ICON by ICON Magazine

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APRIL

ICON

ESSAY 20 | THIS IS “ US” Jordan Peele’s latest thriller might just be the key reflection of The New Hollywood.

Bucks County Designer House & Gardens

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW 22 | CHICK & BELA

Chick-Fleck. Béla-Corea. Jazz-Grass. Blue-Fusion. The pairing of Chick Corea and Béla Fleck has it all.

One of the great political cartoonists of our time. — David Remnick, editor, The New Yorker

MORE FILM

ART 5|

ESSAY Looking West

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EXHIBITIONS Bethlehem Fine Art & Craft Show

Main Street, Historic Bethlehem, PA

Peppermint Farm

Bucks County Designer House and Gardens

Jordan Peele’s horror film, Us.

Two Artists, Two Visions: Andy DiPietro & Norine Kevolic

New Hope Arts 8|

Hunterdon County Open Studios Tour Throughout Hunterdon County, NJ

The Art of the Miniature XXVII The Snow Goose Gallery

SouthSide Arts & Music Festival Banana Factory Arts Center New Yorker cartoonist Barry Blitt and the Trump era.

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STAGE

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NIGHTLIFE

FILM 14 |

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ON THE COVER: Chick Corea. Interview with Corea and Bela Fleck on page 22.

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REEL NEWS If Beale Street Could Talk Stan & Ollie Becoming Astrid Bisbee ’17 DOCUMENTARY / FOREIGN The Brink

FOODIE FILE 28 |

Spring is Here, I Hear

MUSIC 30 | JAZZ/ ROCK/CLASSICAL/ALT Claudia Villela Dhafer Youseff Watermelon Slim The Formosa Quartet 34 | POP LCD Soundsystem Joey DeFrancesco Juice WRLD The Chemical Brothers 36 | JAZZ LIBRARY

CINEMATTERS Diane FILM ROUNDUP High Life Peterloo Shadow Sunset

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since 1992 215-862-9558 icondv.com facebook.com/icondv PRESIDENT Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW 24 | BARRY BLITT Hunterdon County Open Studios Tour

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

Mary Stallings

ETCETERA 38 |

HARPER’S FINDINGS

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HARPER’S INDEX

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L. A. TIMES CROSSWORD

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AGENDA

EDITORIAL Editor / Trina McKenna Raina Filipiak / Advertising filipiakr@comcast.net PRODUCTION Richard DeCosta Megan Flanagan Rita Kaplan INTERN Lee McCorsky CONTRIBUTING WRITERS A. D. Amorosi Robert Beck Jack Byer Peter Croatto Geoff Gehman Mark Keresman George Miller R. Kurt Osenlund Bob Perkins Keith Uhlich Subscription: $40 (12 issues) PO Box 120 • New Hope 18938 215-862-9558 ICON is published twelve times per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. ©2019 Prime Time Publishing Co., Inc.

ART ESSAY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

LOOKING WEST I’M RELUCTANT TO ACCEPT commissions. That’s because they most often come with committees. Having to answer to myself is hard enough, but this project had elements that got me excited. The painting was for a corporate board member—a gift to be presented on his retirement. The first thought by the committee was to have his portrait painted, but his wife suggested something he had considered having done for many years: a painting by me of the view from his office. He mentioned that to me personally a while ago, so I knew everyone involved considered it to be the perfect gift. They also didn’t have any experience with that kind of thing and left it in my hands. Fortunately, the company had the foresight to approach me well ahead of the retirement event. Good studio paintings can take a while to make, and even longer to dry. We made arrangements for me to spend a day in the office when the director was away, which I did, from morning to night. The suite was on the 31st floor—pretty high by Philadelphia standards. His corner office occupied the west and north sides. One wall of large windows overlooked 30th Street Station, and outside the other the Schuylkill River wound past the Art Museum and Boat House Row to the plume from the Limerick cooling towers on the horizon. They were both wonderful scenes to behold, but each had issues. The Art Museum, which you might think would be the calendar shot, was too distant, and surrounded by unattractive mid-century apartment buildings. The western view had a tall, modern office building dominating the foreground. I couldn’t alter the truth, but I couldn’t paint it in that way, either. Duplicating the cityscape building by building didn’t interest me at all. My challenge was to capture what the businessman saw and felt when he gazed out the window. The painting had to be what the view means to him, so I needed to get in his head a little bit. I spent my time looking at his photos and awards hanging on the walls. I checked out all the ti-

tles on his bookcase, paging through some of them, including books he wrote on leadership. I made drawings, to see what caught the eye. I did a plein air painting of the north view to record how the scene appeared to people, not a camera. I’d use it as a scale reference to diagnose and correct the perspective distortions inherent in the photos I took. All the while the sun rose and set in its low, clockwise, late-fall arc; changing color temperature from platinum to parched and back again; shortening, lengthening, and swinging the shadows; presenting new faces, new focuses. I would only see any of it once. Heading into evening it was clear that the western view was the one. 30th Street Station is the perfect symbol of American industrial and business might. There is a contrast between the classical columns and lighting of the distant buildings, and the minimalized workspaces in the nearer, later one. And when the cars turned on their headlights illuminating Market Street, the traffic to and from the western horizon was the perfect metaphor for the businessman’s career, coming from and returning to Chicago. A basic tenant of western perspective is that the viewer’s eye, the horizon, and everything exactly in between, are at the same elevation. You are as high as where the horizon hits the top floor of that other office building, which works dynamically and metaphorically for this image. As evening approached, that building grew dark and I saw how I might use it to give volume to the painting, expanding the impression without hijacking it. That’s a little deceptive. Thinking these things and actually making them work requires a lot of snarls and expletives stuffed between the brushstrokes. There is composition to think about; proportion and atmospheric perspective have to make sense. You can’t allow repetition or rhythm to compromise random things like traffic, the arrangement of buildings and lights, or the enterprises being conducted in the windows of that office building. And no overlaboring the image with plodding detail. This is a tribute, remember. The view is from high. It includes the modern office building, and then pulls to the horizon. There is the grand station to reflect on a place, a time, and a journey. It is a painting of a career— one with a lovely evening at the end of Market Street. n ICON | APRIL 2019 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

EXHIBITIONS (2018 Designer House.) Left: Bedroom before. Below: Bedroom after. Designed by Lisa Lazarus, www.lisalazarusinteriors.com and Robert Belchic, www.aroomwithaview.com.

Andy DiPietro, Echos.

Painting by Rick Phillips.

54th Annual Bethlehem Fine Art & Craft Show Main Street, Historic Bethlehem, PA May 11 & 12, 10am-5pm & 11am-5pm Bfa-lv.org The sidewalk art show is a celebration of the finest local and regional artists. Over 80 juried artists and craft artisans participate each year. Judging takes place on Saturday for Best of Show, Second Prize, Third Prize, and Best Display. Stop by to visit congratulate this year’s Artist in Residence and observe their work. Take part in our Children’s Art Activities, interactive art projects, or make a handmade gift or card, on the grounds of Central Moravian Church, located next to the Moravian Book Shop. Enjoy local musicians’ music, and acoustic tunes as you peruse the artist stalls. Bethlehem boasts great restaurants, shops, hotels, and a rich history. It’s a perfect opportunity for the whole family to enjoy a wonderful experience. The Fine Art & Craft Show is sponsored and organized by the Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission.

Peppermint Farm Bucks County Designer House and Gardens 2613 Hilltown Pike, Hilltown, PA 18944 M–W, 10–4; Thurs., 10–7; Fri/Sat, 10–4; Sun., Noon–4 buckscountydesignerhouse.org April 28–May 26 Peppermint Farm, a 30-acre farmstead with an 1860-era six-bedroom farmhouse, is this year’s Designer House. The farmhouse features unique builtins, deeply curved window sills, exposed beams, random width wood floors, stone floors, and two covered porches. Visitors will be able to tour the completed home and gardens as well as shop in several boutiques, dine in the on-site café and enjoy a glass of wine. We invite you to experience the exceptional results of a dramatic evolution of a historic home and property. Note: All parking: Hilltown Baptist Church, 26 Upper Church Road, Chalfont, PA

Two Artists, Two Visions: The works of Andy DiPietro & Norine Kevolic New Hope Arts, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope, PA 215-862-9606 Newhopearts.org Hours: Friday–Sunday, Noon–5, and by appt. April 20–May 5 An invitational exhibit featuring two artists with unique expression who use wood as a medium. The exhibit honors Both award-winning sculptors, Andy DiPietro and Norine Kevolic have shown regionally and nationally. Andy DiPietro, a wood turner and carver, combines techniques in 3-dimensional forms that make viewers ask “how did he do that”? Norine Kevolic’s sublime relief panels contemplate universal themes. Extra gallery hours Mon., 4/22.

(2018 Designer House) Left: Dining Room before.

Jewelry by Georgene Novak. 6

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Norine Kevolic, Lava.

Below: Dining Room after, by Oskar Huber Furniture & Design, www.oskarhuber.com

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EXHIBITIONS

Celyne Brassard (Canada), Taxi, oil/ lacquer, 2 1/16 x 3 5/8.

The Art of the Miniature XXVII

Cara London, Haley Manchon, Erika Steffen, Liz Mitchell

Hunterdon County Open Studios Tour Varioius locations throughout Hunterdon County, NJ thehunterdonarttour.com May 4 & 5, 10 am – 6 pm Opening Celebration, Exhibit and Sale The Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton, NJ Friday, May 3, 7 – 9 pm The Hunterdon Art Tour (THAT) is a free countywide driving tour of artists’ studios. THAT cultivates awareness of Hunterdon County’s abundant creative communities, and gains recognition for the county as a vital home and destination for the arts. More than 70 artists will be participating at over 35 locations. Painters, jewelers, sculptors and artists in ceramics, mixed media, fabric, and glass will open their studios to the public for this two-day event. Artist profiles and a digital map of the open studios is online at thehunterdonarttour.com. A printed map of the open studios will be widely distributed circa April 20.

Florence Moonan, Nancy Lloyd, Michael McFadden, Christina MacKinnon. 8

The Snow Goose Gallery 470 Main St, Bethlehem, PA 610-974-9099 thesnowgoosegallery.com Tue.–Sat. 10–5; Sun. 11–4 Opening Reception: Sunday, May 5, 1- 5 pm Through June 9, 2019 The 27th annual Art of the Miniature, is an international exhibtion and one of the largest invitational shows in the country. This year’s event features more than 90 artists from 25 states, as well as Australia, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Israel, Romania, South Africa, and Wales. Nearly 500 works of art will be displayed in the gallery’s loft. Media include acrylics, oils, watercolors, mixed media, drawings, and sculptures. Most of the artists have taken top awards for their work in competitions throughout the world; some even have top honors bestowed upon them by their countries. The entire show will be on the gallery’s website beginning opening weekend, and all of the pieces are for sale, either in person, or through the website. Mary and Doug hope to see you there.

Sue Adair (NY), Winter Creeper, graphite, 2 1/2 x 2 1/2.

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You Belong Here, Maria Tina Beddia.

SouthSide Arts & Music Festival Banana Factory Arts Center 25 W. Third Street, Bethlehem, PA May 3 & 4: visual artss, music and family programs. bananafactory.org/events/southside-arts-festival The festival (presented by Capital BlueCross) also includes three concurrent visual art shows: April 27–June 9: You Belong Here, artists Maria Tina Beddia & Martha Rich, Banko Gallery, Banana Factory Arts Center, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem, PA. The artists explore the concept of home as art. Everyday objects and surroundings make us feel that we belong. bananafactory.org April 27–August 26: What is a Lemon? Martha Rich Art Installation, Creativity Commons, ArtsQuest Center, 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA. We are bombarded daily with chatter, ads, words, sounds and noise. This installation is a physical manifestation of that bombardment. bananafactory.org April 20–June 9: Juried Exhibition, Crayola Gallery, Banana Factory Arts Center, 25 W. Third St., Bethlehem, PA. Compendium, showcases the array of artists in the Lehigh Valley. The exhibition promotes the Artist Collective program which offers creative networking, professional development and career opportunities for artists. bananafactory.org

Martha Rich, What is a Lemon?

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STAGE VALLEY

CITY

Spring Awakening. Adolescents run an obstacle course of puberty, sexuality, pregnancy, suicide and rebellion against oppressive adults in this hit musical adapted from a 19th-century German drama. The original Broadway production won a 2008 Grammy for musical show album and eight 2007 Tonys, including a prize for Duncan Sheik’s music for such songs as “Mirror Blue Night” and “The Bitch of Living.” ( April 5–7, Zoellner Arts Center. zoellnerartscenter.org) King Lear. Sir Ian McKellen divides his kingdom, his daughters and everyone’s equilibrium in this contemporary, cinematic staging telecast by the National Theatre. The 79-yearold has scaled other Shakespearean mountains: Iago, Macbeth, Richards II and III and Lear in 2007. Even more mind-bending is 82year-old Glenda Jackson’s Lear in the current gender-bending Broadway version co-starring Ruth (Hedda Gabler, The Affair) Wilson as Cordelia and the Fool. (April 7, DVD presentation, Buck Hall, Lafayette College, williamscenter.lafayette.edu/national-theatre-live-king-lear)

CLICK. Playwright Jacqueline Goldfinger goes sci-fi and futuristic feministic in a moody tale of “virtual reality identities blurring time and space” in relation to a crime of rape, questions of consent, and all the ethical dilemmas in between. As it is a Goldfinger production, expect even the gloomiest moment to be ripe with dark humor and uncomfortable laugh lines. (Through April 14, Simpatico Theatre in collaboration with the University of the Arts. simpaticotheatre.org) Ian McKellen as King Lear and Danny Webb as Gloucester. Photo: Johan Persson.

Sakura. Keiin Yoshimura uses dance, poetry and traditional Japanese images to pray for victims of atomic bombing and peace for all. The Tokyo-based choreographer specializes in kamigata-mai, invented in the 16th century to express huge emotions with tiny gestures. (April 11-14, Touchstone Theatre, touchstone.org; April 6, Moravian College, moravian.edu/theatre/season) Pippin. A medieval prince searches for meaning through art, religion, murder and love, guided and goaded by the charismatic king of a performing troupe, who stops the pilgrimage to snap: “You try singing without music, sweetheart!” Choreographer Bob Fosse polished his legend with a number that glorifies violence with canes, top hats and jazzy steps. The musical made Broadway history in 2013 when Patina Miller joined Ben Vereen as the only female and male to win a Tony for the same character (the Leading Player). (April 24-29, May 1-4. Act I Productions, desales.edu/act1) Trifles. A staple of feminist anthologies and women’s studies programs, this 1916 black comedy revolves around two women who outsmart their husbands while investigating a man allegedly strangled by his spouse. Author Susan Glaspell (1876–1948) was inspired by a murder trial she covered as a reporter. A popular writer of short stories, she played one of the roles in the first production, which was staged by the Provincetown Players, the renowned experimental company she co-founded. Anything but a trifle, Trifles became a 1961 episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents and a 2010 chamber opera. (May 2-3, Lafayette College, theater.lafayette.edu/trifles ) Fun Home. Cartoonist Alison Bechdel alternates between three life phases in this ground-breaking musical based on her graphic memoir about growing up lesbian in a family funeral business run by her mercurial, troubled father, who bossed her around, had sex with underage boys and killed himself by stepping in front of a moving truck. In 2015 composer Jeanine Tesori and lyricist Lisa Kron became the first women winners of the Tony for original score. Bechdel’s engaging, enraging comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For” helped her earn a 2014 MacArthur fellowship. (May 3-4, 9-12, 16-19, Civic Theatre of Allentown, civictheatre.com) n — GEOFF GEHMAN 10

Untitled. British playwright Inua Ellams and this city’s essayer of all things Anglo-English-Celtic-Scottish-Welsh—Inis Nua Theatre Company—tell a torrid, biblical tale of two brothers born on Nigerian Independence Day, with but one sibling refusing to be named. Of course, it is that brother who heads to London and the fast-paced, myth-building career of marketing, where he names products for a living. The whole thing is directed by Jerrell L. Henderson. (April 24–May 12, Inis Nua Theatre Company, inisnuatheatre.org)

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Moby Dick. The great white whale of a play written by Herman Melville is still a study in blood lust and sweaty patience as Ahab, Ishmael, Fedallah and Moby ride the briny deep. Expect something angular from director Kittsen O’Neill to go with Moby’s treacherous watery flow. (Through April 14, Hedgerow Theatre Company, hedgerowtheatre.org) ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. Like a slow moving, incest-ridden theatrical version of a murder ballad, playwright John Ford’s most passionately decadent play is still somehow as scandalous and hard as it was over 400 years ago. (Through April 14, Philadelphia Artists' Collective, philartistscollective.org) La Giara (The Water Jug). Minas’ multi-instrumentalist Orlando Haddad and singer and pianist Patricia King have been toting the width and breadth of Brazilian music and culture to Philadelphia ever since they moved back to the Philly area from Rio de Janeiro in 1984. Now Minas find themselves moving toward a warm, focused storytelling theater piece, La Giara, that touches on their dueling home settings, childhood, memory, love and loss. Miss this “rock opera” at your peril. (April 13, World Café Live, phillyworldcafelive.com) Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Yes, I was a sucker for the suavely silly David Niven-Marlon Brando original and the dippy, ’80s Michael Caine-Steve Martin remake. I’m sure I’ll head out to the Cineplex to see the gender switching take on the same story when Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson’s film version of love and larceny on the French Riviera is out. For now, dig the theatrical version played for slapstick laughs with Mark Woodard and Lukas Poost, and played for jazz with a luminous score by David Yazbek (The Full Monty). (Through April 21, The Resident Theatre Company, rtcwc.org) The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Based on Mark Haddon’s brilliant and sensitive best-selling novel, playwright Simon Stephens’ take is riveting, mysterious and innovative. Its principle character, young Christopher Boone, has an autism spectrum condition, and exists in a play-within-a-play scenario done up in sparkling visual effects. (Through April 28, walnutstreettheatre.org)n — A.D. AMOROSI

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APRIL NIGHTLIFE CURATED BY A.D. AMOROSI

5 TREY ANASTASSIO

The de facto leader of Phish, its guitarist (to say nothing on his brief tenure with the last Grateful Dead) and the subject of an upcoming new documentary flashes his occasional solo side, one who always manages to have rougher, R&B edges to its jamming tones. The Met Philadelphia, themetphilly.com 6 MARY ELLEN DESMOND

JazzTimes described her as a “confident, musical, swinging stylist who is simply a joy to hear. Her voice is sweet, clear, and pure with a deceptively wide range, attractive vibrato, and superior intonation.” Classically trained she is recognized as a crossover artist covering a variety of styles and repertoires with a primary focus on jazz standards and the American Songbook. Dino’s Backstage, dinosbackstage.com 6 AMANDA PALMER

Dramatic and daring, the one-time frontwoman for Dresden Dolls has maintained a solo career as a powerfully independent artist and activist—often at one time, as moments of her new album, There Will Be No Intermission, portray—with cabaret-

Amanda Palmer. Photo by Kyle Cassidy.

ish live performances of equal potency. Temple Performing Arts Center, amandapalmer.net/shows 6 RODNEY CROWELL

One of country pop’s most achingly literate songwriting singers has been touring on a more regular basis than he has in his 40-year career. Fantastic. No two shows are ever alike, and the conversation is as warm as his best songs.Sellersville Theatre, st94.com

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CINEMATTERS PETE CROATTO

ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT once you hit a certain age, you could relax because you have gained enough security to live without reservations. Diane is a haunting corrective. The quest to feel whole never ends. This quiet, powerful drama from writer-director Kent Jones (Hitchcock/Truffaut) is about the extraordinary anguish contained in ordinary lives. I have spent days thinking about it, which is perhaps why this review is so hard to write. I’m writing about a future I cannot avoid that is coming in fast. Diane (Mary Kay Place, a pro’s pro for years) spends most of her days driving from house to hospital room to her son’s apartment to a soup kitchen. These are her rounds. A casserole for her friend’s recovering husband, playing gin rummy with her dying cousin, checking in on her drug-addicted, belligerent son, doling out portions. Diane parking her car outside of her house and a shot of a windshield from the inside serve as recurring shots. Being on the go is her 14

Diane stability. Home provides no real comfort. She falls asleep on the couch, drifting into an uncomfortable setting or into a surreal dream. Her life is based on community and selflessness, but the people who provide that foundation start to dwindle. Most significantly, her son (Jake Lacy, Carol) heads to rehab and becomes an obnoxious proselytizer. That becomes his front to face the world, as Diane helping everyone was hers. Diane, to her credit, realizes this. She finds her comfort in poetry, tapping into the value of herself. But there’s a chilling scene that reminds us how tenuous that stability is. The grind of daily life and all its minutia finds everyone. Jones’s unobtrusive style keeps these themes from overwhelming the picture. The characters don’t lead with his agenda. There’s a familiarity to these people. They’re neither noble nor scoundrels, just regular folks going through their life: meeting for dinner, talking about the past or Christmas plans. The loose designations allow for a talented supporting cast—among them Andrea Martin, Estelle Parsons,

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and Joyce Van Patten—to act natural. The results are riveting, especially from Place, who delivers a masterclass on radiating world weariness. We get a few details about Diane’s past, but the deliberate lack of background allows room for interpretation. Diane could be our mother, our grandmother, us. We’re all getting older, and the people in our lives who ground us will not be around forever. Not every move from Jones, directing his first fiction-based film, works. The film’s dip into dreaminess feels out of place with its faded working-class backdrop. Brian’s turn to Christ—which includes a wife whose ostentatious piousness contributes to a memorable dinner with Diane—feels rushed and underutilized, like an idea lifted from a previous draft. But the crown of loneliness on Diane’s head never wobbles. She remains a riveting character, played with elegiac restraint by Place. The movie is thoughtful and unsettling. Jones shows us how life forces us to confront the silence and face who we are, despite our best efforts to be our best self. [NR] n

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FILM ROUNDUP KEITH UHLICH

Peterloo.

High Life (Dir. Claire Denis). Starring: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth. The French filmmaker Claire Denis specializes in a uniquely ethereal kind of cinema, so she would seem to be well-matched to a tale that literally traverses the heavens. Why, then, does this time-jumping, spaceship-set melodrama feel so stiff? So many of the elements are perfect, particularly an alternately haunted and paternal Robert Pattinson, now more than atoned for his broody vamping in the Twilight series, as one of several prisoners aboard a craft headed into the furthest reaches of the galaxy. Juliette Binoche, as the ship’s hornedup physician, is equally sublime, as are the evocative effects, particularly in the scenes set in and around a black hole, by the great French VFX company BUF. Yet those ineffably undulating rhythms that mark Denis’ best work (where, in a film like 2013’s superb Bastards, you feel as if she’s tapped into a taboo subconscious) are absent. [R] HHH Peterloo (Dir. Mike Leigh). Starring: Rory Kinnear, Maxine Peake, Neil Bell. A passion project for British writer-director Mike Leigh, Peterloo tells the sprawling story of the events leading up to, and just immediately after, the 1819 massacre at a Manchester prodemocracy rally, during which British forces attacked, and murdered many among, the peaceably assembled citizenry. Leigh has never worked on such a scale, even in period pieces like Topsy-Turvy (1999) and Mr. Turner (2014). Yet this is unmistakably and quite stirringly his work, from the unabashed em16

brace of grotesquerie, on the sides of both monarchs and reformers, to the vivid imagery by usual collaborator Dick Pope, his Vermeer-esque shafts of light adding a paradoxical layer of beauty to all the toil and terror. The irony is not lost on Leigh that this tale of the masses pushing back against their oppressors was funded in large part by Amazon, courtesy of our overlord Jeff Bezos. Yet this is far from a one-sided anti-capitalist screed. Leigh instead shows, with much complexity and sympathy, how acts of evil and of good can leave a bloody trail of victims behind them. [PG-13] HHHH Shadow (Dir. Zhang Yimou). Starring: Chao Deng, Li Sun, Ryan Zheng. The latest martial-arts phantasmagoria from China’s Zhang Yimou initially plays like a companion piece to his 2006 palace intrigue drama Curse of the Golden Flower. Chao Deng stars in two roles: He’s both a wounded military commander pulling the strings on a vain monarch, as well as the look-a-like who represents his, ahem, shadowy interests in the public sphere. (This is something of a loose retelling of a part of the Three Kingdoms epic, a staple of Chinese literature.) There’s romance and betrayal, whispered plots and clandestine machinations. Then the bladed umbrellas come out. In its back half the film morphs into a rain-slicked action movie that’s best experienced first-hand, beyond noting that your jaw is likely to drop a few times over. Par for the course for a Zhang production, the visuals are astounding, with the color near-completely, but not

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entirely, drained away so that each scene is a stunning mix of black and white, emphasizing the struggles of duality at the narrative’s heart. [N/R] HHHH Sunset (Dir. László Nemes). Starring: Juli Jakab. Vlad Ivanov, Levente Molnár. Hungarian writer-director László Nemes made a splash with his intense and, to these eyes, odious Holocaust drama Son of Saul (2015). His follow-up, Sunset, utilizes a similar aesthetic template: The camera always sticks shoulderheight close to the heroine, Írisz Leiter (Juli Jakab), as she navigates the hustle and bustle of belle epoque Budapest. Her goal is to claim her rightful stake in a hat store once run by her family (so she says) and to avenge herself on the supercilious current owner (Vlad Ivanov). Like the dead child fussed over by the main character through the entirety of Son of Saul, the reality of Írisz’s intentions matter less than her ephemerally dogged principles. Come hell or high water she will complete her task, even as the world comes crashing down. There’s something cringingly shallow about the way Nemes juxtaposes one person’s likely frivolous steadfastness against real-life societal collapse. It’s less offensive here than in Son of Saul because the scope is much wider (a city instead of a concentration camp), the camerawork and sound design admittedly compelling in an openworld video game sort of way, and the punchline—in which Írisz’s actions are implied to have some way led to World War I—so laughable that it mitigates the overall affront. [R] HH n

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REEL NEWS DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

If Beale Street Could Talk (Dir.Barry Jenkins). Starring: KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Teyonah Parris. Sometimes (but more often rarely), we look at history and learn to avoid duplicating personal and collective mistakes that reoccur in the future. But this gripping drama isn’t about history repeating itself. It’s about history never changing. As a social commentary, and a touching love story, it embraces the cosmic struggle between joy and heartbreak. Tish (Layne) and Fonny (James) are floating in a shimmering world of romance, new beginnings, promise and hope as they start a home and family in Harlem in the early 1970s. Then Fonny is falsely charged with rape by a dirty cop and incarcerated. The story, as the cliché might proclaim, is ripped from the headlines, but more accurately, it’s one more untold story from the collective memory of an oppressed minority, this time powerfully told in James Balwin’s novel and eloquently recreated by writer/director Barry Jenkin’s screenThe empathetic characters, powerful acting, and razor-sharp directing bring

the hurt and the hope of the story close to our hearts. [R] HHHHH Stan & Ollie (Dir. Jon S. Baird). Starring: John C. Reilly, Steve Coogan, Shirley Henderson, Nina Arianda. Since the ’50s, the defining concepts of comedy, pop culture, music, and entertainment have been reinvented so many times that the vaudeville era might as well have existed in dinosaur time. But this is not a time-travel nostalgic piece; it’s a timeless celebration of the power of friendship, love and loyalty despite the forces that shredded the men’s former marriages and relationships. The story focuses on the bankrupted pair’s attempted comeback tour in England. Both Reilly and Coogan deliver transcendent performances that capture the beating hearts of the men, their consummate devotion to their art, and their loyalty to each other. The fiery relationship between their wives add another layer of comedy to balance the pathos of two sublime performers whose genius mix of song-and-dance and slapstick became the abandoned baby of our culture. [PG] HHHH

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Becoming Astrid (Dir. Pernille Fischer Christensen). Starring: Alba August, Trine Dyrholm. For some, hardships, like fire to gold, shape their will and solidify their self-identify and integrity. In this boipic, director/writer Pernille Fischer Christensen focuses on the formative young-adult period of Swedish children’s author Astrid Lindgren, whose character Pippi Longstocking still inspires young girls around the world. From early childhood, Astrid (August) has trouble conforming with the rigid teachings of her family’s religious community. At age 16 the intelligent, witty, strong-willed teen starts working at the local newspaper. She discovers the road to freedom can easily lead to enslavement when bad choices create insurmountable circumstances. At 18 she’s pregnant, is banished to Denmark, gives up her son to a foster mother, then gets a numbing job as a secretary. Actress Alba August brings us along as Astrid manages to turn her teen traumas into a book character who inspires young girls around the world to stay true to themselves and persevere. [NR] HHHH

Bisbee ’17 (Dir. Robert Greene). Starring: Aaron Gain, Annie Graeme-Larkin, Benjamin Joel Caron. In 1917, a posse of 2,000 vigilantes rounded up 1,200 citizens of Bisbee, Arizona, and forced them into cattle cars. They dumped them in a tiny desert town without food or water and threatened to lynch any who returned to their homes. The only crime committed by the deportees, all miners, was threatening to strike for better wages and safer working conditions. The company required all men to carry a pass swearing their allegiance, not to America, but to the company. Dissenters were jailed. In 2017 the townsfolk of Bisbee decided to stage a reenactment of the sordid episode. With them at every step was documentarian Robert Greene to film the human side of the remembrance. the players. The reenactment became a personal as well as collective catharsis. Today’s border drama of tent camps, and separated families illustrates that xenophobia, racial and cultural prejudice, and the abuse of police power are unchanging forces that still infect our nation. [UR] HHHH n

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ESSAY R. KURT OSENLUND

“ ” This is Us Jordan Peele’s latest thriller might just be the key reflection of The New Hollywood. We are Americans. THIS IS THE MOST memorable, terrifying, and thought-provoking line from Us, writer-director-producer Jordan Peele’s new horror film, and the follow-up to his widely acclaimed phenomenon Get Out. The line is uttered, with the strained rasp of an emphysema sufferer, by Red, who’s speaking to her doppelgänger, Adelaide (both characters are brilliantly played by Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o). The exchange takes place in what’s probably the scariest part of the movie, when Adelaide and her family—husband Gabe (Winston Duke), daughter THERE ARE ENOUGH EASTER EGGS THEREIN Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph), and TO KEEP A FILM GEEK BUSY FOR WEEKS, BUT son Jason (Evan Alex)—sit face-toWHAT LINGERS—APART FROM NYONG’O’S face with home intruders that happen to be their clones. The scene is JAW-DROPPING DUAL PERFORMANCE—IS brimming with terrifying uncertainPEELE’S GRACEFULLY INTEGRATED COMMEN- ty, and it’ll take a lot more scenes— TARY ON CLASS. IN A MANNER THAT RE- and repeat viewings—to unpack all that’s going on here. But Red’s deCALLS THE DARK TURNS OF GET OUT, BUT termined declaration is Peele’s first EXECUTED WITH THE HUBRIS AND RE- knife-twist in regard to what this STRAINT OF A FORMIDABLE AUTEUR, PEELE nightmare is really about...and what SERVES WORLDLY SUBTEXT AND THEATRICAL it could mean for movies in general. Who are Americans? Who are FRIGHTS IN PORTIONS THAT ARE ALMOST seen and validated as Americans? IMPERCEPTIBLY EQUAL. For decades, U.S. citizens who’ve been historically oppressed— women, people of color, immigrants, the poor, LGBTQ people, etc.—have found themselves forced or compelled to remind the populace that they, too, are Americans. In the past two-and-half years, all of these people have fought for, and gained, greater platforms to shout their reminders, chiefly at the white moral majority. It’s these platforms that surely allowed Peele to make Get Out, a necessary, if overrated, hit that couched enduring racism in the language of a paranoid thriller. In woke America, it was an all-around winner: its lack of apology and the identity of its maker satisfied the black audience, its stance as a comedic scare-fest made it a hot ticket for virtually all moviegoers, and its shrewdly measured approach to prejudice forced white viewers to confront the racism they wittingly or unwittingly harbor. Its success gave Peele the keys to a club that entrusts directors with more agency (and more money), and with Us, he pushes his sleeves up even further to mine our sociopolitical subconscious.

As this film breathlessly unfolds (with blood, sweat, and death by shears), we learn that Red and her kin are members of The Tethered—beings who dwell below ground in abandoned tunnels and are exact duplicates of each sun-loving human living above. They are oppressed, they revolt, they escape, and they’re determined, out to kill and replace their counterparts and breathe the free air. It’s all part of some government experiment gone terribly wrong, and the plot links back to when a preteen Adelaide encountered her double in a funhouse on a Santa Cruz beach. There are enough easter eggs therein to keep a film geek busy for weeks, but what lingers—apart from Nyong’o’s jaw-dropping dual performance—is Peele’s gracefully integrated commentary on class. In a manner that recalls the dark turns of Get Out, but executed with the hubris and restraint of a formidable auteur, Peele serves worldly subtext and theatrical frights in portions that are almost imperceptibly equal. As you squeeze your armrest and follow Adelaide’s family as they evade their ruthless twins, the notion of an entire neglected population fighting for their right to live will slither into your brain. And then, after the climactic scenes have let you settle and breathe, you’ll ride home with a head full of big ideas to reconcile. Us may be the first true bit of evidence of what the new Hollywood can be. There have been countless think pieces, theories, and opinions about how the industry is—and is not—changing, but none of that really matters until you see change reflected in the work, its content, its reception, and its success. Some argue that Get Out changed the Oscars for good, but the Academy is not the business itself, and dusty old Green Book won Best Picture this year, so who cares? Us shows precise and measurable results. This is a horror movie written, directed, and produced by a black man and released by a major studio. Its lead is not just a woman, and not just a black woman, but a black woman with very dark skin. It does not include a single superhero, buxom babe, dick joke, or domineering white male. And it grossed $70 million on its opening weekend—the most successful debut ever for an original live-action movie. This is progress at work. Undeniable. Indisputable. And it’s all the sweeter since Us is legitimate art, drawing comparisons to hallowed classics like The Shining, Jaws, and The Sixth Sense. Is Peele showing us the future—a renewed era of diverse cinematic risk-taking that’s delivering a wide breadth of stories

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INTERVIEW A.D. AMOROSI

CHICK & BELA Chick-Fleck. Béla-Corea. Jazz-Grass. Blue-Fusion. The pairing of Chick Corea and Béla Fleck has it all. WHEN THE CHICK COREA & Béla Fleck Duet hits the Keswick Theatre on April 27, the pairing won’t be a simple blend of giants from the worlds of fusion jazz and modern classical or bluegrass jam band sounds. Corea, the keyboardist, and Fleck, the banjo player, met on equal ground and mutual admiration, recorded two intense, but playful albums (Enchantment, Two) and sailed the world over finding new, improvisational ways of handling that mood-ringed material. Though each man is currently in separate cities working in the studio on their own solo albums while touring as the duet, Corea and Fleck took time to consider their friendship and sonic comraderie.

“I LIKE BRINGING MUSIC AROUND TO PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. THEY SEEM TO LIKE IT AND I LOVE DOING IT. I SEE SMILES AND THE JOY OF CREATING BEING SHARED AND EXPERIENCED. THIS IS VERY FULFILLING TO ME AS A HUMAN BEING AS WELL AS AN ARTIST. IT’S THE BEST I CAN OFFER TO MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN THIS WORLD.” — CHICK COREA

Chick, it’s 54 years since Inner Space, your first album as a leader. What would Chick Corea now would say to the Chick Corea of that album? Corea: I would say to that Chick, “Hey, it looks like you’re having fun. Don’t stop.” I think I’ll take my own advice, time notwithstanding or even falling.

Béla, what about you? It’s 40 years since your first album as a leader, Crossing the Tracks. What would Fleck now say to the Fleck then? Fleck: There is a statute of limitations for listening to your own work. It sounds great at first, then you decide you hate it. Then you need 15 to 20 years before you can appreciate it for what it is. Fortunately the time period has long expired and I don’t listen to it to see what I need to do better, but instead can enjoy how far I had gotten on the path after playing banjo for only five years. It’s actually right in line with the trends that Tony Trischka had established in the years just before I arrived on the scene. In the deepest sense, what do you need and want from a collaborative pairing where you share above-the-title credit? Corea: I love working with partners that have high interest and enthusiasm about what we’re doing—even exhilaration. Because that’s the way I feel about making music—rehearsing, performing, composing. I really enjoy my “work.” Fleck: I need to be with someone who can be a teacher to me. I want to learn from the people I play with. How would you say that each of you meets the other player’s requirements? Corea: Béla’s amazing; full of energy and always there to explore new ideas with me. Fleck: Chick is the dream collaborator, a mentor and a possessor of a lot of musical info that I don’t possess. And he’s a lot of fun to play with. How and why did the two of you get together in the first place?

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Corea: We have different memories of getting together. I remember meeting Béla at a Grammys event where his Flecktones Band won a Grammy. After I heard him play, I began to like the banjo. We then invited each other onto projects we were doing and the duet relationship became a natural one. I don’t think of “banjo” when we play—it’s all just me and Béla creating. Fleck: I first met Chick at show he was doing in Nashville, on a receiving line after an Elektric Band show. I was still playing in New Grass Revival. Some years later we met at the Grammies when the Flecktones were nominated. I invited him to play on a few tracks of Tales From The Acoustic Planet Vol 1, and he shocked me by agreeing. How did you know, after sitting together in a studio, that something would gel? Corea: We both composed music for our first album and discovered a great balance in the way we write for our duet. It just works. Fleck: Two was our live album, which was some of our favorite performances from several years of live shows. Our original duo studio album was called The Enchantment. We did it before we had played a lot together and it has the very natural spark of a first real meeting. Then came Two, which is what happened after we got to know each other and further developed the music. Is your writing process studied or more improvisational? Corea: We really don’t discuss that aspect. We just bring a new composition, show it to the other, then have at it. Fleck: We sent each other the tunes to get to know them, then we met up the night before the session and ran quickly through each one. We recorded them all in three days. How do you make the songs on those early albums fresh in a current live setting? Corea: We could play the exact same set list for centuries and it would be fresh every night. No real explanation to that. It just is the way we approach music, whether through composed or just loosely written. Fleck: Hey, that’s the least of our issues, with one of the world’s great improvisers. Chick always has a lot of spontaneous energy and ideas, and we don’t play so much together that we’re tired of the music. It always seems to present lots of possibilities to explore at the shows. Considering how alienated people are here and abroad, how does your playing affect them, and how does it affect you? Corea: I like bringing music around to people everywhere. They seem to like it and I love doing it. I see smiles and the joy of creating being shared and experienced. This is very fulfilling to me as a human being as well as an artist. It’s the best I can offer to my brothers and sisters in this world. Fleck: Performing has a lot of aspects. It’s part mediation, part athletics, and part exploration. It’s also about sharing and communicating. I can get nervous about playing shows, but once we’re on stage something inside takes me over and things seems to happen by itself. It feels very right at this point, and performing with Chick is an honor and privilege that I don’t take lightly. n

Bela Fleck and Chick Corea. Photo by C Taylor Crothers.

Left: Bela Fleck and wife Abigail Washburn, who has earned much acclaim for her own recordings as a singer, songwriter and clawhammer banjo player. The pair’s debut release together, “Béla Fleck and Abigail Washburn,” won the 2016 Grammy for Best Folk Album. Photo by Jim McGuire.

The Chick Corea Elektric Band. Photo by Ernest Gregory ICON | APRIL 2019 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

INTERVIEW JACK BYERS

The Trump Era Through The Eyes of Barry Blitt One of the great political cartoonists of our time. —David Remnick, editor, The New Yorker I CAN IMMEDIATELY IDENTIFY a Barry Blitt drawing, but I don't have the vocabulary to describe it. I don’t know. Stylistically it’s imbued with fear. I sit down at the drafting table and I’m sort of terrified, but as far as describing it, I don't know.

open the barn door to all the clichés of caricature.” Well, I mean he is a caricature. So much about him is exaggerated. Personality, hair, the way he moves, talks, gestures. At the beginning, it was like a banquet. So much delicious food, but now it’s ridiculous. How can you caricature a caricature. He is becoming beyond satire. I’ve heard other cartoonists and humorists grumbling about this. That it’s just too easy. He has to up the ante to make it worthwhile. What would “raising the ante” be? I hate to think. But his just saying something stupid, insulting people who don't deserve to be insulted, there’s almost no point anymore to making fun of that. I mean he’s a serious threat. Do you go into a drawing and think, boy, I’m really going to expose this clown for who he is? The anger ends up just sort of making me sick, turning inward. Besides I’ve never felt political cartoons make a difference as far as changing anyone’s mind or bettering good causes. They’re more ephemeral than a snapshot, simply a wise-ass reaction to something.

Barry Blitt. Photo by Weston Wells.

Someone said of your work that “as biting as it is, its visual appearance is more sublime and soothing—unthreatening might be apt—than rabid and raucous.” That’s me. Unthreatening. I have a hard time putting down bright colors as much as I want to. I’ll go buy a watercolor set with these vivid colors and then I’m afraid to use them. My palette, the way I draw, and probably the way I tell jokes, is not to scream them but to mutter them under my breath. That’s probably the sensibility that goes into the work. I’d love to be an exaggerating caricaturist like so many of my heroes. But when I try to do it, it looks forced. You’ve done upwards of 110 New Yorker covers, yet you once thought you’d never have a crack at doing them. Lots of New Yorker artists grew up with the New Yorker in their house and aspired to appear in it. In my house, the Hockey News and Mad Magazine came every week. The New Yorker seemed a little sophisticated. When I started getting work as an illustrator, it was for spot illustrations. I always found it hard to fill up a full page. It still makes me real nervous, especially when it’s a New Yorker cover. I figured I’d be doing humorous little spot illustrations the bulk of my life. You’ve done about fourteen covers of Donald Trump. You've said, “He throws 24

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You don’t give yourself or profession enough credit. Wasn’t it Joseph Conrad who said “a caricature is putting the face of a joke on the truth.” I don’t think we can have too much truth. So what are you trying to accomplish? I’m just trying to make myself and Francoise Mouly, The New Yorker’s art director, laugh. I love just scribbling and trying to outrage myself. I think that’s what I’m attempting to do. Ralph Steadman, Hunter Thompson’s collaborator, urged his fellow cartoonists to stop drawing politicians, period. Oh that’s great. I didn’t know he had said that. What was his reason? He thought drawing them endlessly fed their already inflated sense of selfworth. Their ego, he said, wouldn’t survive the whiplash of indifference. But back to Trump. You keep folders and folders of Trump photos on computer? Yeah, I’m a slavish adherent to reference photos. I’ve nearly 400 of him at strange angles. Every one a revelation. I know his face better than my wife’s. I drew him in profile yesterday. For most of October, I was really into the slope of his forehead, then the last month his chin and secondary and tertiary chins. His nose is pretty under-rated. It's a pretty normal looking nose, which is interesting because everything around it is crazy. I thought of de-caricaturizing him and turning him into a regular looking guy. It would be a funny experiment, but how could you do it? Do you have a favorite among your Trump covers? If I tell you, you’ll see how shallow I am, because my favorite one would be the

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PETE CROATTO

Photo courtesy of Sundance Film Festival.

FOREIGN / DOCUMENTARY

TIMING IS THE BIGGEST issue with The Brink, the documentary about Steve Bannon’s tumultuous 2018 that concludes with the mid-term elections. Director Alison Klayman deserves immense credit for piecing together a gripping narrative so quickly, not to mention enduring Bannon on his hate tour throughout the United States and Europe. It’s a fine, revealing film capturing a moment in this endless chapter of our nation’s history, but it could be so much more. Steve Bannon’s ability to cast a spell dwindled as 2018 dragged to a close. His endorsed despicable Senate candidate Roy Moore—basically Humbert Humbert slathered in gun powder and served chickenfried—which cost him funding and GOP allies. He got booted from The New Yorker Festival. As Klayman chronicles her subject’s dwindling stature, Bannon remains unfazed, promoting a pro-Trump documentary (“It’s a real film,” he boasts) and holding meetings with international leaders where little action occurs beyond Bannon slurping Red Bulls. Klayman doesn’t frame Bannon, Donald Trump’s former senior adviser, as a power broker. His townhouse, known as Breitbart Headquarters, is a mess. He’s basically working out of his dining room, not in Georgetown surrounded by the best and the brightest. At one point, Bannon spontaneously hires his 26

The Brink nephew to run one of his international endeavors. Bannon tours the nation to endorse the various hate goblins running for the 2018 midterms. At one event. Klayman starts with a medium shot of Bannon talking to the crowd. The next, wider shot reveals a room that is maybe 1/4 full. He’s on his cell phone a lot, but we rarely know who is on the other end. Bannon is putting on a show, complete with the same tired jokes. “A rose between two thorns!” is his go-to line when he and another man pose with a woman. Bannon gets an audience because he appears credible. Since he speaks in complete sentences and reads books without pictures, he gives the GOP a glimmer of legitimacy; you can hitch your prejudiced thinking to this guy. Countries receive permission to be hateful and the ignorant get vindication. He’s a Harvard graduate, a successful businessman! He worked in the Oval Office! He gets it! Like the Trump administration’s key figures, Bannon is a salesman pushing a hateful ideology, in this case nationalism. I’m far from being politically savvy, but nationalism looks like a severely antiquated, particularly impotent strain of racism, even by racism’s low standards. Very few things in the world get better by stasis or going backward. America’s ability to be selfsufficient is on the wane. We need other countries or

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imported ingenuity, the latter of which built America. We can’t survive on the values of the 1950s, or even the 1980s, because they don’t or can’t exist. The issue with The Brink is I wish Klayman had stuck around. Bannon says the GOP retaining control of the House is critical, because it controls appropriations. Klayman, near the end, plays a series of acceptance speeches over the Washington, D.C. night. It’s an effective metaphor: the sun has set on Bannon’s influence. A new day is arriving. I want to see what happens when the self-delusion crumbles, when Bannon realizes nobody wants to buy what he’s selling. Time would answer more nagging questions. If he’s little more than a Republican sycophant, how useful is Bannon? He can form think tanks and war rooms—and all other political buzzwords that sound important—but what do they really accomplish when key Republicans and White House officials literally roll their eyes at the mention of Bannon? If Trump’s election initiated a worldwide wave of similar leaders taking over, then the midterms will certainly have a ripple effect. That must affect Bannon’s international pull. The frightening flip side is that day may never arrive. In that case, Klayman has captured an intriguing snapshot of a political player in flux. I hope she’ll make a sequel. [NR] n

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FOODIE FILE A.D. AMOROSI

SPRING IS HERE, I HEAR April is ripe with great big news items, bold flavors, and colorful sightlines. Broadmoor Restaurant. Photo by Denise Marshall.

BROADMOOR N. Union Street in Lambertville, New Jersey just got a little swankier and a lot hipper with the inclusion of the modernist, elegant décor and dynamic Franco-Italian dining options of Broadmoor Restaurant. Spare elegance defines the space. Behind the open glass kitchen of Chef Alex Cormier, the magic comes in a menu that features my fave, Beef Braciole Fra Diavolo (no string left wrapped around the tender steak) and fish and crustacean dishes including the Seafood Linguini (shrimp. scallops, mussels and clams) and the simple but rich, full-bodied Seared Diver Sea Scallops with plum tomato, white wine and chunked garlic.

LA GRANDE SALLE

Seafood Linguine at Broadmoor Restaurant.

When The Met Philadelphia opened on North Broad for Bob Dylan and John Legend in 2018, one of its most tony amenities promised at that time was an upscale lounge and dining area for VIP and private event ticket holders. In April 2019, just in time for Mariah Carey’s “Caution World Tour” stop at the venue, the 3,400-square-foot lounge and dining area for pre-event and post-show schmoozing, the Grande Salle, opened. With a smashing round bar, Allegri Crystal chandeliers and a booths-and-tables arrangement for full-scale dining (courtesy Brûlée Catering) ticket holders with VIP premium seats (or those who wish to pay for an upgrade) can watch the stage live or in the lounge area via television screens with a nine-speaker sound system from Clair Brothers while dining on a menu that will change based on performance (for example: if The Roots play The Met, surely they’ll incorporate Questlove’s new plant-based cheesesteak into the night’s dining option) with Philadelphia flavors and international cuisine a must. You even get a separate entrance to La Grande Salle for that ‘I want to be alone’ with Mariah Carey experience.

ROUGE

Rouge. 28

Back in 1998, sharp restaurateur Neil Stein and designer Meg Rodgers sought to give 18th Street across from Rittenhouse Square an outdoor Parisian vibe by crafting sidewalk seating and opera doors open to the bustling crowds and the green park’s natural environs. That was Rouge, a tony hamburger boîte that ushered in the Philadelphia era of sidewalk dining—from Old City and the Continental to Stein’s Rittenhouse Square neighbor, Parc. After a

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10-week renovation under the watchful gaze of Rodgers, owner Rob Wasserman (the late Stein’s son-in-law), and new chef Sean McPaul, Rouge added more than 20 seats and moved its bar to the rear of the 750-square-foot dining room, forged an entirely new tapas-like menu (save for Rouge’s famed, signature 12-ounce, gruyere-topped burger) and invited Hop Sing Laundromat’s Le to design a cocktail menu ripe with fresh squeezed fruit juices. Yum all around.

ALPEN ROSE While we wait on the married Michael SchulsonNina Tinari restaurants-to-come on the 1700 block of Locust Street as well as two restaurants on the Camden waterfront, we’ll have to settle for their second new hot spot to open in six months, the burly open kitchen, wood-burning grill and hearth, smallish steakhouse (well, intimate in comparison to the gargantuan Giuseppe & Sons) Alpen Rose at 116 S. 13th Street. Next to his other Gayborhood/Midtown Village eat suites (Sampan-Graffiti Bar, Double Knot) and opened at March’s end, the couple forever promised aged in-house steaks, rich dark leathers and something more private than their other swanky, civic locations,. As Aspen Rose opened during the last days of March, we’ll report back on the dining experience next issue. Actually, about those Questo cheesesteaks... “Questlove’s Cheesesteak” will be sold first at Citizens Bank Park starting on the Phillies’ opening day, March 28, and following that at 40 Live Nation venues across North America this summer, including The Met and the BB&T Pavilion. He does have a vegetarian diet (despite having sold one of the best fried chickens ever, several years ago), is an investor in the Silicon Valley company, Impossible Foods, and last year allowed all of us in the VIP tent at the annual Roots picnic last year to sample his fauxmeat wares. Not too long ago, Ahmir Thompson started a relationship with Williams-Sonoma for homegrown popcorn seasonings and avocado oil spray, and Questlove was also nominated for a James Beard award for his 2016 book, Something to Food About. Just in case you wonder if he actually still plays drums, check out The Tonight Show, and his band’s appearance at the just-moved (to The Mann Center from Festival Pier) annual Roots Picnic this June. n

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JAZZ, ROCK, CLASSICAL, ALT MARK KERESMAN

Claudia Villela HHHH1/2 Encantada Live Self-released Some jazz singers sing the words as written; some use the lyrics of a song as a point of departure for flights of fancy—Claudia Villela, Brazilian-born, Bay Area-based, does both. Some Brazilian jazz performers draw upon their country’s rich samba and bossa nova traditions—Villela does this but also encompasses the less-known (in the USA, at any rate) sounds of partido alto and baiao. This live set, recorded in a few locations, gives a fine representation of her (considerable) talents. Villela has a five-octave voice, but unlike some singers these days, she feels no need to hit every note ever thought of in the first minute of a song. She’s a master improviser—in fact, some of

the selections were completely improvised in a LIVE context. Sometimes that kind of improv is a recipe for disaster (meandering, self-indulgent, etc.) but not here—the opener “Cuscus” sounds like the rainforest of Brazil with a touch of New Orleans, Villela’s voice making with a Louis Armstrong-like growl then effortlessly flying to the twilight sky in a manner akin to Flora Purim (singer with an early version of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever). Her approach is very conscious of harmony, very songlike and rhythmic, her voice dancing like a pixie on the pointed notes of Bruce Dunlap’s guitar. On “Em Paz” the mood gets sultry, Villela’s wordless voice flickering like, dare I say, a candle in the wind, Dunlap’s single guitar seeming like a mini-orchestra. Echoes of Weather Report in their world music mode can be gleaned in “Taina.” Dreamy and surreal but with South Hemisphere élan, Encantanda is a rare album in that plenty of beauty and mystery await. (9 tracks, min. 79 min.) claudiavillela.com 30

Dhafer Youseff HHHH Sounds of Mirrors Anteprima The world might be spinning off its axis, but some folks try to pull together some beauty all the same. The cast: Tunisian Dhafer Youseff plays the oud (a lute-like stringed instrument), who as a young fellow immersed himself in jazz on the sly; Zakir Hussain is an Indian tabla wizard with extensive experience in jazz and rock as well as raga, Turkish clarinetist Husnu Selenderici, and Norwegian jazz guitarist Eivind

Aarset. The music is a blend of North African, Turkish, Middle Eastern and Hindustani folk traditions with jazz as the common ground—call it world fusion, whatever. But the winds from all over the Mediterranean, from Spain to Greece, waft through the sounds herein. The overall vibe is reflective, at times meditative, occasionally sultry, but always with rhythm(s) coursing through. Mirrors is mysterious and inviting simultaneously. (12 tracks, 66 min.) anteprimaproductions.com Watermelon Slim HHH1/2 Church of the Blues Northern Blues This Watermelon Slim fellow is a bit of a contradiction—he’s college-educated (a Masters in History), a MENSA member, a veteran of many blue-collar jobs (truck driver, forklift operator), looks as if he could be Harvey Dent’s grand-dad, dresses like a riverboat gambler and he plays the blues as if he emerged from a Mississippi delta-toSouth Side-of-Chicago time-warp. WS mines the blues from the mountains of Howlin’ Wolf, Mississippi Fred McDowell (from whom the Stones got “You Go to Move”), and Muddy Waters. Slim

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plays electric slide guitar (and harmonica too) with a truly serrated edge, raw and feral, and he’s got a voice like three miles of bad busted-up road (but he does have range, with a drawl). He sings about the usual subjects— whiskey, women, day-to-day troubles, and more women but also about how humanity wastes precious water (“Mni Wiconi”) and is the only blues singer to use “postmodern” in a song heard by these jaded ears thus far. What he lacks in polish he more than makes up for with passion. If you like your blues played cleanly and tightly, this is not the place. Church is one of those albums that no matter when you play it, it feels like 2 AM and you don’t need/want to go home, but you can’t stay there. (10 tracks,56 min.) northernblues.com Human Feel HHHH Gold Intakt Few bands are victims of success but jazz combo Human Feel is—members Chris Speed and Andrew D’Angelo, reeds; Kurt Rosenwinkel, guitar, and Jim Black, drums, are usually busy with higher-profile projects (w/ Tim Berne, Laurie Anderson, Dave Douglas, as leaders, etc.). Human Feel, established 1987, sometimes gets less attention. Their m.o. is combining creative (read: “noisy” to some folks) jazz with aspects of free improvisation, modern classical chamber music, and grunge rock. “Imaginary Friend,” with its lurching, ominous rhythm and singing-in-unison saxes, could be a Frank Zappa tunes until some energetic but judicious free playing comes in—is nightmarish and cathartic both. The fuzzy, raw guitar and strident beat of “Stina Blues” would sound at home on a Nirvana or Neil Young album—under the racket the reeds wail and moan, elegantly then intensely, while never losing its wiry head, drummer Black making like a jazz counterpart to Keith Moon. “Martens” shimmers like a dreamy Pat Metheny tune until the saxes come in with an Ornette Coleman-like dirge, before singing lyrically while Black, also contributing some truly gothic organlike passages (think J.S. Bach as much as 4AD), anchors it all. With their penchant for balancing/alternating frenetic freedom and rigorous discipline, Human Feel don’t make it easy for the listener—but in this case, it’s for the

better. If you like Peter Brötzmann, John Zorn when he rocks, Zappa and King Crimson in their most “out” moments, Albert Ayler, or The Minutemen, do check this out. (10 tracks, 59 min.) intaktrec.ch The Formosa Quartet HHHH From Hungary to Taiwan Bridge The classical string quartet The Formosa Quartet is from that “other” China, aka Taiwan, and these young hepcats, based in the USA, present the collective Us with a program of 20thand 21st-century classical works with roots in the folk music of (you guessed it, pilgrim) Hungary and Taiwan. The old-school is represented by Bela Bartok’s String Quartet #4, given an appropriately stark, brittle yet brisk treatment. (Bartok was one of the first ethnomusicologists, btw.) Dana Wilson’s

“Hungarian Folk Songs” embraces the up-tempo dance rhythms of Central Europe as well as the haunting, minorkey-ed folk strains that, if you listen, share commonalities with Celtic, Turkish, and points-further-east folk strains. Lee Liang’s “Song Recollections” embodies the dark drama of Bernard Herrmann’s music for Alfred Hitchcock films with a touch of the elegance of Brahms and Schubert. Wei-Chieh Lin’s “Four Taiwanese Songs” is a nice bit of folk-y exotica, rendering/reimagining folk/pop melodies with gusto and class. These string-benders’ performances are passionately haunting—this is “contemporary music (of the notated variety)” that (often) bypasses the mind and goes right to the heart. (18 tracks, 79 min.) n

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12 | NIGHTLIFE

7 MUSE

13 THE CLINTONS

26 DESERTION TRIO / CUP

The darkest, synthiest, dark UK synth trio since Depeche Mode moded, Muse’s new album, Simulation Theory, actually manages to have some humor to it. Wells Fargo Center, wellsfargocenterphilly.com

Bill and Hillary may be kinda-sorta ostracized from the Democratic party for the run-up to the primaries, but at least these Clintons are making money touring and talking together. The Met Philadelphia, themetphilly.com

Two noise-based guitarists find nuance, serenity, and humorin their newest works. For Philadelphia’s Nick Millevoi’s Desertion Trio and its newest album, Twilight Time, the record is named for the 1958 hit by The Platters and works that vocal outfit’s harmonies into a sound that includes further influence from the

8 MOTT THE HOOPLE

Bowie wrote for them. Def Lepperd revered them. Ian Hunter moved on from them for a successful solo career, but you can never truly leave home. This first-

time reunion since the band’s ’70s dissolution focuses on 1974’s membership as, quite frankly that’s who is alive and thriving at present. Either way, it’s the show of the season. Keswick Theatre, keswicktheatre.com

20 CHER/CHIC

Scoff at the forever final tour scheduling of Cher if you want. When she really stops touring, you’ll just

gripe. How can you dare miss her on a large stage, and with Nile Rodgers’ disco ensemble Chic opening? I dare them to do her ’70s dance floor hit, “Take Me Home,” together. Wells Fargo Center, wellsfargocenterphilly.com 20 NICK MASON’S SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS

For his first ever solo tour, the drummer and original member of Pink Floyd concentrates on his own

dramatic likes of Gene Pitney and exotica godfather Les Baxter. As for Nels Cline (best known now for his tenure with Wilco) CUP portrays the married union with Yuka C. Honda of Cibo Matto fame and is choppy, delirious and delightful. Ruba Club, arsnovaworkshop.org

11 KRIS KRISTOFFERSON

26 PATTY SMYTH & SCANDAL

The guy that Bradley Cooper stole A Star is Born from also happens to be one of country-rock’s weariest, wisest songwriters. Keswick Theatre, keswicktheatre.com

Not to be confused with punk’s mistress, Smyth was/is a clarion clear rock vocalist best known for 80s hits such as “Warrior” and a Franks’ Soda commercial. Thanks. Steelstacks at Arts Quest, steelstacks.org

12 CLAYPOOL LENNON DELIRIUM

29 PATTI SMITH

The bass plucking guy from Primus and Yoko’s kid move from the skronk prog of its debut album to

The poet and her band celebrate the poetry of life, sound, rage, and righteousness just as they have

brand of prog jazz as well as early Floyd instrumentals. Just wow. The Met Philadelphia, themetphilly.com

something more Lennon-Beatles-ish on its next, all while maintaining crisp, weird originality. The Fillmore Philadelphia, thefillmorephilly.com (the water jug) Philadelphia’s longtime bosses of soulful Brazilian music try their hand at writing a rootsy opera dedicated to the childhoods. World Café Live, phillyworldcafelive.com

13 MINAS’ LA GIARA

26 &MORE (Chill Moody & Donn T) Two young Philadelphia icons of rap and vocal soul join forces for new, free jazzy funk. Johnny Brenda’s, johnnybrendas.com 26 AUBREY LOGAN: On-Stage Cabaret Zoellner has two shows in one night with the swinging vocalist whose work we know from Postmodern Jukebox. Her solo show promises a bit more R&B and deep jazz than we know from the kitsch of the Jukebox. Brava. Zoellner Arts Center, zoellner.cas2.lehigh.edu

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since Patti and Lenny Kaye first played together as a duo in 1971. The Met Philadelphia, themetphilly.com n

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21 | THIS IS US

A.D. AMOROSI

that people are desperate to see? He’s a leader in this movement, yes, but he’s not alone. The movies that are coming down the pike in 2019 are continuously indicative of widespread industry awareness of the hashtags, movements, demonstrations, and flat-out complaints that have demanded change. And the group that seems to be immediately benefitting most is women. As forthcoming films from practically every genre seem to attest, Time is indeed Up. We’ve already seen Brie Larson don her super suit as Captain Marvel, the first female lead of a Marvel Studios film, who’ll reprise her role in the climactic grudge match Avengers: Endgame. One of the most hotly anticipated comedies is The Hustle, a con-artist farce in which Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson actually use men’s misogyny

Jordan Peele. Photo by Michael Rowe for Essence.

against them to empty their bank accounts. In Toy Story 4, Bo Peep has lost the softened edges to make her a more visibly empowered female character. And apart from Rocketman, the Elton John flick that’s sure to queer up marquees nationwide, the one major biopic to be teased thus far is Lucy in the Sky, a drama starring Natalie Portman that’s loosely based on the life of Lisa Nowak, a former female astronaut. “We have a long way to go.” That’s what nearly everyone will say if asked how we’re doing in regard to diversity in entertainment. And of course we do. But change is at work. And it’s not hyperbole to state that Us is a milestone amid that change. By all traditional accounts, it shouldn’t be such a massive success. It shouldn’t be the movie that everyone is telling their friends and their friends’ friends to go see—preferably with a date whose hand they can squeeze. From casting to material to director to message, it’s indicative of a turning point in what people want to see. And what types of Americans should be on screen and in the audience. n 34

POP

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LCD Soundsystem HHH1/2 Electric Lady Sessions Columbia/DFA Recorded live and threadbare in the studio Jimi Hendrix made infamous, LCD/DFA’s mainman James Murphy— usualy a one-man-band—allows his longtime live collaborative ensemble a chance to shine on everything-synth-’80s such as his covers of the Human League’s ominous “Seconds,” and Heaven 17’s clackety “(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang,” to say nothing of Chic’s holy rolling discoid “I Want Your Love” with Murphy the singer at his yelpy best. Also included are thrashing, spare takes on classics of the LCD catalog such as “American Dream” and “Get Innocuous” that show off his band’s raucous yet reserved feeling for Caucasoid funk. Joey DeFrancesco HHHH In the Key of the Universe Mack Avenue Leave it to Philly’s lion of the Hammond B-3 organ, Joey D. to bring soul and innovation to jazz’s most ignored solo instrument. First, the one-time Miles Davis band member spent 2018 in the company of legendary R&B rocker Van Morrison with several bluesy albums of backing sessions (e.g., The Prophet Speaks), and one where he and Van the Man shared title credit for collaboration a la You’re Driving Me Crazy. After a Christmas gig at South where DeFrancesco & Co. played a heartwarming handful of seasonal, spiritual classics, the organist finds his heads in the clouds, and his inner-vision focused on the astral planes of free jazz—a unique place to roam considering his usual guttural grooves of smoldering blue jazz. With fellow cosmosdwelling drummer Billy Hart and saxophonist Troy Roberts, DeFrancesco maintains a love of sonic, spacious harmony as a composer, while each player solos their avant-garde-reaching rear ends off on “Awake and Blissed” and “Inner Being. Funky and free, “It Swung Wide Open” is an aptly-titled epic where Hart gets his chance to shine brightest and bash hardest. Still, nothing is as impressive as the meeting between DeFrancesco’s oozing, open organ tones and the living master of jazz’s spirited avant-garde, saxophonist Pharaoh Sanders. Recalling his free classic, Karma, a symphonic suite such as “The Creator Has a Master Plan” finds Pharaoh calling on the gods with prayerful soliloquies and signature sound-sheet bleating. Then there is the match-up between Sanders’ doleful reed sound and DeFrancesco doubling on trumpet and organ of “And So It Is,” where each giant step between them acts like a cross between a dueling lovers’ quarrel and a chattily conversational tea party. Juice WRLD HHH Death Race for Love Grade A Productions/Interscope Last year, Chicago rapper-singer Juice WRLD was bummed. He was caught in a mopey, emo-rap web of his devising, lost in the druggy, trap soundtrack that was his wronged-romance-filled debut, Goodbye & Good Riddance, and his biggest hit, “Lucid Dreams.” He played it cool, smooth, and sad in 2018 with a blank expressiveness and a moody monotone to match his tormented lyrics. Now, Juice WRLD sounds elevated and lighter of heart. His new melodies are bolder and more contagious on “Empty,” with its passionate, soft piano play. Sure, the lyrics are mawkish

(“I was put here to lead the lost souls/Exhale depression as the wind blows”), but their expression is gorgeous. “Robbery” also feels fresh: benefiting from the power of a plaintive piano line, Juice WRLD has his strongest pop song moment, one where his highpitched, whinnying vocal sounds like classic emo punk. Think Billie Joe Armstrong at his calmest, and

y h -

l s

D h

you get a feel for where he is heading. Don’t fear, though. Juice WRLD is still chilly and lovelorn, as his ice-breathy, AutoTune-heavy baritone touches down on “Hear Me Calling,” its catchy “breakaway/make a way” refrain and a grooving dance hall influence. Plus, nobody writes raps such as the ones that fill “Syphilis” and “Who Shot Cupid?” if bad romance wasn’t far from Juice WRLD’s mind. The Chemical Brothers HHH No Geography Astralwerks Back in the mad, bad 1990s, Manchester, England’s Chemical Brothers—Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons—crafted a brand of electronic music infused with big, block-rocking beats that borrowed as much from hip-hop as from Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Not only did they start an indie-electro movement that would include UNKLE (whose first new album in two years is out next week), the Prodigy (RIP singer Keith Flint), and Fatboy Slim, they made hits that oozed into pop’s mainstream, especially as their once-tough tones grew cleaner and less raw. No Geography is a return to their original unbridled, grungy funk, with zero big-name guest appearances and a density and aggression that’s been missing from their sound since the start of the 2000s. Using vintage electronic and sequence-based equipment, but sticking with the melodicism they’ve developed over the last three decades, tracks such as “Got to Keep On” and “Free Yourself ” are noisy, bassbooming anthems rich with dynamic layers and creaky textures. “Bango” sounds like its title. The wobbly “MAH” is loose, rubber-band funk that could make you seasick, yet you won’t want to stop moving. “Eve of Destruction” is both effervescent and apocalyptic, while freeing your mind for your rump to follow.order for your rump to follow. n ICON | APRIL 2019 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

JAZZ LIBRARY BOB PERKINS

MARY STALLINGS

THE QUESTION OF WHY the many with great talent (whatever their chosen field) are sometimes overlooked, and their contributions uncelebrated, will probably go unanswered until the end of time. The question can be termed rhetorical with no answer expected. For some fifty years there has been a lady often referred to as a singer’s singer, plying her craft abroad and domestically, and who has shared stages with the likes of Ben Webster, Earl Hines, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald and, Billy Eckstine, to name a few. Her resumé also includes a three-year stint as vocalist with the Count Basie Band. Mary Stallings was born August 16, 1939, in San Francisco, California. Like so many African-America entertainers, she first performed in church, and later turned to secular music, singing in various nightclubs in the San Francisco area, before graduating from high school. Picture a high school student singing in nightclubs, accompanied by seasoned jazz professionals the caliber of Cal Tjader, Red Mitchell, Montgomery brothers Wes and Buddy, and Monk. After completing high school and teaming with jazz giants, Stallings continued in fast company by becoming the girl vocalist in Louis Jordan’s rocking Tympani Five. She later performed with Dizzy Gillespie at the famed Black Hawk nightclub in San Francisco. Several years later, she and Gillespie worked together again when featured at the Monterey Jazz Festival. She was barely into her early 20s when major gigs began to open up, and she garnered engagements in Tokyo, Manila, and Bankok, along with choice bookings at clubs on the homefront. Opportunities to perform in the company of megastars continued to come when Stallings performed for a year in Nevada with Billy Eckstine, and in the mid-1960s she toured South America with Dizzy Gillespie’s big band. Toward the late 1960s, Stallings began a threeyear residency with Count Basie’s band. She then took time off from performing to give birth to daughter Adriana, who grew up to be an R&B and soul singer. Stallings singing career lost steam during her time off, but she restarted it with renewed vigor 36

around 1980, but it wasn’t until 1994 that she returned to the recording studio to complete an album titled I Waited for You. I discovered Stallings through this album. The entire collection of songs on the disc were well chosen, sung well—and she is supported so closely by the Gene Harris Quartet, the guys could be charged with stalking. There is one in song in particular that I often play for my listeners—and one which I usually get requests to repeat, and that song is, “Serenade in Blue,” a Harry Warren-Mack Gordon gem that has never died, and one that Stallings and her support group manage to breathe even more life into. This cut by itself is worth the price of the CD. Stallings has recorded other fine albums, and also completed many successful nightclub and concert appearances in the years following her return to performing. The irony surrounding her career is that even though many legendary jazz vocalists and instrumentalists respect her talent, the mention of her name to more than a few knowledgeable jazz fans will often draw a blank look. On the other hand, I’m sure that after hearing Stallings’ rich contralto caress a tune or two, more than a few new-found fans might question why she is not a household name. Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for gifted performers to receive returns far smaller than their outputs. Mary Stallings in now in the twilight of her career, but she’s still singing, although perhaps not with the voice she once owned. If you’d like to hear a singer at the top of her game, check out I Waited for You. n Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1. Listen to Bob Mon. through Thurs. night from 6–9 and Sunday 9–1.

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I l h

s e e

n e g a n

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harper’s FINDINGS

INDEX

The Alagoas foliage-gleaner, the black-faced honeycreeper, and the cryptic treehunter were declared extinct. A goose and a gull overdosed on opioids, and a drug-sniffing dog overdosed on ecstasy. Drones can detect nightjars’ nests. Five hundred and seventeen maize weevils were found embedded in a Japanese pot from the late Jomon Period, and 527 millipedes were found trapped in Burmese amber from the Cretaceous. The Deep Carbon Observatory estimated that the carbon mass of organisms in Earth’s deep biosphere is at least 245 times that of humankind. The association of poverty with obesity among Americans arose in the past thirty years. Scientists proposed that the start of the Anthropocene be marked by the emergence of the broiler chicken. The climate may, within the next 130 years, warm to levels last seen 50 million years ago. Oceans are warming 40 percent faster than fiveyear-old estimates predicted. There has not, in fact, been a “pause” in recent warming, though carbon output may be slowed by the addition of soldier-fly larvae to dog food and of seaweed to cattle feed. China landed a probe on the dark side of the moon, and Uranus probably lies on its side because it was hit by a rock.

Estimated number of US Christian missionaries abroad last year : 120,000 Of foreign Christian missionaries in the United States : 30,000 Number of states that passed laws in 2018 requiring or permitting schools to display the words “In God We Trust” : 6 To display “God Enriches” : 1 Value of cash that spilled from a Brink’s armored truck onto a New Jersey highway in December : $510,000 Percentage of the money that had been returned to police a month later : 63 Percentage change since 2012 in the number of Dollar General, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree stores in the United States : +34 In the total dollar amount of grocery sales at those stores : +79 Number of states with laws requiring government contractors to pledge not to boycott Israel : 10 Number of congressional districts that border Mexico : 9 Number that are represented by a Republican : 1 Votes by which that district’s congressman won reelection in November : 926 Ratio of the number of Democratic House seats held by women in 1989 to the number held today : 16:89 Of the number of Republican House seats : 1:1 % of Americans who did not vote in the midterm elections who say they wish they had : 61 Percentage of the global population who say they would move to a different country if given the opportunity : 15 Percentage of Americans who say they would : 16 Percentage by which fewer Americans live in rural areas than would like to : 44 By which more Americans live in big cities than would like to : 67 Estimated portion of Japanese residences that are occupied by one person : 1/3 Number of unclaimed dead for whom a Dec. mass funeral was held in Los Angeles County : 1,457 Maximum number of attendees : 200 Chances an American has held off seeking health-care treatment in the past year because of costs : 3 in 10 Estimated % of potential organ donors between the ages of 18–34 whose organs are recovered : 78 Of potential donors between the ages of 57 and 65 : 11 Percentage of internet users targeted with virus scams who end up contacting the scammers : 20 Who ultimately pay them : 6 Percentage change in the number of annual complaints filed to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau since 2016 : +34 In the number of publicly announced enforcement actions by the CFPB : −74 Percentage decrease in satisfaction from 2017 to 2018 among CFPB employees : 25 Percentage decline since 2010 in the number of IRS auditors : 35 Year in which the IRS last had so few auditors : 1953 % of US police depts since 2014 that have reported relaxing hiring standards for prior drug use: 54 % by which a London policeman with a taser is more likely to use force than an unarmed officer: 48 By which an unarmed officer accompanying an officer with a taser is more likely to use force : 19 Average % by which superheroes in films commit more acts of violence per hour than villains : 28 Minimum number of US pre-K–12 students who experienced a lockdown during the 2017– 2018 school year : 4,100,000 % of US undergraduates who say they have found their academics “traumatic” over the previous 12 months : 52 Percentage of US parents under 50 who say it’s unlikely they will have more children : 71

[

Female bark lice evolved penises twice. Parental exposure to nonstick pans may shorten boys’ penises. Proper brushing may prevent erectile dysfunction. Plants do not, in fact, like it when people touch them. The pain tolerance of a subject whose hand is submerged in ice water is not improved if he or she gives the bucket the middle finger. Sadists, in the end, hurt themselves. Both neural structure and neural connectivity are markedly different in callous Dutch ten-year-olds. Of the “dark triad” traits, only narcissism can be seen in the face. White people have a harder time telling real from fake smiles among black people, possibly because white people avoid making eye contact with black people. Many three-year-olds think angry dogs are happy. Marmosets track melodies, and pilot whales have group dialects. Rising levels of oceanic carbon may inhibit salmon’s ability to smell. People with bilateral calcification of the basolateral amygdala due to Urbach– Wiethe disease have nicer dreams. Moral judgments deriving from disgust are inhibited by the consumption of ginger. Jews popularized the fingered citron throughout the Mediterranean. Researchers suggested measures whereby financial traders in Israel may counteract their consistently lower returns, perhaps resulting from increased honesty, during the High Holidays. A man found that a virus into which he had genetically encoded passages from Genesis caused mild inflammation when injected into his thigh, but that a peptide into which he had encoded passages from the Koran did not.

[

People forced to be honest for three days generally had a good time, the average user would require $1,000 to go without Facebook for a year, and people imagine luck to be a zero-sum game. Disney princesses are curvier than villainesses. Both women and men require kindness in a theoretical booty call, and women feel threatened by the prospect of their male partners copulating with gynoid robots. Among Canadian women, theists are more fertile than atheists, and American men and women who are politically extreme have more children. Exposure to markets causes left-leaning people to shift their beliefs rightward, and people with higher social status are more supportive of redistributive economic plans. People who consider themselves physically formidable tend to be conservative. Humans with vertical pupils are perceived as threatening. Large numbers of demented gun owners experience delusions and hallucinations. End-of-life nurses reported that a Lack of Acceptance/Readiness occurs among patients at a marginally higher rate than Acceptance/Readiness. The distance a German serial killer travels to kill people is not affected by whether or not he disposes of the bodies. n 38

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SOURCES: 1,2 Center for the Study of Global Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary (South Hamilton, Mass.); 3,4 National Conference of State Legislatures (Denver); 5,6 East Rutherford Police Department (N.J.); 7,8 Institute for Local Self-Reliance (Minneapolis); 9 Palestine Legal (NYC); 10,11 Harper’s research; 12 Texas Secretary of State (Austin); 13,14 Center for American Women and Politics (New Brunswick, N.J.); 15 Pew Research Center (Washington);16–19 Gallup (Atlanta); 20 National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (Tokyo); 21 LAC+USC Medical Center (Los Angeles); 22 Stefan Timmermans, University of California, Los Angeles; 23 Gallup; 24,25 Washington Post; 26,27 Microsoft (Redmond, Wash.); 28,29 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Washington); 30 Partnership for Public Service (Washington); 31,32 ProPublica (NYC); 33 Police Executive Research Forum (Washington); 34,35 City of London Police; 36 Penn State College of Medicine (Hershey); 37 Washington Post; 38 American College Health Association (Elkridge, Md.); 39 Pew Research Center.

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24 | BARRY BLITT

one where he’s in a little kiddie car that bounces around when you put in a coin. He had just been inaugurated. He seemed to be playing president, treating the presidency as if it were a toy. It has a nice watercolor surface. But, I’m the worst person to ask. So much torture goes into a cover. Recently, a cover of mine was killed at the last minute. I was just thrilled. Often I’ll do a cover and pray they’re not going to use it.

I do six or seven covers in a year that is a lot. Deadline pressures must be intense. Depending on what day of the week, I may have only a few hours to respond to a request for cover ideas. Once an idea is picked, I’ll often have less than a day to draw and paint the finish. The print issue closes on Fridays. Very often I’ll get a call on Wednesday, even a Thursday asking for ideas. The Brexit vote took place on a Thursday evening. I think they

rather sad. I hate playing in front of an audience. It makes a finished product of the music. Besides, I’m not very good. But music is a release. There’s no deadline. No time to worry about a missed note. In drawing, you put down a line and it’s there on the page. In music, the mistake is behind you. Living a secluded life, it’s nice to get together with a few friends and play music. You’re living in rural Roxbury, Connecticut now. David Remnick imagines you, like Santa, in the woods with a workshop of a dozen mini-Blitts— Blittzens; or maybe blintzes—all drawing furiously through the night. I’m in the middle of nowhere. It’s almost de-

Because? Because it will hit the newsstands and I’ll be sick that it wasn’t good enough. If I had more time or wasn’t so constrained by my bad habits. A coach would come in handy.

stopped the presses, held the cover they had. I had less than two hours to come up with an idea. So it was drawn in complete panic.

What kind of coach and why? I did a cover yesterday of Robert Mueller and I had my same problems with color and composition. My initial rough sketches have much more vitality and tell the story better than my restrained artwork. I fantasize about having someone –- not a family member or friend—but someone who was strictly there, like a tennis coach, to help me bridge the gap. My son had an art teacher who was smart and had good taste. I wrote to him about taking art lessons or at least getting some help. He said, sure, let's get together. But, of course, I didn't do anything about it. That was several years ago. I still think about it. I’m sure more than one person has called you “monumentally self-deprecating.” There are cartoonists who do what I’m doing five days a week, producing great ideas regularly, who are much better than me. I’m in a pampered position. If 40

I don’t imagine you have to worry about factcheckers as The New Yorker writers do? I absolutely do. I’m often asked to send in my photo references that I used. I’ve been told that I put the buttons on the wrong side of a jacket. They're stringent. I had a cover idea on climate change that had polar bears and penguins cooling off at a fire hydrant. It was pointed out that they’re from opposite poles and would never encounter one another. It can be frustrating, especially if you’ve gotten most of the way through a drawing. But the art director can override them and remind them of something called “artistic license.” I assume playing music is your escape from these pressures. I saw a video of you playing some kind of harmonica-like contraption. I know you play keyboards, and sometimes perform with a group called the Half-Tones at the Society of Illustrators in New York. I’m sorry you had to see that. [laughs] It’s called a melodica or blow organ. And the band’s name is

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pressing, especially when there is a power failure or heavy snow. It’s extremely quiet. I have neurosis about noise. I even use a white noise machine to sleep out here. We can’t see any neighbors. There are no sidewalks. And there are bears around here, too. My wife is not crazy about living here. It’s a nice little house, though. Arthur Miller once lived here. There’s a little shack behind the house where he wrote Death of a Salesman. I can see it from my drawing room. Barry, final question. Where is your hat? You want me to get a hat? No, no. But I identify you with a hat. It’s a trademark. I do have a pork pie. But it has softened and looks more like a Red Skelton clown hat than a Thelonious Monk porkpie. I’ve solar keratosis or something. So I have to wear a hat. I’m also anticipating my impending baldness. n

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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

I CANDY By Jeffrey Wechsler

ACROSS 1 Stationery item with printed margin lines 9 Arrive with a flourish 16 Artistic dynasty 20 Haydn’s “The Creation,” for one 21 Casual beer order 22 Suzette’s gal pal 23 Ryder Cup two-man team? 25 Othello deceiver 26 MLB info 27 Virus’ protein shell 28 Moved with effort 30 Bunk array 31 Cinque e uno 33 Gooey treat 34 Locally organized event with rides and games? 41 Photogenic expanse 44 Copied, old-style 45 Wilder’s “__ Town” 46 Occultist symbol 50 Lazy ones 51 Little ones 52 Look too closely? 53 Rhyme scheme in Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” 54 Boop frame 55 Blunt, as reality 57 Zagreb native 58 Biblical mount 59 Cad 60 Pass 62 Don of talk radio 63 Choir group 66 Signpost signaling farmland? 70 Evening, in ads 71 Kale unit 72 Memorial __ Kettering: NYC hospital 73 Less than right? 75 Unthreatening 76 Sewing cases 78 Brush brand 79 Rock bass supplier? 82 “The __ that men do lives after them”: Antony 83 Wang of fashion 84 Some beer orders, initially 86 Immature insects 88 Moved 90 Okinawa okay 91 “Just watch me!” 92 More clement 42

93 Source of Capitol Hill water? 95 Europe’s longest river 98 Vulcano of “Impractical Jokers” 100 Stare open-mouthed 101 Frozen treats 104 City near Mount Rainier 106 Exemplar of corporate malfeasance 111 Medical lab liquids 112 Overworked employee at a desert diner? 116 Wells people 117 Words of desperation, perhaps 118 Metaphorical scrutiny, in modern lingo 119 Nursery staple 120 Charge for using 121 Took stock of

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 24 29 30 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 42

Cut Times to remember Track pace Big name in razors Hit in the 7-Down They know the ropes See 5-Down Many a late ’90s startup Leaves the office for a bit WWII females Plaza Hotel imp Get away from __ favor Part of MIT: Abbr. At no time, poetically Periodical for some Downton Abbey employees? Mature insect Neighbor of Chad Crystal-bearing rock One holding a derby? Open org. Fish-and-chips fish “No need to shout” Banking org. since 1933 One might run an errand “__ take a while” GPS datum “Too little payment __ great a debt”: Shak. Relax between games Union title? Visiting the Griffith Observatory, say

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43 46 47 48 49 51 56 57 59 60 61 63 64 65 67 68 69 74 76 77 78 79 80 81 84 85 87 89 91 93 94 95

Editor’s mark 96 Kitchen sponge brand Place for a rocker 97 The king of France? Spider-Man films director 99 Old-time actor Lew In the area of 102 February forecaster from Cleric’s residence Punxsutawney They work on books 103 Sound measure How to talk to the hand?: Abbr. 105 Make woolens, say “The Godfather” actor 106 They’re woolly Only bucket you’ll ever need? 107 Travel pillow spot Genesis grandson 108 Clears (of) Clandestine org. 109 Redding of blues Transmogrify, e.g. 110 “Party of Five” actress Campbell Get going 113 In-flight drink option Sri Lankan people 114 Some appliances Homeric epic 115 Like most of Denmark’s flag 2010 health law: Abbr. Airport serving Answer to March’s puzzle, GOING GREEN Washington Ski resort helpers Pre-hurricane emergency op Footballer’s tool, in France Literally, “folding paper” Sports shoe brand Star trek figures? Low-level laborer Saigon soup Ram Sleep stage “See you later!” Old-school “cool” Artist Monet Its capital is Kigali Carpentry shop gadgets

AGENDA CALL FOR ENTRIES

West Park Civic Association calls for exhibitors for the 45th Annual Art-in-the-Park, a vetted show of fine arts/crafts chaired by art consultant/independent scholar Dr. Christine Isabelle Oaklander. Display space free for full-time students. Cash prizes; judges Dr. Kathleen Jameson, CEO, Michener Art Museum; Scott Schweigert, Curator, Reading Public Museum. Visit Westpark-ca.org for info & applications. GALLERIES & MUSEUMS THRU 4/13 Pedro Barbeito, Paintings, 19962018. Lafayette College Art Galleries, Easton, PA. 610-330-5361. Galleries.lafayette.edu

THRU 4/13 Lydia Panas, Sleeping Beauty. Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. Muhlenberg.edu/gallery THRU 4/14 Blues & The Abstract Truth, Desmond McRory. Silverman Gallery, Bucks County Impressionist Art, 4920 York Rd., Buckingham Green, Rte. 202, Holicong, PA. 215-794-4300. Silvermangallery.com THRU 4/20 Cedomir Vasic, Mutable Images, Shifting Visions. Lafayette College Art Galleries, Easton, PA. 610-3305361. Galleries.lafayette.edu THRU 4/28 Victoria Burge and Robert Murray paintings and prints curated by Jonathan Lippincott. New Arts Program Gallery, 173 W. Main, Kutztown. Fri/Sat/Sun 11–3:00. Also installation by Tamu Ngina 4/3-7/14. Private 1-hr conversations with Lippincott 3/15-16 by appt. 610683-6440. Galleries.lafayette.edu THRU 5/5 The James A. Michener Art Museum Presents, The Art of Seating, 200 Years of American Design. 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, PA. 215340-9800. Michenerartmuseum.org

Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. Muhlenberg.edu/gallery 4/14 Collecting Art of the African Diaspora, with Dr. Halima Taha, Eric Edwards & Danny Simmons. 2PM, Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-4333. Allentownartmuseum.org 4/20-5/5 Two Artists, Two Visions: Andy DiPietro & Norine Kevolic. New Hope Arts, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope, PA. Newhopearts.org 4/27-5/26 Between the Lines, Jonathan Mandell and Rhonda Garland. Silverman Gallery, Bucks County Impressionist Art. In Buckingham Green, Rte. 202, just north of PA 413, 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA. 215794-4300. Silvermangallery.com 5/5-6/9 The Art of the Miniature XXVll, featuring 90+ national and international artists and nearly 500 works of art. The Snow Goose Gallery, 470 Main St., Bethlehem, PA. 610974-9099. Thesnowgoosegallery.com

FESTS/TOURS/AUCTIONS 4/4-4/7 Inaugural Philadelphia Fine Art Fair, presenting important contemporary works. 23rd St. City Troop Armory, Philadelphia, PA, between Chestnut and Market. Philfineartfair.com/tickets. Complimentary tickets, use code ICON.

town Quakertown, PA. 215-5362273. Quakertownalive.com 5/18 34th Annual Art Auction. Live auction at 8pm, silent auction begins at 5:30. Auction preview night, 5/16, 6-8. The Baum School of Art, 510 Linden St., Allentown, PA. 610-4330032. Baumschool.org 5/24-5/26 Mayfair Festival of the Arts. Fun for the family, art, food and performance. Cedar Crest College, 100 College Dr., Allentown, PA. 610606-4666. Cedarcrest.edu/Mayfair

4/14 Palm Sunday recital, Stephen Williams. Cathedral Arts, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-8650727. Nativitycathedral.org 4/20 Moutin Factory Quintet, with guest Kavita Shah. 8PM, Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton, PA. 610-330-5009. Williamscenter.org

THEATER

4/11-4/14 Sakura, a requiem for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-867-1689. Touchstone.org

4/24 Riverview Consort, Early Music. 8 pm. 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Rd, Ewing, NJ 609.392.6409. 1867sanctuary.org

4/12 Chazz Palminteri: A Bronx Tale. 7:30 PM, State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610252-3132. Statetheatre.org

4/26 Aubrey Logan, on-stage caberet. Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. Zoellnerartscenter.org

4/20 Puppet Show & Dinosaur Egg Hunt Children can decorate and hunt for dinosaur eggs. 1:00pm-3:30pm. Free Book & Puppet Co., 466 Northampton St. Easton

4/27 Emerald Rae. Fiddler & Folksinger. 2 pm. 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Rd, Ewing, NJ 609.392.6409. 867sanctuary.org

4/17-4/28 Peeps in the Village. Peddler’s Village, routes 202 & 263, Lahaska, PA. 215-794-4000. Peddlersvillage.com

4/27 Camerata Singers present, French program featuring Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem. First Presbyterian Church, 3231 W. Tilghman St., Allentown. 610-434-7811. PACamerataSingers.org

4/20 Easter. Egg Hunt,10AM at Clinton Community Center. Games, crafts and snacks. Continue at the Downtown Clinton Scavenger Hunt, prizes and the Easter Bunny will be hopping around. Clinton, NJ. For information, Visitclintonnj.com

4/24-5/5 Pippin. Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. DeSales.edu/act1 4/27 Mermaids Fast Asleep Puppet Show and Book Signing with author Robin Riding. 12–2:00. Free Book & Puppet Co., 466 Northampton St. Easton

4/28 Organ Birthday Recital #2, 4:00 PM. Neil Harmon, organ. Cathedral Arts, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-865-0727. Nativitycathedral.org

5/4 & 5/5 The Hunterdon Art Tour (THAT), 3rd annual self-guided tour of Hunterdon County, NJ, Artists’ Studios. Meet the artists, see their work, 10am-6pm. For map & information, TheHunterdonArtTour.com.

5/11 Water on Mars, family-friendly show. 8pm, Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. Zoellnerartscenter.org

5/10, 11 & 5/17, 18 112th Bethlehem Bach Festival, The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. 440 Heckewelder Place, Bethlehem, PA. Tickets & schedule, 610-866-4382, ext. 115/110 or Bach.org.

5/11-5/12 Bethlehem Fine Art & Craft Show, 5/11, 10am-5pm, 5/12, 11am-5pm. Over eighty regional, national and local artists. Historic Main St., Bethlehem, PA. Bfac-lv.org

THRU 5/30 Liz Whitney Quisgard, Imaginary Architecture. Martin Art Gallery,

5/18 Arts Alive. Arts and craft event, rain-date 5/19.10AM-4PM, Down-

DINO’S BACKSTAGE 287 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside. Restaurant • Bar • Cabaret 215-884-2000 Dinosbackstage.com

4/23 Omri Barak, trumpet. Arts at St. John’sSt. John’s Lutheran Church, 37 So. Fifth St., Allentown, PA. 610435-1641. Stjohnsallentown.org

5/3 Benefit Exhibition and party for The Hunterdon Art Tour (THAT), 7pm-9pm. Hunterdon Art Museum, 7 Lower Center St., Clinton, NJ. TheHunterdonArtTour.com

THRU 5/5 Carrie Mae Weems, Strategies of Engagement. 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-4333. Allentownartmuseum.org

APRIL 5 Lotus Land-Tribute to RUSH 18 Here Come the Mummies 19 Yellow Brick Road-Tribute to Elton John 25 Crystal Bowersox 26 Patty Smyth & Scandal MAY 3-4 Southside Arts & Music Festival

MUSIC

4/13 Philip Glass, piano, Jon Gibson, soprano saxophone, solo and duo works. New Arts Program, doors open 7:00, recital 7:30, reception follows. St. John’s UCC, N. Whiteoak and W. Walnut Sts., Kutztown, PA. 610-683 -6440.

5/19 Organ Birthday recital #3, Robert McCormick, organ. 4:00 PM, Cathedral Arts, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-865-0727. Nativitycathedral.org MUSIKFEST CAFÉ 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem 610-332-1300 Artsquest.org

APRIL 6 Mary Ellen Desmond, “The Music of Peggy Lee” 12 La Maison Rose Burlesque 13 Bearlesque 27 Michael Richard Kelly, “The Judy Garland Songbook” EVENTS

4/13 Village Wine Stroll. Peddler’s Village, routes 202 & 263, Lahaska, PA. 215-794-4000. Peddlersvillage.com

4/27 & 4/28 Spring Kidsfest, fun for the whole family. Peddler’s Village, routes 202 & 263, Lahaska, PA. 215-794-4000. Peddlersvillage.com 5/4 39th Annual Historic Easton House Tour, 10AM-4PM. Tour beautiful historic homes & public places.EastonHouseTour.com, facebook.com/eastonhousetour 5/11-5/21 Pridefest, New Hope CelebratesCome as you are. NHC Pride Week observance-remembering Stonewall 50th. New Hope, PA and Lambertville, NJ. 5/4-5/20 Best Cocktail Contest 5/15 Fact Bingo 5/18 Pride Parade & Fair 5/19 Pride T-dances town wide For more info, visit Newhopecelebrates.com n

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