us—were the soda drinkers in the food court. Ignoring the folks behind them who were waiting for beverages, one after another they insisted on letting their foam fizzle so that they could fill their cups to the top. And after all that, the water lever didn’t work!

Since I had to guzzle all my Poland Spring before getting a pat-down, and as I refuse to pay the price they charge for bottled stuff at Hudson News, I wound up at the barely working water fountain with the other cheapskates. One of whom thought it was perfectly acceptable to fill two giant bottles while a queue formed behind her.

I could go on and on—from the prick whose backpack had a trap door that ballooned out from the bottom, making his personal item bigger than any bundle that I’ve ever checked, to the trashy couple covered in cologne. After three hours of festering inside their stench, exiting the terminal in Boston, into ice and frozen wind, wasn’t so bad after all.

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NEWS+OPINION HOW SCREWED ARE WE IN 2018?

MEDIA FARM

Things aren’t looking good for the new year

BY BAYNARD WOODS @BAYNARDWOODS

Civil War After Charlottesville, I have come to think of the country as one in which there is an under-the-surface civil conflict that is pervading everything. It’s not hard to see the antifa and alt-right fringes continuing to battle through the coming year until something far worse than the alt-right auto attack sets off a full-scale conflict. I’m not talking of the 1861 variety, but more like cities wrecked for weeks in the course of roaming battles.

On the other hand, it could look more like a revolt— an uprising like we saw in Ferguson or Baltimore in 2015, the people against the police forces.

Constitutional Crisis

At the beginning of 2017, we were in purgatory. Remember the interregnum, after we elected Trump but before he took office? We knew it would be bad, but we also had no idea how bad or what to expect. Then Trump took office.

Hundreds of people were arrested on Inauguration Day. Tens of thousands came out for the Women’s March.

People spontaneously stormed airports when Trump’s first travel ban went into effect.

By the end of the year, the Republicans passed a hit job of a tax plan, a new travel ban went into effect, and the Inauguration Day protesters were on trial. And no one came out. The streets were empty. We were weary. Worn down.

This is how normalization really works. And so now we think we know what will happen. We think—because news outlets keep reminding us—that it’s not so bad. The Nazis are ok. They eat cereal.

But all the bad shit is just about to start.

If there is one thing humans are terrible at, it is predicting the future. So I am not saying any of this will happen this year, but any of them are possible.

Economic collapse We’ve seen it before, in various ways, numerous times. Trickle-down economics causes crisis and collapse.

And despite the recession and a million other economic woes, we’ve paid remarkably few consequences for our monetary malfeasance in real terms. There has been very little inflation, there is not famine and mass starvation.

Some places, like parts of Baltimore and St. Louis, have 25 percent unemployment or more. Imagine if the whole country was facing that kind of numbers. That’s what causes crime. Despite the fact that they call themselves conservatives, the current Republicans are radicals.

The reason people, going back to Edmund Burke, have traditionally been conservative is because drastic changes, like those to our tax plan, can end up with disastrous unintended consequences. The rich want to steal our money, but they may end up making theirs meaningless in the process.

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Environmental collapse The future I think about the most is the end of The Grapes of Wrath, where hope, humanity, is represented by a young woman who lost her baby due to malnutrition letting a starving old man breast-feed so he doesn’t die.

It wasn’t all that long ago that we had a collapse of our ecological as well as our economic system. A dust-bowl type of event could turn the Trumpian sentiment against refugees local as people flee from failing ecosystems. An even worse possibility: the planned famines of Russia.

Rising sea levels. Wildfires. Hurricanes. Tornadoes.

Drought. Crop failure. I don’t know what combination of these factors will hit us, but it is not going to be pretty.

Terrorist attack It’s astounding that Trump has made it longer than Bush without a massive terrorist attack. I mean, the Bush team was unprepared, belligerent, and eager for an excuse for war—and the Trump regime is worse in every regard. That we’ve made it this long is astounding.

We’ve had white nationalist terrorists and other small homegrown attacks, but the question of a really big bad thing is when and not if. And it’s not inconceivable that if one does not come, there could be a more intentional “Reichstag fire” type of event.

It’s also not unreasonable to think that the Nazis may strike again in a more spectacular fashion, as they did in Oklahoma City in the ’90s. And we still won’t call them terrorists.

War If there were a big attack, and even there is not, there’s a good chance that we could go to war this year.

Trump has surrounded himself with Iran hawks who seem to be pushing for an invasion there. The president himself seems to want to fight North Korea. Oh, and in case you forgot, we are still in Iraq and Afghanistan and various other places around the world. Our empire is unsustainable—war is inevitable.

There are any number of paths to lead us to a Constitutional crisis. The far right has been talking about a law enforcement “coup” ever since Flynn was fired—they are itching to ditch our system.

If Trump fires Special Counsel Robert Mueller, which the leftish #Resistance seems to think is imminent, we could see something fairly fast and dramatic. I actually don’t think that will happen. But who knows.

And eventually a judge will determine that one of Mueller’s actions is illegal, and he will turn to the only former president he seems to admire, Andrew Jackson, who apocryphally said of the then-Chief Justice, “John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!”

But one way or another, the limits of our system are likely to be tested this year.

Curtailment of Civil Rights The Trump era began with the arrest of over 200 people protesting his inauguration. The first six of those have been found not guilty, but Trump’s Department of Justice is determined to continue prosecuting the rest.

Numerous states have also passed laws attempting to criminalize protest. There’s no reason to think this won’t continue. Trump’s obsession with “fake news” and his attempts, almost daily, to discredit the press give us good reason to think he will attempt to curtail press freedom even more.

Plague You know, in 1918 they had a deadly flu. Awful diseases are part of life. We’ve helped create superbugs. Bird flus and swine flus and all that have developed. Cutting back on research will not help. We might all die shitting ourselves.

Rapture You know, they did this whole moving of the capital of Israel to Jerusalem in part to please the evangelicals who think it will hasten the rapture. Wouldn’t that be amazing, if Jesus really did come and take away the evangelicals? More likely, they’ll feel left behind and try to kick-start Armageddon some more.

Asteroid Please?

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Catastrophic hurricanes, severe flooding, and raging wildfires fueled by drought were prominent features of an eventful year for the environment in 2017. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), it was the third warmest year ever on record, while the Rainforest Trust reports that “nearly 25 million acres of tropical forest, an area almost as large as the 6 state of​​Virginia, were deforested in 2017.”

Rainforest Trust’s first-annual Environmental Year-in-Review put the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on fighting global climate change at the top of the list of major events for the past 12 months. Dr. Paul Salaman, CEO of Rainforest Trust, pointed out that the withdrawal took place despite a scientific consensus that the warming climate is the driving force behind the extreme weather.

“What we’re basically seeing is hurricanes that are much more intense, flooding that is going to be much more catastrophic,” Salaman said. “[In 2017], we’ve had estimates of upwards of half-a-trillion dollars worth of property damage.”

His organization’s report notes:

“What we’re basically seeing is hurricanes that are much more intense, flooding that is going to be much more catastrophic,” Salaman said.

As of December 15, there are a total of 60 environmental rules and 7 regulations that are facing significant changes under the current U.S. presidential administration. Many of these changes are to wildlife and habitat protections, two things Rainforest Trust takes very seriously in its work to safeguard biodiversity. These changes include removing protections for whales and sea turtles, no longer listing Grizzly Bears as Endangered on the U.S. Endangered Species Act and lifting the hunting ban on wolves and bears in Alaska.

Furthermore: Both the Keystone XL pipeline and the Dakota Access Pipeline were approved despite massive and lengthy protests—furthering our dependence on fossil fuels. On November 16, the Keystone XL pipeline had its largest oil spill yet at 210,000 gallons. Offshore drilling bans for the Atlantic and Arctic have also been overturned, while rollbacks are in progress for several other fossil fuel related rules such as exploratory drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, regulations on drilling in some national parks and fracking regulations on public lands.

Salaman said acting locally by planting a bee-friendly garden or volunteering to help clean up a local park in the coming year are easy steps people can take to begin to make a difference.

But he emphasized that global action is required, too.

“Our most important resolution will certainly be towards protecting habitat,” he said, “and really importantly, preserving rainforests that are really the lungs of the planet and the biggest stabilizing factor for the global climate.”

Salaman also noted that as little as $2, the price of a cup of coffee, can permanently protect an acre of rainforest.

While the federal government may be opting not to fight climate change, Salaman said other levels of government are stepping up to the challenge.

“The good thing is that many states and cities have come together across the US to balance this and really double their efforts towards reducing carbon emissions and becoming much more sustainable,” he said.

Andrea Sears is a reporter for the Commonwealth News Service.

VISUAL ARTS

‘YOU DON’T LOOK HAITIAN’ That’s what people Tell Valerie Anselme, but her photos show what Haitians really look like

BY GREG COOK @AESTHETICRESEAR

Visit:

VALERIE ANSELME’S “FACES OF HAITI PROJECT.” (COURTESY VALERIE ANSELME)

“Anytime I say I’m Haitian, I’ve had people look at me and say, ‘You don’t look Haitian,’” photographer Valerie Anselme says.

“It’s not only happened to me, it’s happened to other people I know.”

The 26-year-old Boston native finds this a strange thing to hear—as someone who grew up steeped in Haitian culture as the child of Haitians who moved to the United States from their native island in the 1980s “looking for better opportunities.”

But the question would come up—at Haitian festivals, or when a Bunker Hill Community College classmate complimented her on her French pronunciation and she explained that she was Haitian-American and grew up singing French hymns in church.

“He looks at me and he looked genuinely confused. He’s like, ‘Really?’

Inside of me, I’m like, ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’”

Now studying photography and graphic design at Bridgewater State University, Anselme decided to use her camera to plumb the question: What do Haitians look like? Since beginning her “Faces of Haiti Project” (on Instagram) in November, she’s made portraits of more than 30 people. Her aim, she writes, “is to debunk the idea, mostly fed by media, that all Haitians look a ‘certain type of way’ and to show that we are diverse peoples.”

“I’m light skinned. A lot of time on social media or regular media when Haitians are portrayed, they’re darker toned,” Anselme says. “I wanted to take pictures of different Haitians I know or didn’t know. Haitians, we have a large variety of skin tones. It’s not just one ideal look.”

“There’s diversity in Haiti,” she adds.

But there’s prejudice from outside as well as inside the community.

“That’s prevalent in a lot of cultures,” Anselme says. “And you see it in the Haitian community. There’s a lot of colorism in terms of you’ll see some people preferring to have lighter skin than darker skin. Now people are embracing all colors. But there is that in the community, you’ll see the colorism sometimes.”

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DON’T TAKE JOURNALISM LYING DOWN 2018

If a DigBoston article inspires you, take action to right wrongs

BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS As each new year arrives, DigBoston staff—and journalists in general—like to offer some thoughts for the 12 months to come. These missives often take the shape of admonitions, wish lists, or resolutions, and the subjects covered can be literally anything that comes to our minds. So they’re typically fun to write. But now that I help run a metro weekly newspaper, I find myself thinking a lot about the mechanics of how news media works, how it’s used by our audience, and the role it plays in our troubled democracy.

And I feel that this year it’s worth saying something that may seem obvious at first glance, but isn’t: Good journalism isn’t meant to be passively consumed. It’s meant to be acted upon.

As a journalist, I spend a lot of my time writing articles about social and political ills affecting area communities—as do many of my colleagues at DigBoston in one way or another.

We do this not because we expect someone to stick gold stars on our foreheads, but because we sincerely hope to inspire our readers to take notice of the real-life problems Bostonians face day to day… and take action to resolve them. We think that this is precisely the role that journalists must play in a democracy, if we’re serious.

What journalists cannot do—as I put it to a critic of one of my recent pieces—is, having led the proverbial horses of our readership to the water of knowledge, shove their heads into the trough and make them drink to the point of wanting to effect social change.

So it’s up to the public—you, reading this newspaper or consuming any news media of any type—to either act upon what journalists say, or not.

Just remember that without readers getting active on issues journalists raise, nothing much happens in a political economic system that’s spiraling downward toward oligarchy.

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Especially in this era of information overload.

Which is why I’d like to encourage DigBoston readers to do the following three things with our journalism—be it our news features, columns, investigative reporting, or critical arts and entertainment articles—going forward:

1) Learn More

After first reading an article that’s trying to redress a societal grievance, process it awhile. Then, if you decide that it’s really speaking to you, return to it again. Note the issues at stake, go online (if you’re not already), find other articles that relate to those issues, and read them for more background. Advanced readers may also look for related academic articles and books for a really deep dive.

2) Survey the Field

Once you have a better handle on the issues, look up the people mentioned in Dig articles and/or the organizations they work with, and determine who seems to be trying to right whatever wrongs are under discussion. Find their websites and social media presences. If you go to our digboston.com website, we’ll often provide links; so you can just click and easily find the information you need. But if we don’t, just google the people and institutions that look to be on the side of the angels. After that, don’t forget to take a look at any “bad guys” mentioned too. Maybe you’ll decide that there’s no harm, and therefore no foul. And that will be that.

But if you agree there is a problem that needs fixing, and think that you’re just the person who should help fix it, then proceed to the final step.

3) Act

If you decide to get involved in a fight we write about in

DigBoston, you’ll typically have two options. Either find an advocacy organization (or sometimes a public figure) that is mentioned in the article you’re reading, contact them (any good organizer will make it easy to do so), and ask them how you can plug in. Or, and this is the tougher route, if you’re really inspired to get active on an issue mentioned in one of our articles, and no one seems to be working on it yet, consider starting your own advocacy organization. Even if the group is a simple neighborhood committee consisting of family members and neighbors, that’s a great start.

Particularly if the issue of concern affects you directly at the local level. If that seems like more than you can handle, then do whatever you can do out of the gate. Write an outraged email. Call up some big bad you read about, try to get them on the phone, and give them a piece of your mind. Donate to an advocacy group you think is doing good work. Vote for a politician that you think is a champion on your issue, and decent overall.

Once you’ve taken that action step, you might find it gives you a sense of accomplishment. If so, take another one.

And another. And soon enough, you won’t just be reading the news… you’ll be making it. Which would please all of us at DigBoston to no end. Because then we’ll really know that we’ve done our job by turning a passive spectator into an active participant in the revival of our democracy. And we’ll know that 2018 will be a good year for our brand of community journalism in the public interest.

Jason Pramas is executive editor and associate publisher of DigBoston.

DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

A BIG ‘NOT GUILTY’

First defendants in trial for inauguration protests vindicated

BY BAYNARD WOODS @BAYNARDWOODS The first six of 193 people charged with rioting and conspiracy charges after being arrested in connection with protests on Inauguration Day were found not guilty.

The case has been seen as a test of the First Amendment under the Trump administration. Because the arrests occurred in Washington, DC, the crimes are prosecuted

by US attorneys who ultimately answer to Jeff Sessions.

Lead prosecutor Jennifer Kerkhoff has argued, on a novel legal theory, that anyone who was wearing black and was in the vicinity of 12th and L streets, where police used pepper spray, grenades, and batons to cordon off more than 200 people in a kettle, is guilty of conspiring to riot and of any property damage associated with the riot. Among those kettled are journalists who were covering the protest, legal observers, and medics.

Of the six defendants in the first group to stand trial, one, Alexei Wood, is a journalist who was livestreaming the protest, and two medics, one a registered nurse, who were there to offer medical services.

“She was aiding and abetting this riot. That was her role,” said Assistant US Attorney Rizwan Qureshi in court. “As a provider of medical services, she was a coconspirator. She aided and abetted this group. She wasn’t prepared for a march or a protest. She was prepared for war.”

At the close of this trial, when Kerkhoff told the jury that the standard of ascertaining guilt “beyond reasonable doubt” in a case “doesn’t mean a whole lot,” Judge Lynn Leibovitz assured the jurors: “I’m sure she didn’t mean to say what she just said.”

Detective Greggory Pemberton has spent an entire year investigating the case, which has relied on evidence from unreliable far-right sources such as Project Veritas, which recently tried to trick the Washington Post and discredit the women accusing former Alabama Senatorial candidate Roy Moore.

“The trial also underscored the extent to which the Trump administration was actively working with far-right and neo-fascist political groups like Project Veritas, Oath Keepers, Media Research Center and Rebel Media to criminalize and punish anti-fascist and antiTrump activists,” the advocacy group Defend J20 said in a statement.

“Despite what could be considered collusion with these groups, and the government’s attempt to criminalize ‘antiestablishment’ views, the jury roundly rejected those efforts.”

In a recent motion filed on behalf of defendants in the next round of trials, it was alleged that Pemberton gave false testimony to the grand jury in order to bring charges, claiming that everyone who was arrested was present for the entire march and the destruction of property, which included broken windows at several chain businesses heavily associated with capitalism, such as Bank of America and Starbucks.

One of the defendants was not even at the protest on Inauguration Day but is being charged on the basis of a podcast talking about the protest.

The judge had already dismissed the felony inciting a riot charge against all of the defendants.

In a statement, the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia indicated that it would continue to prosecute the remaining 187 defendants in the case.

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia believes that the evidence shows that a riot occurred on January 20, 2017, during which numerous public and private properties were damaged or destroyed,” the statement reads. “This destruction impacted many who live and work in the District of Columbia, and created a danger for all who were nearby. The criminal justice process ensures that every defendant is judged based on his or her personal conduct and intent. We appreciate the jury’s close examination of the individual conduct and intent of each defendant during this trial and respect its verdict. In the remaining pending cases, we look forward to the same rigorous review for each defendant.”

The case has been seen as a test of the First Amendment under the Trump administration.

Baynard Woods is a reporter at the Real News. Email baynard@therealnews.com.

Twitter @baynardwoods.

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THE PENTAGON (ROLLING) PAPERS TALKING JOINTS MEMO

That time Ellsberg got stoned with Zinn while hiding from the FBI

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 You’re probably familiar with the Pentagon Papers, whether from books, films, or because you lived through their release. Had the secret study of the Vietnam War not been leaked to journalists by legendary whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who had worked on the papers as a military analyst, in 1971, it would have likely taken years or decades longer to know just how badly US government officials lied their dicks off to the public about so much foreign mayhem.

With the Pentagon Papers, and Watergate, and lots of sludge from the Godforsaken Nixon-Johnson era surfacing for obvious reasons, Ellsberg’s also been heard in the mix.

Notably, he gave an interview to Reveal by the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) for its excellent podcast “The Pentagon Papers: Secrets, lies and leaks,” which expanded on the fascinating legend of the night before the story dropped.

As was already known from some of Ellsberg’s personal writings and the 2009 documentary about him by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, The Most Dangerous Man in America, Ellsberg had religiously been going to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Cambridge in the weeks leading to the release of the Pentagon Papers. Furthermore, he had been going with iconic Boston University professor and historian Howard Zinn. As Ellsberg recalled in a 2010 writing about Zinn, whom he called “the best human being I’ve ever known” and “the best example of what a human can be, and can do with their life”: On Saturday night, June 12, 1971, we had a date with Howard and Roz to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in Harvard Square. But that morning I learned from someone at the New York Times that without having alerted me the Times was about to start publishing the top secret documents I had given them that evening. That meant I might get a visit from the FBI any moment; and for once, I had copies of the Papers in my apartment, because I planned 10

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to send them to Senator Mike Gravel for his filibuster against the draft.

President Nixon will wake up to get a briefing he didn’t expect.

Which is where Reveal comes in with the cannabis nugget:

Finally, here’s Ellsberg’s account from his 2002 book, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers, which brings home all the Boston-centric details of this major day in history, cloudy as the memories may be …

Daniel Ellsberg: … I then picked up the phone and called Howard Zinn, who I was going to see that night to go see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the fourth time or something, for me, I’d given Howard about a thousand pages of it, and Noam Chomsky about a [thousand 00:31:49], as historians, for their interest. They were keeping it under their bed.

Michael Corey [Reveal editor]: This next part makes you wonder, “What was he thinking?”

Daniel Ellsberg: I said, “Howard, I’ve got to store some more stuff with you. The FBI may come any minute.” I said, “Let me come by your place. I want to drop something off,” so somebody else also had given me a lid of grass.

Michael Corey: A lid of grass. That’s about an ounce of marijuana.

Daniel Ellsberg: I thought, “Okay, they’re going to come any minute, here,” so he took the lid of grass there, and I gave Howard the stuff, and then we smoked as much as we could, and threw, and flushed the rest down the toilet.

Michael Corey: Yeah, so while Ellsberg was dodging the FBI in a movie theater, baked and watching Butch Cassidy, the presses were rolling for the Sunday paper.

Al Letson: It’s June 13, 1971, and just past midnight, the first edition hits the street. The team at The New York Times is huddled, wondering what comes next. At the White House,

I had to get the documents out of our apartment. I called the Zinns, who had been planning to come by our apartment later to join us for the movie, and asked if we could come by their place in Newton instead. I took the papers in a box in the trunk of our car. They weren’t the ideal people to avoid attracting the attention of the FBI. Howard had been in charge of managing antiwar activist Daniel Berrigan’s movements underground while he was eluding the FBI for months (so from that practical point of view he was an ideal person to hide something from them), and it could be assumed that his phone was tapped, even if he wasn’t under regular surveillance. However, I didn’t know whom else to turn to that Saturday afternoon.

Anyway, I had given Howard a large section of the study already, to read as a historian; he’d kept it in his office at Boston University. As I expected, they said yes immediately.

Howard helped me bring up the box from the car.

We drove back to Harvard Square for the movie. The Zinns had never seen Butch Cassidy before. It held up for all of us. Afterward we bought ice-cream cones at Brigham’s and went back to our apartment. Finally Howard and Roz went home before it was time for the early edition of the Sunday New York Times to arrive at the subway kiosk below the square. Around midnight Patricia and I went over to the square and bought a couple of copies. We came up the stairs into Harvard Square reading the front page, with the threecolumn story about the secret archive, feeling very good.

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11

UMASS BOSTON’S LAST REMAINING PAINTER GUEST FEATURE

A ‘Save UMB’ profile

BY JOE RAMSAY

We sit in the Ryan Lounge, a capacious, high-ceilinged hall with a harbor view. It’s a favorite hang-out for UMass Boston students, as well as one of the most popular spaces on campus for conferences and special events. The podium at the front of the lounge has hosted numerous internationally renowned scholarly gatherings. The backside of the room now has a student prayer space.

John Flaherty painted all the walls of this place, front and back, top to bottom.

Indeed, there is hardly a painted surface on the UMB campus that John’s brush has not touched. He has worked here for 19 years.

It used to be that Flaherty was part of a crew of five UMB painters. Together they handled everything from repainting offices for new faculty hires to cleaning up the occasional graffiti to preparing the campus for open houses, making sure that visitors would get only the best impression.

These days Flaherty is UMass Boston’s last remaining painter, one worker trying to keep up with the work previously done by five.

“My office is bombarded with work orders,” he tells me.

Last month, Flaherty was informed at a facilities department meeting that he will no longer be around to fill those work orders: His painting job was being eliminated.

When he got the news, Flaherty was completely shocked. Driving home to Braintree that day, John was so distraught that he missed his exit. “I ended up down the Cape.”

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When he got the news, Flaherty was completely shocked. Driving home to Braintree that day, John was so distraught that he missed his exit. “I ended up down the Cape.”

“You feel like the rug has been ripped out from under you.”

The Hidden Costs of “Savings” Doing the work of five has taken a physical toll on Flaherty.

Over the years, he has sustained several serious work-related injuries, from an ACL tear after a ladder fall in 2009 to a recent hip replacement. Hauling ladders, straining to reach difficult spots, swinging a brush for eight hours a day—it’s hard work. Yet John’s plan was to keep working at UMB for at least another decade. “I felt better than ever.”

But now, like dozens of laid-off UMB staff, Flaherty is not feeling well at all. He faces a future of unemployment, likely reduced pay, uncertain health benefits, and insecurity. He’s been doing the math.

“I’m 53. With what they’re paying out there, I’ll need at least two jobs now to make ends meet.”

Flaherty takes pride in the quality and the efficiency of his work. Most days he’s at work by 6 am. “I paint an entire office in just one day,” he tells me. “I’ll get like four or five offices prepped, and

then knock them out.”

John also values the UMass Boston community. A South Boston native, Flaherty grew up in the local projects and recalls playing basketball on the UMB courts as a youth. “I always like talking with the people. I see that as part of the job too.”

John questions whether the new admin plan for facilities—to replace in-house UMB painters and other workers with privatized outside contractors—can match either his work efficiency or his connection to the community.

“They’re going to lose money,” he predicts. The way Flaherty sees it, the cost of profit taking and private insurance for outside workers (who must still by law be paid the prevailing union wage) will add up to more than UMB is presently paying him, benefits included.

Flaherty’s present salary is a mere $55,000 per year, after 19 years of service. As he informs me, no front-line worker in facilities, a department hit by several recent layoffs, is making more than $65,000 per year.

Rather than improving efficiency in the actual work done, John insists that any “savings” from this privatization plan is likely to come from two related sources: shifting of costs to the department level and increased neglect.

“Bottom line is: They’re going to do less work,” a move that he says will likely cost the campus more in the long run. After all, fresh paint is not only about appearances, but about protecting the underlying surfaces from deterioration.

“They’re looking at today. But not next year.”

The current facilities reorganization plan involves shifting the costs of painting work to the individual campus departments where the work is ordered, rather than having a central facilities department pick up the tab.

But in a period of budget tightening—directly linked to stagnating and declining state funding for public higher education across Massachusetts—this restructuring is likely to reduce the number of work orders entirely, resulting in an overall neglect of painted surfaces on campus. Departments will tend to choose photocopying or phone lines over fresh paint.

“The common areas especially will take a hit,” Flaherty predicts, as they are likely to fall in the cracks between individual departments.

Common areas like… the Ryan Lounge?

Looking around one of UMB’s more popular multiuse common spaces, I wonder, how does the spirit and morale of a community suffer when its surfaces are left to crack and peel?

What message does it send to young scholars when their study and social spaces are left to neglect?

Does it matter if there are paint chips on your prayer mat?

$96 million in unrestricted central reserves. That $5 million could save John’s job, and the jobs of so many others.

But if cuts have to be made, Flaherty wonders, why can’t they be made at the top first?

“We’re top-heavy,” John tells me, and proceeds to break down his long-time home: the facilities department.

As Flaherty describes it, a mere 20 workers are now responsible for maintaining eight large buildings—inside and out—and yet there are five directors or deputy directors, as well as a vice chancellor, each collecting generous, often six-figure salaries.

Flaherty does not impugn the work ethic of anyone in facilities—he respects all his colleagues. Still, he sees the incongruity as a slap in the face. While upper administrators at UMB can leave with as much as a full year of severance pay and six-digit pensions, he and his fellow front-line workers are looking at a mere two months of coverage before they must go it alone. “Why can’t they trim from the top rather than cutting from the bottom?” he asks.

“The truth is,” John says of facilities, “We should be hiring more people. The campus is expanding. We need more people just to handle the everyday needs.” Currently

time-sensitive repairs like plumbing leaks and power outages often cannot be performed as quickly as they should. “We already got work orders for University Hall,” he says, referring to UMB’s newest academic building.

“The way things are already, people have to wait to get the power back on. That’s suffering that they shouldn’t have to deal with.”

Listening to John Flaherty share his story, in the Ryan Lounge he painted, I am struck by his expertise and his clear concern for the mission of UMass Boston. It is hard to imagine how our campus could be better off without him.

Joe Ramsey is a faculty member and union organizer at UMass Boston. Have a story to tell about the recent layoffs and cuts at UMass Boston? You can reach Joe at jgramsey@ gmail.com. Readers are invited to join the group “Save UMB” on Facebook for news and discussion about the effort to defend Boston’s only public university.

UMass President Marty Meehan can be contacted at mmeehan@umassp.edu or 617-287-7050. Board of Trustees Chair Robert Manning can be contacted at rmanning@ umassp.edu or 800-637-8255.

Who Will Get the Work? Who Will Pay the Price?

Like many at UMB these days, Flaherty is wondering what is really motivating this privatization push at Boston’s only public university. Is it about undermining the strength of campus unions? Could it be about handing out profits to the lucky firms who get the outside contracts?

“Who is going to get the workload?” he asks.

Will the contracts go to personal friends and associates of UMass upper management, or the board of trustees?

Rather than saving money for the campus, will UMB merely end up handing more profits to the owners of those private companies?

Make no mistake, John Flaherty is concerned and frustrated about his situation. In an economy where ageism runs rampant, and with housing and private health insurance costs going through the roof, he has plenty to worry about. But John seems more worried about others than himself. Specifically, Flaherty mentions two laid-off staff members, both women, who are presently the only means of support for seriously ill partners, including one spouse with stage 4 cancer.

“They’re going to lose their medical insurance in two months. What are they going to do?”

“I don’t want to see anyone lost,” he says, adding, “I’m all for the union.”

Flaherty says he supports the demand of the UMB unions, who have joined together as part of the Coalition to Save UMB to call on UMass President Marty Meehan and the board of trustees to immediately reverse these layoffs by drawing just $5 million from the UMass system’s NEWS TO US

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13

Happy New Year from

MUSIC

PHOTOCOMFORT: SMOOTH SYNTH FOR ONE Boston’s rising electronic act gears up for an eventful 2018

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

upcoming shows

1.6

1.6

MAGIC DICK (J. GEILS BAND) WASABASSCO BURLESQUE & SHUN NG

1.10 CRAIG FINN

1.7

FOREVER YOUNG & TRINITY

& THE UPTOWN CONTROLLERS PLUS JOHN K. SAMSON

A TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF NEIL YOUNG

1.12

1.11

10,000 MANIACS

ISAAC MIZRAHI

TWO SHOWS!

DOES THIS SONG MAKE ME LOOK FAT?

1.17

1.14

THE VERVE PIPE

TYMINSKI

(OF ALLISON KRAUSS + UNION STATION)

1.19 SANDRA BERNHARD

1.18

LLOYD COLE

SANDEMONIUM

1.21 ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO

&

1.23

THE VENTURES

1.16

Ridge wine dinner 1.17 City Winery and Diageo Present

Botanical Gin Lab 1.6 - | 101 | INTRO TO WINE 2.3 - | 102 | SPARKLING TO STILL TO SWEET 3.3 - | 103 | WINE AND FOOD PAIRINGS

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80 beverly st. at one canal, Boston Ma 02114 (617) 933-8047 |www.citywinery.com/boston

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN When Justine Bowe picks up the phone, she’s sitting in Mike’s Pizza in Davis Square with experimental pop musician Anjimile. Bowe likes the place because there’s counter space, so she feels like she can take her time, even if she grabs a bite that’s quick to finish, like a single slice of pizza.

“Sometimes I’ll just grab chicken fingers for one,” she says, half-laughing at herself. “That’s pretty much a pinnacle of treating myself.” That craving for unhurried surroundings makes sense when paired with her work ethic. Bowe has always done things her own way as a musician, and under her Photocomfort moniker, she plans on letting her own timetable pick up the pace in 2018. She needs all the calming fuel she can get.

Bowe began performing as Photocomfort back PHOTOS COURTESY OF PHOTOCOMFORT in 2010, and save for a year or two where she was joined by two other members, it’s always been her solo project. The 27-year-old musician has been writing, recording, and producing the music herself for as long as she can remember. That type of control gives Bowe the perfect grasp over how Photocomfort’s music is interpreted. Through headphones, that means it’s evolving, introspective, electronic indie pop. She describes it as partly confessional, partly experimental, without sacrificing that pop gratification.

That translates into songs that are deep in both layers and personal meaning. She stews on songs for a while, then tracks basic sketches acappella or through keyboard. After that, Bowe works ruthlessly on perfecting the songs, but frees herself from airtight constraints by not abiding by a typical release schedule. Back in 2011, she released an EP and then hastily took it off the internet.

Since then, she’s been slowly uploading singles. Songs like “More,” which she recorded with her former writing partner, Gabe Goodman, pairs over-the-top production with clingy, dramatic lyrics. “Rose Colored Glasses,” a song about a defunct relationship and its surprising-yet-needed dissolution, merges the troubled undertone of Fever Ray with the smooth drive of Alt-J. Elsewhere in her music, a bit of early St. Vincent—back when she focused on chamber-like vocal acrobatics—and glossy, astute production akin to Grizzly Bear floats to the surface. Her singles are united in richness, but they stand on their own for a reason.

“Singles are what interested me. I like the idea of creating a stand-alone concept,” says Bowe. “A lot of artists feel pressure to put out records in a way that’s artificial. You end up throwing filler in that you don’t love as much as the other tunes. I’ve found that songs get better the more honest they get, and that let me do so. I think the confessional aspect of things feels more compelling to me at this point, and I don’t quite know why.”

Creative diversity seems to be embedded in Bowe’s DNA. Her side projects are just as fascinating as Photocomfort, from scoring work to starting a nonfiction paranormal podcast, This American Afterlife (Watch your back, Ira Glass). One of her favorite outlets, however, is producing other musicians’ work. “I don’t think we have a lot of women who are being lifted up for doing their own production work. It’s perplexing to me,” she says. “I’d rather find an artist whose concept I find to be wonderful and then lend to it.”

So Bowe pushes herself by producing music that varies from hers, be it in studio for folk artists like Sam Moss or at live shows for Anjimile.

Now, she’s working on a proper EP, due out this spring. The EP, tentatively titled Understudy, takes its inspiration through Bowe’s alternate life on TV. She’s been projecting herself onto characters like Mickey Dobbs on Love because she bears an “uncomfortable similarity” to the actress, Gillian Jacobs. “I’ve been going vaguely insane watching, relating to the way she suffers on screen and deals with problems,” says Bowe. “It was a trip, so I wrote a lot about that.”

To help bring that to life, Bowe is bringing Photocomfort’s live sound to the studio. Onstage, she plays synths, a tiny OP‑1, a looper, and a drum machine, with hired musicians joining her on drums, guitar, and synth. Before Converse Rubber Tracks shut its doors, Bowe recorded new Photocomfort music there with Andy Fordyce—a drummer getting his doctorate in improvisational music from New England Conservatory—playing live drums, a decision that she’s proud of as it keeps her on her songwriting toes. His drumming replaces the usual sample kits and programmed pads. His dynamic delivery makes for a compelling listen, and Bowe wants to use the unavoidable human error that comes with live drumming to close the gap between electronic music’s traditionally cold delivery and the warmer tones of indie pop.

Bowe knows what she wants out of Photocomfort, and she will hit those goals in 2018 no matter what gets in the way. Right now, the electronic scene at large hasn’t welcomed Photocomfort warmly, in part because Bowe doesn’t know if it’s aware she’s out there. As much as she wants to juggle work on her own, she’s still looking to work with others in the area. Most days, that doesn’t come easy. But that won’t stop her from trying.

“It feels so fragmented here sometimes,” she says. “It doesn’t feel like there’s a ton of cross-collaboration or people to rally around an act to become a national act. So I’ve clawed to try to meet artists I can work with around here. I haven’t always gotten that back. But that’s something I hope to see change. Maybe this year that will happen.” >> PHOTOCOMFORT, PARKS, MINES FALLS. THU 1.4. GREAT SCOTT, 1222 COMM. AVE., ALLSTON. 8:30PM/18+/$10. GREATSCOTTBOSTON.COM

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DEPT. OF COMMERCE

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15

15 (BELATED) BEST LOCAL EPS OF 2017 MUSIC

Bite-sized EPs from Rams, Littlefoot, Haasan Barclay, Lilith, and more prove 2017 had no shortage of musical talent

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

Last year, four-piece Bent Shapes released one of our There was a lot to be proud of Boston for in 2017. Yet for all the big headlines that made it to national attention, there’s triple the number that went overlooked. In the music world, the equivalent of that low-flying goodness are EPs, and there was no shortage of talent in 2017 from some of our city’s best artists.

The line between album and EP is fuzzy, but oftentimes it’s most easily defined by the length of a tracklist.

Traditionally, EPs range from a three-song release to a seven-song release. In recent years, some artists have gone on to label an eight or nine-song release as an EP, and we try our best to obey they definitions. So the following list is comprised of bite-sized listens that you can stream during your lunch break or before you head to bed. There’s surf rock and jazz psych. There’s femme hardcore and straightedge punk. There’s poetic R&B and no-fills rap. There’s chamber folk charm and alt-rock hooks. In short, it’s a list with something for everyone, but most of all it’s a list of surprises. Give them all a listen and you’ll see what we mean.

As usual, our list of the 30 Best Local Albums of the year came out in the last issue of the year. But we were still sitting on this, so read on for our favorites of what Boston had to offer in bite-sized form as well.

A SAMPLING OF ROCK SUBGENRES FUNERAL ADVANTAGE + MUNDY’S BAY + KINDLING + PUSHFLOWERS

[O’Brien’s Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston. 8pm/21+/$10. obrienspubboston.com]

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Like a compact blend of surf pop percussion, queercore rage, and infectious indifference, Dazey and the Scouts have always been a favorite of Boston musicians. With their newest record, the band makes it easy for everyone else to fall in love with their sound. Maggot spends its seven songs whipping through jumpy drums and weird rock.

Fans of Vundabar will find similar recklessness in their drum patterns while people who love the vocal acrobatics of Birthing Hips can jive to Lea Jaffe’s yelps. The four-piece offers a Burger Records standing that’s full of charisma, hooks, and energy. Think of it as the pre-party pick-me-up for any night where you want to leave the house happy and come back with feet sore from dancing at the rock gig.

that no one could predict. Instead of painting a new genre, Barclay molds a new emotion, and he brings it to life on this year’s 800 Fantasy Lane. Between the odd sadness of nostalgia, the fuzzy contented feeling of happiness, and what it feels like to change hometowns time and time again, there emerges a singular sound: bright, slick, and impressively rich. The multifaceted emotion is tough to explain in one soundbyte, but it’s a fitting struggle. After all, that’s why the EP exists: to convey what’s best described through sound in a way that only Haasan Barclay could do.

CRUMB LOCKET SELF-RELEASED

After rubbing elbows with rappers like Michael Christmas and OG Swaggerdick, Haasan Barclay rose to fame for his bizarre blend of thick R&B, experimental beats, and funktinged hip-hop. But now, the 26-year-old is taking a turn

What do you call someone who’s lived in Boston for five years? A New Yorker [bah-dum tshhh]. The joke never loses its relevancy, especially when applied to college grads and Boston’s music bubble. Four-piece Crumb came out of Tufts with a mesmerizing blend of soulful jazz, indie rock, and mellow psych, all within the members’ final semesters at Tufts. Frontwoman Lila Ramani’s voice skates above it all, like some apparition intent on keeping you half-tuned in to the real world while the rest of the band whisks you off into a Tame Impala-meets-Badbadnotgood daydream. Right now, two members live in New York City while the other

FRI 01.05

SAT 01.06

SUN 01.07

MON 01.08

[The Lilypad Inman, 1353 Cambridge St., Cambridge.

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

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

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge.

7pm/all ages/$20. sinclaircambridge.com]

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm.

Ave., Allston. 8pm/18+/$8. greatscottboston.com]

MUSIC EVENTS FRI 01.05

DAZEY AND THE SCOUTS MAGGOT Self-Released

LAURA MARLING-INSPIRED INDIE FOLK ALISA AMADOR

DIGBOSTON.COM

HAASAN BARCLAY 800 FANTASY LANE Self-Released

GIVE BACK TO THE KIDS ONE NIGHT BAND: BENEFIT FOR ZUMIX

EMO REVIVALISTS TURN 10 BALANCE & COMPOSURE + QUEEN OF JEANS

GARAGE PUNK FEMMES ELECTRIC STREET QUEENS + DYR FASER + SPECTRAMOTIV

TUE 01.09

BENEFIT FOR RED & BLACK COMMUNITY BOXING PUPPY PROBLEMS + GIA GREENE + LITTLE MUSKET + MORE [Great Scott, 1222 Comm.

Ave., Allston. 7pm/18+/$8. greatscottboston.com]

two, who still live in Boston, are looking to do the same in a matter of months. Their Locket EP will already be out by the time this paper is spat out of the printers, though, so cherish the Boston ties before they’re cut clean.

(T-T)B SLIMY QUAGMIRE SELF-RELEASED For a band of chiptune melodies and speedy slop drumming, it would make sense to assume (T-T)b ride on the immediate nostalgic reaction one has to video game sounds. But this isn’t a quick gimmick. The slacker pop trio turn chiptune into a wholly endearing saga, merging the fuzzy vocals reminiscent of LVL UP to the emotional build-ups of some of today’s best emo acts. From youthful, earnest lyrics (“I watch you cry into your french fries / but I don’t think anyone saw you”) to impassioned guitar solos on songs like “Knucklehead,” (T-T)b made an EP that should be your go-to example of why chiptune should be taken seriously—and why (T-T)b should be on your radar for years to come.

DAME DAME EP CHARM SCHOOL RECORDS There’s not much known about Dame, but those who have seen them live know they’re nothing to mess with. The five-piece act churn out gothic post-punk straight out of the ‘80s. Over the course of three songs, the band rolls out a perfected take on the punk side of new wave. Vocalist Diana, guitarist Anna, keyboardist Lauren, bassist Dani, and drummer Meghan churn out three full-bodied postpunk numbers that suggest there’s plenty more to come from Dame in the future, especially if it carries the deadeyed glare that songs like “Lines” and “Hush” do.

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 the revival.

INNOCENT POWER HUNGRY AND MINDLESS SIDE TWO At the start of this year, a new band entered the hardcore ring, though anyone familiar with the scene will recognize familiar faces right away. Innocent pulls from some of Boston’s best hardcore acts (Exit Order, Green Beret, St. Ripper, Confines, and so on) to develop a sound that burrows into the frantic punk urgency of their past outlets. On their debut demo, Innocent wade into the frontlines. Guitarist Jen Epstein, bassist Andy Turcotte, and drummer Ryan Abbott tear through their instruments while Samantha Albright hurls herself over the power chords, throwing vocal punches left and right that draw you in closer with every energetic toss.

RAMS TKTK SELF-RELEASED

HAZE & GRUBBY PAWZ AFTER THE GLORY SELF-RELEASED

If you’re familiar with T.G.C. (The Gentlemen’s Club), the Boston rap group opened for acts like Rockie Fresh and Nipsey Hussle, then Rams’ voice will ring a bell. After ditching a job on Newbury Street, Rams committed himself to going hard on music and dove into a solo career, and he hasn’t stopped pushing himself since. After experimenting with producers like Haasan Barclay and Stripes iii, his interest in cinematic orchestration doubled, and he channeled his inner Tarantino and Spike Lee for this year’s Diablo. The mixtape is full of shadowy, haunting instrumentals that help him confront paranoia, suicidal ideation, and hallucinations. It’s a dark listen, make no mistake about it, but Rams positions his stories at the center like a life preserver he’s willing to share to make sure you both make it out alive.

Boston MC Haze has been dropping tracks faster than most veterans in the city. It’s all thanks to Grubby Pawz, the producer he’s been partnered with for a while. The two have released three records this year alone, but the best introduction to their sound is After the Glory, a seven-song EP that highlights the best of the two, as individuals and as a duo. With cameos from Code Nine, JuneLyfe, Estee Nack, Crimeapple, and Eto, the EP takes its time in unfurling the vibe the duo go for. From dusty, horn-filled samples to the slurring verses from guests, After the Glory is a listen for cruising through Roxbury and the South End at sunset on the way to pick up the rest of your friends. What you do after that is up to you.

LITTLEFOOT LAVENDER SELF-RELEASED

BONG WISH BONG WISH EP Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records

Ex-Providence musician Erica Sutherland has been perfecting her songwriting for years ever since she moved to Boston. With dreampop act Littlefoot, she finds the perfect outlet to lure listeners into a part-synth, partsurf, part-slow dance style of music that recalls the early releases of Beach House and Lower Dens. Over the course of seven songs, Littlefoot unveil a beautiful surf pop web of spider silk that tapers off into a cushiony, welcoming dream. Lavender is a guide to self-discovery and the happiness that comes with realizing maturing isn’t so bad after all. Zone in on Sutherland’s ‘60s pop vocal balladry and you will be there in no time.

Hello and welcome back to the ‘60s. Mariam Saleh will be your guide. At live shows, Bong Wish have been putting listeners into a daze with their flute flourishes, woodblock beats, and tambourine crashes. On the band’s self-titled EP, though, they perfect the British folk pop they’ve been chasing, churning out a psych folk rock album that could easily be mistake for a record dive gem. As tempting as it is to pass it off as a single-note listen, the EP has groovier moments that pick up the pace, like “Conversation With Business People,” where a driving bass refuses to let up.

Simply put, Bong Wish EP is the instrumental precision of Dungen with the basslines of Melody’s Echo Chamber, all held together by Saleh’s trippy visions caught in a summertime breeze.

DAEPHNE PONDHOPPER SELF-RELEASED

LENDERSON LENDERSON SELF-RELEASED

Hidden in the onslaught of 2017’s bad news was a band dissolution that broke our hearts. Dæphne were one of the city’s most promising up-and-comers, establishing themselves as a force of 2010’s twinkle emo and grunge rock shrugging. The band split (hopefully temporarily) to pursue other jobs, like Larz Brogan joining Palehound as their new bassist, while makes Pondhopper their first release as a trio and last release as a band. But don’t worry. They got the last laugh by releasing Pondhopper on 4/20. So blaze it, baby, and zone out to the melodic Ovlovian grit of “What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?” and the percussion feats of “Poster Girl.”

Cambridge band Lenderson fill their sound with shimmering guitar and steady percussion, but when they reveal themselves to be a duo, suddenly it triples in sound. On their debut self-titled 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-bassist-vocalist 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 for several years now.

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.

HORSE GIRL BEEN BETTER ANXIETY POP For a band that’s been around for just over two years, Horse Girl has the form of one of Boston’s staple DIY acts despite flying low on the mainstream’s radar. The trio— comprised of singer-guitarist Ellis Hobby, singer-drummer Sam Mackenzie, and bassist Liz Sclafani—hails from Salem and performs shows on the regular, which explains how they got their brand of sad rock pop to sound airtight.

From the freeing calls of opening number “Alright” to the catchy rhythm section on “Kelsey,” Been Better lifts itself up with the type of emboldening indifference and off-kilter screams that capture what it’s like to spend a summer in the city when you’re not quite sure if you’re in the right place chasing the right path, but you’re having too much fun to trade it for anything else.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

IMAGE COURTESY ‘THE POST’

POST-FEMINIST FILM

A Spielberg film with a female lead is a rare thing indeed

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN teven Spielberg was in the midst of directing The Post [2017] on June 14, 2017, when the subject of his filmography’s contributions to the cause of women in the American cinema, or its lack thereof, briefly emerged as the main topic of discussion within certain pockets of film culture. That was not due to The Post itself, but instead due to a speech given by actress/director Elizabeth Banks, who commented on the subject while in the midst of accepting the Women in Film organization’s Crystal Award.

“I went to Indiana Jones and Jaws and every movie Steven Spielberg ever made,” Banks told the audience that night, “and by the way, he’s never made a movie with a female lead. Sorry, Steven. I don’t mean to call your ass out, but it’s true.” Banks’ speech detailed a very real and very significant issue: the fact that prominent male figures in the film industry often do nothing to move the needle on the gender imbalances occurring therein, even as they make public statements about how tragic those imbalances are.

But unfortunately, while her statement contained truth in spirit, it wasn’t quite factual: Spielberg has directed a

number of movies that star female actors in the lead roles, including Something Evil [1972], The Sugarland Express [1974], and perhaps most notably, The Color Purple [1985], which features Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey in their debut film performances—and it was that particular omission that earned Banks heavy scorn, with many suggesting it was not entirely coincidental that the most prominent film she forgot that day starred AfricanAmerican women in its lead roles. A headline from a Daily Beast report, published on June 16, explained it thusly: “Elizabeth Banks Gets Dragged Over The Color Purple.”

By the end of that same week, Banks took to Twitter and issued an apology.

The matters dramatized in The Post began almost exactly 46 years prior, on June 13, 1971, when the New York Times first published excerpts from “United States — Vietnam Relations, 1945-1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense,” a 47-volume research document would come to be colloquially known as “the Pentagon Papers.” The documents were first leaked to a reporter from

the Times by one of its authors, Daniel Ellsberg; it was the Times that first went to court to fight the government for the right to publish excerpts from them; and the eventual Supreme Court ruling in the paper’s favor, “New York Times Co. vs. United States, 403 U.S. 713 (1971),” is often referred to as a landmark. This is all dramatized in Spielberg’s film, but only on its margins and within its montages. Its primary focus—its lead roles—are instead granted to figures from another newspaper: the Washington Post, as led by publisher Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) and executive editor Benjamin Bradlee (Tom Hanks), a paper that spent the first days of this period rewriting whatever was published by the Times, but then procured its own copy of the documents from Ellsberg (Matthew Rhys) via reporter Ben Bagdikian (Bob Odenkirk), at which point it began publishing its own excerpts, bringing the Post right into the middle of the conflict between the national press and Nixon’s White House (and thus into the landmark Supreme Court decision, too). That an ostensibly prestigious Spielberg film about the Pentagon Papers explicitly centers

FILM EVENTS THU 01.04

THU 01.04

FRI 01.05

FRI 01.05

SAT 01.06

TUE 01.08

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

[Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 5 and 8:45pm/ NR/$9-11. brattlefilm.org]

[Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Ave., Boston.

8pm/R/$11. mfa.org]

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

7pm/NR/$12.25. 35mm. coolidge.org]

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

11:30pm/R/$12.75. 35mm. coolidge.org]

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

5, 7:30, and 10pm/R/$9-11. brattlefilm.org]

‘REFRESHED, RENEWED, RESTORED’ BEGINS AT THE BRATTLE THE OLD DARK HOUSE [1932]

18

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NEW DIGITAL RESTORATION OF GEORGE A. ROMERO’S NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD [1968]

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CO-PRESENTED BY THE ROXBURY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL DO THE RIGHT THING [1989]

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS THE ABOMINABLE SNOWMAN [1957]

EVERY SATURDAY AT THE COOLIDGE IN JANUARY: STANLEY KUBRICK’S THE SHINING [1980]

‘(SOME OF) THE BEST OF 2017’ AT THE BRATTLE GET OUT [2017]

Graham and Bradlee over figures like the Times’ managing editor Abe Rosenthal (Michael Stuhlbarg) is something that has rankled a number of individuals, including those directly involved with the history being depicted: In early May 2017, the Columbia Journalism Review published a report featuring a large number of quotes from NYTaffiliated reporters and editors, most of which suggested it was ridiculous that such a film would focus on the Washington Post. None of these journalists quoted had seen the movie, because it hadn’t yet been made, and if they had waited, they might’ve held their comments back. Because to my eyes, at least, it appears clear that the film’s raison d’etre has little to do with the work or politics inherent to journalism—its more discernable reason to exist, somewhat coincidentally, fulfills exactly what Elizabeth Banks was asking for in June of 2017: The Post is a Spielberg movie that utilizes his aesthetic to study, document, and celebrate the work and politics inherent to the lives of American women.

On a related note, The Post is a rarity among Hollywood studio productions: It’s a project spearheaded by women at both the creative and executive levels. The script was written by Liz Hannah (her first to be produced) and was purchased by former studio head Amy Pascal, who then courted Streep for the lead role. And when speaking about its creative forces, it would be unfair not to mention the late Katharine Graham herself, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir Personal History has been cited by Hannah as the primary inspiration for her script. Spielberg’s resulting film of the screenplay retains numerous details that one can find in the memoir—like, for instance, the fact that women at Washington dinner parties were often expected to sequester themselves away from the men once talk of politics began, a sexist practice that Graham takes credit for breaking herself.

That particular act is spruced up and dramatized in the film, where a scene depicts Graham and Robert McNamara, close friends, crossing over from these genderspecific rooms to speak to one another in private (it’s one of many scenes where Spielberg lets his blocking do as much storytelling as the dialogue—a welcome characteristic of this movie, because the dialogue is typical most of the time and dead-tired during the rest). Also maintained from the memoirs is the general narrative arc that Graham lays out herself with regards to the role that the publishing of the Pentagon Papers played in her professional life. Both film and book imply that Graham’s decision to publish the information from the classified materials—despite the fact that the Post was going public that same month, a matter oft-referenced for the sake of dramatic tension in Spielberg’s film— simultaneously affirmed her position as a strong and capable leader of the organization (she had become publisher after her husband Phil, who had inherited the paper from Graham’s own father, committed suicide in 1963), solidified the Post’s reputation as a nationally significant newspaper (at the time it was arguably not even the No. 1 paper in Washington), and finally confirmed to both herself and Bradlee that the “old days” of friendly relations between politicians and journalists had come to an end (both had been quite cozy with presidents from prior administrations, and Graham would nonetheless maintain friendships with figures like Kissinger and McNamara for the rest of her life). Those are basically the themes and dramatic scenarios at play in Spielberg’s film.

But for a more general interpretation, I would like to defer to the late Nora Ephron—who reviewed Personal History for the New York Times, who knew Graham socially, who once received the Crystal Award herself, and to whom The Post is dedicated, via some of the last credits seen on screen: “Like a diligent schoolgirl, she set about to learn the business,” Ephron wrote of Graham in her book review.

“She saw herself as an interim manager; instead, she fell in love with her job. She hired Ben Bradlee to run The Post, and the newspaper finally became first-rate, fighting (along with The New York Times) for the right to print the

Pentagon Papers … Katharine Graham turns out to have had not two lives but four, and the story of her journey from daughter to wife to widow to woman parallels to a surprising degree the history of women in this century.”

The screenplay of The Post is also credited to Spotlight [2015] writer Josh Singer, who came on to the project shortly before shooting began and who probably contributed the few sequences and montages that happen away from the Post’s employees, at the very least (Tom Hanks, during a recent public appearance, noted that “there was no Daniel Ellsberg in the original screenplay”).

What results from the intersection of these many creative forces—Hannah, Pascal, Streep, Hanks, Singer, Spielberg, and the primary source documents, among others (the cinematography is by Janusz Kaminski, the score is by John Williams, and the editing is by Michael Kahn and Sarah Broshar)—is competing impulses that seem to butt against one another in the movie. On the one side, there are historical and experiential montages that are directed with the kinetic vigor of Spielberg’s genre pieces—an opening sequence that details Ellsberg witnessing combat in Vietnam in ’66, Ellsberg copying the Papers while archival footage fades in to illustrate the public statements those documents will contradict, or a low-key chase sequence where a Washington Post intern sneaks through the New York Times office. And on the other side, there are the film’s lengthier, dialogue-based sequences, which are directed in a more patient manner that’s in line with Spielberg’s work in his other recent historical films, Lincoln [2012] and Bridge of Spies [2015]—scenes that mostly take place at the Post newsroom, at Bradlee’s home, or at Graham’s home, and that typically depict one or both of those individuals talking their way through the various risks and dynamics involved in their quest to procure and report on the documents with a haste that undoubtedly bordered on the irresponsible. In fact, with regard to that latter set of scenes, one could imagine a streamlined version of The Post being staged as a play: one that jettisons the larger geopolitical actions and ramifications, and instead subsists on the dialogues occuring at Bradlee’s, Graham’s, and the Post’s respective locations.

But this being a Spielberg film, there’s nothing stagebound about it. The Post newsroom is imagined as a rush of competing shouts and sounds, and is typically filmed with a hand-held camera that bobs constantly and seems to sprint through the room. There are two separate long takes filmed in this manner that immediately rank among the funniest individual sequences that Spielberg has ever filmed—a quality that is evened out, I’m sorry to say, by the film’s handful of scenes that feature a stand-in playing Nixon, which immediately rank among the worst directorial atrocities in the filmmaker’s whole oeuvre. Graham’s home often plays host to more genial conversations—with figures like McNamara—and as such is filmed with statelier angles. And finally the Bradlee home is somewhere in-between the two: Scenes happening therein are filmed hand-held and haphazardly on some occasions, such as when the Pentagon Papers arrive—at which point it’s turned into an ad hoc newsroom—but during other moments, scenes in that home are composed with calmer angles and more graceful camera movements—as in quiet scenes where Hanks’ Bradlee speaks with his wife Tony (Sarah Paulson). All these aesthetic differences are resolved, in a harmonic feat of filmmaking, by the one scene where Streep’s Graham strolls through the Post newsroom: For once, we see that space captured with a steady camera, as if her presence and leadership had quite literally brought it stability.

That’s just one of innumerable occasions in The Post where Spielberg’s nearly unparalleled command of visual craft is put to use amplifying and memorializing the silent contributions made by women in personal and professional spaces. In the scene at the Bradlee home where the focus is ostensibly on the Post employees rustling through the Pentagon Papers, there are a number of shots of Tony peering through the room—we see her

counting heads, and then we realize she’s determining how many sandwiches are going to be needed by the workers occupying her own living room. In another scene, Graham meets Rosenthal and his wife Ann Marie (Deborah Green) for dinner, and “scoops” by coincidence that the will be brought to court by the US government over their initial reports; the scene concludes not with emphasis on the dramatic revelations but instead with a longing shot of Ann Marie’s face, unsurprised but hurt all the same that yet another private moment she valued has been interrupted by her husband’s apparently more valuable profession. And in my favorite moment of blocking seen throughout the whole movie, Kay is sitting amongst her advisors, working to reach a final decision on whether or not to publish reports on the Papers against government orders. One of her main adversaries throughout the movie has been her associate Arthur Parsons (Bradley Whitford)—a fictional composite character who serves as an almost-absurdly villainous personification of institutional sexism in the workplace—who, at this moment, is sitting directly in front of her. As Graham utters the final decision to publish, which directly betrays Parsons’ own stated wishes, she stands and walks across the frame to the opposite side of the space, moving far past Parsons, thus forcing him to stand and readjust his own positioning so that he can better suit Graham’s own (the whole narrative, in a few steps). It’s a beautiful moment of visual storytelling, as rosy and endearing toward Graham’s persona as were the previously quoted passages written by the woman this film was dedicated to.

This film is best appreciated as a comic strip: The dialogue may take precedence, but the images are telling the story. And at some points, it feels as unreal as a comic strip, as in the two separate instances where Graham, ensconced by positively divine lighting, moves past throngs of exclusively female admirers toward professional triumphs that will eventually be regarded as historic (first at the American Stock Exchange—she’d eventually be the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company— and later at the Supreme Court). Ellsberg is not granted the same aesthetic glory that Graham is afforded, but the images depicting him still bestow a sort of heroism: It’s all baked into one tracking shot where he walks away from McNamara, fuming at his lies to the public, and the camera follows along with Ellsberg, knowing that he’s taken control of his own destiny from this point forward.

This is all to say that the film, formally, is unimpeachably Spielbergian. It’s unquestionably an endearing and exceptionally well-directed film. But it’s also one that’s deeply lacking in nuance, especially when compared to the complex and often-contradictory political visions implicit within Lincoln and Bridge of Spies. That is, at least in part, probably thanks to our current moment in history. Though Pascal has stated outright that she initially envisioned the picture to be released during a Hillary Clinton presidency, it obviously was produced after the Trump administration had taken office. “The film had a whole set of imperatives,” Spielberg explained while talking about how he produced the film in a matter of months, “and one of the imperatives was getting this thing out now while the conversation was still ripe.” In its rosy portrait of journalists—in showing Katharine Graham strolling triumphantly through the Post’s printing spaces, as if she weren’t going to bust up the pressman’s union in 1975, a historic action that’s quite pointedly not referenced in this movie, even though other future events like Watergate are quite cheekily given reference—you sense a sort of boilerplate activism. I like this film quite a bit. But if this represents the sort of change that some are asking for with regards to the American cinema—that being an increasingly central position for acclaimed female actress within the preexisting and predominantly masculine aesthetic formulas of established Hollywood filmmakers—then I expect to spend decades watching more of the same.

>> THE POST. RATED PG-13. OPENING FRI 1.5 AT AMC BOSTON COMMON AND KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA. NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

TRYING TO BE ORDINARY THEATER

Melinda Lopez readies Mala for its Boston return

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS Last fall, ArtsEmerson presented the world premiere of Mala, Huntington playwright-in-residence Melinda Lopez’s gorgeous, deeply personal, and unforgettable one-woman play about loss, family, and what it means to be human.

In the midst of trying to see her mother through the final months of her life—and just after losing her father— Lopez chronicled her experiences in short notes on her iPhone that would became the genesis for Mala.

Lopez is well-known to Boston audiences both as an actress (Grand Concourse, appropriate, Our Town) and a playwright (Sonia Flew, Becoming Cuba), and Mala is her greatest achievement yet.

Mala topped the critics’ lists last year (including our own), and now Huntington Theatre Company revives this award winning production for three weeks only.

When you were approached with the opportunity to perform Mala again, was there any amount of hesitation?

It’s so personal and emotional that I imagine it must be painful to revisit night after night.

I don’t remember thinking about it at all. I remember being intensely curious about what it would be like to do it again. I ran the show at the Guthrie this fall, so I’ve been back in it even since you saw it [at ArtsEmerson], and I was sitting getting ready to go back into rehearsal and I had this really clear feeling that the play was my mother’s gift—her last gift—to me. Not her last gift—a gift that she gave me. And it was a really beautiful realization, and it was really satisfying. I knew she would be really proud of it, so it makes me really glad to be able to share it, especially with Boston because this is my home. Which is not to say there’s not trepidation and fear and horror and terror and all of the things that go into any kind of performance [laughs]. I really do like performing it. I guess maybe that’s counterintuitive, but it feels like a very complete experience. You leave it all on stage and you feel clean.

You feel satisfied and you hope that the audience feels

satisfied, too. You hope that you gave them a complete journey.

What does it feel like to sort of manipulate and dramatize such deeply personal events?

One of the things that’s become clearer to me is that even though Mala, the character I play, is myself, she’s also a distilled version of myself. I have a little bit more perspective on her. It’s important that the playwright is aware that there are mechanisms written into the play for the audience to also be able to step back and go, “Wow, she’s doing things wrong, she’s got some issues.” I don’t want them to empathize with her too much. I want an audience to have some distance and be able to go in to the experience and sit back and watch someone spiraling. We want to feel, we want something to happen to us when we go to see a play. I do. I want something to happen to me emotionally. And so that tension between feeling and thinking just lives so beautifully in the theater. That’s what I want to try and explore.

I think it’s so incredible that Mala started as notes on your iPhone. You didn’t know what would come of them at the time, you were just jotting things down as they were happening. When you decided to sit down and sift through those notes to try to distill them into something meaningful, what did it feel like to relive all that?

What I found in these notes was that I went back into them and I remembered exactly the moment, exactly what was happening, exactly what I was feeling. I wanted to sit down and remember. It seemed important to remember precisely and without a veil of nostalgia. It seemed important to me that I remember what it was like. I knew that that was going to be valuable to me as an individual, and so each text gave me a story to tell and those stories just fell into a kind of order, an emotional order, and I

>> MALA. 1.6–1.28. HUNTINGTON THEATRE COMPANY, 527 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. HUNTINGTONTHEATRE.ORG 20

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thought there was value in the subject matter. Because the play was written in the middle of it, it doesn’t have the perspective of a self-help book or of a wise friend who can sit down with you and say, “Spring will come. Spring will come.” We know that somewhere in ourselves, but when you’re in it, you don’t really know that that’s going to happen. The first line in the play is “She won’t rest until I’m dead.” It’s an appalling thing to say about someone that you adore, someone who’s been so much a part of your life.

But there is a part where you think, “I won’t get through this.” And so it mattered that I could say that. And again, what is theater for? For me it’s about much bigger things than our political current moment. We might have trouble thinking how about we’re going to get through each day, but I think theater really has to address a much larger question of our collective humanity and those questions that we all have, like does my life matter? How can I do good in the world? Why do people suffer? Why is life so short? Questions about the fairness or unfairness of the hand we’re dealt—they’re much bigger than an election or a couple of bad blizzards.

What are you feeling as you’re about to dive into this again?

I feel like I have such a special privilege to work with an audience in Boston that knows my work. Every night I’m really striving to make a connection with that group of people and so it’s always different. I hope I can keep doing that. I think it’s an incredible privilege to have a community invest in you as an artist, and I feel equally bound to invest in the 200 people who are in the Roberts every night. There’s a lot of forgiveness in my life, there’s a lot of forgiveness in the play, and that’s also part of the journey is to forgive each other for the things you weren’t able to do for each other. I feel like ultimately—hopefully— that’s where we all arrive. At some point. You have to, right?

You have to find a way.

BREAK THE CHAINS All ages, all gender

QUEER DANCE PARTY FEATURING Medino Green (rapper) DJ Rufaro Oxun Ms DJ Lotus Lightning Pill

SAT, JAN 20

Hosted by Evan Greer

6pm - 10pm Make Shift Boston NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

SAVAGE LOVE

POSSIBILITIES

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

I’ve been with my girlfriend “J” for two years. Her best friend “M” is a gay man she’s known since high school. M and I have hung out many times. He seems cool, but lately I’ve been wondering if he and J are fucking behind my back. For starters, J and I rarely have sex anymore. Even a kiss on the cheek happens less than once a week. Meanwhile, J’s Facebook feed has pictures of M grabbing her tits outside of a gay club in front of her sister. She told me he’s spent the night in her room, even though he lives only a few miles away. I’ve also recently found out that although M has a strong preference for men, he considers himself bisexual. I understand that everyone loves tits, even if they’re not turned on by them, and gay men can sleep with a girl and actually just… sleep. I also know that her antidepressants can kill sex drive. All three things at once feel like more than just coincidence, though. At the very least, the PDAs seem disrespectful. At worst, I’m a blind fool who’s been replaced. Am I insecure or is there something to these worries?

You Pick The Acronym I Gotta Get To Work Your girlfriend’s best friend isn’t gay, YPTAIGGTW, he’s bisexual—so, yeah, it’s entirely possible M is fucking your girlfriend, since fucking girls is something bisexual guys do and, according to one study, they’re better at it. (Australian women who had been with both bi and straight guys ranked their bi male partners as more attentive lovers, more emotionally available, and better dads, according to the results of a study published in 2016.) But while we can’t know for sure whether M is fucking J, YPTAIGGTW, we do know who she isn’t fucking: you. If the sex is rare and a kiss—on the cheek—is a once-a-week occurrence, it’s time to pull the plug. Yes, antidepressants can be a libido killer.

They can also be a dodge. If your girlfriend doesn’t regard the lack of sex as a problem and isn’t working on a fix—if she’s prioritizing partying with her bisexual bestie over talking to her doc and adjusting her meds, if she hasn’t offered you some sort of accommodation/ outlet/work-around for the lack of sex—trust your gut and get out.

Listen to the Savage Lovecast every week at savagelovecast.com!.

COMEDY EVENTS THU 01.04

RIOT SHUFFLE SLOT: CHALLENGES @ THE RIOT THEATER Featuring: Kathleen DeMarle, Zachary Fisher, Elsa Nierenberg, Austin McCloud, Suzi Berlin, Romey Sklar, James Huessy, Brian Higginbottom, Shaun Connolly, & Alan Richardson.

Hosted by Angela Sawyer

146A SOUTH ST., JP | 9PM | $5 THU 01.04 - SAT 01.06

TONE BELL @ LAUGH BOSTON

Actor-comedian Tone Bell can be seen whenever & wherever you want starring opposite Kathy Bates on Netflix’s original comedy series DISJOINTED. Tone has received critical praise for his depiction of Carter, an Iraq war veteran suffering from PTSD who discovers the healing power of cannabis.

His half hour comedy special can currently be seen on Comedy Central & cc.com.

425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | 8PM & 10PM | $29 FRI 01.05 - SAT 01.06

LAMONT PRICE @ NICK’S COMEDY STOP

Lamont Price is a hilarious oxymoron. His comedy is edgy & laidback, off the beaten path & anchored in social consciousness. He doesn’t care in that cool sort of way, & he doesn’t hold back. His commanding stage presence electrifies the crowd.

Price’s love for comedy started nearly a decade ago with a stand-up comedy course, & has become an obsession with winning over a room. He’s shared the stage with comedy powerhouses Dane Cook(Opened for him during his platinum selling “Retaliation” recording, Pablo Francisco, Patrice O’Neal, Tommy Davidson & John Witherspoon, Bill Burr, Rich Vos, Donnell “Ashy Larry” Rawlings to name a few. A regular at the Wilbur Theater, Nick’s Comedy Stop & Comedy Studio & Comix at Foxwoods, & on campus at many colleges, Price’s star is rising…and heading west.

246 TREMONT ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $20 FRI 01.05

DAN CROHN AT THE COMEDY SCENE

Dan Crohn has been performing stand up comedy in & around Boston for years. His jokes can be heard on XM Radio & he has been a guest on the popular podcast WTF with Marc Maron.

Hosted by Chris Tabb

200 PATRIOT PLACE FOXBOROUGH | 8:30PM | $20 SUN 01.07

BREW HAHA @ THE ARMORY Hosted by Pj Westin

191 HIGHLAND AVE., SOMERVILLE | 7:30PM | FREE MON 01.08

RANTING & RAILING A COMEDY @ TERRY O’REILLY’S

Featuring: Alan Fitzgerald, Adam Abelson, Jeff Medoff, Joe Medoff, Deadair Dennis Maler, Vally D., & Daniel McRobbie.

Hosted by Pete Andrews

45 UNION ST., NEWTON CENTER | 8PM | FREE WED 01.10

A TOAST TO BOSTON COMEDY LEGEND LENNY CLARKE @ LAUGH BOSTON

savagelovecast.com

Join Tony V. & Jimmy Dunn to raise a glass to Boston icon, Lenny Clarke. Laugh Boston will be paying tribute to Lenny with an all-star bill & video tributes. Stay tuned for the list of comedians & personalities who will be toasting Lenny.

All proceeds from this event will go to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $25

MORE LISTINGS AT BOSTONCOMEDYSHOWS.COM

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01.04.17 - 01.11.17 |

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WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY PATTKELLEY.COM

HEADLINING THIS WEEK!

Tone Bell

Netflix, Comedy Central’s The Half Hour Thursday - Saturday

COMING SOON

Annie Lederman

MTV, E!, Comedy Central Jan 11-13

Jimmy Plunkett Special Engagement: Sat, Jan 13

THE WAY WE WEREN’T

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

Baron Vaughn

Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, Comedy Central Special Engagement: Sun, Jan 14

Tim Dillon

Last Comic Standing, The Chris Gethard Show Jan 18+20 (No Friday Shows)

OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS

BY TIM CHAMBERLAIN OURVC.NET

Christopher Titus 7 Comedy Specials Special Engagement: Weds, Jan 24

617.72.LAUGH | laughboston.com 425 Summer Street at the Westin Hotel in Boston’s Seaport District NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

23

FOR EVERY REACTOR

THERE IS AN EQUAL OPPOSITION REACTION

THE BOSTON INSTITUTE FOR NONPROFIT JOURNALISM AN

PRESENTS PILGRIMS

ORAL HISTORY COVERING 50 YEARS OF ANTI-NUCLEAR PROTESTS IN NEW ENGLAND

DROPPING IN JANUARY 2018 BOTH ONLINE AND IN LIMITED STANDALONE PRINT EDITION WRITTEN AND RESEARCHED BY

MIRIAM WASSER

EDITED BY

JACQUELINE HOUTON

COMING SOON WITH COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT EVENT DATES TBD binjonline.org

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