Amagansett Star-Revue, April-May 2024

STAR REVUE THE AMAGANSETT

Tales of New York

–an interview with cartoonist Stan Mack

by Joe Enright

Stan Mack is one of the most prolific story tellers of the 20th century. He’s told over 1,500 tales using thick white paper, a pen and black ink to create comic strips about ordinary people, sometimes in extraordinary locations. A thousand were published in the Village Voice every week for two decades. Now 275 of the best of those will be available come mid-June in a new book, Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies.

Mack rolled into New York at the dawn of JFK's New Frontier, toting a degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and a bunch of pens. After becoming art director at the Herald Tribune, rubbing shoulders with notable proponents of an emerging “new journalism” (Breslin, Wolfe, Steinem), he moved on to the New York Times A few years later, accompanying Style reporter Georgia Dullea on some of her forays into “Nouvelle Society,” he began jotting down quotes along with his sketches. Georgia was encouraging and eventually a thought bubble popped over Stan’s head: “What if I combine my illustrations with what ordinary people are actually saying?” He pitched the legendary graphic designer, Milton Glaser, at the Village Voice then, on the idea and the strip was born.

If you ever wondered what life was like in New York during its decline and rebirth, look no further. Sure, historians will note the sexual revolution of the 1970s and some have even written books about it, but only Mack will show you what it was like to hang out with the never-busy lifeguard at the Plato’s Retreat pool, given how it’s you know, impossible to have sex

"As it turned out, the word verbatim captured readers’ imagination. It became very much attached to the whole idea of Real Life Funnies."

while swimming, ergo the swingers never ventured beyond the shallow end. In addition to Pink Pussycat sex shops, Stan’s strips also took us into Bloomingdale’s, squatter apartments, UFO Club meetings, Broadway casting calls, music video shoots, AIDS’ sufferers bedrooms, a King Kong balloon on the Empire state Building, singles bars, a satirist dressed as a padre pedaling a bike with a portable confessional in tow, as well as dreamers, a Don Quixote MD, hustlers and so many other common people, who

God must surely have loved, Abe Lincoln liked to point out, because he made so many of them. What follows is a recent conversation we had with Stan, editing out the boring bits.

JE: Stan, when you graduated the Rhode Island School of Design, what did you want to do?

SM: I knew I liked to draw. I liked to draw people. But I wasn’t a serious painter, wasn’t going to paint seascapes on Cape Cod so I headed to New York and took my chances.

JE: Did you have any leads when you got here?

SM: My uncle Freddie knew somebody, and somebody else knew some body, and all of them went nowhere. So I started with menial art jobs. Maybe it would have been better if I’d grown up in Brooklyn where, as you know, I was born. But we moved to Providence when I was a little kid.

JE: Well, you landed the art director gig at the Herald Tribune and then moved over to the Times. How did you hook up with the Village Voice?

SM: I did a lot of illustrations for New York Magazine, which Clay Felker and Milton Glazer ran, so I knew them before they took over the Village Voice. I was a freelance illustrator, waiting for the phone to ring, which it did, luckily. But I thought if I could somehow create a combination package of drawing and reporting, then I wouldn’t have to wait for that phone call. So I went to Milton. He was the graphics genius who created a whole new look for the Village Voice. I said, what if I go about town and do a piece listening to peo-

ple, talking with them, sketching the locations. I didn’t know that Milton had created a page he called Urban Comics, and now he was looking to fill it. And after I pitched my idea, he said, “Comics are circulation builders for weeklies. They’re a big deal but you gotta appear regularly. If you could do this thing every week, I’d put it on that page.” And that’s how it began.

JE: Did you come up with the name “Real Life Funnies” and that tag, “All dialogue guaranteed verbatim”?

SM: No. Milton said, “Whatever you’re gonna do, go do it.” He was a visionary. So I wandered around town, I overheard snippets here and there and delivered it in a comic strip format to the editors, not Milton, who was separate from the editors who put together the paper. “Here you go,” I said, and they said, “What’s this?” I told them what I’d done and they said, “What do you mean it’s true? It’s not real, it’s a comic strip, comic strips are fiction, they always have been.” Or at least as far back as they could remember. I said, “No, no, this is all real. None of the words here are made up, these are all people’s words.” And they said, “Well, this is crazy. Who’s gonna believe that? They’re gonna open the newspaper and see a comic strip and they’re going to assume you made it up.”

JE: Reasonable.

SM: Yeah, so then they said, “How about if we call it Real Life Funnies?”

I said alright, Real Life Funnies. Then they said, “And we’re gonna put your name in the front of it because we

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Heard verbatim here back in 1977

INSIGHTS FROM THE OTHER JOE

Well, tragedy has been averted and life in Amagansett can now return to normal. But it was touch and go there for a while. Long will we remember how Rowdy Hall stood there on Main Street in November, brandishing guns dripping with jet black primer paint it had just splashed all over itself.

When suddenly THE MAN appeared, waving white paper, calling Rowdy out: “See here, Mr. Hall, this is the color we want all over yourself. White. Just like this paper here. Or maybe gray. But not black, no siree.”

“Yeah? And why’s that, paper shuffler?”

“Well, black is the opposite of white. I’m sorry, it just is. So you got to surrender those there black paint guns at the Town of East Hampton Architectural Review Board over yonder.”

Rowdy squinted for a long time, then spit an epic stream of tobacco juice.

“That’ll be another fine for unsanitary behavior!” THE MAN bellowed.

Rowdy spit again and drawled, ever so slowly, “My paint guns ain’t goin’ nowhere. So I’ll see YOU in court, Mr. MAN.”

As the pages of the calendar float-

Black is Black

by Joe Enright

ed by, THE MAN was replaced by ANOTHER MAN, one who spoke Rowdy’s language.

“Now Rowdy, I know we said white and then gray but what if we compromise and instead of the Benjamin Moore Dark as The Damn Night Jet Black you’re slobbered with, you paint yourself with Benjamin Moore Black HC-190?”

“What in tarnation is HC-190?”

“Well, it’s got nuthin’ to do with tar, Rowdy. HC stands for Historic Collection. And since this whole showdown was over an historic district and all, why we figure that paint’s got historic in its name, so that’ll make it seem like the fight, the lawsuit, the hearings, why they were all worth it somehow.”

Rowdy reflected for a moment. As a bar-restaurant, thinking didn’t come easy. But after a while, he smiled and drawled, “Well, I guess this is a win for me and a loss for you.”

“No, Rowdy, I see it more as a Win-Win situation. Instead of the white or gray THE MAN wanted, and instead of the jet black you wanted, now it’ll be Historic Black, get it?”

“Black is black, buddy. I win, you lose.”

The science behind the swarm

by Deborah Klughers

It’s honey bee swarm season across much of America, and a few swarms have already been reported up-island! A honey bee colony can swarm at any time of the year in warmer climates, but here on Long Island, they typically swarm when the temperature is over 50°F. Most swarms occur when the nectar flow is in full force, which usually occurs between May and July in our area. Keep in mind that I’ve caught many swarms in August and September, so be on the lookout for honey bee swarms from now through fall!

An abundant supply of nectar and pollen are the environmental cues that inform the colony that the resources necessary to sustain a swarm are available. However, running out of room in the brood nest (whether it is managed by a beekeeper or an unmanaged wild colony) is generally the main trigger that initiates swarming. Even during a nectar flow, if the colony has plenty of room in their brood nest, they (typically) will not swarm. It is up to the beekeeper to keep the brood nest open, providing plenty of room for the queen to lay eggs.

Beekeepers add honey supers on top of the hive so the bees have a place to store the incoming nectar. But simply adding empty boxes on top of the hive does not give the bees the space they need in the brood nest. The beekeeper must keep the brood nest open by manipulation of the frames in the brood area. If they don’t, and the brood area becomes full of brood, or full of nectar (also known as honey bound), the swarm instinct will kick in and the colony will begin swarm preparation weeks in advance of their actual departure.

Full house

The beekeeper who may have missed the memo that the brood nest was full, or did not notice that there was congestion (too many bees) within the hive, will be given a few other clues that their bees are planning to depart. If the beekeeper notices that their once fat queen bee appears slimmer,

or smaller, it is because the queen has to slim down in order to fly with the swarm. Big fat queens would have a hard time flying, so she has to become fit and trim for the big day. Keep in mind that a small queen could also indicate that the swarm already departed, and the queen in question is actually the daughter, and either an unmated virgin queen, or newly mated queen bee. All clues have to be analyzed while looking at the entire picture.

Also, the queen bee will slow or stop laying eggs prior to departure. There may not even be room in the hive for her to lay, so if the beekeeper notices that there are few eggs in the brood area, but there is older brood, it may be a sign that the colony is planning to swarm.

"If the beekeeper notices that their once fat queen bee appears slimmer, or smaller, it is because the queen has to slim down in order to fly with the swarm."

interesting tidbit of information is that the queen bee will fly about 3 miles from her hive to a “drone congregation area” to mate, whereas the drones can only fly about 2 miles from their hive to a drone congregation area to mate. This evolutionary trait ensures that queen bees do not mate with their sons! So, if there are drones in the beekeeper’s bee hive, there should be drones in other bee hives in the area, which is an indication that drones should be available for queens to mate with. Isn’t nature amazing?

cells are usually found along the bottoms of the frames, unlike emergency or supersedure queen cells, which are typically found on the main area of the frames, and are fewer in number. Sometimes there’s just one emergency cell, and this one virgin queen must get mated and make it back to her hive in order for the colony to survive! When the beekeeper examines the swarm cells, and sees that they are capped, swarming could occur any day, if it hasn’t already!

It could also be a sign that the queen has died or was purposefully killed by the colony. The ages of the remaining brood can inform the beekeeper how many days prior the queen was present in the hive, as can the appearance of “emergency queen cells”, or “supersedure cells”, which are made by the colony as an attempt to replace the original queen. So again, the beekeeper must look at the entire picture to understand what is happening within the hive.

The presence of drone brood (male bees) within the hive is an indication that swarming can occur. It doesn’t mean they will swarm; it just means they can. This is simply because the queen bee mates with drone bees. An

However, the presence of all drone brood could mean that the bees have already swarmed and were unable to requeen. Sometimes the virgin queen will not make it back to her hive. Maybe she got eaten by a bird, or hit by a car, or lost! When this happens, the worker bees (who are not fertile), can start to lay eggs in a last-ditch-attempt to save the colony. Since all of the workers eggs are unfertilized, they will all become drone bees. Remember, drone bees can-not forage for food, or make beeswax, or feed anyone (including themselves)! This colony is called a laying worker colony and management-wise, it is very hard for the beekeeper to help the colony recover. Swarming is risky business!

The most obvious clue that honey bees are preparing to swarm is the appearance of swarm cells. There may be a few or a few dozen swarm cells; you literally can-not miss them! Swarm

Even though swarming is instinctual, there is so much that can go wrong when a colony of honey bees swarms. If the beekeeper accidentally kills the unborn queens, the colony is doomed unless the beekeeper can provide another queen to the colony, and the colony actually accepts the new queen. One colony can cast many swarms, and can even swarm to death. While each swarm has the potential to thrive, only about 20 percent of swarms actually survive unmanaged.

Each honey bee in the colony is similar to a cell in a body. The bee, like the cell, has an important role, but cannot survive independently. Each bee in the colony works for the benefit of the whole, and as such the colony is technically a superorganism. Swarming is considered colony-level reproduction, fulfilling the honey bees’ natural instinct to procreate. While a bee emerging from her cell is akin to cellular reproduction on our body, swarming is the birth of an entirely new colony, and like most newly born organisms, it is quite vulnerable.

The inability to find a new home, or being exterminated when a home is chosen where it is unwanted causes the deaths of far too many swarms. Many swarms cannot store enough food to get through the winter, while some that do find a home and have ample food can die because they are not treated by beekeepers for common honey bee pests and diseases. Keep in mind that honey bees are managed livestock, just like cows or chickens. And like other livestock,

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BEES

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honey bees need tending by their keepers in order to survive. Each year, about 50 percent of Americas managed honey bees die. Add the accidental and intentional deaths of honey bee swarms and colonies, and we have an extremely distressing situation for both honey bees and us.

A swarm of honey bees can contain up to 50,000 bees or more. It is quite the sight to see. A swarm often sounds like a train and can darken the sky. Although some may find swarms intimidating, the bees in them are quite docile and basically harmless. I am not suggesting that the average person should go out and interact with a swarm, but rather they should call a beekeeper to retrieve and rehome them. If you aren’t sure what a honey bee swarm looks like, there are many images of honey bees available online or at your local library.

A swarm can leave their hive at any time of day, but typically departs from 10am to 4pm. They don’t fly at night or in strong winds or rain. However, swarms often occur after a few days of steady rain. This is because the natural death rate of foragers (due to accidents, or natural causes) slows during rainy days when the bees are confined in their hive. Also, during this time, there are many new bees emerging from their cells, so the hive becomes crowded and congested: a signal to swarm!

After leaving the hive, the swarm will rest for a few minutes or up to a few days while scout bees search for a new home. Swarms tend to look for a dry, dark cavity about the size of a five-gallon bucket. They might choose a hollow tree, toy box, barbecue, or a void in a wall of a house or other structure. Honey bees will not make a hole in your house, but they will take advantage of an existing one. So be sure to take a good look around your property and seal up all cracks and crevices that are 1/8 of an inch or larger, so a swarm cannot move in. This bit of preventative home maintenance can also deter other insects such as wasps and hornets!

If you do find that a swarm of honey bees has moved into a wall or another area on your property, you cannot and should not kill them. Thankfully, in Suffolk County it is illegal to kill swarms or colonies of honey bees in unwanted places. It is also unnecessary and extremely inhumane. Honey bees are not aggressive animals, but they can be defensive, so it is best to have them removed and rehomed by a professional beekeeper, such as myself. I can be reached at 631-377-1943. I respond to swarm calls and colony removals 7 days a week. For faster service, please send a short video or a few photographs. Ill ask you for them anyway, so it’s best to send along with your initial call.

Who can remove

The Long Island Beekeepers Club’s website has a list of beekeepers who are experienced at removing both swarms and colonies in structures.

The list can be accessed at https:// longislandbeekeepers.org/report-aswarm . For those of you not on Long Island, Cornell has an extensive list of swarm catchers located throughout New York State that can be found here: https://bendemoras.com/static/pollinator-network/swarm-directory.html .

This swarmy information is important only if you eat food or know anyone who does, since honey bees are responsible for pollinating about 100 of the commercial crops of food that we eat. They also help about 75% of the worlds flowering trees and plants to reproduce, which in turn helps wildlife survive by providing food and shelter. The flora made possible by honey bees also reduces erosion and subsequent sedimentation of our water bodies. Can you believe that honey bees help remove carbon dioxide from our atmosphere? It’s true! Bees make trees, and trees take in carbon dioxide (and make oxygen), so they are more important than most people know!

Meet me at the library

What most people do know is that honey bees make honey!! I’ll be at the Hampton Bays Public Library Spring Fair on May 11 with some delicious honey that was harvested from my colonies who live on a beautiful oceanfront farm in Sagaponack. Buzz on by for a free sample, and a free honey recipe booklet. I’ll have some beautiful 100% pure beeswax candles as well.

We can also talk about bees! Or, we can talk about honey launderers. As usual, they are doing their fraud honey laundering fraud thing here on Long Island (and all over the country, actually). In case you missed it, honey launderers are people who claim to manage the bees who make the honey that they put in containers and sell to the public, but really don’t! They might have some bees, but not enough to “produce” the quantity of honey that they offer to the public. What they really do, is buy honey for a few dollars a pound from elsewhere and put that honey in containers and sell it to the public. Sometimes they make other products with it, like hot honey, or creamed or flavored honey. Maybe they buy New York honey, or maybe New Jersey honey, or Montanna honey, or South American honey… who knows?? (Maybe they don’t even know the origin of the honey that they purchase.) Then they put the honey in containers and apply a cute label that states that the honey is from their bees that they manage here on the east end, or wherever they choose to claim the honey is from. In any event, it is food fraud, and they are kind of good at it.

It’s a shame that these honey launderer criminals exist in an otherwise sweet industry. Stay tuned for some exciting information about guess what. Can you guess? If you guessed that the exciting news has something to do with honey launderers, you are correct. And unlike these fraudsters, honey bees are one of the few species that do no harm and leave the world a better, more beautiful place.

Working with swarming bees. Photos by Deborah Klughers.

STAN MACK

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don’t want the responsibility for people asking us if it’s real or not.” Then one of them said, “You know, even that might not be enough. Let’s put ‘verbatim’ underneath it, to say this is absolutely people’s words.” As it turned out, the word verbatim captured readers’ imagination. It’s a nice lively punchy word and it became very much attached to the whole idea of Real Life Funnies.

JE: That’s a fascinating origin story.

SM: Since these were word balloons, I might have to cut a word or two to fit the space-as long as I felt it didn’t change the meaning. but that was as far as I ever went. People’s words were holy.

JE: Did you use a tape recorder?

SM: No. I started with a couple of little pads and two ballpoint pens for backup. I needed a way to carry them that was easy to get at. In those days men didn’t carry bags, there weren’t even belly bags. So I bought a grenade bag at an Army & Navy store, which I could wear on my belt, perfect for my pads and pens.

JE: Perfect for an ex-GI! I saw your video on C-SPAN and you were drawing with what looked to me like just a traditional fountain pen.

SM: It wasn’t a fountain pen, it was a dip pen. It was a little black thing with a metal point which you bought separately. it was crude in a way but also brilliantly sophisticated. Think about Edward Gorey’s drawings [Gorey did the cartoon for PBS’s Masterpiece Mystery]. I went to the Gorey museum on Cape Cod where they displayed some of his tools. Same pens I used. For me, there was something special about the metal point on paper. I’d dip my pen into India ink and the line lasted as long as the ink in the pen point did, and then you had to dip it again, over and over, which is probably why my arm hurts so much now.

JE: Did you carry around the ink?

SM: The ink bottle sat next to my drawing board. And since I was lefthanded, I had a tube of white paint to paint over my mistakes because I kept smudging the black ink which was still wet, because I was always in such a mad rush to deliver the drawing to the Voice. It was always last minute. I don’t know how to work except on deadline. I used to think of it as a pizza that I was delivering while it was still hot.

JE: How big were the strips you drew?

SM: 14 by 17 inches. That’s why I thought of it as a pizza, it was the same size as the box.

JE: How would you put the strip together?

SM: At first it was like I collected all the words in a dump truck, backed up to the drawing paper, and dumped ‘em. And whichever ones survived was the strip for that week. After a while I began to look for a story with some sort of beginning, middle, and ending. I had a lot of newspaper background at that point. I knew I needed a lede, a first panel that would tell the reader where they were, which was someplace different every week. I’d often draw a funny little guy with a square nose and mustache, the only ongoing character, he was an onlooker whom the reader could identify with. Basically it was me as a cartoon character.

JE: Did you ever follow a politician around?

SM: I covered three national conventions. Some strips from them are in the book. I’ve been complimented on my caricatures of say, Jimmy Carter. But I’m not a traditional editorial cartoonist commenting on politics. My strips are about people, essentially a bottom-up history. I remember a city public hearing where city council members were meeting to put forward the motion to vote themselves a raise. I just sat among the people watching the politicians on the stage knock down their morning coffees and bagels and doughnuts. Fat cats talking

about how they really needed money and not understanding how many in the audience who made far less could even survive in New York. It was a puzzle to them, but it wasn’t going to stop them from voting their own raise, which they went ahead and did. It was political satire from the cheap seats.

JE: Is there any strip in the book that you would pick if you had to be remembered for just one? Or a Top 10 maybe?

SM: No, but there are some which are for me at least great stories and I like them for that reason because they’re more than just that one week. These are strips that have affected the people in them and me, sometimes over the years. Then again, some weeks I’d have a tough time finding any story. I’d have to go to two or three places looking for a story.

JE: So tell me about the UFO group. SM: In terms of my kind of humor, some strips were easy, like hanging out with believers in visitors from outer space who had great truths to pass on to earthlings. There were pictures of a UFO that might have been peanut butter on the camera lens. As I was leaving, I heard one attendee say to another, “You know. it’s not your usual bunch of kooks here tonight.” And the other said, “These guys are talking the truth.”

JE: Talking about the process of how you actually worked, it seems you were out there with a pen looking for an interesting story you could report.

SM: I was learning as I went. Today they teach visual journalism in art school. Eventually I got a press pass from the Voice that would allow me to go on the floor of a national convention. But even then I was kind of faking it because there were legitimate reporters seriously interviewing important politicians. I was looking for an angle and sometimes that angle was the press themselves, a notoriously thin-skinned bunch.

Stan Mack(87) has a new book coming out

side Madison Square Garden.

JE: Did you get along with Jules Feiffer, the Voice’s senior cartoonist?

SM: I knew Feiffer slightly. He didn’t go into the office regularly. I didn’t either. Feiffer was an essential part of the Village Voice just like the logo itself. He was unique and his voice was amazing. I started what you might call the second wave of cartoon strips. Mark Stamaty followed me and then there were some others. Ben Katchor briefly. In my mind Feiffer’s voice was absolutely true, but he was talking about a segment of society he knew very well, a little bit older than me. Mine ranged across such a wide variety of backgrounds and peoples that it really became something different, and it was also more a documentary. Feiffer’s voice, which so captured the people he was writing about and had such perfect pitch, was still coming out of his head. None of my stuff was, except for choosing the place, like the UFO fanatics, Plato’s Retreat, or you name it, that was where my editorial instinct kicked in. But once there, it was those people providing the story.

JE: What did you think of R. Crumb and his ilk?

JE: Well, I guess you could say in some ways you were after the human interest story, the kind they would run for big events, like a delegate from Queens at her first convention.

SM: I remember I was outside the 1992 Democratic Convention in midtown doing a story on the crazies on the periphery when this guy pedals up on his bike towing a portable confessional for delegates to go to Confession.

JE: Joey Skaggs, the satirist! Porto-Fess he called it!

SM: Yeah, exactly. You nailed it: I was doing human interest sidebars – getting stories from people who weren’t important enough to be in-

SM: I was fascinated by them, like the Beatles, like Bob Dylan, like a lot of the illustrator cartoonists I knew of in the '60s who were overturning the values of the '50s and setting new pathways. We were all going through a revolution of one kind or another in the '60s and the idea that Crumb took the comics of my childhood and riffed on them from the underground with the attitudes of the revolution was wonderful. But I was already ensconced in New York as an art director and illustrator, so I was more mainstream— I’d even been in the army. Still, my approach was really off-beat.

Stan Mack will be appearing at the 394th meeting of the NY Comics & Picture-story Symposium in the fall. His new book is available for pre-order on Amazon https://bit. ly/3Uc7ylJ

SUN SIGNS APRIL FORECAST

Julie Evans

Eclipses throughout history were times of rapid change often portrayed as detrimental for the leader of a country. Think “The King is dead, Long Live the (new) King!” We know that eclipses mark periods of accelerated change for all, not just the King, and even more so when in the cardinal sign of Aries as this one is. This eclipse signifies a new beginning or a permanent ending, more for male world leaders rather than females. The upcoming Solar Eclipse on April 8 occurs at 2:22 pm here on the East End of Long Island and will happen when the Sun and the Moon meet at about 19 degrees of Aries. Texas is highlighted since it is the intersection point of past total solar eclipses and the coming one. Watch how the border issues there change during the coming year in Texas because of the eclipse. Mercury will station retrograde on April 1 in Aries, a week before the eclipse. This will give us a sense that the past needs to be revisited and that there is something we must say or do to put something on a righteous path. The Sun and Moon will surround a minor planet called Chiron during the eclipse making this eclipse exceptionally noteworthy. In astrology, Chiron represents a person’s deepest spiritual and emotional wounds, as well as their healing powers. Chiron is also known as the “wounded healer” because it represents a master of medicine and healing who is unable to heal himself. Chiron can also represent how a person can transform pain into power. If you do not have a spiritual practice this moment would be a very fortunate moment to begin. As Jupiter and Uranus continue to grow closer in the sign of Taurus and head to a powerful conjunction on April 20, we may expect centering ourselves within the coming whirlwind these two planets create becomes difficult. Moments of personal revelation and creativity may be missed among the lightning strikes. Healing yourself and recognising that we now can upgrade to spiritual warriors makes this eclipse the most important astrological event of the year. The amplification that Jupiter and Uranus will build upon the eclipse energy is potentially enormous. The Mercury Retrograde is an opportunity to go back and review your plans. On April 11 Mercury will be baptized by the fire of the Sun and emerge regenerated but still retrograde. Be careful not to burn yourself out.

ARIES - Happy Birthday! Time to take a break and go inward. Your sign is ruled by Mars and this month you are under duress. Break new soul-centered ground but take it slow. Best to be still and peaceful a few times a day. If you do not know your chart it would be important to know where your natal planets are at this pivotal moment for Aries. Any planets at 19 degrees of Aries will be affected by the eclipse energy and “wounded healer” Chiron. With Venus in your sign from April 5 onward anything done with love may have a better chance of success. Expect the eclipse energy to be long lasting however it may not be immediately felt.

TAURUS - Your consciousness is being jump started into expansiveness. Expect revelations that can come during periods of quiet meditation or in your dreams. If your plans include big ideas, wait until a week after Mercury stations direct on April 25th to put your plans into action. The Jupiter Uranus conjunction occurs

in your sign on the evening of April 20. Uranus brings out of the box ideas, inspiration and unexpected events to Jupiter which makes anything it touches bigger. Expect the unexpected. Noteworthy, is that this is the day that Bitcoin will undergo the much anticipated halving and is expected to reach new highs.

GEMINI - You have an easier time than most of the other signs this month. Mercury rules your sign and is retrograde for most of the month so watch your speed. The problems people fear during Mercury retrograde are normally unfounded. But when you rush about or do not read the contract or drive too fast when you are late for work is when Mercury Retrograde could ensnare you. If you have Mercury retrograde in your natal chart you may find no effect or a positive effect during this period.

CANCER - The Moon is the ruler of your sign. It is the sign of the mother. At this time of year we see nature giving birth to new babies

everywhere in our beautiful natural environment. It is important for you to put your bare feet on the earth and in the sand. Develop a sense of becoming one with the earth. Shortages of food and other necessary items are very possible going forward. Perhaps build a stockpile of items that you need.

LEO - You are ruled by the Sun which will disappear for about five minutes this month as it is eclipsed. An energy renewal post eclipse will make you even stronger than before. A total reset is in store for whatever house you find Leo in your natal chart. You would have to look at your natal chart to find this information. The eclipse energy in the moment may not be easy, since as one of the Fire signs you also be tinged by the fire of the eclipse.

VIRGO - Partnerships are highlighted for you this month. Partnerships may come in any form. They can be long term or only momentary. The discussions you and your partner have had over the past months are coming to a resolution and your relationship will move ahead towards the end of the month. Mercury rules Virgo so do not make any final decisions until April ends.

LIBRA - March’s Lunar Eclipse in your sign affected relationships. It also affected your relationship to justice. These issues will continue for you for at least six months. It is hard to put Genie back in the bottle once the Genie is out. Sit in silent meditation and you will find the way to proceed. Stocks are volatile so keep your eyes wide open if in the stock market.

SCORPIO - The deep and powerful currents that run through your sign are activated. Be careful of any sea voyages you may take this month especially around the Full Moon in your sign on April 23 in the early evening. Wait until two days before or two days after that Full Moon to catch that metaphorical big fish .

SAGITTARIUS - As one of the Fire signs you will feel some heat from this Eclipse in Aries. It is important to turn inward both now and in the coming months. We may not know how this pivotal astrological event will affect the world now in upheaval for some time. To counteract the areas where war is occuring turn inward to find love and express that to the world. Sagittarius loves to travel far and wide. It would be wise to choose carefully where you go during the coming year.

CAPRICORN - Your sign represents

the father, the boss, the government. When Pluto left Capricorn months ago after empowering those who set the rules for twenty years you may have felt a needed release. The Eclipse will reactivate that energy and depending on where this energy falls in your chart it may be a personal empowerment that presents a leadership position.

AQUARIUS - We are only at the very beginning of Pluto’s transit through your sign. The transformational power of Pluto is now in the sign of the people. This eclipse will turn the power structure upside down in many places in the world. Government can loosen or tighten control over many things you do but it cannot control the planets. You may find yourself with more opportunity to participate in areas you feel are unfair. It can only work well if you work with the love in your heart.

PISCES - Venus is almost through your sign but not until it becomes conjunct with Neptune in Pisces on April 3. This is a wonderful day to use your creative juice to make something wonderful. On April 10 the conjunction between aggressive Mars and stop sign Saturn creates a situation that is at the very least frustrating and could lead to harsh words or destruction in the aftermath of the conjunction. This is only two days after the Eclipse so beware of how your behavior may trigger others. Look at anything that could crumble into the sea or restrictions placed on fish and fishermen. Mars will conjunct Neptune on April 29. This presents issues of war at sea or piracy. Severe storms at sea are also a possibility. We will not be in the path of totality but the eclipse will darken the sky, essentially taking the Sun away for about five minutes before returning it to us. Texas is the epicenter as previous eclipses have run through that state. It looks like the border issues will be transformed in ways we do not yet know. Look to a total reset of energy depending on where the Eclipse falls in your own natal chart. Be careful not to look directly at the sun because you could damage your eyes.

I would be happy to explain your natal chart to you and what you can expect for the year ahead. Please contact me at jevansmtk@ gmail.com to discuss a reading. Together we can see exactly what is needed to release the limitations of the past in favor of exploring and expressing more of your creative potential.

Ah, April! For me, Spring means renewal, hope and BASEBALL. Last season is washed clean. Every team starts out in first place on opening day. Anything is possible. Well, almost…Cue the montage of calendar pages floating away, signaling a flashback: 2022, 2002, 1992, 1982, 1962

The Mets played their first two seasons at the Polo Grounds and on Sunday afternoons the Enright brothers attended many a doubleheader there. It only cost $1.50 for general admission, not a bad price for us to see two games that would live forever in baseball lore. In fact, Jimmy Breslin would immortalize the first one in his timeless monument to ineptitude, Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game.

It was June 17, 1962, a doubleheader against Ernie (“Let’s Play Two Today!”) Banks and his Chicago Cubs. We knew it would be a very long day when Marvelous Marv Throneberry committed two errors in the top of the first, leading to four Cubs runs. That year Marv had one of the worst fielding percentages in history, to include other star systems.

Marv creates a legend

But in the bottom of the inning, Marv came to the plate with two runners aboard and cracked a tremendous drive to right center. The Cubs center fielder was a rookie named Lou Brock who got a bad jump on the ball – maybe he was still thinking about the homer he hit in the top half of the first that sailed into the right field bleachers, 475 feet away – some say the longest shot in the history of the Polo Grounds. Ironically, Lou went on to become a Hall of Famer for his small ball skills, not his power. In retrospect there must have been some weird warp in the time-space continuum on that particular day in Coogan’s Bluff. So anyway, there goes Lou sprinting after Marv’s blast. The ball rolled into the bullpen area as the Mets pitchers

The Hope of Spring

by Joe Enright

scattered away from their bench. In the Polo Grounds, bullpens were in the field of play, the thinking being it was so deep out there, few balls would travel that far. A notable exception occurred April 18, 1955, when a Pirate rookie named Roberto Clemente hit the top of the bullpen awning in left field and by the time the ball was tracked down, he was relaxing in the dugout, enjoying his first major league homer, an inside-the-parker, thinking about which Spanish Harlem restaurant he would hit that night. By the way, Roberto played his home games in Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field which had an outfield so huge, the Pirates stored their batting cage out by the center field wall, which was in a different time zone than the rest of the park. But I digress. Back to Lou and Marv. Marv was not a speedster – as a Met, he attempted only four stolen bases and was thrown out three times – but by the time the ball was relayed back to the infield, Throneberry had already chugged into third base, trying

“Jimmy, we haven’t knocked down a .230 hitter all year.”

Yogi Berra

to catch his breath. The applause was loud and long as we all stood cheering the redemptive power of baseball – a goat one inning, a hero the next. In baseball, love was just a pitch away, a pitch away, a pitch away, with apologies to the Rolling Stones who on this date were just weeks away from their first gig at the Marquee Club in London.

Now the next batter, Charlie Neal, stepped in to hit. Neal, along with Gil Hodges, Clem Labine, and Don Zimmer were former Dodgers drafted by the Mets, hoping to draw fans of the team that deserted Brooklyn four years earlier (fans like the Enright brothers). Neal banged the plate with his bat, then waited for the first pitch. Instead, the pitcher wheeled and fired to second base, whereupon the ump there pointed to Marv and then pointed to the bag, yanked his thumb skyward and shouted, “You’re Out!” Apparently, Marv had failed to touch second on his sojourn around the base paths.

Now Casey Stengel, the Mets manager, came trotting out of the dugout, heading toward a confrontation with the ump. Casey was 72 years old and his trot was more the result of muscle memory than any firmly held belief in Marv’s base running talents; after all, Casey had managed the Marvelous One when he warmed the bench on some great Yankee teams in the late 1950s. The umpire, perhaps anxious that Casey not exert himself too much, trotted forward with his hands in the air as if to say, “Hold on Casey, wait until you hear me out” and they met by the pitcher’s mound. We watched the ump point toward first, and Casey stopped, trotted over to speak to the first base coach and then trotted ever so slowly back into the dugout. Odd. The morning papers and Breslin would report that Marv had missed first base as well. As a baseball aficionado, I must confess that this is a difficult feat to achieve. It also begs the question, what if Marv’s blast had been to dead center and rolled 500 feet to the stairway that led to the players’ dressing rooms in center field – also in the field of play. Marv would have had an opportunity to round third and head for home!

No doubt in my mind: Marv would have missed third too. But the real issue is this: assuming there was no play at the plate because Lou Brock had

gotten lost under the stairs, and Marv came in standing up, would he have missed stepping on home plate? The mind boggles. Some accounts of this game claim that when Charlie Neal hit the next pitch for a home run, Sten-

gel ran out of the dugout and pointed to each bag as Charlie circled them, showing Marv how it’s done.

But I don’t recall seeing this since everyone in the 100 rows in front of us stood to cheer Neal’s homer and blocked our view. It really was a lousy ballpark for sight lines.

The second memorable game occurred a year later, on June 23, 1963, against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets were already mired deep in last place playing out the schedule. But in a possible attempt to add some personality to the team after banishing Marvelous Marv to the minors a month before – from whence he never returned – the Mets bought Jimmy Piersall from the Washington Senators. Jimmy was semi-famous for freaking out as a young player with the Boston Red Sox in 1952, which led in short order to a hospitalization, a comeback, some more whacky behavior, an autobiography and a 1957 movie, Fear Strikes Out, starring Anthony Perkins in a pre-

(continued on next page)

Psycho warm-up.

immy and Casey figured to make some zany music together. After all, back when Stengel managed the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1930’s, an ump refused to call a game because of darkness, so Casey signaled from the mound to the bullpen for a new pitcher with a flashlight and promptly got booted.

Jimmy was a great outfielder – Ted Williams called him the best he ever played with – but Piersall’s mood swings got him ejected quite often.

Perhaps the most famous pre-Polo Grounds moment came during a game against the Red Sox after Jimmy had been traded to the Cleveland Indians. Piersall was playing center field when his old pal Ted Williams came to bat. Piersall proceeded to sprint back and forth in the outfield, waving his arms like a windmill, trying to distract Williams, who stepped out of the box. The umps warned Piersall to stop running around but he refused and was given the heave-ho. Piersall felt this was unjust and had to be restrained from going after the umpires by his teammates.

So now here was Piersall playing for the worst team in major league history. As Casey used to say, “you could look it up.” In their first two seasons,

the Mets lost a combined total of 230 games, setting individual and team records for futility which likely will never be equaled. Rather than sulk, Jimmy knew exactly what to do in this new environment: have some harmless fun. Take for instance, an exhibition game at Yankee Stadium, the long-discontinued “Mayor’s Trophy Game.”

Piersall was playing centerfield in the first inning and as Mickey Mantle was announced as the next batter, Jimmy wildly retreated to the monuments, 450 feet from home plate. He stood there, amid three concrete slabs, bas reliefs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Miller Huggins, all as tall as Jimmy. Then when Mantle stepped into the batter’s box, Piersall crouched behind the monuments, peering out between Ruth and Gehrig to home plate, where Mantle, now seeing Piersall pounding his mitt behind the stones, began to laugh and stepped out.

I have never read an account of this hilarity (I laugh even now, remembering it), but since I was sitting in the upper deck on that night, an entire section to myself, let me take this opportunity to say, Thank you, Jimmy for giving me a memory I’ll never forget unless, you know, dementia and such.

As the game wore on and Met pitcher after Met pitcher was summoned from the bullpen in the valley that separated the left field stands from the bleachers, Piersall would sit on the base of those monuments and gaze into the stands, seemingly as bored as the rest of us. As it turned out, this episode was just a warm-up… Just a few days later my brothers and I went to see the Mets play the Phillies at the Polo Grounds. Another beautiful Sunday in June. We sat in lousy seats in the second deck grandstands behind third base. Given the upper deck overhang, it was impossible to see where any ball hit in the air was going. So when Piersall hit a fly ball to left field, we watched the outfielder for the Phillies move back toward the wall. Then we saw him stop and look up. At the same time we noticed the third base umpire running down the line waving his right arm in a circle above his head, the universal baseball sign for a home run. We then turned our attention to Piersall.

Jimmy had just finished rounding first base but now he momentarily paused, turned, and proceeded to trot backward toward second. Unlike Marvelous Marv, Piersall managed to step on second and as he rounded third facing backward, he reached out to shake the hand of the stunned third base coach who was barely able to grab it. Finally, peering over his shoulder, Jimmy spied home and stepped on it, whereupon he resumed a forwardlooking orientation and trotted back to the Mets dugout. There were about 20,000 of us in attendance that day and we were all laughing. But Piersall was gone in a week, traded to the Anaheim Angels. Apparently Stengel felt there was room for only one clown on the team. Piersall had the last laugh, though, enjoying five productive years with the Angels, a much better team.

My favorite Piersall anecdote involves Yogi Berra. A wild Yankee pitcher had just hit two Red Sox batters and as Jimmy stepped to the plate, he smiled at Yogi and said, “If you knock me down, I’m going to get up and hit you across the head with this baseball bat – and I’m the only guy who can plead temporary insanity and get away with it.” To which Yogi deadpanned, “Jimmy, we haven’t knocked down a .230 hitter all year.”

VALUE ADDED EXTRA!

The 1962 Mets shortstop, Elio Chacon, had a history of near collisions with outfielders. Richie Ashburn, a Hall of Famer playing his last year on the worst team in recorded history real-

ized that Chacon didn’t understand the English warning: “I got it”. So Ashburn went to a bilingual Mets player and was told that Chacon would understand the warning in Spanish, Yo lo tengo (“I have it”). Soon thereafter a short fly ball was lofted to center field and a back-pedaling Chacon, hearing Ashburn shout YO LO TENGO!!! veered away. Whereupon, the Mets English-only left-fielder Frank Thomas completely flattened Ashburn. While leaning over the injured Ashburn, splayed across the Polo Grounds grass like a rag doll, Thomas, who stood 6’3” and weighed 40 pounds more than Ashburn, asked him: “What’s a Yellow Tango?”

AN ASHBURN HOMAGE

Richie Ashburn was the Mets’ Most Valuable Player in 1962, with a batting average of .306. Ashburn commented years later: “To be voted the MVP on the worst team in the history of baseball is a dubious honor for sure. I was awarded a 24-foot boat equipped with a galley and sleeping facilities for six. After the season had ended, I docked the boat in Ocean City, New Jersey, and it sank.”

“To be voted the MVP on the worst team in the history of baseball is a dubious honor for sure. I was awarded a 24-foot boat equipped with a galley and sleeping facilities for six.

After the season had ended, I docked the boat in Ocean City, New Jersey, and it sank.”

Manager Casey with Jimmy Piersall in 1963 (photo courtesy The Sporting News)

Piersall running backwards to home plate.

Last Month

“Zac Wozny, a laid-back teenager who has spent his whole life in Sunset Park, enrolls in Hunter College in order to make sure he gets a draft deferment to stay out of the Vietnam War. This brings him into the strange new world of Manhattan. After a geography class that he attended stoned, he meets Susan Kemp, who invites him to the Park Avenue apartment where she lives with her parents. She offers some food:

1 – Meeting Miss Kemp (cont)

“I don’t have much to offer you,” she called out from the bedroom. “My parents are in Europe, and I usually eat out.”

“That’s cool – I’m not hungry.”

She came out now in jeans and a red tee-shirt with STANFORD printed in white letters. “I could get you some whiskey... my father keeps some old bourbon whiskey or something.”

“Sure – that’s cool.”

She brought him a heavy cut-glass tumbler filled halfway with amber liquid, saying, “Don’t worry – this glass won’t explode,” and they laughed a little.

Dressed this way she was more familiar to Zak, except now in her red tee-shirt he noticed she was braless. None of the girls in Sunset Park would ever do that. He took a swig; it was smooth and warm.

When Miss Kemp perched on a nearby ottoman, Zak took a seat on the worn leather couch.

“So, Zak – where do you live?”

“Brooklyn.”

“Oh, Brooklyn… I was there once.” “Okay.”

“How do you like Hunter?”

“It’s okay. Better than Vietnam.”

“You seemed so enthusiastic in class.” He didn’t want to tell her why. Instead, he said “I’m getting into it.”

“Another drink?”

Before he could answer she began pouring. “Vietnam… what a mess. Girls are lucky, we don’t get drafted. Well, not yet.”

Zak sipped at the whiskey while Miss Kemp began talking about herself. His mind kept floating out the window to the view of the East River and hearing only some of what she was saying.

She was twenty-seven, dropped out of a bunch of colleges, under a lot of pressure to get married.

Until one word she uttered brough him back forcefully to the leather couch, Apartment 11-J, and the twenty-seven-year-old Susan Kemp, who was now kneeling on the rug in front of him.

The word was “fellate.”

And the full sentence was “Would you do me a big favor and let me fellate you?”

Now back in the room in both body and mind, he shouted, “What?! What did you just say?”

Somewhat shyly, Miss Kemp replied.

“I said, would you do me a big favor and let me fellate you? It means give you a blow job.”

“I know what it means!”

After a pause, she went on. “It would help me with this guy I’m dating.”

“Help you?”

“Yes. It would be a big help.”

Zak just stared at her.

“Okay… I told you about the pressure I’m under to get married. But not to just anyone. Ken – that’s his name – is a Whitman. From Sutton Place. We’ve gone out a few times, but… I’m not as experienced as I should be, and neither is he. So if I could just practice…” Zak cut her off. “Practice?”

“It could help seal the deal. And get my parents off my back.”

Zak kept staring. He thought he would get up and leave.

But he didn’t get up, and he didn’t leave.

Susan Kemp raised her head slowly, squinted her eyes, and said, with a touch of grit, “Pleeeeease?”

Then she took off the red Stanford tee-shirt.

2 - Elevator Down

Ahalf hour later, Zak Wozny was standing in the plush carpeted hallway waiting for the elevator down. If it was 2019 instead of 1969, it would have been “WTF, WTF,” going through his head. But back in ’69, his mind was simply “BLOWN.” Everything he had learned about girls and sex in his seventeen years in Brooklyn had just been turned upside down. The elevator arrived, still manned by the small guy in the Sgt. Pepper suit. Zak noticed that the sideways dirty looks he had given him on the way up had morphed into a direct nasty stare. The man slid shut the shiny brass gate, turned the crank and they started down. But the dirty look continued until Zak blurted…

“What’s your problem!”

With a weird grin on his pinkish face under the braided cap he says:

“Yer a swarthy one, ain’t cha?”

“What..what!” was all Zak could reply.

“I kin always spot a wop!”

“What! A wop!”

The elevator reached the lobby, the little guy pulled back the grate, extending an arm pointing outward.

“That’s right… a wop, a dago. Now be on your way… if you know what’s good for ya.”

Zak got off the elevator and headed down the hall, just wanting to get out

onto the street.

“That’s right… wop… on your way now.”

“Listen, you ask kissing mick piece of shit… my father’s Polish… I’m only half a wop, so FUCK YOU.”

Sgt. Pepper ran into the elevator, shut the grate, starting yelling.. “Jimmy… Jimmy!!”

Zak ran down the hall, almost into a big maintenance guy who was answering the call. Finally, out on Park Avenue, Zak screamed back one last “FUCK YOU” and began walking downtown with his mind still blown; wishing he had gotten into Brooklyn College.

3 – In the Flow

Yellow, yellow, yellow cabs... were standing almost still on Park Avenue. Just walking, Zak was passing them at a good clip. The passengers, mostly solitary riders who would have made better time on foot, sat staring, in passive acceptance of the Manhattan rush hour. With traces of mescaline still running through his head, everything, just as in Geography class, seemed interesting. The green light at the corner of 53rd street, how it shimmered with traces of blue… and then became yellow, a deep amber yellow… almost like the cabs, and then RED.. and back to Green! But green means “GO” and several suits standing behind him nudged Zak gently forward. He was in the flow, going south on Park Avenue,,, to where? he wondered. A line from a poem he was made to memorize, but never understood, came into his head:

Oh, do not ask, “What is it?” Let us go and make our visit.

At 46th Street a brown/gray office building straddled the avenue, east to west. Getting closer, Zak saw the tall arches and a curved roadway which allowed the cabs to pass through and continue their southward crawl. Revolving doors kept the flow of suits and dresses moving, into a marble lobby and onto a descending escalator. Going down, he heard the approaching sound of a thousand echoing voices and footsteps, and at the bottom saw the ceiling rise 200 feet, becoming an indoor sky. Zak stopped and stared up. The crowd off the escalator dispersed around him, heading for trains to Norwalk and New Canaan… Greenwich and Goldens Bridge, not noticing the electric constellations of Grand Central Station.

But Zak did, the sole person standing still in the crisscrossing paths of commuters moving in myriad directions, never colliding.

That’s when he realized the city was a living organism, which breathed in people every morning, and after using eight or so hours of their energy, exhaled them back into the boroughs and suburbs from where they came.

The remaining traces of mescaline were putting voices and theories in his

head. Looking around at the crowd rushing by, a sudden wave of paranoia came over him, a sudden knot of fear in his stomach. He was too high… beer, need beer.

4 - Drinkin… Thinkin

Zak found an opening between the suits and waited to be noticed. When the short pink faced man behind the bar finally came over, Zak gasped internally. “It’s him!” The elevator guy who called him ‘swarthy,’ how the fuck did he get here?

The man laid a coaster down and said pleasantly, “What’ll it be, young man?” It wasn’t him, similar looks, just some mescaline distortion.

“Beer, please.”

“And you’ll be eighteen now, ain’t cha?”

“Oh yeah, sure.” (well, he would be, in two weeks)

“Sure you are, how ‘bout a cold Budweiser?”

“Yeah, great.”

He pulled a long necked bottle from ice under the bar, opened it. “Glass?” “No, bottle’s good.”

Zak put a five on the bar, got back two, left one. Went to the railing where he could look out over the swarm, chugged half the bottle and felt better instantly.

“What a fuckin’ day,” he thought. Miss Kemp, exploding glass of milk, a blow job – his first, though he didn’t tell her. The elevator guy! Swarthy! What the fuck is that, like some pirate shit?

Zak would look it up later. He finished the bud, got another one. Beer is ballast, brings you back down to earth. Mikey Bergen from 41st Street, who would never take any drugs, always said “I drink beer — at least I know I’ll wake up in the morning.”

After his third Budweiser, Zak’s knot of fear had dissipated. From the balcony he watched the rush hour crowd diminish. Exhaled by the City… to whence they came. The blue-skied ceiling darkened slightly and the electric constellations seemed to brighten. Strange day, he had a feeling there’s be more to come.

-Continued Next Month-

Author Bob Racioppo is a founding member of the Shirts, a New York-based American punk band that was one of the seminal CBGB bands. After signing a record deal they toured the US and Europe. In addition to music, Robert is an accomplished fine artist. This is his first novel.

He grew up in Sunset Park and now lives in Windsor Terrace. To order a copy of the full book ($15) text 917 652-9128 with your address.

Are you ready for the country? Cowboy Carter, the latest epochal event from Beyoncé, is a culturally defining moment if only because making culturally defining moments is what Beyoncé does. She’s hardly the first Black singer to venture into country music. DeFord Bailey, Ray Charles and Charley Pride were there decades ago. The underrecognized Linda Martell appeared on the country charts more than 50 years ago, and Rhiannon Giddens has become a cultural ambassador for the history of Black American influence in country music. The Texas-born Beyoncé knows all of that, and has Martell and Giddens on her new album, which—as she said in an oft-quoted Instagram post—isn’t a country album, it’s a Beyoncé album. The best songs on Cowboy Carter (CD,

FILM

(continued from page 12)

Batman and all of our parody Batman villains.” The process of writing the script was just, “Let’s not worry about that yet. Let’s just write the story we want to write.” It’s definitely a different type of comic book movie than we’ve seen before, but it really leans into that big sort of epic storytelling and broadness. I came up in post-production. I’m a visual effects artist and animator. So I kind of just gave myself permission for the movie to be very low-fi and mixed media. I think Natural Born Killers is one of the biggest guiding lights for this movie, besides Joel Schumacher stuff, in that kind of every single shot has a different aesthetic. I really wanted to hover around that idea, and thankfully I was able to pull together a team of incredible artists. The movie really started as a big kind of DIY community art project, and that was always the guiding spirit. Finding the aesthetic was very gradual. We had written it to kind of be set in these parody versions of set pieces and locations we’ve seen in other superhero movies. But it was really just a process of leaning into the fact that, OK, it’s going to be a lot of different styles. And I think it works because the movie itself is about searching for your aesthetic and searching for the solid version of your identity and trying to grasp it.

How freeing was it to write a script without any kind of physical or even temporal realities?

LP and download out last month on Parkwood/Columbia)—the midtempo, slightly vocal-fried pop tune “Bodyguard,” “YaYa,” a rocker that picks up cues from Nancy Sinatra and the Beach Boys, and “Amen,” a gospel that calls back to the cuts Madonna made with Prince for her Like a Prayer album— aren’t even trying to be country. The culturally defining moments come in the covers. Black artists have sung Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird” before (Billy Preston, Sarah Vaughn, Sylvester, Cassandra Wilson, Anderson .Paak) but Beyoncé claims it with confidence. She likewise takes possession of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” flipping and flexing the narrative. Before that cut, Parton herself gives an approving shoutout. She’s referencing the titular antagonist of the song when she says it’s “just a hair of a different color,” but she’s giving her blessing to the entire album.

Country music has become a wide open field in the years since Taylor Swift abandoned it. Snoop Dogg jammed with Willie Nelson, Lil Nas X laid down a track with Billy Ray Cyrus, and Beyoncé herself hit it with the (then Dixie) Chicks, joining them for her “Daddy Lessons” at the 2016 Country Music Awards. But am I the only

It’s the only way I want to write now. It was very freeing at a script stage. But then the second the script was done, it was like, “OK, I need to storyboard this entire thing.” I made an entire animatic [moving storyboard] version of the movie. And I did that because it’s not as simple as just placing an actor in front of a green screen and saying, “We’ll figure out the background later.” The reason the movie works aesthetically is because we really dialed in the lighting and the looks before ever getting to set. I knew generally what every single frame was going to look like. Again, a lot of our reference points were like… There’s a scene where Joker and Penguin are talking in this alley, and it’s a recreation of an alley from Batman Forever. We recreated the brick walls, we knew where the light would hit them. So when you’re writing, did you place

one imagining that there’s some longgame vengeance at play here? In 2009, Kanye West interrupted the proceedings as Swift was given the best female video award at the MTV Video Music Awards, announcing that Beyoncé had the best video of the year. Come 2012, Swift was steering away from country radio with her album Red and sealed the deal two years later with the synthheavy 1989 and the chart-topping single “Shake it Off.” Fast-forward a quick decade and Bey is moving into the ground Tay Tay abandoned. Far-fetched? I think so. But let’s see who wins the VMA this year, if they still give those out.

But I’ve driven off course. Country music has become a wide open field. Case in point, out of southwestern Ontario comes Nicolette Hoang, a child of immigrants who moved to the city of Guelph and opened an optician shop after the Vietnam War. She studied piano, went to conservatory, taught herself guitar and grew disenchanted with the music profession, then found the passion again in her parents Glen Campbell and Tammy Wynette records. Hitting karaoke nights, she met the fellas who would back her in Nicolette

specific references, like, “Exterior. Batman Forever alley. Night”? Yeah, I think we did. There were so many versions of the script, and the version that we used on set, pretty much every single actor told me it was kind of unreadable. Nate Faustyn, who plays Penguin, was like, “This is like a crazy person’s idea of a script.” It was written exactly like you said, it had all those reference points in it. And I did that because I also really thought of it, at least in the beginning, like segments, just because of how collaborative the project was.

I had a small army of people helping me make this. I announced I was making the movie May of 2020 on a podcast I used to have, and hundreds of people came out of the woodwork saying, “I want to watch this movie, and I will help you make it.” Most of those people really don’t have aspirations of working in film or TV. They’re visual artists. So it kind of was necessary to have this very non-traditional script. It was like a weird, big, long magic ritual with ingredients rather than a proper screenplay. But that was also the best way to convey what we were picturing. It’s exactly the movie I want it to be. And I’m so happy with it. But it definitely looks a lot different than I thought it would, and it looks that way because of that script.

You dedicate The People’s Joker, in part, to Joel Schumacher and you’re explicit about how Batman Forever changed your life. How do you ensure your film stays in front of people so someday somebody makes their own movie and

and the Nobodies. Their debut album

The Long Way (LP and download from Arthaus) comes out April 12 and kicks some bona fide classic country butt. Lead single “Show Up” glistens with big Linda Ronstadt tears and “Losing More” (with guest singer Paul Weber) calls back to classic Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn duets. The Long Way might have been a long way coming, but it fits like a pair of broke-in boots.

For a real throwback throwdown, get a copy of the comp Blue Plate Special Vol 2 (LP and download out last month from Doghouse and Bone Records). The French reissue boutique has collected a dozen oddities circa 1968-1973 trying to capitalize on the freaky, funky soul and hippie sounds that were taking over the market. Shirl Milete tries to bring eastern influences into the hard-scrabble tales of his “Big Country Blues.” Bobby Darin is a little too clean to be convincing with his attempted prison farm anthem in “Long Line Rider.” Joe South who wrote “Games People Play” and “Rose Garden”—fares somewhat better as a moderately bad boy in “Misfit.” If nothing else, the collection proves that Elvis Presley wasn’t the only one having trouble figuring out how to fit in.

dedicates it to you for having changed their life?

That just sent a chill up my spine… I don’t know. Honestly, one of the craziest parts of this experience has been seeing how much this movie already means to people, having had the experience of taking it out to festivals. [There were people who didn’t want me to do that.] But my whole thing was: There are hundreds — and I know it’s not that much compared to the amount of people that could see a movie — but there are so many trans people that are excited about this coming out, who haven’t seen a frame of it and know it’s going to mean a lot to them. I needed to bring this to festivals. And the idea of having all my stoner and shut-in fans be forced to go to a theater to go see this movie was really cool. Having the experience of screening it, I really got to see firsthand, like, wow, this movie really is emotionally effective. Trans people, anybody who has a complicated relationship with their family, anybody who makes art, anybody who feels left behind by the American dream — I think they can relate to it. That all has been so cool. And very humbling. And very intense. I was not prepared for my first movie to have this level of exposure or for it to mean this much to people.

But because of that, I don’t know that our theatrical run is ever going to end. I see this as a midnight movie. It’s a lowfi movie, but it’s got a wide scope. It’s a movie that’s meant to be a communal experience and viewed in theaters on a big screen with your chosen family.

A Serious Conversation with Director Vera Drew About the Seriously Wild “The People’s Joker”

by Dante A. Ciampaglia

Nearly two years ago, it seemed like Vera Drew’s debut film was doomed. Not because it centered on and was made by a trans woman — a twice-over target in this era of escalating anti-trans bigotry — but because it poked a Hollywood giant.

The People’s Joker, billed as a “queer coming-of-age superhero parody,” Jokerizes Drew’s coming out experience. Its main character is a trans version of the Joker; its setting a Gotham City where Batman is a hyper-fascist groomer, comedy is outlawed, and citizens cope with hits of Smylex. Drew’s Joker the Harlequin opens an anti-comedy club in an abandoned amusement park with Penguin, drawing a rogues gallery crowd: Bane, Poison Ivy, Catwoman, Mad Hatter, Riddler, and Mr. J, a trans man styled after Jared Leto from Suicide Squad

You can see why Warner Bros., Batman’s corporate daddy, was none too happy about the film. After Drew screened The People’s Joker at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, WB sent a letter arguing her film violated copyright. She ultimately pulled it from the festival.

But that wasn’t the end. Drew mounted a fair use case for the film, arguing it didn’t run afoul of copyright because it’s a work of parody. Indeed, no one could confuse The People’s Joker — the maddest madcap Mad Magazine take on the spirit of the source material — with “official” DC product. Made on a shoestring budget, Drew shot all the scenes with her actors over five days against a green screen, then meticulously placed them into virtual environments, then tossed in animated sequences. It’s a DIY, low-fi, mixed-media fantasia as unclassifiable as it is unforgettable. It’s also littered with riffs, tributes, and references to comic books, movies, and lore. Joker’s transition involves falling into a vat of estrogen at Ace Chemicals, a sly twist on the typical Joker origin. Mr. J, whose name nods at Batman: The Animated Series, combines the Carrie Kelley Robin from The Dark Knight Returns graphic novel, and Jason Todd, the Robin murdered in the comics by the Joker, rolled into the Leto package. Batman drives a pixelated Batmobile reminiscent of the car from Joel Schumacher’s Batman Forever, a film that changed Drew’s life. (Drew dedicates her film to Schumacher and her mother.)

The People’s Joker, which Drew co-wrote with Bri LeRose, is a singular experi-

ence of insane creativity and devotion, required viewing for anyone who grew up with Batman or Joker or who struggles with questions of identity. And, fortunately, it won’t languish on a hard drive somewhere. Ahead of a national 63-theater national run that begins at IFC Center on April 5, Drew spoke with the Star-Revue about making The People’s Joker, using the traditionally psychopathic Joker to tell her story, and the midnight-movie future of the film. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

What was it about the character of the Joker that made it feel right as the conduit for this story?

I was working on something before this was ever a Joker parody. I had this idea that was like a body horror cult movie, kind of a David Cronenberg, Sam Raimi-type thing. The main character was a drag queen who was physically addicted to irony. It was this story I was trying to tell to process what it was like coming out as trans in comedy.

I’ve been doing comedy since I was 13. I didn’t know who I was for most of my life. I was completely lost. And comedy, particularly improv and sketch, was this space for me where I could explore identity and queerness in a funny way, and then in a safe way. But it also kept me locked in this stage of irony and selfdeprecation. I would portray femininity in a very monstrous, aggressive way. Comedy, for me, was this playground for identity, but it was also high-concept self-harm at times. I wanted to explore that and talk about how queerness is integral to alternative comedy specifically. I really wanted to make something that was about comedy, but also about transness and finding identity.

The Joker side of it really came together when my co-writer Bri got involved. We were both really inspired in early 2020 because [Joker director]

Todd Phillips was complaining about woke culture a lot in the press — as is his right. It was funny to us that the director of a movie that made a billion dollars was complaining about being silenced. Bri and I are both queer women who have been doing comedy for most of our lives. I don’t want to say it’s been hard for us because of who we are. But it kind of has. It’s a space where actually talking about having a quote-unquote “alternative lifestyle” or whatever is not really there. It’s starting to be. We’re seeing a lot more trans people in stand up and sketch and improv, and I’m so happy that’s finally happening. But the

world I came up in, the world Bri came up in, wasn’t like that. So I think we just took all these themes that were going into this other thing and said, “Let’s actually make something that’s just a big, fun, colorful comic book movie that explores this stuff.” And Joker has always been a queer character to me.

"Its main character is a trans version of the Joker; its setting a Gotham City where Batman is a hyperfascist groomer, comedy is outlawed, and citizens cope with hits of Smylex."

How so? What was your relationship with Joker prior to making this film? I’ve been reading comics my whole life. I particularly like the way Grant Morrison has written about Batman and Joker, that they’re toxic lovers more than anything. They’re two sides of the same coin: Batman as this vigilante agent of order, and Joker is this vigilante agent of chaos. And they can’t kill each other because they need each other. And in Frank Miller’s portrayal, in The Dark Knight Returns, Joker is closer to David Bowie. We’ve never seen Joker explored in that way in a cinematic space. And to me that was the thing that was the fair use parody critique that we could bring to it. Like, let’s actually talk about representation and not in an annoying way. Let’s talk about it in a practical way of how a character like the Joker could be related to the experience of a trans woman. Todd Phillips’ Joker was inspiring to me. It was a comic book movie about a mentally ill person who the system is failing, his family system is failing him. Everything is collapsing around him and he just wants to make people laugh and be himself, and he can’t even do that. People are exploiting him… I related to that so much as a trans woman and as a comedian. We really

wanted to amplify those things. And thinking about the Joker as a mythic figure and the trickster archetype and the jester and all that stuff, in the context of queerness and magick, was very much part of it, too. I don’t know, I needed to mythologize my life to sort of understand it.

Is that why there are two Joker figures in the film? I know that the character of Mr. J is not technically Joker, but he is very indebted in his look and attitude to Jared Leto from Suicide Squad. I genuinely love Jared Leto Joker, first and foremost. Suicide Squad 2016 is probably my favorite modern comic book movie just because it’s so crazy. And its portrayal of Joker is kind of this weird raver gangster vibe in scummy Hot Topic. It’s a version of Joker I had always wanted to see, quite frankly. So that was the kernel of inspiration. The character of Mr. J in this film is based on an actual relationship I had with a comedian. We were very toxic together, and he was very abusive and [terrible]. So it made sense to make him Jared Leto Joker.

One of the first ideas we had at the script level was the first line in the movie: “From as far back as I could remember, I always wanted to be a Joker,” this idea of a Joker in this reality being a career you could have. It’s a part of their economic capitalist hellscape. So l think it kind of was, like, let’s take this sort of iconic portrayal of the Joker and put a parody, fair use commentary spin on it by casting a trans man, Kane Distler. The idea of having a Jared Leto Joker with top surgery scars, I love it. That’s the stuff in the movie that just got me so excited. And having him as a sort of composite next to Joker the Harlequin, the Joker I’m playing, was there to demonstrate that I was making a new version of this character. Having both of them demonstrates that my Joker in the movie is a new version that you’ve never seen before and is only a Joker that I could make.

That’s true for the look of the film, too. There really isn’t anything that has the aesthetic of The People’s Joker. Necessity is the mother of invention. Writing it, we’d reach a point every five pages or so where Bri and I would turn to each other and go, “I don’t know how we’re going to do this. We just wrote a sequence where two characters are breaking up while a Batmobile is chasing them. And then they crash into a river and it descends into a whole big final showdown between our parody

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