The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 25

MetroRegion News Bl-8, 12 Starts Stops B2 Lottery B2 New England News Briefs B4 Deaths B6 RadioTV B8 Comics BIO THE BOSTON GLOBE MONDAY, JUNE 14, 1999 ayor's colorblind city a fantasy, critics say rocks By Stephanie Ebbert and Anthony Flint GLOBE STAFF Accused of dodging heated race issues, Menino says he works behind scenes aroim because they are thinking negatively, and when he occasionally goes for soul food on Blue Hill Avenue, he said, "I'm the only white person there and I don't feel uncomfortable. It's all mind-set." Those comments so stupefied members of the group that they were considering asking him for a meeting. "It couldn't have done a better job illustrating our point that there's two Bostons," said Walter Apperwhite, 29, coordinator of a two-day conference on keeping MENINO, Page B4 In recent months, some observers say, Mayor Thomas M. Menino seems to have arrived in a better Boston than the one where they reside. His is a colorblind city, where the racism that permeated housing projects three years ago has receded, and the makeshift noose left for a black police lieutenant was a mere prank.

The mayor's critics say he is increasing- ly distancing himself from difficult issues on race, issuing insufficient reminders of "no tolerance" and calling for patient investigations. He jabs at federal allegations of housing discrimination, arguing that HUD's recent damning probe, which focused on events before 1996, reflects out dated problems. He ducks when members of a new group, the State of Young Black Boston, suggest an old refrain: that the city needs more to offer to keep minorities connected to the city. But if black and white don't mingle here, Menino told the Globe, it is the bloc Rooftop Limp Bizkit gig shakes up Fenway street iff By Steve Morse GLOBE STAFF The popular heavy metalrap band Limp Bizkit staged a guerrilla-style "sneak" concert on a parking garage roof in the Fenway yesterday, creating a giant mosh pit off Brookline Avenue and snarling traffic in the area before police arrived and pulled the plug. No arrests were made, police said, and no one in the crowd of about 1,500 required medical attention during the rooftop show that evoked memories of the Beatles and U2 playing high above the streets of London and Los Angeles.

But Boston police said they're turning the matter over to the city's licensing board for v- I J) i review and the band could face fines. "The licensing division will question the band and other parties involved and will make a decision if there's a violation," Deputy Superintendent Rafael Ruiz said while at the site of the concert, at 121 Brookline just around the corner from Fenway Park. 'Everybody in the parking lot is jumping up and down. The mosh pit is MISTRESS CARRIE WAAF 1 i 1 GLOBE STAFF PHOTO DOMINIC CHAVEZ Talib Doraji (left) and Salah Chohaili (right), Mandaean high priests, baptized 8-year-old Ayad Sadda along the banks of the Charles River yesterday. In river, ritual comes to life By Joanna Massey GLOBE CORRESPONDENT "We've got to get out of here or we're going to be arrested," Limp Bizkit singer Fred Durst told the crowd after the band had performed about 25 minutes of ear-shattering rock.

When police arrived after the event started, they "threatened to take a sledgehammer to our power generator if we didn't turn it off," Bizkit manager Peter Katsis said. The event also served to rekindle a battle between rock stations WAAF (107.3 FM) and WBCN (104.1 FM). Although WAAF had hinted of a sneak concert all day (and even had Durst on the air discussing it), WBCN disc jockey Juanita beat the station to the punch by announcing the exact location at 4 p.m. "You heard it first on WBCN," said Juanita, who had discovered the band setting up as she and station mate Shred walked to work at nearby WBCN that afternoon. WAAF then announced it at 4:15 and again had Durst on the air.

The station had hoped to make an announcement at 5 p.m. and have the show at 6, but when WBCN jumped the gun, the concert was moved up to 4:50, at which time WAAF DJ Mistress LIMP BIZKIT, Page B4 Mandaeans gather for baptisms, conference tism in fresh, running water as its major ritual. The focus of a first-of-its-kind conference at Harvard University, Mandaeans, a virtually unknown religious and ethnic minority, have survived through two millennia at the mercy of dominant powers. Although most still live in Iraq and Iran, some have emigrated from their homeland in recent years, fleeing political and religious persecution. Several hundred live in the United States, with the largest populations in New York, Detroit, and San Diego.

The three-day conference, which began yesterday with the traditional baptism at MANDAEANS, Page B4 and squat, facing northward. They are splashed by the priests with water, and a myrtle leaf wrapped tightly on their pinky fingers is removed, dipped in the water, and placed in the front folds of their headpieces. The ritual is over. Their sins have been erased. Those who were baptized yesterday are Mandaeans, members of a tiny, religious group based in southern Iraq and Iran.

Their religion, neither Christian nor Jewish, is the last surviving Gnostic group in the world, and they probably number less than 100,000. The first religion to ever practice baptism, Mandaeanism regards John the Baptist as its principal prophet and holds bap The sun has only recently risen as they begin to gather on the banks of the Charles River. Invoking images of an illustrated New Testament, men with long gray beards clad in priestly garb carry knotted staffs and bow slightly as their mouths move in inaudible prayer. Their heads are wrapped in loose, white turbans, their robes cinched tight with a woven belt, their feet bare. As those to be baptized enter the river one by one, they chant the names of their gods in Aramaic, the language of Christ, Decoding '05' fashion statement 11 P' 1 1 111 til Murdered woman was her family's 'superstar5 A short street-style quiz: What is the hottest jersey on the boulevards of Boston? a) Pedro Martinez's 45 b) Antoine Walker's 8 c) Drew Bledsoe's 11 None of the above, guv.

The city streets now swim with shirts bearing the digits "05," from the originals tra-demarked by the New York hip-hop design house FUBU to a second generation of stealth imitations. some code, deciphered when read upside down or divided by five. On Washington Street, Dorchester's Derrick Williams, 16, is swathed in a white New York baseball shirt, number 05. Williams bought it last week off a rack in Dudley Square, drawn to the unique combination without fathoming its meaning. "I have no clue," Williams said.

Meanwhile, at the corner of Washington and Harvard streets, Damian Jarre tt, 13, is talking to a friend. He's wearing his favorite The numbers-appear fr gray Yjiecks and midriffs, mesh football jerseys and oversized the gold-and-green 05 football jersey HOLLY LYNN PERRIN ffl 1 11 By Daniel Vasquez GLOBE STAFF TEWKSBURY Three years ago Holly Lynn Perrin appeared a college-bound senior, a three-sport athlete at Tewksbury Memorial High School, best known as a killer catcher, tough when she blocked home plate. You can find her story, or part of it, in the black-and-white photographs of the local sports pages. In this rural town of nearly 30,000 people, she was a four-year varsity player in Softball, soccer, and basketball and the local paper's 1995 Female Student Athlete of the Year. Family and friends recall the long- that he prefers over his Fila, Nike, and Tommy Hilfiger.

Jarre tt says he doesn't know the source of his fashion statement Finally, Leslie Short, of FUBU's marketing department via telephone from New York reveals the tailor's secret The number represents the firm's five original partners. (One later left) Then, looking for a style-team symbol to set them apart from normal-numbered urban gear, the company added something distinct to the equation: a zero. Oh! RICKAHN baseball shirts in chartreuse and Carolina blue. Yet, from boutique sales crews to the fashionably clad, no one can say what the funky figures mean. a) Numerals for the new millennium? b) A passage from the Bible? c) A play on five-0 street slang for police? None of the above, hrv.

On Blue Hill Avenue, Edison Mathieu, 21, manager of the Hip Zepi USA store, just sold out his FUBU 05 stock 100 pieces in two months. He figures the number stands for Her death a mystery haired Holly in her firecracker-red soft-ball jersey, a field marshal behind home plate whose powerful arm gunned down 75 percent of the runners who challenged her. But after graduating high school in 1996, Holly, adored by her adoptive par-PERRIN, Page B12 I 4 1 GLOBE STAFF PHOTO BILL BRETT Damian Jarrett's gold-and-green FUBU football jersey is his favorite shirt..