DigBoston 5.24.18

DIGBOSTON.COM 05.24.18 - 05.31.18

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BOWERY BOSTON WWW.BOWERYBOSTON.COM VOL 20 + ISSUE21

MAY 24, 2018 - MAY 31, 2018 BUSINESS PUBLISHER Marc Sneider ASSOCIATE PUBLISHERS Chris Faraone John Loftus Jason Pramas SALES MANAGER Marc Sneider FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION sales@digboston.com BUSINESS MANAGER John Loftus

EDITORIAL EDITOR IN CHIEF Chris Faraone EXECUTIVE EDITOR Jason Pramas MANAGING EDITOR Mitchell Dewar MUSIC EDITOR Nina Corcoran FILM EDITOR Jake Mulligan THEATER EDITOR Christopher Ehlers COMEDY EDITOR Dennis Maler STAFF WRITER Haley Hamilton CONTRIBUTORS G. Valentino Ball, Sarah Betancourt, Tim Bugbee, Patrick Cochran, Mike Crawford, Britni de la Cretaz, Kori Feener, Eoin Higgins, Zack Huffman, Marc Hurwitz, Marcus JohnsonSmith, C. Shardae Jobson, Heather Kapplow, Derek Kouyoumjian, Dan McCarthy, Peter Roberge, Maya Shaffer, Citizen Strain, M.J. Tidwell, Miriam Wasser, Dave Wedge, Baynard Woods INTERNS Kuresse Bolds, Victoria Botana, Rob Katz, Murray, Brynne Quinlan

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ON THE COVER PHOTO OF PAUL SCHRADER

BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN. READ JAKE MULLIGAN’S INTERVIEW WITH THE ICONIC DIRECTOR AND SCREENWRITER IN THIS WEEK’S FILM SECTION.

ROYALE

279 Tremont St. Boston, MA royaleboston.com/concerts

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS FACE? W/ THE HOTELIER, WAR ON WOMEN (SUNDAY)

I have a doppelganger in the Quincy area, but I’ve never known exactly who it is. People just occasionally stop me, slap me five, stuff like that. I think he is a veteran, because I have been thanked for my service. I tell people that it isn’t necessary for them to say that, but from the line at Dunkin Donuts to the CVS aisles, they insist on greeting me as something better than the scrub I am.

This has been going on for years, as I spend lots of time around that area, and it just happened again last weekend. A bartender where I was getting loaded was by all means too excited to see my mug. As far as I know, we are total strangers, but his smile stretched from ear to ear as he greeted me: “Wow, how in the hell have you been?”

“Pretty fucking good,” I said. “You know, same bullshit as always.”

“Glad to hear it,” he responded.

Thankfully, this time no one asked me about basketball or baseball. I’m not sure whether it’s because my lookalike is into sports, or due to the average man-boy’s inability to interact socially, even in a meaningless exchange for a few seconds, without making a reference to some kind of ball game, but in any case, people who think I’m this other guy just love their bleacher talk. To each his own. Or not, I guess, since I have to answer for these expectations set by someone else.

I don’t believe I am complaining. If anything, the experience has been a lesson and a gift. For one, there is the excitement that, on any given day, as I turn a random corner south of Boston, I might run into my twin. We could become best friends and hit bars together, puzzling the regulars. Or we could become the most bitter of enemies, leading to a duel in which we will both argue, There is only enough room for one of us around here, buddy! Who knows—perhaps we’ll just decide to keep on passing in the night, getting mistaken for each other.

In another scenario, maybe there’s nobody out there who looks like me at all. Not like I am sleepwalking or harboring another personality, but rather maybe people are just nicer around Quincy than they are anyplace else, and have caught me off guard with their rousing salutations.

I’m just kidding. I must have a doppelganger out there somewhere. If you know his name or where I can find him, please help us get in touch.

CHRIS FARAONE, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ©2018 DIGBOSTON IS PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY DIG MEDIA GROUP INC. NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION CAN BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT. DIG MEDIA GROUP INC. CANNOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS. ONE COPY OF DIGBOSTON IS AVAILABLE FREE TO MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS AND VISITORS EACH WEEK. ANYONE REMOVING PAPERS IN BULK WILL BE PROSECUTED ON THEFT CHARGES TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW.

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FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

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NEWS+OPINION OH, SULLIVAN NEWS TO US

I braved the notorious crosshairs of Charlestown, Everett, and Somerville and lived to write about it

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1

There’s an 18-wheeler fully stopped on the southwestern edge of Sullivan Square. The driver looks into the deep abyss and waits as hundreds of his rivals inch along, effectively blocking the rig from the traffic circle.

Behind the trucker, motorists stand almost still for about one-eighth of a mile, stretching all the way beyond the I-93 overpass, nearly over the Somerville city line.

Of all the black holes and Bermuda Triangles in Greater Boston, these throes are the most unseemly, amounting to a mess that, somewhat ironically due to nearly $600 million in infrastructure improvements planned for this area through 2030, doesn’t seem to get any more tolerable in the short term. Even for this tortured region, Sullivan is something of an evil clusterfuck oasis, an otherworldly portal into gridlock that uniquely cripples multiple municipalities at once.

On one of the dozen-or-so broken corners that frame the outermost rung of this infamous roundabout, a flower seller in a baseball hat and sunglasses screams loudly at a man harassing drivers. Within seconds of their quarrel spilling past the bike lane, the latter nearly gets bulldozed by a van.

Across two lanes of arterial margarine and a symphony of horns, a panhandler waves a sign at passing vehicles that reads, “EVERYBODY NEEDS HELP SOMETIMES.” They sure do, especially if they are trying to traverse this minefield. It’s 4:30 pm on a Monday, but this is typical at almost any time during the morning, noon, or early evening. It’s been the scene for years, and despite a pledged $25 million for long-term improvements in Sullivan Square alone—plus $11 million for general transportation mitigation, a $250,000 payment to fund a “regional working group,” and other promises made in the Everett casino deal that has brought so much hope in addition to turmoil— things don’t look like they’ll be running smoother soon.

As multiple bike and truck crashes over the years have demonstrated, this is a danger zone by any means. For a city that sometimes requires a police detail for job sites off the beaten path and on obscure side streets, there’s not a cop directing traffic in sight.

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Following a designated yellow footpath, commuter after commuter makes their way through the Sullivan Square T complex, walking relatively safely from the Orange Line— until they get to the street and are forced to play Frogger in real life if they want to reclaim cars parked in the middle of the notorious rotary. Short of the unfortunate state troopers who stand in the middle of the highway making sure that solo drivers don’t enter the HOV lane, people who leave their rides in this ring of death may be the most likely of all people in Mass to get run over by a texting dumbass.

A shuttle full of workers from the Schrafft’s building worms through the lot and stop-brakes into the congestion.

They’re barely moving, and I motion for the driver to roll down the window so that I can ask her a few questions. She says that on an average day, it takes her about 15 minutes to complete the loop from Schrafft’s to the MBTA stop. They’re closer to each other than the State House is to Boston City Hall, but the dangers of this gauntlet are disheartening.

Today, the air-conditioned minibus is filled for rush hour.

In the background of it all, behind the lonely single wind turbine for which this industrial stretch was best known until recently, is the construction site of the enormous venue soon to be formerly known as Wynn Boston Harbor.

To get a closer look, I brave the rotary myself to catch the 104 or 109 bus, and initially join about 10 heads outside of the Sullivan Square T stop in sucking disgusting fumes under the loud, corroded roadway. By the time both buses slug across the circle and creep all the way around the long ramp leading to the busway, there are more than 40 people waiting, with more heads spilling off the Orange Line and joining our queue every few minutes.

When both lines arrive at the same time, the 104 and 109 contingents split up, more or less in equal parts, filling both Everett-bound buses. More than 10 minutes pass as the men, women, and strollers board. We finally escape the lot at 5:13pm, but get caught at a devilish red light. Which is made even more excruciating as a cop with his rack lit up speeds down Cambridge Street toward Union Square.

Five minutes later, we still have yet to reach the Schrafft’s

building.

After punching through the dark inferno, our bus glides with ease to the casino. I should have walked—it’s less than one mile away, but my intent is to experience first-hand, however temporarily, the largely invisible but seemingly excessive hardships this project, among other things, is causing various communities. As the self-described “largest single-phase private development in Massachusetts history” at $2 billion, short of it failing altogether, which is highly unexpected, in the long term the casino, now slated to be named Encore Boston Harbor, will be roundly applauded in the media and by the rich and powerful, with plaques and props to complement the skyhigh ROI. But none of that alters the plight of those who must endure serious transit setbacks caused by several years—hell, decades—of bureaucratic negligence and hard-to-measure promises that led to our ongoing misery.

Over at Mike’s Roast Beef, located across Broadway from the Encore site, I meet a woman who works in a nearby warehouse.

She says that one day every week, she has to pick her sister’s kid up off an exit on I-93 North, and as a result cannot simply sneak into this part of Everett from her home in Chelsea, as she usually does. Last week, she says it took her 45 minutes to crawl from the Sullivan Square exit to work.

“It has always been bad,” she tells me. “But now it is a fucking nightmare.”

I ask about the fact that the casino will be built before the roads winding around it will be completely improved, and she simply shakes her head in disgust.

“Of course,” she says. “You think anybody gives a shit?”

By the time I finish my roast beef, there are no more fast rides down Broadway. It’s 6:15 pm, and the volume is thick.

Unless you’re on a bike; if you’re able to survive the circle, then you have a relatively safe coast ahead—at least until you pedal into your next rotational quagmire at Revere Beach Parkway.

As for driving… let’s just say that while I’m not a fan of traffic, I do enjoy the spectacle of a guido in his presumably North Shore-bound coupe hitting the gas as he exits Sullivan Square, only to jam hard on his brakes at the first red light over the bridge. Of course, in a few years he’ll be banging a hard left toward the craps tables, while the rest of us are still bumper to bumper.

Before returning to the Orange Line to head home, I grab a seat in a small public green space, near a bus stop with a mini shelter and across from the casino tract. I suspect this half-a-park in progress is one of the multiple improvements they have promised, but for now it looks like a pathetic prethought. The sidewalks aren’t quite as treacherous as they are back over the Boston border around Sullivan Square— someone in a wheelchair has a chance of being able to get out of here alive—but the landscaping is lackluster, perhaps having to do with the Monsanto Chemical behemoth shitting here from 1929 to 1983. I’m not sure what the crew tasked with making this drag more beautiful is putting down for sod, but the metal benches appear to be sinking.

I wonder if it will be nice and tidy by the time the guests arrive.

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FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

5 5/14/18 9:48 AM

CITY ON A HILL TOWNIE

Global warming will flood Boston. Why not move the state capital to Worcester?

BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS

Many small American cities have boosterish metro research organizations that look like a cross between a public policy outfit and a chamber of commerce, and the Bay State’s second biggest urban area is no exception. The Worcester Regional Research Bureau (WRRB) was founded in 1985 during a period when all of Massachusetts’ major cities were facing a funding crisis caused by the tax-slashing Proposition 2 1/2 and needed to find ways to keep their local economies functioning with less funding from state government. Since that time, according to its website, the “Research Bureau has prepared over 220 reports and held over 200 forums on topics including public administration, municipal finance, economic development, education, and public safety.” Its board is like a who’s who of the Worcester power structure.

In March, WRRB released a 10-page report, “Brokering a New Lease: Capturing the Value of State Offices for Massachusetts.”

Not exactly the kind of title that’s going to inspire headlines, and it didn’t— only receiving coverage in the Worcester Business Journal and Commonwealth magazine. But the white paper actually makes an interesting point: Why are the headquarters of the many state agencies mainly in the Hub? Boston has very expensive real estate prices. And even though the state owns some office buildings around town, many agencies lease commercial space for their headquarters. So, WRRB reasons, wouldn’t it make good sense to move some of those HQs to Worcester?

Saving the Commonwealth money, and helping the Worcester economy with lots of decent state jobs in the process?

Consider that, according to the report, Class A office space in Boston was running as high as $60.85

Even if Boston does build huge dikes.... it’s only a matter of time before the ocean wins.

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per square foot in 2017. It then points out that the “state pays an average of $37 per square foot across its Boston lease agreements, with a high of $73 per square foot near Boston City Hall and a low of $19 per square foot in Hyde Park.”

Meanwhile, “Brokering a New Lease” continues: “The [WRRB] consulted the City’s Economic Development Office and local real estate brokers and identified 275,000 square feet of available space across eight buildings that could feasibly house a state office. … The average rent was $21.31 per square foot, and one local broker said $22 per square foot would be a reasonable minimum estimate for new leases involving capital investment.”

A savings of $15 per square foot on average— which translates to my back-of-the-envelope estimate of $4,125,000 a year that would stay in the Commonwealth’s coffers—is nothing to sneeze at. It’s true that removing 275,000 square feet of the 1,675,806 square feet that the state currently has under lease in Boston, according to the report, would mean that the Hub stands to lose 16.4 percent of its state office space. Not an inconsiderable economic hit for Boston’s commercial real estate market, and something WRRB staff do not seem to be concerned about. But Worcester’s gains would potentially offset Boston’s losses from such a deal, when considering the state economy in its entirety.

Which makes the report’s rationale for moving some agency offices sound reasonable on cost-benefit grounds alone—although I can understand why many state employees might not want to move from more cosmopolitan Boston to a city with less social and cultural opportunities on offer. On the other hand, with a significantly lower cost of living, state salaries will stretch a lot further in Worcester County. To the point of allowing low-level bureaucrats, who couldn’t dream of buying so much as a condo in Boston these days, to buy a house out there.

But what interests me about the report is not so much its original subject as something I’m sure that WRRB staff hasn’t yet given the slightest thought.

Over the last few years, I’ve written numerous columns and editorials sounding the alarm about what I feel is Boston’s woefully inadequate preparations for the several major global warming-induced crises that scientists expect coastal cities to endure in the coming decades.

One of the most dangerous of those is sea level rise.

Much of Boston is low-lying former wetlands, and unless we start building major harbor-wide flood defenses

soon, we don’t have a prayer of slowing the Atlantic Ocean’s reclamation of those areas. And doing grave damage to critical systems like power, transportation, and sewage in the process.

Even if Boston does build huge dikes, and make other needed changes to the city design, it’s only a matter of time before the ocean wins. Since sea levels are expected to continue to rise for hundreds of years until, potentially, all of Earth’s major land-based ice sheets have melted into the ocean.

So why not move the state capital to Worcester—a city whose elevation is 480 feet—in stages? Starting with getting state agencies out to the city appropriately nicknamed the “Heart of the Commonwealth” in the manner the WRRB suggests. Then building the bullet train to Boston that former gubernatorial candidate Setti Warren is so excited about. And gradually transferring more and more of state government to the “City of Seven Hills” (the place really has a lot of nicknames). Until, eventually, we move the State House itself.

In addition to helping state government better weather global warming, having our capital in the middle of the state could go a long way toward healing the many divisions between eastern and western Massachusetts.

Don’t get me wrong;, this is not the kind of proposal I’d make if we weren’t facing climate change dire enough to threaten the survival of the human race.

But we are. Not today. Not tomorrow. Someday soon, though. We’re already seeing signs and portents now in the increasingly frequent “wild weather” that dishonest meteorologists like to prattle on about on Fox and their ilk. Including Worcester becoming more of a tornado alley than it already was—something I don’t think is nearly as much of a threat as the anticipated 10 feet of sea level rise Boston is facing by century’s end. More, if the land-based Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets start sliding into the ocean faster than the majority of climate scientists are currently projecting.

In past writing, I’ve suggested moving critical Boston infrastructure to the hills in and around the city. We will still need to do that. But growing Worcester while shrinking Boston is another smart move to consider. And why stop at just moving the state government? Why keep the city’s population exposed to ever more fierce hurricane- and winter storm-driven flooding when we can gradually move to a nearby city that could absorb quite a lot of our population before reaching capacity? A city acceptably far from the sea and major river systems, and high enough to not have to worry about being permanently flooded out (except, perhaps, in the worst possible scenarios).

Anyhow, food for thought. I’d be curious to hear what the WRRB staff—and other policy wonks and urban planners in “Wormtown” (loving these nicknames)— think about my proposal. I make it in earnest, and hope it is taken in the spirit with which I offer it. They can reach me, as ever, at jason@digboston.com.

Townie (a worm’s eye [ironic, no?] view of the Mass power structure) 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.

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

7

THE RED SEA DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS

Teachers want better pay, lawmakers want corporate tax breaks

BY JEFFREY C. BILLMAN Twenty-four hours after more than 20,000 teachers and their supporters amassed in downtown Raleigh Wednesday morning, forming a sea of red T-shirts that stretched down Salisbury Street to the horizon, the legislative leaders they were begging for help decided to change the subject. And what better way to do that than to unveil a new bill that would lavish millions more taxpayer dollars on billion-dollar corporations?

Welcome to North Carolina, y’all.

To be fair, that’s a glib oversimplification of a complex effort to lure Apple and Amazon, both of which have expressed interest in building major facilities here that would produce thousands of white-collar jobs and add to the region’s tech cache. Minus the cantankerous warnings of a handful of libertarian types and one skeptical editor of a local alt-weekly, who’ve naively argued that maybe governments shouldn’t be playing this game of corporateincentive extortion, doing whatever it takes to get Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook to cast a flirtatious glance our way has near-unanimous support. Hate the game, not the player, we’re told.

Still, there was something telling about that response.

Since gaining control of the legislature in 2011, North Carolina Republicans have been on a singular mission to make life better for their wealthy and corporate allies.

(And to keep black people from voting, but that’s a subject for another column.) Among a great many other things, they’ve scrapped a progressive income tax and replaced it with a flat tax, along the way eliminating an earned income tax credit that helped lower-income working families and broadening the state’s regressive sales tax.

According to an analysis last year by the NC Justice Center, the cumulative annual cost of the tax cuts the legislature has enacted since 2013 add up to $3.5 billion, and some 80 percent of the benefits go to the top 1 percent of earners.

These enormous tax cuts have, of course, been paired with massive spending shortfalls, which allows the state’s GOP to boast of annual surpluses. And nowhere has this been felt more than in education. Today, North Carolina is 40th in the nation in education quality, according to Education Week, 39th in school funding, and 37th in teacher pay, according to the National Educators Association. Adjusted for inflation, per-pupil spending was down almost 9 percent from 2008–09 to 2016–17, according to the Justice Center. In that same period, per-pupil appropriations for teacher assistants declined 36 percent; textbooks, 38 percent; school technology, 44 percent; and supplies and materials, 55 percent.

This has shifted the burden to the state’s counties, especially in higher-cost urban areas desperate to attract and keep quality teachers. Wake County, where the teacher protest took place, has raised property taxes—another flat, regressive tax—each of the last four years to compensate for education shortages and provide supplemental pay. Even that wasn’t enough: In Democratic primaries earlier this month, voters tossed out two self-styled progressive incumbents for being insufficiently committed to education, and a third barely escaped the same fate.

At the same time, the proliferation of charter schools in the state—and the legislature’s wide-eyed reverence for all things “school choice”—has further drained resources from traditional public schools. According to a study from one Duke University professor, charter schools have cost Durham County more than $500 in funding per student in traditional schools.

Teachers, meanwhile, are taking on second jobs, and in some part of North Carolina going on public assistance to make ends meet. They moonlight as pool-desk attendants at the local Y and teach night school and do construction 8

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and tutor on the side; they buy school supplies for their students and don’t have enough desks in their overcrowded classrooms; they wonder about leaving the profession altogether.

So, May 16, the first day of the General Assembly’s session, they marched—just as teachers in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, Kentucky, and Colorado had marched earlier this year—first in the burning sun and then in the pouring rain. More than 40 school districts across the state shut down that day because too many teachers had requested time off to attend the march (in North Carolina, public employees aren’t allowed to collectively bargain, and teachers aren’t permitted to go on strike).

Gov. Roy Cooper, a moderate and excruciatingly cautious Democrat, touted his plan to halt yet another planned tax cut for corporations and top earners and put that money toward textbooks and pay raises for teachers. The North Carolina Educators Association, which organized the march, called for teacher pay and per-pupil spending to be brought up to the national average.

And for the most part, the legislators to whom they were making these demands shrugged. Throughout the week leading up to the protest, Republicans were largely dismissive. One state representative railed about them being “Teacher Union thugs.” Senate leader Phil Berger scorned the rally as nothing more than a political event. House Speaker Tim Moore pointed out that teachers had been given raises over the last five years, including a scheduled 6 percent raise this year, and that North Carolina was raising teacher pay at one of the fastest clips in the country, so why weren’t they more grateful? Moore’s office blamed the Democrats who were in office when the recession hit for the severe education cuts that followed.

But the recession is gone, and these are heady days for North Carolina’s economy—something for which Moore and his ilk are all too happy to take credit, deservedly or (fact check!) otherwise.

They caught the wave of a national recovery—helped along by thriving, highly educated, and progressive urban areas that have often battled with the legislature—and acted like they invented the goddamn ocean.

To put it simply: The money is there to put North Carolina’s schools in good working order, as the legislature is constitutionally required to do. But instead, the General Assembly has gifted its rich PHOTO BY CAITLIN PENNA pals with tax cuts—and

now it wants to give millions upon millions more to some of the world’s richest corporations. The Apple and Amazon projects may have merit, and they’ll probably produce bigtime economic benefits if they come to fruition.

But so would world-class public schools.

In other red states where teachers flexed their political muscle, lawmakers were cowed into making at least some concessions. (In Kentucky, they did so over the governor’s veto.) North Carolina, however, seems bent on brushing aside teachers’ demands, confident that this political moment will pass, confident that good economic times or their gerrymandered districts will protect them from voters’ wrath.

Last Wednesday, North Carolina’s teachers tried to warn them that there would be hell to pay. As they crowded into the legislative gallery, they chanted, “Remember, remember, we vote in November.”

Jeffrey C. Billman is the editor-in-chief of INDY Week, which serves the Triangle region of North Carolina, and the president of the Carolina Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. Twitter: @jeffreybillman.

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DISPATCH FROM THE FIRST MASS CBA MEETING TALKING JOINTS MEMO

‘There are a lot of people out there who are rooting for us to fail’

BY CHRIS FARAONE @FARA1 I’ll slice right past the niceties: Some people are less than amused by the emergence of the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association (CBA). Many of these longtime marijuana users and culture crusaders are skeptical and even a little baffled by the idea of a CBA or any other commercial industry trade organization. Such entities are seen as everything that many activists have feared for years—an establishment group encroaching on what’s long been anti-establishment territory. You might call it a turf war.

Our crew understands such hangups more than readers may realize; fact is we could have sold out long ago, which would have rendered DigBoston (and Talking Joints Memo by extension) useless in times like these, when robust inspection of these issues is essential. Nevertheless, and I say this as someone who opened industrial-sized cans of whoopass on the Mass Department of Public Health during its insultingly procrastinatory rollout of medical marijuana, most participating parties—from the state’s Cannabis Control Commission, to recreational license applicants I have met—seem to at least want to do what progressives might call the “right thing.” That goes from their providing opportunities for those hosed by the war on drugs to prosper in the rec world, to making sure that Massachusetts doesn’t end up with the kind of cockeyed system that favors a few distributors and honchos at the expense of consumers, as is the case with alcohol in this state.

With that said, I hope both skeptics who have followed the Dig’s coverage on cannabis, as well as those who are new to this world and do not understand that so much promising behavior in this state comes only after several decades of advocacy and frustration, can understand that we are moving in the right direction overall. And while the CBA, the CCC, and countless other groups and entities will absolutely be impugned accordingly, their movements thus far have been as unique as they are notable. On that prompt, whether you are in the application process to open a marijuana business or you’re just hotly anticipating legal weed across the commonwealth, the comments CCC Chair Steven Hoffman delivered at the first CBA meetup, held last week at the UMass Club on Beacon Hill, may offer the most insight to date into how far Mass 10

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has come on this adventure, as well as into how far we still have to go. Here are some especially relevant outtakes from Hoffman’s 20-minute speech …

ON THE MASS CBA “I really don’t believe that the relationship between the regulatory body and the industry has to be adversarial. It is really clear that our objectives are not identical … but we do share one very important common objective, and that is we all want to this industry to be successful.”

ON HATERS “Our context is unique. … There is a stigma around this industry. We all need to recognize that, not necessarily accept it. Unfortunately we cannot regulate a stigma away. We cannot legislate a stigma away. The only thing that is going to end the stigma around this industry over time is that people see these are professional well-run businesses.” “[A regulated cannabis industry] is controversial, in case you haven’t figured that out. The voter initiative … was not a landslide, and I can tell you that there are equal passions on both sides of that debate. I don’t think either side is going to give up those passions anytime in the near future.”

“There are a lot of people out there who are rooting for us to fail. And for this industry to fail. I think we all need to recognize that as we go forward. … There are some people, not a small number, who don’t want us to succeed.”

ON METRICS AND ACCOUNTABILITY “Clearly some of the criteria for success in this industry is going to be: Are people who are providing great product for their customers making a return on investments? Are they creating jobs? … Are we creating entrepreneurial opportunities for people who have great ideas and a ton of energy and are willing to take on a risk?”

“We must have a tangible, quantifiable, and positive impact on public safety. There is nothing more important than to measure and prove quantifiably those metrics.”

“Preventing access to those who are under 21 years old is absolutely non negotiable.”

ON BANS AND BUSINESS “We need to work with cities and towns around the state, and I think some of you know that is challenging. You can’t control that, but what you can do is build and run professional businesses that are assets to the communities in which they operate.”

“Banking is a big problem and it’s one that I’m concerned about. … From a public safety standpoint, the experience in other states that preceded us is they were all-cash businesses and over time, as bankers and the states are seeing that these are professionally run businesses that are doing what they say regarding public health and public safety, then the banks come in. The commission is trying to speed that up, but while there are some things we can do, one thing we can’t do is force anybody to enter this industry.”

ON INCLUSIVITY “This has to be a diverse industry in terms of racial diversity, in terms of gender diversity, in terms of ethnic diversity. If you look at other states that preceded us, they haven’t done a great job. We have to work on that. We have to do better. It’s got to be inclusive. We as a commission are held accountable, and if we are not performing well on those measures, we need to go back to the legislature and say what do we need to do differently.”

“We are willing to meet with and listen to anybody. We don’t promise to agree, we don’t promise to do what you tell us, but we promise to meet with you and we promise to listen and we promise to take you seriously.”

This product contains zero THC

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TREATING YOURSELF TJM FEATURE

When Western medicine failed, these patients designed their own successful cannabis regimens

BY CHRISTINE GIRAUD Cannabis was officially sanctioned by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health as a legitimate medical treatment in 2012. But because it is still illegal federally, clinicians are rarely taught about cannabis in medical school and are often barred from prescribing it or even talking about it with patients.

This has left patients in a quandary. They can access cannabis legally, but they get little clinical guidance. As a result, people have created their own treatment plans.

Speaking with advocates and people in the cannabis community, we identified and reached out to three patients who once believed strongly in Western medicine but had to defy it when an illegal plant proved to be the better option. Through trial and error, they created health regimens for serious conditions including epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and chronic pain.

Liz Minda, a nurse who works in Western medicine every day, went completely herbalist with her daughter’s epilepsy. For her multiple sclerosis, Carolyn Kaufman took a holistic approach by mixing Western medicine and cannabis with an overall lifestyle change. Stephen Mandile, an Iraq war veteran, switched from opioids to medical cannabis for pain, depression, and PTSD, even though it meant risking his benefits at the Veterans Health Administration (VA).

JADYN MINDA (Epilepsy) At 18 months old, Jadyn Minda experienced a febrile seizure. Over the next few years, she seemed fine—until she had another seizure at age four.

Then came an avalanche of seizures. Her mother, Liz Minda, a nurse at Kent Hospital in Warwick, Rhode Island, tried the traditional treatments, but nothing seemed to work. Every drug they put her on, even rescue drugs like Diastat, would cause more seizures. Jadyn was declining 12

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rapidly.

As a nurse, Minda was a believer in Western medicine, but she was uncomfortable putting Jadyn on drugs, particularly benzodiazepines. She knew their long-term use caused decreased brain function, liver damage, hormonal dysfunction, and an overall weakening of the immune system. She started to look at other options. She heard cannabis had potential, and was interested in trying it, but she couldn’t fathom the idea of Jadyn puffing on a joint. Plus, it was still illegal.

Then came Sanjay Gupta’s CNN documentary, Weed, in 2013. When she learned that cannabis could be taken as an oil, it became a realistic option. By then, Jadyn had tried and failed 10 pharmaceutical drugs and gone through six years of battling the disease. Minda and her husband knew they’d be “stepping out of their comfort zone to say the least” in trying cannabis.

It was a tough transition. “For me to walk in the opposite direction as allopathic medicine was very hard.

But I would watch cannabis stop the seizure right before my eyes. There was no doubt in my mind, but it was very scary because I didn’t have the medical profession to support me.”

Weaning Jadyn off pharmaceuticals would require a protocol. Jadyn’s pharmacists and doctors couldn’t advise. She met a scientist out of California through an online forum of parents with epileptic children. He gave her a basic protocol to wean Jadyn off the drugs. Jadyn needed all the cannabinoids from the plant, including the psychoactive cannabinoid THC. Within three weeks of starting cannabis, Jadyn was off three pharmaceuticals.

Unlike pharmaceuticals, cannabis never sedated Jadyn to the point of respiratory arrest. With the benzodiazepines and the rescue drugs, Jadyn couldn’t function, but with cannabis she remained present.

“I could get her seizures under control and, although cannabis would sedate her, she could still eat, she could

talk, she could follow verbal commands, she could still engage with her eyes and walk with assistance,” Minda says.

Jadyn has been two years off all pharmaceuticals. Now she relies solely on hemp oil, which she takes three times a day, and emergency THC oil to quell unexpected seizures.

Jadyn’s daytime seizures are under control. She has been able to attend Coventry Public School and keep up with her class. Should she have a seizure, a drop of the THC oil placed between her lip and gum does the trick. Minda hopes that someday Jadyn will be able to take the THC while she is at school. Currently, it is illegal to use cannabis on a public school campus in Rhode Island.

They eventually found a cannabis-friendly doctor in John Gaitanis, MD, chief pediatric neurologist at Tufts Medical Center. Gaitanis has been willing to support Jadyn through her cannabis treatment, even though she is his only patient not taking pharmaceutical drugs.

Having someone “in the system” is helpful for the exams, lab work, and moral support, but Minda says she and her husband are still on their own in terms of dosing, what levels of compounds like THC and CBD to give Jadyn, and how to administer it.

That’s no surprise; in a 2017 study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, researchers found that fewer than 1 in 10 medical schools included medical

Currently, it is illegal to use cannabis on a public school campus in Rhode Island.

cannabis in their curricula. Two-thirds of medical school deans reported that their graduates were not prepared to prescribe cannabis, and a quarter were not prepared to answer questions about it.

There are some signs of improvement. According to a 2018 study conducted by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, nearly half of US cancer doctors who responded to a survey say they’ve recently recommended medical cannabis to patients, although most say they don’t know enough about medicinal use because of the lack of research. They also stated that patients were usually the ones to bring it up.

Minda is now an activist helping other parents going through this.

“Jadyn will never get those valuable five years back,” she says. “I am angry, frustrated, disappointed, and brokenhearted for Jadyn, and all the others kids suffering. … The war on drugs is extremely misguided, at the very least.”

Jadyn Minda’s Regimen: - Pure CBD hemp oil three times a day—15mg or 25mg of a CBD capsule.

- Before bedtime: an OG Kush indica raw flower in food.

- Pure THC oil as a rescue method for unexpected seizures.

- A CBD patch if necessary.

CAROLYN KAUFMAN (Multiple Sclerosis) Carolyn Kaufman is the last person you would expect to reject cannabis as a medical treatment. Her first impression of it as a teenager was when her brother got sick and cannabis was the only thing that worked for him.

Her parents were supportive. She even wrote her college thesis on the medicinal properties of cannabis.

Still, the influence of Western medicine and the stigma against cannabis were so strong that when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at 20 years old, even someone who believed cannabis was a legitimate medicine used it as a last resort.

MS is an autoimmune disease that damages the protective covering around nerves along the brain and spinal cord. Resulting nerve damage disrupts communication between the central nervous system and the body. For Kaufman there was pain, migraines, spasms throughout her body, and hypersensitivity on her skin.

“I had damage that created muscle spasms in my rib cage,” she recalls. “I remember they left me in a fetal position on my bathroom floor for three to 19 hours at a time, a few times a week.”

Complicating the situation, she weighed 360 pounds, so Kaufman’s doctor didn’t want to put her on steroids.

Instead, he prescribed anti-seizure pills, anti-anxiety pills, muscle relaxants, and pain pills. Muscle relaxants, which were supposed to relieve the spasms, didn’t hit the central nervous system; they went straight to the muscle. They didn’t help with pain but rather just sedated her. She was not able to function at her job or daily activities.

Showing little improvement after nine months, Kaufman grew frustrated.

“I’d had enough,” she says. “I was with my brother at a friend’s house and was desperate for relief. I smoked, and in 20 minutes the pain dissipated.”

The stoner stigma still made it difficult for her to accept cannabis as a treatment for herself. “I didn’t think it was part of my personality to smoke pot,” she says. But it was hard to deny the value of cannabis as it helped her come off all of her symptom management medications. She soon adopted a wellness plan that included cannabis, and her symptoms became manageable.

Complicated diseases with wide-ranging symptoms that vary per patient, like MS or fibromyalgia, require trial and error, a process that is usually easier when a certified healthcare practitioner is involved. Cannabis patients are on their own, and Kaufman had to learn how to use cannabis strategically. Over time, she adopted practices of integrative medicine. While she still takes a MS modifying drug, she also has radically changed her lifestyle with exercise, a strict “energetic” diet, meditation, and cannabis.

“This is my medicine. I feel so much gratitude,”

Kaufman says. “I’d been feeling so shameful of something that is only helping me.”

Kaufman currently works as a mindset coach at her own business, Without the Weight, and contributes to the cause as a cannabis advocate. If her clients use cannabis, she says they often need to know how to make these health practices work in their lives.

“When it come to MS, you’re not supposed to get better once you’ve gotten sick,” she says. “I did. You’re not supposed to lose 140 pounds while smoking pot everyday.

I did.”

Carolyn Kaufman’s Regimen: - For diet, she eats energetically with fast-digesting carbohydrates for breakfast for energy; a lunch with moderate fat, protein, and slow-digesting carbs to sustain her; and a dinner with lean protein and vegetables to sleep well.

- For exercise, Kaufman goes to the gym regularly and, if needed, smokes beforehand to avoid muscle spasms.

- She prefers a sativa-dominant strain for daytime and an indica-dominant strain at night.

- Daily MS modifying drug.

STEPHEN MANDILE (Spinal Cord Injury, PTSD, Depression) In 2005, public cannabis advocate, Stephen Mandile, was lead vehicle in a convoy in Iraq. His Army National Guard unit was bringing a prisoner to Abu Ghraib. Because of the threat of IED bombs, it was policy that convoys not stop for anything. Most Iraqis knew to stay out of the way, but not that day, and his truck tore out the back of a civilian car that crossed their path. The next morning, Mandile woke up and couldn’t move from his waist down. He had ruptured six discs in his spine.

Mandile took his honorable discharge and came home.

Doctors told him that he could expect to be in a wheelchair by 50.

From 2010 to 2015, Mandile was prescribed 57 different medications, which that included opioids, muscle relaxants, and antidepressants. “Doctors said mourn who you were, just move on with who you are now. I didn’t know who I was now. And trying to figure that out on drugs like fentanyl was tough. Psychiatrists would ask how did I feel and I was just, like, ‘I don’t.’”

After a suicide attempt in 2013, Mandile’s wife insisted that he look into cannabis. She was working at MCIFramingham, a women’s prison, and saw women having withdrawal symptoms from opioid abuse that looked like what he was experiencing when his fentanyl patch wore off. At first, he was offended. Mandile had always associated weed with slackers. But the other foreseeable option—potentially overdosing or worse—helped him make the decision. “My choice was medical heroin or medical cannabis—tens of thousands of deaths, or no deaths.”

In 2013, Mandile wanted to start consuming, but there were no dispensaries open. That changed in June 2015, and after five months of excruciating withdrawal, he was off all synthetic medications.

In December 2015, Mandile had an epiphany. He decided to try shoveling his driveway for the first time since the accident in Iraq. He thought he would just do a small path. An hour later, he had shoveled the entire driveway. With cannabis, his pain was manageable. He says he was also able to focus. He decided at that moment to become a cannabis activist.

This wasn’t easy for someone in his position. If veterans test positive for cannabis, the VA can cut their benefits. The VA also tests to make sure people are taking the opioids they are given and not selling them.

“I was so fed up,” Mandile says. “I survived Iraq, and I survived these pills. Talking to my doctor is the last thing that I should be afraid of.”

It is not illegal for VA doctors to recommend cannabis to patients in legal states like Massachusetts. Nevertheless, internal VA policy has been reluctant to allow this until cannabis is federally legal. Luckily, Mandile’s VA doctor was open to it, and helped him withdraw from the medications.

In addition to his advocacy, Mandile is part of a research and development group at Evergreen Farms, a grow facility in Bellingham, Massachusetts. The program helps disabled veterans get the help they need at reduced cost. Mandile would like to see the state open a location for alternative healing, where cannabis could be grown, packaged, and given to veterans, along with opportunities for other therapeutic activities.

I didn’t know who I was now. And trying to figure that out on drugs like fentanyl was tough.

Stephen Mandile’s Regimen: - Morning meditation.

- Take a high- CBD (cannabidiol) sativa strain in the morning— Harlequin.

- Gradually increase THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) throughout the day—Goji OG. - Mindfulness training.

- Exercise.

- At night take 200 mg of THC for sleep—Granddaddy Purple (high indica).

- Administration: inhalant and edibles.

- Medication for gout.

---///---

If federal prohibition ends in the United States—and this seems likely—research on cannabis will grow as restrictions fall away. Medical schools will integrate it into their curricula. Patients will not be so alone in creating their treatment plans.

But what will be lost? Some patients like how proactive they have to be with their cannabis treatments because it makes them feel empowered. And the fact that it’s practically impossible to overdose on cannabis makes self-medicating relatively less scary. As Mandile puts it, “With pot, you can take it based on how you feel, not like pharmaceuticals where you have to take it every four hours or whatever, no matter what else is going on with your body. The worse that will happen to me if I have too much cannabis is I take a nap.”

Patients also like how treatment with cannabis involves the whole plant, all the natural chemical compounds working together in a synergistic phenomenon known as the entourage effect. Liz Minda was told to use whole plant cannabis oil when she helped Jadyn withdraw from the pharmaceuticals and she believes that was crucial. In contrast, the pharmaceutical industry typically extracts compounds separately to create a chemically prepared product such as Marinol, a synthetic THC. The federal government is taking the middle ground. In May, a House committee approved cannabis law reform legislation that would encourage the VA to conduct research on whole plant cannabis as well as extracts.

The future of cannabis treatment may follow two parallel tracks: herbalism or Western medicine. But more likely these tracks will merge. As with Carolyn Kaufman’s integrative regimen, cannabis will likely become part of a personalized treatment plan that pulls from a range of therapies.

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ED. NOTE: This article is based on anecdotal interviews with the subjects noted and profiled herein.

DigBoston recommends consulting a medical professional without conflicts of interest with any pharmaceutical or cannabis company.

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Monthly guide to Boston’s music and arts underground reaches milestone issue WORDS AND PHOTO BY GREG COOK “Directing you to underground shows and awesome happenings! in Boston.” That’s what Sam Potrykus scrawled across the top of the first edition of the Boston Compass.

The publication debuted on March 6, 2010, as just a single photocopied sheet of paper. Each month since, the Compass has arrived as a sort of oracle. The broadside grew into a newsprint newspaper.

It was a magical window into a far-out, fringe, independent, underground world of secret house shows filled with fuzzy garage rock and experimental noise—that the police were trying to infiltrate and shut down.

“People who have no voice or no platform or no foundational support, we are a place for them,” Potrykus says. “It’s literally navigating you to something you otherwise can’t get to. That’s why it’s called the Compass.”

Eight years later, and with the help of dozens and dozens of volunteers over the years, the Compass has reached its 100th issue and Potrykus and friends (including his partners at the promotion and event arm Boston Hassle and complementary nonprofit Brain Arts) are celebrating the Compass Centennial. There will be a free party featuring DJs, snacks, beer, and a “fashion photo booth” at the Garment District in Cambridge from 6 to 9 pm Thursday, May 31.

Key to the Compass’s longevity is the partnership Potrykus formed with Dan Shea. Shea already had his own culture blog, Bodies of Water Arts and Crafts. He had a music label and was booking house shows in Jamaica Plain. In 2009, they collaborated to organize the Homegrown music festival, which they now consider the first annual Hassle Fest.

Together the two founded Boston Hassle, an arts site that includes the Compass plus more. Potrykus recalls, “Dan had the blog and I had the newspaper, and maybe a year later we said, ‘Maybe we should make this a thing.’ We sat around thinking of names.

We said everything is such a hassle to do arts and culture in this town. So we decided to own that struggle.”

Last year, they launched their umbrella nonprofit Brain Arts. In addition to the publications, last year they produced more than 100 shows around Greater Boston. They also host a bimonthly Black Market flea market and, since January, run the Dorchester Art Project gallery and studios in Boston. The Compass debuted during a moment when underground DIY venues thrived across Boston—the Whitehaus in Jamaica Plain and Gay Gardens, the Butcher Shoppe and Problem House in Allston. These basement and house shows helped incubate bands like Quilt and Guerilla Toss.

“I knew it was big,” Potrykus says. “There were house shows everywhere. I lived at the Whitehaus at the time. There was this great scene, great groups of people. And I saw it all over town. … I was inspired by these crews of freaks, these independent people.”

In a digital era, the Compass was a rare new print publication. Potrykus was inspired by the 1960s San Francisco underground rock publication, Mojo Navigator, while Emma Leavitt, now designer in chief of the Compass, says, “It’s definitely a continuation of some shit that’s way before us—the independent press. It’s becoming more relevant now, especially as our faith in Facebook and social media is crumbling.”

Potrykus quotes punk cartoonist Gary Panter’s 1980 “Rozz Tox Manifesto”: “If you want better media, go make it.”

“I think I did have these grandiose concepts,” Potrykus says. “Man, if there was just one sheet of paper where Cambridge kids, the Allston kids, the JP kids could all be together … I thought I could change the world in some way.”

From the beginning, the heart of the Boston Compass has been its listings—the first edition directed readers to shows by Debo Band and Lightning Bolt drummer Brian Chippendale’s solo project Black Pus. The broadside mutated into an eight-page-long newspaper from August 2013 to August 2016 featuring music, art, film and comics.

Somewhere in there, all the work of putting the Compass out each month nearly got to be too much for Potrykus: “I was about to fold the paper. I was at the end of my rope. Is it even worth it?”

The Compass published an ad seeking help. Along came Emma Leavitt. They met at an Allston cafe. “I almost cried,” Potrykus remembers.

“Sam had his head down on the table,” Leavitt recalls. “He’s like, ‘It’s not worth it.’ I was like, ‘I think it is worth it.’”

Leavitt increasingly took over management of the design and together—with the help of many, many volunteers—they’ve continued on. They eventually reduced the newspaper to four pages a month to make it more manageable. Potrykus says, “Still no one else is covering independent shows that happen in churches and alternatives spaces.”

“I’ve heard from a lot of people that they moved to Boston, they don’t know what’s going on,” Leavitt says. “Then they find the Compass and they’re like, ‘This literally introduced me to all my friends.’”

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7 SECRET TIPS FOR BOSTON CALLING MUSIC

Consider this your insider guide to surviving the music festival

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN

Another year, another edition of Boston Calling—except this year is set to be the festival’s greatest one yet.

Ever since the festival debuted in May of 2013, it’s been busting its ass to improve not only itself, but the festival game at large. That means upping its gender, genre, and race representation, inviting local musicians to perform on the big stage, sharpening its food curation, bringing comedians onboard, PHOTO BY TY JOHNSON scouting a new location, and pushing things to the next level.

To help you prepare for the music festival’s ninth edition this weekend, here are seven tips to help you maximize your Boston Calling experience without letting a single drop of FOMO seep in.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK

Advanced prep for a carefree weekend sounds ludicrous, but your sanity and phone battery will thank you. Head over to Boston Calling’s website to study the festival grounds map. Take note of where your favorite food stalls are, bathrooms hidden off to the side, and the fastest route from one stage to the next so you don’t miss a single second of the bands you want to see.

It’s a lot easier to do these in advance and take notes on a piece of paper (or in your phone and screenshot it!) than trying to coordinate on-site with friends when cell phone service gets spotty. Oh, and follow the festival’s socials so you’re up to date on any last-minute schedule changes.

VIP ENTRANCE FOR ALL

If you can’t drop the extra dough for VIP, that’s okay. There are still ways to shorten your festival entrance time. Figure out which artist you want to see first and then show up an hour before their scheduled set time. Better yet, show up when gates open at 2:30 pm on Friday and noon on Saturday and Sunday. Walk to the far left side of the entrance lines, as most people flood the lines closest to the street, to guarantee you don’t get stuck in the longest line. Want to speed up the process even more? Avoid the wait for will call by picking up your wristband early. Just head downstairs at Tasty Burger in Harvard Square 3-8 pm this Thursday.

EARLY BIRD GETS THE COMEDY WORM

Remember when the comedy arena filled up last year, and you couldn’t see your favorite comedian do a set? Boston Calling just created the best solution. Each day, the festival will hand out 1,000 complimentary first-come, first-serve wristbands that guarantee admission to the arena—taking up about a third of the arena’s capacity. With those, you can enter the arena through a special line instead of waiting in the massive general admission line. That means you can see a live recording of Pod Save America, Cameron Esposito, David Cross, and more with ease. Best of all, you can waltz right in to see “Natalie Portman and Friends,” which sees the award-winning actress bring artists like St. Vincent, Zola Jesus, Leikeli47, and more onstage.

ARTS(Y) AND CRAFT(Y) AND BEER(Y)

Normally we wouldn’t advise you to order alcohol at a festival because the cost is ridiculous. But if there’s one thing Boston Calling succeeds at in the BAC department, it’s the Mikkeller booth. Tucked away on one side of the festival, the Denmark microbrewery gets its own stall to pour you experimental brews straight from the tap. Take it from a fan (me): Mikkeller makes some truly phenomenal sours. The fact that you can not only find a passion fruit gose or Berliner-style weisse beer at a festival but that it’s straight from the tap is next-level shit. Why the hell would you get a Sam Adams when you have this glorious option available, and for the same price?

NO MORE FOOD FIGHTS

Boston Calling allows re-entry, but don’t do it to save a few bucks on dinner off the festival grounds. You will wish you stayed inside the festival and didn’t have to wait in the re-entry lines… especially when you accidentally miss the artist you wanted to see. This year’s food roster is tastier and more accommodating than ever before. Keep your eyes peeled for mega-popular ramen spot Yume Wo Katare, the vegan-adored Whole Heart Provisions, rice ball wizards Arancini Bros, and the best food truck around, Bon Me. Then snag dessert from Zinneken’s Belgian Waffles, Union Square Donuts, FoMu Ice Cream, and… Sorry, I had to stop rattling places off to wipe away drool.

BEAT THE RAIN

If we’ve learned anything from eight different versions of Boston Calling over the years, it’s that when forecasters say it’s gonna rain, they mean it. Do the smart thing and pack a poncho (or XL trash bag!) this year. Your local bodega, CVS, or Target sells them for under $5. They aren’t fashionable, but when you’re surrounded by thousands of people trying to watch a musician perform, the last thing you want is a sore arm from holding an umbrella up or a soaked outfit after your jacket waves its white flag. This weekend, embrace your no-fucks-given alter ego as an amorphous plastic blob.

SECRET ACOUSTIC SETS (SHHHH)

Paramore, St. Vincent, Tyler, the Creator: Obviously this year’s lineup will knock some stellar performances out of the park. But there’s a special type of set that’s going to go down, and word is only a few hundred people will know about it. Over the course of the weekend, there will be special acoustic performances by Boston Calling artists at an undisclosed location on festival grounds. Unfortunately, Boston Calling already sent RSVP links for the performances to people who purchased festival tickets before April 19. Fortunately, those people were given a plusone. That means if you keep your ears open, you may hear someone who’s headed to the secret show with no friend to be their plus-one. Make a friend and see an exclusive, secret, acoustic performance by an undisclosed artist? Folks, I believe that’s called a win-win. >>BOSTON CALLING. FRI 5.25–SUN 5.27. HARVARD ATHLETIC COMPLEX, 65 N. HARVARD ST., ALLSTON. 12PM/ALL AGES/$289. BOSTONCALLING.COM

MUSIC EVENTS THU 05.24

SHAKE YOUR BRASS THE SOUL REBELS + GZA

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 8pm/18+/$25. sinclaircambridge.com]

16

05.24.18 - 05.31.18 |

THU 05.24

BUCKEYE’S POWER POP WONDER THE SIDEKICKS + SWIM TEAM + ANIMAL FLAG + SAVE ENDS

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

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

DIGBOSTON.COM

THU 05.24

GARAGE DANCE PARTY WITH A QUEERCORE REVIVAL THRUST CLUB + DUMP HIM + SAPLING

[ONCE Somerville, 156 Highland Ave., Somerville. 7pm/18+/$7. oncesomerville.com]

FRI 05.25

GLASS CANNON RELEASE SHOW BAT HOUSE + EDGE PETAL BURN + NECK + THE WATER CYCLE [Democracy Center, 45 Mount Auburn St., Camb. 7pm/all ages/$7. democracycenter.org]

SAT 05.26

TUE 05.29

[The Sinclair, 52 Church St., Cambridge. 10pm/21+/$20. sinclaircambridge.com]

[Blue Hills Bank Pavilion, 290 Northern Ave., Boston.

7pm/all ages/$25. bostonpavilion.com]

BOSTON CALLING AFTERSHOW OH SEES + BLACK BEACH

METAL AND PROG’S WEIRD BEHEMOTHS PRIMUS + MASTODON

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

17

>> UNDER THE HILL MURAL OPENING WITH DAN MASI. THU 5.31. THE LILYPAD, INMAN SQUARE, CAMBRIDGE. 7:30PM/FREE/ALL AGES. LILYPADINMAN.COM

NOCTURNAL MURAL VISUAL ARTS

Rising local artists to keep your eyes on

BY M.J. TIDWELL @MJTIDWELL781

For 260 hours under the cover of darkness, Dan Masi painted.

Over six months, entirely at night, Masi painted, combining his own artistic style with the colors and themes of Francisco Goya to create a mural that now envelopes the Lilypad collaborative art and performance space in Cambridge.

“I wanted to create almost a church-like thing,” Masi said. “An overwhelming swirl of music and colors and experience.”

Daniel Sarver, staff curator and director of operations at the Lilypad, said that when he started curating a few years ago, he quickly realized framed paintings weren’t right for the space. With so many people using the Lilypad for many different purposes, a mural was the way to go.

Under the Hill is the second mural Masi has created for the space, and Sarver said he was excited to have him back because Masi’s work presents a sense of levity through bright primary colors, but upon further study, there are greater depths to explore.

“The overnight thing was necessary,” Sarver said.

“Logistically, there was no other way. And I think it adds a certain quality to the work.”

During the day, the Lilypad hosts kids’ movement classes and piano lessons before transitioning into music and other performances during the evening.

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“I’m like the elf who comes in the night and adds things,” Masi said. A painter and illustrator from Somerville, Masi has a BFA in illustration from the Art Institute of Boston and spent 20 years creating small pieces of display art for Martignetti Liquors.

According to a press release, Masi strives to combine elements of mythology and modern anxiety, exploring themes of illusion and ennui.

He said he likes to come to the Lilypad and overhear the ideas people have about what’s going on in the mural—and they get pretty wild, he says. Even he is surprised by how the final piece came out. Though the mural is technically finished, Masi is still painting little corners, adding a new design in the bathroom, continuing to expand his artwork into the space.

Where muralists once drew meticulous sketches on grid paper to transfer onto the mural-to-be, Masi said this mural was free flowing—he never knew exactly what would emerge from the tip of his brushes. He said he felt like Goya was with him as he painted, and he wondered what the artist would think of this section or that.

“I like his way of thinking,” Masi said. “The purpose of Goya’s work was to express something darker in a beautiful way. I guess I sort of do that too.”

Masi’s mural is divided into three progressive panels.

Upon entering the Lilypad, the first panel pays homage to Goya’s well-known prints in a muted color scheme

that Masi calls his “Goya photo booth,” since so many showgoers pause to take pictures with the painting.

The second panel recreates Goya’s El Pelele tapestry with a highly saturated color theme that updates skin tones and makes the “straw man” figure appear more ambiguous to create symbols of a globally connected world that are open to broader interpretation, according to press materials.

The third panel progresses from an homage to Goya into Masi’s own experiences with the artistic community in and around Boston with symbols Masi felt would be appropriate for a “jazz jam, rock show, or child’s birthday party.”

“Kids have been responding really well to the mural,” Sarver said. “They respond to the colors the most, and the deeper, scarier stuff goes over their heads.”

Masi said he doesn’t think he’s given anyone nightmares… yet.

There will be an art opening at the Lilypad on Thursday, May 31, with live DJing and a musical performance by Nightime Sunshine.

“I’m not dissatisfied,” Masi said about the mural.

“That’s a huge concession, as I usually am dissatisfied.

But when you’re sleeping all day, this becomes your everything.

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SOMERVILLE THEATRE - 55 DAVIS SQ, SOMERVILLE MA NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

19

‘IN THE ZONE’ FILM

Writer/director Paul Schrader on First Reformed

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN US, so every time you wanted to finance a film, you had to justify its ability to make a profit. And I just never believed that I could sell anybody on one of these films.

And I believed that if I did, it would flop, I would be pigeonholed, and my career would be over. So I decided not to go there—I decided that it was not in my selfinterest to go there. But then, in the past several years, costs have come down so dramatically that it was financially viable to make this film. And the people [who financed its production] will get their money back.

On a related note: You’ve described First Reformed as a “transcendental film,” a noncommercial film, and yet it will receive a significant theatrical release from a highly reputable distributor. On the other side, the films you made before First Reformed were sold as “genre cinema”—they’re ostensibly more commercial—and yet those films were primarily released to video-ondemand services in lieu of genuine theatrical rollouts.

Has this changed your perspective on the current nature of film distribution?

PHOTO BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN

First Reformed [2018] is the only Paul Schrader movie to faithfully abide by formal guidelines described in the filmmaker’s own critical text, Transcendental Style in Cinema: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer [1972]. That’s a perspective the artist has stated himself quite often in recent months, including within the interview published below. And following a screening of First Reformed at the Independent Film Festival Boston, he briefly explained why the other 20 films he’s directed went down a different path: “I’m too intoxicated by action and empathy and sex and violence.” Certainly, if one needed to describe the trio of genre films that Schrader had directed in recent years—those being The Canyons [2013], Dying of the Light [2014] (which got released in a producer-approved edit that Schrader immediately disowned), and Dog Eat Dog [2016]—then “intoxicated by action and empathy and sex and violence” would be a fairly accurate way of doing so. In great contrast, First Reformed displays a deliberately austere spirit; where his other recent films were borne mostly of pulp, this one borrows narrative devices from movies cited in the original Transcendental Style text. It studies Toller (Ethan Hawke), a pastor at a historical Dutch Reformed church in upstate New York, as his perspective on existence is irrevocably shaken by a series of encounters with Mary (Amanda Seyfried) and Michael (Philip Ettinger), two environmental activists who count themselves among his small congregation. Concurrent with the film’s release is the republication of Transcendental Style in Cinema, now outfitted with a lengthy new introduction penned

by Schrader (“Rethinking Transcendental Style”), which concludes with a geometrical map of the filmmakers he considers to be connected or adjacent to the style itself. In an interview with fellow writer/director Alex Ross Perry published by Cinema-Scope magazine, Schrader explained the map, which he’s dubbed “the Tarkovsky Ring”: “If you assume that film is inherently narrative—that the moment you place one image next to another, you’re creating a narrative—then as film flees from narrative in the Deleuzian sense, it can flee in one of three directions, three tendencies,” he told Perry. “One is the surveillance

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camera, another is toward the art gallery, and the third is toward Mandala, the religious experience. And then you can chart the directors who flee narrative, and then you can chart the Tarkovsky Ring they pass through. Everyone outside of it is outside of commercial cinema. But every filmmaker on this graph is acting in some degree against the narrative impulse. They’re all slowing it down.” To which Perry later replied, “You’ve got Rossellini right here, very close to the nucleus of narrative, next to Ozu, Dreyer, Ceylan, Bresson, Dumont. Where would you place First Reformed on this?” Schrader: “Definitely inside the ring.”

First Reformed is the fourth movie that you’ve directed in the past five years. It seems like this has been a productive stretch of time for you. Does it seem that way in your own estimation? Or does it feel otherwise?

Well there was that debacle with Dying of the Light.

Out of that came the need to do another film with Nic [Cage] and the need to have final cut. So we went back and we did Dog Eat Dog. I didn’t used to care so much about final cut, because the people you were involved with were all movie people. They went to movies, they liked movies. You would disagree about something, but then you’d come up with a solution. Now the business is full of people who are funding movies but who don’t like movies, and who in fact rarely even go to movies. So the need to have final cut is much more important now than it was 20 or 30 years ago. With Dog Eat Dog, I got final cut—and that allowed me to get final cut on First Reformed.

During last night’s talk you suggested that you couldn’t have produced a film like First Reformed in the ’80s, the ’90s, or even 10 years ago. I presume you meant that in terms of financing?

When you look at the European filmmakers that make these kinds of films, they’re all to some degree underwritten by government money. That’s how they make these films. We’ve never had that system in the

There are eight to 10 independent films a year that get their heads above the crowd. This is out of maybe 15,000 or 20,000 that are made—that number could even be higher, because anyone can make a film now, and they are. On top of that, you have 100,000 foreign films, and 500 scripted TV series. So how do you get to be one of those eight to 10? You get there by running the gauntlet, which in this case is the festival circuit. We played Venice, Telluride, Toronto, New York, Rotterdam, Dublin, South by Southwest, Miami, San Francisco. We were at South by Southwest probably five months after the film was sold at Toronto. [And distributor] A24 didn’t decide to give the film the full push until after South by Southwest.

As opposed to a video-on-demand release?

Yeah, like the one they did with the Burt Reynolds movie (The Last Movie Star [2018]). When they bought the film, they said to me that they had no desire to get it out right away. Just wait it out. See how the reactions land.

Do people remember it two or three weeks later? Are people still talking about it? That’s how, hopefully, you get to be one of those films.

I bring up distribution in part because I felt a kinship between the way you depicted the image of the First Reformed church in this movie and the way you depicted, say, the closed-down movie palaces seen at the start of The Canyons. I wondered if your relationship with movies—and more specifically, with the business of movies—informed the subtext of First Reformed.

No, I—Richard Linklater said to Ethan Hawke, “Nobody’s made this film in 60 years.” And practically all the reference points on this film are very old. I never thought I would make this film. I wrote a book about it, but I never thought I’d go there. But the time came. And the economics came. And I’m glad I did it. Now I don’t know what to do.

How do the updates you’ve made in the republished edition of Transcendental Style relate to First Reformed?

And which project preceded the other?

They happened around the same time. I was invited to go to a SCMS conference in Atlanta. There was a panel there called “Rethinking Transcendental Style” where three scholars gave papers on my 45-year-old book. I sat

there and thought, if anybody should be rethinking this book, it should be me. What happened since I wrote the book? Does it hold up? Do I still agree with it? What was I missing? That’s what started it all. And it took about three years to write that essay, because I had to watch so many films. Particularly, some of “slow cinema”—and there’s a lot of it. I realized quite a number of things that I hadn’t realized back then, and that’s what the new section is about.

texture of an actor’s face, or just the layout of a room.

Speaking of which, I’d be remiss to not bring up the eyeball lamp in Mary’s house, which monopolized my attention for every second that it was onscreen.

Once you strip out all of the stuff in the room—these people don’t have carpets, there’s nothing on the walls— then you can put up one weird object. I also did that in Light Sleeper [1992], where Willem Dafoe’s room doesn’t have anything in it, not even a bed, just a mattress on the floor. But there’s this one odd lamp right in the middle of it.

I was surprised to hear you express that First Reformed is the only film of yours that fits the guidelines dictated in the original text— Well, there is no pure “film of transcendental style,” but there are elements, and First Reformed is the only one that uses enough of the elements to be considered in that way. You know … I used still lifes in American Gigolo [1980], but it’s not enough to just use still lifes here and there. It’s the concentration of the elements. … [It’s] always withholding techniques.

How did you find the rhythm of First Reformed? If we could take the first conversation between Toller and Michael as an example, given its expansive length, and that we see it from a number of different camera setups—how do you determine the moment to cut in from the wider shot, or to go into the close-up?

The first thing when you talk about withholding is that you’ve got to give the viewer less. Whether that means not giving them music, whether that means not giving them a splice on action, whether that means not moving the camera … you give them less. So you have a two-shot, and the viewer expects you to reach in—to tell them what to think. And you just stay in that two-shot until it’s made perfectly clear to the viewer that his or her need to know what’s important is not the crucial thing.

Then you can start to go in. One of the beauties of the square format [First Reformed is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1] is that there are no overs. There weren’t many overs in the silent era. Overs came in when the screen got horizontal, and when you had a head here [he gestures to the center of an imaginary frame], and you needed something to put here [he gestures to the corner of the same imaginary frame], so you put a shoulder or the side of somebody’s head there. Now, the over-the-shoulder is probably the most standard cut in film language.

There are no overs in First Reformed. That leads you to plain ametric compositions—where everything is on a single plane—that sort of Wes Anderson thing. That’s another withholding device: reducing the depth of the image. All of these withholding devices, in combination, are how you get the viewer to lean into the movie. Because viewers are so used to being catered to in every fashion: Please love us, we’ll do anything, we’ll give you beautiful girls, we’ll give you fast cars, we’ll give you exciting music, we’ll give you fast edits, just please love us. A conventional movie is all over you like that; you’re passive with nothing to do but submit. But when you have a withholding movie slowly moving away from you, then you can do one of two things: You can move towards it, or you can get up and leave the theater. And how a director walks that tender line is what makes the film work.

If he can surgically use the tool of boredom to bring you forward, then he’s got you. And if he fails, then it’s just boring.

Aside from that, I also believe these particular techniques allow us to appreciate the sort of things we might not typically appreciate in a “more commercial movie.” Whether that’s the

What brought this story to upstate New York?

I wanted it to have a rural feeling. And I wanted it to be a colonial church. And New York has all the [tax] incentives, more than New Jersey at that time. And I didn’t want to go down to Virginia or Florida, because it would be too warm. I also wanted to shoot it in the zone—you know, where TMZ is.

For a moment I thought you might be referring to Tarkovsky’s “zone” (from Stalker [1979]).

You know the 30-mile zone? That’s where TMZ comes from. In every big city, there’s a center, and you go 30 miles out … if you’re within that center zone, you pay your crew from when they arrive at work. If you’re one mile outside that zone, you pay your crew member when they leave from home. That’s essentially almost two hours per day. So you’re looking for stuff that can pass for rural in Queens, or in Staten Island. And that church is right in Queens. It just happens to be on a hilltop and looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere.

That rural sense is of course related to the color palette of the film. I’m aware that you initially hoped to shoot First Reformed in black and white. And there’s still a certain monochromatic quality to it, in certain passages and locations.

I don’t feel very disappointed that I didn’t shoot it in black and white. I’ve gotten to like the color of it so much that I’m not sure it’d be very different. And I was very disappointed by the color—by the black and white—of Nebraska [2013].

Disappointed by the look of black and white as shot on a digital format?

Yeah. But that was shot with a color chip. You can now shoot with a black-and-white chip, but I have not yet seen a film that was shot with a black-and-white chip.

Your key collaborators on First Reformed included cinematographer Alexander Dynan and editor Benjamin Rodriguez Jr., both of whom have a relatively low number of film credits to their name.

I formed this team on Dog Eat Dog, all new people.

Because I was trying to figure out how to make a gangster film in 2015. I wanted a whole bunch of people who had no experience in the movies so that everything would be new and fresh to them. They were all in their 20s, and it was the first credit for all of them. I enjoyed that experience, and so when the next one came around, I used the same team.

Do you feel like they helped you to achieve this aesthetic that’s so far divorced from— No, no, I had that.

Conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

FIRST REFORMED OPENS ON FRI 5.25 AT THE AMC BOSTON COMMON, COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE, AND KENDALL SQUARE CINEMA. RATED R. THE NEW EDITION OF TRANSCENDENTAL STYLE IN FILM: OZU, BRESSON, DREYER WILL ALSO BE RELEASED ON FRI 5.25.

SCENE FROM FIRST REFORMED. COURTESY A24

NEWS TO US

FEATURE

DEPT. OF COMMERCE

ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

21

PISSY SAVAGE LOVE

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET I like watersports, and I heard about a guy in a rural area who holds piss parties in his backyard. I found a mailing list for those interested in piss play, and it wasn’t long before he posted about one of these parties. People on the list talk a big game, but no one else has stepped up to host something, including me. (I would, but four neighbors look into my backyard.) The host has very simple rules for who can attend: You have to identify as a guy and wear masculine attire. I get to the party, and there were about four guys and the host. I had a good time.

The host had plenty of drinks out, towels, chairs, canopies, and candles to ward off the mosquitos. I’ve been back a couple times. Everyone is friendly enough and there’s the right amount of perversion. So what’s the problem? The host. He’s loud and annoying. He insists on putting classical music on (it doesn’t set the mood very well). He tells the same lame jokes every time he’s pissing on someone. He will complain that people say they’re coming and don’t show. If you are having a moment with someone, he will invariably horn in on the action.

Without being rude, I’ve tried to make it clear that we are not looking for company, but he doesn’t take the hint. It’s his party, and props to him for hosting it—but it takes the fun out of it when the host doesn’t know when to back off. I’ve gotten to the point where it’s not worth the effort to go. Do I just get over it, or say something privately?

Person Exasperates Enthusiast The advice I gave a different reader about dealing with a guest horning in on the action at an orgy applies in your case: “Even kind and decent people can be terrible about taking hints—especially when doing so means getting cut out of a drunken fuckfest. So don’t hint, tell. There’s no rule of etiquette that can paper over the discomfort and awkwardness of that moment, so you’ll just have to power through it.”

Swap out “drunken fuckfest” for “drenchin’ piss scene,” and the advice works—up to a point, PEE, because the person in your case who needs telling, not hinting, isn’t one of the guests, he’s the host.

(And he sounds like a gracious host. I mean, drinks, towels, and canapés* at a piss party? Swank.) But your host’s behavior sounds genuinely annoying. Hosting a sex party doesn’t give someone the right to insert himself into someone else’s scene, and stupid jokes have the power to kill the mood and murder the boners.

So what do you do?

Well, you could send your host an e-mail or give him a call. Thank him for the invite, let him know you appreciate the effort he goes to (such delicious canapés!), and then tell him why some people say they’re coming and don’t show: You’re too loud, your music is awful, you have a bad habit of horning in on the action, and you need to learn some new jokes to tell when you’re pissing on someone (or, better yet, not tell any jokes at all). But I don’t think ticking off a list of his shortcomings is going to get you anywhere other than crossed off the invite list to future parties.

So why not make your own piss party? You don’t need a big backyard—I mean, presumably your place has a tub. Supplement your tub with a couple of kiddie pools on top of some plastic tarp laid down on the living room or basement floor. Ask your guests to keep it in the tub, pool, or on the tarp. You get to choose the guys, you get to select the music, and, as host, you can lay down the law about making jokes and horning in on the action: Both are forbidden, and joke-telling horner-inners will be asked to pull up their pants and leave. * Yes, I know: There were canopies at the party, not canapés—tents, not hors d’oeuvres. But I read it as canapés at first, and the mental image of piss players daintily eating canapés between scenes was so much more entertaining than the mental image of piss players huddling under canopies that I stuck with my original reading.

On the Lovecast, porn by women, for women? Yes, please: savagelovecast.com.

COMEDY EVENTS THU 05.24

JELLY: WOMEN IN COMEDY NIGHT @ IMPROVBOSTON Featuring: Trash Birds, Bodega, Tooky Kavanagh, Jessicalee Skary, Zenobia Del Mar, & more.

Hosted by Reece Cotton

40 PROSPECT ST., CAMBRIDGE | 9:30PM | FREE THU 05.24

HEADLINERS IN THE SQUARE @ JOHN HARVARD’S Featuring: Al Park, Josh Filipowski, Tim King, Tom Kelly, Andrew Della Volpe & more.

33 DUNSTER ST., CAMBRIDGE | 9PM | FREE FRI 05.25

NYC COMEDY INVADES BOSTON @ 730 TAVERN

Featuring: Jordan Raybould, Pedro Salinas, Bret Raybould & more.

730 MASS AVE., CAMBRIDGE | 7 & 9PM | $10 THU 05.24-SAT 05.26

LIZA TREYGER @ LAUGH BOSTON

Liza Treyger is a Chicago-bred standup comic who now resides in NYC. She really misses alleys, her favorite bartenders, and her Russian parents. Liza’s Half Hour and first album will be released by Comedy Central in August 2015. She recently performed at the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal and has appeared on Adam Devine’s House Party on Comedy Central, Chelsea Lately and is a cast member on MTV2’s Joking Off. She was thrilled to be a part of the New York Comedy Festival 2012 as one of Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch (where she got to watch shows and eat cake balls with two professional wrestlers!). Check out her super cool web series How Many Questions.

425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | 8PM & 10PM | $25-$29 SUN 05.27

LIQUID COURAGE COMEDY @ SLUMBREW

Featuring: Stephen McConnon, Carrie Ross, Shea Spillane, Joe Buckley, Justin P. Drew, Robert Pooley, & Ben Quick.

Hosted by Ryan Chani

15 WARD ST., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $5 TUE 05.29

COMEDY @ GARCIA BROGAN’S

Featuring: Steve Halligan, Greg Boggis, Shea Spillane, Joe Buckley, Daniel McRobbie, & Paul Roseberry.

Hosted by Alex Giampapa

240 MOODY ST., WALTHAM | 7PM | FREE TUE 05.29-WED 05.30

JEREMY PIVEN @ LAUGH BOSTON

Jeremy Piven was recently seen as Harry Gordon Selfridge in the popular PBS series MR. SELFRIDGE. Among his many notable roles, Piven is best known as movie agent “Ari Gold” in the hit HBO series ENTOURAGE, which aired for eight seasons and won Piven three Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe. In 2015, Piven reprised the fan-favorite role in the ENTOURAGE feature film released by Warner Bros. In 2005, Piven returned to his theater roots starring in the offBroadway hit FAT PIG by Neil LaBute, for which he received a Distinguished Performance Honor from the Drama League.

He also appeared as Bobby Gould on Broadway in SPEED THE PLOW.

425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | 7 & 9PM | $30 -$55 WED 05.30

ARTISANAL COMEDY @ DORCHESTER BREWING COMPANY

Featuring: Arty P., Jere Pilapil, Alex Giampapa, Nora Panahi, Anjan Biswas, & Kelly Macfarland.

Hosted by Bethany Van Delft

1250 MASS AVE., DORCHESTER | 8PM | $5

Lineup & shows to change without notice. For more shows & info visit BostonComedyShows.com 22

05.24.18 - 05.31.18 |

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/RevClinics

@RevClinics

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