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contents
ART
CONVERSATION
EXHIBITIONS
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ESZTER BALINT
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Works in Wood New Hope Arts
Actor-singer-violinist Ezster Balint talks about her journey to I Hate Memory, a live staged, anti-musical about NYC’s post-punk past written and performed by Balint.
Desmond McRory: Solo Exhibition Silverman Gallery what goes around... (part one) The Snow Goose Gallery 8|
Holiday Show Bethlehem House Gallery
20 YEAGER/BENKO DOING IT ALL Young marrieds Pianist-arranger Jason Yeager and vocalist-actor Julie Benko are having a moment.
AOY Fine Craft Show Artists of Yardley Paintings, Prints and Drawings: Holiday Show Swan Boat Gallery
5 | A THOUSAND WORDS Slugger
ON THE COVER:
Butter, by Bob Beck
10 | THE ART OF POETRY 12 | PORTFOLIO 14 | THE LIST Valley City
22| Butter was the store cat at Farley’s
Bookshop in New Hope. Farley’s status as one of the most distinctive and loved destinations in Bucks County goes back to 1967. The store has recently been acquired by a group of employees and will continue to provide an unparalleled experience for book lovers. Lucky us. — Bob Beck
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FILM ROUNDUP Armageddon Time A Couple EO Bones and All
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FILM CLASSICS The Muppet Movie Russian Ark Young Frankenstein Prince of Darkness
30 | HARPER’S Findings Index
31 | PUZZLE
Washington Post Crossword
ICON The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius.
Since 1992 215-862-9558 icondv.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com ADVERTISING Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net PRODUCTION Paul Rosen
Joanne Smythe
Margaret M. O’Connor CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
A.D. Amorosi Ricardo Barros Robert Beck Pete Croatto Geoff Gehman Susan Van Dongen Grigsby Fredricka Maister David Stoller Keith Uhlich
PO Box 120 New Hope 18938 215-862-9558
IReproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. ©2022 Primetime Publishing Co., Inc.
a thousand words
STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK
SLUGGER
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A FEW MONTHS AGO, I painted woodworker Mark Sfirri in his studio. While we knew of each other, we didn’t meet until we both had concurrent shows at the same venue. Mark is known for his wood turning, which is very different from the bowls and vessels that come to mind when you hear the term. He is proficient in other mediums, too, but wood is his thing. If you’ve been to the Michener Museum, you might have seen his Rejects From A Bat Factory on display in the main hall. It depicts a set of baseball bats doing decidedly un-batlike things. He’s made many of those. Most have been turned and carved from ash, some from exotic woods, and all with a wonderful sense of humor. C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 8
Robert Beck is a painter, writer, lecturer and ex-radio host. His paintings have been featured in more than seventy juried and thirty solo gallery shows, and three solo museum exhibitions. His column has appeared monthly in ICON Magazine since 2005.
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Mary Serfass, Blue, Mixed Media
exhibitions
Ken Burton, Round Jewelry Box, walnut, poplar, milk paint
Works in Wood 23rd Annual Juried Exhibition New Hope Arts, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope 215-862-9606 Newhopearts.org Fri., Sat., Sun. 12–5 and by appointment November 19–January 7 Works in Wood traditionally celebrates the woodworking heritage of Bucks County as expressed in the work of contemporary artists.“The national draw of this exceptional exhibition features the finest contemporary examples of furniture, turned objects, sculpture, and innovative uses of the wood medium,” says Carol Cruickshanks, New Hope Arts executive director. The exhibit features the work of more than 50 artists, and includes ten new exhibitors into the fold of seasoned woodworkers who consider Works in Wood a holiday tradition. Sponsored by The First National Bank of Newtown.
Salvatore J. LoSapio, Curved-leg Stool, w/ live edge seat, cherry wood 6
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Woman at Breakfast, 12 x 9 inches, oil on board
Desmond McRory: Solo Exhibition Silverman Gallery Route 202, just north of PA 413 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA 215-794-4300 Silvermangallery.com November 5–December 4 Opening Nov. 5, 5–8 & Nov. 13, 1–4 Wed.-Sat. 11–6, Sun. 11–4 & appointment With the gallery since 2014, McRory's calm and atmospheric oil paintings will be augmented by his recent sculptural work. He could aptly be titled a Renaissance man, but Desmond McRory is really a man for the ages. His interest in art is always evolving with his commitment to travel and keep learning from the past. Yet, he is not afraid to learn, to grow and step into the future.
Leaping Deer
Reference photo by David Evan Serfass for Blue.
what goes around... (part one) The Snow Goose Gallery 470 Main St. Bethlehem, PA 610-974-9099 thesnowgoosegallery.com November 13–December 18 Gallery hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11–5 Opening: Sun., Nov. 13, 1–5 This show is about the symbiosis between a parent and child, in this case, mother and son. Mary Serfass has been an award-winning artist (ink/ mixed media) for most of her life, and her son, David, grew up watching her work evolve on her drawing table. Years later, David is taking photographs of subjects he believes will inspire her. Here, she’s been galvanized by the photos he’s taken, which have been, in turn, influenced by her own work. What goes around, indeed. This show is dedicated to Doug Serfass, Mary’s husband and David’s father, with a sequel coming in November, 2024.
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exhibitions
Painting by Lennie Pierro
Purple Steel, by Ward Van Haute 7”x 9” Fused glass panel, glass on glass
Holiday Show Bethlehem House Gallery 459 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA BethlehemHouseGallery.com 610-419-6262 Through January 7 Tues., by chance or appointment Wed, Thurs, 11–7, Fri, Sat., 12–9, Sun, 12–5 Open every day from Nov. 25 to Dec. 23 Join us for the Holiday Show featuring six local artists: Jonas Arguello, Nancy Bossert, Thomas Kelly, Jeffrey Ludwig-Dicus, Christine McHugh, and Ward Van Haute. Enjoy the gallery’s display of original modern art in a fully designed interior. Our fine art, applied arts, jewelry, décor and ornaments make beautiful gifts. Happy Holidays.
Nancy Bossert, Arousing Poppies, 28” x 22.”Mixed media 8
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Paintings, Prints and Drawings: Holiday Show Swan Boat Gallery, 69 Bridge St, Lambertville 332- 400-6651 Swanboatgallery.com Opening Reception: November 5, 5:00 Lecture on Surrealism: Nov. 5, 3:00
Amber earrings by Bernadette Suski-Harding
AOY Fine Craft Show 949 Mirror Lake Road, Yardley PA Artists of Yardley aoyarts.org November 12 & 13 Holiday shopping made easy. Give something worth giving. Our passionate, accessible and insanely skilled artists invite you to see their one-of-a kind, unique products. They are authentic and exclusive and embody the spirit of good design. Meet the makers, hear the stories, and discover the inspiration behind the creative processes of our talented artists. Enjoy a two-day artisanal experience of holiday shopping in the charming and historic Janney House on Patterson Farm in Yardley.
Bracelet by Virginia DeNale
Paintings, Prints, and Drawings features surrealist Juan Miró. Miró and Lennie Pierro, artists who express themselves with diverse styles leaning toward the surreal. Miró combined abstract art with Surrealist fantasy. His style evolved from the tension between his fanciful, poetic impulse and his vision of the harshness of modern life. His work laid a great foundation for the ensuing Abstract Expressionist movement. Lennie Pierro’s paintings captured the mood and feeling of 20th century Sicily. Pierro uses a calligraphic script known as sgraffito, which he integrates into his large and moving works. For hours and updates, visit swanboatgallery.com.
Print by Juan Miró
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the art of poetry
DAVID STOLLER
Child’s Play Some moderns obsessed Over the art of child’s play— Primal, unconscious, Valid in its suddenness … They yearned for that innocence. So they dripped and soaked, Pushed and pulled their lines and cubes Invoking nature To guide their hands as freely As a young child finger paints. My grandson, fearless, Assembles from the jumble Of blocks and tinkers A structure that pleases him— Pleased as well when it tumbles. The art of child’s play Embraces impermanence, Nothing is finished, Knows not the pathos of things … That the moderns knew so well.
The painting presented here, entitled Abstraction, was painted by Louis Stone (1902-1984), one of New Hope’s most important modernist painters. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art with Daniel Garber, the Art Students League in New York, and then in Europe with the legendary abstract painter and teacher Hans Hoffmann. In 1935, he moved to Lambertville, New Jersey. In 1937 he launched a painting project called Ramstonev Cooperative with Charles Ramsey and Charles Evans (Ramsey/Stone/Evans). This was their landmark effort to emulate the cooperative ad-lib process by which jazz musicians created their music—a visual “jazz session.” Their collaborative compositions, always abstract, were often a series of as many as 12 or more paintings—the last one of which would be deemed “final.” As is often the case with non-representational art, those viewing this painting have widely different ideas of what it might depict. I’ve always seen our floor strewn with toys, cars, planes, and tinker toy elevators, in a jumble that all makes sense—to our grandkids, having their own jazz session. n
Portrait of Louis Stone, c. 1923-1924. Image courtesy of the Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC, New York, New York. 10
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David Stoller has had a career spanning law, private equity, and entrepreneurial leadership. He was a partner and co-head of Milbank Tweed and led various companies in law, insurance, live entertainment, and the visual arts. David is an active art collector and founder of River Arts Press, which published a collection of his poetry, Finding My Feet.
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portfolio
PHOTOGRAPH AND ESSAY BY RICARDO BARROS
The Collectors As a photographer, I strive for clear-eyed observation of where I am and the people currently sharing my space. I ask myself: what makes this observation particular? And, when I reach for a camera, which lens do I choose? I know many people have only one, but we must still be aware of how cameras transform what we see. A photograph shows us something different from our actual experience. Lenses capture only a fragment of any setting. We have grown accustomed to edges bounding photographic compositions, and we’ve become blind to the intrusiveness of those edges. Were we present at the brief moment of exposure, we would see much more than the captured image. By swiveling our heads, we would see everything to the left and right of the subject. Our vision would be continuous, as if in a movie, including the moments before and after the shot. And all of this would be fused into one impression in our mind’s eye. My 360-degree panoramas are no closer to reality than a traditional photograph, despite faithfully presenting the same information - albeit more of it. Both are surrogates. Both conjure an image of experience. But the gift of the 360s is that they are less familiar. They invite a closer look. Their reward is often something unexpected. n
Ricardo Barros’ works are in the permanent collections of eleven museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the author of “Facing Sculpture: A Portfolio of Portraits, Sculpture and Related Ideas.” 12
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the list VALLEY
CITY — GEOFF GEHMAN
Ralph Nader famously declared the Corvair “unsafe at any speed.” Ah, but how would the consumer warrior judge a Corvair pickup outfitted as a boat? This one-off folly, handsomely painted white and fireengine red, highlights the many magnetic attractions at America on Wheels, a candy store without cavities. The museum offers a welcoming, surprising tour of domestic transportation—trucking to mountain biking, Model As to motorcycle rockets. Sleek treats include a 1933 Hupmobile Convertible Coupe, a two-tone sculpture styled by Raymond Loewy, who designed the Coke bottle. Sexy treats include one of 419 1961 Corvettes painted Jewel Blue with white coves, towing a kindred speed boat with tail fins. History is elevated by ads, photo murals, toys and a garage-like space documenting the restoration process. Allentown is splendidly exhibited as a vehicular ground zero: a former hot spot for hot rodding; the 19th-century birthplace of the Nadig, arguably the first horseless carriage. Loads of exquisite details--the skyscraper grille of a 1937 Hupmobile Rumble Seat Coupe; a 1969 Buick Sport Wagon’s greenhouse windows—trace the long-lost days when cars were aesthetic experiences and epiphanies. (5 N. Front St., Allentown, slightly north of the Hamilton Street bridge over the Lehigh River; 610-432-4200; americaonwheels.org) Anthony “Tunsie” Jabbour’s mother taught him to treat pretty much everyone, especially strangers, as long-lost relatives. He practices his mom’s open-arms preaching at the Lafayette Bar, his casually cosmopolitan jazz joint. Set in a low-rent hotel, it hosts high-rent improvisers in a long rectangular room with a tin ceiling, walls festooned with beer memorabilia and a high-voltage bar. A dark space has been lit up by pianist David Leonhardt, who gigged with vocalist Jon Hendricks and saxophonist David “Fathead” Newman, and soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman, a former Miles Davis partner and NEA Jazz Master. Resident bassist Gene Perla accompanied Frank Sinatra and leads a quartet with singer Viktorija Gecyte, a Lithuanian native who in 2005 launched the bar’s jazz series while studying at Lafayette College. Extra added bonuses include affordable beers from all over the map; a United Nations crowd, and Jabbour, an irrepressible saloon/salon keeper. The Easton native wears a fez (“People think I’m a Shriner”), tells spicy stories (“I like to say I push buttons”), and spouts jazzy mantras (“Jazz is a feeling: you either feel it, or you CONTINUED
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Geoff Gehman is a former arts writer for The Morning Call in Allentown and the author of five books, including Planet Mom: Keeping an Aging Parent from Aging, The Kingdom of the Kid: Growing Up in the LongLost Hamptons, and Fast Women and Slow Horses: The (mis)Adventures of a Bar, Betting and Barbecue Man (with William Mayberry). He lives in Bethlehem. geoffgehman@verizon.net 14
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— A.D. AMOROSI
In November, everyone is thankful and not thankful all at once. Happy to eat the T-Day meal that brought America together (well, Plymouth Rock, at the very least) in the first place but not does much else to get us to such a state of grace and appreciation. That’s OK. I’m tired of turkey anyway. Which is funny because, once upon a time, white linen and fast-casual restaurants in the area never touched a meal with that bird and didn’t stay open for Thanksgiving—think Jean Shepard’s racist A Christmas Story where everything was closed save for Chinese restaurants. Now, there isn’t a place that isn’t ready for the hungry Thursday with all the niblets and giblets you can eat. The elections are November 8. That’s a thing. I’m trying not to care because I don’t really like or trust anyone running for anything save for Josh Shapiro, and I’m only for him because he is pro-women’s bodily rights and against all things Larry Krasner. Both are reasons enough to vote, so yeah. Did you know that the Kimmel Campus Presents is hosting a pairing of Pink Martini and The Philadelphia Orchestra featuring China Forbes at Verizon Hall on November 3? This is where kitsch and Yannick meet for the bubbliest silliest orchestration since Esquivel met Mantovanni courtesy of forever Pink Martini label boss, arranger, curator, and arranger Thomas Lauderdale. Can I admit something to you, confidentially, that I’m hoping that Ralph Macchio will clear up for me when he gets to Philly’s Parkway Central Library on November 10? I don’t get the popularity of him and The Karate Kid and the whole Cobra Kai thing at Netlfix that came of its popularity. Not in 1984 when it first dropped, not when slap-happy Will Smith and his kid Jaden took a crack at it in 2000, and certainly not when Netflix extended its legend (?!) with Cobra Kai’s now multiple seasons arcs—all of them at Number 1 in the streaming network ratings. Is it a kid thing? No, I was a kid when it came out the first time and the whole “wax on, wax off” and “sweep the leg” bits were a frigging mystery to me. Maybe Macchio will explain as he discusses his new autobiography Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me (WHICH IS CONTINUED
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A.D. Amorosi is a Los Angeles Press Club National Art and Entertainment Journalism award-winning journalist and national public radio host and producer (WPPM.org’s Theater in the Round) married to a garden-to-table cooking instructor + award-winning gardener, Reese, and father to dogdaughter Tia.
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CHRISTMAS CITY, USA 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. TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY Nov. 18, 5 PM-6 PM. Payrow Plaza/City Hall in Bethlehem, 10 East Church St., Bethlehem. Enjoy free cookies, hot chocolate, visit with Santa and live performances. (484) 280-3024 CHRISTKINDLMARKT AT STEELSTACKS Nov. 18-20, 25-27 & Dec. 1-4, 8-11, 15-18. SteelStacks, ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. Twice recognized as one of the best holiday markets in the U.S.A. by Travel + Leisure and USA Today. The holiday event features aisles of handmade works from more than 150 of the nation’s finest artisans. (877) 212-2463 ChristmasCity.org TREES OF HISTORIC BETHLEHEM Nov. 18-Jan. 8, 2023. Visit website for days, times. 1-800-360-TOUR, HistoricBethlehem.org
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THE ICE RINK AT STEELSTACKS Nov. 22-Jan. 1, presented by Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital. ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. Celebrate the magic of the season on the outdoor ice skating rink at the base of the blast furnaces. Fun for all ages. ChristmasCity.org CHRISTMAS CITY FOLLIES XXIII Dec. 1-18, Thurs.-Sat. 8 PM, Sundays, 2 PM. Touchstone Theatre, 321 East 4th St., Bethlehem. For 23 years Touchtone has been ringing in December with this fan-favorite holiday variety show of music, merriment and seasonal joy. Throw on your favorite Christmas sweater and settle in for a heartfelt, homegrown familyfriendly celebration of the winter holidays. (610) 867-1689 Touchstone.org HISTORIC BETHLEHEM LIVE ADVENT CALENDAR Dec. 1- Dec. 23, 5:30 PM. Free. The only one of its kind in the country. Visitors gather outside the door of the Goundie House at 5:30 PM, where a visitor will be selected to knock on the door, a special guest will appear and surprise the crowd with a treat. 501 Main Street, Behtlehem. For more information visit HistoricBethlehem.org. A CHRISTMAS CAROL Dec. 2-Dec. 17, 19th Street Theatre, 27 N 19th St., Allentown. This classical holiday tradition returns to the Civic stage for the 31st year. Join this year’s cast on a journey through the past, present and future of Scrooge’s Victorian London. (610) 4338903 Civictheatre.com
STRAIGHT NO CHASER: THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Dec. 3, 3 PM & 7 PM. Experience the captivating sound of unadulterated human voices coming together to make extraordinary music… and with a sense of humor. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 1-800-999-7828 Statetheatre.org CIRQUE MUSICA HOLIDAY WONDERLAND Dec. 4, 7 PM. An unforgettable experience for the entire family to enjoy. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 1-800-999-7828 Statetheatre.org A CHRISTMAS CAROL Dec. 9, 7:30 PM. Charles Dickens enchants audiences the world over with its message of Holiday Joy. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 1-800-999-7828 Statetheatre.org EVERY CHRISTMAS STORY EVER TOLD (AND THEN SOME) Dec. 9-18, Theatre514, Civic Theatre, 514 N 19th St., Allentown. A fast, furious and slightly irreverent look at holiday traditions and classics, including A Christmas Carol, with will be playing across the street. (610) 433-8903 Civictheatre.com BACH’S CHRISTMAS ORATORIO PARTS 4, 5 & 6 Dec. 10, 4 PM. First Presbyterian Church in Allentown and Dec. 11, 4 PM in person and livestreamed, at First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem. Tickets: 610-866-4382 ext. 115 or BACH.org/tickets
NUTCRACKER! MAGICAL CHRISTMAS BALLET Dec. 13, 7 PM. Featuring stars of Ukraine ballet, performing at the highest level of classical technique, this acclaimed holiday tradition is live in theaters for the 30th Anniversary tour. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 1-800-9997828 Statetheatre.org WESTMINSTER CONCERT BELL CHOIR Dec. 16, 7:30 PM. Packer Memorial Church at Lehigh University, 18 University Dr., Bethlehem. Bells will be ringing once again during the holiday season. Comprised of students at Westminster Choir College at Rider University. Free shuttle from parking garage. 610-758-2787 Zoellnerartscenter.org SCOTT BRADLEE’S POSTMODERN JUKEBOX: A VERY POSTMODERN CHRISTMAS Dec. 17, 7:30 PM, Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. PMJ mashes up timeless holiday classics and pop hits with vintage doowop, ragtime, Motown and Jazz melodies with snazzy instrumentation to create ultimate jingle jangle speakeasy concert vibe. 610-758-2787 Zoellnerartscenter.org CHRISTMAS WITH THE CELTS Dec. 18, 5 PM. Zoellner Arts Center at Lehigh University, Baker Hall, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. The Celts mix lively traditional Irish music and instrumentation with American pop music and their own originals. 610-758-2787 Zoellnerartscenter.org
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conversation ESZTER BALINT: I HATE MEMORY, an anti-musical about NYC’s post-punk past
THE ONLY PEOPLE WHO have the right to hate memory are those artists who lived through the past and are doing their damnedest to make sure that neither they, their audiences, or manifest destiny relive or repeat it in its worst ever light. That’s how we get to I Hate Memory, a live staged, self-titled anti-musical written and performed by NYC actor-singer-violinist Eszter Balint, with music co-penned by the artist who helped her conceptualize the piece, Stew. I Hate Memory unfurled first at Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre during the spring and summer of 2022 and now is available
Balint felt an immediate kinship with Stew, and he with her. “It was a total sync,” says her friend Stew. “Tribe recognizes tribe. There’s a shorthand that exists between us. I wanted to work with her because our worlds and stories are shared. Not that I’m from her Eastern Europe and she’s from my California, but rather the same important place: being an artist.” through Red Herring Records as a digital download and via streaming services as a unified concept album without the sticky feel of rock opera shenanigans. Balint has certainly made stirring and searingly personal albums in the past. Along with the film noir-ish likes of solo recordings such as Flicker, Mud, and Airless Midnight, Eszter has appeared as part of Swans writer and vocalist Michael Gira’s Angels of Light, saxophonist John Lurie’s Marvin Pontiac project and its greatest hits, and guitarist-activist Marc Ribot’s Ceramic Dog ensemble. I Hate Memory just happens to cut even deeper than all the above while maintaining its sense of cinematic moonlight. Known for their separate achievements in film—Balint’s Trees Lounge, Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise, a co-star-
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rer with David Bowie, The Linguini Incident) and theater (Stew’s Obie Award for penning Passing Strange)—the two united under the banner of friendship and the rhetoric of early 80s Downtown clubland to tell a story of past glories, without wallowing or over-sentimentalizing the times they had or the scenes that they shared, though never meeting until recently. “No, neither of us is what you’d call sentimental,” says Balint with a laugh. “Even though it was lived and acted upon separately, Eszter and I have a very concrete, shared history,” teases Stew. “It could be a song we heard in the same club at the same time in New York. Or we knew the same characters from the same scene in different ways. Nowadays, in New York, you can’t walk up to many people and have that shared experience. We were both there, even if we weren’t walking together.” How then do you recreate a rhythmic, poetic stroll through NYC’s East Village and Downtown at the tail end of the 1970s and early 1980s without signaling something nostalgic? “That’s what it’s all about,” Balint happily remarks to my question. “Neither Stew nor I wanted to be reminiscing and nostalgic. That’s the tension that makes up my walk—as soon as I get to something nostalgic, I’ll avert it. I even pull that tension into the show, with a song titled, ‘Nostalgia.’ It’s anything but.” Stew believes that his and Balint’s shared art form requires that they move far beyond sentiment and recall into a more present-day or future-forward narrative. “Growing up as artists, it was always moving onto the next thing or the new thing or never allowing yourself to settle,” he says. “There are always two types of bands: the one that plays the same songs year after
year until everyone falls in love with them, and the one that has nine songs that people love, then they never play those songs again. The latter band may starve, but I respect that band. They’re doing what they need to do to keep their art alive.” Resting on one’s laurels is so seductive, and focusing on nostalgia—even for things three years ago—is an easy notion to rely on. And that is something that Balint, Stew, and I Hate Memory eschew. Never separating what she does as an actor, songwriter, musician, or singer, Balint does happen to merge those talents, boldly, for I Hate Memory. “It’s all art, and I talk about this in I Hate Memory, how music was part of me as a kid, whereas the acting was what I fell into because of my parents (her father founded NYC’s avant-garde Squat Theatre troupe), and the films happened because someone saw me and asked. The musical component, though—those are the bones.” Talking about how he first saw Balint— “on a giant screen in a movie I liked,” he says of Jarmusch’s black and white Stranger Than Paradise—it was through Balint’s early work at Squat that Stew was influenced to make his own theater. “She had a lot to do with how I viewed that art form,” says the guitarist-composer. “Part of my DNA comes from seeing her and her family work on stage.” Upon meeting each other through mutual friends and workmates (“I went up to him after a show at the Living Room, and I never do things like that”), Balint felt an immediate kinship with Stew, and he with her. “It was a total sync,” says Stew. “Tribe recognizes tribe. There’s a shorthand that exists between us. I wanted to work with her C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E
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A.D. AMOROSI
YEAGER/BENKO DOING IT ALL Pianist-arranger Jason Yeager and vocalist-actor Julie Benko are having a moment
LIKE EVERY GREAT COUPLE, young marrieds Julie Benko and Jason Yeager often finish each other’s thoughts when they’re not busy ladling out compliments and speaking together joyously about their wedded bliss. Unlike every great couple, while one is an accomplished stage actor and trained vocalist, the other is a renowned jazz pianist and arranger with not one, but two new album releases this month—the marrieds’ debut duets album, Hand in Hand, along with Yeager’s album, Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite—to go with Benko’s current understudy role as Fanny Brice, the lead role in this autumn’s Broadway revival of Funny Girl (a muscle she often stretched as both Lea Michele and They’re also linked to [Kurt] Vonnegut’s alter ego, Kilgore Trout, the centerpiece of his Deadeye Dick novel of 1982 and the spy-centric leader behind Mother Night, respectively. It’s famous that the author himself once looked to another calling as a back-up. “What I would really like to have been, given a perfect world, is a jazz pianist,” Vonnegut once said. “I mean jazz, not rock and roll. I mean the never-thesame-twice music the American Black people gave the world.”
Beanie Feldstein required time away from the gig, with Benko taking the stage in full for the month of August). Each of their new albums cross borders and expand the reach of jazz within (and without) the confines of art song and theater standards, old and new. Plus, they have a cat whose name is Thelonious Monk, whose image is featured on the back of the album artwork from Hand in Hand. And along with the pair’s in-unison live showcase as Birdland in New York City, Yeager has his gigs at NYC’s Washington Heights Jazz Festival in November and Brooklyn’s Soapbox Gallery in December. “During the pandemic, my husband and I were each other’s sole musical collaborators,” says Benko, an actor with Broadway turns in Fiddler on the Roof and Les Misérables. Benko also has a solo jazz album, Introducing Julie Benko, and a self-penned penned play The District (a 2022 semifinalist at the Eugene O’Neill National Theater Conference) under her belt. 20
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Jason Yeager.
Starting their Quarantunes program on Facebook Live and Instagram Live, they performed once a week for one year, sometimes stopping dinner at home early just to rush to the piano and the rim lights. Making Quarantunes their own, they turned C O N T I N U E D O N N E X T PA G E
their social media into a live venue setting during the Covid break with tip jars for various charities. Benko and Yeager learned songs that were requested of them weekly, and by the end of the social media project, decided a joint album was necessary. “It was a lifesaver, and I loved doing Quarantunes—it was a real incubator for Hand in Hand—but I much prefer to get into a room with people and play live,” says Yeager, a pianist and composer with five albums as a bandleader, including the activist-driven New Songs of Resistance, and a collaborator’s list an arm’s length. “As numbers have come down, there’s been nothing more satisfying than getting out there.” While Hand in Hand is a smart show of personal pride where their musical union is concerned, with takes on composer Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown tunes, “Gainesville” from Randy Newman and Frank Loesser’s Guys & Dolls classic “If I Were a Bell.” There are also several Yeager penned songs such as “Sweet Pea” and “Just Begun” on Hand in Hand of which he is uniquely satisfied. But Yeager really perks up when discussing the poli-social and literary aspirations behind solo, bandleader jazz albums of his such as New Songs of Resistance and his freshly-released, and aptly-satirical, Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite, the latter in time for the late author’s 100th birthday. With song titles and mood-swinging vibes linked directly to the Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse-Five author, “Kilgore’s Creed,” springs immediately to mind, as does “Rudy’s Waltz” and “Blue Fairy C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 7
Julie Benko. Photo: Broadway World
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film roundup
Armageddon Time (Dir. James Gray). Starring: Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Banks Repeta, Jaylin Webb, Anthony Hopkins. Deceptively gentle, writer-director James Gray’s cine-memoir fictionalizes a key period of his own life as a Queens-based, Jewish middleschooler in 1980, just before the election of Ronald Reagan. Banks Repeta plays Paul Graff, Gray’s talented and troublemaking onscreen surrogate, Jaylin Webb his comradein-arms, Johnny Davis, an African American youth who is treated with a much more pronounced and culturally engrained cruelty than the white Paul has or ever will be. The danger that this could become a guilty liberal apologia is mostly avoided due to Gray’s expertly grounding the tale in specificity of
place and time, while eschewing easy emotional outs. This is very pointedly about one child’s moral awakening—viewed through the prism of his friends and key members of his family (played by Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong and Anthony Hopkins)—and his dawning realization that he has very little power to change the pitiless nature of mankind. [R] HHHHH A Couple (Dir. Frederick Wiseman). Starring: Nathalie Boutefeu. A rare non-documentary from the great nonfiction filmmaker Frederick Wiseman, A Couple nonetheless draws on his verité instincts in how it contrasts a bucolic setting with a woman performing for an audience of one. Nathalie Boutefeu plays So-
Keith Uhlich is a NY-based writer published at Slant Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out New York, and ICON. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. His personal website is (All (Parentheses)), accessible at keithuhlich.substack.com. 22
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KEITH UHLICH
phie, the long-suffering wife of the Russian author Leo Tolstoy. She recites passages from a litany of emotional letters that she wrote to her husband. Some are longing, some angry, some workaday. But all are shaped into an effective monologue that gives us a clear-cut sense of Sophie’s tempests of the heart. Working for the first time in widescreen with his usual cinematographer John Davey, Wiseman photographs Sophie as she wanders and/or stands sentinel in a variety of idyllic backdrops (shot on the French island of Belle-Île) that clash with her inner distress. This is, in many respects, a chronicle of a performance of the kind that the avant-gardists Jean-Maire Straub and Danièle Huillet specialized in, though its gently propulsive rhythms are pure Wiseman. [N/R] HHHH
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Russian Ark
film classics
The Muppet Movie (1979, James Frawley, UK/United States) You will believe a frog can bike in the first feature-length outing for Kermit the Frog and company. A bare-bones plot—the Muppets trekking cross-country to find success in Hollywood—provides just the right foundation for a series of hilarious vignettes featuring all your felt-covered favorites. The one-liners come fast and furious (“Have you tried Hare Krishna?”) as do the celebrity guest stars (Steve Martin is especially wonderful as a most contemptuous waiter, as is Orson Welles as the stogie-smoking studio head who has a “rich and famous contract” at the ready). Miss Piggy steals the show, of course, her lust for her green companion only outdone by her hunger for fame. And the Paul Williams songs, particularly “Movin’ Right Along” and “Rainbow Connection,” are emi24
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nently hummable.(Streaming on Disney+.) Russian Ark (2002, Aleksandr Sokurov, Russia/Germany/Japan/Canada/Finland/ Denmark) Utilizing the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg as his setting, director Aleksandr Sokurov explores several generations of Russian history from the 19th-century to WWII, not necessarily in chronological order. A catty French aristocrat acts as onscreen guide and commentator (as does Sokurov himself via omniscient voiceover). Though Russian Ark’s primary hook is that it was filmed by cinematographer Tilman Büttner in an astonishing single 87-minute shot (the movie runs 96 minutes with credits). Technical prowess and all other gimmickry aside, the one-shot method is apropos of Sokurov’s view of the past as a fluid thing subject to the whims of the present. There may be victors
to whom the historical spoils go, but they are all of them eventually absorbed into the equalizing flow of existence. (Streaming on Filmatique.) Young Frankenstein (1974, Mel Brooks, US) It’s pronounced “FrAHNkenstEEN,” as you surely know. That’s just one of the hilarious tweaks writer-director Mel Brooks makes in his comic retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic tale of a brilliant doctor reanimating a corpse. Gene Wilder is the mad (in all senses of the term) scientist, Marty Feldman his deformed subordinate (whose hunchback keeps switching sides), and Teri Garr the buxom blonde assistant who likes taking a “roll in zee hay.” Add in Peter Boyle as the singing and dancing monster, Madeline Kahn as his C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E
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EO (Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski). Starring: Sandra Drzymalska, Isabelle Huppert, Mateusz Kosciujiewicz. The latest masterful feature from 84year-old Polish auteur Jerzy Skolimowski has both a youthful vibrancy and a wizened frame of reference. Ostensibly a modern remake of Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar (1966)—a canonical classic about the life and death of a donkey (and so much more besides)—EO quickly proves to be its own strange beast. A jackass is again the principal character, his rovings from owner to owner becoming increasingly surreal and outlandish. He might find himself the object of affection for a lonely young woman or a target of scorn for soccer hooligans. He may also wander into an incestuous mother-son melodrama featuring Isabelle Huppert or through a nighttime forest scarily lit up by the neon-green laser sights of hunter rifles. The movie reinvents itself moment by moment, shifting the interpretive ground beneath our feet while its animal protagonist (his every hollow grunt and dead-eyed stare only adding to his metaphorical nebulousness) navigates a world off its axis. [N/R] HHHHH Bones and All (Dir. Luca Guadagnino). Starring: Taylor Russell, Timothée Chalamet, Mark Rylance. Director Luca Guadagnino reunites with his Call Me By Your Name co-star Timothée Chalamet for this underwhelming love story/horror feature. Taylor Russell plays a young cannibal named Maren, wandering the American ‘80s midwest while trying to come to grips with her flesh-devouring urges. She meets several people like her, including a predatory older man-eater, Sully (Mark Rylance), and Chalamet’s much more endearing anthro-
Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway in Armeggedon.
pophagite Lee. They move from small town to small town, dealing will all the normal growing pains and plenty of aberrant ones, too. The two leads have little chemistry, and Rylance overplays his character’s villainy to a risible hilt only outrivaled by fellow Call Me By Your Name alum Michael Stuhlbarg as a redneck cannibal who seems like he stepped out of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. A few inspired, very Guadagnino touches, such as Chalamet dazzlingly getting down to KISS’s “Lick It Up,” can’t make up for the overall tedium of this road trip through a pastoral hell. [R] H1/2 n
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riotously catty bride, and Cloris Leachman as a wart-faced hausfrau whose name makes horses recoil in terror, and you have a recipe for the drollest of delights. Beware Gene Hackman’s doting blind man, too…particularly if he’s gonna make espresso. (Streaming on HBOMax.)
composer duty as per usual, and his and Alan Howarth’s synth stylings are a perfect match for the material that, in its brilliant B-movie way, manages to communicate the growing apocalyptic anxieties of the time. (Streaming on Criterion Channel.) n Solution to SET PIECES
Prince of Darkness (1987, John Carpenter, United States) What if Satan himself took up refuge in an ancient cylinder of green goop hidden in a Los Angeles monastery? That’s the inciting question of writer-director John Carpenter’s horror feature, which manages to be at once gleefully goofy and extraordinarily terrifying. A group of grad students investigates this demonically sentient liquid at the invitation of a Catholic priest played by Carpenter regular Donald Pleasance. Possessions and killings are soon rampant, in addition to some creepy business with a zombie homeless guy memorably embodied by shock-rocker Alice Cooper and a jump-scare laden finale that lingers nightmarishly in the mind. Carpenter is on 26
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Godmother.” They’re also linked to Vonnegut’s alter ego, Kilgore Trout, the centerpiece of his Deadeye Dick novel of 1982 and the spy-centric leader behind Mother Night, respectively. It’s famous that the author himself once looked to another calling as a back-up. “What I would really like to have been, given a perfect world, is a jazz pianist,” Vonnegut once said. “I mean jazz, not rock and roll. I mean the never-thesame-twice music the American Black people gave the world.” In the press legend for his new album—with reed players Lucas Pino and Patrick Laslie, trumpeters Alphonso Horne and Riley Mulherkar, trombonist Mike Fahie, vibraphonist Yuhan Su, bassist Danny Weller, drummer Jay Sawyer and alto saxophonist Miguel Zenón—Vonnegut fan Yeager rhapsodizes about getting to the king of satire in the first place. “I consider Vonnegut to be a virtuoso writer, but one who also writes page-turners,” the pianist stated in his introduction to Unstuck in Time. “He doesn’t complicate his language unnecessarily; it’s very pleasurable and easy to read his works. I see him as a Thelonious Monk figure in the world of fiction because he seems to break many of the rules I remember being taught in English class. It also took a long time for both of them to find wider acceptance and appeal. Monk is one of my musical touchstones, and Vonnegut has a similarly unique voice and is unapologetically himself.” Weirder still, the pianist’s grandfather and great-grandfather were architects based in Indiana during the mid-20th century, as was the writer’s father, Kurt Vonnegut Sr. For several years following World War II they were partnered in the firm of Vonnegut, Wright & Yeager. Coincidence? I think not. Vonnegut’s wide-ranging work could never be placed in a box,” he
says. “He’s a satirist, a science fiction writer, a humorist, a fantasist and any number of other sobriquets” Then again, Yeager told me that being difficult to categorize or conveniently manageable is what he’s looking for when it comes to inspiration for his study and execution as a jazz pianist and composer. The activist politics of one and the caustic joyous texts of the other—respectively when it comes to New Songs of Resistance and Unstuck in Time: The Kurt Vonnegut Suite—are what focuses Yeager as an artist, centers his responses, pushes him to develop complexly comported music to match his intellectual prowess and that of his subjects. “Each are about not putting the technical aspects of music making front-and-center, and that’s a good thing,” says Yeager with Benko sitting beside him. “The arrangements are tight and the melody needs to be compelling, something thematic, or thematic unity behind a project such as Unstuck in Time, where there is a focus that makes the music both more streamlined and more cogent. And while Hand in Hand doesn’t have an explicit literary, social or even a genre theme, it is very structured, too, because Julie and I are partners in life and music, and that album is a way of celebrating that.” To all this, Benko radiates pride in not only the couple’s new work together, Hand in Hand, but double when it comes to Unstuck in Time. “The Vonnegut album and New Songs of Resistance are both excellent music, but each of these records allows people to see who Jason is: a person of deep thought and great integrity. Vonnegut is funny, and Jason is as well—and quirky—and that also comes through in the music. Vonnegut allows artists to open up that side of themselves.” n
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He is also well known for his extraordinary multiple-axis turning techniques and the way he incorporates carving and turning with seamless craftsmanship. The multi-axis pieces require a lot of calculation and planning. Mark turns what can begin (and end) as a large piece of wood, cutting from the areas that conform to only the first axis. Then he repositions the block in the chucks, sometimes adds counterweights, and turns it around that axis for the next portion. This has to be done slowly, as the wood is off-center and hard enough without the lathe hopping all over the place. Portions of the block that aren’t solely of one or the other turned part are hand-carved to bridge the composition or create an independent form, but it all flows naturally, which is impressive in itself. A visit to his website, www.marksfirri.com, will give you an idea of what I mean. Mark uses this technique to create furniture, sculpture, and even figures. These geometric forms seem to have an inner life. Mark has an exquisite eye for curves, proportions, rhythms, and relationships, and a lot of that is that is math-based. But it’s the kind of math that’s associated with organic forms. Mark has work in the Museum of Art & Design, The Renwick, The Carnegie Museum, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The LA museum of Art, and the Yale Art Gallery. It was a treat to paint him working. We gabbed. We made art. It was a good day. It reminded me of my friend Jeff, who was not only a woodworker but had mastered many other construction crafts. He knew how to plaster, using techniques that few people still use today. Jeff was on vacation one year in Istanbul, walking through a market district with his wife. She went to look at rugs, and he was taking photographs. Jeff wandered into a shop that was under repair. When his wife circled back and found him, he was working side by side with the Turkish
shop owner, helping him finish his plaster walls, and showing him some ways to deal with tricky problems. Sometimes people do things for others simply because they can. It’s a most human of reasons, and perhaps the best. Mark Sfirri is like that. A helper. A teacher. A mentor. Someone who doesn’t keep score. The Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia acquired a set of Mark’s bats last year. Karen Schoenewaldt, manager of collections and registrar, contacted the Baseball Hall of Fame to see if they would be interested in borrowing and displaying the Center’s set. Instead, the HOF selection committee decided they would acquire a set of their own for their permanent collection. Mark is pleased about having a set of his bats in Cooperstown. “It is the biggest stage for the sport,” Sfirri said. “My father would be proud.” The president of the Hall, Josh Rawitch, was excited to add it to their permanent collection. “Our museum continues to display and collect one-of-a-kind artifacts and objects that help tell the history of our great game,” Rawitch said, “and Mark’s work certainly falls into that category,” along with other baseball-related art by artists Norman Rockwell, Armand LaMontagne, Elaine De Kooning, Alexander Calder, and Andy Warhol. At the moment, Mark has gone off in another direction. His son was getting married in a museum, and they often don’t allow flowers (due to the pollen), so Mark created two large floral arrangements out of various kinds of wood, painted and not. He turned each blossom first, then carved the petals into them. He also made the bride’s bouquet, the groom’s corsage, the boutonnieres and additional flowers, turned two large pedestals, and threw the ceramic vases. It all looked fabulous, was collection-friendly, and will last a lot longer than garden variety flowers. n
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don’t”). (15 N. 4th St., slightly north of Northampton Street, Easton; 610-252-0711; lafayettebarjazz.com. Shows run 9 p.m. to around midnight. Bobby Kapp Meets Meant 2B Trio, Nov. 19; Steve Fidyk Quartet, Nov. 26) I like trails that keep making me disappear and reappear. Monocacy Way is a civilized wilderness that contracts and expands, making Bethlehem seem invisible and more visible. A narrow corridor along the Monocacy Creek, canopied by elderly trees and shrouded by overgrown vegetation, opens vividly to a lavish kitchen garden sloping up to Burnside Plantation, a restored estate created in 1748 by Moravian missionaries and once the home of a renowned pipe-organ builder. Hikers, bikers and dog walkers pass impressive weeping willows. railroad tracks, a limestone quarry, a meadow sloping up to a dog park and woodsy wetlands with paths winding to the creek. The journey ends with a blast in a park with serrated stone walls, stone picnic pavilions and a cantilevered waterfall erected by government relief workers during the Great Depression. (Union Boulevard over Schoenersville Road to Illick’s Mill Road. Park in lots by Illick’s Mill Road or by Route 378 overpass. bethlehem-pa.gov) The folks who run Lehigh University’s galleries specialize in publicservice public art. Their latest community booster shot is “What Mat28
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ters Most,” an outdoor display of images and app-activated talks illustrating such critical concerns as housing security, racial equity and trauma. Two-sided billboards along the South Bethlehem Greenway pair works from Lehigh’s permanent collections with bar-coded lectures by leaders on and off campus. Hear Lisa Jordan, Touchstone Theatre’s artistic director, stress the value of listening while puzzling over a photograph of a communication between Buddha-esque and bear figurines. Plug into the power of education in Diego Rivera’s lithograph of an open-air school in Mexico, a poster for a healthy open-air mission. (Greenway runs between 4th Street and 3rd Street/Route 412 from South New Street to the Wind Creek Casino; parking in ArtsQuest lots; luag.org; bethlehem-pa.gov) The Greenway is a gateway to Café The Lodge, an extremely vital restaurant and occupational school/home for people recovering from mental-health challenges. Clients make and dish fresh, refreshing soups, salads, quiches, egg scrambles (try the feta/sundried tomato combo) and paninis (the Cuban is hard to beat). Cheery, spic-andspan dining rooms are enlivened by paintings by recovering artists. And everything tastes better on the long, lovely backyard patio, a sanctuary with carnival-colored chairs, shrouding oak and dogwood trees and a lily-pad pool. (427 E. 4th St., Bethlehem; 610-849-2100; cafethelodge.org) n
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because our worlds and stories are shared. Not that I’m from her Eastern Europe and she’s from my California, but rather the same important place: being an artist.” Yes, there are biographical elements of Balint’s life within the framework of I Hate Memory, and its trek through Downtown NYC circa 1978-85, a moment that included living as part of that area’s treasured avant-garde dramatic troupe, the Squat Theatre storefront space founded by her father, along with a long association with painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. As part of the legend of I Hate Memory, Balint spoke of home life spilling onto the streets of New York City, an “open and revolving door welcoming the most adventurous musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, performers, writers and painters of the time, as well as some of the renegades of hip hop culture.” As Stew was both a player in (his band, Stew & the Negro Problem), and an attendant to this same scene, the stage was set for something daring and co-joined between them. This means the kinship that she felt with Stew had blossomed into a trust, one where a life weirdly lived could become a work of musical fiction, especially when it came down to the songwriting process, something that Balint has forever executed autonomously. “Our shared sensibility is so hard to put into words, but Stew gets the hardto-figure-out contradictions of life and art,” says Balint. “That’s where I like to live—the tension between seriousness and humor that cannot be easily resolved.” n
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SOLD OUT months in advance), but I’m not hoping for much. From November 2 to the 13th, Les Miserable and the story of 19th-century France’s social and political upheaval in the face of poverty via Cameron Mackintosh’s production of the Tony Awardwinning musical is back on the boards and soon to hit the Academy of Music. Playing devil’s advocate, however, couldn’t we just save the money and open the window? One-time First Lady Michele Obama is coming to The Met Philadelphia for two days of her The Light We Carry tour, where she’ll speak to Gayle King on November 18 and 19. Mrs. Obama is a wise and witty woman who doesn’t need her husband to sell out any theater, arena, or concert hall. She does, however, have to get on Barack to get on Joe Biden to instill some heat under the Dems this midterm. One-time ICON cover star and standard bearer of Tin Pan Alley and Basin Street song Harry Connick Jr. is starting his live Holiday Celebration 2022 tour with dates in Hershey (November 18, the Hershey Theatre) and Philadelphia (November 19 at the Academy of Music). Yeah, I’m a little annoyed that the pianist and singer Connick didn’t speak to ICON for this November issue, but that’s all right. Michael Buble phoned and said hello, instead. n ICON |
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harper’s FINDINGS Australia’s Rabbit Plague was determined to have begun on Christmas Day in 1859, and its Black Summer of 2020 was found to have introduced roughly 1.1 million tons of soot particles into the stratosphere, altering the climate of the Southern Hemisphere for a year and a half. California’s cannabis farms were deemed particularly vulnerable to wildfires, and scientists expected a total collapse of the water supply in Afghanistan and Central Asia and a neartotal collapse in Kashmir, northern India, and Pakistan by the middle of the century. Falling river levels caused by European droughts were revealing centuries-old hunger stones. Rainwater is now unsafe to drink anywhere on earth. Despite enjoying superior sanitation, the Augustinian friars of medieval Cambridge had nearly twice the incidence of intestinal parasites as the general population, possibly because they fertilized friary gardens with their own feces. The toes of British Columbian grizzly bears were being lost as fur-trapping bycatch, a Thai elephant forced to work in extreme heat tore his handler in half, and long-tailed macaques were using stone tools to masturbate. Female Costa Rican capuchins with female friends were found to live longer. Incels do not exhibit marked political differences from sexually active men. Japanese children walk differently, and among a newly discovered species of walking shark, both slender juveniles and neonates with bulging bellies move identically whether they are walking slowly, walking quickly, or swimming. Pescatarianism and vegetarianism are highly heritable. Human differentiation of infants’ cries of pain must be learned, Asian elephants nasalize their rumbles, and mouse pups born to older fathers exhibit a severely limited repertoire of vocalizations. Ketamine relieves the depression of mice when it is administered by men but not by women, although the lack of efficacy in women’s administration can be corrected if the mice are injected with corticotropin-releasing hormone. Supplementary testosterone makes male Mongolian gerbils more cuddly with their pregnant mates. Dogs shed tears when joyously reunited with their owners or when oxytocin drops are added to their eyes. Neither dogs nor wolves can form opinions about the generosity or selfishness of individual humans. Killings of pets in murder-suicides often fall under the “family annihilator” type. Functional MRI scans as well as a consistent 10 percent drop in charitable giving after the onset of daylight saving time suggested that sleep loss makes people less generous. Americans who hold conspiratorial beliefs about scientific matters will reduce their cognitive dissonance when presented with conflicting evidence by becoming more conspiratorial. The increased prevalence of multiple sclerosis in countries farther from the equator may not be due to lower vitamin D intake, as was assumed, but due to the fact that those countries are richer and spend more on health care. Religiousness improves the cardiovascular health of African Americans. Among Americans, LSD use has quadrupled, and among young Americans, marijuana and hallucinogen use has reached historic highs. PTSD may be effectively treated by hepatitis C drugs. Finnish researchers explored the origins of children’s gamer rage. The ashes of dead rulers may have been incorporated into the rubber balls of the Mayan ball game once their remains had spent 260 days in the Cave of Death. A half-billion-year-old creature with a mouth but no anus was not, after all, the earliest human ancestor. NASA scientists admitted that the name of Uranus has become a distraction. n 30
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INDEX Portion of American men who believe they will run out of money after retiring: 2/3 Of American women who do: 4/5 Average minimum salary that U.S. men say they are willing to accept when offered a new job: $86,259 That U.S. women say they are willing to accept: $59,543 Portion of Americans who quit their last job who do not regret it: 3/4 Factor by which the net worth of married couples aged 25 to 34 is greater than that of single households of the same age: 9 Factor by which this disparity has increased since 2010: 2 Portion of Americans who plan to buy a home in the event of a housing market crash: 3/4 % of Gen Z-ers who say they want the housing market to crash so they can purchase a home: 84 Portion of Gen Z-ers who plan to live at home with relatives long-term: 3/10 % by which Gen Z-ers are saving more of their income than their parents: 17 Average cost of an abortion in the United States: $606 Of giving birth: $13,393 % change this year in American adults who say they are “thriving”: −14 Who say they are “suffering”: +100 Estimated age at which adults are unhappiest: 48 Portion of Americans who say political divisions have worsened since Joe Biden took office: 2/3 Who would prefer an alternative to the electoral college system: 3/5 % of U.S. adults who consume “severely problematic” amounts of news: 17 Factor by which these individuals are more likely to have a serious mental illness: 9 By which they are more likely to have a serious physical illness: 10 Portion of Americans aged 18 to 34 who have at least one chronic health condition: 1/2 Who have at least two: 1/4 % increase since 2019 in the number of children who are unvaccinated against polio: 35 Minimum percentage of Facebook and Instagram content that comes from accounts a user does not follow: 15 Minimum factor by which this is projected to increase next year: 2 % decrease since 2014 in the number of U.S. teenagers who use Facebook: 55 % by which black teenagers are more likely than white ones to say they use the internet “almost constantly”: 51 % change in total sales of smartphones this year: −8 In sales of smartphones that cost more than $900: +25 Average age at which parents say they intend to give their child a smartphone: 13 At which they actually do: 10 % of the top 25 box office hits of 1981 that were sequels, spin-offs, or remakes: 16 Of 2019: 80 Minimum number of countries in which euthanasia is legal: 7 % increase last year in deaths by euthanasia in Canada: 32 % decrease since 2010 in the number of philosophy majors at U.S. colleges: 14 In the number of English majors: 33 Religion majors: 41 SOURCES:1,2 Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (NYC); 3,4 Federal Reserve Bank of New York; 5 Joblist (San Francisco); 6,7 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; 8,9 ConsumerAffairs (Tulsa, Okla.); 10 Credit Karma (Oakland, Calif.); 11 BlackRock (NYC); 12 Ushma Upadhyay, University of California, San Francisco; 13 Health Care Cost Institute (Washington); 14,15 Gallup (Washington); 16 David G. Blanchflower, Dartmouth College (Hanover, N.H.); 17 YouGov (NYC); 18 Pew Research Center (Washington); 19–21 Bryan McLaughlin, Texas Tech University (Lubbock); 22,23 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta); 24 United Nations Children’s Fund (NYC); 25,26 Meta (Menlo Park, Calif.); 27,28 Pew Research Center; 29,30 Counterpoint Research (Hong Kong); 31,32 Keystone Tutors (London); 33,34 Eric Krebs (NYC); 35 Thaddeus Pope, Mitchell Hamline School of Law (St. Paul, Minn.); 36 Health Canada (Ottawa, Ontario); 37–39 Benjamin Schmidt (NYC).
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SET PIECES ACROSS 1 Arriving after the bell 5 Power for some 19th-century velocipedes 10 Bungee jumper’s rope 14 “The Aviator” actress Blanchett 18 Award for the musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” in 1998 19 NASA program whose name would have been apt for solar probe missions 20 ___iD (tool that lets you customize your own cookies) 21 Miles off 22 Mercury, Venus, Earth ... 24 Suspend, as production 25 See 56 Down 26 Longoria of Hollywood 27 High-fiber pod 28 Vowel-rich sauce 30 Doesn’t hide, say 31 The fleur-de-lis, to French royalty 33 Tales in tomes 35 Actress Getty or Harris 37 Sounded like a banshee 38 Washington, Adams, Jefferson 40 “Who ___ can it be?” 41 Drafts an email, say 42 Artistic sort? 43 Cerulean, denim, ultramarine ... 46 Remove, as a troll from a forum 48 Group of half a dozen 52 Discontinue 53 She gets a head in a Strauss opera 55 North or South follower 56 Where a child is parked while driving 59 ___ borealis (northern lights) 60 Stop by for a bit 61 “Go, team!” 62 Aspiration, hope, wish ... 66 Tally up 67 Informal attempts 69 Positions 70 Gives a charge to 72 Like the Willis Tower 73 Walk with a purpose 74 Intellectual power 76 Piacenza-born designer 78 Pension plan letters 79 Weakling, wimp, wuss ... 83 Hairlike parts of a cell 85 Toe holds? 86 Sharp part of a fork 87 Emo, grunge, metal ... 92 Cleared for takeoff, in a way 94 Romantic Paul Anka hit with a Spanish title
by EVAN BIRNHOLZ
95 The G of Roald Dahl’s book “The BFG” 96 Beverage made using outdoor light 97 Screen ___ (idle computer animation) 98 Beyond Burger eater, perhaps 100 Indian restaurant drink 101 Droll 103 Seller of Lycksele Lövås sleeper sofas 104 “Be with you in a few ___” 105 General, lieutenant general, major general ... 109 “Dang it!” 110 Bygone alternative to Ritz crackers 111 Area of interest in an Intro to Western Civilization class 112 Once again 113 Drs. treating laryngitis 114 Academic site of the Tony Little Centre for Innovation and Research in Learning 115 “Welcome to Dead House” author 116 Emulates the participants on “Married at First Sight” DOWN 1 Actor seen in “Halloween”? 2 “Most important ...” 3 Treat with espresso and mas carpone cheese 4 Snaky creature 5 Word before bank or donor 6 “___! ___! ___!” (1970 war film) 7 “Fin” director Roth 8 Brewery creation 9 Umayyad Mosque art 10 Third party VIP, maybe? 11 By word of mouth 12 Disburden 13 Braille cell symbol 14 Where potential job applicants may receive promotions? 15 Off track 16 Prevent a Bill from progressing any further, say 17 Feature of some pens 19 Tried to get clarification 23 Fruit juice brand 29 MD’s and RN’s station 30 It’s got the goods 32 Spreads, as colors on some wet laundry 33 Yank living abroad, say
34 Sneak ___ 36 Perceive 37 Blog setting 38 Purple body parts in “The Witches” 39 Pay no mind to 41 Most overdone 44 Starts of snapdragons 45 Slavic ruler, once 46 Brand once known as “Famous Olde Tyme Root Beer” 47 Baseball family name that fills i n the blanks of “b_ _l f_ _r” 49 El-Dorado ___ (31,000-carat gemstone) 50 Skip over, as in speech 51 Takes care of 53 Leather purse material 54 Fiends 56 With 25 Across, nation that abolished its military in 1948 57 Temple structure 58 Asgard or Midgard, in Norse mythology 59 Carne ___ (Spanish for “grilled meat”) 60 Game in which you try to place five stones in a row 63 Pertaining to the upper chambers of the heart 64 Israeli prime minister who was born in Kyiv 65 Cylindrical bottle insert, often 68 Some burrito legumes 71 “... no?” ICON |
73 Grain repositories 74 Jack up a three-pointer, say 75 Comportment 77 Comparatively kind 79 It moves while chewing 80 Alcoholic beverage fermented from a grain 81 Like interest on a loan that hasn’t been recognized as income 82 “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” author Vizzini 84 [chef’s kiss] 85 Fighting positions 87 Dwell (in) 88 One from Japan’s “City of Water” 89 Like stealth operations 90 Encourages misbehaving 91 Org. in “Body of Lies” 92 Allman who played lead guitar on “Layla” 93 “The Walking Dead” character played by Katelyn Nacon 96 Geometric figure 99 Feedback for a spelunker 100 “We’ve gotta hurry!” 102 Taxaceae family trees 104 Duchess’s pronoun 106 “For crying ___ loud!” 107 Complement to a CT scan, at times 108 Judge’s purview Solution on page 26 N O V E M B E R 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
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