FREE
e An Independent Arts and Cultur
Issue Designed By: Phoebe Delmonte, Adrian Alvarez, Julia Baroni, Audrey Sutter, & Hannah Blauner
OFF THE CUFF @ THE MAD MUSIC MILL
Jam Session for Musicians & Artists In the Heart of
WHEN: MON 3/16 7-9PM
WHEN: WED 3/25SUN 3/29
It’s that time again: When chaos and strangeness descends on the city of WHERE: Boston. Where weirdos come from all corners of the world and an unmisBRATTLE THEATRE takably frenetic energy overtakes the (bostonunderwhole city … At long last—about 365 ground.org for days to be exact—the Boston Undershowtimes & ground Film Festival returns once again tickets) to the Brattle Theatre. Since 1999, BUFF has been presenting films that melt eyeballs, sizzle eardrums, and generally break brains in new and exciting ways. 2020 will no doubt prove to be another incredible year of cinematic oddities, fantastic guests, bonkers restorations, and all of the shorts that you can handle, along with some shorts that you won’t be able to. Keep an especially close eye out for the Secret Screening, which has never disappointed. As usual, follow along on the Hassle website for the Film Flam team’s extensive coverage of the festival and for your broader film coverage needs. For festival tickets, lineup, film information, and scheduling, check out the BUFF site.And of course, keep movies weird. — Nick Perry
THIS PAPER IS AN ONPLEASE CONSIDER
In Salem, every season is spooky WHERE: season. HausWitch celebrates makHAUSWITCH ing your crafty, witchy side a life144 Washington St style.This adorable brick-and-mortar Salem, MA store is “an anti-capitalist, anti-racist, feminist witch shop + healing HOW MUCH: $22 center”. It has all your needs from books, crystals, all natural self-care products, artworks, home decorations, all made by local artisans and craftspeople. HausWitch is a modern take on spirituality that blends aesthetics and witchcraft. On top of offering high quality goods and gifts, they also offer classes and healing workshops. In March, there are a handful of events. Learn about house plant energy with Plant Magic 101 on the 5th, dive into rituals and meditation in the Virgo in Full Moon Circle on the 13th, get familiar with reading tarot cards at the Tarot Salon on the 31st, and much more! We are particularly psyched about DIY Witchcraft ‘Pocket Altars’, being held Monday March 16th for $22. DIY Witchcraft: Pocket Altars will prepare you to be ready for a ritual any time, any place. HausWitch’s Spell Specialist, Paige, will guide you through making an altar in a pocket sized wooden box. Use a decoupage method to adorn your altar and activate it with a group meditation at the end. “The focus will be on lived experiences, personal power, and especially anti-appropriation.” Altars are wonderfully meaningful sculptures. Use this as a starting point to Meld this practice with your own art practice! HausWitch offers scholarships to people who identify as BIPOC, email in advance if this applies to you! Support and shop local, HausWitch is open Sunday through Thursday 10-6, Friday - Saturday 10-6:30, or order online 24/7. —Choe DuBois
GOING PROJECT OF BRAIN ARTS ORGANIZATION, INC., A 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT.
WHEN:
3/2, 3/16, & 3/30
Every other Monday night, players, WHERE: poets musicians and vocalists conTHE MAD MUSIC MILL verge on Glenway Street in Dorchester to jam in an unlikely but spiritual HOW MUCH: FREE spot. The Mad Music Mill is the best venue south of Columbia Rd but you probably haven’t heard of it yet because despite being a beacon of inspiration and essential meeting space for the artistic communities of Greater Dorchester, the venue has only really been active for a little over two years. I myself only discovered the holy spot when I went to see Red Shaydez at Vibez & Offerings (the other premier event of the mill) a year ago January. That night changed my life because before I even met the incredible team at the Mill I realized I wasn’t alone in my pursuit of cultural space where art comes before profit. The converted church continues its decades of holding space for its neighbors and community members only now it does so with rehearsals, jam sessions and awesome concerts. This brings us to Off The Cuff. OTC is the epitome of what the Mad Music Mill represents - an accessible, inspiring space for working artists to practice their craft. Hosted by local star Kasia Lavon, this biweekly session is designed for milling talent, honing stage etiquette (specifically with live music) and growing respect between all the artists in the room. It’s community focused so all poets and lyricists are welcome in addition to musicians and singers plus mics, guitar amp, bass amp, drums and keys are all provided. Bring your axe and grind or just come to support and feel the inspirational vibrations. Shout out to the team of Adonis, Lynelle and Kasia for all the work they put in to keep the space lit and to Bakari JB and Rayel for inviting me down there in the first place. Now let me extend the invitation to you dear reader—recognize real and meet us at the Mill. #MeetUsAtTheMill@TheMadMusicMill www.madmusicmill.com —Sam Potrykus
THIS PROGRAM IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY A GRANT FROM THE BOSTON CULTURAL COUNCIL, A LOCAL AGENCY WHICH IS FUNDED BY THE MASSACHUSETTS CULTURAL COUNCIL, AS ADMINSTRATED BY THE MAYOR'S OFFICE OF ARTS + CULTURE
THE EFFECT OF CORPORATE CONSOLIDATION ON OUR LIVES COOL APPLICATIONS
NEXTCLOUD HUB
-------- Daniel Lloyd-Miller
I’m stoked to let you know that there’s finally a professional looking and feature complete replacement for Google Suite and Office 365. Nextcloud Hub keeps you in control over your own digital life by providing an attractive and modern way to share or sync files, chat and video conference, sync your calendar, contacts, and a complete email system. With Onlyoffice, a beautiful word processor built right in, you can edit documents by yourself or with friends and colleagues. What makes Nextcloud Hub so attractive over Office 365 and G Suite? The latter are appendages of international corporate data surveillance mechanisms and any files you save to their cloud (their computers) become the property of Microsoft, or Google, or Apple as much as yours. It is not idle conspiracy theory to state that corporations spy on people and that governments become the final recipients of that data: it is a comprehensively documented and well oiled machine. I disagree with any notion that “if you have nothing to hide, why do you care about surveillance?”: If you have nothing to hide, then give me your email password. Entrusting all of your personal data to just the largest corporations isn’t a solid plan for data privacy: the only truly secure way is to keep your stuff local and in your own hands. I recommend Nextcloud Hub for a few other good reasons besides avoiding the Orwellian grid. For one, Nextcloud is open source, meaning the programs are transparent about what they do on your computer. Second, you can run Nextcloud on your computer(s) of choice: an old computer laying around your house can easily run as a home server. If you’d rather pay someone else to host your files and skip the burden of self-hosting, you can choose from any number of more privacy focused hosting services. There are also prebuilt Nextcloud computers ranging from small, yet effective Raspberry Pi’s to the most badass servers you can dream of. You don’t need to be a small business to ditch your reliance on tech titans, give Nextcloud Hub a try for free at https:// nextcloud.com. Available on every computer system, with apps for iOS and Android.
NOTES FROM THE CREW
Kevin Dacey -Editorin-Chief
You have discovered the first 8 page Boston Compass since 2016! Last month we celebrated 10 years of this rag...this month we celebrate expansion! We’re jumpin’ straight out our jeans with joy for all the amazing new content you threw at us, so please take those meat claws and whack ‘em together for the hardworking crew that has chosen to volunteer with us for dozens of issues AAAND for the rad new bunch we’ve acquired in the past couple years. From the designers, distro-heads, social media interns, managers and more, they all work to make sure you know that BOSTON IS NOT BORING. We are here to show you there are many diverse circles of art and culture thriving in this city despite the ever growing costof-living monster looming over us. This paper and your support are proof that the corporate, collegiate and hegemonic boundaries in Boston are no match for our need to create art. We need to work around and sometimes with these institutions to show them what we think is important. If you’ve been brainwashed into thinking fun only exists in a nightclub three nights a week, then I’m sorry you need to flip back through these pages and take a harder look. It’s all here for you. The more you participate and spread the word, the longer venues and galleries will stay open and the more artists will matter to the bigwigs who run the show. We can change this city’s reputation so take a rag, toss it to a friend and hit me up with your cool events or want to jump in with us! kevin@brain-arts.org
------- Kari Vann
Dear Reader, Open your refrigerator. Open your drawers. Open your cabinets. What do you see? The lifeless commodities staring back at you have stories to tell! Do you know what they are? If you’re like most people, you probably have more questions than answers. As I enter my thirties, I’ve started to pay attention to the absence of craftsmanship and utter anonymity that characterize so much of what we now consume. The stories behind what and how we consume today are vastly different than those that defined our parents’ and grandparents’ generations. And as I begin to view my possessions less as disposable commodities and more as inheritable symbols with intangible value, I’ve grown more and more curious about the nature of this difference. When my mother’s family immigrated to the industrial town of Lynn in the seventies as refugees from the Soviet Union, they didn’t have a lot, but what they did have, they cherished. They brought with them what they could. Some of it I’ve inherited, though I didn’t have much competition; of five grandchildren, I was somehow the only one who wanted these heirlooms. Today, a wooden drinks cart with gold plated wheels belonging to my grandparents, handbuilt by a craftsman in Italy, welcomes guests in my living room. My grandmother’s modest set of white, gold-rimmed fine bone china from Poland entertains visitors on holidays. These items sound expensive, and they were! But for a time, they were all my family had. Even in times of scarcity, it was worth the investment to secure something valuable, made with intention and quality, that would last a lifetime and then some, carrying wealth in some form from one generation to the next. We no longer live in the same kind of scarcity that my grandparents did. Instead of using our wealth to invest in a few possessions of great value, we distribute it across numerous possessions of increasingly little value and quality (sometimes so low in value, we can justify throwing them in the garbage after a single use!). At first, I resented that it was such a struggle to find today’s equivalent of my family’s heirlooms, which would tell the story of my life and my marriage and my generation to my kids and grandkids, the way my family’s objects convey our history to me. All of the jewelry on my mother’s side, for example, had been handcrafted by her uncle, a master jeweler who trained in Romania. He was so skilled, that after he and my grandmother fled World War II to Soviet Armenia in the forties, the wives of elite communist party members would go to him in secret (since in USSR, symbols of wealth and class like jewelry were discouraged). Today’s mass-produced jewelry feels cold and shallow by comparison. The epitome of this is the modern department store—or better yet, a discount store—like a TJ Maxx, or a Marshalls, overflowing with crap, plates and pots and silverware stacked on top of each other, no rhyme or reason like a hoarder on steroids. I shop at these places, too. And I used to think they were a Godsend, because, wow, a dutch oven for $30! But as I matured and started to compare my possessions side by side my mother’s and grandmother’s, I started wondering if I was getting such a great deal, after all. Who makes all this crap? Why is it so cheap? What’s the actual context here? I started wondering how we went from that to this in such a short time, and if there wasn’t a better way. When I perform my patriotic duty as an American, that is, buying shit, I sometimes have to remind myself that this *is* our generation’s story. It’s not as romantic, but it’s no less telling, and it’s just as important that we listen to it. On the surface, the commodities we surround ourselves with— which now include our houses, built not to live in, but to sell—have been smudged clean of any individuality or character, as though the humanity these traits convey were a performance failure, an imperfection, a flaw in the matrix, something to be purged. Yet as hard as we strive for “quality control,” sterility, and uniformity; you don’t have to scratch far beyond the surface to see the humanity (which isn’t always a positive attribute, by the way) lurking underneath. The story of *our* generation’s stuff was pretty much decided for us by Baby Boomers after World War II, and it is one of industrialization and technological advancement, which has resulted in nearly limitless economic growth. The accumulation of wealth from this growth has trickled down just enough to raise the standard of living in developed countries. This “democratization” has afforded more people the resources to own things that were once hard to come by, which is, in many respects, a good thing! But it’s had some profoundly negative side effects, too, which under different circumstances, may well have been avoided. That our economy is built on the backs of consumers is the most nefarious part of our story. More people can afford to own more things, not just because they’ve gotten all that much richer, but because due to industrialization, the price and quality of pretty much everything has plummeted. Cheapness is in many ways a facade. There’s a great saying in Armenian, which translates to “There’s no getting around the true price” and that’s truly the case here. For one, industrial producers do not pay the true costs to nature. That $2 ceramic bowl from India in no way reflects the materials, energy, and labor that went into its production. Furthermore, the reduced quality of our possessions is often part of a business strategy, called planned obsolescence, in which products are built of lesser quality so that they will break and that the consumer will have to spend more money to replace them. Consumption, consumption, consumption! And the only ones who can meet our insatiable appetite for more things aren’t the craftspeople and mom-and-pop shops of old, but giant corporations, whose practices are blind to the limits of nature, which we are rapidly reaching. But though the picture I’m painting of the world sounds bleak, there’s *humanity* to be found every step of the way! The reason things are as bad as they are is because throughout this history, in our pursuit of advancement and perfection, we humans have made countless bad decisions and terrible mistakes! That’s just what we do! And for some reason, that humanity undermines every piece of this story is an odd source of comfort to me. As you can tell, this is something I think about a lot. Too much, perhaps. So last year, I took up an odd hobby as an outlet for some of the frustration I was feeling about all the crap lining the shelves of mainstream supermarkets and stores. I started writing letters to the corporations responsible for them. At first, it felt like an exercise in futility. What did I actually hope to achieve? But it allowed me to explore some of the confusion I feel about the rules which govern commerce today, and turns out, it’s pretty therapeutic to troll a faceless corporation! I’ve decided to start publishing some of these letters in this column I’m calling “Letters to my Corporate Overlords.” Not all the letters are to corporations, some are medium-sized businesses. Occasionally, I’ll write a scathing letter to a politician. And sometimes, I actually get responses! They’re usually from a robot, though. But I’ll be sure to publish those, too. Each letter tackles some aspect of production, but is often related to an environmental concern, as the natural world is what I feel we stand most to lose from all this senseless overproduction. Lastly, the medium. Letters are such a personal, intimate, and very human mode of communication, and I feel like this highlights the void that these corporations have created in what should be a rich and thoughtful part of our lives. Letter-writing is also a sort of craft, a dying art which has suffered at the hand of mass-produced greeting cards. (Maybe one day, Hallmark will get a letter, too!) And I feel quite strongly that many of our troubles would not be so complicated to solve, if we had not placed enormous corporations at the helm of our society, whose only real responsibility is to their bottom line, which is somehow, very abstractly good for “the economy,” but has literally nothing to do with any of us and how we’re feeling about the world this morning. Sincerely Yours, KARI V. (P.S. You can write letters to me, too, at vann.karine@gmail.com!)
It’s March, Aries/Pisces season and the preshadow of spring; a time of decompression for everyone edging out of the seasonal winter depression that blankets New England (like the cheap fitting sheet you know isn’t a comforter -- but damn it, it’s cold). Musicians in the local scene must utilize a variety of different resources, tools and tricks to maintain themselves, not just this season but year-round! The Art of Healing delves into just what helps these artists tick through the tests of time, what practices psychologically, nutritionally and spiritually they use to thrive in such a mentally and emotionally taxing music industry. In this installment we catch up with BostonMusic-Award-Winning recording artist, aunty and experienced human: Oompa! After dropping a successful sophomore album in 2019 ‘Cleo’ to both national and critical acclaim and doing dozens of subsequent shows (i.e Hellablack ) privacy seems to be the center of Oompa’s selfcare regimen. “I do the minimal on social media and disconnect, sometimes to the point where people take offense to it -- I just take space.” She reflects “My self care practice is disconnecting and hibernating.” Oomp’s candidly honest insight on her methods of self-care shines a spotlight on her astrological placements as a source of strength. “Privacy has been becoming more important to me; the older I get, the more I come into my Taurus moon. I’m so grateful for my Gemini rising, it saves me.” She praises the support these aspects bring while jesting their disunity. “They work in tandem… most of the time.” “Yes” She responds when prompted with
the question of if she is spiritual “whether or not I wanted to be in the past there has always been some connection to the spiritual world that I’ve had. [A connection] that was literally harnessed through Christianity -- though there are a lot of parts in Christianity that have been hella weaponized.” Refocusing, she states: “my interest is going after universal truths.” “I don’t have a name for it, but it’s mostly me trying to master the compass I have internally.” Things weren’t always so clear cut for the young rising-star--in the past, Oompa had alternative coping mechanisms she no longer uses. “My coping strategies in the past have been… drinking as an escape for me.” And when schedules got busier she found it harder to “pay attention in this industry that is constantly taxing you mentally and emotionally”. To remedy this Oompa dedicated the first month of the year to rest and finding a professional therapist she could see regularly. Growing, healing and learning Oompa is a super talented multi-faceted human living an experience many others face but find hard to articulate. When asked what advice would she give readers to cope with the stresses of life and artistry she states “You either proactively take care of your mental health and wellness or you’re going to be forced to do it.” She concludes “I think that’s my biggest lesson in the past year… This world will make you think you constantly have to be making something, producing something and making money. It’s really hard to sit down sometimes for a day or three because it costs something. But sometimes you just have to, man, it’s
the difference between being alright or not.” You can see Oompa live Friday, March 27th at the Sonia Live Music Venue in Cambridge, MA and Thursday April 23rd in Allston, MA. Follow her on Social media at @oompoutloud on all platforms, and go to her website www.oompoutloud.com for all of her content! Peace bless and manifest! —Terry Borderline By LillyLilly Dick---------inson Dickinson
Advice for Lovers Q: So this winter I went to Scotland to see some friends and serendipitously fell in love with a mutual friend of mine. It was really amazing for the 10 days I spent with him, but then I had to go home and now our communication is bad because we are both really sad for different reasons and I don’t know what to do to find joy in the waiting until I get to go back and see him for the summer. Do you have any suggestions on how to let go of my expectations for this relationship while I’m 3000 miles away? A: The perfect mix for a fantasy/fling: A vacation, he is friend approved, temporary trip means magnified feelings, and the fact that he is physically far from you allows room for longing. You ask how to find joy in the waiting — there is no joy in the waiting unless you are a masochist! With infatuation, there are no distractions to bring you happiness to dim the pain of absence. Are you asking to let go or put on hold until your return trip? You need some more distance in your hindsight to recognize that this is infatuation. ----- xoxo Heart Soaked
PROTEST ART with
EXTINCTION REBELLION How to Live a Zero-Waste Lifestyle
— Melanie Bernier
It’s birthday time, my trashy babies! The Pulitzer-winning, Grammy-nominated Trash is Tragic has been opening mindholes for two years. Wow. Time flies when you’re an Aries advice column grappling with the existential elements of garbage. I’m not very nostalgic; in fact, I am perpetually embarrassed of my past self. Perusing two years of T-is-T, I think to myself, “No wonder my mother hates me.” But then I remember that self-hate is residual baggage from my upbringing. Also, sooo boring! Shut up, inner troll, and give me my moment. I began my low-waste practice in 2013. Going “zero” waste will be a lifelong challenge. I’m not perfect, but I stick with it. Certain principles guide my practice; deep truths which are not easily expressed within a 250-word limit. But today is my column birthday. The inner troll is sleeping, and I got 550 words to burn. Let’s rip the bong of ZW knowledge. s Truth T-is-T Two Trippy 1. It is fucking wild that any of us are alive. It’s one thing to absorb the deeply unsexy fact that your parents “did it,” and you’re the result of one microscopic jizzum beating millions of other jizzums to a single egg. That’s weird stuff. Now I want you to consider how insane it is that life exists, period. I’m not a scientist but here goes: a series of massive explosions made this rock. It cooled for a minute. Eventually, everything was just right: sun, water, amino acids, metals. From the primordial ooze, one basic bitch single-cell organism formed. A bunch of other stuff happened. Shit evolved. Now we enjoy an elegantly interwoven living planet known as Earth. AKA the place your parents boinked on. [Nabiogenesis(t)] = Nb x 1/[n0] x fc x Pa x t. That’s dorkspeak for: the odds of a basic bitch single-cell organism existing on any planet are fucking remote. Can we think about the serendipity of that? Life builds on life. Wow. A butterfly farts in Japan, and you sneeze. Microscopic mites evolved to live among your eyelashes. Who cares about aliens, this planet is fucking wild. We take so much for granted when we place our environment in peril. Right this second, humans are permanently degrading an unimaginable masterpiece which has never been, and will never be repeated. Because we want big pickup trucks. And plastic forks. Gaah! When I look at a styrofoam Dunkin’ cup, I don’t see coffee; I see all of time. And I don’t even smoke w33d. 2. Radical feminists of the 1970’s got it: The personal is political. In other words, changing your own mind helps change the world. Throwing up our hands in disillusionment and becoming apolitical cynics gives in to the system of environmental degradation. It renounces responsibility for productive change. Bor-ring! Living zero-waste isn’t a “lifestyle” choice, it’s activism. Yea, some days it’s difficult to look at styrofoam and see all of time. Sometimes I wish I could just see the coffee. These past few years have changed my mind about a lot of things, and that’s OK. Acknowledging the fragile, interconnected nature of life is ultimately an enriching and beautiful exercise. Don’t let yourself off the hook. Examining your place in the climate crisis allows you to break down the many dangerous ideological fantasies that maintain humanity’s path to self-annihilation. Totally worth it, in my opinion! Now I have questions for you, dear reader. How do you combat climate change? What do you want to know about low-waste life, or becoming an environmental activist? Will you please write and let me know? I need your magic! DM @melsmoviemagic, or send a message via melaniebernier. com/fart. I look forward to our chat.
THE TAROT FORECAST The Tarot Forecast is a look at the month ahead in a tarot spread. Tarot is a deck of 78 cards representing people, situations, and energy. I use tarot as a tool to reflect on life — I invite you to meditate on the following tarot cards and the questions they pose.
For the month of March, I pulled The Death card. The Death card is the most infamous and feared card in tarot. But it is completely misunderstood, so let’s proceed with an open mind. Death is a part of life. The Death card represents transformation. So this March, get ready for some capital ‘C’ Change. Something in your life needs to end, and the Death card is here to remind you that endings are necessary for the cycle of life to continue. Although change, whether it is welcome or not, can be challenging, it is needed for transformation. What would your life look like if you decided to radically accept the changes that are coming to you? Remember, any fear of change will not stop the change from being inevitable. Fearing change in your
life creates stagnation. Resisting change is resisting life itself. For the full moon on March 9, I pulled the IV of Pentacles. Pentacles is the suit of Earth, home, work, and finances. The IV of Pentacles is here asking you to get your finances under control! Spending too much can cause insecurity. If you’ve been ignoring your bank account or spending money frivolously, it is time to calm that behavior and return to order. On the flip side, while conserving your money, and spending thoughtfully are important, the IV of Pentacles is also the same energy of Ebenezer Scrooge, and many other greedy billionaires (I’m looking at you, Jeff Bezos). Holding on too tightly to your money can make you possessive, even obsessive. Whatever your financial situation, take a moment on the full moon to ask: Am I being honest about my finances? Numbers don’t lie. New moons, like the new year, signal a new cycle and are great for beginnings or a fresh start. For the new moon on March 24, I pulled The VIII of Pentacles.
— Naomi Westwater
Where the IV of Pentacles is a card about money, the VIII of Pentacles reflects your work, whether that be your education, your career, or vocation. This tarot card is asking you: What do you need to accomplish to create high quality work? How can you inspire ambition in your education, work, or vocation? Maybe an internship or apprenticeship is needed for you to hone your skills. Or maybe, you simply need to dedicate more time to your work. You are capable of great things if you honor yourself and put in the effort. The VIII of Pentacles is inviting you to not just see work as a means to an end, but to enjoy the process of work. Naomi Westwater is a witch and musician based in Jamaica Plain, MA. Follow her music and tarot @naomiwestwater.
How are you doing? Three months ago, my insomnia started. I was born around the time “global warming” became widely-used. If I reach 65, I’ll witness vast environmental and social degradation. The most recent climate assessments from the UN estimate humanity has 10 years to drastically cut fossil fuel emissions, or face extinction. My waking hours, like my lifespan, seem bookended by cataclysm. Fear and guilt make me feel brittle. I’ve been lying awake straining for the best way to act. This has slowed my life building — what good is a master’s degree in an apocalypse? — as well as efforts to join climate groups. What can I do? What should I do? What makes you feel grounded? When I’m overwhelmed by decisions, there’s still part of me that can work with materials. I get connected to myself and the world around me by crafting objects, even if they’re not “good.” A friend told me recently, “Some is better than none.” We were talking about art but she meant everything — life, community work, sleep, relationships, etc. Imagining a global future feels impossible, but looking to my individual future, I know I want and need to make art. I also know that art moves people in ways that data can’t, and I think it’s necessary in building a big enough movement to fight climate change. Thinking about art’s personal and political power, I reached out to Extinction Rebellion Boston. I had first heard about Extinction Rebellion (“XR”) in April when UK members staged a huge, 11day takeover of 5 public squares in London. The people looked creative, earnest, and determined, and the occupied areas were immersed in giant artworks, anger, education, sorrow, and music. I don’t have a lot of hope for the future, but this made me feel energized. XR is a global, decentralized, nonviolent protest movement resisting the structures of power that are causing the collapse of a stable environment. There are branches all over the world, but all groups share a core set of demands and principles. The first demand is that media and governments communicate the climate emergency with clarity and conviction. XR Boston has already staged dozens of actions around the city, including a large protest inside the Boston Globe calling out their underreporting of climate issues, and a “Flood the Seaport” event that swarmed the downtown area with people, art, and actions demanding a livable future in coastal Boston. We have many more events coming up: xrmass.org/action Bring your brain, your art, your skills, and your feelings. We need everybody. Resistance is possible, and it feels a hell of a lot better than insomnia. Looking forward to learning and fighting with you, — Cory xrmass.org This column will be a regular Extinction Rebellion feature in the Compass.
CONNIS FOR THE PEOPLE ducer tandems is you’re constantly learning from each other, showing them something new. I take notes from him.” bby._j adds, “I’ll just leave some shit with him and he’ll record all the vocals, he might chop up the beat a little bit, and I just trust that it’s going to be fire.” The mixtape is a party. It is upbeat, psychedelic, and poppy. “The theme of Sessions is dope-ass beats and dopeass raps,” bby._j said. It is a fun, contrasting project following Connis’s 2019 debut album, Conn(is), which is rooted in emotional catharsis and composed of honest journal entries of the rapper’s highs and lows. The title, Sessions, is true to its contents. There are six collabs on the project, and it’s impossible to choose a standout. Between BoriRock, Luke Bar$, Lord Felix, Caev, Maka Oceania, and Donald Grunge, the hometown homies go crazy. And the interlude, featuring a
filmmaker friend, expresses the purpose and tone of the mixtape succinctly. We gas up our friends and their craft. Connis is convinced the project is prophetic. “If we look back at Sessions in 10 years and everybody is where I envision them to be, this is lowkey the most telling project of Massachusetts hip-hop. This mixtape is crazy ahead of its time in the sense of the talent that’s on it,” he said. “Those are the fucking names you want to hear on songs.” Collaboration is one key to the DIY hip-hop scene in the Boston area. While Connis, a Cambridge native, considers Conn(is) his first release, he has been recording music and performing since he was 16. Now, he’s able to navigate within the scene as one of its pioneers, and he is committed to supporting and working with a variety of artists. Connis has goals of producing, shooting video, directing, acting, and
more. But for now he’s rocking with his music. Ultimately, he maintains one focus: “I’m just trying to be for the people,” he said. If Sessions started as album cuts, we have good reason to look forward to what’s coming next. h ig Le g ey lin ds ed Lin inse @l
You know the vibe is right when you can create a complete project of album cuts. When Connis and bby._j started making music in 2018, they found they had strong creative synergy that led to an abundance of high-quality tracks for an upcoming release. Some throwaway tracks became Sessions: 001. While the way the mixtape came together was unplanned, it became very intentional and has impressive flow. From the beginning, Connis (artist) and bby._j (producer) were in sync. “We trust each other’s processes,” Connis said. “What’s dope about rapper pro-
— Cassie Capewell
Grace Givertz, Haw@Studio 550, 550 Central thorn, Boxer’s Jaw, Greg Ave, 550 Central Ave 7pm Marquis @O’Brien’s Pub All Ages $10 8pm 21+ $8 1 Year Anniversary Party w/ Wed 3/11 Mint Green, Doom Lover, these shows and mor rg Point01Percent featuring FonFon Ru @Hong Kong ea o . s t r t brain-a Cutout and Neumann/ Harvard Shows 8pm 21+ Graham/Young/Rosen$10 Fri 3/6 thal @Lilypad Inman 7:30pm Stone and Star, Hands N’ All Ages $ome Cost Sun 3/15 Knees, Love Strangers @ Anti-Flag w/ Grade 2, Doll Sun 3/1 Club Bohemia 7:30pm 21+ Fully Celebrated Orchestra Skin, Evan Greer @Brighton Moonlighting: A Queer $ome Cost with special guests ShalaMusic Hall 8pm All Ages Open Mic @Democracy shaska @Midway Cafe 8pm $ome Cost Center 6:30pm Above the Din, Bare Ass, 21+ $5 Wrought Iron Hex and Alex Mon 3/16 Mon 3/2 Lopez Band @Ralph’s Rock Wolf Whistle, Fucked & Best Coast w/ Mannequin Shutterings (NC), Butch Diner 8:30pm 21+ $8 Bound, Haunted Horses, Pussy @Royale 7pm 18+ Baby, Why Try? @O’Brien’s American Ethos @Hong $25-28 Pub 8pm 21+ $5 Grateful Dead Family Night Kong Harvard 8pm 21+ $10 w/ Owsley’s Owls @Deep Wed 3/18 The Rupert Selection, Full Thoughts JP 9pm All Ages Thu 3/12 TBA, Vanishing Point, The Color, Dead Trains @Char$5-10 Lux, Genogeist, After, Stigmatics @Midway Cafe lie’s Kitchen 8pm 21+ $5 Lifeless Dark, Cartridge @ 8pm 21+ $5 La Boum Queer Dance Party Hong Kong Harvard 7:30pm Tue 3/3 w/ DJ Stella @Bella Luna 21+ $12 Thu 3/19 DARK DAYS vol III with 10:00pm 21+ Free Room to Spare + Noah Bacterial Husk and Fuligin Queeraoke @Midway Cafe Berman @Lilypad Inman @O’Brien’s Pub 8pm 18+ $5 Sat 3/7 10:00pm Free 7:30pm All Ages $10-15 Street Kult Records Presents: Pandemix, Crisis Actors, BatGravy Boat Boys @DorchesBeloved King: A Queer Antibalas & Mdou Moctar @ tery March @Banshee Den ter Art Project 8pm All Ages Biblical Musical @Oberon The Sinclair 8pm 18+ $ome (Everett) 8pm All Ages $7 $ome Cost 7:30pm $15+ Cost Dirty Water Saloon Line TaDa, blitch, Bella Litsa @ Fri 3/13 Afterglow at Oberon featurDancing for Queer Folks, Democracy Center 7pm All WIRE @The Sinclair 8pm ing Penny Arcade and New Friends, and Allies evAges $5-10 18+ $ome Cost York Values @OBERON ery Tuesday @Bella Luna 8pm $25 7:00pm $10 Squirrel Flower w/ Cedric Set Fire, Black Helicopter, Noel, Lady Pills & HoundRingtail, TBA @Midway Cafe A Collaboration between Wed 3/4 steeth @Great Scott 8:30pm 8:30pm 21+ $8 Uniform & The Body w/ La Creation Mondiale, Id 21+ $12-14 Dreamdecay @ONCE M Theft Able, Mickey O, OrroborO, Rut, + more TBA Somerville 8pm 18+ $15-18 Foambitz, +1 TBA @Remedy Sun 3/8 @Democracy Center 7pm Music (Worcester) 8pm All Live. True. Stories. Now All Ages $8-10 Queer Qomedy Hour @ Ages $7 Listen Here featuring Steve ImprovBoston 9:30pm Almond @The Lilypad 5:30The Quins w/ Today Junior $12 Thu 3/5 8:30pm All Ages $ome Cost @The New World Tavern JACKIE, pushflowers, Gap 9pm 21+ $ome Cost Fri 3/20 Teeth @O’Brien’s Pub 8pm Tue 3/10 Terry Riley with Gyan Riley: 21+ $10 Noell Dorsey / Andrea PenSat 3/14 Live at 85! @Sanders TheFri 3/6 - Mon 3/9 sado duo @Village Vinyl & Sapling, Heavy Hands, The atre at Harvard University XFest 2020 featuring imHi-Fi 7-8pm All Ages $5 Freqs, Brian George of 8pm All Ages $28-48 prov, noise, experimental, Motel Black @Midway Cafe workshops, and more featurSEED, The Cost of Living, 3-7pm All Ages $7 Adrestia, Coagula, Immortal ing over 80 participants @ Kira McSpice, Pleasure “Experiments Electronica” War, Skrawl @Hong Kong UTEC (Lowell) 6pm start on Coffin @Hong Kong Harvard Harvard 8pm 21+ $5-10 all 3 days All Ages $10 (visit Shows 8pm 21+ $10 xfestma.com for more info) Sat 3/21 The Dambuilders, Sleepyhead, Hilken Mancini & Winston Braman (Fuzzy) @ONCE Lounge 6:30pm $10-15
THE
ATRE
Most people don’t see plays anymore and it’s a damn shame. Yes, tickets can be expensive and it’s hard to know what will be good, but theatre has more potential to transport an audience than any other medium out there. Beyond the frenetic energy of a live performance, theatre’s power lies in its ability to take on limitless new forms by employing other arts (writing, performance, music, visual arts, dance, film, lighting design, etc.). This alchemy of arts can create a completely new language for expression when it’s done right. When
3/11-3/15
Plata Quemada @ ArtEmerson $25-90 general/$20 for Students. ArtsEmerson.org Chilean company Teatrocinema’s visually striking adaptation of the controversial graphic novel, based on a famous 1965 bank heist.
3/11-4/5
The Merchant of Venice @ Boston Center for the Arts $25-60 general/$15 Student Rush. ActorsShakespeareProject. org Uber stylish director, Igor Golyak, leads a strong cast in Shakespeare’s comedy.
it’s done wrong, there are few things more painful to sit through. Luckily, theatrescape is here to help you navigate what shows look good and how to find affordable tickets. Lots of cool, engrossing shows on the horizon, so grab tickets NOW while the cheap seats are still available. The tastiest tickets in town are to a mesmerizing take on Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis by Iceland’s Vesturport Theatre Co, featuring aerial tricks, optical illusions and an original score by thee Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. Three days only in May
Sun 3/22 Midnight, Savage Master, Rotten (UK) @Once Ballroom 8pm 18+ $15-18 Glenn Jones, Elkhorn Trio, Lloyd Thayer @Outpost 186 8pm All Ages $10 Couch Sex, Psychic Weight, The Path, Knock Over City @ Koto 9:30pm 21+ $7 Mon 3/23 Crisis Actors, OVER (PDX), Loretta, Sticker Shock @ Charlie’s Kitchen 8pm 21+ $5 Tue 3/24 An Evening with The Necks @The Press Room 8pm All Ages $ome Cost Fri 3/27 Godcaster, Birthday Ass, Queen Crony, Rong @The Tourist Trap (Allston) 8pm All Ages $5-10
Where to shout about important $h!t with others… Check out Mobilization Mondays at kick-ass natural wine bar REBEL REBEL in Somerville. They provide the stamps, envelopes & rosé, you provide the no-bullshit activism. Need a safe space to feel fancy AF? Head over to Allium Market in Brookline for a decadently cheesy lunch or a fancy food class (some of the most affordable in the city). SOS, I’m vegan! Grab some serious grub, with a side of affirmation, at Oasis Vegan Veggie Parlor in Dorchester. The food you consume has an impact, bite back!
—Dana Ferrante
Scarecrow, Video Filth, Security, Bakkara @Last House 8pm All Ages $7 Black Beach with Kal Marks and The V’Islands @The New World Tavern 9pm 21+ $ome Cost Sat 3/28 Dreamscape 23 featuring Joshua Burkett, Erin Durant, Grace Givertz, Clearing @ Hope Central in JP 7:30pm All Ages $5-10 Don’t Ask Don’t Tell @Great Scott 10:00pm 21+ $10 Sun 3/29 Charlotte Cornfield, Puppy Problems, Jesus the Dinosaur, Moe @ONCE Somerville 7pm 18+ $13
Discover the Others
under 35y-o. HuntintonTheatre. org Local playwright Kirsten Greenidge’s whirlwind weekend in a contemporary black American family.
3/19-3/28
3/26-3/29
Our Daughters, Like Pillars @ Boston Center for the Arts $25-90 General/$25 Student/$30
Rules, Emerald Comets, Telephoto @O’Brien’s Pub 8pm 21+ $8
($20-90)! While you’re at ArtsEmerson.org getting those, secure a seat to 69° S (The Shackleton Project) by NYC’s Phantom Limb Company coming up in April. This show uses puppetry and choreography with music by the Kronos Quartet and Skeleton Key to depict the famous explorer’s 1914 journey. Another future sell out is the Huntington Theatre’s adaptation of Toni Morrison’s beautiful and profound W. Mass. debut novel, The Bluest 3/6 75 Dollar Bill, Sunburned, Weeping Bong Band @Hutghi’s at the Nook 7pm $ome Eye ($25-115 General/$20 Cost Student/$30 under 35y-o 3/20 Elkhorn, Glenn Jones, Wes Buckley, New Parents @Belltower Records 6pm All Ages HuntingtonTheatre.org). $5 Check out the highlights Email Theatrescape3/20 Mdou Moctar w/ Ami Dang at Gateway City Arts (Holyoke, MA) @Gateway City Arts for March below!Boston@gmail.com Tips? 8pm All Ages $18
Red Elektra @ Boston Center for the Arts $ome Cost LiarsandBelievers.com A contemporary adaptation, riot-Grrrl style.
3/20-4/19
Fueling culture, creation & conversation with events & grub recs.
Vanity, Strange Passage, Sonomax, Loretta, Invisible Sneeze & Notches @ Rays @The Democracy State Park 9pm All Ages Center 7pm All Ages Free $10 Mon 3/30 Bedtimemagic, Oxx, Machinist!, RUDE @Charlie’s Kitchen Shows 8pm 21+ $5
3/13-4/5
Nosferatu, The Vampyr @Chelsea Theatre Works $25 A subversive version with original score and mostly non-binary cast.
Bite Back
Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower @ ArtsEmerson $25-90 general/$20 for Students. ArtsEmerson.org
Adaptation of the 1993 Afrofuturist, sci-fi novel with live musical anthems and requiems based on black history by mother and daughter composers. Will sell out!
Rhode Island 3/3 Sanguisugabogg, Escuela Grind, and Undeath @AS220 8pm All Ages $10 3/12 Jonathan Richman w/ Tommy Larkins, Bonnie “Prince” Billy w/ Emmett Kelly @Columbus Theatre 8pm All Ages $28 3/20 Uniform & The Body with special guest Dreamdecay @Columbus Theatre 9pm All Ages $12 3/25 Rick from Pile (solo), Mountainess, Lady Queen Paradise @AS220 9pm All Ages $10 New Hampshire Thu 3/5 Greed Island, Dog Park, Glue Horse @Sue’s 8pm All Ages $5-10 Sun 3/15 FREAK FLEA VOL. 1 @Sue’s 1-5pm All Ages $ome Cost Maine Fri 3/14 Crystal Canyon, Osmia, Cushing @The Apohadion Theater (Portland) 8pm All Ages $8
Fri 3/13 Riveting Broads Summit: Exploring womanhood through an equitable, SoWa Mosaics Launch PARTY @ inclusive, intersectional lens @Lynn Studio 208 Museum 9:30am-6:30pm $65-$130 Where Worlds Meet @Fountain Street Gallery
Sun 3/1 Artist Talk: Lisa Barthelson’s family debris @Danforth Art Museum 3pm-4:30pm
Fresh Faces @Abigail Ogilvy
Mon 3/2 Lecture - Brandy Peters: Sound and Surface @MIT Department of Architecture (Room 7-429) 12:30-2:30pm
Totems @Beacon Gallery Neon Shadows with John Powel @ Howard Yezerski Gallery Andy Zimmermann and Ellen Schön @Boston Sculptors Gallery
Art Battle Boston @Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co. 7-10pm $20 Tues 3/3 Spring 2020 Photo Lecture Series: RaMell Ross @Massachusetts College of Art and Design 2pm-3pm
Eliot School Faculty Exhibition & M A G I C with Iwalani Kaluiokalanin & BROKEN/HEALING with Lola Baltzell and Susan Leskin @ Galatea Fine Arts
Sat 3/7 Wed 3/4 Open Studios @Western Ave Lecture - Curator’ Choice: Art + Studios in Lowell 12-5pm Design @The Boston Athenaeum 6 - 7pm $30 Sun 3/8 Gallery Talk: Tsanta RakotoarVisiting Artist: Tschabalala Self @ isoa on Carolina Caycedo @ Peter Fuller Building 7:30-9pm The Institute of Contemporary Art Boston 2pm-3pm FREE with Drinking + Drawing with DTano museum admission from Brain Arts Organization @ Zone 3 5:30-8:30pm 21+ Panel Discussion: The Female Perspective @Leica Gallery Thurs 3/5 Opening Reception 3-5pm - IMPACT: Women in Design Award Excellence @Boston Soci- Mon 3/9 ety of Architects 6 - 8 pm Opening Reception - Focus on Brook Farm V : Photo & Arts ExArtist’s Voice: Tschabalala Self @ hibition @West Roxbury Branch The Institute of the Contempo- of the Boston Public Library 6:30 rary Art 7pm - 8pm FREE AD- 7:30 MISSION first come first serve, tickets available at 4pm Wed 3/11 Lecture: Dorthea Rockburne in Workshop: Intro to Intentional Conversation @Harvard Art MuGreenery with PLANT MAGIC seums 6 - 7:30pm FREE ADMIS@Haus Witch in Salem 7pmSION ticket available starting at 9pm $44 (scholarship offered to 5:30 at front desk those who identify as indigenous or POC) Monthly Meetup: Call to Arts @ The New alliance Gallery 7-9pm RAW presents Metamorphose @ BYO Snacks and Beverages Mixx 360 7pm-10pm $20 Panel Discussion: FeministFuThurs & Friday 3/5-6 Sympo- turist Fashion Forum @Boston sium - Bridges: Walls Turned Center for the Arts Mills Gallery Sideways @Aidekman Arts 6:30 - 8pm Center (Tufts University) Thurs 3-7:30pm Fri 10am - 1:30pm Thurs 3/12 FREE RSVP online required Curator Tour: Eva Respini on Sterling Ruby @ The Institute of Fri 3/6 Contemporary Art FREE ADMISMassArt Art + Feminism Wikipe- SION dia Edit-a-thon 2020 @Massachusetts College of Art and Poetry Reading: Raquel Balboni, Design Library 10am-4pm David Blair, Katherine Hollander @Grolier Poetry Book Shop 7pm Artist Reception: Alex deVillers and Erica Stockwell-Alpert @ Curator Led Gallery Talk on Beebe Estate 7-9pm Collage: Tearing It Up @The deCordova Museum FREE ADMISPaint Smoke 3 @Jamaica Plain SION THURSDAY NIGHTS RSVP (location available upon registra- required through eventbrite tion) $0-$90 6:30-10pm 3/6 SoWa First Friday Workshop - Basics of MoldmakAnne Russell, Amanda Hill, Sha- ing and Casting @ Reynolds ny Porras @The Fountain Street Advanced Materials 9:30 am Annex 3:30pm $75 Gallery Talk Kemi Adeyemi on Tony Cokes @Harvard’s Carpenter Center for Visual Arts 6:30 - 8pm
S
WHAT'
NG PENI
Sun 3/1 ZOMBI CHILD (2019) dir. Bertrand Bonello @MFA Haitian zombie tale
COOLIDGE Worse than you can imagine. More fun than you think.
Thu 3/12 T HE LIGHTHOUSE (2019) dir. Robert Eggers @PARAMOUNT Cultivate: 2020 Annual Production by It’s a sea shanty! A weird, horny sea shanty! Abilities Dance @Cambridge Multi- Thu 3/5 WEIRD LOCAL FILM FESTIVAL #12 Free. Discussion to follow cultural Arts Center 8pm $15 - $25 @WAREHOUSE XI 8pm INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (2013) dir. Ethan & What it says on the tin! Joel Coen @COOLIDGE Sat 3/14 The Coen Brothers’ folk music epic featurArt Market: March Radness @Notch Fri 3/6 ing the cutest cat in the world BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANBrewing Company 7pm-11pm TASM (1993) dir. Eric Radomski and Cultivate: 2020 Annual Production by Bruce Timm @COOLIDGE [35mm] Fri 3/13 XX (2017) dir. Roxanne Benjamin, Karyn Abilities Dance @Cambridge Multi- Batman’s finest theatrical release Kusama, St. Vincent, & Jovanka Vuckovic cultural Arts Center 8pm $15 - $25 ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ RETROSPEC- @VU 2pm Badass all female directed horror antholTIVE @VU ogy The first director of narrative film. Sun 3/15 Boston Arm Wrestling Dame’s Fight Know her name. Sat 3/14 Night @Oberon 7pm-10pm $15-$20 SPARTACUS (1960) dir. by Stanley SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (2018) dir. Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, & Kubrick @CABOT Curator Tour with Dr. Leonie Bradbury @ Emerson Contemporary 2pm We came, we saw, we were Sparta- Rodney Rothman @COOLIDGE Best comic book movie in years and you cus. - 3pm know it Pop-up Market: ICA’s Harbor Market Sat 3/7 Sun 3/15 @The Institute of Contemporary Art CATS (2019) dir. Tom Hooper @ LARA (2019) dir. Jan-Ole Gerster @ 11-4pm FREE Lafayette City Center Passageway COOLIDGE (hosted by the Griffin Museum) Coming-of-a-certain-age without illusions, Tues 3/17 4-6pm or a net. Visiting Artist: Marc Handelman @ BU’s Peter Fuller Building 7:30-9pm Opening Reception: Nirvanna Lildharrie @Boston City Hall Gallery 5-7pm
Tues 3/24 RIN TIN TIN SILENT DOUBLE FEATURE @ Visiting Scholar: John C. Welchman SOMERVILLE [35mm] @BU’s Peter Fuller Building 7:30 Dog star, man. 9pm Live musical accompaniment by Jeff Rapsis
Thurs 2/26 Thurs 3/19 Workshop: Introduction to ElectroluWorkshop: Setting Intentions with minescent wire crafting @HATCH Plants with PLANT MAGIC @Zone 3 Makerspace 7-9pm FREE Western Ave 6:30 - 8pm $17 Fri 3/27 Fri 3/20 Conference - Thresholds: Design Artists Reception: Activation @ The and Science @The Radcliffe Institute Brookline Arts Center 6-8pm of Advanced Studies at Harvard 9am-5pm FREE Sat 3/21 Dinner and artist talk: Making Con- Sat 3/28 Blood & Fashion Extravanections Through Art, and some ganza 2020 @ The Strand Theatre amazing Peruvian food @Atomik De- 6-10pm sign Studio 6:30-9:30pm $40 (RSVP online) Tues 3/31 Lecture: The Designer as Engineer, Floral Arrangement Demo @Gallery Craftsperson, and Activist @Mass NAGA 1-2pm RSVP mail@galleryna- Art’s Kennedy Building 5 - 6pm ga.com Ongoing Exhibitions: Creative Economy Workshops: Branding for Creative Business @ If UR REading This It’s 2 Late: Vol 2 Mass Art 10am-1pm $35 register on (with Tony Cokes) @The Carpenter Eventbrite Center for Visual Arts at Harvard 1/31-4/12 Workshop - Plant Meditations & Watercolor Dreams: Awaken/Equinox @4Activation @ The Brookline Arts Corners Yoga + Wellness 3 - 5pm Center 3/13-4/10 Workshop - Drawing and Journaling for Adults @Connolly Branch of the Boston Public Library 10am 12:30pm
Tue 3/17 HAM ON RYE (2019) dir. Tyler Taormina @ PARAMOUNT Like Hunger Games, but a deli instead of an arena Director in person. Free Wed 3/18 IN THE FADE (2017) dir. by Fatih Akin @ GOETHE A Nazi echo explodes in Hamburg. Thu 3/19 GREENER GRASS (2019) dir. Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe @PARAMOUNT Bonkers suburban comic thriller Free. Discussion to follow Sat 3/21 THOR: RAGNAROK (2017) dir. Taika Waititi @COOLIDGE Thor is funny now
Sun 3/22 HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS (1989) dir. Indian Ocean Current: Six Artistic Joe Johnston @COOLIDGE Narratives @BC’s McMullen Museum The first chapter in the exhilarating “Honof Art 1/27 - 3/31 ey, I” trilogy
Drop Dead Gorgeous: Fine Bindings Tour: Art and Artists of Mount Auburnof La Prose du Transsibérien @North Cemetery @Mount Auburn Cemetery Bennet St. School 2/21 - 4/30 10-11:30am $12 Cultivated with Joolee Kang & A Pop-up market: Botanica @The Little Welcomed Enigma with Mary Cocol Bazaar (Mill No. 5) 12-4pm @Gallery NAGA 3/6-3/28 Drag Queen Story Hour @Trident Booksellers & Cafe 12:00pm
Mon 3/16 THE KILLERS (1946) dir. Robert Siodmak @ COOLIDGE Classic Lancaster neo noir uh huh!
FeministFuturist @The Mills Gallery at BCA 2/8 - 4/5
Sun 3/22 After Spiritualism: Loss and TranClosing Reception: Primary Source @ scendence in Contemporary Art @ Fitchburg Art Museum 2/8 - 6/7
Imaxxreal, Sound by PB Kidd 7-11pm $10 Suggest- Sun 3/22 Gallery Hours: Queer Body in Ecstasy 12ed Donation All Ages 6pm ve ester A Sat 3/14 Opening Reception: Queer Body in Ec- Sun 3/22 Boston Hardcore Presents: Pummel, No h c r o e D rom th 1486 walk f re at stasy, an Immersive Installation by Georden West Option, Buggin Out, Divided Life, Ill Communication 2 mins ! and mo P s 7-10pm Free A t Doors @6:30pm $10 D n e t v a e g e n s a e Sun 3/15 Gallery Hours: Queer Body in Ecstasy 12- Weds 3/25 Get Your Thangs Together: How to get Come h T stop. All th oject.org Corner chesterartpr 6pm from Hobbyist to Professional Artist 7-9pm $10 Fields dor Sun 3/15 Harlow Havoc presents: BOP! A Monthly Fri 3/27 Lazorwitz Presents: A Sketch Comedy ExThe Work/Shop is open Tues, Weds and Saturday from 3-8pm Album Revival Party! 9-11pm $10 travaganza 8:30-11:30pm Come shop local apparel, handmade items, art and vinyl records! Mon 3/16 CP UNIT (Brooklyn), Andrea Pensado/ Sat 3/28 Gallery Hours Queer Body in Ecstasy 12Or use our free art supplies Brittany Karlson Duo and The Brookline Communi- 6pm ty Teen Band Sat 3/28 Cake Factory: Local Boston Techno ShowSun 3/1 Steph Germaine’s Birthday Party! 8-11pm Tue 3/17 Taxes for Artists: Workshop with Brass Tax- case 10pm-2am Tue 3/3 DAP Movie Night Janaya showing CARRIE 1976 7-10pm es 7-9pm Sun 3/29 Gallery Hours Queer Body in Ecstasy 12Fri 3/6 Darien Rectangle (NY), Sundog and friends 9pm-12am Fri 3/20 LongStoryShort: Leedepee Album Release 6pm Fri 3/6-7 Media Rins Showcase 12:30am-5am 7-10pm Sun 3/29 Boston Queer and Trans Figure Drawing Sat 3/7 Street Kult Records Presents: Gravy Boat Boys ft Space- Fri 3/20 Synthetic Pleasures Techno Party 11pm- Class 2-5pm $5-$20 Suggested Donation walk Jones & Master Slaps, TZM, LexMo, Street Kult8pm - 12am 3am Sun 3/29 Boston Hardcore Presents: Dead Heat, $10 Sat 3/21 Gallery Hours: Queer Body in Ecstasy 12- Vantage Pointm The Fight, Stigmatism, Rain of SalWeds 3/11 Get 2 Crit! A Visual Art Community Critique Group 6pm vation, C-4 Doors @5:30pm $10 hosted by Melissa Ortiz of BASED Art Collective Sat 3/21 Contemporary electro-acoustic music ft. Mon 3/30 Artist Theater of Boston Showcase 8pmThurs 3/12 Bars Over Bars presents: Blips In Time ft Greyhound, Art of the Loop, Popsicle Hunters and more TBA 11pm Hero, Yung Steen, K Bye, Marsini, Amir Maxx, Amedsbeats, 9pm $10
Tue 3/24 CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1963) dir. Agnes Varda @COOLIDGE A new wave that stays new, still waving. Intro by MIT professor Regina Barzilay Wed 3/25 BARBARA (2012) dir. by Christian Petzold @GOETHE A fallen doctor crawls out of a cold country. Fri 3/27 THE DARK KNIGHT (2008) dir. Christopher Nolan @COOLIDGE Come for Heath Ledger, stay for Maggie Gyllenhaal LISTINGS NOTE: Below is the venue abbreviation key: BRATTLE - Brattle Theatre CABOT - Cabot Cinema (Beverly) COOLIDGE - Coolidge Corner Theatre GOETHE - Goethe-Institut Boston HFA - Harvard Film Archive MFA - Museum of Fine Arts Boston PARAMOUNT - Paramount Center (Emerson) SOMERVILLE - Somerville Theatre VU - Video Underground (JP) [35mm] – Projected on ACTUAL FILM! (35mm unless otherwise noted) If you would like to get involved with our film section or submit listings, e-mail our film editor at Oscar@Brain-Arts.org Managing Editor: Oscar Goff Contributing Writers: Kyle Amato, Kyle Brunet, Oscar Goff, Matthew Martens, Nick Perry
Pistachios
Over the course of one summer day, an assortment of pistachio shells developed on the sidewalk. A man sat directly above them, on the fourth step, leaning on the fifth with one arm and leaving the other one free to pry open his nuts, pop them in his mouth, and flick the shells away. At 4:45, his wife came home from work. With the side of her foot, she swept the shells into the street, then mounted the first step to accost him for sloth, and for contributing nothing, all day long, save for a pile of pistachio remains. While she did so, he refrained from popping open more nuts out of something akin to respect, but couldn’t keep his mind off them--their salt, their reprieve. She then went up to their apartment, and between 4:50 and 6:30, bathed, read a periodical and prepared dinner. At 6:30 she called from the second story to tell him it was time to eat. He replied that he had no appetite (pistachios add up), which provoked a shower of expletives and reprimands. As the sun descended, Mr. Butler carried on towards the bottom of his tub, undeterred from his task. He would offer a handful and some small-talk to those who stopped at his stoop, and as his supply started to dwindle, a concerned look did creep onto his face. The adults chatted and smiled at their walk-ups, while children threw and kicked balls in the street. A strong guy with the right tool opened the fire hydrant, shooting water to the sky, to the delighted cries of kids. They played in the water, the water washed away the shells in the street, and Mr. Butler watched solemnly while working through his last handful. As the hydrant subsided he finished them, then sat in thought for a while--picking pistachio from his teeth with tongue, pinky, postponing his ascent to the apartment. At last, he stood up, heavily, with one hand on the railing, the other gripping his empty tub. His stomach was gnawing, as much from the nuts as from figuring out how to phrase to Mrs. Butler that he went and blew their savings in high stakes black-jack, the night prior. The winner had felt pity, and gave Mr. Butler a fifty for consolation, which he went and spent on a few pounds of pistachios at the morning market. He hoped that the nuts would afford him time to figure out how to break the news to his wife. Instead, dread tied up his stomach all day, and the pistachios were aggravating his acid reflux. —Matthew McGovern
submit your chillustrations!! send to adrian@brain-arts.com
Abigail Neale @lavender_menace_press
Meme Neck by Kev Gil @kevgil90
The Market by Cagen Luse @cagenmiles
Jam
Comics Credits by panel: 1) Dan Mazur 2) Donna Martinez 3) Catalina Rufin 4) James Mobius 5) Noah Pierce 6) Cameraon Lee 7) Levon Gyulkhasian 8) Dan Mazur
Jam with the BCR! Submit a comic panel to adrian@brain-arts.org and it may be selected to begin an original and improvised comic page by the Boston Comics Roundtable!
poster art by Julia Baroni @juli0ni
tear this poster out and put it on a wall! -
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STATING THE STATE OF THE STATE OF THE ART ARTS
^
C
An
interview with
Berklee, East Boston, & East Cambridge! Help
AngelA SAwyer
“Part of doing my art is knowing I can make spaces for it to happen.”
~
“In another culture, in another time, they’d be like, ‘you’re super weird, you’re a shaman,’ or, ‘you’re a nun,’ and I’d have all the time I need.”
l
“My advice for people who want to make art: steal toothpaste and shampoo, eat other people’s food...use garbage for furniture and supplies and merch.”
$
“Start lying on your taxes. The longer you do it the more normal it will feel for both you and the IRS.”
@
“Everything that you’re good at will help you be better at making the things you like making.”
Y
“There’s always a part of the world that will say you’re wrong. You need to know yourself to know what works for you, trusting that it’s OK to be the person you are.”
“I get to make super weird music and do stand-up and storytelling, and I am pretty good at them. Not like, they’ll-make-a-statue-of-you-when-you-die good, but good.” “Stand-up almost breaks even, which is a lot more than I can say about experimental jazz.”
O
ernst
neil horSky • horSkyProjectS.com
Philip Nikolayev
The Value of Missed News Sometimes I stumble upon old news I somehow missed -in this vortex of that -news I would have certainly worried about, had I not missed it, yet it is now too late, the murders of yesteryear, as if there were ever any shortage of them. The mind cannot digest the aggregate miseries of the world without choking on empathy and fear. I stumble upon old news I missed, grateful that it has spared my nerves without giving me a guilty conscience, the outcomes of past conflicts, no longer uncertain. I can feel sad, or neutral, or happy, but there is nothing to be afraid of any longer. Had I not missed the news, I would have worried myself sick, sometimes to the point of physically straining a muscle.
V I S C O U S
V E R S E S
Philip Nikolayev is the author of Letters from Aldenderry. Viscous Verses is edited by Art & Letters (artandlettersmagazine.squarespace.com). Viscous Verses is edited by Raquel Balboni & Ben Mazer (artandlettersmagazine.squarespace.com)
Compass!
email compassdistro@brain-arts.org
“I’ve lived in a store, a radio station, and with 17 roommates at once.”
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On December 21,1970 Elvis, wearing a purple velvet suit, and carrying a colt .45 pistol in display case, walked into the white house. Elvis was there demanding to get a badge from then president Richard Nixon. The badge he wanted was from the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, or the Narc badge. According to Priscilla Presley, Elvis thought having the badge would allow him to legally enter any country with all the guns and drugs and he wanted. Apparently, the idea came to Elvis after he was mad his father and Priscilla complained he spent too much on Christmas (a $100000 on 32 handguns and 10 Mercedez). Elvis took off on a plane to Washington DC, quickly bored in DC he then flew across the country to his mansion in LA. After one day in LA he wanted to fly back to DC. He grabbed the display case gun and took a red eye to Washington. After a Nixon aide, who was an Elvis fan, noticed that Elvis had dropped off a letter in their mailbox that morning he arranged a meeting and around noon Elvis had entered the building. Elvis shook Nixon's hand and showed off his collection of police badges, while photographers snapped pictures. According to the aides notes “ Elvis thought the Beatles had been a real force for anti-American spirit and that he’d been studying the brainwashing techniques of the communists, before adding, I’m on your side, then asked for the Narc Badge.” Nixon made it so and Elvis left the building. —Zachary Fairbrother
I've been listening to the planets. Each of the heavenly bodies has its own song: from a dull, oppressive hum to a high-pitched droning that rings through your very being. Of course, they do not actually emit sound waves. Nor do they give off anything naturally perceivable that might be interpreted as sound by anyone. What they do give off is radio waves. Invisible vibrations that were initially mistaken for intelligent design. Then again mistaken as not intelligent. Radio waves, as most know, are quite easily transmutable into sound. No two of these otherworldly signals are alike. The wavelengths can then be broken into component parts and actually read to determine information about the source. Though, this is just a hypothesis and not effectively realized thus far. Let me say firstly that I am no scientist. My encounters with these phenomena were entirely by chance. A friend of mine, who for the sake of reputation will remain as anonymous as their university, was studying astronomy and invited me along to the school's radio telescope. I must also point out that all recordings of these frequencies openly available to the public have been altered. I had listened to these online previously and expected something similar. In truth, the recordings are not entirely dissimilar, but there's a pervasive strangeness about the genuine article. At the time, I was too caught up in the absolute immensity of things to even keep a proper sense of myself. I joined my friend in a dusky office room. It was narrow, with one wall covered in terminals and screens. I sat at the directed station and my friend pushed the earphones into my hands. Without ceremony, I pulled the band over my head and listened. I had some anticipation, but nothing sinister or foreboding. It felt at first like the first time I really looked through a telescope, and suddenly the bounds of the universe were much larger. My friend went to work at one of the computers, and after a few moments, and the rumbling of machinery to direct the dish, they gave me a thumbs up. Thunder boomed. Not thunder, but still crackling and far away. It felt as if it might tear through me, but was at the same time rather soft. I took a shaken glance at the screen. A jumble of coordinates were tagged with the only bit of information that meant anything to me: SATURN. The broad typeface stared back, and may have flickered in time with the droning that rattled me so thoroughly. Still, I didn't remove the headphones. Something about the sound made me want to listen. There was something there to discern. My proportions and physical feeling became fleeting and distant. I felt as if I were slowly turning, under the auspices of something impossibly enormous. —Michael Coleman
Places You Can Hang If you happen to find yourself out in Quincy, you definitely have to stop by the SelfMade Designs store! Their whole mission is to Support Local Artists, and if you take one step into the store, you’ll see exactly what that means. They have a ton of merch from different local companies and brands for sale, as well as a large scale print shop that offers screen printing, embroidery, custom designs, and much more! Not only do they have a store and a print shop, they also operate a private facility right around the corner from the store that is home to two production studios, a recording studio, rehearsal space, and is the headquarters for Mass Music Radio! In the past two months, they’ve built several new private studios that will be used for photography, podcasts, and vinyl printing starting in April. The variety of people and artists that collectively work there has earned the place the name, The Gym For Artists. Whether you’re into art, music, or fashion, this is definitely the place to go and work on your craft! They offer rehearsal space and a recording studio for 40 bucks an hour, or for an entire month you can become a member of the Gym for 100 bucks! It’s a great place to network, create, and build your business and I highly recommend checking it out. You can go to theselfmadedesigns.com for more info! —Shlomo
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