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Cambridge versus the Zeitgeist — again
BY CAMILLE DODERO
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When Alan Nidle materializes at a municipal meeting with the Cambridge Zoning Board this Thursday, the Zeitgeist Gallery director could be inside a cage. Maybe the cage will have wheels, maybe not. Or maybe Nidle will ditch the bars entirely, and instead opt for being trapped inside another symbol of constraint. "A straitjacket?" he muses over the phone two days before the evening hearing. "I don’t know yet. It’s a challenge." For Nidle, the challenge is outdoing himself. Years ago, when the City of Cambridge and the Zeitgeist Gallery went to court over permitting issues regarding an outdoor film series held in the Carberry’s Bakery parking lot near Central Square, the dry-humored director came swinging — bedecked in boxing gloves. He’s also staged sundry street-theater-style public protests against City Hall with the help of Zeitgeist’s screwball gang of artists/jokesters — for example, bringing out the dead à la Monty Python to complain about the city’s unwillingness to remove deceased voters from its rolls. This past January, Cambridge’s Inspectional Services Department (ISD) served the Zeitgeist with a cease-and-desist letter for being an "illegal place of entertainment" (see "Space Invaders," News and Features, February 13). The ISD incorrectly classified the alternative art space as a "bar or other establishment where alcoholic beverages are sold," a category that doesn’t allow for live music. Since a good portion of the Zeitgeist’s programming is live music, the ISD determined that the establishment had violated its zoning ordinance. When the ISD realized that the Zeitgeist wasn’t a bar, and that its zany gallimaufry of programming — piano festivals, visual-art receptions, improvisational-painting shows, experimental-dance collectives, off-kilter readings, a Curse of the Bambino exorcism — doesn’t fall under the purview of any traditional ordinances, the ISD sent out another letter. This one required the Inman Square spot to apply for a special permit for "theater or hall for public gatherings," a catchall category that the ISD determined best describes the noncommercial art space. Hence, the need for an appearance before Thursday’s Zoning Board meeting. What’s ironic is that even as the Zoning Board scrutinizes the Zeitgeist’s activities, another city-sanctioned event happening right across the street will be effectively praising them: the Cambridge Cultural Council will host its annual award ceremony for 2004 grant recipients, one of which is the Zeitgeist. But Nidle doesn’t know if the CCC’s prize will have any effect on Thursday’s hearing. "In my mind, this is sort of like cultural Groundhog Day," he says. Readily admitting that he has a "bit of a persecution complex," Nidle thinks that the Zoning Board’s decision portends not only the future of local alternative art spaces — but also the future the free world. "If they say, ‘Hey, you guys are great — keep on doing your good work,’ then the Red Sox will win the World Series, the sun will shine, democracy will flourish, George Bush will be defeated." If not, Nidle says, Armageddon is close. "It’s going to be an eternal winter: the Yankees will win again and George Bush will remain in power and never leave — he’ll declare himself emperor for life." All this talk of woodchucks gives Nidle a new costume idea. "Maybe I’ll just dress up as a groundhog in a cage." The Zeitgeist Gallery’s hearing with the Cambridge Zoning Board will take place on Thursday, March 25 at 8:45 p.m. on the first floor of the Cambridge Senior Center, located at 806 Mass Ave, in Central Square. Visit www.zeitgeist-gallery.org. Also on March 25, the Cambridge Arts Council will hold its 2004 Grant Awards Celebration from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the second floor of the Cambridge Family YMCA’s Durrell Hall, located at 820 Mass Ave, in Central Square. Visit http://www.cambridgema.gov/~CAC.
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