Weekend - February 25, 2021

For the most up-to-date listing of events, go online to masslive.com/entertainment

Weekend

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| THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021

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LIVEWIRE: Dropkick Murphys to livestream St. Patrick’s Day concert, E4 FUNDRAISER: Wistariahurst uncorks virtual wine tasting event on March 12, E5 WINE PRESS: Some inexpensive wines worth aging, E9

PLUS

Garden Club grows movie club, E3

Norman Rockwell Museum showcases work of awardwinning political cartoonist from Nixon, Clinton eras, Page E2

Conversation-starting cartoons FOUR SUNDAYS IN FEBRUARY FEB. 7-28, 2021

FEB. 28

The Best of Four Sundays A video compilation showcasing a mix of our most popular February shows, edited together by Northampton Open Media Streaming online • Visit hamparts.org for details

PRESENTED BY

THE NORTHAMPTON ARTS COUNCIL

WEEKEND

E2 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021

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STOCKBRIDGE

Political cartoons showcased at museum Patrick Oliphant drawings from Nixon, Clinton eras featured through May 31

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By Cori Urban

Special to The Republican

new exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Gallery features political cartoons

by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Patrick Oliphant, who has been called the most influential editorial cartoonist of his time.

“Pat Oliphant has been very influential because he has created extensive visual commentary inspired by the activities and antics of 10 American presidents and many other prominent political figures and events over the course of 50 years. His keen insights were expressed in masterful drawings that captured the essence of every issue that he has broached,” commented Stephanie Haboush Plunkett, deputy director/chief curator at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

Oliphant’s syndicated drawings were distributed to some 250 publications in the United States and beyond.

Through the years, he has spoken on the importance of political cartooning worldwide, producing large drawings while on-stage and in conversation with his audience. He has made his way to venues and university campuses throughout the world. “His vision, talent and intellect imbue his work with a sense of authenticity and truth, imbued with the unique humor that is inherent in his art,” she said.

Now 85, his career spans more than 60 years. His finely tuned drawings have reflected on global politics, culture, the economy and scandals; his caricatures of American presidents and other powerful leaders are world renowned.

Political cartoons from the Nixon and Clinton eras

by Patick Oliphant that will be included in an exhibit at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge.

(COURTESY OF THE NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM)

The exhibit is on view through May 31 at the Norman Rockwell Museum.

The Oliphant collection features more than 300 artworks and an extensive archive focusing on four prominent aspects of the artist’s work — humorous but hard-hitting editorial drawings from the Nixon and Clinton years as well as personal drawings, paintings and large-scale sculptures inspired

by the nation’s most prominent figures. Newly acquired through a donation by the Louis and Jodi Atkin Family, these works highlight political art as a powerful, persuasive and inspiring form of visual communication.

“I am amazed by the volume and quality of Pat Oliphant’s work, which is simply extraordinary,” Plunkett said. “His draughtsmanship, concep-

The Oliphant collection features more than 300 artworks and an extensive archive focusing on four prominent aspects of the artist’s work – humorous but hard-hitting editorial drawings from the Nixon and Clinton years as well as personal drawings, paintings and large-scale sculptures inspired by the nation’s most prominent figures.

cause they concepts, issues and personalities into their most recognizable essence,” she said. “Tinged with humor and sarcasm, political drawings are accessible conversation-starters that make challenging subjects approachable, whether we agree with or push back on the ideas reflected in the art. Clever and amusing, they recast the day’s events while informing and entertaining us.

As in Oliphant’s work, political cartoons become a potent aspect of the historical record that reflects temperature of the times.”

Though political cartoonists have been influential for centuries, she said they are more endangered today. She pointed to a report from “Drawn and tualization and dedication to Quartered: The History of finding and portraying a deeper American Political Cartoons,” truth in his art is nothing short by Stephen Hess and Sandy of extraordinary, an unrivaled Northrop, that 2,000 editorial visual record created by one cartoonists were employed a man over the course of five century ago; estimates of the decades.” number of staff cartoonists She contends that politiworking today may number cal cartooning is an integral less than 40. Major and regional newspapers still publish aspect of journalism and has been so for centuries. “Images political cartoons, as do such speak directly and can be more online outlets as Counterpoint, SEE MUSEUM, PAGE E3 impactful than words alone be-

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WEEKEND

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 | E3

SPRINGFIELD

Garden Club grows movie club Virtual film discussion held Sunday

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The Springfield Garden Club is inviting members and friends to participate in its virtual movie club. The February movie is “The Gardener,” and the Zoom gathering will take place Sunday at 5 p.m.

By Ray Kelly

rkelly@repub.com

“Pat Oliphant: Editorial Cartoons from the Nixon and Clinton Eras” is on display at the Norman Rockwell Museum through May 31. (STEPHEN ROSE / ASSOICATED PRESS FILE PHOTO)

Museum CONTINUED FROM PAGE E2

Exhibit: “Pat Oliphant: Editorial Cartoons from the Nixon and Clinton Eras” Where: Norman Rockwell Museum, 9 Glendale Road / Route 183, Stockbridge When: Through May 31 Museum hours: Monday, Thursday-Friday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Admission: The Museum now requires the purchase of timed tickets in advance at nrm.org/visit. Time segments are available every 30 minutes during hours of operation. Adults: $20; seniors, AAA, retired military: $18; college students: $10; Children 18 years and under: Free More information: nrm.org

though times were different, many of the struggles that emerged in the past are similar today. The exhibition focuses on two presidents who were impeached, Nixon and Clinton, drawing parallels to today.

“Topics that emerge in Oliphant’s sharply-conceived and drawn cartoons include focus on lack of political leadership and transparency, financial missteps, social inequality, the influence of big business on public policy and many other themes that remain relevant today,” Plunkett said.

Advance timed tickets are required, and the museum requires all visitors to comply with the Massachusetts COVID-19 Travel Order.

Online programs focusing on the art of Pat Oliphant will be scheduled for spring; visit NRM.org for more information.

Participants watch a designated movie — streamed or on DVD borrowed from a library — on their own at their convenience then join a Zoom cocktail hour and discussion.

“Gardening is a hearthealthy addiction. It creates a feeling of peace, of joy, that restores the souls of those who choose, on a regular basis, to stick their fingers in the dirt,” said club member Vana Nespor. “The Springfield Garden Club determined last spring that our connection and the sharing of that joy and that peace would not be stopped during this difficult year or these frozen months.”

Similar to a book club, the garden club is inviting members and friends to participate in the movie club.

The February movie is “The Gardener,” and the Zoom gathering will take place Sunday at 5 p.m.

There is no fee to join the movie club. Register by emailing spfldgardenclub@ gmail.com; a Zoom link to join will then be sent to the registrant.

Mary E. Bandouveres, garden club publicity chair, described “The Gardener” as “a film that reflects upon the meaning of gardening and its impact on our lives.”

In it, gardener and plantsman Frank Cabot recounts his personal quest for perfection at Les Quatre Vents, his 20-acre English-style

(THE REPUBLICAN FILE)

garden and summer estate that was opened to a film crew for the first time ever in 2009. Nestled amongst the rolling hills of the Charlevoix County in Quebec, Les Quatre Vents has become one of the world’s foremost private gardens. Through the words of Cabot and his family, and with the participation of gardening experts and writers, the film looks back at his personal story and the artistic philosophy that influenced the gardens.

It will be the second of three films in the movie club.

“Dare to be Wild” was featured in January; the March film is “Highgrove” and is to be discussed March 28.

“Shared beauty strengthens and connects us,” Nespor said. “We chose to share and discuss these three movies because of their visual inspiration and as an exploration of how a person might bring … intention to our lives and gardens.”

SEE GARDEN, PAGE E11

IRISH NIGHT IN HOLYOKE 2021-A GO GO In memory of Daniel P. Curran To benefit the Maurice A. Donahue Memorial Scholarship featuring

A TRADITIONAL CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE DINNER AND RIBS A CURBSIDE PICKUP: 11a-2p, at the Log Cabin- 500 Easthampton Rd. Holyoke, Mass.

SATURDAY MARCH 6, 2021 $25.00 per person includes dinner and 1 entry into the 50/50 raffle

Prepared by the Log Cabin:

Corned Beef and Cabbage • Ribs • Hash Carrots • Potatoes • Brown Bread • Dessert Presented by the Hibernians of Hampden/Hampshire Counties

Reservations: call Joe O’Connor @ 413-627-7148 or Fran Hennessey @ 413-785-5687 or on line at Eventbrite.com by February 27, 2021 www.aoh-holyoke.com

TIS THE EVENT OF THE SEASON!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day To All

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Reddit, Humor Times, Political Tunes and blogs by individual artists.

“Since the late 19th century, the editorial cartoon portrait has played a provocative role in presidential politics, countering partisan advertising with irreverence,” Plunkett said.

“Oliphant hones a distinctive, repeatable caricature of each incoming president that evolves during his tenure.

When each fails to live up to expectations, exaggerated figures begin to age, sag, shrink, weaken or bloat, impacting the way we understand and see each figure.”

His images of Richard Nixon as a haunting and malevolent Napoleon, Gerald Ford as a hollow mask, Jimmy Carter as an insignificant miniature and George H.W. Bush as a wizened horseshoe player, “remind us of the powerful impact of satiric portraiture,” she added.

Political cartoonists always have seized upon the collective anxiety of the moment, emphasizing the fractious nature of virtually every period in history, she continued. “Many political cartoonists consider themselves to be equal-opportunity offenders, though their presence in distinct outlets can reflect their personal leanings.

Humor often makes incendiary commentary palatable for those who might find certain viewpoints challenging.”

By revisiting the issues of the past through the art of Australian-born Oliphant, visitors to the exhibit might realize that

IF YOU GO

he Springfield Garden Club is growing a new program: the Virtual Gardening Movie Club.

E4 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021

WEEKEND

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MUSIC

Dropkick Murphys to livestream St. Patrick’s Day concert

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HINGS SHUT DOWN due to the pandemic last year right before St. Patrick’s Day, ruining the annual holiday for millions. This was especially true for music lovers who often revel in the day’s songs.

But Dropkick Murphys refuse to allow that to happen this year, at least as best as they can: The band will unite with music fans from around the globe for “Dropkick Murphys St. Patrick’s Day Stream 2021: Still Locked Down” to virtually celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on March 17 at 7 p.m.

The free streaming online concert – with no in-person audience – will be simulcast worldwide via DKMstream. com.

“Still Locked Down” will feature a variety of fan favorites, as well as select songs from the band’s new studio album, which is due out soon.

The streaming event will feature Dropkick Murphys performing socially distanced on an arena-sized stage with a full LED screen and a brand new video show.

“Instead of charging for tickets, we’re going to ‘pass the virtual hat’ so you can donate what you’d like to help support us in our efforts to keep paying our employees,” band founder Ken Casey said in a statement.

Casey added that a portion of the proceeds will go to charity.

People who donate in advance or during the stream will see their name scroll across the ticker at the bottom of the screen during “Still Locked Down.”

ney Dance Company.

The music was composed for the Sydney Dance Company and was in response to the Australian wildfires of 2019. The album also features electronics and mixing by David Chalmin, who has previously collaborated with The National as well as artists such as Madonna and Thom Yorke.

Dessner most recently composed the orchestrations for Taylor Swift’s 2020 album “Folklore,” which was produced by his brother Aaron Dessner.

According to a comment Aaron Dessner made to Billboard, The National will soon be working on its next album.

• Jesy Nelson has been dropping hints that a solo alThe Dropkick Murphys will unite with music fans from around the globe for “Dropkick Murphys bum is in the works by posting St. Patrick’s Day Stream 2021: Still Locked Down” to virtually celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on items on social media – such March 17 at 7 p.m. (STEVEN E. NANTON PHOTO) as photos of her in the studio with songwriters Patrick sync to Newland’s song, which mark its 60th anniversary.

Patrikios and Hanni Ibrahim. can be found at soundcloud.

The financial details of the That, along with selfies of com/peterjnewland. deal were not disclosed. her saying “Let’s go” accompanied by some musical notes, • The Beach Boys have en• The National’s Bryce tered into a partnership with Dessner just announced that make it safe to say that there Iconic Artists Group, which he will be releasing a classical seems to be a first solo album gives the firm controlling coming from the former album with the Australian interest of, well, just about singer in girl group Little Mix. String Quartet on April 2.

Patrikios and Ibrahim worked everything.

The album, titled “Impermanence/Disintegration,” will on Little Mix’s platinum-sellThe singers of such hits as George Lenker “California Girls” and “Good be issued on the 37d03d label. ing 2018 album “LM5.”

LiveWire Nelson left Little Mix in Dessner composed the track Vibrations” have signed a deal SEE LIVEWIRE, PAGE E5 that gives the company control “Impermanence” for the SydNewland has recorded a of the entire Beach Boys new song titled “Lean On Me\ brand, including their recordings, master tapes, publishing, Stand By You” to thank these and even other aspects of the workers and is looking for band’s intellectual property, everyone to join the effort in ffeaturing feat eatt the We-Vibe Melt such as the rights to their any way possible. images.

Newland would like people Liner notes This means that as technolto post their own thank-you i r f or an A • Western Massachusetts ogy develops, the band might to social media by doing e r u s a P le music veteran Peter Newanything from doing a dance, be able to be “seen” in the r Be f o re e v e N e k land wants you to join his new blowing a kiss, making a future via platforms such as O li project.

CGI and virtual reality. “hand heart” or any sort No, he doesn’t need you to “The Beach Boys, in a sense, of sign or art. These can be sit in on drums. His invitation posted at the following social are not just a band. They’re a requires no special talent lifestyle. They’re a consumer media platforms: Facebook: beyond caring. brand,” the company’s CEO facebook.com/ThxNamed “ThxCrgvr,” NewCrgvr-101630551966290 or Olivier Chastan told Rolling AdamEveGreenfieldMA land’s idea is to honor frontInstagram: instagram.com/ Stone. “And they’ve never Everyone Welcome Pleasure, Ad Pleasure A Adventure, d nture dve t &F Fun un line healthcare workers who thxcrgvr (and directly tag really exploited that.”

AEStoresGreenfield 18 Main St., Greenfield, MA • 413-774-9800 @thxcrgvr). have been so crucial during The band, which has had a www.Greenfield.AdamEveStores.com People could also do a lipthe COVID-19 pandemic. fractured history, will soon Mon-Thurs 10am-9pm, Fri. & Sat. 10am-10pm, Sun. 12pm-7pm

Toys to Make You Melt

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LiveWire CONTINUED FROM PAGE E4

December, saying that she found the “constant pressure of being in a girl group and living up to expectations very hard.”

“Making friends and fans all over the world I can’t thank you all enough from the bottom of my heart for making me feel like the luckiest girl in the world. You have always been there to support and encourage me and I will never ever forget it,” she wrote to her fans on social media.

WEEKEND

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 | E5

HOLYOKE

Wistariahurst uncorks virtual wine tasting event Fundraiser scheduled for March 12 features winemaker Carol Shelton

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By Keith O’Connor

Special to The Republican

ring your own glass. Open your bottle of Wild Thing Zinfandel. Then plop yourself in front of a video screen and tune in via Zoom to the Wistariahurst Museum’s Virtual Wild Thing Wine Tasting Fundraiser on March 12.

“Every year around Valentine’s Day we hold a wine tasting fundraiser. It’s one of our best events and sells out.

This year because of the pandemic, we knew we couldn’t hold a traditional wine tasting where you go from table to table trying different wines,” said Sarah English, enterprise coordinator at Wistariahurst Museum in Holyoke.

“So, we had to think outside the box and figure out how we could still hold our popular fundraiser, which annually not only attracts regular visitors to Wistariahurst, but new faces as well, who come for the wine,” she added.

The result with the help of Wistariahurst Foundation Board member, Gordan Alexander, and longtime sponsor Liquors 44, was to bring the wine tasting experience into the home along with two bottles of wine provided with registration.

On the other side of the screen, the interactive evening of learning and tasting will be presented by award-winning winemaker, Carol Shelton, and moderated by Alexander, who owns Terroir Wines, an importer and distributor of fine wines.

“It’s going to be a different, but not lesser, experience.

Essentially you will be oneon-one in a room with Carol, the winemaker, talking about her wines and entertaining questions,” Alexander said, noting at a typical winetasting

“It’s going to be a different, but not lesser, experience.

Essentially you will be one-onone in a room with Carol, the winemaker, talking about her wines and entertaining questions.”

Gordan Alexander, Wistariahurst Foundation Board member

you usually only get to ask distributors about the wines they are presenting. “Otherwise, you would have to go to Napa Valley for that experience.”

Shelton is considered to be one of America’s most innovative and highly­respected winemakers. With over 35 years making wines from some of California’s finest vineyard sites, she has been named Winemaker of the Year five times. She has countless gold medals for her wines and was named one of eight Pioneer Women Winemakers of Sonoma County in 2005. Shelton continues to win awards and accolades — her 2011 Wild Thing Zinfandel was included in the Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2014.

Alexander noted he met

Shelton through his business partner.

“I’ve known Carol now for about six year. It’s through word-of-mouth in the industry that you learn about people like Carol. She is a really cool person and fun to hang out with, and she brings her knowledge and a lot of fun to events like ours,” he said.

“The two wines selected for our virtual wine tasting are Wild Thing Viognier and Wild Thing Zinvandel. They are really rich wines, big and juicy with great length to them ... just delicious,” Alexander added.

Following registration online, participants will pick up their wines at Liquors 44 on 44 Lincoln St., Holyoke, between March 4-11. The wines will be bagged and ready for pick-up at the register with descriptions and further instructions for logging into the March 12 presentation.

Registration reserves your bottles of wine – Wild Thing Viognier and Wild Thing Zinfandel – and participation in the online program. Participants will pay their $60 registration fee at Liquors 44 when picking up their bottles.

Participants can share one registration for the program with a friend or family member

The Wistariahurst Museum will host the Virtual Wild Thing Wine Tasting Fundraiser on March 12. Registration reserves your bottles of wine and participation in the online program. (METRO CREATIVE ARTS)

with whom they would like to watch the program, as well as share their bottles of wine.

“Sales are going well and we are pleased with the response so far, but there are still spaces left to fill. The only problem was that the storms did hold up the delivery of the wines to Liquors 44,” English said.

The interactive evening of tasting and discussion will be presented virtually via Zoom from 7 to 8 p.m.

“Fundraisers like our wine tasting are critically important to maintaining Wistariahurst, which would not exist without private support,” Alexander said.

ALWAYS HIGH PRICES PAID.

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• Yungblud didn’t believe it when his manager first told him that his cover of David Bowie’s ‘Life on Mars?’ would be played during NASA’s landing on the planet.

When the Perseverance rover landed on the Red Planet on Feb. 18 and NASA used the song as the soundtrack of the completion of the journey. Yungblud (real name: Dom Harrison) performed the song at the virtual “A Bowie Celebration: Just For One Day” tribute concert in January, backed by Bowie’s Yungblud longtime keyboard player, Mike Garson.

Yungblud told viewers of BBC’s “The One Show” how much he loved space and how he was sarcastic when his manager first told him that NASA had called him.

“I’m like, ‘All right, yeah cool, what’s it about? You leaving me to go be an astronaut?’

“He said, ‘No you idiot, it’s about you! If the Mars rover lands successfully, they’re gonna play your cover of your favorite artist of all time, David Bowie, alongside it.

I’m just like, ‘Nah man, that just sounds like someone is just completely off their head telling you a mad story.’

“It’s completely unfathomable. Someone needs to slap me so I’ll wake up.”

WEEKEND

E6 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021

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TV / MOVIES ONLINE STREAMING

‘I Care a Lot’ leads new films

By Ann Hornaday

Washington Post

A scene from the animated film “The Croods: A New Age.” (DREAMWORKS ANIMATION)

DVD RELEASES

‘Collective’ eerily relevant ‘Croods: A New Age’ has ‘chaotic good’ vibe

By KATIE FORAN-MCHALE Tribune News Service

Awards season is upon us.

Two major award nominees top the DVD picks for this week.

“Collective”: Government corruption and incompetence. A health care cover-up.

Unnecessary mass death and suffering. Sound familiar?

On this year’s Academy Awards documentary feature shortlist and nominated for both the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Nonfiction Film, director Alexander Nanau’s “Collective” follows a team of Romanian journalists who are investigating the 2015 fire at the Colectiv nightclub that killed 64 and injured 146 people due to lax safety standards and preventable hospital tragedies. And it’s an eerily relevant story for the COVID-19 era.

“Suspenseful and gripping, despairing and deeply human, the movie first screened at the Venice and Toronto film festivals (in

2019) ... A year ago, ‘Collective’ played like a nonfiction genre piece, a journalistic thriller by way of a political procedural,” wrote Los Angeles Times critic Justin Chang in his review. “Seen now, during the gravest world health crisis in more than a century, Nanau’s expose of medical malpractice and pharmaceutical corruption feels like a grim warning, a prequel to a real-life horror movie still very much in the making.”

“The Croods: A New Age”: Seven years after the franchise’s first installment, the Croods are back. Nominated for the Golden Globes Best Animated Feature, the film follows the family’s continued quest to find a landing spot. Along the way they encounter the Bettermans, who are more evolved, and interested in compelling Guy (voiced by Ryan Reynolds) to stay with them forever, much to the chagrin of Crood patriarch Grug (voiced by Nicolas Cage) and daughter Eep (voiced by Emma Stone), also Guy’s girlfriend.

Overall, it’s a “chaotic good” vibe, wrote Tribune News Service critic Katie Walsh in her review.

“The journey is still fun,

SEE DVD, PAGE E12

Rosamund Pike delivers a deliciously diabolical portrayal of the ultimate IceCold Girl in “I Care a Lot,” the ironically titled comic thriller by J Blakeson. Pike plays Marla, a legal guardian who makes her living by targeting vulnerable elders, hustling them into nursing homes and fleecing them of their remaining worldly possessions. When she sets her sights on Jennifer (Dianne Wiest), though, Marla’s calculating instincts fail her, especially when a mysterious pastry-eating mobster named Roman (Peter Dinklage) enters the picture. Written with Rosamund Pike, left, and Dianne Wiest star in “I Care a Lot.” comic zing and poisonous (SEACIA PAVAO / NETFLIX) cynicism, “I Care a Lot” finally runs afoul of Blakeson’s Buonarroti (Alberto Testone). machinations, which are Screen Daily writes: “Draplotty, pulpy and preachy matically the film can feel a in equal measure. But as a little one-note and overlong. stylish, stiletto-sharp showcase for Pike’s skills – superb But it stands comparison with control, flawless timing and Derek Jarman’s “Caravaggio” thoroughgoing commitment as a fascinating portrait of an to even the most unsavory artist fighting to survive in the character beats – it’s unbeatcut-and-thrust of times quite able. Come for the critique of unlike our own.” Unrated. late capitalism, stay for Pike Available at afisilver.afi.com.

In Italian with subtitles. 134 at her silkiest and most savagely compelling. R. Available minutes. on Netflix. Contains coarse language throughout and some Billed as a hybrid of psychoAlberto Testone appears in logical horror and realistic violence. 118 minutes.

“Sin.” (ANDREI KONCHALOVSKY STUDIOS drama, “Test Pattern” tells / RAI CINEMA) Also streaming the story of a Black woman The feature directorial (D.C.-born Brittany S. Hall) com and virtualavalon.org. who, after she is sexually asdebut of British actor Simon saulted, drives with her White 84 minutes.

Bird, “Days of the Bagnold boyfriend (Will Brill) from Summer” tells the story of hospital to hospital in search of Inspired by actual events, a teenage metalhead (Earl a rape kit. Unrated. Available at the crime thriller “Silk Road” Cave, son of rocker Nick afisilver.afi.com and virtual Cave) who is forced to spend follows the creator (Nick the summer with his unhip Robinson of “Love, Simon”) of avalon.org. 82 minutes. mother (Monica Dolan.) the internet’s first unregulated In the Chinese drama “TwiBased on the a graphic novel marketplace and his run-in

by Joff Winterhart, the film with a disreputable DEA agent light’s Kiss,” a 70-year-old has, according to Variety, a (Jason Clarke). R. Available on married cabbie (Tai-Bo) and a 65-year-old retired single “minimalist feel” in keeping various streaming platforms. father (Ben Yuen) – both with its origins. This translates Contains pervasive crude lancloseted gay men – discover into “basic setups, clean, crisp guage and drug material. 118 the possibility of love after a images, and the kinds of pastel minutes. chance encounter. The New colors stereotypically found in The Italian drama “Sin” York Times writes: “Handmiddle-class English homes.” somely shot but humble in Unrated. Available at afisilver. is a portrait of the Renaisafi.com, themiracletheatre. sance artist Michelangelo SEE STREAM, PAGE E12

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WEEKEND

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 | E7

PODCAST

Obama and Springsteen: The latest podcast duo Former president and rock star team up for ‘Renegades: Born in the USA’

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By Ben Sisario

New York Times

ormer President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen are liberal icons, vacationing friends and rhapsodists about the dreams and travails of everyday Americans.

Now they are also podcast hosts.

On Monday, Spotify released the first two episodes of “Renegades: Born in the USA,” featuring the 44th president and the singer of the anthemic hit name-checked in the show’s title. In “Renegades,” which will release six subsequent episodes weekly, the two men speak intimately and expansively on topics such as race, fatherhood and the painful divisions that persist in American society.

Drawn from a series of one-on-one conversations at Springsteen’s home studio in New Jersey from July to December, the show is a searching, high-minded discussion of life in the United States from two masters of the form.

“In our own ways, Bruce and I have been on parallel journeys,” Obama says in the first episode. “We still share a fundamental belief in the American ideal. Not as an airbrushed, cheap fiction or an act of nostalgia that ignores all the ways that we’ve fallen short of that ideal. But as a compass for the hard work that lies before each of us as citizens.”

“Renegades” also represents a kind of high-water mark for podcasting. The show is

crowds roar out its line, “This is your hometown.”

“I always get a sense that they know the town they’re talking about isn’t Freehold,” Springsteen says, referring to where he grew up in New Jersey. “It’s not Washington. It’s not Seattle.

It’s the whole thing — it’s all of America.” Brief pause. “It’s a good song.”

“It’s a great song,” Obama quickly adds.

The show reflects a big-tent centrism that has long been part of both men’s approach.

Springsteen released a Jeep ad during the latest Super Bowl — his first commercial ever — that called for Americans to meet in “the middle.”

Surveying the nation’s divisions, Obama asks: “How did we get here? How could we find Bruce Springsteen and former President Barack Obama at Springsteen’s home studio. Their our way back to a more unifying new show, “Renegades: Born in the USA,” features the 44th president and the musician American story?” That push for speaking intimately and expansively on topics like race, fatherhood and the country’s painful a middle ground was somedivisions. (ROB DEMARTIN VIA THE NEW YORK TIMES) times a liability for Obama during his presidency, and may Although the produced by Higher Ground teners are under 35, according be at odds with the hyperpartisanship of the moment.

Productions, the company to a market survey last year by show is positioned Although the show is posifounded by Obama and his Edison Research and Triton as an attempt tioned as an attempt to underwife, Michelle, and the two Digital. stand the divisions in American men’s collaboration seemingThe president and the rock to understand ly would have fit in with the society and to search for solustar met on the 2008 camthe divisions in paign trail, and over the years tions, Obama and Springsteen Obamas’ slate of TV and film American society they have cultivated a warm largely avoid politics and stick projects with Netflix. friendship. In January 2017, as to personal stories.

But podcasting, once seen and to search for Obama was preparing to leave Yet political tensions inevias a low-stakes sandbox filled solutions, Obama tably loom over “Renegades.” with comedians and public-ra- office, Springsteen gave an and Springsteen dio regulars, is now a booming, intimate, career-spanning perFor a discussion of national formance at the White House, divisions in the eighth and final competitive media business largely avoid of the first season, which he then developed into that attracts ever-bigger politics and stick to episode his solo show on Broadway. In Obama added an introductory names. This month, former personal stories.

“Renegades,” Obama, 59, and note about the Jan. 6 storming President Bill Clinton began of the Capitol. his own show, “Why Am I Tell- Springsteen, 71, laugh heartily ing You This?” as they recount some of the Obama also says little about Obama discusses growing up in “It illustrates exactly where meals, chats and impromptu Hawaii with the confusion and his successor, former President Donald Trump. But his view we are at this moment in time,” singalongs they have shared. discomfort of being of mixed of the man who took his place, Dawn Ostroff, chief content Dan Fierman, head of Higher race — “I wasn’t easily identifiable; I felt like an outsider,” and of the state of the country, officer of Spotify, the exclusive Ground Audio, said Michelle he says — and they each share is clear from Obama’s very outlet for “Renegades,” said Obama’s experience making lessons of masculinity they first words in the first episode, of the show. “It says this is her show last year spurred the drew from the failings of their setting the scene of 2020 as a the next big thing – or it has former president to create his own fathers. moment of anxiety and conflict already arrived.” own podcast, and he selected They are a mutual-admiin America.

For Spotify, which has made a Springsteen as his interlocutor. ration society. Springsteen, “For three years I’d had to big push into podcasts over the Their first recording session who now and then picks up a watch a presidential successor past two years (including buy- took place July 30, just hours ing the studio Gimlet Media guitar, tells the story of his 1984 who was diametrically opposed after Obama delivered the to everything I believed in,” and launching “The Michelle eulogy for John Lewis, the civil song “My Hometown,” with Obama says. “And witnessed a Obama Podcast” last summer), rights hero and congressman its echoes of racial conflict in country that seemed to be getthe show is partly a bid to the 1960s. He marvels at the from Georgia. attract older listeners. Nearly universality and patriotism that ting angrier and more divided Their conversation mingles with each passing day.” half of American podcast liscomes through when concert the personal and the mythic.

WEEKEND

E8 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021

THE REPUBLICAN | MASSLIVE.COM

DINE & WINE

Smaller menus, carryout may become enduring parts of restaurant landscape

George Lenker Beer Nut

Seasonal beers teach us patience

T

HERE ARE SOME beers that are associated with a particular season. And there is no better example of this than the Märzen style.

Now, the uninitiated might think that with its name, Märzen (German for March) is a spring beer, but as beer aficionados know, it’s actually a brew that is associated with autumn and Oktoberfest. It gets its name for the fact that it is traditionally brewed in March, then lagered until the fall.

So why am I talking about an Oktoberfest style when the celebration is a good six months away? Because it occurred to me that it’s a style that represents just what we all need right now: hope and patience. It came to mind when I remembered that the style is traditionally brewed in the upcoming month.

As lovers of this Bavarian delight will tell you, they get pretty excited as Oktoberfest approaches. I’m sure that anticipation was even more fevered back when brewing wasn’t as ubiquitous as it is now. (Of course, these days, Oktoberfest beers start showing up as early as July, which is silly to me. But that debate is for another day.)

SEE BEER, PAGE E9

M

UCH HAS changed in the restaurant industry over the past 12 months, and a question on the minds of most top executives in the business is the extent to which those changes will turn out to be lasting. Consumers have reacted to the pandemic by embracing third party delivery, curbside pickup, and family meals as substitutes for the traditional dining experience, and many who run restaurant companies are betting that changes in consumer behavior are going to linger long after the pandemic subsides.

In response, many brands are retooling for recovery by refocusing menus and operating procedures to better support takeout and delivery, adding drive-thru lanes, and developing ghost kitchens and virtual brands.

One restaurant industry leader who’s not convinced these pandemic-driven changes will “stick” is Gene Lee, the long-time CEO of Darden Restaurants in Lee, whose company operates Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse. Lee is a skeptic who feels, as he puts it, that “consumers are tired of eating restaurant food in their homes” and are instead eager to return to restaurant dining.

Some research data tends to support Lee’s observations.

A recent “State of the Industry” paper published by the National Restaurant Association, described a large number of consumers queried for the report as saying that “they were not eating out as much as they would like.”

Additionally, 64% of respondents to the survey said they favored a restaurant with traditional table service rather than ordering food using a digital platform.

Despite the social inertia that consumers are suggesting will characterize their return

The Shamrock Shake and Oreo Shamrock McFlurry drink have returned to McDonald’s. (COURTESY OF MCDONALD’S)

Hugh Robert Off The Menu

to normal, it does seem likely that changes the pandemic has brought about — smaller menus, smaller staffs, and more carryout options — may become enduring parts of the restaurant landscape.

Side dishes • It’s Shamrock Shake season again at participating McDonald’s restaurants.

The popular “minty” frozen drinks made with vanilla soft serve are available as long as supplies last.

The shakes will be available in three sizes; an OREO Shamrock McFlurry that’s enhanced with cookie pieces will also be available.

Contact individual McDonald’s locations to confirm Shamrock Shake availability.

• In order to encourage their frontline workers to par-

ticipate in COVID-19 immunization programs, a number of major restaurant chains have announced financial incentives.

Darden Restaurants Inc. is offering its employees up to four hours of pay (two hours for each of two doses) to compensate them for getting the shots.

Seattle-based Starbucks is offering a similar program to encourage employees to get vaccinated, and McDonald’s Corp. is also supporting crew members in company-operated locations with four hours of paid time reimbursement if those employees choose to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

These payments, which the companies involved describe as providing compensation for lost work time and expense incurred during the immunization process, are also a way firms can sidestep potentially conflict-causing and hard-toenforce vaccination mandates.

chain canceled its National Pancake Day promotion (which would have been otherwise held on February 16) in favor of a month-long promotion linked to its MyIHOP email club. New and existing members of that loyalty program will receive a pancake “IOU” good for a free short stack of IHOP’s buttermilk pancakes.

The pancake IOU will be honored at participating IHOP locations during the month of April. Those wishing to join MyIHOP can do so at ihop.com/en/myhop.

• Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture (CISA) will be offering a remote workshop series entitled “Managing Food Quality and Safety” for small food producers.

The course will cover the food science basics, product labeling requirements, and regulatory mandates with which artisan food producers need to comply. The remote workshop sessions are scheduled for March 23, March 25, and March 30 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day.

For more details contact CISA at 413-665-7100 or email info@buylocalfood. org.

• The Blue Heron Restaurant in Sunderland, which took a break during January and early February, has resumed curbside takeout, offering the service on Thursday evenings from 4 to 7 p.m., on Friday and Saturday evenings from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sundays from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

The curbside menu, which • Shrove Tuesday, the is updated weekly, features small plates, soups, and salads day immediately before the beginning of Lent, is also Na- along with various entree tional Pancake Day, and IHOP, selections such as the lightly the coffeeshop chain, tradismoked pork chop, braised tionally marked that secular veal osso buco, and pan-roasted duck breast offered on the occasion with a free pancake Feb. 15 menu. Supplementing giveaway.

SEE MENU, PAGE E11 This year, however, the

THE REPUBLICAN | MASSLIVE.COM

WEEKEND

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 | E9

DINE & WINE

O

Some inexpensive wines worth aging

NLY EXPENSIVE wines are worth saving.

That often seems to be the conventional wisdom if you read wine reviews or magazines.

If a wine costs more than $40 or $50 a bottle, put the wine aside for 5 to 10 years or even longer, especially if the wine’s from one of the more celebrated wine regions like Bordeaux or Burgundy or Tuscany or Napa.

But if the wine costs $10 or $15 a bottle or even less?

Don’t even bother, all the so-called ‘experts’ often seem to say.

They’re not worth the wait.

They don’t get better over time.

They’re not age worthy.

I am here to tell you they are wrong.

Some inexpensive wines definitely get better with age.

I was thinking about this recently when my wife and I had a bottle of 2010 L’ Ameillaud Rhone Villages Cairanne from France’s Rhone region. I bought the wine years ago for about $9.

I came across this wine a few weeks ago. OK, I’ll be honest. I didn’t even know the wine was in our slightly disorganized basement.

I’m glad I forgot.

This wines was everything you would expect and hope for

Beer CONTINUED FROM PAGE E8

Wine Press

many white wines – won’t be out of this world in a decade or so.

Then again, I can say the same thing about a lot of This 11-year-old, $9 wine from France’s Rhone region tastes betwines that cost $40 or $50 or ter than ever now, wine columnist Ken Ross says. (KEN ROSS PHOTO) more.

Price does not always equal quality.

In contrast, when the weather’s hot and dry

and there’s just enough rain to keep the grapes alive, the wines made with grapes grown that year often taste delicious and often age well for years.

Uruguay and a 2011 Gewurtztraminer from Cave Spring, a terrific Canadian winery that makes some of the best bargains around. The 10-year-old Canadian white wine cost less than $20 a bottle. The 13-yearold red wine from Uruguay cost $9.99.

Now let me be clear.

Not all inexpensive wines get better with age.

Most $10 wines – especially

beers special is the anticipation for them. They are traditionally brewed in March, and then we have to wait almost six months for them.

Not counting the anticipation of the birth a child during the nine months of a pregnancy, I’m guessing a lot of beer fans would put the excited expectation of Oktoberfest’s arrival is right near the top of their lists.

And waiting might be the hardest part, as Tom Petty sang, but it’s also good for us.

Patience is certainly a virtue I need to work on, and in the troubled times we live in, we

could all use a little more of it.

So when you start to feel a little antsy or agitated or anxious about a situation (especially one that is testing your forbearance), think of how those delicious Märzen brews will soon be brewed and how you need to show some self-restraint to get the reward in the autumn.

Because in the meantime, there are plenty of other beers. Just like in life, where there is always something else to focus on rather than your problems.

Cheers.

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from a red wine from France’s Rhone region.

Robust.

Earthy.

Intense.

Voluptuous.

No wonder I rated this wine the best wine of the year for under $10 a bottle in 2015.

And speaking of great, older, inexpensive wines, my wife and I also recently had a magnificent, 2008 Tannat from

SEE WINE, PAGE E11

3135607-01

Yet it’s true that seasonal beers are one of the real pleasures for traditional beer drinkers. They give you something to look forward to and hone the virtue of patience. And the Märzen style is maybe the most prominent example. Sure we have other seasonal beers, but to my mind, Oktoberfest Märzens are the classic examples of a true seasonal brew.

But what makes Märzen

Ken Ross

The year the wine was made is often frankly much more important.

Why is vintage so important?

I know some of you might be skeptical since I’ve talked to some people who think a wine’s vintage is overrated.

But consider this. Wine is made from grapes. Those grapes grow outdoors. And weather that year matters a lot.

To put it another way, every ski season isn’t the same. Some years it’s warm and rainy and the conditions are terrible. But when it’s cold and snows day after day? Break out the powder skis.

The same is true with wine.

Cold, wet summers often don’t produce great wines. In con-

E10 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021

WEEKEND

THE REPUBLICAN | MASSLIVE.COM

ONLINE STREAMING

Revisit ‘Rent’ and more theater at home

A

‘Bad Dates’ A good rule of thumb: Whenever the wonderful Andréa Burns (“In the Heights,” “On Your Feet!”) pops up in something, just check it out. In this case it’s Theresa Rebeck’s one-woman play “Bad Dates,” presented by the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey, which should provide good opportunities for Burns to flex her considerable comic muscles as a divorced woman looking for love.

– Through March 14; georgestreetplayhouse.org

By Elisabeth Vincentelli

New York Times

pair of gamechanging shows are celebrating big anniversaries, so now is a good time to revisit them and their legacies.

George C. Wolfe’s “The Colored Museum,” an anthology of sketches about Black culture (called exhibits), felt like a bolt of lighting when it premiered in 1986. At its heart, as Frank Rich said in his New York Times review, was the question “How do American Black men and women at once honor and escape the legacy of suffering that is the baggage of their past?”

Thanks to Crossroads Theater Company – where the show originated before moving to the Public Theater and which is streaming the “Great Performances” capture from 1991 – we can confirm that while a few details have aged, “The Colored Museum” retains much of its satirical charge.

It’s fascinating, now, to see how playlets in the show – such as “Git on Board” (about welcoming guests on a “celebrity slaveship”) and “The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play” (a blistering take on “A Raisin in the Sun”) – have influenced contemporary works like Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “An Octoroon” and Jordan E. Cooper’s “Ain’t No Mo.’” Through Feb. 28; cross roadstheatrecompany.com

‘Letter to My Father’

From left, Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin and Anthony Rapp perIn 1919, a 36-year-old form in “Rent,” in New York, Jan. 24, 1996. New York Theater Franz Kafka penned, but did Workshop is revisiting the musical with the tribute “25 Years of not send, a long missive to Rent: Measured in Love.” (SARA KRULWICH / THE NEW YORK TIMES) his father, Hermann. The

nomenon with the tribute “25 Years of Rent: Measured in Love,” in which Eva Noblezada, Ben Platt, Billy Porter and Ali Stroker join original cast members, including Wilson Jermaine Heredia, Idina Menzel, Adam Pascal, Anthony Rapp and Daphne Rubin-Vega.

– March 2 to 6; nytw.org

Catching up with British productions The National Theater’s Nathan Lane as Roy Cohn in streaming arm, National “Angels in America: Part 2: Theater at Home, has just Perestroika,” in New York, made available its acclaimed Feb. 22, 2018. The National production of “Angels in Theater’s streaming arm, America,” which stars AnNational Theater at Home, drew Garfield, Nathan Lane has just made available its acclaimed production of “An- and Denise Gough. Some of gels in America,” which stars us in the United States were lucky enough to see it when Andrew Garfield, Lane and the production traveled from Denise Gough. (SARA KRULWICH / London to Broadway three THE NEW YORK TIMES) years ago. Perhaps even more the Pulitzer Prize for Drama exciting, then, is the opportuand transferred to Broadway, nity to discover older shows that didn’t come to New where it remained for over When Jonathan Larson’s York, like “Antigone” starring 12 years. Hindsight makes it “Rent” opened at New York clear that “Rent” has endured Christopher Eccleston and Theater Workshop in 1996, its because a fairly conventional Jodie Whittaker; “Medea,” young, often queer and racial- heart beats under its edgy de- with a pre-”I May Destroy ly diverse characters felt new meanor and that this “rock” You” Michaela Coel as the in musicals; it also dealt with musical is built out of zhunurse; and Lucy Kirkwood’s zhed-up show tunes; those are “Mosquitoes,” in which Olivia the HIV/AIDS crisis, one of solid bones.

Colman and Olivia Williams the biggest issues of the day.

New York Theater Workplay sisters.

The show immediately found shop is revisiting the phe– ntathome.com a passionate audience, won

text (published in English as “Letter to His Father”) was an impassioned indictment of a domestic tyrant, the nowgrown son still possessed by fear, his wounds still fresh.

The M-34 company captures the live show with multiple cameras, offering various perspectives to the audience.

The show is directed by James Rutherford and performed by Michael Guagno.

– Through March 28; m-34.org ‘The Long Goodbye’ British actor Riz Ahmed, whose performance in “Sound of Metal” recently earned him a Golden Globe nomination, is also a rapper. A solo show expanding on themes explored on his album of the same name, “The Long Goodbye,” was livestreamed in December and is now available on demand from the Brooklyn Academy of Music and the Manchester International Festival, which jointly commissioned it. Recording himself on a cellphone, the charismatic Ahmed prowls the empty Great American Music Hall in San Francisco while blending hip-hop and spoken word, autobiographical accounts and pointed insights.

– Through March 1; bam.org

Telling someone else’s story André De Shields, who stole the show every night in “Hadestown,” portrays an abolitionist and social reformer in “Frederick Douglass: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory” (Feb. 26 to 28). It will be presented on Flushing Town Hall’s virtual stage.

– flushingtownhall.org ‘Some Old Black Man’ One of the greatest actors of his generation, Wendell Pierce (“The Wire,” “Treme”) is fiercely committed to theater. In 2018, he starred in the James Anthony Tyler two-hander “Some Old Black Man” in New York; in the fall, he quarantined in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to participate in a virtual, fully staged version of that play for the University of Michigan’s University Musical Society. Pierce plays a middle-aged college professor who reconnects with his father (Charlie Robinson) as the two men confront their experiences with racism.

– March 1 to 12; ums.org ‘The Past Is the Past’ Manhattan Theater Club revisits some of its past productions in Curtain Call, a new reading series. Ron Cephas Jones – a captivating stage actor despite being most famous for the series “This Is Us” – and Jovan Adepo (“Watchmen”) lead Richard Wesley’s “The Past Is the Past.” The New York Times called the play “a poignant evocation of families and generations in conflict” when the company presented it in 1975, a year after its premiere at the Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn, New York (Through Feb. 28).

Head over to Manhattan Theater Club’s YouTube channel to watch playwright John Patrick Shanley and Timothée Chalamet discuss the 2016 production of “Prodigal Son” – with generous excerpts from the show, which just predated Chalamet’s stardom.

– manhattantheatreclub.com

THE REPUBLICAN | MASSLIVE.COM

Garden

live Zoom auctions, virtual guest speakers and 100 individually created and CONTINUED FROM PAGE E3 delivered mug bouquets for The Springfield Garden nursing homes.

Club would not give in to “Through telephone, email COVID-19, she said. “Toand Zoom — even personal gether, we dreamed up as deliveries in masks — we many new ways as we could grew ever more adept at to share that joy, that peace, having fun and bringing joy during this dark cold winter.” to the community and our In the midst of the panmembership,” Nespor said. demic, members developed For more information on socially distanced drive-by the movie club and other plant sales, virtual ValenSpringfield Garden Club tine Galas, twilight garden events, visit gcfm.org/ strolls for small groups, springfieldgardenclub.

WEEKEND

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021 | E11

Wine

before most of the grapes were harvested.

Not surprisingly, the 2010 CONTINUED FROM PAGE E9 vintage was an incredible year trast, when the weather’s hot for Rhone wines. Some of the and dry and there’s just enough best ones are only now starting rain to keep the grapes alive, to hit their peak. And in many the wines made with grapes cases, many of them will just grown that year often taste keep getting better for the next delicious and often age well for five to 10 years. The same is years. true for many 2010 red wines That’s probably why the from France’s Burgundy and 2010 red wine from France’s Bordeaux regions.

Rhone region tasted so great.

But don’t worry.

The weather that year in the You didn’t miss out.

Rhone region was especially If the inexpensive 2010 hot in July and September, right Rhone wine I had recently is

Menu CONTINUED FROM PAGE E8

such meals sized for one are several “family style” menu items designed to serve four.

Items on the curbside takeout menu must be ordered online and paid for in advance. More information and each week’s menu is available at blueherondining.com.

• An iconic element of the New York City restaurant scene throughout most of the 20th century, Horn & Hardart’s Automats were Art Deco precursors of modern fast food, dispensing individual portions of main dishes, desserts, and sides by way of individual coin-operated cubbyholes.

The last of the original Horn & Hardart’s Automats closed in 1991, but the concept is getting a new lease on life, albeit as a 21st century, high-tech reboot.

Automat Kitchen in Jersey City, New Jersey, reprises the delivery system concept of individual cubbyholes along with a traditional comfort food menu. Customers use a digital platform on their smartphone or a touch-screen kiosk in the restaurant itself to make and pay for their menu selections, which are prepared to order and placed in a serving compartment. Patrons receive a text message when their food is ready; that text includes a code to unlock the individual bay in which their meal is to be found.

The menu at Automat Kitch-

The Bluebonnet Diner, 324 King St. in Northampton, is open Sunday through Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

(DON TREEGER / THE REPUBLICAN FILE PHOTO)

en features choices such as a breakfast taco, a chicken parm sandwich, mac & cheese, and chicken potpie. More adventurous diners can even order the likes of a massaman curry pot roast.

Automat Kitchen’s developers reportedly envision the concept as having considerable growth potential.

More details about Automat Kitchen can be seen at restaurant-hospitality. com/technology/automatkitchen-puts-modern-spinclassic-no-contact format.

• The Bluebonnet Diner in Northampton remains open for socially distanced sit-down dining as well as offering curbside pickup and takeout.

Among the diner classics the Bluebonnet prepares are baked meatloaf, beef stew, and a roast turkey dinner as well as daily specialties such as chicken croquettes, corned beef & cabbage, and pot roast.

The Bluebonnet is open Sunday through Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. and on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Online ordering is available at bluebonnetdiner.net. The operation’s telephone number is 413-584-3333.

• This month, Denny’s Corp., the Spartansburg, South Carolina-based casual dining chain, has begun the rollout of two virtual brands, The Melt Down and The Burger Den.

A virtual brand is one of several restaurant industry innovations the acceptance of which has been accelerated by the pandemic. Virtual brands are delivery-only concepts; they typically operate out of brick-and-mortar restaurants or “ghost kitchens,” the latter being food production facilities that operate with no dining space.

Denny’s “The Burger Den” initiative capitalizes on the inventory and equipment already at Denny’s locations and will consequently be scaled up first. The menu for The Melt Down, which will be rolled out later, is planned to include a turkey melt made with turkey, bacon, and provolone or a barbecue melt that features beef brisket.

anything to go by, race out and stock up on 2015 and 2016 red wines from France’s Rhone region. Both vintages are right up there with 2010 when it comes to quality.

Just make sure you store the wines in a cool, dark place and forget about them for a decade or so. You’ll thank me later.

Cheers!

Wine Press by Ken Ross appears on Masslive.com every Monday and in The Republican’s weekend section every Thursday.

• Though winter seems inclined to linger this year, maple syrup producers across the region are gearing up for the 2021 sugar boiling season.

Sugarhouse restaurants are a big part of the spring maple syrup season, and a number of area sugarhouse restaurants are planning to open for socially distanced dining within the next few weeks.

The Massachusetts Maple Producers Association maintains a directory of sugarhouse restaurants in Western Massachusetts. The Association is also planning its annual Maple Weekend for March 20 and 21.

For up-to-date information on this year’s maple season and all it has to offer, visit massmaple.org.

• 30Boltwood, the restaurant located in the Inn on Boltwood in Amherst, is currently observing winter hours.

Open Friday and Saturday only from noon until 9 p.m., 30Boltwood requires advance reservations.

The restaurant hopes to move to expanded operating hours in the spring.

The restaurant’s farm-tofork menu can be viewed at 30Boltwood.com; its telephone number is 413-8352011.

Hugh Robert is a faculty member in Holyoke Community College’s hospitality and culinary arts program and has nearly 45 years of restaurant and educational experience.

Robert can be reached online at OffTheMenuGuy@aol.com.

E12 | THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2021

WEEKEND

THE REPUBLICAN | MASSLIVE.COM

DVD

Yun and Jimmi Simpson.

“Wrong Turn: The Foundation”: A group hiking the CONTINUED FROM PAGE E6 Appalachian Trail gets lost though harried. The animaand faces a deadly confrontion design is bright and coltation with a secret commuorful, moving as swiftly as the nity. Stars Charlotte Vega, snappy dialogue (the screen- Emma Dumont and Matthew play is by Kevin Hageman, Modine.

Dan Hageman, Paul Fisher, “John Hughes 5-Movie Bob Logan, Kirk DeMicco and Collection”: Collection of Chris Sanders),” Walsh wrote. ’80s hits from the legendary “But because the movie director includes “Planes, starts at an 11 and doesn’t let Trains and Automobiles,” up, the runtime feels overly “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” long. However, the voice per- “She’s Having a Baby,” “Pretformances are excellent, espe- ty in Pink” and “Some Kind of cially Cage, who brings his Wonderful.” signature sense of yearning “Lady Sings the Blues”: pathos to Grug the Neander1972 biopic starring Diana thal. Watching Grug get with Ross as Billie Holliday is the Pliocene Era and learn to available on Blu-ray for the embrace the new and differfirst time. ent does seemingly make all “Scooby-Doo The Sword that chaos worthwhile.” and the Scoob:” Animated film has the Mystery Machine Also new on DVD crew transported to medieval “The Last Vermeer”: A times by a sorceress.

Dutch artist (Guy Pearce) is “Inside Amy Schumer: accused of selling valuable The Complete Series”: artwork to the Nazis.

Collection includes all four “Last Call”: A depressed seasons of the hit sketch show man (Daved Wilkins) misdiby the stand-up comedian. als a janitor (Sarah Booth), thinking he’s reaching out to a Out on Digital HD “The Pond”: After besuicide prevention hotline.

“Redemption Day”: A ing fired from his post, an Marine captain (Gary Dourex-professor (Marco Canadea) dan) attempts to save his kid- begins experiencing hallucinapped wife (Serinda Swan) nations relating to his apocalyptic research. in Morocco.

“Silk Road”: Ross Ulbricht “The Vigil”: A man (Dave (Nick Robinson), creator of Davis) agrees to watch over the infamous unregulated on- a deceased member of the line marketplace that inspired Orthodox Jewish community a drug pipeline, is sought by overnight. In Yiddish, Hebrew the DEA. Also stars Jennifer and English. Out tomorrow.

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