JULY 2018

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JULY

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Exclusive Interviews Yes Co-Founder Tony Kaye | 18 Ritchie Blackmore | 20 Benny and Mary Ellen Andrews, Alice Neel, 1972.

Museum of Modern Art.

ART 5 | That Last Summer Night

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MORE FILM 24 |

EXHIBITIONS I

Studio Visit: Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund The Museum of Modern Art

Along the Harlem River, 1925. Malvin Gray Johnson (1896–1934). Oil on canvas board, 12 × 16 inches. Delaware Art Museum..

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The World on View: Objects from Universal Expositions, 1851-1915 Arthur Ross Gallery Celestial Glass Twenty-Two Gallery 7 |

EXHIBITIONS II

Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay Philadelphia Photo Arts Center Tony Kaye.

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Swarm Penn. Academy of the Fine Arts

PHOTOJOURNALIST

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FOODIE FILE

DOCUMENTARY

SINGER / SONGWRITER

JAZZ/ ROCK/CLASSICAL/ALT F.J. Haydn/Anne-Marie McDermott Satoko Fujii Alchemy Sound Project Dialeto

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JAZZ LIBRARY Ron Carter

NIGHTLIFE

FILM 16 | Damsel 22 |

FILM ROUNDUP Eighth Grade Hereditary Ocean’s 8 Sorry to Bother You

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PRESIDENT

Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com

filipiakr@comcast.net

Ry Cooder Kinky Friedman The Innocence Mission Ally Venable Band Gene Turonis aka Gene D. Plumber 28 |

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FOREIGN

MUSIC 26 |

Filling the hunger since 1992

EDITORIAL Editor / Trina McKenna

Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal

THEATER

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The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, opinion and mad genius

Lean on Pete Tully You Were Never Really Here The Death of Stalin

Five Seasons: The Gardens Of Piet Oudolf

African-American Art: Migration and Modernism Delaware Art Museum

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Ritchie Blackmore and Candice Night.

Photo: Michael Keel.

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REEL NEWS

ICON

ETCETERA 32 | Harper’s Findings 32 | Harper’s Index 34 | L. A. Times Crossword 35 | Agenda

Raina Filipiak / Advertising PRODUCTION

Richard DeCosta Susan O’Neill Rita Kaplan

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

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ART ESSAY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

THAT LAST SUMMER NIGHT THE SUMMER OF LOVE was three thousand miles away, far enough that Fred and I had no idea it was happening. For us it was a season in suspension, drifting with the breeze, topdown under starry skies in his mother’s black 1960 Ford Sunliner convertible.

On clear evenings we would take the road north out of town past the edge of suburbia to the ageless woods and farms of upper Bucks County. We’d ride through the dark rarely seeing another car along narrow roads that followed the contour of the land; roads with names like Cowpath, Skunk Hollow, and Upper Stump.

Fred slid the bench seat as far back as it would go, and I opened a couple of quarts of Schaefer. He took his foot off the gas and we coasted at idle, speedometer barely registering, cold beers between our thighs, smoking Marlboros in the soft dashboard light and listening to the radio. Nothing is real. And nothing to get hung about.

The last summer was free and lazy and coming to an end. Decisions had to be made. I knew I wasn’t right for college. My brother wrote me from Vietnam imploring me a number of times to join the Navy before I got drafted but I didn’t think that was my answer either. It was just one of many uncertainties in a confusing time.

Fred and I both were born five years after World War II ended. He grew up in a coal town among the gray mountains of rural Pennsylvania. I spent my early years in the shadow of Manhattan. Our families later moved not far from each other and we became high school friends.

Our parents had lived through that war, and our fathers fought in it. It was a war everybody participated in—a war that they decidedly and heroically won.

But those awful, testing years and the two decades that followed revealed

many contradictions in the Great American Way, creating fissures in society.

Our parent’s generation expected a return to an improved version of their old world and had reasons to fear the changes they saw. They clung to ideals that didn’t exist anymore. Young people were abandoning the morés, biases, and convictions of their parents; certain that things could and should be better than that. There were cries about a breakdown in morality, but double standards were everywhere. We had all seen and heard too much.

Fences were collapsing, and our society was losing restraint.

We watched ourselves come unglued from a distance on television: the commanding voice in the new order. It broadly cast a blend of earnest effort, vaudeville, and revival tent, often substituting gravity and passion for truth. We sat transfixed as Disney

played against war newsreels. Gilligan’s Island against Cronkite. It was easy to be taken for a ride in the Summer of Love; even a relief. And the white knight is talking backwards, and the red queen’s off with her head.

Fred eased the car up to the stop sign at Railroad Avenue. Scents of rust and sulphur rose with the moist air gathering in the gully that ran beside the track bed. He turned off the engine and lights. Cicadas ratcheted in the weeds on either side of us. We sat in the dark for maybe ten minutes, heads back, looking at the heavens, immersed in the sounds and smells of the moment, pulling on our beers.

We quietly talked, recalling a road trip taken earlier that year in the middle of the night, back to where he used to live to pick up his prom date. His hometown was a place where you went for a shot and a beer right after work

even if your shift ended at six in the morning. It was still dark when we arrived. A small diner glowed open on the main street and we stopped to have breakfast, the only ones in the place, a couple of Nighthawks.

“Remember finding that piece of glass in the sugar?” Fred said, starting to laugh. “Just sitting there on top of your spoon?”

I chuckled into my bottle. “That was a pretty grimy town,” I said. Fred nodded and flicked his cigarette into the ditch.

Lights swept over the trees behind us. Fred glanced up at the rearview mirror, started the car, and after consideration spun the wheel and we slowly turned the corner toward nowhere in particular. The radio lit up, again painting us golden. Skipped the light fandango. Turned cartwheels ‘cross the floor. n

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EXHIBITIONS I

Louise Bourgeois, Untitled, 1989.

Studio Visit: Selected Gifts from Agnes Gund The Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53rd Street, New York City moma.org Through July 22

The World on View: Objects from Universal Expositions, 1851-1915 Arthur Ross Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania 220 South 34th Street, Philadelphia, PA Housed in the Fisher Fine Arts Library building 215-898-2083 arthurrossgallery.org Through July 29

This exhibition pays tribute to the more than 800 works of art Agnes Gund has funded over the past half century. These gifts have come steadily and reliably during her decades of service as a key member of several departmental acquisition committees and her tenure as the Museum’s President from 1991 to 2002. “My friendships with artists,” she has said, “as well as a sensitivity to the challenges facing women artists and artists of color, have been formative in shaping my collection, which is deeply personal and deeply autobiographical.”

This exhibition explores competing visions of the world and mechanisms of international exchange, materialized as objects displayed at world’s fairs. Examples include a photo-sculpture executed at the 1867 Paris exhibition; Chinese export porcelain and Japanese metalwork designed for international consumption; Manchester textiles made for the Sengalese market; Chitimacha tribal baskets woven in St. Louis in 1904; and a Paul Gauguin painting.

Swimming Toward the Light. Four glass 18” x 18” metal-framed glass panels. Each Panel is two sheets of tempered glass painted with acrylic paint.

Celestial Glass Joanne Balaban Olen Twenty-Two Gallery 236 S. 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 215-772-1911 twenty-twogallery.com Through July 8 Unique works on glass by local artist and designer, Joanne Balaban Olen. “[I’ve been] extremely drawn to color as far back as I can remember. Crayons, spools of thread, paint. Experimenting with as many materials as I could, immersing myself in the artistic and design processes, I have honed these skills for decades in my professional life as an Interior Designer. When looking for creative and immersive, dynamic and thoughtful ways to cover large multi story surfaces, I developed the format for my multi-panel glass paintings. This format allows me to express color in a pure yet evocative way, translucent, and dimensional. The pieces in this show are meant to enhance your living or working space with soothing liquid color. Each individual painting consists of two panels of tempered glass, acrylic and metal paint, framed in metal. Commissions welcome. Let your mind wander and enjoy the ride.”

Chitimacha; Chitimacha Basket, Single-weave basket bowl, tcik ka-ni (blackbird’s eye) pattern, 1904; River cane; University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology; Purchased from Miss McIlhenny, 1906

Nick Cave, Soundsuit, 2011.

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Nutshell Novelty Company, St. Louis Exposition in a Nutshell, c. 1904, accordian-folded lithographs, nutshell and string

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Sandstone Wreath, 24" x 18," framed glass & wire.

EXHIBITIONS II

Artist: Nestor Armando Gil.

Swarm Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 118-128 North Broad Street Philadelphia, PA 215-972-7600 pafa.org Through September 9

Compliant Detainee Media Room, Camp 5

Debi Cornwall Welcome to Camp America: Inside Guantánamo Bay Philadelphia Photo Arts Center 1400 N American St #103 Philadelphia PA philaphotoarts.org Through August 25 In 2002, the U.S. opened the first “War on Terror” prison at the United States Naval Station in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (known as “Gitmo” after its military call letters, GTMO). Conceptual documentary artist and former civil rights lawyer Debi Cornwall’s exhibition locates the familiar in this state of exception, marrying empathy and dark humor with systemic critique. This exhibition investigates the human experience of Gitmo for both prisoners and guards, through their residential and leisure spaces (Gitmo at Home, Gitmo at Play series), and giftshop souvenirs (Gitmo on Sale series). In the 16 years since its prisons opened, Gitmo has housed 780 “detainees.” The vast majority have been cleared and released, returning home or transferred to third countries.

Smoke Break, Camp America, 2014

Black Orpheus, 1969. Humbert Howard (1905–1992). Oil and collage on board, 49 3/4 × 40 inches. Delaware Art Museum, Gift of Dr. John E. and Carol Hunt, 2009 ©Howard Heartsfield Gallery.

African-American Art: Migration and Modernism Delaware Art Museum 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, DE 302-571-9590 delart.org Through September 2 Delaware Art Museum spotlights the work of Black artists in our gallery dedicated to modern art.

The paintings, prints, and sculptures on view celebrate the rich legacy of African American modernism between the 1920s and the 1970s. Alongside two of Jacob Lawrence’s prints, the installation features favorites by Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, Norman Lewis, and Edward Loper, Sr., as well as recently acquired examples by Humbert Howard, Malvin Gray Johnson, Robert Neal, and Beulah Ecton Woodard.

Pacific World War II Still Life, c.1941–1945. Robert Neal (1916– 1987). Oil on Masonite, 16 1/2 × 22 inches.Delaware Art Museum, Acquisition Fund, 2017 © Artist’s Estate.

The work of artists Didier William (b. 1983) and Nestor Armando Gil (b. 1971) beckons viewers, as an imperative, to physically and intellectually “swarm” conceptions of colonialism in order to disarm such narratives of power. Didier William, born in Haiti, is a painter and printmaker, whose work critiques the historical narratives of colonialism through strategies of mythmaking. Nestor Armando Gil was born to Cuban immigrants in Florida. His work examines movement, memory, and loss within diasporic communities in sculpture and performance. Rather than adhering to previous historical outcomes, William and Gil investigate the processes of building community across diaspora, dislocation, and relocation.

Artist: Didier William.

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THEATER VALLEY

CITY

How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying. Frankie Grande—live-wire star of Broadway musicals, cabaret acts, reality shows and social-media platforms-returns to Muhlenberg College, his 2005 alma mater, to play Finch, who zooms from window washer to wicket mogul thanks to advice from a satirical corporate bible. Grande steps into shoes worn by Robert Morse, Matthew Broderick and other super troopers. (Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, July 11-29)

Sweat. About a year ago this month, I chatted with Paige Price—the then-new producing artistic director of the Philadelphia Theatre Company (PTC) at Suzanne Roberts Theater on Broad Street, who officially made her first order of business a sudden shut down of its 2017-2018 season with no new self-produced plays to follow. Otherwise cool local-theater heads exploded. Not Price’s. She knew that PTC in 2015 was in a nearly $1 million debt wormhole, with a nearly $2 million loan to buy back the theater after losing it in foreclosure. And Price had pulled another theater out of hock in the past: Theatre Aspen. “In Aspen,” she said, “there are people with enthusiasm for supporting the arts—mostly individuals, as there is no corporate or foundation support at all.” Price made that theater scene a vibrant, fun, and entertaining family culture where locals pulled for the little company that could.

Price asserted in 2017 that hers was a temporary reset “other local theater operators said in quiet they wish they had the opportunity to do…. I was excited to come to Philadelphia because it was a city with an artistic community I heard much about. I wasn’t scared off by the challenges. The biggest question I had going into this was about the culture of philanthropy.”

Now after what she called, “the gap year,” Prince is ready to commence PTC’s 44th Season with the announcement of its first production, playwright Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Sweat. Justin Emeka directs a cast stoked with local stars and Barrymore Award-winners. “Of the nine cast members, I am proud to share that eight of them are based right here at home. It was a goal from the beginning to cast this particular play with local talent that Philadelphia audiences would recognize and to whom they would connect.” That dovetails nicely with the fact that the story of Sweat is based, in part, in Reading with the newest generation of ages-old families working union plant jobs, are coming to the hard reality of unemployment and loss of legacy. And with that comes a cast of esteemed locals such as Barrymore nominee Kittson O’Neill (she also has a role in M. Night Shyamalan’s upcoming Glass), InterAct regular Kimberly Fairbanks, Suli Holum, Brian Anthony Wilson (also in Glass), Barrymore nominee J. Hernandez, and Barrymore Awardwinner and New Paradise Lab Company member Matteo Scammell.

Sweat will run October 12 to November 4. philatheatreco.org.

Crazy for You. Gershwin songs from ancient Broadway shows drive this 1992 Tonywinning musical revolving around a banking heir who tries to save a foreclosed Wild West theater and win the love of a saloon keeper by staging a follies revue while pretending he’s the Broadway impresario he wants to impress. (Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick’s Mill Rd., Bethlehem, July 27-28, Aug. 3-5 and 9-12) The Fox on the Fairway. Golf is boring, annoying and good only for communing with beautiful courses better off as parks. Yet I thoroughly enjoyed the Pennsylvania Playhouse production of Ken Ludwig’s farce, which pivots on a golf-tournament bet between rival country-club presidents. Director George Miller and crew cavorted with a story involving a stolen pro, a surprise substitute pro with a fragile ego, a Shakespearean battlefield speech and a Victorian Ming Dynasty vase. Brian Welsko had a field day as the nervous replacement golfer, hissy fitting with “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” aplomb. Tatiana Torres exploded with firecracker charm as his waitress fiancée, whose lost engagement ring wrecks his confidence and commanding lead. Pat Kelly played the underdog club president with delightful understated sarcasm. Jeanie Olah played his rival’s sexpot ex-wife with delightful daffiness. Miller established a nice balance between unhinged, hinged and half hinged, leaving the winning impression of golf as a wacky game of pinball.

Newsies. Northampton Community College opened its second summer season with a strikingly smart staging of a musical about smart-ass newsboys who strike after a publisher raises their distribution fee. Patrick Davis gave Jack Kelly, the thick-skinned, soft-hearted chief newsie, the punchy, poetic personality of a James Cagney song-and-dance man. Samantha Prentice was terrifically tenacious as rookie reporter Katherine Plumber, whose stock rises when she casts the newsies as exploited children. She and Davis sparred impressively, grinding grains of sand into pearls. Karen Richards set the house on fire as a huge-lunged theater owner. Buster Page, 8, made headlines as a pipsqueak newsie with a hilariously sophisticated mouth. Bill Mutimer’s spry, sly direction was complemented by unusually robust chorus singing and deft dancing with chairs, tables and newspaper pages.

A Softening of Her Eyes. Ara Barlieb’s new play is named after a hit song sung by a troubled Iraq War veteran who escapes his rape trial to plead his case during a live radio talk show. Directed by Barlieb for his Crowded Kitchen Players, this daring drama flips between studio and courtroom; features searing monologues about sexual, military and legal dilemmas, and breaks into refreshing comedy when the AWOL prisoner performs his hit song with his new on-air partners. William Alexander Jr.’s vet was rivetingly raw and eloquent, seductive and scary; he delivered an electrifying MRI of the soul. Trish Cipoletti’s talk-show host nimbly toed the tightrope of control and confusion, empathy and rage. Dan Ferry gave a gradually engrossing performance as a zealous first-time public defender and client wrangler.

Testimonies ran too long, pacing dragged, and a brutal twist was hard to swallow.

Nevertheless, “A Softening of Her Eyes” is a fascinating hybrid of everything from To Kill a Mockingbird to Dog Day Afternoon. n

First Impressions. For the last seven years, Tony Braithwaite has been the artistic director of Act II Playhouse, an intimate Ambler nook that doubles as one of the area’s most formidable theaters covering old, new, classic and contemporary plays and musicals, while offering a steady slate of comic and dramatic education programs. Along with Mitch Albom’s heartfelt Tuesdays with Morrie running at Act II from July 10-29, Tony Braithwaite’s next shot at that stage will be directing one of his hero’s (Neil Simon) most winning comedies, Biloxi Blues Aug. 28-Sept. 23.

Before that, however, Braithwaite has got some work to take care of at Montgomery Theater in Souderton; first in another of Simon’s sexiest shows, The Last of the Red Hot Lovers, and then with Tony’s own First Impressions, which runs July 12 until July 22. The last time Braithwaite did a First Impressions, it was a one-man show with its author taking on historical and hysterical impersonations of presidents taking part in everything from comedic skits to original songs. “Now, the focus will be on political satire and presidential impressions, and I will be joined by Howie Brown, Tracie Higgins and Owen Robbins at the piano.” Braithwaite calls 2018’s First Impressions more of a hybrid of the first incarnation at Act II and new stuff—“like me as Trump running for mayor of Souderton,” he said, while slanting his newer inspirations on everything from Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show to Dana Carvey, Will Ferrell, Bill Maher, and legendary ’60s JFK impersonator Vaughan Meader. montgomerytheater.org actII.org n

— GEOFF GEHMAN

— A.D. AMOROSI

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THE PHOTOJOURNALIST

Above clockwise: Young girl in Tora Bora village, Afghanistan; Portrait of a Hutu refugee, traumatized by the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Rwanda. Kibuye, 1996; The first step you take as an exile is to leave your country, often at the risk of your own life. After this difficult transition, one begins the subtler process of trying to rebuild; During the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (1979-1989), an old Afghan man in exile reads the Koran, seated on a bed in the middle of the mountains at the Afghan-Pakistani border. Afghanistan, 1983.

Reza Deghati A philanthropist, idealist, humanist, architect by training, and famous photojournalist, primarily for National Geographic, Reza, lives to photograph another day. For the past 30 years he has traveled the world bearing witness to moments of war and peace. Reza is not just a photographer—he is committed to training women and children, through world-wide workshops, in visual media and communications to help them strive for a better life. In 2001, he founded the NGO Aina in Afghanistan to encourage media training around the world, while continuing to produce incredible images of original scenes from his travels for the international media.

He says: “I do not consider myself a war photographer. Rather I am a photographer of peace. I have the illusion that by showing war I will be able to change something in the way people perceive it.”

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For nearly 20 years, the legendary Afghan resistant Massoud (right) led his people, first against the Russians, and later against the Taliban, in order to liberate his country. Pictured: Commander Massoud (19532001) with a group of Mujahedeen in Panjshir Valley during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan (19791989). Afghanistan, Panjshir Valley / 1985

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FOODIE FILE

BY A.D. AMOROSI

Suraya interior.

Suraya garden.

Hop Sing Laundromat interior.

Hop Sing Laundromat bar area.

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All Tastes, Many Drinks, One Season A TWIST ON LEBANON Once Greg Root—a one-time Stephen Starr Restaurants general manager—got a taste for his own place with his Fishtown hot spot, Root Restaurant + Wine Bar, there was no stopping the flow of ideas. With that, there’s the tony Middle Eastern-inspired food destination space, Suraya, at 1528 Frankford Avenue; 10,000+ square feet of Mediterranean diaspora elegance with a heavenly garden that’s roughly 4,000 square feet. “We want the entire space to feel welcoming and inviting in all aspects,” said Root of Suraya, its spice market elements, full bar and café. “Many guests have said that they feel like they’re on vacation when coming in. There’s nothing else like it in the country, and our partners Nathalie Richan and Roland Kassis had a vision for the place their whole lives.”

“Suraya is in honor of our grandmother’s strength and bravery that kept our family together growing up in Lebanon,” said Nathalie. “We hope that her genuine passion for food and family is shown throughout all the details.” With the interior of Suraya (laid out by Richard Stokes Architecture) existing as an oasis, its newly-opened golden garden space—designed by Groundswell, the same people who did Spruce Street Harbor Park and La Peg—had to be equally ethereal. “Groundswell is the preeminent landscape design firm in Philly and they do a great job at designing spaces that look like they’ve been there for years,” said Root. “We want it to feel like you are sitting outside in Beirut, enjoying mezze, cocktails, beer and wine when you’re in the garden of Suraya.”

The only thing better than the design of the garden space is the fact that as of last month, Suraya has opened in the evenings for the most decadent dinners that end of BeyondGirard Avenue has witnessed. Along with a dedication to all things hummus-y, everything from the halabi kebab (monster truck bites of lamb, grilled with muhammara—roasted red pepper and garlic—walnuts and chili) to the djej meshwi (whole poussin marinated in sumac, garlic and lemon), to the meaty Caledonia prawns, was rough-hewn and potently flavorful. Along with Suraya’s rustic, rich food menu is an elegantly appointed cocktail list that, on more than a few occasions, features Arak, an aromatic anise-flavored aperitif the Lebanese call “The Milk of Lions.” Sweet.

NOT SO STANDARD Right around the corner from Greg Root’s HQ, The International has opened by the Standard Tap and Johnny Brenda team of William Reed and Paul Kimport. The huge, 1624

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North Front Street space (and one-time home to Shenanigans Under the El,), features bars on every one of its floors, and focuses its attention on cocktails (the upstairs bar actually has its own concoction, Service Bar Rye, made with Philly’s Rowhouse Spirits) and a 24-tap Cruvinet system loaded with sherry and fortified wines. Sherry? I feel like Fraiser Crane just thinking of it. The food of The International, however, will be less formal than its designer mixed drink levels, as Paul Lyon’s menu is snack-y and skewer-y and yummy.

DRINK UP Long before its start, this writer was one of a fleeting few people to gain entry into the mind of Lê (singularly named, like Madonna and Cher) and his then (and still, really) handsome hidden away cocktail salon, Hop Sing Laundromat in Chinatown. Along with ceilings for days, and coins stitched into the very fabric of Lê’s holy room, his church-like HSL became as renowned for its entry levels of privacy and decorum—a dress code, no selfies, no cameras, no talking on the phone in the bar area—as it is for cocktails such as the legendary rum and fresh red grape juice potion, the Henry Box Brown. The charm of Hop Sing Laundromat has always been that it’s run at Lê’s discretion and obsession, and now Lê is running it a little less often, now that he’s been in the game for a minute: three days a week. I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t been there for some time, but now that the rarity is even greater, you’ll see me at the Laundromat.

MEETING THE MET It’s going to take a minute before you can see anything at The Met Philadelphia on North Broad Street—the newest of Live Nation venues, and a $56 million restoration project in partnership with Divine Lorraine developer, Eric Blumenfeld—but I can tell you what it will taste like. The one-time Philadelphia Opera House, originally built by Oscar Hammerstein in 1908, will get its culinary amenities from Brûlée Catering (by James Beard Award-winning Chef Jean-Marie Lacroix) for the purposes of creating “an unprecedented experience.” Knowing that Wolfgang Puck’s catering firm tackled The Fillmore Philadelphia upon its opening gives you a picture of what is in store at the new Met. The idea of a highend culinary service program—including full-dining options within its private rental, box suite and its Grande Salle (“an upscale lounge and event space for pre-, during-, and postshow entertaining”) gives you an idea of what’s in store for The Met’s four floors of event space and its expansive on-site kitchen. Bon appetite, and rock on. n

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NIGHTLIFE

JULY

CURATED BY A.D. AMOROSI

4 SAM SMITH

12 YELLOWMAN

19 BLACKMORE’S NIGHT

22 FEMI KUTI

The most mournfully moaning way to spend a national holiday is with this skinny Englishman and his sad, electronic ballads. Wells Fargo Center wellsfargocenterphilly.com

With “Nobody Move, No Body Get Hurt,” this Jamaican reggae and dancehall DJ and singer made his mad, bad reputation. Ardmore Music Hall. ardmoremusichall.com

This son of African highlife great has long had his own jazzier, hornier ca-

7 FOO FIGHTERS

14 KEVIN HART: IRRESPONSIBLE TOUR

The last time the men who fought Foo were in Camden, Dave Grohl crushed it whole rocking in a wheel-

Philly’s own, has become the planets biggest stand-up comedian and comedy flick thespian. With that rep, Hart seems to be able to create new mate-

Grab your tambourine or your tankard of ale, and sing and dance with Blackmore’s Night “Under A Violet Moon.” To The Moon and Back: 20 Years And Beyond… an amazing collection of music from Blackmore's Night. Keswick Theatre. keswicktheatre.com [Interview on page 20.]

19-21 BRITNEY SPEARS

The princess of pop has spent much of the last six years decamped in Las Vegas, where she’s been free to let pythons slither and dance teams wriggle in time with her. Now, it’s our turn to catch her lurid new show. The Borgata. theborgata.com 20 BECK WITH GLASS ANIMALS

the immaculate indie pop weirdo and Grammy Award winning album maker chair from the effects of a broken leg.

Wait and see what he does on the good foot. BB&T Pavilion. pavilioncamden.com

14 HALSEY WITH CHARLIE XCX

11 STEELY DAN/ THE DOOBIE BROS

Two of the 70s soulful-est, smoothest, smartest ensembles swing together

16 KINKY FRIEDMAN

The one-time Texas gubernatorial candidate and detective novelist does what he does best: wry, humorous, county-inspired, song making with his new album, Circus of Life. Sellersville Theater. st94.com

28 THE EAGLES W/ JAMES TAYLOR

returns to scene of the smooth, but kinky, pop music crime with his 2017 album Colors. Festival Pier. festivalpierphilly.com 21 WEEZER, PIXIES WITH SLEIGH BELLS

JULY 18 ERASURE

through one manly harmony-driven evening. Plus, this is Steely Dan and Donald Fagen’s first time through this market without his longtime partner in crime, the late Walter Becker. BB&T Pavilion. pavilioncamden.com 14

New Jersey’s own pop hit maker had trouble finishing off his most recently recent album, Voicenotes. So he started all over again with a fresh batch of Todd Rundgren-like smashes. BB&T Pavilion. pavilioncamden.com

Too often ignored for flashier, modern soul men, Saadig is the real deal, encyclopedic musicians who can go from Motown to house sounds within seconds. Union Transfer. utphilly.com

rial, pretty much every summer.

BB&T Pavilion. pavilioncamden.com

Two of modern electro pop’s most exciting writer/performers—both surpassing the usual set of influences— hit the shore. The Borgata.

TheBorgata.com

Steely Dan. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen,1995.

24 CHARLIE PUTH W/ HAILEE STEINFELD

24 RAPHAEL SAADIQ

10 THE STRUTS

You say you love a good shambling Rolling Stones meet Gran Parson impersonation? Welcome here.

Steelstacks steelstacks.org

reer than his late pop, but funnier, too. Steelstacks. steelstacks.org

Composer Vince Clarke has had but two loves in his life, Depeche Mode and Erasure, each of which has made innovative strides in pop electronic, UK division. The Merriam. kimmelcenter.com 18 CHRIS BROWN

The jury is still out as to what to make of Chris Brown, the man. As an R&B hip hop artist, you can’t touch him. BB&T Pavilion. pavilioncamden.com

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The indie rocking-est triple bill of the season. BB&T Pavilion. pavilioncamden.com

Nobody can be certain just how long Don Henley and Joe Walsh will celebrate the noir sound of summer— The Eagles—without the late Glenn Frey by their side. Here’s hoping that the new additions to the ensemble (including Frey’s son) keep them going. Citizens Bank Park. mlb.com 28 SMASHING PUMPKINS

Billy Corgan’s alterna-Bowie act has been silent for a minute. Yet, new material and this almost-full membership tour shows that the Smashing Pump-

21 THE ADVENTURES OF KESHA & MACKLEMORE

While Macklemore feels bad about being a Caucasian in hip hop, Kesha is in the throes of a fantastic comeback about being silenced as a pop hit maker by evil men who have done her harm. Look it up. Hershey Stadium. HersheyEntertainment.com

kins can still out-creep all comers.

Wells Fargo Center. wellsfargocenterphilly.com n

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15

FILM

BY PETE CROATTO

Damsel WHAT HAS LINGERED IN the aftermath of the #MeToo movement is the expectations some men have of women. I fear movies may have played a significant role. If a lovesick man makes a bold gesture or puts his heart on his sleeve, the object of desire succumbs to his bravery and falls into his arms in swoony gratitude as the screen fades to black.

Women were never asked if this was OK. Years of reinforcement has led some men to believe that it’s their right to get the girl. If a woman is not interested, she has the problem. She’s not following the script.

Damsel, the brilliant comedy from brothers David and Nathan Zellner, masterfully knocks the notion of male entitlement on its ass by skewering the quintessential macho genre, the Western. Slowly, certainly, the brothers reeled me in until I was laughing out loud and enlightened.

When we first meet Samuel (Robert Pattinson) he docks his small boat and walks off with a minihorse. A rifle and a guitar crisscross his back. His mission: propose to the girl he loves, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska). Once Samuel revives the drunken pastor (David Zellner) he’s paid for to officiate the ceremony, the duo heads off to find Penelope.

The plan grows more suspect as the journey 16

continues. An impromptu proposal and wedding should not require a firearm, and leaving town surprises the pastor. You’d think the wife-to-be would be nearby. By the time the two men find Penelope, she greets her surprise guests with a shotgun. In fact, she was perfectly happy before Samuel showed up with a frazzled stranger. And says so. Repeatedly.

No one listens. Instead, Samuel claims he got mixed signals.

At this point, Damsel blossoms into a robust spoof of modern-day sexual politics. On four separate occasions, a man intercedes on Penelope’s behalf. One tries to save her. Three want to marry her.

Each time she scoffs at their advances. They can’t comprehend that a woman would voluntarily exist without a man. The notion has endured since the 1870s. Just ask a woman attending a wedding by herself.

“You’re next!”

“It’ll happen for you!”

That she might be happy right now rarely gets considered.

The Zellners proceed with deadpan efficiency.

Pattinson and Wasikowska refuse to get cutesy with the material or clue anyone in on the joke.

Wasikowska correctly portrays Penelope as frustrat-

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ed by the stupidity surrounding her: she wants to live life on her terms, not what backward frontier society has prescribed for her. Pattinson, with his joker’s grim and squirrelly charm, is perfect. You can’t tell whether Samuel is insane, in love, or vacillating between the two.

When the focus shifts from Samuel to Penelope, the comedy grows tart and sly. A dying man attempts to fondle Penelope’s breasts; the pastor, a man supposedly secure in his rapport with God, pleads with a Native American (the late Joseph Billingerie) to take him in, a pitch-perfect take on racial appropriation; Penelope responds to one marriage proposal by throwing a rock in the man’s face.

“All I want is love,” he says. ”Love and survival is all I want!”

“You’re not exclusive in that notion,” she says A woman, both in real life and in fiction, is not obligated to love a lost or lonely man. Another movie would have rewarded Samuel for his journey into the wilderness. In Damsel, he’s another maladjusted doofus. By refusing to follow the rules, Penelope gets what she wants: which is to get what she wants and not be scrutinized for it. I suspect she’s not the only woman who wants that now or in the future. That ending I can endorse. [R] n

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17

INTERVIEW

BY A.D. AMOROSI

L

YES

co-founder Tony Kaye returns to the fold

LAST YEAR, ON THE occasion of his thencurrent tour as “Yes featuring” with co-founding vocalist Jon Anderson and guitarist Trevor Rabin, the always chatty pianist-keyboardist Rick Wakeman seemed annoyed at having to discuss that other Yes—the one with drummer Alan White, keyboardist Geoff Downes and Yes elder/guitarist Steve Howe.

“The true catalyst for that tour was when Chris died,” said Wakeman of the late Squire, Yes’ co-founding bassist who legendarily ousted Anderson in 2008 when the singer was momen-

FOR ALL OF ITS ETHEREAL LYRICS (MOSTLY ANDERSON’S) SPEAKING OF PEACE, THE PLANETS AND OUR EVER-SHIFTING PSYCHIC LANDSCAPES, THE STORY OF YES, BEYOND MUSIC, IS A TUMULTUOUS TALE OF TORRID PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, SPITE, DIVISION, COLDNESS AND ANIMUS.

tarily felled with acute respiratory failure. “Quite frankly, we realized then that we are not immortal, that you never know what the future holds, and that if we didn’t do what we wanted now, we might never.”

On the subject of a tour with them billed as Yes, and the other act billed as Yes, Wakeman laughed and said, “That’s a very good question.

See, I was very happy being called AWR [Anderson, Rabin, Wakeman]. It’s clear who we are. I know who we are. Now, I don’t know quite know how, honestly, but we became ‘Yes featuring blahblahblah.’ There wouldn’t be any confusion if the other guys billed themselves as ‘Yes featuring Howe, White, Downes.’ I don’t know and I don’t have any real interest in what they do. I really don’t mind. It does, though, cause some confusion.”

And with that, there was but one more 18

question for Wakeman: has anyone thought since Squire’s passing to try one more all-Yesthing or has that ship sailed? “It wouldn’t happen. Not now. Both sides would tell you. It couldn’t work.”

That is why—starting this spring—the Steve Howe/Alan White-based Yes (with another Jon, Jon Davison as its singer since 2011) is not only on the road as it has been with fair consistency, but out now in tribute to the band’s 50th anniversary with “The Golden Celebration.”

For the Philadelphia iteration of this tour (July 20 and 21 at The Fillmore Philadelphia), and this tour stop only, there will be a Yes Convention of memorabilia, band meet-and-greets (even one-time keyboardist Patrick Moraz, Wakeman’s replacement) and fan art that will take place during the afternoon; a gathering fueled, in part, by the singular love and fandom shown Yes by its Philly fan base.

“Philadelphia was a big town for us since our start. I still have people that I call friends from Philadelphia that I made on those earliest of tours,” says organist/keyboardist Tony Kaye, the secret weapon of this Howe/White Yes. “Yes fans have been so dedicated in their support, and the music would have meant little without them, but Philly fans are a breed unto themselves.”

Like Anderson and Squire, Kaye was a founding member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-inducted ensemble; there from 1968 until 1971 (when he was dismissed in order to slip sleeker Wakeman into the synthesizer stool), and then again from 1983 until 1995, because…. well, that’s how Yes is. For all of its ethereal lyrics (mostly Anderson’s) speaking of peace, the planets and our ever-shifting psychic landscapes, the story of Yes, beyond music, is a tumultuous tale of torrid personal relationships, spite, division, coldness and animus.

“Was that there, as such at the beginning?” asks Kaye with a chuckle and the incredulity of

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the question. “I don’t think so. That sort of behavior didn’t seem… or couldn’t be predicted, at our even earliest stages of existence.” Kaye has a deep, gentlemanly voice, and doesn’t seem the gossipy type. Heck, he played with David Bowie through his darkest, most cocainefueled era—the 1976 Station to Station and its tour—and never uttered a bitchy word.

“Although, I will admit, there were very distinct personalities to be seen and heard in that first band,” says Kaye, referring to Yes initiates drummer/percussionist Bill Bruford—drums, percussion (1968-1972, 1990-1992; and a pseudo Yes ABWH from 1988-1990), and guitarist Peter Banks (1968-1970; died 2013). “But that is one of the things that the fans really liked about the band from the start, that there were these five distinct personalities. And forget the records. Those five personalities truly stuck out most in concert; very strong and very distinct on stage. So, now that you’re saying it, maybe I’m not that surprised to see what has gone on between the factions. Then again, to be clear, I have been an outsider of the Yes circle for a long time.”

When Kaye continues on by saying, “…what happened to Jon Anderson was no shock. Circumstances probably could have been avoided, but weren’t. it is a strange situation,” the keyboardist should know. Kaye’s services were dismissed after friction arose between he and thennew guitarist Steve Howe who began pushing Yes toward a grander, less gritty sound than that of the organ grinding Kaye.

“You’re right; that first Yes of ours was more raw and gritty, even still psychedelic,” says Kaye of the initial trio of Yes albums—Yes (1969), Time and a Word (1970), The Yes Album (1971)—and a personal keyboard sound inspired by Deep Purple’s guttural organist Jon Lord. A reluctance on Kaye’s part, to play the Mellotron and the MiniMoog synthesizer, and stick exclusively to

Tony Kaye. Photo credit: Suzanne Reardon-Mulhall.

grand piano and Hammond organ was the thing that got him knocked out of the Yes box.

“And Keith Emerson,” Kaye chimed in, recalling the grit, energy and inspiration of the Emerson Lake & Palmer avatar. “I truly respected what he was doing at the time.” Thinking of the earliest of Yes memories for Kaye meant playing the Marquee Club and the Shaft Club in London’s post-swinging ’60s era, and meeting fellow progressive rock and jazz cats such as the late Emerson. “Chris and Jon, too, you know,” adds Kaye. “They had some pretty bold ideas of how to write songs and what they should sound like.”

With that, Kaye quietly mentioned an early residency at the Marquee (“We really didn’t know what we were

doing we were so green”), and goofy tidbits such as why he had his foot and leg in a cast on the cover of The Yes Album. “That was just one of our many car accidents with Chris behind the wheel,” says Kaye with a laugh. “Chris must have thought we were on a fourlane highway, but in reality, two of those lanes were closed down. We were trying to pass a tractor trailer in the pouring rain where none of us could really see anything, and we hit a car head on with me winding up as the injured party.”

Long past his time as a Yes man, Kaye has stayed part of the Yes fold through side-projects such as Circa led by bassist Billy Sherwood—“The reason I stayed so connected to Yes and the Hammond B3 in

the most recent past, was Chris’ own choice as his replacement before he passed.” Kaye happened to miss the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony, “…yet couldn’t have been prouder of being inducted,” and had been happily retired, happily married, and happily spending more time on the green of the tennis court than a stuffy studio or rehearsal hall.

But like Al Pacino’s Michael Corleone in The Godfather 3, every time Tony Kaye thinks that he’s out, he’s back in. “I was not ever planning or anticipating going on the road again, but the opportunity to play Yes music again—especially with Steve—for the milestone of our 50th anniversary…well, it only happens once. Let’s make the very most of it with our fans.” n

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19

a

INTERVIEW

BY A.D. AMOROSI

Blackmore’s Night A LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO

fter all but creating heavy metal with Deep Purple, and refining it with Rainbow, thunder god guitarist and composer Ritchie Blackmore decided to do something really interesting: eschew his Fender Stratocaster for acoustic guitar (almost exclusively), and plug in the lutes for the Renaissance-era music of Blackmore’s Night.

Since 1997, when he decided to make music with his fiancée-turned-wife, vocalist/lyricist Candice Night, Blackmore and his partner—to say nothing of a shifting ensemble of world music and Celtic folk instrumentalists—tuck into the “olde”: classics of the form, while penning original new music that benefits from Ren-

“THE WHOLE POINT OF US GETTING TOGETHER WAS FOR HIM TO BE ABLE TO REWRITE RULES AND KICK DOWN THE

BOX THAT CONFINED HIM, WHICH WAS CORPORATE ROCK ‘N’ ROLL. WE WEREN’T GOING TO BE ABOUT WHAT’S FASHIONABLE, AND NEITHER ARE OUR FANS LOOKING

FOR THAT. WE’RE NOT A FLAVOR OF THE MOMENT, BUT ONCE PEOPLE DISCOVER US… THEY CAN’T LET US GO.”

— CANDICE

aissance school influences, arrangements and melodies. Along with changing (most of) his signature style to accommodate the intricate delicacy and quietude of Renaissance-era music, the legendarily foreboding Blackmore now seems more approachable, and dare I say, funny.

From their home/studio complex in New York state, Blackmore and Night charmingly bantered back and forth about life, love, reputation, giving the sounds of the Renaissance a kick in the codpiece and the joy of playing live 20

gigs in period costume at spots such as Keswick Theatre on July 19.

I must say that, before we start, having witnessed your shows, it must be something seeing whole crowds of people dressed, as you are, in Renaissance gear? That there is a community behind you on this.

Ritchie: It is, quite frankly. We do such a rare form of music, and we are followed by listeners devoted to the sound and the image of such songs.

Considering that Blackmore’s Night has been an ongoing process since 1997, how have you evolved the music and your roles within the Renaissance era’s sounds?

Candice: When we started, it was as an escape from rock ‘n’ roll, and its corporate world of the time; a much different place than the one Ritchie got into in 1968. Individuality and creativity was key when he first got in the game.

Bands were their own individuals, with their own distinct sounds and images.

Candice: Yes, you could tell the difference between Cream, Jethro Tull and Deep Purple.

Each had its own identity. Fast-forward 30 years and a time where he was reforming Rainbow, and the labels were asking for tapes, and giving him notes; lots of thumbs-down on his creative input. So when we first started writing, we did it strictly for ourselves. Looking at what we’ve done on albums since our start, each one seems

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to represent a specific point in our life like a yearbook or scrapbook, where we can see how we evolved as humans and musicians. Some have more medieval instruments, some rich orchestras. We got married, had kids—we’ve grown as individuals and partners discovering ourselves as well as new old music.

Ritchie: I don’t believe in evolution, I believe in spontaneity. I wake up and play whatever I want to play. I have no directive. That’s rarer than you think.

From your first album to the newest, All Our Yesterdays, and the notion of Renaissance music, like folk or blues, it’s rooted in ancient tradition. How do you write an original song that touches on its traditions and strictures, is unique and vibrant in furthering the form, and shows off your personalities?

Ritchie: I just follow my heart. It’s simple to take a medley of medieval times and create an inversion of, or an interpretation that may be a more modern sensibility. It’s a way of playing that’s more acceptable to the modern ear. Even though we’re still playing hurdy-gurdy and such, we like to play around with the instrumentation—meet audiences halfway.

Ms. Night, would you like to include anything here?

Ritchie: She should just stay out of the studio. [laughs] Candice: You might be a king on that stage, but I’m the queen of the castle.

Ritchie Blackmore.

Having witnessed your stage routine, this conversation is very much in league with that.

Candice: That type of banter is something you would never expect from Ritchie Blackmore, right? Everyone always thought of him as this deeply foreboding, don’t poke the dragon figure. Now, we’ll be together 30 years. No one has ever seen him in this light—a family man with a sense of humor Wait, though, I should add that in regard to the evolving music question: Ritchie, as far back as “Smoke on the Water,” started incorporating medieval modal scales. That wasn’t just single riffs—that was a medieval modal scale that led to that foreboding sound. Even some of the sound and visual that he did with Rainbow and Ronnie James Dio that had reflections of Renaissance ideology in his writing. When I first met him in 1989, all he played around the house was pure medieval music. You go on whatever journey that music takes you. The whole point of us getting together was for him to be able to rewrite rules and kick down the box that confined him, which was corporate rock ‘n’ roll. We weren’t going to be about what’s fash-

ionable, and neither are our fans looking for that. We’re not a flavor of the moment, but once people discover us… they can’t let us go. We have audience members that follow us wherever we go.

So all of that foreboding sound and image of your past, it was all a canard?

Were you looking for some way out of that, or someone to pull you out of that, such as Candice? Were you looking to break away from how audiences saw you?

Not particularly. Doing that music is a great challenge—some of it very complex, some of it very simple. I find the variety of it very pleasing and opening.

More so than rock ‘n’ roll, and only doing heavy riffs and such. As much as I love that sound and to play that way… this other way is disciplined, and open to quiet.

Having played classical before metal, I was always aware of the music and its tone.

Renaissance music goes beyond just turning up the amps. Playing acoustic music such as this is very unforgiving. It’s worse than being on stage and playing in only your underwear. n ICON, JULY 2018 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

21

FILM ROUNDUP

Omari Hardwick in Sorry to Bother You.

BY KEITH UHLICH

Eighth Grade (Dir. Bo Burnham). Starring: Elsie Fisher, Josh Hamilton, Daniel Zolghadri. Inside every YouTuber is a Stanley Kubrick waiting to get out. That’s one of the takeaways from viral superstar/comedian/musician Bo Burnham’s feature debut, which aptly applies a Clockwork Orange-like chill to the experience of middle school. Introverted Kayla (Elsie Fisher) is just a few days away from finishing eighth grade, and everything—from a pool party to graduation day to dinner with dad (Josh Hamilton, endearingly goofy)—feels like a world-ending crisis.

In her spare time, Kayla makes littleseen YouTube videos in which she displays the confidence she lacks in public. Burnham deftly captures the awkward horrors of adolescence, and Fisher embodies an age when pimples, hormones and emotions (amplified by the varied torments of social media) are running amok. Yet there’s an aura of twee self-satisfaction that the film never shakes, as if Burnham is condescending to the clichés of the coming-of-age genre as opposed to reinvigorating or reinventing them. [N/R] HHH 22

Hereditary (Dir. Ari Aster). Starring: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff. A critical hit at the Sundance Film Festival, writer-director Ari Aster’s competently tense yet monumentally ridiculous horror film has found a rockier reception in wide-release. Count me, as you’ve probably surmised, in the detractor camp. Despite the best efforts of star Toni Collette, as a mother and miniaturemodel artist slowly going off the deep-end, this is a derivative gloss on Rosemary’s Baby, complete with a Ruth Gordon-esque is-she-or-isn’tshe-evil piece of hamming by ubiquitous character actress Ann Dowd.

The early scenes are intriguing, as Aster charts the harrowing dissolution of the family unit—Gabriel Byrne plays Collette’s rationalist husband, Alex Wolff her pothead son, and Milly Shapiro her mentally challenged daughter. Then the supernatural scheisse starts hitting the fan and the narrative takes a hard turn toward M. Night Shyamalan territory, in all woeful senses of that description. [R]

HH

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Ocean’s 8 (Dir. Gary Ross). Starring: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway. A pleasant piece of frivolity, this primarily female spinoff of the three Steven Soderbergh films sticks to heist flick formula. Familiarity doesn’t breed contempt when you have a crew like Bullock, Blanchett, Rihanna, Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson and Helena Bonham Carter, among others striking cooler-thanschool poses while plotting to loot the annual Met Gala. The outcome is never in doubt, though that doesn’t rob the proceedings of any enjoyment. Director Gary Ross (The Hunger Games) maintains a brisk pace while displaying none of the straining significance that mars many of his other efforts. Several of the folks from the other “Ocean’s” installments pop up, and Vogue editor Anna Wintour is just one of the manycameos.

The movie has the feel of flipping through that iconic fashion magazine’s September issue—it’s both pretentiously overstuffed and winkingly vapid, and I mean those, decidedly, as compliments. [PG-13] HHH1/2

Sorry to Bother You (Dir. Boots Riley).

Starring: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Armie Hammer. How to classify the debut feature of The Coup lead vocalist Boots Riley? It’s certainly a pungent state-of-the-union satire, in which an African-American telemarketer (Lakeith Stanfield) climbs the ladder of success by kowtowing to the (white) Man and literally speaking in Caucasian speech patterns. (David Cross provides the character’s hilariously nerdy cadences.) But Riley has plenty else on his mind, from wageslave unionizing to art-world pretension to the soul-sapping “benevolence” of an Amazon-like company run by a coke-snorting Jeff Bezos clone. There’s even a brakes-screeching twist into scifi that puts Sorry to Bother You on an even plane with another lunatic West Coast burlesque: Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales (2006). Like that divisive work, not every jab here hits the target, and the line between fruitful venom and hollow snark is a thin one. But the film’s scattershot nature is part of its charm and assures its endurance as a cult item—maybe more. [R] HHHHn

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23

REEL NEWS

Joaquin Phoenix and Ekaterina Samsonov in You Were Never Really Here.

DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

Lean on Pete HHHH Cast: Charlie Plummer, Travis Fimmel, Steve Buscemi Genre: Adventure, Drama; R This coming-of-age, road-trip saga is far from a feel-good story about a boy discarded by his father and the need for a surrogate family he finds in a broken-down horse. It begins as a tragedy about children with damaged parents in an uncaring society, but soon becomes about following your heart and being true to your convictions in a culture that values neither. Fifteen-yearold Charlie (Plummer) has a down-andout father (Fimmel) who loves a sixpack more than his son. When Charlie gets a job at a race track, he soon bonds with a quarter horse, Lean on Pete, who long ago won his last race. The owner (Buscemi) views horses as commodities and when the bottom line turns red, he calls the the glue factory. Here the story diverges from the feel-good formula. In desperation, Charlie steals Pete and heads cross country. The classical hero’s journey pits the pair against the good, the bad, and the hopeless in a search for a place where unwanted kids and geriatric horses can be loved.

Though it sounds like a high-concept movie with a cliché formula, intense acting makes this a deeply realized character study that relies on realism more than sentimentality.

24

Tully HHHH Cast: Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Mark Duplass Genre: Drama, Comedy; R In this cleverly poignant drama of extreme motherhood, 40-year-old Marlo (Theron) abandons her idyllic dreams of a family filled with joy and laughter when baby number three arrives. Marlo lives captive in a prison of burping babies, changing diapers, picking up, putting up, picking up again, then starting over after another sleepless night. The endless treadmill, despite Marlo’s comic sarcasm, makes postpartum depression seem like an upper. Salvation miraculously appears when her brother hires a night nanny, not to care for the kids, but for Marlo.

The 26-year-old chirpy, new-age Tully (Davis) becomes the nighttime angel who washes clothes, sorts toys, bakes cupcakes, and brings order to Marlo’s world. The two bond instantly with an energy that supercharges the story.

Marlo sees Tully as the woman she sacrificed for motherhood, and herself as the woman Tully will likely become.

Then in act three, the plot begins to twist and turn like a sleepless baby.

The underlying question Marlo struggles with is can a woman embrace motherhood and maintain her selfidentity, or is mere survival the best she can hope for?

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You Were Never Really Here HHH Cast:Joaquin Phoenix, Judith Roberts, Ekaterina Samsonov Genre: Drama, Thriller; R Don’t go to see this fever-dream thriller for a feel-good adventure.

You’ll be spending 90 minutes in the deranged, suicidal mind of a warhardened veteran with severe PTSD and hellish childhood flashbacks. Joe (Phoenix) finds his only solace with a roll of duct tape and a ball-peen hammer. When he’s not sharing tender moments with his senile mother (Roberts), he’s a handyman, and the mess he makes involves lots and lots of blood. Joe’s a serial killer, but not a predator; he’s an avenger, a hammer for hire, and his specialty is recovering girls kidnapped for the sex trade, then making sure the traffickers pay the ultimate price. He lives in and finds sustenance from the underbelly of society. His revenge doesn’t illuminate the darkness within, it only deepens the shadows. The plot is simple: Joe gets a call, he tracks down the perps, administers brutal justice, rescues girl. Repeat. The gruesome power of the movie is Joe as portrayed by Phoenix at his creepiest best, and the treatment, both visually and psychologically, created by the director Lynne Ramsay. Both won awards at Cannes.

The Death of Stalin HHHH Cast:Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Jeffrey Tambor Genre: Comedy; R Some comedians rely on insults, sarcasm, snide remarks or belittling others. For me, nothing beats slapstick and absurdism. I’ll take a Monty Python farce any day. If anyone can turn the death of last century’s most cruel despot into an outrageous comedy it’s the Brits. When Joe Stalin suddenly dies in 1953, the power struggle to fill the void spins the Kremlin out of control. Surrounded with daily atrocities where the slightest affront results in the gulag, or worse, a bullet to the brain, the Central Committee quickly dissolves into a wormy can of devious schemes to eliminate the competitors.

When the government is already a farce, it doesn’t take much of an exaggeration to push it into the laugh zone. The dry humor of faces outwardly wet with tears yet inwardly washed with relief and joy is as effective as a pie in the face. As the players reveal their hidden agendas, the folly and hypocrisy of desperate ambition reach tsunami levels. The magic balance between reality and absurdity creates a universe where we can laugh at, yet at the same time be warned of, the dangerous extremes of a narcissistic leader. Viva Monty Python! n

FOREIGN

DOCUMENTARY

Five Seasons: The Gardens Of Piet Oudolf

Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal

I MUST CONFESS I never gave much thought to the design of gardens. One plants things, waters and cares for them, and they flourish and hopefully look nice.

But like many things in this life, there is an art to making a garden and that is at the center of the Dutch film Five Seasons (2017).

Gardening can be like music in the sense that many can know a piece of work but know little or nothing about its background. Five Seasons introduces us to the world of Piet Oudolf (b. 1944), a Dutch designer of gardens. NYC’s Battery Park, in Chicago’s Millennium Park, Toronto’s Botanical Garden, and London’s Serpentine Gallery are among the “installations” of Oudolf ’s works. Five Seasons is a brief (75 minutes) intro to how it’s done. It’s not just that this fellow “thinks visual”—he knows plants and flowers, when and how they bloom and wither, how they might complement each other, and the scents they emit. All of this and more goes into his creations and director Thomas Piper takes us through the process, from walking through an outdoor space to the detailed planning on large sheets of paper, and tours through completed gardens. There are brief interviews with Oudolf, who comes across as humble, knowledgeable, subtly passionate about botany, and still yet maintaining a sense of wonder about them.

The movie takes us into a bit of his history—his wife and he want to buy a house with a space for a plant nursery. The way the movie takes us through Oudolf ’s art is a little unusual—yes, like many film biographies you don’t get the feeling you’ve gotten to know the subject. But Five Seasons is more of a meditation than a typical biopic. Without seeming heavy-handedly arty, we get to see the beauty of many plants and flowers as they apply/relate to some of his creations: the man walking through them, chatting about this plant and that flower—almost like a nature show with wonderful and cute and cool animals, you can almost smell the scents talked about onscreen thanks to the matter-of-fact photography and attractively leisurely pacing. This movie experience almost feels like a nature walk.

The delight—and slight downside—is in the details, and Oudolf ’s mellow manner. Even his drawings, sketches, and blueprints for his gardening are beautiful. Where the movie trips up is the sketchy way that his success is essayed. Was there a particular garden creation of his that gained him international notice? Was there an influential opening or magazine article? Did Oudolf study botany privately, as a hobby, or does he have a university degree?

Ultimately, those are not dealbreakers. Five Seasons serves as a brief introduction to the art of gardening in general and the contributions of Oudolf in particular. One thing he said can serve as a summation of his approach to his art: “The longer you’re here,” he says at one point, surrounded by plants, “the more you see.” A true artist shows you or feels that there is always more to learn, to enjoy. n

AT THE RISK OF hyperbole, Best of Enemies (2015) is everything a great documentary should be: It has meat for those interested in the main subject(s), and gives enough context for those viewers less familiar; it provides background on the main subjects, but doesn’t bury the viewer in (admittedly rich) history; it’s fastpaced, and balances a very serious tone with bitter humor.

In 1968 ABC, then the #3 network at a time when there were only four networks—CBS, NBC, ABC, and PBS—decided to toss its hat into the ring of presidential national convention coverage. Each political and cultural side represented by then well-known pundits, oft-seen on television with a moderator: On the Right, William F. Buckley, Jr.; on the Left, Gore Vidal. Buckley was a noted conservative talk show host and novelist; Vidal, a novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. They were very intelligent, witty, erudite, and disliked each other very much. Each viewed the other as symbolic of what was “wrong” with America and neither was shy about openly expressing their mutual disdain.

While bloodless in the usual sense, these guys went at it on camera, each expressing their point of view in the context of love of country. While their exchanges were verbal, symbolic blood was spilled. At one point, Buckley lost his cool and said on-camera, after Vidal accused him of having Nazi tendencies, “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I'll sock you in your goddamn face, and you’ll stay plastered.” (This incident would haunt Buckley for years to come.)

Peers who knew both men, such as Dick Cavett, are interviewed and we see the principals going at it, interspersed with clips of what was happening in America at the time, and actors Kelsey Grammer and John Lithgow give vivid voice to the writings of Buckley and Vidal respectively. The directors of this mini-epic are experienced in tale-telling documentaries: Robert Gordon (Johnny Cash's America) and Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet From Stardom), and remember that education is better digested with a sense of fun, yet never seeming frivolous, overly snarky, or dire.

Regardless of which side of the socio-political divide you’re on, one thing is apparent: Vidal and Buckley are worthy of respect, despite their patrician airs. On Buckley’s TV show Firing Line he invited guest opponents of the caliber of Huey Newton (activist who co-founded the Black Panthers), boxing icon Muhammad Ali, and Jesse Jackson—and once notably publicly debated author James Baldwin at Cambridge. Imagine Rush Limbaugh debating Noam Chomsky in a public forum.

Both Vidal and Buckley dipped their toes in the political arena without success, and Vidal had small acting parts in movies (Bob Roberts, Gattaca) and TV (The Simpsons, Family Guy).

Best of Enemies should be seen by anyone with an interest in politics, media, and/or TV-era American history, regardless of socio-political bent. n

— MARK

KERESMAN

— MARK

KERESMAN

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SINGER | SONGWRITER REVIEWED BY TOM WILK

Ry Cooder HHHH The Prodigal Son Fantasy/Perro Verde Records Gospel music provides the inspiration and foundation for The Prodigal Son, the first studio album in six years from Ry Cooder. The timelessness of the genre allows him to offer commentary on contemporary society while putting his own stamp on the music.

“Straight Street,” a hit for the Pilgrim Travelers, finds Cooder singing in the voice of a humble penitent grateful for a second chance in life, while “In His Care” serves as a rootsy celebration of faith. On the traditional title track, Cooder adds a verse about legendary pedal steel guitarist Ralph Mooney to suggest the healing and elevating power of music. “Everybody Ought to Treat a Stranger Right,” one of two songs written by Blind Willie Johnson, is an apt choice at a time when immigration and refugee policies are debated. Cooder’s three backing vocalists, including the late Bobby King in one of his last performances, give the song an emotional lift. “You Must Unload,” composed

by Alfred Reed, warns the wealthy of the allure of material possessions. “If you like to get to heaven and watch eternity unfold/You must unload,” Cooder cautions.

His work on guitar, mandolin and banjo shows his first-rate musicianship. The ethereal guitar on “Nobody’s Fault But Mine” has echoes of his film soundtrack work. On “Jesus and Woody,” one of three Cooder originals, he creates a haunting soundscape in recounting an otherworldly meeting between the Lord and folksinger Woody Guthrie. (11 songs, 50 minutes) Kinky Friedman HHH1/2 Circus of Life Echo Hill Records When he launched his recording career in the 1970s, Kinky Friedman was unafraid to stir up controversy with songs like “They Ain’t Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Top Ten Commandments.” After becoming a bestselling detective novelist and following a failed campaign for 26

governor of Texas, Friedman is back making with his first album of original songs in four decades.

Circus of Life displays a quieter, more reflective side of Friedman and focuses on character studies and slice-of-life stories. The title track explores a couple’s ups and downs using the circus as a metaphor of daily living. “A Dog Named Freedom” is a moving tale of a service canine that lost a leg in the Iraq War and shows Friedman’s depth as a songwriter. The imaginative “Jesus in Pajamas” envisions his return to Earth at a Denny’s restaurant in Dallas and how he would be treated by his customers. It recalls a Twilight Zone episode set to music.

At times, Friedman’s weathered baritone recalls the late Guy Clark, one of his Texas contemporaries, in his phrasing. The autobiographical “Me and My Guitar” recounts the relationship of a musician and his instrument. “I met her in a pawn shop,” he sings. “Autographs in the Rain (Song to Willie)” serves as a tribute to the Lone Star State legend with references to “The Party’s Over” and “On the Road Again,” two of his hits. (12 songs, 35 minutes) The Innocence Mission HHH1/2 Sun on the Square Badman Recording Co. Sun on the Square, the 10th studio album from the Innocence Mission, offers a musical balm for the troubled mind and wounded spirit.

Karen and Don Perris, the band’s coleaders who are also husband and wife, again create a soothing, sparse sound.

The folk-based “Records from You Room” opens the album with a reassuring vibe. “A word becomes, a door, soon, to break through,” Karen Peris sings to suggest the opening of the lines of communication. “Look Out from Your Window” suggests the joy of a relationship that endures with the lines: “All I cannot say I hope you know/All you cannot say I hope I can hear.” The bossa nova-inspired title track spotlights Don Peris’ guitar work and the lyrical call to “let there be more kindness in the world.”

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es herself artistically with a cover of Bessie Smith’s jazz/blues standard “Backwater Blues” that recalls the early work of Bonnie Raitt. Venable reworks “He Caught The Katy,” co-written by Taj Mahal, to sing it from a female perspective. Venable effortlessly rides the groove with help from her rhythm section of bassist Bobby Wallace and drummer Elijah Owings. Venable shows a musical maturity with the potential for continued growth as an artist. (10 songs, 52 minutes) Karen Peris draws inspiration from the world of nature on “Shadow of the Pines” and “An Idea of Canoeing.”

There’s an understated, orchestral feel to the music that is deepened with the addition of Anna Peris on viola and Drew Peris on violin, the children of Don and Karen. The second generation helps to make the album a true family affair. (10 songs, 34 minutes) Ally Venable Band HHH Puppet Show Connor Ray Music Singer/guitarist Ally Venable keeps the blues/rock tradition alive with the vibrant Puppet Show, her second solo album. The Texas native continues in the footsteps of Lone Star State guitar

slingers, such as Stevie Ray Vaughan, with a lively mix of original songs and blues covers.

Venable sets the tone for the album with the fiery “Devil’s Son,” which features a lively guitar interchange with Gary Hoey. Her vocals are showcased on “Cast Their Stones,” which includes some Jimi Hendrix-styled fretwork. She stretch-

Gene Turonis aka Gene D. Plumber

HHH

All The Pretty Girls Bar/None Records Plumbing was Gene Turonis’ vocation and playing music was his avocation for more than three decades.

At 73, the North Jersey resident has laid down his tools and picked up his guitar for All The Pretty Girls, his first nationally distributed album.

His weathered but warm voice and his acoustic guitar provide the framework for the album, which includes eight songs he had a hand in writing. The Tex-Mex rhythms of the title track, which features the accordion work of Charles Giordano, suggest a Freddy Fender song from the 1970s. The romantic “Round and Round We Go” is highlighted by Turonis’ disarming vocal and some carefree whistling.

Turonis, who mixes folk, country and rock, pays tribute to his musical influences with spirited versions of Chris Kenner’s “I Like It Like That” and Clarence Gatemouth Brown’s “Going Back to Louisiana.” Turonis evokes the spirit of John Prine on “A Breeze Blows Through the Palm Tree” and channels Shel Silverstein with use of humor on the tall tale “Diamonds as Big as Potatoes.”

On “I Always Get Lucky with You” and “Things Have Gone to Pieces,” Turonis acknowledges his debt to George Jones with a pair of songs recorded by the country legend. The latter even includes a plumbing reference. “George Jones, George Jones,” a bonus track, serves as a heartfelt elegy to the singer who died in 2013.

(13 songs, 37 minutes) n

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JAZZ, ROCK, CLASSICAL, ALT REVIEWED BY MARK KERESMAN

F.J. Haydn/Anne-Marie McDermott HHHHH Sonatas Vol. 2 Bridge We hepcats venerate composers W.A. Mozart and L.V. Beethoven (as well we should) but we may forget that everything comes from somewhere—where did they get their mojo? One likely answer is Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), a composer and conductor who was a pal and mentor to Mozart and a teacher to Beethoven. Music historians credit Haydn as crucial to the development of the symphony and the string quartet. In brief, his style can be (overly)

reduced to complexity spawned from simplicity. In his time, wealthy patrons (often royalty) hired guys like Haydn to write music for special occasions and to, by golly, make them happy. This he did with bright, simple motifs and phrases, energetic tempos, and a spirit of cleverness—sudden loud chords and

a recurring bit is the “false ending” wherein the listener is SURE this is IT, the Grand Finale, but…ah, no. All this is evident in this second volume of Haydn’s piano sonatas played by Anne-Marie McDermott—she’s got sublime technique, that she has. To hear the “roots” of Beethoven and lots that came after, listen here; there are even hints of what would be boogie-woogie and rock & roll piano amid the unfolding tapestries of simple elegance. Classical fans and neophytes: Here’s one you can agree on.

(11 tracks, 69 min.) bridgerecords.com Satoko Fujii HHH1/2 Satoko Fujii Solo Libra Japan-born America-based pianist Satoko Fujii is one of the most exciting key-crackers around (cutting-edge jazz division). She can be volcanic like the late Cecil Taylor, weave a dizzying tapestry of notes like McCoy Tyner, and be tuneful as Herbie Hancock. Solo, recorded live Ehime, Japan in July 2017, presents a different side of Fujii—subdued, gentler, delicately lyrical, all the while the fury is off in the distance, just out of sight but not out of mind.

Jimmy Giuffre’s “Moonlight” features rhapsodic waves and moments of starry-eyed reflection, with silence(s) discretely placed for maximum contrast(s), with hints of that French fellow Claude Debussy’s gossamer Impressionism. The rolling, re-

Shipp, and Craig Taborn, edgy cats all with potent lyricism, and even those wanting to get into, well, edgy pianists. (7 tracks, 66 min.) librarecords.com Alchemy Sound Project HHH1/2 Adventures in Time and Space Self-released Alchemy Sound Project is a collective of soloists and composers that’ve come together to, well, make some fine jazz. ASP includes a most underrated tenor saxophonist, Erica Lindsay; Suni Tonooka, piano, who put out an excellent solo (unaccompanied) set a few years back, and drummer Johnathan Blake, among others. Bassist David Arend’s “Ankh” is a lovely bit of sleek bebop exotica (think Yusef Lateef, Horace Silver, Duke Ellington’s Far East Suite) featuring Salim Washington’s lithe, mysteryladen flute and a subtly languid groove that sucks you even before you know it (then you’re in Casablanca, then or now). Washington’s “Odysseus Leaves Circe” is a sterling bit of minor-keyed, midtempo hard bop evocative of Wayne Shorter’s Blue Note era (including his Art Blakey tenure)—Lindsay gets off a fine hard-edged solo, concise and carrying echoes of Shorter and Sonny Rollins, albeit slightly breathier. This is serious listening—no, not being ironic or but these Adventures lean more toward the cerebral side of mod-jazz—think Lateef, Charlie Mingus (at his moodiest), John Lewis, Jackie McLean, McCoy Tyner—but unlike some of the moody posse (you know, the Serious Artistes), there’s variety to the shades, dark as they may be— dark, yet not bleak; brainy, but never bloodless. Further, all performances are aces—impeccable and inspired. (6 tracks, 43 min.) alchemysoundproject.com Dialeto HHHH Live With David Cross MoonJune When people reflect on fusion and its origins, many quite rightly think of Weather Report, Return

Satoko Fujii. Photo by Bryan Murray

flective grace of “Inori” recalls Bill Evans with fleeting glimpses of the thunder and lightning in the distance, getting closer. “Spring Storm” is as potent and mysterious as one, tense and rainy one for a bit, then the storm abates somewhat, revealing the lushness of Springtime foliage as broken branches and blossoms litter the pavement. Ms. Fujii has MANY discs extant, in trio, small group, and even orchestral contexts—such a catalog can be daunting. SFS makes for a fine intro for Fujii novices, as well as a boon to fans of Marilyn Crispell, Matthew 28

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to Forever, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, etc.—but those happened on/from the jazz side of the street.

There were rockers in the 1960s and ‘70s that set the wheels of combining jazz/rock/funk/what-ever in motion: Frank Zappa (when his Mothers of Invention was still a thing and after), Soft Machine, and King Crimson. Under the leadership of guitarist Robert Fripp, the latter (still active, btw) did lots in the way of combining aspects of rock & roll, jazz, classical music, and free improvisation to birth the beast that became fusion from the rock side of the divide. Because they identified as rock performers

rather than jazz, this writer thinks KC did not get their due. Which brings us, Dear Reader, to the Brazilian trio Dialeto and their latest opus Live With David Cross. Violinist Cross was a member of King Crimson in the mid-70s and here joins up with Dialeto for a killer program of Birth of Fusion Mk. 2.

Live is half interpretations of the music of Bela Bartok (1881-1945), a Hungarian composer that infused the European classical tradition with aspects of East European folk music; the other half is some Crimson classics. Guitarist Nelson Coelho has some of the sustain and frenzy of Fripp’s style without

lapsing into mere imitation, and he does some dandy folk-like picking too. The bass/drums team of Gabriel Costa and Fred Barley is thunderous and inspired, and Cross sears and soars as a soloist and ensemble player. Dialeto embody the volatility and heavy wallop of rock and the exploratory finesse of jazz, and they do this without excessive displays of technique. If you ever liked KC or the first four albums by Mahavishnu Orchestra and/or Yes, Jeff Beck circa Wired, or just like passionate, intelligent electric music with a strong beat, THIS is for you.

(13 tracks, 78 min.) moonjune.com n

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S JAZZ LIBRARY

BY BOB PERKINS

Ron Carter

SEVERAL DECADES AGO, A talented musician named Ron Carter, out of plain old common sense, altered plans to pursue a career in classical music, and decided to concentrate on his career in jazz. A conversation with the famed classical conductor Leopold Stokowski helped him make the change. Stokowski advised Carter that the time had not arrived for black musicians to be considered for positions in symphonic orchestras. The year was 1959.

This news came as quite a blow, considering that Carter had recently earned his bachelor’s degree in music from the prestigious Eastman School of Music and had played bass fiddle in the school’s Philharmonic Orchestra. Well…a much disillusioned Ron Carter, who was not yet acquainted with jazz music, decided to give it a try. Further along, his decision produced a jazz legend.

Ronald Levin (Ron) Carter was born on May 4, 1937 in Ferdale, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. He began to play the cello at age ten. When the family moved to Detroit, he attended the legendary Cass Technical High School, a training ground for jazz alums Donald Byrd, Geri Allen, Alice Coltrane, Gerald Wilson and Paul Chambers, to name a few. While at Cass, he switched to the upright bass.

Next came studies at Eastman, and after that, Carter headed for New York City, and landed a job in Chico Hamilton’s quintet. While with Hamilton, he enrolled at the Manhattan School of Music, seeking a Master’s degree, which he attained in 1963, and found work with emerging jazz stars like Eric Dolphy, Don Ellis, Randy Weston Bobby Timmons, and the already well established Thelonious Monk.

Also in 1963, the break of a lifetime came when he joined Miles Davis’ quintet, where he remained for the next five years. His name had already become highly recognizable in the jazz community, but his tenure with Davis supplied the frosting.

Carter went on to front his own small bands, and freelance alongside well known and up-and-coming jazz stars, in groups like V.S.O.P. and the Milestone All-Stars, which featured Sonny Rollins, McCoy Tyner and Al Foster.

Never forgetting how racism had affected his desire to become a part of classical music organizations, he has on occasion, spoken about past inequities in the music industry. During an interview, he railed against the idea that jazz musicians should help jazz by going pop, and play music by the Beatles. “Why not play music by Herbie Hancock?” he asked. Furthermore, he reasons, “Jazz would sell if record companies got behind it and tried to sell it like they do for rock groups that can’t play.”

Today, after sharing stages, domestic and abroad, with cream-of-the-crop jazz musicians, Ron Carter recently celebrated his 81st birthday. His more than half-a-century as sideman, bandleader, and music educator, have been duly recognized via a Grammy, for an instrumental tribute to Miles Davis in 1995. Carter is a distinguished Professor Emeritus of the Music Department of City College of New York, having taught there for 20 years. He was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the Berkeley College of Music in 2005, and at present is a member of the faculty of the Julliard School in New York, teaching in the school’s jazz studies program. The Down Beat Hall of Fame has accorded him space in its pantheon, and in 2016 Carter received the BYN Mellon Living Legacy Award in a ceremony at the Kennedy Center.

Whenever the jazz cognoscenti gather to talk about the who’s who of the genre—especially bass players—the name of Ron Carter is bound to surface in the top five masters of the instrument. Due to excellence, popularity, longevity or other considerations, how many veteran jazz bassists have appeared on some 2,250 recordings? In the case of Ron Carter, it appears that classical music’s loss turned out to be jazz music’s gain. n Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Mon. through Thurs. night, from 6–9 and Sunday, 9–1.

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harper’s FINDINGS

INDEX

Fearfully neurotic regions of the United States and the United Kingdom were likelier to vote for Donald Trump and Brexit. Americans have been displaying high levels of OCD-like thought about politics since November 2016. Libertarians were confirmed to be the most analytical of Americans, and moderates the least. In the Bible Belt, the negative correlation between intelligence and religiosity is weaker. A massive medieval lava flow may have hastened Iceland’s conversion to Christianity. The Maya traded dogs for ceremonial purposes. The demise of cousin marriage lagged the advent of modern transportation by half a century. Wealth has very rarely translated to greater reproductive success for women, whereas for men that effect has persisted even in advanced industrial societies. An Irish philosopher considered whether human morality, having evolved during the Stone Age, has now devolved. A study of Vietnam veterans with penetrating brain injuries identified lesions that encourage altruism. A researcher suggested that René Descartes experienced Exploding Head Syndrome.

Median number of views a YouTube video had in 2006 : 10,262 In 2016 : 89 Average amount Microsoft spends each month assisting people who need to change their passwords : $2,000,000 Minimum number of US municipalities that have outlawed crossing the street while texting : 3 Percentage of teens who have received a “sext” : 27 Who have sent a sext : 15 Who have forwarded a sext without the original sender’s consent : 12 Maximum fine for public sexual harassment under a proposed French law : $3,681 Number of years since Belgium passed a law criminalizing sexism in public : 4 Number of people who have been convicted under that law : 1 Percentage of registered US voters who say that Donald Trump is a good role model for young people : 29 Of Americans who said the same of Bill Clinton in 1998 : 18 Average number of additional assaults that occurred in a city when it hosted a Trump campaign rally : 2.3 When it hosted a Hillary Clinton campaign rally : 0 Percentage of biographical Wikipedia pages that are about women : 17 Percentage of US political donors in 1990 who were women : 23 Today : 47 Minimum number of countries since 2012 that have changed their anthems’ lyrics to make them more gender inclusive : 2 Factor by which women who win parliamentary or mayoral elections are more likely to get divorced than women who lose : 2 Number of billionaires in the National People’s Congress of China : 45 Year in which China’s coal consumption is expected to peak : 2018 Number of countries whose first coal plants are being constructed with Chinese financing : 7 Number of minutes by which clocks ran late this spring following power disruptions in Serbia and Kosovo : 6 Number of countries in which clocks were affected : 26 Average factor by which a Seoul city-government employee works more overtime than a South Korean–government employee : 1.8 Time at which Seoul’s government shuts down computers on Friday evenings to force employees to stop working : 7:00 Percentage of US counties in which food stamps don’t cover the cost of three meals a day : 99 Percentage of black American men born into the wealthiest quintile who remain in that bracket as adults : 17 Of white American men : 39 Portion of trauma patients at hospitals nationwide who are admitted for gunshot wounds : 1/25 Of trauma patients at Stroger Hospital in Chicago who are : 3/10 Number of Navy medics who have been trained there since 2014 : 70 Percentage of US secondary-school teachers who were physically attacked by a student in the 2015–16 school year : 2 Of elementary-school teachers : 9 Number of job listings seeking pagan chaplains for UK prisons in February : 7 Percentage by which hamburgers outsold ham-and-butter baguette sandwiches in France last year : 20 Portion of Americans who have eaten a pint of ice cream in one sitting : 1/2 Portion of those who felt guilty afterward : 2/5 Who felt ill : 1/10

9

Mongooses living in large groups will adopt highly specific diets to limit conflict arising from food competition. Chimpanzees who join new groups with inferior nut-cracking techniques will abandon their superior techniques in order to fit in. The first same-sex penile– anal intromission among New World primates was observed during several bouts of grappling between wild spider monkeys living in Otoch Ma’ax Yetel Kooh, though the penetrative grappler was always the same monkey. The macaques of Jigokudani soak in hot springs for stress relief. Great apes, whether or not they use sign language, have senses of humor that tend toward the scatological. The Bystander Effect was observed in marmosets. Two thirds of adults tasked with searching aerial landscapes for artificial structures failed to detect a man in a gorilla suit, which may suggest a Cosmic Gorilla Effect of inattentional blindness in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

Macaques who receive a reward for making a good choice will risk that reward just to know how things would have turned out had they chosen differently. FOMO increases as the evening goes on. Nightmare Disorder may affect nearly one in three US military personnel.

Spanish neuroscientists accused sleep researchers of neglecting to characterize sleep as a pleasure.

9

An interdisciplinary team created a fog harp. With the exception of Irishwomen who offer outcalls, a survey of advertisements in several countries found that female prostitutes charge significantly more if they are young. Treating koalas’ chlamydia with antibiotics compromises their ability to digest eucalyptus leaves. Molecular biologists discovered the protein that gives antibiotic properties to platypus milk. Australian police were stalked by a great white shark. A rogue otter in Florida’s Manatee County was boarding kayaks and biting people, and was injured in a fight with an alligator. “Zombie” raccoons were reported in Ohio. An Indian teenager was killed by an assassin bug. Swedish mother bears may be caring for their cubs longer in order to take advantage of a law against shooting mother bears with cubs. Overfishing was encouraging dolphins to attack fishing nets.

Ship noise was causing vigorous fluking and reduced feeding in porpoises. A solar-powered robot wolf with glowing red eyes improved the chestnut harvest in a Japanese forest. Herpetologists reported having had a faceless toad hop across their path in a Connecticut forest. A two-headed boa constrictor was found to be Siamese twins with two hearts.

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SOURCES: 1,2 Mathias Bärtl, Offenburg University of Applied Sciences (Germany); 3 Microsoft (Redmond, Wash.); 4 Harper’s research; 5–7 Sheri Madigan, University of Calgary (Alberta); 8 State Secretariat for Equality Between Women and Men (Paris); 9,10 Federal Public Service Justice (Brussels); 11 Quinnipiac University Poll (Hamden, Conn.); 12 Langer Research Associates (NYC); 13,14 Christopher Morrison, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia); 15 Minassian Media (NYC); 16,17 Center for Responsive Politics (Washington); 18 Harper’s research; 19 Olle Folke, Uppsala University (Sweden); 20 Hurun Report (Shanghai); 21 US Energy Information Administration (Washington); 22 CoalSwarm (San Francisco); 23,24 European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (Brussels); 25,26 Seoul Metropolitan Government (South Korea); 27 Craig Gundersen, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign; 28,29 Equality of Opportunity Project (Stanford, Calif.); 30–32 Cook County Health and Hospitals System (Chicago); 33,34 National Center for Education Statistics (Washington); 35 Guardian (London); 36 Gira Conseil (Paris); 37–39 MWWPR (Chicago).

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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

WATT’S HAPPENING

By Joe Kidd

ACROSS 1 7 13 18 20 22 23 24 26 28 29 30 32 34 36 37 38 41 44 45 46 48 50 52 56 57 58 60 61 62 63 64 66 70 73 74 76 77 78 79 84 85 87 88 89 90 91 93 96 98 34

Beginning Arnold’s Terminator, e.g.

Arboretum feature Some ski lodges Longhorn rivals __ Island Pratt & Whitney helicopter engine with two power sections Unsteady walk while using social media?

Fuel for a lorry Leslie Caron title role “Count me in!”

Field in acting Detroit labor org.

Prefix meaning “billionth” In reserve, with “on” It tops a deuce Lowly short-order cook?

24 minutes, in the NBA Tommy’s kid brother on “Rugrats” Marquis __ Enjoy courses 1840s Rhode Island rebellion leader Thomas In short order Nasty storm Popeye’s __’Pea Victorious shout Bawdier Bavarian britches?

X x XXX Storage compartments Sandburg’s “little cat feet” arrival Mauna __ Trembling Intellectual Deficiencies Words with a gift Lambaste Yield as a return Fannie __: securities Frodo pursuer Beefcake’s breakfast Ilsa __: “Casablanca” heroine “... giant __ for mankind” Like top Michelin ratings Toondom’s Le Pew Flood barrier “Ahem” relative Spoke Maple extract Big top, for one Return from a salamander farm?

102 Work unit: Abbr.

103 __ Bo 105 Stadium reaction 106 PC hookup 107 Thai currency 108 Easily bent 112 Kristen of “Bridesmaids” 114 Nullify 116 Drawback of the best place to watch the fight?

119 Dispute decider 122 En pointe, in ballet 123 Give an oath to 124 Enlarging, as a hole 125 Contradictory word 126 Some Dadaist paintings 127 Brings honor to

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 19 21 25 27 30 31 33 35 38 39 40 42 43 45 47 49 51 53

Bit in a horse’s mouth?

Agric. labor group Dessert for a large legal firm?

In a reasonable manner What “E” may mean Get emotional, with “up” Wisconsin winter hrs.

Distressed cry Enola Gay manufacturer Track circuit Eye layer M.A. seeker’s hurdle Ben Nevis, e.g.

Easily riled types It’s tossed into a pot Road sign ruminant Thornfield Hall governess Searches carefully Indian term of respect “Didn’t wanna know that!”

Bomb big-time Like A/C in most cars Radio host Shapiro Heiress, perhaps Have credit from Marshland Uncool one who lately is sort of cool Scot’s nots Number for the weight-conscious?

Like Howdy Doody’s face Crime boss Accord Judge’s announcement Lack of influence Comics scream

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54 55 57 58 59 61 62 65 67 68 69 71 72 75 80

Warring son of Zeus Bygone Persian title “Don’t change anything!”

Actor Chaney Disturbing bank msg.

Like some closet doors Last down Exaggerate on stage Crowd around Coastal raptor Overflowing Met regular Dorm VIPs Polite online letters “Two owls and __”: Lear limerick line 81 More twisted 82 Suffix for fabric 83 Pope John Paul II’s given name 84 Went before 86 Big brass container?

88 Favored one 92 Karaoke performer’s problem 94 PC key under Z 95 “Masterpiece” airer 97 Word processing function 99 Humdinger 100 Formosa, now 101 Buttinskies 102 Bluebeard’s last wife 104 Rooter for the Bulldogs

107 Picture book pachyderm 108 Figurehead spot 109 Director Wertmüller 110 QBs’ stats 111 Mag honchos 113 Walk or trot 115 Norman on the links 117 Girl in the pasture 118 Shipping wts.

120 Vegas-to-Denver dir.

121 Some NFL linemen

Answer to June’s puzzle, SEABEES

AGENDA FINE ART

THRU 7/3 Jim Bongartz Solo Exhibition.

Touchstone Art Gallery 11 E Afton Avenue, Yardley Touchstoneartgallery.com THRU 7/7 Spring Show. Bethlehem House Contemporary Art Gallery, 459 Main St., Bethlehem 610-419-6262.

BethlehemHouseGallery.com THRU 7/8 PHOTOgraphy 2018. A juried exhibition of work utilizing any photographic process, traditional and digital, black & white, and color.

Philadelphia Sketch Club, 235 So. Camac St., Philadelphia. sketchclub.org THRU 7/31 Underpinnings, Allentown’s Cedar Crest College Center for Visual Research and Muhlenberg’s Martin Art Gallery are presenting a two-part exhibition. Both galleries are free and open to the public.

For more information, Muhlenberg.edu/gallery.

THRU 7/31 Joseph Barrett. Silverman Gallery of Bucks County Impressionist Art, 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA (in Buckingham Green, Rte. 202.)

215-794-4300.

Silvermangallery.com THRU 8/2 Underpinnings, Allentown’s Cedar Crest College Center for Visual Research and Muhlenberg’s Martin Art Gallery are presenting a two-part exhibition. Both galleries are free and open to the public.

For more information, Muhlenberg.edu/gallery.

THRU 8/5 Impermanence: Mystery, Transformation, Light. This exhibition centers on impermanence, an essential tenet of Buddhism. Using drawings as symbols or metaphors for transitory life experiences, the eleven artists tell stories about lost innocence, fading memory, mortality, and the drawing process itself. Delaware

Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Pkway, Wilmington. DelArt.org THRU 9/30 Wilmington 1968. This summer, the Museum reflects on the 50 years since the National Guard occupation of Wilmington with a trio of civil rights-themed exhibitions: photographs by Danny Lyon, drawings by Harvey Dinnerstein and Burton Silverman, and a commissioned work by Hank Willis Thomas. Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Pkway, Wilmington. DelArt.org 7/7-7/8 69th Tinicum Arts Festival, A Great Bucks County Tradition.

Sponsored by The Tinicum Civic Association. Art, artisans, music, food & fun. Free parking, no pets. $7/adults, $1/children.

Tinicum Park, River Rd., Erwinna, PA. TinicumArtsFestival.org 7/11-7/31 Painter Dion Hitchings and sculptor Susanne Pitak Davis are the featured artists. Touchstone Art Gallery. 11 E Afton Avenue, Yardley. Touchstoneartgallery.com THEATER

THRU 7/28 Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre presents TAL: Beyond Imagination, World Premiere Circus Performance for kids, parents, & everyone else. 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3100.

Muhlenberg.edu/smt 7/11-29 Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre presents How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3100.

Muhlenberg.edu/smt 7/20-7/29 Allentown Public Theatre presents The Ugly Duckling, by Willow Reichard-Flynn.

Adults by donation, kids 12 and under free. St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 417 N 7th St., Allentown, PA. For show times, Allentownpublictheatre.com.

DINNER & MUSIC

Every Thurs.-Sat., Dinner and a Show at SteelStacks, Bethlehem, PA. 5-10:00pm, table service and valet parking. For more information, menus and upcoming events visit SteelStacks.org CONCERTS

7/8 Valley Vivaldi, presented by Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra.

Chamber music by Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, Gallo and Fasch. Featured solos for recorder, oboe and strings. 7:00 p.m.. Christ Lutheran Church, 1245 W. Hamilton St., Allentown, PA. Tickets- $20-$35 in advance/at door. 610-4347811. www.PASinfonia.org 7/18 Michelle Lordi, Jazz Vocalist. 8 pm.

1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Road, Ewing, NJ 609.392.6409. 1867sanctuary.org 7/21 Allentown Symphony Orchestra, POPS Series, Live & Let Die, A Symphonic Tribute to the Music of Paul McCartney. 7:30pm, Miller Symphony Hall, 23 North 6th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-6715.

Millersymphonyhall.org 7/24 Jody Quine and Grant Maloy Smith, Singer-songwriters. 8 pm.

1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Road, Ewing, NJ 609.392.6409.

1867sanctuary.org 7/29 Valley Vivaldi presented by Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra.

Chamber music by Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, Geminiani, Handel and Baldassare. Featured solos for violin, oboe and trumpet. Wesley Church, 2540 Center St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-434-7811.

PASinfonia.org 7/31 Peter Kater, Solo Piano. 2018 Grammy Winner, Best New Age Album. 8 pm. 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101

Scotch Road, Ewing, NJ 609.392.6409. 1867sanctuary.org MUSIKFEST CAFÉ 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem 610-332-1300 Artsquest.org JULY 7 Eaglemania 10 The Struts 22 Femi Kuti & The Positive Force 26 Tonic and Vertical Horizon 27 Mary Chapin Carpenter AUGUST 3-12 Musikfest DINO’S BACKSTAGE 287 N. Keswick Ave. Glenside, PA 215-884-2000 Dinosbackstage.com JULY 6 Michael Richard Kelly 7 Paula Johns 13 Dibbs Preston & The Detonators 14 The Backstage Beauties Burlesque 20 Michael Richard Kelly 21 Paula Johns AUGUST 3 Dibbs Preston & The Detonators 4 Bruce Klauber 5 Eddie Bruce’s Backstage Birthday Bash 10 Greg Farnese 11 Greg Farnese WORKSHOPS/CLASSES

7/7 & 7/14 Allentown Public Theatre offers free workshops for kids 6-12.

Saturdays, 10am-12pm, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, 417 N 7th St., Allentown, PA. Allentownpublictheatre.com EVENTS THRU 9/3 Clinton's Free Outdoor Summer Music, 11th Annual Friday Night Music Festivals. 4 bands play in 4 locations on the sidewalks of Clinton 7 - 9 PM. This year, now also on Saturday afternoons from 1 to 3 PM. Main St., Clinton, NJ.

7/7 Mangled Myths every Saturday at 8:00 PM. Admission is the roll of one die plus $3. Refreshments served. Book & Puppet Co., 466 Northampton St. Easton, PA. 484-541-5379.

Bookandpuppet.com 7/12 Champions of Inclusion, expanding arts access through learning and laughter. Trade fair presentations and a comedy act performance by Josh Blue. 1pm- 4:30pm, Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, Bethlehem, PA. Lvartscouncil.org/champions 7/14 Meet award-winning picture book creators, Sergio Ruzzier and Rowboat Watkins 1:00pm Storytime and Art Activities at Book & Puppet Co., 466 Northampton St., Easton PA 6:00pm - Dinner at Sette Luna– Dine with Sergio and Rowboat.

Ticket includes dinner, drinks and signed books. Seats are limited.

Contact: sales@bookandpuppet.c om. 484-541-5379. Bookandpuppet.com 7/21 Star Trek-themed improvised puppet show for grownups. Raucous and ribald comedy featuring puppets and live music. Audience participation encouraged. Book & Puppet Co., 466 Northampton St. Easton, PA. 484-541-5379.

Bookandpuppet.com 8/11 The New Hope-Solebury Community Association presents the The New Hope Automobile Show. Vintage & Classic Road Rally, 10:00 a.m. New Hope, PA. Free parking. Newhopeautoshow.com 8/12 The New Hope-Solebury Community Association presents the The New Hope Automobile Show, 9am-4pm. New Hope, PA. Free parking. Newhopeautoshow.com n

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