Weekly Dig - Humor, News + Nightlife

DAILY DIG CALENDAR

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:15:42 -0400

WED 3.17

The words "Russian literature" and "Stanford professor" tend to induce, at best, yawning, and, at worst, immediate narcolepsy. But don't judge a book by its keywords ... Elif Batuman has got to be the goofiest academic we've ever read about. She studied "Old Uzbek" (a language and culture that doesn't quite exist), lost Isaac Babel's last living relatives in the San Francisco Airport and fabricated a theory that Tolstoy was murdered in order to check out his estate. Batuman's book, The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them, doesn't exactly boast the makings of a Dostoyevsky novel ... and thank god for that.

[Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline. 617.566.6660. 7pm-9pm/free. brooklinebooksmith.com]

THU 3.18

When it came to crafts class in elementary school or summer camp, most of us ended up wearing half of what we'd created, emerging from an hour-long session a papier-mache/human being hybrid, trailing glitter everywhere we went for months. Then there were the chosen few who were actually talented. Turns out, some people actually keep it up beyond puberty, and make some pretty amazing shit. The Judi Rotenberg Gallery's newest exhibit, She's Crafty and She's Just My Type, features the work of Gina Dawson and Donna Rosenthal. Dawson creates tiny paper funeral wreaths from her own rejection letters, stitching words of failure (that's irony we can get behind). Rosenthal crochets tiny dresses and adorns them with ruffles made from magazines and cookbooks, incorporating various descriptions of women into the garments. Beats the hell outta covering a balloon in paste. [130 Newbury St., Boston. 617.437.1518. 10am-6pm/all ages/free. judirotenberg.com]

Usually, weekly events like Throwed!, the Middle East Upstairs' 18+ Thursday night dance party, just don't have the once-in-a-lifetime clout it takes to make it into our calendar. This particular Throwed!, however, is special enough to be moved Downstairs, which merits a shoutout. This Thursday features none other than Laidback Luke, a Dutch DJ/producer/graffiti artist who's pals with Daft Punk. [472 Mass. Ave., Central Sq., Cambridge. 617.864.3278. 9pm/18+/$15. mideastclub.com]

FRI 3.19

The French don't give props to us Americains too often. The most famous exception is the Statue of Liberty, but then again, they let the damn thing turn green. The only other one that comes to mind is Shoot the Piano Player (Tirez sur le Pianiste), which, fortunately, has aged more gracefully. The 1962 film by François Truffaut playing at the Museum of Fine Arts is a comedy/tragedy/thriller that pays homage to the American gangster film. The story: A despondent pianist gets dragged into the underground world of crime when his brothers run into some trouble with a couple of gangsters. Sacre bleu! (Better than green.) [465 Huntington Ave., 617.267.9300. 6pm/$10, $8 members and students. mfa.org]

The name kinda explains it all: People with Instruments (the drummer's Captain Obvious or something). Well, with jam band-y stuff á la Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead, they seem to spend the majority of their creative energy coming up with fairly inventive track titles. And hell, we can certainly appreciate the humor in performing a song called "Biblical Lighting Schemes" in a venue called Church. Your band name is forgiven, PWI. Godspeed. [69 Kilmarnock St., 617.236.7600. 7pm/18+/$10. churchofboston.com]

SAT 3.20

Originally written and produced during that little hiccup known as the Great Depression, A.R.T.'s modern adaptation of Clifford Odets' humanistic paean, Paradise Lost, has never been more relevant in its message of spiritual triumph in the face of complete and utter financial collapse ... on an unheard of scale ... with entire lifetimes of struggle reduced to nothing in the course of an afternoon ... fucknuts! (Be strong.) The show, premiering at the Loeb Drama Center, was Odets' personal favorite. It follows a wealthy family poised to lose everything in a tempestuous economic climate ... but you already knew that, didn't you, because you had to go and get a fucking English degree. [64 Brattle St., Cambridge. 617.547.8300. 2pm, 8pm/$25-$75. americanrepertorytheater.org]

The craziest, gayest dance party in all of Boston (and this is Massachusetts, so that's saying something), Epic Saturday bares it all at the House of Blues. Brought to us by club/party promoter extraordinaire Chris Harris and the inimitable Gay Mafia Boston, these parties are nothing short of ... well ... epic: drink, dance and people everywhere. And after an unbearable week-long hiatus because of some concert, people will be raring to hit the dancefloor. Tonight, DJ Kidd Madonny brings his Miami sounds to the always-packed club. Get ready to get lucky and sweaty at the same time. Slucky? Swucky? Leaty? You get the idea. Sex and trance! [15 Lansdowne St., Boston. 888.693.2583.11pm/21+/$15. houseofblues.com]

The following people are playing Blastfest III, the all-day freakshow at the Cambridge YMCA, today: Avi Jacob, Gregory Mullen, Manners, Shai Erlichman, The Needy Visions, Duck That, The Woodrow Wilsons, Wolf Woolf, Tulsa, Ambitious Tugboat, Concord Ballet Orchestra Players, Debbie and the Bullets, Casey Rocheteau, Apollo Sunshine, Rene, Boy without God, James Lindsey, The Great Valley, OH!OH!MINTS!, The French Cops, Girlfriends, The Meadowlarks, Turtle Ambulance and, wait for it, more! They're also doing the right thing and partnering with the now famous Papercut Zine Library for a zine fair (Free PB&Js, too!). The folks at Whitehaus Family Record are behind this roster of inventively named bands, and they'll be celebrating the release of The Whitehaus Family Record Family Record—a double-LP/work of art.

[820 Mass Ave., Central Sq., Cambridge. 617.661.9622. 10am-11pm/all ages/$5-$10. cambrdidgeymca.org]

SUN 3.21

If you're sick of red carpets, collagen and divas cheapening film awards, the Brattle Theatre has the remedy. The Chlotrudis Awards Ceremony draws lovers of foreign and indie films, and you won't have to auction off your brother to get in. See who'll bring home the (fake) cat on a stick, the Chlotrudis equivalent of a certain small metallic man. Marvel at celebrity guest, Beth Grant, of Donnie Darko's Sparkle Motion fame. Past honorees include Christian Bale (pre-Dark Knight), Philip Seymour Hoffman and a quite young Ellen Page. And, if you were wondering, the film organization's named after Chloe and Gertrudis, the founder's cats (this is Cambridge after all). [40 Brattle St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 617.876.6837. 5pm/$20, $15 members. brattlefilm.org]

MON 3.22

How exactly does a good leetle German become a Nazi? Andre DeToth's None Shall Escape seeks to answer that question and unpack "the banality of evil." Shot in 1943, the film jumps ahead to the preferred ending of the war, with the trounced Nazis being charged at a sort of Nuremberg 1.0. We follow the trial of Officer Grimm, who is accused of "crimes against humanity," and watch his transformation from a regular, gingerbread German at the end of WWI into a ruthless party leader. Big-deal film critic Jean-Michel Frodon will be on hand at the Harvard Film Archive to discuss this polar opposite of Inglouriouuuus Basterds. [24 Quincy St., Cambridge. 617.495.4700. 7pm/$12. hcl.harvard.edu]

TUE 3.23

Does God exist? Sure, it's a loaded question, and to take a stab at it you'd have to be either a moron or a space-brain. Space-brains Christopher Hitchens and Rabbi David Wolpe jump right into it at The Great God Debate. They know their stuff: Hitchens, the man who deemed all women unfunny (and this man knows unfunny) and experimented with waterboarding for your viewing pleasure, wrote God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. His contender, Rabbi Wolpe, is the author of Why Faith Matters, and was dubbed Newsweek's #1 pulpit rabbi in America. We'll let you figure who's on which side ... you're a big kid now. [John Hancock Hall, 108 Berkeley St., 617.531.4610. 7:30pm/$28-$45. newcenterboston.org]

Promoting his latest album of songs, subtly entitled Sex Therapy (and influenced by R. Kelly and Bob Marley), Robin Thicke will belt it out at the House of Blues in attempt to make you love him. Or her. Or that guy. Or both. The singer-songwriter/Grammy Award-winning producer brings out the big guns on the record, with cameos from Jay-Z, Snoop Dog, Kid Cudi and Estelle ... and we didn't even mention his dad. Damn, we are good. [15 Lansdowne St., Boston. 888.693.2583. 7pm/all ages/$35-$45. houseofblues.com]

WED 3.24

It's hard enough going back home to Podunk after a few months in the Bean ... so imagine how difficult it must be for the protagonist of Sonya Chung's debut novel, Long for This World, to return to his hometown in Korea after running away to the US ... and staying there for 50 years. Accompanied by his war photographer daughter who was injured in Iraq, they both step away from the lives they thought knew, step back into their long-forgotten roots, and rediscover themselves on a personal scale. [Brookline Booksmith, 279 Harvard St., Brookline. 617.566.6660. 7pm/free. brooklinebooksmith.com]

CHEMO COSTS ... ARE COSTLY

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:09:58 -0400

"Many people in this room will have cancer someday," Dr. Omar Eton told the Legislature's Committee on Public Health last week. "Heart disease is going out of vogue, and it's hard to die of infection these days. So, it affects all of us."

Eton was testifying on a bill that would put the cost of chemotherapy pills on-par with IV-drip treatments. Intravenous drugs infused at a clinic are paid by insurers as a medical benefit, but when prescribed orally, the same treatment is covered as a prescription drug. Anti-cancer meds are generally considered "specialty drugs," which means patients pay, on average, 28 percent for their co-pay ... or about $900 per month.

The main draw of chemotherapy in pill form is its convenience. Pills don't require patients be tethered to IV poles. Bridget Spence testified that she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer just after she graduated from Boston University in 2005. She has a 16-percent chance of celebrating her 30th birthday, and in the past five years, she's had three cancer recurrences.

"I don't know if I have much time," she said. "Instead of spending the time I have left with my husband walking around Boston and getting to know each other ... I spend hours in the hospital. ... When I go for my drugs, the infusion is half an hour, but I have to wait for three hours in crowded waiting rooms. If I could take oral chemotherapy at home, it will improve the quality of my life for however long I have left."

The Massachusetts Association of Health Plans (MAHP) offered written testimony that claimed oral chemo presents health risks "including unrecognized side effects, missed doses and potential overdoses." Cost is also a concern, since the drugs would add to the $1.3 billion (or 12 percent of health care costs) that insurers already pay for mandated benefits. It would hit smaller businesses the hardest, since large companies "self insure," paying health care benefits according to federal guidelines, and are exempt from state oversight.

On Tuesday, Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez, D-Brookline, chair of the Public Health Committee, recommended the bill to pass favorably. It will head for the Committee on Health Care Finance next.

JAMES

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:58:47 -0400

You said it was difficult to source local food in mid-March. What was the most difficult?

Things that were the hardest to find happened to be the things I put off. I just assumed I could get things like clams ... and things like herbs.

Herbs!

All of a sudden, mid-March, the availability dropped to zero. The only herb I could get was lavender.

Lavender?

There was a farmstand up in Maine, that if someone took the time we could have got a bunch of thyme.

Make the time for thyme.

It was unbelievable, the things you can't just grab.

Anything that was easy to find?

Parsnips were available, things like celeriac. Even sweet potatoes—I had three different kinds of sweet potatoes to choose from three weeks ago. It's that trough of availability. The very last flicks of winter.

So no pineapples?

No, no. No fruits.

Exciting to make new friends though?

It was exciting. I now have whole new network of friends I can call to get some really cool stuff.

ARIEL, TESSA AND BRANDON

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:52:35 -0400

What brought you to Allston?

Ariel: Tour. Our brand new EP, Shock-Woo.

Tessa: We're touring around, slutting it up—

Ariel: And chugging as much glitter as possible.

Brandon: Glitter chugging.

Tessa: We came to glitter chug in Boston.

How much glitter have you gone through so far?

Ariel: 60 or 70 pounds just today.

What day on the tour is this?

Tessa: Day one, we're gonna shit glitter for weeks.

Brandon: And farting glitter too, which is also good.

Is playing house shows a norm?

Ariel: We do everything that you ask us to do.

Tessa: Big and small venues, weddings, bar mitzvahs, streets, subways, inside, outside, roofs, gardens.

Ariel: Starting the party near you.

Where did you get the great outfits?

Tessa: We steal them from grandmas on the subway.

Brandon: Punch them in the face, take their jewelry.

Tessa: Kick people in the crotch and steal their rings.

Ariel: Then we give them a hand-job and that's it.

Have you considered grave robbing?

Ariel: Maybe you just gave us an idea.

MICHAEL TARBOX

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:40:23 -0400

GENRE | DARK ACOUSTIC AMERICANA

VERDICT | TOTALLY WORKS

RELEASE | 12.8.09

LABEL | MINOR DETAIL

MYSPACE.COM/MICHAELTARBOX

Michael Tarbox's solo debut is both a departure from his work with the Tarbox Ramblers and a natural extension of it. Unlike the fuzzy, dirty, Appalachian sound of the Ramblers, My Primitive Joy's songs are minimal, and almost entirely acoustic; the resulting album, recorded in Nashville, is pleasantly spacious. On the title track, Jimmy Clark's pedal steel weaves meltingly between two-and-four snare drums as Tarbox's lazy guitar strums. "Let Me Know How to Find You" is a quiet interlude at under two minutes, and showcases his gritty, road-worn voice. There's an earnestness to his singing that lends an air of authenticity to the whole work. Over the course of 10 brief tracks, My Primitive Joy runs through a number of different folk styles, including a brief foray into '60s pop with "Who's Fault But Mine?" Freed from the constraints of a heavier band, Tarbox has put together a solo effort that is so successful, another release is eagerly anticipated.

CD RELEASE PARTY SATURDAY 3.20.10 AT JOHNNY D'S IN DAVIS SQUARE.

BUY IT!

PAUL WOOLFORD

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:37:43 -0400

GENRE | 41-LAYER CAKE
VERDICT | LONDON RISES
RELEASE | 3.22.10
LABEL | RENAISSANCE
MYSPACE.COM/PAULWOOLFORD

By every account, London is the new hotspot for electronic music, taking the reins from Berlin when the world-class Sonar music festival announced a UK theme for 2010. Woolford is a good example of why. Moving in the shadows of the '00s, he has come into his own with his label (Intimate) and now this, his first commercial mix. Other British producers, namely Radio Slave and Ewan Pearson, have also evolved, and to great effect.

Lately, DJs have had to do more to slay a good mix, and with Platform, Woolford offers 41 tracks spread over two discs, many with addendums like "Paul Woolford Re-Edit," which show off his precision in the studio. Each disc represents a slice of dance music culture, with disc 1 embodying the sunrise of Balearic house and disc 2 doing serious, dark technoid damage. Woolford is one of those chaps who can mix on three or four CDs in his sleep, and with tracks from the likes of Ben Klock or Morgan Geist or Robert Hood, Woolford might as well be Allstate—because you're in good hands.

Dear creepy motherfucker who wouldn't leave us alone,

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 14:11:51 -0400

I get that all bars are meat markets to you. I don't blame you for trying. My friend and I even answered a couple of your lameass questions instead of dismissing you right away. But after explaining that we'd been in the middle of a personal conversation when you stumbled over, and saying, "It was nice to meet you" (lies!), you wouldn't go away. You slurred that you had a "philosophical question" for us, and asked if we were lesbians.

Let me break it down for you: Lesbians are just a subset of the larger categorization of women who will never sleep with you—but not all women who aren't interested in you are lesbians.

If you were trying to ignite some spark of homophobia in us, in the hopes that it would make us magically attracted to you, you failed. Miserably. If anything, in the course of one minute, you bounded from "weird guy" to "someone we didn't even want to look at," an Olympian fail in the Game Games.

Fuck you (that's not a come-on),

Just havin' a beer

SÉBASTIEN LÉGER

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:42:45 -0400

If you stumble into Rise Friday night and notice the DJ in the corner has the crowd enraptured, but isn't preening and posing, you'll know you're in the right place.

It's not that Sébastien Léger doesn't like to rip it up and have fun. It's just that his tolerance for superstar DJs isn't all that high. "I'm just more busy with my hands mixing real records than staying [for] three minutes, hands in the air with a huge smile," Léger tells the Dig.

While many house DJs/producers, like fellow Frenchman David Guetta, are killing the pop charts by AutoTuning it up with dudes like Akon, Léger keeps things a bit more cerebral, focusing more on his craft than trying to please the fair-weather fans.

Léger's brash honesty about his sound might lead some to think he's trying to start a hip-hop style beef with Guetta. On his website, Léger calls himself the "antithesis of the showman that is fellow countryman David Guetta." He goes on to describe his approach thusly: "Léger mines a wholly different vein, updating the rich musical histories of Detroit and Chicago with a quiet determination and no-nonsense approach."

Asked about the brazen jab, Léger explains, "Jokes apart, David is a super nice guy, a hard-working person for sure, but he is more a pop star than a DJ/producer," he says. "I play underground stuff. He plays pop records for a wider commercial audience."

But Léger's had his hits and brushes with pop royalty, too. He's done remixes for Justin Timberlake, Kylie Minogue and Daft Punk, and has delivered plenty of club rockers, including 2007's "Aqualight" (which he produced with longtime collaborator Chris Lake), and 2009's "Bubbly."

"There is no secret to making a classic track. Sometimes it just happens—good timing, the right sound at the right moment," he says. "But making classic records ain't my priority. My priority is always to make dancefloor records with a funky groove."

Mission accomplished there. His funky minimal tracks are the stuff of house-head lore—a legend that grew with a spot-on remake of Detroit DJ Rolando's classic "Knights of the Jaguar" ... a track originally intended solely for personal use.

"I did it as a DJ tool for my DJ set. ... It wasn't supposed to be officially released," he says. "But it worked so well and Pete Tong played it in his show one time, and the buzz became huge in no time. Then we decided to ask permission from [DJ Rolando's label] Underground Resistance to release it."

While Léger is a product of Paris, he's lived in Amsterdam for five years and doesn't fully identify with his homeland's flourishing "electro" scene.

"There are great techno producers from France, such as Popof, Oxia [and] Laurent Garnier, but also a huge electro scene, which I don't follow," he says. "France [has] always been good in terms of producing talent. Now, if you listen to my DJ sets, my main sound is more German/Italian in general, with the funky edge, which is definitely from France. I'm not close to any scene in particular. I'm very international sounding, actually."

SÉBASTIEN LÉGER
WITH MIKE SWELLS
AND BASSIC BOSTON
FRIDAY 3.19.10
(SATURDAY MORNING)
RISE
306 STUART ST.
BOSTON
617.423.7473
1AM/18+/$25 GUESTS, $10 MEMBERS
RISECLUB.US
MYSPACE.COM/SEBASTIENLEGER

THE CLIENTELE

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:35:59 -0400

Drunk on reverb and impressionism, The Clientele are a London group bent on maintaining the hazey sound of psychedelic pop. Their latest, Bonfires on the Heath, was released this fall on Merge Records. Singer Alasdair MacLean spoke to us from his hotel room in Portland, Ore., about his blog and touring America.

YOU BLOG A LOT ABOUT ART. DID YOU GO TO ART SCHOOL?

I am a painter, and I draw. I didn't go to art school, unfortunately. I made the disastrous decision to study literature instead.

WERE YOU PUSHED TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT?

My parents just wanted me to stop smoking cigarettes.

HOW DO YOU KEEP BUSY ON TOUR?

Honestly, I'm pretty busy with unloading and loading and trying to arrange things in the van. Or helping people find something that they've lost. Because everyone loses everything.

HAVE YOU EVER LOST ANYTHING?

I'm very neurotic about not losing anything.

I READ YOUR POST ABOUT ALICE IN WONDERLAND. HAVE YOU SEEN THE NEW ONE?

I don't really like Tim Burton very much. I think Alice in Wonderland is kind of unfilmable anyway.

IT'S VERY MUCH A DISNEY MOVIE. THE DARKNESS OF LEWIS CARROLL'S WORLD IS WELL SCRUBBED.

That's the way Tim Burton is all around. He's like Disney with a Gothic touch.

YOU BLOGGED A LOT AND THEN IT LOOKS LIKE YOU SORT OF SLOWED DOWN.

I guess I just got busy with other stuff. My life became happier, and I didn't have time to blog anymore. I've met a very nice young lady, let's just put it that way.

[The Clientele with Field Music. Sun 3.21.10. Great Scott, 1222 Comm. Ave., Allston. 617.566.9014. 9pm/18+/$12 adv, $14 dos. greatscottboston.com]

APOLLO SUNSHINE

Dargus — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 13:33:23 -0400

Surprise! Apollo Sunshine hasn't broken up! After scattering themselves to the winds and settling in Boston, Brooklyn and the Bay Area, our three-headed psychedelic rock hero will join Drug Rug and that crazy boy, Edan, at the Paradise Rock Club on Thursday. Fans have been scratching their heads for the past couple of years over the working status of this originally Boston-based trio: Apollo Sunshine has played only a handful of packed shows in the area since touring behind the 2008 release of Shall Noise Upon (the most recent date was a three-hour jam at the Wellfleet Beachcomber Store this past August), and they have no concrete plans for recording or touring in the future.

New records and adventures on the road aren't out of the question, though. "We played that Beachcomber show without rehearsing, and we hadn't seen each other in a long, long time," says Apollo Sunshine's bass, keys and guitar-wielding jack-of-all-trades, Jesse Gallagher. "We showed up literally two hours before the gig, and we realized how much fun we have together. Now, it's all about timing: I'm back in school for music therapy, Sam got married and Jeremy's working on his studio out in Oakland," says Gallagher, who's recently been spotted around town playing rare groove and far-out DJs sets with even stranger visuals. "We kind of want to stay home and work on our own things until something interesting comes up. Sam and Jeremy definitely want to record again, and I love collaborating with those guys.

"Whenever we get together, it's pretty explosive."

[Apollo Sunshine with Drug Rug and Edan. Thu 3.18.10. Paradise Rock Club, 967 Comm. Ave., Boston. 617.562.8800. 9pm/18+/$13. thedise.com, apollosunshine.com]