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RIP JOURNALISM Dear Reader, Jon Klarfeld was the type of guy no sane person would quarrel with; even in his later years, he seemed like the sort of person who would chew his own damn arm off before screaming, “Uncle.” I always describe Klarfeld, who taught the basic journalism skills class I took as a grad student at Boston University in 2004, as someone who tended the net in hockey before goalies wore face masks. That’s no exaggeration; Klarfeld, who passed away last week at 80 years old, stopped pucks for his college team at Colgate University, where he graduated in 1960.

Having moved to Boston to attend BU and learn how to become a journalist, it was my hope that I’d meet experienced hacks of Klarfeld’s caliber. Someone whose hands, forehead, and clothes, like his, were perpetually stained with newsprint. Klarfeld walked slowly (I’m guessing due to back and knee problems he collected playing contact sports into his golden years), wore his sleeves rolled up with his tie loose, and habitually carried multiple newspapers—all of them bloody with his plentiful red edit marks—in the crease of his elbow, like a headlock. The guy never had a lot of nice things to say about headlines he read to our class; one time I recall him mocking the Boston Globe, one of a few papers where he had worked, for posturing as if its editors were the first to discover that hipsters were increasingly favoring beer in a can.

The demands that Klarfeld put on us in class were seemingly impossible to meet; treating the amateur reporters sitting in a horseshoe formation before him like the city desk staff of a big city daily, he’d reel off details of a breaking story and then order us to terminals to produce copy. He would play a fire captain at a major blaze, or a police sergeant handling reporters in the wake of a shootout, and then he would hover over our shoulders barking insults, like, “So fah… SO WHAT?!” There were always twists and unexpected turns, with scenarios that looked a certain way on the surface, but that upon examination turned out to have multiple dimensions.

Though it’s funny to imagine just how badly he would mock me for suggesting such a thing, Klarfeld’s approach to those stories in class speaks to the person he was.

As a professor, and probably as a journalist and editor before that, he was such a smokey old-school newsroom caricature that it was hard to imagine him being anything else—even though at home he was a family man and close friend to many, including the iconic Boston author George V. Higgins, “all” of whose weddings Klarfeld once told me he stood as the best man for.

But for those of us who sat through his class, he was an archetype. The newsroom was his church, deadlines his commandments. He taught us that there’s no such thing as an excuse in this business, while his occasional smirks of approval gave this young reporter way more encouragement than he probably realized. As long as there are still hundreds of media makers among us, from the New York Times to daily newspapers across America, who trudged through Klarfeld’s boot camp and emerged to write the story, our profession has a fighting chance.

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NEWS+OPINION CAPE FEAR NEWS TO US

Barnstable sheriff sides with Trump and ICE, against constituents and immigrants

BY EOIN HIGGINS @EOINHIGGINS_

“It’s essentially an end run around the bail process,” said Laura Rótolo, a staff counsel and community advocate with the Massachusetts branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Rótolo was referring to plans by Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings to use cooperation with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) to hold alleged criminals past the time or the bail set by the courts. Cummings affirmed that position in an interview with this reporter on Jan 29.

“From where I stand, if I do release them back into the community, they could commit another crime,” Cummings said.

As the debate over immigration increases in urgency, one year into the Trump presidency, the Massachusetts sheriff is preparing to take sides in the debate. But Cummings isn’t taking the side that’s inspired communities across the Commonwealth to pass resolutions protecting undocumented people. Rather, Cummings and his department are about to enter into a 287(g) cooperation agreement with ICE, which would operationalize local forces to assist Trump’s regime in deporting undocumented people on the Cape.

That stance is causing some consternation in activists and civil liberties advocates on the Cape and in the Commonwealth who spoke to DigBoston.

The 287(g) program that Cummings is joining is already being implemented by two other sheriff’s departments in the state: in Bristol and Plymouth counties. In Massachusetts, sheriffs control county jails.

The jails are used by ICE in Bristol and Plymouth counties as detention centers—sometimes not only for those detained in Massachusetts, but for immigrants who are arrested all over the country, said Lauren Rótolo of the Massachusetts ACLU. “It’s an extreme form of collaboration with immigration authorities,” Rótolo said.

Cummings said that the next class for 287(g) training is hosted in Charleston, South Carolina, in May. ICE pays for it. Once the officers are trained, they’ll return to duty.

The symbolism of Cummings choosing to be a part of 4

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the Trump administration’s deportation machine in the current political climate isn’t lost on Rótolo, who said the message being sent by the move may be more important than any actions the sheriff’s department actually takes through 287(g).

“We shouldn’t lose sight of how extreme and voluntary this is,” said Rótolo. “They’re raising their hands and saying, ‘I agree and want to be a part of this.’”

There doesn’t seem to be much, if anything, that anybody on the Cape can do about it. When Cummings applied for the 287(g) program so the jail could cooperate with ICE, it didn’t matter that Barnstable County has one of the only remaining county governments in Massachusetts. Sheriff’s departments in Mass aren’t beholden to their county governments. Rather, they report to and are funded by the state. Though counter to the wishes of constituents in most towns on the Cape, working with ICE is ultimately a decision that will be made by the sheriff.

“The sheriff applied independently,” said Richard Vengroff, an emeritus professor of political science and accredited immigration representative with the Community Action Committee of Cape Cod & Islands.

The Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates attempted to pass a resolution, proposed by Provincetown’s Brian O’Malley, condemning the cooperation. But due to weighted voting power on the body, five of the 14 members were able to defeat the bill.

“The way the system here works is that representatives are from each town and their voting power is weighted by population,” Vengroff said.

Local resistance notwithstanding, Cummings says the program is useful, and not solely for detaining those here without proper papers. The sheriff said he sees the capabilities of 287(g) as giving him the ability to keep dangerous criminals off the streets. Cummings rattled off a list of crimes he alleged were committed last year by undocumented people on the Cape.

“The crimes were fairly significant,” said Cummings, “rape, threatening to commit murder, assault and battery on a child under the age of 14, child porn.”

When it came time to set bail in those cases, according to Cummings, the judges were too lenient. The sheriff added that he wants to prevent people who are accused of serious crimes from being able to post bond at all.

But that isn’t the sheriff’s call to make.

When people post bail, they should be released, said Rótolo. The ACLU staff counsel said Cummings is attempting to insert the sheriff’s office into a process where it doesn’t belong. Cummings, meanwhile, said that the concerns over his “end run around the bail process” and his alleged violations of due process are overstated.

“I think that’s a stretch,” Cummings said.

But Vengroff, Community Action Committee of Cape Cod & Islands, maintains that the challenges to civil liberties are real—and says that what the sheriff is doing may be illegal.

“People brought in for other crimes are processed, then the sheriffs accept entreaties from ICE to hold people,” Vengroff said. “We don’t think that’s legal; generally, you have to charge someone to hold them.”

Vengroff works with immigrants on the Cape to help them with their status and to navigate the American legal system. That’s work that may become more difficult after officers complete their training under the 287(g) program, especially as Cummings plans to use detainers to circumvent the courts.

That’s not good enough, said Rótolo: “You may agree or not agree with the decision, but it’s the court’s job to set bail.” She added that using ICE detainers as an “end run around the bail process” is a slippery slope and hinted at a fundamental misunderstanding—at best—of the function of the ICE detainers. Rótolo said that the detainers are for the agency to be able to deport people— not anything to do with whether or not people are dangerous. The Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities, an activist group, agrees.

“The real purpose of the 287(g) program is not public safety, it is deportation,” members of the coalition wrote in a statement. “It has nothing to do with the criminal justice system, or prosecuting crimes, it just takes people who are already in custody and fast-tracks them for deportation.”

The coalition stressed that it was not interested in stopping criminal prosecutions for crimes, but rather was interested in ensuring that people aren’t targeted by law enforcement solely based on their immigration status.

“We are not seeking to shield the undocumented from prosecution for crimes,” the coalition’s statement continued, “but we are standing up for due process and equal treatment.”

Due process is the issue, said Rótolo, and it’s what Sheriff Cummings is violating by using ICE to get around what he sees as leniency.

“It’s not their duty and not their responsibility to second-guess the courts,” Rótolo said. “The sheriff isn’t the person who should be determining who gets to go free.”

If you or anyone you know was detained under 287(g) in a Massachusetts jail, and you want to tell your story, please contact the author at eoinhiggins@gmail.com This article was produced in collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.

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APPARENT HORIZON

“WON’T SOMEBODY PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!”

Moral panic hamstrings promising North Andover cannabis farm deal

BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS

Last fall, I wrote about the history of Osgood Landing—a large industrial facility in North Andover—as part of a column (“An Andover North Andover Deal?”) slamming a hasty bid to win the Amazon HQ2 contract put together by that town in partnership with nearby Haverhill, Lawrence, and Methuen. For decades, it had been a huge Western Electric manufacturing plant and AT&T research center, the storied Merrimack Valley Works—heavily unionized and employing over 12,000 area residents at its height. After the AT&T breakup in 1984, it began its downward slide. First under Western Electric successor corporation Lucent, then under French multinational Alcatel-Lucent—which killed the facility off completely by 2008. Blowing a hole thousands of jobs wide in the fortunes of a region that had already fallen far from its heyday as an industrial powerhouse between the 19th century and WWII. A small company called Ozzy Properties bought the complex from Lucent in 2003 for a bargain-basement price at the time of its merger with Alcatel, and over the years has only managed to fill about 40 percent of its 1.8 million square feet with a grab bag of companies that together provide about 1,000 jobs and pay North Andover about a third of the $1 million in taxes a year on average that it used to get when Lucent owned the site, according to a 2017 North Andover Citizen article.

Well before town leaders decided to court Amazon to set up shop in part at Osgood Landing, its owner, Ozzy Properties’ Dr. Jeff Goldstein, had been floating a proposal to turn the unused 1.1 million-square-foot portion of the facility into one of the world’s largest indoor cannabis-growing farms.

After reviewing all the problems I thought that Amazon would be likely to bring to the area should the Merrimack Valley bid for HQ2 have prevailed (which

But the town meeting passed a ban on all recreational marijuana establishments instead.

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we now know it did not), I closed my “Amazon North Andover” column by reminding the people of Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen, and North Andover to remember the advice recently proffered by their own regional planners: [T]he 2013 Merrimack Valley Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy produced by the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission stated, “The region’s best prospects for future economic growth are its local entrepreneurs.”

Local entrepreneurs like the Osgood Landing owners, if they choose to start their marijuana farm rather than grab for the brass ring Amazon could offer them.

A sustainable “growth” industry if ever there was one that could provide an estimated 2,500 good jobs to the region—two-thirds of which would not require college degrees. But it seems like local residents, perhaps with former Lucent employees in the lead, will now have to remind their elected officials. If not in lobby days and protests prior to an Amazon deal, then definitely at the ballot box come next election should such a disastrous initiative ever actually come to pass.

Fast-forward to last week and we find Goldstein trying to get his cannabis farm proposal passed by North Andover Town Meeting for the second time in under a year. Now projecting only 1,500 new jobs for the Merrimack Valley region, but upping the ante with a pledge to pay the town $5 million a year for 20 years—$100 million overall—for the privilege of doing business “around the corner” from where he lives. But the town meeting passed a ban on all recreational marijuana establishments instead. Preempting the planned vote on the bylaw changes needed to zone Osgood Landing for a marijuana business, and placing the future of Goldstein’s grand “Massachusetts Innovation Center” plan (which includes the farm and a medical cannabis “research campus”) in serious doubt.

Seems like an unfortunate outcome from this corner.

And not just because of the usual fact-light, emotionheavy prohibitionist antics on display at the latest town meeting dustup, according to multiple sources. For the kids, don’t you know. Who are busy getting baked as regularly as the parents who are now trying to “protect” them did when they were teenagers. No, I guess such

behavior is only to be expected from North Andover’s still-robust contingent of downwardly mobile, middle-class burghers hoping to keep up bourgeois respectability by not becoming known as the “Pot Town” to some imaginary audience of tut-tutting social betters in Georgetown or Boxford or, god forbid, Andover—and which clearly had the effect desired by such retrograde antipot crusaders. Far better, apparently, to be known as yet another “Oxy Town” as they continue to fail to replace all the good jobs they’ve lost and turn to opiates to kill the pain of maxing out their last credit cards shortly before becoming homeless, am I right?!

But to my point, even if the planned cannabis facility ended up providing half the 1,500 jobs currently being promised by Goldstein and company—750 jobs—that would at least go most of the way toward replacing the 800 jobs and attendant tax revenue lost earlier in the decade when Converse and Schneider Electric both left North Andover (the former to Boston’s Seaport District, the latter to evil twin Andover). And while I’m not in the habit of suggesting that backing corporations as a municipal economic development strategy is any kind of optimal solution, at least Dr. Goldstein is offering to actually give $100 million to the town, rather than just trying to extract huge bribes from local government like most companies do when they set up shop pretty much anywhere these days.

Which is not to say that he hasn’t at least tried to benefit from government largesse before. He has, as when Osgood Landing was designated the Osgood Smart Growth Overlay District (yes, OSGOD, of all acronyms) in 2006. And there was supposedly a tax increment financing (TIF, aka a significant corporate tax break) plan of the type I often criticize attached to the district. But in a 2015 North Andover Citizen article, Selectman Rosemary Smedile was quoted saying the TIF wasn’t activated.

Regardless, it seems highly unlikely North Andover is going to find a better deal anytime soon. And certainly not with any company that has the kind of built-in market that an industrial cannabis concern would have in a state with a robust recreational market for the “demon weed.” What it will get instead is some version of the bad Amazon deal from large corporations that will demand millions in tribute from local and state governments before ever putting two sticks together anywhere near the town.

And that’s a shame. Now Goldstein will have to find a way to get some version of his proposal passed before his investors abandon him, or his clever idea for a modicum of municipal renewal (and a tidy profit to be sure) will go the way of most clever ideas. Into the dust heap of history.

While the teenagers of North Andover remain as stoned as ever.

Apparent Horizon is syndicated by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Jason Pramas is BINJ’s network director, and executive editor and associate publisher of DigBoston. Copyright 2018 Jason Pramas. Licensed for use by the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism and media outlets in its network

THEORY WELLNESS CANNABIZ CORNER

Big ideas in Bridgewater and Great Barrington

BY ALEX BRANDON

OCTOBER 2017 PHOTO OF CCC PUBLIC HEARING AT BOLLING BUILDING IN ROXBURY | BY CHRIS FARAONE

As more and more medical dispensaries come online, it will be increasingly important for purveyors to stand out from the pack. Brandon Pollock, CEO of Theory Wellness, a registered marijuana dispensary with locations in Bridgewater and Great Barrington, has a couple of ideas for how to make that happen. We asked about his operation and about what led him to his current mission.

We aim to be akin to a craft brewer.

What inspired you to start your company?

Our team wanted to create a dispensary experience that we, as patients, wish existed.

Theory’s goal is to cultivate interesting genetics and provide the highest quality cannabis possible.

We aim to be akin to a craft brewer. Our team saw that the cannabis industry, especially on the East Coast, was gravitating towards larger and larger scale cannabis producers that value the lowest cost of production over the quality of the product.

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What defines success for you?

The collective experience of our patients. We want everyone to be able to be both educated about their options and find a cannabis product that works for their body.

How do you give back to the community?

In respect to the cannabis community, we are trying to be a less corporate, more approachable dispensary that participates in and shapes the latest trends in the cannabis world.

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

For us and any licensed dispensary, finding real estate and a local community to work in is a significant initial hurdle. Fortunately, after months of searching we found an ideal property in Bridgewater that allowed us to build our facility from the ground up.

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

In startup businesses, especially in the cannabis space, you must be always willing to change your course. Flexibility and nimbleness are key. Technology, consumer preferences, and regulations are constantly in flux.

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

We truly believe in the benefits of cannabis as a wellness product. We wish to inspire and encourage more folks to participate in this industry for reasons beyond just financial gain.

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

I truly enjoy the work that I am doing—I do not partition work [and] life as separate items in my mind. I am always thinking about ways to improve Theory, and do not mind that at all.

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BIRD BRAINS DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

How a battle over an endangered species is shaping environmental policy out west

BY NICOLE VULCAN For those in the West, “the bird” is the greater sage-grouse and a “listing” refers to the threat of the bird being added to the Endangered Species list.

Recent moves by Trump-appointed Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke could signal changes to the extensive work aimed at helping “the bird” across 10 western states.

These were once words loaded down with angst on all sides. But by 2015 a broad bipartisan group, including conservation groups and ranchers, had created a series of Sage-Grouse Action Plans in those 10 states. Under the plans, ranchers would receive funding and support to improve sage-grouse habitat on their lands. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Land Management amended dozens of land-use plans to further enhance habitat for sage-grouse.

Many described it as a win-win—“what’s good for the bird is good for the herd.”

These days, though, those stakeholders are wringing their hands once again, exploring new “what ifs” centered around Zinke’s Secretarial Order 3353, “Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation and Cooperation with Western States.” In June 2017, the department announced the opening of a public comment period on sage-grouse plans. The idea, the department alleged, was to “improve sage-grouse conservation by strengthening collaboration among states and the federal government.” The comment period ended Dec 1, 2017.

Zinke, a former college football player and Navy SEAL who called recent controversy over his travels by helicopter “bullshit” and has called Hillary Clinton the “Antichrist,” is in many ways the perfect Trump appointment: a macho mineral-extraction enthusiast who has little patience for 8

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environmentalists or the implications of the “bird” and its potential listing.

Sage-grouse are seen as an “umbrella species”— meaning when its populations are in peril, so too are more than 350 other species that share their habitat. In other words, when “the bird” is threatened, it’s a signal the entire ecosystem is threatened too.

But it could also put numerous burdens on landowners and ranchers, and on public agencies tasked with carrying out the tenets of those protections. In some areas, a listing could bar grazing, farming, mining, or other activities altogether.

Rep. Greg Walden (R-Hood River), representing eastern Oregon in the US House, applauded the reopening of the comment period. “Oregon’s ranchers and landowners have done great cooperative work to improve sage grouse habitat, and this is a chance for their firsthand knowledge to be incorporated into the planning process,” wrote Walden in an Oct 6 release, adding that it signals a desire to work with rural communities rather than “just burdening them with rules from Washington, D.C.” Dan Morse, conservation director for the Oregon Natural Desert Association, disagrees with Walden’s assessment of a top-down hierarchy. “You could not be a rancher in the eastern half of this state in the last five years and not have some knowledge that sage-grouse is declining,” Morse said.

“It’s obvious, ranchers as individuals take this serious.

That’s clear,” said John O’Keefe, then-president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. “The end game is to be sure we don’t have a listing, so we can continue to have

the flexibility to do the projects that are going to make a difference.”

The two sides are often painted as “grazing versus grouse.” But ranching may not be the biggest threat.

Energy and housing were bigger threats by far. And the oil and gas industries are big players in many of the states where stakeholders adopted sage-grouse plans in 2015.

In August, the watchdog group Western Values Project released a statement regarding a leaked document involving the oil and gas industry trade group, the Western Energy Alliance. According to WVP, a memo from the WEA acted as the basis for Secretary Zinke’s current sage-grouse review. WVP says WEA made 15 recommendations to the Interior Department’s sage-grouse review team; 13 of those requests were used in Zinke’s report, according to WVP. This summer, WVP filed a Freedom of Information Act request to see correspondence between oil and gas industry representatives and Interior Department staff.

“We’re now going on our third month without a response from the Department of Interior,” Jayson O’Neill, deputy director of WVP said, noting that WVP has since filed suit for information regarding those emails. “Now as we’re winding down our public comment period, the public has really still been kept in the dark about why these amendments and these revisions came forward.”

Nicole Vulcan is editor of the Source Weekly in Bend, Oregon, where this story originally appeared. Check her Insta @ nicovee1.

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VALENTINE’S EATS

(CHOCOLATE) BAR HOPPING

Off The Beaten Path food tours chew beyond the tourist traps

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON With innumerable new establishments and favorite old haunts as well dotting the landscape, it helps to have a expert connect the dots on Greater Boston’s ever-growing food map. Lizzie Bell and Sam Schlussel are up for the job, as the couple has been mining and exploring the food scene around here for more than a decade. Now they’re taking friends and strangers along with them on their dining adventures, including on a special chocolate tour that runs through Valentine’s Day. We asked Lizzie all about their startup operation and this latest taste quest.

What’s unique about your walking tours? What do they all have in common regardless of which tour it is?

Our walking food tours operate in neighborhoods of Boston with the hottest food scenes, regardless of how “touristy” the area is. For example, we don’t operate in the timeless North End or South End or Beacon Hill neighborhoods of Boston, because many tourists only go to these places and miss some really cool areas off the beaten path like Somerville’s Davis Square or Union Square, or even Harvard Square in Cambridge. We also guarantee a friendly, knowledgeable guide and will take groups as small as two guests out on the town. Since we love to eat, we are typically generous with our tasting samples, so come hungry. And you may even get to try your hand at candlepin bowling on our Davis Square tour. Whenever possible, we try to introduce guests to the owners of these businesses—in a place like Davis Square, many of the owners are in the shops every day and love chatting with guests and answering their questions, which is really unique.

You’ve been at it for about a year now. What have you learned and how have you tweaked your tours as a result?

Unfortunately, it took longer to get set up than we had hoped, so we started our tours last July and sort of missed the busy summer season. But we’ve learned a lot and listened to the feedback of our guests and customers.

We think of the tours as a labor of love because they’re not super profitable, but we are extremely proud of them. We really hope that guests will tip our guides because they live on these gratuities, since we pay for the food from the guest fees.

How do you decide when to start a new tour? What’s the qualifier?

We are reliant on finding awesome guides with the enthusiasm, availability, reliability, and interest. Please apply if you’re interested. We are actually working on a Jamaica Plain food tour to debut this spring, which is something we wanted to do from the start but couldn’t find the right partners. We have our eyes on neighborhoods all over Massachusetts and even theme tours in the same places.

Did you know Boston was actually the candy capital of the world?

How do you plan/map out a food tour? How much do you take your own tastes into account?

We’ve found that some people can think expansively and get what we’re doing, and some businesses—even ones we love and thought would be on board—just don’t get it and flat-out refuse to host our group. So we start broadly with a wide list of businesses, reach out to each one multiple times individually, and narrow our list down to businesses that offer great food, have a cool story, and are 10 02.08.18 - 02.15.18 |

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located in a historically relevant area or building. We also joined the local business groups like the Harvard Square Business Association, and we’re all about promoting neighborhood causes and happenings on our blog and social channels. We also have options available for vegans, vegetarians, and even “health freaks” because the food we serve is high-quality and diverse.

How does the new Harvard Square Chocolate Tour work?

We have two guides, Liz and Molly, who are taking groups of up to 20 around the area. The guides have strong knowledge about the area, live in Cambridge, and know a lot about chocolate. Guests meet at a central meeting spot and are given hand warmers to keep themselves toasty on the walk around the square, which takes 90 minutes total.

We’ll then visit five to six local spots with the best and most interesting chocolate, and sample at each place while learning the history of the area as well as the food. The chocolate we eat is varied and delicious, and you’re guaranteed to learn a lot along the way. It’s a great Valentine’s Day experience—and we even have two evening tours running on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 pm in case you want to do an after-dinner chocolate walking adventure or date night.

Even though Somerville and Cambridge are getting hotter and hotter, and more expensive, there have been great eats there for some time. What would this tour have looked like 10 years ago?

Funny enough, we’ve been living in the area for over 10 years, so we have thought a lot about this question. In fact, on our Davis Square tour we stop at some places like Oat Shop, Spindler Confections, Opa Greek Yeeros, Curio Spice, and Q’s Nuts that were not around 10 years ago. On the Harvard Square tour, I could have seen us stopping at places like Hidden Sweets, Herrell’s ice cream store, Finagle a Bagel for their delicious chocolate chip bagels, and even the Greenhouse Diner, which honestly had the best huge slice of chocolate cake around that I miss so much.

What’s one of your best bits of local history that you love to drop on people on any of your tours?

One fact that’s pretty awesome is that Mary from “Mary Had a Little Lamb” lived in Somerville. We tell her story from the poem on the tour. Did you know Boston was actually the candy capital of the world? We have so many amazing firsts in Boston, from the first sugar refinery, to the home of Baker’s chocolate, to the first American candy machine, which was a synthesis for NECCO (New England Candy Company). Our tours are packed with insights, and we also have a blog that we update weekly with some interesting facts and tidbits about these neighborhoods.

You’ve been living in the area for some time. What are some Somerville-Cambridge restaurants that you truly miss?

My parents grew up and lived in Harvard Square, and they are always telling me how much they miss places like the Tasty, Nornie B’s, Elsa’s, and the like. The closing of restaurants is just part of life. I remember going to college and eating at the Greenhouse in Harvard Square and hanging out at Au Bon Pain and Finale, which are both closed now but offered a really fun place to peoplewatch and relax. I used to love eating at Emma’s Pizza in Cambridge—they had the best sweet potato ricotta pizza I’ve ever had! I miss the Blue Room’s brunch in Kendall Square—it was all you can eat and truly epic! Journeyman in Somerville was so creative and interesting. And the Elephant Walk in Cambridge had delicious wonton shrimp dumplings that I adored. The Ames Street Deli was a cool spot in Cambridge. I loved Hungry Mother. Oh, this is

making me sad. Come back to us!

Are there any whole categories of eats that you see getting pushed out of the area as higher-end restaurants move in?

For me, I love a good coffee shop lounge with those comfy eclectic couches that turns into a Nashville-style music hall at night and can host neighborhood groups. I stare longingly at big vacancies in the neighborhood like that open spot right on Elm Street where the Family Dollar used to be in Davis Square, and wonder—can we have a big mixed-use space come in? I’m thinking a spot like Tryst or Busboys and Poets in DC or the Listening Room Cafe in Nashville. I’m worried that every square inch of these places needs to be taken over by more efficient real estate like medical offices, but honestly we just need places to lounge and connect and gather and discuss and meet and create, which are hard to find these days. Diesel, for example, is wonderful but expensive, closes early, and is packed to the brim constantly, but is one of the only spots we have to grab a coffee at an independent cafe. It’s my dream to help a place like that open and flourish—hopefully one day. Hey, if you know an investor, call me.

What’s something that you have learned from somebody on one of your tours?

I’d say we are always pleasantly surprised when people who have lived in the area for over five years have never visited many of the places that we take them, which makes us so proud. Also, you’re never too old to candlepin bowl!

We had a guest recently get a strike even though she hadn’t bowled since second grade and was in her 60s. We honestly meet the coolest people, and we have the best jobs in our opinion. We are naturally curious and constantly learning and love what we do.

The Harvard Square Chocolate Tour runs on Fridays at 7pm, Saturdays at 2pm and 7pm, and Sundays at 7pm; groups may also schedule a private tour off schedule.

Check out offthebeatenpathfoodtours.com for more info or email hello@offthebeatenpathfoodtours.com

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V-DAY

FEATURE

Finally a bunch of reasons to embrace the occasion

BY HALEY HAMILTON @SAUCYLIT I fucking hate Valentine’s Day, and it’s not because I’m single.

I hate this holiday because I work in the service industry, and nothing evokes the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre more than being at work in a restaurant on Feb 14.

Every dining room is destroyed, torn apart into tables for two. Things run late, wreaking havoc on the orderly procession of reservations, and the bar, oh my God, the bar, is a sea of red and pink dresses and people making googly eyes at their dates, drowning their sorrows, or desperately trying to pick up someone—anyone—before the clock strikes midnight.

If I’m not working, I will always be locked in my apartment by 6 pm, avoiding the entire scene at all costs.

This year, though… this year is different.

This year, a group of Boston hospitality industry pros are turning mid-February into a series of events in the name of V-Day, a global activist movement fighting to end violence against women and girls. Efforts will be headed up by Andrea Pentabona, bar manager of the Independent in Somerville, and supported by Patrick Gaggiano, trend and scene manager for Jagermeister; Ryan Lotz, beverage director of Bar Mezzana in the South End; Jennifer Sutherland, the US Bartenders’ Guild (USBG) representative of Boston; and Naomi Levy, formerly of Kenmore’s Eastern Standard, and now brand ambassador for Bols Genever.

Launched in 1998 by Eve Ensler, author and performer of, most famously, the Vagina Monologues, V-Day sponsors produce and host a performance of the Vagina Monologues or Ensler’s A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer. The shows address violence as it impacts men and women, with proceeds benefiting local organizations that support survivors of sexual or domestic violence, or that 12 02.08.18 - 02.15.18 |

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are working to break the cycle of gender-based violence by working with perpetrators.

Each year, thousands of volunteer-produced V-Day benefit events take place in the US and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls. In addition to the benefit performances, many activist collectives host pop-up events throughout the month of February to raise additional funds and spread awareness through their communities. *** Following a year marked by a flurry of public (if empty) apologies for sexual misconduct by prominent chefs and restaurateurs, the #MeToo movement is increasingly busy highlighting how every woman—including the ones you know, the ones you work with, the ones who serve you drinks after work—has a story of sexual harassment or assault.

“It’s obviously time to talk about it,” Sutherland said.

As an industry, bars and restaurants have a complicated history with sexual harassment. As the Globe published in November, and as organizations like the Restaurant Opportunities Center have been screaming for years, women working in restaurants are practically guaranteed to experience sexual harassment at work. From the “boys club” culture of kitchens and bars (which is changing, slowly, so very slowly) to financially depending on tips from drinkers and diners, the layers of power, money, and sexual innuendo are deep and varied.

Plus, if you’re behind the bar, you’re interacting with a broad spectrum of people sprinkled across an even broader spectrum of intoxication, many of whom, let’s face it, are out looking to get laid. Getting harassed at work, or

witnessing harassment while you’re working, in this environment seems unavoidable.

But it’s not. And, according to V-Day’s Boston organizers, it’s time we stop acting like it.

“It came to my attention that there is no set policy within the USBG about work harassment or how to handle harassment you might witness,” said Pentabona of the Independent. “There’s some work to be done … As a community, the Boston hospitality community, we make things happen.”

Like what? Take Thirst Boston, a weekend-long celebration of drinks. Or CREATE, chef Louis DiBiccari’s local booze+art+food throwdown.

Or surviving Super Bowl Sunday for the last several years.

As Pentabona said, we throw a party every single night, sometimes against all odds. We make things happen that a lot of other people wouldn’t be able to pull off, “So why not apply this to social change projects?”

The events, which kick off Monday, Feb 12, at Loyal Nine in Cambridge, will raise funds for the local chapter of Futures Without Violence, a nonprofit dedicated to “heal[ing] those among us who are traumatized by violence today” and “creating healthy families and communities free of violence tomorrow.” With programs

Getting harassed at work, or witnessing harassment while you’re working, in this environment seems unavoidable.

But it’s not.

like Coaching Boys Into Men and the Y Factor, the nonprofit aims to break the cycle of violence against women by specifically engaging men.

“Shelters and rape crisis centers are doing incredible work, but to really begin to fix the problem of sexual violence we need to address the causes, not just the symptoms,” Pentabona said. Which is why, instead of the Vagina Monologues, Boston’s V-Day performance will be A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer.

“This production allows us to involve men, and I think that’s really important in our industry,” she said. “I think the Vagina Monologues is fantastic, it’s an incredible play, but it is performed exclusively by women and people who identify as women.

This can be performed by anyone,” she said.

Featuring a broad range of voices, A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer (MMRP), covers all aspects of violence—from S&M to border tensions, domestic violence to beauty standards—in the hopes of breaking down the walls that keep so many silent on these issues, and of bringing these caustic features of everyday life out into the open for discussion and examination.

“These writings are very thought-provoking, and that’s what we want,” Pentabona said. “We want people to think, and to talk. Because these conversations are happening, but a lot of it is happening on social media and it’s too easy to just put your phone down and say, ‘Okay, I’m done.’

“I want to have people in a room talking.”

The play, which will take place on Monday, Feb 26, at Warehouse XI in Union Square in Somerville, will zzzzxbe the capstone event of Boston’s V-Day festivities. A panel discussion will follow.

“We’re hoping that this series brings the conversation home to not only local establishments but to the bartending communities in other states that may not have a policy in place,” Sutherland said.

Ninety percent of all ticket prices and proceeds from featured cocktails go directly to Futures Without Violence. The remaining 10 percent helps fund the Resistance, V-Day’s global organization that supplies funds to communities without independent organizations fighting sexual violence. While Boston’s V-Day organizers hope to see as many people as possible attend the play on the 26, please note that, as Pentabona said, “It’s heavy. There are discussions of abuse and rape. It’s not filtered.”

Take care of yourself, Boston, but let’s all remember: Nothing changes if nothing changes.

In the days and weeks leading up to MMRP at Warehouse XI, Boston’s hospitality industry is hosting a series of events to ignite the local conversation around sexual harassment and assault. Here’s the what, when, and where…

MON, FEB 12 Bartender vs. Barista Throwdown @ Loyal Nine 5:30 pm. Sponsored by Jägermeister.

Six teams of two, one barista and one bartender, throw down Chopped-style: Each pair must incorporate a secret, determinedon-the-spot ingredient into their cocktail and coffee beverage. All cocktails will feature Jäger, the sponsoring spirit, and the team will aim to complement one another’s drinks with flavor pairings. Four judges, two from the cocktail world and two representing local coffee professionals, will vote, and ticket holders will sample each cocktail from the competing bartenders.

Tickets: $15 TUE, FEB 13 Come Together @ Brooklyn Boulders 6:30 pm An evening of activities, workshops, and yes, climbing, focused on building positive relationships.

Suggested Donation: $40 WED, FEB 14 An Evening of Tiki and Love @ Bar Mezzana 4:30 pm Special tiki cocktails featuring Privateer Rum will keep you warm and fuzzy on Valentine’s Day in the South End. Privateer head distiller Maggie Campbell will also be in attendance, pouring samples of Privateer reserve spirits and answering all your rum questions and distilling queries, and Matt Rose, bartender of Gloucester’s hideaway tiki haven Watson & the Shark, will be behind the bar all night.

FREE to attend, drinks for purchase

VERY FUNNY SHOWS.

Seven Nights A WWk. IMPROVASYLUM.COM | 617.263.6887

MON, FEB 19 Clams AND Hot Dogs @ The Eddy, Providence, RI 8 pm. Sponsored by Nylon Dog, with Heaven Hill and Plantation FREE TUE, FEB 20 Active Bystander Training: Making Bars Safe Workshop @ Brick and Mortar 1 pm.

Sponsored by Bols Genever Naomi Levy is bringing Safe Bars, a DC-based organization that trains bar and restaurant staff how to be active bystanders and step in (safely and confidently) when they witness harassment or assault occurring at their workplace, to Cambridge to work with members of the local hospitality industry and empower them to stand up against sexual violence in bars.

FREE

LIVE MUSIC • LOCAVORE MENU PRIVATE EVENTS 2/08

Abraham, Lithic, the Cotones Thoughtful pop rock 2/09

The Bentmen, CMB feat.

Casey Desmond

Legendary theatrical alt-rock 2/10

Boston Stands Again: A Mardi Gras Benefit for the ACLU

MON, FEB 26 A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer @ Warehouse XI 7 pm Come see local actors perform selections from Eve Ensler’s A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer, a play in the style of her globally acclaimed Vagina Monologues.

A panel discussion with local survivor advocates, women’s studies professionals, bar staff, and other community members will follow.

Tickets: $20 (includes two drink tickets)

Feat. The Legendary Vudu Krewe, & comedian Tom Kenny 2/12

Rockerzine’s Rock and Roll Trivia Feat. special guest Keytar Bear 2/14

Miele, Whistle Jacket, Kirk Windsor, Hot Molasses Alternative rock

156 Highland Ave • Somerville, MA 617-285-0167 oncesomerville.com   @oncesomerville /ONCEsomerville

*Content Note: This performance discusses rape and sexual assault*

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CLOCKWISE, STARTING UPPER-LEFT: ACCURATE LOFT LOOKIE LOOKIE | PHOTO BY PHIL STILES; ROB CHALFEN AT OUTPOST | PHOTO BY STEVE PROVIZER; NEXTET AT RYLE’S; RYLES LINEUP | PHOTO BY STEVE PROVIZER

A GUIDE FOR THE JAZZ PERPLEXED MUSIC SPECIAL

From Cambridge to the South End, everything from touring acts to fringe rooms

BY STEPHEN PROVIZER If you haven’t been scared off by unfunny hipster parodies of the genre in the New Yorker and want to hear some live jazz, I salute you. I’m here for you. As a musician, jazz writer, and longtime denizen of many local joints, I will try to make the process of choosing a place to go as undaunting as possible.

Boston-area venues run the gamut from classy to funky, and offer a range of styles. When the big-ticket acts come to town, unless they’re playing an auditorium or theater, they usually perform in either the Regatta Bar or Scullers.

We’ll start with the Regattabar, located in the Charles Hotel in Harvard Square. It’s easy to get to by T, but tough to park unless you do the hotel garage. Nowhere is the sound worse than good, but the best audio to be had is relatively close to the stage. There are some obstructed views and a second ring of tables on the other side of the path that is crisscrossed by wait staff. Check the schedule and know in advance whom you want to see so you can reserve a good table.

National acts coming through, like Lee Konitz, Stanley Jordan, and Pat Martino, play mainstream jazz and are pretty bullet-proof. The Regattabar also makes space for well-known local acts, like the Either Orchestra and the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble. Lately, it’s been reaching out to get folks with more of a taste for world, soul, or R&B, booking acts like the François Moutin & Kavita Shah Duo and Atlas Soul. It serves light edibles. $25 to 35 is the typical ticket price, and it does student discounts.

Scullers is also in a hotel, the Doubletree Suites. You can walk, but you’d suffer through some bad highway feng shui, so you’ll probably have to drive or bike. The club was

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upstairs in the hotel and moved into a space off the lobby.

I prefer this space to the old one. It’s long and rectangular, with a cluster of tables near the stage, a walkway behind, then more seats farther away. As with Regatta, book early if you can, to be closer to the stage. The sound is good and well under control.

Like the Regattabar, Scullers brings in “bigger” acts, such as various members of the Marsalis family, Monty Alexander, and Bill Charlap. This is high-end music of the mainstream variety. Shows normally run ThursdaySaturday. It also books slightly edgier and smooth jazz and doesn’t book local acts very often.

Scullers has several tiers of seating, usually ranging from $35 to $50, and encourages people to go for a dinner package that runs about $75 to $85. Buying that will get you a better seat. It has a fairly extensive menu and, in my experience, does a good job on the victuals.

Cambridge folks are fortunate to have three places in Inman Square: Ryles, the Lilypad and Outpost 186. Parking is not that bad and Inman Square is on several bus lines.

The Outpost, at 186 Hampshire St., is a favorite. I’ve played there a few times. You walk down a short pathway from the sidewalk to get there, and if someone forgets to put the sandwich board up on Hampshire Street, you’d never know it was there. The space is intimate, with a max seating of about 35 people. Art exhibitions rotate on the walls. There’s a good piano, the acoustics are good, and you’re pretty close to the musicians no matter where you sit. Entry is by donation. $10 is the usual asking price.

The music is mostly jazz, with occasional folk, blues, or world. The jazz is sometimes straight-ahead and often experimental—whatever the hell that means. To me, “free blowing” is experimental, but so is highly arranged

but unusual music that combines music and words in an unusual way or using odd instrumentation. I recently saw a fabulous jazz harpist there—Charles Overton. The skill level ranges from the competent to the I can’t believe musicians as good as this are only playing for 10 people.

There are also poetry readings, life drawing classes, and other oddments. Audiences are often mixed, less racially than in age. Negotiations with the neighbors means that shows have to be over pretty early and generally go 8 to 10 pm.

Ryles is multipurpose. It uses the second floor as a dance hall, with Latin, Brazilian, swing music, and dance instruction. The first floor, where the jazz happens, is a large, comfortable room with a long bar. The menu is extensive, leaning toward barbecue and bar food. I’ve enjoyed the food here.

The stage is large, and nothing blocks the sight lines.

There’s a grand piano and decent stage lighting. I’ve found the acoustics to be solid, although if you’re way in back, visuals and sound aren’t as good. A fair number of local acts book the room for exposure. There’s some fusion, jazzrock, a Steely Dan cover group, a local vocalist showcase.

Occasionally, a bigger act will come in, like percussionist Ronnie Burrage or a world music act that isn’t able to fill a concert hall. There’s a jazz brunch Sunday mornings with a nice trio.

If you’re looking for a place to dance, mark this place down. Entry fee is usually in the $10 to $20 range. It’s very eclectic musically, so if you know you’re going out, do a little research to find out who’s playing and you may happen into something that’s a happy surprise. That also goes for the Outpost and Lilypad.

In terms of ambience, the Lilypad is kind of in between the Outpost and Ryles. It’s larger and slightly more wellappointed than the Outpost, but smaller and funkier than Ryles. Programming is more similar to the Outpost, and you will see some of the same players gigging in one or the other place. Like the Outpost, the Lilypad has other sidelines, offering art lessons, music for kids, and yoga.

I’d say about half the time, it schedules two shows with different groups and separate entrance fees. Rock bands sometimes book the place for album release parties, and there are cross-genre performances, as well as comedy and dance.

In terms of jazz, it should be noted that this has been the longtime home of the Fringe on Monday nights—a free improvisational trio with monster musicians who have developed an uncanny telepathy (more on them another time). Many of the jazz players who gig here have strong reputations, often teaching at Berklee or NEC. There’s a seating capacity of 60 and sight lines are no problem. There is a grand piano and the acoustics are fine.

Cover charge goes from $5 to about $20.

in the South End. Over the course of time it has moved slightly beyond the boundaries of jazz and now includes blues, Latin, and funk, but every day there is a jazz jam session from 6 to 9 pm, and Friday and Saturday nights are jazz.

This is the place where young musicians from Berklee and New England Conservatory go to test their mettle among their peers and to impress a discerning audience.

Over the past five decades, at least, young players who passed through Wally’s have gone on to wide recognition.

Esperanza Spalding, Jeremy Pelt, and Jason Palmer are recent examples.

Wally’s is in a brownstone on Mass Ave—easy to get to by T. Parking is not easy. There’s no cover charge, and it’s open until 2 am. It’s a small place—maybe a dozen tables and a long bar you can sit at. It’s usually crowded, but also clears out around midnight, so get there either early or late to avoid crowds. It’s the rare Boston venue that actually draws a racially mixed audience. Go with open ears.

Someone whose name you don’t recognize might very well show up soon as a headliner.

The Third Life Studio is in Union Square in Somerville.

There’s some parking and good bus service. Its full name is Third Life for the Healing and Performing Arts, and apart from music there are classes in Tai Chi, body work, etc.

There’s kind of a ’60s vibe about the place. Admission is usually $10 to $15.

It’s a large, no-frills space, with high ceilings and lots of wall space for art. There’s an excellent grand piano. I’ve played there several times and found the acoustics to be very good. It seems like there are usually about 30 chairs put out, but it could accommodate bigger crowds. Food is not served, but there are lots of restaurants in Union Square.

Mandorla Jazz and other jazz series often book shows in Third Life, which means there’s a steady influx of quality jazz. In my experience, the music is always adventurous, ranging from free blowing to tight ensembles with excellent soloists. Much of the talent is from Boston. Series producers do bring in people from out of town: sometimes name players in the avant-garde, but also well-known jazz players who serve as sidemen for more well-known players. Admission is usually $10 to $20.

Thelonious Monkfish, in Central Square, Cambridge, is a fairly recent addition to the scene. Unlike most of the other joints mentioned here, Monkfish presents only jazz.

It is a large-ish room, and since food is an important part of the operation, tables are pretty tightly packed in to accommodate more diners. There are a few banquettes on the side and a few seats at the bar in the back. It’s easily accessible by T, with some parking available nearby, and there’s no cover charge.

It books excellent musicians. Trios and quartets are the norm, often with a vocalist. In fact, it’s kind of a specialty room for vocalists. There’s nothing “outside” happening, just solid mainstream playing. Be aware that the kind of listening experience you have depends on when you go. As mentioned, it emphasizes the cuisine, and during dinner hours, the clamor is pretty intense. After dinner, the din settles down. On Friday nights, there’s a jam session where it’s all about the music. There’s a good house rhythm section, and excellent players often show up.

Wally’s is one of a kind in Boston, a throwback to the days in the 1940s-50s when there were a dozen jazz clubs

Les Zygomates is in Boston’s small Leather District; not much leather there now, but a small pocket of cool near Chinatown. It’s accessible by T, there’s some parking close by and also valet parking. It presents as a fairly chic, upscale bistro with soft lighting and a romantic ambience.

The accent is on the food, and it offers a large menu in French bistro style, with many wine options. Prices are pretty high.

There is music every day. During the week, solo blues, jazz guitarists, or pianists perform, and jazz trios or quartets come in on Friday and Saturday. These are all solid area players. When it’s a night with solo performers, it’s the kind of place where you might be able to strike up enough rapport to request a tune. The music is in a separate room, so make sure the staff knows you are interested in hearing the music, but know that when larger ensembles are playing, the sound in the room can be loud, so if you want a combination of music and conversation, take that into consideration in deciding where you want to sit.

The Beehive is a large room in the South End, near the Boston Center for the Arts, accessible by bus and a bit of a walk from the T. Parking is tough, though there is a valet. There’s no cover charge, and this is another dinner and music combo place. The food is calibrated to be above bar-food level, but not fancy-dancy, so prices are moderate to high. The room is built with tiers of seating and some obstructions, so sightlines to the stage vary depending on where you sit. My opinion as far as acoustics: sit not too close and not too far; that gets you the best sound— depending on the size of the ensemble.

The Beehive has a fairly eclectic musical approach— blues, reggae, soul, and jazz. Showtimes vary a lot, but generally run until 2 am on the weekends, when the music is likely to be jazz-funk or reggae. The more straight-ahead jazz is likelier to happen on a Thursday and during brunch hours on Saturday and Sunday. The musicianship is always on a high level. It can get very busy during brunch and on weekend nights, so reservations are a good idea.

Other places occasionally featuring jazz: Darryl’s Corner Bar & Kitchen, South End; The Bebop, Back Bay; Primavera Ristorante, Millis; Middle East Corner Bar, Central Square, Cambridge; Amazing Things Arts Center, Framingham; Trail’s End Cafe, Concord; The Ellis Room, Brookline; The Lizard Lounge, Cambridge; Ambrosia (formerly Demetri’s), Foxboro; Russ Gershon’s Accurate Records Loft, Somerville; Chelmsford Center For the Arts, Chelmsford; Colleges: Paine Hall, Harvard, Jordan Hall, NEC, various small halls at Berklee and Berklee Performance Center, Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

LEAP OF FAITH AT THIRD LIFE, FEATURING AUTHOR STEVE PROVIZER ON TRUMPET.

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ASTRONAUTALIS WHEEL OF TUNES

Minneapolis rapper talks old westerns, bird watching, and Spike Jonze skate videos

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN do, why I think this way, and why am I competent this way.

2. “17 Summers” What has been on your summer to-do list for years now but you’ve still never done?

For years now, it’s been to travel with my girl. She’s been my girl for a while and now she’s my wife. We dated long distance, so all of our travels were spent seeing each other.

It would be going to see her in Germany or her coming to America. You find some things here and there, you explore, but I really want to travel properly with her. All of my free-time goals are traveling, which is insane since my job is partially that, but traveling on tour is a specific type of travel. Now that I’ve started to travel with my wife, it’s such a fun, enjoyable thing that I love. We’re about to go on our first vacation as a married couple and I’m already so excited about it. We’re going to Mexico.

3. “Secrets of the Undersea Bell” Are there any secrets you’ve clung to even though sharing them wouldn’t be detrimental?

PHOTO COURTESY OF ASTRONAUTALIS

There’s a reason Andy Bothwell describes his work as Astronautalis as “rap… plus everything else.” The Minneapolis artist stands firmly in hip-hop, but ever since his debut release in 2003, he’s been making it a curiosityfilled, folklore-spinning, alternative-rooted endeavor. Two years ago, he released the heated Cut the Body Loose, but it was a decade ago to this exact year that he put his name on the national map with Pomegranate, an album of brooding and experimental tricks.

Looking back, Bothwell realizes Pomegranate was a foundational step in establishing what would become his trademark creativity, singular style, and a wider creative process. Though he wrote everything on the album, he’s adamant about calling the record a collaborative effort. “I wrote all the songs,” says Bothwell, “but to say I wrote all that music would be disingenuous.” Most days, he entered the studio with a notepad full of sketches, and other artists came in with the paint brushes. A song like opener “The Wondersmith and His Sons” didn’t come together until the final day of recording, where lackluster music undersold his lyrical story—until one of the musicians messed around on piano, came up with a new melody, and they re-recorded the entire thing.

“For the first time in my life, I felt like I made an album that was me—not me trying to sound like musicians I liked,” says Bothwell. “It was my third record and, honestly, it was the first record I made that didn’t sound like anything else, in rap music or in my music. I was into the idea of having grand piano and lush string arrangements, but not in the traditional ways where it’s usually a short loop. Instead, it was heavily influenced by people in the studio who work with chamber music. I loved having that

simplicity in the music. The other cohesion came from [producer] John Congleton, who essentially pushed me up.

When I look back on that album, I see how much of it was a happy accident, and I’m a little surprised it worked.”

To revisit the grandiosity of the album that put Astronautalis on the map, we interviewed Bothwell for a round of Wheel of Tunes, a series where we ask bands questions inspired by their song titles. True to his album, the answers snake out of shadows to reveal a contagious energy—though it’s nothing compared to what he will bring to the stage at Brighton Music Hall this Thursday.

1. “The Wondersmith and His Sons” What’s a question you often wonder about but don’t know the answer to?

My mind instantly goes less specific, it goes to things that aren’t possible to look up. I’m a human being, so I ruminate on myself a lot. It’s like buying an old car. When you see it at the dealership, it looks great for an old car, but when you look around you realize how much is wrong with it. The older I get, the more I ruminate on and recognize my flaws. Those are things you can’t find the answers to. I don’t know what makes me the deeply flawed person I am. Now that I’m married, it intensifies. My wife is wonderful. When you’re married, you want to do right by the partnership, this person, and yourself. They don’t have to point anything out about you, but when you do anything weird you notice it because you see yourself through their eyes. The older I get, the more I feel myself peeling back these layers. I ruminate more than anything about why I do the things I

For a long time, yeah. I was a super private person who compartmentalized my life. Getting married, you can’t do that anymore. That was really hard for me to learn. I had to share myself with my wife, and that was fortunately okay because she is a patient woman and knew it was worth pushing on me for. I feel so much more comfortable now, even with her knowing everything, and that took a long time.

4. “My Old Man’s Badge” If you had to guess, what do you think your father’s proudest achievement is?

I think my father’s proudest achievement is, classically, us. My dad worked his ass off. He just retired last year. He lived a very full, wild, and beautiful life. I think he would honestly say it’s being married to my mother and raising sons. I think there’s other stuff he should mention that he would fail to mention because he’s a modest guy, but I think his answer would be this family.

5. “Two Years Before the Mast” When is the last time you were on a boat?

I don’t think it was that long. Maybe I took the ferry in Europe? I’ve probably been on a boat within the last year.

I pride myself on taking all manners of transportation for my job. The last time I specifically remember, though, was a ferry between England and Ireland, about this time last year.

FIND THE REMAINING TRACKS FROM NINA’S PIECE AT DIGBOSTON.COM

>> SHREDDERS, ASTRONAUTALIS, ESH. THU 2.8. BRIGHTON MUSIC HALL, 156 BRIGHTON AVE., ALLSTON. 8PM/18+/$16. CROSSROADSPRESENTS.COM

MUSIC EVENTS THU 02.08

SNARKY ‘SLUT-POSITIVE’ LOCAL POP ROCK POWERSLUT + THRUST CLUB + LEAFCUTTER + SKI BUNNY

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

16 02.08.18 - 02.15.18 |

FRI 02.09

CARNIVAL ROCK PERFORMANCE ART THE BENTMEN + CMB WITH CASEY DESMOND

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

DIGBOSTON.COM

FRI 02.09

YELPING TRUTHS OVER BARE-BONES INDIE ROCK GIRLPOOL + LAND OF TALK + MORE [Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Allston.

7pm/all ages/$16. crossroadspresents.com]

MON 02.12

MON 02.12

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

7pm/all ages/$65. houseofblues.com]

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 7pm/18+/$16. obrienspubboston.com]

THE GOTH KING OF INDUSTRIAL METAL MARILYN MANSON

GRUMMY GARAGE ROCK FOR BROS JOHN MAUS + GARY WAR

WED 02.14

A DARK PSYCHEDELIC NOIR COMA THE ATLAS MOTH + ROYAL THUNDER + MORE

[Great Scott, 1222 Comm.

Ave., Allston. 9pm/18+/$15. greatscottboston.com]

LOVE AT FIRST CITE MUSIC

Disco funk artist Camino 84 serves handmade Valentine’s Day mixtapes

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN There’s a special feeling that comes with receiving a personalized mixtape made just for you. A close friend or partner could throw a Spotify playlist together of songs they think you would like, but it pales in comparison to being gifted a physical mix. You can essentially see the beads of sweat it took to wait for audio to record. Luckily for you, Boston’s own disco funk artist Camino 84, the project of Ryan Lucht, just rolled out Valentine’s Day 2018 mixtapes.

The 90-minute-long mixtapes feature hand-picked slow jams selected from Camino 84’s personal record collection. Each track blends together for a silence-free listening experience, setting the mood with the warm crackle of vinyl. Because each tape is dubbed by hand, available quantities are extremely limited—as in there are only 15 copies, which is, yeah, extremely limited. Copies are on sale now via Bandcamp.

Of course, this is 2018, so the Valentine’s Day 2018 mixtape cassette also comes with a digital download. I can hear you college kids sighing with relief from here.

“I’ve started making Valentine’s Day mixtapes for girlfriends in high school, usually one- to three-hour long epics that took weeks of prep and veered everywhere from indie pop to jazz and funk, carefully sequenced to start upbeat, mellow out into slow jams, and re-emerge midtempo,” says Lucht. “The habit was prompted by a Stones Throw podcast episode where Peanut Butter Wolf, Dam-Funk, Mayer Hawthorne, et al each selected some of their favorite slow jams for the occasion. I had never heard a single one of the songs they selected, but they all created such a consistent mood and atmosphere, and I thought it would be a ton of fun to try myself.”

He believes it’s a fun way to offer fans a special gift. That, and his girlfriend of three years started to grow weary of the tapes, so making public ones doesn’t ruin what was a personal and special tradition. In the words of Lucht’s girlfriend, “[It’s] a sneak peek into what it’s like dating Camino, but like, way cheaper and less annoying than actually dating him.”

Crate-digging is a lost art form. The work Lucht put into the last slew of Camino 84 releases shows he’s got a knack not just for committing to the dig, but for finding forgotten talent on wax that should still be relevant today. While he’s partial to newer songs like Animal Collective’s “Bluish” or Delorean’s “Deli,” Lucht focused on vinyl-only finds for this year’s mixtape. There are soul classics like Bloodstone’s “Natural High,” deep cuts like the Commodores’ “Girl, I Think The World About You,” newer artists Amy Winehouse, and even ’70s movie scores.

“These records have history,” says Lucht. “When I record from a Barry White record that I bought used in Roxbury after somebody originally owned it for decades, you know that exact copy of that record has been used to set the mood dozens of times already. Whether or not you believe that there’s any magic mojo passed down, joining a long lineage of history behind any given record is a cool way to think about things.

That’s a big part of why I’m so compelled to rediscover and archive music in the first place.”

That much is evident on New Mutant Disco, his full-length album from last year. It landed a spot on our Best Local Albums of 2017 list, got him attention from national outlets, and earned him a nomination at the Boston Music Awards. There’s a youthful curiosity in Camino 84’s music that suggests Lucht pays close attention to the undertone moods of sampled songs as well as the music he’s writing on his own, fusing the two into an effervescent, wired, amiable jam.

If you couldn’t splurge on all the albums in our year-end list and have been waiting to snag a copy of Camino 84’s, this is the ideal time to do so. The Valentine’s Day 2018 mixtape comes as a bundle; a copy of New Mutant Disco and a bonus special limitededition tape are included. Fans who already own New Mutant Disco can get a discount code on the bundle by showing proof of purchase.

It’s the type of sweet steal Valentine’s Day is known for.

Those looking for a different type of sugary deal can head to O’Brien’s Pub in Allston the day after Valentine’s Day. Camino 84 is scheduled to headline a night fueled by discount CVS chocolates, which means you can dance off extra calories gained from eating sour snacks or shouldering emotional PHOTO COURTESY OF CAMINO 84 weight. It’s best to get a head start on boogieing, though, and the mixtapes are a reliable way to do so—as long as you grab one before they’re all gone. If there’s one thing people learn from past Valentine’s Days, it’s that the good finds don’t last forever. Act while they—a mixtape or a person—are still available.

>> CAMINO 84, BE LIKE MAX, THREAT LEVEL BURGUNDY, PETER STEVENS. THU 2.15. O’BRIEN’S PUB, 3 HARVARD AVE., ALLSTON. 8PM/18+/$8.

OBRIENSPUBBOSTON.COM NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

LIFE AS A HUNGRY GHOST VISUAL ART

Extension Gallery’s 2018 season is off to a haunting start

BY HEATHER KAPPLOW

Extension Gallery has been quietly filling the gap in faith in artmaking?” but “how to we band together to show desire to control an uncontrollable world.” emerging art presentation in Allston that’s been left vacant why we need to?”

The conversation gets more blunt in the main room of more or less since Allston Skirt Gallery and Pan 9 went the Exotics Etcetera finds and reinforces the evidence the gallery. Here, it’s part travelogue of parts not entirely way of all things (in these rapidly gentrifying lands). for the necessity of the excess labor involved in keeping appealing and part highlight reel/details of moments that Its programming this year so far has been solid. And committed to the cause of art. Despite its reported maybe you might want to revisit if you could be completely thematically dogged. Young, Dumb and Broke (a la Khalid) likeliness to prolong a state of brokeness much longer than sure the memory of them was not mostly nostalgic. Or not. was summed up perfectly in a pennant sewn by Andy Li other career paths (supposedly) do.

Staying home might be an equally good option. that read “The reality is that if you are here and enjoying The artists featured here collaborate with one another It’s unclear whether “exotics” is ironic and otherthis I am at one of my two jobs,” and then underscored by regularly, and the conversation among them seems to be referential or unironic and self-referential, and it doesn’t Alex Weiss’s cartoon reading “I’ve lost my mind to the daily about what the world looks like in a way that alternates matter. The ambiguity is pleasing. grind but at least my body’s free.” between an artistic lens and a slightly less filtered— The show’s content is a smorgasbord for sure, but it The current show, Exotics Etcetera, picks up right where perhaps bleaker—one. all ties together and makes a case for art’s ability to make that one left off.

The bounce back and forth between these two even the mundane feel hauntingly important. As in Buck The three-room (and one hallway and stairwell) gallery perspectives is most gentle in the room dedicated to Squibb’s Car Search, with its sharp focus on a gorgeously lit, above (and part of) Orchard Skateshop doesn’t ever let Terrence Doyle’s work. One side of the room is lined with khaki-clad ass that doesn’t seem to know how vulnerable it you forget the body. While you peruse imagery, you can constructivist style abstracts in acrylic paint on boards. is. It’s candid, but also objectified, in a strange, half-tender, hear bodies rolling around the store’s artful, nest-shaped, These are mirrored, on the opposite wall, by photos of half-horrified way. Kirk’s nearby piece, Better than the free-to-the-public skate ramp, and it enhances the viewing roughly the same size, featuring slightly more organic Worst, (2015, acrylic and ink on paper) could almost be this experience, weaving in and out of the more traditional abstract shapes poached from urban landscapes. The character’s motto—and in fact the not-as-cynical-as-itsoundtrack that fills the space through a speaker on the two walls—and the textures of the idealized versus the sounds motto of most modern creatives. floor of the main room. found environment—are moderated by an art object that As with the previous exhibition, Andy Li gets the final The gallery’s function in its first years was to showcase borrows from both. Tape Monster (acrylic paint and tape word here, with The Expectation (2018, fabric, grommets and support the creative talents of the skate community, on board) is built up and then torn down, acting as middle and stitching, 9” by 19”) a triangular pennant that informs whose energies explode well beyond the ramp into design, ground. us, a bit enigmatically, “The only difference between cartooning, painting, photography, etc. But since 2017, It’s a case for beauty as a form of psychic relief from fantasy and reality is the expectations.” under the curatorial guidance of TJ Kelley III, who says decay. Or as Doyle’s artist statement puts it: “A foolish he “basically grew up hanging out at Orchard,” Extension has been making an effort to widen its focus. And Kelley is happy see some recent evidence that his approach is working. “It was great! At the Exotics’ opening I saw so many people we’ve never seen before—people from completely different communities.”

At the beginning of 2018, Extension’s artists are struggling with one main question, which is basically “I know how to make art, now what?”

Except it’s really more like “Holy shit, now what?! Making art is actually just extra work on top of other work.

But I can’t stop doing it!!

Why can’t I stop doing it?! AHHHH!!!!”

In Young, Dumb and Broke, the answer to the question was basically to use art as a tool to stay grounded and keep things in some kind of perspective.

In Exotics Etcetera, featuring works by Terrence Doyle, Brandon Kirk, Andy Li, and Buck Squibb, the same theme is explored harder and from a wider angle. Here ANDY LI’S THE HUNGER (2018). FABRIC, GROMMETS, STITCHING. 32”X24” AT EXTENSION GALLERY, EXOTICS ETCETERA SHOW, 2018. the question isn’t just IMAGE COURTESY OF HEATHER KAPPLOW. “how do we keep our >> EXTENSION GALLERY. 56 HARVARD AVE., ALLSTON. SUN-FRI NOON-7PM, SAT 11AM-7PM, AND BY APPOINTMENT. (617) 782-7777.

18 02.08.18 - 02.15.18 |

DIGBOSTON.COM

“The lost story behind a timeless album—a wandering Irish songwriter named Van Morrison, stuck in a strange town called Boston in 1968…There’s no rock and roll story quite like Astral Weeks.” —ROB SHEFFIELD

ON SALE 3/6

NEWS TO US

AstralWeeks_DIG-Boston-ad.indd 2

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

2/1/18 2:14 PM

THEATER REVIEW ARTS

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

BELIEVE THE HYPE: HYPE MAN AT COMPANY ONE THEATRE

It’s no big secret that white musicians have found a hell of a lot of success standing on the backs of the musical innovations of black artists. From ragtime and the blues through rock and hip-hop, there’s been an almost revolving array of superstars that achieved fame and fortune through appropriating black culture.

This isn’t a new conversation: from Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, and Mick Jagger through modern stars like G-Eazy, Eminem, and Iggy Azalea, it’s been going on for—it seems—as long as there’s been music.

There isn’t, of course, anything inherently wrong with this, given that all art is inspired in some way by other art, but things get murky when there is no reciprocation. Iggy Azalea has recently come under a great deal of fire for her radio silence on topics like Ferguson and Black Lives Matter when she has no trouble wearing black culture like a fur coat.

Such topics are examined with profound clarity and potent ardor in Idris Goodwin’s Hype Man: A Break Beat Play, currently in its world premiere at Company One

Theatre, where it will play through Feb 24.

Pinnacle (played by a perfect Michael Knowlton) is a white rapper on the brink of major stardom. As he and his hype man Verb (an astounding Kadahj Bennett) and beat maker Peep One (a flawless Rachel Cognata) prepare for an appearance on The Tonight Show, their biggest and most important performance to date, a 17-year-old unarmed black teen named Jerrod is shot 18 times by the police.

Verb and Peep are shaken, yet Pinnacle thinks they should wait to hear the full story before reacting, saying: “It’s bullshit but we’ve got to shake this off.” Pinnacle hasn’t exactly lived a charmed life, and yet his white privilege has quietly been working to his benefit his entire life. Quietly, I say, because he only begins to understand that when his friendship with Verb and Peep begins to crumble later in the play.

Peep is more pragmatic than Verb about how they should react, and Pinnacle remains steadfast in his belief that it would be unwise to jeopardize his big chance and likens speaking out to shooting himself in the foot.

But on the big night, Verb blindsides Pinnacle and rips open his shirt to reveal a “Justice for Jerrod” T-shirt.

Sponsors immediately begin pulling their support for Pinnacle’s upcoming tour and the backlash only grows from there. Needless to say, things are about to get a lot worse between the three friends.

>> HYPE MAN. THROUGH 2.24 AT COMPANY ONE THEATER, 539 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. COMPANYONE.ORG 20 02.08.18 - 02.15.18 |

DIGBOSTON.COM

Is Pinnacle’s impulse to protect his career in favor of speaking out for what’s right wrong? And even if it is, at worst, morally dubious, we can kind of see where he’s coming from, right? That’s part of what makes Hype Man work as well as it does: Pinnacle is not vilified, and Goodwin avoids any tendency toward righteousness. If whites are to continue to benefit from the innovations of black people, then is it reasonable to expect that those white artists will stand up in the face of injustice?

The richness of Goodwin’s extraordinary work extends far beyond questions of cultural and artistic appropriation: It examines not only the confounding silence of whites who consider themselves allies when it’s fashionable (yet recoil when the time comes to stand up or—God forbid— speak out) but also class issues that often find themselves woven into such questions.

Director Shawn LaCount has given us a production that is every bit as wrenching as it is joyous, never completely foregoing entertainment in favor of heft. This production knows when to have fun and when to look the audience dead in the eye as if to say: “Now hear this.” It is an achievement on every level that extends into the flawlessly authentic, magnetic, and compassionate performances.

Hype Man is theater at its urgent, vital best. See it and see it again.

HEADLINING THIS WEEK!

VALENTINE’S

STOP! IN THE NAME OF LOVE Dyke Night celebrates 20th with pre-V Day Traffic Light party

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON Kristen Porter has a knack for filling rooms.

Having hosted the iconic Dyke Night and innumerable other events for a span of 20 years, the longtime promoter, researcher, and LGBTQ advocate simply puts the word out—in the case of this week’s pre-Valentine’s Day festivities at the Milky Way in JP, the invite promises, among other lures, “designer pizza,” “cosmic cocktails,” and DJ Maryalice of Ptown’s Boatslip Tea Dance—and people come from near and far to party.

Nevertheless, at this particular Dyke Night, there is yet another reason to ride the Orange Line to Stony Brook on Saturday—for the history. Two decades worth.

We asked Porter about the impressive milestone, and about this weekend’s Traffic Light festivity.

Jenny Zigrino

Bad Santa 2, Comedy Central Thursday - Saturday

COMING SOON Jon Stetson

Has it dawned on you for a while that 20 years was right around the corner? Or did it just kind of creep up on you like when golden anniversary editions of the albums you grew up listening to pop up in your Google ads?

It was brought to my attention when I was voted the 2017 Boston Pride Grand Marshal. What an amazing and unusual thing to be hosting parties as long as your patrons have been alive.

America’s Master Mentalist Special Engagement: Sat, Feb 10

Can you give us a quick snapshot of Boston nightlife in 1998 and tell us what about it led you to see a space for Dyke Night?

1998 is not all that different from 2018—there are no full time “lesbian bars” in Boston, and not many regular “lesbian nights.” I detailed a thorough history on how it all came about, in my living room, at [the Dyke Night website].

Laugh is for Lovers Comedy Show

Featuring: Will Noonan, Dan Boulger, Tricia Auld + more Weds, Feb 14

What specs do you recall about the first Dyke Night? Place, music, DJ, give us what you got.

It was such a blast. The first event we asked for a suggested $2 donation at the door for our HIV prevention efforts—it was a Thursday night at the Midway Cafe in JP. We made up goodie bags for all the guests. We had no idea what to expect—there were no lesbian nights/events in Boston at that time. We left with a little money to buy supplies for our homeless outreach, and with a big heart [from] the love and support of all who joined us. That event became weekly and I hosted it at that venue for six years.

In your signature Traffic Light parties, you provide “a wearable way to make meeting other singles easy via green, yellow, or red dog tags. Green means go (single), Yellow take it slow and Red means stop (taken)!” Is this a time-tested methodology?

Were there any wrinkles that you had to work out early on in the development stage?

We’ve used colored dog tags and glow bracelets—both are fun and we switch it up.

I consistently hear from attendees that they love the complimentary swag to make it easier to meet someone single.

Guy Code, Jeff Ross Presents: Roast Battle Feb 15-17

PHOTO BY HURLEY EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF KRISTEN PORTER PRESENTS

A lot of people from a lot of different cities and other countries have visited Dyke Night in their time living here. What’s your rep with the LGBTQ community at large?

How much has Boston set the stage for other cities?

They say “imitation is the best form of flattery”—my parties have been used as a model for events in other cities. Locally, when I create and nurture “a scene” at a venue I place attention to every detail of the consumer experience, including how the event will support the community. Venues have tried to run with them to increase their own profits, but my loyal fan base supports my events because of the quality, integrity, creativity, and community giveback that is the Kristen Porter Presents signature.

Regarding “my rep with the LGBTQ community at large” … probably has less to do with events and more for my contributions as a gerontologist. My work/research/ activism/advocacy in LGBTQ, especially transgender, aging and older adults with HIV has been featured, presented, and published worldwide.

Matthew Broussard

Elliott Morgan

YouTube’s SourceFed Special Engagement: Weds, Feb 21

Steve Trevino Netflix, Showtime Feb 22-23

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

What does a proper 20-year Dyke Night look like?

Join us to see for yourself.

>> DYKE NIGHT TRAFFIC LIGHT PARTY ON (PRE)VALENTINE’S WEEKEND. MILKY WAY AT THE BREWERY, JAMAICA PLAIN. SAT 2.10. 10PM/$10/21+.

DYKENIGHT.COM FOR INFO AND TICKETS. NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

SAVAGE LOVE

COMEDY EVENTS

SHOWING UP

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

How does one get into the gay BDSM bottoming and leather scene?

Seeking Answers Concerning Kink One shows up, SACK. “Eighty percent of success is just showing up,” someone or other once said. The adage applies to romantic/sexual success as well as professional success, SACK, but showing up easily accounts for 90 percent of success in the BDSM/leather/ fetish scene. (Being a decent human being accounts for the other 110 percent*.) Because if you aren’t showing up in kink spaces—online or IRL—your fellow kinksters won’t be able to find or bind you. But you don’t have to take my word for it…

“The leather scene is a diverse place with tons of outlets and avenues, depending on how you navigate your life and learn,” said Amp from Watts the Safeword (wattsthesafeword.com), a kink and sex-ed website and YouTube channel. “When I was first getting started, I found a local leather contingent that held monthly bar nights and discussion groups that taught classes for kinksters at any level. It provided an easy way into the community, and it helped me meet new people, make new friends, and find trustworthy play partners. If you’re a tad shy and work better online, these contingents have Facebook groups or FetLife pages you can join. And YouTube has a channel for everyone in the kink spectrum from gay to straight to trans to nonbinary and beyond!”

“Recon.com is a great option for gay men,” said Metal from the gay male bondage website MetalbondNYC.com. “It’s a site where you can create a profile, window-shop for a play buddy, and ‘check his references.’ Even better, if you can, go to a public event like IML, MAL, or CLAW, or to a play party like the New York Bondage Club, where you can participate in a monitored space with other people around, or just watch the action. Don’t forget the motto ‘safe, sane, and consensual,’ and be sure to have a safe word! And if you do want to explore bondage, take precautions. Never get tied up in your own home by someone you don’t know. If you go to his or her place, always tell a trusted friend where you are going. And when hooking up online, never use Craigslist.”

“Be cautious,” said Ruff of Ruff’s Stuff blog. “There are people out there who view ‘kink newbies’ as prey. Anytime anyone—top or bottom—wants to rush into a powerexchange scene, that’s a red flag. Always get to know a person first. A good-quality connection with any potential playmate is achieved only through communication. If they are not interested in doing the legwork, they’re not the right person for you.”

Follow Metal on Twitter @MetalbondNYC, follow Amp @ Pup_Amp, and follow Ruff @RuffsStuffBlog On the Lovecast, the robots are making your porn!: savagelovecast.com.

THU 02.08 - SAT 02.10

JENNY ZIGRINO @ LAUGH BOSTON

Jenny Zigrino made her late night debut on Conan O’Brien & was a recent guest on the hit shows @Midnight & Adam DeVine’s House Party Season 3 on Comedy Central. She’s been featured on TBS, Oxygen, TruTV, MTV Fox, & IFC. A rising star in Hollywood, her first film appearance was a leading role in the film 50 Shades of Black with Marlon Wayans. She also stars in the film Bad Santa 2 with Billy Bob Thornton.

425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | 8 & 10PM | $20-$25 THU 02.08

THE STANDUP JAM @ IMPROVBOSTON

Featuring: Mike Elfenbein, Diala Taneeb, Non Kuramto, Randy Williams, Denise Morin, Nonye Brown-West, & Chris Post.

Hosted by Kwasi Mensah

40 PROSPECT ST., CAMBRIDGE | 7PM | $5 FRI 02.09 - SUN 02.11

GABRIEL “FLUFFY” IGLESIAS @ THE CHEVALIER THEATRE

Born in Chula Vista, California, Gabriel Iglesias is the youngest of six children, raised by a single mother in Long Beach, CA. It was during his childhood that he developed a strong sense of humor to deal with the obstacles he faced.

In 1997, he set out to hone his comedic skills, & performed stand-up anywhere he could find an audience; including biker bars & hole-in-the-wall joints. Gabriel’s stand-up comedy is a mixture of storytelling, parodies, characters & sound effects that bring his personal experiences to life. His unique & animated comedy style has made him popular among fans of all ages.

30 FOREST ST.,, MEDFORD | 7 & 9:45PM | $43-$86 FRI 02.09

TIM MCINTIRE @ NICK’S COMEDY STOP

Tim McIntire has been one of the most popular & prolific comedians in Boston for over a decade. His career has been eclectic – he’s hosted the Boston Music Awards, written for Nickelodeon, released two comedy albums, & been featured on NPR. His Thursday Night Fights & Geek Council shows are legendary. He’s performed on TV (Comcast Comedy Spotlight), at comedy festivals (Boston, Chicago), & on film (Long Distance). & as one of the owners of Mottley’s Comedy Club, he helped give the next generation of comics a space to find their own comedic voices.

246 TREMONT ST., BOSTON | 7 & 9:45PM | $29.50 SAT 02.10

BOSTON COMEDY CHICKS @ DOYLE’S

Featuring: Kenice Mobley, Kelly Morse, Sarah Martin, Nonye Brown-West, & Zach Armentrout.

Hosted by Laura Severse.

3484 WASHINGTON ST., JP | 8PM | $12 SUN 02.11

BREW HAHA @ THE ARMORY Hosted by PJ Weston

191 HIGHLAND AVE., SOMERVILLE | 7PM | FREE TUE 02.13

HIDEOUT COMEDY WEEK @ THE HIDEOUT IN FANEUIL HALL Featuring: Joe List & Gary Vider Hosted by Dylan Krasinski & Sam Ike

4 S. MARKET ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $15 TUE 02.13

COMEDY STORM @ THUNDER ROAD

savagelovecast.com

22 02.08.18 - 02.15.18 |

DIGBOSTON.COM

Featuring: Shawn Carter, Nick Lavallee, Ryan Chani, Zenobia Del Mar, Jere Pilapil, & Zach Brazao.

Hosted by Alex Giampapa & Ben Quick

6 HARVARD SQ., BROOKLINE | 8PM | FREE

See next page for V-Day shows. Lineup & shows to change without notice. For more shows & info visit BostonComedyShows.com

VALENTINE’S COMEDY COMEDY

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY PATTKELLEY.COM

In which Cupid shoots an arrow through your funny bone

BY DENNIS MALER @DEADAIRDENNIS Skip the chocolates, flowers, and diamond anything. Take the one you love to one of these Valentine’s Day-themed comedy shows. Let laughter open a road to your significant other’s heart.

The first thing you should consider before picking a comedy show as a gift is to never call it a “VD gift.” Second, choose the kind of comedy your loved one most prefers.

Are they the greedy? Never satisfied? The always-wanting-more type? Or are they just simply amazing, and you want to shower them with endless presents?

Either way, Hideout Week is your best bet. It features more than 30 comics in a six-day celebration starting Tuesday, Feb 13, and runs straight through Valentine’s Day until Sunday. Hosts Dylan Krasinski and Sam Ike are bringing in some hilarious people, including hometown hero done-well Joe List (Tuesdays With Stories), hilarious profeminist podcaster and comedian Corinne Fisher (Guys We F**ked), folk music humorist Mary Mack (Aqua Teen Hunger Force), Doug Key (VH1’s Naked Dating), Samantha Ruddy (Night Train with Wyatt Cenac), Dan Crohn, Will Noonan, Usama Siddiquee, and more.

Next on the list is Laura Severse and Eric Taylor’s show at Savin Bar and Kitchen in Savin Hill. The Dorchester Debutante and Worcester’s Prince of Recovery Treatment Charity shows host and produce this monthly party that coincidentally falls on Cupid’s holiday. The two have assembled a posse of merry-makers including Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham alum Sean Sullivan, Boston Comedy Festival finalist Zachary Brazão, rapid-fire punchline perfectionist Josh Day, Brookline’s Most Amusing Ageist Ellen Sugarman, and Nonye Brown-West of WICF’s Jelly. The show is FREE, and Savin Bar is also offering a $10 Burger and Beer (domestic drafts only).

For the Casanovas who aren’t clasping their cash, the Laugh is for Lovers: A Valentine’s Showcase at Laugh Boston is a raucous rejoicing provided by local favorites Dan Boulger (Late Night with Craig Ferguson), Nick Chambers (2 Dope Queens), Xazmin Garza, Will Noonan, and Tricia Auld, with resident introducer for the night Chris Tabb.

Tickets for the show are $25 and can obviously be purchased in advance, but in the unlikely event you want print them out to do some dramatically over-the-top surprise gift reveal (which is a terrible idea, because if you’re doing that on the most romantic night of the year and there’s not a ring in that box, it doesn’t matter how big a comedy fan your partner is, you’re now single).

Rounding out the list of Feb 14 shows is Giggles Comedy Club in Saugus featuring Lenny Clarke with Christine Hurley (once you hear her stories of life with her husband, you’ll be thankful for your own relationship), Graig Murphy, and Johnny Pizzi. Show starts at 8 pm, tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the door. There’s also Queer Qomedy Hour at ImprovBoston in Central Square, Cambridge. A one-hour $5 showcase featuring dating jokes and stories gone awry from GLBTQ+ comedians, then used as comedy fodder by a local IB improv group. And no, I didn’t spell “Qomedy” wrong—it’s really what they call the show every month.

If you’re the type who has a job, or just doesn’t like celebrating holidays on their actual day, there are two love-themed shows after the 14th that are worth attending.

On Thursday, Club Oberon will feature comedians and veteran storytellers sharing true and hilarious tales from their awkward horny youth days. Featuring Ken Reid (TV Guidance Counselor podcast), Nick Chambers, Will Smalley, Jessica Cerretani, and Sara Faith Alterman. Some may feel a bit uncomfortable hearing about other people’s sexual conquests and consequences, but I personally know this horde of hilaritymakers and can promise you’ll be walking out laughing. Tickets to V-Card Stories at Oberon are $12, and the show is at 7 pm on Thursday, Feb 15.

Finally, at Club Oberon on Friday, Feb 16, the gang from the Old School Game Show will be up to their usual interactive comedy quizzing high jinks. Join host Michael DeAngelo, along with burlesquer Ginny Nightshade, the Cubic Zirconia Dancers, the Old School Game Show House Band, and special guest comedian Sean Sullivan for a Family Feud-style, Danielle Steele-approved pop-culture trivia comedy show. Your $19 ticket includes a chance to be a contestant on the game show, and hence to answer the silk pajamas-clad host’s inquiries in order to win fabulous prizes from local sponsors.

Tickets to either Old School Game Show, V-Card Stories, or both can be purchased at cluboberon.com.

THE WAY WE WEREN’T

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS

BY TIM CHAMBERLAIN OURVC.NET

For tickets, lineups, and more info on any of these Valentine’s Day-themed shows, or for everything Boston Comedy, go to BostonComedyShows. com. Also, please check out the short comedy film Deleting I helped make featuring a dozen Boston comedians at bit.ly/deletingfilm

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