DigBoston 1.18.18

DIGBOSTON.COM 01.18.18 - 01.25.18

COVER: MUSIC

FUTURE TEENS BUMMER POPPERS GROW UP

COMICS

KILL THE RICH

KARL STEVENS DECAPITATES ESTABLISHMENT THUGS

IMMIGRATION

TPS REPORT BOSTONIANS SCARED BUT NOT SURPRISED

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BOWERY BOSTON WWW.BOWERYBOSTON.COM VOL 20 + ISSUE03

JAN 18, 2018 - JAN 25, 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

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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YUNG LEAN & SAD BOYS

J RODDY WALSTON AND THE BUSINESS

Dear Reader, As I set out to write about cannabis for my reader note this week, I had a little trouble nailing down a particular subtopic. As anyone who knows me personally or even just follows me on social media is well-aware, I’m not simply an occasional consumer, but rather someone who has spent a good deal of my life as well as my career trying to educate people about weed in its innumerable glorious formations.

At 38 years old, I have been smoking, eating, and ingesting trees in many forms for a quarter of a century. If that sounds like a long time to you, just imagine having to face legal and professional consequences for the nature of your harmless routine.

As a white guy, I never had it too bad. I was ticketed and messed with by police a couple times for smoking on the street as a young punk in New York City, but those negative experiences were nothing in comparison to the extreme toll I have seen the war on drugs take on families of color.

In my years of writing about social justice and on some occasions mass incarceration, the absurdity of penalties exacted on the backs of black and brown folks for the same activities that white suburbanites get barely spanked for has been a recurring theme. Which brings me to the first note that I always like to hit when riffing on the leaf in any capacity—if we’re talking about cannabis, we should be acknowledging the decades of intolerance and straight-up racism against targeted vulnerable populations.

I don’t want to spin too negatively, though, and luckily I don’t have to, since we live in Massachusetts, where there’s hope on the horizon. As you’re likely well-aware, the ballot measure passed last year by voters led to us finally getting a road map to recreational cannabis. That’s in addition to the decriminalized status and medical dispensary system that we already enjoy, all of which together means we’re headed in the right direction, far away from the archaic taboo nightmare of merely a couple years ago.

A lot of people like me who were serious participants in the wide world of underground weed before all of this tend to be bitter. I get it, I really do, because I can also remember when some of the former prohibitionists who are now asking for investment tips and advice about which dispensaries to visit were still making stoner jokes and drug-testing their employees. Still, despite some hollow threats from bigots in the Trump administration in DC, we’re moving in a positive direction, which is sadly more than I can say about a lot of other issues.

I’ll finish with a short vignette about a job I had doing administrative work just after college. My boss was somewhat cool, but had a bag of chips with guacamole on his shoulder about people who got stoned. And so on my last day of working there, after two years of hustling 60-plus hours a week as his most trusted assistant, I took great pride in telling him that I had smoked every morning before coming in and typically during lunch breaks as well.

Sorry if I wandered there a bit, but I was high when I wrote this.

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PATRICIA MONTES SPEAKING AT CITY HALL LAST WEEK | PHOTO BY SARAH BETANCOURT

‘I CAN’T HAVE ANY PEACE NOW’ NEWS TO US

City vows to support immigrants, but major hurdles remain

BY SARAH BETANCOURT @SWEETADELINEVT Boston’s politicos assured local immigrants from El Salvador that they have the support of city and state leaders at a press conference the day after the Trump administration announced the end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador in the US. The program was initiated in 2001 after two devastating earthquakes struck the country, and it had been renewed 11 times during the Bush and Obama administrations.

“It wasn’t a surprise because they had already eliminated TPS for Haitians and South Sudanese,” said Patricia Montes, Executive Director of Centro Presente, an immigrant advocacy organization.

Montes joined others, including union janitors from 32BJ SEIU, at a press conference at City Hall this week. Centro Presente, an East Boston-based advocacy group, will be holding legal clinics in partnership with community organizations to help El Salvadorans figure out what their legal options are.

El Salvador, which has been deemed the most dangerous country that isn’t a war zone, had 104 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2016, for a murder toll of 6,657. The 6,000 Salvadorans with TPS in Mass will have 18 months to self-deport or acquire legal status through a green card. The irony of the situation was not lost on several of the speakers, some of whom referred to US political involvement in El Salvador.

During the 1980s, the US spent billions of dollars supporting the Salvadoran government’s efforts against an insurgency led by the leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). The current president, Salvador Sánchez Cerén, is a former guerrilla commander of the FMLN. Cerén’s government has maintained close ties with the US, accepting $72.7 million in assistance from 4

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Congress in FY 2017. Trump, meanwhile, has gutted protections for Salvadorans, hypocritically promised to make MS-13 a top priority, and dispatched Attorney General Jeff Sessions to El Salvador last July to participate in the so-called Organized Crime Drug Enforcement task forces.

What the Trump administration appears to have forgotten is that MS-13’s roots are in the streets of Los Angeles. In the 1980s, a group of Salvadorans began the gang after leaving their country, which was embroiled in 12 years of civil war. Since then, the group has spread widely, rising as a proctor of drug trade across the Americas. Knowing that history, Mass Salvadorans are worried about the dangers they can face upon return to the country.

Carolina Mata is a recipient of TPS and escaped El Salvador in 1998 after her father was assassinated.

Protected status has made life easier for Mata. “I found a stable job, got my driver’s license, and was able to take care of my children,” she said. As a single mother, Mata supports 10-year-old daughter, Gabriella, and her son who attends Fitchburg State College, while working in a plastics factory.

Almost $400 million would be lost from the Mass annual GDP if Salvadorans leave, according to a study from the Center for American Progress.

In Revere, an El Salvadoran woman is facing eviction from her place of business on top of deciding what she must do in light of the Trump administration’s TPS decision. Rosa Vigil, 42, runs Yamileth Salon, a hair studio that she has owned for 14 of the 18 years she has been in this country. Last June, her former building owner sold to an investment group, leaving the future unclear for her business. “I’m hoping pressure can be put on this owner by locals,” she said. “I pay my rent on time, and this is my

livelihood.”

Vigil came to the US 18 years ago to escape violence in El Salvador. Her sister has successfully applied for asylum.

But Vigil was counting on TPS, which has been renewed several times by Democratic and Republican presidents alike, to remain here. She is unsure of what she will do in the face of losing her protected status, but she is focusing on the issue at hand—keeping her salon open. “As long as my body holds out,” she said, “I plan on working here. I can’t have any peace now.”

Though Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and other politicians said they’d pressure Congress to rethink the TPS policy reversal, the news is still a shock to many El Salvadorans, a great deal of whom have been in the US for nearly two decades. Doris Landaverde, 38, moved to the US when she was 20 to earn enough money to pay for medical bills for herself and her mother, who has a chronic medical condition. She’s worried that if she moves back to El Salvador, she and her three daughters will be in an unfamiliar, dangerous country.

“I think the violence in the country would impact them,” said Landaverde, a janitor at Harvard University who came to City Hall with fellow SEIU workers.

Others remain hopeful. Elmer Vivas Portillo, 19, is a sophomore at Harvard University, where he studies sociology. He spoke at the TPS event in support of his mother, Midonia Portillo, who is a beneficiary of TPS, and told the Dig that there are benefits to living in Cambridge, in a community where his family feels supported. “Last summer, Cambridge passed a resolution to be a sanctuary city,” he said. He thinks the next steps are to educate communities about how the news will impact their El Salvadoran neighbors.

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DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

FIRE AND FIRE AND FURY Steve Bannon and what a bad week really looks like

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I went to bed on Saturday night reading Fire and Fury, which, if I need to explain it at this point, is Michael Wolff’s ribald and riveting account of the early days of the Trump regime. It quickly became clear in the book that no one involved in Trump’s campaign expected, or wanted, him to win.

That was a horrible thought: Trump and his motley crew of enablers, the doltish adult children, sleazeballs like Paul Manafort and Corey Lewandowski, fascists like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller, they all overestimated the American people.

They thought we were better than we were.

They thought they were safe because we would never elect Donald Trump.

I went to sleep with this somber thought. At some point in the night, I woke up smelling smoke. I got up and looked around and sniffed and couldn’t find anything. It was like 10 degrees in Baltimore that night, so I assumed it was a neighbor’s fireplace.

At about 9 am, my wife woke me. “The dog is acting weird,” she said.

The dog was shaking, pawing at us.

“Smoke!” my wife yelled.

I looked over, and smoke was coming up through the floorboards. Then it burst into flame. By the foot of the bed.

Fire and fury ensued. This is the essence of this year.

Ultimately, the fire in my bedroom wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been. The fire department—Big Government!—was there before the fire destroyed much. They cut through the floor and broke the windows. Most of the damage was caused by the smoke. We were safe, and we didn’t lose anything of real value. We have renters insurance, and I’m writing this from a hotel, where I spent a lot of time waiting on the bureaucracy of insurance and disaster mitigation to move. I bought the audiobook of Fire and Fury and listened to the rest of it as I threw out former possessions that were now nothing but junk.

However difficult my week, it turned out to be much better than that enjoyed by many of the people in the figurative conflagration of the book—especially Steve Bannon.

Bannon is the almost Ahab-esque antihero of Fire and Fury, which in many ways charts his rise and fall—at least up until the point that the book’s publication precipitated a further fall. For being such a horrendous pseudo-intellectual schlub, Bannon is also fascinating, a far-right Svengali. According to Harvard studies, during the last election, Breitbart was three times as influential as its next closest competitor (measured in terms of retweets and shares), the titanic Fox News. Bannon was at least partly responsible for that—and for getting Trump elected.

That perception, that Bannon orchestrated Trump’s victory—as shown in another book, Joshua Green’s Devil’s Bargain—was probably the No. 1 factor in his August White House ouster, even more important than the alt-right terror that ripped apart Charlottesville that month.

After Wolff quoted Bannon saying that Don Jr.’s Russia meeting was treasonous, the president went on the attack with a new epithet, “Sloppy Steve.” Bannon tried to apologize, saying he was really attacking his predecessor as Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort. But it wasn’t enough. Bannon was fired first from Breitbart and then from his Sirius XM show (with Fox preemptively refusing to hire him). Worst of all, billionaires Robert and Rebekah Mercer, who have supported most of his endeavors and funded his nationalist endeavors, cut ties with their schlubby honey badger.

I watched all of this play out on cable as I tried to deal with the disaster bureaucracy.

And it was delightful to see the pundits all talking about Bannon’s terrible week, even if it came for all the wrong reasons. Nonetheless, Trump, Bannon, and their crew may have overestimated the electorate in their expectation of losing. We should not make the same mistake and overestimate them. Whatever happens to Steve Bannon, racists now rule the executive branch.

Baynard Woods is a reporter at the Real News Network and the founder of Democracy in Crisis. Email baynard@democracyincrisis.com; Twitter @baynardwoods

THE SEAPORT FLOOD IS JUST THE BEGINNING APPARENT HORIZON

Unless Boston builds proper defenses against global warming-driven sea level rise

BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS

So, Boston’s Seaport District flooded early this month during a bad snowstorm in the midst of several days of arctic temperatures. And nobody could be less surprised than me. Because I’ve spent a lot of the last quarter century closely following developments in the science of climate change. And the “bomb cyclone” that caused the flooding, and the polar vortex that caused that, are both likely to have been caused by global warming. Yale University Climate Connections just produced a great video that features several luminary climate scientists explaining why at yaleclimateconnections.org. Definitely check it out.

No question, though, that it’s good to live in a region where local government at least recognizes that global warming is a scientific reality. The city of Boston is certainly ahead of most municipalities in the US in terms of laying plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to become “carbon neutral” and to deal with some of the anticipated effects of climate change. Particularly, flooding from inexorably rising sea levels and increasingly powerful and frequent storms. Which the more reactionary Boston TV newsreaders still insist on calling “wild weather.” But its plans are largely just that… plans. And they are still incomplete and, frankly, woefully inadequate to deal with the magnitude of the crisis facing us all.

Boston city government has initiated an array of climate change initiatives, including Greenovate Boston, a section of the Imagine Boston 2030 process, and—most germane to this discussion—Climate Ready Boston. They are all producing very nice reports grappling with some of the challenges to humanity presented by global warming in the decades to come. But the reports are written by planners and experts who are clearly pulling their punches for reasons that remain somewhat opaque. And in doing so, any good that might come out of the reports and the policy actions that will result from them is essentially undone.

A look at metro planning on global warming-induced flooding is a good way to illuminate the problem in question. The Climate Ready Boston program released a 340-page report in December 2016 that was meant to be a comprehensive assessment of the threats presented to the city by global warming—with plans for possible correctives.

It does mention the idea of building giant dikes, storm barriers, and retractable gates (which they call a “harborwide flood protection system”) across Boston Harbor as the method with the most potential to save much of the city from major flooding. Which makes sense since Mayor Marty Walsh signed a 2015 agreement with Dutch officials to work together to manage rising sea levels, according to Boston Magazine. And the Dutch are recognized world experts on giant storm barriers and hydroengineering in general, lo, these last few hundred years.

But there’s no firm commitment for harbor-wide

defenses in the report. Yet it should be obvious that they are absolutely necessary if Boston is going to continue as a living city for even a few more decades. At least Amos Hostetter of the Barr Foundation—who is a major player in Boston’s climate efforts—put up $360,000 for the UMass Boston Center for the Environment to study their feasibility last year, according to the Boston Globe.

More concerning than its waffling on building big dikes, the big Climate Ready Boston report chooses to focus on the possibility of sea level rise of no more than 3 feet by 2070—although it allows that a rise of 7.4 feet is possible by 2100: The highest sea level rise considered in this report, 36 inches, is highly probable toward the end of the century if emissions remain at the current level or even if there is a moderate reduction in emissions. … If emissions remain at current levels, there is an approximately 15 percent chance that sea levels will rise at least 7.4 feet by the end of century, a scenario far more dire than those considered here.

Similar caution is on display with an October 2017 Climate Ready Boston report called “Coastal Resilience Solutions for East Boston and Charlestown”—focusing on tactics to protect two Boston neighborhoods on Boston Harbor at high risk for flooding caused by global warming.

Once again, the authors’ assumption is that global warming-related sea level rise in Boston will be no more than 3 feet higher than year 2000 figures by 2070. Even though such estimates—which we have already seen are conservative by Climate Ready Boston’s own admission— also indicate that we could face 7-plus feet of sea level rise or more by 2100. And even higher rises going forward from there. Because sea level rise is slated to continue for generations to come.

What’s weird about such methodological conservatism is that a 2016 paper in the prestigious science journal Nature co-authored by a Bay State geoscientist says the lower figures that all the city’s climate reports are using already look to be wildly optimistic.

According to the Boston Globe: “Boston is a bull’s-eye for more sea level damage,” said Rob DeConto, a climate scientist at UMass Amherst who helped develop the new Antarctica research and who cowrote the new Boston report. “We have a lot to fear from Antarctica.” … If high levels of greenhouse gases continue to be released into the atmosphere, the seas around Boston could rise as much as 10.5 feet by 2100 and 37 feet by 2200, according to the report.

What’s even weirder is that the same UMass scientist, Rob DeConto, co-authored a detailed June 2016 report for Climate Ready Boston called “Climate Change and Sea Level Rise Projections for Boston: The Boston Research Advisory Group Report” with 16 other climate scientists that look at an array of possible outcomes for the city—and include a discussion of the higher sea level rise figures mentioned in the Nature paper. The report concludes with an admission that current science doesn’t allow for accurate predictions of climate change in the

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second half of the century. All the more reason, one would think, that models predicting higher than anticipated sea level rise should not seemingly be dismissed out of hand in other Climate Ready Boston reports.

The Globe also reported that a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says Boston can expect a sea level rise of 8.2 feet by 2100. Both 8.2 foot and 10.5 foot estimates are higher than the 7.4 foot estimate that Climate Ready Boston says is possible by 2100, and well above the 3 feet that it is actually planning for by 2070.

The same team that produced the larger Climate Ready Boston report authored the East Boston and Charlestown report; so they are doubtless quite well-aware of all this.

Which is evident in this sentence about the (insufficient) extensibility of their proposed neighborhood-based flood defenses: “If sea levels rise by more than 36 inches, these measures could be elevated at least two feet higher by adding fill, integrating structural furniture that adds height and social capacity, or installing deployable flood walls. With this builtin adaptability, their effectiveness could be extended by an additional 20 years or more.”

The point here is not that the Boston city government is doing nothing about global warming-induced flooding. It’s that the city is potentially proposing to do too little, too late (given that most of the flood defenses it’s proposing will remain in the study phase for years, and many will protect specific neighborhoods but not the whole city when finally built), for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. Though it’s probable that those reasons are more political and economic than scientific.

Avoiding scaring-off the real estate developers and major corporations that provide much of the current city tax base, for example. The kind of thing that will make life difficult for politicians who then make life difficult for staffers and consultants working on global warming response plans.

Regardless, if experts like the Dutch are basically saying, Boston really needs to build the biggest possible harbor-wide flood protection system to have any hope of surviving at least a few more decades, then we can’t afford to do one of the more half-assed versions of the big cross-harbor storm barrier plan mentioned in the original Climate Ready Boston report—or, worse still, build major harborwide defenses at all. If major studies by climate experts are saying that 3 feet of sea level rise by 2070 and 7.4 feet by 2100 are overly optimistic figures, then we need to plan for at least the highest reasonable estimates: currently, the NOAA’s 8.5 feet or, better yet, the Nature paper’s 10.5 feet for the end of the century. It’s true that we could get smart or lucky and avoid those numbers by 2100. But what about 2110? Or 2150? Or 2200? Sea level rise is not just going to stop in 2070 or 2100.

Are city planners and researchers willing to gamble with the city’s fate to avoid sticky political and economic fights? Let’s hope not. For all our sakes. Or the recent Seaport District flood—and numerous other similar recent floods—will be just the start of a fairly short, ugly slide into a watery grave for the Hub.

The point here is not that the Boston city government is doing nothing about global warming-induced flooding. It’s that the city is potentially proposing to do too little, too late

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LAWRENCE AND THE NORTHERN FRONT GUEST OP-ED

Homelessness needs regional solutions

BY JOE D’AMORE Most cities and towns that are in proximity of Lawrence, including those that share municipal borders, have eradicated homelessness. This does not mean that they have discovered the keys to resolving a chronic societal ill. Rather, they have intentionally created conditions that make it impossible for an unsheltered individual to stay within their borders except for only brief and mostly daylight stints. These cities and towns have learned the art of exporting their homelessness problem.

There are three basic categories of homeless people.

Sheltered, meaning having a temporary reservation to a cot in an emergency shelter for overnight stays only; unsheltered, meaning living in outdoor settings mostly; and transitionally sheltered, referring to a wide range of temporary housing arrangements. The principal driver of homelessness in Merrimack Valley mirrors that of most of the country: lack of affordable housing. When you add to this condition subsets of homelessness drivers such as addiction, drug abuse, mental illness, and various forms of domestic isolation, homelessness becomes a sprawling and visible problem.

Lawrence is a center for exceptional social services.

There is a constellation of facilities, ranging from emergency shelters to sober houses, halfway houses, clinics, and a hospital. There are government and private agencies as well, including DCF, but there are also a wide variety of publicly subsidized housing projects and transitional housing units owned and managed by nonprofit organizations. Add to this a strong network of nonprofit agencies and faith-based organizations that provide basic necessities such as food and clothing, and you create an environment that can help someone who is homeless gain the most basic underpinnings to initiate a pathway to housing stability. In Lawrence, an unsheltered homeless person can get three meals a day, a shower once or twice a week, and an opportunity to be checked by a counselor, doctor, or other medical professional.

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The surrounding communities that wish to control the public safety, economic consequences, and image issues associated with homelessness do so very effectively by enacting ordinances, zoning, and police policies that make it impossible to be homeless within their borders. The most notable examples are:

• No encampments permitted • No loitering in public places • No sleeping in public places • Aggressively discouraging or restricting panhandling.

Additional measures are enacting dusk-to-dawn restrictions in public parks, closing or restricting hours for public bathrooms, and eliminating public fountains. Some cities and towns have also enabled restaurants and gas stations to restrict the use of bathrooms to patrons only.

Many municipalities have not complied with minimum state-mandated affordable housing unit counts. Still others do not allow occupying public spaces such as libraries without being an active user of the facilities.

So if I were an unsheltered homeless person, whose possessions were defined by what I could carry, I would eventually leave your city or town if I couldn’t get anything to eat, could not lay my head down anywhere, and if I soiled my pants once or twice. Eventually, I would migrate to a city or town that would allow me to survive.

I know a homeless person who was told by a Beverly police officer to “go to Lynn.” In fact, he was even offered a one-way ride there. I met a couple from Saugus who lived under the Casey Bridge last summer. I asked them, “Why are you here?” They told me, “We are users but are trying to get back on our feet. The cops in Saugus wouldn’t let us stay camped out in the woods.”

At the height of the population boom under the Casey Bridge where there were upward of 60 people living under four arches, you couldn’t find a half-dozen people who were residents of Lawrence. In fact, that sprawling community, before it was dispelled last fall, had “residents” from all six New England states.

Lawrence is criticized by some for being a dirty, lawless city. I disagree. Lawrence has a homelessness problem because it is a compassionate city and most surrounding cities and towns have used Lawrence’s open status to their advantage.

State lawmakers should increase efforts to lead their communities in participating in regional approaches to address the issue of housing instability and homelessness.

In 2015 Gov. Baker and Lt. Gov. Polito convened the ICHH: Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness.

Working through various committees and subcommittees numerous, viable action plans are in motion to help solve homelessness in all subpopulations such as veterans, elderly, youth, and those suffering from addiction. Without these actions there would be a tendency for communities to actively implement NIMBY versions of public policy.

There aren’t enough beds, shelters, programs, and affordable housing units in our state. But when you have a concentration of these in a few cities throughout the Commonwealth, plus a tolerant public policy structure such as you have in Lawrence, those cities bear the brunt of a massive social ill. In the meantime, the vast majority of communities will quietly maintain public policies that will keep the problem conveniently out of their proverbial backyards.

Joe D’Amore is an advocate and founder of Merrimack Valley Hope Mission. You can contact him at jdamore@ merrimackvalleyhopemission.org

TALKING JOINTS MEMO

BLUNTING SESSIONS

Hub lawmakers are clear about support for cannabis despite turbulent federal times

BY DAN MCCARTHY @ACUTALPROOF

Politics and cannabis go hand in hand in these parts lately, but it’s not every day that politicians are seen at the dispensary counter.

Nevertheless, at an informal press conference last week, State Sen. Pat Jehlen, co-chair of the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Marijuana Policy, and State Rep. Mike Connolly were all business walking through Revolutionary Clinics in Somerville.

It was almost as if the plans that US Attorney General Jeff Sessions has for legal marijuana in the US have been outwardly and proudly refuted by the patient care scene in the Hub alone.

Like many other operators in the state, Meg Sanders, managing director at Revolutionary Clinics, lived through trench warfare during the medical and recreational movements in Colorado and Washington states, among other places.

As she sees it, recent news at the federal level regarding the reversal of the famous Obama-era Cole memo—which let states act as they wished—is troubling, but nothing new.

“For me it was a nice piece of paper when it came out because it felt like we were going in a positive direction in regards to this plant,” Sanders said. While she’s disappointed in the move by Sessions, given the Alabama lawmaker’s longtime prohibitionist positions, the setback didn’t surprise her any more than it is slowing down cannabis operations in Mass. “We operated for a long time without any ‘memos’ guiding or protecting us,” she added.

“What, are they going to mobilize the National Guard to shut down all pot businesses?” said Erik Williams, Revolutionary media relations manager.

With the feds puffing their chests, many in the local cannabis community are looking to our state and local legislators to keep up their advocacy. In his part, Rep. Connolly said he welcomed the request that Gov. Charlie Baker put forward following the foul news out of Washington, in which he suggested that the DOJ and Sessions focus on the opioid and fentanyl epidemics in our state and region, instead of spending any resources to back up all his braggadaccio.

“I think we’re in a tough position and we’re still processing the news,” Rep. Connolly said. “Think of everything we’ve been through in our state, going back to decriminalization and then the legislative effort this past year. … For this to happen at this time when we’re actually less than half a year away from the opening of commercial marijuana generally, I think we can just hope for the best and consider what further steps we can take.”

It’s worth noting that the US Department of Justice is barred from spending federal funds on state crackdowns on medical marijuana, the doings of the congressional Rohrabacher-Farr amendment passed in 2014. That measure is set to expire on Jan 19 without congressional reauthorizing, and Sen. Jehlen feels it is “on Congress to push back first.”

“We can comment and say we don’t want state or local resources used to support a federal law when it’s legal in Mass,” Jehlen said. “But to stop [Sessions], I think Congress is the one that has to step up, and I’m hoping that’ll happen.”

As to how constituents can get involved and make an impact, Jehlen says it is as simple as calling elected officials and putting the screws to them.

“It’s important at times like this we let leaders demand that they protect what we all voted for right there in Mass,” Jehlen added.

Rep. Connolly echoed those sentiments, reminding that a lot of pols have critical elections coming up and in some cases are facing new challengers. Cannabis, as the state rep points out, is a topic that a lot of people feel more than just a little passionately about.

“We’ve seen time and time again voters going to the polls and demonstrating their willingness to support a sensible drug policy,” Connolly said. “My hope is that candidates running for Congress in these 2018 elections are making it clear that if they get elected, they’re going to go to Washington, DC, and end federal prohibition once and for all.”

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PEDRO IN HIS BEDROOM IN THE BOSTON NEIGHBORHOOD JAMAICA PLAIN, SHOWING THE LYRICS OF ONE OF HIS COMPOSITIONS, NAMED “I AM BOSTONIAN.”

AGING IN THE SHADOWS FEATURE

Without income or access to benefits, getting old as an undocumented is a daunting challenge

BY TIBISAY ZEA

It’s December, and Pedro, 78, still heads downtown to work during the day. He sings Mexican boleros and rancheras, accompanying himself with a guitar. He seems to camouflage himself under the foliage; countless Bostonians have listened to him in this shade for years, yet few know much about the man behind the music.

Pedro arrived in the United States in 1991. He left his wife and six children in Puebla, his hometown in Mexico, and put himself in the hands of a coyote to cross the border, running away from a debt and hoping to send money back to his family. After working in the construction industry, restaurants, shops, and mariachi ensembles, Pedro began doubting whether he could find what he was looking for. He was alone, working three shifts a day, living in a cramped apartment with 20 other people, and reaching his golden years. He fell into alcoholism and depression, and at one point even contracted tuberculosis and was hospitalized.

“I used to make a lot more when I worked for construction, but that job is just for young people,” says Pedro, who lives in a room in Jamaica Plain. After he recovered from tuberculosis, Pedro was able to move in with 10

01.18.18 - 01.25.18 |

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a friend who doesn’t charge him rent. Still, he says that he earns his entire living by playing music in public. “If I stop,” he says, “I will die. I cannot make it anymore.”

---///--For the poorest seniors in the United States, about 70 percent of their income comes from Social Security, according to federal statistics. But undocumented seniors, who do not qualify for this benefit and are twice as likely as the general population to live in poverty, continue to depend on their day-to-day earnings.

Pablo Buitrón, a primary care physician from Ecuador who works at BMC, treats many Hispanic patients, some of them undocumented. “Their most common problems are chronic diseases, such as hypertension, heart problems, obesity, heart attacks, diabetes … and this is often a consequence of their lifestyle,” Buitrón says.

“To survive, many of these seniors keep working lowwage, often physically demanding jobs—cooking, cleaning houses, street vending, or working as home caregivers at 70

or 75 years old—or for the rest of their lives.”

Additionally, Buitrón explains, the majority of undocumented patients bring some psychological or psychiatric problem—either anxiety, depression, or traumas stemming from being away from family, a shocking experience they suffered as immigrants, or discrimination.

Furthermore, that anxiety has only been exacerbated by uncertainty and fear of deportation in the Trump era.

In the Boston area, Buitrón continues, “There are not enough therapists who speak Spanish, and it is far from ideal to undergo mental therapy with the help of a translator instead of a doctor who speaks your language or understands your culture.”

Some lawmakers and others argue that undocumented immigrants are draining public services without paying their fair share. In fact, federal analysis reveals that unauthorized immigrants paid $13 billion into the program in 2010 alone while only taking $1 billion in benefits.

Similarly, unauthorized workers annually contribute in excess of $12 billion more to Social Security than they take out. Other research has found similar trends for Medicare.

We have seen the proliferation of interesting and moving stories focused on the young beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program or, most recently, Temporary Protected Status (TPS). But not much is known about the plight of undocumented older adults. They, unfortunately, have little to contribute to the productivity arguments commonly used to persuade lawmakers that undocumented can add to the economy if allowed to stay.

Overall, undocumented seniors are currently a very small group. According to the Center for Migration Studies of New York, only 76,753 (0.7 percent) of the 11 million undocumented people living in the United States are over 65 years old. Most of the immigrants who came illegally in the 1960s straightened out their status after the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. That law offered a path to citizenship to almost 3 million unauthorized immigrants who had entered the United States before Jan 1, 1982.

In the 1990s, according to the Migration Policy Institute, more than 6 million undocumented immigrants entered the US. Fast-forward to now, and almost 2.5 million people in this country without documents are between 45 and 64 years old, meaning the older population will grow sharply in the coming years without a new way to legalize their immigrant status.

would be better,” he says. “Incentives would be created.”

---///--Before being admitted to the hospital, Pedro lived in a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment in East Boston with five other families. This situation is common.

“In immigrant neighborhoods like East Boston, this happens because accommodation costs simply cannot be afforded,” explains Andrés Del Castillo, a community organizer of the City Life/Vida Urbana, an organization dedicated to promoting fair and inclusive housing policies in Boston.

In fact, only New York City and San Francisco have higher rental prices than Boston, where a one-bedroom apartment costs, on average, $2,036, according to Reis Inc., which monitors rent costs. The waiting list for elders to find affordable housing averages about nine months, a tolerable period considering that waiting for a younger family can be from eight to 10 years. However, undocumented immigrants have zero access to subsidized senior housing.

“These programs are funded with money from the federal government, and there is a restriction that prevents the undocumented from participating,” Del Castillo says.

“They just do not qualify … But now in Boston the problem of forced displacement is very serious. Such displacement is not only from your home, or from your neighborhood, but from the whole region, because the high prices will force them to move far away. That brings side effects such as isolation, and physical and mental deterioration.”

Del Castillo says a lack of access to information and education, as well as language barriers and discrimination, all factor into the overall threat faced by undocumented immigrants. Laws in Mass prohibit many forms of discrimination; still, in practice, those without the proper paperwork learn quickly that they can’t even apply for most jobs or apartments.

“We are now building the argument,” Del Castillo says.

“All these mechanisms have a disproportionately negative impact on our community.”

This feature first appeared in Spanish in El Planeta.

---///--Although undocumented immigrants can’t access health insurance throughout the US, Massachusetts has a generous resource called Health Safety Net, known as MassHealth Limited, which includes preventive visits and emergency assistance for people who do not qualify for health insurance.

“The biggest difference between standard health insurance and MassHealth Limited is that the person can only attend community health centers or public hospitals,” explained Hannah Frigand, associate director of the Help, the registration and education program of Health Care For All, a nonprofit that helps people navigate the health insurance system. Also, ambulance rides, long-term care, and nursing centers aren’t covered, while patients can only obtain medications in certain pharmacies.

“We have heard recent stories of people with cancer and what it means to them when they only qualify for the Health Safety Net,” Frigand says. “Someone who needs personal assistance does not have access to homecare, and that makes them more prone to being hospitalized for longer, an expense which is not included in the coverage either.”

Elders and the sick are the most affected by limitations in coverage. Following his illness, Pedro, the Mexican immigrant, was hospitalized in a rehabilitation center for 10 months, an expense that was not included in his coverage and which he was supposed to pay out of pocket.

The hospital attempted to charge him, but he was unable to pay. This is common practice. A 2008 study by the Cambridge-based National Bureau of Economic Research found that those entering a hospital without health insurance double their chances of filing for bankruptcy over the next four years.

It’s common in the Commonwealth for private hospitals to reject patients with MassHealth (the state’s low-income Medicaid program) or Medicare. “Although in theory they should not discriminate, some health centers have ways of evading such patients, for example, by using an insurance system for practices for profit that do not admit MassHealth patients, or orienting their marketing strategy to target high-income families,” Buitrón says.

Most hospitals are nonprofits and are as a result exempt from local, state, and federal taxes so long as they provide a benefit to the community, such as charity care.

But private nonprofit facilities often say they’re barely or not at all compensated for their care for the poor. Therefore, says Buitrón, the burden falls on public hospitals, which assume the financial weight of treating these patients.

“If the effort were distributed among all the hospitals, it

PEDRO, A MEXICAN IMMIGRANT, USED TO BE PART OF A MARIACHI BAND IN NEW YORK AND BOSTON.

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FUTURE TEENS MUSIC

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

upcoming shows

JANUARY 18

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LLOYd COLE

Alejandro Escovedo

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the ventures

Tinsley Ellis

JANUARY 25

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Howie Day

the posies

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The Black Lillies

Brandy Clark

JANUARY 30

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TALIB KWELI

JUSTIN TOWNES EARLE

FEBRUARY 1

FEBRUARY 7

w/ H.C. MCENTIRE

bilal

sierra hull w/ phoebe hunt

special events The Champagne Experience

1.29

stump trivia

prizes for top three groups!

2.6

E S D A Y CITY WINERY theT URiedel BOSTON champagne experience

TICKETS $110

6:30 PM

FEB. 6, 2018

In this Riedel Comparative Tasting, experience for yourself the difference which the shape and size of a glass can make to your wine drinking experience.

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2.27

3.21

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

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An Allston first gets the last laugh

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN By now, it’s common knowledge that Future Teens began as a joke. The pop rock group formed when Daniel Radin and Gabe Goodman decided to turn a concept into a sound. Ask around, though, and few people know how it actually got started.

“Honestly, the concept we came up with—which is really not funny—was that the band existed in high school, that Gabe and I got in a fight and broke up, and then years later were having a reunion,” says Radin. “So all the songs would be the same songs we played in high school. We would have a Myspace presence, would release the songs on PureVolume. That was the concept, and our first EP was supposed to be the only thing we released.”

Future Teens designed its old website to look like a GeoCities offshoot. The band released music on floppy disks. Soon after, Goodman left for New York, Dylan Vadakin responded to their Berklee ad looking for a drummer, guitarist Nick Cortezi signed on, and Amy Hoffman joined as the bassist and vocalist at the end of 2015. The new lineup began working on music in the following months.

This time, the group was excited about their songs because they genuinely liked the music they were making. One of Allston’s first truly self-aware bands figured out how to inject sincerity into their sound when no one was looking, even if onlookers fail to notice.

You can’t blame them. Even their formation feels comically surreal.

“Amy and I matched on Tinder, and I immediately messaged her, ‘I know this isn’t what Tinder is for, but do you want to be in our band?’” Radin laughs. “She asked to hear it, I sent her the first EP, and she sent us her album. I immediately sent her music to Dylan, and we were geeking out about her guitar playing and her voice.”

But over time, that changed. Humor slid into the backseat even if it splashes itself across their song titles and lyrics. As Radin, Hoffman, and Vadakin sit in the back of Club Passim to talk with me, they prioritize humor by cracking jokes about skeevy “future teens” indirects and Grey’s Anatomy surgeons live-tweeting, but they clearly care enough about Future Teens to meet after 10 pm on a weeknight. Several days a week, Vadakin drives to Boston from his home in Connecticut to rehearse. The group signed to Western Mass record label Take This to Heart for last year’s Hard Feelings, an album that in title and in sound encapsulates their interchangeable “bummer rock” and “summer rock” tags. Future Teens was born on humor and rides goofiness to this day, without ever feeling forced.

That casual approach permeates every facet of Future Teens. It’s intentional, at least for Radin. It’s an outlet to be nonchalant but sincere. Radin used to be in Magic Man, an electropop group that signed to Columbia and followed the traditional major label route.

Understandably, he wanted a break. “When Dylan joined, our big goal was to play Great Scott,” says Radin. “That was our Madison Square Garden.” Because the band hit that goal with its EP release show, it’s new goal is to play the Sinclair. That, or to open for a touring band like Camp Cope. It’s a different world than the one his old band used to reside in.

The rest of Future Teens carries that same attitude, though. Members raised the bar for themselves in side projects that became nearly impossible to scale, as self-imposed expectations do. Yet as Future Teens, those same members allow themselves to coexist with potential mistakes or unintentional errors, for the better. “The best is when we get stumped on a song and don’t know how to change it, so I’ll start playing half time and louder,” says Vadakin, with a laugh. “Suddenly, we’re into it again.”

“I’m not nearly as hard on myself when I’m writing with the band as I am when I’m writing alone in my room,” says Hoffman. “I’ll sit there with my guitar, yelling at myself for not being creative anymore. But then we work at practice and writing is fun again.”

That comes through clearly. Everything Future Teens creates shines with a youthful coyness. There are song titles like “What’s My Sign Again” and “D.T.F.L.” (an acronym for Down to Fall in Love). There’s self-deprecating humor, which Hoffman says she uses to cope with life. She balances cheekiness with sighs thanks to lines like “Cut me slack / I’m just trying to get back on my feet / To do the things I thought I’d have done by 19” and “I’m really glad you feel okay to date / Heard that he’s an asshole / He plays a sport I tried in second grade.” It’s a constant process. Each member keeps a running list of idioms, puns, and jokes to be repurposed into song material.

“Goofing around, having fun, and thinking of stupid things is sincerely the most awesome thing ever,” says Vadakin. “Not taking ourselves seriously is how we take things seriously.”

But there’s still some sincerity in the band’s work. As they chip away at their own dating failures and adulthood struggles, the members of Future Teens can’t help but sing with a bit of sadness. Going on dozens of Tinder dates can make you question if you’re a boring person. Living in a city of undergrads can make you wonder if the person you will click with is out there. But if you reverse the viewpoint, something funny will stand out.

“Kissing Chemistry,” which isn’t their funniest song by any measure, is the one they find the most humor in: “All that we had was just good kissing chemistry.”

“I have a tendency to pour all of my sadness into what I write,” says Hoffman.

“Everything I’ve made outside Future Teens has been devastating. So coming into this band has been a fun and cathartic exercise in writing differently from an alternate perspective. Having the influence of these guys in my songwriting has been pretty powerful.”

At the end of the day, that’s what’s helped Future Teens to grow. The band has learned that keeping things casual and comedic lends itself toward a much healthier path for growing, as musicians and as people. And because the band doesn’t treat its music as a precious commodity, each practice moving forward has space for the group to keep pushing forward. They may be joking, but the group is seriously talented, which is perhaps the best, and last, laugh of all.

>> FUTURE TEENS, GREAT WIGHT, COSMIC JOHNNY, PAIGE CHAPLIN. THU 1.18. VFW POST 529 - GEORGE DILBOY POST, 371 SUMMER ST., SOMERVILLE. 7PM/ALL AGES/$8. BROWNPAPERTICKETS.COM

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MEGA BOG MUSIC

The far-out jazz rock group talks Star Trek, bad dates, and getting blackout drunk at 14

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN You know that type of spacious magic David Bowie has in his music that you can’t quite put your finger on? Well, we think the only person who has managed to figure out what makes his style so unique is Erin Birgy, the frontperson of jazz-inspired rock group Mega Bog. As a group, Mega Bog explores idiosyncratic pop and and the uplifting breeze of saxophone-driven instrumentation. But it’s Birgy who threads it all together with a unique sense of melody and a keen understanding of how space deepens intent. On Mega Bog’s most recent record, 2017’s sparkling Happy Together, Birgy brings a new type of cohesiveness to the band’s sound. Maybe that’s because it took three years to work out, or maybe it’s just because Birgy knows how to draw the best out of the group.

“I think all of my favorite records have this jazz production,” says Birgy. “They’re rock, but they’re extremely experimental and have a lot of amazing jazz players, like how Thin Lizzy records have a lot of saxophone buried in a strange way, Bowie’s Diamond Dogs, or Joni Mitchell’s amazing players. It’s nice to see what people can come up with. I have a lot of ideas in mind when we build songs, but when you have such amazing players with you, it’s fun to watch them do their thing.”

To help Mega Bog flex ideas before opening for Destroyer at the Sinclair, we interviewed Birgy for a round of Wheel of Tunes, a series where we ask bands questions inspired by their song titles. The answers range from inspiring heroes to overrated characters, and we are here for all of it.

1. “Diznee” In your opinion, who is the most overrated Disney character from its “classic” era?

Wow, I guess I’m not sure. I keep thinking of all the people I love. I loved Robin Hood movie, I loved Robin Hood, loved the snake. But I’ve always felt like Mickey Mouse is extremely overrated. He’s the worst character. He gets the star roles but never knows what to do with them. I love Goofy and I love Pluto; it always struck me as weird that they’re the butt of all the jokes.

2. “She’s History” Who is one female revolutionary that you think should be taught in history books?

Nina Simone. I feel like she could be in every kind of subject book, too. She can teach a lot about mental health. She can explain civil rights movements. She’s an incredible musician and has some of the most unique jazz arrangements. She pushed every limit there was, really.

3. “Marianne” Do you have any sisters?

I have an ex-stepsister named Lillian.

4. “TV Mac” When you go over to a friend’s and they have an Apple TV, what’s the first thing you pull up on it?

Well, I watch a lot of Star Trek and I’m on the second season of Star Trek: Voyager, so that’s probably what I’d pull

up. Or I would pull up some episode from Star Trek: The doing a ton of drugs. I had no idea what I was taking, but Next Generation that I would want everyone in the room to I was also drinking a lot. I walked out into the duck pond see. I’ve seen all the originals before, though. Last year was at the park where the drum circle was. I stuck my head in my year of Star Trek where I watched it all day, every day, in there and started barfing on everyone around me while between every activity. being covered in duck shit. The drum circle is kind of a big 5. “192014” deal because it’s where everybody hung out and shared Where were you living in 2014? their goth gossip. It got cancelled after that. The cops had I was living in Seattle and Chicago and Montreal, to shut it down. I didn’t feel bad, because it was also stupid, moving back and forth between those. It was by choice to but it was pretty embarrassing to be the one who shut that work with different people, all to get out of this extremely down. The end of an era [laughs]. crappy element I was in. I was trying to see what I could 10. “Black Rose” find if I ran away.

What’s the worst gift you’ve ever been given on a date?

6. “London” I’m not really sure, as I haven’t been given many gifts, How old were you the first time you went to London? but I was in a relationship for a while where the only time It wasn’t until after writing this song, actually! I had we could hang out was extremely late, like at 2 am. We a friend go there, send photographs back, and I hung the would just drive endlessly, which was odd. “You like driving, photos on a strip in my room. I wrote lyrics by looking at right? I’m going to put you in this situation.” Gee, thanks. those pictures of London. But then I visited in February of I was fucking tired and just wanted to be intimate. So 2017, so I was 27. It was really fun, where we projected our having to drive around felt like a bad gift, or rather a series expectations on the city and received all of them in return. of bad gifts.

7. “Modern Companion” 11. “Fwee” How would you define the ideal relationship?

Can you name three simple or mundane things that It would be a loose definition, and I think that part of it make you smile? would state that. I’d want there to be a lot of playfulness, I was just smiling at Zach who was eating messily at experimentation, and plenty of rocks in the middle to this Czechoslovakian bakery, and he makes me smile. My stand on, while still being open-ended. Lots of good friends make me smile. Trollies make me smile, the trolls communication for all parties. with gems in their tummies and high bright hair, and trolls 8. “Worst Way” in mythologies, too!

Have you recently found out there’s an easier way to do something than how you’ve been doing it?

I talked to my friend today about being less bitter. I think I’ve found better ways to deal with my anger. Sometimes just straight-up denying it and setting aside a time to work on it later is helpful. It’s hard to describe, but the way to deal with it better is by not taking things personally all the time.

Realizing you’re not the main subject of what’s going on around you. Then you’re more fit to take care of yourself and others.

9. “Blackout” What’s the most embarrassing story you have from getting blackout drunk?

When I was 14, I was in Spokane, Washington, and hanging out with my first boyfriend ever. He was a lot older and had a house with all their MEGA BOG PHOTO BY VANESSA HADDAD friends. This was when I started

>> DESTROYER, MEGA BOG. WED 1.24. THE SINCLAIR, 52 CHURCH ST., CAMBRIDGE. 8PM/18+/$20. SINCLAIRCAMBRIDGE.COM

MUSIC EVENTS THU 01.18

HARLEM RAP WITH UNDERGROUND HUSTLE DAVE EAST + MILLYZ

[Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Allston. 8pm/18+/$25. crossroadspresents.com]

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THU 01.18

TAKE IT EASY, SINK INTO R&B MAKA OCEANIA + ROTHSTEIN + JYMMY KAFKA + MORE

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

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FRI 01.19

xX GOOD GUY HARDCORE Xx I AM BECOME DEATH + PUMMEL + RITUAL BLADE + WREATH OF TONGUES + MORE

[O’Brien’s Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston. 7pm/21+/$8. obrienspubboston.com]

SAT 01.20

SINGIN’ THE BLUES WITH A SMILE JULIE RHODES

[Atwood’s Tavern, 877 Cambridge St., Cambridge. 10pm/21+/$12. atwoodstavern.com]

WED 01.24

WED 01.24

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

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston.

8:30pm/18+/$10. greatscottboston.com]

OCEAN FOLKS AND AMERICANA CHAMBER POPS GENTLE TEMPER + STRANGERS BY ACCIDENT + THE SOLARS

BEACH DREAMS BURIED IN THE BASEMENT POP ALLEGRA + BABY! + PRIOR PANIC + MORE

Shaun King Feb 9, 2018 • 11am-12:30pm

Northeastern University welcomes activist and writer Shaun King to discuss how dialogue and awareness are an indispensable for extending crucial conversations about social justice and equality.

Info & RSVP: northeastern.edu/crossing or 617-373-2555

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HOLLYWOOD ACCOUNTING FILM

Taking stock of the comedies released by the major studios throughout the past year

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN

DOWNSIZING

By no conceivable measure is Downsizing [2017] a typical example of the contemporary Hollywood comedy. Its ostensibly wacky narrative—which takes place in a future where many people have shrunk themselves down to a height of 5 inches, primarily because life among the exceptionally small is immeasurably cheaper than it is at full size—gets considered with an atypical earnesty. Its expansive length—135 minutes—is notable even within a climate of overlong studio features. And its thematic concerns and political ideas—the topics broached include the impenetrable permanence of systemic racism within American capitalism—are not only apparent but are explored in ways both surprising and truly dramatic. To put it another way, Downsizing—which was scripted by director Alexander Payne and his longtime writing partner Jim Taylor—is a thoroughly written American comedy. And among those distributed recently, it’s one of very few that does not feel entirely dependent on the riffing or mugging or improvisations of its performers. “What they’ve created is a nigh-unheard-of amalgam, welding together a highconcept special-effects comedy … with a subjectively oriented existential drama obliquely recalling Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru [1952], the story of a Tokyo bureaucrat searching for meaning in a barren existence,” wrote film critic Nick Pinkerton of Payne and Taylor, and of Downsizing, in a review for Artforum—an outlet that, on a related note, doesn’t publish reviews of studio-produced American film comedies particularly often.

Accepting that Downsizing is not standard issue within its category—the Hollywood comedy—the question then becomes: What is? After running numbers (boxofficemojo. com was helpful, among other sources), I found that the six major American film studios (Disney, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Universal, Sony, and Paramount) collectively distributed 82 films in 2017 (to reach that number, I disregarded films released by their smaller “independent” subsidiary distributors, as well as rereleases, and oneweek-only specialty runs). And of those 82 features, one could reasonably argue that something like 35 or more qualify as “comedy films”—however, that number would require a fair bit of stretching. Such a count, for instance,

would have to include most animated films (like The Lego Batman Movie [2017] or The Emoji Movie [2017]), as well as Disney/Marvel/Sony’s superhero pictures (Spider-Man: Homecoming [2017], Thor: Ragnarok [2017], and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 [2017]). And if we instead limit that count to comedy films that are (a) live-action and (b) not based on a pre-existing superhero property, then we’re left with a significantly lower number: one as low as 16 or 17, depending on how you classify a few movies that exist on the comedy/drama or action/comedy borderline. To put that in perspective: In 2017, the major studios collectively released just as many sequels to action movies (I count at least 16 or 17, including new entries in the Star Wars, Alien, Kingsmen, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Transformers, and Fast & Furious franchises) as they did live-action comedies in total (be they “original” features or sequels to prior ones). That is a reality of financing which many directors of Hollywood comedies have decried in the press over the past decade and change, up to and including Payne himself, who made such comments to the Guardian in an interview published just days ago—when interviewer Jonathan Romney suggested that his films often grant attention to “fictional characters with failed lives,” Payne’s answer tied his work back to the studio comedies of another era, while simultaneously expressing a distaste for the current one. “It’s not about failures, it’s about real fucking people,” he said, regarding his own films. “Because we’re not having ‘heroes’, as apparently it’s supposed to be in mainstream American cinema these days. We’re trying to make ’70s movies about just people who are struggling and having real lives.”

The cinematic hero complex to which Payne alludes is undoubtedly discernible at our multiplexes and is rather pervasive even among the comedy films released by major studios. In breaking down those aforementioned 17 studio-produced comedies of 2017, one could begin with the hero-laden action-comedies, and one would scratch off a significant percentage of the whole list in doing so: Such films would include the sequels Kingsman: The Golden Circle [2017] and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle [2017], the reboots Baywatch [2017] and Chips [2017], and

FILM EVENTS THU 01.18

FRI 01.19

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

5:30pm/NR/$11. 35mm. Also on 1.20. Info at mfa.org]

[Harvard Film Archive, 24 Quincy St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 7pm/ NR/$7-9. 16mm. For more information see hcl. harvard.edu/hfa]

UCLA FESTIVAL OF PRESERVATION + ROXBURY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PRESENT THE MURDER OF FRED HAMPTON [1971]

18

01.18.18 - 01.25.18 |

A PROGRAM OF FILMS BY FREDERICK WISEMAN BEGINS AT THE HFA’ HIGH SCHOOL [1969]

DIGBOSTON.COM

FRI 01.19

SAT 01.20

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

4:30, 7, and 9:30pm/NR/$911. Screens through 1.25.

For other showtimes, see brattlefilm.org]

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

11:30pm/R/$12.25. 35mm.

Also screens on 1.27. coolidge.org]

AREA PREMIERE OF JOACHIM TRIER’S THELMA [2017]

COOLIDGE AFTER MIDNIGHT PRESENTS THE SHINING [1980]

finally, Edgar Wright’s musical-action-comedy Baby Driver [2017]. The next handful of 2017 studio comedies we can group together represent another oft-reviled tradition of contemporary Hollywood—the sequel: Here we can list Daddy’s Home 2 [2017], Pitch Perfect 3 [2017], and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul [2017]. Moving past the action-comedies and sequels, one next finds a cycle of male-centric, ensemble-based “original” comedy features, all four of which were produced and distributed by Warner Bros.: Fist Fight [2017] (Ice Cube, Charlie Day), Father Figures [2017] (Owen Wilson, Ed Helms, J.K. Simmons), Going in Style [2017] (Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Alan Arkin), and The House [2017] (Will Ferrell, Amy Poehler). Thus far we’ve accounted for 12 of the studio comedies released last year, and the remaining five can be separated into one of two other categories. Two of those five were projects helmed by lauded auteurs—first Suburbicon [2017], co-scripted by the Coen brothers and directed by George Clooney, then Downsizing itself. And the last three were absurdist girls-gone-wild romps: Snatched [2017], Rough Night [2017], and Girls Trip [2017] (which means, in turn, that the major studios did not release a single traditional romantic comedy this year—leaving that task to smaller distributors like Lionsgate or STX, who released The Big Sick [2017] and Home Again [2017], respectively).

Considering the overall scope of the films released at the multiplexes in a given year, this is a small group.

And the films themselves, in total, don’t give a viewer much reason to feel passionate about the continued marginalization of the comedy within the commercial film industry. For the most part, the works mentioned in this article are mediocrities, with the standouts (Baby Driver, Downsizing, certain segments of Girls Trip) being quite rare indeed. If, for example, you asked this writer for an American romantic comedy from 2017 that’s worth your while, then I’d likely have to point you to a movie classified as neither romance nor comedy—Happy Death Day [2017], a horror film that capably fulfills the sort of charm quotas you might apply to a movie directed by Nancy Meyers (mostly thanks to the mean-girl charisma of lead actress/scream queen Jessica Rothe). And that’s not the only horror film being considered across genre lines this season. Many criticisms were expressed after the instantly seminal Get Out [2017] was nominated in “musical or comedy” categories at the Golden Globes last month (as opposed to “drama”), with many commentators suggesting that such a classification does a disservice to the dense historical subtexts exhibited by the film. That particular argument is not one I care to relitigate. But what does seems apparent—given, say, the apparent need for such loose classifications, the complete lack of romcoms in last year’s slate of studio releases, and the generally copious evidence that funny movies are no longer a cornerstone of the American film industry—is that we’ll need to find the pleasures once provided by Hollywood comedies in other faraway sources—in independently produced comedies, in television programs, in horror movies, or anywhere else.

For the cultural emphasis once placed on wide-release studio-produced comedy films has, without question, been downsized.

TUE 01.23

WED 01.24

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

7pm/R/$12.25. 35mm. For more information on this program, see coolidge.org]

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

8pm/NR/$11. 35mm. Also screens on 1.25. For more information on this festival, see mfa.org]

‘A CELEBRATION OF DANIEL DAY-LEWIS’ CONTINUES AT THE COOLIDGE MY LEFT FOOT [1989]

UCLA FESTIVAL OF PRESERVATION PRESENTS JULEEN COMPTON’S STRANDED [1965]

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FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

THEATER REVIEWS ARTS

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

THE DAMAGE DONE: LOST GIRLS AT TAKE YOUR PICK PRODUCTIONS

Life hasn’t been a walk in the park for the Lefebvre ladies, and things aren’t exactly looking up.

The three New Hampshire women at the center of Lost Girls, John Pollono’s entertaining but ultimately undercooked play, represent three generations of tough, working-class women that have as much trouble navigating the basics of day-to-day life as they do reconciling the damaged hand that they’ve been dealt.

Linda (a terrific Christine Power) is the coarse, wisecracking matriarch who probably voted for Donald Trump and has no problem drinking wine out of a box. She had her daughter Maggie (Audrey Lynn Sylvia, excellent) as a teenager, just as her mother had her. Maggie is a similarly disillusioned yet angrier version of her mother and is one pizza and a six-pack away from bouncing the electric bill.

Maggie’s daughter, Erica (Lesley Anne Moreau), is a high school sophomore who seems destined to make the same mistakes as her mother. And she’s missing.

Their kitchen table becomes the situation room as Erica’s father, Lou (an affecting Terrence P. Haddad), descends on the house with his new bride, Penny, a God-loving Midwest transplant (played by Lauren Foster) who couldn’t have anything less in common with Maggie. Maggie and Lou were high school sweethearts whose relationship ended traumatically, and even now they can barely interact with one another like two adults.

Erica is just fine, by the way. Well, mostly. She’s holed up in a Connecticut hotel with her friend, Boy, played by the endearing Zach Winston. You see—now stay with me—Boy is driving Erica (or Girl, as she is called in the script—get it!

They’re universal types!) to Florida to be with her boyfriend, who is more than 20 years her senior. Oh, and the Florida creep is paying Boy to escort Girl down safely.

Have I lost you? I can’t blame you.

For all of the profound questions being raised here about the inheritance of damage and the impossibility of rising above the hand we’re dealt, Pollono’s play ultimately descends into unbelievable after school special territory that

SCENE FROM SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE

20

01.18.18 - 01.25.18 |

DIGBOSTON.COM

elicits cringes rather than tears. It is almost shocking, in a way, that this snappy 75-minute play is a finished product.

While it is nevertheless engaging, it is also, in many ways, a missed opportunity.

Director Melanie Garber has done a terrific job with both her fluid, naturalistic staging and the excellent performances that frequently transcend the material.

Audrey Lynn Sylvia is an effortlessly barbed Maggie, and Christine Power’s Linda is so delicious that she deserves a play all her own. Lauren Foster’s Penny, though, is unconvincing, and some key scenes lose steam because of it.

Despite the fact that Lost Girls isn’t entirely convincing, it remains a thoughtful and perceptive work with a handful of fine performances. Yet for all the gold woven throughout the play, I’m left chewing on what could have been rather than what is. >> LOST GIRLS. THROUGH 1.21 AT TAKE YOUR PICK PRODUCTIONS, BOSTON CENTER FOR THE ARTS. BOSTONTHEATRESCENE.COM

THE CAST SIZZLES IN AN UNEVEN SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE AT SPEAKEASY STAGE

The fault, dear reader, is not in the production, but in the play.

The job of adapting Shakespeare in Love, 1999’s Academy Award-winning best picture, was so difficult that even Tom Stoppard—the film’s original co-author—gave up. Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) ultimately got the job done (well, sort of), and his stage adaptation has been popping up all over the country ever since it premiered in 2014 in London’s West End. SpeakEasy Stage Company is now presenting the New England premiere of this long-in-the-works love letter to the theater, where it will run at the Calderwood Pavilion through Feb 10.

Nearly all of Hall’s faithful but uninspired adaptation is lifted directly from the film’s original screenplay, yet it’s only about half as charming. (The power of star quality, perhaps?)

Despite this, what results is a play that is both good-natured

and harmless, albeit a bit belabored.

The film, too, had plenty of cringeworthy moments and took a lot of abuse for being lowbrow fluff disguised as highbrow art. I have always liked Shakespeare in Love and found its criticism unfair, even if it is best remembered today as the film that robbed Saving Private Ryan of its Oscar.

It is notable that this adaptation seems to have no Broadway aspirations, especially considering the fact that the owner of its copyright is Disney, a company not opposed to subpar schlock so long as there’s a chance it will make money.

The merits of Hall’s adaptation aside, Scott Edmiston’s production now playing at SpeakEasy is a total delight, thanks mostly to Edmiston’s eager direction and the talents of its cast, chock-full of Boston’s best-loved actors.

Will Shakespeare (a dreamy George Olesky) is suffering from a bad case of writer’s block as he struggles with his latest play, Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate’s Daughter. Two different acting companies—each plagued by debts and menacing creditors—are breathing down his neck for a script. The problem is—aside from the writing block—Will has promised Romeo and Ethel to both companies.

The well-born Viola de Lesseps (the ever-lovely Jennifer Ellis) dreams of true love and longs to be an actress, despite the fact that women were prohibited from the stage. She disguises herself as a man and auditions for Will, who instantly casts her as Romeo, saying that he’s never heard his words spoken with such honesty before. They fall in love, his writer’s block dissolves, and Romeo and Ethel becomes Romeo and Juliet.

It’s all pure fiction, of course, although some of the characters are drawn from real people and there are ample historical puns throughout. One of the surprising things about Hall’s script is how satisfying the endless Shakespearean puns are despite their almost excessive regularity.

Edmiston has done a terrific job of keeping things moving, even if it is sometimes at the expense of a few rushed-over subplots. And although the overlong first act struggles with both momentum and cohesion, this Shakespeare in Love hits its stride in the second act where the laughs are hard and fast. The bittersweet ending is a missed opportunity, though, and a bizarre bit of staging with Viola being pulled across the stage on a platform meant to represent a ship mars the magic that had been building beautifully just prior.

One of this production’s greatest curiosities is its costumes, playfully designed by Rachel Padula-Shufelt, whose 16th-century designs have been peppered with little touches of rock and roll. Shakespeare wears a sexy leather jacket outfitted with a ruff which I quite adored, though dressing up John Webster like Sid Vicious is just plain weird.

But more troublesome is the egregious use of modern clothing throughout, which feels lazy rather than conceptual and is a frequent distraction. (Denim!? Cargo pants!? Ack!) Sorely missed, too, are more extravagant getups for the Queen. (And where, oh where is her white-faced “mask of youth?”)

But for all of Shakespeare in Love’s oddities, its cast remains its best asset. The magnetism of George Olesky’s Shakespeare and his effortless chemistry with Ellis is no small thing. Delightful, too, is Eddie Shields’ Marlowe, Nancy Carroll’s Queen Elizabeth I, and Jesse Hinson’s Ned Alleyn.

As far as ensembles go, this is the best one assembled this theatrical season.

Oh, and I very much liked the dog. >> SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE. THROUGH 2.10 AT SPEAKEASY STAGE COMPANY, 527 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. SPEAKEASYSTAGE.COM

JESSE MILES COMEDY

HEADLINING THIS WEEK!

There’s no I in Jesse or his girl

BY DENNIS MALER @DEADAIRDENNIS

Tim Dillon

JESSE MILES | PHOTO COURTESY OF WORLDFAMOUSSHITSHOW.COM In 1957, during an interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, original Tonight Show host Steve Allen famously said, “Man jokes about the things that depress him, but he usually waits till a certain amount of time has passed … Tragedy plus time equals comedy.”

If there’s any truth to that, Jesse Miles would have to wait several millennia to comfortably joke about his life. You know when someone falls down, and you laugh, but kind of feel awful about it? That was Jesse’s every day growing up, only he says that he was the one laughing as well as the one who fell down. Which is the main subject of his comedy and the biweekly podcast he hosts with childhood friends. I asked about it all…

You went to school for video game design, so how did you end up in prosthetics?

Out of college I got a job at a 3D mapping company that basically did what Google Street view does, and since Google is a thing, they went under and laid me and my entire department off. After that I needed a job badly; my uncle suggested I apply at this orthotic company, because the guy is old-school and hated that all of the brighteyed kids fresh out of college would basically tell him that he’s doing things the old way.

So when he sits me down, he says, “I kind of need someone who doesn’t know anything so I can train them my way on the job.” For me, that was perfect because I didn’t know what I was doing most hours of the day. I basically lucked into a medical career.

In such a serious work environment, working with people with horrific injuries, how do you keep the workplace jovial?

Luckily we’re only around patients when we measure and then fit the [prosthesis] to them, so it’s pretty much just me and the other techs most of the day.

You come from, let’s call it a diverse family; how has that influenced your comedy?

If by diverse, you mean biracial adopted child of divorce with one of my three moms finding substances to be delicious, then yes. I think the way I grew up is why I do comedy today.

Favorite non-comedy movie that influenced your sense of humor?

I think the movie that had the biggest impact on my sense of humor was Goodfellas.

It’s one movie that’s been stuck in my mind for as long as I can remember. I think it was the ability to have horrible things happening and at the same time be utterly hilarious.

That balance is something I try to find in my comedy; something horrible is happening, but it’s so funny I can’t help but laugh.

What’s one thing in Boston you would tell a tourist to go to, but you wouldn’t tell your mother to see it?

The duck boats. If you’re not from here, it’s a pretty cool ride to check out, but if you’re from here and above the age of 10 and hop on a duck boat, what are you doing with your life?

What comedian’s performance have you seen that made you the most jealous that it wasn’t you?

I remember I had misplaced jealousy one time when me, my dad, and my brother all went to the Comedy Cellar in New York. I was such a huge fan of New York stand-up comedy and was super excited to see a show in that venue. However, after about the second comic my brother comes back from the bathroom and whispers to me, “I just did coke in the bathroom with a comic I’ve seen on Comedy Central.” I was so jealous, and the worst part is he didn’t even remember the comic’s name. So, I also had to play interference between my dad and younger brother so that nobody was the wiser.

What’s your current music player of choice and what’s the most embarrassing song in it?

Currently my main player is Spotify. I honestly have plenty of embarrassing music on there, but I’d say the most embarrassing is that I have a playlist of Dragon Ball Z theme music.

Follow Jesse’s podcast, Misguided Musings, on Twitter @musingpodcast and at misguidedmusings.com. Or bug him in person at one of these upcoming shows: Penny 4 Your Thoughts, Jan 19 at Jacque’s Cabaret; High Performance Comedy at a secret location on Feb 3; Stand Up at the Green Room in Somerville Feb 8; the People’s Show at ImprovBoston on Feb 11.

Last Comic Standing, The Chris Gethard Show

Thursday + Saturday (No Friday Shows)

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

Rich Vos

Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing Jan 25-27

Erik Griffin

Workaholics, Showtime’s I’m Dying Up Here Feb 1-3

Jared Freid’s The JTrain Podcast Live!

Special Engagement: Weds, Feb 7

Jenny Zigrino

Bad Santa 2, Comedy Central Feb 8-10 617.72.LAUGH | laughboston.com 425 Summer Street at the Westin Hotel in Boston’s Seaport District NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

SAVAGE LOVE

COMEDY EVENTS

TOE UP

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

I’m an old guy, 68 years old to be exact. (Also a Scorpio, if that matters.) I’ve always been a pretty horny person, and I had a lot of fun from the 1960s through the 1980s with a number of lovers. I figured that as I got older, my horniness would lessen and I could think about something other than pussy. Trouble is, I don’t seem to be less horny.

I find myself attracted to women in their 30s or 40s, but I wonder how I appear to them. I don’t want to make an utter fool of myself by making an unwanted advance— but the truth is, I’m still pretty hot to trot. What do I do?

Not Ready For The Nursing Home You could see sex workers (quickest fix), you could look for women in their 30s or 40s who are attracted to guys pushing 70 (gerontophilia is a thing), you could date women in their 50s or 60s with a youthful appearance and/or attitude (there are lots out there, NRFTNH, and they often gather in groups to complain about how men their age are only interested in much younger women), or you could do all of the above. But you shouldn’t regard moving into a nursing home as the end of your sex life, NRFTNH. I’m constantly reading news reports about sexually transmitted disease epidemics in nursing homes and retirement communities. People may not like to think about the elderly having sex—and the elderly apparently don’t think about protection (or they’re denied access to it)—but lots of old fuckers are still fucking. (And, as astrology is bullshit, NRFTNH, being a Scorpio doesn’t matter. It never has and it never will.)

My husband has a foot fetish. The feel of his tongue between my toes when he “worships” my feet doesn’t arouse me in the least. Rather, it feels like I’m stepping on slugs in the garden barefoot. Our sex life is fine otherwise.

I resolved to grin (or grimace) and bear this odd aspect of his sexuality before we married, but I cannot continue to do so. When I told him this, he asked to be allowed to attend “foot model” parties. There wouldn’t be intercourse, but he would pleasure himself in the presence of these foot models (and other males!). This would, in my opinion, violate our monogamous commitment and our marriage vows. I enjoy your podcast and I know you often advocate for open relationships. But you also emphasize your respect for monogamy and the validity of monogamous commitments. We are at an impasse. Please advise.

Throwing Off Expectations While “love unconditionally” sounds nice, TOE, monogamy was a condition of yours going into this marriage (and a valid one), and being able to express this aspect of his sexuality was a stated or implicit condition of his (and, yes, an equally valid one). If you’re going to unilaterally alter the terms and conditions of your marriage, TOE, then you’ll need to reopen negotiations and come to a new agreement with your husband, one that works for both of you. (Jesus, lady, let him go to the fucking party!)

On the Lovecast, Dan chats with Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood: savagelovecast.com

THU 01.18

QUEER QOMEDY HOUR @ IMPROVBOSTON

Featuring: Cathy Coleman, Corey Saunders, Nonye BrownWest, Laura Clark, Carrie Ross, Isabella O’Connell, & Lorelei Erisis.

Hosted by Dylan Uscher

40 PROSPECT ST., CAMBRIDGE | 7PM | $5 THU 01,18 - SAT 01.20

TIM DILLON @ LAUGH BOSTON

Tim is a NY-based comic who was a breakout at the 2016 Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in the New Faces category. He won the title of NY’s Funniest at the 2016 New York Comedy Festival where he also headlined three sellout shows on a double decker tour bus throughout Manhattan’s wealthiest neighborhoods. Tim has performed on the Oddball Comedy & Oddity Tour, & featured on NBC’s Last Comic Standing, The Chris Gethard Show on Fusion, Fox’s Red Eye, AXS TV’s Gotham Comedy Live, Comedy Knockout for TruTV, & season 2 of WYFD with Big Jay Oakerson for Seeso. He is also the host of his own podcast “Tim Dillon is Going to Hell.”

425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | 8 & 10PM | $20-$25 FRI 01.19

COMEDY NIGHT @ PAVEMENT COFFEEHOUSE (BU)

Featuring: Jiayong Li, Kylie Alexander, Christa Weiss, Matt Kona, Pamela Ross, Allison Dick, & Andrew Mayer.

Hosted by Brett Johnson & Will Martin

736 COMM AVE., BOSTON | 6:30PM | $5 FRI 01.19

PREACHER LAWSON @ THE WILBUR

In 2015 Preacher won the title of Funniest Comedian In Florida, in 2016 he was crowned the winner of the Seattle International Comedy Competition. He’s continued the wave of momentum on into 2017 & he’s on quite a roll this year so far – having made his television debut on NBC’s “Last Call with Carson Daly” followed by an appearance on Comedy Dynamic’s “Coming To The Stage” soon after. He is also currently making a big splash on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” which recently beat the MLB All-Star game in ratings!

246 TREMONT ST., BOSTON | 7:30PM | $22 FRI 01.19 - SAT 01.20

DANNY KELLY @ NICK’S COMEDY STOP

Danny has been doing comedy since 1995. A regular at the Comedy Store in Los Angeles & frequently appears at Carolines in New York. Strutting the stage wearing a black Kangol, & a pair of Nike Cortez, Danny is known to his fans as the “King of the 80’s”. Danny has opened for Andrew “Dice” Clay, Howie Mandel, Jim Norton, Craig Gas, & Greg Fitzsimmons.

246 TREMONT ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $20 SUN 01.21

DARCI LYNNE & FRIENDS @ THE CHEVALIER THEATRE

Darci Lynne Farmer is a ventriloquist, comedian, & singer from Oklahoma City. She is the winner of this year’s (season twelve) NBC competition show America’s Got Talent.

30 FOREST ST., MEDFORD | 3 & 7PM | $32 - $100 MON 01.22

LAUGHTER ON TAP @ MEADHALL

Featuring: Andrew Mayer, Alana Foden, Laura Burns, Joe Kozlowsky, Tooky Kavanagh, & Adam Abelson.

Hosted by Kristin Carnes & Kathleen DeMarle

4 CAMBRIDGE CTR., CAMBRIDGE | 7PM | FREE TUE 01.23

THE SOUTH SHORE BOYZ @ BEAT BRASSERIE savagelovecast.com

22

01.18.18 - 01.25.18 |

DIGBOSTON.COM

Featuring: Al Park, Mike Whitman, Kindra Lansburg, Mike Recine, Tyler Swain, Dan Hall, & Logan O’Brien.

13 BRATTLE ST., CAMBRIDGE | 8PM | $5

Lineup & shows to change without notice. For more shows & info visit BostonComedyShows.com

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY PATTKELLEY.COM

THE WAY WE WEREN’T

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