Philadelphia City Paper, September 24th, 2015

The T Th e Fabric Workshop and Museum

P H I L A D E L P H I A

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Philadelphia’s center stage shines every Wednesday afternoon with a showcase of performing arts.

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IN THIS ISSUE ‌

Philadelphia’s Beer Authority

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OVER 1000 AMERICAN CRAFTS AND 500 IMPORTS

p. 10

DANCING TO THE VATICAN RAG WELL, HERE WE a re w i t h a w o r l d event this weekend right here in Pope City. Unless you’re a dope, or you’ve been in a coma for the last six months, you know what you’ve got to do — get outta town or hunker down. In this week’s Penn & Ink, cartoonist Eamon Dougherty creates a special song. Everyone get down for ‘Pope It Up!’ Dougherty is a Philly cartoonist born and bred who draws his best cartoons in bars.You can follow him on Instagram at eamonbdoc.

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Contributors Sam Adams, Dotun Akintoye, A.D. Amorosi, Rodney Anonymous, Mary Armstrong, Bryan Bierman, Shaun Brady, Peter Burwasser, Mark Cofta, Adam Erace, David Anthony Fox, Caitlin Goodman, K. Ross Hoffman, Jon Hurdle, Deni Kasrel, Alli Katz, Gary M. Kramer, Josh Kruger, Drew Lazor, Alex Marcus, Gair “Dev 79� Marking, Robert McCormick, Andrew Milner, John Morrison, Michael Pelusi, Natalie Pompilio, Sameer Rao, Jim Saksa, Elliott Sharp, Marc Snitzer, Nikki Volpicelli, Brian Wilensky, Andrew Zaleski, Julie Zeglen.

Production Director Dennis Crowley Senior Designer/Social Media Director Jenni Betz Graphic Designer Megan Milburn Contributing Photographers Jessica Kourkounis, Charles Mostoller, Hillary Petrozziello, Maria S. Young, Neal Santos, Mark Stehle U.S. Circulation Director Joseph Lauletta (ext. 239) Account Managers Sharon MacWilliams (ext. 262), Russell Marsh (ext. 260), Susanna Simon (ext. 250) Classified Account Manager Jennifer Fisher (215-717-2681) Editor Emeritus Bruce Schimmel founded City Paper in a Germantown storefront in November 1981. Local philanthropist Milton L. Rock purchased the paper in 1996 and published it until August 2014 when Metro US became the paper’s third owner.

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THE BELL CURVE +1

+1

Philadelphia Media Network denies asking employees to bring air mattresses to sleep on at the office during the pope’s visit. In fact, employees were encouraged to sleep on each other to breed bloggers.

+1

The city of Phil a del phia unveils an official Instagram account. The City Controller’s Office immediately unveils its own Instagram, calls City Hall’s account wasteful, and uploads 3,500 images of Butko frowning at a cat that looks like Mayor Nutter.

0

The state Supreme Court suspends state Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s license to practice law. “Well, at least I’m still a general,” she says.

+2

Artist Robert Indiana unveils his Amor statue, in the style of his Love statue, on the Art Museum steps. “Kind of in a rut,” he admits.

Some religious leaders say they were inspired by the pope to lobby Gov. Tom Wolf to ban fracking.

“Also, the baptismal font kept catching fire and several parishioners said that sent mixed signals.”

G AG E SK ID M O RE

0

+2

A former “bait dog” named Sweet Pea, which was found in a Camden dump, is being nursed back to health and trained by prisoners to pass its Canine Good Citizen test.

“They also hide pills and cell phones in my anus,” says Sweet Pea.

WAVVES

QUICK PICKS

more picks on p. 24

Wavves

Once merely Nathan Williams’ solo project, Wavves is now a fully realized punk/surf-pop four piece, in clud ing two mem bers of the late Jay Reatard’s band. By the end of 2015, they will have released two full-lengths this year: Their collaboration with Cloud Nothings, No Life For Me, dropped in June, while their fifth studio album, V, is scheduled to arrive in October. 9/30, TLA, lnphilly.com.

—Cynthia Schemmer

Pope Francis, popular frontman for the Roman Catholic Church, comes to town for a mini-residency this weekend. His schedule includes gigs at Independence Hall and the Parkway, plus a few meet-and-greets with fans and prisoners. Here’s hoping His Holiness dusts off some classics from the papal songbook like “Feed the Hungry” and “Let He Who Is Without Sin Cast the First Stone.”

They’re not too popular right now, but old-head Christians used to know all the words. 9/26-27, various locations, visitphilly.com/ popes-visit-world-meetingof-families-2015.

—Patrick Rapa

GREX Filipino-American guitarist Karl Evangelista can slide fluidly between tones, evoking the bent-wire electricity of Fred Frith one moment and the overdriven jazz skronk of Sonny Sharrock the next, and mining a wealth of territory in between. In Grex, his trio with keyboardist/vocalist M. Rei Scam pvia and drum mer Robert Lopez, those ideas collide with scraps of song in a prog-pop/free-jazz collage. 9/24, Aux Performance Space at Vox Populi Gallery, museumfire.com/ events. —Shaun Brady

Grex

L: BY KATERINA EVANGELISTA R: MYLES PET TENGILL

THE POPE

UPenn students start a Penn for Trump group in support of the Penn alum. Trump expressed his support for the group, calling them “white.”

ALEXANDRA GAVILLET

THIS WEEK ’S TOTAL: +7 // THE YEAR SO FAR: -10

OUR WEEKLY QUALITY-OF-LIFE-O-METER

FIDLAR That name’s an acronym for “Fuck It, Dog, Life’s A Risk,” so it’s no wonder these L.A. punks sound as lo-fi as an empty rolling around in the back of a van. Their hit songs, like “Cheap Beer” and “No Waves,” conjure bad trips, bingeing, toodrunk-to-stop-now drug use and the kind of general partying that leaves your nasty skate sneakers smelling like whiskey and cheese pizza the next morning. Yeah, Friday will be a rough one … but fuck it, dog. 9/24 Union Transfer, utphilly. com. —Nikki Volpicelli MIKAL CRONIN There’s no denying Mikal Cronin is from California — his garage pop sounds like summer even in the bleakest months. In the past, Cronin has played withTy Segall and John Dwyer ofThee Oh Sees, but his solo music is where he shines via personal lyrics and intricate arrangements.

He arranged and played most of MCIII, released by Merge Records in May, all by himself. 9/27, Johnny

Brenda’s, johnnybrendas. com.—Cynthia Schemmer

Mikal Cronin

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THENAKEDCITY

NEWS // OPINION // POLI T ICS

EYES FORWARD: The Unique Miracles dance team has been practicing on the sidewalk since it lost its home at a school in the summer 2014.

Come October, the group will be getting a new space at Metropolitan Baptist Church.

HILLARY PETROZZIELLO

NEIGHBORHOODS

BY CASSIE OWENS

THE MIRACLE TEAM FROM MANTUA

After losing its snare drums in the summer of 2014, a Mantua drill team transformed itself into a dance team. And kept taking home the trophies.

ODESSA MITCHELL CAREFULLY places the tops of drums and the screws used to hold them in place on the patio table of her Mantua home, all the while keeping an eye on her great-grandson and greatgranddaughter who are playing nearby. She turns her attention to her granddaughter, Nache Phillips, and patiently explains how to put the drum parts together right.

It seems like an awkward time for an interview, but she tells me she can talk as she works. Mitchell or Mrs. O, as she’s commonly known, has mentored kids on her neighborhood’s drill teams for almost two decades.

At first, she was just helping out — another granddaughter saw the local drill team Showtime performing and wanted to be a part. So they got

involved, her granddaughter became a marcher, and through assisting, Mrs. O learned the ropes of running a squad. By about 1997, she knew enough to be a director. She spent a decade leading Showtime, and then it folded.

“I decided I wanted to continue to work with youth,” she explains. “I continued to do it on my own.” She bounced some possible names off her family. Unique Miracles had a ring to it.

For the last eight years, the Unique Miracles have been marching and competing. The team welcomes youth from age “4 until they get tired,” and currently has about 20 marchers.

The team had been without a home and practicing on the sidewalk for a little more than a year, but found out

last week that a new space will be open to them at Metropolitan Baptist Church come October.

Neighbors tell me that almost everybody around the way knows Mrs. O. In 2010, the H.U.B. Coalition, a Mantuabased nonprofit, gave her an award for her contribution to the community.

Joseph Walker, president of the H.U.B. Coalition and commissioner of its youth basketball league, says the neighborhood doesn’t have enough youth programs, something that makes Mrs. O’s work even more special.

“Mrs. O has been a great inspiration to me,” says Walker, 59. “Most of the time, I feel like giving up what I’m doing with my basketball league, different things that I’m doing, and I look at her. She’s [71] and still has the energy to keep going.”

She doesn’t have a count on how many young people she’s mentored in the 18 years that she’s worked with drill teams, but she figures it’s more than 150. Trophies? That’s somewhere past 100, too.

Her daughter, Almetta “Butter” Harris, goes inside the house and returns with the most recent one, first place for best dance team at the American Marching Association’s National Championship, which the team won in June. Competing as a dance team, rather than a category that would require a full percussion squad, was how the Unique Miracles adapted and kept going after their drums were stolen, Mrs. O says.

“I went away in June of last year for a month. We had been practicing in Belmont School.When we came back [to the school] our drums were stolen, and we were informed we couldn’t practice there anymore,” she says.

(Tony Dover, assistant director of community engagement at Belmont Charter School, disputed this story and said he knows nothing of stolen drums.

Aisha Royal, a secretary there, said she had indeed heard about the theft, but later said she didn’t know.)

Depending on the size, good quality marching snares can run from $350 to $550 each. All four were stolen.

“We’ll never have them all back,

because the drums that they stole were snares. Snares are the drums that everybody dies to play. They have distinguished beat,” Mrs. O says.

While the Unique Miracles struggled to find a new home, they’ve been practicing on the sidewalk by Mrs. O’s house.

They’ve limited the drummers’ practice to 30 minutes or less, and tried to be done with everything before 7 to avoid noise complaints from the neighbors.

Jerrilyn McGregory, a folklorist based at Florida State University, worked as a fieldworker for the Philadelphia Folklore Project from 1987 to 1990. During that time, she regularly attended parades across ethnicities and observed that Philly’s Black parades, in particular, always had a drill team.

Drill teams are descended from African dance forms that were carried on through slavery, then brewed into a mix of military, festival and stepping traditions in Black mutual-aid societies. These organizations, which began forming as early at the 18th century, were linchpins in urban Black communities. In Steppin’ on the Blues: The Visible Rhythms of African American Dance, Jacqui Malone recorded that

‘We’ll never have them all back, because the drums that they stole were snares. Snares are the drums that everybody dies to play.’

Philadelphia already had 106 mutualaid organizations by 1848. After emancipation, these numbers soared.

Societies like these, which were “a response to segregation,” would shrink with time, McGregory says, but their legacy had already been inherited by the two groups that make stepping most popular today: Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs) and drill teams.

Also passed down, McGregory says, were the benefits of accomplishing multiple missions at once: community outreach, leadership-building and reciprocity.

Mrs. O has mastered guiding the kids, but Harris says the team lives on her mother’s diligence and unseen personal sacrifice — pleas for sponsors to cover new outfits, watchful guidance on long rides on rented school buses with no air conditioning.

“I help her do her income taxes,” says Harris. “She put $24,000 into the kids

continued on p. 7

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continued f rom p. 6

THE MIRACLE TEAM FROM MANTUA

CLAP YOUR HANDS: Odessa Mitchell cheers on the Unique Miracles, including Daysha McIntosh, who is performing a dance step.

HILLARY PETROZZIELLO

last year alone. More than half of it came out of her pocket.”

The next day, at step practice, Mrs. O’s granddaughter, Nache, demonstrates a new move that she choreographed, but the girls aren’t quite getting it. Captain Daysha McIntosh, 12, steps up to learn it as the others watch, but the required swivel of hands confuses her some.

“Wash your windows, wash your windows,” Mrs. O translates the two arm motions. “Tires.

That’s better.Wash your windows, wash your tires.”

Daysha still isn’t completely there. “Be a lady,” Mrs. O advises, slowing to curl her fingers so the girls can see. “Like this.” Now Daysha has it.

Before, the Unique Miracles had a drum squad 10 deep. But now, they’ve got four in the drum core “if we’re lucky,” says Mrs. O. At a community step-off in mid-August, they marched with only two.

The girls are ready. For the exhibition, they begin a routine that melds step and dance, then

they stop. They raise their arms in salute.

“Judge!” they recite in unison. “May Unique Miracles, we the dancers, have your permission to pop, lock and drop it on your floor, please?”

“Permission granted,” responds the boy on the quad of drums.

“Thank you, Judge!” theyreplyinunison.And with that, the Unique Miracles dive into their routine. (editorial@citypaper. net)

Prostate Health Assessment Event The Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University and the Foundation for Breast & Prostate Health are offering free prostate screenings as part of a research program.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men. Screening is important because prostate cancer shows no symptoms in its earliest stages.

Many organizations recommend prostate health assessment as part of men’s healthcare.

Free screenings, including a blood test for prostate specific antigen (PSA), testosterone and cholesterol and a digital rectal exam, will take place at the following two locations: • Wednesday, September 30, 2015, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center – Bodine Building, 111 South 11th Street, Center City • Friday, October 16, 2015, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Jefferson at the Navy Yard – 3 Crescent Drive, Suite 100, South Philadelphia Registration is required. To register for your free screenings, or for more information, call 1-800-JEFF-NOW.

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SEPTEMBER 24 - SEPTEMBER 30, 2015 // CIT YPAPER.NET

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COMING

OCTOBER 22 To Advertise, call 215-717-2695 or email adsphilly@metro.us C I T Y PA P E R ’ S INSIDER’S GUIDE TO PHILADELPHIA 2015 - 2016

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TIFF REPORT

BY SAM ADAMS

JUST THE HITS

What passed the screen test at Toronto’s big film fest.

THERE ARE YEARS when a single movie takes ahold of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with such force that the rest of the festival seems to bend around it, as if warped by its gravity. And there are TIFFs like 2015’s, where, for all the great movies on display, nothing lands with quite the same impact. You could call it an off year, but when you’re choosing among more than 300 films from many of the world’s greatest directors, some of the blame has to lie with the person doing the picking.

Toronto had a few consensus hits: The Martian, an adaptation of Andy Weir’s engaging but amateurish novel, replaced workmanlike prose with movie-star charisma, as Matt Damon’s stranded astronaut gave the red planet a second sun. Spotlight, about the team of Boston Globe reporters who uncovered the Catholic Church’s cover-up of sexual abuse in the priesthood, was gripping despite, or maybe because of, its attention to the nuts and bolts of investigative journalism. (Never has the use of a ruler and a ballpoint pen been so thrilling.) Spotlight was a striking change of fortunes for director Tom McCarthy, whose Adam Sandler fable The Cobbler was roundly pummeled at last year’s TIFF: From festival goat to proclaimed Best Picture frontrunner in 365 short days.

The most startling of the festival’s official premieres was Charlie Kaufman and Duke John-

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Anomalisa

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son’s Anomalisa, which even in Toronto’s packed lineup had some viewers going back for seconds to further savor its uncanny atmosphere. Kaufman’s first movie in seven years (some of which he spent making a failed TV pilot for FX) is the story of a regret-riddled self-help author’s overnight in a lonely Cincinnati hotel.

Shooting in stop-motion an im ation — with fig ures whose fleshy textures deliberately trouble the un can ny val ley — Kaufman mines ex ist ent ial dread from the pro cess of nav ig at ing the inexplicable pictographs on a hotel-room phone. The sense of isolation his pro tag on ist (David Thewlis) feels is compounded by the fact that all the people he meets seem to look the same — and, in fact they are, all built on the same model of puppet and voiced, with precious little variation, by Tom Noonan. The only exception is a woman, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose name and significance are embedded in the title, who — well, to say more would be to provide bearings for a film that never wants you to find your balance. (Although sales were slow at this year’s festival, Para mount ac quired Anomalisa for distribution, with a release planned for the end of the year.)

Je r e m y S a u l n i e r ’s Green Room, which went over big with Toronto’s always-engaged Mid-

night Madness program audience, expands on the promise of his previous film Blue Ruin, which he admitted before the new premiere was a calculated mixture of art-house and genre designed to prevent him from being pigeonholed. With Green Room, he’s creating his own categ ories, mixing a gory siege thriller with a wellobserved portrait of the hardcore punk scene.

Toronto can be as much an en durance test as a temple of cinema, and with Green Room being my seventh film of the fes tiv al’s first day, the chances of a mid-film nap were better than even. That is, until the blood started flowing onscreen, at which point I was wide awake. Both funnier and darker than Blue Ruin, Green Room expands Saulnier’s palette in both directions, and if it’s a less controlled piece of work, it’s also a more viscerally thrilling one. I spent the rest of Toronto waiting for something to top it, and nothing did. (@samuelaadams) For more movies, see p. 22. | For more of Sam Adams’ TIFF coverage, see citypaper.net/movies.

Never has the use of a ruler and a ballpoint pen been so thrilling.

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PARODY

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C I T Y PA P E R . N ET

C I T Y PA P E R . N ET

CONSUMERISM:

‘THE DUNG OF THE DEVIL’ POPE FRANCIS HAS REPEATEDLY PREACHED AGAINST THE EVILS OF CONSUMERISM. IT’S WEIRD THAT WE’RE GREETING HIM WITH BOBBLEHEADS, RIGHT?

BY EMILY GUENDELSBERGER

I

was raised Catholic and spent a dozen years as a church musician, which is how I ended up checking the lectionary for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time for a preview of which Bible readings would figure into Pope Francis’ homily when he celebrates Mass on the Parkway. And ever since I realized what the second reading would be, I’ve been convinced Papa Francesco is about to drop some serious, controversial bombs. James 5:1-6 is one of those hardcore screw-the-rich New Testament passages — a lot less cute and cuddly than the plush dolls and bobbleheads being hawked around the pope’s historic visit:

“If one hears this, someone might think: ‘But a communist has said this!’” said Pope Francis in the last homily he delivered on this particular reading, in February 2014. “No, no, the apostle James said it! It is the Word of the Lord.”

Since he took office, Pope Francis has been preaching about the evils of consumerism and unbridled capitalism and their effects on worldwide poverty, climate change and spiritual malaise. Yet everywhere he goes, he’s greeted by a tsunami of disposable plastic shipped-from-Chinese-factories crap bearing his smiling face.

I liked the pope-merch entrepreneurs I interviewed for this piece. This isn’t meant to single them out as greedy or hypocritical, bad or stupid. In fact, they put a lot more time, effort and respect into their products than most. I picked them because their products

MARCO C AMPAGNA

were some of the most widely publicized in the media frenzy around the papal visit.

Still, it’s surreal to compare their (widely held) visions of Pope Francis as an adorable, inspirational consumer good with the unminced words the man has had to say about consumerism and capitalism — to contrast what he’s saying and what we’re hearing.

So: Let’s do that.

SPEECH, WORLD MEETING OF POPULAR MOVEMENTS IN BOLIVIA, 7/9/15 “[B]ehind all this pain, death and destruction there is the stench of what Basil of Caesarea called ‘the dung of the devil’. An unfettered pursuit of money rules.

The service of the common good is left behind. Once capital becomes an idol and guides people’s decisions, once greed for money presides over the entire socioeconomic system, it ruins society, it condemns and enslaves men and women, it destroys human fraternity, it sets people against one another and, as we clearly see, it even puts at risk our common home.”

PRESS CONFERENCE ON PLANE BACK FROM BOLIVIA, 7/12/15 Q: Your Holiness, one of the strongest messages of this trip was that the global economic system imposes a profit mentality at any cost, to the detriment of the poor. This is perceived by Americans as a direct criti-

cism of their system and their way of life. How do you respond to this perception, and what is your evaluation of the impact of the United States in the world?

A: What I said, that phrase, it’s not new. I said in [the apostolic letter] Evangelii Gaudium: This economy kills.

EVANGELII GAUDIUM (‘JOY OF THE GOSPEL’), 11/24/13 The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience. …

The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase. In the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.

MATTHEW HOFFMAN, PRESIDENT, BLEACHER CREATURES We developed a pope plush figure about a year ago.

We just did it because we thought he was cool, and we were inspired by him. Once it was announced that he was coming to Philadelphia, the World Meeting of Families got us in contact with their buyers so we could offer it on their official store. We announced it on Ash Wednesday, which got a lot of publicity, and it’s been amazing how people have reacted to it — from the press to people sending us pictures every day on social media, taking their pope plush different

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Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Your wealth has rotted away, your clothes have become moth-eaten, your gold and silver have corroded, and that corrosion will be a testimony against you; it will devour your flesh like a fire. You have stored up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages you withheld from the workers who harvested your fields are crying aloud; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on earth in luxury and pleasure; you have fattened your hearts for the day of slaughter. You have condemned; you have murdered the righteous one; he offers you no resistance.

C I T Y PA P E R . N ET

places and taking pictures. We love that we’re able to connect with people that way. … I don’t think anybody thought it would be as big as it is.

How many are you expecting to sell by the end of the pope’s visit?

We think in total it’ll be about 50,000 units.

Is there anything about the pope that made him particularly easy or hard to interpret as a plush doll?

He definitely has a distinct face and look that lends itself to being a cute plush figure. I don’t know if he was easier or harder to do than LeBron James or Scarlett Johansson. But we love the idea that we’ve built this universe where LeBron James and the Black Widow and the Pope can all hang out together.

What’s the deal with getting permission to use someone’s image?

We have agreements with Marvel and DC Comics, and the MLB and the NFL players’ associations. In those cases, we have licensing deals; they get a percentage of our sales. The pope is a public figure, but we’ve partnered with the World Meeting of Families to develop this, so we’ve worked with them since they’re the ones bringing the pope to the U.S. How have sales been?

Unbelievable. I mean, obviously there’s going to be a big spike when he’s here in a week and a half, but it’s the number one seller on our website.

Do you have any idea whether the pope has seen one of these, or what he or the Vatican thinks of them?

I don’t know if the pope’s seen one; we’ve had conversations with the Vatican because we do want to give some of the proceeds back to charity.

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What were those conversations like?

We told them we’d be interested in giving part of the proceeds to a particular Catholic charity that follows a cause that the pope has been preaching. The charity we reached out to said we needed permission from the Vatican, so we emailed back and forth asking for their blessing on it; I think they’re reviewing it. I think they’re pretty busy; we’re a pretty small fish compared with what they’re working on.

The pope’s said a lot about the evils of consumerism. What are your thoughts on that?

(Sighs.) Gosh, I don’t want to get too political, but I will say this — everything’s about balance. Capitalism has enabled many people that have been in poverty to get out of poverty. I think they say that worldwide, percentage-wise, the world is at its lowest poverty level in history, and I think a lot of that’s based on capitalism. … There can always be too much. But if commercialism satisfies people and can do good at the same time, that shouldn’t be frowned upon.

‘COME NOW, YOU RICH, WEEP AND WAIL OVER YOUR IMPENDING MISERIES.’

EVANGELII GAUDIUM, 11/24/13 No to the new idolatry of money We have created new idols. The worship of the ancient golden calf has returned in a new and ruthless guise in the idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy lacking a truly human purpose. The worldwide crisis affecting finance and the economy lays bare their imbalances and, above all, their lack of real concern for human beings; man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.

WARREN ROYAL, PRESIDENT OF ROYAL BOBBLES | BOBBLEHEAD POPE FRANCIS We have the Pope Francis bobblehead, the official version being sold by the [World Meeting of Families].

We do bobbleheads primarily of presidents, Founding Fathers, world figures … that’s our niche. We have a number of customers that are museum stores and airport gift shops, and back in 2013, when he was elected, we got approached by several saying, “We’d like for you to produce a Pope Francis bobblehead.”

What’s the process of getting permission to use a living public figure’s image?

We always try to get permission if we can. Private citizens may be represented by licensing agents, and we work with them to get permissions and pay royalties. For example, Albert Einstein and Martin Luther King are represented by their estates and have organizations that do that type of thing. With a world figure like a president or a pope, it’s not often possible, because they don’t really have organizational or administrative support for providing

permissions. With the pope, we tried to reach out, but there was really nobody whom we could contact.

The pope is a very busy guy, and doesn’t have time for stuff like this. (Laughs.) I’m sure he has much better things to do than to worry about bobbleheads.

So how do you proceed if a public figure doesn’t have licensing set up?

We do as much research as we can to make it as accurate as possible, and we always present the figure in a positive light. We’ve never had any figure complain. In fact, I got a letter from George Bush thanking me for his bobblehead. (Laughs.) He thought we did a really good job; we were really honored. We always try to do a really good job, and with the pope I think we did. It’s a really good likeness; it’s very respectful and traditional and accurate. We spent probably six to eight months on design to make sure we got all of the details just right, working with Catholic scholars here in the Atlanta area.

What were some of the details you discussed with Catholic scholars?

Well, the color and design and presentation of the robes, how the cross laid on his chest, that the cap that he wears is the right color and the right shape — with previous popes done by other bobblehead companies, I remember very loud criticism by the archdiocese that [the pope] doesn’t wear a red skullcap. I didn’t realize this, I’m not Catholic, but the Catholic folks explained to me that the colors are very important, and have very specific meanings.

There’s a particular shade of red that is used, it has to be a certain shade and tint of red, and that’s the color we chose for the base.

What sort of feedback have you gotten so far?

On Amazon.com, we’ve got around 35 reviews, and almost all of them are 5 stars. People talk about how they bought this pope product for a father in the hospital and he’s a very faithful Catholic, and this thing just means the world to him; it just sits there and he feels like he’s with the pope. People really have an emotional connection to this pope, and our product really connects with them.

Has this been a big seller so far?

Oh, yes, it’s been huge. We had no idea. It’s been very difficult to keep them in stock; in fact, we just sold out again today. We were probably selling 300 to 500 units a month before, which is pretty typical.

In the past 60 days, after all the media attention has been focused on Philadelphia, we’ve sold probably

BLEACHER CREATURES

continued on p. 14

C I T Y PA P E R . N ET

continued from p. 13

‘IT’S CRAZY — WE CAN’T PRODUCE THEM FAST ENOUGH.’

it’s the DNC, so … who knows what you’re going to see on toast? Maybe donkeys, maybe elephants, maybe Trump … who knows!

The pope has made a ton of statements about the evils of consumerism — I was wondering if you had a response to that.

Well, we just try to do the best job that we can. We feel like we sell to the right audience — we sell to the Catholic faithful, we sell to people who have family members that are sick and people who love the pope. I feel like we’re kind of doing the right thing.

If I ever got an inclination from any of our subjects that they didn’t like the bobblehead, that they didn’t want the bobblehead, we wouldn’t do it — we absolutely would not do it. Just out of respect for them.

And I’ve never got that impression from them.

Do any of the proceeds from the pope bobblehead go to charity?

Not currently, but I think that’s a fabulous idea. A lot of the pieces that we do, we do donate a portion to charity. We did one for the Navy Seal Team Six, and donate 10 percent of the proceeds to the Navy Seal Foundation, just voluntarily. We haven’t done that with this one, but I think it’s a great idea.

NEW YORK TIMES, 9/5/158 “I think what he criticizes in the U.S. is the absolute freedom and autonomy of the market,” said the Rev. Juan Carlos Scannone, a professor emeritus of philosophy at Colegio Máximo, a prominent Jesuit college near Buenos Aires. He taught the young Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who would become Francis, as a seminarian and became a friend. “We should admire the U.S.’s democracy and the well-being of its people, but what Bergoglio would criticize is the consumerism: that everything is geared toward consumerism.”

EVANGELII GAUDIUM, 11/24/13 Today’s economic mechanisms promote inordinate consumption, yet it is evident that unbridled consumerism combined with inequality proves doubly damaging to the social fabric.

DEBBY FIREMAN, CEO OF FIREWORKS MARKETING | THE POPE TOASTER I’ve been giving toasters to my clients for years with their logo on it, along with a note that says, “A toast to working with you this year!” So when I found out that the pope was coming, I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing to have the pope’s image on toast?’ and I contacted the company that I get the logo toasters from and asked if they wanted to partner with me on making something for the pope’s visit.

Did you have to get permission to use the pope’s image?

No, the image is abstract at best. You barely can make out his face. You know it’s him because it has his iconic wave and it’s certainly his image, but it’s an abstract version of an image that I saw, so there’s no need for rights of any kind. I mean, there’s people selling T-shirts that look exactly like him, so, for me, just having an abstract version of it, it’s sort of a smooth opportunity.

The toaster is not sold in the official World Meeting of Families store — did you apply?

I did reach out to them, and while they liked the idea, they didn’t think it fit with what they sell on that site. And that’s fine. And I am talking to [them] about having it as a Christmas item.

Are you planning on continuing to make these after the visit?

I think that it hasn’t even peaked yet. For instance, it’s going to be in People Magazine tomorrow — the press has been nonstop, very exciting. And a month from now, the Dalai Lama’s coming, and after that

Pope Francis has made a lot of statements about the evils of consumerism. Do you have any thoughts on that?

I’m not trying to make a mint here, I’m trying to commemorate an iconic figure who stands for peace and love and acceptance. This is the first pope in our lifetime that has more of a universal message, he’s the pope of the people, and it’s been incredible to be a part of that and to help spread his message through my toast — because one of the images says “Spread the love.”

Are any of the proceeds from the Pope Toaster going to charity?

It’s not — I mean, I don’t have a gigantic quantity where it’s going to make that big of a difference. I’m making a difference through the message that I’m putting out through my product.

EVANGELII GAUDIUM, 11/24/13 I encourage financial experts and political leaders to ponder the words of one of the sages of antiquity: “Not to share one’s wealth with the poor is to steal from them and to take away their livelihood. It is not our own goods which we hold, but theirs.” (emilyg@citypaper.net, @emilygee)

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20,000 pieces. It’s crazy — we can’t produce them fast enough. We normally order a year’s worth of product in advance to keep on our shelves, and we had ordered a year’s worth of pope, and it was all sold in, like, a week.

Is there any merchandise that makes you think, “Wow, I wish I’d thought of that!”

I’m pretty happy with what I thought of! And I’m excited about what other people have created. You’d think that this would be competitive, but it’s been a really amazing collaborative experience. I’ve gotten to meet a lot of other clever entrepreneurs with products; at one point, I even thought about partnering with the cheese company so that I could make grilled cheese. Their cheese is a bust of the pope, so it doesn’t really fit with having sliced cheese on a piece of toast. But I just love getting to meet the other creative people who come up with ideas that are also celebrating Pope Francis.

C I T Y PA P E R . N ET

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The Fabric Workshop and Museum

Nate Young: The Unseen Evidence of Things Substantiated Saturday, September 12–Sunday, November 15, 2015 Public Reception: Friday, October 2, 2015, 6:00–8:00pm The debut of a members-only performance of a musical composition

by Artist-in-Residence Cynthia Hopkins: Friday, October 2, 5:30pm The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) presents an exhibition of new work by Artist-in-Residence Nate Young (Minneapolis, MN) who, by working across media in a manner that challenges traditional modes of artistic production, continues his exploration of systems and objects that impacts one’s beliefs.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum 1214 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA Free and Open to the Public 7 Days a Week Free parking on October 2 provided for Members and Donors fabricworkshopandmuseum.org 215.561.8888 facebook.com/fabricworkshop @fabricworkshop Image: Nate Young, Untouched no. 2, 2014. Archival inkjet print. 42 x 60 inches.

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The Fabric Workshop and Museum

Cynthia Hopkins: Memorabilia Saturday, September 12–Sunday, November 15, 2015 Public Reception: Friday, October 2, 2015, 6:00–8:00pm The debut of a members-only performance of a musical composition

by Artist-in-Residence Cynthia Hopkins: Friday, October 2, 5:30pm The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM) presents Memorabilia, an exhibition of new work by multi-instrumentalist, composer, and theater artist Cynthia Hopkins (Brooklyn, NY) that memorializes several of the artist’s large-scale, music theater performances.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum 1214 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA Free and Open to the Public 7 Days a Week Free parking on October 2 provided for Members and Donors fabricworkshopandmuseum.org 215.561.8888 facebook.com/fabricworkshop @fabricworkshop Image: Cynthia Hopkins, in collaboration with The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia.

Must Don’t Whip ‘Um Memorial Quilt (detail, one side), 2015. Photo credit: Carlos Avendaño.

• AS A MAJOR landowner in this impoverished city, the best thing you can do for Philadelphia is to deed church properties to nonprofits and small businesses that plant orchards and manage greenhouses; operate free clinics; build genuinely low-cost energy-efficient housing; teach skills of urban horticulture and solar construction.

Such generosity exemplifies your proclaimed Year of Jubilee (2016), which traditionally returns all land to God, frees slaves and cancels debt.

Philadelphians can solve urban problems rather than manage them, when we control the land and money you have. This entire metropolis can become as magnificent as a basilica, when grassroots groups take charge to rebuild it toward balance with nature.

Our city is full of beautiful children who deserve a city as beautiful as they are. Diverting the church’s resources to this aim is the new sacrament. Such action is most fruitful prayer.

—Paul Glover, Mount Airy

WE ASKED OUR READERS

• THERE’S A SPACEFACE

O

P

[Memphis psychedelic rock/ pop band] concert the same day he’s coming, but all the transportation is cut off so I have to push through a million crazy Catholics to get to it. I’d tell him, “You and Spaceface should have coordinated things better!” —Sally Heggeman, Center City

E

• WELCOME

to the City of Brotherly Love! —Aprel Gee, West Oak Lane

• THERE ARE A LOT

of misconceptions about Philly.

Like the people aren’t friendly.

People think we’re violent. It’s not true. We have very nice areas, very nice people. —Clarissa Jordan, Northeast Philly

• WE’RE WORKING ON mak-

ing things nice for people. For example, this park — Dilworth Park. We’re rebuilding Love Park. These are things that add up over time. —Tilghman Moyer, senior, Roman Catholic High School

• THE POPE NEEDS to try the

T

A

food — cheesesteaks, soft pretzels and water ice. Try John’s Roast Pork. Front and Snyder.

He should avoid the mayor.

Avoid the politicians we have now. They’ve done so much to hurt the blue-collar worker with the DROP program. It was set up to keep the good bluecollar workers here. But the politicians found loopholes.

—Ronald Smith, South Philly

L

• I THINK THEY should give

away most of the resources the church has. Christ lived a life of poverty, and it is hypocritical they are not distributing it to the people in need. —A lawyer in Love Park, who declined to give her name

C I T Y PA P E R . N ET

what I would tell the pope, honestly. … I’m listening to this pope, and I care about what this pope says to more than just the Catholics. He’s speaking in a way that is really attracting discussion and even devotion. I’m excited about that.

—Shana McMahan, Fairmount

• THE POPE SEEMS

cool.

He was on the cover of Rolling Stone. … I’d ask him when he’s going to openly support Bernie Sanders.

—Erin Addie, Narberth

• I’D TELL HIM, “Even though I’m not Catholic, I appreciate that you’re looking out for the poor and disenfranchised.

& RANDOM PEOPLE ON THE STREET

You’re willing to reach out to people and I can really see the difference between how things used to be. Philly is going to be a mess, though!” —Quiana, South Philadelphia

• I DON’T CARE about him coming. I’m a Muslim and I just found out about the pope this year. —Markeese, North Philadelphia

K

• I WORK IN Old City so I have no idea how I’m going to get to work. I feel like a lot of people don’t want him here. …

I’m wearing this “I’ll Be There” pope pin mostly ironically.

—Kate, South Philadelphia

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P

• I DON’T KNOW

C I T Y PA P E R . N ET

• I’M THRILLED.

I’ve got tickets. I would tell him, “Thank you for bringing some common sense to the Catholic Church and being more open to the 21st century. Thank you for shining a light on climate change and not just hiding behind the walls of the Vatican.

Don’t let what happened to hitchBOT throw you off about

He gave kids a ride in the pope mobile, he called the Internet a gift from God. The pope is genuinely trying to [relate] with society and keep up with the modern world. Thank you for being a progressive leader.

—Katie Rink, North Philadelphia

WHAT THEY WOULD TELL THE POPE ABOUT PHILLY

• PHILADELPHIA IS FULL Philadelphia. What Preston and Steve are doing [with their goodwill pope bot] — that’s the real Philly.” —Greg Reilly, West Berlin, N.J.

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• WELCOME to Philadelphia,

City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection! Eat a cheesesteak! He’s a modern-day pope. He’s a hands-on pope. I hope something positive happens for Philadelphia from his visit and the World Meeting of Families. —Theresa RinggoldWells, Southwest Philadelphia

• I’D TELL HIM to do some-

thing about priests messing up young people with the child molesting. —Connie Ringgold, Southwest Philadelphia

• BLESS THE CITY and bring

IF THEY HAD THE CHANCE.

hope. There are lots of people in need. —Willard Linton, Southwest Philadelphia.

• THANKS FOR canceling school. Come back soon!

—Gianna Tino, Ambler • I WANT HIM to know that

• I’M SO HAPPY the city is

showing you love to keep religion alive.There is so little religion in Philly right now. I hope you speak on the fact that the city shows you more courtesy than they do our own president when he visits the city. I have mixed feelings about the visit, but I think the pope has a good message. —Charles Canty, North Philadelphia

• I HOPE YOUR visit goes well

and you come back. —Michelle Williams, North Philadelphia

• I WILL BE there volunteer-

ing and I am very excited. I hope he has a great time and brings good weather with him.

—Sue Boehm, Fairmount

I really appreciate his progressive attitude toward Christianity. —Lauren, West Philadelphia

• THANK YOU FOR coming, especially since many Catholic schools in South Philly have been shut down. This gives people a reason to send their kids to Catholic schools. —Gianna Leto, South Philly • THANK YOU for being so close to the youth. People have been losing faith and he has done a good job of restoring that faith and bringing people back. —Daniela Porro, Italy • I’D LIKE TO thank the pope for being a real human being.

• YOUR HOLINESS, you’ve made it a theme of your stillyoung papacy to draw a line between the past decade of Catholic policies and today’s effort to move the church forward into the 21st century. As an atheist-gay-former-Catholic, I commend you for that.

But, as surely you will agree, moving forward from the previous policies of the office you’ve inherited does not wipe the slate clean.

In the United States some studies find that nearly 40 percent of all homeless youth identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (or gender-nonconforming). Other studies suggest that nearly 20 percent of the kids in the juvenile detention system are LGBT+. Your Holiness, does the Church share some burden in this national travesty? And how can the church be a part of the solution going forward? Surely we can put aside our differences to come together to help these kids. —Michael McCarron, Italian Market

of passionate people. Sometimes that passion is positive, sometimes it is not. Philadelphians love their city for all of its problems. —Carolyn W., Northeast Philadelphia

• VIOLENCE IN THE neighborhoods mostly. I live near Temple, lots of violence and crime there. Try to make it better. —Thesis, North Philadelphia

THESE MESSAGES AND PHOTOS WERE COMPILED BY ISABELLA ABIUSO, JENNI BETZ, ROBERT J. KENNEDY, JOSH KRUGER, HANNAH MCCOMSEY, JOHN MCGUIRE, LILLIAN SWANSON AND ROBERT WEAVER.

18

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ARTS&ENTERTAINMENT

ARTS // MUSIC // T HEAT ER // BOOKS

OATTS AT THE HALL: Saxophonist Chris Oatts poses in front of the Merriam Theater in Center City before rehearsal on Sept. 20. He comes from a long line of jazz musicians.

HILLARY PETROZZIELLO

JAZZ

BY SHAUN BRADY

BRAND NAME

Saxophonist Chris Oatts continues his family’s big band biz.

LEADING A BIG band may seem like a major undertaking for a young musician fresh out of college. But when saxophonist and recent Temple grad Chris Oatts launched the South Philly Big Band early this year, in a sense he was simply entering the family business.

Oatts, along with his triplet brothers Jeff (a drummer also in Philly) and Eric (a saxophonist living in Kansas City), is a third-generation jazz musician.

His grandfather, the late Jack Oatts, has been called the “Father of Jazz Education” in Iowa, having started the state’s first high school jazz band in 1954. He also led the Fort Dodge Big Band for many years. Chris’ father, Jim, is a trumpeter who recently stepped down as leader of the Des Moines Big Band, an Iowa institution that he led for more than two decades.

The best known member of the musical family is Chris’ saxophonist uncle Dick, an in-demand side-

man who is a mainstay of the Village Vanguard’s house big band and is a professor and artistic director of the jazz studies department at Temple. It was Dick’s presence in the program that led Chris from Des Moines to Philly.

“Dick was always my biggest inspiration growing up,” Chris says. “He was in New York so I’d only see him once a year, but I always loved his playing. He gave me a lesson once I started playing saxophone, but I wasn’t quite ready to hear what he had to say when I was in sixth grade. It wasn’t really until I got to Temple that I started to put together all the things that he’d been telling me since I was younger.”

Uncle and nephew will share the stage at Chris’ Jazz Café on Friday night, a gig that was originally slated to feature the elder Oatts sitting in with the South Philly Big Band but was downsized to a quintet date by the pope’s visit. It won’t be the first time the two have played together;

Chris cringingly points to an “embarrassing video on YouTube” featuring the pair dueling for a crowd of seniors at Chris’ grandmother’s retirement home in Jefferson, Iowa.

While Chris was growing up, Dick was teaching at the Manhattan School of Music or on the road, but would receive regular updates from his father, Jack, who was mentoring the young saxophonist. “My dad always had a knack for hearing young people and knowing if they were going to go the distance or not,” Dick recalls. “I remember him telling me, ‘You know, your nephew’s going to really be something.’ It’s been amazing to watch him grow and develop and start to find his own voice in this menagerie of music. When you hear somebody like Chris or some of the other students at Temple, it moves you to keep playing, to keep searching, to keep growing and developing as a teacher and a player.”

Chris insists that he received no special attention from his uncle, with whom he’s continuing to study in a master’s program at Temple. “He was so hard on me about my playing and would call me on every little thing that I did, but that’s exactly what I needed when I first got here,” he recalls. That echoes Dick’s own memories of his father, whose 2008 obituary mentions the nickname given

him by his students: “The Taskmaster.”

“My dad was very intense and dedicated, and somewhat obsessed with music and with young people who have a gift,” Dick says. “He was brutally honest and sometimes that was inspirational and sometimes it was pretty brutal, but I’m quite thankful to have had that honesty instead of someone just telling me I sounded good.”

Dick recalls dedicating his life to music when he was 8 or 9 years old, when his father introduced him to the legendary Duke Ellington and his longtime saxophonist, Johnny Hodges. “After the concert when I saw them get on that bus I said, ‘Wow, that’s what I want to do.’ Not realizing all the diesel fumes are bad for you, I just knew I wanted to travel like that and play with those kinds of players. It was a kid’s dream, but my father helped facilitate it.”

Similarly, Chris fell in love with jazz through his own father’s regular Monday night gigs with the Des Moines Big Band, whether they were performing at an Italian restaurant called Spaghetti Works or the lounge at a local resort hotel, the Adventureland Inn. The family’s musical lore has been passed

‘I remember him telling me, ‘ You know, your nephew’s going to really be something.’’ down in more concrete fashion through the hundreds of pounds of big band charts that Chris has received from his father and grandfather and repurposed for his own ensemble.

“It came naturally because I’d heard so much big band music from the time I was little,” Chris says about launching the band. “It seemed weird to have all these charts and not play them. Especially after graduating, it seemed like a great opportunity to get together and read all this great music with my best friends.” (@ShaunDBrady) $15 // Fri., Sept. 25, 8 and 10 p.m., Chris’ Jazz Café, 1421 Sansom St., 215-568-3131, chrisjazzcafe.com.

C I T Y PA P E R . N ET

FA MI LY ARTS ACAD EMY Family Arts Academy and the Family Arts Festival at PAFA are presented by

FREE family workshops every Sunday.

Opens October 4 with the Family Arts Festival from 12 to 4 p.m.

For more information visit pafa.org/faa or call 215-972-2036.

118-128 N. Broad Street, Philadelphia

ENROLL TODAY!

Fall semester begins September 28!

Season 48 temple theaters

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Acting Classes for ADULTS, KIDS and TEENS The Theatre School at

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“A deluxe candy box Ûee^] pbma lhg`l [r ma^ bg\hfiZkZ[e^ <he^ Ihkm^k' – The New Yorker

Call Now to Register 215-574-3550 ext. 510

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20

PHILADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER // SEPT 24 - SEPT 30, 2015 // CIT YPAPER.NET

DOWN TO A SCIENCE

tor Kathryn MacMillanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s minimalist production doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sufficiently mark the distinctions between sections of direct address and the more intimate, connected moments. Most of the male characters, consequently, fail to register on a human scale.

(Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re by and large not a likeable lot â&#x20AC;&#x201D; smart but socially awkward and gauchely competitive.)

To Zieglerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s credit, Photograph 51 makes it clear that Franklinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relative obscurity is the result of many complicated factors â&#x20AC;&#x201D; not merely that she was a woman in an old boysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; club, though she was certainly that, too.

Audiences are likely to leave feeling entertained and edified (though the script is not all that science-heavy).

But it would be better if both the play and production seemed more like actual people talking in real-life situations and less like a series of headlines read by an ensemble of announcers.

Through Oct. 11, Lantern Theater Co. at St. Stephenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Theater, 923 Ludlow St., 215-829-0395, lanterntheater.org. (editorial@citypaper.net)

MARK GARVIN

CURTAIN CALL

BY DAVID ANTHONY FOX

IN SCIENCE AND THEATER, timing matters. British DNA researcher Rosalind Franklinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s early death â&#x20AC;&#x201D; at 37, from ovarian cancer â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is one reason she is largely unheralded, while several of her male colleagues won the Nobel Prize. Photograph 51, Anna Zieglerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s play about Franklin, had an honorable if unspectacular debut in 2010. But just this week, it opened in London with a certain A-list film diva (oh, OK: Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Nicole Kidman), putting the play and Franklin back in the headlines.

This is indeed good timing for Lantern Theater Co.â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s version, which will likely benefit from the attention.

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Thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s no movie star here playing Franklin â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but we have the excellent Genevieve Perrier, who gives an impassioned, accomplished performance. Perrierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s exquisite appearance suggests fragility, yet she has powerful, take-no-prisoners delivery, and the combination works to great effect. She is also the one actor here who moves effortlessly from Photograph 51â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s narrative passages into the conversational scenes.

About that narration â&#x20AC;&#x201D; thereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot of it (sadly, this has become ubiquitous playwriting shorthand for conveying plot details), and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spoken by the cast in confident, ringing tones. Too often, though, direc-

C I T Y PA P E R . N ET

exhibitions inspired by the wrought iron collection at the barnes

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heart and soul 21 // SEP T EMBER 24 - SEP T EMBER 30, 2015 // PHIL ADELPHIA CI T Y PAPER

of our city….

Love is a

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Launch of Love: A Philadelphia Affair October 7, 2015 X 7:30 p.m.

Free Library of Philadelphia 1901 Vine Street

Wherever good books are sold

those who travel here from across the country and the globe. ” —Jane Golden,

Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

www.temple.edu/tempress

This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

22

PHIL ADELPHIA CI T Y PAPER // SEP T EMBER 24 - SEP T EMBER 30, 2015 // CI T YPAPER .NET

MOVIESHORTS

FILMS ARE GRADED BY CI T Y PAP ER CRI T ICS A-F.

PHOTO BY LINDA KALLERUS

Sleeping with Other People

MOVIE SHORTS

DRAMA

SLEEPING WITH OTHER PEOPLE // C+

STONEWALL

/ D / Roland Emmerich’s Glee-caliber account of the 1969 Stonewall riots doesn’t honor LGBT progress in America so much as it airbrushes its origins. Ever since the trailer dropped, the openly gay director has been chastised for his decision to chronicle the protests from the perspective of a fictional white cisgender farmboy, downplaying the contributions of real-life trans and minority activists. But really, the harshest criticism should be reserved for Emmerich’s hokey and mechanical storytelling, which lacks so much edge it might as well be a bowling ball.

Played by English actor Jeremy Irvine, young Danny — a hearty all-American name you can really set your watch to, as multiple characters point out — is new in town.

Kicked out of his conservative Indiana household after being caught with another boy, he’s decamped to big bad New York City to pursue admission at Columbia, carrying nothing but a suitcase and a sunny disposition. It’s not long before he meets Ray (Jonny Beauchamp), the outspoken ringleader of a tight-knit crew of hustlers gifted in various styles of over-

acting. (Every time, Caleb Landry Jones ... every time.) OK, who ordered the getting-ready-in-the-morning montage set to “I’ll Take You There”?

Anyone? No? Serving as Danny’s spirit guide to the ’60s gay scene, Ray catches feelings when Trevor ( Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a less radicalized activist, lures Danny into a relationship — one consummated with a classic “pan across the room following a trail of discarded clothes” shot. There’s plenty more facepalm-y material, including Danny crying while turning a trick and plenty of pointless Judy Garland-related material (?), which leaves only a little time to let the titular events actually play out.

In real life, the violent riots, named for the speakeasy that catered to the queer Greenwich Village crowd, lit the fuse on a larger, more mobilized fight for gay rights across the nation.

In Stonewall, Emmerich treats this pivotal moment in LGBT history like the climax of a mediocre made-for-TV movie, sprinkling in pointless action and silly sight gags to make sure no one in the audience ever feels uncomfortable. —Drew Lazor (wide release)

Stonewall’s depiction of the 1969 riots plays it safe.

Playwright-turned-filmmaker Leslye Headland is either working toward a more honest, subversive approach to romantic comedy or backing away from her edgier instincts toward more conventional ideas. She started out adapting her own play with Bachelorette, a more sour alternative to Bridesmaids, then scripted the remake of About Last Night, a gender-balanced romcom steamrollered

by Kevin Hart. It’s hard to tell at this point which direction her trajectory is taking. Sleeping with Other People, Headland’s second directorial effort, doesn’t clarify matters much. In its broad strokes, it follows the well-worn pattern of platonic friends destined to end up together, spicing the When Harry Met Sally dynamic with dirty jokes à la Bachelorette.

The movie becomes sporadically more interesting in its details, and especially in its twists on the characters’ neuroses.

Sure, Jason Sudeikis’ Jake is a chronic commitmentphobe, but he’s not the typical boor, and the women whose beds he hops in aren’t comic-relief bimbos. Alison Brie’s Lainey is, naturally, stuck on the wrong guy, but the

object of her attraction is not an unfeeling hunk but a cold, manipulative dweeb (played by Adam Scott) with a repellent mustache, owlish glasses and deadened affect.

The filthy banter is also less mean-spirited than it can be and goes off on unexpected riffs, thanks in large part to a supporting cast of game improvisers (including Jason Mantzoukas and Andrea Savage as the couple’s requisite married friends). The tangents here are far more engaging than the main path, and the time is coming when Headland needs to decide which route she prefers taking. —Shaun Brady (wide release)

PAWN SACRIFICE // B-

A Cold War chess thriller — yes, little black and white knights and rooks and bishops do possess some capacity to thrill — Edward Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice has an incredible sense of geographic style, jetting from gray, chilly New York City to swinging Southern California and ethereal Iceland with gas to spare. While it ends up being more flash than dash, this account of the “Match of the Century” between American Bobby Fischer and Soviet Boris Spassky captures a time, a place and a common competitive denominator.

We start in early on Fischer, portrayed in adult-

CIT YPAPER.NET // SEPT 24 - SEPT 30, 2015 // PHILADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER

23

Pawn Sacrif ice

hood by Tobey Maguire, following his unlikely rise to international prominence from a humble Brooklyn household.

Considered by many to be the best chess player of all time, Fischerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s struggles with mental illness were as well-documented as his incredible talent, and Maguire handles this angle as gracefully as he can. But really, everything leading up to Fischerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 1972 world championship showdown with Spassky (a

sullen, intimidating Liev Schreiber) is cursory.

Fischer, with manager (Michael Stuhlbarg) and coach (Peter Sarsgaard) in tow, showcases his aptitude for on-board strategy and off-board gamesmanship in his Reykjavik battle with Spassky. Both playersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; incredible competitive streaks make for a compelling final showdown, as does the political tenor of the time. But most everything preceding the battle, especially Fischerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s family

dynamic, can come off slapdash. It seems Zwick only really cares about who wins â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s more American than that? â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Drew Lazor (Ritz Five)

citypaper.net/movies

Film events and special screenings.

REPERTORY FILM

BY DREW LAZOR INTERNATIONAL HOUSE

3701 Chestnut St., 215-387-5125, ihousephilly.org. Brother Sun, Sister Moon(1972, Italy/U.K., 121 min.): I-House honors Pope Francisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; visit to Philadelphia with a screening of Franco Zeffirelliâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s film, focusing on the formative years of St. Francis of Assisi. A 35 mm screening. Thu., Sept. 24, 7 p.m., free (RSVP required).

PFS THEATER AT THE ROXY

2023 Sansom St., 267-639-9508, filmadelphia.org/roxy. Sworn Virgin (2015, Italy/Switzerland/Germany/ Albania, 90 min.): A young woman (Alba Rohrwacher) following a littleknown Albanian tradition takes a vow of chastity and begins life as a man. The screening will be followed by a discussion led by Lance Wahlert, who teaches about sexuality and gender identity at Penn. Tue., Sept. 29, 7:30 p.m., $12.

PRINCE THEATER

1412 Chestnut St., 267-239-2941, princetheater.org. La Strada (1954, Italy, 108 min.): Federico Felliniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Oscar winner, about a young woman (Giulietta Masina, Felliniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wife) sold into the circus. A 35 mm

screening. Thu., Sept. 24, 7:40 p.m., $10.

SCRIBE VIDEO CENTER

4212 Chestnut St., third floor, 215-2224201, scribe.org. The Creeping Garden (2014, U.K., 82 min.): A trippy documentary exploring how people manipulate slime mold to solve scientific problems, create art and more. Co-director Jasper Sharp will be in attendance. Tue., Sept.

29, 7 p.m., $5.

TROCADERO THEATRE

1003 Arch St., 215-922-6888, thetroc. com. The Avengers (2012, U.S., 143 min.): Every superhero youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve ever heard of fights the star of the upcoming Hank Williams biopic I Saw the Light. Mon., Sept. 28, 8 p.m., $3.

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Fisher-Bennett Hall, 3340 Walnut St., 215-898-8782, cinemastudies.sas. upenn.edu. The Factory (2015, India, 132 min.): Documentarian Rahul Roy examines the controversial imprisonment of 147 auto workers in the North Indian state of Haryana. Wed., Sept. 30, 5 p.m., free.

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24

PHIL ADELPHIA CI T Y PAPER // SEP T EMBER 24 - SEP T EMBER 30, 2015 // CI T YPAPER .NET

ROCK

EVENTS

: SEPTEMBER 24 - SEPTEMBER 30 :

GET OU T T HERE

GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR

These ineffable Quebecois cranks — the po-faced agitprop mystics with the goofball moniker — came juddering out of semi-retirement in 2010, still nine strong, the fury, passion and esoteric allure of their towering instrumental manifestations undimmed by the typical reunion rock hokum. This year’s Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (Constellation) is a continuous full-album suite that traverses familiar tropes (dramatically building, buzzing drones) and some curveballs (unexpectedly sanguine opener “Peasantry or ‘Light!

Inside of Light!’” lurches toward a drunken, folksy jam-along) in satisfying, if admittedly succinct, fashion. This is their first Philly show in over a decade not to sell out months in advance, if only because it now seems clear they’ll be around for awhile. —K. Ross Hoffman

9.24

GONE WITH THE POPE

$10 // Thu., Sept. 24, 8 p.m., PhilaMOCA, 531 N. 12th St., philamoca.org.

MOVIES Institutions all over the city are celebrating the pope’s visit with exhibitions of art masterworks, ancient artifacts and sacred texts. But there’ll be no greater tribute to Francis than PhilaMOCA’s screening of Duke Mitchell’s posthumous low-rent mobsploitation epic, Gone With the Pope. Mitchell dragged The Godfather into the drive-in with his bloody thriller Massacre Mafia Style, then died before completing his insane follow-up about a gangster plotting to kidnap the Holy Father.

—Shaun Brady

GYPSY

$25-$42 // Through Nov. 1, Media Theatre, 104 E. State St., Media, 610-891-0100, mediatheatre.org.

THEATER Kristine Fraelich, who’s performed both locally and on Broadway, plays

ultimate stage mother Mama Rose, cajoling her young daughters into vaudeville careers until one rebels. The Jule Styne score and Stephen Sondheim lyrics include iconic musical theater favorites like “Let Me Entertain You,” “You’ll Never Get Away From Me” and, of course, “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” Barrymore Award-winner Jennie Eisenhower is also in the cast, as “stripper” Tessi — but don’t worry, it’s all tasteful, tuneful and funny burlesque.

—Mark Cofta

MADONNA

$40-$355 // Thu., Sept.

24, 8 p.m., Wells Fargo Center, 3601 S. Broad St., 215-336-3600, wellsfargocenterphilly.com.

POP What is to be said?

EURYDICE

In her words: Bitch, she’s Madonna. What exactly that means in 2015 is a subject explored exhaustively, if hardly conclusively, across the up-to 29 tracks comprising Rebel Heart’s(Live Nation/ Interscope) bewildering assortment of editions.

It’s an archetypically sprawling, messy affair, encompassing ballads and bangers, glorious throwback house-pop and edgy, almostau-courant dubstep twerks, heartfelt triumph and utterly embarrassing silliness, familiar themes (sex, religion, rinse, repeat) and uncommon stabs at introspection — all adding up to her most vital work in a decade.

—K. Ross Hoffman

$21-$25 // Through Oct. 4, Vasey Hall, Villanova University, 800 E. Lancaster Ave., Villanova, 610-519-7474, villanovatheatre.org.

THEATER Playwright,

Madonna MERT ALAS AND MARCUS PIGGOT

thursday

actor, director and teacher James Ijames finds time between winning playwriting awards (most recently, Philadelphia Theatre Company’s Terrance McNally New Play Award) to stage Sarah Ruhl’s retelling of the Greek myth about a woman who crosses the River Styx into the underworld. Husband Orpheus follows, hoping to sing Eurydice back to life. Ruhl focuses on the female point of view, with graduate student Rebecca Jane Cureton playing the title character at Villanova Theatre, and brings her own magic to the story with talking stones, a rain-filled elevator, and a hell in which a charming devil rides a child’s tricycle. —Mark Cofta

YO LA TENGO

$29-$39 // Thu., Sept.

24, 7:30 p.m., Keswick Theatre, 291 N. Keswick Ave., Glenside, 215-5727650, keswicktheatre.com.

ROCK/POP Stuff Like

COURSE OF EMPIRE: $25 // Mon., Sept 28, 8:30 p.m., with Xylouris White, Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St., 215-232-2100, utphilly.com.

Yo La Tengo

That There (Matador) is our darling Yo La Tengo’s gentlest, sleepiest album; a significant distinction, considering stiff competition from 2013’s understated stunner Fade, 2003’s underrated Summer Sun and 1990’s Fakebook. The latter

was a curveball fan-fave whose template of acoustic, country-tinged covers, self-covers and a couple new originals they’re blatantly revisiting in Stuff. Ira Kaplan has called this the crassest thing they’ve ever done, but retracing fa-

CIT YPAPER.NET // SEP T EMBER 24 - SEP T EMBER 30 // PHILADELPHIA CIT Y PAPER

miliar footsteps — complete with Fakebook-era guitarist Dave Schramm — makes it, if anything, all the more endearingly personal. So lay back, relax and enjoy this “an evening with” business.

Just don’t get too cozy.

They’ll totally bring the blazing feedback-solo epics next time around.

Right? —K. Ross Hoffman

the freely improvised Tales of the Unforeseen (TUM). The title perfectly captures the band’s ability to weave compelling stories from unpredictable events.

—Shaun Brady

with the other. His new suite, “The Seasons of Being,” doubles Dapp Theory’s membership and draws inspiration from homeopathic profiles of each musician.

—Shaun Brady

f riday

monday

BARRY ALTSCHUL’S 3DOM FACTOR

ANDY MILNE & DAPP THEORY +5

THE THING

$15 // Thu., Sept. 24, 8 p.m., Philadelphia Art Alliance, 251 S. 18th St., arsnovaworkshop.com.

JAZZ Drummer Barry

Altschul formed 3dom Factor in 2013 to celebrate his 70th birthday and dive into decades’ worth of his compositions. With that rare bout of looking backwards out of the way, the trio — featuring uber-versatile saxophonist Jon Irabagon and Altschul longtime collaborator/bassist Joe Fonda — went to the other extreme for

9.25 $15 // Fri., Sept. 25, 7:30 p.m., Ware Center, Millersville University, 42 N. Prince St., Lancaster, 717-8717600, artsmu.com.

JAZZ/ROCK Pianist

Andy Milne founded his quintet Dapp Theory in 1998 to explore offbeat connections between jazz and funk, rock, groove and folk musics. The composer took a similarly sidelong approach to medicine while dealing with health issues in recent years, and is now combining one alternative

9.28

$15 // Mon., Sept. 28, 8 p.m., with Ned Rothenberg/Evan Parker, FringeArts, 140 N. Columbus Blvd., arsnovaworkshop.com.

JAZZ/ROCK Serving

as the backing band for Neneh Cherry’s longoverdue comeback The Cherry Thing in 2012, Scandinavian jazz power trio The Thing dialed the intensity back to a simmer just threatening to boil.

No need to fear: The monstrous power was back full force on their follow-up, BOOT!, which earned its emphases with the

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25

raw-nerve aggression of Mats Gustafsson’s bari, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s battering-ram bass and drummer Paal NilssenLove’s pummeling clatter. —Shaun Brady

tuesday

9.29

BUS STOP

$32-$47 // Through Oct. 18, Bristol Riverside Theatre, 120 Radcliffe St., Bristol, 215-785-0100, brtstage.org.

THEATER Bristol Riverside Theatre revives William Inge’s classic comedy about a busload of strangers stranded in a Kansas diner during a snowstorm. Like any group trapped together, alliances form and relationships shatter. The cast features Broadway veteran and Barrymore Award-winner Mark Jacoby as well as BRT favorite Barbara Mc-

continued on p. 26

26

SEP T. 24 - SEP T. 30, 2015 // CIT YPAPER.NET

EVENTS Bully

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Culloh, recent Temple U. grad Grant Struble and Jessica Wagner, who played the title role in BRTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Always â&#x20AC;Ś Patsy Cline last season. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Mark Cofta

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9.30 BULLY

$10-$12 // Wed., Sept.

30, 8 p.m., with Heat and Dead Soft, Boot & Saddle, 1131 S. Broad St., 267-639-4528, bootandsaddlephilly.com.

Albiniâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Electrical Audio studio in Chicago. From there, she relocated to Nashville, began recording her own demos and eventually formed Bully. Their 2015 debut release, Feels Like (Star Time International/ Columbia) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for which Bognanno acted as guitarist, singer, producer and engineer â&#x20AC;&#x201D; is a mix of â&#x20AC;&#x2122;90s style alternative (ĂĄ la Blake Babies) accompanied by her fierce vocals and powerful, self-reflective lyrics. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Cynthia Schemmer

ROCK/POP

Alicia Bognanno started her recording career where audio recording dreams are made of: as an intern at Steve

citypaper.net/events

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C I T Y PA P E R . N ET // SEP T E MBER 24 - SEP T E MBER 30, 2015 // PHIL ADELPHIA CI T Y PAPER

27

REVIEWS // OPENIN GS // LIST IN GS // RECIPES

In Fishtown, there’s a new contender for the city’s crispiest, most delectable Korean fried chicken.

ANDY ’S CHICKEN // 2001 Memphis St., 215-291-0700.

Tue.-Sat., noon-11 p.m.; Sun., 1-9 p.m.

REVIEW

BY ADAM ERACE

ASK ME NO QUESTIONS

The diligence of takeout joint Andy’s Chicken puts City Paper’s restaurant reviewer in a bind.

ON A HOT SUMMER NIGHT, in a restaurant the size of an iPhone box, steaming broccoli — let alone deep-frying chicken — would push the mercury.

But the row of violently bubbling fryers was not the reason I was sweating at Andy’s Chicken.

You see, I lie to restaurants constantly. Fake names, fake numbers, fake OpenTable accounts; it’s part of the job and it’s never a problem. Until Andy’s. I had ordered a cluck-ton of food from this new, no-frills Korean takeout joint hidden in Fishtown’s residential core. I’d called the order in, rattled off a string of fake digits and said I would pick up at 8 sharp.

But when I arrived at Andy’s, the food wasn’t ready, and chef/owner Andy Choi and his bubbly cashier looked distressed.

“We called you, like, five times,” Choi gushed across the open kitchen counter.

“We even left a message,” the cashier explained.

In the bank of fryers, the ripping hot oil seethed.

Sweat crept down my neck. I’m not good on the spot. I

couldn’t even pull the old “oh, you got the last number wrong” excuse because I didn’t remember any of the numbers I gave. So I blurted out a lame excuse about AT&T, which seemed to at least halfheartedly convince them.

Choi had tried to call me, he explained, to let me know there had been a time mix-up and the food would be ready shortly after 8. I wound up only having to wait a few minutes. The sweet cashier carried my two bags of food out to my car, the asylum I had beaten back to before they could ask me any more questions.

Safely at home, I spread out dinner: three kinds of fried chicken and a tub of bulgogi. The latter was 90 percent white rice, 10 percent grayish cheesesteak-y beef, with a small, fluffy omelet covering the mix like a yellow lid. That chicken though … Just a couple weeks ago I was gushing over Southgate’s, but Andy’s is a very strong contender. (Choi is no fried chicken freshman; he co-owns another spot, Chi Mac, in North Philly.)

My three half-orders each included a wing, drumstick, thigh and a giant, perfectly cooked breast. I mean perfectly cooked; when I excised a strip of white meat from the center of one, it downright glistened.

Thick, crackly batter surrounds each piece of poultry, like a haphazardly gift-wrapped present. I peeled it off with the tips of my fingers, savoring each piece of the glazed treat.

Speaking of glazes, Andy’s offers seven. Golden Soy delivered an enveloping dose of umami. Honey Garlic haunted my breath. Hot & Spicy could have packed a bit more firepower but was my favorite nonetheless. Despite generous shellacking, the sauce tended to pool at the bottom of the sturdy, rectangular takeout box. Think of it as extra dip as you tear apart the pieces of chicken. Lying never tasted so good. (aerace.citypaper@gmail.com, @AdamErace)

PINT SIGHS Our watering hole review column

PHOTO BY EMILY GUENDELSBERGER

BY JENN LADD

A DIVE BY ANY OTHER NAME

ERA // 2743 Poplar St., 215-769-7008, theerabar.com. Daily, 4 p.m.-2 a.m.; kitchen, 4-10 p.m.

AFTER A COUPLE rounds at Krupa’s Tavern a few blocks away, Era at 28th and Poplar doesn’t seem much like a dive. It’s well-lit. The bathroom functions. There are far too many people tippling expensive drinks — three Chimays, two Allagash Whites — on a quiet Sunday night. The smell of garlic and berbere fills the long, rectangular room at this Ethiopian restaurant/bar.

But Jameson on the rocks runs $3 a pour, and a game of pool costs only a buck in quarters.

Patrons passing by our never-ending shooting match feel free to interrupt, either to comment or to tease. Heavy metal, then silence, plays on the speakers, powered by a newfangled Internet-age jukebox. A box of crayons sits behind the bar; it’s for the owner’s daughter, the jocular if spacey bartender speculates.

Two “Help Wanted” signs adorn the darkwood-paneled, high-ceilinged walls. The letters are all-caps on white paper. Below that on those same papers in fine print — so small you can’t read it from across the bar — it says “(BARMAID).”

“There wasn’t enough stuff on the walls,” the bartender says when asked about the signs. He has no idea if the bar is hiring. He suspects not.

He kids that he doesn’t know how he started working here, so maybe they are looking. For no apparent reason, he wears a pink paper flower in his shoulder-length hair. It disappears a few minutes later. (jenn@citypaper.net, @jrladd)

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28 // SEP T EMBER 24 - SEP T EMBER 30, 2015 // PHIL ADELPHIA CI T Y PAPER

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C I T Y PA P E R ’ S INSIDER’S GUIDE TO PHILADELPHIA 2015 - 2016

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BY MATT JONES

‘ UP WITH PEOPLE! ’ no, not the halftime show group. ©2015 Jonesin’ Crosswords (editor@jonesincrosswords.com)

ACROSS

1

6 10 13 15 16 17 19 20 21 23 26 28 30 31 32 33 35 36 38 42 43 45 46 47 48 50 53 54 55 57 58

Curly-tailed Japanese dog Bit of turf Bone with teeth Gets back to full strength Debtor’s loss Fireplace accumulation Overcharge for a cigar?

Show set in Las Vegas Bygone oath Big name in oats Los ___ (“La Bamba” group) Public expressions of thanks Bit of wishful thinking Before, for poets Stacks of wax Bit of hair gel “___ my keep” Society page newcomer Extinguished, as a candle Meet in the middle?

Dessert often served a la mode Many, with “a” Prefix for pressure “Honest” guy Address from a rev.

Skyping accessory, maybe Hay dummy?

Giant from Finland?

Louisiana subdivision Blue movie material, slangily “Ew!” Program that just notifies you without blocking?

63 Mendacity 64 “Strange Condition” singer Pete 65 Like Aconcagua 66 Old salt 67 Downhill runner 68 Former Russian sovereigns

39 40 41 44 46 47

DOWN

51

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9 10 11 12 14 18 22 23 24 25 27 29 34 35 37

Radius setting Mauna ___ (Hawaii’s highest peak) German pronoun Adopt Pixar movie with an entomological theme Can recycler, sometimes Beirut’s country: Abbr.

Not at all transparent It may start as a flat ring Hoist one player in a chess game?

Balance sheet heading Helicopter sounds Place for relaxation Descendants of 31-Across “You’ve got mail” hearer Pot tops In the blink ___ eye Carnival announcer that surfaces from the water?

“Ready ___ ...” “___-haw!”

Austrian psychiatrist Alfred The accused Guy who might try to put whiskey in your meal

49 50

52 56 59 60 61 62

“I shall return,” e.g.

Antioxidant-rich berry Mountain cat Full-voiced Tree in a giraffe’s diet It may “let out” in the afternoon Gets on the plane Knocked over, as milk Annual sports awards since 1993 “Trap Queen” rapper Fetty ___ Focus of Straight Outta Compton Start to exist?

Jazz Masters org.

Word with plug or bud Some hosp. employees

LAST WEEK’S SOLUTION

Rachel Kramer Bussel is the author of the essay collection Sex & Cupcakes and editor of over 50 erotica anthologies, most recently Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica.

JONESIN ’

LET’S GET IT ON

BY RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL

FANTASY AND THE FREEDOM TO DECIDE THE ANONYMOUS U.K. blogger who goes by Girl on the Net (girlonthenet.com) isn’t shy about sharing her sexual fantasies with the online world, whether that’s stranger sex or getting it on with three guys at once.

But even for someone as brazen as the 31-year-old, who’s in a “couple-years-long, mostly monogamous” relationship, not every fantasy is one she wants to bring to life. “Some things I masturbate about purely because that’s what I know I’ll get off on at the time,” she said, “and other fantasies I want to mull over as possibilities for the future.”

An example of the former? “I am obsessed with harsh leather belts in fantasy,” GOTN explained. “A belt being wrapped round a guy’s hand, then whacked harshly against my ass, or my face, or wrapped round my throat. That’s probably a purely masturbation one, because in the fantasy, the level of pain — and red welts — I can take and enjoy is far more extreme than the pain I can take and enjoy in real life. If I did it with a partner, he’d probably give me a fairly nervous whack, then I’d decide it hurt too much, then we’d both give up and go for a drink instead.”

If we can agree that the brain is the biggest sex organ, we have to allow it the freedom to conjure whatever images it desires.

Another would be her dream dinner party, “which essentially involves me being made to serve a group of guys dinner, then suck them off in between, or during, courses. The fantasy is only hot for me if the men are generally dismissive or rude to me, treating me as a less important person and caring nothing for my pleasure.” Part of what makes it hot for her is that it is related to her imagination. “If I were to try and reproduce this in my daily life, the act of making it ‘real’ would necessarily puncture that; I wouldn’t actually want to be treated as if my sexual pleasure doesn’t matter.”

But this fantasy still serves an important function. It lets her access a faster route to arousal and get insight into what gets her off in her own mind. If we can agree that the brain is the biggest sex organ, we have to allow it the freedom to conjure whatever images it desires.

Often, we dial down our fantasies, even to ourselves, because we worry about the consequences. If I say — or merely think — that I’m curious about a facial, does that mean my partner will immediately start trying to come on my face? I like GOTN’s distinction because it values fantasies for the mental stimulation they can provide.

On the other hand are what she calls inspirational fantasies, the kind she does act out. Case in point: After dental surgery, when she was under anesthesia, she “got really locked on to the idea of a guy shagging me when I couldn’t feel anything.” She found a way to make it happen, thanks to a sexy friend, who took her home from the hospital for a special kind of TLC. (rachelcitypaper@gmail.com)

@RAQUELITA

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