Weekly Dig - Humor, News + Nightlife

THE MILE HIGH CLUB

CaraBayles — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 17:08:30 -0500

I am a girl who sabotaged my relationship. I was angry; I had complaints. But my real issue was a store of repressed childhood trauma, and I was working it out on the closest person to me, my BF. We had something magical, and I destroyed it. I am now willing to give 110 percent to fix it.

We no longer have sex. We are hardly on speaking terms. I know now that my relationship skills are stunted—more childhood baggage—but I want to save my relationship. Do you have any tips on initiating sex with someone who I have traumatized or on improving communication with someone who is so resentful? I am willing to give it time and effort, accept my faults and breathe deeply rather than react in anger when we talk through things.

-Saboteur Addressing Dysfunctions

I'll get to your problem in a second, SAD. But first, a Savage Love programming note: I don't usually mention where I'm writing a particular column, because it doesn't really matter whether my computer is sitting on Ann Landers's desk or resting on Apolo Ohno's ass. (I will let you know when I am writing in a bar, though, because alcohol can impair an advice columnist's judgment, and advice seekers have a right to know when they're getting substandard counsel.)

I'm writing this column on an airplane, and I was totally in the zone when I noticed that the guy sitting next to me on this airplane was reading my laptop screen. So I wrote this: "HEY! YOU! YEAH, YOU! THE GUY SITTING NEXT TO ME ON DELTA 2360! STOP READING THIS SHIT UNLESS YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO ADD!"

Sheesh. Some people.

OK, SAD, on to your problem: Unless your boyfriend is a weight bench or an exercise ball, you weren't "working it out" on him. You were taking it out on him. Now, maybe you've been led to believe—by your counselor, by Oprah, by some other idiot with an advice column—that you can just throw up your hands and say, "Childhood issues! Childhood baggage!" and everything will be magic again. Sorry, SAD, but sometimes the damage is too great. Your boyfriend won't speak to you? Won't fuck you?

Game over.

Accept that you—not your issues, not your baggage, but you yourself—screwed yourself out of a decent guy. End it officially, get your ass into counseling, and make a good-faith effort to resolve your issues and unpack your bags before you inflict yourself on some other dope. You don't have to be 100 percent healthy before you date—no one is 100 percent healthy—but you do have to be in relatively good working order, leaning toward sanity, before you date again.

And what does the guy sitting next to me on this airplane think?

"I've dated girls like her," says TGSNTMOTA. "Daddy issues. She should get over her shit before she dates someone else, you know, but she probably won't. Girls like her never do. But maybe this one will, because you're pulling her up short. And she should move to an island—Hawaii, the Big Island—because being on an island can really help you work through your shit."

Thanks, TGSNTMOTA!

I am a leather Daddy living in a big city. A young man—early 20s, living in a small town—contacted me online and asked to be my boy. I declined, due to distance, but agreed to be his confidant and adviser.

The boy has one huge problem: He is in a long-term relationship with a vanilla boyfriend who has no interest in BDSM and vehemently opposes allowing him to explore with others. Presently, the boy goes to dungeon parties and plays with men behind his boyfriend's back. I feel very strongly that the boy should either come to an understanding with his boyfriend that allows him to explore or, if that isn't possible, break up with him so they can both find what they need.

I wouldn't ordinarily presume to know what's best for other people, but this boy is starving sexually, emotionally, and spiritually. But my conscience will not allow me to advise him on navigating the leather scene when I know he'll use this knowledge to cheat on his boyfriend. I don't think I can advise him further until he resolves the issue. Do you agree with the advice I've given this boy?

-Wanna Be A Good Influence

I agree with the advice you've given this boy—get the boyfriend's OK or get out—but this boy is already navigating the leather scene, WBAGI, and will continue to cheat on his boyfriend with or without your guidance.

So continue to serve as this boy's confidant and adviser, WBAGI, all the while pressing him to do the right thing and leave his boyfriend. And we both know that he needs to leave his boyfriend, WBAGI, not just get the boyfriend's permission to explore. If this boy's interest in BDSM is so strong that he's jumped into the deep end of the pool—i.e., dungeon parties—he'll never be happy with a vanilla monogamist who grudgingly allows him to play with other guys.

And what does the guy sitting next to me on this airplane think?

"The guy with the boyfriend should do what the other guy, the leather guy, says," says TGSNTMOTA. "Because the leather guy has a good head on his shoulders, and the guy with the boyfriend should listen to the leather guy and leave the other guy, the boyfriend guy, and see other guys."

Um ... thanks, TGSNTMOTA!

I'm an 18-year-old hetero male college student. I'm in a relationship with an awesome girl. I'm dominant; she's submissive. I like name-calling; she likes being called names. Our libidos match, etc. There's only one thing I'm into that she isn't: watersports.

The idea of urinating on a girl turns me on. My fetish is by no means unusual, and I'm perfectly comfortable saying, "I'm into piss!" She, however, finds the idea unappealing, to say the least. I know that I'm young and have a long time to act on my fantasies, but this one seems like it will always be difficult. Do you think that, down the road, I will be able to find a girl who is willing to get pissed on?

-I Want To Pee On Someone

Watersports, for the kinkily inclined, is one of those things that can seem almost unspeakably perverse at 18 and not that big a deal at 28. Don't do it first thing in the morning, and don't do it after chowing through a plate of asparagus. Do it after you've had a few beers and the piss is just so much warm—and sterile—water.

Relax, IWTPOS, because the odds that you'll be with this girl forever—remember, you're 18, she's 18—are slim, and the odds that you'll meet a girl at some point who's either into it or can be talked into it are high.

And what does the guy sitting next to me on this airplane—a very nice-if-nosey thirtysomething dude from Lubbock, Texas—think?

"I have a thing for girls peeing on me," TGSNTMOTA whispered to me. "Because it's like a sort of 'female ejaculation' thing. I met girls on the Big Island who were into it, clear and nice, and—"

OK, TGSNTMOTA, thanks for sharing and—hey—it looks like we're getting ready to land, so ... thanks for playing.

DOWNLOAD DAN SAVAGE'S WEEKLY PODCAST, SAVAGE LOVECAST, EVERY TUESDAY AT THESTRANGER.COM/SAVAGE.

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TO INFORM THE PUBLIC! (AND CENSOR THEM)

CaraBayles — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:21:27 -0500

THE CARR FAMILY detests all that is evil, from hacks to kids on their lawn, to politicians who sneeze into your tax dollars, to the liberal establishment, to ... kids on their lawn. And the Boston Herald's favorite columnist isn't the only one with an inky thumb.

Howie's wife, Kathy Carr, wrote an op-ed for the Wellesley Townsman last week (ah, Wellesley, the bastion of the working-class non-hack). It was the best post-modern opinion piece since the Somerville Journal's SpeakOut column (also brought to you by GateHouse Media).

Carr questions whether she should be writing the piece, from her lede ("OK, I admit it—I was a square in high school. I guess I still am") to her "postscript" ("My two older daughters asked me not to write this, that it was none of my business"). She opines and backs up each point with an outdated cultural reference, like:

With Facebook and cell phones, one kid can let his entire crowd know the instant his parents leave and the house becomes "open." Next thing you know, it's Teenage Wasteland.

But Saturday night, watching these kids milling about, some obviously impaired ... I wondered if any of these parents were asking themselves that old question: "It's 10 o'clock—do you know where your children are?"

They're drunk on her street! Carr writes that she called the police, who "did a good job dispersing the rabble," but she found several beer cans and empty vodka bottles on her yard the next day (which she photographed. Really).

The Boston Globe reported that Townsman editor Cathy Brauner disabled comments on the story because it had elicited "an avalanche of negativity" from the bedroom community:

"I can't think of a time when we got a response like this," said Brauner. "We just took all of them down. If people want to comment, they can write us a letter." (We'd print a few of the reader remarks, but this is a family newspaper.)

Luckily for you, dear reader, this is not a family newspaper. Here's a sampling of what was posted:

worried mom [a commenter who agreed with Carr] hosted the party, and I heard she drank half the rack so none of the kids could have any.

dear kathy, coming from your husband im just gonna have to ask you to shut up. it was all me that night, i drank 6 racks and 4 vodka bottles. i was ****faced out of my mind. ... So stop blaming it on the kids. love, howie

Kathy carr can suck my balls.

There were also personal attacks on Carr's kids. Does this add much to the conversation? Nope. But this is the internet ... what'd you expect?

We suppose this makes sense in a town that's so small and quiet that someone flipping the bird at his ex-wife makes it into the paper, but the story gets so watered down, it reads like this:

A Washington Street man reported that he had received threatening messages from his son's uncle in regards to an incident earlier in the day. Apparently, the reporting party had raised his middle finger at his son's mother in response to a dirty look she gave him while he picked the child up from her house. The mother later sent text messages to the man telling him where she felt he should put his finger.

We don't mind the Townsman scouring the online comments that threaten the paper's delicate sensibilities, so long as it's consistent ... and the editors aren't silencing their readers' ignorance just to assuage some media princess.

When the same website hosted an article about a car crash on the Mass. Pike, a commenter explained that the driver, named Jenny Rodriguez, was "probably on her way to visit some relatives in downtown Brazilingham." Ah. From there, accusations flew about the woman's citizenship status, and the discussion verged into a lively debate of the relative worth of immigrants, capped off with this gem:

My neighbor is an illegal Brazilian and he used to help old people go to the bathroom. But his family is a total pain in the rear to all of us neighbors who aren't low class crawlers. They push any law or sense of social decency weaseling their way along. And they insult you if you ask them to stop. They don't belong here. So many of them have similar low class habits.

Stay classy, Swellesley.

BEAN COUNTER

CaraBayles — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:16:01 -0500

In an effort to manage the Boston Public Library's $3.6 million deficit, Mayor Tom Menino proposes shuttering at least eight neighborhood branches, adding, the "days of the old encyclopedia are long gone." All hail the days of the new encyclopedia, in which you can alter reality with two clicks of a mouse ... did you know Annie Oakley was a vegetarian? MINUS 8

Logan Airport starts using full-body scanners. Now, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers can see inside more than just your luggage. MINUS 1

It turns out that Gov. Deval Patrick can't rely on the union vote for his re-election bid ... or, you know, anyone else's. EVEN

State Democratic Committee Chair John Walsh offers Rachel Maddow his contact info in a public tweet, after locals create of a Facebook group asking the cable news anchor to consider a 2012 run against Sen. Scott Brown. Next up: Roadrunner Records signs that pickle with more Facebook fans than Nickelback. PLUS 2

The Boston City Council holds a hearing about the mandate requiring taxis to accept credit cards. Cabbies are charged processing fees that can total 6 percent of their fare, and the money drivers do make isn't immediately accessible. Plus, hating plastic gives cabbies another reason to try to wiggle out of service, aside from the ol' "there isn't room for nine people in here" excuse. EVEN

Sen. John Kerry criticizes the Red Cross for not taking blood from any guy who's had gay sex since 1977, calling the practice "discriminatory." It's also the only reason you should regret that experiment you tried in '79. MINUS 1

The Catholic Church is asking for money (sure beats forgiveness), as the Boston archdiocese kicks off its annual fundraising campaign. Hey, schools, ministries, parish services and crippling guilt don't pay for themselves. EVEN

The principals of five underperforming schools will be booted from their jobs ... and most of them will be reinstated in other "leadership roles" at different schools, as part of the "No Principal Left Behind" program. MINUS 5

THIS WEEK'S TOTAL: MINUS 13

LAST WEEK'S TOTAL: MINUS 118

FIVE DRINK MINIMUM

CaraBayles — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:33:43 -0500

Semi-annually, the Dig investigates local nightlife by submerging our livers in alcohol and breaching the next morning to write a report. This year, we chose hotel bars, which, just like us, range from the weird to the swanky. As always, our reporters drank by the rules:

Drink 1: Bartender's choice

Drink 2: A drink that epitomizes the attached hotel

Drink 3: I'll have what he/she/it's having

Drink 4: A drink inspired by whatever music is playing

Drink 5: Writer's choice

We learned you don't need to be on vacation to go on a trip at a hotel bar, but if you're going to get five drinks deep, you might feel like taking the next day off.

[nightlife2010]

The Airport Location of a Certain Large Hotel Chain

Everything that could have possibly gone wrong on this evening, did. This includes a completely erroneous side-trip to Charlestown, where there just so happens to be another street called Terminal.

[nightlife2010]

BAR 10 AT THE WESTIN COPLEY PLACE

10 HUNTINGTON AVE., BOSTON. 617.424.7446

Hidden away on the back side, or far side, or inside the Westin Copley hotel is Bar 10, a dark and swank place buried behind some secret entrance I've never noticed before.

[nightlife2010]

BEST WESTERN HOTEL TRIA

220 ALEWIFE BROOK PARKWAY, CAMBRIDGE. 617.491.8000. HOTELTRIA.COM

Admittedly, I was skeptical about this place when Google Maps placed it 2 miles from any cross-street I recognized; little did I know it's a laidback haven for indie rockstars, with a witty staff and free pool.

[nightlife2010]

HOWARD JOHNSON'S TIKI HIDEAWAY

1271 BOYLSTON ST., BOSTON. 617.267.8300

Drinking in the HoJo bar is like being stuck in a David Lynch movie, but that's not a criticism.

[nightlife2010]

THE W LOUNGE

100 STUART ST., THEATER DISTRICT, BOSTON. 617.310.6790. WHOTELS.COM/BOSTON</P>

The W Hotel towers over the Theater District, the latest in a crop of new skyscrapers that have sprouted up there.

[nightlife2010]

THE WOODWARD AT THE AMES HOTEL

ONE COURT ST., BOSTON. 617.979.8200. WOODWARDATAMES.COM

LUPEC's last installment of Dig-assigned debauchery ended with a 12-cocktail flight.

[nightlife2010]

NOIR AT THE CHARLES HOTEL

ONE BENNETT ST., CAMBRIDGE. 617.661.8010. NOIR-BAR.COM

Noir at the Charles Hotel is a ritzy watering hole preferred by Harvard professors, celebrity Hasty Pudding honorees and local musicians for its low lighting and sophisticated clientele.

Consensus on the Census

CaraBayles — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:13:33 -0500

Every ten years, a survey is sent to each household in America to find out just how many people live here.

Answering basic questions that pigeonhole you demographically might not sound that tough, but in the past it's proven to be a sweat-inducing task for many Americans, reminding them of those high school aptitude tests with challenging queries like, "How many people actually live in my house?" and "does my significant other's part-time residency count?"

It's also a pain in the ass for those who collect the data. Instead of taking the time to complete it, many residents toss it aside, leaving many populations (thus, voting blocks) unaccounted for.

Boston kicked off the new millennium with a hiccup. The 2000 census missed significant portions of Hispanic, Black, Native American, Asian and Pacific Island populations. To avoid another miscount, the Boston City Council has created a taskforce led by Councilor-at-Large Felix Arroyo.

Privacy is a huge concern among the uncounted masses. Immigrants seem to be especially hesitant to fill out their questionnaires, afraid that information will be held against them. But the form asks about ethnicity, not ask for a person's residency status. In fact, there are strict penalties for anyone who reveals that information on an individual basis. One member of the Boston Census Bureau added that you are "guaranteed the confidentiality of the information that we collect. It specifically states that we will not give this personal information to any organization. That includes the IRS, ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement], Homeland Security and President Obama. Only statistical information will be provided."

Ramon Soto, the Census Liaison for Boston, emphasized the importance of community for these targeted areas. "We need to go out to the streets, where we know the people." Soto added that with the help of teachers, shop keepers and radio stations, government can "dampen any concerns or fears, and raise the promotion of the census."

Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston Alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, is working on low participation areas as well. Her group, along with many other community-based organizations, declared February 27th "National Census Awareness Day," and sent out a "Barber Shop and Beauty Shop Brigade" to red zones (areas where the population was severely undercounted).

"Our goal is to certainly go down into the community and share information with our community members about the importance of the census, why it should be completed and answer and questions they may have about it," Sullivan said. "We know that whatever community you go into, the barber shop and beauty shop is where folks go to share information."

Not responding to the census could mean a blow to the amount of federal aid that goes to the state. With $4 billion to be divvied up, Boston wants to make sure it gets its fair share. For every ignored response, $1,700 is lost.

Oh, and for all of you college kids out there: you count too. If you think that living with your parents in Florida for four months a year counts for the Census, think again. Boston will come after you.

COMINGS AND GOINGS

Dargus — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:17:30 -0500

POOR, POOR LITTLE Johnny Diaz must have gone to sleep in 1992, then woke up in this brave new world where there aren't as many video stores, and everyone gets their movies from On Demand and Netflix. Oh, to be an earnest Boston Globe employee.

Diaz penned the modern-day equivalent of a caveman writing "Comet Seems to Have Affected Local Dinosaur Population." But aside from the fact that Diaz's trend-o-meter is clogged, he also collected some atrocious quotes for this story, like this one, from the only video store customer left on the planet (who stole our prehistoric analogy):

"I'm like a dinosaur," said the father of two from Milton. "People tell me, 'You're still going to the video store?' and I'm like 'Yeah.'"

And then they're like, "Alright, Grandpa." And then I want to punch them in the testicles and set them on fire, but I just look mournfully at my shoes and pretend to laugh.

We also got this, from a Suffolk University prof: "The trend for video stores is, in some ways, going in the same direction as neighborhood bookstores, in that they're closing."

That's some niiiice quotin' there, Johnny. Hopefully, flesh-and-blood reporters won't be replaced by robot/mail-order ones. Sure, they'd be cheaper, but think of all the human frailty and poor interviewing we'd miss out on.

THE PAPER DIAZ calls home is about to get a taste of its own medicine. After boston.com yanked at the niche formerly cornered by GateHouse Media's Wicked Local website by instituting its "YourTown" rip-off, now AOL (yes, it still exists) is joining the fray (yes, that does signify the small market death knell) with Patch.com, a nicely laid-out series of rewritten press releases targeting the suburbs (so far, Needham and Wellesley). Looks like media columnists are going to have to find a new savior for journalism.

SPEAKING OF BLAND things infiltrating your neighborhood, the Metro is looking for a new reporter. (Hat tip to Adam Gaffin, who posted the mess on Universal Hub, under the header "Think You Can Write Better Than the Metro?" The answer being, of course, that if you had your teeth replaced with pencils and your idea of journalism was chomping down on a pad of paper ... then, yes, you could still write better than the Metro.)

But their help-wanted post was possibly the most telling summation of their business strategy to-date:

Metro Newspapers in the US were acquired by Seabay Media Holdings and we are growing. In the US, Metro's readership has grown 24% in the last 2 years while the leading paid dailies has declined 20%. We are the sixth largest circulated newspaper in US, circulating 611,000 copies and reaching 1.2 million readers daily. Metro is now the second largest newspaper in all of New England and we are still the pioneer of & expert in creative advertising.

And creative punctuation & a creative stylebook, as well, apparently. No mention of content, but "creative advertising" does merit mention in this job posting for a reporter. It seems that with 611,000 copies reaching twice as many people every day, Metro readers tend to pick up other people's trash, or are children who need to be read aloud to—either that, or they're referring to their web readership (people who seek out the articles), which is even sadder. But the saddest part? A horde of J-school grads will sprint for the Metro's Congress Street office screeching like the desperate women in shoe commercials.

MEDIA CRITICISM IS a tricky little metaphysical experience. So it was probably with great trepidation and careful phrasing that Adam Reilly announced he'd be leaving his gig as media critic for the Phoenix to become Emily Rooney's bitch a producer for WGBH's "local" "news" show, "Greater Boston." He wrote on his blog:

I've been here for six and a half years, and have been fortunate enough to do two jobs—writing the Talking Politics and Don't Quote Me columns and their accompanying blogs—that I truly believe are among the very best in Boston journalism.

That's walking the line between undying gratitude and masturbation if we ever saw it. But what do we know? We only write the VERY BEST potty-mouthed media criticism in the GALAXY.

The Age of Stupid

Dargus — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:14:46 -0500

Films about our impending environmental catastrophe have generally taken an urgent tact, but nothing's quite as urgent as The Age of Stupid. In this completely DIY film, director Franny Armstrong (McLibel) zaps us to the year 2055, where an anthropologist (played by Oscar-nominated actor Pete Postlethwaite of In the Name of the Father fame) struggles to find out what the hell happened ... how could humanity see the writing on the wall and not act?

"Before the International Day of Climate, on October 24th, it was shown simultaneously in about 200 cities," says Ginger Ryan, a member of the Climate Justice Task Force, which is sponsoring a screening this weekend. And the stalemate at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen will probably only propel the film's momentum further, especially among eco-activists.

From its futuristic frame, the film delves into six current documentaries. "It shows different individuals and their families and the impact that's happening now. [In America,] we're not seeing the impact of the crisis," Ryan says. "The [segment] that really struck me was this young woman in a small village in Nigeria, where Shell extracts millions of dollars worth of oil every week. They've promised to build this clinic, and then they reneged on their promises, and meanwhile, the whole stream is polluted. And if the streams are polluted, they can't live there anymore. You simply can't keep living."

Ryan plans on hosting a discussion after the screening that will advise attendees on ways to immediately get involved. And after seeing Age of Stupid, it will be clear how precious little time we have.

[The Age of Stupid. Fri 3.5.10. First Parish Church, 3 Church St., Harvard Sq., Cambridge. 617.876.7772 7:00pm/all ages/free, donations encouraged. firstparishcambridge.org]

Merry merry, sex workers

Dargus — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:03:02 -0500

March 3rd is International Sex Worker Rights Day, and for the first time, Boston's saluting our local escorts and prostitutes, thanks to the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP). The national organization's Boston chapter debuts its first major act since its creation in November 2009 by hosting a week of events meant to increase awareness and foster a Bostonian sex-worker community.

It's legal to identify as a sex worker, but illegal to provide, pimp or practice sex work in Massachusetts (great job, legislative compromise). So what rights do people possess when they teeter on the line of legislative existence?

Currently in Massachusetts, prostitution earns you a one-year (max) sentence and/or a $500 fine. Pimping's more criminal than sexing, though ... that'll cost you five years in jail and $5,000 in fines. Two separate bills on this year's docket would amp up the punishment for prostitution, without affecting sex workers directly. One, proposed by Rep. Gloria Fox, D-Boston, would institute a sliding scale of fines for repeat-offender johns, while the other, from Rep. Mike Rush, D-Boston, would double the punishment for pimps' second offenses.

"At this point, we're not here to write or push laws. We don't even have our own lawyer," says Melora Marshall, SWOP Boston's founder. "We want to be able to respond as a community when crimes are committed against us, and do whatever we can to reduce the rates of violence and crimes we experience." According to Marshall, violence against sex workers often goes unpunished, fostering a fractured community that doesn't believe it has any rights. SWOP Boston's events for Sex Worker Rights Day look to fix these problems "all in a week," Marshall says with a laugh.

Seeing the overlap of injustice and sex work in her STI-prevention day job, SWOP Boston's events coordinator, Daunasia Yancey, was inspired to get involved. "There is a separation where sex workers work in isolation and don't often get to talk to somebody," says Yancey. SWOP will offer seminars, self-defense workshops and free HIV testing at events like the "Safe and Sexy Social," where Yancey hopes people will "have some conversation, get tested, have a muffin and just get comfortable."

Food Fight: We've Got Beef

Dargus — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:55:25 -0500

Banjo's Roast Beef

'Round these parts, the word "roast beef" evokes late nights on Revere Beach, milling around outside Kelly's among meatheads and women as orange as you can find them this side of the Jersey Shore. But Banjo's is a cow of a different color. Here, the beef (and pork) is Southern BBQ style, more like a Redbones or Blue Ribbon, complete with ribs if you'd like them. First founded in Brockton in 2007, owner Bill Martin has expanded the restaurant twice, first to Weymouth and now Cambridge.

The newest incarnation moved into the abandoned KFC that sat boarded up for several years just outside of Porter Square. You won't recognize the place; even the interior's been completely renovated and reinvented. The only remnant of its fast-food days is you still order at the counter ... but the food's brought right to your table, and it's not what the Colonel had in mind.

I started with the Jackson BBQ beef sandwich ($6.99), a heaping pile of bourbon-roasted beef on a fresh-baked roll, topped with a cheddar cheese sauce. The beef was lean and extremely flavorful, and the bread had enough heft to stand up to the juicy meat and sauce. My friend went for the BBQ pork sandwich ($6.49), a pulled-pork number with a citrusy dressing. The accompanying coleslaw was fresh and crisp with a hint of hot mustard. And for a bigger bite than a burger, they offer platefuls of meat and sides with their suppers for around 10 dollars.

Rating: * * *

2072 MASS. AVE.
CAMBRIDGE
617.661.0777‎
HOURS: MON-SAT 11AM-9PM, SUN 11:30AM-8PM

Boston Burger Company

The BBC (the restaurant, not the network with the Monty Python accents) offers more than 20 burgers ... but there are even more varieties available, considering the fact that you can sub traditional certified Angus beef for turkey or veggie patties.

BBC boasts their use of "fresh" ingredients. Well, that shines through in both the quality of their toppings and the inventive menu. An old classic like the "Boston Burger" ($7.50), topped with lettuce, tomato and onion, is upstaged by the likes of "The King," which includes peanut butter, of all things; or the "Artery Clogger" ($8.25), a beer-battered, deep-fried number with bacon, cheese and BBQ sauce that ought to come with a Surgeon General's warning; or "The Kitchen Sink" ($9.95), which is essentially a breakfast platter sitting on top of a burger. As if that weren't enough, creative types can build their own burgers (and come up with their own names for them! Might we suggest the "The Antacid"?). So, if Banjo's offers traditional Southern beef, BBC offers everything else.

The large portions will leave you satisfied, though the thick-cut homemade chips are so delicious and addictive, you might have to go to potato rehab after your meal.

Rating: * * *

37 DAVIS SQ.
SOMERVILLE
617.440.7361
HOURS: MON-WED 11AM-10PM, THU-SAT 11AM-11PM, SUN NOON-8PM
BOSTONBURGERCO.COM

HARVEY MILK

Dargus — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:21:26 -0500

Few bands are as cat-like as Harvey Milk. In the marketing/sales world, the group has essentially fallen off ledges and been run over by mail trucks, but has emerged with a loyal following, and even managed to continue putting out vital material after a decade-long hiatus.

That's a tall order for a band that managed to redefine the word "heavy" with its first few releases ... people tend to mistrust the reincarnation of a good thing. But Harvey Milk spent a career struggling for attention (thanks to the limited availability of their material), and they've collaborated when the band members were scattered across the nation. So dealing with reunion skepticism seems like a cakewalk.

After a breakup and two fantastic "comeback" albums, the doomy Athens, Ga., blues-metal trio is sitting on a pair of releases for 2010. There's a new album entitled A Small Turn of Human Kindness, and then there's the release of their long-lost debut, recorded in 1994 with Shellac's Bob Weston.

"I don't think we really cared about whether it came out or not, but I guess there was some sort of demand for it," says bassist Stephen Tanner from his home in Brooklyn. The self-titled album, which finds the band's funereal-dirge tendencies in its infant stages, is a snapshot of a band that emerged fully realized at a very early stage in its career. It's just as compelling as the masterwork that would appear the following year (1995's Courtesy and Good Will Toward Men), if only because it shows the seeds of that album being sown.

A Small Turn recalls the sound of that landmark album. It focuses on the band's slow and heavy side, dialing down the head-shredding riffs of their recent work. "People are either going to love it or just be really confused," says Tanner. "We might just play the entire thing on this tour even though nobody has heard it yet, which would go along with our usual streak of making bad decisions and being stupid."

Tanner makes several references to the band, which also includes guitarist/vocalist Creston Spiers and drummer Kyle Spence, being "stupid" during our conversation. When discussing the limited availability of their material during their run in the '90s—corrected when Relapse Records put out a series of reissues a few years ago—Tanner is blunt. "Nobody wanted to put it out. Actually, we probably sent tapes to Relapse back then, and they were just like, 'Denied! Not interested!' [laughs]. We're not bitter about it though." I want to reach through the phone and shake him for talking down such great albums.

Ultimately, it's the lack of bitterness that keeps Harvey Milk coming back. "We've always been great friends, and we don't fight. Coming up with music isn't that hard for us," says Tanner. "I'm surprised we've made two records since we got back together, much less three. Maybe we'll put out a triple album next, I don't know. It just comes down to us liking each other still, which we still really do right now."

HARVEY MILK
WITH COALESCE, ATLAS MOTH
AND PHANTOM GLUE
TUESDAY 3.9.10
MIDDLE EAST DOWNSTAIRS
480 MASS. AVE.,
CENTRAL SQ.
CAMBRIDGE
617.864.3278
8PM/18+/$13 ADV, $15 DOS
MIDEASTCLUB.COM
MYSPACE.COM/HARVEYMILK