MAY 2016

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PHILLY BLOCK PROJECT | 24 ART Edward Penfield, American (1866–1925). One image from Calendar for the Year 1897, printed 1896. Published by R. H. Russell & Son, New York.

Lithographs with commercial relief process. Approx. 14×10 1/4 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1965 (65.658.40[1]). Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

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5 | A THOUSAND WORDS 6 | The Power of Prints 8 | Women and Social Change 10 | ART SHORTS Williams Center Gallery at Lafayette Wexler Gallery Pennypacker Mills 12 | EXHIBITIONS The Art of the Miniature XXIV Baum School Annual Art Auction New Hope Arts: Sculpture 2016

THEATER 14 | CITY THEATER 14 | VALLEY THEATER

ENTERTAINMENT 15 | ICEPACK

Marie deHoa LeBlanc, decorator; Joseph Meyer, potter. Chocolate pot with a Design of Pine Trees, ca. 1909. Ceramic. Collection of Don Fuson.

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34 | KERESMAN ON DISC Karen Haglof Steven Lugerner & Jacknife Game Theory La Sera Miles Ahead: Soundtrack Avishai Cohen 35 | NICK’S PICKS Jane Monheit Alexis Cuadrado Larry Young Marcus Strickland’s Twi-Life 36 | SINGER / SONGWRITER John Doe Professor Longhair Mary Chapin Carpenter Dave Insley Victoria Reed 37 | JAZZ LIBRARY Hank Crawford

FOOD

THE BEAT

38 | Independence Beer Garden 40 | NEW! Guest Chef Recipe

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FILM

ETCETERA 42 | L. A. TIMES CROSSWORD 43 | AGENDA

20 | KERESMAN ON FILM Miles Ahead 26 | CINEMATTERS The Idol 28 | BAD MOVIE Criminal 30 | FILM ROUNDUP Elvis & Nixon The Lobster Midnight Special Weiner

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Raina Filipiak / Advertising filipiakr@comcast.net PRODUCTION Designer / Richard DeCosta Assistant Designer / Kaitlyn Reed-Baker CITY BEAT Thom Nickels / thomnickels1@aol.com VALLEY BEAT Geoff Gehman / geoffgehman@verizon.net FINE ARTS Edward Higgins Burton Wasserman MUSIC Nick Bewsey / nickbewsey@gmail.com Mark Keresman / shemp@hotmail.com Bob Perkins / bjazz5@aol.com Tom Wilk / tomwilk@rocketmail.com FOOD Robert Gordon / rgordon33@verizon.net CONTRIBUTING WRITERS A. D. Amorosi / divaland@aol.com Robert Beck / robert@robertbeck.net Jack Byer / jackbyer@verizon.net Peter Croatto / petecroatto@yahoo.com James P. Delpino / JDelpino@aol.com Sally Friedman / pinegander@aol.com Geoff Gehman / geoffgehman@verizon.net George Miller / gomiller@travelsdujour.com R. Kurt Osenlund / rkurtosenlund@gmail.com Keith Uhlich / KeithUhlich@gmail.com

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ON THE COVER: Lake Street Dive. Page 22

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ART A THOUSAND WORDS STORY AND PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

Wickecheoke MY MORNING HADN’T GONE well. Nothing calamitous, just one of those days when each attempt to accomplish something was met with more things that had to be done first. Two steps back, no steps forward. The beautiful, uncommonly warm day outside my window beckoned so I grabbed my small painting kit, jumped into our old beater CRV with Jack, and we headed out to the Wickecheoke creek.

It’s easy to forget that some people have to travel great distances to see the kind of natural beauty we’re surrounded by in Bucks and Hunterdon Counties.

When I paint along the Wickecheoke it feels like when I’m laying on a beach letting the sun soak through my body, and all the bother just melts away. It’s a homecoming of sorts. Trees, rocks, water, and air; we are family, made of the same stuff and connected to each other in a clear, understandable order. Sounds like I’m some granola-chewing tree-hugger, doesn’t it? Call it what you want, that’s what I believe.

The Wickecheoke was named by the Algonquian Delaware natives so long ago that nobody knows what it means, although it must have described something good. But to some, nature is just a distraction from the big prize. Along with many other valuable natural sites, the Wickecheoke is in the path of a pipeline that serves the fracking industry in upstate Pennsylvania. The extending tentacle is feeling its way across the top of Bucks, the Delaware River, and down the west side of Hunterdon.

The Wickecheoke has been preserved, but that doesn’t protect it. Federal law allows the pipeline developers to use eminent domain; in fact it makes it easier and cheaper for them. Preserved land is legally banned for commercial purposes and, since you can’t do anything with it, its book value is greatly reduced.

Organizations and local citizens made that happen by purchasing the development rights. In addition to being inexpensive, preserved land has few structures and residents to deal with. The government lets the pipeline company take the properties by eminent domain, pay the cheap price for it, and screw up land that the citizens feel is so crucial that they shelled out their own money to protect it. This includes drinking water sources, historical sites, wetlands, endangered species habitat, and other natural assets—40,000 acres of imRobert Beck’s work can be seen at www.robertbeck.net.

portant stuff you can’t fix or replace. That behavior is what gives petroleum companies, congressmen, and lawyers their good name.

But wait, it’s for the greater good, right? No. Fracking and pipelines are toxic beasts on many levels. The greater good isn’t served by crushing the last gasps of petroleum out of the ground while poisoning aquifers, destabilizing the earth structure, and accelerating climate change. Neither is the forcible taking of preserved land and private property, plus the environmental damage. I personally don’t know anyone who benefits from the pipeline—certainly not the people who live in the counties or put hard-earned money into property and preservation. I’m pretty sure those who do benefit don’t live anywhere near the action. They sure aren’t letting their water get poisoned.

There are alternatives to petroleum, but that’s not where the money is. In America corporations are legally bound to maximize the return for investors. Petroleum companies call it a search for energy, but that’s not the primary goal. They exist to make money. Success is often proportional to their ability to hire lawyers for court battles, and to influence law making. Some cultures aspire to enlightenment and harmony; others measure achievement by how much cash you can stuff in your pockets. Your god is what you worship. The Wickecheoke, along with the other properties on the long pipeline route, is a battleground of conflicting theologies.

While I was painting, a pickup truck pulled up and parked on the side of the road a few yards behind me. A couple of guys got out, reached in the back, and began putting together their rods and tackle. The sign on the side said they were carpenters. It was only early afternoon, but a gorgeous one like that can get the best of anybody. As they walked past I said, “This is the day for it.”

The first guy nodded. “Gonna see if we can catch some dinner.” He smiled and I smiled back.

“Doing some painting, huh?” the second man asked as he sidestepped down the bank. I said, “Yeah. I have to do something I can sell so I can have dinner too.” He chuckled and walked carefully along the rocky edge of the creek toward the shadows under the bridge, where the fish were waiting. ■ W W W. FA C E B O O K . C O M / I C O N D V ■ W W W. I C O N D V . C O M ■ M AY 2 0 1 6 ■ I C O N ■ 5

Art

BY BURTON WASSERMAN

The Power of Prints ARTISTS MAKE ORIGINAL PRINTS in order to share ideas and express feelings in a language of graphic vision. For this reason, printmaking is as significant a creative art as making serious paintings or sculpture. Consequently, artists far and wide have explored various types of print techniques in order to give expression to all manner of human experience. Printmaking came to Western Europe with the passing of the Dark Ages.

The first step in making an original print takes place when an artist develops a visual concept from which a master printing form or matrix is created. When this object is inked, multiple printed impressions may be taken Typically, such talents as Mantegna, Rembrandt and Toulouse–Lautrec have made contributions to this practice. Over the years, no institution has collected, studied and displayed such artworks better than the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Currently, and until May 22, 2016, a superb exhibition is on view, demonstrating this fact with an exceptional presentation titled The Power of Prints.

Credit for initially compiling the exceptional graphic print holdings of the Metropolitan properly belongs to

two great curators, William Ivins and A. Hyatt Mayor. Besides acquiring exceptional examples from the history of art, they wrote at length about classic specimens and mounted worthwhile exhibitions which informed ever-enlarging audiences about this special area of aesthetic activity. Their books on the subject helped to create an informed and appreciative audience for significant woodcuts, etchings, lithographs and the like. Incidentally, besides deeply poetic and philosophically significant visions, the installation also includes examples of popular posters and trade cards. On the other hand, one must report the most deeply rewarding pieces on view are the people-oriented prints by Albrecht Durer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya, Honoré Daumier, Mary Cassatt, James Whistler and Edward Hopper.

Accompanying the show is an excellent soft-cover catalog, rich with illustrations in black and white and fullcolor. The pages are alive with an eminently readable text that enhances the contact one makes with the original artworks. They also explain the technical differences between the varied types of matrix used to actually print the visual images.

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The “Adam and Eve” engraving by Durer is, without doubt, one of the most memorable vignettes of figurative representation in the entire history of art. Surely, it is an exceptional example of visual expression from the period of the renaissance. By the same token, the “Christ Crucified between Two Thieves“ has to be one of the most emotionally moving artworks from the time of the baroque period.

Without doubt, this is one of the best art exhibitions to come along in many and many a day. Perhaps its greatest virtue consists of the way it provides exceptional examples of printmaking from centuries ago to the present day.

It also offers a marvelous overview of the extraordinary highlights of esthetic achievement brought into being by certain exceptional individuals from the distant past to the here and now. ■

Benjamin Pollock, British (1857–1937). Characters and Scenes from Jack the Giant Killer for a Toy Theater, 1870–90. Lithograph, 6¾ × 8½ in. (17 × 21.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Elisha Whittelsey Collection,. The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1952 (52.541.1[3]). Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Edward Hopper (American, Nyack, New York 1882–1967 New York), Evening Wind, 1921. Etching. Plate: 6 15/16 x 8 1/4 in. (17.6 x 21 cm). Sheet: 9 7/16 x 10 5/8 in. (24 x 27 cm).

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1925 (25.31.7). Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

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Art

BY ED HIGGINS

Women and Social Change: THE NEWCOMB POTTERY EXPERIENCE

ACROSS FROM NEW ORLEANS, the 28-mile long Bogue Falaya River flows into Lake Pontchartrain’s north shore. There, in 1887, brothers William and Ellsworth Woodard paused in their sketching excursion to find a bank full of clay. It was what they had been looking for: high quality materials for a unique project they would soon be part of. They were from the Rhode Island School of Design and had been hired by the Newcomb Pottery Enterprise, a groundbreaking school, to teach women how to make pottery, and by Tulane University.

Women, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise at Princeton Art Museum features some 147 pieces of pottery designed by women in a remarkable project of art and social change. In late 1884, the World’s Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition made its way to New Orleans, which was also considered part of the arts and crafts movement. At the time, Tulane University offered two evenings a week for ladies to learn art.

The period also coincided with the English Arts and Crafts movement. It emphasized craftsmanship and handwork over the mass production brought on by the industrial revolution. They, along with two women teachers, Gertrude Roberts and Mary Given Sheerer, realized the

need for women to learn commercial skills and become economically independent, in addition to the domestic skills expected of every Southern wife.

All of the elements came together in 1894 and the Newcomb Pottery Enterprise was born. The official title was the H. Sophie Newcomb Memorial College, named after a wealthy benefactor’s daughter. By 1887, the project merged with Tulane.

Dr. Jesse Poesch, retired art history teacher at Tulane, wrote: “The approach of the Newcomb Pottery Enterprise and the wares it produced are correctly seen as most directly rooted in the aesthetic and philosophy of the Arts and Crafts movement.” The project was a success, artistically and commercially and it lasted until 1940 when the popularity of Arts and Crafts pottery declined. The successor, the Newcomb Pottery Guild produced pottery with more functionality and less decoration. The Princeton show also includes examples from the Guild.

Still, traditions die hard and the project enlisted the aid of men who actually threw the pots as women were considered too fragile for such work. The women, all white as required by the school’s founders, did all the design work and the subject matter was decidedly Southern,

depicting the fauna and flora familiar to the artists. The designers used heavy lines, clear graphics and overall large designs. These were very different than the wares being done at similar potteries in New York, Ohio, and Massachusetts toward the end of the century.

The exhibition was put together by Tulane’s Newcomb Gallery and the Smithsonian. Its curator, Sally Main, said, “This [exhibition] is the finest example of the pottery art form displayed alongside pieces that will come as a revelation to many, not only a rich variety of crafts but also photos and artifacts that breathe life into the Newcomb legacy.”

Many of the designers received publicity for their work, such as sisters Marie de Hoa LeBlanc and Emelie, Rosalie Urquhart, Leona Nicholson, Katherine Severance Wraight, Effie Shepard, and Henrietta Bailey. In addition to the pottery the women also made and sold book bindings, printed illustrations, drawings on paper, wood block prints, and decorative wooden objects.

“Women, and Social Change: The Newcomb Pottery Enterprise” opens at the Princeton Art Museum on May 7 and runs through July 10. (609) 258-3788. artmuseum.princeton.edu ■

L-R: 1) Anna Frances Simpson, decorator; Joseph Meyer, potter. Vase with a Design of Pine Trees and the Moon. Ceramic. Collection of the Haynie family; 2) Unknown decorator; Joseph Meyer, potter, Vase with a Design of Daffodils, 1897. Ceramic. Collection of Ruth Weinstein Lebovitz; 3) Rita Marie Roger, Design with Cherry Bounce Berries, ca.1925–30. Gouache on illustration board. Tulane University Art Collection. Accession number D.1985.2; 4) Esther Huger Elliot, decorator; Joseph Meyer, potter, Lamp Base with a Design of Cat’s Claw Flowers; Shade with a Design of Magnolia Flowers, ca. 1902. Ceramic, brass, mica, metal fittings. Newcomb Art Collection, Tulane University c.1973.125.A. 5) Harriet Coulter Joor, decorator; Joseph Meyer, potter, Vase with a Design of Daffodils, ca. 1903. Ceramic. Newcomb Art Collection, Tulane University 2012.6.2.

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Art Shorts CURATED BY ED HIGGINS

Tiffany Glass: Painting with Color and Light at The Williams Center Gallery at Lafayette As a painter, Louis Comfort Tiffany was captivated by the interplay of light and color, and this fascination found its most spectacular expression in his glass “paintings.” Through the medium of opalescent glass, Tiffany could actually capture light in color and manipulate it to achieve impressionistic effects. Using new and innovative techniques and materials, Tiffany Studios created leaded-

The male-dominated Tiffany’s history will soon have to be re-written. Driscoll worked there 20 years as chief designer and she left after her marriage, because married women were not allowed at Tiffany’s. Through June 4. Lafayette College, 317 Hamilton St., Easton. (610) 330-5361. galleries.lafayette.edu/category/tiffany-at-lafayette Roberto Lugo at Wexler Gallery Defacing Adversity: The life and Times of Roberto Lugo, is a solo exhibition featuring recent ceramic work and paintings by the Philadelphia-born artist. Lugo grew up as a child of Puerto Rican immigrants in North Philadelphia where his life was riddled with the issues and challenges

and porcelain, Lugo is bringing new conversations to the table of contemporary art. His work is as strong as his message, and his message supports the purpose of his work.” Through June 11. Wexler Gallery, 201 North 3rd St., Philadelphia. (215) 923-7030. wexlergallery.com Samuel Pennypacker 1843-1916: His Lasting Legacy at Pennypacker Mills Samuel W. Pennypacker devoted much of his life to history as an author, historian, and collector of art and antiques. As governor, he had the foresight to preserve

Pennypacker at his desk.

Dragonfly Lamp

glass windows and lampshades in vibrant colors and richly varied patterns, textures, and opacities.

This exhibit is comprised of windows, lamps, and a selection of opalescent flat glass and pressed-glass “jewels” that illustrate the rich expanse of color and light available to the artists at the Tiffany Studios. The objects are some of the most iconic and celebrated of Tiffany’s works. Chosen for their rendering of nature in flowers or landscape scenes and for the subtle use of light and shading in decorative geometric patterns, they exemplify the rich and varied glass palette, sensitive color selection, and intricacy of design that was characteristic of Tiffany’s leaded-glass objects.

In addition to exploring materials and their effects, the exhibition also discusses the contributions of one of Tiffany’s leading designers, Clara Driscoll. Her role as prime designer of such iconic Tiffany lamps such as the Wisteria, the Dragon Fly, and the Daffodil (that great library lamp) has only come to light in the past decade.

Image by KeneK Photography, courtesy of Wexler Gallery

of inner city youth. His work depicts a clear story of how his eyes were opened to injustices in the world at a young age. Confronting stereotypes, civil rights, poverty and immigration, Lugo uses his traditional porcelain forms to address issues that have affected—and afflicted—his life head on. Although his family had limited means, they nurtured, guided and inspired him to become part of his own solution.

“He does not shy away from personal struggles or politically-charged issues,” said Wexler Gallery’s Victoria Rosenberger. “Instead, he uses them to fuel the fire of his kiln, and ultimately to communicate a new version of history where, as Roberto would say, a pottery wheel can kill hate. By combining graffiti, hip hop, history, pop culture

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natural resources and pass progressive legislation which helped shaped Pennsylvania throughout the 20th century. This exhibit highlights how his legacy still endures today, 100 years later.

Pennypacker’s name appears on an Elementary School in Philadelphia, a dormitory at Penn State University, a monument for Fallen Officers of the City of Scranton, a historic marker at Pennypacker Mills, a historic marker at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, and a historic marker for creating the State Police in Hershey. The sculptor of the monument to the 26th Pennsylvania Emergency Infantry Regiment’s on the Gettysburg Battlefield used Pennypacker’s likeness.

The exhibit explores what he did and how things he did affect us today. The exhibit will show off some of the unique items that he collected such as a piece of the step where the first Union officer was killed during the Civil War and autographs of well-known individuals such as Charles Darwin. Through January 2017. Pennypacker Mills, 5 Haldeman Road, Schwenksville, PA. (610) 2879349. montcopa.org/928/Pennypacker-Mills ■

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Paul Eaton (UK), “Walk This Way,” bronze

EXHIBITIONS

The 24th invitational exhibition of fine art miniatures includes work by artists from the U.S., Canada, Australia, England, Wales, Germany, South Africa, Israel and Romania. Mediums include oils, acrylics, drawings, pastels, watercolors, mixed media, etchings and sculpture.

Exhibiting: Beverly Abbott, Karen Allen, Carol Andre, James Andrews, Chrysoula Argyros, Elizabeth Babb, Stefan Balog, Christine Bass, Judth edgington Bayes, Rita Beckford, Jan Borgner, Anita Boyers, Camille Boyers, Celyne Brassard, John Brennan, Elizabeth Brown, Nancy Coirier, Jean cook, Carolyn Councell, Anita Cox, Debi Davis, Viviane de Kosinsky, david Drummond, Paul Eaton, Elizabeth Eckert, Phillis Elliott, Mary Ann Evans, Alan Farrell, Barbara Felisky, Wyn Foland, Beverly Fotheringham, Tykie Ganz, Bob Gherardi, John R. Good, Robert Grant, June Grey, Gini Harris, Richard William Haynes, Mimi Hegler, Denise Horne- Kaplan, Joan Humble, David Hunter, Kimberly Jansen, Mary Jansen, Debra Keirce, Janice Knoll, Janet Laird- Lagassee, Judy lalingo, Carol Lopez, Gerald Lubeck, Helen Mathyssen- Dobbins, Judy Minor, Victor Mordasov, Brenda Morgan, Linda Morgan, Jeanette Mullane, Paul Murray, Melissa Miller Nece, Demaris Olson, C. Pamela Palco, Carlton Plummer, kathy Pollak, Gunni Nilsson Price, Kelly Radding, Genevieve Roberts, Carol Rockwell, Linda Rossin, Joyce Rowsell, Doug Roy, Ann Ruppert, Judy Schrader, Mary Serfass, Elinor Sethman, nancy Shelly, Rachelle Siegrist, Wes Siegrist, James Smith, Elaine Sweiry, nancy Van Meter, Laura Von Stetina, Lynn Wade, Wayne Waldron, Sue Wall, Akiko Watanabe, Karyn Wiggil, Tracy Wilson, Marion Winter, Hanna Woodring.

Mimi Hegler (MD), “At Rest,” aquatint etching, 3 x 4"

Peter Bela Mayer, “River with Boat,” Oil 8 x 10

The Baum School of Art’s 31st Annual Art Auction The Baum School of Art 510 Linden St., Allentown, PA 610-433-0032 Baumschool.org Preview Night, Thurs., May 19 Silent and Live Auction, Saturday, May 21 The auction will feature over 300 works that will be up for bid that night in a silent auction from 5:30–7:30 pm and a live auction that begins at 8:00 pm. Free admission for both auctions. There is an optional buffet dinner catered by Karen Hunter; $50 in advance, $60 at the door.

The live auction comprises 108 works of art by local and regional artists, including six pieces by Walter Emerson Baum, the school’s founder. Also featured this year are works by other highly collectible artists such as Wilmer Behler, Peter Bela Mayer, John Berninger, Raymond Galluci, Grace Gemberling Keast, Antonio Martino, and William Swallow, to name a few.

View the items before they are up for bid at Preview Night, Thursday, May 19, 2016 from 6:00-8:00 pm.

Raymond Gallucci, Town Scene, Stoneware mosaic, 16.5 x 24.5 (detail)

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Eric Scultz, Phoenix

The Art of the Miniature XXIV The Snow Goose Gallery 470 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA 610- 974- 9099 thesnowgoosegallery.com May 1- June 12

15th Annual Juried Exhbition, Sculpture 2016 New Hope Arts Center, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope, PA 215-862-9606 Newhopearts.org Free, Friday-Sunday, Noon-5PM May 14-June 19 Work of 55 national and regional artists include a number of artists new to this venue, expanding the array of contemporary work. Jurors Elizabeth Miller McCue and Michelle Post have curated a diverse and entertaining display. Reception and Awards, Sat., May 14 5-8 pm open to members and guests of New Hope Arts or by reservation.

John Rodgers, Changed Perspective

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THEATER VALLEY

CITY

The Pipeline Project Anna Deavere Smith specializes in making solo plays where she plays scores of people she interviewed about American dilemmas ranging from racism to healthcare. At Muhlenberg College she performed monologues from The Pipeline Project, an examination of how prison culture is produced by poverty and poverty of spirit. The show was typically evocative, provocative and panoramic. Many actors channel real people; Smith inhabits them.

Dressed in shades of black, she used vivid language and body language to get under the skin of disparate characters. A street-savvy African-American councilman who thinks his native neighborhood could be significantly improved by a grocery store. A rather jolly Native American fisherman who stabbed a fellow inmate five times because he knew no one would challenge a 6-foot-4, 300-pound hulk. An excitable young black man who videotaped the savage beating of Freddie Gray by Baltimore cops and quickly learned that a camera can be a weapon of justice. My favorite Smith role model was Linda Cliatt-Wayman, a high-school principal and a practical preacher. Her mission is to steer one student at a time onto the road to hope. Her mantra is that hopeless people aren’t lost, they’re just wandering. Smith discussed her motivations and methods before and after the performance, which was linked to an exhibit of civil-rights photographs at the Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley. Journalistic theater, she said, became her forum for understanding why she felt alienated and “an affront to America” as a black student at a mostly white college.

She told a white undergrad reluctant to interview non-whites that she needed to fail to establish successful relationships. Not failing, she explained, is “the death of creativity.”

Gem of the Ocean Akin Babatunde is a distinguished actor/director who has worked on four of August Wilson’s ten plays about African-Americans in 20th-century Pittsburgh, the late writer’s hometown. Born Calvin Royall, the son of a retired New York City cop is right at home in Wilson’s roughly poetic, mythic world of dreamers, schemers and blasphemers. His authority helped make his Lehigh University production of Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean a sparkling, sparking gem. Gem is a comic, tragic dissection of guilt, vengeance and freedom.

Kashi Johnson was irresistibly earthy and lofty as Aunt Ester, a soul washer who claims to be 285 years old. Darius Omar Williams gave Solly Two Kings, a manure-selling radical, the scuffling boasts of Fred Sanford and the verbal lightning bolts of Moses. Ovie Ojeni enlivened Citizen Barlow, a thief, murderer and Ester’s No. 1 client, with a booming bass voice, an engaging awkwardness and a percolating sense of danger. Babatunde nimbly choreographed confrontations and incantations, currents and undercurrents. I left the theater feeling a cleaner, dirtier pilgrim.

Fool for Love Sam Shepard’s dark comedy is a slo-mo rodeo between two former lovers in a seedy Mojave Desert motel. Particle Theatre Company’s version, staged at the Unicorn Theatre/Gallery 415 in Catasauqua, bucked like a drugged bronco. Jen Santos and Steve Posivak dueled as May and Eddie, who just can’t quit each other 15 years after separating. She had a cougar-like fury, a clinging desperation and searchlight eyes that seemed to shine offstage. He had a slow-burn charm, an exasperating callousness and a sinister grace. Norman Roberts played their father, who reviews his crazy kids from an onstage rocking chair, as a sea-salty cowboy. Director Will Windsor Erwin turned a postage-stamp stage into a romper room that was electric even when it was still. ■ —Geoff Gehman 14 ■ I C O N ■ M A Y 2 0 1 6 ■ W W W . I C O N D V . C O M ■ W W W . F A C E B O O K . C O M / I C O N D V

Machinal - EgoPo Classical Theater For the final show of its Women Masters playwright series, the always daring EgoPo, minimalist director Brenna Geffers, lead actress Mary Tuomanen and company tackled Sophie Treadwell’s 1928 expressionist play, Machinal. The play’s based on the true crime story of Ruth Brown Snyder—who died in the electric chair at Sing Sing, convicted of killing her husband, Albert, after six previous attempts. With the abstract fluidity necessary to convey melodrama without moralizing, Machinal and Geffers focus on the actors’ bodies for alternate realities and maximal results. Touching upon her directorial/choreographic use of the physical body to create its own abstract world, Geffers creates a “holistic universe, familiar and different—separate—from what we’re used to, and bodies moving in space is essential to that theory. Through May 8, at the Latvian Society, 531 N. Seventh Street I Will Not Go Gently Jennifer Childs—the mistress/matron of 1812 Productions—has created, with director Harriet Powers and sound designer Chris Collucci, a one-woman show about an ‘80s pop-punk songstress who finds it hard to come to grips with how the world has changed (and devalues the aging process) since her youth, while still driving hard through her current comeback trails. Yes, there is a soundtrack. Yes, this is as funny as it is hopeless, then hopeful again. Childs really is the master of this sort of comedy; a Lily Tomlin-like surround-sound comedy that plays with elements of stand-up and performance art while thoroughly rocking out. Through May 15, Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey.

Pig iron Anniversary 20th anniversary events Pig Iron Theatre has been Philadelphia’s most avant-garde, yet somehow commercial theater company for two decades. To celebrate that blend, and to remind artists and audiences that they have opened a clown-based school program at their headquarters on N.2nd Street, they’ll celebrate the occasion with an all-day block party. Along with a handful of surprises they refuse to reveal, there will be a reading of one of its earliest performance art plays, Shut Eye, a clown-y show from Theatre Slava, and a dance party with Red 40 and past Pig alumni. May 17–May 21, around the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training, 1417 N 2nd Street.

Straight White Men at InterAct Experimental theater playwright Young Jean Lee makes edgy, uncomfortable work that looks at America through the lens of identity politics and focuses on how wrongly— and hilariously—minorities have forever been (mis)treated within that framework.

Among the socio-dramatic subjects that she’s skewered so far are the manners in which we caustically look at Asian Americans (Groundwork for Metaphysics of the Morals) and African Americans (The Shipment). With Straight White Men, the Korean-born Lee stares down Caucasian males and their politics with a savagely jaundiced eye. Taking part at a Christmas celebration with three brothers and their father, things get weird when the quartet are meant to confront the realities of their straight white male privilege. Sounds fresh and hot off the presses. May 27–June 19, The Proscenium Theatre at The Drake, 1512 Spruce Street ■ —A. D. Amorosi

ICEPACK A.D. AMOROSI ON THE NEWS, NIGHTLIFE AND BITCHINESS BEATS

East Passyunk Avenue was just starting to get over its one heartbreak—going against the grain of its “no chain” rule by acquiring its first national tenant in March, the Barteca Restaurant Group of Connecticut and the Barcelona Spanish wine/tapas bar at 1709 E. Passyunk—when really lousy news struck without warning. Sam Sherman, the man behind East Passyunk Avenue’s renaissance, the executive director of the Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corporation (PARC) and a man who lived in Philly for 25 years, quietly left his post on April 22nd, therefore marking the end of his tenure on the Avenue. Unlike the big, loud way in which he turned around this oncejunky South Philly block—and with it, this city’s top-notch restaurant profile—Sherman has quietly left this crucial gig to do something similar for Detroit, a city with its own share of problems, in need of a mindful, smart savior.

Sherman—an urbanist who built suburban homes through his now-dismantled Sam Sherman Associates LLC before he hit PARC and a chairman of Mayor Nutter’s Philadelphia Historical Commission—told me last year that he had been maintaining the fundamental goal with which he started his gig at PARC: financial sustainability.

“We will be close to complete financial sustainability next year,” Sherman said then.

“When I took over, we had a $900,000 deficit. We scaled it back. That’s very good.”

He kept the block clean, beautified and greened (“lots of tree planting and landscaping”) and helped put Paradiso, Izumi, Fond, Will, Noir, Le Virtù, Brigantessa, Stateside, Laurel, Townsend, Stargazy, Stogie Joe’s, Birra, Palladino’s, Bing Bing Dim Sum, and Plenty on the Avenue in his quest to make this South Philly block an internationally acclaimed dining destination. One recently vacated restaurant—the family-owned Chiarella’s Ristorante at 11th Street across from Passyunk Square’s Singing Fountain—just got a new occupant in Rival Bros coffee, which Jonathan Adams and Damien Pileggi started as a coffee truck business. Tova du Plessis, who grew up in South Africa in a Jewish household and worked for Michael Solomonov at Zahav and Rose + Citron, just opened her own Essen Bakery (1437 E. Passyunk Ave.) for Jewish sweets-and-savory baked goods.

While Steve Olitsky’s building goes up at 1646-1648 S. 12th St. (a restaurant on the first floor is being designed), builder Andy Kaplan begins his epic King of Jeans site construction before the end of this year. Things are working well on East Passyunk.

“Many of our missions have been met and maintained,” Sherman noted last year.

“The only question we still must answer involves retail, the mix of that and restaurants.

How do you keep retail interesting, vibrant and relevant? That’s a struggle.”

Sherman will take some time off following his departure to relax at his cabin in the Appalachian Mountains before departing Philadelphia for Detroit. “I will be working on real estate development projects there, and hope to use all I’ve learned in Philadelphia to be a productive participant in the creation of THE NEXT DETROIT,” he wrote in an end-of-April letter. Here’s hoping that if Philly needs Sherman’s help, he’s but a phone call away. ■ W W W . F A C E B O O K . C O M / I C O N D V ■ W W W . I C O N D V . C O M ■ M A Y 2 0 1 6 ■ I C O N ■ 15

The List MAY CURATED BY A. D. AMOROSI

3 LAURYN HILL

7 KAMASI WASHINGTON

The one-time singer of The Fugees is capable of immensely spiritual (and spirited) nu-rhythm-nblues and reggae. Often in a live setting, though—anything can happen. Like Nina Simone, it's always exciting to see what you get.

(Boardwalk Hall)

The brusque, bold new voice of the jazz saxo-

they sound as if they could be with all of its noir atmospheric rock in full bloom. (Boot & Saddle) 21 WMMR*B*Q*: DISTURBED, SHINEDOWN, SIXX: AM, COLLECTIVE SOUL, WOLFMOTHER

Devil horn city—rawk on. (BB&T Pavilion)

4 JOHN WILLIAMS / PHILA. ORCH. 21 MEL BROOKS

The favorite cinematic composer of George Lucas and Stephen Spielberg leads Philly's finest. (Academy of Music) 5 MASTODON

phone—and an active part of Kendrick Lamar's best work—hits Steelstacks. (Musikfest Café)

Viking metal finds its sweet spot. (Electric Factory)

The master of miscreant, politically incorrect film comedy and Hitler jokes brings his Blazing Saddles masterpiece to the hallowed hall, introducing the film and taking questions from the audience. (Academy of Music)

7 BABYMETAL 5 LITTLE STEVEN'S UNDERGROUND GARAGE

Frizzy Japanese pop metal hits the Factory hard.

(Electric Factory)

with the Sonics/Barrence Whitfield & the Savages. Sirius XM radio host and Springsteen main man Little Steven curates his Under-

7 MIRAH & JHEREK BISCHOFF

Bischoff is indie art pop's finest new multi-hyphenate—recently aligning himself with postgoth goddess Amanda Palmer and, for this tour, the chirpy odd Mirah. (Boot & Saddle)

22 CAR SEAT HEADREST

The future of frazzled boy lo fi pop starts here.

(Underground Arts) 24 SAM BEAM (OF IRON & WINE) & JESCA HOOP

This should be a pleasant excursion into newfangled indie folk, but Beam sounds too old for

7/8 BRIAN REGAN

Comedy's least blue and happiest stand-up personality flies in the face of all that is blue, dark and controversy driven. Ah, a breath of fresh air, really. (Merriam Theatre) 14 OLD 97'S & HEARTLESS BASTARDS

Indie country for beardos and beardettes under 35 years of age. (Union Transfer) ground Garage as if he's hosting an event at MoMA. The Sonics and Whitfield's Savages are top notch when tackling fuzztoned proto-punk and raw soul. (Union Transfer)

14 DIERKS BENTLEY WITH RANDY HOUSER AND TUCKER BEATHARD

his age. Young up. Get some fresh air. (Union Transfer)

Mainstream country for beardos and beardettes over 35 years of age. (BB&T Pavilion)

26 HELLS

6 NOBODIES OF COMEDY

Steve Burr headlines this list of absolute comic duds—not my title, but I'm not in marketing.

(State Theatre)

14 AMOS LEE

6 BEN FOLDS WITH MUSIC

15 ALEJANDRO ESCOVEDO

Junior league Billy Joel-style piano pop with a chamber ensemble. (Fillmore)

San Franciscan punk turned mellow folksy songwriter continues his hard luck mission.(Musikfest Café)

6 HURRY—MATTHEW SCOTTOLINE OF EVERYONE EVERYWHERE LP RELEASE

It's hard to tell what is cooler about this gig: that it's Philly's favorite son of wonky power pop's new band and debut album OR that the event is happening at a batting cage palace?

(Everybody Hits) 16 ■ I C O N ■ M A Y 2 0 1 6 ■ W W W . I C O N D V . C O M ■ W W W . F A C E B O O K . C O M / I C O N D V

Philly's go-to brushed denim songwriting-singer tackles the Jersey shore casino scene. (Borgata)

Philly never gets a cool new metal act, let alone one made up of members of Psychic Teens, Transistor Transistor, and Orchid. And we certainly don't get that same raging act to release a debut album on cassette tape—until now. (0rtliebs) 28 RJD2

19 JAY & THE AMERICANS

Who cares about this overlord of moody hip hop now that he moved from West Philly to Ohio. Fuck him. (Union Transfer)

Only in America – this is the sound of the soft, harmony-driven 60s. (Musikfest Café)

29 CYNDI LAUPER & BOY GEORGE

20 TWIN PEAKS

Not a David Lynch production, but then again,

1983 starts here. Look for snappy duets and creamy pop soul from this New Wave-based pairing. (Borgata) ■

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the beat VALLEY

CITY

BY GEOFF GEHMAN

BY THOM NICKELS

James Franco’s Q&A session at Moravian College was a goofy, groovy trip. Nearly 1,000 students enjoyed the lazy to laser-sharp thoughts of the actor, director, writer, singer, volunteer, teacher and eternal student. Here are a few nuggets from Franco, who flashed the disarming charm of James Dean, the first character that made him a formidable force.

In high school he drank heavily and acted “stupid” largely to forget his fear of failure.

He returned to college in his late 20s largely to ease his disenchantment over performing for a living. At UCLA he began writing “Palo Alto,” a collection of dark short stories inspired by his high-school days in northern California. He hired Gia Coppola, Francis Ford’s granddaughter, to direct the film version of “Palo Alto” largely because he wanted a feminine perspective. Franco believes that his non-acting outlets have made him a happier actor and a better team player. No longer obsessed with his performances, he feels freer to play pretty much anyone: a stoner in “Pineapple Express,” poet Allen Ginsberg in “Howl,” a thrill-seeking mountain climber who amputates his trapped arm in “127 Hours.” He’s also become a more adventurous director. His latest project is “The Disaster Artist,” a remake of “The Room,” which has been crowned the “Citizen Kane’ of awful movies. Asked for the song that best “describes” his work ethic, Franco dialed up his phone to play “Rhythm of the Night,” the dance-club hit. “That really gets me going,” he said while bobbing along with the pounding beat. Asked for his three deserted-island companions, he named actor/writer Seth Rogen, his good friend and “Pineapple Express” comrade, Rogen’s wife, “to keep Seth happy,” and a “special” woman, “to keep the human race going.”

BalletX’s The Premier Party 2016 honoring Philadelphia arts and culture philanthropist David Haas at the Top of the Tower was a prelude to the Company’s Spring Series at the Wilma. BalletX’s new Marketing Coordinator, Josh Olmstead, greeted press and guests on the grand 50th floor space. We chatted with PAFA’s Heike Rass, writer Carol Saline, Michael Norris of the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and BalletX cofounder and executive director, Christine Cox. The marathon celebration was a cost cutter’s nightmare: lavish hors d’oeuvres, a sumptuous sit-down chicken dinner and exuberant dancing performances between mouthfuls (a Russian Cossack dance had the waitstaff hopping). The live auction following the dances was better than the polished deliveries we’ve heard at the Freeman’s Auction House on Chestnut Street. The big door prize of the evening wasn’t a collection of DVDs, season tickets or a weekend for two at The Sheraton, but an $8,000 diamond necklace. The winner: A bespectacled redhead in a black and white dress who clasped her bosom in operatic shock when her number was announced.

Other parties that evening included Art Unleashed at U of Arts, and PGN’s 40th anniversary party at PAFA, which we almost attended thanks to Laura Krebs Miller of Cashman and Associates. The PGN celebration toasted the newspaper’s four decades in journalism. It also honored the writers who helped to create that legacy. City Beat was a major PGN contributor in the 1980s and 1990s. When we arrived for the PGN party organizers were still setting up, so we headed for Top of the Tower.

John Fetterman may be America’s biggest, baddest mayor. Over a decade the shavedheaded, 6-foot-8, defensive end-sized radical politician by default has helped transform Braddock, a small steel city in western Pennsylvania, from hopeless to hopeful through youth programs, art happenings, urban gardens and renovated buildings for low or no rent. This year he launched a campaign for U.S. Senate on the roof of his home, a former car dealership.

Last month Fetterman brought his grass-roots campaign to Deja Brew, a grass-roots coffee-and-sandwich shop in Bethlehem. Mingling among the lunch crowd, he focused on reducing crime, violence and imprisonment. His favorite vehicles include Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, which he joined after a friend died in a car accident; high-school equivalency degrees, and respect for former inmates who become model citizens. He told a group of young Democrats from Lehigh University that his right arm is tattooed with the names of five murder victims in Braddock. He’s particularly proud that on his watch the city went more than five years without a homicide. Impressed by Fetterman’s earnest directness, I suggested that Deja Brew name a sandwich after him if he’s elected senator. “That would be ridiculous,” he said. “Man, that’s gravy on top of icing.”

We admire the Wilma’s Blanka Zizka and her post-Eastern European communist bloc verve, but An Octoroon, which opened March 16, and praised by The Inquirer’s Toby Zinman, failed to move us. The heavily juxtaposed time-period play about race relations on a southern plantation was at times inspiring, funny and poignant—but in the end, far too preachy and too long. Why does smooth narrative always get the boot in plays earmarked as cutting edge or avant garde? The play’s “arty” timeline juxtapositions made us long for work that inspired the production, a 19th-century melodrama entitled The Octoroon by Dion Boucicault. (Bring back melodrama!) On a positive note: Less noticeable was the Wilma’s canned laugh track, or inappropriate audience laughter. The standing ovation at the end of the evening was no surprise: Wilma audiences give standing ovations to any play with the Wilma brand, proof that the “Cult of the Wilma” is gaining traction. The millennial-heavy audience was quick to huddle in peer group cliques during the post-show reception, causing older but no less ardent Wilma supporters to exclaim “I’m not feeling this reception at all.”

The new Easton Public Market is a happy beehive for all sorts of intriguing artisanal goods. Honey-lavender macarons. A crepe of three berries and mascarpone cheese nicknamed “The Bond Girl.” A Scotch Bonnet pizza washed down by a Bourbon Barrel Porter.

Cold-brewed coffee with a creamy Guinness-style head. Scrapple that resembles meatloaf pate. The long, narrow, 16,000-square-foot room has an original scuffed wooden floor, warm lights, counters for eating and watching the making of BBQ and Asian noodle dishes, and an open, glassed-in kitchen for demonstrating and teaching regional cuisines. The décor is rustic industrial. The vibe is boutique hippie.

The EPM isn’t a perfect place. Free nearby parking is sorely lacking. Aisles get easily congested. Lines can be long for the hippest eateries. Designer homemade doesn’t come cheap.

Scrapple sells for $8.95 a pound, a price that would have shocked my scrapple-making Mennonite grandmother in Easton. Nevertheless, the market is a great gift from the Greater Easton Development Partnership, which runs the Easton Farmers’ Market, a buzzing hive in Center Square. ■

Journalists, gossip writers and paparazzi flocked en masse to the much anticipated April 6 Philadelphia Festival of the Arts (PIFA) black tie opening. We avoided the official red carpet by entering through a side door and heading straight to the bar. PIFA’s inaugural 2011 celebration included a multi-story Eiffel Tower in the Kimmel’s lobby, but this year’s Golden Calf was an IKEA-invoking tree (The Kinetic Tree) done up in partial lights with moveable stick branches that had us thinking of Peggy Lee’s ‘Is That All There Is?” The apex of the evening for many was watching the tree come alive (to the sound of a thunderstorm), but first came cocktails and dinner. We got comfortable at a spectacular table with donors and organizers of the event when a nice woman asked to sit upstairs in the segregated press area where a number of scribes munched on hoagie bits, chips and soda. Cashman and Associates assured us that this was not their doing, so we made the best of an Upstairs/Downstairs situation. After dinner, full equality was restored when the press was invited to join the wonderful after party, which made us forget our third floor segregation. ■

Geoff Gehman is the author of the memoir The Kingdom of the Kid: Growing Up in the Long-Lost Hamptons (SUNY Press). geoffgehman@verizon.net.

Thom Nickels is the author of Philadelphia Architecture, Tropic of Libra, Out in History, Spore, and recipient of the 2005 Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Architecture Journalism Award. thomnickels1@aol.com

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FILM KERESMAN ON FILM REVIEW BY MARK KERESMAN

Miles Ahead JAZZ TRUMPETER MILES DAVIS (1926-1991) was and remains one of the most important American musicians. Davis was a performer, bandleader, composer, and innovator whose influence impacted jazz from the late 1940s onward, and much music beyond jazz as well. Directed by and starring Don Cheadle (who also co-wrote the screenplay), Miles Ahead is a variant on that elusive beast known as the biopic. Unlike most movie biographies, this does not take a chronological approach. Like historical fiction, it’s a voyage inside the life of Miles within the context of situations that may—or may not—have happened. During the fictional time, there are flashbacks (surprise) that reveal some crucial periods in Davis’ life.

In the mid-70s—because of drugs, physical pain from a hip operation, and creative stasis—Miles Davis became a Howard Hughes-like figure; he was respected, a living legend, publically inactive, and master of his own little world. Enter Dave Brill (Ewan McGregor), a Scottish-born Rolling Stone journalist, who wants to write about Miles. A sleazy opportunist, Brill inserts himself into Miles’ sphere and becomes confidant, flunky, follower, enabler, and guardian. Miles, for reasons unclear, lets this happen. His belligerent attitude has alienated everyone—and now he needs money. Miles turns to his record company. The company, however, demands that he deliver an album. Conflict ensues.

Brill facilitates Miles’ addiction to drugs and alcohol as a way to gain insight into him and his reclusive, irascible personality. When music producers steal a private tape of Miles’ music from his apartment, he and Brill go on a rampage to get it back. The rampage includes shooting and car chases and makes for slightly surreal (or confusing, depending) viewing, like a Tarentino-directed segment. But nothing makes people “bond’ like danger, and perhaps that is what Cheadle intended.

The problem is that Cheadle pays too much attention to that plot device. He takes for granted that the audience knows Davis’ relatively complex history. There are scenes

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of Miles in the studio rehearsing in varied contexts and those are dandy, as it portrays Davis as intensely devoted to music, but Cheadle needed to set up more context as to why the viewer should care. Instead, Cheadle presents aspects of Miles in a slice-of-life fashion—in the studio and on stage he is a poet of the horn. There are brief scenes (in studio, in concert) in which people, directly and indirectly, praise how Miles’ music has touched them, and his frequent reply is “That’s old shit.” Miles meets and falls in love with Frances (the radiant Emayatzy Corinealdi), who becomes something of a muse, playing classical music that would influence him. When Miles’ ego and possessiveness emerge, and he becomes emotionally and physically abusive, he drives her away. Cheadle is good; he actually plays the trumpet onscreen and channels Miles’ raspy voice and attitude that says you’ve got the world by the balls.

Miles Ahead is both fascinating and frustrating; it’s clear Cheadle wants us to get the essence of Miles Davis the person, the tortured artist, and surly bastard. Davis’ best-selling album, Sketches of Spain, provides much of the soundtrack. The time period spans the bebop of the early 1950s to the hauntingly lyrical, spacious, and moody music of the ‘60s to his still-controversial electric period of the ‘70s. That style was controversial to the jazz community at large and Miles’ older fans. As he became more and more inspired by rock, funk, and electronic music, he turned away from “pure” jazz. While the electric music garnered a younger audience, some purists dismissed it as garbage. As with any biopic, important history will be left out and some will be reimagined. Miles Ahead conveys some of the complexities of this musical icon—his sensitive, creative soul, the playboy, narcissist, and inspiring bandleader—just not thoroughly enough. Still, for Cheadle’s warts-and-all portrayal and the excellent music, this is worth your movie dollar. ■ Mark Keresman is a freelance writer and regular contributor to ICON, downBeat, Paste, SF Weekly, and Jazz Review, and has written liner notes to over a dozen albums of varied genres. He lives in Chicago.

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interview A. D. AMOROSI

S

DIVE BOMBERS: LAKE STREET DIVE HIT IT HARD

SINGER-INSTRUMENTALISTS BRIDGET KEARNEY, Mike “McDuck” Olson, Mike Calabrese and Rachael Price had been together nearly ten years since their start in Boston where this writer first spied them at 2013’s Town Hall “Another Day, Another Time” event with Joel and Ethan Coen for the directorwriters’ 60s folk film, Inside Llewyn Davis. Inspired by the pre-Dylan sights and sounds of Greenwich Village and the likes of Dave Van Ronk, the Coens, soundtrack producer T Bone Burnett, and their musical guests Elvis Costello, Gillian Welch, Conor Oberst, Joan Baez, Colin Meloy, Patti Smith, Keb Mo and Jack White were dwarfed by the oversized yet subtle performance of the jazzy Lake Street Dive harmonists.

Since that time, the quartet—with Kearney and Price a

I THINK WHAT MADE OUR EARLY SHOWS IN SMALL VENUES SO SPECIAL WAS THAT THE 30-40 PEOPLE THAT WERE THERE WERE ABSOLUTELY RAVENOUS AND SINGING ALONG TO EVERY WORD, WHICH IS REALLY SPECIAL TO EXPERIENCE IN A SMALL SETTING. visual centerpiece of the democratic outfit—have released their most forceful (but hardly their first), and diverse albums in Bad Self Portraits and the grandly soulful, even Motown-y, Side Pony. For their troubles and in the wake of Side Pony’s release, Lake Street Dive—best when served live—will play on May 31, at Wilmington, Delaware’s World Café Live at The Queen and, on June 1, at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s Musikfest Café in the ArtsQuest Center. Bridget Kearney and Rachael Price spoke for the unit.

ADA: So in 2013 I caught you guys at Inside Llewyn Davis’ “Another Day, Another Time” in Manhattan and was more blown away by you than anyone else on that stage, save Adam Driver doing that mouth spittle routine. You were really about, what, nine years old, at that point—where were you in your development? Who was that LSD as opposed to the one that came out of Boston’s New England Conservatory?

RP: By that point we’d honed into the sound that we currently have. When we first formed we had little to no direction and were sort of throwing musical darts at a strange dartboard and seeing how that played out.

Luckily, we discovered that we all just loved the Beatles and Motown and rock music and decided to just play that.

ADA: Do you think that you’d become this weird legend before that show, a neo-Lambert Hendricks and Ross only replacing Lambert and Hendricks voices with guitars, trumpets and drums? That’s what I knew of your schtick.

BK: We certainly had a small but devoted following, so I guess in that way the answer is yes. I think what made our early shows in small venues so special was that the 30-40 people that were there were absolutely ravenous and singing along to every word, which is really special to experience in a small setting.

ADA: Rachel, you came into this with a background—or a dad with a background—in choral music, jazz and gospel. Were you primed to do that as your inheritance?

RP: I got into singing jazz music pretty heavily because of my father, and by the time I was 15 I felt that was the type of music I was going to sing professionally.

But I always sang soul and gospel and think that was, in fact, where my heart always was. I was able to find that voice in Lake Street Dive.

ADA: Bridget—same thing with you and bluegrass.

Did you feel like that was your birthright and that was what you’d bring into LSD? BK: I fell into the bluegrass scene by accident—I mean I was really into Edgar Meyer in high school, because he was—is—the greatest living bass player in the world and he happens to play bluegrass. But other than that I didn’t really grow up with it; just was in the right place at the right time and got asked to join a band and met a lot of great young bluegrass musicians that I was excited to play with, mostly because they are great musicians and not necessarily because of the tradition of bluegrass. I still love certain elements of it, like the

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aspect of the music that is so social. I think it evolved that way because the instruments are so soft that you can play them in the same room as people having a conversation, which is not the case with electric guitars and drums and horns, etc. But getting back to the point, I actually started playing in LSD before I started playing bluegrass, so I don’t think bluegrass influenced our music, other than we’re now friends with a lot of awesome burning bluegrass musicians.

ADA: When was the last time you all listened to your first album, In This Episode, and what do you think of it?

RP: Hah! It’s been a long time because McDuck basically will not let us. I haven’t heard it in years, but if I heard it I think I’d be one part embarrassed and one part surprised at how it sounds....which is maybe sort of okay.

ADA: Do you think that the Coen Brothers’ and Stephen Colbert’s shows set you up for stardom? Did everyone from that moment expect you to be strictly old timey?

BK: The Colbert show was in our full electric setup, so that was a great way to introduce people to our usual live set up and close to what we sound like on records. The Youtube video that a lot of people first heard our music on [a cover of The Jackson Five’s “I Want You Back”] showed us pared down, only due to necessity. We didn’t have any way to properly record a video of ourselves with that full set-up. But as they say, necessity is the mother of invention; and we discovered that we work pretty well together in that pared down format. Once we got over defending or explaining ourselves to people—that we’re actually a band with full drum set and electric guitar—we came back around to playing in the pared down set-up regularly as part of our set and we really enjoy it.

ADA: When and why did all the songs that filled Bad Self Portraits develop?

RP: Roughly between 2012-2014. Well, we were all in our late 20s and having a lot of experiences—dud romances, break ups, fun times—and we wrote about it.

Photo: Jarrod McCabe

ADA: What song came first from that album that defined where the rest of the album would go?

BK: It’s hard to remember, but I’d say “You Go Down Smooth” by Mike Olson was one of the first songs that we learned after completing the previous record [their 2010 eponymous debut]. It didn’t so much set the tone for what came after, as much as raise the bar for how good our songs should be. We always inspire each other as songwriters, and that was a song that came in and made us all say “wow, we can sound that good.”

ADA: After Bad Self Portraits you seemed to be on some sort of mission. Did it change you for the better or worse?

RP: Definitely for the better. We did, indeed, walk through the fire, got some burns, and figured out how to make this work together. This band loves to talk, discuss, dissect everything and we also love each other very

much. It’s all been really positive.

ADA: What did extensive touring bring to Side Pony?

BK: We’re tighter as musicians and understand better what we’re capable of and what our strengths are.

ADA: What’s with “Can’t Stop?” It’s all minor. I love minor chords.

RP: We still aren’t sure if we like minor chords. It was our first minor song and a big stretch for us but, hey, you gotta stretch to grow.

ADA: What attracted you to Nashville for recording Side Pony—it’s remarkably without any sense of that city’s tang or twang.

BK: We were brought to Nashville by [producer] Dave Cobb, who’s a bit of a rebel in the Nashville scene.

He lived in L.A. before he lived in Nashville and I think he brought back a lot of what he learned there with

him. Also, he’s just generally an outside-the-box thinker, which is one of the things that appealed to us about him. So we definitely weren’t itching to make a “Nashville” record, as much as just be in a great studio with a producer we were excited about, and also hopefully be within a stone’s throw of hot chicken in case of emergency.

ADA: Is LSD the sort of act where the women bond hard socially and the men bond hard socially and there’s not a lot of meeting in the middle?

RP: Decidedly, no. We’re all pretty equally best friends with each other, and we have unique relationships to one another. Yes, Bridget and I “girl talk” and go on vacation together. But I probably tell McDuck the most intimate details of my life—and Calabrese, he’s a fantastic listener, and no one makes Bridget laugh more than Calabrese. ■

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feature A. D. AMOROSI

What makes the P

H I L LY BLOCK PROJECT rock?

DESPITE THE ONSET OF spring and a blaring sun, there’s a bone-rattling chill blowing down No. American Street at dusk. The renovated Crane Building—designed and built at the turn of the 20th Century

by Ballinger & Perrot—seems like a cold imposing figure on that corner, as do the inhabitants of that South Kensington arts haven. What does a neighborhood teetering between blight and gentrification get from an

WASELCHUK IS UNDETERRED BY ANY SETBACK. SHE UNDERSTANDS THAT THE OLDTIME INHABITANTS OF THE AREA MAY BE PUT OFF BY GENTRIFICATION OF ANY SORT, STILL FEELING STUNG BY THE EMINENT DOMAIN PROCESS OF THE 90S THAT TOOK AND DESTROYED HOUSES AND LEFT DIRTY VACANT LOTS THAT NEVER GOT TENDED TO. aesthete’s super-structure such as Crane with its Inliquid Presents and its Icebox theater space?

It’s that cool, questioning distance that the Philadelphia Photo Arts Center (one of the Crane’s principle inhabitants) and its recently-opened Philly Block Project wishes to thaw; heating things to a low boil with exhibitions, events and parties meant to engage and involve the immediate area with photos—old and new. Some are taken by the neighbors themselves or yanked from their closets, some by new artists with new visions of South Kensington.

“One of the immediate concepts for the Project was to get to know the neighborhood and have the neighborhood get to know us, as well as each other,” says Lori Waselchuk, Coordinator for Philly Block Project before the community planning meeting for neigh-

bors and its partners. “In a way, the Crane is like a giant spaceship that just plopped down in the middle of an old residential area. Our motivation was to make connections; not only find events that would interest our neighbors, but also things they might want to participate in.”

First, work was displayed in Preface from several of the organizers of the Block Project. From June 9-Aug. 28, the Community Archive Exhibition will exhibit photos submitted by longtime South Kensington residents. On September 8, the entirety of the Philly Block Exhibition opens with a carnival to follow on September 10, to celebrate the Project’s close and to celebrate the neighborhood.

The Block Project collaboration with the Photo Arts Center, Strawberry Mansion-native conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, curator Kalia Brooks and other Kensington collaborators, including Wyatt Gallery, has a goal of creating a visual narrative of the immediate area’s past and present. The Block Project is meant to celebrate and preserve South Kensington’s history one great photo at a time—from weddings, funerals or birthday parties of the past, or the tearingdown/building up process currently at work in the area. “Every time I go by Lori’s desk, there’s another amazing photo of a couple proudly in front of their house, shot just blocks from here,” says Sarah Stolfa, the Photo Arts Center’s founder and executive director recalling one happy black-and-white dated May 6, 1945.

Stolfa mentions how bringing in the personable Willis and his team of photographers was meant to draw the possibly reticent neighbors into the Block Project; how he’s a “good listener and brings out the best in everyone he’s recording.” As a sort of introduction to the photographic form, Willis and his artists have created a visual introduction to the collaboration, Preface invited the neighbors to follow the creative journey that brought each artist to the Philly Block Project. “The

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Block project stems from something that Hank and I did some years ago in Strawberry Mansion Philadelphia where we photographed every home on the one full block where Hank’s grandmother lived,” says photographer Wyatt Gallery.” We wanted to document the predominantly black neighborhood prior to probable future gentrification.” Wyatt Gallery notes that every time his team photograph or deals with the neighbors, they learn more and go deeper into the interesting history of this “somewhat overlooked neighborhood” and the individuals that form it. His own father, John Andrew Gallery, worked for the city housing department in the 1970s and paved American Street. He’s as much a neighbor as any of the old heads.

“My hope is that the neighbors get it, get in and stay involved; to be involved in their history and art making,” says Stolfus.

Sometimes, the process of getting neighbors to participate isn’t easy—but it’s not for a lack of trying. On one Wednesday, the community meeting went unattended; a rarity, as previous meetings have included anywhere from six to 15 participants. “PPAC has been canvasing the South Kensington neighborhood by going door-to-door to cultivate new relationships with the residents of the area,” says Kevin Kernan, a recent transplant to the area from South Philly whose Craneinstalled GDLOFT design firm is aiding the Block Project by creating its logos and stickers. “They realize the need of the residents to have a united voice and to come together to discuss the changes needed to improve their neighborhood.”

Waselchuk is undeterred by any setback. She understands that the old-time inhabitants of the area may be put off by gentrification of any sort, still feeling stung by the eminent domain process of the 90s that took and destroyed houses and left dirty vacant lots that never got tended to. Often it is photos of this sort of detritus that Waselchuk gets delivered to her desk; per-

s i h

S s

v i w l

sonal memoirs as deep as the snapshots of celebrations or homecomings. “Their lives are reflected in the construction of buildings faling down and the neighborhood in flux,” she says, pointing out how younger participants take to Snapchat, Instagram and cell phone pics for the art of the essay.

“There are those who rejoice in their work, like our collaborators from Catholic Worker and South Kensington Community Partners.” One shot, however, really sticks out for Waselchuk, a self-confessed photo geek whose work was viewed in Preface.

“There’s a photo that David Livewell—a poet now living in NJ but who spent his entire life previously in South Kensington—took. His grandparents bought here in 1920 and his parents moved in right next door, side by side. Those are deep roots. He snapped this shot of an old woman, walking her dog—happily, in the wind—but set against the vacant lots of South Kensington. It looks as if she’s in a war zone. But proudly.” That’s the Philly Block Project in a nutshell. ■

David Livewell photographed South Kensington as a teenager in the 1980’s. It’s only later that he realized how drastically the neighborhood changed during his childhood. Livewell photographed this unknown woman walking her dog on Hope Street. Photo by David Livewell/Philly Block Project.

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FILM CINEMATTERS REVIEW BY PETE CROATTO

The Idol AFTER THE INTENSE OMAR, it’s jarring to see Hany Abu-Assad tackle a star biopic like The Idol. But it is no puff piece. The characters here are still caught in the unforgiving gears of the real world, in this case modern-day Gaza, where everything, even the people, are crumbling. Little victories translate to national pride. The story of young Mohammed Assaf’s rise from college student and cab driver to international singing sensation has an all-natural sweetness instead of one derived from the tried-and-true Hollywood formula of “The world needs to hear my song.” Others encourage Mohammed to unleash his voice. He has reason to be reluctant.

Life is hard, especially when you reside in a place where hope lies among the rubble.

Just being in position to pursue a dream in Gaza is a task. Mohammed (played at various ages by Qais Atallah and Tawfeek Barhom) and his sister Nour (Hiba Atallah) look young in a fragile kind of way—skinny with big eyes. It obscures their resolve. To make the money to buy instruments for their band—you can only go so far with a drum set of cereal boxes—the members navigate the seas on handmade rafts for fish to sell. Every shekel counts. Mohammed runs barefoot through city streets after a customer takes off on his bike without paying. When Mohammed finally topples the thief over, the boy grins. He’s still one step above good enough, one coin closer to his dream.

Opposition always exists. The kids pay a small fortune to a crook for second-hand instruments. When he doesn’t deliver, and Mohammed arrives unannounced to demand reparations, the crook’s goons beat him up. Nour is Mohammed’s inspiration, but her frail health puts their relationship in constant peril—and makes it hard for Mohammed to enjoy singing on his own terms. And so it goes, until Mohammed, now a young adult, wakes up in his childhood bedroom looking dazed at the prospect of another day.

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TV that involves a smoking generator and an awful Skype connection, he seems resigned to life in the middle. When a childhood friend, Amal (Dima Awawdeh), gets him to sing, it’s clear he’s in the wrong profession. Performing on Arab Idol in Cairo is his destiny. Because Abu-Assad frames Mohammed’s quest and his talent in the context of the real world, his yearning feels genuine. Mohammed’s scramble to the Arab Idol audition involves conning his way across the Egyptian/Palestine border. A recitation from the Qur’an sways a skeptical border official, who says that he has a gift, echoing Amal. A benevolent stranger, who attends the audition as a lark, overhears Mohammed’s gorgeous voice in a men’s room and is moved to commit a kind act. The notion that talent is worth sharing— not just for fame’s sake or as a plotline in a manufactured narrative—is something Americans have forgotten. Maybe that’s a side effect of capitalism or how music is deemed useful only when it buoys a consumer-friendly personality.

Thanks to American Idol’s premiere in 2002, we got to help build that beast. Now with social media, not only can we play hit maker with ease, singers can showcase their talents without the hassle of Jennifer Lopez. While American Idol, which ended last month, was about bringing democracy to pop culture, Arab Idol can attain higher goals.

That is clear when you see the actual footage of Mohammed’s final show in 2012. Palestinians crowd in town squares, steal a glimpse by teetering on walls and peering through barbed wire. Mohammed is portraying them beyond grim filler for the world news. For one moment, thanks to song, they are known for something more than dying.

The Idol ends as you would expect. What is truly unexpected is Abu-Assad’s stunning revelation that the world watches the same kind of shows and aches to be on them—but for vastly different reasons. The Idol is a crowd-pleasing eye-opener, hitting us with equally powerful doses of realism and warmth. ■

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y

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bad movie REVIEW BY MARK KERESMAN

R

Criminal

READERS OLD ENOUGH TO recall the adorable exhortations of over-the-top trailers for movie “thrillers” may recognize ...

SEE! Kevin Costner nearly out-Cage Nic Cage!

SEE! Tommy Lee Jones as filmdom’s least convincing neurosurgeon!

SEE! A film plot so flimsy it wouldn’t pass muster in a 1970s Nick Fury comic book!

SEE! Gary Oldman yell nearly every line in a wobbly American accent!

Plot: American intelligence agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) is charged with keeping computer hacker The Dutchman (you read that right) away from Spanish anarchist Heimbahl (Jordi Molla, sounding as Spanish as Melanie Griffith) because The Dutchman (aw, why not Frenchy or Radar Love?) has a computer program that can hack into and override the USA’s passel of missiles. Pope is the only one who knows the whereabouts of Dutchman, but Heimbahl kills him. Racing against time (of course), someone mentions an experiment in which a mammal’s memories can be implanted into another mammal’s brain (and the latter mammal thereby saves the day!).

What’s wrong with it? Nearly everything.

Does the London CIA chief Quaker Wells (Gary Oldman) make the scientist (We’re years away from human trials!) implant Pope’s brain into the head of, say, an eager young spy in training? That would make sense. Or a compliant member of academia who’s also a gymnast? That would make sense. A decorated Navy SEAL? That would make sense. A technology super-nerd who works at a Best Buy-type store? That would make sense. But no, none of these. Instead, they get a guy improbably named Jericho Stewart (Kevin Costner) who’s a violently impulsive sociopathic convict! YES! What could go wrong?

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Oddly [?], CIA Chief Wells thinks this is not a good idea—we know this because he yells about how wrongheaded it is—yet lets it proceed without doing anything except yelling even louder. When Pope’s memories finally begin to “kick in” in Stewart’s head, he becomes naturally massively conflicted, which Costner conveys for the most part convincingly. But then he goes all Nic Cage on us, over-emoting as you previously thought only Cage could. Not only does Wells seem a little slow on the uptake, Stewart seeks out Pope’s wife (Gal Godot)—initially to rob her—but is gradually overcome by Pope’s happy home memories. And Pope’s very young daughter takes to this hulking stranger easily…far too easily.

Speaking of far-too-easy, is it in the thinnest realm of possibility that a techno-slacker (Michael Pitt)—who’s a combination of a third-rate Edward Snowden and a fourth-rate Bill Gates—could control America’s missiles from a laptop? It is in this film. (Sleep well, Mr. and Mrs. American.)

Criminal is another in the “medium-high concept action movie” genre in which a science fiction-like concept/gimmick, tosses all logic out the window, forgets the characters, and goes over the top.

In Criminal lots of faceless, well-dressed Eurotrash/cipher-type gunmen shoot people and get killed, as do innocent people…which makes the [SPOILER] sappy, too-happy ending ridiculous—we’ve seen Stewart too callously kill innocent folk. But cheer up, because at the conclusion, a central character hints that there might be a sequel. I can see it now: Costner teams up with Liam Neeson and they rescue each other’s children while the polar ice caps melt. ■

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FILM FILM ROUNDUP

Elvis & Nixon.

CURRENT FILMS REVIEWED BY KEITH UHLICH

Elvis & Nixon (Dir. Liza Johnson). Starring: Michael Shannon, Kevin Spacey.

When miscasting is a blessing: There is no reality in which Michael Shannon—one of our most intense and interior actors— could convincingly play the King himself, Elvis Presley. Yet Liza Johnson’s wispy docudrama, which portrays the behindthe-scenes events that led to the famous handshake photo between Presley and President Richard Milhous Nixon in 1970, utilizes that discordancy to occasionally sublime ends.

A few stray Presley catchphrases and gestures aside, Shannon doesn’t try to do a broad impersonation so much as play himself playing dress-up, and that actually has the effect of bringing this larger-than-life icon down to Earth. Unexpectedly, we get an achingly moving, and very human Elvis. The same can’t be said for Kevin Spacey’s completely cartoonish Nixon; Oval Office-wise, this hambone performer should stick to House of Cards. The usually irritating Alex Pettyfer, however, is quite excellent as music industry maven and Presley confidant Jerry Schilling. [R] ★★★

The Lobster (Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos). Starring: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, John C. Reilly. “That would be absurd,” says a character early in this black-comic romance from Greece’s Yorgos Lanthimos (Dogtooth). And absurdity, of the mordantly deadpan sort, is what the film gleefully, oft-profoundly trades in. A superb Colin Farrell plays nerdy introvert David, a suddenly single man transferred to a hotel where, as this slightly skewed society dictates, he has 45 days to find a suitable life partner or he’ll be turned into an animal.

(His choice should he not “make it”: the titular crustacean.) The first hour follows his bizarre exploits at the hotel, the second his adventures among the “Loners,” revolutionaries living in the nearby woods who eschew any and all romantic attachments.

When David falls for one of these rebels, played by Rachel Weisz (who also narrates the movie in hilariously stony tones), things get even more complicated. Lanthimos’s sardonic sense of humor marries extremely well with the dystopian allegory; at heart, this is a study of the mysterious laws of attraction that govern us all—or so we like to think. [R] ★★★★1/2

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Midnight Special (Dir. Jeff Nichols). Starring: Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst. The talented writer-director behind Shotgun Stories, Take Shelter and Mud channels everyone from John Carpenter to Steven Spielberg in his latest production, with mixed results. What begins as a slow-burn chase movie involving a father (Michael Shannon), his son (Jaeden Lieberher) and a true-blue friend (Joel Edgerton) along for the ride soon reveals itself as a Southern-fried riff on Starman and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, with a dash of Brad Bird’s recent Tomorrowland thrown in for not-so-good measure. Nichols hasn’t lost his ability to create a vivid sense of place; few filmmakers are as adept at showing the American South in all its strange, sometimes surreal complexity. And he gets an especially fine and soulful performance from Kirsten Dunst as the young boy’s mother, forced by the otherworldy circumstances to make some emotionally tough sacrifices. But the sci-fi trappings rarely feel germane—they’re hand-me-downs from the artists Nichols is referencing, lacking in originality and idiosyncrasy. [PG-13] ★★1/2

Weiner (Dirs. Josh Kriegman and Elyse Steinberg). Documentary. From fiery politician to penile punchline: The sexting scandal that undid congressman Anthony Weiner in 2011 was red meat for the media and Twitter-sphere, derailing a seemingly promising career in public service. That didn’t stop the disgraced legislator from attempting a New York City mayoral run in 2013, which this engrossing, if thematically flimsy documentary captures in cringingly intimate detail. Initially it seems like a redemption narrative, with Weiner working overtime to gain public forgiveness and win over numerous constituents. But then a second wave of sexts emerge that throw everything into chaos. Weiner is a fascinating subject—impassioned on the one hand, an unrepentant egotist on the other—that the film never manages to meaningfully illuminate. This is more a doc that gives viewers a front-row seat to the unrelenting carnage of America’s political process, with Weiner navigating his very own battle of the bulge. [N/R] ★★★1/2

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FILM REEL NEWS DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

Where to Invade Next (2015) ★★★★ Cast: Michael Moore Genre: Comedy, documentary Rated R With a wildly satirical title, this witty social commentary begins with Moore promising the Joint Chief of Staffs that, since all our wars after WWII have been disastrous, he’ll invade European countries to “bring back the things we need from them.” So the travelogue begins, first in Italy where Moore claims the nation’s four weeks of mandated vacation, four weeks of public holidays, five weeks of maternity leave, and two-hour lunches for the U.S. workers. He invades nations with education systems that outperform ours: France (schools with hour-long gourmet lunches prepared by on-site chefs), Finland (student autonomy, no standardized tests), Slovenia (free college). How about our overpopulated prisons? Norway emphasizes rehabilitation and their maximum sentence is 23 years—it has one of the lowest murder rates in the world.

Portugal eliminated all penalties for drug use and treats it as a health-care issue. Equal opportunity and pay for women? In Iceland. After the 2008 meltdown, strong female leadership transformed the banking system and sent most of the corrupt (male) financiers to prison. Besides making us shake our heads in wonder, this enumeration of Europe’s most successful social programs, many which originated in the U. S., opens our eyes to issues this year’s presidential candidates should really be discussing.

Son of Saul (2015) ★★★★★ Cast: Géza Röhrig Genre: Holocaust drama Rated R Subtitles.

All those millions of Jews gassed in Nazi death camps… someone had to clean up the mess in the gas chambers, and you know it wasn’t the Nazi’s. They created a class of worker-prisoners, Sonderkommando, to do the soul-wrenchingwork. This reinvention of the Holocaust story begins with Saul (Röhrig) piling up bodies to cart to the crematorium; then he discovers a young boy. Can this really be his son? For Saul, the grotesque horror surrounding him dissolves. All he can think about is arranging a proper burial with a recitation of the Kaddish. The tight camera focus on Saul blurs the surroundings and immerses us in the maelstrom of emotions hidden behind his catatonic expression.

The story abandons the broad brushstrokes of most deathcamp dramas and becomes one man’s personal story. Saul sets about his irrational and impossible task with a fevered compulsion and leads us through the camp’s horror house of unfathomable deeds. This is an intimate story of a reality we all need to internalize lest society breaks bad again.

Mustang (2015) ★★★★★ Cast: Günes Sensoy, Elit Iscan Genre: Drama Rated PG-13 In Turkish with English subtitles.

Forget the bull-in-the-china-shop analogy and imagine five wild mustangs rampaging through a small house.

That’s what happened when the grandmother and uncle of five school-aged sisters tried to constrain their rebellious spirits. The surrogate parents barred the windows, built walls, and forbade the girls from leaving the house.

This coming-of-age horror tale takes place in a village in modern-day Turkey. When the sisters violated Islamic purity traditions by frolicking with boys, their guardians placed them on lockdown and began arranging marriages.

As seen through the eyes of the youngest sister (Sensoy), the girls fight the oppressive patriarchal system designed to suffocate the spirit of women. Richly filmed in Turkey, the vibrant film portrays the girls as a force of nature and their rebellion against modern Islam’s oppression of women as the classic heroic struggle against enslavement.

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Finest Hours (2016) ★★★★ Cast: Chris Pine, Holliday Grainger, Casey Affleck Genre: Drama, action Rated PG-13 We know from the beginning that unlike The Perfect Storm, this disaster-rescue epic has a happy ending. The totally predictable plot (and nail-biting action) gives us the all-American hero who leaves his fiancée to battle one of the most fearsome adversaries on earth, a raging nor'easter that smashes 500-foot tankers. Petty Officer Bernie Webber (Pine) and three sailors head into hurricane-force winds and 70-foot waves in a 26-foot, wooden lifeboat to rescue 32 men on a sinking tanker. Meanwhile, the nonstop action shifts to the tanker’s Chief Engineer (Affleck) and his herculean efforts to keep the remains of the ship afloat until rescue arrives. Both men defy certain death and hang on when all hope seems lost. Though pumped up with awesome CGI, the movie follows a proven oldschool formula with central-casting characters—no unexpected plot twists, no existential subplots, no deeply conflicted characters. Just a riveting story of a good guy who beats all odds and returns to his girlfriend. ■

about life

BY JAMES P. DELPINO, MSS,MLSP,LCSW,BCD

How to Survive an Affair IN AN AGE WHEN half of all marriages fail and the average marriage lasts but 6.5 years, adultery is a common theme. Although there is no single reason, one study of 100,00 married individuals (50,000 women and 50,000 men) who’ve had extra-marital affairs suggests some general trends worth considering. In this study, roughly 87% of the women said the chief reason for having an affair was communication. Approximately 85% of the men claimed lack of sex at home was their central reason. This suggests, of course, that the motivations for each sex are remarkably different. My own experience of 36 years in the consulting room is that women tell me “feeling close” to their partner has a lot to do with whether or not they have sex with that person. Communication is the royal road to closeness for women. Men often struggle with the idea that closeness and sex are so closely related in the minds and hearts of women. Ironically, this would suggest that instead of better communication with their partner, men will communicate better with other women for the purposes of sex.

So when does adultery begin? Most people think that a kiss or sexual contact is the beginning of an affair. This is not entirely true. The preconditions for cheating lie within the person and may be triggered by real or perceived deficiencies in their primary relationship. The various challenges in an intimate relationship can splinter and damage intimacy. Sometimes external stressors break down closeness. Sometimes unresolved intimacy issues erode the connection two people have. Sometimes the relational dynamics push people away from each other. The cause is usually a combination of reasons. Because each couple is different, the the weight of these variables is unique.

For some it’s a need for attention. Others may fear a full commitment. It can also manifest as a need for conquest.

Sometimes it’s is a wish for diversity. Sometimes it can be thrill seeking for those who are high sensation seekers. For many it’s a search for deeper experiences of love and connection. The most common underlying variable, though, is the wish to fulfill something that is felt to be missing.

The discovery of cheating is most often experienced as a violation of basic trust. The betrayal of a partner can frequently cause the end of a relationship. Not all couples are willing or able to do what is required to heal and improve the existing primary relationship. In some cases it’s better for the two parties to separate and move on. Children, values and money are often motivations to repair the damage. What happened, when it happened, how many times it happened, and how long it happened, determine whether or not the couple can learn, forgive and forge ahead together.

Understanding why cheating happens is the central key to resolving the pain involved. Even if a couple ends the relationship, this understanding is key for them to move ahead because unresolved feelings are carried forward and will affect all future relationships. Couples that are able to leverage a crisis into personal and interpersonal growth have the best chance of finding a deeper and more fulfilling relationship.

Staying together after cheating requires forgiveness. But forgiving alone is not sufficient to fix what went wrong. It is hard work and there are no shortcuts. Building communication and intimacy is a daily task even for healthy couples. Becoming closer often triggers the very fears that may have been the underlying cause of why the cheating occurred in the first place. This is the domain of intimacy fears. This is the place where previous betrayals that are unresolved surface to be examined, worked on and worked through. There is no one course of healing because each situation is different. Just staying together without growth as individuals and as a couple often leads to recurrences of infidelity. Old patterns will tend to repeat if they’re not addressed and changed. Don’t be afraid to seek help and guidance in this process. ■ Jim Delpino is a psychotherapist in private practice for over 33 years. jdelpino@aol.com Phone: (215) 364-0139.

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Music KERESMAN ON DISC REVIEWED BY MARK KERESMAN

Karen Haglof ★★★★ Perseverance and Grace Self-released Some of us wonder, Whatever became of … .? Some of them leave the Arena of Culture/Entertainment for other endeavors

Photo: Ashley Larson.

entirely. Take guitarist Karen Haglof—she was a member of the fine NYC wall-of-guitars rock combo Band of Susans, later becoming a staff oncologist at a NYC hospital. But the lure of six strings and songs is hard to shake, and without giving up her day gig she made Perseverance and Grace, her second album. It’s a dandy collection of Western/cowboy songs that evoke the home-on-the-range aspects of Marty Robbins and Willie Nelson), sinewy and lean blues-rock (“New Heart,” likely to warm the hearts’ cockles of fans of Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan), and the feverish blues-inspired Black Keys-esque title track.

Haglof has a husky voice that’s not exactly pretty, but sounds honest as a true pal in a shot-and-beer tavern—think Bonnie Raitt minus the polish, or a less glum P.J. Harvey.

An exceedingly playable platter, this. (12 songs, 39 minutes) karenhaglof.com

Steven Lugerner & Jacknife ★★★★★ The Music of Jackie McLean Primary The late Jackie McLean had one of the most distinctive alto sax sounds in jazz history—tart, steeped in blues and bebop, McLean’s approach had/has a unique “cry” to it. Bay Area sax fellow Steve Lugerner pays tribute to McLean by interpreting tunes that appeared on his seminal ‘60s albums for Blue Note Records. It’s both a burner and a shock to the system, a bucket of ice water poured on you on an 83-degree day. Lugerner absorbed the influence and approach of JMcL without seeming like a mimic—in fact, he has a much rougher edge. His band is top-shelf—trumpeter J.J. Kirkpatrick has a truly torrid sound and pianist Richard Sears has much of the lyrical and rhythmic directness of Horace Silver.

The tunes are among the best McLean recorded—the wonderfully ominous “On the Nile” is something of a jazz counterpart to Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” and the wiry “Hip Strut” could’ve been a hit in the mid‘60s. This platter exudes tremendous joie de vive—this isn’t one of those “respectful” homages, it’s a hard-swinging, slightly ragged, blow-the-roof-off-the-joint session. (6 tracks, 41 min.) primaryrecords.org Game Theory ★★★1/2 Lolita Nation Omnivore La Sera ★★★★1/2 Music for Listening To Music To Polyvinyl In 1987 the California combo Game Theory released the double-album Lolita Nation—while not making hotcake-sales status, it became beloved by those enamored of power pop and those that liked pop/rock conventions subverted. Out of print for many years, it’s back, plus a disc of previously unreleased songs. This edition of Game Theory was like unto XTC circa their first two albums—madly infectious tunes (think Beatles, Kinks, Who in their psychedelic pop phases, Elvis Costello, Elliott Smith) mixed with creative, thorny,

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and just plain goofy quirks and dissonances. Sometimes the quirk is a tad overplayed (several tracks are less than 30 seconds long) but when you get sparkling gems like “Mammoth Gardens” (it’ll get three consecutive plays, trust me) and “Chardonnay” that’s not a deal-breaker. GT’s mainman Scott Miller has a slightly fey, emotionladen voice a la Ray Davies and Alex Chilton and Donette Thayer’s slightly husky warble makes for a nice contrast. The bonus disc is packed with alternate versions and nifty covers of Hollies, Bowie, and Costello. (48 tracks, 153 min.) omnivorerecordings.com La Sera is essentially the duo of Katy Goodman and Todd Wisenbaker and they mine some of the same territory as Game Theory but are much more straightforward.

Goodman has an amazing voice, mixing Chrissy Hynde tough and Debbie Harry winsome/yearning with a bit of Dusty Springfield soulfulness; sharp guitars jangle as on the first three REM albums and early Tom Petty and the drums got that whomp.

The production is sumptuous—it’s almost hard to believe it’s mostly guitar, bass and drums. La Sera has their own “Shayla” in “A Thousand Ways” with Goodman’s poignant mini-wail in the chorus. Music has the same lean pop smarts as those first few albums by Blondie, Costello and Belle & Sebastian that make you go for the “repeat” button repeatedly. A near-masterpiece. (10 tracks, 31 min.) polyvinylrecords.com

some of the best modern jazz ever recorded, from Miles’ bebop days to modal cool (the magnificent “So What,” the achingly beautiful orchestral collaborations with Gil Evans) to his often polarizing electric period. For the Miles (or jazz) neophyte, this just may be the one to survey the territory.

(24 tracks, 76 min.) legacyrecordings.com Here is a “son” of Miles Davis, Israeli trumpeter Avishai Cohen—I don’t mean to burden him with obvious comparisons, but finding a post-bop trumpeter that hasn’t been at least partly influenced by Davis is like finding a rock guitarist that doesn’t owe something to Chuck Berry, George Harrison, and/or Roger McGuinn. Cohen

Miles Ahead: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack ★★★★ Columbia/Legacy Avishai Cohen ★★★1/2 Into The Silence ECM Depending on one’s point of view, a soundtrack album can be a remembrance of a movie or it could stand on its own.

Miles Ahead, the soundtrack to the film, is one such. This platter includes brief excerpts of dialogue—Don Cheadle as Miles Davis, commenting as only Miles might on the subject of music. Ahead also features

has much of the lyrical sense of Davis—he’s not imitating Miles but channeling him and, like him, Cohen plays just what’s needed to and not a note more. Silence has a beautifully elegiac yet restless vibe to it— drummer Nasheet Waits (son of Freddie) sounds like a force of nature and Bill McHenry plays some soulful tenor sax. If you appreciate Miles’ mid-‘60s quintet recordings and/or Mark Isham’s movie music, or want something acoustic and contemplative with subtle moments of unpredictability, put Into The Silence on your list.

(6 tracks, 53 min.) ecmrecords.com ■

Avishai Cohen. Photo: Paul Watts

Music NICK’S PICKS JAZZ REVIEWED BY NICK BEWSEY

Jane Monheit ★★★★ The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald Emerald City Records The Songbook Sessions is a project that would jump-start careers of lesser stars even though a singer as lovely and talented as Jane Monheit has nothing to prove. Still, in collaboration with producer and trumpeter Nicholas Payton, her

Young was only 23 and 24 at the time, already a gifted and consummate musician with a lyrical, tuneful sound. Every cut rates as essential, but there’s a special commendation for the blistering version of Wayne Shorter’s “Black Nile,” Young’s rhythmical “Talkin’ About J.C.” and Shaw’s 20minute live improv extravaganza, “Zoltan,” a track that appeared on Young’s defining Unity album. The restored sonics are first-rate, as is the 68-page book of essays, interviews and photos, but just listening to this significant musical discovery of prime Larry Young is a gift of unyielding pleasure. (10 tracks total; 52 minutes, each disc) Marcus Strickland’s Twi-Life ★★★★ Nihil Novi Blue Note/Revive One of my top ten favorite jazz records in 2015 was the modern hybrid, Supreme Sonancy Vol. 1, a beguiling jazz-centric blend of soul music and hip hop. The highlight of that release was saxophonist Marcus Strickland’s chill-out remake of Janet Jackson’s “Let’s Wait Awhile,” and that vibe is layered through much of his illustrious Blue Note/Revive debut, Nihil Novi, which is Latin for “nothing new.” That self-effacing title isn’t entirely truthful since Strickland artfully traffics in aerodynamic samples and loops that underscore his laid back improvisational licks. While this very hip release, produced and steered by the multi-talented bassist Meshell Ndegeocello, has the kind of overt style and beats that makes the

voice and range is as lush as a full-bodied Cabernet on songs that Ella may have sung, but never like this. Sophisticated and embracing, Monheit shimmies through “All Too Soon,” arranged with a post-modern rhumba beat, a sweet trumpet solo and bling-y electric piano. She dazzles and swings through “Where Or When” and seduces on a brilliant version of “I Got You Under My Skin” that’s as much a feature for Payton as Monheit. Payton says he set out to make the quintessential Jane Monheit record, declaring that standards sung 60 years ago are no longer sexy or as romantic as they were at the time they were written. Doubtless, this is the best Monheit has ever sounded and together they’ve flipped the script to create a fresh—and sexy—standards album. (12 tracks; 57 minutes) Alexis Cuadrado ★★★★ Poètica Sunnyside The imaginative bassist Alexis Cuadrado revives spoken Nick Bewsey is a member of the Jazz Journalist’s Association. countingbeats.com

word jazz with modernist glee, enriching bebop forms, beat generation poetry and multi-lingual storytelling on the lively, compelling Poètica. His musicians (keyboardist Andy Milne, guitarist Miles Okazaki, and drummer Tyshawn Storey) and deeply invested vocalists turn words into rhythms that clamor, protest and even swing, much like Gil Scott-Heron did, while Cuadrado's lucid bass ties it together by expertly fusing syncopation with emotive, improvisational flourishes. (13 tracks; 54 minutes) Larry Young ★★★★★ In Paris, The ORTF Recordings Resonance Records The oft-repeated description of Larry Young—that he’s the John Coltrane of the organ—mostly coheres with the inventive, undeniably classic post-bop records he made with Blue Note in the 60s. The never-before released two-disc live and in-studio recordings packaged as In Paris were originally made for French radio (ORTF) in 1964 and ‘65. Young fronts his own trio and plays in a session led by Coltrane-inspired tenor saxophonist Nathan Davis that includes trumpeter Woody Shaw, as well as a deft French-led band. These long-form post-bop tracks are delightfully swinging, bursting with in-the-pocket grooves and absorbing, sustained solos.

Revive label thrive, Ndegeocello and Strickland smartly feature the shimmering vocals of Jean Baylor on pop/soul charmers like “Talking Loud”; she’s a surefire VIP who, along with rising star trumpeter Keyon Harrold, gives the album a notable flair. Strickland has crafted a consummate soul-jazz record with heartfelt songs, smooth harmonics and edgy sonic textures. (14 tracks; 50 minutes) ■

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Music SINGER/SONGWRITER REVIEWED BY TOM WILK

John Doe ★★★1/2 The Westerner Cool Rock Records/Thirty Tigers The Westerner lives up to its name with photos of John Doe in Western wear and cowboys and on horseback. The urgent

“Get on Board” recalls earlier railroad songs with a train serving as a metaphor for life. “You can look out the window or stand in the aisle,” Doe sings, “but you gotta get on board this train.” Other songs have a more Western connection. “Sweet Reward” offers a tale of a man redeemed by the love of a good woman. “Alone in Arizona” is a forlorn ballad of failed love.

“Drink of Water,” co-written by Doe and Cervenka, is a rocker in the spirit of their collaborations in X. 10 songs, 34 minutes.

Professor Longhair ★★★★ Live in Chicago Orleans Records Live in Chicago, recorded at the University of Chicago Folk Festival in 1976, offers a snapshot of the legendary Professor Longhair’ keyboard prowess, four years before his death at 61. Longhair opens the set with “Doin’ It,” a sprightly instrumental. “Big Chief” and “Mardi Gras in New Orleans” are joyous performances that celebrate his hometown and allow him and the band to lock into a funky groove. Longhair pays tribute to Ray Charles with a lively rendition of “Mess Around” and acknowledges his blues roots with a driving “Got My Mojo Working” and a soulful “Every Day I Have the Blues.” 7 songs, 29 minutes.

Mary Chapin Carpenter ★★★1/2 The Things That We Are Made Of Lambent Light Records After using an orchestra on Songs From The Movie, Carpenter gets back to basics with a traditional band.

Images of journeys serve as a lyrical springboard. “What Does It Mean to Travel” was inspired by her decades as a musi-

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cian on the road. “Something Tamed Something Wild” features layered acoustic and electric guitars as Carpenter deals with the shifting perspectives of life that come with age. On “The Middle Ages,” she sings of a shifting mentality that comes with getting older. The Princeton native remains an expressive singer on the reflective “Hand on My Back” and the bluesy-tinged “Livingston.” 11 songs, 48 minutes.

Dave Insley ★★★1/2 Just The Way That I Am DIR Insley balances tradition and innovation on Just The Way That I Am. “Arizona Territory, 1904” has the feel of a classic Western in its tale of two brothers facing off against each other. Insley’s effortless vocals and the guitar work of Rick Shea and Redd Volkaert on “Call Me If You Ever Change Your Mind” recall Glen Campbell.

“Win-Win Situation for Losers,” a duet with Kelly Willis shows Insley’s gift for wordplay. The rueful “Dead and Gone” opens with a memorable line: “My wife and my girlfriend met at my funeral.” Insley imaginatively begins the song with a snippet of Taps, a bugle call played at military funerals. 11 songs, 44 minutes.

Victoria Reed ★★★ Chariot Botanica Records As the daughter of Alto Reed, longtime saxophonist for Bob Seger, Victoria Reed follows in her father’s footsteps with Chariot, her debut album. Her music is a satisfying mix of pop and Americana sounds.

The title track starts off the album with a song that celebrates overcoming the obstacles—both internal and external—that keeps people from realizing their potential.“Nothing to Lose” mixes Dylanesque lyrics to a singsong melody that demonstrates her command as a singer. “All My Power” explores the forces that bring two people together. “Spare Heart” is a slice of bittersweet pop. 11 songs, 44 minutes. ■

MUSIC JAZZ LIBRARY

BY BOB PERKINS

HANK CRAWFORD BEFORE I BROKE INTO radio, I did lots of listening to the voices and announcing styles of those on the air—and especially those who played great standard popular and jazz music. Joel Dorn was one of my favorites on radio; he hosted a nightly program in the early 1960s on a then all-jazz radio station. One of his favorite artists was alto saxophonist Hank Crawford, whom he often referred to as “The Memphis Preacher” because, as an alumnus of the Ray Charles Band, he could take listeners to “church,” with an engaging mix of gospel, straight-ahead jazz, blues, soul and R&B. These genres were the mainstays of the Charles band. He blended them with his other inestimable talents, and became a legend in his own time.

Crawford came to wide public attention after joining Ray Charles. Charles had heard him play and sought him out in 1958. Crawford soon became the band’s arranger. The band’s saxophone section was lifted to new heights with Crawford on alto sax (switching over from the baritone horn), David “Fathead” Newman on tenor, and Leroy “hog” on baritone. When a saxophonist from the Charles band left, he took the band’s sound with him, and it didn’t take great ears to identify that sound when carried away by an alum.

Crawford remained with Charles until 1963 when he left to form his own sextet. He signed with Atlantic Records in the ‘60s, and then joined the Milestone label and worked with Dr. John and Jimmy McGriff. He and the Philly-native McGriff made beautiful music together. Their earthy, funky sound was quite popular—it was jazzy enough for the hip and danceable enough for the partygoers. Crawford could play exceptionally well at up-beat tempos; funky, shuffling mid-speed tempos; and in a variety of musical genres. But he could also massage hearts with his ballads. In an interview, he said, “I never want to play a ballad that people can’t sing to.” And, “To me, the biggest compliment an audience can give you is to pat their foot. And it’s even better when they get up and dance” Crawford was hailed as a child prodigy in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, where he picked up gospel music in the church he attended. In his high school band, classmates included future jazz stars pianist Harold Maburn, and saxophonists Charles Lloyd and George Coleman. After turning professional, he backed up blues legends B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland. Even years after becoming an established name, Crawford was not too proud to play the role of sideman, and accompanied many other big names in jazz, blues and R&B. Upon leaving Memphis, Crawford moved to Nashville, where he studied music at Nashville State University, and cut R&B records on the side. With this assorted musical backgrounds, he’d been primed to meet Ray Charles, which he did in Nashville.

In 2000, while living in New York, he suffered a stroke. He returned to Memphis where family members assisted in his recuperation. Crawford spent his remaining years, shuttling between New York and his hometown. He died five years ago at the age of 74.

Ironically, former Ray Charles band-mates, “Fathead’ Newman, and “Hog” Cooper, had preceded him in death by only a few weeks. The multiple departures prompted one writer to observe that Ray Charles, who had passed on a few years earlier, “...must have called a band rehearsal.”

Benny Ross “Hank” Crawford left an impressive discography. One CD I recommend, is Memphis, Ray And A Touch Of Moody. This is a two-disc set, produced by Joel Dorn on his 32 Jazz label. ■ Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Mon-Thurs 6–9; Sun 9–1.

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foodie feature

BY A. D. AMOROSI

We are stardust. We are golden.

And we’ve got to get ourselves back to the Garden…

Independence Beer Garden, Phila PA. Photo: ©Reese Amorosi 2016

Everything Pretzel Bites. Photo ©Reese Amorosi

Mini Chipwiches. Photo: ©Reese Amorosi 2016

Cheesesteak, Beer Cheese Sauce, Caramelized Onion. Photo ©Reese Amorosi 2016

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ONE OF THE MOST surprising things about Independence Beer Garden—the winding 25,000 square foot outdoor space at 6th Street’s Independence Mall—is that no one came up with it sooner. Forget Old City as Philadelphia’s top tourist area. The region has long been homebase for young professionals and hipster doofuses who would dig nothing less than kicking back with a craft beer, well-heeled designer sandwich and entre fare and games such as Connect 4 in a partially covered outdoor setting. How was there nothing tasteful to satisfy the visitor and habitué alike? Yet, it took Michael Schulson—the chef/ restaurateur behind Philly’s Sampan, Atlantic City’s Izakaya, and the recently-opened, intricately-designed Double Knot, a Japanese speakeasy next door to Sampan at 13th and Sansom—to come up with the concept of the Independence Beer Garden (IBG) and its maze of picnic tables, bars, fire pits and ping-pong tables. That Schulson put this jungle-gym-meets-party pier in the shadow of historic Independence Hall without making his beer garden stuffy or silly, and has maintained the elegance of the stately hall and the dignity of its surroundings is a true feat. That he’s managed to, in its third year, bring a major re-do to its menu (Schulson is IBG’s chef along with some of his staff, unlike IBG years one and two) while putting the finishing touches on his upcoming Harp + Crown—a Southern cuisine eatery at 15th and Sansom—is cooler still.

Then again, Schulson once told me about all of his enterprises, “We can’t half-ass anything.”

The original idea behind Independence Beer Garden was to up the game on casual dining (e.g. Pigs in a Blanket with hot dogs done in puff pastry) with enough healthy items (e.g. kale salads with raisins) to welcome all style eaters to a beer salon, including one created by Yards exclusively for IBG that’s a light wheat brew. For IBG 2016, this means a new menu filled with a mix of Greek, Mexican, Italian, Polish and Southern U.S. items, along with a dozen of last year’s favorites. Among the way-worthy new menu items: a tender pita stuffed with spit roasted lamb, crema and herb relish; al pastor tacos generously filled with fresh pineapple, salsa and rich roasted pork; a vegetable focaccia with a slab of soft mozzarella, tomato and pesto; a long kielbasa sandwich with crema and sauerkraut; and a generous helping of honey-drizzled, crispy, fried chicken wings and legs with sauce sides of japaleno and ranch.

Then there’s a menu item Schulson & Co. never tried before: the cheesesteak. “We live in Cheesesteak City, so we had to make it something good, something special, when we did try it,” says IBG manager Derek Gregory who discussed the meat selection process (they settled on tender, flavorful rib eye that’s never chewy or gristly), the melted cheese (a plentiful amount of beer cheese sauce), the caramelized onion and a side of red pepper hash for heat. Where there is heat, there is cold—and rather than go for the beignets of last season (“They were great, but who wants hot fried dough in the summer,” says Gregory)—this year IBG has a cold Strawberry Shortcake and, my fave, bitesized, Mini-Chipwiches crammed with big chocolate chips.

For someone like me who’s not usually a picnic-y, outdoors dining type, IBG made me a convert. ■

d

S WA N

HOTEL Modern Cuisine h Classic Comfort Corner of Swan & Main Lambertville, NJ 609-397-3552

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GUEST CHEF JUSTIN MCCLAIN Zoubi Restaurant and Bar 7 W Mechanic St, New Hope, PA (215) 862-5851 zoubirestaurant.com

RHUBARB & GOAT CHEESE AGNOLOTTI Basic Dough Recipe 2 Cups “OO” Flour 3 Eggs 1 Egg Yolk 1 Tablespoon Whole Milk 2 Tablespoon Olive Oil

Pasta Filling 2 Stalks Rhubarb (cut into 1 inch pieces) ¼ Cup Granulated Sugar ¼ Cup Water 10 oz. Goat Cheese Balsamic Strawberries ½ cup Strawberries (sliced in half) Granulated Sugar 1 Cup Balsamic Vinegar 1 stick Butter Parmesan Cheese, Salt & Pepper, Fresh Herbs for garnish FIRST STEP Mix all Pasta Dough wet ingredients into dry ingredients using a stand mixer with dough attachment.

When thoroughly mixed, cover and put in refrigerator to firm.

SECOND STEP Add Rhubarb, Sugar and Water in a saucepan over medium heat and let cook for 25 minutes.

Remove cooked Rhubarb mixture from stove and let cool.

Once cool, mix in goat cheese.

Cover and refrigerate until firm.

THIRD STEP Run dough through Pasta Machine.

Alternatively, you can roll dough into long rectangular shape until paper thin and almost transparent. Sprinkle “OO” Flour if necessary.

FOURTH STEP Fill a piping bag with refrigerated Rhubarb filling and pipe a line of filling in the middle of the dough, down the length of your pasta sheet. Fold dough over filling to cover, crimp and cut into 1-inch pieces.

FIFTH STEP Coat sliced strawberries with granulated sugar and add to the balsamic. Let macerate.

FIFTH STEP Warm butter in Saucepan over medium heat until butter is browned and has a nutty smell.

Remove from burner and put to the side.

SIXTH STEP Blanch your freshly made pasta in boiling water for 25 seconds. Spoon browned butter and macerated strawberries with balsamic into a serving bowl and top with cooked pasta. Garnish with freshly shaved parmesan cheese, herbs, salt and pepper.

JUSTIN’S HOUSE-CURED PORK BELLY 3 lb. Pork Belly (Skin Off) 2 Tablespoons Ground Coriander 1 Cup Kosher Salt ½ Cup Granulated Sugar 1 Teaspoon Prague Powder (Pink Salt) 3 Whole Garlic Cloves 10 Whole Pink Peppercorns 2 Tablespoons Whole Cardamom Pods ½ Bunch Fresh Thyme Mix all ingredients together. Rub generously on pork belly. Place in refrigerator and let sit for up to seven days.

Cook at 325 degrees for a minimum of two hours. Let rest, slice and serve.

ICON has not tested this recipe and makes no representations or claims about the accuracy of any recipes presented herein.

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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

COMMUNICATION UPDATE

By Pam Amick Klawitter

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 5 10 15 18 19 21 22 23 26 27 28 29 31 36 39 40 41 42 43 45 49 55 57 58 59 60 61 63 64 65 70 73 74 75 79 81 83 84 85 88 89 90 91 92 95 98 100 106

Kind of crazy?

Supermarket lines Gossiper’s word Yahoo! rival It divides banks in Bern Goes around Bartlett cousin Big foot letters Tiny pair of media hosts?

Short order from mom Go along with Extra Sneezer’s need Security for sailors?

Yacht staffs Van Gogh inspiration Clean the slate Latin lover’s word Naval NCO Some NCOs Scale starters Online photo exchange for redheads?

Like some income G.I. Joe’s outfit Former fillies Crêpe cousin Garden adornment Old Testament’s Queen of __ Tees for Aristotle Pound parts: Abbr.

Having returned to the world of public performances?

Newfoundland comment?

Often saved comics heroine Voicemail cues Cessation of hostilities Opinion pieces Ontario natives Intervene Go by Emeril’s gateway?

Dispatch Brass __ Place to go in Gloucester “Xanadu” gp.

Home of the John Denver Sanctuary Illusionist Criss __ “Cutthroat Kitchen” host Brown “Got a film to share?”?

Nothing new

107 108 112 113 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125

Dutch wheels High-quality Sharp-toothed swimmer End of a “Great Reuben!” tweet?

Cult following Get ready for an engagement?

Waxy compound Writer Rice Road curve Air Force E-5’s Revue routines Trails the pack

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 20 24 25 30 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 42 43 44 46 47 48 50 51 52 53

Fill up Shooting marbles __-Z: Camaro model Share on Facebook, e.g.

Raccoon relative Start of MGM’s motto Bryce Harper stat Holiday sparklers Office binder Underworld Multi-vol. reference 1977 Steely Dan album Political platforms To-do list items Smart bunch K-pop city Staircase component Bombards with junk email Memorable times Cortez’s gold Author Stieg Larsson’s homeland Short rests 1982 Disney sci-fi film Pool surface Org. whose roots date to the Civil War Sorcerer Simple-living sect Whale tracker Shout Revolutionary first name Kettle et al.

“The Simpsons” bus driver Jeer Divorce consequences Vittles Preserves, in a way “You said it!”

Early sunscreen ingredient

54 55 56 59 61 62 63 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 76 77 78 80 81 82 83 85 86 87 89 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100

Made skillfully Horner’s surprise Trattoria order Scroogean cries Enjoys a run, maybe “To each __ own” Half a fly “Get Smart” security device MGM co-founder “As I Lay Dying” father Coven concoction Experts Part of a film Custardlike dessert Election surprise Sky over Seville __ Field, a former name of Minute Maid Park Modernize One side of the fence Casting aid Sign of success Venom dispenser Cheese couleur Aptly named track star “Big” London attraction Crude homes Mountaineering equipment Many Qatar natives Queens team, briefly Half a kids’ game “Down with,” in Paris Deadly Plead in court

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101 102 103 104 105 109 110 111

Reduces one’s distance from WWI battle site Senses Not even Border range Sicilian attraction “Shucks!”

Sits in a cellar, say

114 115 116 117

Short rule?

Tuna catcher “Black” shopping time: Abbr. __ water

Answer to April’s puzzle, THIS JUST IN

Agenda FINE ART THRU 5/15 This Light of Ours, Activist Photographers of the Civil Rights Movement. Free entry Sundays, see website. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA. AllentownArtMuseum.org THRU 5/29 Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. Organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Our America presents the rich and varied contributions of Latino artists in the United States since the mid-20th century, when the concept of a collective Latino identity began to emerge. Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Parkway, Wilmington, Delaware.

302-571-9590. delart.org THRU 6/4 Tiffany Glass, Painting with Color and Light. Williams Center Gallery, 317 Hamilton St., Easton, PA. 610330-5361/5831.

Galleries.lafayette.edu THRU 7/9 Spring Show with Elli Albrecht, Gini Illick, Thomas Kelly, Domenick Naccarato, Marlow Rodale, and Jennifer Schilling. Bethlehem House Gallery, 459 Main St., Bethlehem. 610-419-6262 or cell, 610390-4324. BethlehemHouseGallery.com 5/1-6/12 The Art of the Miniature: 24th invitational exhibition of fine art miniatures from around the world.

Reception 5/1, 1-5. The Snow Goose Gallery, 470 Main St., Bethlehem. 610-974-9099. View the exhibit online. Thesnowgoosegallery.com 5/4-5/21 2016 Thesis Exhibition featuring six graduating seniors. The talented emerging artists will show their thesis work. Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA. Tues.-Sat. 12-8PM. Muhlenberg.edu/main/aboutus/gallery 5/14-6/19 Sculpture 2016, 15th annual juried exhibition. New Hope Arts Center, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope, PA. 215-862-9606. newhopearts.org 5/15 A Celebration of the Sampler

Legacy of Hope Randolph Hacker, 1:00. Fiber artist Kim Tanzos demos her technique of needle and wet felting of wool, free. 123, Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA. AllentownArtMuseum.org

ART & FINE CRAFT EVENTS 5/7 & 5/8 Morven in May: Art, Craft and Garden. Juried show features jewelry, furniture, wearable and decorative textiles, ceramics, mixed media; 36 fine craft artists from around the U.S. Come see the best heirloom plant sale in NJ. Morven Museum & Garden, 55 Stockton St., Princeton, NJ. 609924-8144. Morven.org 5/7 & 5/8 51st Fine Art & Craft Show. Historic Main Street, Bethlehem.

Sat.,10-5, Sun. 11-5. Over 80 regional, national & local artists. Fun for the entire family, art projects for the kids too. Presented by Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission.

Bfac-lv.org 5/21 16th Annual Arts Alive. Juried Arts/Craft Festival, Downtown Quakertown. 10-4. Rain: 5/22.

215-536-2273. Presented by Quakertown Alive. Quakertownalive.com 6/18 Stahl’s Pottery Preservation Society presents its 29th Annual Summer Pottery Festival. Sales by 30 contemporary potters, pottery site tours, demonstrations, refreshments and baked goods. 9 am-4 pm, 6826 Corning Rd., Zionsville, PA. Admission $4/adult; under 18 free. Free parking, held rain or shine. 610-965-5019. Stahlspottery.org

AUCTIONS 5/21 31st Annual Baum School art auction, silent auction 5:30-7:30, live auction begins at 8:00. Auctions are free to attend. Optional buffet dinner $50/advance, $60/door.

Preview night 5/19, 6-8. The Baum School of Art, 510 Linden St., Allentown. 610-433-0032. Baumschool.org

THEATER THRU 5/8 Me and My Girl. Act 1 Performing Arts, DeSales University, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley.

610-282-3192. Desales.edu/Act1

6/29-7/30 Growl. A new Goldilocks Musical from the creators of Grimm. And Gruff. Spectacular, affordable family fun. Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3333.

FILM

5/4-5/8 In the Mood, a 1940’s musical revue. Matinee & evening performances. Bucks County Playhouse, 70 S. Main St., New Hope.

215-862-2121. BucksCountyPlayhouse.org

6/14-6/18 Southside Film Festival. Celebrating independent film from around the world in Bethlehem. Shorts, documentaries, features, animation. For info visit Ssff.org.

5/8 Bullets Over Broadway, The Musical. Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. 610-758-2787. ZoellnerArtsCenter.org

Thursday nights, Community Stage with John Beacher, 8-midnight.

Karla’s, 5 W. Mechanic St., New Hope. 215-862-2612. Karlasnewhope.

5/14 Touchstone Theatre presents, The 11th Annual Young Playwrights’ Festival & Gala. Bethlehem, PA. 610-867-1689. touchstone.org 5/26 Freddy Awards, 7PM. The State Theatre Centre for the Arts, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. Stream live at wfmz.com. 610252-3132 or 1-800-999-STATE. Freddyawards.org 6/3-8/6 The Little Mermaid, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Schubert Theatre. The Professional Theatre at DeSales University in Center Valley, PA. 610-282-WILL. PaShakespeare.org 6/15-7/3 Gypsy, featuring Mia Scarpa & Jarrod Yuskauskas Spectacular, affordable family fun. Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484664-3333. Muhlenberg.edu/smt 6/15-7/3 West Side Story, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Main Stage.

The Professional Theatre at DeSales University in Center Valley, PA. 610-282-WILL. PaShakespeare.org 6/22-7/17 Julius Caesar, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Schubert Theatre.

The Professional Theatre at DeSales University in Center Valley, PA. 610-282-WILL. PaShakespeare.org

DINNER & MUSIC

5/12 Jessy J: RiverJazz Festival present- ed by Concannon Miller 5/15 Alejandro Escovedo 5/18 Delbert McClinton: RiverJazz Festival presented by Concannon Miller 5/19 Jay & the Americans 5/22 Everyone Orchestra 5/26 DSB: A Tribute to Journey 5/27 Igor & The Red Elvises 5/27 Crystal Bowersox (Free) 5/28 Blind Boys of Alabama (Free) 6/1

Thurs.-Sat., Dinner and show at SteelStacks, Bethlehem. 5-10, table service and valet parking. artsquest.org

CONCERTS. 5/8 Philippe Jaroussky, countertenor.

Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, 317 Hamilton St., Easton. 610-330-5009.

AtTheWilliams.org 5/13, 14, 15 20, 21, 22 109th Bethlehem Bach Festival: The Heart of Our Season. The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Bethlehem. Various locations. Complete schedule: Bach.org.

5/15 Satori Student Competition Winners in Concert. Cathedral Arts, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem.

610-865-0727.

Nativitycathedral.org.

5/22 The Cathedral Choir in concert.

4:00 PM, Cathedral Arts, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-865-0727.

Nativitycathedral.org.

MUSIKFEST CAFÉ 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem 610-332-1300.

Full schedule: Artsquest.org 5/7 Kamasi Washington: RiverJazz Festival presented by Concannon Miller 5/8

Mother’s Day Brunch

Lake Street Dive

EVENTS THRU 5/22 Society of the Arts SHOW HOUSE 2016, The Moyer-Metzger Manse: A Portrait of Revival. 1406 Hamilton St., Allentown, PA. Mon.-Sat., 10AM-4PM, Sun. Noon-4PM. Special events with the theme of decorating inside the home as well as gardening and backyard topics will be the focus. Event Information & tickets www.sotapa.org 5/6 Easton Public Market presents, Inaugural “First Fridays,” Tolino Vineyards at the Market Kitchen.

The Taza Stop will also be offering a selection of their Egyptian inspired menu items. The evening will include 4 wines and 4 tapas to pair. 7:00-8:30 PM, $20/person, limited seats available. 325 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610330-9942.

EastonPublicMarket.com 5/21 Quakertown Alive. Presents the 16th Annual Arts Alive. Juried Arts & Craft Event. Downtown Quakertown, PA, 10–4. Rain date 5/22.

5/21 Lehigh Valley Arts Council presents Professional Development, Indroduction to 3-D Printing. 9:30am – 12:30 pm, Lehigh University, Wilbur Powerhouse Prototyping Lab, Bethlehem, PA. For info: lvacartscouncil.org.

CAMP DeSales University, Summer Video Institute, ext. 1683. Desales.edu/sv.

Summer Theatre Institute, ext.1320.

Desales.edu/st. Summer Dance Institute, ext.1663. Desales.edu/sd.

2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-1100.

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