OCTOBER 2012 FREE

WWW.FENWAYNEWS.ORg

servinG the Fenway, Kenmore square, upper BacK Bay, prudential, lonGwood area and mission hill since 1974 volume 38, numBer 8 septemBer 28-novemBer 1, 2012

WITH KICKSTARTER HElp, lOCAl TEAm plANS fIlm ON 1970s ARSON RING

Johnson Gates Cant Catch a Break

Organizing themselves as STOPSymphony Tenants Organizing Projectneighearly four decades after a wave of borhood residents set about documenting the arson-for-profit fires gripped the chain of fake sales that ended in arsons.After Fenway, a Boston film-and-video years of brush-offs from public officials they company has laid out plans to finally found willing ears in the staff of the produce a documentary about the criminal state attorney generals office. Ultimately that conspiracy that left three dead and forced office built a criminal case against the arson hundreds out of their homes. Ironically, no one involved in the Burning Greed project was ring and prosecuted its members, 32 of whom born when fires gutted more than 30 buildings wound up in jail. Live Lobster Group, with an office on along Symphony Road and Westland Avenue Brookline Avenue and a CEO who lives in in the early 1970s. The group has launched a funding campaign on Kickstarter, the popular the West Fens, offers film, video, and specialmedia production crowd-funding website. services. Its For years, the HOW KICKSTARTER WORKS principals thought Symphony Road fires, in under two years, www.kickstarter.com the Fenway story as they were popuhas grown into something of a cultural merited a fuller larly known, dominated phenomenon as a web-enabled funding recounting in a residents and outsiders source that helps creative projects get documentary. We perceptions of the Fenoff the ground. the site takes an informal chose this story for way. In the early 1970s, processhitting up family and friends its historic value with Boston suffering to invest in a Brilliant ideaand uses the and its fascinating from economic deinternet to test that ideas market apsubject matter, cline and middle-class peal. if enough people like the idea and said Allen Pinney, flight to the suburbs, pledge to fund it, the sponsor receives one of Burning the Fenway was a far the funding. if not enough people pledge, Greeds producers. scrappier and shabbier the donors pay nothingand the sponsor Its a David-andneighborhood than it walks away empty-handed. Goliath story of is today. Students, reas the Fenway news went to press, ordinary citizens tirees, and low-income Burning Greed had eight days to go befighting corrupt city working singles and fore the deadline to hits it $15,000 target. officials, crooked families filled its cheap if you think this major chapter in Fenway businessmen and and poorly maintained deserves a documentary, why not visit greedy landlords apartments, particularly the films page and make a donation? to save themselves, in the East Fens. www.kickstarter.com/projects/livelobtheir neighbors and Building owners stergroup/burning-greed their homes. often from well-to-do Despite the challenges of producing a suburbsdiscovered that they could make documentary independently, the Live Lobster much more money by inflating the value of team has had one stroke of good fortune: their properties and then burning them down most of the principal characters, from STOP than they could as legitimate landlords. leaders to prosecutors, are still alive, and all Selling and reselling the same building have filmed initial interviews for the project. among different sham partnerships enabled Using these interviews and other archival an owner to pump up its paper value and inmaterial, the team has produced a dramatic sure it for the price of the most recent sale. A trailer (on a shoestring, as the films Web property worth less than $50,000 could over page notes) that outlines the story (watch it at the course of a few months grow in value www.livelobstergroup.com/BurningGreed.) to $700,000. With the collusion of fire and The team has turned to Kickstarter to building inspectors who took payoffs to ignore raise $15,000 that would allow it to complete building-code violations, the owner hired an key filming and produce a longer and more arsonist to burn the building, collected the polished film. Scrambling for funding early in insurance payout, and walked off with a tidy a films production is typical for filmmakers, profit (even after paying off multiple accomplices). Meanwhile, a dozen or more tenants BuRNING GREEd on page 2 > had lost everything as the building burned.
by STEVE Wolf

The historic Johnson Gates at the intersection of Hemenway Street and Westland Avenue just cant catch a break. Late last month, just days after the installation of a replacement for a missing bronze lions head, three highway directional signs appeared, blocking the view of the gates from the west. Its not apparent why this particular site cries out for these signsthe only ones within a multi-block radius of the location. Not even heavily traveled Boylston Street or Mass. Ave.never mind the end of Hemenway Street, which the Route 9 sign points towardhave such markers in the Fenway. We hope state officials wi\ll address this problem promptly.

While You Watched tV, 13-Year-old Nec StudeNt WoN a Big Prize
Cellist Zlatomir Fung, a 13-year-old student of Emmanuel Feldman in NECs Preparatory School, won second prize in the cello division of the Seventh International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians. Only one other American took home honors from in the competition, held Sept. 415 in Montreux, Switzerland. A Westborough resident, Zlatomir is home-schooled and performs in NECs Youth Philharmonic Orchestra, where he is co-principal cello (we should hope so!) and plays chamber music.

Wti StudeNtS excelleNt adVeNture : MakiNg a MuSeuM exhiBit

Students from Wentworth Institute of Technology teamed up with the Design Museum Boston and the Industrial Design Society of America to create Life Impacted: International Design Excellence, which showcases the best recent product design. From mobile gadgets to innovations that improve lives in the developing world, explains the Design Museums website, design is truly everywhere. Sketches, models, and artifacts from companies like Microsoft, Samsung, Beats by Dr. Dre, Nike, and IBM illustrate the impact of strategic design. The exhibit features the products themselves and delves into the people and processes that produced them. Visit the exhibit in the MassChallenge offices on the 14th floor of 1 Marina Park Drive (just east of the Moakley Courthouse in the Seaport District). For more information, visit http://designmuseumboston.org/.

NeW gardNer SerieS exaMiNeS the laY of the laNd (ScaPe)

Given its famed and intensely cultivated courtyard, it should come as little surprise that the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum has added landscape architecture to its portfolio. It launched Landscape Lectures last month, featuring professionals whose work has shaped NEWSlINES on page 2 >

reGister By oct. 17 to vote in nov. elections

by ginny such

Tuesday, november 6, is Election Day. The deadline for registering to vote, if you arent already registered, is Wednesday, October 17. you should have received a pamphlet in the mail from the secretary of states office with information about the candidates and the three ballot initiatives on which voters will vote. If you are not already registered to vote, the pamphlet includes a voter registration form. You can also find voter-registration information at www.sec.state.ma.us/ele/ eleifv/howreg.htm Any voter may also vote by absentee ballot if she or he: will be absent from their city or town on election day, or have a physical disability that prevents them from voting at the polling place, or cannot travel at the polls due to religious beliefs. If you expect to be out of town on November 6, you can apply for an absentee ballot. if you have questions about voting, voter registration or absentee voting and you live in the city of Boston, youll find election information on the citys website, www.cityofboston.gov/elections. You may also mail questions to Boston Election Dept./ One City Hall Square (Room 241)/Boston, MA 02201. Other methods for reaching the department include by phone at 617-635-3767; by fax at 617-6354483; or by email to Maryanne.Marrero@cityofboston.gov. Election Department business hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday through Friday. It is your privilege and responsibility as a U.S. citizen and Massachusetts resident to vote on Tuesday, november 6. see you at the polls! Ginny Such lives in the East Fens.

$60M Gift Sets New Northeastern Record

wo Northeastern University alumni gave $60 million last month to the School of Business Administration, tripling the universitys previous record for philanthropic investment. The school will be renamed for its benefactors, Richard DAmore and Alan McKim. The two are local boys who both dropped out of the universitys business school decades ago but eventually returned to earn their degrees. DAmore received his BA in 1976, McKim his MBA in 1988. Both men credit a former professor and mentor, Daniel McCarthy, for drawing them back to the school; they met in 2004 while collaborating to endow the professorship McCarthy currently holds. After completing his education, DAmore went on to co-found Waltham-based North Bridge Venture Partners. McKim founded and is now CEO of Clean Harbors, an environmental and energy services firm. In a statement about the donation,

by DukE HarTEN

DAmore said: I believe in supporting entrepreneurial institutions. I strongly support the mission and cur rent leadership at Northeastern, and Im proud to join with Rich and make this investment. In a Northeastern press release, university president Joseph Aoun recognized the tremendous opportunity the donation presents: Once in a generation, history is made in the life of a university. This is one of those moments. He thanked DAmore and McKim for the unprecedented generosity and scope of the gift, citing its potential to allow [the school] to build on its strength in global entrepreneurial programs and make a quantum leap forward. It will also galvanize our community and allow us to set our collective sights even higher. The newly-named DAmore-McKim School of Business is headed by dean Hugh Courtney, who joined the university in July. The previous record for a donation to Northeastern was Bernard Gordons 2006 gift of $20 million to the schools engineering program. Duke Harten lives in Mission Hill.

2 | FENWAY NEWS | OCTOBER 2012

arts academy, hiGh-proFile partners seeK volunteer help For octoBer 6 maKe-over

Sept. 1 Was Fro-yopening Day for Mixx

On September 1 Mixx, a popular frozen-yogurt store in Allston, opened a branch (its first) on Boylston Street in the West Fens. The store offers softserve frozen yogurt with proprietary flavorings ranging from familiar tastes like chocolate and strawberry to more exotic selections like lychee and taro, along with a broad selection of toppings like nuts, candy, and fruit. Stop in and say hello.

pHOTO: STEvE WOlf

ity Year, WBOS-FM, and the rock band Dispatchs Amplifying Education initiative have teamed up to arrange a service project on Saturday, October 6, to improve the facilities of Boston Arts Academy on Ipswich Street. The organizing team encourages Fenway residents to help in the transformation of the citys ony public arts high school into a more vibrant and engaging learning environment. Although Boston Arts Academy describes itself as a high-performing school committed to developing students into learners while promoting creativity and innovation, its buildingonce a surplus city propertyhas never fully matched those high ideals. During the day-long project on October 6, more than 200 volunteers will help repaint more than 40 classrooms, four floors worth of hallways, offices, and the cafeteria. Boston Public Schools (BPS) is collaborating with Arts Academy and City Year on the project, following three similar projects at Mission Hill K-8, the new Margarita Muiz Academy, and the Dever/McCormack School. . City Year Boston collaborates with BPS to deploy corps members into 20 schools as tutors, mentors and role models to support teachers and help students succeed. They also work with the school district on transformative

physical-service projects designed to make schools more appealing places for students to learn and teachers to teach. Dispatch, a successful independent rock act, has blends activism with music making. As it tours it mobilizes fans to take small actions to address Americas education crisis through Amplifying Education, its foundation. Over the past year, the foundation has engaged over 600 fan volunteers in nearly 4,000 hours of service to improve schools across North America and Europe; collected over 10,000 book donations to support literacy programs through Better World Books; and raised over $250,000 through a portion of ticket sales and benefit performances. Dispatch donated a dollar per initial pre-order for Circles Around The Sun and will donate another from each ticket sold for its current tour. For more information or to sign up to volunteer, visit http://bit.ly/AmpEdBoston.

> BuRNING GREEd from page 1 but the team hopes the Kickstarter campaign will make a difference. The site specializes in helping creative projects get off the ground by providing a Web-based platform for publicizing a project and offering administrative support (like reminding donors when they need to make good on their pledges). Our hope, says Allen Pinney, is to preserve this important but nearly forgotten moment in history and capture the voices of those involved and affected before its too late. Steve Wolf lives in the West Fens.

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BOSTON RESIDENTS
Boston Public Works will collect and compost residents yard waste

Leaf & Yard Waste 7-Week Collection

Seven weeks: October 15 - November 30 ON YOUR RECYCLING DAY. Place leaves in large paper leaf bags or open barrels marked yard waste. For free yard waste stickers, call 617-635-4500 (up to 2 stickers available per household). Cut branches to 3 maximum length and 1 maximum diameter. Tie branches with string. Place leaves and yard waste at the curb by 7am ON YOUR RECYCLING DAY.
Yard waste will not be collected during the two weeks before the Oct. 15 start date. Please hold onto your yard waste from Oct. 1 to Oct. 15, when collection begins.

NO PLASTIC BAGS

Quality eye care + stylish eye wear

Make an appointment or stop in to shop for eye wear today!

Need an eye exam or new glasses? Fenway Health has you covered. Our eye care staff provide the highest quality eye care for our patients in a comfortable, caring, and compassionate environment. And our optical shop carries the latest styles from Calvin Klein, Sean John, L.A. Looks and more to keep you looking, and seeing, great.
for a valuable coupon visit fenwayhealth.org/eyes 1340 Boylston Street, 6th Floor Boston MA 02215 tel 617.927.6190 web fenwayhealth.org
COM.11.010

Thomas M. Menino, Mayor

fenway eye care

FENWAY NEWS | OCTOBER 2012 | 3

> NEWSlINES from page 1 the field and embodies the highest aspirations for landscape as an element in the social, cultural and environmental life of the city. Lectures will feature London-based Martha Schwartz, who has worked in China, the Mideast, Europe and the US (Nov. 8); James Corner, co-designer of New York Citys wildly successful High Line park (Feb. 14); and George Hargreaves (April 11), whose firm designed Londons Olympic Park, Chattanoogas Waterfront Park, and Houstons downtown Discovery Green. The lectures begin at 7pm in Calderwood Hall and are included in Museum admission ($5$15). Purchase tickets online at https://tickets.gardnermuseum.org/public/default. asp?cgcode=10; by phone at 617-278-5156; or at the door.

despite significant unhappiness on the part of the Fenways community representatives that sketches out more revenue-enhancing plans for the church: conversion of a landscaped lot at the corner of Dalton and Belvedere streets (across from the Sheraton and Hilton entrances) into sites for two mixed-use high rises, one of which could reach 40 stories.

coMPoSer & SoNgWriter daVid friedMaN ViSitS Wheelock college

Broadway composer David Friedman presented a workshop to 270 first-year Wheelock College students early last mont. The Thought Exchange introduced students to his practical methods of transforming livesby exchanging one thought for another, our world can change right before our eyes. Friedman, conductor and vocal arranger for Disneys Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, returns to Wheelock later in the school year to teach a course.

BooK Festival turns copley square into a literary powerhouse octoBer 27

Mother church NetS Major PaYMeNt With NeW toWer leaSe

In an effort to cut costs Christian Science Church administrative departments moved out of their 26-story tower at 177 Huntington Avenue in 2008 into spaces in the Monitor Building on Mass. Ave. Last month Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners signed a 99-year lease for the tower making the $59 million lease payment to the church upfront. According to an article in the online Boston Business Journal, 95 percent of the space in the tower is currently leased to tenants...[and all] the tenants leases remain in effect following the deal with Beacon Capital. The church completed a master plan for its campus last year

Its hard to convey how interesting and complex the Boston Book Festival has grown in a few short years. The event has the overwhelming feel of a literary First Night (albeit during the day), with a dizzying slate of lectures and readings in churches and auditoriums clustered around Copley Square, which itself will boast a lively tent city of booksellers, magazines, and food vendors. At press time, the festival organizers still hadnt nailed down the full schedule, but the website listed 140 all-star presenters, including nationally known writers (Alexander McCall Smith, Junot Diaz, Claire Messud); journalists (The New Yorkers Adam Gopnik, WBURs Robin Young, advice columnist Margo Howard); visual artists (cartoonist Chris Ware, superstar book designer Chip Kidd); high-profile academics (Harvards Randall Kennedy, MITs Nicolas Negroponte, Tufts Maryanne Wolf) and literary agents and celebrities from other fields who write (former Vermont Gov. Madeline Kunin, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Brandeis Prof. Anita Hill). In addition, the festival will offer writing workshops, a music program curated by Berklee, and two tie-in film events (see October 12 and October 26 in our calendar). Best of all, its free. More info at www.bostonbookfest.org.

marK your calendar For 2012 openinG our doors, octoBer 8 The Fenway Alliances Opening Our Doors event runs from 9:30 to 4:00 (or later if you attend the after-party) on Oct. 8 with free admission to neighborhood cultural institutions, concerts, workshops, tours and and a raft of special events. Download the full program book, including schedule, map, and event descriptions at http://fenwayculture.org/?p=66

pHOTO: lOIS JOHNSTON

Sun Shines on 2012 FensFest

Roof Deck KENO Now Open Memorial Day ESPN Game Plan Draft Specials to Labor Day! Great seafood Swing on tips and steak in for

lunch & enjoy Tavern BuzzTime favorites including hot dogs for interactive only $1.50 during Red television Sox Away Games!
1270 Boylston Street Boston, MA 02215 617.867.6526

the city cleans Fenway residential streets between 12 and 4pm on the first and third wednesdays of each month (odd-numbered side) and the second and fourth wednesdays (even-numbered sides). more info at 617-635-4900 or www.cityofboston.gov/publicworks/ sweeping. the state cleans streets on both sides of the park on this schedule: SECONd THuRSdAy the riverway, 12:003:00pm
Second Friday

STREET ClEANING TImES

Despite a threat of showers, FensFest had great weather on September 8, and even rain wouldnt have dampened the smile on BPD Community Liaison Bernadette McCarthys face as she picked up her raffle prize. More than 150 people showed up for the annual party in the Victory Gardens with food, live music, and a tag sale.

the Fenway (includes inside lane), charlesgate extension, and Forsyth way, 8:00am12:00pm

Second Friday

Farmers Markets
october moves usfully into fall-harvest season. expect plenty of appels (and cider and cider doughnuts), lots of root vegetables like carrots, onions, potatoes and turnips, and heartier green leafy produce like broccoil, cabbage, and kale. if youre lucky, you may find some late peaches

Visit us online at:

se TheBa ballTavern.com

> park drive (includes inside lane), upper Boylston street, 8:00am 12:00pm > park drive, from holy trinity orthodox cathedral to Kilmarnock street and from the riverside line overpass to Beacon street, 12:003:00pm www.mass.gov/dcr/sweep.htm has a complete schedule and maps.

Third TueSday

8 to 54 the Fenway (includes inside lane), charlesgate extension, 12:003:00pm

BERKlEE: Outside 7 Haviland Street (former fenway Health) last wednesday of each month 3:00 p.m.7:00 p.m. COplEy SquARE tuesday & Friday 11:00 a.m.6:00 p.m. pRudENTIAl CENTER: 800 Boylston, across from Walgreens thursday 11:00 a.m.6:00 p.m. BRIGHAm CIRClE thursday 11:00 a.m.6:00 p.m. JAmAICA plAIN: Bank of America parking lot, Centre Street wednesday 12:00 p.m.5:00 p.m. saturday 12:00 p.m.3:00 p.m. SOuTH ENd: 540 Harrison Avenue (at SoWa arts market) sunday 10:00 a.m.4:00 p.m.

4 | FENWAY NEWS | OCTOBER 2012

ne of the joys of the Fenway is its diversity and vibrant community spirit. We Fenwickians take on issues with gusto, from development and institutional expansion to streetscape access, my own project over the last 10 years The little Fenway-based Neighborhood Access Group (NAG) has been welcomed and supported. Now comes a pair of state ballot questions that touch directly on our experience as people with disabilities. Question 3, medical marijuana, would provide access to proven treatments for our various and unique ailments, from muscle spasticity and pain to anxiety and insomnia. Medical marijuana makes good social policy, and I hope to qualify for the program, assuming the question is approved. Question 2, for the legalization of assisted suicide, sounds equally good at first, with its promise of autonomy and dignity. Yet a closer look shows plenty of danger. We draw the name of our group, Second Thoughts, from our finding that the more people learn about this bill, the more they oppose it. This measure will make for disastrous social policy, in which death itself becomes a medical treatment. The so-called Death with Dignity Act is modeled on laws in the Oregon and Washington, where assisted suicide is legal. The measure would authorize doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of barbiturates for people diagnosed as terminally ill, defined as having less than six months to live. But terminal diagnoses are famously inaccurate: people outlive their terminal diagnoses by years or even decades. Second Thoughts member John Norton says he would have used assisted suicide had it been available at his terminal diagnosis 55 years ago, and now works to save vulnerable people from the fate he was spared. In this age of induced austerity, we are bombarded with stories of the expense of peoples last year of medical care, while local hospitals lose money and try to re-organize. In Oregon, Barbara Wagner and Randy Stroup received letters from Oregon Medicaid denying coverage for prescribed chemotherapy but noting that the state would cover the

by JoHN kElly

Ballot Question 2 Promises Dignity But Delivers Only Trouble

Serving the Fenway, Kenmore Square, Audubon Circle, upper Back Bay, lower Roxbury, Prudential, Mission Hill, and Longwood since 1974

Voices of the Fenway

$100 cost of assisted suicide. Because assisted suicide will always be the cheapest treatment, its availability will inevitably affect medical decision-making. This will actually end up constraining choice. The safeguards in the measure are empty and go unenforced. When doctors in Oregon decline to prescribe lethal dosages, people simply doctor shop for that one yes. One of the two required witnesses at a request may be an heir. No witness is required at the time of death, so there is no way to know whether suicides are voluntary. No reports are gathered from doctors who refuse to prescribe, families are not interviewed, and abuses are not investigated. So when Wendy Melcher and others were illegally overdosed by nurses, authorities were not notified. The state nursing board placed Melchers killers on nursing probation. In 14 years, fewer than 7% of suicide requesters have been referred for psychiatric consultation; of 171 last year, only one was referred. So Michael Freeland, who had a 43-year history of depression and suicide attempts, easily got a lethal prescription, and only because he mistakenly called an opposition group was he spared suicide. Finally, that word dignity in the initiatives title signals that assisted suicide is not only a cure for pain and suffering, but also a cure for lives perceived as not worth living. Prescribing doctors in Oregon report that people are most concerned about social issues, such as limitations on activities, incontinence, feeling like a burden, and perceived loss of dignity. We disabled people, whose lives frequently look like the lives of people requesting suicide, do not feel that our dignity is compromised because we depend on others for physical care, or because we are not continent every hour of every day. We know that when social supports such as home care and PCAs are made available, family burden can be relieved. Lets make sure that people have the support to live comfortably at home before offering hastened death. Please think about other people, vulnerable and not in control, who will be affected by this piece of bad social policy. Vote no on Question 2. John Kelly lives in the West Fens. In December 2009 and again in April 2011, Management stated that an Evacuation Plan for 69 McGreevey Way was forthcoming. We, the signees of this petition would like to know when a final date can be scheduled to have a Written Evacuation Plan in effect and signage posted on each floor. The August article did not claim that a WinnResidential staff member was not there, it was a maintenance worker who triggered the sprinkler during a HUD preinspection. The issue was when firefighters arrived, maintenance staff nor the 24 hour on-site security had a key to the first-floor mechanical room, thus firefighters were forced to break the door to gain access to the equipment. A worker did approach the firefighters with a key after the door was forced opened. Lastly, MCRC and the Mission Hill Health Movement, Inc., hosted their 4th Annual World Asthma Day Roundtable Discussion on May 1st. Attorney Staci Rubin from ACE was the invited guest speaker. 32 people attended and discussed concerns about reasonable accommodation (RA) requests for carpet removal that were not granted by Management over the past 12 years, despite residents presenting valid medical documentation and the propertys being covered under Section 504 of the Fair Housing Act. Rubin informed residents that a RA request can only be denied if it would cause an undue financial and/ or administrative burden on the housing provider. A follow-up meeting was hosted on June 21st. Eugene Barros from the City of Boston Public Health Commission attended and heard additional concerns about poor air quality and possible mold and mildew issues at 69 McGreevey Way. Residents reported that the May 14th flood was the second flood in two years. Barros referred the complaints to the City of Boston Environmental Health Department. Housing Inspector Damon Chaplin visited 12 households during two visits and made a formal recommendation to Giddings to remove carpeting in the common hallways and inside specific units. I would like to thank The Fenway News for the opportunity to respond.

Steve Chase Helen Cox Joyce Foster, president Rich Giordano Steven Harnish Duke Harten Barbara Brooks Simons Steve Wolf, treasurer EdiTOR: Stephen Brophy wEB TEaM: Nicole Aubourg, Stephen

FENway NEws assOCiaTiON BOaRd OF diRECTORs

brophy, Duke Harten, Mandy Kapica, Steven Kapica, Valarie Seabrook PROduCTiON dEsigNER: Steve Wolf wRiTERs: Jon Ball, alison barnet, Will brownsberger, Liz Burg, Helen Cox, Tracey Cusick, Margot Edwards, John Engstrom, Stan Everett, Lisa Fay, Lori A. Frankian, Joyce Foster, Marie Fukuda, Steve Gallanter, Galen Gilbert, Elizabeth Gillis, Katherine Greenough, Sam Harnish, Steve Harnish, Duke Harten, Sarah Horsley, Akshata Kadagathur, Rosie Kamal, Mandy Kapica, Steven Kapica, Sajed Kamal, Shirley Kressel, Kristen Lauerman, Mike Mennonno, Letta Neely, Catherine Pedemonti, Richard Pendleton, Michael Prentky, Bill Richardson, Mike Ross, Barbara Brooks Simons, Matti Kniva Spencer, Ginny Such, Jamie Thomson, Anne M. Tobin, Fredericka Veikley, Chris Viveiros, Stephanie Wieseler, PhOTOgRaPhERs: Steve Chase, Lois Johnston, Mike Mennonno, Patrick OConnor, Valarie Seabrook, Matti Kniva Spencer, Ginny Such, Steve Wolf CaLENdaR: Carol Paige, Helen Cox, Ruth Khowais, Steve Wolf, PROOFREadER: Tracey Cusick BusiNEss MaNagER: Mandy Kapica disTRiBuTiON: Della Gelzer, Aqilla Manna, Lauren Dewey Platt, Reggie Wynn
The Fenway News is published monthly by the Fenway News Association, Inc., a communityowned corporation dedicated to community journalism. If you would like to volunteer to write, edit, photograph, lay out, distribute, or sell advertising on commission, please contact us:

we must act Before defecating Geese destroy the rose Garden

To THE EDiTor:

Today is one of the saddest days of my life. On this sunny autumn Sunday afternoon, my wife went for a walk to visit her favorite Kelleher Rose Garden in the Back Bay Fens. She came back home heartbroken and disgusted. Over the last 27 years we have enjoyed many quiet moments among the beautiful flowers and witnessed many wedding ceremonies there. The garden is now covered with large amounts of goose excrement. It is impossible to walk along the paths. Why do we as a community tolerate such a sacrilege against this magnificent jewel of the Olmsted Emerald Necklace? Does anybody care? What department of the mayors administration is responsible for the maintenance of this garden? Donations to the Emerald Necklace Conservancy are not the solution. I strongly suggest that you photograph the mess, devote an editorial to express our collective outrage and notify the appropriate authorities to clean the area and find a permanent solution to the problem If no permanent, politically viable solution can be found, the garden should be dug up, sod planted so the Canadian geese can defecate at will.

LETTERS

your DiSguSTED NEigHbor, PETEr C. CalCaTErra EaST fENS

and who on paper have 50% decision-making power with Winn Management); by MMCRC, an ad hoc resident advocacy group; and in the form of a 2009 petition produced no results over the ensuing years. Over 500 petition signatures of support were collected and presented to Senior Property Manager Leslie Giddings in early November (see wording below). Boston Fire Department (BFD) Captain David J. Cushing was contacted by MMCRC on November 14th, and a formal building code violation complaint was filed. After the property was issued an abatement order for noncompliance with local fire codes, a 10 AM fire-safety presentation was held on site by three BFD officials on February 23rd. At the meeting, MMCRC made several follow-up requests of Giddings: 1) Schedule an evening presentation for residents who work or have medical appointments during the day; 2) Provide a deadline for installation of permanent evacuation signage on each floor in English and Spanish and; 3) Translate the written evacuation plan into English and Spanish. The first and the second requests are still pending as of this date. According to Captain Cushing, the overtime request for an evening fire-safety presentation was approved several months ago, following a MMCRC written request to BFD Superintendent Roderick Frazier. The third request was completed after Mayor Meninos office was contacted and they set a timeline for distribution.
PETITION FOR AN EVACUATION PLAN AT 69 MCGREEVEY WAY

The Fenway News, PO Box 230277, Astor Station Boston, MA 02123 617-266-8790 editor@fenwaynews.org | www.fenwaynews.org
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Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

The founders of The Fenway News adopted this motto to express their mission of exposing and opposing the dangers the neighborhood faced in the early 1970srampant arson, unscrupulous landlords, and a destructive urban renewal plan. If the original motto no longer fits todays Fenway, we continue to honor its spirit of identifying problems and making our neighborhood a better and safer place to live.
> Frequency <

The Fenway News reaches the stands every 4-5 weeks, usually on the first or last Friday of the month. Our next issue will appear on Friday, OCTOBER 26. The deadline for letters, news items, and ads is Friday, NOVEMBER 2. Contact our business manager at ads@fenwaynews.org
> aDvertising < > DeaDline <

The First Church of Christ, Scientist

10 am and 5 pm (no evening service July & Aug.) 12 noon and 7:30 pm (2 pm online)

mission main tenants take issue with managers letter in last issue

Sunday Church Services & Sunday School Wednesday Testimony Meetings

ChristianScience.com/OnAir

Im writing in response to a letter to the editor that was printed in the September issue. The writer believes the August 2012 Mission Main article painted a misleading picture of the expert fire safety plan at 69 McGreevey Way. Mission Main was redeveloped as new construction housing under the HUD HOPE VI program in 1999. It is now 2012. Prior to the Mission Main Concerned Residents Committee (MMCRC) petition in October 2011, a written, bilingual fire safety plan at 69 McGreevey Way was nonexistent for 12 years. Repeated documented requests by the Mission Main Tenants Task Force (who are the official tenant organization in the development

This petition is being circulated by the Mission Main Concerned Residents Committee to request that Mission Main Management distribute a Written Evacuation Plan to residents residing at 69 McGreevey Way. There was a massive fire at Wardman Road in Roxbury on October 17, 2011, whereas 45 residents were displaced and/or injured. Residents have asked for a Written Evacuation Plan since 2007 when a bomb scare was called in at 69 McGreevey Way. Since that time, Management has vowed to install proper permanent signage on each floor in English and Spanish and develop a list of names of disabled residents for security and first responders.

Sunday & Wednesday Live Services Online

Near the corner of Huntington & Mass. Ave. Free Parking at all services.
T

gloria Murray

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Hynes, Prudential, Symphony, or Mass. Ave. For further information, call 617.450.3790 or visit www.ChristianScience.com

FENWAY NEWS | OCTOBER 2012 | 5

Disability-Rights Activist Kelly Gets Results by Making the Personal Very Political
n July 26, the 22nd Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Mayor Thomas Menino led a ribbon cutting for the new disability access path across City Hall Plaza. Menino also read a proclamation naming it John B. Kelly Day, in honor of the Fenway resident whose work was instrumental in establishing the pathway. Kelly has long advocated for social justice and currently works with the organization Second Thoughts, taking issue with the November elections ballot question on assisted suicide. Kelly recalls I was born in 1958 and grew up in Middletown, NJ, in an all-whiteflight subdivision. But our family taught us everyone deserves respect, and even then, I think maybe from being the youngest, I got to understand what powerlessness was like. You see that all the time, like when you go to restaurants and watch how some people just try to dominate the server. I loved playing baseball and basketball, and graduated first in my class. So in 19761981 I went to Yale. The President, Hannah Gray, was trying to bust the workers union, so in 1978, they struck. I had some friends who knew more than I did, and they brought me to meetings, where I learned about real oppression. One day a group of students, union supporters, sat in a driveway with locked arms, to block an oil delivery. There were lots of cops, and someone threw a bottle. One of the workers went over to try to calm things down, and a policeman arrested him. Then another worker, angry at the wrongful arrest, jumped on that cops back, not six feet from me. Until then, the only cop I knew had my same name, and came to our school to talk about safety. But this cop was sullying his uniform. His hat flew off, and I couldnt believe I was watching him arrest the wrong guy. So I sidled up to his hat and dug my heel into it. Next thing I knew I heard Son of a bitch. They grabbed me and threw me into a van. Of course that was in 1978. If I did that kind of thing today, Id probably be dead. After Yale I worked at a Jewish deli in Newton, and was a mental health worker at Bournewood. On New Years Day 1984, a group of us went to Springfield, Vermont, Homer Simpsons town, for a fun weekend. I was sledding downhill on cardboard, having fun. My head hit a tree. I had to adapt to a new body. And that December, I moved to the Fenway.

by JoN ball

The hardest part was overcoming my In 2004, Tracey Cusick, Kyle own internalized prejudice against my own Robideaux, Kristen Schneider and I measured experience, like not being able to eat or Huntington Avenue from Mass Ave. to control my own bodily functions. It might Gainsborough, on the NU side to document seem humiliating to be fed. But go to a the obstacles, such as uneven, sloping, and wedding! There its a great honor to be fed. narrow sidewalks. In the old days, people One young Ghanaian who took care of walked in the streets to get to the streetcars. me told me it was an honor But now if I go down to make it possible to live my the sidewalk in my life. So disability, and the chair, and people have prejudice against it, is really a to step off the narrow social construct. walk just to let me by, Abled people come they have to step into up to me all the time and fast auto traffic. say, You have a wonderful So then we filed sense of humor, or Youre a complaint with the so courageous. So I get Mass Architectural to experience the same Access Board. Jack condescension that men Grieco, Richard Nurt express toward women, whites and plenty of others toward blacks, or richer people came to the hearing about poorer ones. But we try in January 2005, but to get people to understand the city didnt even that were not alien creatures. West Fens resident John Kelly has show up. MAAB We disabled are a unique ruled the city had to earned a citywide reputation as a minority because everyone do some things, and disability-rights activist. starts out like us, and everyone then the city claimed who gets older eventually becomes like us. it had done then. So they closed the case that And the problem is, people compliment me, summer. but then I never see them at our actions. By fall, I wondered how theyd done the work when Id never seen any digging. uring Urban Renewal, they had put So MAAB reopened the case, and then the cobblestones into the crosswalks, city claimed the sidewalk was no longer its like at 66 The Fenway and Aggasiz responsibility, because the MBTA was doing Road. And at Kilmarnock and Peterborough repairs, and they were not finished. MAAB there was a building for elderly and disabled said it was the citys sidewalk and started people, without even a curb cut. We couldnt fining the city $500 a day for willful noneven cross the street. compliance. About ten years ago, I went to Taste The fines reached $700,000 and finally of the Fenway, to FCDCs table We formed the city agreed to put in a four-foot concrete Neighborhood Access Group, with the strip. So they agreed to spend the money Gayleen Jones, Jeanette Ector, Kristen from the fines on that and other accessibility Schneider, and the late Caroline Crockett. projects. Then the FCDCs Jethro Heiko said to call But nothing happened, and then came Councilor Ross. He got DPW [the Department the most effective protest ever. In 2007, the of Public Works] to come and tour with us. city scheduled the announcement of the We got all the cobblestones removed. Symphony Area Streetscape work. We got But then, summer of 2003, they put maybe eight people, like Gayleen Jones and in brick sidewalks on the Symphony side of Maureen Cancem to a demonstration at the Huntington Avenue. Bricks are dangerous island over Mass Ave., and held signs like No for the elderly, disabled, or even women with More Brick, and Brick Hurts. strollers. Now bricks are really a form of It was amazing hearing politicians gentrification. Whenever upwardly mobile suddenly changing speeches in mid-sentence people come in, they start talking aesthetics. to add something about accessibility. And But if your aesthetics exclude people, or cause when the Globe reporter, who missed the someone like me to pee his pants because event, called City Hall the next day, the five he cant get down the street, then youre goals of the project had suddenly become six, not really talking aesthetics. Youre talking with accessibility included. exclusion and property values. The Mayor even came over to us, and

we started meeting with the city. The city had formed a Disability Commission but the first commissioner, Spinetto, never bothered to come to a meeting. We eventually got him replaced by Kristen McCosh, and even got one of our Neighborhood Access Group members, Eileen Brewster, on the commission. I was on the commission until I left to form Second Thoughts. If I had just shown up at that demo alone, nothing would have happened. I would have just been some crank. But we got a turnout. Having allies, that makes all the difference. Just as in the Fenways fights against arson, highways, the ballpark, and urban renewal, none of those fights were fought individually. And I have plenty of privileges, like being a white middle-class male. I had so many allies growing up. And here too. But this was easy, compared to, say, organizing against racism or forming a union at work.

What Lies Ahead for Neighborhood Anchor?

he three-story space in 360 Newbury St. that was once occupied by Best Buy has sat empty since mid-May. Speculation in the neighborhood is rife with regard to who might move into the location. Maybe the 360 Newbury St. Association will expand its condo complement from floors 4-8 down to 2 and 3, leaving the first floor for retail. Perhaps there will be another multi-story retail outlet: Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond or IKEA. The major consumers of space in the Fenway are educational institutions like Berklee College of Music, Boston Architectural Center, Boston Conservatory of Music, Northeastern University. They are in persistent need of classroom, studio and office space. It is not likely that the 360 Newbury condo group would allow any of its square footage to be used for dorm space or practice studios. What happens to the building is a guessing game. How will the use of the space in a landmark building affect the local retail scene? What impact will it have on the adjacent turnpike air-rights projects? What effect will there be on Back Bay residents? The building has a unique history. It once served as the headquarters of the Boston Elevated Railway Co. with Transit Building carved into its Mass. Ave side. Between 1914 and 1918 there was coordinated construction between the excavators of the Boylston St. subway and the buildings work crew. The subway had to tunnel through the subbasement of the structure on its way to Kenmore Square. The next seven decades saw an ageing, utilitarian office building with all manner of small enterprises on the upper floors coming and going. Research reveals past establishments on the ground level such as Wurlitzer Music, Federal National Bank and a small lunch counter that was accessible from the sidewalk and the subway entry.

by riCHarD PENDlEToN

Noted architect Frank Gehry did an initial makeover in 1989 (see www.flickr.com/photos/lfu/4161021183/), adding the leadmetal sheathing on the turnpike side and the exaggerated cornice struts on a new top floor. Tower Records moved into the threestory retail space in 1991. Virgin Megastore occupied the space in 2002, but, like its predecessor, fell victim to the shift from physial records and discs to electronic downloading. Best Buy took over the space in 2007. The upper floors of the building underwent an extensive makeover during 2005-2006, resulting in 54 high-end condominiums. Hynes Auditorium station, on the Green Line and an integral part of the building, is not accessible to disabled people. There has been some discussion between the MBTA, citizen activists and advocates for the disabled about the potential for installing elevators that would reach from street level down to trackside. During an initial meeting on this topic in March 2011 at the Boston Public Library, a source familiar with the 2005-2006 remodeling pointed out that the developers went over the access issue with MBTA engineers but concluded that sinking elevator shafts from the street to the tracks could harm the buildings foundation. None of the interested parties360 Newbury residents, Fenway/Back Bay neighbors, subway riders, the MBTAcan afford to have anything happen to this building, a key link in a major transit crossroad. Although no meetings followed this initial meeting on access, a solution may come in the form of a development proposal for turnpike air-rights parcel 13. Submitted to the state by Trinity Financial, a developer, it would create housing and a dorm for the Boston Architectural College above the turnpike from Mass. Ave. to the fire station complex at Boylston and Hereford. And a new subway-station entrance would include elevators.

isability is about the simple fact that we all have bodies. The able ideal is the powerful white male body that can translate desire to action. When you think of that universal person you automatically think of a healthy 25- to 45-year-old white guy, not an older black woman in a wheelchair. Early feminism used to acknowledge that the essential difference for women was their body experience, until liberal feminism co-opted the movement and made it about the right to advance in corporate America. Well we all have bodies, and after we pass 30, some of the parts start not doing what we wish. So on one hand we disabled are different, but in other ways, were that universal person. Ability is the most powerful ideology around. Were taught as kids that were responsible for everything that happens to us. Trip on the sidewalk, its your problem. Cant control your poop, you may as well be dead, or even kill yourself. But everyone takes for granted all the ways they are helped by society. We get food, and piped water, because of others, not by our own efforts. So thinking certain things are our responsibility and others arent, thats just a social construct. Aging too. Only Americans dread reaching their 60s, thinking it will cost them status in their communities. The worst thing to watch is how money bleaches a neighborhood. The very presence of the disabled, minorities, or say, cruisers, detracts from the world moneyed people want to live in. I hear people saying I have the money, so I should be able to live here. Why do places get reserved for you disabled and poor people? Such an idea, that rights come from having money. When we were leafleting for Second Thoughts in Allston, the people who were the most hostile were the same progressive good-government people who opposed bright-colored ramps as unaesthetic. They just dont want to be reminded of their own future disability while theyre young, and they dont have the courage to face up to it in their own bodies when it comes. So theyre vehement about getting the legal right to get a doctors help killing themselves if they ever become disabled like us. But like all minority movements, when we free ourselves, we free everyone. When we ask people why they love the Fenway, they always answer diversity. That means youre free to be who you really are here. So our curb cuts and accessible crosswalks, they changed everything. Everyone benefits from them. Women with strollers, and the elderly out in their power chairs. Now anyone can get into a store. It wasnt always that way. People had to go to a nursing home when their home was not accessible, but now they can stay where they are. Look how when it snows, all our civic energies go toward clearing pathways for commuters cars, which are really earthkilling machines, rather than clearing sidewalks. So thousands of elderly people cant go outside, not to mention everyone else. Isnt that just as great a social need? So nearly everyone will benefit from our work eventually. Long-time contributor Jon Ball lives in Jamaica Plain.

6 | FENWAY NEWS | OCTOBER 2012

fIRST mONdAy SERIES STANdS AS A lANdmARK ON THE muSICAl lANdSCApE

oston has long been the bastion of culture for New England. Theatre, visual arts, music, and dance have all occupied storied spaces such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Symphony Hall, and the Wang Center. New England conservatorys Jordan hall is one such spaceits home to hundreds of top-tier musical performances each year. Venerated cellist Yo Yo Ma once remarked that he enjoyed Jordan Hall most of all for the sense of event when you go there. A stalwart of NECs concerts is First Monday at Jordan Hall. Free and open to the public, First Monday concerts are directed by cellist and NEC president emeritus Laurence Lesser. In the early 1980s, the schools faculty would perform ad hoc concerts. Lesser decided to formalize them into a series of a half-dozen concerts held the first Monday of the month, thereby providing an easy way to remember the concert dates. The concert series features faculty as well as notable alumni and some conservatory students. Musicians play of their own volition. This has to be the collection of like-minded people who enjoy one anothers presence, who enjoy the music they are playing, and who enjoy playing in this fantastic hall, Lesser states. First Monday at NEC, which opens October 1 at 8pm, is now entering its 28th season. Programs will include Brahms and Mozart audience favorites, but Lesser is equally enthusiastic about the unusual, hidden gems of the chamber canon. For instance, two of Lessers programs this year feature English, Welsh, and scottish folk songs arranged by none other than beethoven. One might say that the upcoming season is a veritable Flutist Paula Robison was featured in the opening panorama of centuries, concert, May 1, of New England Conservatorys styles, and nationalities 2012-13 season of First Monday at Jordan Hall. alike. Lesser points out that it includes Americans such as Aaron Copland and NECs own Michael Gandolfi, as well as the Brazilian Hector Villa-Lobos. I feel like Im a puzzle solver, he notes. Ive got to get all of these things to fit, and if Ive done that really well, then people just have to come and listen to the concerts. Avid concertgoer Mike Wolfberg travels nearly an hour just to reap the benefits of First Mondays, as well as other chamber and symphonic concerts. One of the best opportunities in the Boston area is what the New England Conservatory offers concertgoers, and this is a wide selection of free concerts of various kinds of music, he noted. He, like other audience members, marvels at the high level of musicianship. Audiences tend to have folks of all ages, and Im sure NEC students are among these, he commented. I myself can attest to both of his remarks, having recently graduated from the conservatory and attended many First Monday concerts over the four years of undergraduate study. Although I was a jazz major on saxophone, chamber music remained a source of great interest to me. I recall Ravels Piano Trio in A minor, performed in the spring of 2011, as especially spellbinding. The hall itself is a force to be reckoned with, as it seats one thousand yet feels intimate, not cavernous. I would often sit on one side or one floor the first half, then switch for the second half, taking in the different visual and sonic vantage points. Jordan hall is simply an ideal environment for chamber music.. First Mondays at Jordan Hall remains a must-hear free musical event in the boston arts community, and the upcoming season is no exception. A 2012 graduate of New England Conservatory, Stephanie Wieseler is a freelance saxophonist, flutist, and writer, performing most frequently with the Afro-pop group Kina Zor.

Stripping Away Photos (and Wall Text!) Reveals Best of Ori Gersht at MFA Show
omeday I hope to see a modern art exhibit that is devoid of curatorwritten wall texts, the kind that annoy more than they illuminate. For example, the first thing you read in Ori Gersht: History Repeating, a new Museum of Fine Arts show of photographs and films thats up through January 6, is curator Al Miners assertion that Gersht takes a discerning look at multiple historiesfrom 19th-century painting to the Holocaustand the ways they are communicated: histories that have shaped his own identity and helped define the state of contemporary society. We get the message: Gersht is into history, his own and the worlds. But we only get that from the wall texts. We dont get it from the photographs themselves, a number of which border on the abstract. Trace 01 (photograph, 2005) is a blurred landscape in the Carpathian Mountains where the artists father hid from the Nazis. But the image does not spell that outthe wall text does. Without the wall text, you would have mostly a fuzzy picture. Similarly, you can look at Gershts first video, Neither Black Nor White (2001), a shifting galaxy of tiny dots of light, without knowing that its subject was an Arab settlement in Israel, where Gersht is from. Its political-historical context is supplied by the verbal commentary on the wall, not by the art itself. I didnt count all the photographs, which are big, high-tech and expensive-looking and take up a lot of wall space. I did not find one of them exceptional. But if you took them all out, stripped the curator comments from the walls, and kept the seven films, you would have a smaller but more focused and interesting exhibition. I liked almost all the films that I saw, most of all Evaders (HD film, 2009), inspired by cultural critic Walter Benjamin and modern artist Paul Klee. It shows the labored, solitary path of an anonymous older man

STEPHANIE WIESELER

by JoHN ENgSTroM

(Benjamin?) as he trudges through a series of alien landscapesjagged mountains, a wintry hillon an unspecified journey. There is also a tracking shot of a seaport and a mysterious back view of a shirtless man in a hotel room. The link to Benjamin is inferrable from the wall text but not from the film, which works on its own as visual poetry. 14 minutes 44 seconds long, Evaders is shown in a small theater on two screens. I would see it again. The first thing you see when you enter the exhibit is Pomegranate (HD film, 2008), a frontal view of a classical still life to which Gersht adds a mysteriously dangling red fruit that drips and bleeds. Liquid Assets (HD film, 2012) was made especially for the MFA, with a head-on view of an old coin that writhes and morphs between liquid and solid states. Falling Bird (HD film, 2008) turns a Chardin still life of a dead duck into a dreamlike vision with a surrealist punch, while Big Bang (HD film, 2008) gives us a still life exploding and floating in dance-like slow motion. The latter is not helped by a wall text that talks vapidly about Gershts interest in the links between creation and destruction, the intersection of beauty and violence and the passage of time. Arrggh!!! Perhaps to expand on Gershts concern with art history, the exhibit features several works by artists he admiresChurch, Van Gogh, Hiroshi, Czech photographer Josef Sudek. [The MFA asked Gersht to choose any works from its collection that he felt related to his own work. Editor] The works are in different media, on different subjects, and are not especially well integrated with the other stuff thats on the walls. So you have an uneven show in three parts: (1) so-so photographs, (2) funky films, (3) art by others. And there are those infernal wall texts. (Recently I revisited the exhibit to see if I might have a more positive reaction the second time around. I did not.) John Engstrom lives in the West Fens.

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FENWAY NEWS | OCTOBER 2012 | 7

Gardners Great Bare mat & constellation puts the old in conversation with the new

chi of the Collective suggests represent kinetic contemplationanother way of entering the world of thinking. Just as the conversations that crisscross the carpet follow seemingly random but determined paths, the vinegar tasters reactions to the brew represent a multitude of perspectives. Shuddhabrata Sengupta of the Collective notes that The Vinegar Tasters presumes that there is not only one taste. The moment you admit the fact that there is not one taste to life, then why three? Why not two times three? Why not three times three? In the spirit of this endless tasting, the Gardner has commissioned The Great Bare Mat Exchange, a series of talks featuring guest panelists charged with discussing themes and questions posed by the Collective, who will serve as moderators. The second installation is a silent, looped video projection, Equinox, accompanied by a series of acrylic sheets with acid-etched aluminum figures titled Archetypes and Other Permissive Forms. The large projection dominates the space and casts its light onto the reflective surfaces of the panels inIn the Gardners new contemporary show, the Raqs stalled on the wall adjacent to Collective put pieces from the collection (and sometimes the projection screen. As the constituent images) to work in new ways. film plays, the panel surfaces light up and fade into shadow. the exquisite, hand-woven carpet that serves as The etchings are fragments culled from the marginalia of Gardner tapestriesgesturing the centerpiece to the Gardners new exhibit, hands, rabbits, faces, and a sea of waving penThe Raqs Media Collectives Great Bare nants. Mat & Constellation, I couldnt help feeling Equinox is a marvel. It begs repeated drawn into the living, breathing heart of a viewing. The animated figures, all drawn conversation. In that moment, I was not only from the Gardners collection, are given new experiencing art, I was creating it. life and new contextbut the old never quite The Great Bare Mat & Constellation leaves the frame. The projection artfully consists of two installations by The Raqs encapsulates both the essence of the Gardner Media Collective, a trio of New Delhi artists and of the Collective: collaboration and who have worked together for 20 years. The dialogue. Watching the suddenly animated exhibit is a remediationa reanimation of wings of static tapestry figures, or the push the Gardners collection. The Collectives and pull of a horse jousting with its own repurposing of Gardner artifacts establishes shadow, I found myself wanting to rush a link to the past without being restrained by back and forth between Equinox and the that link; their work suggests that the careful Gardners main exhibits. I wanted to search combination of memory, movement, and out the Collectives source materials and multiple voices creates something new and compare, keep the old in constant conversation vital. with the new. The focal point of the first gallery is At one point in the projection, a small the carpet, which is placed in front of The light, like the focused light of a flashlight, Vinegar Tasters, a two-panel 17th-century traces the edges of animals and mountains. Japanese screen from the Gardners collecThis small lightthe only light in a darkened tion. According to exhibit notes, the carpet, frameeventually becomes, in the next woven by two expert Bulgarian weavers from sequence, the sun. This transformation shows the Rodopski Kilim carpet factory, features a repeated motif that indexes the constellation just how easily a shift in perspective can of the Great Bear against a background of sig- change our perception, can make something with one meaning suddenly have another. nals, essays, and conversations between three As Shuddhabrata Sengupta of the Collective personal computers of the Raqs Media Collective. Inspiration for the carpet comes from reminisces, Our experience of touring the museum by night with a flashlight was a two Han Dynasty bronze bear mat-weights strange kind of foray into the after-hours (also part of the Gardners collection) used life of the museum. That is when, in all the to anchor carpets upon which philosophers would sit and argue. Patrons are encouraged to childrens stories, thing begin to change, the objects begin to talk to each other, the gods remove their shoes and sit on The Great Bare come alive. This is the spirit of The Great Mat, to both contemplate and converse. Bare Mat & Constellation. This theme of conversation is extended Steve Kapica lives in Kenmore Square. by The Vinegar Tasters, which Jeebesh Bag-

ollaboration. In comments to the press, Curator of Contemporary Art Pieranna Cavalchini mentioned collaboration as a foundational concept for the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museums stewardship of art. Collaboration drives the Gardnercollaboration between artists and artifacts, administrators and curators, patrons and donors. At the center of it all is a commitment to art as transformative experience, art as endless conversation between the past, present, and futureart as life. As I kicked off my shoes and settled onto

8 | FENWAY NEWS | OCTOBER 2012

This symbol indicates a free event. For even more listings, visit www.fenwaynews.org

students, the seminars convey the latest thinking on a range of topics in laypersons language. Topics this month include Living fRI, SEp 28 THROuGH WEdS, OCT 31: MIT Foods: The Microbiology of Food and and the Boston Public Library present Drink (Oct. 17). 79pm, Armenise Palaces for the People, the first major Amphitheater, Harvard Medical School, exhibition on the Guastavino Company 200 Longwood Avenue. Details and and its architectural and historical legacy. directions at https://sitn.hms. Rafael Guastavinoa Spanish immigrant, harvard.edu. FREE innovative builder, and visionary architect and his son Rafael Jr. designed and built THu, OCT 4: Roxbury Open Studios weekstructural tile vaulting in more than 1,000 end opens with an artist discussion at major buildings across the US, including the excellent Haley House Bakery Caf the BPLs McKim Building, Ellis Island, and at 12 Dade Street in Dudley Square, Grand Central Station. Changing 7pm. Saturday and Sunday, 11am Exhibits Room. FREE 6pm, visit more than 20 arts venues, including individual studios, galleries, fRI, SEp 29 THROuGH SuN, OCT 14: and group showings at museums and Hungtington Theater Company presents historic houses. More information at a critically acclaimed production of David www.discoverroxbury.org/2012Lindsay-Abaires tragicomic Good People, roxbury-open-studios. FREE a look at class, fate and the gravitational pull of working-class South Boston. Tue SAT, OCT 6SuN, OCT 7: BUs College of Thu at 7:30pm; Fri-Sat at 8pm; Wed, Sat & Fine Arts presents Le Portrait de Manon, Sun at 2pm. Tickets $2595 (discounts for the rarely performed sequel to Manon, Jules students, seniors, BU affiliates, and patrons Massenets celebrated masterpiece. Sat 2 & under 35) at www.huntingtontheater.org 8pm; Sun 2 & 7pm. Tickets $7 via http:// or at the box office. www.bostontheatrescene.com/season/Leportrait-de-Manon/. mON, OCT 1TuE, OCT 2: Boston University Chamber Orchestra presents works by WEdS, OCT 10: The New Center, a virtual Mozart, Faure and Beethoven (Symphony Jewish cultural center, brings an intriguing No. 4 in B-flat). 8pm, CFA Concert Hall, 855 panel to Temple Israel on The Riverway, Comm. Ave. Info at www.bu.edu/cfa/ Numbers Game: Counting on the Jewish events/?eid=128756. FREE. Voter, examining whether the presidential election will see a shift in traditional Jewish WEdS, OCT 3, 10, 17, 24: Science in The voting patterns. WBZ-TVs Jon Keller News returns to Harvard Medical School moderates a discussion with CNN political with two-hour seminars that sound like analyst Bill Schneider and New York Times very cool classes you never got to take analyst Nate Silver, mastermind of 538 in college. Run entirely by Harvard grad the New York Timess always-fascinating blog about polling,). 8pm, 477 Longwood Avenue. Tickets $28-45. Information at 617531-4610 or www.newcenterboston.org/. These events take place at the Peterborough fRI, OCT 12: As a tie-in with the Boston Book Senior Center, two blocks from Boylston Festival (see page 3), ArtsEmerson presents between 100 and 108 Jersey St. (Walk three weekends of films based on books, down the alley and look left.) For more including tonights 9pm showing of Mystic information, call 617-536-7154. River based on Dennis Lehanes novel and TuESdAyS directed by Clint Eastwood. Highlights 9:30amCoffee Hour include Gone, Baby, Gone (10/13), Alexader 11amExercise class with Mahmoud Paynes Election (10/14), and Ghost World WEdNESdAyS (10/20). Tickets $10 at the box office or 9:45amYoga with Carmen http://bit.ly/Q1JtWJ. Paramount Center, 559 10amBlood pressure screening Washington Street in the Theater District.

Eat Your Veggies, Oct. 2728

pick of the month

30, available from the website, by phone at 617-879-2300, or by at tickets@wheelock.edu, or from the box office at 180 The Riverway, T-F, 10am6pm.

its well past time that people got over their misconceptions about vegetarianism (boring, bland), and the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival offers a great place to start. On saturday the 27th and sunday the 28th, the event roll sin to the Reggie Lewis Center at Roxbury Community College. The long-running festival, which has grown into a regional attraction, combines 120 exhibitors, cooking demos, celebrity cooks (like Laura Theodora, left, of TVs Jazzy Vegetarian Cooking), tastings, and free samples. Sat. 11am6pm, Sun 10am4pm. FRee admission. www. bostonveg.org/foodfest/

not themselves be turning zombie. All shows 8pm at The Factory Theater, 791 Tremont Street in the South Ends Piano Factory. $15 (seniors/students) or $18 through www.brownpapertickets.com/ event/271916. More information at www. happymediumtheatre.com

fRI, OCT. 19: If you fancy gold braid with your concert-band music, send off for your tickets to the United States Marine Bands concert at Symphony Hall. Established in 1798, the group plays marches, orchestral transcriptions, and pieces for wind ensemble. 8pm. For tickets, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to U.S. Marine Band Public Affairs Office/ Marine Barracks/ 8th & I Streets, SE/ Washington, DC 20390-5000. More info at www.marineband.usmc. milmm. FREE

SuN, OCT. 14: NPRs hit From the Top returns

mON, OCT 15:If youre a fan of British soul

to New England Conservatorys Jordan Hall for a live taping. The show features hyper-talented young musicians who are the classical music stars of tomorrow. Host Christopher ORiley, an accomplished musician himself, makes an engaging master of ceremonies. Tickets $25-35. Taping begins at 2pm. Links to ticket sales and more info at www.fromthetop.org.

rising-star violinist (and NEC grad) Joshua Wellerstein performing Piazollas The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The concert program includes Mozarts Symphony No. 28 and works by Villa-Lobos and Bach. Tickets $20-40 ($10 seniors) through the box office or www.tix.com/Event. asp?Event=501757. 3pm, Jordan Hall, with an introductory conversation at 2pm.
WEd, OCT 24: Fathom Events presents the

SuN, OCT 21: Discovery Ensemble features

THuRSdAyS

9:30amCoffee Hour 11amBerklee students sing-along mON, OCT 1: Center closed for staff retreat
TuE, OCT 2

10amTask Force meeting 12:15pmmovie: On the Waterfront (1954)

WEd, OCT 3

fRI, OCT 12SAT, OCT 21: Happy Medium Theatre hops onto the undead bandwagon with its presentation of The Revenants, Scott T. Barsottis examination of two married couples holed up in the midst of a zombie influx who may or may

fRI, OCT. 19 THROuGH SuN, NOv 18: Wheelock

sensation Joss Stone, consider getting your tickets soon: Two other House of Blues shows this monththe Alabama Shakes and Ben Folds Fivehave already sold out, as have all reserved seats for Stone. Cheaper tickets, which usually means standing only, remain at $29.50 plus fees at www.houseofblues.com or through the box office at 15 Lansdowne Street. Doors at 6:30, show at 7:30. More info at 888-693-2583. Another good bet at House of Blues: Cat Power on Weds, Oct 24 at 7pm ($34.50-$45).

Family Theater opens its new season with a musical adaptation of the classic childhood series, Anne of Green Gables. Fri at 7:30pm, Sat-Sun at 3pm, plus Sat. Nov 10 & 17 at 7:30pm. More info at www. wheelockfamilytheatre.org. Tickets $20ing, 6pm. Morville House, 100 Norway St. sources, advocate for family needs, and implement family projects. Potluck-style refreshments; please bring a dish to share. Also, please call one week ahead to request child care for children under 13. 70 Burbank St., lower level. 6:30 p.m. For more info contact Kris Anderson at kanderson@ fenwaycdc.org or 617-267-4637 x29. ciation board meets in Room 3D, Harvard Vanguard Annex, 133 Brookline Ave. Call 617-262-0657 for more information.

fRI, OCT 26: The Boston Book Festival (see page 3) presents Page to Screen, a panel moderated by Boston Globe film critic Wesley Morris with a fascinating line-up of five authors whose books have been adapted for film, including Daniel Handler (the Lemony Snicket series), Buzz Bissinger (Friday Night Lights) and Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog). 7:30pm, Old South Church, 645 Boylston Street. Tickets: $15 from www.bostonbookfest.org/ticketed_ events.

original Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), with an introduction by TCMs movie maven Robert Osborne, wholl discuss the horror genre with Boris Karloffs daughter and Bela Lugosis son. 7pm at the Regal Fenway 13 on Brookline Avenue. Tickets at the box office or online at www.fathomevents.com/classics/event/ tcmfrankensteins.aspx.

NoonWatercolors with Bill 1pmTaxi coupons

mON, OCT 8: Center closed for Columbus Day WEd, OCT 1O: Tiger Lilys Boutique 50%-off sale all day; TV & DVD player for sale for $60 or best offer THu, OCT 11: noonPizza Party potluck; TuE, OCT 9: Community project with Sydney

WEd, OCT 3: Crime Watchmeeting at Pe-

mON, OCT 15: 11am - Hitchcock movies with Stephen: The Lady Vanishes (1938) TuE, OCT 16:

please bring side dish to share

9:30amSpecial Fundraising Breakfast with Matti and Maria $3 11amTask Force meeting Brownberger, meet and greet help yourself Sydney
WEd, OCT 17: 1pmState Senator Will

SAT, OCT 6: The City-Wide Friends of the Boston Public Library holds its bimonthly book sale at the Central Branch in Copley Square, 10-4, lower level, McKim Building (Dartmouth Street entrance). Great choice of books, records, CDs, DVDs, tapes and more! Most $2 or less. TuE, OCT 9 Ward 4 Democratic Committee meets at

terborough Senior Center (see Focus on Seniors, p8, for directions.Officer Bill Slyne from D-4 will distribute free whistles! All are invited. 6pm.

Fenway Family Coalition. Share re-

viewof development projects.Meets every fourth Monday, if necessary, at 6:30pm, location to be determined. Contact Rachel at rminto@masco.harvard.edu for details and to be added to the notification list.
TuE, OCT 23: Fenway CDC Urban Village Committee. Help monitor development in the Fenway and advocate for the kind of neighborhood you want. 70 Burbank St., lower level. 6pm. Contact Lilly Jacobson at ljacobson@fenwaycdc.org or 617-2674637x16. TuE, OCT 23: Symphony Neighborhood Task Force meeting at 6pm. Location to be decided. Contact Johanna.sena@ cityofboston.gov for details.

The Audubon Circle Neighborhood Asso-

THu, OCT 18: Book swap all daycome and TuE, OCT 23: noonCommunity project with WEd, OCT 24: 1

1amPoetry and Pot Luck noonMass College of Pharmacy celebrations

the South End Branch Library, 685 Tremont St. at 6:30pm. For info, contact Janet at 617-267-0231 or slovinj@aol.com Senator Will Brownsberger holds office hours 7-8pm at Pavement Coffeehouse, 1096 Boylston St. Contact him at William. brownsberger@masenate.gov if you have concerns but cant make that time.
TuE, OCT 16 We Saved Fenway Park, Can We Save

Senator Will Brownsberger holds office

THu, OCT 25: noonOctober birthday TuE, OCT 30: 11amMovie, A Streetcar WEd, OCT 31: 11:30amHalloween Party and

WEd, OCT 17: Fenway Liaison for Mayors Office of Neighborhood Services holds office hours 3:30-5:30pm at the YMCA, 316 Huntington Ave. Contact Shaina Auberg at shaina.aubourg@cityofboston.gov, if you have a concern and cant make it at this time. THu, OCT 18: Rep. Michael Capuanos liaison

hours from 7-8pm at Starbucks Coffee, 755 Boylston St. Contact him at William. brownsberger@masenate.gov if you have concerns but cant make that time.

THu, SEp 27: Congressman Michael Capuanos liaison holds office hours from 10-11am at Mikes Donuts, 1524 Tremont St. Contact kate.chang@mail.house.gov if you have concerns but cant be there at that time. TuE OCT 30: We Saved Fenway Park, Now Can We Save the Fenway? Focus Group on Neighborhood Planning, sponsored by the Fenway CDC. West Fenway Location TBA. 6:00 p.m. For more info, email Lilly Jacobson at ljacobson@fenwaycdc.org or call her at 617-267-4637x16

Named Desire (1951) pot luck luncheon

the Fenway? Focus group on neighborhood planning, sponsored by the Fenway CDC.70 Burbank St, lower level. 6pm. For more info, contact Lilly Jacobson at ljacobson@fenwaycdc.org at 617-267-4637x16 East Fenway Police/Community Meet-

mON, OCT 22: LMA Forum, co-sponsoredby

holds office hours 1-2pm at Fenway Health, 1340 Boylston St. Call 617-621-6208 if you have concerns but cant be there. the BRA and MASCOforcommunity re-

For BRA meetings and hearings, visit www. bostonredevelopmentauthority.org/calendar/calendar.asp