PUBLISHER
Trina
Lehigh
Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net
PRODUCTION
Priscilla DeSoto
WRITERS
A.D. Amorosi
Ricardo Barros
Robert Beck
Geoff Gehman
Fredricka Maister
Val Sivilli
David Stoller
Keith Uhlich
Reproduction
NATURE SEEMED EAGER TO let go of Winter this year, but when the time came, it developed a case of season’s remorse and kept flip-flopping, giving us spurts of nice weather and then reverting to its former bone-chilling self.
There’s a big difference between days with the same disposition in the spring and fall. In the Spring, the ground is still cold and the air is warming. Fall is the other way around. You can feel the sun giving and taking.
I had a few hours to spare on one of the gorgeous days in March. Actually, there were other things I was supposed to do, but I’m a bird-in-thehand guy and my kit is always ready for action. There wasn’t time to scout
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Robert Beck is a painter, writer, lecturer and ex-radio host. His paintings have been featured in more than seventy juried and thirty solo gallery shows, and three solo museum exhibitions. His column has appeared monthly in ICON Magazine since 2005. www.robertbeck.net
40th Annual Art Auction
The Baum School of Art
510 W Linden St., Allentown 610-433-0032 baumschool.org
Bidding begins May 10, 6:30 through May 17, 10. Bidding site: givergy.us/baumartauction40
View in-person April 28 – May 17 Mon. – Sat. 9:00–9:00; Sun. Closed
The Baum School of Art’s 40th Annual Art Auction features over 400 works of art from artists of the Pennsylvania Impressionist period of Walter Baum, to over 80 contemporary local artists. Help us kick-off the bidding at our Premiere Party with hors d’oeuvres, drinks and music. $50 per ticket, May 10, 6:00– 9:00pm. It’s easy to register, browse and bid online. Visit givergy.us/baumartauction40. Once you place your bid, you can choose to receive realtime email and/or text notifications of your bids.
This Must Be the Place
Nazareth Area Photography Club (NAPC) Nazareth Center for the Arts 30 Belvidere Street, Nazareth nazaretharts.org
May 2 – 31 Hours:Friday 3-6, Sat & Sun 12-3
Closing Reception May 31, 12-3
Nazareth Area Photography Club (NAPC) celebrates National Photography Month by hosting it’s first exhibit, This Must Be the Place. The exhibit features photos inspired by our homes, backyards, neighborhoods, and communities. NAPC members will exhibit their work alongside pieces from a juried open call of diverse local photography artists. The exhibit showcases traditional photography (analog and digital) work and alternative processes such as #cyanotype, #solargraphy, and #pinholephotography.
Trisha Vergis: Easel Come, Easel Go! 2025 Solo Exhibition
Silverman Gallery of Bucks County Impressionist Art 4920 York Rd., Holicong 215-794-4300 silvermangallery.com
May 17 – June 22
Hours: Wed.-Sat. 11-6, Sun. 11-4, and appt. Opening Reception 5/17, 5-8 and 5/18, 1-4
Trisha has long called Bucks and Hunterdon Counties home, and her life as an artist is firmly rooted in the area. Known for her dedication to working in plein air has resulted in paintings that capture the character and charm of the Delaware River towns. Her luminous still life work of flowers, fruit and collectibles—carefully planned and lit—is collected throughout the country. Browse the entire collection on the website: silvermangallery.com
Pure conversation reveals the divine
So held the Taoists in their cryptic verse
Tell me your secrets and I’ll tell you mine.
How much is left that I can’t seem to find?
Do not look back, it will only get worse …
Pure conversation reveals the divine.
I hate to be right at just the wrong time
Failure, they say, is a win in reverse …
Tell me your secrets and I’ll tell you mine.
As for endings—let it be my design
I trust there’s still enough time to rehearse
Pure conversation reveals the divine.
And meaning, well, I’m just seeking a sign
A climber exploring where to traverse
Tell me your secrets and I’ll tell you mine.
The heart has its reasons, just like the mind
Feelings that argument cannot coerce
Will conversation reveal the divine?
Tell me your secrets and I’ll tell you mine.
Tom Birkner (1966-) was born in Rahway, New Jersey, and received his MFA at Pennsylvania State University. He has taught at the Parsons School of Design in NYC and Paris, and is currently Associate Professor of Art for Painting at the University of Texas at El Paso. His work has been exhibited throughout the United States and Europe and can be found in numerous collections. Birkner has spent a career depicting everyday people in America, in all their variety, often rendered—as is the case here with Corner Talk—with realistic precision against monochromatic backgrounds. He’s interested in the meanings and truths revealed in these intimate moments, the possibilities for which intrigued me in this painting, and inspired my poem, also entitled Corner Talk. I see, through a passing car window, a couple of ordinary guys in casual conversation on a street corner, in what appears to be a working-class neighborhood … imagining that they, unbeknownst to the observer, might be sharing in their conversation something of private importance, self-reflection or revelation.
I wrote the poem in the form of a villanelle, featuring a highly structured 19-line poem with a very specific rhyme scheme and use of refrains—enjoying the chance to contrast the poem’s formality and musicality with this monochromatic, ordinary, intimate moment in passing. n
ARTISTS ARE OFTEN responsible for writing or speaking about their work. The request to do so strikes fear into many artists’ hearts. What should an artist say? Almost everyone wants to say something meaningful, but as evidenced by their artist’s statements, many artists have not honed their verbal skills to the same degree as they have their artwork. This is stressful for the artists and tiring for their audiences.
At the risk of oversimplifying the task, there are three things artists must NEVER do in writing or speaking about their work. First, do not describe to an audience what the audience can plainly see. Do not tell them a red barn is a red barn. Second, do not instruct an audience on how to see. Let the leading lines in your composition do that work. Third, avoid speaking about how the artwork makes you, the artwork’s maker, feel. Informing an audience of your nirvana does not help them share your experience.
Here, with increasing nuance, are four things you may want to address. The first and most basic are who, what, where, and when. Informational facts place an artwork in context. Value is added to a portrait of
Pablo Picasso if one knows that it was made in Barcelona during his Blue Period, for example. Second, depending on your audience’s interests, discuss the peculiarities of the medium. Thinly layered oil paint adds translucency to the skin, or dynamite can create fractal patterns in a sculptural installation. Third, consider a humanistic approach. An anecdotal story of abruptly ending a plein air session when an angry bull chased you out of a pasture invites chuckles, builds rapport, and nurtures a warmer reception to your work. Fourth, what are the ideas embedded within your artwork?
Addressing embedded ideas is where most artists get into trouble. Not because their ideas aren’t profound or because the artists aren’t committed to them but because of their lack of clarity. The artwork in question may not be the best vehicle for the idea it is attempting to carry, or the idea may not have fully evolved. Even complex ideas, when truly understood, can be simply stated. If you find yourself writing contorted sentences, you probably need to think more about what you’re writing. And finally, I recommend saying less rather than more.
Ricardo Barros’ works are in the permanent collections of eleven museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the author of Facing Sculpture: A Portfolio of Portraits, Sculpture and Related Ideas
THE WINDS OF CHANGE are sweeping across the quaint sister towns of Lambertville and New Hope. Like everything in life, the impact of change is both positive and negative and the results remain to be seen and felt. What I do see is that much of what continues to make Lambertville a wonderful community remains, and has even expanded. We embrace diversity and creativity in ever-expanding venues, where we continue to build and sustain our sense of belonging, of community. Lambertville has needed places for locals to meet, and a place to get out of the house for many who work at home. Our coffee shops do just that. As the old saying goes, “Life happens; coffee helps.”
We now have four coffee shops in town, each different and each intent upon bringing us together. In addition to the oldest coffee shop, Lambertville Trading Company, we now have Union Coffee, which opened in March, 2021. The driving force behind the warmth and welcoming atmosphere is its owner, Carolyn Gadbois , an indomitable worker. Her café not only serves delicious coffee, but also breakfast and lunch fare. Carolyn’s been around coffee ever since high school, when she worked in a coffee shop as a barista. While attending Emerson College, she worked at Starbucks, where she learned how community can begin over a cup of coffee, affect someone’s day, and is an integral part of a conversation. She then worked for a friend who opened a second coffee/ice cream shop and asked Carolyn to manage it. From the beginning, Carolyn knew that a successful business needs a good manager. She got the opportunity to expand her management skills while working for her brother Mike, who owned Lovin’ Oven in Frenchtown. “I managed the front of the house and the waitstaff, and it was there that I made great connections.” When she opened Union Coffee, she hung out a gay pride flag, reflecting her sensibility to the LGBTQ+ community. It’s also Carolyn’s intention to promote connections, conversation, art, music, special events—and a good cup of coffee. The young, enthusiastic waitstaff is a part of the Union Coffee “family.” The walls are hung with ever-changing paintings of local artists. The Union Coffee May exhibition is the Gay Pride Art Show. 49 N. Union Street, 609-460-4637, unioncoffeenj.com
the walls. Many people who work from home come to Luminary to sip coffee, and quietly work on their laptops. French teacher Wendy Rosen usually meets with a few students for conversational French lessons there. What could be better than a croissant, café latte, and friends speaking French? One morning each week a group of about ten locals gather there for coffee, conversation, friendship, and connection. Luminary, like the other town coffee shops, promotes community. 243 N. Union Street, 609-460-4492, luminaryroasters.com
Bucks on Bridge is the creation of Jeff Kline, well-known guitarist, singer and performer. The original store was Kline’s, established in 1875 as J.B. Kline & Son. Today, on the second floor, Jeff has created a musical instrument store, which includes a wide selection of unique and hard-to-find instruments, including vintage guitars and amps. Downstairs is Bucks on Bridge, a busy shop that serves Fair Trade organic coffee and espresso, ice cream, and homemade baked goods. The back room is a space reserved for special community events and art shows. Soupçon Salon Gallery meets there to share art and meditation. The shop also hosts poetry nights and live music. Everyone is invited to join and expand their community experiences. You can even adopt a kitten here. 25 Bridge Street, 609-483-2615
Ironically, Carolyn also managed Early Bird Espresso, owned by Patrick Legin, who now owns Luminary Coffee, a café and micro roastery, at the quieter north end of Union Street. Patrick has been around coffee for many years in many cities and in many roles. He believes that Luminary’s mission is to be a catalyst for community, conversation, and creativity. Luminary Coffee is a large open space that exudes serenity. One end of the room is occupied by the coffee roaster; the rest of the space is filled with chairs and tables, a sofa surrounding a round coffee table, and shelves containing a variety of coffees and coffee-related products for sale. Luminary serves its own home-roasted coffee, edibles like donuts, croissants, and homemade biscuits. The skilled baristas create an ambiance that invites people to sip a variety of specialty coffees, while seated in a cushioned chair, alone or with friends. Each month, new original art fills
Not only can you get a good cup of coffee at Chive Restaurant on North Main Street, you can also enjoy breakfast, lunch, pop-up dinners, and catering. Chive opened in December 2020. “My goal,” says owner Michelle Schibel, “is to make Chive known for its good food, good ambiance, and vibes that make the restaurant feel like home.” This is what she continues to do by catering many events in the area, and providing food and space for private parties. Chef Ryan Jameson, trained at Johnson and Wales, is famous for his butter-fried chicken and out-of-the-oven pot pies. He proudly notes that he orders 150 dozen eggs per week, and over 100 pounds of thick bacon. (Because Ryan loves dogs, there’s always a bacon tidbit available at the side door for the canine community.) Once inside Chive, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee fills the air; the tables are filled with locals and tourists, and the walls display original art for sale by local artists, including Michelle’s son Mac’s eyegrabbing photographs. The Chive family includes Jeannie Eleftherion, who has worked there for six years, and is the person who delivers Ryan’s delicacies to your table. Michelle has created a café with positive vibes and a welcoming atmosphere in which to enjoy good coffee, and good food. Chive has its own free parking lot. 74 N. Main Street, 609-397-3737, chivecafe.com n
Jose Garces is a culinary celebrity. The Chicago native runs very popular restaurants in Philadelphia, received a prestigious James Beard Foundation award, and won the second “Iron Chef” contest. In March his latest eatery, Rosa Blanca, began spicing up Allentown’s bland downtown with a triple dose of Caribbean flavors and favors. Breakfast features Cuban coffees and pastries. Lunch includes Cuban sandwiches, empanadas and bowls with free-range ingredients ranging from mushrooms to Yucca fries. In the evening the place becomes a rum-cocktail bar. Art Deco décor completes the Little Havana vibe. (950 Hamilton St.; 484-273-0881; allentown.rosablancarestaurant.com)
John Williams composes movie soundtracks that double as mental soundtracks. Who hasn’t trumpeted his “Indiana Jones” thrill-ride fanfare or mouth plucked his lurking, stalking Jaws alarum? This month Miller Symphony Hall will honor him with two showcases. On May 4 the Allentown Band will sample his scores for Star Wars and 1941 with high-school musicians and a guest conductor from the U.S. Air Force. On May 17 the Allentown Symphony Pops will mix Williams’ contributions to Born on the 4th of July and Star Wars with works by fellow cinematic titans Elmer Bernstein (The Magnificent Seven) and Ennio Morricone (Cinema Paradiso). May the forces be with us all. (23 N. 6th St., Allentown; 610-4326715; millersymphonyhall.org)
chronicles her 20-year wait for her man to return from his bodacious adventures on Ithaca. Rachel Camp, a singing dancer and teaching choreographer, stars in the solo show, her tales lubricated by Greek-chorus instrumentalists and a glass of faux bourbon. Composer Alex Bechtel has scored a fair number of festival Shakespeares as well as such independent ventures as Cheer Up, Dostoevsky. (May 28-June 1, June 3-8, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley; 610-282-9455/WILL; pashakespeare.org)
Italian cooking classes. A book club. A sing-off inspired by Harry Chapin’s ode to Mr. Martin Tanner, a lusty-voiced coat cleaner who yearns for a singing career. These programs anchor the Bell Tower Cultural Center, a relatively new venue dedicated to exploring and expanding culture, history and folklore in the Martins Creek vicinity. Last month Craig Thatcher, the esteemed rock guitarist and Martin Guitar clinician, played in the 19th century church building, which is supervised by the Three Church Hill Arts and Historical Society. This month the COBRA improv group (May 16) and the band Little Bird & the Bad Eggs (May 20) will perform near the Delaware River by an 1803 school house and a cemetery with Revolutionary War residents. (2904 Church Rd., Bangor; 610-360-3737; belltowerculturalcenter.org)
The summer Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival will open in the spring with the musical Penelope, where Odysseus’ better half vivaciously
Geoff Gehman is a former arts writer for The Morning Call and the author of five books: Planet Mom: Keeping an Aging Parent from Aging, The Kingdom of the Kid: Growing Up in the Long-Lost Hamptons, and Fast Women and Slow Horses: The (mis)Adventures of a Bar, Betting and Barbecue Man with William Mayberry geoffgehman@verizon.net
Strings will sing during the Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s 117th festival/smorgasbord. Rachel Ellen Wong, the first baroque musician to rate an Avery Fisher Career Grant, will be a very busy resident artist, interpreting violin works by J.S. Bach, fencer/soldier Joseph Bologne (Chevalier de Saint-Georges) and Maddalena Laura Sirmen (17451818), a renowned violinist and opera singer in her native Italy, England and Russia. Andrew Gonzalez will use his shoulder to play a rare five-string small cello, an instrument that influenced J.S.’s writing. The violin/guitar duo Fire & Grace and a flamenco dancer will give J.S. a Spanish accent. Also on the bill are a lecture about J.S.’s string players, a cantata sung before and after a talk about it, and, as always, the mighty “Mass in B Minor” performed in a majestic Gothic cathedral. Newcomers include a series (Outside the Bachs), a venue (Incarnation of Our Lord church) and the long-standing two long weekends of identical events shrunk to four days. (May 8-11, various sites in South Bethlehem; 610-866-4382; bach.org)
Harmonies bounce off stairwells and buzz around street corners, sung earnestly and floridly by groups with names that usually begin with "The.” This juicy legacy is promoted by The Doo Wop Project, which croons and creases tunes minted by the Flamingos and the Temptations, as well as Michael Jackson and Sam Smith. Membersmade their bones in such boffo Broadway shows as A Bronx Tale” and Jersey Boys. (May 17, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem; 610758-2787; zoellner.cas.lehigh.edu)
Groundhog Day is the cult-classic movie comedy where a wise-ass, downright nasty weather forecaster (Bill Murray) discovers humility, romance and love of humanity during a carousel of identical days in the only town starring a woodchuck. Civic Theatre of Allentown is staging the musical version, written by Danny Rubin, who co-wrote the screenplay with movie director Harold Ramis, and Australian musician Tim Minchin, who played a rock star in Californication. Fun fact: in Caddyshack, another Ramis-directed cult comedy classic, Murray plays a nutty, wily golf-club groundskeeper who battles a wily, nutty groundhog. (May 9-10, 14-18, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown; 610-433-8903; civictheatre.com) n
WHEN PHILADELPHIA AREA author Dennis Tafoya writes, it is with a brand of taut, rough urgency and a cinematic sensibility specific to the true crime genre. Sure, Elmore Leonard and, to a lesser extent, Charles Willeford heightened the grit of hardboiled crime writing beyond its film noir cliches with their rapt poetic dramatism. But Tafoya, with his three crime novels set in and around Philadelphia—Dope Thief, The Wolves of Fairmount Park, The Poor Boys Game—splits the difference between the bluntly matter-of-fact and the bountifully metrical while allowing the necessary ‘just-the-facts, ma’am’ vibes to unfurl with their own graphic majesty.
Currently celebrating his 2009 novel, Dope Thief, with an urgent Apple TV+ serialization starring Brian Tyree Henry, written by its showrunner Peter Craig (the screenwriter behind Top Gun: Maverick) and co-produced by Ridley Scott (who directed its pilot), Tafoya’s pug-nosed novels are getting the much-needed attention that they’ve always deserved.
ICON’s A.D. Amorosi sat down with Tafoya for just the facts, ma’am.
A.D. Amorosi: I noticed you held this confab of fellow amazing crime writers in New York last month. That struck me as cool and generous, as you obviously consider other writers in your field a form of personhood rather than competition.
Dennis Tafoya: I think that almost everybody who writes crime has learned the value of that camaraderie. Writing is a very solitary effort. When you can get together with those interested in the same things—at heart, we’re also true crime consumers—we try to boost each other’s signals and give each other air time. That [personhood] is the payoff; for most working writers, crime or not, the money is thin. But the experience of being with other writers is rich.
A.D. Amorosi: So, why crime?
Dennis Tafoya: It’s been a fascination and a preoccupation going back to when I was very young. I remember that one of the first books my mom gave me was Beyond Belief by Evan Williams about the Moors murders. When my grandfather passed away, the only thing that I got of his was an Elmore Leonard novel. It’s in the family or in the blood a little bit. I’ve always been fascinated by crime and have always loved crime authors. I love horror writing, too, but I haven’t written much of that—I guess anything that’s frightening and strange appeals to me.
A.D. Amorosi: I just realized that my first book that I got as a kid was Twenty Days which was all about the crime of the Lincoln assassination, from before the murder and its conspiracy’s planning stages and through their hanging for the crime, with all the blood-soaked sheets and lynching photos that accompanied it. Beyond the fact that you come from Philly, why do you like this city as the setting for all your novels?
Dennis Tafoya: I was born in Philadelphia and lived all around it in my time. And it’s funny because this city is having a real moment when it comes to crime drama. After Mare of Eastown, we have Dope Thief, Long Bright River, and Jen Moore’s book turned into a series. Task is coming later this year, which is the same world as Mare of Eastown. There’s just something about Philly. Something elemental. About its people. It would have to be the grit. I like to be able to walk the ground and know what I’m talking about when I write. I take that very seriously. And anyone who talks to me about having read my books recognizes their city—they say they have been part of those places. They know these streets. It’s very rich. And if you’re from this area, you know how particular it is and how engaging, how strange it is.
A.D. Amorosi: I want to talk about Dope Thief, but I also read your novel The Wolves of Fairmount. Nicely done.
Dennis Tafoya: When my agent sold Dope Thief, he got me a two-book deal. When that happened, the publisher asked me for two lines to describe the other book. I told them, “It’s about a heroin addict trying to solve a murder.” Then, I had to fill in the blanks. You might see a theme there.
A.D. Amorosi: I do.
Dennis Tafoya: If I have one talent, it’s about getting high. I do that really well.
A.D. Amorosi: You do.
Dennis Tafoya: A drug addict who is the black sheep of his family with a brother who is a cop; I liked that dynamic. When the police officer’s son is shot with another kid in front of a dope house, the main character, Orlando, sets out to see what happened.
A.D. Amorosi: Do you see things cinematically? From your writing, I would say ‘yes.’ Or is the cinema someone else’s job?
Dennis Tafoya: I think you’ll find that all gritty crime or hard-boiled crime writers see their writing that way. There is a dialog between our books and the movies that we love. We’re very much imaging the action of a scene as we write. And there has been so much that has received that treatment—The Wire, Breaking Bad—that we imagine our work getting such respect.
A.D. Amorosi: As cinematic as your stuff reads, it never strays far from its non-fiction narrative. You can imagine it in a newspaper. It’s very of-the-street.
Dennis Tafoya: I take that as a compliment. People often ask if I have lived through all of my novels’ experiences… I’m glad that it strikes people true to life
A.D. Amorosi: What was the genesis of Dope Thief that made you want to write it?
Dennis Tafoya: I worked at Doylestown Hospital as a teenager in the 1980s. At that time, biker gangs used to rent farm houses out in Bucks and Montgomery Counties and run meth labs in them. They controlled a chemical, P2P, an element of methamphetamine. They’d rent them, then abandon them when they finished. One night, there was a fire in one of these farmhouses they used in Plumsteadville, and we got calls to figure out how to deal with someone who had been badly burned in the fire… that was the germ of my story. That really stuck in my head for a long time. Who are you if you are in a burning meth lab in the middle of the night? Plus, I loved crime writers such as Elmore Leonard and Lawrence Bloch. Leonard was the tops. I got a chance to meet him—he’s just amazing; a writer whose every novel is entertaining, so much fun.
THERE’S JUST SOMETHING ABOUT PHILLY. Something elemental. About its people IT WOULD HAVE TO BE THE GRIT. I like to be able to walk the ground and know what I’m talking about when I write. I take that very seriously. And anyone who talks to me about having read my books recognizes their city— THEY SAY THEY HAVE BEEN PART OF THOSE PLACES.
Dennis Tafoya: All of his characters have so many angles, run a game of confidence, and have very cool ways of expressing themselves. Based on my personality and experience of the world, I wanted to write someone who I could recognize in that same way, someone who came up against the same violence I witnessed, but might be destroyed by what they witnessed. In that way, it took what I knew about those stories and showed how I don’t think my people are so resilient in the way that characters in so many of these other novels are. My people aren’t schemers with a million different angles. My people can be undone by being in those situations. That was a lot of how I wanted to tell my stories.
A.D. Amorosi: Because—and here’s your other strength—they are vulnerable. So many crime writers pen characters who are unflappable. Yours are not. They are not the cool, poetic characters of Elmore Leonard. Your characters are trimmed to the bone. What can you tell me about creating Dope Thief characters—are they real? Are they exploded myth?
Dennis Tafoya: Theresa is my grandmother’s name, and she was a take-no-shit, tough woman. That came straight from my life. Ray and Mannie were tangentially based on people I ran into. There was this guy when I worked in kitchens as a pot watcher and doing short orders, he delivered pizzas from this place, Roman’s. He was in my head, drove muscle cars, and was marginally employed, so you knew he was up to other stuff. Other people I knew had stories too. My brother-in-law at the time was a corrections officer in Bucks at the prison, and he always had great stories. My uncle knew many wild
A.D. Amorosi: Because being entertaining is a great part of the crime novel.
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South Philadelphia characters and introduced me to many of them. You get to recognize how these guys are with each other, how they talk and relate to each other.
A.D. Amorosi: I’m speaking to you from the heart of darkness that is South Philly’s Italian Market, so I can speak lovingly. When did you get the call that Apple TV+ and Ridley Scott wanted to put up Dope Thief?
Dennis Tafoya: That was wild. It was probably 2021, and they started filming in 2022. The book was already ten years old by that time. My agent, who is now my manager at CAA, Brooke Erlich, knew that they were looking for a crime book for Peter and put Dope Thief up for it. And I should say that Dope Thief had been optioned a few times previous to that. For people who are, in my world, mid-list crime writers, your book gets optioned, and it gets you a little bit of money, but it often goes nowhere. But it’s nice to speculate. This time, when it finally did happen, it felt right: they went directly into serious negotiations, and it was going forward very fast once it began—especially as Apple wanted people to get to work quickly. For a long time, I couldn’t really tell people either, except in vagaries to mention Ridley Scott and the guy who wrote The Batman. I must have sounded delusional. I was so glad when it became public knowledge and wasn’t just a malfunctioning of my weird brain.
A.D. Amorosi: What is your impression of what Peter Craig did to your book?
Dennis Tafoya: I knew it would be different, and it is different from what I wrote. The first episode, though, is right out of the book. Until the episode where the DEA agent gets on screen—that’s when it be-
comes greatly different. Many of its characters have different motivations and do a lot more. And I’m fine from that, straight from the beginning. It’s like a petty criminal’s life. I did not think that it would ever attract the likes of Ridley Scott and Apple TV. It had to be picked up by someone like Peter, who has a proven track record and knew how to make it bigger. He’s making a bigger, more explosive finale. I’m fine with it, and it’s fun to watch. The TV show is the TV show, and the book is the book. It’s just like that famous James M. Cain thing where
somebody asked him if the movies ruined his books—and he pointed to the bookshelf behind him and said, “Nope. There they are.”
A.D. Amorosi: Now that that literal chapter of Dope Thief is closed, what’s next?
Dennis Tafoya : It’s been such a surreal experience—especially being at the Dope Thief premiere at a theater in New York and seeing actors I love speaking my characters’ words and watching their mouths move. It’s fine for that Dope Thief experience, now, to drift off, and it lives its own life and l live mine. I’m working on something now that takes place in the 1940s about returning war veterans who get involved with violent robberies in the Southwest.
A.D. Amorosi: Not Southwest Philadelphia, either.
Dennis Tafoya: No. This one is a departure.
A.D. Amorosi: And the headline reads, “Dennis Tafoya gets out of the neighborhood.” n
I won’t waste your time with a big preamble save to say that May is a joyful month for gorgeous weather that gets stabbed in the neck by events dragging you and yours indoors. This is really the only good reason to still smoke and get outside for a cigarette break – the weather.
Breathe deep, yo. Here’s the best of May 2025.
The Hooters are playing The Met Philadelphia on May 17, and it is actually a crime in Pennsylvania and the writ of Josh Shapiro to not hype a Hooters show within state limits. So, it is decreed, so it is done. Besides, Rocking & Swing, the band’s newest album, is its most raw and righteous since Bazilian, Hyman and Co. started independently releasing their own records in 1983. So, it is decreed, so it is done.
The Met Philadelphia is also playing host to Ezra Koenig and Vampire Weekend later in May for two nights on the heels of its 2024 new album Only God Was Above Us. If you’re looking for chamber art pop as smart as the likes of XTC in its prime, but need a yacht rock edge: Vampire Weekend, That’s the call.
Running now through May 18, Pennsylvania Quakers never looked as if they were having as much spirited fun or rousing righteousness as they will in the new play through the Quintessence Theatre Group (Quintessence) titled The Return of Benjamin Lay. Written by playwright, screenwriter and poet Naomi Wallace and University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History, Marcus Rediker, the one-man show from actor Mark Povinelli takes into account the true story of an 18th-century Quaker man, born a little person in Copford, England, who settled in Abington, rowdily fought as an activist revolutionary who advocated for the abolition of slavery in colonial America. Huzzah.
Also, huzzah, and also until May 18, is Norristown’s Theatre Horizon’s shot at premiering a newly penned musical, Penelope, by locals Alex Bechtel, Grace McLean, and Eva Steinmetz. A co-production with the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Penelope has played to rave reviews in D.C., for Rachel Camp’s singing drinking shot at the title role, a woman waiting for her husband, Odysseus, to return from a decade-long war, to the accompaniment of chamber folk melodies and orchestration, and what the team calls a “wit drier than your favorite martini.” You had me at ‘martini.’
From May 23 through 25, Adele Givens is performing her stand up show at Helium Comedy Club in the Rittenhouse area. I don’t know what her stand up is like but if she’s half as good on that stage as she has been as part of Black television comedy’s top tier series such as The Parkers, The Hugleys , Moesha and The Steve Harvey Show, this gig’s three night, six show run will be amazing. Plus, she was in on the sample for Kanye West’s last good track before he went full on Nazi, “I Love That.” Go for it.
Did you know that the Banners of Liberty: an Exhibition of Original Revolutionary War Flags at the Museum of the American Revolution features the work of colonial stitch witches like Betsy Ross and Rebecca Flower? I didn’t even know who Young was until I did the heavy duty reading—she was like the Laura Ashley of the Revolutionary War era. These flags and banners were carried by Revolutionary soldiers and militiamen, with only these 30 totems being known to have survived. I’ll raise a flag and go if you will.
Stadium music season starts in May with the thrashy trashy sounds of Metallica taking over Lincoln Financial Field on May 23 and 25, and the country hip hop roll of Post Malone and Jelly Roll at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday, May 24. But, sandwiched by Malone and Metallica is…… Barry Manilow doing his retirement tour showcase at Wells Fargo Center on May 24. This doesn’t end well for one of these acts. n
A.D. Amorosi is a Los Angeles Press Club National Art and Entertainment Journalism award-winning journalist and national public radio host and producer (WPPM.org’s Theater in the Round) married to a garden-to-table cooking instructor + award-winning gardener, Reese, and father to dog-daughter Tia.
Adolescence (Dir. Philip Barantini). Starring: Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty. Netflix’s latest sensation is a four-episode limited series thought up by co-creators Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne as a response to the recent spate of knifings in UK schools, many of them traceable in abstract to malign manosphere influencers like Andrew Tate. Graham himself plays Stephen Miller, father to the teenage accused, Jamie (newcomer Owen Cooper). The conceit of the series, directed by Philip Barantini, who previously collaborated with Graham on the feature Boiling Point, is that each near-hour-long episode is filmed in a single take, no digital trickery involved. It doesn’t come off as a gimmick, though nor does it elevate material that, well-performed as it is (particularly the third installment in which Jamie faces off with a psychologist played by Erin Doherty), still has the dour and dutiful air of a PSA about it. That Adolescence is now being used as a Keir Starmer-approved teaching tool in UK schools paradoxically diminishes its artistry. [N/R] HHH
G20 (Dir. Patricia Riggen). Starring: Viola Davis, Anthony Anderson, Antony Starr. Given the political state of things in America, G20 feels like a pulp fiction dispatch from another dimension. Viola Davis plays the President of the United States, Danielle Sutton, blessed with a doting husband (Anthony Anderson), and cursed with a rebellious teen daughter (Marsai Martin) who stretches the Secret Service to its limits. Bonds are further tested when the first family visits the G20 summit, which is overtaken by terrorists straight from the Die Hard casting couch. Fortunately, President Sutton knows her way around both heavy artillery and close combat! Davis of course gives her all to this claptrap, and it’s hard to temper the lizard-brain thrills of seeing a black female chief of state bring a group of entitled, belligerent mostly white men to their knees. This is still a primal fantasy done evidently on the cheap (or at least the willfully, derivatively shoddy), so the pleasures are at best fleeting. [R] HH
Keith Uhlich is a NY-based writer published at Slant Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out New York, and ICON. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. His personal website is (All (Parentheses)), accessible at keithuhlich.substack.com.
Sinners (Dir. Ryan Coogler). Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Delroy Lindo. Black Panther’s Ryan Coogler leaves the Marvel-verse behind (somewhat) with this sprawling original horror film set mostly in the Jim Crow south. Michael B. Jordan stars in the dual roles of Smoke and Stack, twin brothers who open a juke joint that soon becomes a target for the vampiric undead (Jack O’Connell plays the Irish bloodsucker who leads the group). It takes a good hour for the supernatural elements to arise. Much of the movie is initially given over to what the kids and their puppet-mastering corporate overlords call “world-building,” as Smoke and Stack promote the joint’s grand opening and assemble a team of musicians, among them preacher’s son Sammie (Miles Caton), who proves to be the story’s secondary protagonist. Shot partially on IMAX cameras, the film unfortunately tends to the pedestrian visually, with a few notable exceptions (a long tracking shot in which Sammie’s singing brings forth the spirits of music-makers both long-gone and still-to-be is particularly inspired). Coogler nonetheless seems to have absorbed too much of the wearying Marvel Studios maximalism in his approach to a tale that would benefit from much leaner, meaner methods. [R] HH1/2
Warfare (Dirs. Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza). Starring: D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Charles Melton. The actual memories of an Iraqdeployed team of Navy SEALs form the basis for the latest feature by Alex Garland (Civil War), which he co-directed alongside SEAL veteran Ray Mendoza. In what is effectively real-time, a platoon of young American soldiers initially goes through the military motions before Iraqi rebels attack. The servicemen are quickly trapped under fire in the house they themselves violently commandeered. Most war films have a heroizing effect on the events they portray; one can’t help but feel sympathy for the people under siege and see their distant attackers (in this case a bunch of glaring, brown-skinned men) as villains. There is something equivocal about the tone of Warfare, though, and it tempers the genre’s baked-in othering and racism in some interesting ways. The combat scenes are likewise expertly constructed and emphatically ugly, the opposite of fun and (war)games. Yet the movie still feels like a toss-off, an exercise—sound and fury amounting to the proverbial nada. [N/R] HH1/2 n
Autumn Leaves (1956, Robert Aldrich, United States)
This exceptional melodrama stars the great Joan Crawford as Millicent Wetherby, a lonely middle-aged typist who has a chance encounter with a much younger veteran played by Cliff Robertson. Romance blossoms and marriage results, but then the real challenges begin: an ex-wife (Vera Miles), a tyrannical father (Lorne Greene), and extreme mental illness all threaten to tear this May-December couple apart. Crawford brings an Old Hollywood professionalism that beautifully complements Robertson’s more spontaneous Method stylings, and director Robert Aldrich (a man’sman type who nonetheless proved himself adept at a variety of genres) makes the heightened emotions and bittersweet romanticism into a strangely profound brew. He would later reteam with Crawford on the even wilder What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, acting as buffer between her and rival Bette Davis. (Streaming on Tubi.)
Chimes at Midnight (1965, Orson Welles, Spain/Switzerland/France)
As with many Orson Welles movies, his free adaptation of several of William Shakespeare’s Henriad plays has taken the long route to appreciation. A piecemeal production, monetary and technical troubles, and the longstanding accepted wisdom that Welles was a wunderkind who fell hard and never recovered post-Citizen Kane are just a few of the things that plagued Chimes at Midnight. Seen today in restored form it is one of his clear masterpieces. The narrative is rejiggered to make the corpulent Sir John Falstaff (Welles) the central tragic figure, around which orbits the descent of Henry IV (John Gielgud) and the rise of Henry V (Keith Baxter), the latter of whom Falstaff knows as unruly drinking companion Prince Hal. It goes without saying that Welles and his cast know their way around Shakespearean iambs. What distinguishes Chimes are the inimitable ways in which the imagery lives and breathes, particularly in a lengthy battle scene that seems to invent, moment by moment, a new language for onscreen chaos and carnage. This is the opposite of so many staid cinematic adaptations of the Bard. There’s blood pumping through every vital frame. (Streaming on Criterion.)
Come Drink With Me (1966, King Hu, Hong Kong)
One of the most popular and beloved wuxia films, King Hu’s martial arts adventure begins with the kidnapping of a governor’s son by bandits. Sent to resolve the conflict is “Golden Swallow” (Chang Pei-pei), the kidnap victim’s sister. Initially disguised as a man, she infiltrates the gang and engages in several brilliantly staged bouts with them. She also meets a mysterious drunken stranger who is in pursuit of a rogue Buddhist abbot who can control at least some of the natural elements. This is a packed 91 minutes with plenty of gravity-defying punches and kicks, not to mention out-of-nowhere musical numbers (featuring an itinerant band of children) and a general genre-upending ethos that keeps you on your toes from scene to scene. By the time one of the antagonists is blowing literal wind from his palms while hopping grasshopper-like across a pond, you may feel like you’ve watching several cinematic wheels being reinvented in realtime. (Streaming on Criterion.)
Top Secret! (1984, Jim Abrahams/David Zucker/Jerry Zucker, United Kingdom/United States)
With the recent loss of actor Val Kilmer, there’s no better time to revisit his gut-busting debut, the less-lauded, though equally hilarious followup by the trio of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker to their blockbuster parody Airplane! (1980). Elvis Presley quickies and WWII movies are the primary targets for this uber-ridiculous spy thriller in which American rocker Nick Rivers (Kilmer) gets entangled in a German espionage plot. There’s a pretty girl, of course—Lucy Gutteridge’s resistance fighter Hillary Flammond—and guffaw-inducing jokes galore (best in show being a backward-forward sequence featuring a literally giant-eyed Peter Cushing). But the movie works as well as it does because of Kilmer and his up-for-anything charisma. He somehow manages to be winkingly knowing and ingratiatingly naive simultaneously, and the talent he would display across a wide variety of future projects is blazingly apparent here. (Streaming on Prime.) n
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5
for a subject, so I went into Stockton, which is just down the hill and across the bridge. I drove south on 29, turned around in the old school parking lot, went back through town to the red-door building at the fork (the old Shuck’s Garage), and turned around again. I was looking for my typical subject: that thing that says “This place,” which we’ve seen so many times that it disappears. This view appealed to my sense of occasion.
On the right is Hendrick's Appliance, and on the other side is the Stockton Inn. The relationship is emblematic of how things are going in the towns along the river.
We’ve recently come under the gaze of the New York Times in an article describing this area as the new Hamptons because a few “celebrities” have moved here. Celebrities have always been here. A major American Art Movement happened here. A big chunk of the American songbook happened here. Creative people who found homogenization suffocating gravitated here and made extraordinary things happen.
A local magazine published a more measured article, examining the gulf between those who consider the recent growth and changes positive and those bemoaning the loss of a special time and place. The piece quoted a real estate agent saying the town needed a facelift. Some don’t see how the townhouses, megahomes, and a building with the charm of a cruise ship have made things look better. The loss of river view is upsetting, homogenization is still suffocating, and not all facelifts are good facelifts.
The Stockton Inn is fresh from its own cosmetic surgery, removing and updating much of the historic eminence. The funky-but-ours murals are gone, and it has been reimagined as an elegant escape for the “modern guest.” There is a separateness, now.
Across the street, Hendrick’s Appliance has provided the same multi-generational, roll-up-your-sleeves service to the community that Finkle’s Hardware did in Lambertville, before that closed this year.
For as long as I’ve been around, discarded appliances have been lined up alongside Hendrick’s to be picked up for disposal at the end of the week. That’s part of the town’s identity and grit. Modern guests might have to walk past a couple of old refrigerators and stoves on their way to their Mushroom Sformato and Pan-Roasted Hiramasa. Locals are holding their breath to see how that’s going to work.
But that’s not why I pulled over. I painted the scene because it was uniquely Stockton, and of questionable permanence.
One challenge of painting Hendrick’s sidewalk is that it is constantly recasting. Trucks will take appliances away for installation, then return with those relieved of duty. Or they will be off to a repair. They park with their wheels on the curb to keep out of traffic as much as possible, or maybe they don’t because there’s a tree in the way. Spring days are short and time is compressed, so what you see in front of you changes minute by minute. If the artist doesn’t take that into account, they start chasing their tail, and the painting loses its sense of moment.
The relationships are essential. I quickly sketched in the truck that was there when I arrived in case it left, noting the values and colors. Then I marked all the shadow positions in the scene, locking those relationships in place. Meanwhile, that truck did leave, and a different one took its spot. When I had time later in the process, I worked on that first one from memory. The shadows continued lengthening and sweeping clockwise, but I kept to the positions I had noted at the start. When I was done, the side of the Inn and its new parking lot gleamed in full sunlight. The workers at Hendrick’s were getting ready to leave for home. I had what I was looking for: a depiction of Stockton as it feels for the people who live here, that sense of place. n
A Dionysian megalograph newly discovered in Pompeii shares similarities with the Villa of the Mysteries. Researchers determined that the Mosasaurus fossil purportedly unearthed by workers at the Sidi Chennane phosphate mines was likely a fake. Records describing the dangers of a new nuclear-waste repository will be printed on ceramic tablets and placed in an old salt mine in an Austrian mountain. Fish and mollusks were prevalent in the funerary practices of Ur. The mummy of the Mysterious Lady was not pregnant, and Egyptian mummies smell spicy, sweet, and woody. Rats can distinguish between Riesling and sauvignon blanc. Male mice born later than their siblings appear to exhibit an increased likelihood of homosexual behavior that echoes the fraternal birth-order effect seen among men. Butterfly populations in the United States declined by a fifth in the first two decades of this century, and the number of unprovoked shark attacks fell steeply last year. Astronauts’ immune systems may benefit from a dirtier International Space Station. Air pollution and biothermal stress may be lengthening human pregnancies, and between 2016 and 2024, the brains of dead humans exhibited a 50 percent increase in microplastic levels. Danes with higher sperm counts live longer. A man presented to a Vietnamese hospital with cellulitis from a child bite.
lA literature review enumerated cases of envenomation by dead snakes, including those of a Chinese chef killed by the severed head of a spitting cobra, a child in Minnesota injured by a freezedried prairie- rattlesnake head worn as a tie tack, and two drunk Indians hospitalized after they chewed on the head of a dead krait. Melanism in snakes follows Gloger’s rule. A limited overlap in niches enables the coexistence of multiple snake species on Sado Island. Women with borderline personality disorder are roughly twice as likely to practice BDSM as those without. Polish doctors urged further investigation into compulsive frotteurs. A direct correlation was detected between the level of sexual excitement in those with paraphilic interests and the tendency to act on those interests. Male Turkana warriors with and without apparent PTSD have the same levels of cortisol, but those with PTSD wake up with lower testosterone levels.
lChemists grew gold in total darkness. Microarousals are necessary for healthy sleep. Dormancy may have been essential for the persistence of life on Earth. The selection of species for de-extinction appears to be biased by candidate animals’ charisma and capacity to fascinate humans. Having unveiled its woolly mice, an American startup promised to reintroduce woolly mammoths by the end of 2028. In India, a drunk elephant attacked a watchtower, while in China the supply of humanoid robots struggled to keep pace with rental demand. Scottish hen parties were deemed to contain ritualistic profanation. Drunk Britons were judged to make bad eyewitnesses. Regret is stronger when one goes against one’s instincts. Americans with open personalities are less likely to express end-of-life regret about how much they spent on food, whereas agreeable people are disposed to regret spending money on food, clothing, leisure, and financial help to others. Five zebra fish per liter of tank water can be collectively euthanized by electric shock. Pet-shop tanks are usually too small for Siamese fighting fish.
% of Americans who consider Canada a U.S. ally: 82
% of Canadians who consider the United States a Canadian ally: 33
Portion of Americans who say that the U.S. should “take control of” Canada: 1/4
Portion of Canadians who say that California, Oregon, and Washington should “become part of” Canada: 1/3
% increase in sales of the Canadian flag by Flags Unlimited: 100
Salary cut a Democrat would take in order to have an employer with liberal views: $1,700
That a Republican would take in order not to have a liberal employer: $1,600
% of Americans whose sympathies lay more with Palestinians than with Israelis in 2013: 12
Now: 33
Estimated % of U.N. press releases that were generated by AI last year: 14
Of corporate press releases: 24
% by which customers rate more highly customer-service calls that use AI to “standardize” accents: 22
Est. min. amount generated by Cambodia’s scam industry last year: $12,500,000,000
Ratio of this amount to the country’s official GDP: 1:2
Minimum number of Fortune 100 CEOs who have frozen their sperm: 33
Estimated average cost, per milliliter, of commercially donated sperm: $6,000
Portion of men who report having at least seven orgasms per week: 1/4
Of women: 1/50
% change in Americans who identified as Christian from 2007 to 2022: −23
From 2022 to today: +5
% of Americans who pray who do so in a place of worship: 46
Who do so in their car: 61
Ratio of parking spots to cars in New York City: 3:2
Of bicycle parking spots to bicycles: 1:46
% of apartment rentals in Brooklyn last year for which there was a bidding war: 27
Chance that an American changed addresses in any given year in the 1960s: 1 in 5
In 2023: 1 in 8
Rank of Florida among the states that Americans say they would most like to move to: 1
Rank of California: 2
% of buildings in California constructed in the 1920s that are in high-risk fire areas today: 28
Of those constructed since 2020: 80
Portion of the contiguous U.S. in which mosquito season is longer now than it was in 1979: 3/4
Average number of days by which mosquito season is now longer there: 17
Factor by which the number of days that American schools are closed because of extreme heat has increased since 2019: 2
% change since 2000 in U.S. kindergarten & preschool teachers who are men: +129 In the portion of U.S. registered nurses who are men: +83
Chance that an American believes they have a penicillin allergy: 1 in 10
Maximum chance that an American does have a penicillin allergy: 1 in 100
Portion of Americans with chronic kidney disease who are unaware of it: 9/10
Percentage of Americans aged 25 to 34 who consider themselves middle-aged: 21
SOURCES: 1–4 YouGov (NYC); 5 Flags Unlimited Corporation (Barrie, Ontario); 6,7 Sahil Chinoy (Cambridge, Mass.); 8,9 Gallup (NYC); 10,11 Weixin Liang (Stanford, Calif.); 12 Sanas (Palo Alto, Calif.); 13,14 United States Institute of Peace (Washington); 15 Legacy (NYC); 16 Fertility Center of California (San Diego); 17,18 Enya Levaque (Ottawa, Ontario); 19,20 Pew Research Center (Washington); 21,22 City Square Associates (Cambridge, Mass.); 23,24 Transportation Alternatives (NYC); 25 Douglas Elliman (NYC); 26,27 U.S. Census Bureau (Suitland, Md.); 28,29 moveBuddha (Athens, Ga.); 30,31 ClimateCheck (San Francisco); 32,33 Climate Central (Princeton, N.J.); 34 Paul Chinowsky, University of Colorado Boulder; 35,36 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; 37,38 Kimberly G. Blumenthal, Harvard Medical School (Boston); 39 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta); 40 Horizon Media (NYC).
BY EVAN BIRNHOLZ
Animals have odd group names like a murder of crows and a raft of otters. Why can’t humans get odd group names of their own?
ACROSS
1 Bit of birthday mail
5 Get regular or premium, say
10 “Frozen” character with magical powers
14 Like YouTube’s content library
18 Ride-hailing service
19 Muse of love poetry
20 “The French Dispatch” co-star Swinton
22 American home of Lima
23 Furniture-based group name for MLB legend Pete and model/actress Ruby?
25 Prettify
26 Potato ___ soup
27 Descriptor for an order that protects investors
28 Easter ___ hunt
30 Centrally located, like Indianapolis in Indiana
32 “On the ___ hand ...”
33 Regal group name for comedian David and fashion designer Kate?
35 Capital where you’ll find Qixing Mountain
39 Glow up?
40 Amos whose songs inspired “Comic Book Tattoo”
41 Ye ___ Tavern
42 “Lisa” preceder in art
44 Film spool
46 Pleasant scent
50 Competitive name for singer-songwriter Carole and author Stephen?
53 “Kiss Me, Kate” song with the lyric “For husbands are a boring lot and only give you bother”
56 Some smart TVs
57 Grow dim
58 Business agreements
59 Nickname that leaves out “han” or “alie”
60 Part of an udder
62 Referee’s item
65 Politician’s assistant
66 Shameful group name for poet Adrienne and jazz drummer Buddy?
72 Dispense from a bottle
73 Deer horns
74 Duo + 32 Across
75 Frozen over
76 Book of secrets, maybe
77 The Bard’s “And you?”
81 Available, as lager
84 Fast casual chain named for a jalapeño
86 Metropolitan group name for magician Criss and actress Vanessa?
89 Symbolic figure of a nontheistic temple
90 Member of the working class
92 Meet space
93 Society’s problems
94 Subject of Indian music theory
97 Krauss who sings with the band Union Station
99 Cared for a calico, say
101 Committee-based group name for outfielder Aaron and animator Mike?
105 “Help me, fellow telegrapher!”
106 Unbooked slot
107 Accessory mentioned in Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay “Notes on ‘Camp’”
108 Where Haile Selassie ruled as emperor
113 Sad notice, briefly
114 Goal of a treaty
116 Rule-based group name for actor Jude and cornerback Ty?
118 Madden, with “up”
119 Muppet who’s fond of his Rubber Duckie
120 NBA star who created the music festival Shaq’s Fun House
121 Each
122 Auctioneer’s declaration
123 Blacken the surface of
124 Think tank employees
125 Bowl game attendees
1 2016 World Series champions
2 Drive the robbers’ getaway car, e.g.
3 Second chance
4 ___ the ball (mess up)
5 19th-century medicine man and raider
6 Surfaced
7 Teen’s ’tude
8 People for whom a Western state is named
9 Phony
10 Knickknack displayers
11 Tupperware topper
12 NFL replay effect
13 Floating aimlessly
14 “Artémire” playwright
15 Up by a touchdown, say
16 This clue number minus nueve
17 Puffs from a joint
21 “As a result ...”
24 Arctic formation
29 Solti with a baton
31 Jack and Jack’s wife of a nursery rhyme
33 “Dragonheart” actor Dennis
34 Not, to a Scot
35 Casual fling
36 Brand of dog treats
37 “There’s no way that can be true”
38 Annually
39 “You Are My Destiny” singer Paul
43 Hot ___ the press
45 Not be straight with
47 Resort chain once owned by Aer Lingus
48 General at Gettysburg
49 Starting stakes
51 Slavic monarch, once
52 Identity following a journey of self-discovery, perhaps
54 What each party gets in a 50-50 split
55 “Red” warning, perhaps
58 “Spring forward” hrs.
61 Blue eye color, e.g.
63 “Talk to ___” (India.Arie song)
64 Cartographic close-up
65 Nailing a test
66 Cinematic spectacles
67 Drink with chocolate syrup
68 Obsessive about trivial details
69 Reason to get a throat culture
70 Guileful
71 ___ Throne (seat of power in Westeros)
76 Glover whose musical stage name is Childish Gambino
78 Means of making money from honey and cash from hash?
79 Pinky or the Brain, e.g.
80 Roswell craft, allegedly
82 Penne ___ vodka
83 Vowelless summons
85 Brought up
86 Chilled brewski
87 Mandy’s swordsman role in “The Princess Bride”
88 Compounds used in drinks and fuels
91 ___ de parfum
95 Blow a gasket
96 Dessert, in London
98 Bovine nickname for a manatee or a dugong
100 “Dream on!”
101 The P of S&P
102 High school sci. class
103 Oscar-winning makeup artist Ve ___
104 Astrologer Dixon
105 Rib eye, e.g.
108 Genesis garden
109 Snowman built by 10 Across
110 “Proud” family guy
111 “Got the best of you!”
112 Egyptian cobras
115 World Factbook org.
117 “Eyeblink” artist Yoko
