OCTOBER 2017

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ICON

OCTOBER Rye Tippett, Nobody’s Cat. Phillip’s Mill.

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW RENÉE FLEMING | 20

FILM

ART

David Stier, Repose. Silverman Gallery.

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Monument

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| EXHIBITIONS I

REEL NEWS

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Megan Leavey The Beguiled Personal Shopper The Ornithologist

Intimate Lines: Drawing with Thread Hunterdon art Museum 88th Annual Juried Art Exhibition Phillips’ Mill

FOREIGN

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Polina

Gogol Bordello.

Art at Kings Oaks

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DOcuMENTaRy

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Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

Newtown, Pa 8 | EXHIBITIONS II

MUSIC 30

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SINGER / SONGWRITER chris Hillman Steve Winwood Tom Russell Eilen Jewell Bill carter

River Town Film Fest/Art Expo The Wild Radish/clinton, NJ

Year by the Sea.

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David Stier, Solo Exhibition Silverman Gallery Autumn Alive Quakertown, Pa

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Jazz, ROck, cLaSSIcaL, aLT andrew cooperstock Emanuele arciuli Mike Stern Hiss Golden Messenger zack keim Paul Mccandless with Paul Winter consort Jane antonia cornish Paul chihara

FOODIE FILE 10 | Pork’s Greatest Hits

ENTERTAINMENT 12 | Valley Theater Ex Libris: New York Public Library.

12 | city Theater 14 | The List 39 | agenda

FILM

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| POP David Bowie

16 | Year by the Sea

Jazz LIBRaRy Patti Bown

18 | Victoria and Abdul

ABOUT LIFE

ON THE COVER: Renée Fleming. Page 20.

Photo: Decca / Andrew Eccles.

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

22 | FILM ROuNDuP 36 Ex Libris: New York Public Library Faces Places 37 Roman J. Israel, Esq. 38 Suburbicon

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essAy And pAinting by robert beck

art

MONUMENT I LIkE MONuMENTS. THERE is a lot of design artistry involved in creating a physical, visual description of a person or event—some of them, anyway—but I also like the idea of a large object to remind you of something important.

There are some real stunners out there. The statue of William Tecumseh Sherman by augustus Saint-Gaudens, located at 5th and 59th in New york, is a supremely beautiful sculptural work that celebrates a civil War hero. He was brutal to civilians, brutal to Indians, at times unstable, and the right guy to wage and win a war, which was what was asked of him by the leaders of our country. He did not oppose slavery but was passionate and vocal about avoiding war and maintaining the union. Not an insensitive guy, he was a pal of Samuel clemens and Edwin Booth, a member of the Players club, and he loved to paint. That’s a complex guy up on that gold horse. I’d bet not one in a thousand people who go past that memorial know who he was.

Images of mobs pulling down statues make me uncomfortable. Often it seems to be about settling a score—something ingrained in american culture through sports and movies. Eye for an eye. Just desserts.

We manufacture us-against-them conflicts, and accept violent resolutions as a matter of course. It’s not clear that removing public reminders of past transgressions and shameful conduct will curb the despicable, menacing, nationalist and racist behavior today any more than censoring curse words keeps people from being vulgar.

We need to look elsewhere to solve these problems.

Sculptures are interpretations, benefiting from context and open to debate. The statue of the Bull was the master of Wall Street until the one of the young girl showed up. clearly, the majority in congress would argue the inscription on the Statue of Liberty. Sure as hell it would never happen today.

T

he most powerful war memorial I have seen is at the cemetery in Verdun. The building has a cold, funereal presence, and you can see through small windows that the basement is filled with shattered, sun-bleached, human bones.

That’s the truth about war and nationalism, a reminder that should be within view of all the statues of generals on horses with swords in the air. Instead of removing historic monuments, we might place less celebratory ones near them.

Today there are huge life and death issues seeking leadership, but what we get is pivot, spin, and deception. There is money to be made in Washington D.c., power to wield, and if you aren’t on board you are gone. Don’t answer to anybody. Just tell ‘em what they want to hear: you’re fabulous (certainly better than that other guy), your reward is just around the corner, want some wings with that? a lot of us are keen on the idea of swords in the air. and sure, I’ll take some wings.

This extraordinary period deserves recognition. I recommend a series of stone monuments called the Garden of consequence. The first stone would list on

one side the names of all the members of congress and the Senate who have gone on record as doubting climate change. We should go back a couple of decades for that. The other side would have the advocates for reason and action. It would be wonderful for the great-grandkids to see ol’ Pop-Pop’s or Grammy’s name up there and understand what role they had to play in serving the people of our country. The party affiliation should appear after the names so posterity can follow the, uh, ideology. It goes without saying that this monument should be located on high ground.

I would like to see retrospective consequence memorials for Social Security and civil Rights, too, and positions on universal healthcare deserve to be out in the open for reflection. Let our descendants see in big letters who it was in 2017 that maintained we shouldn’t care for the sick among us. Or the poor.

The stone closest to the road would contain the names of our elected representatives who did and didn’t have the spine to put character, benevolence, and honesty above party and personal interest. Those who did and did not vehemently object to belligerence, ignorance, ineptitude, greed, and repugnant behavior in the highest offices of our country.

The Garden of consequence will give credit where it’s due, so future generations don’t have to rely on whoever is running Google then in order to research our Failing Fathers. But if right now you are in the mood for a major course-correct by removing things, I know just where to start. n

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EXHIBITIONS I

David Stier, Goat Hill Overlook, Patron’s Award for Painting (detail) Daniel Kornrumpf, No More Gold Teeth, 2013, 42 x 36”, hand embroidery on linen, Courtesy of Blank Space Gallery.

Intimate Lines: Drawing with Thread Hunterdon art Museum 7 Lower center St., clinton NJ www.hunterdonartmuseum.org September 17, 2017 – January 7, 2018 In Intimate Lines: Drawing with Thread, 16 artists wield a needle like a pen, embroidering intensely personal stories and record intimate histories. These artists deal with relationships, gender and identity; their works show exquisite textured images that expand upon textile traditions to make compelling contemporary statements. using thread as both a tactile and symbolic medium, these artists approach the traditionally painstaking process of embroidery with a modern sensibility. Building upon historic textile processes and working within the tradition of figurative imagery, they create dialogues between old and new — dialogues intensified by the use of found embroideries, vintage postcards, old photographs, and paper maps. also at HaM: Joe ciardiello: Spaghetti Journal, christopher Darway: Sculptural Jewelry, 2017 Members Exhibition.

Diem Chau, Sojourn, 2017, Porcelain plate, organza & thread, 8 1⁄2”H x 8 1⁄2”W x 1 3/8”D, Courtesy of the artist.

Phillips’ Mill 88th Annual Juried Art Exhibition 2619 River Rd. (Rte 32), New Hope, Pa 1 ½ miles north of New Hope, Pa 215-862-0582 www.phillipsmill.org Sept. 23 – Oct. 29 Daily 1-5 PM

Susan Jane Walp, Tulips. Oil on linen.

Art at Kings Oaks

The 88th annual Juried art Exhibition at Phillips’ Mill is the first and most continuous venue for exhibiting the works of artists living in the Delaware Valley. It features the works of artists residing within a 25-mile radius of Phillips’ Mill. art includes oils, watercolors, prints, mixed media , drawings and sculpture. Modern and abstract works hang alongside representational and traditional styles. This is an excellent opportunity to view as well as purchase the works of the area’s very best artists. adults, $5; Seniors, $4; Students, $2.

Richard Carmella, Solitude House Outbuilding, Patron's Award for Drawing, Pastel or Printmaking

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756 Worthington Mill Rd., Newtown, Pa 215-603-6573 kingsoaksart.wordpress.com October 6-9 & October 13-15 Opening reception 10/6, 6-9 PM closing reception 10/15, 2-5 PM an artist-lead pop-up gallery, returns for a fifth year to present paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, ceramics, and installation by 26 artists from the Eastern u.S. and Italy in an historic barn and chapel on kings Oaks Farm near Newtown, Pa. artists: caren canier, Mariel capanna, Mastro cencio, Marybeth chew, alex cohen, David Fertig, kathleen Hall, Deborah kahn, ken kewley, ying Li, Stanley Lewis, Ruth Miller, abraham Murley, Maxwell Mustardo, Margaret Parish, Robert andrew Parker, Gillian Pederson-krag, Stephanie Pierce, Langdon Quin, Neil Riley, E.M. Saniga, Sterling Shaw, Stuart Shils, James Stewart, Susan Jane Walp, and Lilly Woodworth. Free parking.

Mariel Capanna, Stroller, Flowers, Sampler, Slide. Oil on panel.

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EXHIBITIONS II

Deborah Argyropoulos, Plight of the fisherman, 96”x 48”

Community Inaugural River Town Film Festival Fine art Expo The Wild Radish & clinton Frameworks Galleries 19-21 Main Street, clinton, NJ 08809 908-212-1642 RiverTownFilmFestival.com October 15 – November 12 Experience contemporary, edgy, and classic fine art works by 12 diverse artists, each expressing their unique interpretation of community. Ranging from oil painting, watercolors, sculpture, reverse glass painting, wood burning, mixed media, screen printing, photography and collage. These internationally acclaimed and emerging artists will not disappoint the art seeker in you. Be inspired, and engage with the art as you tour the beautiful newly remodeled art galleries on Main Street. Monday through Saturday 10 to 6, Sunday 12 to 5, open till nine on Fridays and Saturdays.

Autumn Alive Broad St., Downtown Quakertown, Quakertown, Pa 215-536-2273 Quakertownalive.com October 21, 10 - 4 (rain date October 28)

Footbridge, oil on panel, 20.5 x 12.5 inches

David Stier, Solo Exhibition Silverman Gallery Buckingham Green Shopping center Rte. 202, Holicong, Pa 215-794-4300 Silvermangallery.com October 7-29 Opening reception 10/7, 5-8 & 10/8, 1-4 In his second major show at the gallery, Stier offers his oil paintings and lovely charcoal and ink drawings.

Setting a tonalist mood, Stier continues in his thoughtfully rendered style. David’s own frames are a perfect complement to his work, milled locally and crafted in his workshop. applying gold and silver metal leaf to the faces of his frames completes the effect, bringing a luminous glow to each painting.

Egils Matiss, Ascension, 72”x17” PVC, Copper and steel.

Leaning Sycamore, oil on panel, 8 x 12 inches

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The tradition of autumn alive! continues in Quakertown. Presented by Quakertown alive!, this is the 17th year, visitors will enjoy the sights, sounds, and tastes of our annual fall festival with a pet theme. artisans, crafters, local businesses, pet rescue groups, and community organizations will be out along Broad Street from Hellertown avenue to Fourth Street to delight and entertain visitors.

There will be plenty of family-friendly fun on Broad Street including the pet parade, free trolley rides, children’s activities, a food court, authors corner, and all-day live entertainment on two stages. For guests over 21 years old, there will be a beer-tasting area.

Quakertown alive! is grateful to the sponsors who make autumn alive! possible: Penn community Bank, St. Luke’s Hospital, QNB Bank, New Vitae Wellness & Recovery, coby Orthodontics, kulp Roofing, Dunkin Donuts, ciocca Dealerships, and Med Express.

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A.d. AMorosi

FOODIE FILE

Pork’s Greatest Hits Interior of Dim Sum House by Jane G’s, Phila.

Celebrity Chef John “JR” Tiger, winner of Chopped on the Food Network, now executive chef at Bacon Gourmet, Easton.

Bacon Fest, 2016, Easton, PA.

Pork ‘n’ Pickles at Bud & Marilyn’s, Phila. Photo ©Reese Amorosi

PORk ISN’T ONLy “THE other white meat” at this point in meta history, a nickname which always made pork seem like an also-ran. The culinary title for meat from a domestic pig just happens to be neck-andneck with the chicken when it comes to non-beef eating. yet it’s far and away first when it comes to its cured, smoked offshoot—bacon and its supple, gorgeously fatty friend, pork belly. Don’t even get me started with Scrapple. We don’t have the page space.

To those of the Jewish and Muslim faith or adherents to their dietary laws, I apologize. Read no further.

In the Lehigh Valley, there is no better haven of cured pork goodness than the winning, annual Pa Bacon Fest which this year is November 4-5. (Go to pabaconfest.com for directions but, seriously, just follow the bacon aroma). Lore has it that the PaBF was borne of ye olde Easton Farmers’ Market, america’s oldest continuous open-air market, established 1752. These colonial vendors and local organic source-er-ers eventually found a focus in the glorious Pennsylvania pig and its smoky skillet delights, and by 2014 Pa Bacon Fest was named one of the top 300 festivals in the entire world by FEST300.com—which means for the vendors of 2017’s PaBF, the bar had to be raised. Bacon food trucks, chef battles, pig roasts, pig racing and hog calling make this weekend in Easton, Pa a must. With bacon a “thing” now, expect Easton to be the place to be that weekend.

Then again, if Bacon Gourmet’s (in the former Black Horse Tavern, 831 South Delaware Drive) owner Dan Ricca and Executive chef J.R. Tiger have their way, Easton and their sleepy township will become THE destination restaurant for pork lovers statewide.

“People can’t wait to go to the Pa Bacon Fest every year—it’s the biggest food event around,” says Ricca enthusiastically. “Now they can have it all year round.”

Ricca says that he met Tiger—the South carolinaraised wrestler-turned-chef and winner of 2016 Food Network’s Chopped culinary competition show—and that the two decided that they wanted to give the area something that it didn’t have: a bacon-themed restaurant with a celebrity chef formerly from a top tier restaurant, Ta’s country Pride in Harrisburg, Pa. “It’s a fivestar restaurant with a theme that the people of Easton love,” says Ricca of a menu that features pork belly kabobs, bracciole with bacon, mussels with crumbled bacon, Baconator calzones, burgers from ground bacon, bacon-topped bread pudding, and the promise of baconthemed cocktails and desserts. Ricca, a man with a chemist’s background, is also making and serving a cBD (cannabidiol) smoothie—a legal, health-based drink inspired by organic chemist and cannabis avatr Raphael Mechoulam’s work with the isolation, structure elucida-

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tion and synthesis of Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol. “We want to surprise diners at Bacon Gourmet,” says Ricca.

Chef Yehuda Sichel at Abe Fisher’s in Philadelphia.

ith the exception of the world famous and righteously renowned sandwiches from John’s Roast Pork (which we couldn’t photograph because we ate it too fast), here are five of Philly’s best and newest pork items that remain stars of their respective restaurants’ menus.

Pork N’ Pickles at Bud & Marilyn’s: Dedicated to the spirit of family and home, chef and co-owner Marcie Turney’s tribute to her upbringing features a generous portion of Broadbent’s Grand champion ham from kentucky, whiskey salami from utah, country pork paté from the heart of Pennsylvania, la quercia guanciale from Iowa, chicharon, pickles pimento cheese, fermented beer mustard and a warm biscuit from the heart.

Sausage Gravy and Cornmeal Waffle with Fried Egg at Chhaya Café: Waking up to gravy-smothered pork sausage with a fluffy, thick waffle and a fresh fried egg? you’ll want to go straight back to sleep to dream about eating this all over again.

Pork Shoulder with Potato Torta and Winter Greens at Kensington Quarters: couture meat center offers a thick, supple shoulder with more curves than a lost highway, nestled cozily on grilled romaine and potato torta with just a hint of lemon gelée.

Pork Belly with Greens at Jane G’s Dim Sum House: a tender bun such as this only works with pork belly as succulent as Jane’s—and with tangy mustard greens for bite.

Bacon ‘n’ Egg Cream at Abe Fisher’s: Solomonov’s most intimate Sansom Street boîte has a bacon potion— crispy, crunchy bacon bits layered between maple custard and chocolate mousse— more intoxicating and heady than absinthe. n

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theater VALLEY

CITY

The Lion in Winter. Henry II plays a nasty, wickedly witty political chess game with his imprisoned wife, Eleanor of aquitaine, and their three very different sons during a 12thcentury christmas that isn’t very christian. Henry has been played by Patrick Stewart, Laurence Fishburne and Peter O’Toole, who scorched the screen with katharine Hepburn. (Oct. 6-22, Pennsylvania Playhouse)

The Bald Soprano. The Idiopathic Ridiculopathy consortium staged Eugene Ionesco’s first play at the city’s Bethany Mission Gallery. The absurdist comedy presents two couples, the Martin’s and the Smith’s, a fire chief and a maid whose insane antics include circular dialogue that says one thing but means another. IRc Producing artistic Director Tina Brock as Mrs. Smith mesmerized audiences with comedic movements, such as when she kept descending a flight of stairs to answer a chronically ringing door bell. Bob Schmidt as Mr. Smith was the perfect passionless husband adept at reading the daily newspaper as a way to hide from his wife. a nonsensical tsunami develops when the Smith’s guests, the Martin’s, arrive at the house over an hour late.

The language spins out of control but in the end it surprises the listener when hidden meanings surface. Tomas Dura as maid Mary is eerily funny as she dusts tables and chairs with the seriousness of a philosopher. The blond Mrs. Martin (Sonja Robson) in “churchy” furs and patent leather shoes is a good match for Mr. Martin (John zak) who works the stretches of silence in the play with facial grimaces as good as Buster keaton’s. Millennials in the audience didn’t seem to get the humor. The Bald Soprano has been running continuously since 1957 at the Theatre de la Huchette in Paris. as Brock noted, “The reality today is that life off stage is far more absurd than Ionesco’s plays might ever have predicted.”

The Secret Garden. civic Theatre of allentown opens its 90th season with this 1991 musical based on Frances Hodgson Burnett’s beloved 1911 novel about Mary Lennox, a sickly, snotty orphan who nurtures unhealthy plants and people with the help of a maid, a gardener and a bird. The original production won three Tony awards and featured Mandy Patinkin, a favorite at the State Theatre. (Oct. 6-22) The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Bertolt Brecht’s potent, provocative clown show satirizes the rise of the Nazi Party, which forced him to leave his native Germany. The title character is a ’30s chicago gangster as goofy as charlie chaplin’s Great Dictator, as dastardly as Macbeth (“Is this a Lugar that I see before me?”) and as disdainful as President Trump (the press is castigated as “foreign agitators”). The 1988 Williamstown Theatre Festival production starred Daniel Davis before he originated Niles the butler on the TV series The Nanny. The 2002 National actors Theatre version blazed with the star power of al Pacino, Steve Buscemi and John Goodman. (Oct. 19-22, Moravian college) Hair. Freak flags fly high in this outrageously exuberant musical time capsule/time machine of late ’60s passions. claude and his tribe members sing, dance and rap about war, pollution, drugs, astrology, prejudice and the candy-coated pleasures of white and black boys. The show, which debuted 50 years ago, soars with “aquarius,” “Good Morning Starshine” and other flower-power anthems. (Oct. 19-22, Northampton community college) Act One. crowded kitchen Players stages James Lapine’s intimate, expansive adaptation of the autobiography of Moss Hart, who zoomed from Bronx cigar maker’s son to Broadway royalty as playwright (Once in a Lifetime) and director (My Fair Lady). One actor plays Hart, Hart’s father and George S. kaufman, who collaborated with Hart on the hits You Can’t Take It with You and The Man Who Came to Dinner, as well as the rebirth of the Bucks county Playhouse. Lapine directed the 2014 Broadway debut, which was filmed for the PBS program Live from Lincoln Center. (Oct. 13-22, Ice House, Bethlehem) Sunday in the Park with George. James Lapine wrote the book for and directed the first production of Stephen Sondheim’s sumptuous, wondrous musical revolving around the characters, philosophies and grand ambitions of Georges Seurat, the master Pointillist painter, and his great-grandson, a disillusioned contemporary artist. This year’s Broadway revival starred Jake Gyllenhaal, co-star of the movies Brokeback Mountain and Nocturnal Animals. (Oct. 27-Nov. 5, Muhlenberg college) Linda Eder. The celebrated cabaret, concert and Broadway vocalist won a Tony award for originating Lucy, the tragic prostitute in Jekyll & Hyde. In June she turned her act at Feinstein’s/54 Below in Manhattan into a time-traveling timetable, singing everything from “This Time around” to “Time after Time.” (Oct. 14, State Theatre) Evil Dead: The Musical. Halloween is the perfect night for a parody of Sam Raimi’s supernatural blood-bath flicks Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. channel the recently dead Tobe Hooper, creator of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, through that chain-sawing fool, ash, who specializes in selling housewares and zapping zombies.

(Oct. 31, State Theatre) n

— geoff gehMAn

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Ruggedly Jewish. Bob Garfield’s monologue-on-all-things-Jewish ran for three nights in September and launched Philadelphia Theatre company’s bizarre new season of one-night performances and solo monologues. Other PTc fall specials: kathleen Turner returns for the umpteenth time for a one–night cabaret act, Finding My Voice, where she will sing songs like “I’d Rather Be Sailing” led by Mark Janas’ band.

Wrestling Jerusalem, directed by Michael John Garces, is another solo show (Oct. 18Nov. 5) about the age-old irresolvable Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The PTc ball of yarn gets even crazier with kait kerrigan and Brian Lowdermilk’s The Mad Ones, yet another one-nighter that gives way to Mike Daisey’s This is Not Normal and The End of Journalism, about (presumably) left and right wing fake news and creeping fascism.

Theater lovers are saying that it’s going to take a long time to get used to PTc’s new format.

Blood Wedding. Frederico Garcia Lorca’s most famous play will mark The Wilma’s new season. Directed by csaba Horvath and performed by Wilma’s HotHouse actors, this magical realism work about obsessive love will undoubtedly stun audiences with its fiery language and passion. The Harvard Crimson wrote that whereas “Shakespeare's characters in Romeo and Juliet are clearly universal, local andalusian flavor pervades those of Blood Wedding and much of the Spanish specificity and poetry of Garcia Lorca's vision are lost on an american audience watching an English translation.” Is The Wilma up to the challenge? Oct. 25-Nov.19.

The Gap by Emma Goldel and directed by Rebecca Wright at the Louis Bluver Theatre at The Drake is about two sisters, one of whom attributes a strange moment in her life to an alien abduction while her more rational sister isn’t so sure and comes up with another theory. The play seems vaguely reminiscent of the 2004 Gregg araki-directed film Mysterious Skin, starring Joseph Gordon- Levitt who plays a teenage hustler that befriends a boy who mistakes molestation experience in his past for contact with aliens. Nov. 1-19.

2017 Barrymore Awards. Since 1995, Theater Philadelphia’s Barrymores has given awards for the best performances in drama, musicals, stage design and direction. This year’s event includes a generous (open bar) after party in u of arts Dorrance Hamilton Hall. Nominees include InteracT Theatre company’s production of How to Use a Knife, definitely the best play of 2017. The October 30 event is scheduled to take place at the Merriam Theatre. barrymores@theatrephiladelphia.org n

— thoM nickels

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the list 5 HARRY STYLES

Your favorite One Direction member and the most human actor from the Dunkirk cast comes to a small theater with his acoustic guitar, his short hair and Adele-like luster. (Tower) 5-8 ARS NOVA’S OCTOBER REVOLUTION FESTIVAL

OCTOBER albums, the adored pompadour-ed singer and dancer does his thing on the big stage; not Super Bowl big, but big. (Wells Fargo Center)

his own Latin Flamenco showcase for a team of trained veterans. Expect lots of fast strumming and quick heel dancing. (Zoellner Arts Center)

26-29 DISENCHANTED!

11 TROMBONE SHORTY & ORLEANS AVENUE

16 DAVID SEDARIS

26 MICHAEL MCDONALD

The Charlie Brown of NPR returns with a hint of Charles Aznavour in the

After playing the ramshackle songs of The Band with Warren Haynes and recording space soul with nu-school funk-a-teer Thundercat, McDonald heads back to his Caucasoid R&B roots.

Plus, he has good hair. (Academy of Music)

The brass playing youth of New Orleans is no longer short or young, but rather

A reunited Art Ensemble of Chicago, angular saxophonist Tim Berne and Germantown’s noisey Sun Ra Arkestra lead the assault on Columbus Blvd’s avant-garde jazz weekend with Philly’s most astute curators of such sonic (un)boundaries. (FringeArts)

An actor singing? WHodathunk? OK, wordy mix. Wah wah. (Kimmel)

Boo. (BB&T Pavilion)

seasoned sassy and soulful. (Fillmore)

7 KEVIN JAMES

12 AGAINST ME!

Go, but with the caveat of this man possibly not being that funny, and that

Laura Jean Grace and the menancing rockers behind 2014’s apt-titled Transgender Dysphoria Blues and 2016’s Shape Shift with Me bring drama,

19 TOUCHSTONES SEX SHOW MUSICAL WITH AUTHOR MICHAEL HOLLINGER AND JESS CONDA

The Sondheim of Philadelphia just composed a bracing, funny, sophisticated new musical about sex phone operators, so why not have Philly’s punk rock theater queen Conda singing the songs. (Arden) 20/22 THE ISLEY BROTHERS

It’s their thing, Ernie and Ronald’s. They should do what they wanna do – soulfully. (Borgata/Sands)

7/8 GOGOL BORDELLO

Eugene Hutz and the rest of his gypsy Serbian troupe perform shanties and drinking songs from its new Seekers and Finders album. Glug. (Union Transfer) 10 BRUNO MARS: 24K MAGIC TOUR

After he and Mark Ronson ripped off Zapp, James Brown and Prince for their

A comic song-filled satire on mean musical Disney villains sounds delicious and decadent. (Kimmel Center)

27 DENNIS QUAID & THE SHARKS

7 ROB ZOMBIE/ MARILYN MANSON

he just killed off one of his TV wives so to get back his old one. Scumbag.

(Kimmel Center)

cUrAted by A.d. AMorosi

20-22 RICHARD LEWIS

dread and new looks at sexuality and common denominator-ality to UT. (Union Transfer)

The charmingly neurotic comic returns for the 9th season of HBO’s Curb Your

he’s played Jerry Lee Lewis with real gusto, so he’s cool. (Steelstacks) 27 POWERHOUSE WITH CARDI B, TRAVIS SCOTT, MEEK MILL

“Bodak Yellow” is the song of the summer, as Cardi B – the de factor star of Love & Hip Hop New York – is its wriggling perpetrator. (Wells Fargo Center)

12 WESLEY STACE/JULIANA HATFIELD

The Brit king of witty literature once known as John Wesley Harding is touring with the pop-indie queen of the 90s. No idea what this is about other than smart assed lo fi fun and frenetics. (Ardmore Music Hall) 13 JOHNNY BRENDA'S PRESENTS UPHOLSTERY 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY EXTRAVAGANZA

The Philadelphia experimental outfit barely looks 8-years old and still has that new furniture smell. (Johnny Brenda’s) 15 FLAMENCO LEGENDS BY JAVIER LIMON: THE PACO DE LUCIA PROJECT

Limón, a longtime collaborator and producer of Paco de Lucía, has formed 14 n I C O N n O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

NOV. 2/3 KING CRIMSON

Guitarist Robert Fripp is not going quietly into aging or the future, as his most recent batch of ever-changing King Crimson-ites is noisier than ever

Enthusiasm and his current “Tracks Of My Fears” tour. Why not? (Helium Comedy Club) 21 PINK MARTINI

Kitsch lounge-tronica with a big band slant and fizzy United Nations feel is what guides leader, composer and founder Thomas Lauderdale through everything Pink. (Zoellner Arts Center)

(is three or four drummers?). Plus, rumor has it that one-time 80s-period Crimson co-guitarist Adrian Belew is re-joining this experimental rock octet soon as the so-called ‘ninth man’.

Could it be for these shows? (Merriam Theatre) n

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pete croAtto

film

A

recent, encouraging development in pop culture has been the portrayal of aging as another adolescence, a time of adjustment that can lead to wonderfulness if you find your tribe. Year by the Sea, based on Joan anderson’s best-selling memoirs, shouts late-life earnestness loud and long to a ferocious frothiness. Every character sounds like time share salesmen, selling the frills and ignoring the substance.

Joan (karen allen) is having a tough time. Her adult sons have moved out; her husband, Robin (Michael cristofer), is weathering a career change, necessitating a move to kansas. Robin, a taciturn bore, neglects to tell Joan, which upsets her. Time passes. as the couple embarks on their journey to the Midwest, Joan decides she’s heading to cape cod.

Robin is stunned, which makes sense: it’s unclear why she’s leaving. By all appearances, Joan and Robin’s principles veered. couples of all ages go through this.

That’s usually solved, or not, with a series of conversations, not an impromptu trip. Plus, Joan misses being a mom; an encounter with a school bus provokes a flashback. Does she long for something new or want the old days to return? The move napalms Joan’s strength as a protagonist, framing her as confused and, worse, unstable. a lazy, high-concept familiarity courses through the movie. alexander Janko, making his directorial debut and working from his own script, doesn’t build Joan from the ground up. He assumes you’ve read anderson’s

Year by the Sea catalogue—or at least heard of Grace and Frankie—and figures you’ll fill in the blanks. Joan’s discontent is painted with a paint roller. While making breakfast, Joan fingers a promotional postcard for cape cod, the kind you immediately toss in the recycling bin. (For reasons I can’t comprehend, the postcard later reappears at her bedside.) When she speaks with Robin, a giant painting of the beach separates them. as proclaimed by the narrative gods, Joan heads to New England. She rents a cottage—reachable by rowboat—and settles in. She gets a job at a fish market, where she starts a flirtation with the hunky, philosophical proprietor/fisherman (yannick Bisson). She befriends a philosophical free spirit (celia Emrie), who talks as if she’s been Inception-ed by the self-help section at Barnes & Noble. She keeps in touch with Robin, who remains angry. as the months mount and the temperatures plummet, it becomes clear that Joan is happier—and that she isn’t the lead in her own story. after 40 years, allen remains a lively, vivacious talent, but she can’t rescue Joan from the sea of strong personalities and the pervasive quaintness of children’s choirs and diners serving free refills of life lessons. Joan doesn’t change as much as become the victim of it. Or maybe personal growth is the thing to do in town.

The characters remain inaccessible on every level, evoking feelings at the cost of the people who have them.

The film wants us to hate Robin—he instantly morphs into a self-flagellating whiner—and have him embrace

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the new Joan. It’s just that we wouldn’t want to ride an elevator with this ceaseless mope, so we know what Joan should do. Janko is less concerned with details. S. Epatha Merkerson isn’t identified as Joan’s agent until an hour in. We don’t see Joan write anything until the movie is 90 minutes old, an odd site for someone who proclaims to always be looking for stories. Feelings are all this movie has, but they’re attached to stick-figure character. They’re delivered in syrupy songs (“Walk on faith!”), in numbing speeches from friends, in Joan’s belated manuscript scribbles. My God, the talking! It’s like being stuck in a catholic mass where the Bible is Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Gestures and little moments would have provided context and fewer speeches with more oomph, but that’s not in the cards. The camera work is limited: tourism bureau-worthy scenes of shore glamour/local quaintness or staged, stationary two-shots rule. Scenes don’t last long enough to create momentum. Janko’s lack of priorities is wobbly. He won’t explore Robin and Joan’s winter of discontent, but will devote a montage of Emire and allen typing. That’s after Merkerson and allen participate in a fun-run.

One of the nicer things about getting older is you acquire the clarity to know what you want. you don’t have time to dawdle. conversely, thanks to repetition, you see the nuance and beauty in the everyday. A Year by the Sea has little time for that principle or, for that matter, viewers, who drown in the shallow end. [NR] n

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film

MARK KERESMAN

Victoria and Abdul HISTORY AND LIFE ARE full of odd relationships. The factbased Victoria and Abdul, written by Lee Hall and directed by Stephen Frears (The Grifters, High Fidelity, My Beautiful Launderette), is one such—Victoria (Judi Densch), Queen of England at the near-height of its colonial power, and a clerk from India (Bollywood star Ali Fazal) befriend each other .

At the time, India is under British rule and an official has the brilliant idea to present a token of Indian culture to Queen Victoria.

Adbul, a Muslim Indian, is drafted to be the presenter primarily because he is very tall (seriously). Abdul is excited at the prospect and, because of his inquisitive and life-embracing nature, looks forward to it. The Queen is lonely—her husband is dead, most of her children are scheming creeps, and her days are filled with tedious duties to the state. To the consternation of everyone, Queen and Abdul meet and he becomes her unofficial munshi (teacher) of all things related to the history of India and Persia. Unlike most of the other people around her, Abdul shows respect for her and doesn’t have an agenda, for which she is grateful. With his help she gets to see beyond her royal existence. Naturally, her family and prime minister are aghast—he is a “colored” commoner, after all. They plot against the friendship, despite knowing that the Queen is considerably happier than before they met.

This is a dramedy of clashes of cultures and social stations. The acting is wonderful. Densch palpably conveys loneliness, sorrow, imperiousness, barely disguised contempt for her family, steely resolve, and gentle humor. Her Victoria relishes power and yet feels imprisoned by her situation. Fazal conveys unassuming twinkle and joie de vivre—he relishes both learning and teaching and feels a genuine affection for the Queen. He’s awed by her yet treats her as a normal person. The supporting cast, including Eddie Izzard, Olivia Williams, Tim Piggott-Smith, and Paul Higgins are spot-on as the Queen’s family, politicians, and doctor. They are all oblivious to Victoria’s “unbearable lightness of being” since meeting Abdul.

Excellent acting aside, Victoria and Abdul is mostly filmed indoors in opulent Victorian surroundings. The cinematography by Danny Cohen is vibrant, which provides a nice contrast to the nearly claustrophobic settings and mood. Some of the humor comes from the contrast between not only nationalist and cultural contexts but from the irony of the Queen’s situation. Her whims are indulged…to a point; her word is law yet everyone tries to undermine or control her.

The chemistry between Queen Victoria and Abdul is profound, but with undercurrents of tension—after all, the British rule in India. This movie veers from sad to uplifting to bittersweet to disturbing. Overall, Victoria and Abdul is a great watch, a wise character study with no violence, nudity, or nasty language. n 18 n I C O N n O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

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A. d. AMorosi

INTErview

The Metamorphosis

of

Renée Fleming

W WHEN RENéE FLEMING MakES her kimmel center debut solo recital on October 15, she enters the stage with just a hint of controversy, having dropped her longtime repertoire at Manhattan’s Metropolitan Opera—including her role as Marschallin—a married older woman in love with a much younger man—in Richard Strauss’ opera, Der Rosenkavalier—like a hot potato. This is akin to the Rolling Stones refusing to perform “Satisfaction.” yet, Fleming built her career on risk—check out the Bjork songs on her most recent studio album, Distant

IT USED TO BE THAT IF YOU WANTED TO PRESENT SOMETHING LIGHTER, YOU DID OPERETTAS FROM THE AUSTRALIAN DRAMATIC TRADITION. THEN IT BECAME AMERICAN CLASSICAL AND THEATER MUSIC. I THOUGHT THAT BJORK’S SONGS ARE ARTISTICALLY INSPIRING AND TREMENDOUSLY VISIONARY.

Light—to say nothing of a daring musicality and winning smile that won her the hosting gigs for both the Met’s Live in HD series broadcast in theaters nationwide and PBS’ Live at Lincoln Center. I caught up to her while she was working in the Pacific Northwest.

First, very serious question: who does your hair?

It’s different in every photo shoot, more stunning and theatrical with time.

Well, that’s’ fantastic. [Laughs] Thank you. If you’re seeing a studio photo, there are several professionals that I work with regularly. If you’re seeing a photo of me live on stage, that is usually just me doing my own hair. Straggling. and it is a struggle.

So you just made my day. [Laughs] How does one grow and age as a lyric soprano as you do? How does one go from where you started to where your voice is now?

It’s different for everyone, of course. It really all comes down to physiology. your voice is a natural development…an extension…from your physiology.

How you develop it is another whole story, in and of itself. Within that development, there is leeway, but I got here by working with different teachers and trying to extend my range.

Was that rough?

It was at the beginning. From there, it was a non-stop effort for a lot of years. It was really hard, though, once I got to the top—it made me stronger and more secure to have that breadth.

Does the changing voice have anything to do with you ditching the repertoire there?

It has more to do with the fact that I feel—in the digital age—as if we should represent our characters a little more, be more appropriate in terms of age and virtuosity. There are certainly repertoires that I can continue to sing. and at times some of them aren’t appropriate anymore. They’re too virtuosic.

But the bread and butter part of my repertoire I can still do. Plus, there is a part of me that knows that I’ve done it all already. Over a period of years I said what I had to say in that rep—certainly Marschallin.

I really thought that it was time to give somebody else a chance.

A decision like that…did you waffle? Was it labored or did you rip it off like a Band-Aid? It happened over a period of time. you start changing the nature of your repertoire slowly. I haven’t sung a lot of opera for many years. Mostly, I’ve been singing classical concerts like I am now, like the one in Philadelphia. I’m also welcoming new repertoires that are more appropriate to my stage in life, and the ages of those characters. But it all still has to be right for a lyric soprano. There are certainly wonderful roles written for more mature women, but not all of them are appropriate for my voice.

You were brave to do Bjork music on your newest studio album, Distant Light. But you did “Virus,” a slow, creeping song about a parasitic relationship that just pulls every breath out of your body.

We were recoding in Stockholm and I wanted to do something contemporary—really contemporary.

Players and audiences, when I’ve done that song, treat it as something fresh, which it is. It also helps

that the orchestration is good, so technologically perfect. It used to be that if you wanted to present something lighter, you did operettas from the australian dramatic tradition. Then it became american classical and theater music. I thought that Bjork’s songs are artistically inspiring and tremendously visionary.

We started talking about new works and new composers. What must they have to interest you?

I do assessment of new music for and with Lyric Opera chicago, which is how we came up with Jimmy Lopez’s Bel Canto. I look for musicianship.

It’s different working with a vocalist, so it’s a different kind of musicianship.

Like Letters from Georgia, the Kevin Puts and Eastman Philharmonia thing you did from the letters of Georgia O'Keeffe?

I’m always looking for new music to sing. That piece came from the Eastman School of Music where keven and I went. I love working with kevin, really got to know him—and we’re expanding the piece to include a baritone, the character of arthur Stieglitz, the photographer. The big news, however, for Philadelphia is that I’m actually previewing a new song cycle from andré Previn, with whom I’ve had a fruitful relationship over the years. I love his musical language. His music works out fantastically for my voice. He’s so excited for this show that he’s going to be there for our premiere.

I was saving that. What can you tell me about Previn’s new piece? I know there are elements of West Side Story in there. How did you two get to the new cycle’s development? andré is very facile in his writing. It was just a couple of years ago when I went to visit him that he said, “Gee, I have this song for you,” while in the process of a song cycle. There is poetry that he chose—yeats for instance—that finds him thinking about this stage of his life, things that he’s wrestling with. I love yeats. I actually had one of the poems that andré selected as a reading at my first wedding. I knew that poem really well. It’s a very big cycle—ten songs—and I’m only doing five pieces of it in Philadelphia, but I think that they’re quite wonderful. n

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keith Uhlich

film roundup

Faces Places

Ex Libris: New York Public Library (Dir. Frederick Wiseman). Documentary. The great Frederick Wiseman turns his camera on a venerable institution, the New york Public Library, and the results are enthralling and provocative. The film is bookended by a heady talk with evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and a sublime music selection

by Johann Sebastian Bach (a journey, of sorts, from secular wisdom to devout transcendence). In between, Wiseman and his frequent cameraman John Davey glide through the various rooms of both the main library branch and several of its outer-borough offshoots.

What emerges is a microcosmic portrait of american society itself, and an examination of the way knowledge travels within and between different socioeconomic strata. Wisdom, the film implies, is the most powerful and equalizing virtue. [N/R] HHHH1/2

feature. They're an odd couple: She's diminutive, whimsical and eightysomething, he's a ball of energy in his 30s who hides behind sunglasses. They travel the Gallic countryside seeking out subjects to photograph and then place, in life-size murals, on buildings and other structures. The impermanence of the artwork is key to the film's themes about the tenuousness of life and how both younger and older people grapple with that idea.

(One of the most beautiful scenes sees JR photograph Varda's eyes and toes, then plaster the oversize results on a train that will travel through parts of the country that she has never been to.) The film builds to a deeply moving final scene—a non-appearance by Jean-Luc Godard, whose treatment of her comes off as terrible in a human sense and profound in a cinematic one. By denying her something she personally wants, he gives her movie the ending it requires. [N/R]

Faces Places (Dirs. JR and agnès Varda). Documentary. Staple of the French New Wave agnès Varda (Cleo from 5 to 7) teams up with the photographer JR for this playful and devastating

Roman J. Israel, Esq. (Dir. Dan Gilroy). Starring: Denzel Washington, colin Farrell, carmen Ejogo. Writer-director Dan Gilroy's L.a. noir Night-

HHHH1/2

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crawler (2014) was one of the most striking debuts of recent years, which makes his humdrum followup disappointing. Denzel Washington stars as the title character, an idiot savant civil rights lawyer way outside his time, with ill-fitting clothes, oversize specs and a misshapen afro that makes him seem like a less charismatic cornel West.

When the head counsel at his firm falls into a coma, Roman is sympathy-hired by a shark-like attorney (colin Farrell) who comes on to close out the company's cases. Roman's rigorously idealistic approach to due process is soon diluted by the temptations (fancy suits, big apartments, copious legal loopholes) of a 2017-era law practice. and then he attempts, unconvincingly, to atone for his hypocrisy. The biggest stumbling block here is Washington, whose performance is all mannered tics (constantly pushing his drooping glasses up the bridge of his nose) and no complementary depths— rare bad work from one of Hollywood's leading lights. [R] HH Suburbicon (Dir. George clooney).

Starring: Matt Damon, Julianne

Moore, Noah Jupe. For this lousy black comedy, director George clooney and his writing/producing partner Grant Heslov dusted off a very old script by Joel and Ethan coen about a 1950s family man (Matt Damon) living in a picture-perfect suburban enclave who plots with his sister-in-law (Julianne Moore) to off his sickly wife (also Moore) and collect the insurance money. clooney and Heslov then added an ill-conceived subplot about an african-american family moving into the neighborhood, which raises the ire of the all-white community. It's a feeble addition meant to cement clooney and his collaborators's status as good, progressive liberals, but which comes off half-baked at best and offensive at worst given that all the horrible caucasians still take center stage. The coens' side of the story ain't too hot either, seeming in its what-could-gowrong-next? twists and turns like a dry run for Fargo (1996). Only young Noah Jupe, as the Damon character's beleagured, righteous young son, makes anything approaching an indelible impression. [R] HH n

dvds revieWed by george oxford Miller

reel news

The Ornithologist

Megan Leavey Starring: kate Mara, Tom Felton, Ramon Rodriguez [Biography, Drama, War] This inspiring biopic, based on true life, follows the transformation of Megan Leavey from a rudderless lost soul to a war hero and a true Wonder Woman role model, then to a fearless woman with a David vs. Goliath mission. Told in three parts, the story begins with Megan (Mara) as a depressed, dissolute youth who can’t recover from her best friend’s overdose death. She escapes her life, but not her troubles, by joining the Marines. She’s soon disciplined to clean out the kennels for the bomb-sniffer dogs. Her washed-out mother was fond of telling her she couldn’t relate to people, but turns out she can relate to dogs. She bonds with Rex, the most troubled canine in the unit. Mean dogs, like Leavey’s inner demons, just need love unhampered with negative expectations. The story moves quickly through harrowing experiences in Iraq to Leavey’s return home, where she faces her most difficult battles–first PTSD, then the bureaucracy that refuses to let her adopt Rex. Spoiler: This is one feelgood movie where the dog does not die in the end. [PG-13] HHHH

The Beguiled (2017) Starring: Nicole kidman, colin Farrell, kirsten Dunst, Elle Fanning. [Drama] Though based on Thomas cullinan’s 1966 civil War novel, this psychological thriller feels more like a creepy “Guess Who came to Dinner” than the 1971 rooster-inthe-hen-house classic with clint Eastwood and Geraldine Page. When the spirited students of Miss Martha Farnsworth Seminary for young Ladies discover a wounded union soldier, a psychological war erupts. The battle lines in the genteel plantation-school aren’t as deadly (perhaps), but the emotions, and hormones, rage as fiercely as the canon blasts across the hills. The Irish immigrant John McBurney (Farrell) is perfectly content to ride out the war surrounded by females eager for his attention. He masterfully becomes what each needs most, from the adolescent girls, the brazen teen alicia (Flanning), the insecure spinster teacher Edwina (Durst), and the controlling headmistress Miss Martha (kidman). The sexual tension, rivalries, and jealousy, as well as betrayal, anger, and revenge, escalate as John heals and takes his place at the head of the table, until he doesn’t. [R] HHHH

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Personal Shopper (2017) Starring: kristen Stewart. [Supernatural thriller] Maureen (Stewart) works as a personal shopper for a French celebrity, keeping her wardrobe up to date with the newest styles. But her real interest focuses on her deceased twin Lewis.

When they discovered they both had a congenital heart defect, they made a pact that if there is an afterlife, the first one to die will communicate with the other. When Lewis passes, Maureen, a medium herself, becomes obsessed with making contact. Between fashion stores, she returns to the mansion where Lewis lived. Eerily, she repeatedly calls his name. When inexplicable signs appear, Maureen doesn’t know whether to be relieved that Lewis is just beyond the mirror, or terrified that evil forces are threatening her soul. Then her iPhone bings with text messages from Lewis.

She begins to think her cyber-stalker may actually be from this world and pose more than a physiological threat. The power of the movie, though, is in the character realization portrayed by Stewart as she builds the complexity of Maureen’s personality. as the tension intensifies, we easily step into her shoes and experience her emotions. [R] HHHH

The Ornithologist (2017) Starring: Paul Hamy, Xelo cagiao, João Pedro Rodrigues. [adventure] In Portuguese, Mandarin, and Latin with English subtitles. In this allegorical

odyssey, Fernando (Hamy), a birdwatcher loses his way in the wilderness, literally and figuratively. While searching for rare storks, he wrecks his kayak and is stranded deep in a remote forest in Portugal. In an anything-butclassical “hero’s journey,” Fernando must conquer both physical and existential challenges to survive. Stunning cinematography captures the peacefulkingdom idealism of nature without humans that surrounds the wandering, questioning soul. Fernando encounters one surrealistic obstacle after another, including demented missionaries, a gay goat herder, half-naked women with guns—all obviously symbolic, so go figure. Though his personal salvation is questionable, his treacherous, mind-bending journey toward the divine mirrors the tests and trials of 13th-century Franciscan priest anthony of Padua, the patron saint of lost things and a popular holy figure in the religious culture of Portugal. [NR]

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MArk keresMAn

foreign

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Polina (France, 2016)

EVERy MOVIE aBOuT BaLLET shows the grueling process dancers-to-be must endure and this movie is no different. Since she was a child, Polina (anastasia Shevtsova, a dancer with the Saint Petersburg Mariinsky Theater) yearned to join the prestigious Bolshoi Ballet. But she comes from a lower middle-class family and lessons with the exacting teacher Bojinski (aleksey Guskov) don’t come cheaply.

So, her father, anton (Miglen Mirtchev), borrows money from the Russian Mob and, predictably, chaos follows. Polina continues her lessons with Bojinski, a tyrant with less charm than the drill instructor (R. Lee Ermey) from Full Metal Jacket.

(We can imagine Bojinski repeating Ermey’s famous tirade: “If you ladies leave my island, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon. you will be a minister of death praying for war. But until that day you are pukes. you are the lowest form of life on Earth. you are not even human fucking beings.…Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn.”)

She gets close to her goal of joining the Bolshoi but then she sees a modern dance performance—this inspires her to relocate to France with her fellow student/boyfriend, adrien (Niels Schneider), for modern dance study there. Things don’t go as well as she hoped, though her French instructor (played magnetically by 26 n I C O N n O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

Juliette Binoche) inspires her with warmth and kindness. Her boyfriend’s dancing abilities exceed hers so she leaves him, finding other work, other dance opportunities (that include improvisation, something she’d never done before), and (maybe) other love. co-directed by Valerie Muller and world-renowned French choreographer angelin Preljocaj, Polina is a beautiful yet somewhat frustrating film. The dance scenes are wonderful, and Shevtsova is mesmerizing to watch; she expresses natural beauty, wonder, and passion with every movement, every glance. The crisp, flat cinematography by Georges Lechaptois conveys the harsh beauty of the Russian countryside and the loveliness and detail of dance, both classical and modern. But we never get to know the inner Polina; other than as a driven dancer and plucky underdog, we never learn who she really is. Other things are left unexplained: If her family is under-the-gun for funds (and they are, literally) how can she afford to travel to France? She leaves her boyfriend, but we don’t get to know his side of it, or if he’s worried or upset.

If one is a dance enthusiast and wants to see a star on the horizon, Polina is worth the ticket. (Not rated.) n

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DOC

Photo: Ron Bull / Toronto Star

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City THROuGHOuT HuMaN HISTORy, THERE’S always been a clash between differing notions of progress. Citizen Jane is about Jane Jacobs, a Nyc journalist with a background in architecture who was one of the most notorious opponents of Nyc developer Robert Moses. Moses wanted to “modernize” Nyc architecture and streets, which is another way of saying: Tear down the old buildings, including landmarks and classic architecture, and erect new ones, which also meant put roads and freeways through neighborhoods. One person’s progress is another person’s immeasurable loss of personal history and way of life.

Via film clips and assorted stills, we see the ways New yorkers lived in the early 20th century, and those are compared and contrasted with the ways

they are living now. We see how somewhat dilapidated housing—and the distinctiveness of neighborhoods—were replaced by high-rise beehive-type buildings. Superficially this appears to be progress— but then we’re shown how the inner-city housing projects that Moses approved for lower-income folks have become some of the most squalid and dangerous places in urban america. as a documentary Citizen Jane is both fascinating and frustrating; Jacobs is shown as a humanist and Moses as Snidely Whiplash. But Jacobs—who envisions a city as a collection of vibrant neighborhoods that serve the residents is portrayed primarily as the voice of opposition. Moses is portrayed as having a vision of Nyc as a collection of inexpensive to build,

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(2017)

characterless “modern” buildings, and an attitude of c’est la vie toward the people who would be displaced by his “urban renewal” projects. It would’ve been nice to see if Jacobs or her allies had alternative plans to supplant those of Moses—but then, he was not the kind of guy to whom one says “no.” Further, Jane is rather repetitive—there are too many scenes of buildings torn down manually or imploded by strategically-placed explosives (I get it, ka-booom) and the voice-over narration tells us the same points, too.

Citizen Jane is a good documentary that could’ve been great—but as it is, it’s a decent urban David and Goliath story (especially for Nyc- and/or architecture-history buffs). Jacobs proved you can fight city Hall…and win. (Not Rated.) n

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toM Wilk

music SINGER / SONGWRITER Chris Hillman HHHH Bidin’ My Time Rounder Records “I’m going for it once more,” chris Hillman declares on “Here She comes again.” It’s a line that could serve as statement of purpose for Hillman, a member of the Rock ‘n’ Hall of Fame who is releasing his first studio cD in more than a decade. Bidin’ My Time is a contender for comeback album of the year, showcasing Hillman’s strong vocals at 72. a charter member of the Byrds, Hillman evokes the spirit of the band on the opening track “Bells of Rhymney” featuring the harmonies of David crosby and Herb Pedersen. Hillman pays tribute to his late Byrds bandmate Gene clark, with a wondrous version of “She Don’t care about Time,” while “Here She comes again,” which Hillman cowrote with Byrds founder Roger McGuinn, is a sublime slice of folk/rock featuring McGuinn on 12-string guitar.

Producer Tom Petty, who has long acknowledged the Byrds’ influence on his music, keeps the focus on Hillman’s voice with uncluttered arrangements. a stripped-down, bittersweet version of “Walk Right Back” is done in the spirit of the Everly Brothers, who had a hit with the song in 1961. Hillman dips into Petty’s songbook with a folk version of “Wildflowers.” Hillman’s newer songs hold up to his earlier ones. “Restless” is a heartfelt love song featuring Mike campbell on lead guitar, while “Such is the World That We Live In” sees Hillman finding spiritual solace in times of adversity. (12 songs, 35 minutes) Steve Winwood HHHH Greatest Hits Live Wincraft Records Greatest Hits Live serves as a career retrospective for Steve Winwood as he features selections from his days with the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and Blind Faith plus his 40 years as a solo artist. He brings a fresh approach to his music, rather than a rote re-creation of his songs and demonstrates his consid-

erable strengths as a bandleader, instrumentalist and vocalist.

“I’m a Man” opens the album and features an introduction with Latin/jazz overtones to distinguish it from the original hit with the Spencer Davis Group.

“Glad,” a vibrant instrumental from Winwood’s days with Traffic, finds him performing it on organ, rather than piano, to give it a harder edge. Winwood performs ten songs from his tenure with Traffic. among the highlights are “Dear Mr. Fantasy,” which has echoes of “Mr. Tambourine Man” with its celebration of making music, and “40,000 Headmen,” which spotlights the ensemble playing of his band as the group creates an atmospheric soundscape. “Medicated Goo” is performed as an up-tempo romp that puts the focus on the horn section. “Back in the High Life again,” featuring Winwood on mandolin shows a quieter, intimate side, while the traditional “John Barleycorn” is a haunting chance of pace featuring acoustic guitar and flute. (23 songs, 155 minutes) Tom Russell HHH1/2 Folk Hotel Frontera Records Folk Hotel gives Tom Russell a chance to stretch out creatively and acknowledge the musical and literary sources that have shaped his art and approach to songwriting. “up in the Old Hotel,” title courtesy of writer Joseph Mitchell, opens the album with a folkbased reverie of postwar Greenwich Village that name checks Dylan Thomas

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and Louis armstrong and shows the breadth of Russell’s writing. The Welsh poet resurfaces on “The Sparrow of Swansea (for Dylan Thomas),” which traces the highs and lows of the writer’s life, and features backing vocals from Eliza Gilkyson. The vocals of Joe Ely are a good complement to Russell’s worldweary baritone on a duet of Bob Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues.”

“Rise again, Handsome Johnny” and “The Last Time I Saw Hank” are meditations on the passing of two american legends—John F. kennedy and Hank Williams, respectively—that show Russell taking a fresh approach to what could be a tired topic. Russell shows his diversity with the flamenco-tinged and autobiographical “Leaving El Paso,” which he sings in English and Spanish. cowboy songs have always been one of Russell’s strengths and he delivers the goods on “I’ll Never Leave These Old Horses,” which was inspired by singer/songwriter and rancher Ian Tyson. (14 songs, 70 minutes) Eilen Jewell HHH1/2 Down Hearted Blues Signature Sounds Blues music served as the inspiration for Eilen Jewell to become a singer/songwriter, starting with the release of Boundary County in 2005. a dozen years later, Jewell has released

Down Hearted Blues, acknowledging the role the genre has played in her artistic development. With the help of her firstrate band, Jewell successfully puts her own stamp on the songs. She brings a smoky and sultry approach to her vocals on “It’s your Voodoo Working.” “another Night to cry” switches gears for a

jazzy arrangement with the lonesome tone of Jerry Miller’s guitar underscoring the sense of loss in her delivery.

On the title track, which Jewell performs as a loping, country-style ballad, her vocal has echoes of Patsy cline’s phrasing. “I’m a Little Mixed up” is a straight-ahead blues in which she conveys a mix of hurt and defiance. On “Nothing in Rambling,” a song popularized by Memphis Minnie, Jewell displays her ability to sing in an upper register. “you know My Love,” one of three songs Jewell covers by blues legend Willie Dixon, allows her to project a sense of romantic swagger. “The Poor Girl’s Story” ends the album on a rootsy note with a romantic lament performed acoustically with guitar, banjo and violin.

(12 songs, 38 minutes) Bill Carter HHH Bill Carter Forty Below Records Less is more for Bill carter on his self-titled album. carter, whose songs have been recorded by a wide range of artists, including Waylon Jennings, Ruth Brown, and Robert Palmer, offers his own versions in a stripped-down format with just his guitar and harmonica for accompaniment. “crossfire,” previously recorded by Stevie Ray Vaughan, becomes barebones blues in carter’s rendition.

“Money’s tight, nothing free,” he sings with desperation, “Won’t somebody come and rescue me?” “Why Get up?” is a vehicle for his easygoing humor which he performs in a laid-back style that recalls Mose allison. The song’s title offers the comforts of bed as one way to avoid the nagging problems of everyday life. “anything Made of Paper” has echoes of acoustic Bob Dylan from the early 1960s and provides an outlet for carter’s creative use of language.

“Willie the Wimp” is a career sketch of a career criminal that serves as a eulogy for a colorful character. “Eva Bible” is an effective country/gospel hybrid that carter delivers in his strong tenor. (10 songs, 38 minutes) n

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MUSIC JAZZ / ROCK / CLASSICAL / ALT Andrew Cooperstock HHHH Leonard Bernstein: Complete Solo Works for Piano Bridge Emanuele Arciuli HHHH1/2 Walk in Beauty Innova Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990) remains one of the giants of American music. Best known as a conductor of classical orchestras, he was also a pianist, composer, social activist—one of the few classical performers to

many of the pieces here evoke the desolate, harsh beauty of the Southwestern American desert and its people and wildlife. Michael Daugherty’s “Buffalo Dance” brings a Beethoven-like intensity to inspiration from

Emanuele Arciuli.

Native American painting and dances. This is music to get lost within, whilst looking at the rain, contemplating a dire situation, or staring at a magical painting. If you enjoy Eric Satie, Brian Eno’s ambient works, Claude Debussy, Fred Hersch, and/or love the incredible range of the piano, hear this. (28 tracks, 1 hr., 56 min.) innova.mu Leonard Bernstein, 1955.

become an international superstar. (The music for the movies West Side Story and On the Waterfront? LB wrote.) Alas, during his lifetime his composing was overshadowed by conducting…but it doesn’t need to stay that way. The two-CD Complete Solo Works for Piano contains all of Bernstein’s music for the piano and it’s both heady and approachable. Bernstein’s inspirations were indeed eclectic—traditional Jewish music, jazz, opera, and early 20th century classicalists like Stravinsky, Copland, and Gershwin (like Bernstein, he worked both sides of the street, pop/theater songs and classical composition). Like Gershwin, LB’s music sounds so very American—tuneful (though not simple), direct, but with some neat-o, impish twists. Pianist Andrew Cooperstock plays LB with a classy, somewhat goth-like tone. (52 tracks, 1 hr., 44 min.) bridgerecords.com Pianist Emanuele Arciuli’s two-CD set is a very different kettle of keys. Arculi plays the music of (mostly) contemporary American composers including Peter Garland, John Luther Adams, and Jennifer Higdon, among others. Much of this music is sparse, spare, and hauntingly melodious in a minimalist sense (though not as “strict” as Glass or Reich) and some might liken some of this to New Age music if not for the occasional dissonances. The loose concept of Walk in Beauty is

Mike Stern HHHH Trip Heads Up Before his solo career, Mike Stern was the axe-man for Miles Davis, Steps Ahead, and the Brecker Brothers. For those less familiar, Stern is a jazz guitarist who’s absorbed inspiration from bebop, fusion, blues, funk, and rock, converging these influences into a distinctive style. Trip is Stern’s first release since the July 2016 accident that broke both of his arms—this is his I’M BACK statement and a rather good one it is. If it’s stylistic consistency you must have, you might be frustrated here—Stern utilizes a different ensemble for each tune, including such swells as Lenny White, Dave Weckl, Randy Brecker, and Wallace Roney, tackling different styles with aplomb. The title track evokes Chick Corea’s Return to Forever mid-‘70s glory days, and Stern goes to town with some incendiary string-bending. The electric-era Miles-inspired “Screws” features some blistering blues-drenched guitar and sumptuous Miles-ian trumpet from Roney. The strutting “Whatchacallit” (could almost be a Stevie Wonder number) evokes the funkier side of 1970s fusion, with Stern inserting a bit of mildly grinding rock tone. “Emilia” carries West African flavors, and fear not, bebop fans, there’s the limber, sprightly swinger “B Train,” with some sweet, muted trumpet from Roney. Welcome back, guy. (11 tracks, 66 min.) concordmusicgroup.com

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Hiss Golden Messenger HHHHH Hallelujah Anyhow Merge

Zack Keim HHH1/2 First Step Get Hip Folk Series Trying to find a songwriter not influenced directly or indirectly by Bob Dylan is like trying to find a rock guitarist not impacted by Chuck Berry or Eric Clapton.

Case in point: Hiss Golden Messenger aka M.C. Taylor—but as with many things, it’s not where you come from but where you’re going. Taylor’s voice evokes Dylan a bit, Mark Knopfler somewhat, and J.J. Cale even more—a bit reedy, a mellow yet heartfelt, expressive croon. This Messenger combines country, mellowish rock, folk, and a bit of Southern rhythm & blues, but what makes his mixture so distinctive in the assured sophistication (especially in the layering/texturing of in-

Hiss Golden Messenger.

strumentation)—imagine if Steely Dan were more rural than urban in orientation, or Van Morrison if he emerged from country rather than blues/R&B. The longing “Jenny of the Roses” could be one of those timeless mood-pieces like Glen Campbell’s “Galveston” or “Wichita Lineman,” with a chorus that won’t quit.

The wistful “Harder Rain” is a cousin of Morrison’s “Stoned Me” and Brook Benton’s “Rainy Night in Georgia.” Oh, this is SO good. (10 tracks, 36 min.) mergerecords.com Zack Keim is a Pittsburgh rock & roll youth who got hip (pun intended) to the acoustic folk sounds of Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and Leonard Cohen. For his debut album Keim went the bare-bones route, mostly his voice and acoustic guitar—like the man said in The Usual Suspects, “sometimes that’s all you need.” Keim has a slightly raw vocal style evocative of (you guessed it) Dylan, but also Cohen and Pearls Before Swine’s Tom Rapp. Keim sings with an attractively stark,

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MARK KERESMAN

Zack Keim.

haunting, introspective vulnerability that sidesteps selfpity and self-absorption. Old folkie purists (Phil Ochs is our shepherd) and those digging the new breed(s) of unadorned acoustic songsters should seek this out. (10 tracks, 34 min.) gethip.com Paul McCandless with the Paul Winter Consort

HHHH

Morning Sun: Adventures With Oboe Living Music These days (as in the last 10-15 years or so) it’s not unusual to hear performers combining/mixing various styles of jazz, folk, rock, classical, and world music (at one time referred to as “ethnic music”) to come up with some fascinating hybrids. But as with anything else, there were those that had these ideas long before it became commonplace (or commercially viable) and eclectic jazz saxophonist Paul Winter was one such. As with John Mayall (with the blues) and Charles Mingus ( jazz), many (great) musicians passed through the ranks of his pan-stylistic Consort, including oboist Paul McCandless. Usually the melancholy oboe is identified with classical music but McCandless (along with the late Yusef Lateef) has been

Paul McCandless with Paul Winter.

using it in a jazz/world fusion context, with Winter and with the band Oregon (which emerged from the Consort). Spanning the 1971 – 2010, Morning Sun cherry-picks various tunes from the Winter catalog featuring McCandless. If you’re seeking swing or edge, this isn’t the place—but there’s plenty of floating, wistful melodies, gently undulating, sultry rhythms (as much Brazil as Debussy), a soothing vibe overall, and the soulfully expressive, woody tone of Paul McC’s oboe and English horn (most often heard in film/TV soundtracks to indicate a character’s being worried/concerned). Winter has been credited as being (or accused of, depending on one’s viewpoint) one of the progenitors of New Age music—whatever, this is a set of timelessly relaxing, introspective (without being sleep-inducing) sounds. (16 tracks, 66 min.) livingmusic.com Jane Antonia Cornish HHHHH Into Silence Innova

Jane Antonia Cornish.

Paul Chihara HHHH1/2 Take the A Train Bridge What these platters have in common is that both are by classical composers who write music for movies: Brit Jane Antonia Cornish, for Fireflies in the Garden; American Paul Chihara, for Death Race 2000 and Crossing Delancey. While both are very modern, both are almost thoroughly tonal—in laypersons’ terms, not overly outré or difficult. Both albums consist of music for small groups, which those in the classical field refer to as chamber music. Cornish’s set, for violin, multiple cellos, and electronics, is achingly lovely, recalling in essence that most lovely/forlorn pieces of sad music, Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings”—there is an undertone of understated dramatic tension while the strings sigh their song of wistful and deep regret. While not a minimalist, Cornish often has insistent repetitive/cyclical passages for solo strings, solo passages for violin full of Artic circle sunlight (think Sibelius) and thoughtful passion (think Rachmaninoff), and piano that’s deliberate as a drop of rain off a downspout or tree branch (think Morton Feldman, though not as austere). Grandly soothing without being soporific, Into Silence is a virtual blessing for a world gone mad. (6 tracks, 32 min.) innova.mu Chihara’s works are for string trio and quartet, solo piano, and guitar/violin/viola. He uses the studied “language” of Brahms and Bartok but the words, full of unassuming drama and emotional directness, are all his. “String Trio” is sad, but more in the manner of a story unfolding, as opposed to Cornish’s distillation of sorrow (above). His “Bagatelles” for piano are as rest-

lessly, wittily American as Gershwin (but a tiny bit thornier). Chihara takes the notion of that head-turning girl from Ipanema and imagines her oozing Balkan

Paul Chihara.

sultriness (she’s from Albania, to be specific) with “Girl From Yerevan” and pays a remarkable tribute to Duke Ellington by arranging three Dukal classics for string quartet and oy, it swings without overtly “trying to sound like” jazz. Chihara’s Train is briskly stimulating without being overbearing or didactic. (21 tracks, 65 min.) bridgerecords.com n

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jazz library

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PATTI BOWN

Patti Bown. Photo by Eduardo Calderón, originally published in a book by Paul de Barros.

Women involved in the playing of jazz music, has been a touchy subject from the start—with both women and men. Women, especially instrumentalists—have traditionally not been held in high esteem by many male jazz musicians who weren’t used to them invading a field dominated by them. Even today, some female jazz musicians complain of male bias.

Ironically, women jazz instruments fared better in the genre’s early days. There were a good number of female musicians and all-female bands toward and into the middle of the previous century.

Male jazz musicians were not as critical of lady singers when they were being paid by them to be accompanists—then they seemed to be more tolerant, as long as the chanteuses were at least aware of the key in which they were singing.

Patti Bown was a lady instrumentalist, who was her own woman, knew her stuff, and made her mark in jazz—often more in spite of, than in concert with, her male musical counterparts.

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bob perkins

Bown was born July 26, 1931 in Seattle, Washington. She grew up in a large family, which included four girls who were musically inclined, and played piano. Three of the girls took music lessons. Patti, at age two, was told she wasn’t old enough to participate, but she played piano anyway, by ear. She continued playing by ear, and became good enough to accompany singers, play for dance classes, masses at catholic churches, and programs at black churches. She was even invited to give a recital at the governor’s mansion.

Patti attended a catholic School at age 12, and it was there that she was taught to read music. By the time she was about to complete high school, one of her sisters, who was making strides in classical music and studying in France, returned to the u.S. for a concert sponsored by impresario Sol Hurok. Even though she received great reviews, not much else happened, and she was eventually told by Hurok that because she was female—and black—he could do no more for her, and it was just not the right time for her in america.

Despite what had happened to Patti’s sister, her parents still encouraged her to pursue a career in classical music. They were buoyed by the fact that upon completing high school, Patti had received more than 45 college and university scholarships, and been voted the “girl most likely to succeed.”

Patti gave up on the idea of devoting her time to a career in classical music, but did attend a university and obtained a degree in music studies. although steeped in the classics, she had always been captivated by jazz, and it all started in her early years after hearing records by Duke Ellington on the radio.

Patti moved from Seattle to New york, and met and played with Dizzy Gillespie, who also got her work in various jazz venues. She also met Quincy Jones who was putting together a band for a tour of Europe and he hired her. She was ecstatic, and said, “Quincy had the choice of any pianist he wanted, and I’m happy he chose me.” The band was overflowing with talent, including another woman named Melba Liston, who was already a top trombonist and went on to become a much respected jazz arranger and composer.

Even though she more than held her own in Jones’ band, Patti said there was still some resentment of her. She also found this attitude prevalent in many of the other venues in which she worked.

Back home, following the extended tour of Europe, she found work as a pianist in recording studios, on Broadway, and in nightclubs; she also composed for film and television.

Over a long career in music, and especially jazz music, Patti had worked with many of the so-called cream of the jazz crop, including Sarah Vaughan and Dinah Washington, and shared stages and recorded with Oliver Nelson, Benny Golson, Gene ammons, Roland kirk, Sweets Edison, and a host of other top names in the genre.

Patti spent the last several decades of her life in Greenwich Village, and played regularly at the famed Village Gate nightclub. She did manage to record at least one album under her own name on the columbia label, Patti Bown Plays Big Piano. Patti Bown died on March 21, 2008 in Media, Pennsylvania.

Even a good number of mature jazz devotees know little or nothing about her—probably because she hadn’t been “one of the guys.” n Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Monday through Thursday night from 6 to 9 and Sunday, 9 to 1.

A.d. AMorosi

MUSIC

David Bowie album cover shoot for Aladdin Sane, 1973. Photograph by Brian Duffy.

POP

f reak out on a moonage daydream BaRELy TWO yEaRS aFTER his death David Bowie is more popular than in life. along with just having hit a billion streams on Spotify and co-starring in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return (old footage sure, but also born-anew as a teapot), the prettiest star is having an autumn that’s busier than when he was in his prime.

The first stop is MVD Distribution’s Beside Bowie: The Mick Ronson Story, a smart straight-shooting. just-released documentary from director Jon Brewer that studies ziggy Stardust’s first guitarist—a player of amazing influence and panache, the avatar of glam—from humble beginnings in Hull, his co-creation of Bowie’s earliest

arrangements, then his role recording with Bob Dylan, Ian Hunter, Lou Reed, Morrissey and John Mellencamp. One of the most unique aspects of the sad, stirring documentary (besides being well-deserved and deeply and sorrowfully revelatory) is that Beside features the narration from Bowie in what had to be one of his last jobs before 2016’s passing. That both men are gone (as is Reed) is a hard pill to swallow.

With the A New Career in a New Town: 1977-1982 box—the third in a series from Parlophone/Rhino— the story of how Bowie got from La to Berlin is told.

Tired of cocaine and plasticity, Bowie left the city of angels (his next stop after Philly and Young Americans) for drying-out, and a DIy life) and found solace in dramatic, electronic pre-synth punk that all but invented the New Wave. From the forlorn, minimalist spikiness of 1977’s Low, the jagged freneticism of “Heroes” and the wonky tribalism of Lodger—featuring Burroughs-like cut and paste lyrical play and the collaborative smarts of Brian Eno—Bowie acted in an experimental fashion as he never had before. Look beyond the Berlin trilogy, and there’s Brecht-ian cabaret (the BBc’s Baal), the Nyc-recorded Scary Monsters with its menacing music and angry, battered lyrics inclusive of all which he learned in Berlin, and Stage— 1978’s live album with bits recorded at Philly’s Spectrum—that concludes Bowie’s so-called art decade from 1970 to 1982. after this, Bowie would find fortune with Let’s Dance and Labrynth, leaving test pattern pop, glam and synth-tronica far behind. A New Career in a New Town makes sure that you never forget where he once stood.

While the box set reveals the tortured electronic drama of Bowie’s life unfolding and the documentary portrays the glam king’s roots (literal and figurative), a handful of newly-published books reveal a whole bushel full of biographical details (and rumors). In some cases, the books are more about their authors than their subject as in the aptly-titled David Bowie Made Me Gay by Darryl W. Bullock. In other cases, there is remarkable focus such as The Thin White Book, written by music journalist kris Needs, which discusses Bowie famously performing both Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust albums for the first time in the sleepy town and a crowd-funding effort to erect a tribute to commemorate the occasions. Then there is GQ writer Dylan Jones’ David Bowie: A Life which looks at the good, bad, salacious and mournful in Bowie’s time on earth, until the end of Blackstar, “Lazarus” and time in Manhattan with his wife and daughter—an entirely human work that goes beyond loving the alien into something more touching, though gossipy, and told with the help of over 150 of Bowie’s personal and professional associates.

In the end, it’s the music that matters most—especially rare stuff like a never-before-released Ziggy Stardust from Philly in 1978—but, the documentary and the books are a nice reminder of the stories that made Bowie’s life the stuff of legend. n

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JAMes p. delpino, Mss, Mlsp, lcsW, bcd

about life

Killer Beliefs MOST PEOPLE Say a central goal of life is to be happy, but looking at the world around us it does not appear that most people are happy. There are self-help books, podcasts, and seminars that claim to have the secret to happiness. Some of these may well help—those approaches that do ought to be applauded. Some of these paths suggest allowing ourselves to be happy. Other paths speak of the hard work required to attain happiness and bliss. Still other approaches say that sacrifice and detachment are the ways to happiness. Regardless of which approach or path a person chooses, the results are never 100%. Perhaps there’s something more basic underlying the unhappiness that needs to be addressed first. any strongly held belief is powerful; even the most untenable or illogical belief can hold sway over perceptions and experiences. Beliefs can operate much like hypnotic trances in they can create altered states of consciousness. Beliefs do not need proof.

They can be weak or strong, persistent or occasional, positive or negative, even self-contradictory. all humans hold belief systems of some kind. Negativity—“killer beliefs”— in a belief system can destroy joy and happiness. among the most common killer beliefs are: I’m not worthy of, or do not deserve happiness; I will never be happy or happy again; I've never been happy; I can't be happy because; I can't be happy until.

These killer beliefs have resulted in countless moments and lifetimes of sadness.

Each and every one of these can undermine joy and/or prevent it altogether regardless of sex, race, gender, etc. at one point or another all people have had to deal with a variation of these internal saboteurs.

Perhaps the most common killer belief is a deep sense of unworthiness. Why this is so common is a topic for another time. That it is so common is noteworthy. It’s common because it’s so easy to embrace and believe. Since none of us is perfect, we can all find shortcomings and flaws in ourselves which we do not admire in others as well as ourselves. This, of course, is the basis for not liking, and in severe cases hating, all or aspects of ourselves. Self-loathing often lies at the base of major addictions, self-harm, self-de36 n I C O N n O C T O B E R 2 0 1 7 n W W W . I C O N D V . C O M n W W W . f a C E B O O k . C O M / I C O N D V

structive choices and suicidal thinking. While these may be more extreme examples of killer beliefs, even less extreme examples can seriously destroy happiness.

Because many people have never experienced great happiness it becomes easy for them, over the course of life, to assume that happiness will elude them for the entirety of their existence. This becomes a cyclic pattern in which unhappiness begets more unhappiness regardless of circumstances. as the unhappy memories, processing and experience accumulate, the chances of escaping this trap becomes less and less over time.

It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: a person who claims to be unhappy forgets that they are unhappy except when they are not. These memories of good feelings are generally washed away by habitual negative processing of experiences. This applies to people who may have had some degree of happiness and then suffered experiences from which they do not believe they can recover. Once again it’s the belief that immunizes them to future happiness.

Those who believe they can't be happy because of a variable or set of variables have doomed themselves. Often this is expressed around lack of money, friends and family, but these are variables that can change. It’s always possible to make new friends. Family difficulties are common and do not inherently prevent happiness. Happiness is an internal state that need not be defined by others or circumstances. Happy people understand this because they think differently than unhappy people.

There are those who believe they cannot be happy until certain things occur in life.

This leaves open the window of hope for them. It also suggests that suffering until certain changes occur is inevitable. This greatly limits an understanding of happiness and makes happiness conditional upon certain circumstances. as it turns out, optimists live longer, have less incidences of heart attack, stroke and cancer and enjoy richer and fuller lives. It’s more difficult to be an optimist. changing killer beliefs into better ones is the precondition for happiness, no matter which path or approach a person chooses. n Jim Delpino is a psychotherapist in private practice for over 38 years. jdelpino@aol.com (215) 364-0139.

harper’s FINDINGS

INDEX

Outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease were linked to gyms in Florida and australia; strep infection was noted in a newborn whose mother ate dried placenta while breastfeeding; an absence of grandparents was making chinese migrant children less obese; Israeli sows were suffering from diarrhea, lethargy, coughing, fetus mummification, miscarriage, and neonatal death; and Manitoban piglets were succumbing to epidemic diarrhea. canadian lab macaques contracted chronic wasting disease after being fed infected deer. a white-tailed deer was caught chewing on a human corpse. a Swedish woman who was presumed to have been murdered with a riding lawn mower was found to have been mauled by moose. a snake was seen regurgitating another snake, a great horned owl was seen swimming in a lake, a mole was found inside a bass, and it remained unclear why bonnethead sharks eat grass.

Factor by which women’s Tinder messages are longer than men’s: 10 chances that an african-american mother is the breadwinner of her family: 4 in 5 Percentage change since 2011 in advertising spending on TV shows with majority-black audiences: +255 Percentage of u.S. readers who recognize native advertising as advertising: 15 amount that carrier promised to invest in an Indiana plant in a deal with Donald Trump to save domestic jobs: $16,000,000 Percentage of that money that will be used for automation: 100 Ratio of the revenue of Detroit’s three largest carmakers in 1990 to that of apple, Google, and Facebook in 2014: 1:1 Of the number of people they employed: 9:1 average monthly rent for a workstation at a New york city co-working space: $1,110 Number of treasure hunters who have died searching for the buried riches of a New Mexico art dealer: 2 Factor by which a poor family in california is more likely to receive welfare than a comparable family in Louisiana: 18 Factor by which the poverty rate has grown faster in u.S. suburbs than in cities since 1990: 2 Percentage of the u.S. population that lives within ten miles of a Walmart: 90 amount taxpayers spent in 2013 on food stamps, Medicaid, and housing assistance for Walmart employees: $6,200,000,000 Estimated portion of total food stamps that are spent at Walmart: 1/5 Number of u.S. states that forbid municipalities from banning plastic bags: 9 Factor by which carbon emissions from Norway’s oil exports exceed its domestic emissions: 10 Number of flights departing Phoenix in June that were delayed because it was too hot for planes to take off: 60 Respective ranks of Iran and Iraq among countries whose citizens experience the most anger: 1,2 Of Greece and Iran among countries whose citizens experience the most stress: 1,2 Percentage of Iranian college students who are women: 46 Of Iranian workers: 17 Estimated number of u.S. visa applicants who will be asked for social-media data each year under a new policy: 65,000 average number of years refugees live in the united States before having paid more in taxes than they’ve received in benefits: 16 Percentage of american adults who say they would run for congress if they thought they had a chance at winning: 37 Percentage of likely u.S. voters who think that the expense makes it impossible for most people to run for congress: 71 Number of states that do not have inheritance or estate taxes: 32 Portion of likely u.S. voters who think most members of congress would sell votes for campaign contributions or cash: 3/5 Who think it’s very likely their own member of congress has done so: 3/10 Estimated number of additional congressional seats Republicans won last year because of gerrymandering: 22 Number of consecutive days after Donald Trump’s inauguration on which he made an untruthful comment in public: 40 Portion of ex-lobbyists in the Trump administration who lobbied the agency they now work for within the past two years: 1/4 Portion of Trump properties sold since May 2016 that have been sold to anonymous buyers: 7/10 amount the Pentagon has spent on forest-pattern uniforms for the afghan National army: $94,000,000 Percentage of afghanistan that is covered in forest: 2 Rank of Georgia among u.S. states and Washington, D.c., in the likelihood that a young person will enlist in the military: 1 Of Washington, D.c.: 51 Rank of first aid among the most popular Boy Scout merit badges: 1 Of bugling among the least popular: 1

9

Trustworthy, addictive, unkind, educated middleaged women are especially susceptible to romance scams. People who are snubbed by people checking their phones often turn to their own phones for affirmation. canadian pediatricians reported a case of selfie epilepsy. In India, where plastic surgeons recommended the use of selfie sticks in the operating room, selfie deaths were found to be more numerous than anywhere else on earth. Polish doctors reported that the victim of a fatal caffeine overdose had a blood caffeine concentration equivalent to brewed coffee. california poison control centers reported a median age of eleven years among superglue victims, to whom they occasionally prescribe topical peanut butter. Pathologists discussed the difficulty of evaluating self-inflicted mercurialism. among adult Israelis, womanhood, PTSD, and poverty were found to predict Islamic State anxiety. The lies of black africans exhibit an increase in first-person and perceptual statements, whereas the lies of white Europeans exhibit a reduction. Japanese subjects can be trained to unconsciously improve their ability to differentiate English r and l sounds. Schizophrenics exhibit attenuated activation in the right posterior superior temporal gyrus during irresolvable incongruity processing of nonsensical puns. German scientists found in common a sensation of visual overload among five subjects who reported a powerful desire to be blind. In evaluating a new Body Odor Disgust Scale, researchers found that silent smelly farts are the body odor for which disgust differs most widely depending on whether the odor is one’s own or a stranger’s.

9 Gut instinct is trusted more and self-reflection occurs less in men with high testosterone levels. Men with low resting heart rates are much likelier to be stalkers. The B.M.I. of american men rises following marriage and falls following divorce. advanced paternal age contributes to geekiness in male children.

Terminally ill men with heart failure relax their standards for facial beauty. Fetuses prefer facelike dot patterns. People’s vocal pitch rises when speaking to interlocutors of high status. clinicians were found to benefit from role-playing with a transgender actress who expressed a desire to remove her testicles. cuttlefish sometimes pretend to be crabs. unborn fiddler rays are traumatized by their mothers’ capture. It is possible, if a snail has a good memory and a bad memory stored on a single neuron, to erase just the bad one.

“Harper’s Index” is a registered trademark.

SOuRcES: 1 Gareth Tyson, Queen Mary university of London; 2 National Domestic Workers alliance (Washington); 3 Nielsen (N.y.c.); 4 Bart Wojdynski, university of Georgia (athens); 5,6 Teneo Strategy (N.y.c.); 7,8 Mckinsey Global Institute (San Francisco); 9 Instant Group (N.y.c.); 10 New Mexico State Police (Santa Fe); 11 center on Budget and Policy Priorities (Washington); 12 Scott allard, university of Washington (Seattle); 13 Walmart (San Bruno, calif.); 14,15 americans for Tax Fairness (Washington); 16 National conference of State Legislatures (Denver); 17 Stockholm Environment Institute (Seattle); 18 Phoenix aviation Department; 19,20 Gallup (Washington); 21,22 Human Rights Watch (Washington); 23 u.S. Department of State; 24 William N. Evans, university of Notre Dame (Indiana); 25,26 Rasmussen Reports (asbury Park, N.J.); 27 Offi ce of Joel Michael, Minnesota House of Representatives (Minneapolis); 28,29 Rasmussen Reports; 30 associated Press (Jefferson city, Mo.); 31 New york Times (N.y.c.); 32 Public citizen (Washington); 33 uSa Today (Denver); 34,35 Office of the Special Inspector General for afghanistan Reconstruction (arlington, Va.); 36,37 David Trilling, Harvard university (cambridge, Mass.); 38,39 Boy Scouts of america (Irving, Tex.).

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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

TOP THIS

By Paul Coulter

1 7 13 18 19 20 22 24 25 26 27 29 32 33 35 36 38 40 43 45 47 49 50 52 53 54 55 56 58 59 60 65 66 73 74 75 76 77 81 83 84 85 86 90 91 92 93 94 96 98

ACROSS Seabird related to the booby Bold & Crispy Fries maker Rural “reckon” “Know one’s __”: master a subject It’s intoxicating Willow twigs It’s not a teeny wienie Gusto Place to put down stakes?: Abbr.

Learned ones Cookout favorite Marsh growths For, to Fernando Org. that does searches “The Kiss” sculptor Seine feeder Chain that sells Grand Slam breakfasts Masterpieces Lively Cuban dance New Zealand native The Beatles’ “__ Mine” One-eighty Crunchy snack choice Confident solver’s choice Gardner of mystery Major work “Et voilà!”

Three-time NFL rushing yards leader Adrian Hero Some sodas Big __ “Big Blue” Trattoria selection Unagi or anago Antenna housing Parisian pronoun Federation in OPEC Please Green shade Magazine founder Eric Stink “Exodus” hero Beef on the patio Canal locale Seoul soldier Closely packed Rwandan people Oil acronym Some polytheists “Coriolanus” setting

99 “Drab” color 102 Deli bread 103 Saigon soup 105 High-quality 109 Dorm breakfast, maybe 112 Nabisco noshes 114 Reverse pic 115 Serious plays 116 Dessert with syrup 121 Take back to the lab 122 Stretched to the limit 123 Gets in shape 124 Bright circle?

125 Worthy principles 126 Least ingenuous

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 19 21 23 28 30 31 33 34 37 38 39 41 42 43 44 45 46

DOWN Enjoy Make __ of: write down Weeper of myth Excluding Blowup: Abbr.

Chinese menu possessive Catchall category P’s on frat jackets Dig in, so to speak Lake Mich. state He played Scotty on “Star Trek” Pond growth TV’s Hercules Kevin __ Pretentious sort Offshore equipment Feudal lords Language that gave us “plaid” “The one who makes it, takes it” breakfast brand Nasdaq unit: Abbr.

Pickup place?

Hook’s mate Knuckleheads Amigo’s assent Garr of “Mr. Mom” Impertinent sort Dispenser made obsolete by the shaker Cry from Homer Winner’s cry Cat pal of Otis Caught in the act Absorb Its capital is Oranjestad “Spy vs. Spy” magazine Mimosa family tree

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48 50 51 53 57 59 61 62 63 64 67 68 69 70 71 72 77 78 79 80 82 83 86 87 88 89 95 97

Eligible for Eighty-six At the back of the pack Aunt with a “Cope Book” Drops off Seehorn of “Better Call Saul” Ate “Another Green World” musician Oilers, on NHL scoreboards Seems suspicious Nerd Horse-drawn vehicle Parisian lover’s word Fretted instruments Hawaiian island Hunt for Carpeting calculation Juicy fruit Brew, in a way Saint-__: French Riviera resort Martinique, par exemple Complete Aussie greeting Mathematician Descartes Election winners Water collection pit “No Country for __” Adorned

98 One of nine Clue cards 100 Bridge declaration 101 Windows XP successor 103 Cider maker 104 Recipe verb 106 Many a Sundance film 107 Stands for 108 Discharge 109 USN officer

110 City near Provo 111 Pasta choice 112 Baseball’s Hershiser 113 Retired fliers 117 Charlotte-to-Raleigh dir.

118 Civil War letters 119 Modern address 120 S tubborn sailor’s response

answer to September’s puzzle, TOP CHOICE

agenda CALL FOR ENTRIES

philadelphia sketch club phillustration 9. open Juried exhibition of illustration. entry deadline: sun., oct. 15, 2017 at midnight. exhibition: nov. 10–25, 2017. Works eligible: illustration work in any media completed during the last 5 years. size limited to 40” in either direction, including frame. Work must be framed and wired for hanging. categories: editorial; Advertising; institutional; book; self promotional and Uncommissioned; student. entry fees: sketch club, bucks county illustration society members and students: $15 for first entry; $5/ea. add’l entry. nonmembers: $25 first entry; $10/ea. add’l entry. prospectus: sketchclub.org/wp-content/uploads/ 2017/09/phillustration_9_prospec tus_insidep2.pdf. reception: sun., nov. 19, 2017 2-4pm. cash awards and psc medal for each category at 3pm.

FINE ART

thrU 10/21 John r. grabach & henry M. gasser, new Jersey Masters. guest curator, gary t. erbe. opening reception 9/21, 6-8pm. the baum school of Art, 510 W. linden st., Allentown, pA. 610433-0032. baumschool.org thrU 10/29 88th phillips’ Mill Art show, open daily 1-5 pM. 2619 river rd., (rte. 32), new hope, pA. 215862-0582. phillipsMill.org

thrU 11/18 david Ambrose: conversations with yesterday. Martin Art gallery, baker center for the Arts, Muhlenberg college, 2400 West chew street, Allentown, pA. muhlenberg.edu/gallery

thrU 11/19 buckminster fuller: Architect engineer inventor Artist. lafayette college Art galleries, easton, pA. 610-330-5361. galleries.lafayette.edu thrU 12/9 sam van Aken, streuobstwiese. lafayette college Art galleries, easton, pA. 610-330-5361. galleries.lafayette.edu

thrU 1/7/18 intimate lines: drawing with thread. hunterdon Art Museum,

center for art, craft and design. 7 lower center st., clinton, nJ. 908-735-8415. hunterdonartmuseum.org thrU 1/10/18 William hudders: three views. reception 10/18, 5-6:30. Martin Art gallery, baker center for the Arts, Muhlenberg college, 2400 West chew st, Allentown, pA. thrU 2/4/2018 revolutionizing design: progressive home decorating at the turn of the century. Allentown Art Museum, 31 north 5th st., Allentown, pA. 610-432-4333.

AllentownArtMuseum.org

9/23-10/29 the 88th Annual Juried Art exhibition at phillips’ Mill. featuring works of artists residing within a 25 mile radius of phillips’ Mill. open daily 1-5 pM. 2619 river rd., (rte. 32), new hope, pA. 215-862-0582. phillipsmill.org 9/29-12/31 poetry of nature, hudson river school landscapes from the new york historical society. Allentown Art Museum, 31 north 5th st., Allentown, pA. 610-4324333. AllentownArtMuseum.org

10/6-10/15 Art at kings oaks, a pop-up visual art exhibition in an historic barn and chapel in bucks county, featuring artists from the east coast and beyond. opening recep., 10/6, 6-9; closing recep., 10/15, 25. kingsoaksart.wordpress.com.

756 Worthington Mill rd., newtown, pA. 10/7-10/29 david stier, solo exhibition. silverman gallery, in buckingham green on rte. 202, 5 miles south of new hope. 4920 york rd., holicong, pA. 215-794-4300. silvermangallery.com 10/8-1/10/18 gelah penn high tide. opening reception 10/18, 5-6:30pm. Martin Art gallery, baker center for the Arts, Muhlenberg college, 2400 West chew street, Allentown, pA. 10/26-11/16 5x5, 3rd edition, 5 artists, 5 media. Artist talks, 10/26, 6 pM. reception 11/16, 6-8 pM. the

baum school of Art, 510 W. linden st., Allentown, pA. 610-4330032. baumschool.org

CONCERTS

11/12-12/23 three part harmony, three individual voices creating a cord. featuring Judy lalingo, linda rossin, and Mary serfass. opening reception 11/12, 1-5 pM. the snow goose gallery, 470 Main st., bethlehem, pA. 610-974-9099. thesnowgoosegallery.com FESTIVALS / EVENTS

10/14 not-Just-Art Auction, benefitting pennsylvania sinfonia orchestra.

6:30. preview/reception; 7:30. live & silent auctions. Art, gift baskets, jewelry, pottery, dining certificates. brookside country club, 901 Willow la., Macungie. tickets: 610-434-7811. pAsinfonia.org 10/21 Autumn Alive. downtown Quakertown. crafters, vendors, pet parade, and beer & wine tasting. rain date 10/28. 10-4, downtown Quakertown, pA. 215-536-2273.

Quakertownalive.com 11/1 david Ambrose: conversations with yesterday. Artist talk: 5:00 – 6:30 in the recital hall, baker cfA, Muhlenberg college, 2400 West chew street, Allentown, pA. muhlenberg.edu/gallery THEATER

10/6-10/22 the secret garden. civic theatre of Allentown, 527 north 19th st., Allentown, pA. 610-433-8903. civictheatre.com 10/12-10/22 god spell. Act 1, labuda center for the performing Arts, desales University, 2755 station Ave., center valley, pA. 610-282-3192. desales.edu/act1

10/22 nathan lane, A live conversation, following a screening of the birdcage. state theatre, 453 northampton st., easton, pA. 610-252-3132. statetheatre.org 10/27-11/5 sunday in the park with george, Muhlenberg theatre & dance.

Muhlenberg college, 2400 chew st., Allentown, pA. 484-664-3333.

Muhlenberg.edu/theatre

10/4 kimmel center presents herbie hancock, verizon hall, 8:00 pm. kimmel center, 300 s. broad st., philadelphia, pA. kimmelcenter.org 10/7 Will Ackerman presents: the gathering in concert. contemporary music. 8 pM, 1867 sanctuary Arts and culture center, 101 scotch road, ewing, nJ. 609-392-6409. www.1867sanctuary.org 10/13 flip fabrique. Zoellner Arts center, lehigh University, 420 e. packer Ave., bethlehem, pA. 610-7582787. Zoellnerartscenter.org

10/14 the divine hand ensemble. classical compositions featuring theramin and strings. 1867 sanctuary Arts and culture center, 101 scotch road, ewing, nJ. 609-392-6409. 1867sanctuary.org 10/15 renée fleming in recital, inon barnatan, piano. 8:00 pM, verizon hall, kimmel center, 300 s broad st., philadelphia, pA. 215-8931999. kimmelcenter.org 10/15 flamenco legends by Javier limón: the paco de lucía project. Zoellner Arts center, lehigh University, 420 e. packer Ave., bethlehem, pA. 610-758-2787.

Zoellnerartscenter.org

10/20 the hill-to-hill brass Quintet, stephen Williams, organ. suggested donation $10 at the door. cathedral Arts, cathedral church of the nativity, 321 Wyandotte st., bethlehem, pA. 610-865-0727. nativitycathedral.org 10/21 from sunny to soulful. chamber orch. with soloist cheryl bishkoff, oboe. Mozart, dvorak, grieg, haydn. pennsylvania sinfonia orchestra, christ lutheran church, 1245 W. hamilton st., Allentown, pA. pAsinfonia.org

10/21 pink Martini. Zoellner Arts center, lehigh University, 420 e. packer Ave., bethlehem, pA. 610-7582787. Zoellnerartscenter.org

10/ 28 Mike herz and carolann solebello, folk/roots singer-songwriters.

8 pM, 1867 sanctuary Arts and culture center, 101 scotch road, ewing, nJ. 609-392-6409.

1867sanctuary.org 11/11 gala concert & fundraiser, the bach choir of bethlehem presents thomanerchor, central Moravian church, bethlehem, pA. 610-866-4382. bach.org MUSIKFEST CAFÉ´ 101 founders Way, bethlehem 610-332-1300 Artsquest.org

5 6-8 6

comedian rob schneider oktoberfest craig thatcher band presents eric clapton retrospective 12 cabaret night 13-15 oktoberfest 22-28 comedy Week 27 dennis Quaid & the sharks 28 Zombie ball 29 comedian colin Quinn nov. 2 An intimate solo/ Acoustic listening performance by citizen cope CLASSES thrU 12/10 classes/workshops for adults and children. drawing, painting, glass fusing, sculpting, silkscreen & woodblock printing. hunterdon Art Museum, 7 lower center st., clinton, nJ. hunterdonartmuseum.org EVENTS 10/7 Meet the Artist, Watchcraft’s eduardo Milieris. 1-5, heart of the home, 28 s. Main st., new hope, pA. 215-862-1880. heartofthehome.com 10/8 Main street half Marathon of hunterdon, nJ, 8:00 AM. race begins in clinton and ends in flemington. help contribute in the fight against addiction. kickoff party, 10/7, Main street, clinton. for more information visit clintonguild.com and Mainstreetmarathon.com.

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