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ART
EXHIBITIONS 6| Margaret Watson: Beyond Borders MUSE Gallery
Painting the Moon and Beyond Lois Dodd and Friends Explore the Night Sky Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie Mansion Holiday Show 2021
Bethlehem House Gallery 8|
contents
ICON The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius.
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Since 1992
The moment he appeared onstage, even before he opened his mouth, America’s Got Talent judges were perplexed, wary, and turned their collective noses way up into the air. Simon Cowell was at his grumpiest. But when it was showtime, Johnny Showcase (David Sweeny) turned on the charm, and even Cowell’s jaw fell open in astonishment. This truly was a surprise.
215-862-9558 icondv.com
PUBLISHER Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com EDITORIAL Editor / trina@icondv.com
ADVERTISING Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net
Members Spotlight Show No. 4 AOY Art Center
PRODUCTION Dominic Reposa
Evan Harrington: 2021 Solo Exhibition Silverman Gallery Works in Wood 22nd Annual Juried Exhibition New Hope Arts
Adam Cramer
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ON THE COVER:
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Gus’ Party
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Johnny Showcase & The Mystic Ticket. Photo by Trae Patton/NBC. Page 16.
A THOUSAND WORDS THE LIST
FILMS The Card Counter Cry Macho The Eyes of Tammy Faye Titane CLASSIC FILMS 10 Rillington Place Ace in the Hole Deep Red Halloween
BOOKS Silverview The Night the Lights Went Out The 1619 Project Music Is History The Sentence Still Life Sex Cult Nun
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MUSIC Elton John Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves Louis Armstrong Nas Rod Stewart Joe Bonamassa Philip Dukes, Peter Donohoe Gabriel Feltz Common Pat Metheny Gabriel Schwabe WHERE TO FIND ICON IN
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FIND ICON IN PHILADELPHIA HARPER’S Findings Index
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Washington Post Crossword
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS A. D. Amorosi Robert Beck Jack Byer Peter Croatto Geoff Gehman Mark Keresman George Miller Susan Van Dongen Keith Uhlich PO Box 120 New Hope 18938 215-862-9558 IReproduction in whole or in
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a thousand words
STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK
GUS’ PARTY IT’S BEEN A WHILE since I did a live painting of a group of people who need to be identifiable. Not portrait likenesses, but distinctive enough that members of the group can tell who is whom. In this case, it was a party for Gus, thrown and attended by people he works with and their partners. Twelve of the twenty-some guests would be in the image, and the event was three hours, working out to 15 minutes per subject if everything goes like clockwork, which doesn’t happen. You can never find Ralf, Anne doesn’t like pictures of herself and needs a lot of convincing, and no matter what I do, Peter comes out looking like a walnut, and I have to start him over three times.
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exhibitions
Lois Dodd, Night at Rockgarden Inn
Near Tazawako 30” x 24” gesso and acrylic on canvas
Margaret Watson: Beyond Borders MUSE Gallery 52 N. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, PA Musegalleryphiladelphia.com Wed.-Sun., Noon-5 PM November 3-28 Reception Nov. 5, 5-8 PM Mwatsonstudio.com Margaret Watson’s paintings and works on paper emerge from memories of landscape and are formed through her love of color, mark and materials. They express her interest in painting landscapes beyond a representational depiction of time and place. The landscapes thus evolve into abstract forms and color relationships, a more conceptual and intimate visual territory. MUSE Gallery is non-profit, and the oldest cooperative art gallery in Philadelphiay.
“Blue Eddy,” 32” x 40,” oil on canvas 6
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Painting the Moon and Beyond Lois Dodd and Friends Explore the Night Sky Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie Mansion Cadwalader Park, Trenton, NJ 08618 609-989-1191; ellarslie.org November 19–April 29, 2022 Fridays & Saturdays, 12–4; Sundays 1–4 The pioneering American painter Lois Dodd returns to the Trenton City Museum at Ellarslie, together with her former students Jeff Epstein, Dan Finaldi, and Elizabeth O’Reilly, 25 years after her stunning retrospective. Look up and out toward the sky as the show’s 75 nocturnes and other works invite you into the ethereal magic that arises by the light of the moon and stars. Visit ellarslie.org for timed entry and more information about the exhibition, related programming, and the museum. Painting the Moon and Beyond is curated by Ilene Dube. Lois Dodd’s paintings appear in the exhibition courtesy of the Alexandre Gallery.
Lois Dodd, Night
Khalil Allaik, Diversity of Motions, wood, gold leaf patina (detail)
Holiday Show 2021
Bethlehem House Gallery 459 Main St., Bethlehem, PA 610-419-6262 BethlehemHouseGallery.com Through January 15 Open 7 days a week from Black Friday to Christmas Eve. Bethlehem House Gallery’s director and curator, Ward Van Haute, integrates scenography into each exhibit, grounding each gallery room into a unique and innovative interior designed space to highlight the practical use of fine art in the modern home.
Michael Hess, Coma 9, oils on hardboard 12x12
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exhibitions
Andy DiPietro, Rhapsody in Blue, sandblasted ash
Works in Wood 22nd Annual Juried Exhibition New Hope Arts, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope 215-862-9606 newhopearts.org November 20–January 9, 2022 Fri., Sat., Sun., Noon–5 PM
George Apotsos, Ceramic
Members Spotlight Show No. 4 AOY Art Center 949 Mirror Lake Road, Yardley, PA Online viewing and purchasing: aoyarts.org Gallery Hours: Fri, Sat, Sun 12–5pm November 5–21 Virtual and online. Spotlight Show features nine of our Member artists’ original works in a variety of mediums: Tom Harwood, Mary Manahan, John Shipley, Harry Gamble, Elissa Goldberg, Pearl Mintzer, Marta Jaramillo, Helene Mazur and George Apotsos have hung their work in the historic Janney House on Patterson Farm. At AOY, we employ social distancing and require masks.
Elissa Goldberg, Mixed Media 8
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Cobalt and Gold, 24 x 18, Oil on Linen
Evan Harrington: 2021 Solo Exhibition Silverman Gallery 4920 York Rd. (Rte. 202), Holicong, PA In Buckingham Green 215-794-4300 Silvermangallery.com Opening Reception October 30, 5–8 PM & Nov. 7, 1–4 PM Harrington explains, “This exhibition is a focus on reflecting quiet moments that I have come across over the past year or so. Patiently waiting for a scene to speak, these images found me during unexpected occasions. Using recollection and imagination, these paintings are the recreations." Please call 215-794-4300 for more information or to set up a private appointment. An online listing of Evan’s available work can be found www.silvermangallery.com
Duck with Waterlilies, 16x20, Oil on Linen
Works in Wood celebrates the woodworking heritage of Bucks County. The national draw of this exceptional curated exhibition, now in its 22nd year, features the finest contemporary examples of furniture, turned objects and sculpture. Work of 50 artists showcase innovative uses of the wood medium in this holiday favorite. Live and virtual viewing. We employ social distancing and masks. 30 at a time are admitted to the gallery and reservations are suggested.
Seth Clawson, Ash and Walnut Dining Table
Carter Sio, Walnut and White Oak Bench
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the list
VALLEY
CITY
Tucked inside a former funeral parlor, on a narrow side street named for President Zachary Taylor, is Bonn Place Brewing Co., a vibrant, vital brewery and community center. The tap room is a magnetic beehive of gleaming tanks, brick walls and barrel tables, a merger of jazzy pub and rock ‘n’ roll rathskeller. The room becomes more welcoming at night, thanks to a wide, often open doorway originally cut for an auto repair shop. Sam Masotto, co-owner with his wife and fellow actor Gina, makes hearty, heady brews with local ingredients and flavorings subtle (chamomile) and bold (lady fingers). Sitting under a twinkling outdoor canopy I savored a pub ale with a teasingly bitter tang and a toffee tone, and a double pale ale melon hopped for a refreshing citrus ride. Every Thanksgiving Sam Masotto breaks out new and old editions of a cockles-warming concoction of champagne yeast, maple syrup and butternut squash. Merci is a gift to customers for five years of extremely loyal support. Another thank-you: the 1,300-plus trees the Bonn crew helped plant by Bethlehem’s watershed, the brewery’s invaluable resource. Talk about a good-will wellspring. (310 Taylor St., a block south of Third Street, Bethlehem; bonnplace.com; 610419-6660; BYOF[ood])
It’s November. You surely fucked up the election for District Attorney, and now you’re waiting for the tryptophan to kick in and the Black Friday brick-and-mortar battles to commence when you could stay at home and buy on Amazon. That’s your month. Go home. Or, try to find solace in these additional fruits at winter’s start.
The Central Range of the Trexler Nature Preserve satisfies the senses and aligns the chakras. Part of an 18-mile system of trails, it begins with a blissfully preserved panorama, a 360-degree feast of tilted, quilted hills and valleys. A border trail dips into a wooded ravine that temporarily blocks civilization; opens into an inviting picnic/recreation area with a handsome bridge and a water crossing for four-wheelers; winds along a lovely lazy river, and meanders up and around a grassy, rocky ridge with wildflower banks and sculptural groves. Make sure to end your pilgrimage on an observation deck rising gently and organically above an environmental center. It’s a ramp to nirvana. (4935 Orchard Rd., Schnecksville; lehighcounty.org; 610-871-0281) I’m sitting under the covered front porch of a long-gone barber shop, enjoying and admiring a triple-decker Cuban panini, chewing the fat about the spiritual wonders of foods and flowers. Such is the good life at The Green Stop, a mostly Italian restaurant in a greenpainted building that resembles a farm stand—an illusion strengthened by a glorious front fence of zinnias, dahlias and sunflowers. For 14 years office workers, farmers and Appalachian Trail hikers have been served filling, fulfilling dishes and kind company by Stephanie, an Italian-American from the Italian-American enclave of Roseto, and her common-wealth partner Flavio, a gardening cook who grew up in a tiny Mexican village with beautiful blooms and mezcal-making uncles. He makes his own bread, mozzarella and everything—calzone, cacciatore, German pizza—from scratch (“Everything is original—no fake”). He took 21 minutes to construct my Cuban sandwich, a one-pound cave stuffed with melted mozzarella and three layers of pork. Built like a bantamweight boxer, he jabs punchy opinions, too. “I don’t just work for you; I work for the Lord. I don’t just work with my hands; I work with my heart.” (6070 Sullivan Trail, Belfast; 610-614-0260; BYOB) n —GEOFF GEHMAN 10
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Ever since its founding in 1999, the mission of Philly’s independent Azuka Theatre was to “strengthen the connection and shared humanity among its diverse audiences by giving voice to the people whose stories go unheard.” Sound familiar? So then, when 2020’s racial and social justice reforms kicked down the door, to say nothing of the activism of #MeToo, Azuka’s brain trust took its own action—not to produce any plays for the 2020-2021 season, and shut down so to have its staff and board work with an EDI/anti-racism/anti-sexism/anti-oppression trainers for the next 8-12 months, and make changes at every level, from the boardroom to the stage to reflect even more Black, Brown, female and LGBTQIA faces and voices than before. With that, Azuka Theatre finally returns with a World Premiere of a new play, Young Money. Its actors, playwright Erlina Ortiz, and director Briana Gause are local, and the topic of Young Money is the relationship between chart-topping rapper, the woman who cleans dressing rooms, and the “questions of morality, success, and redemption” dancing before them. Decent. (November 3–21, The Theaters at The Drake, 302 S. Hicks Street azukatheatre.org 215-563-1100) On November 8, hometown hero Will Smith returns to Philadelphia (at The Met on North Broad) to talk about his life following his new autobiography, Will. This “Conversation with” is a lot to unpack, especially as Smith has gone back-and-forth on admitting that he and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, are in an open, sexual relationship, that he and his family may or may not be Scientologists, that the couple’s two kids, Jaden and Willo, though talented, are as annoying as fuck. If the original Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (yes, Smith is producing the Peacock streamer re-boot that recently shot some scenes in West Philadelphia and bought local artists’ paintings and sculptures to take back to their Los Angeles studio set) is going to lay truth to the rumors, I’m in the front row. If not, he might as well sing “Parents Just Don’t Understand” and call it a night. (The Met Philadelphia, 858 N Broad Street, themetphilly.org) Anyone who knows me knows that for all of my pretentious and erudite manner, I am forever a boxing fanatic. No. NO. In no way am I one to actually fight or be physically aggressive in that fashion. I get my punches in on any given sentence. I’m a pugilist with the paragraph. I’m barbing, not boxing. That said, if there’s ever someone else’s boxing match to be had —and old fashion boxing beyond MMA and
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—A.D. AMOROSI
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film roundup
The French Dispatch (Dir. Wes Anderson). Starring: Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Jeffrey Wright. The latest Wes Anderson diorama is overstuffed even by his standards. A massive cast of regulars (Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman) and newcomers (Timothée Chalamet, Benicio Del Toro, Adrien Brody) fill every fussed-over frame of this period dramedy set in a fictional French city at a vaguely New Yorker-ish publication. The film is conceived as a magazine issue in motion, with three primary stories penned/enacted by Tilda Swinton, Frances 12
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McDormand and Jeffrey Wright, the latter of whom—playing a character loosely based on James Baldwin—hits the most resonant emotional notes. The movie begs to be seen as a love letter to print journalism, though its worldview is, unsurprisingly for Anderson, much more voguishly myopic, though not unentertainingly so. Better than Isle of Dogs, at least. [R] HHH1/2 Memoria (Dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul). Starring: Tilda Swinton, Elkin Díaz, Jeanne Balibar. You’ll have to keep your eyes open
KEITH UHLICH
for the newest film from Thai master Apichatpong Weerasethakul, given its unconventional release strategy—playing for one week at a time, one theater at a time as it makes its way across the U.S., and never to be officially released on home video. You’ll also have to keep your ears open during the film itself, since sound is the most important facet of its story. This is a seemingly simple
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WINTER FESTIVITIES I CHRISTMAS CITY, USA BETHLEHEM Bethlehem, the Christmas City, has a rich holiday heritage that dates back to the 18th century, when the Moravians who settled the city christened it “Bethlehem” on Christmas Eve, 1741. Since 1937, the city has officially been known as Christmas City, USA. From guided walking tours of the city’s Historic Moravian District, one of the finest collections of 18th Century Germanic-style architecture in the nation, to the Christkindlmarkt marketplace and Christmas Carriage rides through the city, there are dozens of attractions and activities for all ages. It all culminates on Dec. 31, when the community comes together at PEEPSFEST®, featuring fireworks and the dropping of a 400-pound lighted PEEPS® Chick to welcome in the New Year.
Christkindlmarkt at SteelStacks Nov. 19–Dec. 19. SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. Christkindlmarkt, named one of the top holiday markets in the world by Travel + Leisure and one of the top holiday markets in North America by USA Today’s 10 Best Readers’ Choice competition, featuring dozens of artisans offering thousands of handmade gifts and holiday items. (877) 212-2463, ChristmasCity.org
The Elf On The Shelf A Christmas Musical Nov. 12, 6 PM. State Theatre Center for the Arts, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 800-999-STATE statetheatre.org
Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides Nov. 19–30, Dec. 2–19, Dec. 22–23, Dec. 26–31, 3–9 PM Central Moravian Church, 73 W. Church Street, Bethlehem. Presented by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. Enjoy the beauty of Bethlehem's downtown National Historic Landmark District in a Christmas carriage ride. HistoricBethlehem.org, (800) 360-8687
Tree Lighting Ceremony Nov. 19, 5 PM–6 PM. Presented by the City of Bethlehem. Parow Plaza/City Hall in Bethlehem, 10 East Church St., Bethlehem. Enjoy free cookies, hot chocolate and a visit with Santa. There will also be live performances. (484) 280-3024
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Bethlehem By Night Bus Tour Nov. 19–Dec. 23, Dec. 26, Dec.31, 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 7 p.m. Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites, Visitors Center, 505 Main Street, Bethlehem. Deemed “the best way to see Bethlehem,” this bus tour explores the history and traditions of Bethlehem with guides in period dress. HistoricBethlehem.org, (800) 360-8687
Bethlehem Christmas Carriage Rides Downtown Bethlehem Nov. 19–Jan. 2., 3 PM–9 PM. Rides depart from the corner of Church and Main Street. (in front of Central Moravian Church). For more Info: Bethlehemcarriage.com (610) 730-4973 Christmas City Stroll Walking Tour Nov. 1–30, Dec. 2–19, Dec. 22, 23, & 26, 1 PM, 3 PM, and 6 PM. Visitors Center, 505 Main Street, Bethlehem. Presented by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites See The Christmas City on a walking tour of one of America's National Historic Landmark Districts with certified guides. HistoricBethlehem.org (800) 360-8687 Trees of Historic Bethlehem Nov. 19–Jan. 9, Thurs.–Sun. 11 AM–6 PM. Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, 66 West Church Street, Bethlehem. Single Sisters’ House, 50 West Church Street, Bethlehem. Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, 427 N. New Street, Bethlehem. Luckenbach Mill, 459 Old York Road, Bethlehem. 1810 Goundie House, 501 Main Street, Bethlehem. The display is a timehonored tradition with more than 26 trees on display across five historic sites, HistoricBethlehem.org (800) 360-8687
S IN LEHIGH VALLEY Christmas Classic Matinee Series Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. White Christmas: December 2, 3, 4 The Shop Around The Corner: December 9, 10, 11 It’s a Wonderful Life: December 16, 17, 18 All screenings are Thurs., Fri. and Sat. at 12 PM Chris Collins & Boulder Canyon: A John Denver Christmas Dec. 3, 7:30 PM. State Theatre Center for the Arts, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 800-999-STATE statetheatre.org Christmas Vespers Lehigh University Choral Arts Dec. 5, 4 PM and 8 PM. Packer Memorial Church, 18 University Dr, Bethlehem. Presented by Zoellner Arts Center. Lehigh University Choral Arts presents its annual Christmas gift to the community. Free. LehighUniversity.edu. (610) 758-2787 ext. 0 Christmas City Follies XXll December 2–19, Thurs.–Sat. 8 PM, Sun. 2 PM, *Dec. 18, 2 PM. Touchstone Theatre, 321 East 4th St., Bethlehem. Celebrate the holiday season in the Christmas City with Touchstone's high-spirited, homegrown, vaudevillian variety show. Touchstone.org, (610) 867-1689
Free Family-Friendly Activities The Banana Factory Arts Center Dec. 4, 1–3:30 PM, Banana Factory Arts Center, 25 West 3rd Street, Bethlehem. Presented by ArtsQuest: Creative Family Workshop: German Wooden Dolls with Rebecca Kelly Kids will create their own wooden toys inspired by the wooden dolls that Seiffen, Germany, is known for. bananafactory.org, (610) 332-1300 Floral Letter Illustration with Lauren Beck Dec. 8, 6:30–8:30 PM, Banana Factory Arts Center, 25 West Third Street, Bethlehem. Presented by ArtsQuest. Step-by-step guidance on combining botanical elements inside a single monogram letter, you’ll design your own unique illustration. The completed monogram will make a great holiday gift. A Christmas Carol Dec. 10, 7 PM. State Theatre Center for the Arts, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 800-999-STATE statetheatre.org. bananafactory.org, (610) 332-1300 Holiday House Tour Bethlehem Historic District Dec. 11, 10 AM–4 PM, Single Sisters’ House, 50 W. Church Street, Bethlehem. Presented by Bethlehem Historic District Association. Tour ten unique homes as well as other distinctive sites within the Historic District, all festively decorated for the holidays. HolidayHouseTour.com
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio December 11, 8 PM, First Presbyterian Church of Allentown. December 12, 4 PM, First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem. December 12, Virtually, 4 PM. The Bach Choir of Bethlehem’s Christmas Concert. Join us for a Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Parts 1, 2 & 3, Sat. Tickets and information at bach.org. (610) 866-4382 Westminster Concert Bell Choir Dec. 17, 7:30 PM. In the spirit of the holiday season, bells will be ringing. The Westminster Concert Bell Choir has appeared on Today, performed at Carnegie Hall, and joined Julie Andrews, Christopher Plummer and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for an acclaimed tour of A Royal Christmas. Packer Memorial Church, Lehigh University, Bethlehem. Zoellnerartscenter.org Kenny G, Holiday Tour Dec. 19, 7:30 PM. State Theatre Center for the Arts, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 800-999-STATE statetheatre.org PEEPSFEST Dec. 30 & 31. Presented by Just Born Quality Confections. SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. The annual two-day New Year’s Eve festival celebrating the fun and excitement of the PEEPS Brand. PEEPS Chick Drop, a 4’ 9” tall, 400lb. lit Peeps chick that descends on Dec. 31 to commemorate the beginning of a new year. n
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interview
A.D. AMOROSI
The Bittersweet Saga of Johnny Showcase
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DAVID J. SWEENY IS A chill resident of bucolic Germantown by day with his wife and three children, two of them twins. After having moved from frenzied South Philadelphia at the top of the pandemic, Germantown is a gentle comedown from the frenzy of 2020’s shifting moods and Covids. Besides, by night Sweeny’s cool, collective personality takes on another, flashier side. For 2020 brought with it the rise of Sweeny’s swaggering lounge-funk entertainer Johnny Showcase on a larger playing field, beyond local fame. With the help of Terry Crews, Simon Cowell, NBC-TV and the reality competitive series America’s Got Talent, Sweeny’s unzipped, unhinged down-and-dirty Showcase character, and his mega-watt 16piece show band, went from Philadelphia-famous to nationally beloved and awed. Think Prince meets Tom Jones with a mad dash of performance artist/comedian Andy Kauffman, and you’re halfway to knowing the loud, brash and disarming charms of Showcase (and his occasional children’s musicmaking personae, Johnny Shortcake) that AGT television audiences were thrilled by, beyond Sweeny’s calm demeanor. “Ultimately, I’m a song-and-dance man,” says the thoroughly modern, thoroughly provocative Sweeny of his Johnny Showcase. A.D. Amorosi: Let’s start this story at the end: where are you now after the renown of America’s Got Talent? David Sweeny: America’s Got Talent was a whirlwind. I’m re-grouping now because it was almost a year of non-stop thinking about, then executing the performances. Everything else stopped, and the whole Johnny Showcase experience blew up into this pretty big thing. Then, everything stopped. Now, I have a handful of single recordings I made that were waiting for a larger audience. I’m figur16
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From South Philly dives to the Kimmel Cultural Campus to America’s Got Talent, the saga of the beloved lounge-funk singer goes on ing how to roll those out. There’s one from 2017 that is just too special, that’s coming out by the top of next year. Then, we’ll figure out how to tour in different cities. A.D.: Because America’s Got Talent opened up countless audiences across the U.S., as well as on YouTube. DS: Yes. These are people who are amazed by the fact that they didn’t know about Johnny Showcase for the eight years he’s has been
I was looking for this mediocre lounge singer to confound expectations. I hung onto that because that’s how the story unfolded during the first episode of America’s Got Talent where Johnny appeared. I’m comfortable with setting low expectations then confounding them. It’s fun.
in existence. There’s an audience out there and I want to check them out and have them check me out. A.D.: It’s amusing that in many cases on YouTube—and the dramatic uptick in viewers you’re experiencing—much of what those new audiences are looking at is stuff that is five, six years old. How did the Johnny Showcase character take form? DS: It really started as a joke. A.D.: It always does. DS: When I was 19, I was living in Rhode Island and had attended this joyless Christian college outside of Boston, and would take off to spend time at Berklee College of Music where my friends resided. We were hanging
out, being silly, and out came this character. Just something to mess around with. I moved to Philadelphia eventually, attended University of the Arts, toured with a children’s theater as an actor, and began working at World Café Live. There I met Rick Sorkin and Jeffrey Marsh who were putting together their own cabaret at WCL, revamping what they had started at L’Etage when they asked me if I had any ideas. A.D.: And of course, you did: Johnny Showcase. DS: Indeed, but, I wanted to add other characters around that to make a show. So I began to pull in other actors and performance artists I knew—an accordionist, a clown who specialized in the grotesque, people like that. Slowly, our cabaret became part of their cabaret. A.D.: How did your character evolve? I don’t recall him coming out of the womb, so to speak, quite so garrulously. DS: Johnny Showcase, back then, was a celebration of the mediocre. I was playing him as a failed lounge singer, as an unknown who never made it. The initial idea for doing this guy was my mom. She was proud of what I did in acting, but she always wanted me to have something to fall back on. I don’t want to give away too many of my secrets, but there used to be a chain of theaters in Rhode Island, the Showcase Cinemas. I just kind of took my name from that. Yanked that. I was acting, doing Shakespeare stuff. Fringe theater stuff. Devised theater stuff. I was doing theater, but grew up loving music, and wanted to get closer to it, inside it. Especially as I had grown up playing trumpet, and could also play bass, but wanted better musicians around me as I could hear and see what this character could be.
Singer Johnny Showcase (second from left) with Rumi Kitchen, as well as The Truth, the two female vocalists.
A.D.: Coming from an actor’s perspective, however… DS: Right. I was looking for this mediocre lounge singer to confound expectations. I hung onto that because that’s how the story unfolded during the first episode of America’s Got Talent where Johnny appeared. I’m comfortable with setting low expectations then confounding them. It’s fun. Then I started finding better musicians and beautiful songwriters. Suddenly I could see and hear different colors, the stuff I heard in my head,
where I wanted this to go. I was in another sphere. This was not devised theater-land, but rather legitimate music-land.
dist parade. I didn’t even really know what cabaret was before all this, so we had to define it on our own.
A.D.: When Rick and Jeffrey left for New York City, you had to find a place and a means in which to go forward for Johnny. DS: The Lefty Lucy Cabaret got started as things with Johnny began to bubble. I brought more friends to the fold, including those from the theater scene, for what would become this whole new underground, absur-
A.D.: You had to make cabaret in your own image, which is how you got to the Prince tribute, Purple Rain show. DS: That was a turning point in that it really showed off that we were a musical group
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KEITH UHLICH
Jan Sterling and Kirk Douglas in Ace in the Hole.
classic films
10 Rillington Place (1971, Richard Fleischer, United Kingdom) In the aftermath of the twin horrors that are All Hallows Eve and Election Day, why not treat yourself to some classic “scare” films. Start with this bone-chilling serial killer thriller from Richard Fleischer, a ripped-from-the-headlines riff on real-life murderer John Christie, played here as a kind of sociopathic cartoon baddie by Richard Attenborough. When a newly married couple, Timothy and Beryl Evans (John Hurt and Judy Geeson), move into the apartment building that Christie manages, this bespectacled recluse’s homicidal instincts are stirred. Beryl is the target, Timothy the fall guy, and merry ol’ England (where the film takes place) the socioeconomically indifferent motivator of it all. The three stellar lead performances coupled with Fleischer’s antiseptic approach to the moral and ethical squalor leave a sublimely bitter aftertaste. (Streaming on The Criterion Channel.) 18
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Ace in the Hole (1951, Billy Wilder, USA) For another horrific indictment of mankind and its basest instincts, turn to Billy Wilder’s classic satire of tabloid journalism and its carnivalesque ill-effects. Kirk Douglas plays Chuck Tatum, a disgraced, formerly alcoholic reporter who moves from New York to New Mexico to try to start anew. After a year or so of uneventful living, Tatum stumbles into a human interest story (a local man trapped inside a collapsed cliff dwelling) that he twists into a screaming-headlines sensation, one that quickly spirals out of control. Our protagonist is the morally soiled fulcrum of Wilder’s cautionary tale, but no one character comes off well. Everyone has a reason (or just an urge) to act their worst. Your mileage may vary as to the degree to which Wilder’s misanthropy is true to life or a shallow exaggeration. But there’s something about Ace in the Hole’s fullbore belief in human beings’ tendencies toward the sordid and the depraved end of the
spectrum that lingers uncomfortably in the mind. (Streaming on The Criterion Channel.) Deep Red (1975, Dario Argento, Italy) Many would spotlight Italian filmmaker Dario Argento’s 1977 Suspiria as his greatest giallo thriller. But there’s something equally, if not slightly more haunting about this classic widescreen, color-saturated horror flick from two years before. David Hemmings, late of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, plays a musician investigating a series of murders committed by a mystery person wearing black gloves. The killing scenes, involving everything from a meat cleaver to a necklace to an elevator, are expectedly, memorably gruesome. Yet it’s the atmosphere Argento conjures that ups the fear factor, the feeling that even inanimate objects, standing out like basreliefs against the crimson-flecked production
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books Silverview: A Novel By John le Carré Viking; $28.00 Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, an émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise. When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea. The Night the Lights Went Out: A Memoir of Life After Brain Damage By Drew Magary Harmony; $27.00 Drew Magary, fan-favorite Defector and former Deadspin columnist, is known for his acerbic takes and his surprisingly nuanced chronicling of his own life. But on the night of the 2018 Deadspin Awards, he suffered a mysterious fall and cracked his skull in three places and suffered a catastrophic brain hemorrhage. For two weeks, he remained in a coma. Drew dives into what it meant to be a bystander to his own death and figuring out who this new Drew is: he doesn’t walk as well, doesn’t taste, hear, or smell as well; failing as a husband and father as he bounces between grumpiness, irritability, and existential fury. Eager to get back what he lost, Drew experiences an awakening in this incredibly funny, medically illuminating, and heartfelt memoir. The 1619 Project created by Nikole Hannah-Jones and The New York Times Magazine One World; $30 In late August 1619, a ship arrived in the British colony of Virginia bearing a cargo of 20
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twenty to thirty enslaved people from Africa. Their arrival led to the barbaric and unprecedented system of American chattel slavery that would last for the next 250 years. This is sometimes referred to as the country’s original sin, but it is more than that: It is the source of so much that still defines the United States. The New York Times Magazine’s awardwinning 1619 Project issue reframed our understanding of American history by placing slavery and its continuing legacy at the center of our national narrative. This is a book that speaks directly to our current moment, contextualizing the systems of race and caste within which we operate today. It reveals long-glossed-over truths around our nation’s founding and construction—and the way that the legacy of slavery did not end with emancipation, but continues to shape contemporary American life. Music Is History By Questlove Abrams Image; $29.99 Music Is History combines Questlove’s deep musical expertise with his curiosity about history, examining America over the past fifty years. Focusing on the years 1971 to the present, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapestry, whether investigating how the blaxploitation era reshaped Black identity or considering the way disco took an assembly-line approach to Black genius. And these critical inquiries are complemented by his own memories as a music fan, and the way his appetite for pop culture taught him about America. A history of the last half-century and an intimate conversation with one of music’s most influential and original voices, Music Is History is a singular look at contemporary America. The Sentence By Louise Erdric Harper; $28.99 In this stunning and timely novel, Pulitzer
Prize and National Book Award–winning author Louise Erdrich creates a wickedly funny ghost story, a tale of passion, of a complex marriage, and of a woman’s relentless errors. Erdrich’s latest novel asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store’s most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls’ Day, but she simply won’t leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading “with murderous attention,” must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation, and furious reckoning. Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple: A New Way to Bake Gluten-Free By Aran Goyoaga Sasquatch Books; $35.00 Cannelle et Vanille Bakes Simple is all about easy-to-follow, gluten-free recipes for enticing breads, cakes, pies, tarts, biscuits, cookies, and includes a special holiday baking chapter. Aran also shares her gluten-free all-purpose baking mix so you can whip up a batch to keep in your pantry. An added bonus is that each recipe offers dairy-free substitutions and some are naturally vegan as well. With inventive, well-tested, recipes and Aran’s clear guidance (plus 145 of her stunning photos), gluten-free baking is happily unfussy, producing irresistibly good results every time. Still Life By Sarah Winman G.P. Putnam’s Sons; $27.00 Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages Ulysses Temper finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a
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music Elton John The Lockdown Sessions Interscope Elton John’s The Lockdown Sessions is an album of collaborations recorded remotely over the last 18 months. The Lockdown Sessions is a dazzlingly diverse collection of 16 songs, all Elton John collaborations, with some of the biggest, most exciting artists in the world today including Brandi Carlile, Charlie Puth, Dua Lipa, Eddie Vedder, Gorillaz, Lil Nas X, Miley Cyrus, Nicki Minaj, Rina Sawayama, SG Lewis, Stevie Nicks, Stevie Wonder, Surfaces, Years & Years, Young Thug, and more. Anat Cohen & Marcello Gonçalves Reconvexo Anxic Records Artists responded to the forced isolation brought about by the 2020 pandemic in various ways across the globe. In Brazil, superstars such as Caetano Veloso, Milton Nascimento and Gilberto Gil shared performances from their homes with their fans, from one living room to another. Among those fans were Anat Cohen and Marcello Gonçalves, quarantined in Rio. And against the backdrop of a country and a world turning inward, distilling the importance of music in the lives of so many, the duo set out to record an album inspired by the beauty of Brazil, and the spirit of its people. The result is at once intimate and virtuosic, mournful and hopeful, soaked with the feeling expressed uniquely in the Portuguese language as saudade—bittersweet, at once deeply happy and sad, and full of emotion. Louis Armstrong A Gift To Pops (various artists) Verve While New Orleans native Louis Armstrong passed away in 1971 at the age of 69, today his legacy as the kingpin of jazz continues to grow. The most significant example of this is the ensemble The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong All Stars, comprised largely 22
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of top-of-the-line Crescent City musicians paying tribute to him with this brilliant album. The inventive re-envisioning of music associated with the trumpeter/vocalist during his five-decade career features new arrangements and new performances of stalwart tunes ranging from The Peanut Vendox (recorded by him in 1930) to What a Wonderful World (recorded in 1968 and the most successful tune of his career). Special guests include Wynton Marsalis and Common. Nas King’s Disease II Mass Appeal Records Following the Grammy Award winning album, King’s Disease, the king returns to his throne with the second coming, King’s Disease II. The star studded project offers tacit game on life, love, and loss, uplifting through action and lived experience in a way only Nas can. This is a body of work for the fans, for the day 1’s that contributed to the legacy. Alongside the decorated production savant, Hit-Boy, Nas remains rooted in lyrical prophetism while proving that he constantly reinvents the wheel. Rod Stewart The Tears of Hercules Rhino/Warner Bros. Sir Rod Stewart’s rekindled love of songwriting grows even stronger on his brand-new studio album, The Tears of Hercules. This is Stewart’s fourth new album of original songs since 2013—his 31st album to date—and for this latest collection, Stewart wrote nine of the 12 songs, including the first single, “One More Time.” In addition to the new tracks, The Tears of Hercules includes covers of Marc Jordan, Johnny Cash, and more. This is a project close to Rod Stewart’s heart, especially the song “Touchline,” which he dedicated to his father, who taught him and his brothers to love football, a tradition Sir Rod
has passed down to his sons. Rod Stewart is one of the best-selling artists in the history of recorded music, with an estimated 250 million records and singles sold worldwide. His signature voice, style, and songwriting have transcended popular music genres, from rock, folk, soul, R&B, and even the Great American Songbook; making him one of the few stars to enjoy chart-topping albums throughout every decade of his career. Joe Bonamassa Time Clocks Provogue/J&R Adventures Recorded in New York City, this new album rediscovers Bonamassa at a newfound peak with heartfelt songwriting and an unparalleled Blues Rock prowess. Time Clocks follows Joe’s constant evolution as he continues to forge ahead, bending genres, breaking down walls and defying the odds of the music industry. He’s known as “the man in the suit,” loved by many as the ultimate guitar hero, cited by critics as “the world’s biggest blues guitarist” (Guitar World), and now the music mastermind has found yet another layer of immense new artistry to share with his fans. As one of today’s most in-demand touring acts the road has been long and winding, but the rough journey has molded his craft into gold. Philip Dukes, Peter Donohoe
Violin Works (Brahms and Schumann) Chandos Recognized as one of the world’s leading viola players, Philip Dukes has enjoyed a career spanning over thirty years as an accomplished concerto soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He joins forces with Peter Donohoe, acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for this extraordinary recording of works by Brahms and Schumann. As he writes in his booklet note, Phillip wanted to
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with real chops. From there, after the impact of the Purple Rain show—because so many people fell in love with us—we also began writing new songs, and then more new songs. Our drummer used to ask, “Is that new? Again?” We just kept writing fresh material. All the synapses connected. It became very easy to do because I was in my 20s with all this energy—from making and hanging posters all over Philly to creating new shows, songs and sets. It was thrilling. We got a horn section, and we could make anything we wanted cook.
A.D.: Moving from World Café to the more intimate Ric Rac must have given you more control of the environment and how audiences would take in your character. DS: Yes. I could just show up and have it be mine. Plus, the DIY grittiness of that Italian Market hole-in-the-wall; it was another world. That inhabited what I thought was the eclectic joy and weirdness of South Philly. A.D.: Who influences you? DS: Isiah Zagar, Kandinsky, Van Gogh. Anything with ecstatic color. Vocally, anything early Bob Marley with Lee Perry, Prince, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, Bob Dylan. A.D.: How did Johnny Showcase, come into his own, find his focus? DS: I think when I realized that Johnny was at his best as the locus, the centerpiece, of a crowd around him—like Jerry Seinfeld and the cast of Seinfeld. I’m obsessed with Seinfeld—he’s the nucleus of all those other great characters and thrives best within that circle. That’s probably how I was able to 24
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17 JOHNNY SHOWCASE
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adapt him into my kid’s show, Johnny Shortcake, that I did at the Kimmel. We created even newer characters to surround Johnny and play to a children’s audience. When you surround him with other great characters he can bounce off of, he’s almost the straight man. Johnny’s a fun character, but when you put him in the right context, he can really sing. A.D.: How does Johnny Showcase’s America’s Got Talent context work in regard to bringing out his best? How did it all come together? DS: I would never have done this on my own. My sister would always push to get on Ellen and shows like America’s Got Talent. I thought of myself as an artist, and those shows seemed horrible—that is until I got an email during a dark Covid week from its producers, a casting director who had seen my YouTubes. At that point, I didn’t know—none of us did—if performance was ever coming back. I was working on a television concept for Johnny Shortcake, which fell apart, and I got this revelatory call. I needed to get back on stage as Johnny after being surrounded by four walls during the pandemic. I went for it. I’m still not allowed to discuss it all. That’s the contract. But I did meet remarkable contestants and fascinating talents and a number of wonderful producers. I wrote the big hit, that “Sensual” song back in 2007, and just thought it had all the things they wanted, that people would get. Plus, they wanted something family-oriented, so “The Octopus” worked. A.D.: So, what now for Johnny Showcase, beyond Hollywood? And where does David Sweeny fit in all of this? DS: I think rather than be further apart, David and Johnny have come together more than in the past. I thought America’s Got Talent would bring more attention than it has so far. I’m open to the next step, the phone call that pushes me into the next phase. I want to take Johnny Showcase to the next phase. It’s great having people discover all of our old material at the same time and want more. A.D.: It’s like a Netflix series that takes three years to make, six hours to watch, then people go, “so, now what?” DS: Yeah. No one wants me to be quiet now, they want me to do more. I’m ready to start bringing it to the people. n
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chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, an art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings. Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit in each other, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses’s life for the next four decades. When he returns home, an unexpected inheritance brings him back to the Tuscan hills. With beautiful prose, tenderness, and bursts of humor and light, Still Life is a portrait of unforgettable individuals who come together to make a family, and a deeply drawn celebration of love in all its forms. Sex Cult Nun By Faith Jones William Morrow; $27.99 Faith Jones was raised to be part an elite army preparing for the End Times. Growing up on an isolated farm, she prayed for hours every day and read letters of prophecy written by her grandfather, the founder of the Children of God. Thousands of members strong, the cult followers looked to Faith’s grandfather as their guiding light. As such, Faith was celebrated as special and then punished doubly to remind her that she was not. Over decades, the cult grew into an international organization that became notorious for its sex practices and allegations of abuse and exploitation. But with indomitable grit, Faith created a world of her own—pilfering books and teaching herself high school curriculum. Finally, at age 23, thirsting for knowledge and freedom, she broke away, leaving behind everything she knew to forge her own path in America. A complicated family story mixed with a hauntingly intimate coming-of-age narrative, this extraordinary memoir reflects our societal norms of oppression and abuse while providing a unique lens to explore spiritual manipulation. Honest, eye-opening, uplifting, and intensely affecting, Sex Cult Nun brings to life a hidden world that’s hypnotically alien yet unexpectedly relatable. n
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When you knoW Where to find iCon: You won’t miss any of our EXCLUSIVE interviews with some of the biggest names in theater, film and music. You’ll know which artist in the area is exhibiting when and where in our chock-full gallery Exhibits section. You’ll find our roundup of new books and music sure comes in handy when you want to hear or read something new. You can read current film reviews, as well as a curated selection of classic film reviews. You’ll use ICON as a resource for where to go and what to see each month.
WHERE TO FIND ICON ALLENTOWN Allentown Art Musuem Baum School of Art Blick Art Crown Supermarket Da Vinci Center Fegley’s Brew Works Lehigh Valley Chamber Hava Java Jewish Community Center Johnny Bagels Miller Symphony Hall Primo Cafe & Gelato Starbucks Venny’s Pizza Weis Food Market
31 No. 5th Street 510 W. Linden Street 3152 Lehigh Street 702 N 4the Street 3145 Hamilton Blvd 812 W. Hamilton Street 840 Hamilton Street 526 No. 19th Street 702 No. 22nd Street 26 No. 6th Street 23 No. 6th Street 7535 Windsor Drive 3300 Lehigh Street 840 Hamilton Street 365 So. Cedar Crest Blvd
EASTON 3rd Street Alliance Buck Hall (performing arts Ctr) Ciao! The Cosmic Cup Easton Public Market Film & Media Studies Bldg. Gallery On Fourth Karl Stirner Arts Building Lafayette Art Gallery @Lehigh U. Lehigh Valley Chamber Playa Bowls Quadrant Book Mart/Café Sette Luna The Strand Terra café W Graphics Williams Center for the Arts Williams Visual Arts Building 26
41 N. 3rd Street433 219 N. 3rd Street 16 N. 3rd Street 248 N. 3rd Street 520 March Street 325 Northampton Street 401 Northampton Street 230 Ferry Street 317 Hamilton St 158A Northampton Street 18 N. 3rd Street 20 N. 3rd Street 219 Ferry Street 433 Northampton Street 321 Northampton Street 18 N 4th Street 317 Hamilton St. 243 N. 2rd Street
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BETHLEHEM Ahart’s Market Azar Supermarket Banana Factory Bethlehem Brew Works Bethlehem Library BOX: Bethlehem House Gallery Cafe the Lodge Compact Disc Center Crown Supermarket Déja Brew Coffeehouse Designer Consigner Donegal Square Godfrey Daniels Hotel Bethlehem Johnny’s Bagels & Deli 1 Johnny’s Bagels & Deli 2 Latin Cruise Lore Salon L.V. Convention Center Mama Nin Rocecheria Menchies Moravian Book Store PBS Channel 39 Redner’s Warehouse Market Saxby’s Shoprite Snow Goose Gallery The Bagel Basket The Café The Cup/Lehigh University The Flying Egg Boutique Diner Valley Farm Market WDIY FM Lehigh Valley Wegman’s Supermarket Weis Market Weis Market Wise Bean
410 Montclair Ave 3131 Linden Street 25 W. 3rd Street 559 Main Street 11 W. Church Street 459 Main Street 427 E. 4th Street 1365 Easton Road 220 E. 3rd Street 101 W. 4th Street 521 Main St 534 Main St 7 E. 4th Street 437 Main Street 472 Main Street 6 Campus Square 553 Main St 1278 Birchwood 505 Main Street 546 Main Street 3014 Linden Street 428 Main Street 830 E. 1st Street 1201 Airport Road 3 W. Morton Street 4701 Freemansburg Ave 470 Main Street 1850 Friedensville Road 221 W. Broad Street 2 Campus Square 451 Main St 1880 Stefko Blve 301 Broadway 5000 Wegman Drive 2305 Schoenersville 5580 Crawford 634 N. New Street
LAMBERTVILLE Alba Home A Mano Gallery Anton’s at the Swan A Touch of the Past Antiques Bear Apothecary Blue Raccoon BOX: Lambertville Station BOX: 5 & Dime BOX: Guiseppe’s Ristorante Bucks Espresso Del Vue Dry Cleaners Frame Shop Gio Salon Heritage Lighting Inn of the Hawke Lambertville House Niece Lumber People’s Store Rojo’s Roastery Swan Bar Walker’s Wine & Spirits Welsh’s Liquor
12 Church Sreet 42 No. Union Sreet 43 So. Main Sreet 32 No. Union Sreet 9 No. Union Sreet 6 Coryell Sreet 11 Bridge Sreet 42 No. Union Sreet 40 Union & Bridge Sreets 25 Bridge Sreet 30 So. Union Sreet 39 No.Main Sreet 10 Mt. Hope Sreet 67 Bridge Sreet 74 So. Union Sreet 32 Bridge Sreet 2 Elm Sreet 28 No. Union Sreet 243 No. Union Sreet 37 So. Main Sreet 86 Bridge Sreet 8 So. Union Sreet
NEW HOPE Alpha Dermatology Citizen’s Bank BOX: CVS & McCaffrey’s First National Bank Giant Supermarket Jamie Hollander Gourmet New Hope Cleaners New Hope Star Diner Penn Community Bank Wedgwood Bed & Breakfast
408 Lower York Road 6542 Logan Square 300 W. Bridge Street 408 Lower York Road 6542 Logan Square 415 York Road 332 W. Bridge Street 6522 US-202 275 W. Bridge Street 111 W. Bridge Street
< 10 THE LIST / PHILLY
< 5 GUS’ PARTY
people kicking each other is a lost art and hard to find—I’m there. So, it’s thrilling to see that Joe Hand Promotions (one of the area’s few remaining independent fight matchmakers and promoters) is getting together with the still-fresh-paint-smelling Live! Casino and Hotel near South Philadelphia’s Sports Complex/Arena Row for a card featuring local heavyweight hero Sonny Conto (7-0 with 6 KOs) and Super Lightweight Shinard Bunch (16-1-1, 14K0s) topping the bill in separate matches. (Thursday, November 18, 900 Packer Ave, Philadelphia, PA, philadelphia.livecasinohotel.com, +1-833-472-5483)
First, I need to find a location where I can set up in sight of where the group will be located. I had the option of doing it outside, but that’s unpredictable. The direction of the sun and shadows changes dramatically over that amount of time. It can turn out to be one of those days where the sun goes in and out. Or there can be rain, humidity, bugs, or some guy aggressively bar-b-queing upwind. It’s going to be a long exercise, and I have to think about myself as well as the guests. Inside has fewer surprises.
Promoter Joe Hand, Sr. is working with trusted advisor, renowned matchmaker, and International Boxing Hall of Famer J Russell Peltz to ensure what they call entertaining fights and competitive matchups. “And Sonny is a real-life ‘Rocky Balboa,’ says Joe Hand Jr., the president of the JHP operation. “He’s total South Philly. People in the neighborhood can just walk to see their hero fight.” If you’ve ever said to yourself, ‘Wow, I think I could love opera, but I don’t have an entire weekend just to watch people in a bad relationship yell at each other, in German, yet,” I believe I have an opportunity for you. David B. Devan’s Opera Philadelphia, just in time to be back on stage, is putting his company’s best foot forward for the 2021-2022 season’s start with a world premiere digital opera TakTakShoo. Written during Covid’s quarantine by Philadelphia-based composer Rene Orth and Toronto-based writer Kanika Ambrose, with director/choreographer Jeffrey Page, the musical piece combines opera, dance, percussion, and electronics in a short K-Pop-influenced piece. Written by two moms during the lockdown, TakTakShoo highlights a post-partum existence and how new parenthood changed the creative process. It starts November 19 at operaphila.org On November 29 and 30, the bard that is Bob Dylan slides back into his self-named Never Ending Tour at the Met with the promise that this trek will stay on the road until 2024. After hearing his last album, the underwhelming but overwrought Rough & Rowdy Ways, such a promise sounds more like a threat. Oy. (The Met Philadelphia, 858 N Broad Street, themetphilly.org) n
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design, have an inexpressibly lethal power. (Streaming on Tubi.) Halloween (1978, John Carpenter, USA) With the second of three Halloween sequels by David Gordon Green now playing in theaters, there’s no better time to go back to the granddaddy of slasher movies. John Carpenter’s classic stalk-and-kill follows masked killer Michael Myers as he terrorizes his hometown of Haddonfield, Illinois. A group of teenagers led by first and still best “final girl” Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) is on the receiving end of the butcher’s knife. For all its reputation as a tension-filled rollercoaster, what’s surprising is how contemplative Halloween feels as compared to its innumerable subpar sequels. Carpenter takes time, as he so often does in his early work, to sketch in the community under siege, so that we really feel each person’s loss when death comes calling. And his insinuating score—a classic in its own right—still has the inimitable staying power. n
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welve people is a lot to pose anywhere in a typical residence. The room can’t be too big or too small, and I can’t be too close or too far away. A large room at a distance is fine if you aren’t trying to identify people, but this painting was about the group, and it needed a sense of tight relationship and celebration. There was a sightline from the dining area into the living room. I could put my easel next to a wall out of the flow of traffic, and by taking a step or two back and to the side, I could see the entire room where they were gathering. The best part was that it put me next to the snack table. I could spear one of the marinated mozzarella balls with the long, thin end of my #4 flat brush without leaving position or breaking concentration. The same not too big, not too small issue applies to selecting a panel size. This one is 12"x16." Large enough to tell who’s who, small enough to complete in the allotted time. We were pushing my limits at twelve people. I had stopped by the house a couple of days before the party to determine the where-and-how part of the plan, but showtime has its own challenges. A mindset is required. The clock starts ticking, and the tempo rises dramatically. It gets noisy. Everything is moving. Even my models of the moment are talking and turning while I work. I’m far enough away from them to drift from their mind. People stand in the way. This is all as it should be for me to observe the interaction and intimacy of a group of colleagues. If need be, I can work from someone where I can see them yet place them where they belong in my image, but I prefer to observe them in position, so I don’t miss the reflections, illuminations, or bounces from nearby objects that help describe form and place. I arrived an hour and a half early and placed the foreground and background of the room into the painting. As people showed up, I discussed who was whom with the organizers, so I would be aware of any issues to avoid when placing people (there were none). Then I indicated twelve positions (two men, ten women) in the painting using stick figures to avoid finding myself already out of space at number eleven. The homeowner offered to be my wrangler, and she did a great job of making sure I had the next person ready when needed. During a pause in the action, I put her two cats in spots that helped the composition, which pleased her no end. There was one person who was an integral member of the group but couldn’t be at the party. I searched her on the web the night before and came up with a photo that I put on my phone. I placed her into the painting while my wrangler was trying to find where Ralf had wandered off to. n ICON | NOVEMBER 2021 | ICONDV.COM
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WHERE TO FIND ICON IN PHILADELPHIA 1830 Rittenouse 2101 Cooperative Inc 220 W. Rittenhouse Adademy House Acme Acme Acme Acme Acme Acme Acme Supermarket Adelphia House Anthony's Coffeeshop Arden Theater Aria Condos Arts Tower Condos Belgravia Condos Benjamin Franklin House Bishop's Collar Bluestone Lane BOX BOX (at trolley turnabout) BOX (The Met) BOX (Craftworks BOX (Milcrate Cafe) Brauhaus Brewery Co Cafe Ole Center City One Chestnut Lofts City Fitness City Fitness City Fitness City Fitness City Hall Visitors Lobby City Tap House City Tap House City View Condos 1820 Rittenhouse Condos 1900 Rittenhouse Square Condos Condos Constitution Building Cosmopolitan Condos Dessert Crazy Earth Cup/Sam's Place Ellelauri Boutique Evil Genius Beer Company FOX29 Studio - Greenroom Franklin Tower Free Library of Philadelphia Fresh Grocer Good Dog Bar & Restaurant Good Karma Café Good Karma Café 28
1830 Rittenhouse Square 118 So. 21st Street 220 W. Rittenhouse Square 1420 Locust Street 180 W. Girard Ave 309 S 5th Street 2101 Cottman Ave 1001 South Street 1400 E. Passyunk Street 1901 Johnston Street 309 S 5th St 1229 Chestnut St 903 S 9th St 40 N 2nd Street 1425 Locust Street 1324 Locust Street 1811 Chesnut Street 834 Chestnut Street 2349 Fairmount Ave 1701 Locust St 34th & Chestnut N.W. Frankford & Delaware Ave Broad & Poplar 541 E. Girard Ave 400 E. Girard Ave 718 South St. 117 Chestnut Street 147 No. 3rd Street 1326 Spruce Street 124 Chesnut Street 1428 Frankford Ave 200 Spring Garden 1148 Wharton St 1819 JFK Blvd Market Street 3925 Walnut St. 3925 Walnut St. 2001 Hamilton Street 1820 Rittenhouse Square 1900 Rittenhouse Square 1520 Hamilton Street 22 Street & Arch 325 Chesnut Street 221 So. 12th Street 1925 Fairmount Ave 405 So. 45th Street 114 So. 19th Street 1727 No. Front Street 4th and Market Streets 200 No. 16th Street 1901 Vine Street 1501 No. Broad Street 224 So. 15th Street 2319 Walnut Street 331 So. 22nd Street
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Good Karma Café Green Aisle Grocert Green Eggs Green Eggs Midtown Green Line Café Green Line Café Hawthorne's Café Hinge Cafe Historic: The Touraine Condos Historic: Waterfront Condos Historic: Waterfront Condos Historic: Trinity Condos Historic: Logan Condos Honey's Sit and Eat Hopkinson House (mailroom) IGA Supermarket Jefferson Hospital Jefferson Hospital (Main ) Jefferson Hospital (East) JJ'S Food Market Joe’s Coffee ShoP Johnny Brendas Kelly Writer's House Kite & Key La Colombe Torrefaction Last Drop Latimer Deli Left Bank Apartments Lucky Goat Coffee House Mad Rex Restauran Marathon Grill Mariposa Food Co-op Masala Kitchen Kati Rolls Memphis Taproom Metropolitan Bakery Milk & Honey Milk and Honey Café Milkboy Milkcrate Café Mixto Bar & Restaurant Mulberry Market Museum Towers National Liberty Museum National Mechanics Nook Bakery & Coffee Bar North Bowl OCF Coffee House OCF Coffee House Old Nelson Food Market One Franklin Towne Condos Oregon Market Palm Tree Market Philadelphia Java Co Pier 3 Condos Pier 7 Condos
928 Pine Street 1618 E. Passyunk Ave 1306 Dickinson Street 212 S. 13th Street 28 S. 40th Street 4426 Locust St 738 So. 11th Street 2652 E. Somerset Street 1520 Spruce Street 33 S Letitia Street 106 So. Front Street 2027 Arch Street 1666 Callowhill Street 800 No. 4th Street 604 Washington Square 2497 Aramingo Ave 1100 Walnut Street 111 S 11Tth Street 8th and Market Street 118 E. Girard Ave 1845 Walnut St 1201 Frankford Ave 3805 Locust Walk 1836 Callowhill St. 130 S 19th Street 1300 Pine Street 255 So. 15th Street 3131 Walnut Street 888 No. 26th St 1000 Frankford Ave #1 1818 Market Street 4824 Baltimore Ave 1211 Walnut St 2331 E. Cumberland St 4013 Walnut Street 4435 Bal.timore Ave 518 S. 4th Street 1100 Chestnut Street 400 E. Girard Ave 1141 Pine Street 236 Arch Street 1801 Buttonwood Street 321 Chestnut Street 22 S. 3rd street 15 S. 20th St 909 N. 2nd St 2100 Fairmount Ave 2930 Chestnut St 2000 Chestnut Street 1 Franklin Towne B 320 W. Oregon Ave 717 N. 2nd Street 852 S. 2nd St 3 N. Columbus Blvd 7 N. Columbus Blvd
Pizza Brain Plough and the Stars Punk Burger Race Street Cafe Rally Coffee Reading Terminal Reanimator Coffee Rittenhouse Market River Loft Riverview Apartments Rodriguez Free Library Rotten Ralph’s Saladworks Sassafras Market Sassafras Market Saxby’s Coffee Rittenouse Shop Rite Shop Rite (Bridge/Harbison) Shop Rite (shelf) Silk City Sporting Club at Bellevue Standard Tap Starbucks Stateside Steap & Grind Suburban Station Supremo Food Market Suya Suya Sweat Sweat Fitness The Bean Cafe The Carlyle Apartments The Collonade The Dorchester The Dorchester (lobby) The Foodery The Foodery The Good Spoon The National at Old City The Phoenix The Sterling The View at Old City The Westbury Apartments The Wireworks Tivoli Condos Tuscany Apartments Tuscany Cafe (Rittenhouse) Walnut Towers Warwick Condos Watermark Waterworks World Cafe Live Yakitori Boy Zama
2313 Frankford Ave 123 Chestnut Street 1823 E. Passyunk Ave 208 Race Street 701 S. 7th Street 12th & Filbert Street 1523 E. Susquehanna 1733 Spruce Street 2300 Walnut Street 2101 Chestnut Street 600 W Girard Ave 201 Chestnut Street 1760 Market Street 163 N. 3rd Street 163 N. 3rd St 2000 Walnut Street 3745 Aaramingo Ave 5597 Tulip Street 24th & Oregon 435 Spring Garden St 224 S. Broad Street 901 N. 2nd Street 1201 Market Street 1536 E. Passyunk ave 1619 Frankford Ave 15th & Market Street 4301 Walnut Street 400 Fairmount Ave 2400 Walnut Street 700 E. Passyunk Ave 615 South St 2031 Locust Street 1601 Spring Garden St 224 Rittenhouse Sq 226 W. Rittenhouse Sq 837 N. 2nd St 1000 Pine Street 1400 N. Front St 121 N. 2nd Street 1600 Arch Street 1815 JFK Blvd 401 Race Street 271 S. 15th Street 301 Race Street 1900 Hamilton Street 222 W. Rittenhouse Sq 230 S. Broad 834 Walnut Street 1701 Locust Street 2 Franklin Towne Blvd 640 Waterworks Drive 3025 Walnut Street 211 N. 11th Street 128 S. 19th Street
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12 FILM ROUNDUP
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22 MUSIC
tale of a woman, Jessica (Tilda Swinton), who is haunted by a sharp, booming noise that occurs at random. Yet as this mesmerizingly leisurely movie goes on, what is initially terrifying proves to be consciousness-expanding in the best possible way. Oddball exhibition plans aside, the film benefits from as big a screen and as first-rate a sound system as possible, the better for each viewer to be enveloped in its singular thematic and cinematic stylings. [N/R] HHHHH
find a new approach to these works: ‘I wanted it to sound fresh and alive, almost as when I was looking at the scores for the first time all those years ago, but with the secret benefit of all that subsequent experience under my belt. So, I did just that. I purchased a new, excellent, well researched edition, I listened to all manner of different recordings (of the versions both for clarinet and for viola), and I devoted three months to the project, the culmination of which is what you will hear.’
The Power of the Dog (Dir. Jane Campion). Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Kodi Smit-McPhee. New Zealand auteur Jane Campion returns to theaters for the first time since 2009’s Bright Star with this excellent adaptation of novelist Thomas Savage’s Montana-set period Western, a pointed parable of repressed homoerotic machismo. A top-of-his-game Benedict Cumberbatch plays virile rancher Phil Burbank, who lords his manliness over his brother George (Jesse Plemons), George’s new wife Rose (Kirsten Dunst), and Rose’s “sissy” of a son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee). But his XY chromosomal posturing masks something deeply repressed that slowly comes to the fore. Phil’s arc is a tragic one, though the story isn’t entirely his, and Campion juggles perspectives and shifts our sympathies with an enthralling confidence. It’s possible there are aspects of The Power of the Dog that are a bit too subtle in their execution, yet its overall effect is truly, disturbingly sublime. [R] HHHH
Gabriel Feltz Dortmunder & Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Dreyer Gaido Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 9 & 10 Recording such a world-spanning oeuvre as Gustav Mahler’s ten symphonies is truly a Herculean task and after 15 years of intensive musical work, Gabriel Feltz is the only German conductor of his generation to present such an impressive complete recording. Two orchestras, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker and the Dortmunder Philharmoniker, are featured in this highly acclaimed CD cycle. It reveals once again Feltz’s flair for focusing on the essentials of Mahler’s music in these exuberant works.
The Tragedy of Macbeth (Dir. Joel Coen). Starring: Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand, Alex Hassell. For his first feature minus brother Ethan, writer-director Joel Coen tackles the Scottish play, William Shakespeare’s enduring tragedy of a guy, a gal and a kingdom up for grabs. It’s a visual marvel, shot in luxuriant black-and-white by ace cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel, though it stumbles in the lead performances of Lord and Lady Macbeths (Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand), both of whom seem too old and sans the erotic hunger (for power and for each other) that drives their characters. Yet Coen fills out the supporting cast spectacularly well, most notably in the forms of Stephen Root as the drunken Porter and Kathryn Hunter (the cast’s MVP) as the more foul than fair trio of spectral witches who taunt Macbeth to his inevitable doom. [R] HHH n
Common A Beautiful Revolution Pt. 2 Neon Yellow Loma Vist With this continuation of his movement music, Common said “something kept telling me to focus on the good and the things I wanted to see in the world. Music is one of the things that gives me hope and happiness.” Pt. 1’s message led with love and positivity through difficult times: a pandemic, racial and social justice protests, and a polarizing election. Pt. 2 recognizes there is much work to be done while acknowledging progress and starting to live our dreams.
there have been four iterations, hence the V.1IV sub-heading on the record. Whether searingly electric, powerfully intense or deeply contemplative, highly composed or totally improvised, or even with some new-fangled contraption of his own design, there is always that unmistakable Metheny sensibility at work that has stood at the forefront of jazz for what is now approaching five decades. The Side-Eye series is the latest chapter in his continually unfolding story. Gabriel Schwabe Elgar & Bridge: Cello Concertos Naxos Elgar’s Cello Concerto, an intensely poignant, reflective and individual musical statement, has enjoyed unflagging popularity among musicians and listeners for over one hundred years. By contrast, Frank Bridge’s Oration (Concerto elegiaco) remained unperformed for decades after its early hearings. Yet it shares spiritual affinities with Elgar’s work and serves as a funeral address of huge solemnity and narrative power in its outcry against the futility of war. Gabriel Schwabe has established himself among the leading cellists of his generation. He is a laureate of numerous national and international competitions, including the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann and the Concours Rostropovich in Paris. n Answer to this month’s puzzle
Pat Metheny Side-Eye NYC V1.IV Modern Recordings Metheny has given this band concept the name Side-Eye and hopes that it might become a rotating group of musicians who could come and go in different combinations. So far, ICON | NOVEMBER 2021 | ICONDV.COM
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harper’s FINDINGS Climate change will benefit rattlesnakes. A 1972 MIT model predicting societal collapse in the twenty-first century continued to prove prescient, coastal flooding in the 2030s will be exacerbated by the wobbling of the moon, the stratosphere shrank by 400 meters between 1980 and 2018, and the cryosphere shrank by 3.2 million square kilometers between 1979 and 2016. The lead author of a study in “The Cryosphere” called saving the Greenland ice sheet by injecting sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere “a plan B that is not!” The carbon released annually by feral pigs’ rooting in the ground is equivalent to the emissions of 1.1 million cars. In a fifteen-hour period, pyrocumulonimbus clouds in western Canada produced 710,117 flashes of lightning, including 112,803 ground strikes. The permafrost of Svalbard is becoming less seismically active as the Arctic warms. Scientists warned that we may be approaching an irreversible or poorly reversible plastic-pollution threshold. Easter Island never experienced a demographic implosion. RhGB01, a novel coronavirus, was discovered among British bats, and 15,000-yearold viruses were extracted fromTibetan glacier ice. Frozen feces in Alaska revealed evidence of sled dog cannibalism. New-world rabbits were never domesticated, though rabbits found in the stomachs of Aztec sacrificial eagles and pumas appear to have been raised by humans and fed a diet rich in corn or cactus. Researchers who gave ayahuasca to a group of Israelis and Palestinians were optimistic about its potential for peace-building. Lisdexamfetamine can treat daydreaming. Multiple rounds of ketamine anesthesia or light flickering at 60 Hz can induce childlike brain plasticity in mice, and a single dose of psilocybin makes them less depressed and creates strong neural connections. An Indian woman presented with multiday visual hallucinations after being bitten by a Russell’s viper. Ambient environmental levels of methamphetamine are sufficient to cause addiction among brown trout. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service renamed Asian carp “invasive carp,” and Australian experts pushed to rename shark attacks “negative encounters.” A 450-million-year-old trilobite showed signs of having survived a stab in the eye by a giant sea scorpion. Danes’ ability to smell fried meat, but not vanilla, declines with age. Wisdom tooth extraction results in a 3 to 10 percent improvement in taste precision two decades later. Researchers concluded that preschool girls’ and boys’ engagement with “princess culture” correlated with “lower adherence to norms of hegemonic masculinity and higher body esteem” in early adolescence. A study of NYPD precincts found that the opening of an adult-entertainment business led to a 13 percent drop in reported sex crimes the following week. Male jackdaws fail to console female life partners who have been subjected to forcible mating attempts. Vampire bats have a highly fluid social order, and place little value on sustained dominance. Being a trash parrot is a learned behavior. Dog puppies can intuit human meanings, whereas wolf puppies cannot. Researchers worried that regionally specific cattle adaptations were being lost amid a nationalized market for bull semen. The Warlis’ belief in the leopard-tiger god Waghoba was found to defuse human-leopard conflict. Wolbachia bacteria make mosquitoes more heat-sensitive. Rat snakes were used to gauge post-Fukushima radionuclide levels in the Abukuma Highlands, and hedgehogs with transmitter backpacks were found hibernating at unexpectedly high altitudes. Storks are attracted to the smell of freshly mown meadows. Mammals about to be born dream of the world to come. 30
ICON | NOVEMBER 2021 | ICONDV.COM
INDEX Ratio of residents to publicly available bathrooms in New York City : 7,258:1 In Singapore : 197:1 Minimum percentage of federal funds for pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure last year that went to roads, bridges, and highways : 15 Percentage by which the wealthiest neighborhoods in U.S. cities have more trees than the poorest : 65 By which the whitest neighborhoods have more trees than the least white : 78 Number of additional trees needed to achieve an equitable distribution across U.S. neighborhoods : 522,000,000 Est. portion of the contiguous U.S. affected by wildfire smoke on July 21, 2021 : 9/10 Factor by which monthly records are more now than in the preindustrial era : 5 Estimated portion of new monthly heat records attributable to climate change : 4/5 Factor by which the earth’s heating rate increased from 2005 to 2020 : 2.4 Percentage by which average nighttime temperatures have increased more quickly than daytime temperatures since 1951 : 37 Estimated number of Americans it takes to produce enough carbon dioxide to cause one temperature-related death : 3 Min. amount that FEMA pent to cover the funerals of COVID-19 victims : $804,000 Percentage of Americans who have “zero confidence” in the healthcare system’s ability to handle a future emergency : 45 Portion of Americans who would agree to live on Mars for the rest of their lives : 1/4 % increase since 2015 in amount of money raised by space startups : 174 Average number of annual spacecraft launches from 2015 to 2019 : 381 Number of launches last year : 1,282 Percentage of Americans who developed a new hobby during the pandemic : 59 Percentage of those Americans who have successfully monetized that hobby : 48 Percentage of U.S. cryptocurrency holders who are men : 74 Who are white men : 56 Chance that an office space in Manhattan is available for lease : 1 in 5 % by which open-plan offices have been found to decrease face-to-face interactions : 70 Factor by which Americans prefer working 4-day 40-hr weeks to 5-day40-hr weeks : 3 Portion of Americans who think their productivity would improve or remain the same if they worked 4-day weeks : 3/4 Percentage change in Icelandic workers’ output after they began working five fewer hours per week : 0 Percentage decrease last year in the hours worked by the average European : 4.5 By the average American : 0.6 Percentage increase in the rate of police resignations from April 2020 to March 2021 compared with the previous year : 18 In the rate of police retirements : 45 Chance that a U.S. election official feels “unsafe” in his or her job : 1 in 3 That he or she is concerned about death threats : 1 in 5 % of local election officials who plan to resign or retire before the 2024 election : 22 Number of state immunization managers who have left their jobs since the COVID-19 vaccine became available : 10 % increase last year in volume of cardboard used to ship goods to households : 38 Weight, in tons, of that cardboard : 23,203,653 Percentage change in the number of babies named Alexa since the launch of the Amazon product : −79 Minimum number of children named Alexa who have legally changed their names because of it : 4 SOURCES: 1 Urban Design Forum (NYC); 2 World Toilet Organization (Singapore); 3 Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (Washington); 4–6 American Forests (Washington); 7 Nancy H. F. French, Michigan Technological University (Houghton); 8,9 Dim Coumou, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; 10 NASA Langley Research Center (Hampton, Va.); 11 National Centers for Environmental Information (Asheville, N.C.); 12 R. Daniel Bressler (NYC); 13 Federal Emergency Management Agency; 14 Pew Research Center (Washington); 15 YouGov (NYC); 16–18 BryceTech (Alexandria, Va.); 19,20 LendingTree (Charlotte, N.C.); 21,22 Gemini (NYC); 23 Newmark (NYC); 24 Ethan Bernstein, Harvard Business School (Cambridge, Mass.); 25,26 YouGov; 27 Alda (Reykjavík, Iceland); 28,29 Daniel S. Hamermesh, Barnard College (NYC); 30,31 Police Executive Research Forum (Washington); 32,33 Brennan Center for Justice (NYC); 34 Paul Manson, Reed College (Portland, Ore.); 35 Association of Immunization Managers (Rockville, Md.); 36,37 Smithers (Leatherhead, England); 38 Social Security Administration (Woodlawn, Md.); 39 Human Alexas (Atlanta).
Team Pursuit 1 6 10 15 19 20
21 22 23 25
26 27 28 30 32 35 37 38 39 40 47 52 53 54 57 58 59 62 63 64 66 70 72 73 74 81 85 86 87 89 90
ACROSS Sharp conflict “This ___ what I had in mind” Spurs Bygone Iranian ruler Cliffside habitat Style of fiction that Catherynne M. Valente called “a fairy tale with guns” Part of a geographical chain “___ on Eileen” (hit for Dexys Midnight Runners) Winning streak for Seattle’s WNBA team? Greek letter denoting the heat capacity ratio in thermodynamics ___ predators Rum ___ Tugger (cat from “Cats”) Parishioners’ donations Do something without help Programs sending junk mail Hall of Famers who played for St. Louis’s NHL team? Little battery type “For ___ purposes ...” First two words of a “Hamlet” soliloquy Winning and excellence, to Utah’s NBA team? Discombobulates Spiny houseplants Yucky substance Mini-golf club The R of P.R. Mobile studio for a news station Cylinders in sewing kits Tablet software, maybe Mani-pedi place Request Chicago’s NFL team winning a second championship in a row? Moisés once on the Cubs Rockets Hall of Famer DEA employee Happy players on Tampa Bay’s MLB team? Desert that was a backdrop for the sci-fi planet Tatooine Sits next to Australia Zoo bird Chvrches singer Mayberry Corn unit “A cruel thief to rob us of our former selves,” per Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey
91 94 95 97 99 102 105 106 107 112 117 118 120 121 122 124
127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134
Dehydration symptoms Test administered by ETS Arctic fox’s fur color Name that’s an apt anagram of ASTRAL Buffalo NFL players who deserve praise? Mobile device features In addition Drummer Blaine Applause for Oklahoma City’s NBA team? Take a seat quickly Where one might grab a cab Vacuum ___ (device for preserving food) Subject involving DNA Tie up loose ___ Chilling signs Ambitions among friends ... or what seven answers in this puzzle represent? Adjust, as a paragraph “Holy smokes!” Put to bed, with “in” “Lucifer” actress Garcia Informal attire? “Pop” band, 2001 Acorn sources What pitchers may be made of DOWN
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Sends out, as shadows Slacken Flower shop emanation “Please, ___, I want some more” (line from “Oliver Twist”) T-shirt edge People who celebrate the new year with the Quviasukvik festival Arranges alphabetically, say Approaching, in a poem Constrictor seen on a branch Performance job Great Plains people “You’re not that far off” Venus ___ (sculpture in the Louvre) Group with a practice exam? Set of musical notes Board, as a motorcycle Adjust, as a constitution Sorcerer’s spells Relative of a ferret Suck in a big way, like a food critic might?
31 33 34 36 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 48 49 50 51 55 56 60 61 63 65 67 68 69 71 74 75 76 77 78
Improved, like Edam or Gouda Hedge ___ (outdoor puzzle) Musical highlights for Bootsy Collins and Tina Weymouth Language spoken in Peshawar Informal term for coffee “Such a pity!” Pass out, with “out” “Several years ___ ...” Gaming beginner Pass out, with “out” Mix up, in the kitchen Comedian Rachel who played Barbara Walters on SNL and “30 Rock” “Factotum” actress Taylor Class involving analysis of fiscal policy, for short Piece from a composer Digit on the floor Channel for many who fill out college basketball brackets Dissertation committee figure, briefly Utters out loud Film that covers food Chase scene outburst Cheer for a team Flower bed surface “At ___!” (Army order) Discord channel visitor Animals that help free the narrator in “The Pit and the Pendulum” Kinda Arizona Western College city Thurman of “Prime” Like one’s arm after sleeping on it, often
79 80 82 83 84 88 91 92 93 96 98 100 101 103 104 107 108 109 110 111
Reminds over and over Slovenian currency Base’s counterpart Bread made with atta Aid and ___ NBA, NFL or NHL official Locale of South Africa’s Parliament Greek food truck bread Overflows, with “over” Had in one’s grasp Aberdonian boys Is bested by Set of musical notes Teasers for shows Ludicrously strange Fabric of some jackets Like many Rig Veda readers Nullified Fledglings’ dwellings Leader depicted in statues at the Muzeon Park of Arts in Moscow 112 Boldness 113 Disclosures of secret government activities 114 First sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba since Coolidge 115 Sly skills 116 Externally visible parts of respiratory systems 119 Latin word for “water” 123 “Got a ___?” (“Do you have a moment?”) 125 Comedian’s delivery 126 Refined substance Solution to this month’s puzzle on page 29 ICON | NOVEMBER 2021 | ICONDV.COM
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