The Phoenix > NEWS > State boosts investment in arts and culture

State boosts investment in arts and culture


Budget increase for Mass Cultural Council; Mass Cultural Facilities Fund granted

By: ANA RIVAS

7/26/2006 4:57:21 PM


After many weeks of vetoes and votes, the $13-million Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund was finally granted, and the Mass Cultural Council (MCC) got its largest budget increase in years. The 26% increase totals $12.1 million in Cultural Funding. This means more capital grants, loans, and planning assistance to renovate, expand, and repair cultural facilities. And perhaps most importantly, it sends a message of respect for the value of the arts, sciences, and humanities.

“Every time you can get people away from their TV sets and to a concert hall or a theatre, that’s how you build community,” said Dan Hunter, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Advocates for Arts, Sciences, and Humanities (MAASH). “I think the Facilities Fund will help to strengthen the infrastructure for tourism,” he said today from his office. That tourism is attracted to the state’s cultural capital was one of the strongest arguments for this decision. Over the past year, MAASH coordinated hundreds of advocates to testify at public forums, met with legislators on Beacon Hill, and sent them messages about the importance of public funding for arts and culture. “We are done for the year,” Hunter said, “and it was a good year.”

“We are deeply grateful to the Legislature and its leadership for their commitment to arts and culture,” said Mary Kelley, MCC’s Executive Director, in a press release. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to override Governor Mitt Romney’s veto over the two proposals. “This investment will pay off in every community in the state by stimulating economic activity, expanding access to cultural programs, and enhancing education,” Kelley said. The MCC announced it would invest the additional funds in its core grant programs for communities, non-profit cultural organizations, schools, and artists.

The increase is not enough to reverse the effects of deep budget cuts to arts and culture during the state’s fiscal crisis in 2002. Before the cut, the MCC budget was $19 million, but there was nothing like the facilities fund, said Gregory Liakos, the council’s Communications Director. “Having both will help us to assess the real needs of the cultural organizations.”

On the Web
MCC: http://www.massculturalcouncil.org
MAASH: http://www.maash.org

The Phoenix > LIFESTYLE FEATURES > Patagonian express: A consumer's guide

Patagonian express


A consumer's guide

By: ANA RIVAS

7/28/2006 10:50:32 AM

Bruce Chatwin crossed the Rio Negro and entered the Patagonian Desert looking for an answer. What about this desert took such possession of Darwin’s mind? Why did these “arid wastes,” as Darwin termed the landscape, captivate him more than any other wonders he had seen in the Voyage of the Beagle? The answer, Chatwin finds, is that desert wanderers discover in themselves “a primeval calmness (known also to the simplest savage), which is perhaps the same as the Peace of God.” Well, my simple savages, the Patagonian wasteland to which these men devoted so much ink can be discovered in multiple ways ― through film and wine and books ― so that you yourself can experience what it is to be a desert wanderer without leaving Boston.

A fine start to the exploration is seeing what Chatwin and Darwin meant by “desert.” Tonight and tomorrow, July 28 and 29, the MFA will screen Bombón, El Perro, a terrific glimpse of Patagonia by Argentinean director Carlos Sorin. This road movie proves that unlike the deserts of Arabia, this is "not a desert of sand or gravel, but instead a low thicket of gray-leaved thorns that ooze a bitter smell when crushed." Sorin has said in interviews that he is only interested in “losers,” and through El Perro’s unemployed middle-aged hero, his daughter, and the widow —a wholly non-professional cast, including the dogs — you’ll hear the silent spaces conversations tend to have in a land that is as empty as Alaska.

For a taste of Patagonia, visit Dana Hill Liquor Mart on Mass Ave, in Cambridge, and ask Eric about their selection of Patagonian wines. They offer two versions of Estepa, a Malbec-Merlot-Syrah blend ($16.99) and a Cabernet Sauvignon ($13.99). Unlike other Argentinean or Chilean wines, these are made with grapes grown further south, and have the taste of the dryer, colder soil (the weather in the Patagonian Andes is as unpredictable as in New England), giving it a moderate, but strong character.

Other good mates for your red wine are the stories of some enthralling paperback travelers. Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia is a classic starting point, with his fascinating accounts of other travelers’ adventures, like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who, according to the legend, hid for years as farmers in Patagonia. In The Old Patagonian Express, Massachusetts native Paul Theroux offers a travel narrative that takes much longer to get to Patagonia, starting right here, with a rush-hour T ride to South Station.

Lastly, and only for those who have developed a considerable addiction to Patagonia, Darwin’s papers — displayed through May at the Museum of Natural History in New York and then coming to the Museum of Science here in Boston in February, 2007 — can not only upset Intelligent Design’s activists, but also provide some answers the question: What is it that makes Patagonia’s arid wastes so mesmerizing?

The Phoenix > NEWS > Spectacular failures

Spectacular failures


An MIT instructor on the Big Dig disaster

By: ANA RIVAS

7/25/2006 3:06:12 PM


The Big Dig
Engineers have taken us out of the caves and up to the skies, linked us with far away shores, and connected us to distant lands. And along the way they’ve also made some pretty huge mistakes. Stephen G. Banzaert, an instructor at MIT’s Edgerton Center, teaches a course called “Spectacular Failures in Engineering and Other Experiments.” ThePhoenix.com checked in with Banzaert to see if the recent Big Dig disaster qualifies as a spectacular failure, and to find out his speculations on what, exactly, went wrong. What follows is an edited transcript of the e-mail conversation.
Would you consider including the Big Dig on your syllabus this fall?
Given how long I've now spent on the phone talking about the Big Dig, I think it's almost a certainty that it will be on the syllabus this Fall, although it may yet be too soon to draw any real conclusions from it.

What are the "Spectacular Failures" that you teach in your class?
We range from the Boston molasses flood, to an explosion of a gun on the USS Princeton, to both shuttle disasters, the THERAC-25, and the Bhopal chemical disaster. We focus primarily on disasters that present lessons to engineers and organizations on how to do better in the future.

What took you to teach your students the bad example?
My class is geared towards freshmen as an introductory course in the history and causes of engineering failures. Last year I had 20 students. It's a new version of a class I took as a freshman at MIT (class of '98), which had left the catalog a few years before I returned as an instructor. I started teaching it because I think engineers in general benefit from learning this history, and perhaps more importantly from learning how to recognize the environments that allowed some of the "classic" failures to happen. As I mention in the description of my class, it's a humbling proposition to think that most failures are caused by motivated, qualified, highly trained people who are doing their best and think they are succeeding. It's hard to see your own blind spots — hence, for example, the need for external review.

Can you shed some light on what went wrong with the Big Dig tunnel’s ceiling?
I have no idea what went wrong. Anyone who has direct engineering knowledge of those ceilings is, for now, not talking. Until we really understand the mechanism, there's no telling what happened.

The first bit of information that came from Big Dig authorities was that a hanger bolt failed and that caused the ceiling to fall. The question of the (early) hour was: Did the failure of one hanger bolt actually cause this collapse, or was there a larger network of failures (such as many weakened hangers, with one actually failing and precipitating the collapse)?

Typically, designs of this nature come with substantial redundancy such that the failure of a single member can't cause a collapse like what we saw. (For example, your car doesn't lose a wheel if a single nut comes unscrewed. You would either need several nuts coming off, or all of the nuts to be weaker than specified, in order to be able to rip a wheel off.) There's no telling what the actual scenario here is until some skilled structural engineers spend time poring over the blueprints.

Now the Governor and his engineering team are saying that none of the 1,146 epoxy bolt hangers can be trusted… maybe all of the nuts were weak after all. Do you know what this "epoxy" glue is, where else it's been used? Do the panels HAVE to be so heavy?
Unfortunately, I have no idea where else this technique is used. What I can say about other ways of building and the weight of the panels is: In any design process, you would consider all the options that met your design criteria and winnow them down until you were satisfied that you were looking at the best option. So at some point, I have to assume that all the alternatives that are being tossed around (use lighter panels, hang them some other way, etc.) were considered and rejected.

What's somewhat critical in understanding the process is for us to eventually find out what was rejected, why, and furthermore what were the design criteria in the first place? (As a simple design example, the decision to use 3-ton panels obviously carries with it a new issue — namely, that the hanging system needs to be basically infallible, since the consequences of a failure are tragic rather than simply inconvenient. So the question is, what do you gain by having panels that heavy, so that you're now willing to take on that new requirement? Presumably there's a good reason, but I don't know enough about the inner workings of that tunnel design to start speculating on what it might be.)

Can you speculate if it was a matter of bad math, too-fast construction, or too cheap materials?
Again, no idea. Could be any or all, or some combination, or something else entirely that nobody's thought of yet. Some failures can be traced back to a single batch of bad steel; others are caused by long chains of failures, the prevention of any one of which could have stopped the whole event

Would you drive through the broken tunnel?
Of course I'd drive in the tunnel. Just like I still drive a car, even though they've had failures in the past that have now been fixed. I have to trust that those responsible will learn from whatever happened and deliver a re-opened tunnel that's safer than it was before.

EL PLANETA > La Region > Un Verano Sano y Divertido

Un Verano Sano y Divertido
En Boston y sus alrededores, hay suficientes opciones para los niños en el verano
Ana Rivas
Después de ver su dinero escurrirse en niñeras y a sus cuatro hijos pasar todo un verano entre la televisión y el Nintendo, Ana Alonso aprendió que existen mejores opciones para los niños en las vacaciones.
Así es como este año, sus tres hijos menores pasan los días corriendo, nadando y aprendiendo en el programa de verano del YMCA en la escuela Umana/Barnes Middle School de East Boston, mientras que el mayor asiste a un curso de apoyo escolar. “Están activos, hacen ejercicio, y hasta es más económico,” dijo Alonso, cuya familia calificó para un subsidio y no tiene que pagar la matrícula completa –de $87,50 por semana. Todos los días, ella los pasa a buscar al salir del trabajo --nunca después de las 5 de la tarde, aclaró: “yo me desespero sin ellos.” Y aunque los niños están allí desde las 8 de la mañana, el pasado jueves el menor pedía quedarse un rato más en el gimnasio.
Para familias como la de Alonso, donde el tiempo de las vacaciones de los niños no es el mismo que el de los padres, la ciudad, las organizaciones comunitarias y hasta la policía ofrecen decenas de opciones, para todos los bolsillos y para todas las edades.
El YMCA de East Bosotn tiene, además del programa en que están los niños de Alonso junto con otros 130 niños de entre 5 y 12 años, un programa para otros 75 niños con la escuela Guild Elementary School, informó Christy Famolare, la directora de School Age Child Care. En este momento, los dos están completos, dijo, e insistió en la importancia de comenzar con los programas de después de escuela: “Para tener continuidad y además asegurarle a su niño un lugar en el verano.”
Pero aun hay muchas alternativas abiertas. El centro ABCD (por sus siglas en inglés) con sede en Boston, “trabaja para mantener a las comunidades informadas de los programas de verano,” dijo Jenny Sintron en una entrevista telefónica. “Tenemos un listado extenso, y buscamos una opción que esté de acuerdo con el ingreso de cada familia,” dijo.
María Mesa, que trabaja tiempo completo en el restaurante Mi Rancho de East Boston, tiene a su hijo mayor, de 14, en un campamento por dos semanas, y al menor, de 6, en la “Junior Police Academy” organizada por la Policía de Boston.
Y es que las opciones para los niños en las vacaciones hasta incluyen una verdadera academia de policía, explica el Sgt. Arthur M. McCarthy del Departamento de East Boston. En la academia, que dura una semana, los niños visitan la división de Caninos, donde juegan con los caballos y los perros, la división de balística, y, al final, se celebra con pizza, contó McCarthy a El Planeta.
Los verdaderos campamentos junto al lago, como aquel en el que está el hijo mayor de Mesa, son muy comunes en la zona. East Boston Camps está convocando a los niños hispanos, para las salidas programadas para el próximo mes, dijo a El Planeta el director de campamentos Chris Tremonte. Allí, durante una o dos semanas, los niños van a nadar todos los días, salen de pesca, juegan al básquetbol y hacen muchas otras actividades creativas. Los precios varían entre $180 y $330 por semana, de acuerdo con el poder adquisitivo de la familia, dijo Tremonte. “Los campamentos son muy accesibles, muy seguros, y una gran experiencia para salir de la ciudad en verano,” informó.
“Sí hay opciones, y muchas opciones,” dijo Norma Aguilar, coordinadora comunitaria de Centro Presente en Cambridge. Ella lleva a sus niñas de 6 y 9 años a al Kids Club de una Iglesia Evangélica en Lynn, Mass. “Yo me decidí por esta [opción] porque mis hijas no se iban a levantar a las 7 de la mañana, y además, porque no las sacan afuera,” explicó. Ella y su esposo trabajan tiempo completo, y encontraron la información en la misma escuela a al que van las niñas, antes de que terminaran las clases. “Las escuelas y las organizaciones tienen mucha información, hay que ver bien y buscar que no haya peligros,” recomienda.
Para más información y un listado completo de organizaciones a las que consultar sobre las opciones para los niños y adolescentes en vacaciones de verano, dirigirse a www.elplaneta.com

The Phoenix > MUSIC Feature Stories > Indie rock en Español

Indie rock en Español
The Clandestino rock in Spanish party

By: ANA RIVAS

7/12/2006 12:31:36 PM

If Shakira singing with Mana in a reggaeton remix is your idea of the Latin-American music scene, check out the nomad Clandestino party ― this Friday at All Asia in Cambridge ― and listen carefully: Peruvian Christian Hinojosa, the organizer and DJ, plays the rock that young people are actually listening to in Spanish. “They call me the clandestine. I’m the lawbreaker,” sings Manu Chao on “Clandestino.” And it’s the spirit of that song that Hinojosa brings to the monthly party where Bostonians have a chance to experience the Latin American indie rock scene.

When Hinojosa first came to Boston three winters ago, he said he felt a “scandalous cold, first, and the mood for some rock in Spanish, second.” So he organized his first party for 250 people with a single Spanish band. Today, there are more than a dozen local crews playing rock in Spanish. The bands come from Colombia, like the Berklee student leader of Santiago Sin Tierra, or Puerto Rico, like Sendero, and the music is similarly diverse. Guillermo Sexo’s “dark Latin freakout action,” as they term it on their MySpace page, has little in common with the sweet pop lady’s voice of Pop Filter Music, or with the band playing this Friday, Dedos.

Rather than a rock concert, Clandestino is intended as a party. The night begins with a one-hour set from a local band. And when the concert ends, the dancing and the rock lesson begin. Hinojosa spins tunes by Gustavo Cerati, Miranda, Kevin Johansen, Andres Calamaro and El otro Yo ― rather than Maná or Juanes. “I think it’s too easy getting people to dance with those. I’d rather complicate things a bit more,” Hinojosa said. “I try, as much as I can, to pick independent bands that offer more elaborate products.”

Tip: if you miss the party, you can listen to the music online on the Clandestino radio at www.clandestino.us . The radio is another attempt from Hinojosa ― who confesses to being a big fan of the Salsa from the 80’s — to show that the Latin American music scene can’t be restricted to one genre. “Perhaps our music’s charm and its value lays precisely there: in that we are flexible, hybrids, mestizos and in that we are OK with it.”

Clandestino | July 14, 9:30 pm | All Asia Bar, 334 Mass Ave, Central Square, Cambridge | 617.497.1544 | $10

On the Web
Santiago Sin Tierra: myspace.com/santiagosinisterra
Guillermo Sexo: myspace.com/guillermosexo
Pop Filter Music: myspace.com/popfiltermusic
Dedos: myspace.com/DEDOSROCKBAND
Sendero: www.senderomusica.com