THE LIST

VALLEY

— 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

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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

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CITY

— 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

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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

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

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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

A.D. AMOROSI

TESZTER BALINT: I HATE MEMORY, an anti-musical about NYC’s post-punk past

THE ONLY PEOPLE WHOhave 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 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 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 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 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-startell 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 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

Balint felt an immediate kinship with Stew, and he with about this in I Hate Memory, how music her. “It was a total sync,” says her friend Stew. “Tribe was part of me as a kid, whereas the acting recognizes tribe. There’s a shorthand that exists be- was what I fell into because of my parents tween us. I wanted to work with her because our (her father founded NYC’s avant-garde worlds and stories are shared. Not that I’m from her Squat Theatre troupe), and the films hap-

Eastern Europe and she’s from my California, but rather pened because someone saw me and asked. the same important place: being an artist.” 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 CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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Eszter Balint. Photo by Peter Yesley.

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conversation

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

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.

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

They’re also linked to [Kurt] Vonnegut’s alter ego, Kilgore Trout, the centerpiece of his Deadeye Dicknovel 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.”

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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

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Julie Benko. Photo: Broadway World

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