DigBoston 8.2.18

DIG WINS NATIONAL AWARDS AMERICA'S BEST POLITICAL COLUMN INSIDE! CHARLIE!!! p6

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N N E E M M T TEE A A E E R R C SSC

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M RO F OR LI** G E E GR S D C M UT N C A **I DEEP

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FROM THE BREAKFAST CLUB TO THE KISSING BOOTH

MINT GREEN

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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 Johnson-Smith, C. Shardae Jobson, Heather Kapplow, Derek Kouyoumjian, Dan McCarthy, Rev. Irene Monroe, Peter Roberge, Maya Shaffer, Citizen Strain, M.J. Tidwell, Miriam Wasser, Dave Wedge, Baynard Woods INTERNS Thomas Ashton (Hampshire College), Endre Joseph (UMass Boston), Abigail Martin-Ryan (Lesley University)

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DEAR READER

279 Tremont St. Boston, MA royaleboston.com/concerts W/ SWEATER BEATS, ANDREW LUCE

ON THE JOB I guess any given day technically starts the night before. Since I’m unable to do much writing in the daytime, with no less than a dozen emails hitting my box every couple of minutes and me having to respond to notes from journalists and advocates and too many others to count, I tend to go hard on the longer projects when the sun’s down. I’m writing this at 3 am, after putting in five hours editing a feature that we’re running next week. It’s about how the government surveils suspected terrorists and how such efforts are often misguided; nine months into our reporting on the topic, our writer has read several books and white papers, while between his work and that of our edit team we’re probably about 200 hours deep into the project.

After getting my typical four to five hours of sleep, I’ll be up before eight in the morning and downtown by nine. On the way in on the Red Line, I’ll digest a range of local news, from Politico Playbook, to MassLive, to the Boston Globe and, if there’s time, perhaps even a racist Howie Carr screed in the Boston Herald. A lot of the reporting will drive me insane—if I don’t get aggravated by the way a story is reported (its lack of substance), then chances are the substance itself, from political malfeasance to horrific criminal behavior, will spur me to exorcise some anger on Facebook and Twitter. And to pursue another day in a profession that turns hair gray for less compensation than you need to live a decent life around here these days.

First up after I arrive in Downtown Crossing is a quick breakfast with an old source from Somerville. She likes to meet in Boston near her job so that her friends and neighbors won’t see her with a reporter, which is still more common than you might expect despite modern communication tools like text encryption.

After that I have a meeting with a new potential writer who just moved here and covers environmental issues, then I’ll find a coffee shop and post some articles on the Dig website. This isn’t BuzzFeed; we’re a small crew and we all do everything, which reminds me—I have to pick up a few reams of paper en route to the newsroom, plus a cartridge for the laser printer. But not before I have lunch with a woman from a national foundation that supports our work at the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ). She’s always worried that my team is on the verge of burning out, and so I’ll have to try real hard to hide how tired I will be.

Once at the Dig-BINJ office I’ll try to work on next week’s issue, but will likely instead spend roughly an hour responding to missed calls and emails. Then at two o’clock I have two researchers coming to join me for an hours-long dive into hundreds of state purchasing contracts, many of which it appears were not pursued in the most prudent fiscal interests of Mass taxpayers. We’ll then work until it gets dark out, and I will call home to apologize for missing dinner and not being able to help put my kid to bed.

I don’t write columns like this every now and then for people to cry for me. I could have worked in finance or some comparable profession like friends I had back in college, in which case I wouldn’t have to still freelance on top of my 80 hours of regular work every week; but instead I chose to do this, just like everyone who works with us—from our news writers, to our tireless managing editor Mitchell Hansen-Dewar, to section chiefs who spend their lives in theaters, restaurants, and clubs pressing their ears to the cultural concrete. All that considered, I offer an occasional column like this as a reminder that, while content may be everywhere these days, the kind of journalism we do here is different, often more cumbersome and difficult to execute, or at the very least more in the know and edgier than what you get from aggregators. Whether you interpret that as a plea to support our team through BINJ (which it is), as a cue to amplify your local independent media on your personal channels (which it is also), or as something else entirely, if you read this far along and are now going to jump into yet another issue of the Dig, then I guess I mostly wrote this to thank you, dear reader, for being the biggest reason of all that we do what we do.

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NEWS+OPINION PSA DOA NEWS TO US

Mayor Walsh’s Islamophobia campaign won plenty of press, but had little impact

BY CLAIRE SADAR

In the midst of the awful year that was 2017, it was a feelgood story the starved media could eat up without guilt.

In July, the office of Boston’s outspoken mayor, Marty Walsh, announced that on the suggestion of an ordinary Bostonian, the city would be putting up posters instructing residents on how to intervene if they were to witness a Muslim being harassed. The announcement of this PSA campaign came a month and a half after two men were killed and a third was injured on a Portland, Oregon, MAX train. The men had confronted another passenger who was harassing two girls, one of whom was Muslim and wearing a hijab. The posters, 50 of which would be placed around the city, featured a cartoon instructing readers on how to engage the harassee, and deflect the attention of the harasser, without physical or verbal confrontation.

The images and content of the poster was designed by the French artist Maeril and previously displayed in the San Francisco BART public transit system. The sister of one of the women who brought this PSA campaign to BART contacted Mayor Walsh’s office with the idea to bring the posters to Boston.

Unsurprisingly, the story got plenty of national and local coverage. Prominent local outlets reported on the city’s plans and the contents of the posters as well as quoting Boston-area Muslims who supported the initiative, such as Faisa Sharif, Boston’s citywide Somali neighborhood service liaison, and representatives of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC). Several journalists talked to passersby when the first posters went up, and the vast majority of those members of the public who commented responded positively.

The optics were perfect for the city, but the impact of the campaign was basically nonexistent.

Beyond a few community leaders, the voices of ordinary Boston Muslims were notably absent from the planning or evaluation of the campaign or its content.

When the campaign was announced, I talked to about a dozen Boston-area Muslims from a variety of backgrounds.

Their reactions were extremely mixed, running the gamut from positive to finding the content offensive. A Muslim 4

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PhD student told me he used this very technique to deescalate a situation a few years ago. A young Muslim woman who asked to go by her nickname Sharishboo was also very positive, saying, “I know many people are willing to help, but do not know how, so this will be a good stepping stone for them.” Several others stated they were happy that the mayor’s office was acknowledging that Islamophobia is a real problem in the city.

Despite these positive comments, most Muslims I spoke to were somewhat to very critical of the images and scenario on the poster. Multiple people noted that the poster showed a tired cliche—the veiled woman as a passive victim and the unveiled nonMuslim as her savior. One Muslim friend, who like the victim in the poster wears a hijab, was offended by how the images made women like her look powerless and passive.

But there was a larger issue beyond the critical reviews from Boston Muslims—the promised PSA campaign seemed to exist only on paper. Soon after the campaign was announced, one of these posters was put up at a bus shelter that I happened to pass everyday on the way to work. I expected to see it there for a long time, as the time frame of six months was repeated in nearly every story about the campaign. However, just two weeks later the poster had been replaced by an ad.

Puzzled, I circled back around to the sources I had interviewed. No one could recall definitely seeing the PSA. Open source research and my own walkabouts attempting to spot the posters strongly suggested that despite

promises of 50 posters being displayed around the city, at best only the initial five were ever put up, and these only stayed up for a short period of time.

When I first set out to write about this PSA, I spoke about the campaign with several members of the mayor’s staff. However, when I started calling and emailing about why the posters had quickly disappeared, I got no response. I left messages and emailed my questions about the campaign to several different contacts in the mayor’s office multiple times, each to no avail.

Finally, a FOIA request provided the pedestrian solution to the riddle of the missing PSA. The mayor’s office had printed the posters, but left it up to the ad company, JCDecaux, which owns the bus shelters and other public ad spaces, to place them. The documents provided by the FOIA request revealed that I was not the only person who had inquired about the fate of the posters. A Muslim resident of Boston had also emailed asking about why one of the posters had been taken down so quickly. This email prompted a member of the mayor’s staff to reach out to their contact at JCDecaux, who responded that the space where the poster was displayed had been sold.

According to the correspondence I obtained through FOIA, the mayor’s office did indeed print 50 of the posters at a cost of about $3,000. However, the responsibility for carrying out the campaign was de facto in the hands of the advertising company. They provided the space free to the city as a service, but only if another customer was not paying them to use it.

Representatives of JCDecaux did not respond to requests for comment on this piece.

At issue here is not just that a highly publicized public service campaign fell flat, or that money was wasted on printing posters that were never used. Rather, it’s the fact that an ostensibly progressive local administration got credit for helping to protect a vulnerable minority community without bothering to research the impact of its efforts either before or after they were implemented.

In the wake of the Supreme Court upholding the Trump administration’s Muslim ban, state and local governments can no longer simply go through the motions of supporting and protecting Muslim communities.

Mayor Walsh’s administration needs to do more to engage a broad spectrum of Muslim Bostonians and work together with them on meaningful social and legislative changes, such as putting and end to Islamophobic policing programs. PSA campaigns cannot combat Islamophobia if the structures of local governance and policing are themselves Islamophobic.

Claire Sadar is a freelance journalist based in Boston mainly covering Turkey and Muslim-American communities.

ACTUAL GOOD NEWS STATE WIRE

Ocean monuments have no impact on commercial fishing

BY ANDREA SEARS BOSTON - Public data on commercial fishing show no losses from the creation of protected areas off the New England coast, according to a new analysis.

The commercial fishing industry had opposed the creation of the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, saying that prohibiting commercial fishing in the two areas would cripple the industry. But according to Brad Sewell, oceans attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, two years after designating those protected areas, the numbers tell a different story.

“After designation, these fisheries have either been unchanged in landings—so, the amount of fish brought to shore—and revenues, or have actually, in one instance, gone up,” says Sewell.

He says data from the Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program indicate landings and revenue for squid, mackerel and butterfish were up, while tuna and swordfish were unchanged.

Sewell says the US Interior Department, which is considering opening monument waters to commercial fishing, has also found little to no negative impact on the industry, but is ignoring its own findings.

“There was a disclosure from the Department of Interior, with internal emails showing that information that would conflict with that goal of opening up the monument would be removed from documents moving forward in the decision-making,” says Sewell.

The Interior Department’s actions were reported this week in the Washington Post.

The monument includes the only extinct underwater volcanoes in US Atlantic coastal waters and canyons deeper than the Grand Canyon—areas Sewell says are rich in endangered and vulnerable species.

“They’re home to deep-sea coral forests that are as ancient as our redwoods in California, endangered whales and rare seabirds, and literally thousands of other species,” says Sewell. “Many of which we’re actually still identifying.”

He adds that the monument, comprising less than 1.5 percent of US Atlantic waters, was never considered a critical area for commercial fishing.

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POPULAR NOT POPULIST APPARENT HORIZON

Gov Baker continues to poll well with people he’s screwing

BY JASON PRAMAS @JASONPRAMAS There is no area of Massachusetts politics where it is more baffling to contemplate Gov. Charlie Baker’s ongoing popularity in the polls than the annual state budget debate. One can only draw two conclusions from such musing: either people don’t get the budget information they need from Bay State press, or a majority of Commonwealth residents simply enjoy watching poor people get kicked to the curb. While corporations are encouraged to line their pockets with public funds in ways that hurt everyone but the wealthy.

At no time of year is the contradiction of Baker’s popularity thrown into bold relief more than late July when he issues his line item vetoes and other modifications to the legislature’s final budget.

And this year that contradiction is sharper than ever.

Because the most visible victims of the governor’s last budget action look to be people on welfare—many of whom are single mothers with children.

So last week, Baker refused to agree to a budget policy section that would remove the “family cap” that stops families on welfare from being able to receive extra benefits for children born while they were on welfare. Instead he sent an amended version of the family cap section of the state budget back to the legislature.

As reported by MassLive, “That amendment would lift the family cap but also change welfare eligibility laws so that an adult’s Supplemental Security Income is counted when determining if a family is eligible for welfare. SSI is a federal payment given to severely disabled adults.” …

“According to state figures as of last year, 5,200 children with a severely disabled parent would lose their welfare benefits entirely under the change, and 2,100 children would lose part of their benefit.”

By contrast, MassLive continues, “Lifting the family cap would make approximately 8,700 additional children eligible for welfare assistance.”

If the family cap policy section of the budget had simply been vetoed, it could have been overridden by a two-thirds vote of the legislature like any other veto. But since its language was amended and sent back to the legislature for action, they have to vote on it like a new bill. After which, Baker has 10 days to act on it. And since he sent it back to the legislature at the end of its current session, the end of the 10 days after any new bill passes comes after the session is over. So Baker can simply veto it, and supporters will have to wait until next session to go through the entire legislative process again.

Advocates from organizations like Mass Law Reform Institute and Greater Boston Legal Services are crying foul, given the heartlessness of the measure and the fact that it has taken years to get the family cap reform through the legislature.

As of this writing, the House has reinstated the original family cap language, and the Senate is expected to do the same. But Baker will almost certainly veto it within 10 days of passage as planned. After the legislative session has ended.

Which is a total drag, and exemplary of a backwards view of welfare as an “incentive” to “encourage” poor people to work. Language that Baker has used when explaining his position on the family cap debate—a standard conservative view, unfortunately shared by Republicans and many Democrats alike, that poor people are poor because of individual failings like “laziness,” not for any structural reasons beyond their immediate control.

But here’s another way to view welfare: People are poor because just as capitalism provides billions of dollars to a vanishingly small number of big winners 6

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like Jeff Bezos and the Koch brothers, it creates millions of losers who have to struggle endlessly to make ends meet. Meaning inequality is baked into our economic system. Without strong government regulation, capitalism is incapable of even blunting the brutal impact of such inherent flaws, let alone somehow fixing those flaws.

Part of that inequality comes in the form of job provision. Since the drive for people at the commanding heights of the capitalist system is always to maximize profits, their concomitant drive is to do so by slashing labor costs whenever possible. One way they have done this since the 1970s is by changing labor from a fixed cost—as it tended to be under postwar American social democracy when over 30 percent of the workforce was protected by government-backed union contracts and there was a reasonable social safety net (including welfare)—to a variable cost.

The result? As was last the case at the turn of the 20th century while a militant labor movement spent decades fighting the “robber baron” billionaires of that era for redress, bosses can hire workers when needed at the worst possible rates and push them out when they don’t need them.

Often without even having to officially fire workers— which would allow them to collect unemployment for a few months. And the largely ununionized workforce has almost no say about the conditions of its employment, or job policies in general, outside of insufficient minimum wage laws, easily avoided health and safety laws, and a few increasingly weak civil rights laws that might get a handful of people reinstated on the same bad terms on the rare occasions when open discriminatory practices by employers can be proven.

So by converting stable decent-paying union jobs to unstable contingent jobs—like temp, part-time, contract, day labor, and independent contractor jobs—over the last 40 years, capitalism and the capitalists who run it have ensured the creation of a growing impoverished underclass. This vast group of poor people acts as a reserve army of labor that, together with vicious unionbusting that is on the verge of killing the American labor movement, accelerates the downward pressure on wages. And ensures that the only jobs that most poor people can get are bad contingent jobs.

When poor people can’t put together enough of these precarious non-jobs to make ends meet, they turn to welfare. But the old “outdoor relief” programs that provided poor men with jobs, money, food, and other necessities in many parts of the country were eliminated long ago (as were New Deal-era public jobs programs), and the remaining welfare system that largely benefitted poor women and children was hamstrung by the Democratic Clinton administration in 1996. Not coincidentally, its prescriptions were first tested here in Massachusetts in 1995 by our completely Democratdominated legislature—presided over by a Republican, Bill Weld. A so-called “libertarian” cut from much the same cloth as Charlie Baker.

According to a 2008 report (“Following Through on Welfare Reform”) by the Mass Budget and Policy Center,

the one-two state-federal punch to poor women and children in the Commonwealth predictably ended up significantly cutting already meager welfare payments by imposing time limits on assistance and by mandating the most cruelly ironic possible change, “work requirements.”

Why cruelly ironic? Because the work requirements forced people who were poor because the only jobs available to them were bad contingent jobs to prove they were “working” before getting the reduced welfare benefits still on offer.

The new system was in many cases literally run by the very temp agencies that played a key role in making people poor to begin with. The “jobs” forced on people to qualify for much-denuded benefits were often not jobs at all. Welfare applicants were just “employed” by such temp agencies—now recast as privatized social service agencies—and forced to wait for “assignments” that were low-paying and sporadic. But unless they “worked” a certain amount under this system, no benefits. It was a hardline right-winger’s wet dream made flesh. The same capitalist system that made them poor now kept them poor. And state and federal government were

no longer in the “business” of helping offset the worst depredations of capitalist inequality in what we still like to call a democracy.

So this is what popular Gov. Charlie Baker is up to when he plays games with reforms like the family cap.

He’s screwing people who get a few hundred bucks a month in benefits out of an extra hundred a month for another kid born while they’re jumping through every conceivable time-wasting bureaucratic hoop and working the same shit jobs that made them poor to begin with. Meanwhile, he’s finding new and creative ways to dump more millions in public treasure on the undeserving rich with each passing year.

And you like this guy, fellow Massholes?! Just remember, in a “race to the bottom” economy presided over by capitalist hatchet men like Baker, once the poor are completely crushed, the working class is next.

Followed by the middle class. Maybe think that over next time a pollster asks your opinion of the man.

Apparent Horizon—winner of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia’s 2018 Best Political Column award—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.

BIG DIG WINS AWARDS

We rock national contest in political writing, illustration

BY DIG STAFF @DIGBOSTON

You may have heard by now, since we’ve been shouting it from windows and on social media since Saturday, but our Dig team fared extremely well at this year’s AAN Awards, the annual contest held by our trade organization, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia. AAN is made up of more than 100 local alt papers like DigBoston in cities all over the country, as well as some national outlets, including Raw Story.

Though the Dig had not submitted to the contest in several years, we saw our reinvigorated outlook under new ownership as a call to throw our hat back in the ring. Not to mention our writers, illustrators, editors, photographers, and various other collaborators have worked extremely hard these past few years and deserve more recognition than they are typically given. On that note, it’s time to celebrate those who grabbed new awards to hang in our newsroom beside others from years past.

First of all, we are thrilled to tell our readers that Kuresse Bolds, our wonder intern who first walked into our newsroom last fall, took first place in the Illustration category (circulation 40,000 & over) for two covers in particular: “Smokers” and “Drinkers” [both pictured]. We knew that Bolds was a star from early on, and quickly signed him up to do multiple covers as well as features; still, it’s a spectacular first for us to have an intern strike gold. We have no doubt that it won’t be the last honor bestowed on him.

Next up, Dig executive editor and associate publisher Jason Pramas’ column Apparent Horizon won first place in the Political Column category (circulation 40,000 & over). In a classic alt media approach, Pramas drills deep into complex political and economic issues that are either ignored altogether or covered with kid gloves by mainstream reporters. His submissions “General Electric Fail,” “The Vertex Shell Game,” and “Stop the Amazon Boston Deal” took particular note of huge giveaways—and proposals for more huge giveaways—by local and state government to major multinational corporations. A subject that tends to receive more blind praise from the Bay State press corps than the critical coverage it warrants.

Finally, props to writer Haley Hamilton, whose column, Terms of Service, covers nightlife and restaurants from the perspective of a service worker. Building on her own experience tending bar in Boston and on the relationships she’s made in her time mixing cocktails, Hamilton has produced work that’s both powerful and popular, qualities exemplified by our submissions on her behalf. Hamilton won second place in the Food Writing category (circulation 40,000 & over) for three stories: “Drunk Brunch Love,” in which she navigated a beloved industry tradition from an insider’s angle; “A Reckoning for Restaurants in Boston and Everywhere,” which took a harsh look at harassment, and “Ice Cold Democracy,” her intimate take on the worker-owned Democracy Brewing, which recently opened its doors in Downtown Crossing. Her column, like Pramas’, is a collaboration with the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.

Congrats to everyone involved, including all our readers who helped share these stories widely. We encourage anyone who missed some of this great work to go back and explore—not just the aforementioned features and columns, but also all our other unique coverage on topics ranging from ICE and immigration, to the encroaching police state, to bikes, baseball, film, arts, and music. We’re already burning it up again this year too, and we’ll be back for more AAN trophies next summer.

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HOUSE ON FIRE DIRTY OLD BOSTON

Is homelessness worse in Boston now than it was a century ago?

BY PETER ROBERGE In a recent appearance on Boston Herald Radio’s morning show, Boston City Councilor Annissa EssaibiGeorge acknowledged the influx of homeless people occupying city shelters, noting that despite good times on other fronts, when it comes to the less fortunate end of the housing spectrum, the Hub has something of a public health and resource crisis on its hands. This as Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, whose administration made the controversial decision to tear down the Long Island Bridge leading to beds in Boston Harbor, wrestles with politicos in Quincy over a new plan to restore some services at sea.

Meanwhile, the homeless epidemic isn’t just in Boston. People have been hit extremely hard outside of Suffolk County as well, with officials from cities including Brockton and Quincy hoping the problems in their backyards are prioritized, at the very least, in a collaborative effort between Boston and surrounding areas.

Numbers-wise, a study conducted by the Boston Foundation last year found the number of homeless individuals in Boston has surged by about 1,600 people since 2007. That brings the number to a difficult-toaccount-for 6,300. While this makes Suffolk the county with the largest homeless population in Mass, other locales aren’t far behind, with Hampden County due west of Worcester having comparably concerning numbers.

Put in historical perspective, which is never simple considering the many changing factors, in 1911 the 8

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Boston Sunday Post put the number of homeless people at 5,900. Considering that the Hub’s recorded population in 1910 was roughly about what it was last year, the comparison is less than promising. Statistically speaking, homelessness has gotten worse around here over the past century.

At the same time, efforts to correct the problem have become more human. The Walsh administration has been criticized by some homeless advocates for his approach, still his Office of Housing Stability and recently announced plans to address teenage housing insecurity are leaps more progressive than what politicians tried 100 years ago. In 1911, Boston pols proposed a “Vagrant and Tramp Farm,” located outside of the city, that would provide lodging in exchange for manual labor. A state-owned tract in Bridgewater was pitched as a location of interest, but the plans never materialized.

Boston’s most infamous homeless shelter was established only a few years later, in 1915, under Mayor James Michael Curley, who was as well known for his corruption as he was for being a friend, however superficially, to the downtrodden. The Wayfarer’s Lodge was located on Hawkins Street in the West End, and while it temporarily provided much of Boston’s homeless population with a roof to sleep under, in time overcrowding plagued the building, until its eventual destruction along with the rest of the historic neighborhood.

Just like in contemporary Boston, people wound

up on the street for any number of reasons back in the day. In one well-documented case, the infamous Great Chelsea Fire of 1908, which remains one of the state’s most devastating blazes, left 15,000 people homeless.

Farther north, Salem experienced a similar fire in 1914 that destroyed half of the city’s land. Covering the latter, the Boston Post reported that as many as 20,000 homes were destroyed (including the birthplace of famed writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, since newspapers were celebrity-hungry even back then), leaving families to relocate inside makeshift compounds built in cemetaries.

If any of that sounds like a problem of the past, check out these words by Joe D’Amore, advocate and founder of Merrimack Valley Hope Mission, from earlier this year: There aren’t enough beds, shelters, programs, and affordable housing units in our state. But when you have a concentration of these in a few cities throughout the Commonwealth, plus a tolerant public policy structure such as you have in Lawrence, those cities bear the brunt of a massive social ill. In the meantime, the vast majority of communities will quietly maintain public policies that will keep the problem conveniently out of their proverbial backyards.

This throwback is a collaboration between Dirty Old Boston, the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, and DigBoston. For more throwbacks visit facebook. com/dirtyoldboston and binjonline.org.

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CANNABIS OPPONENT OPPOSED TALKING JOINTS MEMO

Nika Elugardo gives Jeffrey Sánchez a run for his money

BY ANDY GAUS As a Mission Hill resident and cannabis advocate, I have vivid memories of the years leading up to the 2012 ballot question legalizing medical marijuana. In those days, till the voters finally took matters into their own hands, all medical marijuana legislation remained bottled up in the Joint Committee of Public Health, chaired by my district’s representative, Jeffrey Sánchez.

This year, Sánchez faces a challenger to be reckoned with in the Sept 4 primary: Nika Elugardo, an MITeducated lawyer originally from Columbus, Ohio, who struggled with poverty during her early years, as well as with people telling her not to aim too high. (Her high school guidance counselor was so mad when Elugardo got into MIT that she gave a party for everyone in her class “who didn’t get into their dream school”—in other words, everyone but her.) Elugardo promises to be a progressive Democrat who will not let her positions be dictated by the speaker of the house.

I asked her three questions: Do you have any ideas about maximizing the benefits or minimizing the risks of legal cannabis?

With legal cannabis, we’re creating a new industry.

We must ensure that it’s inclusive of those who’ve been disproportionately impacted by the “war on drugs.” We can achieve this through the economic empowerment priority applicant process and equity provisions. Current legislation must be coupled with adequate funding for outreach to diverse communities and technical assistance in business planning, compliance, industry best practices, and raising capital. As legislators, we need to work with cities and towns to reduce barriers to entry. We need to support small- and medium-size businesses—which we know, from studying other industries, are the true job creators.

We’re a medical and science hub. We shouldn’t forget this when thinking about the cannabis industry. There’s evidence that cannabis can, in some cases, be used in place of opioids. Boston has the talent available to study this topic and see if it’s a possible intervention into the opioid epidemic.

On the campaign trail, I’ve heard some nervousness

PHOTO VIA ELECTNIKA.COM 10

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around edibles and use by children. The legislation is strong here, with a prohibition on marketing to youth. After legalization in Colorado, teen cannabis use actually dropped; we need to work toward the same outcome. We must ensure that schools, parents, and medical professionals deliver medically accurate, ageappropriate information about all substances to young people and their families.

Finally, the adult-use cannabis industry represents a new significant source of revenue for the Commonwealth. As a representative, I’ll make sure that revenue is put to good use for priorities such as the move to single-payer healthcare, funding for addiction treatment and community/integrated mental health care, publicly funded education (early childhood to higher education), and truly affordable housing.

If you are less than totally subservient to House Speaker Robert DeLeo, are you afraid he will marginalize you?

No. Too many reps are tired of having their constituents’ concerns squashed by DeLeo’s special interests and pathological need for the consensus that buffers his position. It’s anti-democratic, and the voters I’m talking to understand that the times we’re in can’t abide that. We need to strengthen democratic institutions, including the House of Representatives.

Running for state rep, against leadership, is a challenge, but I’m ready for it. My district and Massachusetts are ready for a new kind of politics. And I’m not doing this alone.

Recently we’ve seen thousands of our neighbors show up at Logan when Trump’s “Muslim Ban” went into effect, follow youth leadership in the March for Our Lives, and descend upon the State House to advocate for the Safe Communities Act. Voters were ready for the SCA, but Speaker DeLeo and my opponent shut it down anyway.

A colleague once said, “Nika could talk a starving dog off a meat truck.” I’ll stand with my constituents but also with other progressive House members who voted with their constituents against DeLeo’s budget. The “no” votes of Reps. Provost, Connolly, and Matias, like the people

in the streets, are more than a protest—they’re part of a movement away from the status quo and toward social justice. Many other reps, not just those identifying as progressives, would like more transparency and autonomy. As the critical mass of pro-democracy voices grows stronger and louder, we will stand together. I will help provide the leadership and organizing tools to ensure this. True leadership doesn’t require a position to be effective.

The culture of complicity, retaliation, and silence on Beacon Hill is coming to an end, and I’m excited to be one small part of a new beginning. I won’t compromise on key progressive values or act as de facto staff to the speaker because I’m running to represent my constituents and to make real change.

What do you especially want to do if elected?

I envision our community—in Greater Boston and nationwide—working to co-create real justice for all, to unlearn practices and undo policy and political structures that keep in place misogyny, racism, homo/ transphobia, and xenophobia. I envision a community where we have built political and economic systems that promote people before profit.

From this vision comes an integrated policy infrastructure grounded on equal and accessible health care, housing, and education for all. My platform works toward living wages, indexed to inflation, and provides for climate justice by making substantial public investments in integrated transit, green energy, and a green economy.

I also look forward to building on recently enacted legislation, particularly in criminal justice reform.

I’ll work to abolish solitary confinement, eliminate mandatory minimums, end cash bail, and decriminalize immigration—precursors to abolishing mass incarceration. I’ll work with advocates, lawmakers, and residents to continue expanding diversionary programming and replacing damaging prison environments with tools and opportunities for healing, personal/professional development, and transformative justice.

BLOCKCHAIN REACTION TALKING JOINTS MEMO

producers want to reach buyers easily. Both want to operate in a safe high-quality marketplace that audits the producers and buyers (legally-wise and quality-wise) and help make transactions easier. As the usage of CBD becomes more common, we believe a lot of smaller players (buyers) will enjoy a smart and easy way to purchase CBD for their needs.

Cannabium CEO explains transparent CBD marketplace

BY CITIZEN STRAIN

up on these things. It’s a new economy inside another new economy, and explainers are needed—even for those of us who aren’t clicking crypto trade mags all day.

On that note, we reached out to Tchia Alona Altar, CEO of Cannabium, whose angle is that it’s establishing “the benchmark for the medical cannabis extracts industry by using the power of blockchain to create a transparent and traceable commodity market” and representing “the first product-backed cryptocurrency in the cannabis extracts industry.”

We basically asked, What does that all mean?

A few weeks ago, recovering rebound king Dennis Rodman showed up in the cable news rotation to speak in his capacity as an expert on US-North Korea diplomatic relations. Since he was sporting a T-shirt for the Canadian peer-to-peer payment PotCoin, we offered a brief pedestrian intro to the wide world of cannabis cryptocurrency including düber (DBR), a token that “incentivize[s] and improve[s] information exchange in the cannabis community [between] consumers, retailers, labs, processors and growers,” as well as others, including Smoke, Paragon, and GreenMed, which markets itself as “the world’s first ERC-20 Ethereum token backed application enabling customers to purchase Legal Marijuana using their Debit or Credit Cards.”

While you’re not mistaken if you have detected snarkiness in our coverage of this issue thus far, there is nonetheless a part of us that thinks it is important to keep

What’s your elevator pitch? How do you explain this to people at a party?

Cannabium is a decentralized blockchain solution for the cannabis extract industry. Our approach enables Cannabis extracts producers and buyers to operate in a transparent marketplace enabling a perfect equilibrium based on the information provided by the Cannabinum smart contracts. In our vision the Cannabium token will become the standard token for cannabis extract trading, and together with our blockchain solutions will help the cannabis extract industry become more open, traceable, tradable, and transparent while saving time and money on unnecessary processes and intermediates.

What problem does this solve?

The problems we are solving is that buyers want as much info about the CBD (origins of plants, where it was extracted, when it was extracted, and so on) and

Why is transparency needed? What is the advantage of using blockchain to track transactions?

Transparency is needed in order for the buyers to know exactly what he is buying and the origins of the product and where is was produced. For example, a buyer might want CBD extracted from organic farms in Canada and not CBD extracted in farms in South America. Blockchain is a secure way to store data that way it becomes a source of “truth” and the data cannot be tampered, but more than that is allows to create the currency and facilitate transactions. These two features make blockchain a great solution for this industry.

What is the main difference between Cannabium and other cannabis-related cryptocurrencies?

Cannabium’s unique features are 1—We deal with extracts only. 2—We are a market place. 3—We are the only token backed by real product.

Why the focus on medical? As opposed to on recreational cannabis?

We are not focused just on medicinal; however, CBD is a key product in that industry. We believe the usage will grow in other industries. However, we are a B2B marketplace, so the way the buyers use the CBD is up to them and their licences.

Subscribe to our cannabis newsletter for free at talkingjointsmemo.com.

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PHOTO VIA OLIVIA DENG

LARGE VOID, DEEP CUTS MUSIC NEWS

Yearning for more DIY space, one restaurant guy takes the plunge

BY OLIVIA DENG @OLIVIADENG1 Ian McGregor has worked in the restaurant industry for more than 15 years and started booking shows six years ago with Eye Design, which he founded. With the recent surge in Boston venue closures and artist displacement, McGregor sees an opportunity to fill the void with a new venture, Deep Cuts Deli, expected to open in spring 2019 with hopes for a location in Allston.

His concept: an all-ages deli, community arts space, practice space, and music venue.

“Combining my love of music and food is a dream of mine,” said McGregor, who plans on working as the owner/manager. “Boston has so many great bands, artists, comedians, and not enough places where they feel comfortable and can call home. Deep Cuts Deli can and will be that place.”

In July, McGregor launched an Indiegogo campaign to raise $50,000 for Deep Cuts Deli to fund basic operating costs, hourly practice rooms, build-out/renovation, kitchen equipment, dining area, and licenses/permits.

With less than $2,000 on that platform at the time of this writing, McGregor also said he is considering other fundraising mechanisms, including investors, events, and shows.

“Working at restaurants around Boston led me to booking my first show at one of my favorite venues in Boston, Great Scott. I got to meet a lot of awesome people in the industry and a lot of aspiring, or already established, artists,” McGregor said. “I worked at restaurants that also served as venues like Firebrand Saints and the Automatic that let me take over to host shows, fundraising events, and markets. They also proved that a mix of quality food and fun events is something that the Boston community thrives on and we need 12

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more of. Deep Cuts will help fill that void.”

With the closure of music and art-friendly destinations like Out of the Blue and Firebrand Saints, to name a few, it can seem that artists are being squeezed out of Greater Boston. It’s not just venues that have been affected, as galleries, practice spaces, and studios have also suffered with so much development and skyrocketing rents.

“The development in Boston is going the wrong way,” said Wiley, owner of store High Energy Vintage in Somerville. Wiley’s motivations are in line with those behind Deep Cuts. He continued: “It’s not just displacing lower-income people, even medium-income people. It’s going to become a city of condos and like, coffee shops.

That sucks. People are going to look around one day and realize that everything that’s cool about Boston isn’t even there anymore.”

“Because there’s less venues, whether they’re an actual venue or a DIY venue, there needs to be more,” Wiley added. “[You] can’t just take away venues and not add any.”

Ben Potrykus, a musician who’s played in bands since he was 16, knows McGregor from the DIY show scene and looks forward to a space like Deep Cuts that provides an all-ages place for artists to practice.

“It’s important to have spaces where people can hone their talent, where people can take influence by seeing bands and seeing what people are doing, start conversations with people in their community who are doing things they’re interested in,” Potrykus added.

“Having a space like Deep Cuts that would be all ages and have something other than bar or drinking culture as the central point … would be really beneficial for

the city and for the arts scene to foster more creativity among a younger group of people.”

According to Christopher Muller, a professor at Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration, McGregor faces an uphill battle to open a space like Deep Cuts, which would combine an eatery and a music venue. The reality, Muller notes, is that real estate is motivated by money, which make it hard for art spaces to survive in Boston.

“The reason there’s less venues in general [is that] music venues just don’t have enough income,” Muller said. “The unfortunate thing about capitalist incentives is people that have real estate want to capitalize. Rents have gone up in everything, not just for housing, but also retail space. The last 10 years, a storefront in Boston went from $20 per square foot. Now it’s as much as $75 to $100 per square foot.”

Muller nonetheless acknowledged the importance of such spaces.

“The [Rathskeller] was a significant place for rising talent to play,” the professor says of the iconic Kenmore Square haunt that closed in 1997. “Boston bands like the Cars all played there and became legendary for that.

You need to have a place to play. I can understand that desire; the problem is it doesn’t mean it’s going to be a successful business.”

While arts spaces suffer, Muller added, the restaurant scene has grown significantly, with fast casual spots like Clover and Life Alive driving the growth.

“I think [Deep Cuts Deli is] a noble idea,” the professor said. “I think it’s a really great concept. I do think if he does it right, it can support itself.”

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DEEP ELLUM EATS

An oldie but a goodie for beer and cocktail lovers

BY MARC HURWITZ @HIDDENBOSTON It seems like a lot of beer bars and cocktail lounges have popped up over the past few years in the Boston area, including a few hip, chic places that tend to get big crowds. Ten to 15 years ago, it was a little tougher to find a place with an endless beer list or a solid list of classic and modern cocktails, with a few coming to mind back then, including Cambridge Common among the former and No. 9 Park in Boston among the latter, both of which remain open and very popular. The old guard also includes an often-overlooked spot in Allston called Deep Ellum that first opened 11 years ago—a short time before the beer and cocktail crazes started to get underway—and which has the best of both worlds when it comes to outstanding beers and well-made mixed drinks. The word “gastropub” gets bandied about way too often these days, but this Cambridge Street establishment is in some ways your classic gastropub that’s worthy of the title, and one that’s more unpretentious and unassuming than some of the newer options out there.

Deep Ellum is off the beaten path in some ways, several blocks west of the heart of Allston Village in Union Square (and no, Somerville isn’t the only place with a Union Square), though the block in which it resides has quite a few dining and drinking options and has been heating up over the past few years. The storefront for the place looks positively tiny from the outside, but it’s deceiving, as the interior extends pretty far back while a two-level patio behind the place adds a good amount of additional seating during the warmer months. In a way, Deep Ellum has a slightly similar feel to Atwood’s Tavern in Cambridge’s Inman Square when it comes to both atmosphere and concept, from the old-feeling bars to the hidden patios to the food and drink options, though Deep Ellum feels, well, more “Allstony” in its edginess while Atwood’s has a more earthy “Cambridgey” vibe to it. (Also, Atwood’s has live music on a regular basis.)

While Deep Ellum is known for its food, beer, and cocktails, for some, it’s really all about the beer. The beer list hits the absolute sweet spot of having tremendous offerings in a relatively short list, so you won’t spend all day searching through hundreds of options and having to keep telling the server to come back because you really don’t know what to order. So what kinds of beers are offered here? The list is ever-changing, but at any given time, you could find options from Crooked Stave (which makes mind-blowingly good beers, by the way), Lawson’s, Trillium, Melvin, Spencer, Founders, Timothy Taylor’s, Westmalle, and Rochefort. For those who’d rather opt for a cocktail, it’s tough to go wrong with the relatively mild but very refreshing barrel-aged negroni, the summery beachcomber mai tai, or the various manhattans offered—including some truly old-school versions. Wine and spirits are also front and center at Deep Ellum, with the latter including a lengthy list of scotch, Irish whiskey, bourbon, and rye options.

Food may seem like an afterthought to some in part because this is often seen as a beer bar only, but the food menu, while relatively limited, has some real highlights, including a wonderful Swissbakers pretzel with whole-grain mustard and a pub cheese sauce on the side; a nicely presented plate of deviled eggs; a rich poutine made with duck gravy; tinned fish (a hot craze these days) with tuna and sardines being two options; a hefty burger with Vermont cheddar cheese and an Iggy’s brioche roll; a house sausage plate that is ever-changing with one option being sweet and spicy Italian sausages; a solid version of a reuben with corned beef that’s lean without being too lean; and an excellent version of macaroni and cheese that changes seasonally, with the version right now including bacon, tomatoes, and caramelized onions.

Deep Ellum is well-known among Allston residents, college students, and beer geeks and beer nerds alike, but it seems to be somewhat under the radar overall, especially with all of the new and shiny beer bars and cocktail lounges popping up all over the Boston area these days. But this place still does it right after more than a decade in business, and for those who hesitate at going to Allston because of the crowds of people there, this may be the time to go, since we’re smack dab in the middle of the summer and so many of the students are out of town, making it pretty easy to get a table—and find parking if you drive. >> DEEP ELLUM 477 CAMBRIDGE ST., ALLSTON. DEEPELLUM-ALLSTON.COM

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MINT GREEN MUSIC

Growing up isn’t easy, especially when growing pains occur

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN As 2017 came to a close, it looked like four-piece pop punk band Mint Green was at the top of its game. A new single released that year called “Take Care” earned critical praise. The band landed a spot on the coveted local music festival Fuzzstival. The group was even nominated for a Boston Music Award. By all standards of measurement, Mint Green were on a path toward success. But after 2018 began to settle down, things became very clear very quickly: If Mint Green wanted to continue their trajectory forward as an act to keep your eyes on, in Boston and beyond, then the members of the band would have to clear some hurdles—and not everyone would stick it.

Mint Green are different than the band you remember from last year because Mint Green grew up, even if the four-piece didn’t want to. It all went down over the last couple of months. In November of 2017, shortly after recording new music, Mint Green were added as the opening act for Australian indie rock act Alex Lahey’s sold out show at Great Scott. It was there that Mint Green was approached by 6131 Records—the record label responsible for Julien Baker’s breakout record Sprained Ankle and Culture Abuse’s Spray Paint the Dog—with a potential record deal. It was as unexpected as it was thrilling, as it meant Mint Green were being watched by people outside of the Boston music scene—and they were worth betting on as an act worth signing.

Eager to move ahead with the process, the band’s core members—singer and guitarist Ronnica and drummer Daniel Huang—tried to chase the other members down to agree to the deal. Instead, the complete opposite happened. After months of trading details with the label and drumming up possible options, the band’s old guitarist revealed he didn’t want to take the leap of releasing the new music the band recorded, touring behind it, or signing to a label. In fact, he didn’t want to do anything, or at least not with Mint Green. He no longer felt committed to the band, a result of feeling out of touch with Mint Green’s sound and juggling potential plans to leave the city.

Shortly after, Ronnica found out the band’s bassist wanted out as well. It came as an even bigger shock.

The eldest of all four members, Mint Green’s bassist was ready to quit his job to commit to the band, but after the passing of his mother that spring, he realized he wanted to do a bit of soul searching before buckling down in life. In a matter of months, the future of Mint Green turned to shambles. During the final show with all four members, Ronnica cried during their performance of “Say It Ain’t So,” a Weezer cover the group did during their very first show as Mint Green.

There was no pent-up anger or resentment. Instead, she was hit with the shock and sadness of realizing the band she wanted to invest herself fully in was not much of a band anymore. Before they parted ways, the members decided to hit the studio one last time to record two more songs with their original lineup—

capitalizing on their time together while penning an switches from songs like “Foggy” and “June 2nd” to a unsaid farewell to Mint Green’s previous identity. more dream pop-oriented number like “Pool Party.” It “I didn’t go to college. So around this time in April, isn’t until the end that Headspace kicks into overdrive. as everyone was getting ready to graduate, the timing Closing song “The Siren” will sound new to fans of everything felt amazing, as if I was graduating too by because it’s one Mint Green rarely plays live. Driven by getting this record deal. My mom would have been so blast beats on drums and harsh guitar, the song feels proud,” says Ronnica, a lingering sadness still present like the ignited spirit of someone with too much to say in her voice. “But when everything fell apart, we lost to calm down before saying it. When the song comes members, and this long string of time kept stretching up in conversation, Ronnica can’t stop laughing, as if on where we just didn’t know what would happen. embarrassed. It’s a powerful closing track that fully Eventually, I realized I couldn’t keep making music if it embraces emo tropes, sure, but it turns its tricky tuning was with people who didn’t want to move forward as a into a personal anthem, the type you would want to band.” sing along to. “Those blast beats, the gang vocal ‘woo,’ But as young veterans of the Boston music scene, those are things I had never done before,” she says.

Mint Green didn’t need much time to find new “This is the first time where I get really personal too. members to join. Nick Tyler Kelly, whom Ronnica played ‘Reading poetry and it’s 11:17,’ that makes me laugh together with in a previous band, now joins the group because I feel extra and dramatic singing it, but it’s also on guitar. Local artist and Berklee student Muñeca Diaz cool to embrace that side of things and try a new way of joins them on bass. Both musicians have been noted by writing.” onlookers as bringing a new energy to the group, not to Mentally, Mint Green are ready to take on whichever mention a variety in technical skills that helps redefine challenges rise to greet them. When you grow up, you and sharpen Mint Green’s sound. have to learn how to catch what’s thrown at you. This That persistence and energy can be heard in full year may have started like an intense batting practice, volume on Headspace, the new record Mint Green will but now Mint Green are in the swing of things and release this Friday, Aug 3. A six-track release, Headspace they’re primed to hit one over the Monster. It’s why is a record that shows what Mint Green were working Headspace has the name it does. The record aims to toward all along, from the meticulous attention capture what it’s like when your mind is constantly to detail to the leaps of faith when exploring new changing as you swing from one experience to the next, subgenres. The collaborative experience was recorded each radically different from the one before it. “June over a prolonged stretch of months, one song at a time, 2nd” examines the inescapable dread of police brutality in various studios—Converse Rubber Tracks in Boston, and corroding news during a season when everything Mad Oak Studios in Allston, and 37ft Productions in should be carefree. “The Siren” gets sucked into the Rockland—to make sure every idea could be fleshed world of being pulled around, as a love interest puts out. Adjusting the placement of cymbal crashes down up walls and later asks you to climb over them. “Foggy” to the millisecond? Done. Trying harsher sounds, like begs the question of why it’s so difficult to prioritize blast beats? Check. Singing in falsetto for an entire the good memories you’ve had with someone over the chorus? Got it. Mint Green negative ones. As the band saw Headspace as a way changes themes and styles on to extend beyond the the record, the members later band’s comfort limits while changed roles in real life. But pushing one another as now, in its newest form, Mint individual musicians.

Green seem primed to face You can hear that in the very world they set up on everyone’s parts, especially Headspace, this time with a when comparing the refreshed state of mind. record to the band’s first “I feel a thousand times release, Growth. “When better than I did back in I create drum parts, I March,” says Ronnica.

PHOTO COURTESY OF MINT GREEN always think about the “Everything I worked for for music as a whole and if it almost two years seemed to complements the music,” says Huang. “I experimented hit a dead end. But Nick has stepped up so much. He with the different type of sounds you can make with a lives in Attleboro but drives up at 7 am each day with drum set, played with faster phrases, and tried hitting his mom as she goes to work, stays for four days at a the accents more than I did before.” On the record, it time to practice and bond, and then returns back home gives the songs a tighter and more evolved feel. to work for three days straight. That’s when it hit me: At first, Headspace plays like what you would If I can take all of these hits, then the least I can do is expect from Mint Green: a series of pop punk songs harness them to push back." driven by passion and curiosity. But soon the record

>>MINT GREEN, PRIOR PANIC, MICAELA CLARK. FRI 8.3. NEWBURY COMICS, 332 NEWBURY ST., BOSTON. 8:30PM/18+/$8. NEWBURYCOMICS.COM

MUSIC EVENTS FRI 08.03

THE NASTY RAP TOUR RICO NASTY + MALIIBU MIITCH [Brighton Music Hall, 158 Brighton Ave., Allston.

7pm/all ages/$18. crossroadspresents.com]

16

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SAT 08.04

FEMME PUNKS AND MINORITY MAJORITY GENERACION SUICIDA + DAME + ANCIENT FILTH + PANDEMIX + OPTION

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

8:30pm/21+/$10. ]

DIGBOSTON.COM

SAT 08.04

NEWPORT JAZZ PRESENTS TONY ALLEN

[City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston. 6pm/21+/$25. citywinery.com]

SUN 08.05

MON 08.06

[O’Brien’s Pub, 3 Harvard Ave., Allston. 8pm/18+/$8. obrienspubboston.com]

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

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

FROM A BASEMENT TO THE BILL SQUITCH + SNOWHAUS + THE WATER CYCLE + MODERN PAINTERS

THE QUIET KIDS OF INDIE ROCK FREE CAKE FOR EVERY CREATURE + MORE

MON 08.06

THE QUEERCORE REVOLUTION PRIOR PANIC + LIZRD WOMEN + SAD. + GILROY

[Dorchester Art Project, 1486 Dorchester Ave., Boston. 7pm/all ages/$10. bostonhassle.com]

LORD HURON WHEEL OF TUNES

Talks traveling to Mars and U2 covering Ol’ Dirty Bastard

BY NINA CORCORAN @NINA_CORCORAN Over the last few years, Lord Huron has inched its way up the charts as an indie folk band to watch. The four-piece act took its name from the lake Ben Schneider, the band’s main songwriter, singer, and guitarist, grew up on. As woodsy as the description sets the band up to be, Lord Huron steeps itself in a more retro feel, stripping things back to toy around with a more whimsical flair rather than a stomping, roots-driven sound.

This style reaches a new peak with Vide Noir, the band’s third and newest record from earlier this spring. Schneider said the record focused around late-night trips he would go on around Los Angeles. While that sounds like it should be bursting with city life, instead it means the record enjoys the laid-back side of exploring. “Wait By the River” reflects with a calm tempo. “When the Night Is Over” trots around like the easy hike up a small Californian hill. It’s a sound that suits Lord Huron well, especially when paired with his lyrics.

“These nighttime trips,are a mix of driving and walking,” Schneider explains.

“The crazy thing about Los Angeles is that it incorporates what you’re used to of the city—streets lined with neon signs and buildings with concrete—paired with other beautiful things—beautiful foothills, beginnings of the desert, and the ocean. What inspired me about it was its vastness, what seemed like the unlimited possibilities that lay before me every time I head out at night. One of the things I liked to do is deviate from the routes I would usually take. The most surprising thing is how quickly you can feel like you’re not in the city anymore. You can go up a winding road and suddenly feel like you’re in the wilderness. There’s always unexpected people you meet too at a 24-hour restaurant, too.”

To better understand the curious mind of Lord Huron, we interviewed Ben Schneider for a round of Wheel of Tunes, a series where we ask musicians questions inspired by their song titles. With Vide Noir as the prompt, his answers carry an undertone of curiosity—a feeling that will be onstage when the band headlines the House of Blues this Sunday.

1. “Lost in Time and Space” If you could go visit another planet for a week, which would you choose and why?

Interesting. Well, it seems like Mars is the only one we have any shot of existing on for any time. The week limit is interesting because that’s a one-way trip. You have to be ready to take that one-way trip. I’ve talked to my friends about that a lot, about if you’re asked to go on that trip but told you may not get to come back, would you do it? I’d have to consider that pretty closely. I’m one of the guys that would probably volunteer for that. I think it would be very interesting. So I’d go to Mars, but one-way.

2. “Never Ever” What’s the craziest thing you’ve been dared to do?

I was dared to ride a BMX bike off a roof into a pool. That was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done. I did accept the dare because I was young. I was probably 12 or 13. It was in Michigan where I grew up up. Definitely not normal for me, though, as I’m not an Evel Knievel type.

3. “Ancient Names (Part I)” Which name would you give yourself if you could have chosen your name at birth?

Huh, that’s a good one. I feel pretty at home in my own name. But I guess I’d want something maybe more…

I don’t know.

I’ve never considered this before.

PHOTO BY IAN HOLLIDAY Maybe I’d take something a little rough around the edges like Gus. Yeah, Gus. It’s a good one, isn’t it? It could be short for a few things too, like August or… Augustus. I guess those are pretty much the same, huh?

READ THE REST OF NINA’S INTERVIEW AT DIGBOSTON.COM >>LORD HURON, CHERRY GLAZERR. SUN 8.5. HOUSE OF BLUES, 15 LANSDOWNE ST., BOSTON. 7PM/ALL AGES/$33. HOUSEOFBLUES.COM NEWS TO US

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THEATER REVIEWS PERFORMANCE ARTS

BY CHRISTOPHER EHLERS @_CHRISEHLERS

NAKED VILLAINY UNDER THE STARS Richard III on the Common

It’s been only five months since the last production of Richard III hit Boston, so I was relatively unenthused when Commonwealth Shakespeare Company announced it as their choice for this summer’s free Shakespeare on the Common. But Steven Maler’s stylish, electric production— which will run through Aug 5—makes a great case for its swift return, and I was on the edge of my lawn chair for most of it.

Faran Tahir (Star Trek; Scandal) stars as Richard, one of the great dramatic villains, who lies and murders his way to the throne in a long series of calculated steps. Described as being as grotesquely deformed on the outside as he is evil on the inside, Tahir’s Richard is no Quasimodo. Rather, this Richard is more of a sexy rebel whose innate charm and sex appeal play as much a factor in his ability to spellbind as his intelligence.

The cast is uniformly excellent, particularly Remo Airaldi, a Commonwealth Shakespeare mainstay, and Bobbie Steinbach, even if she has a tendency to luxuriate in the language a bit too much. But the best performance belongs to Deb Martin who, as Queen Elizabeth, gives a performance so fierce that even the moths swirling around the stage lights seemed to stop and take notice.

The look of the production is inspired by, according to director Steven Maler, “Alexander McQueen’s take on 1880’s Jack the Ripper-era silhouettes that are lean, mean, and evocative of a very dark time.” Indeed, this production is lean and mean, and Jessica Pabst’s costumes are so chicly modern that I expected to see Zara among the list of sponsors. The most visually appealing production to play the Common in several years, Eric Southern’s runway-style stage and moody lighting design are first-rate. Nathan

Leigh’s sound and original music, too, enhance the mood considerably.

One of my favorite nights at the theater this year, this Richard III is remarkable for both its chicness and for the way that enigmatic Richard’s swift rise and brutal fall registers against our own winter of discontent. And as far as Deb Martin’s performance goes, well, glorious summer, indeed.

08.02.18 - 08.09.18 |

DIGBOSTON.COM

ALADDIN. THROUGH 8.5 AT THE BOSTON OPERA HOUSE, 539 TREMONT ST., BOSTON. BOSTON.BROADWAY.COM

A WEED GROWS IN PHILLY Leftovers at Company One Theatre

RICHARD III. THROUGH 8.5 AT COMMONWEALTH SHAKESPEARE COMPANY ON THE BOSTON COMMON, BOSTON. COMMSHAKES.ORG

ALADDIN IS ALL ABOUT THE GENIE Aladdin at the Boston Opera House

Aladdin may not boast the artistry of The Lion King or the heart of Beauty and the Beast—Disney’s best stage adaptations—but it proves to be a pretty decent musical with much to admire. Just as Robin Williams’s film Genie gave adults plenty to delight in, this Genie—played on tour by the sensational Michael James Scott—is worth the price of admission alone.

The musical’s Agrabah, sumptuously designed by the great Bob Crowley, is a place where even the poor look like a million bucks and everyone has zero percent body fat. Falling just short of a circus, the show is rife with silly gags and is, despite my dislike of cheese, pure Disney fun.

Aladdin is also the rare Disney stage musical that never drags, thanks to Casey Nicholaw’s swift direction and Chad Beguelin’s clever book.

The musical isn’t perfect, but it is the best Disney stage musical in 20 years. Between a mesmerizing magic carpet ride and Michael James Scott’s incredible performance,

FARAN TAHIR IN RICHARD III, SHAKESPEARE ON THE COMMON 2018. PHOTO BY EVGENIA ELISEEVA.

18

Aladdin is the most fun you’ll have at the theater this summer.

Like many Summer Williams productions, Josh Wilder’s Leftovers is a big-hearted play with big ideas that takes big risks. In this world premiere production, which will run at Dorchester’s Strand Theatre through Aug 18, those risks only pay off some of the time. But even when they don’t, they hint at something potentially extraordinary.

Jalil and Kwamaine are two brothers who have been raised by their single mother, Raquelle, who can barely make ends meet. Their father, Chris, is a truck driver struggling with addiction who doesn’t come around too often and whose empty promises have again left Jalil depressed when he doesn’t show up to his son’s high school graduation. It’s pretty much Groundhog Day around their rundown Philadelphia neighborhood where the only thing the brothers have to look forward to are trips to the corner store for soda and snacks, and reruns of The Cosby Show (Cosby’s downfall and conviction figure into the story in a major way). The younger brother, Kwamaine, in particular idolizes the Huxtables. One day, a giant dandelion grows out of the sidewalk next to their houses and stretches up to the sky, and so begins a fantastical urban fairy tale about hope, heroes, the Huxtables, and the audacity of young boys with brown skin who dream big.

Leftovers is a multilayered, odd, and refreshing new work that ought to be seen by anyone who cares about the future of American theater. There are still kinks to works out—the odd second act seems to go on and on—and greater care needs to be taken to balance out the different themes, which feel, at times, like they are competing. The performances are uneven as well, which adds to the feeling that this is very much an unfinished work. As Jalil and Kwamaine, Kadahj Bennett and Christian Scales are extraordinary. But I wanted more grit from Lyndsay Allyn Cox’s Raquelle and Colgan B. Johnson is unconvincing as deadbeat dad Chris.

Still, there is extraordinary value in having a play about a black family by a black playwright playing in a black neighborhood.

This is what we need more of, and this is why Company One remains perhaps the most vital theater in our fair city. And with all performances pay-what-youwish, there’s no reason to miss it.

LEFTOVERS. THROUGH 8.18 AT THE STRAND THEATRE, 543 COLUMBIA RD., BOSTON. COMPANYONE.ORG

VERY FUNNY SHOWS.

Seven Nights A WWk. IMPROVASYLUM.COM | 617.263.6887 NEWS TO US

FEATURE

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ARTS + ENTERTAINMENT

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KIDS THESE DAYS FILM

On The Kissing Booth, Dude, and teen movies by way of John Hughes

BY JAKE MULLIGAN @_JAKEMULLIGAN The American commercial film industry has always relied on the repetition of financially successful formulas, and yet the long-reigning influence of John Hughes remains nearly unprecedented anyway: Has any one filmmaker ever shaped a subgenre that way that he did teen movies?

Nearly 15 years after the release of The Breakfast Club [1985], American Pie [1999] was playing “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” over its prom scene. Nearly 25 years after its release, Easy A [2010] was playing “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” over its own finale. And in a new release movie I just watched last week, “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” plays over yet another prom, even as The Breakfast Club inches toward its 40th birthday.

Molly Ringwald did some accounting for this phenomenon in “What About ‘The Breakfast Club’?” an exceptional critique/essay/memoir published by the New Yorker earlier this year. “No one in Hollywood was writing about the minutiae of high school, and certainly not from a female point of view,” she notes, before positioning Hughes’ early films against the proudly vulgar post-Animal House [1978] comedies that were being produced during the same period. “That two of Hughes’s films had female protagonists in the lead roles and examined these young women’s feelings about the fairly ordinary things that were happening to them, while also managing to have instant cred that translated into success at the box office, was an anomaly that has never really been replicated.”

Ringwald’s citation of box office numbers is an important one, because while it may be true that teen movies have in some ways fallen out of fashion with the major US film studios—though Blockers [2018] and Love, Simon [2018] would beg to differ—they have nonetheless continued to find purchase, with the Hughes influence fully intact, via alternative methods of production and distribution. Such methods of production and distribution might include, for example, Netflix, who back in May released The Kissing Booth [2018], a film that features Molly Ringwald in a crucial role, and which, indeed, cues up “(Don’t You) Forget About Me” when its characters arrive at their school prom.

To be clear, The Kissing Booth is way too glam to actually simulate the feel of a John Hughes Film. Lead characters Elle Evans (Joey King), Lee Flynn (Joel Courtney), and Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi) drive past the Pacific Cinerama Theatre on their way to school each day: We’re in Hollywood, where the kids study at an upscale private academy. The opening montage tells us that Elle and Lee were born at the same moment (Ringwald plays Lee’s mother), and have remained inseparable ever since; we also learn that Elle and Lee adhere to an extensive best-friend code that forbids them from dating each other’s family members.

But a convoluted series of machinations involving the titular carnival attraction lead to Elle and Noah making out, and then to a secret relationship, which places Elle in a position quite familiar to fans of the Hughes-scripted Pretty in Pink [1986]: compelled to choose sides between her platonic bestie and her prospective boyfriend.

Welsh author Beth Reekles first began writing The Kissing Booth at the age of 15, having never seen California, and it’s here, in a sense, that one most clearly feels the influence of our larger teen-pop canon. This a depiction of the West Coast that almost literally includes no people of color, nor anybody who identifies as anything other than heterosexual—if it weren’t for the lifestyles-ofthe-rich-and-famous vibe, it could be a high school in Shermer, Illinois, circa 1984. Or it could be pretty much any high school from a Hollywood-produced teen movie. The standards being played—the leather jacket-clad bad-boy seniors on motorcycles, the teenagers whose emotional lives are defined by school functions, the mean-girl cliques

with ’80s mannerisms and ’00s fashions—are passeddown, thirdhand cliches. It’s not just a shamelessly opulent fantasy of an American upbringing, but an eerily familiar one: Some of our most ridiculous archetypes reflected back writ large.

The Kissing Booth is not the only movie about well-off Los Angeles teenagers who go to a private academy that’s been released by Netflix this year. The other would be Dude [2018], written and directed by Olivia Milch, which could actually be described as a gender-flipped version of the post-Animal House boys-will-be-boys comedies that Ringwald cited in that New Yorker piece. Milch’s lead characters are a group of four perpetually stoned high school girls observed during the last week of their senior year: Lily (Lucy Hale) is the self-appointed group mom; Amelia (Alexandra Shipp) is trying to distract herself from her parent’s ongoing divorce with one last week of afterschool parties; Rebecca (Awkwafina) is diligently studying up for her final exams in between smoking sessions; and Chloe (Kathryn Prescott) is following along but still mourning the death of her brother one year earlier. Like The Kissing Booth, Milch’s film is set in an enclave that allows for egregiously luxurious production design, and like so many other Hughesian teen comedies, it goes over the top in idealizing the emotional lives of its teenage characters, too. But what’s different are the actual ideals: With a pointed disregard toward any intimations of “romantic love,” the young women of Dude are merely concerned with enjoying themselves.

Agency is a throughline in Dude, connecting text to subtext. What remains consistent across the film are the ways in which the four lead characters maintain total control over their drug intake, their sex lives, and their general state of being—which is the kind of thing that’d “go without saying” in a film about four high school boys who like to get fucked up, but in this context, it’s

DUDE [2018] PHOTO COURTESY OF NETFLIX

>> THE KISSING BOOTH AND DUDE ARE BOTH CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TO STREAM ON NETFLIX. 20

08.02.18 - 08.09.18 |

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an element that feels progressive in and of itself. That’s a bittersweet realization, but one that complicates the film, to its credit. Milch, to her credit, finds a relaxed, quiet rhythm for her screenplay. Her film capably fills the widescreen aspect ratio, doesn’t lean heavily on score music, and effectively tamps down the melodrama so that it can coexist reasonably within Dude’s generally comedic rhythm. Which lets the film regularly shift down wildly divergent paths: In just one specific 10-minute stretch, the film makes room for a satirical aside (regarding the hippiedippie drug awareness classes at the private school these characters attend), an explicitly dramatic segment (where Chloe speaks to a friend about her late brother), a comic daydream sequence (where Rebecca masturbates in the school bathroom while having a library-themed fantasy), and a more literary dialogue scene (where the four girls prep for a party while discussing topics including sexting etiquette and the submissive qualities of “younger boys”).

Dude is discernibly invested in subverting certain gender stereotypes, film specific and otherwise, and in depicting “young women’s feelings about the fairly ordinary things that [happen] to them.” Yet Milch counterbalances that by framing all these escapades as being no big unusual thing. In that I was reminded of some teen movies that predate John Hughes, such as those made for the exploitation market in the ’70s, like The Pom Pom Girls [1976], which had a similarly freewheeling approach toward comedy, or films made by writer/director Stephanie Rothman, like The Working Girls [1974], which similarly represented forward-thinking politics merely by depicting the sex lives of female characters with dignity and respect. But Dude is not in thrall to these forebears, just as it’s not in thrall to Hughes. It’s mostly just smitten with its own characters—a quality that proves utterly endearing, even freeing. One thankfully realizes that Simple Minds won’t be played at this prom.

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COMEDY EVENTS

DIFFERENCES SAVAGE LOVE

THU 08.02 - SAT 08.04

40 COMICS COMPETE @ LAUGH BOSTON

BY DAN SAVAGE @FAKEDANSAVAGE | MAIL@SAVAGELOVE.NET

Through Satuday, hit Laugh Boston for a 40 comic battle to move on to Las Vegas.

Battles every night through to Saturday’s finals. Laugh it up and come find your favorite new comedian.

I’m gay and have been dating a guy for 10 months. He’s great overall, and I would say for the most part we both want it to work out. But I am having a problem with his friends and other lifestyle choices. All of his friends are straight, and almost all of them are women.

All of my friends have always been gay men, like me, so I find this strange. I don’t have any problem with women, but I don’t hang out with any women, and neither do most of my friends. He makes dinner plans for us with his straight friends almost every week, and I grin and bear it. They’re always old coworkers, so the whole conversation is them talking about old times or straighty talk about their children. It’s incredibly boring. He’s met my friends, and he likes some of them but dislikes others. It’s obvious that he is not comfortable relating to gay men, generally speaking. He does not seem knowledgeable about gay history or culture. For example, he strongly dislikes drag queens and never goes to gay bars. There is one woman in particular he makes dinner for every Friday night. It’s a standing date that he’s only occasionally been flexible about changing to accommodate plans for the two of us. Now he’s planning a weeklong vacation with her. When he first mentioned this trip, he asked if I would want to spend a week camping. I said no, because I don’t like camping.

He immediately went forward with planning it with her. I’m pretty sure the two of them had already hatched this plan, and I don’t think he ever really wanted me to go. I think it’s WEIRD to want to go camping for an entire week with some old lady. He does other weird things, too, like belonging to a strange new-age church, which is definitely at odds with my strongly held anti-religious views. He has asked me to attend; I went once, and it made me EXTREMELY uncomfortable. The fact that I didn’t like it just turned into a seemingly unsolvable problem between us. He says I’m not being “supportive.” I need some advice on how to get past my intense feelings of aversion to the weirdness. How can I not let our differences completely destroy the relationship?

Hopelessly Odd Man Out Differences don’t have to destroy a relationship. Differences can actually enhance and help sustain a relationship. But for differences to have that effect, HOMO, both partners have to appreciate each other for their differences. You don’t sound appreciative—you sound contemptuous. And that’s a problem.

According to Dr. John Gottman of the Gottman Institute (a research institution dedicated to studying and strengthening marriages and other interpersonal relationships)—who says he can accurately predict divorce in 90 percent of cases— contempt is the leading predictor of divorce. “When contempt begins to overwhelm your relationship, you tend to forget entirely your partner’s positive qualities,” he writes in Why Marriages Succeed or Fail. Contempt, Gottman argues, destroys whatever bonds hold a couple together.

You’ve been together only 10 months, HOMO, and you’re not married, but it sounds like contempt has already overwhelmed your relationship. It’s not just that you dislike his friends, you’re contemptuous of them; it’s not just that you don’t share his spiritual beliefs, you’re contemptuous of them; it’s not just that his gayness is expressed in a different-than-yours-but-still-perfectly-valid way, you’re contemptuous of him as a gay man. Because he doesn’t watch Drag Race or hang out in gay bars. Because he’s got a lot of female friends. Because he’s happy to sit and talk with his friends about their kids.

This relationship might work if you were capable of appreciating the areas where you two overlap—your shared interests (including your shared interest in each other)—and content to let him go off and enjoy his friends, his new-age church, and his standing Friday-night dinner date. Here’s how it might look if you could appreciate your differences: You’d do the things you enjoy doing together—like, say, each other—but on Friday nights, he makes dinner for his bestie and you hit the gay bars with your gay friends and catch a drag show. You would go on vacations together, but once in a while he’d go on vacation with one of his “straighty” friends, and once in a while you’d go on vacation with your gay friends. On Sundays, he’d go to woo-woo church and you’d sleep in or binge-watch Pose.

You’d be happy to let him be him, and he’d be happy to let you be you—and together the two of you would add up to an interesting, harmonious, compelling “we.”

But I honestly don’t think you have it in you.

On the Lovecast, a biblical recipe for abortion: savagelovecast. com

425 SUMMER ST., BOSTON | 8PM| $20 THU 08.02

HEADLINERS IN THE SQUARE @ JOHN HARVARD’S BREWERY & ALE HOUSE

Featuring: Tom Dustin, Scotty Lombardo, Josh Filipowski, Tim King, AJ Glagolev, Shiv Patel, & Andrew Della Volpe.

Hosted by Tom Kelly

33 DUNSTER ST., CAMBRIDGE | 9PM | FREE FRI 08.03 - SAT 08.04

COREY MANNING @ NICK’S COMEDY STOP

100 WARRENTON ST., BOSTON | 8PM | $20 FRI 08.03

THE GAS! @ GREAT SCOTT

The Know Show featuring: Rob Crean, Parvo, Zoe Brownstone & more.

Hosted by Dave Robinson & Alan Richardson

1222 COMM AVE., ALLSTON | 7PM | $5 SAT 08.04

THE MENDOZA LINE @ THE DUGOUT

Featuring: Zach Armentrout, John Baglio, Katie Que, & more.

722 COMM AVE., BOSTON | 9PM | $5 SUN 08.05

LIQUID COURAGE COMEDY @ SLUMBREW

Featuring: Zoe Brownstone, Ethan Diamond, Kwasi Mensah, Liam McGurk, Joe Koslowski, Kevin Fitzgerald, Alex Giampapa, Mike Settlow, & Chris O’Connor.

Hosted by Stirling Smith

15 WARD ST., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $5 SUN 08.05

EAST BOSTON COMEDY @ MAVERICK MARKETPLACE CAFE

Featuring: Austin McCloud, Carrie Ross, Kaytlin Bailey. Sam Pelletier. Brian Higginbottom. Vally D.. Katie Que. & Kirsten Logan

154 MAVERICK ST., BOSTON | 8PM | FREE SUN 08.05

NYC COMEDY INVADES LYNN @ BENT WATER BREWING CO Featuring: Jordan Raybould, Bret Raybould, & more.

180 COMMERCIAL ST, UNIT 18, LYNN | 7PM | $10 MON 08.06

SMOKE & SHADOWS BURLESQUE & VARIETY SHOW @ THE ROCKWELL

Featuring burlesque performances from Elsa Riot & Sucre à la Crème, acrobatics from drag queen Neon Calypso, R&B/jazz music from Zaire, & comedienne Yael Gavish.

Hosted by Sammy Temper

255 ELM ST., SOMERVILLE | 8PM | $15 - $40 MON 08.06

FREE COMEDY @ CITYSIDE

Featuring: Ryan Schutt, Conor McGrath, Micaela Tepler, Blake Hammond & more.

Hosted by Sam Ike & Anjan Biswas

1960 BEACON ST., BRIGHTON | 8:30PM | FREE WED 08.08

LIMELIGHT COMEDY CLUB

Featuring: Uri Shatil, Zach Fisher, Colleen Genevieve, & Alex Giampapa.

Hosted by Terence Pennington and Elisha Seigel

204 TREMONT ST, BOSTON | 7:30PM | FREE WED 08.08

8 O’CLOCK AT 730 @ 730 TAVERN, KITCHEN, & PATIO Featuring: Rob Crean, Liam McGurk, & more.

730 MASS AVE., CAMBRIDGE | 8PM | FREE

savagelovecast.com

22

08.02.18 - 08.09.18 |

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Lineup & shows to change without notice. For more info on everything Boston Comedy visit BostonComedyShows.com Bios & writeups pulled from various sources, including from the clubs & comics…

WHAT'S FOR BREAKFAST

BY PATT KELLEY PATTKELLEY.COM

HEADLINING THIS WEEK!

The World Series of Comedy Wednesday - Saturday

COMING SOON Ryan Davis

Social media sensation Special Engagement: Weds, Aug 8

Dan St. Germain

No Real Winners Here Album Tour Special Engagement: Fri, Aug 10

THE WAY WE WEREN’T

BY PAT FALCO ILLFALCO.COM

Prinze and The Wolf Live Podcast Hosts: Freddie Prinze Jr. and Josh Wolf Special Engagement: Sat, Aug 11

Dolph Ziggler & Sarah Tiana Special Engagement: Weds, Aug 15

OUR VALUED CUSTOMERS

BY TIM CHAMBERLAIN OURVC.NET

Kountry Wayne Social media sensation Aug 16-18 617.72.LAUGH | laughboston.com 425 Summer Street at the Westin Hotel in Boston’s Seaport District NEWS TO US

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SHIFT GEARS. GET WEIRD.

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