JUNE 2018 by ICON Magazine

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JUNE Exclusive Interviews Samantha Fish | 18 Margalit Fox | 20

Color Drive, James Bongartz, 36 x 24. Touchstone Art Gallery

ART

5 | Fourth Quarter 6 |

MORE FILM 24 |

EXHIBITIONS I

Underpinnings Cedar Crest College Muhlenberg College 69th Tinicum Arts Festival Tinicum Park, Erwinna

25 |

James Bongartz Solo Show 25 |

7 |

EXHIBITIONS II

69th Tinicum Arts Festival Tinicum Park, Erwinna

Margalit Fox.

Alex Sepkus Trunk Show Heart of the Home 28 | 8 | 10 |

THEATER PHOTOJOURNALIST

DOCUMENTARY

SINGER / SONGWRITER

POP Vocal Standard Bearers

30 |

JAZZ LIBRARY Neal Hefti

12 |

FOODIE FILE 32 |

Annihilation.

14 |

NIGHTLIFE

FILM 16 | Nancy 22 |

FILM ROUNDUP Avengers: Infinity War Fahrenheit 451

ON THE COVER: Samantha Fish. Page 18. Photo: Brian Rozman. 4

JAZZ/ ROCK/CLASSICAL/ALT Areon Flutes Van Morrison & Joey DeFrancesco Yelena Eckemoff Matthew Shipp Denny Zeitlin

ETCETERA 33 | Harper’s Findings 33 | Harper’s Index

The Tale

34 | L. A. Times Crossword

Unsane

35 | Agenda

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PUBLISHER

Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com

filipiakr@comcast.net

Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore Pete Townshend Kelly Willis The Kennedys Bob Rea

PHOTOgraphy 2018 Philadelphia Sketch Club

215-862-9558

FOREIGN

MUSIC 26 |

Filling the hunger since 1992

EDITORIAL Publisher & Editor / Trina McKenna

Hitler’s Hollywood

Allentown

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

Annihilation Frantz Loveless Where Is Kyra?

Er ist wieder da (Look Who’s Back)

Touchstone Art Gallery

44th Annual Art-in-the-Park

REEL NEWS

ICON

Raina Filipiak / Advertising PRODUCTION

Richard DeCosta Susan O’Neill Rita Kaplan

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

Geoff Gehman / geoffgehman@verizon.net Mark Keresman / shemp@hotmail.com

George Miller / gomiller@travelsdujour.com Thom Nickels / thomnickels1@aol.com

R. Kurt Osenlund / rkurtosenlund@gmail.com Bob Perkins / bjazz5@aol.com

Keith Uhlich / KeithUhlich@gmail.com Tom Wilk / tomwilk@rocketmail.com

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ART ESSAY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

FOURTH QUARTER JACK AND I RECENTLY achieved chronological alignment. We momentarily shared the same age, as he rocketed past at seven times the speed of Bob. We both have a gray muzzle, we both make noises when we lay down and get up, and it takes a while for our joints to work in the morning. But he is older now, and it’s starting to show. Jack is still the more impressive of the two of us when we go out to play ball. There is no hesitation when I pitch him a line drive, just crisp and graceful surety. He’s not the all-star he once was, but the skill memory is still in there. When one of my throws goes wide his whole body instantly reacts as it did in the glory days. He shifts his weight to the rear to apply power as his front legs rotate his body, head following the ball calculating speed and direction, all muscles working in unison for the launch…but it doesn’t come. He turns and watches the ball go. Jack knows it’s too far. He’s not going to triangulate the trajectory as he accelerates across the field, react to that odd bounce and make that perfectly timed, superbly athletic catch, beating the ball at its own game. Jack still remembers how, but those days when trumpets played and the crowd cheered are done. It makes me sad. I want to wipe the haze from his eyes and give him back the leaps and twists, the deflected interceptions, and the full-speed over-theshoulder grabs, but we are in the fourth quarter now, and both of us are getting used to a different play sheet. The squirrels and birds in the park know it. They come much closer than they would have dared a couple of years ago. Chickadees and juncos flit beside the paths in disrespectful proximity. I see Jack’s eyes move from one to the next, estimating distance as we walk past. Every now and then he fakes a quick move and they scatter. He looks back at me with a grin. Jack remains the perfect dog off the playing field; polite, quiet, and exercising a good read on any situation. He establishes a bond with strangers early-on by leaning against them. If somebody new is unusually stiff, he suspends formality by sticking his head in their crotch. With a big neck and shoulders, a slender waist, and a luxurious mink-colored coat, Jack still cuts a very handsome figure. He weighs 80 pounds—a real dog. Supposedly a mix of Lab and Collie (Border, I

think), Jack has an untroubled nature, blazing intellect, and extraordinary perception. He walks with the confidence of a large cat and doesn’t miss a trick. Forget anything at Westminster; Jack is the best dog ever. What’s that? You think your Bailey or Harley or Bella are contenders? Sorry, but no. When Jack hears me get the nail clippers out of the drawer he walks to the back door. We go outside, he gets up on the stone wall so I don’t have to bend over, and he holds out his paw. I cut those nails, and then he holds up the other leg. No drama. No contest. The two of us are a lot alike. We appreciate a walk in the woods and the earth under our feet, we enjoy being in front of a crackling fire, and we both hate drones. Jack can see and hear them even when I can’t. He’ll be looking up and growling, and sure enough there it is. I’m sure he wishes he could fly. That would be awesome. Jack’s not a fan of skateboards or roller skates and will yell at them when they go by. He has a big-dog bark that gets your attention. Last week we were in the park during off-leash hours and we came across a large, very well-built fellow engaged in a flashy public workout. Jack didn’t mind; it’s that guy’s park, too. But on our way back the man was jumping rope in the middle of the path, which didn’t sit right with Jack. He ran up behind him and delivered a surprise lecture/adrenaline-kick that lifted Captain Musclebound a couple of feet off the ground and sent the rope twirling into a bush. I figured oh shit, here we go, but the guy just looked back at Jack, waved at me, and went off to find his rope. Like I said, Jack takes an excellent read on situations. It comes from many dog-years of experience, and I like to think good parenting. n ICON, JUNE 2018 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

EXHIBITIONS I

Twist, Emily Strong, oil on board, 16" x 14” Acme on Girard, acrylic, 27 x 33

Underpinnings Cedar Crest College’s Center for Visual Research 100 College Dr., Allentown, PA 800-360-1222 Cedarcrest.edu Muhlenberg College’s Martin Art Gallery 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA 484-664-3467 Muhlenberg.edu THRU August 11, 2018 Underpinnings is a collaborative project between Cedar Crest College’s Center for Visual Research and Muhlenberg College’s Martin Art Gallery. Staged as two distinct exhibitions, in the summer of 2018, this show is intended to shine a spotlight on the rich breadth of creative research produced by area arts and cultural workers themselves. Roughly 30 participating artists include leadership at all levels of Lehigh Valley area arts institutions.Businesses and institutions with participating staff artists include area colleges and universities, notably The Allentown Art Museum, The Baum School of Art, Lehigh University and an assortment of commercial galleries, framers and other arts workers from Easton to Allentown, and beyond. Sculpture, painting, drawing, collage and photography are represented, and highlight figurative, abstract, conceptual and other artistic directions in two dynamic exhibitions.

MAGIK, Mountain Bike, crayon on paper, 20 x 16” 6

James Bongartz Solo Show Touchstone Art Gallery 11 Afton Ave., Yardley touchstoneartgallery.com June 9 – July 3 Reception, 6/9 Jim Bongartz was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he began studies at Carnegie-Mellon University followed by a Bachelor of Science Degree in Art Education at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. After moving to the Philadelphia area in 1989, he began a 22-year career as a full time art teacher for a private, special education, K-12 school in Fort Washington, PA. While teaching, Jim kept a working studio in pursuit of his painting career. One of Jim’s treasured accomplishments was maintaining weekly painting sessions with painter Steve Kennedy for over 15 years. Jim turned to acrylics, painting images inspired from his photography referencing how the camera interprets light, color, motion, and time. Allowing the camera to capture an exploratory moment in travel, play or daily life, Jim transforms the graphic nature of photography to a painterly world with bold color and brushwork.

Left on Stony Hill Road, acrylic, 18 x 24

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Torso, Derek Reynoso, ceramic.

44th Annual Art-in-the-Park Presented by Allentown’s West Park Civic Assoc. 16th & Turner Streets, Allentown, PA 610-737-7132 Westpark-ca.org June 16, 10 AM-5 PM (rain or shine) Art-in-the-Park returns to Allentown’s West Park with a rejuvenated format, featuring fine art and crafts by 70+ juried artists from the greater Lehigh Valley and beyond. A range of two- and three-dimensional creations, including jewelry, ceramics, fiber art, glass, painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, mosaic, constructions, and art made from recycled/repurposed materials. High school and college artists will be participating, providing them with a unique learning and earning opportunity. Demonstrations will be offered by Virginia Abbott, sculptor & member of the National Sculpture Society; Barnaby Ruhe, portraitist; Ann Elizabeth Schlegel, painter; Sandra Corpora, painter; Jacob Bullock, outsider artist, and others. Painter Edith Roeder, an exhibitor for over two decades, will be honored. Prizes will be juried by Lisa Tremper Hanover, retired Executive Director/CEO of the Michener Museum and Michiko Okaya, Director of Art Galleries & Collections, Lafayette College. Work by participants in a plein air workshop held in Allentown parks offered by Baum School teacher Adriano Farinella will be displayed. Musical and dance performances offered throughout the day. Food and beverages available for purchase. Join us in West Park for an artistic celebration.

EXHIBITIONS II

Hummingbird in Fall, Dakota Moon jewelry.

69th Tinicum Arts Festival Tinicum Park, River Rd., Erwinna, PA TinicumArtsFestival.org July 7, 10-6 & July 8, 11-5 The Festival is well known as the premier showcase for the best in arts, crafts, music and literature that Bucks County has to offer. Over 300 artists and artisans will be featured. Voted Best Summer Event in 2017, the 69th year promises to be the best yet. Relax and delight in this unique tradition that offers one or two days of very affordable family fun for the price of a single admission. Enjoy live entertainment, the discovery tent, book wagon, silent auction, authors’ table and the white elephant tent. It all happens in beautiful Tinicum Park along the Delaware River in Erwinna, PA, and it is all for a good cause. The festival is hosted each year by the Tinicum Civic Association, a volunteer nonprofit organization that encourages artistic talent, supports community well being and preserves the historic Stover Mill in Erwinna, PA. Proceeds benefit the historic Stover Mill, home of the Stover Mill Gallery, and donations to over 30 local non-profit organizations.

Lotus Vase, Marsha Dowshen Pottery and Tile.

Running Vine, Laura Ducceschi (detail)

PHOTOgraphy 2018 Philadelphia Sketch Club 235 South Camac St., Philadelphia, PA 215-545-9298 sketchclub.org. Wednesdays and Fridays through Sundays1 – 5 June 13 – July 18 The Philadelphia Sketch Club’s juried PHOTOgraphy Exhibition is an annual event produced by the club. For more than two decades, this popular exhibition kicks-off the summer season at the club. PHOTOgraphy 2018 is open to all traditional, alternative and digital processes, offering maximum creative freedom to Metro-Philadelphia photographers. America’s oldest club for artists, the Philadelphia Sketch Club has offered visual artists the means to assist each other in their art and promoted the appreciation of art in the greater Philadelphia community since 1860. The club’s activities include 20 art exhibitions every year, presentations by leaders in the local art world, critique sessions to give artists constructive comments on their works, and six workshops per week for practice in painting and sketching. The culture of mutual assistance is the same one valued by the club’s founders and early members, who include Thomas Eakins and N. C. Wyeth.

Alex Sepkus Trunk Show Heart of the Home 28 S. Main St., New Hope, PA 215-862-1880 Heartofthehome.com June 23, 11–5 Renowned goldsmith Alex Sepkus’ unique creations will be presented at Heart of the Home in New Hope, PA. Sepkus’ artistic vision is influenced by a myriad of inspirations, from the historical to the literary to the fantastical, and his work is much sought-after by lovers of fine art and connoisseurs of exceptional fine jewelry alike. Heart of the Home has proudly represented his work for more than a decade, and is pleased to continue its annual tradition of this special expanded exhibition of his work. A one-day trunk show celebrating his gold and platinum rings, earrings, necklaces, and one-of-a-kind treasures, this is a rare opportunity to explore the depth and breadth of the artist’s expansive collection. Join us for this special event.

Two Street Stompers Waiting to March, Gary Grissom (detail) ICON, JUNE 2018 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

THEATER VALLEY

CITY

The Fox on the Fairway. Pennsylvania Playhouse, which neighbors a golf course, presents Ken Ludwig’s farce revolving around a country club president’s fear of losing a big bet after losing his best golfer to a rival. His problem seems solved by a firstrate replacement until the replacement, distracted by a lost engagement ring, breaks an arm swinging a club. An ideal play for the golf-mad Valley, “Fox” premiered at the Signature Theater in Arlington, Va., a haven for new musicals and Stephen Sondheim revivals co-founded by Eric Schaeffer, a Berks County native. Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick's Mill Rd, Bethlehem. (June 1-2, 8-10, 14-17)

The Gospel at Colonus First performed in 1983 from playwright/lyricist Lee Breuer’s African-American musical adaptation of Sophocles’ tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus, the opulently comported, blissfully musical story of a great king, turned cursed outcast and blinded, who wanders the scorched earth in search of sanctuary and the final blessing of a peaceful resting place. What makes The Gospel at Colonus special is the swarm of characters on the First Unitarian Church’s small stage (60 people including singers, actors and musicians) highlighted by gospel music sensations Bishop Bruce Parham, Audrey Mickell, Marilyn Brewington, and Paula and Charlene Holloway. As this musical is shamefully rare in its production, The Gospel at Colonus is always a delight worth catching. By the Coatesville Cultural Society, at The First Unitarian Church, 2125 Chestnut St. (now until June 10)

Newsies. Northampton Community College starts a second summer season with this spunky, spiky musical about 19th-century newsboys who strike to protest media mogul Joseph Pulitzer hiking their distribution fee. Composer Alan Menken won a 2012 original-score Tony Award for exploring the exploitation of child workers, unusually gritty fare for a Disney product. The 1992 film starred Christian Bale as the brave newsie chief who publishes a newsletter that brings aid from Theodore Roosevelt, New York’s rough-riding governor. Northampton Community College, 3835 Green Pond Rd., Bethlehem. (June 6-17) Ragtime: The Musical. Famous folks—Booker T. Washington, Harry Houdini, Emma Goldman—stir the melting pot in turn-of-the-century America with fictional folks: an immigrant filmmaker, an upper middle-class radical, a ragtime pianist avenging a racist attack on his new car. Surprisingly dramatic and kaleidoscopic, just like the novel by E.L. Doctorow, who wrote and set it in his 1906 house in my hometown of New Rochelle, N.Y. Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, DeSales University, Center Valley. (June 13-July 1) Twelfth Night. Clowns, royals and twins spin on Shakespeare’s merry-go-round, which could be called “The Comedy of Errant Lovers.” The biggest fool is Malvolio, a maestro of melancholy gulled into preening like a peacock. Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, DeSales University, Center Valley. (June 21-July 15) God of Carnage. Two civil couples become increasingly uncivil during a dinner scheduled after a son knocks out a son’s teeth. Playwright Yasmina Reza won a 2009 newplay Tony to add to her 1998 new-play Tony for “Art.” Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet matched wicked wits in “Carnage,” the 2011 movie directed by Roman Polanski. Northampton Community College, 3835 Green Pond Rd., Bethlehem. (June 21-July 1) Dirty Dancing. A stuffy Catskills resort is fumigated by the fancy, funky movements of an upper-class girl tutored in life by the resort’s lower-class star dancer. Based on the hit movie that made Patrick Swayze a household name, the musical features the Contours’ 1962 rave-up “Do You Love Me?” State Theatre, 453 Northampton St, Easton. (June 21-22)

Auditions for Le Super Grand Continental You know how Philadelphia has that anonymous all-white dinner party where no one has all the pieces to the puzzle until the last minute? Think of the auditions for the Fringe Festival’s Le Super Grand Continental with choreography by Sylvain Émard as the Diner et Blanc of large-scale dance performances. Ever since 2012, 150 residents of all ages and dance backgrounds hooked up at the foot of the Philadelphia Art Museum steps, dressed in their own choice of costumed finery and “twirled into a rhythmic human kaleidoscope; a joyous and intoxicating dance spectacle” says the Fringe’s notes. FringeArts, 140 N. Columbus Blvd. (June 6-9) Alex Keiper & the Next Generation There are countless young actresses in the Philadelphia area who have made their mark with powerfully individualistic multiple role-playing for various theater companies. Few, however, are as daring and as rocking as Alex Keiper: “At a time when many of us ‘liberal snowflakes’ are hoping to smash the patriarchy, it’s fun playing a character who gets to, literally, do just that.” Though she has spent 2018 so far with the stoic “The Humans” at Walnut Street Theatre and “Triumph of Love” at Bristol Riverside Theatre, it is her “Next Generation” cabaret showcase at the Arden’s Studio Theatre that is the breeziest fun as it includes women and genderqueer artists where no two performances are alike. “I don’t know where cabaret should go, but I do know that this generation will require more than a nice song and a pat on the back,” said Keiper. “They’re looking to change the rules on what we’re allowed to do in the theater. Cabaret just gives us an blank canvas to create something like that.” The Arden Cabaret Series at Hamilton Family Arts Center, 62 N. 2nd St. (June 15-16)

TAL: Beyond Imagination. Atlas Circus Company, which is run by four Muhlenberg graduates, uses everything from dancing to aerial acrobatics to tell a new family tale of a young writer’s quest to understand his creativity. Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, 2400 West Chew St., Allentown. (June 27-July 28) n

Champions of Magic The hows and whys of including a group of magicians in a theater page would normally be questionable—that is, until you consider the slate of thespian/performance artists of legerdemain and witness their transformation from cats with card tricks to the next gen of pyro/tech heavy gymnasts with actor-ish aplomb. Plus, this team of slick magicians who specialize in disappearance, levitation and teleportation and with lighting and special effects to rival the lushest theatrical spectacles have already appeared on Broadway. They don’t need me to qualify or quantify them with their inclusion on this page. Merriam Theater, 250 S. Broad St. (June 20 - June 24) n

— GEOFF GEHMAN

— A.D. AMOROSI

Beauty and the Beast. Composer Alan Menken helped adapt a fabled fairy tale about a kind woman who unlocks the heart of her castle warden, a prince made ugly by his ugly personality. The Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre production is directed by former actor Gary John La Rosa, a “Fiddler on the Roof ” veteran who produced a 50th anniversary Broadway spectacular with Topol, Chita Rivera and Joshua Bell. Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, 2400 West Chew St., Allentown (June 14-July 1)

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The eye of a southern ground-hornbill. The bird has remarkably long, wiry eyelashes.

The eye of a blue macaw is surrounded by a featherless golden rim.

THE PHOTOJOURNALIST EYES As different species have adapted to meet specific needs and inhabit varied environments, the eye has evolved with an extraordinary diversity of specialization.

HEIDI KOCH AND HANS-JĂ&#x153;RGEN Nature, third prize story 2009, World Press Photo 10

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The eye of a peacock mantis shrimp is one of the most complex in the animal kingdom. It enables exact calculation of distance and can perceive ultra-violet and polarized light.

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FOODIE FILE

Chef Brian Held.

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BY A.D. AMOROSI

The PRINCE

of LAMBERTVILLE

IF YOU’RE GOING TO shout about fine dining in the Lambertville/New Hope area (to say nothing of Stockton), there are two names that you’re going to have to crow about: Brian Held and the late Jim Hamilton. That the two legends’ lives and careers would eventually intersect was a given. They became pals when the younger Held grew his empire in Bucks, and Hamilton designed the interior of Held’s restaurants. That the former would one day take over the latter’s large-scale Hamilton’s Grill Room was unthinkable. “It’s an institution,” said Held, the chef-owner of Stockton’s Bistro Rouget (it was once his NoLa space until 2017) and Brian’s in Lambertville, talking about everything-Hamilton from its sparkle and size (“It’s like two of my restaurants put together, and then some”) to its cuisine (“Hamilton’s and oysters are synonymous”). Yet, that time is now as the two men hammered out the details of the Hamilton hand-off during the latter’s illness in 2017 (the designer/restaurateur famed for projects with Oleg Cassini, Tiffany & Co. and Steuben Glass passed in February of this year) and Held now holds the note to, and the famed menu of, the rich and rustic Grill Room in his hands. “The last two years have been tough for the Grill Room what with Jim being sick, so we’re pleased to get it back to how people in the area know it,” said Held. “It’s a surreal feeling, though, to be part of returning Hamilton’s to how special it was. I mean, this place has stood the test of time; it’s a classic.” With that, Held believes that any opportunity to rebuild the Hamilton’s legend is an exciting opportunity; maybe the “most exciting thing I’ve ever done,” he said. “Hamilton’s is the most special place I’ve had the pleasure of operating. I’m quite biased though.” Held is honest in his reflection that the process of re-configuring Hamilton’s to include both of the men’s visions will be a long, bold process. “The place is enormous. The task of making the changes we want, immense. There’s definitely a learning curve. But we’re up to the challenge.” Being up for a challenge has pretty much been Held’s story since his start. As a chef specializing in classic, but contemporary French cuisine (“you know, lots butter as opposed to olive oil”), Held moved from his Provence-themed Special Invitation Deli in Richboro, to the original Rouget in Newtown (he’s proud still that Philadelphia Inquirer’s food critic Craig LaBan called Rouget “quite possibly the best restaurant in Bucks County” for its “elegant contemporary takes on classic French cooking”), before leaving Newtown for Lambertville and its challenges. “I love Lambertville. It’s homey with an exquisite sense of taste. And there’s something very New York-ish about it. But around the time we opened Brian’s there…. it was 2009. We were in the middle of a recession and nobody was really spending a lot of money when going out to eat, especially on high-end French food. So we tried another concept: gourmet pizzas and a lower price point. Personal gourmet pizzas were big at the time and a wood-fired oven was already in the kitchen, so it was a win-win for us.” Inspired, too, by all things Marc Vetri, Held began crafting hand-pressed, homemade pastas along with focusing on a prix fixe higher end French/Italian menu during the weekdays. “People began spending more often on more high ticket items and dinners, and we slowed the pizza oven.” Currently, Brian’s in Lambertville offers only a 3-course prix fixe menu, of which Held is pleased. “There’s a certain trust between the diner and the chef when you put an entire meal in someone’s hands.” That’s a trust he is hoping to host at the new/old or old/new Hamilton’s Grill Room. (For the record, the former executive chef at Hamilton’s Grill, Mark Miller, has just opened LouLou Burger on Main Street in New Hope). Yes, there will be all of Hamilton’s familiar tastes—the oysters for instance—but, of course, Held would like to meld his own personality and flavor with that of the late great Hamilton. “I want to make the food there different from Rouget and Brian’s which is always difficult because I have my signature styles. I do want Hamilton’s to be uncomplicated—the menu and the individual dishes. Maybe we’ll do a prix fix option during the week. I envision this Hamilton Grill like Chez Panisse in California—only it’s me and Hamilton’s, where you trust the chef implicitly.” n

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NIGHTLIFE

JUNE

CURATED BY A.D. AMOROSI

6 BASEEM YOUSEFF

Often called ‘“the Jon Stewart of the Arab World,” from his time as comic host of the popular faux news show “Al-Bernameg,” Youssef ’s latest show The Joke is Mightier than the Sword draws comparisons between the political climate behind the Arab Spring and its parallels to Trump’s American politics. Kimmel Center. Kimmelcenter.org 7 SANDRA BERNHARD

Though television and film fans know the caustic comic for Roseanne’s first

This pair’s current success on television includes Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story Versace murder chapter and The Mayor, but beyond drama and comedy, Michele and Criss are singing dancing Glee alumni – so expect show tunes and not murder ballads or laughs. State Theatre. statetheatre.org 13 JENNY LEWIS

The honey and sandy voice of Jenny Lewis may be best known through the raucous folksy recordings of Rilo Kiley. But reach into her three-album solo career (Rabbit Fur Coat is my fave), her time as Jenny & Johnny, and her most nom de plume and its eponymous debut, Nice as Fuck. Steelstacks. steelstacks.org 13/14 U2

chapter and Scorsese’s The King of Comedy, Bernhard’s solo shows and elaborate self-written productions (e.g. the still stunning Without You I’m Nothing) are her most magical and true moments. Theater of Living Arts. tlaphilly.com

The Irish epic rock quartet’s last two albums weren’t their best or most original in its canon, but as a live outfit, Bono & Co. never fail to excite.

8 CRAIG THATCHER BAND SALUTES THE FILLMORES

The band will perform cuts from some of the most iconic bands to perform there—Derek and the Dominoes, Blind Faith, Santana, Traffic, Jimi Hendrix. Mauch Chunk Opera House. mcohjt.com 9 CUPCAKKE

This Chicago rapper is the bawdiest, most frankly and funnily sexual

15 M. WARD

Once upon a time this rough and elegant contemporary folkie was renowned for being just M. Ward. Nowadays, however, he’s more often associated as one half of She & Him with Zooey Daschenal. This solo show, then, is a happy rarity and must-see-and-be. Steelstacks. steelstacks.org

9 LEA MICHELE AND DARREN CRISS 14

16 GARY HOEY

With his impassioned command of the guitar, Hoey can attack his instrument with feral intensity and then play something very soft and achingly beautiful. Mauch Chunk Opera House. mcohjt.com 19 MICHAEL A. SMERCONISH

The CNN commentator, socio-political columnist and Philly legal eagle has a new volume of his essays Clowns to The Left of Me, Jokers to The Right (thank you, Steelers Wheel) to read and sign. Free Library of Philadelphia Main Branch. freelibrary.org 20 HAPPY TOGETHER TOUR

Run by one-time Turtles Flo & Eddie, this happy hippie collection of ’60s AM melodic elders from Three Dog Night, The Cowsills, Paul Revere & the Raiders and more just happens to be the most fun night out for young and old. Keswick Theatre. keswicktheatre.com

the guy who actually played and wrote his own country-tinged material—and left the band first. Now enjoying a late life renaissance with recent solo live tours, this pairing should prove to be delightful beyond mere melodic memory jogging. Keswick Theatre. keswicktheatre.com 20 GORDON LIGHTFOOT

The Canadian Dylan and crafter of richly dramatic Impressionist epics such as “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” and “Sundown” shows up in the suburbs. Steelstacks. steelstacks.org 23 MIKE TYSON

You don’t know what the one-time heavyweight boxing champ is going to do on stage and neither do I. But he has performed a one-man-show on Broadway, Undisputed Truth, and he’s got a wicked sense of humor so this could be deliciously weird. The Borgata. theborgata.com 26 LOS STRAITJACKETS WITH NICK LOWE

Such a lovely odd on-stage pairing: the surf-rock guitar instrumentalists with the Lucha Libre Mexican wrestling masks, and Britain’s lord of

20 MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Who knows, then, what energy they will bring to the proceedings of its new music? Wells Fargo Center. WellsFargoCenterPhilly.com

recording artist since Millie Jackson. Dig her.Theater of Living Arts. tlaphilly.com

electronics) it is a shame to see the veteran lyricist-singer retiring from the stage. Hopefully he’ll go out with a bang. Wells Fargo Center. WellsFargoCenterPhilly.com

16 PAUL SIMON

With some of his most inventive work only recently behind him (poetic albums with Brian Eno and theatrical

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(The Metropolitan Opera HD, 2015/16). Karel Mark Chichon conducts Puccini’s timeless classic, Madama Butterfly. This tragic love story follows the lives of U.S. soldier, Lieutenant B.F. Pinkerton, and geisha woman, Cio-Cio-San. Miller Symphony Hall, Allentown. MillerSymphonyHall.org 21 THE MONKEES PRESENT: THE MIKE AND MICKY SHOW

It’s sad to say that with Davy Jones passed away and Peter Tork sitting 2018 out, only two Monkees remain on that Last Train to Clarksville. That said, and not to play favorites, but Nesmith and Dolenz ARE the heart, soul, and head of the Monkees. Micky Dolenz was the goofy one who could hammily put across a pop tune and Mike Nesmith was the quiet rebel—

pub rock and caustic lyricism join forces for Lowe’s first new music in five years, “Tokyo Bay.” Steelstacks. steelstacks.org 27 IL TROVATORE

(The Metropolitan Opera HD, 2015/16) Dmitri Hvorostovsky reprises his acclaimed Count di Luna with what the New York Times described as “his usual nobility and intelligence.” Miller Symphony Hall. MillerSymphonyHall.org n

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FILM BY PETE CROATTO

THE MOST EXPLOSIVE SCENE in Nancy, writerdirector Christina Choe’s masterful psychological study, is when the title character (Andrea Riseborough) unravels after losing her cat. Choe eschews showiness in her debut feature. We rarely put the pieces together to deliver a powerhouse speech from our perfectly constructed life, and neither do Choe’s characters. They’re putting their lives together on the fly. I was transfixed just the same. When we meet Nancy, her world’s colors are vomit-tinged. Her house, which she shares with her dissatisfied mother (Ann Dowd), is permanently dark, filled with Goodwill furniture and hopelessness. Mom is dying, but the dusty stillness of the house, the muted colors, tell us that life hasn’t existed here for years. It’s no surprise that Nancy favors escapism. She writes stories that are rejected with such consistency that the form letters overflow into the car’s glove compartment. She lives on her cell phone. She creates a blog chronicling her life as a pregnant woman, only she’s not pregnant—a fact she doesn’t hide from an online fan (John Leguizamo, in another sterling supporting role) who meets her for coffee. Even when Nancy temps at a dentist’s office—a setting Choe por16

Nancy trays in grimy earth tones that make our gums crawl— she creates a ludicrous backstory of vacationing in North Korea. She is around 40. The juvenile antics only age her. Mom dies. No one cries, nobody mourns, few care. A sleepless Nancy catches a news report about a couple (Steve Buscemi and J-Smith Cameron) starting a scholarship for their long-missing daughter, Brooke. Nancy is stunned. She looks a lot like the adult reconstruction of Brooke. Nancy can’t find her birth certificate, an anomaly in a house teeming with back issues of National Geographic. Separation is as good an explanation as any to why she always felt out of place. Nancy calls the couple’s house, and for once, she’s honest. She doesn’t doctor the selfie she sends. She immediately drives to the people who might be her parents, hoping that each party provides what the other needs. “You’re not disappointed?” Nancy asks Ellen, the mother-in-waiting, soon after they meet. “Why would you say that?” Ellen responds. For Ellen, Nancy represents a tantalizing possibility: She can resume a relationship that ended 30 years ago, when her daughter let go of her hand in a mall and never returned. (Brooke’s bedroom is unchanged

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since the last day she used it.) For Nancy, she gets validation: someone who will listen to her, read her stories, and treat her like family. But it’s borderline torture for Nancy, who is forced to confront herself, a concept that gives the film a consistently uneasy quality. Riseborough, with her sunken eyes and gaunt frame, has the physical presence to make us sense her character’s internal tension. Riseborough slinks and shrinks in every scene, as if she’s unsure how to react to a nice home where sunlight enters. It’s an intensely vulnerable performance, one that always feels natural. Cameron and Buscemi follow the less-is-more approach to equal effect. Ellen wants to believe; Leo, her husband, won’t celebrate until the blood tests come in. The confidence in their performances comes in that they don’t know the answers. All they have is hope, something their professions—psychologist and college professor—don’t espouse. Choe keeps the deus ex machina on blocks. The closest she comes is near the end when Nancy says, “We have to appreciate what we have now. It’s the only thing that’s real.” Salvation comes from within. That can’t be accomplished in fewer than 90 minutes. You may call that gloomy. I call that finding the inspiration in real life, and the arrival of a major directing talent. [NR] n

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INTERVIEW BY A.D. AMOROSI

Beyond the boys’ club of the blues with hot shot guitarist-singer

Samantha Fish

BRING “THE BLUES” INTO any conversation, and what springs to mind and revolves around is the male of the species: the sad, putupon man, the lover man, the bad man, the man who’s lost it all. Nine out of ten times, the thing that he was most put-upon by, or loved, or was most bad to, and lost it all due to—was a woman. The woman in blues? She’s the shrew who has taken the one guy for his money and attention, only to shift her energy to the next sol-

“

THERE’S A LOT TO TAKE IN WHEN YOU CONSIDER THE REGIONS AND STYLES OF BLUES YOU’RE PLAYING, BUT NO MATTER WHERE I GO, MY RIFFS AND SOLOS DO START WITH THE BLUES. EVERYTHING IS ROOTED IN THAT PLACE AND THEN WE GO AWAY FROM IT, AND THEN WE FIND OUR WAY BACK. WE OWN IT.

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dier with cash and energy. To go with the traditional male-focused subject matter of most blues rants is the fact that most of the genre’s top tier names that pop to the fore are usually men. Old and new—from Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters to Stevie Ray Vaughn and Albert King to Joe Bonamassa and Gary Clark Jr.—America’s rawest, saddest, most passionate sound is something of a wronged and wronging boys’ club. “It could be that the time’s up on that way of thinking,” said Samantha Fish. That male-dominated notion needs to be rethought—and fast—where Kansas City guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Fish is concerned. Bonnie Raitt, Ana Popovic, Marcia Ball, Beverly Watkins, Mavis Staples, Susan Tedeschi, Big Mama Thornton, Toshi Reagon, Ma Rainey and others came before her, but Fish’s gutsy, primal guitar lines, and her boldly emotive vocals on albums such as 2011’s Runaway made her a ready buzzword in the blues game. Only Shannon Curfman, a solo artist as well as the guitarist in Kid Rock's touring band, approaches Fish in youthful zeal and world-weary tenacity, to say nothing of being able to switch from genuine gut-churning 18

slow blues to something more mainstream-y such as Rolling Stones-inspired rock. Yet, it is her two most recent 2017 releases—the R&B touches of Chills & Fever and the country inflections of Belle of the West—that put her work on critics’ lips for their blues-base and daring diversity. At a time when early blues goddess Sister Rosetta Tharpe finally got her due with an entrée into 2018’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Fish’s new-found popularity—as well as the June 10 gig at Long's Park Amphitheater in Lancaster PA—is right on time. “I’m always up for women getting their due,” said Fish with a laugh. Driving through Jim Thorpe, PA and heading to her next gig while chatting on the phone, Fish considered the notion of breaking through the big boys club of the blues, but with a caveat worthy of anything and everything #MeToo related. “It’s better to preface that question by stating that every industry is male dominated,” she said sternly. “For my part, I just put my head down and keep working. You always get the yes’s and the no’s. You just ignore the no’s, put your head down and keep moving forward. It is; however, cool to see other females—especially young ones—in the audience and coming to the shows. I get inspired by the fact that they get inspired by me.” Fish’s original inspirations as a musician came down to the rhythm of a song initially, as she picked up the drums at her home long before she strummed the guitar. “I never dumped the drums. I love them still. Do I have a kit set up at my house? No…but I will,” she said, laughing. “The reason I started there is because of the look and the feel of the drum kit itself. They’re majestic beasts just sitting there, and when you get to playing the drums, it’s all about using your hands and arms. It’s physical. People are amazed by the drummer.” Plus the once-shy and retiring Fish could hide behind the drums, a feeling that disappeared as the guitarist and vocalist grew more comfortable with front person status, as well as the sound of her given instruments. “Making eye contact was difficult for me,

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and was out of my realm. Drums gave me my first sense of confidence. Wanting to be able to move around on stage—singing and playing— became a thing, too. Plus, I could play guitar all night by myself in the basement and keep down the racket. That wasn’t true of the drums.” Each of Fish’s albums, since her start, live free and breathe deep the raw blues and all of its traditions. As she went forward as an instrumentalist with a record contract, each Fish album spread its wings beyond mere blues to show off additional inspirations. “There’s a lot to take in when you consider the regions and styles of blues you’re playing, but no matter where I go, my riffs and solos do start with the blues,” she said. “Everything is rooted in that place and then we go away from it, and then we find our way back. We own it.” She’s quick to state that though critics are praising Belle of the West for its country and western and folk influences, that this very same album is, in her words, “the blues-iest thing I’ve ever done.” A big part of making Belle of the West rural, blue and country-ish comes down to the fact that she’s again using famed producer Luther Dickinson. The man behind the boards for previous Fish albums (2015’s Wild Heart), is also lead guitarist and vocalist for the North Mississippi All-stars, and a one-time member of The Black Crowes. “He knows all of the sounds of the South,” said Fish, “and how to make them rock.” On Belle of the West, Fish is also working with famed fife player Sharde Thomas (granddaughter of blues legend Othar Turner), fiddler/multi-instrumentalist Lillie Mae Rische, bassist Amy LaVere, and drummer Trina Raimey as her backing band for an all-girl, all-blues ensemble of the first order. “It’s not about playing with men or with women. Ever,” stated Fish categorically and with great import. “I am not a separatist like that, or someone so compartmentalized or regimented. I have nothing else to compare this feeling with, as I’ve always ever just been me. But I do love having all of this feminine energy in one room.” n

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INTERVIEW BY JACK BYER

Going in Style Margalit Fox writes obituaries in The New York Times for the most important people…sometimes in advance. WHAT DO CHARLES MANSON, Helen Gurley Brown, Patty Duke and a guy who rented out beatniks have in common? They have all “shifted off this mortal coil” and been lucky enough to have had their New York Times obits written by the talented Margalit Fox. Probably you’re most curious about the rent-abeatnik guy: Fred W. McDarrah, a square-described square who as a longtime photographer for The Village Voice documented the unwashed exploits of the Beat Generation, and as an enterprising freelance talent agent rented out members of that generation (washed or unwashed) to wide-eyed suburban gatherings, died on Tuesday at his home in Greenwich Village. He was 81.

messed up when he likened Romney’s policy reversals to a child’s drawing toy and said “[we’ll] kind of shake it up and start all over again.” [Laughter] I did the inventor of the Frisbee, the inventor of the lawn flamingo, the creator of kitty litter and the pet rock. And Stove Top Stuffing who, God bless her, died in November, so we ran it the week of Thanksgiving. What are the criteria for getting an obit in The New York Times? Imagine the admissions committee of the most vigorously selective college in the world. About two million Americans die every year; we have space to run news obits for about a thousand. So the editors are draconian in their selection. It’s a news judgment.

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Who makes the selection? The editors come in at least an hour before the writers and, they go into a huddle. They monitor the wires like AP and Reuters, the out-of-town papers, certain websites, submissions from families and funeral homes. By the time the writers come in, the editors have decided which subjects they’re going to assign each day and to whom. Of course, we’d be remiss if we stumbled on something and didn’t bring it to our editors. So there is certainly a give and take. The boilerplate still has to be there—the who what, where and why of the death. So what makes the Times’ obits special? When we have the right kind of subject, we can play with the other 98% of the obit. And that’s what

]

THE EDITOR COMES OVER, LOOKING TENSE, AND SAYS WE’VE JUST HEARD THAT SO-AND-SO IS HANGING BY A THREAD. SO YOU DROP ALL YOUR OTHER WORK, YOU SPEED READ THROUGH THE CLIPS FROM THE “MORGUE”—OUR ARCHIVES—YOU BONE UP ON A PERSON‘S WORK THAT YOU MAY NOT KNOW WELL, YOU GET 2,000 WORDS IN THE CAN AND—ALMOST WITHOUT FAIL, SO-ANDSO, WHO WAS HANGING BY A THREAD, WILL RALLY AND LIVE ANOTHER FIVE, IF NOT TEN YEARS.

…. He placed the following advertisement in The Voice: “Add zest to your tuxedo park party … rent a beatnik. completely equipped: beard, eye shades, old army jacket, levis, frayed shirts, sneakers or sandals (optional). Deductions for no beard, baths, shoes, or haircuts. Lady beatniks also available, usual garb: all black.” How did he get to keep company with Manson, Brown, and Duke? Here’s the scoop:

Generally speaking, it’s the degree a person changed or affected the culture. There are the shoe-ins, like a president, but the other 80 or 90% is decided case by case. It can be someone like Manson, who, as my editor wrote, “in an orgy of blood made sure the world would not forget him, as much as we would like to” or someone like the inventor of the pink plastic lawn flamingo, which the Times, bless them, also put on page one because he was someone who literally changed the look of suburban America.

Margo, you’ve been called the “Queen of the Offbeat Obits.” Do you like that tag? The unsung backstage players you’ve never heard of, but who have put a wrinkle in the social fabric are my—and I suspect any obit writer’s—favorite pieces to do. I wound up with a lot of inventors of quirky stuff. The inventor of the Etch-a-Sketch right around the time Etch-A-Sketch became part of political discourse.

I’ve spoken to several people who objected to the Times’ coverage of Manson’s death. Your obit was a front page story and continued inside the paper. I got emails from readers, as I knew I would, saying the same thing. Our biggest public relations problem is to get people to understand we’re not in the veneration business. Just as we do obits of heroic figures, delightful figures, admirable figures, we do equally the great villains of history. For better or worse, they made the news and shaped the world.

Poor Mitt Romney. His campaign manager 20

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we like to do. The great discovery of obit writers in the last thirty years is that obits are the best purely narrative form in any daily paper. Our department has taken that and run with it. Now that you’re doing exclusively “advances” (the future dead) of which the Times has almost 2,000 on file, you probably have less chance to be playful. Depends on who has been assigned, no matter if it’s a breaking new story—what we call a “daily”—or an advance. If I’m assigned an obit of a Nazi war criminal or the Selma sheriff who billy-clubbed demonstrators as they tried to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge there won’t be be a lot of play in that. It would be hideously inappropriate. Similarly for Charles Manson. Given the hideousness of the subject, you’re not going to be light or jocular. No editor would let it go through. It must be difficult sitting on advances you’re especially proud of writing and eager to see in print.

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I have to say it does make one rather bloodthirsty. A story may sit in the can for five or ten years. You think, damned, this is pretty good. If only… . And then you catch yourself and think, well that’s not very humane. It’s really ironic. The reporter often gets the assignment in a rather urgent way. The editor comes over, looking tense, and says we’ve just heard that so-and-so is hanging by a thread. So you drop all your other work, you speed read through the clips from the “morgue”—our archives—you bone up on a person‘s work that you may not know well, you get 2,000 words in the can and—almost without fail, so-and-so, who was hanging by a thread, will rally and live another five, if not ten years. How do you feel when something turns up after an obit appears, that would have changed the obit completely? For example, Jimmy Savile, the famous English TV host, who was exposed as a child molester after your obit appeared in the Times. I had done the obit of what I thought was this charming British eccentric. I was sick. I was stricken. I thought, “My God was this needle lingering in the haystack, and I didn't see it?” I went back through all the news reports, but no, it wasn’t there. Perhaps a few people at the BBC knew it, but nobody was talking. This is not meant to be exculpatory, but there wasn’t anything for me or anybody else to find when I wrote the obit. Writing an obit of someone you’ve never heard of on a bruising deadline is a nightmarish enterprise for writers on dailies. It must be harrowing when an advance unexpectedly becomes a daily. Betty Friedan was on my “dance card” of advances. But I hadn’t gotten to hers yet. We got word of her death on a Saturday. I wasn’t yet set up to do work from home, so I had to rush to the newsroom. I knew I would need some sustenance, but cold falafel balls were the only things in my fridge. I put them in my bag and gnawed on them with one hand, while writing the obit with the other. So Betty Friedan, for all her many and wonderful accomplishments, will always be associated in my mind with cold falafel. In any other department when you leave the newsroom after a good day’s work, knowing you’re

If they don’t accept that? When I was doing over a hundred dailies a year, I’d have to say this to one family a year. “We talk to you for two reasons only—as a courtesy and because you can best confirm biographical data that we need. We never take dictation from the family. That’s fine for the funeral home and for the local paper. If you can’t accept that, I cannot ethically go ahead with this story.” Now that’s a bluff—a bluff they’re never going to call because they want the news obituary in the The New York Times.

Margalit Fox.

going to be in the next day’s paper, you’re thrilled. But in the obits, you’ve said, you’re in a state of complete panic. Why? Obits are a minefield for potential errors. We’re writing about people who were in their prime fifty or sixty years in the past. Memories of sources are often very spotty at this point. Many of the sources are no longer living or no longer compos. Often errors become perpetuated in the old clippings we use. So there are all these holes in the historical record. We try to check, and confirm, and disconfirm the things we’re finding, but it’s not always possible. The truth, as one of my editors said memorably, is what you know at deadline. Dealing with grieving families must require great interpersonal skills. You have to make your subjects, and sources comfortable enough to divulge often painful information. But you don’t want the family to think you’re their advocate or their friend or, God forbid, any kind of grief counselor. It’s very delicate. What about families who are more sophisticated in dealing with the press and who try to stage manage coverage? My late colleague Denis Hevesi was the sweetest person you could ever know, but a solid newsman with over 40 years under his belt. I heard him talking to the family of someone who was clearly a disgraced politician. Dennis told the family very gently, but very firmly, “You know I will have to have a paragraph in there about the four months your dad spent in jail.” Whether they accepted it or not, he discharged his responsibility. He prepared them and reminded them that we report the news, warts and all.

You’ve recently returned to your job after taking a book leave. Yes. It’s titled Conan Doyle for the Defense. It’s a true story of a high-profile murder in Glasgow in 1908. The cops framed an innocent man, an immigrant Jewish gambler, for the murder of a rich, old woman. He literally missed being hanged by 48 hours. Luckily, there was enough public unease about the verdict that Edward VII commuted the sentence to life at hard labor. He spends the next eighteen years in this god-forsaken, barren prison in the north of Scotland hewing granite in a quarry. In 1925 he smuggles out a message for Arthur Conan Doyle with a paroled convict. Doyle, was a great public crusader for a variety of humanist causes. Let me guess. He re-investigates the case, using, of course, the logical methods of his most famous creation. And the man is freed. To this day the case is unsolved, but an innocent person was exonerated. This was eight decades before DNA and fingerprinting. You claim you haven’t got the fiction writing gene. Yet your obits are masterful in character, narrative arc, and dramatic incident. But I’m beholden to facts first, last and always. At the Times we spend an unholy amount of time doing the grunt work of fact-checking. It’s brutal and boring, difficult and time consuming. Believe me, I just wish I could write novels. n Margalit Fox can be seen in the documentary Obits about the workings of Times’ obit department. Death Becomes Her: A Selection of Obituaries by Margalit Fox is available on Amazon.

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FILM ROUNDUP

Laura Dern in The Tale.

BY KEITH UHLICH

Avengers: Infinity War (Dirs. Anthony Russo and Joe Russo). Starring: Robert Downey, Jr., Josh Brolin, Chris Hemsworth. A decade of nigh-unstoppable box office chart topping and expert corporate synergy culminates in Marvel Studios’ calculatedly downbeat blockbuster. The star-studded team of superheroes known as the Avengers— which count Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Spider-Man (Tom Holland) among their ranks—join forces to stop monstrous purple giant Thanos (Josh Brolin) from acquiring the so-called Infinity Stones with which he can ruinously alter reality. The movie is basically two hours and change of CG-heavy throatclearing (best macho guttural utterances courtesy of Thor and Chris Pratt’s galaxy-guarding Peter “StarLord” Quill), all of it leading up to a finale that brutally goes for the gut. Yet it’s obvious that many of the onscreen fatalities (some involving characters with future standalone flicks in the works) will be reversed in the fourth Avengers feature one year hence. And on and on it goes. [PG-13] HH 22

Fahrenheit 451 (Dir. Ramin Bahrani). Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Sofia Boutella, Michael Shannon. Writer-director Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes) makes a game try adapting Ray Bradbury’s classic dystopian novel about a future America in which the powersthat-be have banned, and burn, all books. Guy Montag (Michael B. Jordan), is a member of the flamethrowerarmed police force. His dedication to the state begins to crumble after he befriends an informant (Sofia Boutella) and becomes aware of an underground resistance. Bahrani and Jordan never successfully portray Guy’s moral awakening; he’s merely unrelentingly cruel for half the film, then suddenly sensitive and enlightened for the rest of it. More successful is Bahrani’s vision of a future in which book-burnings are the spectacles of the day, each such event projected onto skyscrapers with realtime online commentary. It’s a fantasy of a world off its ethical and emotional axes (something not so fantastical, come to think of it). Michael Shannon is memorable as Guy’s mentor, Beatty, whose dagger-staring intensity masks many shades of grey. [N/R] HH1/2

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The Tale (Dir. Jennifer Fox). Starring: Laura Dern, Jason Ritter, Isabelle Nélisse. The Tale is not a movie to criticize lightly, due in large part to its basis in fact. Writer-director Fox deals with her own repeated rape by a horse-riding instructor whom she idolized. She rationalized their relationship as a fairytale romance, until she came to recognize the much more horrible truth decades later. Laura Dern plays the grown Jennifer as a kind of detective. Thoughts that seem rosy, such as her every recollection of her coach, played by a malevolently charming Jason Ritter, become more sinister as she looks through the journal entries she wrote during those years. There are disturbing scenes, filmed in wider shots with a body double, that involve the young Jennifer (Isabelle Nélisse) being seduced and sexualized. The movie builds to a confrontation between the grown woman and the now-older coach, played by the late John Heard, that is an intentionally messy attempt at catharsis. Yet Fox’s meta fictionalization of her experience finally keeps the tale’s emotional complications at a toodetached distance. [N/R] HH1/2

Unsane (Dir. Steven Soderbergh). Starring: Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Amy Irving. Somewhere, Steve Jobs weeps (joyously). The prolific, everinventive Steven Soderbergh shot this mental hospital chiller entirely on an iPhone and the look he achieves, especially in the forest-set climax with its unearthly blue tinge, is often astonishing. The rest of the package ain’t bad either: The Crown’s Claire Foy plays Sawyer Valentini, a highstrung businesswoman who is confined to a psychiatric ward against her will. While there, she has visions of the man (Joshua Leonard) who stalked her several years before. Is he real or is he a figment of her diseased mind? That question is answered early on, which leaves the rest of the running time for Sawyer to plot her escape and expose a much-larger conspiracy involving the mental hospital administrators, who will do almost anything to meet their bottom line. The story is ridiculous pulp, but Steven Soderbergh’s aesthetic experimentation lends the proceedings a provocative, pulsing vitality. [R]

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REEL NEWS DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

Loveless

Annihilation HHHH Cast: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh Genre: Si-Fi thriller; Rated R. When a meteor strikes a lighthouse in this movie’s portentous beginning, a pulsing, fog-like plasma envelops the surrounding area. Armed research parties enter the Shimmer, as it’s called, but never return. Finally one soldier escapes, but he’s seriously messed up, physically and mentally. To find the root of his afflictions, and a possible cure, his wife Lena (Portman), a research biologist, joins an exploratory team of four other women, each with their own agendas. They set out on the treacherous journey to the lighthouse, ground zero for the Shimmer. First they encounter familiar plants and animals radically morphed, like evolution on steroids. But not everything is beautiful and benign in the Garden of Eden. Of course hideous and horrendous creatures lurk in the shadows. Director Alex Garland uses his talents as a writer and much of the creative crew from his movie Ex Machina to forge a similarly intellectual, mind-bending storyline with a dazzling setup and superb actors. But what is at risk of annihilation here–the damaged, stressed-out personas of the team, or life on Earth as we know it? Scene by scene, the cinematography stuns and the tension builds with each life-threatening encounter. But through it all, instead of being swept 24

away with nightmare monsters and CGI action, the focus never falters from the internal challenges each team member faces. Frantz HHHH Cast: Paula Beer, Pierre Niney Genre: Drama; Rated PG-13. With English subtitles. From the very beginning, WWI questioned the sanity of civilization. The brutal war slaughtered an entire generation young men in Europe, as well as millions of civilians. The armistice left mothers and fathers, sisters and wives, mired in grief and burning with hatred for the neighboring nations. Anna (Beer) lives in a small German village and regularly visits the grave of her fiancée Frantz. One day she finds fresh flowers and a stranger, no less a Frenchman, who claims he was Frantz’s best friend in pre-war Paris. Stricken with anyone who knew her lover, she takes Adrien (Niney) home to Frantz’s parents, where she now lives. They eventually embrace Adrien, though the sense that something dark lurks beneath the surface cannot be avoided. After Adrien returns to Paris, Anna follows him to find if their uncertain feelings for each other could create a happier future. Instead she discovers that “what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.” The seductive, complex plotline reels us through anti-

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war sentiments, national hatreds, forbidden love, betrayal. Most of all, were faced with the quandary of whether falsehood is justifiable if it eases the inconsolable pain of tragedy. Loveless HHHH Cast: Maryana Spivak, Aleksey Rozin Genre: Drama; Rated R. In Russian with English subtitles Zhenya (Spivak) and Boris (Rozin) have a disposal problem. Vicious divorces require dividing possessions and dumping all unwanted extras—chipped plates, pet-stained rugs… and kids. Both have moved on and want no reminders of their relationship, including their 12year-old son Alyosha. He knows it, too, as only a helpless child unloved since birth can. For Zhenya, romance is for social advancement; for Boris ego supersedes empathy. Both willingly sacrifice their future wellbeing for the alt-reality of an indulgent present. Then their oft-thought wish comes true: Alyosha disappears. Both have moved so far ahead in new relationships that at first they don’t notice. When they finally do, they loathe any semblance of parental concern. Likewise, the police are too busy to care, so community volunteers step up to organize a search. The movie’s cynical indictment of today’s society, regardless of nationality, describes an egocentric smartphone generation motivated by internal algorithms

of fantasy and denial. The movies is highly crafted and acted, but it may be a buzzkill for a date night. Where Is Kyra? HHH Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Kiefer Sutherland Genre: Drama; Not rated. In this showcase role, Pfeiffer plays Kyra, a destitute woman at the end of her wits. Divorced, unemployed, and unable to find even a menial job, she becomes her elderly mother’s primary caregiver. A paltry pension provides their only subsistence in a dumpy apartment in lowereconomic Brooklyn, and that ends when the ailing lady dies. With no income, Kyra’s world shrinks even more. Off go the lights, off goes the heat. Except for bill collectors, only her neighbor, Doug (Sutherland), cares about her. Equally lonely for companionship, he falls for her, literally, as she pulls him into the bottomless pit that captures so many impoverished souls. In crushing desperation, Kyra risks losing her identity to the basic need of survival. Shot in minimalist style, this moody film uses darkness and shadows to define the characters where others rely on vibrancy. Pfeiffer melts into the dreary role and twilight settings and creates a world of meaning with each action, each telling expression. You gotta love Pfeiffer for her stunning performance, but keep the Valium close to the popcorn. n

FOREIGN

DOCUMENTARY

Er ist wieder da (Look Who’s Back)

Hitler’s Hollywood

One of the most endearing tropes in fiction is the “historical fish out of water”: A character from a previous time period finds him/herself in “our” present and has a spectrum of reactions to things many of us take for granted (or don’t reflect upon very much, if at all). In the case of Look Who’s Back, a German film from 2015, history’s foremost fascist, Adolf Hitler, finds himself alive and reasonably well in Germany in 2014. Freelance network TV journalist Fabian Sawatzki (Fabian Busch) is desperately looking for the scoop that will put him on the map with the network. Quite by accident he stumbles upon a fellow who steadfastly maintains he is Adolf Hitler. This Hitler refuses to break character and wherever he goes in this newly reconstituted (to him) Germany, he’s embraced as a reality star for the YouTube generation. The network knows a hot property when it sees one, and before long, this Hitler is a media sensation. Alas, this chap really is Hitler, who for reasons unknown finds himself alive in our present. So is contemporary Germany ready for a history to repeat itself? In this movie, it would seem so… Look Who’s Back is a brilliant satire somewhat in the manner of Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat, but with more edge, understandably. The real impact of LWB comes from how readily this Hitler adapts to our era and how his messages would so easily find a receptive audience…and gain traction. This Hitler feeds upon/into anti-immigrant sentiments in Germany and observes the parallels to sports nationalism is akin to patriotic fervor. Despite the history associated with him, this Hitler serves as the German counterpart to political correctness. So, to many Germans in this film, Hitler is a breath of fresh air. Some of the ensuing happenings are somewhat (and sadly) predictable…but they are no less funny…or distressing. Oliver Masucci, as Hitler, conveys the profound bewilderment of a leader who, near the end of his life, saw the Thousand Year Reich circling the drain, and wakes up to find not rubble but a thriving Germany. There is the inevitable wry humor in seeing a character who’s used to his word being law finding himself bereft of authority and the beneficiary of the kindness of strangers. Further, one of the fascinating (and mildly terrifying) aspects of this movie is some scenes were unscripted and filmed documentary-style. Busch plays Sawatzki as a hapless, somewhat likable guy who just wants to be taken seriously, yet also seems a bit clueless and amoral, considering who he’s dealing with and what he represents. The beautifully Teutonic Katja Riemann plays Bellini, an icy, Machiavellian executive who evokes Network’s similar TV exec Faye Dunaway. Franziska Wulf is a delight as the cute, oddly perky goth girl who plays the network’s secretary and love interest for Sawatzki— it’s cute and oddly chilling as she teaches Hitler to use the Internet. Look Who’s Back is dark and funny—and highly recommended. n

HITLER’S HOLLYWOOD EXPLORES A time in German cinema, 1933-45, when the Nazi regime held major sway over the movies made. Writer/director Rüdiger Suchsland assembled a blur of excerpts from German films of the period, including ones that were obvious propaganda, as well as light entertainment movies including screwball comedies, romances, and musicals. Udo Kier (Frankenstein, Johnny Mnemonic) provides narration and contexts for the clips. Hitler loved movies and cartoons as did propaganda wizard Josef Goebbels. (Allegedly, Goebbels’ favorite movie was Gone With the Wind.) Goebbels knew that movies could inspire and influence people and so, with the movie industry under his thumb, films carried a particular message. There was the infamous Jüd Suss, which unsubtly and visually cast Jews as vermin, literally equating them to rats. Hitler’s Hollywood is both baffling and a delight for film devotees. As in Busby Berkeley movies, there were elaborate dance scenes with actors on basketball court-sized pianos, romantic duos in spiffy tuxedos and over-the-top-glorious gowns engaging in Latin-hinted dance sequences, and even silly comedy. As Nazi Germany has understandably a somewhat doleful history, it’s almost revelatory to see how much like Hollywood films had an impact on films made there—they could be as colorful and dazzling as any Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers musical or goofy as a Marx Brothers comedy. Not so cheery are the films in which noble citizens are seen dying for a worthy cause—in some films there’s an almost standard scene of a heroic German lad seen dying but the scene is shot not to make it tragic but virtually happy. Even more lighthearted fare would have scenes of activities performed in near-perfect synchronization—a fascist ideal, a nation moving and thinking with unity and purpose, as a well-oiled machine might. Suchsland never lingers on one aspect of film history for too long. There’s lots of contrast between the silly and the serious, but Suchsland makes the point often that even the lighter types of movies had serious undercurrents that promoted or underlined Nazi concepts and ideals. Hitler’s Hollywood could’ve done with perhaps a little where-are-they-now— it’s mentioned in passing that successful Reich-ian director Detlef Sierck would go on to become Douglas Sirk, director of now-classic Hollywood 1950s melodramas Written On the Wind and All That Heaven Allows. There’s brief mention of the German talent that fled to have successful careers in the USA: Marlene Dietrich, Peter Lorre and Conrad Veidt, a major German star who hated the Nazis so much he practically dedicated his career to portray them onscreen as monomaniacal scum. For the most part, Hitler’s Hollywood does what a documentary should do: Inform while it entertains, showing a side of German cultural history most Americans have not seen; and entertain while it informs about a definitive point in history. n

— MARK

KERESMAN

— MARK

KERESMAN

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SINGER | SONGWRITER REVIEWED BY TOM WILK

Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore HHHH Downey to Lubbock Yep Roc In their careers, Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore collectively have played music professionally for more than three quarters of a century. Alvin, 62, and Gilmore, 73, have joined forces for Downey to Lubbock, their first album as a duo. It’s an inspired exploration of American roots music that mixes original tunes with wellchosen covers. The title track, which refers to their hometowns, is an energetic recounting of their musical lives from Alvin’s days with the Blasters and Gilmore’s time with the Flatlanders to the present. The wistful “Billy the Kid and Geronimo,” an Alvin original, imagines a meeting between the Western outlaw (voiced by Alvin) and the Native American leader (sung by Gilmore). The cover songs are a crosssection of blues, folk, and rhythm and blues. Woody Guthrie’s “Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)” is plaintively sung by Gilmore and especially relevant where immigration remains a topic of debate. Gilmore and Alvin add a level of intensity, vocally and instrumentally, to “Get Together,” a Top 5 hit for the Youngbloods in 1969. Alvin pays tribute to John Stewart, a fellow Californian songwriter, with a yearning performance of “July, You’re a Woman.” Gilmore takes the lead on a spirited rendition of “Lawdy Miss Clawdy,” the early 1950s hit by Lloyd Price, while Alvin and Gilmore trade verses on an energetic reading of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGee’s “Walk On.” Downey to Lubbock is a strong collaboration that should lead to a sequel. (12 songs, 52 minutes) Pete Townshend HHH1/2 Who Came First: 45th Anniversary Expanded Edition Universal Music Enterprises Who Came First, the first solo album by Pete Townshend, showed another side of the principal songwriter and lead guitarist for The Who upon its release in 1972. The album allowed him to go beyond The Who’s hard-edged rock and explore folk, country and pre-rock pop with a spiri26

tual focus in a more relaxed setting. “Content” and “Parvardigar” reflect his following of the Indian religious leader Meher Baba and function as prayers set to music. Solo versions of “Pure and Easy” and “Let’s See Action,” songs also recorded by The Who, show Townshend fully capable of working as a one-man band. The expanded edition of the album features 17 bonus tracks and demonstrates Townshend’s abilities as a multi-instrumentalist from the peaceful instru-

mental “His Hands” to the keyboard experimentalism of a nearly 10-minute version of “Baba O’Riley.” Townshend also dabbles in in bluesy soul (“I Always Say”), spiritual reflection (“Day of Silence”) and the Great American Songbook (a shimmering rendition of Cole Porter’s “Begin The Beguine”). Among the unreleased tracks, the rootsy “There’s Are a Fortune in Those Hills” recalls Townshend’s work with Thunderclap Newman and a lively rendition of Ronnie Lane’s “Evolution” from 2004 pays tribute to the late bassist with the Faces and Townshend’s occasional collaborator. (25 songs, 110 minutes) Kelly Willis HHH1/2 Back Being Blue Premium Records/Thirty Tigers After recording a pair of CDs with Bruce Robison, her husband of 22 years, Kelly Willis makes a welcome return as a solo artist with Back Being Blue, her first album under her own name in 11 years. Her song selections, both her own and those of other writers, show her ability to handle different musical genres. The rockabilly-flavored “Modern World,” a Willis original, reveals her mixed emotions on the influence of social media and cellphones on daily

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living. “I love you, but you won’t let go,” she sings with a touch of exasperation. The title track is an effective country/soul ballad dealing with romantic loss that Willis says was influenced by Crystal Gayle. With its fiddle and piano, “Freewheeling” has the feel of a traditional country ballad, while the country/folk two-step “Fool’s Paradise” is a mid-tempo lament. With its accusatory tone, Willis turns “Only You” on its ear and shows her depth as a writer. She revives “I’m a Lover (Not a Fighter),” a 1969 hit for Skeeter Davis, and makes Randy Weeks’ “Don’t Step Away” and Rodney Crowell’s “We’ll Do It for Love Next Time” her own. All three renditions showcase her strength as an interpreter and the ability to find songs that suit her vocally. (10 songs, 31 minutes) The Kennedys HHH1/2 Safe Until Tomorrow Kennedys LLC Music drew Pete and Maura Kennedy together, sustaining an artistic and marital partnership that dates to the 1990s. Safe Until Tomorrow, the duo’s first album together in three years, is a satisfying collection of original songs and a smattering of covers. It’s a two-person operation with Pete handling most of the instrumentation and Maura serving as the principal songwriter and vocalist. Opening with a Byrds-like guitar line, the upbeat title track serves as a song of reassurance for caregivers helping elderly parents.

The jangly pop of “Umbrella,” sung by Maura and inspired by a dream of a spinning quarter, is a celebration of the Kennedys’ 25 years together. The uplifting “Is Anybody Listening?” and “Sing the Chorus” provide a message of hope in trying times. The latter uses music as a metaphor for daily living. “Sing the chorus strong and loud/When your world’s gone wrong,” she declares. “Sing the chorus loud and strong/And put your hopelessness back where it belongs.” “Union,” written by British songwriter Andrea Glass, mines a similar theme in urging couples to find strength in each other. The environmental message of “Dancin’ on The Moon” draws inspiration from the ’60s hit “Dancing in the Street.” That Motown connection is reinforced with a folk-rock version of “Midnight Train from Georgia,” a hit for Gladys Knight and the Pips in 1973. (11 songs, 42 minutes) Bob Rea HHH Southbound Shiny Dime Records Bob Rea’s songwriting evokes the storytelling of Steve Earle, the eye for detail of Guy Clark, and the rueful humor of John Prine on Southbound, his first solo album in seven years. The lively title song serves as a character study of a free-spirited woman who can’t be pinned down by a man. “She will leave them brokenhearted with a Mona Lisa smile,” he sings. “The Highway Never Cries,” a restless rocker, finds the narrator leaving his troubles behind and anticipating a fresh start. Rea shows his bluesy side with “Soldier On,” a meditation on right and wrong, while “The Law” is a timely commentary on political division. His aching vocal “Vietnam” is a sobering reminder of the collateral damage of that divisive war and how three lives were forever altered by the drawing of a lottery number. On “Screw Cincinnati,” Rea lightens the mood with a humorous tale of star-crossed lovers. “Fish Can’t Fly” finds Rea with an urge to wonder. “Fish can’t fly and I can’t stay,” he sings with a phrasing and creative use of language that recalls the best of Roger Miller. (13 songs, 51 minutes) n

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POP BY A.D. AMOROSI

Vocal Standard Bearers THERE ARE COUNTLESS NEW and recently anointed standards singers that have a way with bringing the Great American Songbook to life. Big names such as Kristin Chenoweth and Michael Buble or Philadelphia area vocalists such as Mary Ellen Desmond and Paul Jost come to mind. Even Harry Connick Jr.—who just turned 50 and has spent the last several years acting as a television talk show host or American Idol judge—knows which side his bread is buttered, and is returning to Tin Pan Alley (or at least the Mann Music Center on June 16) where he’ll sing the songs we best remember him from: Gershwin, Hammerstein, and the like. Yet no one would fault this critic for writing that perhaps the best interpreters of older rich and elegant standards are the elders of its form; those who have lived within the lyrics and the melodies longer and with emotional heft. This month, two of standard songs’ best and boldest make themselves heard, loud and clear, with sufficient ties to the Philadelphia region. As long as there are rarities to be found within their vaults—and God love them for doing so—the labels most closely associated with the late, great Frank Sinatra (Capitol/Universal, Reprise/WB, RCA and Columbia), will continue to unleash product. Of particular interest are the live Sinatra packages such as Sinatra: New York (2009), the snazzy Best of Vegas (2011) and the lustrous Sinatra: London (2014) that have enriched his in-concert catalog. Now there is Sinatra’s Standing Room Only that includes a potently macho and rousing showcase captured on October 7, 1974, at South Philadelphia’s still-standing strong Spectrum. Backed by an opulent and inventive 40-piece orchestra—Woody Herman’s Young Thundering Herd— everything from the ring-a-ding snap of “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” to the vamp-ish (literally and figuratively) “The Lady is a Tramp” to the forlorn and frustrated “Send in the Clowns,” audiences are now afforded the great fortune of hearing lyrics lived in and ruminated with the aid of the greatest male voice that ever hit a microphone. And the Philadelphia of 1974 gave that emotion and energy right back to Ol’ Blue Eyes. “This is the most fantastic welcome,” Sinatra says in between song patter. “We’ve been playing other towns and I can tell you, with all due respect, they’re marvelous in other towns, but they’re like a cookie sale. When you holler, you really holler here.” Sinatra always gave you something to holler about, and Standing Room Only is but another cheer and

tear in your beer. That was his calling—to entertain and make us remember the good times and the bad.

“T

his is my job, to entertain those who give their money and time,” said Marilyn Maye to me en route to another show in another town in a packed schedule that’s booked with gigs and master classes until 2018. “Look, I wasn’t meant to cook or do housework. I had three husbands—all alcoholics—and one meaningful relationship in my life, along with a daughter I love.” Maye—the hilarious queen of rubato with a voice masterful in its nuance, power, and range—has been living that life and career since she was a kid in Kansas. After an appearance on Steve Allen’s talk show, she was signed to a seven-album contract with RCA in 1965. She made 76 appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show, and was a regular in Philly on The Mike Douglas Show. Yet, as a jazz singer stuck in a pop world (albums such as Marvelous Marilyn Maye, The Second of Maye, The Lamp Is Low), she felt shoehorned by genre classifications and made her own way with live gigs, master vocal teaching classes and Manhattan cabaret gigs (Lincoln Center’s Rose Hall for the Mabel Mercer Foundation and 54 Below). “Back then I would have DJs and programmers trying to figure out what my bag was—‘Where is she? Broadway, jazz, standards?’—which was silly and limiting. I don’t have to have those limitations anymore. I do it all myself for an audience that craves this material.” With those NYC showcases and others, Maye has found herself with a third wind and won herself a new audience—the likes of which has included Philadelphia restaurant vet Dino J. Kelly-Cataldi and his vocalist husband, Michael Richard Kelly-Cataldi, who all but created their Glenside, PA Dino’s Backstage & The Celebrity Room with her in mind, and opened the elegant restaurant-bar-cabaret live venue with her name atop the marquee in 2016. Now, two years later, she returns to Dino’s Backstage & The Celebrity Room for its second anniversary shows and a multiartist tribute to the singers that will include Maye, of course, taking the stage Thursday through Sunday, June 21-24. Considering Maye's recent CBS Sunday Morning television interview, her gala 90th birthday party in Manhattan, and a recent showcase with The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, you’d better come see her before she gets busy with something else. “I’m always running, hon,” she said gleefully."That’s just my way. As long as I’m singing.” n

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Frank Sinatra, 1958. Photo: Sid Avery.

Marilyn Maye.

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JAZZ LIBRARY BY BOB PERKINS

Neal Hefti

Neal Hefti, 1946. Photo: William Gottleib.

ODNEY DANGERFIELD USED TO preface many of his jokes with a statement about not getting any respect. Well…on that note, perhaps a good many arrangers of standard popular and jazz music just might echo Dangerfield’s complaint, for very often a skilled arranger’s reworking of a standard melody, has not only bested the original, but added to the royalties pocketed by the original composer. Sometimes great arrangers—who are sometimes equally great composers—don’t get no respect (Bad grammar but factually correct). Once upon a time there was a fellow named Neal Hefti, whose arrangements and compositions made the already dynamic Count Basie band, even more dynamic. Hefti was born in 1922 in Nebraska. He started playing trumpet at age 11, and while in high school spent his summer vacations playing in area bands. When well-known bands came through nearby Ohama, Hefti was there with his eyes on Dizzy Gillespie with Cab Callaway, and Harry Edison and Buck Clayton with Count Basie. Hefti left home in 1941 and got a taste of what it was like to be on the road. In New York City he roomed with another up-and-coming drummer named Shelly Manne when both were members of Bob Astor’s band, in which Hefti played trumpet and wrote arrangements. Manne said that Hefti’s writing skills were so fantastic he could just take music paper and hum the various instrument parts…put them on the paper, and the band would play the arrangements the next day. A year later found Hefti in Charlie Barnet’s band for which he wrote the classic, “Skyliner.” He began hanging around the legendary clubs on 52nd Street where he met and became friends with Dizzy Gillespie, and some of the other jazz musicians who were working on a new kind of music, loosely called bebop. Hefti left New York to play in a rhumba band in Cuba for time, but soon returned to the States and took a trumpet chair in the Charlie Spivak band, which lead him to California. A short stay with the Horace Heidt band was followed by a meeting and a job in Woody Herman and the First Herd in 1944. He called it his first experience with a real jazz band, and it was with Herman that his writing skills really came to the fore, with compositions and arrangements like “Apple Honey,” “Wild Root,” and “The Good Earth.” After Herman, Hefti moved on and found lots of work arranging for Charlie Ventura, Georgie Auld, Buddy Rich and Harry James, among others. In 1950, Hefti started arranging for Count Basie. “Neal came by and we had a talk,” Basie said, “and he said he’d like to put something in the book. He came up with ‘Little Pony,’ ‘Sure Thing,’ and ‘Why Not,’ and we ran them down, and that’s how we got married.” Later in the marriage there came to be a Basie album of Hefti standards, which included ‘Lil’ Darlin’’ “Splanky,” “The Kid from Redbank “ (Basie Hailed From Redbank New Jersey) “Flight of the Foo Birds,” “Teddy the Toad,” and “Cute.” Over the years, the Basie band had some gifted arrangers and composer—Quincy Jones, Thad Jones and Ernie Wilkins among them. But Hefti’s tenure with the band was the most telling, and most instrumental. (No pun intended.) Hefti led his own big bands during the 1950s, and the band’s singer was his wife, Frances Wayne. But his bands, in all their incarnations, never attained the success of the bands he wrote arrangements for. During the early 1960s, hefti turned his attention to the film industry and met with great success, writing background and theme music for motion pictures. He received a number of Grammy nominations for Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple. He wrote theme music for Batman and The Odd Couple television shows. His Batman TV score won a Grammy. During the latter 1960s and into the ’70s, Hefti put together big bands for club, concert and record dates, but following his wife’s passing in 1978 he retired from making music, and became somewhat reclusive. The multi-talented Neal Hefti, passed away in Los Angeles, October 11, 2008, at age 85. He has been, and will long be remembered for many things, but for the most part he will be recalled for his work with the already great Basie band…and how he improved on perfection. n Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Mon. through Thurs. night, from 6–9 and Sunday, 9–1.

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JAZZ, ROCK, CLASSICAL, ALT REVIEWED BY MARK KERESMAN

Areon Flutes HHHH1/2 No Era Innova Areon Flutes is a San Francisco allfemale classical chamber ensemble (small group to you non-classical types) of Jill Heinke Moen, Kassey Plaha, and Meerenai Shim, who play the family of flutes. No Era is all-flutes, all the time, and it never gets tedious, monochromatic, staid, or precious. Just the opposite, in fact—this set presents works of three Golden Gate composers, Sahba Aminikia, Ryan Brown, and Danny Clay, and the way this album is programmed it hangs together as a cohesive work, almost as if it were the work of one mind. Here flutes evoke and exude bird songs as well as persuasive rhythms, jazz-y phrasing and percussive pops, and folk motifs ‘n’ tunefulness that’ll remind you classic rock types of your favorite Jethro Tull song(s). While certainly not flute-y “easy listening” (i.e., background/ambient sound), Era is vibrant, richly harmonious, and for the most part very inviting. The ladies have stupendous ability/agility but it always serves/enhances the music. Fans of the flute in assorted incarnations and even you prog-rock boosters (you know who you are): Don’t blow an opportunity to hear this. (12 tracks, 48 min.) innova.mu Van Morrison & Joey DeFrancesco

HHHH

You’re Driving Me Crazy Legacy One of the most protean exponents of the 1960s British Invasion remains Van Morrison—while he’s Irish, it was with the British Isles band Them that the world first noticed him with hits like “Here Comes the Night” and the oft-covered “Gloria.” He wrought quite the career out of melding American blues, R&B, jazz, and rock & roll with the muses of the traditional music and poetry of Ireland. For Morrison’s 39th studio outing, he’s hooked up with a son of Philadelphia, jazz organist (and also occasional trumpeter) Joey DeFrancesco and a small band to have at a set of jazz standards and some 32

chestnuts from his back catalog. The results are great fun—while Morrison’s voice isn’t quite the instrument it was in the ’70s (we’d be foolish to expect it to be), he retains that vocal flexibility and, more importantly, joie de vivre that attracted us to him in the first place. DeFrancesco is expert at that old-school, blues-drenched, soulful, hicaloric Hammond B-3 organ sounds, and that thick organ sound makes for a nifty contrast to Van’s malleable-asGumby singing. Driving finds him exploring and accenting the jazz influence that’s always been part of his ap-

Van Morrison.

proach, sounding closer to the Jimmy Rushing/Joe Williams/Mose Allison sphere than the Bobby “Blue” Bland/Ray Charles side of things. What makes this platter special is the utter ease in which Morrison and DeFrancesco do their thing (together)— this has a live-in-the-studio ambiance and Van, Joey De & company sound as if they’re groovin’ in a small club just off the Jersey turnpike. No fireworks, just some pros having a swell time and inviting you along for the ride. (15 tracks, 71 min.) legacyrecordings.com Yelena Eckemoff HHHH Desert L&H Matthew Shipp Symbol Systems HHHHH Hatology Here are a couple of jazz key-crackers that seem disparate but aren’t really. Born in Russia but emigrated in 1991 to the USA, Yelena Eckemoff ’s grounding is in classical music, but when she saw Dave Brubeck play, jazz became the thing. She didn’t abandon classical completely—she integrated it

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quite fully into her approach. Which is why Desert, inspired by Middle Eastern music, will invoke Debussy in spots and Brubeck and Bill Evans in others. Like Rimsky-Korsakov, Eckemoff absorbed aspects of Mid-East music in her compositions, much as Brubeck did with his Turkish-inflected classic “Blue Rondo a la Turk”—it’s most definitely jazz but Eastern/North African cultural “echoes” are vivid. Eckemoff ’s style has the thickness of notes and compositional straightforwardness of Brubeck and the spare lyricism of Evans. Her band here is aces—Paul McCandless (from the band Oregon), reeds; Arild Andersen (many ECM recordings), bass, and Peter Erskine (Weather Report, Steps Ahead), drums. This music is stately, yet has a folk-like directness, and McCandless’ plaintive soprano sax and oboe is downright haunting. (11 tracks, 76 min.) yelenamusic.com Matthew Shipp is an American pianist, one associated with the jazz avant-garde scene, yet is not “neatly” categorized, as he’s played with Roscoe Mitchell and DJ Spooky, and

Matthew Shipp.

opened concerts for Sonic Youth. One of his influences is Russian—classical composer Alexander Scriabin (18721915), who designed a keyboard that “played” colors. Originally issued in 1995, Symbol Systems is Shipp’s first album unaccompanied. He presents a clutch of wiry, thorny, concise pieces that combine the thoughtful, early 20th century angst of Scriabin and Shostakovich with the percussive attack of Cecil Taylor and McCoy Tyner, the humor of T. Monk, and the rock-

charged wallop of Keith Emerson (of Emerson Lake & Palmer). He whomps the hell out of the 88s yet wryly incorporates J.B. Bach-isms and Bartok-iality within “Flow of Meaning.” If you’re looking for an entry point to slightly noisy music with plenty of heart, seek Symbol Systems. (14 tracks, 61 min.) hathut.com Denny Zeitlin HHHH1/2 Wishing On the Moon Sunnyside Pianist Denny Zeitlin has a lot goin’ on—literally. He’s a full-time practicing psychiatrist along with being an ace jazz pianist. Zeitlin’s been at it (jazz) since the early 1960s—he was unique then, too, as his approach synthesized the Impressionist beauty of Bill Evans and the then-radical openness of Ornette Coleman (in a way anticipating stylistically Keith Jarrett). Wishing On the Moon is but another in a series of mostly excellent albums, recorded live at NYC’s Dizzy’s Club Club Coca Cola in 2009. For lovely ballad playing, you can scarcely do better than the title tune—the melody ever-so-slightly recalls Chick Corea’s “500 Miles High,” Zeitlin’s gently rhapsodic, going through several shades of introspection, using just enough notes to make his point, and knows when to inject a “break” in the reverie with a subtle crescendo. Bassist Buster Williams and drummer Matt Wilson provide sturdy, unobtrusive support, going with the improvisational flow with almost uncanny empathy. If it’s pricklier fare you crave, there’s the “Slickrock” suite, wherein Zeitlin’s urgent drive evokes McCoy Tyner in his early ’70s peak (with really “sounding like” MT of course—just a similar compelling level of energy). Williams creates giant ripples, Wilson is like unto a force of nature, and Zeitlin storms and swirls without leaving the listener behind, maintaining a (restless) lyricism throughout. Take this leap of faith, pilgrims—while not widely well known outside jazz circles, Zeitlin is up there in the pantheon with Corea, Tyner, and Herbie Hancock. (11 tracks, 65 min.) sunnysiderecords.com n

harper’s FINDINGS

INDEX

A two-year meta-analysis by the Rand Corporation found that the quality of gun-violence research in the United States is very low. Germans who played Grand Theft Auto V for two months exhibited normal levels of empathy when watching a woman accidentally cut herself while slicing cucumbers. Dutch researchers found that guns, but not knives, allow robbers to achieve dominance through “aggrandizing posturing and forward movements.” Between 1972 and 2016, Americans became more tolerant of free speech by people whose values oppose theirs or who possess fringe views, with extreme liberals being the most tolerant. Racial, religious, and ideological identity are stronger components of Republican partisanship than of Democratic partisanship. Family support and sensitivity to neural reward responses insulated Americans from the depressing effect of Trump’s election. Liberals have more emotionally expressive faces. Major facial recognition software makes mistakes at least forty-three times as often with dark-skinned women as with light-skinned men. Good-looking people are likelier to believe in a just world. Plastic surgeons warned that people misled by wide-angle distortion in selfies were seeking nose jobs.

Number of US states in which fluorescent pink is a legal color for hunting apparel: 6 Percentage of US gun owners who report storing all their guns safely: 46 Who report storing some of their guns “on my person”: 11 Chance an American has taken an “active shooter” preparedness class: 1 in 10 Percentage of US “active shooters” from 2000 to 2016 who were killed by police: 21 Who were killed by armed civilians: 1 Minutes after refusing to debate an assault weapons ban that the Florida Legislature declared porn a “public health risk”: 58 Percentage of Florida homicides deemed “justifiable” before the 2005 enactment of the state’s “stand your ground” law: 3.4 Of Florida homicides that have since been deemed “justifiable”: 8.7 Percentage change last year in the number of federal inmates who earned a GED: −59 No. of N.J. state prisons in which the book The New Jim Crow was banned before January: 2 No. of universities in which half tenured and tenure-track history professors are trained: 8 % of US college students who have a worse opinion of conservatives after their first year: 31 Who have a better opinion: 50 % change last year in the portion of people in allied nations approve of US leadership: −42 In non-allied nations: −11 Percentage of South Koreans over the age of 60 who support reunification: 71 Of South Koreans in their twenties: 39 Number of the twenty largest German companies that are headquartered in the former East Germany: 0 Rank of Germany in consumption of nonalcoholic beer: 2 Of Iran: 1 Est. percentage of US children who exhibit symptoms of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders: 5 Factor by which the portion of central Appalachian coal miners with severe black lung has increased since 1998: 13 Percentage of US adults who claim to support organ donation: 95 Who register to donate their organs: 54 Estimated percentage of the world’s donkeys slaughtered annually to produce ejiao, a gelatin with alleged healing properties: 9 Chance that a Swede under the age of 30 is vegetarian or vegan: 1 in 5 Average change in the Yelp rating of an independent fast-food restaurant over the past five years: +7 In the rating of a chain fast-food restaurant: −16 Portion of Hawaii’s drinking water that comes from underground wells: 9/10 Gallons of raw sewage that leak into the ground from Hawaii cesspools each day: 53,000,000 Percentage change since 2009 in reports of human waste on San Francisco streets: +391 Minimum number of 9-1-1 calls made after Apple workers walked into glass walls the month after their new headquarters opened: 3 Minimum factor by which references to emoji and emoticons in US court opinions have increased since 2014: 7 Amount charged by Zain, Iraq’s largest telecom company, for a phone number with nonconsecutive digits: $5.90 For a phone number whose last five digits are the same: $1,340 Percentage change since 2001 in the number of slot machines in Nevada: −24 Chance that a given day is a public holiday in Cambodia: 1 in 13 Rank of Disneyland among the happiest places on earth, according to Disneyland: 1 Percentage of Disneyland employees who worry about being evicted from their homes: 56 “Harper’s Index” is a registered trademark.

Physicists attempted to predict the point at which tipping will be abandoned. Male macaques acquire a preference for Acura and Adidas logos if those are shown paired, respectively, with the face of a dominant male or the genitals of a female; they will not form a preference for Pizza Hut paired with a submissive male. Adult male pedophiles, unlike non-pedophiles, exhibit higher levels of nurturing activity in the brain for baby animals than for adult animals. A yellow cardinal was spotted in the town of Alabaster, a white cardinal was spotted in Knoxville, and an invasive spotted lantern fly was observed in Wilmington. Most Anna’s hummingbirds have mites living in their tail feathers. As many as seven yellow-billed oxpeckers will sleep upside down in a giraffe’s armpit. Brazilian zoologists described eleven kinds of bats’ penises. The Australian fire beetle uses its heat sensors to avoid burning its feet. Skeletonizing leaf beetles hide by creating bite marks that look like skeletonizing leaf beetles. Purple sea urchins eat granite more slowly than mudstone or sandstone. Lost memories were discovered in sea slugs. Woodpeckers may be giving themselves brain damage after all.

Caribbean hurricanes appear to suppress the snapping of snapping shrimp but encourage the choral singing of fish. The right whales of the North Atlantic, in their most recent breeding season, failed to produce a single calf. A supercolony of 1.5 million Adélie penguins was discovered on the Danger Islands. Scientists laser-inscribed a grapheme Athenian owl on numerous foods and declared a new age of edible electronics. A lack of genetic diversity threatens a chickpea collapse. A lost city of the Purépecha that contained 40,000 buildings was discovered in central Mexico. Astronomers argued that it would be less expensive for aliens to destroy our civilization by broadcasting malicious code—which could include an artificial intelligence who would seduce humankind with its knowledge and promises—than by sending battleships. The researchers suggested that signals received by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence might therefore be quarantined instead of being distributed, as they are currently, to volunteer computers, many of which have recently had their spare processing capacity reassigned from SETI tasks to mining cryptocurrency. Scientists at the Russian Federal Nuclear Center were arrested after they reportedly connected the facility’s supercomputer to the internet in an attempt to mine bitcoin. A physicist determined that some black holes can free an observer from strong cosmic censorship by erasing her past, thereby allowing her an infinitude of possible futures. French gynecologists examining a ten-year-old girl found a wineglass from a dollhouse hiding near her cervix.

SOURCES: 1 Harper’s research; 2,3 Cassandra K. Crifasi, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore); 4 YouGov (NYC); 5,6 Federal Bureau of Investigation; 7 Harper’s research; 8,9 David K. Humphreys, University of Oxford (England); 10 Federal Bureau of Prisons; 11 New Jersey Department of Corrections (Trenton); 12 American Association for the Advancement of Science (Washington); 13,14 Interfaith Youth Core(Chicago); 15,16 Gallup (Atlanta); 17,18 Beyond Parallel (Washington); 19 Harper’sresearch; 20,21 Euromonitor International (London); 22 Philip May, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; 23 Coal Workers’ Health Surveillance Program (Morgantown, W.Va.); 24,25 Health Resources and Services Administration (Rockville, Md.); 26 The Donkey Sanctuary (Sidmouth, England); 27 Animal Rights Sweden (Stockholm); 28,29 Yelp (San Francisco); 30,31 Hawaii State Department of Health (Honolulu); 32 City and County of San Francisco; 33 County of Santa Clara (San Jose, Calif.); 34 Eric Goldman, Santa Clara University (Calif.); 35,36 Harper’s research; 37 Center for Gaming Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas; 38 Royal Embassy of Cambodia (Washington); 39 Walt Disney Travel Company (Anaheim, Calif.); 40 Peter Dreier, Occidental College (Los Angeles). ICON, JUNE 2018 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

SEABEES By Pawel Fludzinski

ACROSS 1 6 13 20 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 29 31 35 36 40 43 45 46 48 49 50 52 53 55 56 57 59 60 62 64 65 66 68 70 72 73 74 77 78 80 82 83 85 86 87 88 89 92 94 34

Scrabble accessories Long-grained rice Cajun crustacean Target reader of a series of guides, facetiously Odysseus, e.g. Struck a chord Kids’ eager query Subject of an 1857 Elizabeth Gaskell biography Seal predator Really enjoy, with “in” ’80s police show partner Better, to a rapper Proprietors’ places Generous limit? “I’m __”: “Dragnet” line Organization that really counts Meet with privately Tearjerker need Enriched Nautical time units Actor Morales Tourism prefix Mojito flavoring Like some portrait photos Unyielding Having four sharps Tribute group Phoenix-to-Albuquerque dir. Gill openings Like the Valkyries “No Limit Top __”: 1999 rap album Stress, they say Shows obvious anger Teddies, e.g. Seehorn of “Better Call Saul” Diamond stats R&B singer __ Marie __ Dumbledore, Hogwarts headmaster Poetic time Microbrewery choice Play date RSA ruling party “Yeah, so?” Logician’s “E” Either of baseball’s Griffeys Food stamp? How the euphoric walk “The Godfather” catchphrase Lost intentionally Rockefeller, e.g.

96 Bletchley Park analysts 98 Trueheart of comics 99 Bass ending 100 Business bigwig 101 Worshiping figure 102 One of a deck’s pair 104 “Star Trek” villain 106 Scottish resort town known for its whisky 109 Ghee, e.g. 116 Low area 117 Settled accounts, so to speak 118 Big wardrobe 119 Almost off 120 Salad choice 121 Low-quality material, idiomatically 122 Castaway’s place

DOWN 1 Bad guy in the song “Copacabana” 2 Month before Nisan 3 Team that hasn’t won a Super Bowl in its 50-year existence 4 Brando’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” role 5 Chateau __ Michelle winery 6 Antacid option 7 Olympians, e.g.: Abbr. 8 One-named Colombian singer 9 Scuff, e.g. 10 Often-injured knee part, briefly 11 Confucian path 12 IOC part: Abbr. 13 It’s seen on carousels 14 Marbled cut 15 “Give it __” 16 One of many Seuss village residents 17 Put on 18 Product, say: Abbr. 19 Capital of Denmark? 25 Nice cup? 27 Consult with the doctor 30 Him, to Henri 32 Figure in red 33 Indigenous 34 Defiant challenge 36 Fashion model Wek 37 Amateur sport since 1893 38 Connected, in a way 39 Annoy 40 Mating game 41 Flip chart holder

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42 Roswell sighting 44 Sequence sung like “Twinkle twinkle” 47 Less cool 51 Perp processing area 54 Sylvie’s seraph 56 “It __”: formal self-identification 57 Reached an apex 58 Cold War capital 61 Singing syllable 63 “Frozen” snowman 65 Catch a bug 67 Evening on Etna 68 Small fishing boat concern 69 Taunt 70 Recover from a crash 71 Bum 73 Place to keep leaves 75 Over-__: sports wager 76 Boatloads 78 Michael of “Arrested Development” 79 Prepare for impact 81 Summer hire, perhaps 84 Claim to call 86 Erstwhile CIA rival 87 Algebra staples 90 Year abroad 91 Casual Friday casualty? 93 Bond rating 95 One whose business is mostly overhead? 97 Lion or tiger

102 Banter 103 Nutritional stds. 105 Mother of Ares 107 Ointment additive 108 Mature eft 109 Pixar Studios’ specialty, for short 110 __ cit.: footnote abbr. 111 Bore, as a cost 112 Yank’s opponent 113 “Dude!” 114 Underground org.? 115 How-__: instruction books 116 “__ lied”

Answer to May’s puzzle, MOTHER’S DAY

AGENDA FINE ART

THRU 6/10 The Art of the Miniature, The 26th invitational exhibition of fine art miniatures from around the world. View the exhibition online. The Snow Goose Gallery, 470 Main St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-974-9099. Thesnowgoosegallery.com THRU 6/30 Joseph Barrett. Silverman Gallery of Bucks County Impressionist Art, 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA (in Buckingham Green, Rte. 202.) 215-794-4300. Silvermangallery.com THRU 7/15 Jim Bongartz Solo Exhibition. Reception June 9, 5-7 Touchstone Art Gallery 11 E Afton Avenue, Yardley Touchstoneartgallery.com THRU 7/7 Spring Show. Bethlehem House Contemporary Art Gallery, 459 Main St., Bethlehem 610-419-6262. BethlehemHouseGallery.com THRU 7/31 Underpinnings, Allentown’s Cedar Crest College Center for Visual Research and Muhlenberg’s Martin Art Gallery are presenting a two-part exhibition. Both galleries are free and open to the public. For more information, Muhlenberg.edu/gallery. 6/7 – 9/30 Wilmington 1968. This summer, the Museum reflects on the 50 years since the National Guard occupation of Wilmington with a trio of civil rights-themed exhibitions: photographs by Danny Lyon, drawings by Harvey Dinnerstein and Burton Silverman, and a commissioned work by Hank Willis Thomas. Delaware Art Museum, 2301 Kentmere Pkway, Wilmington. DelArt.org 6/13 – 7/8 PHOTOgraphy 2018. A juried exhibition of work utilizing any photographic process, traditional and digital, black & white, and color. Philadelphia Sketch Club, 235 So.

Camac St., Philadelphia. sketchclub.org ART FESTIVALS / TOURS

THRU 6/10 Philadelphia International Festival of Art, PIFA. 11 days of gasp-inducing goosebumps. Kimmel Center.org 6/16 The West Park Civic Association of Allentown presents Art in the Park. Featuring fine art and crafts by 70+ juried artsts from the greater Lehigh Valley and beyond. Food and beverages available for purchase. Bring your whole family. 10 AM-5 PM, 16th and Turner Streets, Allentown, PA. Westparkca.org 7/7-7/8 69th Tinicum Arts Festival, A Great Bucks County Tradition. Sponsored by The Tinicum Civic Association. Art, artisans, music, food & fun. Free parking, no pets. $7/adults, $1/children. Tinicum Park, River Rd., Erwinna, PA. TinicumArtsFestival.org THEATER

6/14-7/1 Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre presents Disney’s Beauty & The Beast, The Broadway Musical. 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3100. Muhlenberg.edu/smt 6/27-7/28 Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre presents TAL: Beyond Imagination, World Premiere Circus Performance for kids, parents, & everyone else. 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3100. Muhlenberg.edu/smt 7/11-7/29 Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre presents How to Succeed in Business…Without Really Trying. 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3100. Muhlenberg.edu/smt

DANCE

6/16 FringeA-thon, Noon-12 midnight, a day of dance for the city of Philadelphia. A 12-hour dance party and fundraiser for FringeArts and the Philadelphia arts scene. Piazza at Schmidt’s Commons, 1001 N. 2nd St., Philadelphia, PA. 215-413-1318. Fringearts.com OPERA

6/20 Miller Symphony Hall presents, The Metropolitan Opera, HD Live, Puccini, Madama Butterfly. 2pm, 23 North 6th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-6715. MillerSymphonyHall.org 6/27 Miller Symphony Hall presents, The Metropolitan Opera, HD Live, Verdi, Il Trovatore. 2pm, 23 North 6th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-6715. MillerSymphonyHall.org CONCERTS

6/9 11th Annual Blues, Brews & Barbecue, featuring Samantha Fish. Acts include Alexis P. Suter, Rev. Billy C. Wirtz, Clarence Spady, Johnny Hayes & The Loveseats. 6 stages of music, great food, and BBQ and 4 beer tents. Downtown Allentown, PA, Noon-10 PM. Info and lineup, visit DowntownAllentown.com. 6/10 Valley Vivaldi, presented by Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra. Chamber music by Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, Gallo and Fasch. Featured solos for recorder, oboe and strings. 7:00 p.m.. Christ Lutheran Church, 1245 W. Hamilton St., Allentown, PA. Tickets- $20-$35 in advance/at door. 610-4347811. www.PASinfonia.org 6/10 Glassbrook Vocal Ensemble, "A Summer Night on the Water." 7:30 pm. 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Road, Ewing, NJ. 609-3926409. www.1867sanctuary.org

6/17 Richie Cole and His Alto Madness Orchestra, Jazz. 7:30 pm. 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Road, Ewing, NJ. 609-3926409. www.1867sanctuary.org 6/21 B.D. Lenz Trio, Jazz. 8 pm. 1867 Sanctuary Arts and Culture Center, 101 Scotch Road, Ewing, NJ. 609-392-6409. www.1867sanctuary.org 7/8 Valley Vivaldi, presented by Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra. Chamber music by Vivaldi, J. S. Bach, Gallo and Fasch. Featured solos for recorder, oboe and strings. 7:00 p.m.. Christ Lutheran Church, 1245 W. Hamilton St., Allentown, PA. Tickets- $20-$35 in advance/at door. 610-4347811. www.PASinfonia.org MUSIKFEST CAFÉ 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem 610-332-1300 Artsquest.org JUNE 2 Almost Queen 6 Bria Skonberg 7 XPN Welcomes Big Bad Voodoo Daddy 13 XPN Welcomes Jenny Lewis 15 M. Ward 20 Gordon Lightfoot 26 XPN Welcomes Nick Lowe with Los Straitjackets 28 Splintered Sunlight Recreates 6/28/15 at Levi Stadium 29 Langhorne Slim and The Lost at Last Band 30 Craig Thatcher Band The Music of Cream JULY 7 EagleMania-The World’s Greatest Eagles Tribute Band 10 The Struts 12 Splintered Sunlight Recreates 7/12/89 at RFK Stadium 12 Banditos

FILM

6/12-6/16 15th Annual SouthSide Film Festival, celebrating independent film from around the world. Docs, shorts, features, animation, experimental. Bethlehem, PA. SSFF.org 6/14-6/16 15th Annual SouthSide Film Festival. Children’s Film Series. Free. Bethlehem, PA. Details: SSFF.org EVENTS THRU 9/3 Clinton's Free Outdoor Summer Music, 11th Annual Friday Night Music Festivals. 4 bands play in 4 locations on the sidewalks of Clinton 7 - 9 PM. This year, now also on Saturday afternoons from 1 to 3 PM. Main St., Clinton, NJ. 6/8 The 30th Anniversary Tyler Tasting Party, celebrating with a Great Gatsby bash. Food, drinks, and fun. Period attire is encouraged. Proceeds benefit the historic preservation of the Tyler Mansion and formal gardens, as well as student scholarships. 6:00-9:30 PM, Tyler Mansion & Formal Gardens, 275 Swamp Rd., Newtown, PA. 215968-8097. Tylertastingparty.com 6/23 Alex Sepkus Trunk Show. 11-5, Heart of the Home, 28 S. Main St., New Hope, PA. 215-8621880. Heartofthehome.com 6/24 West Park Historic House Tour. Come tour some of our neighborhood’s beautiful historic homes. As noted by US News & World Report, “Homes around West Park ooze Colonial Revival and Queen Anne charm.” 610737-7132. Westpark-CA.org 7/12 Champions of Inclusion, expanding arts access through learning and laughter. Trade fair presentations and a comedy act performance by Josh Blue. 1pm- 4:30pm, Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts, Bethlehem, PA. Lvartscouncil.org/champions n

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