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ICON

contents 18 |

The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius.

Since 1992

THE ALCHEMIST

With her latest album, The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald, Jane Monheit confidently channels both the sweet, the tart, and the depth of “The First Lady of Song,” surprising even herself.

Chloe Mako Artists of Yardley

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ESSAY

MORE FILM

A THOUSAND WORDS Minerva’s Exit

20 |

VOICES 14 |

The Universe Spoke...and I Listened 22 |

OPINION 7|

David Ignatius Michael Gerson

FILM ROUNDUP 1917 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Richard Jewell Atlantics REEL NEWS The Lighthouse Long Day’s Journey Into Night The Irishman An Elephant Sitting Still

1917

ART EXHIBITIONS

Sandy Hanna: “Art as Storytelling” Prallsville Mill 4th Annual Juried Pennsbury Student Exhibition Artists of Yardley

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NIGHTLIFE

MUSIC 26 |

12 |

NEW BOOKS

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Susan Danforth Rita Kaplan INTERNS Joey Fonseca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS A. D. Amorosi Robert Beck Peter Croatto Geoff Gehman Mark Keresman George Miller

The Monochrome Set

Susan Van Dongen

Isabelle Olivier/Rez Abbasi

Keith Uhlich

Claude Debussy/Aleck Karis 28 |

POP Harry Styles Prince

ETCETERA HARPER’S FINDINGS

FILM

32 |

HARPER’S INDEX

CINEMATTERS The Song of Names

34 |

L. A. TIMES CROSSWORD

35 |

AGENDA

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PRODUCTION Richard DeCosta

Charles Lloyd Quartet

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ON THE COVER: Jane Monheit. Photo: Kharen Hill.

Raina Filipiak / Advertising filipiakr@comcast.net

JAZZ/ ROCK/CLASSICAL/ALT

Big Star

THEATER

EDITORIAL Editor / trina@icondv.com

Warren Storm

Photo courtesy of Walker Art Center.

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PRESIDENT Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com

Jack Byer

Color & Complexity: 30 Years at Durham Press Allentown Art Museum 8|

DOCUMENTARY Cunningham

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a thousand words

STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

Minerva’s Exit

MINERVA STORK MET HER end much as she lived, dispatched while crossing Madison Avenue by a robin’s egg blue Chenetti Calarra Spyder with Sienna Asturian Ostrich interior and matching custom-fitted luggage. The impact launched her Rinaldo Babu heels down 63rd—one east, one west—in high, graceful arcs, their Lemon Mint soles glowing the late morning sunlight. The police would recover only one. The Partaga envelope clutch Minerva was carrying pirouetted in place above the scene for a moment longer than one would think possible—like the great Marcia Gerrard or Vladimir Bosin in the Gregory Paschal version of la Trioedia—then it returned to her side on the crosswalk in front of the Partaga New York flagship store where she had purchased it two days before. Contents intact, its hidden magnetic clasp had performed flawlessly. Mrs. Stork’s Lorada Downes steel blue, knee-length dress with crescent collar, and her Phillipe Muir Silver Coral necklace, earrings, and belt, complemented the gray and indigo tones of the asphalt. Her Maria North blush glowed in the always difficult to gauge pre-midday light reflecting from the East Side architecture. The crowd rushing to make the traffic signal split around the elegantly supine figure. More than one person nodded in appreciation, and a few paused momentarily for posting. The Client Satisfaction representatives at Muir were busy fielding dozens of inquiries for the Coral Collection. The food trucks arrived just before the police. Betty’s Hot Stuff parked in front of Jeffrie’s, and Mendrika’s Alphabet City Fusion tucked-in further down Madison at NannyFrock. Two police cars took position separating the flow of traffic from the lines forming for food, while the ambulance

nudged its way through the crowd that was gathering to admire Ms. Stork. The driver of the Chinetti, Howard “Howie” Campbell, who had been skyping with his dog groomer when surprised by Minerva, immediately confirmed the appointment, pulled to the side of Madison engine running in front of William Fine, to be interviewed. He got out and stood on the sidewalk looking in the store window, texting the color of a LoveMarks angora sweater to Chip, the designer redecorating his vestibule. It could be the perfect bold ceiling statement. Three students from Russell-Ward-Morgan, wearing Klaus Bern, stood close enough to the Chenetti that they could enjoy the burble of the V-10 while punking Snaps of their Social Responsibilities teacher’s haircut. Mrs. Stork was placed in the ambulance and taken to the newly renovated Lenora and Robert Marsten Acute Treatment Pavilion at St. Lauren’s Episcopal, while a policeman from the 10th Precinct began to unlace the snarl of traffic. Although the intersection was back to its pre-Minerva order in twenty minutes, the brief spike in business activity triggered Surge Pricing and an across-the-board retail rent increase. The food trucks moved on to a reported manhole explosion on 79th. Tod at Salon Toulon re-booked Minerva’s 10am Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday; the RWM students checked messages in front of the curved walnut windows at Marcus & Styx Jewelers, featuring the spotlighted arrangement of Horux-Breeder Intelligence Series Chronographs; “Howie” Campbell exchanged groomer numbers with the policewoman inside Joe’s Island Bean; and people walking across Madison returned to their phones without noticing the glint of Lemon Mint from on top of the olive and gold striped awning in front of Fascinator 63. n ICON | JANUARY 2020 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

exhibitions

Painting by Jessica Bednarcik.

Sandy Hanna, Thi Ba.

Artsbridge Distinguished Artist Series Sandy Hanna: “Art as Storytelling” Prallsville Mill, 33 Risler St, Stockton, NJ artsbridgeonline.com or sandyhanna.net 609-397-3586 Thursday, January 16 at 7 pm Sandy Hanna, artist, author, and storyteller, has always been interested in broadening our relationship with history. Her recent paintings complement her published memoir, The Ignorance of Bliss: An American Kid in Saigon. Growing up as a ten-year-old in Saigon, Vietnam, in the early 60’s with her military family, she has painted on canvas images that still linger with her, complementing the stories she has included in her period specific book. Her talk will focus on “Art as Storytelling.” Visual images are catalysts for the written word and these paintings give the viewer clear access to a time and a place called Vietnam in the early years before the on-going conflict catapulted the United States into chaos. Every culture has its own stories or narratives as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, or instilling moral values. Sandy Hanna’s stories and paintings strive to do all of the above. 6

4th Annual Juried Pennsbury Student Exhibition Artists of Yardley AOY Art Center, 949 Mirror Lake Rd., Yardley artistsofyardley.org Weekend hours: 12–5PM January 25, 26 and February 1, 2 Opening reception 1/24, 6–8PM As in past years, this showcase of up-andcoming talent will be juried by members of the AOY Art Center and prizes will be awarded. First prize is $500, with a second-place prize of $300, and $200 for third-place honors. Three $50 gift certificates from Jerry’s Artarama will also be awarded as Honorable Mentions. A wide variety of student work in many different media will be exhibited, including paintings, drawings, sculpture, and digital photography. The AOY jurors this year will be established artists Donna Lynn Sheehan and Connie Dierks. The award funds stem from two sources: a new donation made by an anonymous AOY member in honor of the outstanding Art program at Pennsbury High School in the hope of inspiring these new artists and their families; and a donation made by AOY member, Fran Leyenberger, in memory of her husband, Chris.

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Beatriz Milhazes (Brazilian, b. 1960) Figo, 2007, woodblock and screenprint. Published by Durham Press, © Beatriz Milhazes, 2007.

Color & Complexity: 30 Years at Durham Press Allentown Art Museum 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA 610-432-4333 Allentownartmuseum.org January 19–May 3 Color & Complexity is the first exhibition to celebrate Durham Press’ 30 years of innovative and experimental printmaking. Founded in 1988 by master printer Jean-Paul Russell and coowned with partner and wife Ann Marshall, the Bucks County, PA, workshop and publisher is internationally recognized. Durham Press develops unique methods to suit each project, whether that involves creating hundreds of intricately carved and shaped woodblocks or marking a metal plate with a bulldozer. This exhibition features not only Durham Press’ monoprints, portfolios, and the large-scale masterpieces of printmaking, but will also reveal aspects of the printmaking process. Color & Complexity highlights an impressive body of work, including prints by some of today’s most groundbreaking artists, such as Hurvin Anderson, Polly Apfelbaum, Chitra Ganesh, John Giorno, Jacob Hashimoto, Michael Heizer, Emil Lukas, Beatriz Milhazes, and Mickalene Thomas. Color & Complexity is supported through the generosity of the Amaranth Foundation and Joan Miller Moran, Nancy Light, and Tony and Nancy Odorski.

opinion From the left

From the right

It’s Mitt Romney’s moment for a profile in courage

Evangelicals need to follow Christianity’s morals, not Trump’s

By DAVID IGNATIUS Washington Post

By MICHAEL GERSON Washington Post

AS WE FINISHED THE momentous week of impeachment, and so many days of listening to indignant, Constitution-spouting Republicans and Democrats, an exhausted America could be forgiven for switching the dial, at least briefly, to sports-talk radio. America seemed stranded between House and Senate, between competing versions of outrage, and between the trench warfare at one end of Pennsylvania Avenue and the divider-in-chief at the other. The only shred of bipartisan agreement was that everyone should go home for the holidays. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s most memorable moment was the quick hand gesture after Wednesday night’s impeachment vote that told fellow Democrats: Don’t clap; don’t gloat; don’t act as if this nightmare is over. Pelosi delayed in actually sending the articles to the Senate. Does she perhaps wonder if she should have stuck to her initial position that impeachment was a mistake? We’ll probably never know. And then attention shifted to the Senate, which the Constitution specifies “shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.” Would that body fulfill its solemn role and weigh the evidence against the president? Dream on, America. Leave it to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the master of high-minded doubletalk, to find a way to make things worse. After blasting House Democrats for “partisan rage,” he put his thumb firmly on President Trump’s side of the scale and insisted: “There is only one outcome suited to the fact that the Jabin Botsford / Washington Post accusations themselves are constitutionally incoherent.” Who might deliver us from this national train wreck? Who could restore a sense of balance to the Senate trial so that, whatever its outcome, it doesn’t feed Trump’s false narrative of victimization and populist rage? There’s one obvious answer: Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and custodian of what remains of his party’s moral and political balance. History is knocking on Romney’s door. This is his moment to step away from a president who holds him in contempt and speak for principle—by in-

THOUGH IT WON’T BE remembered as a classic Christmas movie like Elf or Die Hard, Bombshell richly deserves your time this holiday season. It tells the sordid story of how powerful men at Fox News tried to gain sexual favors from some young women in exchange for professional advancement. At the drama’s center is the lardaceous, lecherous, loathsome Roger Ailes, who once ruled the conservative world from behind a bodyguard of enablers, before Gretchen Carlson, Megyn Kelly and other courageous women exposed his predation. My first reaction to the movie was to suppress a gag reflex at the thought of the oleaginous Ailes with his zipper down (which is, mercifully, implied, not shown). I was also struck by the fact that the single most influential conservative institution of the last few decades was run by men who combined Social Darwinism and the Playboy philosophy, resulting in the survival of the scummiest. Millions of conservatives, including religious and family-value conservatives, absorbed their view of the world from a source characterized by misogyny, cruelty, immorality and contempt for the powerless. It is in this context that the recent editorial by Mark Galli in Christianity Today calling for President Trump’s removal from office should be read. Here, in contrast to Fox, is an institution trying to use a specifically Christian lens to examine Trump’s conduct in office. Galli argues that cheating to influence a presidential election is not merely a threat to the Constitution but “profoundly immoral.” Trump’s lies and slanders on Twitter are “a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.” The corruption and cruelty of the president and those around him have “rendered this administration morally unable to lead.” Trump’s swift, disproportionate, mendacious response to the editorial—falsely accusing Christianity Today of a leftist slant and promising he would never again read a magazine he has likely never read before—indicates how crucial to his political survival he believes lockstep evangelical

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nightlife JANUARY 8 – SCOT SAX

This Philadelphia ex-pat—a Grammy-nominated scribe of “Like We Never Loved at All” for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill—is the singing, songwriting key between the power pop movement in Britain and Los Angeles in 1974 and the Yacht Rock sensation of the 2000s. Plus, his pop owned a hair replacement business in downtown Philadelphia for decades. That had to have come in handy. (City Winery, citywinery.com/Philadelphia)

CURATED BY A.D. AMOROSI

thinks that The Boss will be at the one they’re attending (then again, who’s to say he won’t?). Hard nose punk folkie Willie Nile is always on the bill, and always part of the Philly affair, so enjoy his wordy rapping. Maybe Bruce will show up. (City Winery, citywinery.com/Philadelphia) 11 – JD SOUTHER

Souther, long a part of the sensitive Southern California writing

pedigree wasn’t enough, the deluxe edition of the LP features her raging cover of Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” a track so torrid, Elton himself has approved it. (World Café Live, worldcafelive.com)

should be—as a confessional country-twinged all-of-the-above with his best album ever, Sunset Kids, made in part with recent collaborator, Lucinda Williams. (Johnny Brenda’s, johnnybrendas.com)

15 – DAMIEN JURADO & NICK THUNE: SAD MUSIC, SAD COMEDY

19 – RAY CHARLES STORY W/ KENNY BRAWNER

Jurado is a mournfully shimmering and cinematic songwriter. Thune is a deadpan comedian

Much more convincing than Jamie Foxx, though not as funny, pianist and singer Kenny Brawner tours the Ray Charles songbook with heart and a handsome set of pipes. (Keswick Theatre, keswicktheatre.com) 23 – DEADMAU5

8 – NEKTAR

Not to be confused with Phillybased electronic DJ-sequencer

This legendary German/English electronic progressive rock act doesn’t tour much, so any oppor-

brigade in the 1970s, penned songs for mellow hitmakers Linda Ronstadt and the Eagles, now has his own Americana-laced ax to grind with often surprising results. (Sellersville Theater, st94.com) tunity to see them is a beautiful rarity. Ask them to play their debut album, Journey to the Centre of the Eye (1971), with one single song running over 40 minutes, with the last 100 seconds of the first side repeated at the beginning of side two. If they can remember it 50 years later. (Sellersville Theater, st94.com)

11 – YOLA

You don’t know Yola. Hell, I barely know Yola. Yet, the singer, musician, and songwriter just got nominated for a 2020 Grammy for her southern-fried soulful

16 – JON FISHMAN’S EVERYONE ORCHESTRA

This jam band symphony, Everyone Orchestra, may be an improvisational musical project with a revolving door’s roster of players and audience participants. Yet, it only matters if its fire starter, drummer Jon Fishman from Phish is there and leading the charge. (Steelstacks Bethlehem, steelstacks.org)

11 – LIGHT OF DAY 20TH ANNIVERSARY FEATURING WILLIE NILE

The Light of Day Foundation’s live shows, dedicated to raising money and awareness to defeat Parkinson’s disease and related illnesses such as PSP and ALS, started in Red Bank, NJ, before becoming a primary part of the annual Asbury Park, NJ music scene. Asbury means Springsteen, and now, every time there is a Light of Day effort, everyone

with an absurdist viewpoint. Legend has it that the two natives of Seattle met during a memorial service for their mutual friend and producer, the late Richard Swift, and suddenly realized that their musical and comic outlooks were similar and could work as a touring concept. Can’t say that I’m not curious to see what this is all about. (World Café Live, worldcafelive.com)

Marshmello and his apt-titled headgear, Deadmau5 is fond of mouse ears, and heated electro rave Muzik. The Met Philadelphia, themetphilly.com) 25 – JERRY BLAVAT DISCO, ROCK N’ ROLL AND SOUL REVUE & TRIBUTE TO THE LATE JOHNNY MAESTRO

The Geator with the Heater tackles his usual graceful take on the best music of his youth with a full orchestra backing Gary U.S. Bonds, Peaches & Herb, The ChiLites, The Trammps, Bobby Wilson, The Happenings and Tommy Mara and The Crests. (Kimmel Center, kimmelcenter.org)

17 – JESSE MALIN

2019 album debut Walk Through Fire produced and released by Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound label with big-name assists from Vince Gill, Denn Penn and more. If that pure R&B

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Malin has gone back and forth from being a New York Dolls-like glam punk, an Americana-themed troubadour, an apple cap-wearing Dion-esque rock and roller, and more during his long career. Now, he’s seemingly content—as he

26 – BOB MOULD

The dry-as-ice guitarist and vocalist behind Husker Du, Sugar and more than a few solo confessional punk reveries, heads way up state. (Steelstacks Bethlehem, steelstacks.org) n

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valley theater

city theater

Biloxi Blues. The middle play in Neil Simon’s autobiographical trilogy showcases a World War II tug of war between a sadistic sergeant and a sensitive soldier during basic training in Mississippi. (Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick’s Mill Rd., Bethlehem, Jan. 31-Feb. 2, 7-9, 14-16)

America’s only city-sanctioned tribute to the late David Bowie, Philly Loves Bowie, was created immediately following Bowie’s death in 2016. Along with screening the soon-to-be-released documentary Sigma Kids, there is theater to be had in Bowie’s name.

The Humans. A Manhattan apartment becomes a Thanksgiving hothouse as Scranton relatives endure dementia, bowel problems, and 9/11 trauma, all aggravated by normal holiday and urban tensions. Playwright Stephen Karam grew up in Scranton, won a 2016 best-play Tony, and authored the screenplay for the 2018 film The Seagull. (Civic Theatre of Allentown, 527 N. 19th St., Feb. 7-9, 13-16, 20-23)

Me & Mr. Jones. Brooklyn-based performance artist Raquel Cion acts out Me & Mr. Jones to explore her “lifelong soul love” for Bowie’s art and humanity. Having been called “half witch, half cabaret performer” by The New York Times, she talks about moving through and surviving cancer, going through a mid-life crisis, and coming up as an outsider. At the same time, at L’Etage atop Beau Monde, Dito van Reigersberg’s Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret touches on all things Bowie. (Franky Bradley’s, 1320 Chancellor Street, Jan. 9-10, L’Etage, 6th & Bainbridge Streets, Jan. 9-10)

Lombardi. A magazine reporter is frustrated, fascinated, and rewarded while profiling fabled coach/motivator Vince Lombardi as he prepares the Green Bay Packers for a 1965 game. The Broadway production featured Lehigh University graduate Robert Riley as Dave Robinson, the linebacker/placekicker. (Lipkin Theatre, Kopacek Hall, Northampton Community College, 3835 Green Pond Rd., Bethlehem, Feb. 10-16) The Broken Machine. Lehigh University’s theater department commissioned and premiered resident artist Liz Duffy Adams’ charmingly crazy comedy set in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by wildfires and a dead internet. Allison Findley was memorably zany and logical as the title character, an obsessive maker of free-wheeling lists and associations (Who knew that archangels invented the word “archaic”?) A live-wire tuning fork, she adeptly juggled verbal acrobatics with comic-strip nuggets of wisdom. Ryan Lewis played her sidekick, an injured fox named Gray, with canny, touching exasperation; Leidy Iglesias’ relatively mature park ranger had a nice Puckish edge; Vaughan Kramer’s goofy park ranger was appealingly spastic. Aiden Galbraith injected athletic zest into a chameleonic drag queen who makes non-Shakespeareans suddenly speak Shakespearean verse. Director Pam Pepper kept the blood boiling and tightrope vibrating with smart pacing and snappy spacing, musical soliloquies, and a ton of fun. Waiting for Godot. Northampton Community College’s all-female cast made Samuel Beckett’s existential vaudeville even more absurdly entertaining. Torez Mosley and Sarah Thatcher were delightfully bedraggled and nimble as the tramps who prove their worth by trading insults, swapping hats, and imagining their erections while hanging from a tragic tree. Director Chris Egging skillfully balanced their magnetic Abbott & Costello antics. Daniya Beard elevated slave master Pozzo to aristocratic ringmaster; Clara Purcell elevated Lucky, Pozzo’s roped pack human, with marvelously limber movements and voices. Waddling backward, trilling the word “prim” for a good 12 seconds, she summoned the spirits of Peter Pan and Captain Hook. A Christmas Carol. There was nothing fanciful or magical about Guy Masterson’s solo performance in Bethlehem of Dickens’ magical mystery morality pilgrimage. Yet the veteran English actor/adaptor conjured a fireside tale read aloud, an atmosphere rare and right. Clad in a raincoat and a coarse Limey accent, he gave robust renditions of Scrooge, Cratchit, and those time-traveling ghosts. His echo-chamber vocal effects were distracting, he was better at ecstasy than torture, and he lacked the oratorical thunder of great-uncle Richard Burton. Yet he avoided melodramatic traps and savored Dickens’ juicy, tangy words as theatrical feats. May he return to the Valley to present other solo works, including “Burton,” that have made him an Edinburgh Fringe favorite. n — GEOFF GEHMAN 10

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Hamlet at the Seaport Museum. Philadelphia Artists Collective co-creators, Damon Bonetti and Dan Hodge, star in this heated and deeply personal Hamlet by the Delaware River with Robert DaPonte in the titular role. Along with a beyond stellar cast of Philly thespians (Charlotte Northeast, Travoye Joyner, Annette Kaplafka Brian McCann) tackling Shakespeare’s most searing drama, the show is free of charge, to experience the Independence Seaport Museum's Riverview Lookout space. (Independence Seaport Museum Philadelphia Artists' Collective, 211 S Christopher Columbus Blvd, Jan. 10-19) Chess the Musical. When Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice went off to work with ABBA members Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, the result was the steely, but chirpy 1986 musical inspired by the 1972 World Chess Championship between the U.S.’s Bobby Fischer and Russia’s Boris Spassky. Set at the height of the ’80s Cold War, and rarely (shameful, that) performed, 11th Hour Theatre Company show just where the intersection of propaganda and pop exists. (11th Hour Theatre Company at Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American Street, Jan. 11-19) Little Shop of Horrors: in Concert. Having just seen the kitschy Howard Ashman/Alan Menken musical revival, I was ready to hear those campy songs all over again. So it’s cooler still that several cast members from Theatre Horizon’s recent Barrymore Awardwinning musical The Color Purple—guided by Amina Robinson, that Award’s first black, female director—reunite to take on the black comic R&B musical about evil alien plant life. (Theatre Horizon, 401 DeKalb Street, Jan. 24-26) Candles. The Philadelphia Young Playwrights group this year puts up author Angelina DeMonte’s starkly graphic, and of-the-moment work about a high school newspaper club that is literally under siege when an armed student attacks the school. That they use all their faculties to get through the trauma and its aftermath is what promises to make Candles stirring, as directed by Bi Jean Ngo. (The Bob and Selma Horan Studio Theatre at the Arden Theatre, 62 N. 2nd Street, Jan. 17–25). Marry Marry Quite Contrary. What do you get when you cross The Bachelor with a crime noir drama and, apparently, a lot of tequila? Philly’s Paper Doll Ensemble’s “devised pastiche” of what it means to be as obsessed by modern romance as they are pop culture, and Spanx. (Paper Doll Ensemble at Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Place, Jan. 24 – Feb. 1) n — A.D. AMOROSI

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new books

Agency William Gibson Berkley

American Dirt: A Novel Jeanine Cummins Flatiron Books

Running Against the Devil Rick Wilson Crown Forum

William Gibson has trained his eye on the future for decades, ever since coining the term “cyberspace” and then popularizing it in his classic speculative novel Neuromancer in the early 1980s. Now Gibson is back with Agency—a science fiction thriller heavily influenced by our most current events. Verity Jane, a gifted app whisperer, takes a job as the beta tester for a new product: a digital assistant, accessed through a pair of ordinary-looking glasses. “Eunice,” the disarmingly human AI in the glasses, manifests a face, a fragmentary past, and a canny grasp of combat strategy. Realizing that her cryptic new employers don’t yet know how powerful and valuable Eunice is, Verity instinctively decides that it’s best they don’t. “His eye for the eerie in the everyday still lends events an otherworldly sheen.”— The New Yorker

Already hailed as a new American classic, American Dirt is a rare exploration into the inner hearts of people willing to sacrifice everything for a glimmer of hope. Filled with poignancy, drama, and humanity it’s one of the most important books for our times. “I strive to write page-turners because I love to read them, and it’s been a long time since I turned pages as fast as I did with American Dirt. Its plot is tight, smart, and unpredictable. Its message is important and timely, but not political. Its characters are violent, compassionate, sadistic, fragile, and heroic. It is rich in authenticity. Its journey is a testament to the power of fear and hope and belief that there are more good people than bad.” — John Grisham

Donald Trump is exactly the disaster we feared for America. Hated by a majority of Americans, Trump’s administration is rocked by daily scandals, and he’s embarrassed us at home and abroad. Trump can’t win in 2020, right? Wrong. As 2016 proved, Trump can’t win, but the Democrats can sure as hell lose. Only one thing can save Trump, and that’s a Democratic candidate who runs the race Trump wants them to run instead of the campaign they must run to win in 2020. Wilson combines decades of national political experience and insight in his take-noprisoners analysis, hammering Trump’s destructive and dangerous first term in a caseby-case takedown of the worst president in history and describing the terrifying prospect of four more years of Trump.

Redhead by the Side of the Road Anne Tyler Knopf

Race Against Time Jerry Mitchell Simon & Schuster

Naked Came the Florida Man Tim Dorsey William Morrow

Micah Mortimer is a creature of habit. A self-employed tech expert, superintendent of his Baltimore apartment building, cautious to a fault behind the steering wheel, he seems content leading a steady, circumscribed life. But one day his routines are blown apart when his woman friend (he refuses to call anyone in her late thirties a “girlfriend”) tells him she’s facing eviction, and a teenager shows up at Micah’s door claiming to be his son. These surprises, and the ways they throw Micah’s meticulously organized life off-kilter, risk changing him forever. An intimate look into the heart and mind of a man who finds those around him just out of reach, and a funny, joyful, deeply compassionate story about seeing the world through new eyes, Redhead by the Side of the Road is a triumph, filled with Anne Tyler's signature wit and gimlet-eyed observation.

In Race Against Time, Mitchell takes readers on the twisting, pulse-racing road that led to the reopening of four of the most infamous killings from the days of the civil rights movement, decades after the fact. His work played a central role in bringing killers to justice for the assassination of Medgar Evers, the firebombing of Vernon Dahmer, the 16th Street Church bombing in Birmingham and the Mississippi Burning case. Mitchell reveals how he unearthed secret documents, found long-lost suspects and witnesses, building up evidence strong enough to take on the Klan. His efforts have put four leading Klansmen behind bars, years after they thought they had gotten away with murder. Race Against Time is an astonishing, courageous story capturing a historic race for justice, as the past is uncovered, clue by clue, and long-ignored evils are brought into the light.

The “compulsively irreverent and shockingly funny” (Boston Globe) Tim Dorsey returns with an insanely entertaining tale in which the inimitable Serge A. Storms sees dead people and investigates a creepy myth that may be all too real. Though another devastating hurricane is raking Florida, it can’t stop Serge from his latest scenic road trip: a cemetery tour. Beginning in Key West, the odyssey includes a forgotten mass grave holding the remains of African Americans killed by the Great Hurricane of 1928, and the resting place of one world-famous television dolphin, Flipper, from the 1960s. But one deadland—a haunted old sugar field—holds more than just the bones of those who’ve passed. For years, local children have whispered about a boogeyman hiding among the stalks. Could it be the same maniac known as Naked Florida man who’s been raising hell all over the place?

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voices

This page is for you. We welcome submissions of essays, short stories, an excerpt from your book, and opinion pieces. Professional writers, experts, and amateurs are all invited to contribute. Send an email with the subject line VOICES to trina@icondv.com. Include your name, address, and phone number. If your piece is chosen to be published we’ll let you know and only print your name.

THE UNIVERSE SPOKE...and I listened By Fredricka R. Maister “DON’T EVER MOVE UNLESS you have to,” I told everyone as I packed and purged the contents of my New York City apartment where I had lived for 33 years. It’s been well documented that moving ranks, along with the death of a loved one, divorce, major illness and job loss, as one of the top life stressors. For three months in advance of moving to new digs in Philadelphia, I had morphed into an emotionally unhinged insomniac who freaked out over every detail of the move and lived her days in constant anxiety. I lost 10 pounds; in saner times I couldn’t shed an ounce My escalating rent in New York forced me to move. But why Philadelphia? The Universe guided me there. I had participated in a program in which middle-income rents were stabilized by New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board. When our landlord chose to end our rent stabilization status, we participants suddenly faced monthly increases of $200 or more. I contacted a tenants’ rights attorney, but no one else was willing to chip in for the $300 consultation. I considered the Bronx and Queens, but I’ve been a Manhattanite ever since growing up a Jersey Girl. I applied for “affordable” housing, which turned out to be unaffordable. I spoke to local representatives who were attentive but ineffective. I felt hopeless. Then my cousin Ruth from North Carolina happened to visit. When I briefed Ruth on my dilemma, she berated me for expecting others to help save my apartment. “Forget them,” she said. “You have to do something!” We brainstormed to come up with a destination for a car-less woman, which eliminated most major American cities until she interjected, “How about Philadelphia?” Philadelphia, the city of cheesesteaks and Brotherly Love? Not far from New York, it was a walkable city with culture and history, and it was still affordable. My Philly friends loved living there. Once the seed of Philadelphia took root in my consciousness, I found myself bombarded with “signs” pointing me in its direction. I learned that a friend’s daughter had recently moved from New York to Philadelphia to pursue her acting career. When I contacted a former work colleague to set up my new printer, he apologetically responded, “I’d love to, but I’m in the middle of moving to Philadelphia.” A long14

lost cousin found me on Facebook…he lived in Philadelphia! The clincher was when I ran into my neighbor carrying a moving carton. “Are you moving, Peggy?” I joked “Yes, in three months to”…you guessed it… “Philadelphia!” The proverbial writing was on the wall. I found a broker, bought an apartment, and with-

in a few months, threw myself into the throes of packing 80+ boxes to haul from my 568-squarefoot apartment to my new 1,386-square-foot condo in Center City, Philadelphia. For me, an obsessive-compulsive, deciding what to take or discard became my worst nightmare. Filling oversized garbage bags, making at least ten trips to Goodwill and Salvation Army, trying in vain to organize items that belonged in the same box, black-and-bluing myself as I bumped into boxes while agonizing whether I was doing everything perfectly—all aided and abetted my insanity. Amassing 80 boxes also proved stressful. I’d rush to the recycling area in the basement or to liquor stores to claim boxes before they were broken down. I even followed a woman to her apartment to get the chewy.com box I had admired in the elevator. Once I started sorting through my stacks of papers and file cabinets, I became the “Queen

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of Purge.” There was no way decades-worth of Explanation of Health Benefits, bank and credit card statements were accompanying me to Philadelphia. I blackened out personal information with a Sharpie and manually shredded or schlepped thousands of papers to a free shredding dumpster down the block. My goal was to show up in Philadelphia as paperless as possible, which was no mean feat, especially when I had saved every piece of paper generated by every writing class or selfhelp group I ever joined. Why had I kept my classmates’ unpublished work? Didn’t I have enough of my own? More shocking was the diaphragm I saved from a more sexually active time—upon my touch, it crumbled. The only respites from my purging/packing marathon were the endless moving-related tasks I had to attend to: find mover, set up moving schedule for New York and Philly, buy insurance, turn off utilities, clean condo before moving in, inform post office, bank, credit card companies of new address, etc. No wonder I couldn’t sleep; my mind was busy begetting todo lists of things I might forget. Only reminding myself that Philadelphia would be “the prize” at the end of the moving process saved me from an imminent nervous breakdown. People remarked, “You‘re so courageous to move to a new city.” True, beckoned by the Universe, I had taken a risk, letting go of the known and familiar, but I didn’t feel courageous. I was merely following my instincts, which were following “the signs” to Philadelphia. Moving day finally came and despite my paranoia—the movers would forget to come, pouring rain would seep through all my carefully packed boxes, the truck would have an accident on the Jersey Turnpike and burst into flames—I and my belongings made it to Philadelphia. Like childbirth, my moving ordeal felt long and painful, but the end result of my labor was productive and joyful. As I unpacked, I discovered that some breakage had occurred in transit. A box marked “Fragile” containing ten delicate glasses and two heavy mugs had been turned upside down. Miraculously, the glasses arrived intact while the mugs from The New York Times where I had worked for 20 years shattered—just one more “sign” to leave New York behind and embrace my new life in Philadelphia. n

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cinematters

THE SONG OF NAMES covers the well-trod territory of the Holocaust and friendship, while director François Girard again explores the emotional connections inherent in music. But the film feels vibrant in a way that doesn’t align with those norms. It deals with real feelings in the real world. Based on Norman Lebrecht’s novel, The Song of Names goes back and forth in telling the story of a half-century friendship interrupted by tragedy and human frailty. In 1951, young violinist Dovidl Rapoport was set to make his international debut. Not only does he never arrive at his concert, he disappears, leaving behind the London family who nurtured his talent. The family’s son, Martin, who became like a brother to Dovidl, feels the absence 35 years later. When he’s judging a musical competition in England, a young violinist takes the stage who rosins his bow just like Dovidl. Martin’s curiosity is inflamed, and he embarks on an intercontinental hunt to find his long-lost friend. Dovidl, a violin maestro from Poland, is taken in by Martin’s family as Hitler’s reign in

PETE CROATTO

The Song of Names Europe grows dominant and corrosive. Martin, an only child, is initially frosty toward the poor, boastful boy who shares his room and eats Kosher. Years pass. The boys—played expertly by Luke Doyle and Jonah Hauer-King and Misha Handley and Gerran Howell—develop the forthright closeness that is a necessity as puberty roils into young adulthood. There is a distance. Dovidl’s family remains vulnerable in Poland. His prodigious talent has granted him access to a world where he’s protected by religion and wealth. There’s a scene after the Blitz, where Martin and Dovidl ride their bikes among the rubble and spot a dead body. Dovidl plucks jewelry from an anonymous woman, and some pound notes from a wallet. Martin is appalled, but Dovidl doesn’t have that luxury. No one is mourning for him, why should he mourn for others? Why should he stick to Judaism? Dovidl is a cynic by necessity, so when he finds enlightenment hours before his breakthrough performance, the life he has tried to outrun finally catches up. The priorities are different for Martin, who is scolded by his wife, Helen (Catherine McCor-

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mack), to stop looking for someone who abandoned him long ago. Martin’s family invested in David: lessons and food and a priceless violin. Having Dovidl perform his long-delayed concert is the conclusion to their script, not Dovidl’s. Helen and Martin’s life is one of comfort and wealth from the Woody Allen City Life Catalog—the designer furniture, the large rooms to dwell. Martin can resume the story because he can afford to do so. But it’s not Martin’s story to tell. He doesn’t realize there’s a reason why Dovidl left. What’s worse, Dovidl’s story defines him. Girard (The Red Violin) doesn’t announce the importance of what’s on-screen. He allows us to make our conclusions, and Tim Roth and Clive Owen—two dynamic actors who play Martin and Dovidl as adults—offer restrained sensitive performances. These men are tired and aging and weighed down by the past. Their reunion provides closure to a lengthy ordeal, as does David’s longawaited performance. There is little to celebrate. It’s time for the past to rest. The Song of Names takes a small triumph, complicates it, and captures our attention. [PG-13] n

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interview A.D. AMOROSI

the ALC HEM IST

Stir a spoonful of sparkle, a serving of song, and watch the magic happen FROM HER START AT age 20 as a Long Island princess of jazz traditionalism, standard-bearing song, and elegantly controlled passion, Jane Monheit had it all, and used it all, in the name of nuanced, sumptuous vocals. Monheit has always shown a love for the sophistication of another era, be it the melancholy blues or dramatic theater song— that’s apparent when you listen to “Never Never Land” (her 2000 debut), and its followup, Come Dream with Me. She shines on her collaboration with pianist David Benoit’s first collection of songs, 2 in Love, and her homage to a jazz legend on 2016’s The Songbook Sessions: Ella Fitzgerald. Amazingly, she’s managed to do all of that without sounding stuck in the past. On the contrary, her angelic flow, bright baritone, moodily mature sensuality, and conversational style make her very contemporary. Monheit has a lot to say about her self-empowerment, her image, and her choice of songs, which makes her very relevant in the current conversation about women in the arts. Monheit hasn’t toured in the Philadelphia or suburban regions for a while, so her January 12 showcase at the Sellersville Theatre is priceless. I should start with an end of decade thing as to where you believe jazz and jazz vocals moved in these ten years, and where it’s going. Well, it’s interesting to think about because it’s going in so many directions at once. I was talking about this with my pianist just yesterday, about how this genre of music is like a Nautilus ship, right? How it’s continually building upon itself and changing, but what existed before remains, perfectly preserved. There are some singers who are fully stretching the boundaries, and moving really forward, genre-bending and blending in all different kinds of music from all over the world, and all kinds of cool stuff like that. Then there are the people that are focused in all of those subgenres, making them great, and keeping them alive. There’s so much good happening out there, and so many really good singers to make it all happen. I was talking with someone about how contemporary Broadway and its composers were always a resting place for jazz players and singers. Do you feel as if you and the newer jazz singers are still looking to the contemporary stage and fresh writers such as Pacek & Paul or David Yazbek? Not as much as other artists are, but I’m probably the wrong person to ask as I’m such a traditionalist, it’s crazy. If there were a queen of the American songbook pageant, I would enter it and would be mad if I didn’t win, or at least come in among the top five. But that’s the thing. I love musical theater, though, and am a Broadway fanatic. I look at that stuff, though, and see it for what it is, rather than something that I could bend to my will or my genre, right? Maybe, I don’t want to be on stage doing that, too. You’re not the only traditionalist I know, but you are among the staunchest. Why do those songs, the ones that are so rich with cosmopolitan melody and sophisticated thought, hold such sway? Ultimately, you could get into the whole thing that it is classic song form and that it informed everything that came after it. You could get all music theory-ish about it in so

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Photo: Kharen Hill.

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film roundup

1917

KEITH UHLICH

1917 (Dir. Sam Mendes). Starring: George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Colin Firth. There are worse things than a Roger Deakins highlight reel, and to this great cinematographer's credit, he makes the most of this World War I action-adventure's visual possibilities. Filmed in what is meant to look like a single shot, 1917 follows a pair of trench-fighting British Lance Corporals (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) as they attempt to warn another battalion about an impending sneak attack. Obstacles include bombs, rats, barbed wire, and the duo's own pervasive existential dread (one of them even has a brother in that doomed unit). The film at times has the feel of a first-personshooter dreamed up by Søren Kierkegaard. Yet there's a clear disconnect between Deakins's cinematographic brilliance and co-writer-director Sam Mendes's attempt to stir emotions both sentimental and patriotic. (Mendes based the film on stories told to him about the Great War by his grandfather.) This isn't a vibrant tribute so much as it is an exquisite corpse, gorgeous to look at yet hollow inside. [R] HH1/2 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Dir. J.J. Abrams). Starring: Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley, 20

Oscar Isaac. And so it ends...one more time. Again. The Star Wars series comes to a close (so the powers-that-be say!) with this ninth installment in the Skywalker saga. It’s a pedal to the metal affair and points to director and cowriter J.J. Abrams for keeping things brisk. Whether you give much of a toss for new trilogy characters like Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe (Oscar Isaac), and Finn (John Boyega) is another matter. This writer doesn’t, though he’ll certainly admit to getting a bit choked up over the fates of original series folk like Leia (the late Carrie Fisher, resurrected via archive footage) and Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams, the most dashing eightysomething you’ll ever see). The film is otherwise a rehash of everyone, and everything that’s come before—the big bad is once again Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), thought killed in 1983’s Return of the Jedi, but alive here for reasons more murky than mysterious. Rise passes by painlessly, at least. And evaporates from the heart and mind the second the lights come up. As Master Yoda might say, "Not strong the Force with this one is." [PG-13] HH 1917 (Dir. Sam Mendes). Starring: George MacK-

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ay, Dean-Charles Chapman, Colin Firth. There are worse things than a Roger Deakins highlight reel, and to this great cinematographer’s credit, he makes the most of this World War I action-adventure's visual possibilities. Filmed in what is meant to look like a single shot, 1917 follows a pair of trench-fighting British Lance Corporals (George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) as they attempt to warn another battalion about an impending sneak attack. Obstacles include bombs, rats, barbed wire, and the duo's own pervasive existential dread (one of them even has a brother in that doomed unit). The film at times has the feel of a first-person-shooter dreamed up by Søren Kierkegaard. Yet there’s a clear disconnect between Deakins’s cinematographic brilliance and co-writer-director Sam Mendes’ attempt to stir emotions both sentimental and patriotic. (Mendes based the film on stories told to him about the Great War by his grandfather.) This isn’t a vibrant tribute so much as it is an exquisite corpse, gorgeous to look at yet hollow inside. [R] HH1/2

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reel news

An Elephant Sitting Still.

DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

The Lighthouse (Director Robert Eggers. Starring: Robert Pattinson, Willem Dafoe). This measured descent into insanity combines all the classic elements of the horror genre: two men riddled with festering emotional wounds are trapped in a barren, isolated setting with no means of escape. Yet Robert Eggers uses the somber circumstances, set in the 1890s and filmed in black and white, as a character study instead of a scream-in-the-dark slasher flick, though you wouldn’t want to meet either character on a dark and stormy night. The life-worn, morally-weary Thomas Wake (Defoe) minds a lighthouse on a rocky island off the coast of Maine. Ephraim Winslow (Pattinson), fleeing his last job as a lumberjack, arrives as his assistant. For their month-long rotation on the rock, the two men must survive the relentless assault of the howling wind and crashing waves, and a greater danger, the deafening roar of inner demons. As the light of reality disappears in a hallucinogenic fog of fear and suspicion, the men’s relationship fluctuates between bestfriend drinking buddies and paranoid double22

crossers. The more Winslow is relegated to menial, mind-numbing chores, the more he obsesses on seeing the flashing beacon, but Wake refuses to let him climb the stairway to be in the presence of the light—metaphor intended. Instead of a way to safety on a stormy night, the lighthouse becomes the ominous force that drives the men onto the jagged shoals of madness. With convincing performances, the actors personify the flawed perceptions that consume the characters, both with their craggy looks and their portrayal of the men’s slippery grasp on reality. (R) HHHH Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Director Gan Bi. Starring Wei Tang, Jue Huang, Sylvia Chang, Hong-Chi Lee.) Be clear from the outset—this is an art house film with dazzling images, a nonlinear narrative that interweaves past, present, and future with a timeless dream world, and protracted house-of-mirrors scenes with no apparent advance in plot action. And it has nothing to do with Eugene O’Neill’s play of the same name. The dreamlike story centers around a man, Luo

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Hongwa (Huang), who returns to his hometown when his father dies. He has a hole in his heart— actually two. He wants to find his long lost lover whom he can’t forget. Nor can he forget his youthful friend Wildcat (Lee), who was murdered. He’s on a quest to replace the void with some version of happiness, but the walkabout is more through the interior landscape of memories, real and imagined, than the waking world of reality. The first half meanders through long beautiful shots of scenes that defy linear arrangement yet create a dream space where feelings and impressions rule more than logic and words. The second half shifts into 3-D, though many theaters and home viewers lack that dimension. The hourlong conclusion threads together a series of happy dream-fulfilling vignettes that more or less connect the discordant story of the first half, and ends with a transcendent, feel-good flair. In Mandarin with subtitles. (NR) HHH

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documentary

PETE CROATTO

purposeful, grounded modern-dance icon. Cunningham, who we see and hear in various footage, was not one for self-inflation. “I don’t describe it,” he says at one point. “I do it.” Movements don’t come with a press release; a legacy doesn’t have a formal announcement. Cunningham wanted to merge elements of ballet and modern dance; his first class began with one student. Word of mouth spread. With ample help from his composition professor and lover John Cage, Cunningham created a series of dances that defied description, that left audiences scratching their heads. Legitimacy occurred on endless road trips in front of confused audiences. Since everyone was young, the company became a family, and they gutted it out like a rock band trying to score a record deal. The practices were relentless. We see some dancers cry in frustration. How could they not? They had to match the visions stuck in Cunningham’s mind.

Photo: Mark Seliger / AP

Cunningham ANY FORM OF ART, no matter how unusual it appears, no matter how much it frustrates or confuses us, comes from logic. The documentary Cunningham, which covers 1942 to 1972 in the lengthy career of avant-garde dancer Merce Cunningham (1919-2009), is a marvel of clarity and enlightenment. Told with honesty and shot with controlled beauty, it expresses what so many creative individuals feel: Art is work. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a pop song or an opera, a Marvel blockbuster, or a documentary about a 24

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ppreciation came from overseas, and that brought more challenges. Old members left; new ones arrived. There wasn’t the same rapport, but Cunningham was the constant. As long as his ideas survived, there was continuity. As one dancer says, “He’s a painter; we’re his colors.” Watching the dancing with this insight, and on a camera instead of the static nature of a stage, is enchanting. The stage changes. It’s a rooftop, a town square, a sun-drenched room. The camera is never stationary but doesn’t interfere with the movement, which is fluid and tense and poetic. Director-writer Alla Kovgan’s presentation stuns on a small screen; I can’t imagine how it unfurls in 3D on the big screen. We see the twist of a foot, the concentration on a face, the arching of a back. We feel the simple, potent joy of appreciating the result of effort and sacrifice that started with one student and Cunningham heating his shabby New York apartment by burning wood he gathered from the street. That reality never strays far from Cunningham. We don’t learn a lot about technique from the dancer and choreographer. What we do learn is that artistic ability means little without consistency and patience, because accolades and glory are not part of daily life. The definition of a professional, author and journalist David Halberstam once wrote, is doing your job when you don’t feel like it. Going forward, regardless of the obstacles, separates the artist from the pretender. It’s passion as a job, and Merce Cunningham was exceptional at his. It’s why he is immortalized in a gorgeous, hopeful film that is one part lesson, one part kinetic piece of art. [PG] n

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jazz / classical / alt / rock MARK KERESMAN

Charles Lloyd Quartet HHHH Montreux Jazz Festival 1967 (Swiss Radio Days Jazz Series) TCB While jazz connoisseurs and scholars still argue about it, the fact remains that saxophonist Charles Lloyd is a darn fine player. He led one of the most formidable bands of the 1960s: Keith Jarrett, piano, Jack DeJohnette, drums, and Ron McClure, acoustic bass. In the ’60s, this combo often played rock concert halls, exposing those hippies to jazz. (Lloyd also toured and recorded with the Beach Boys.) Some jazz snobs (then as now) consider Lloyd to be a watered down ver-

sion of John Coltrane—this writer says fie unto them. During that time, try finding a modern tenor sax player not influenced by Coltrane (besides Scott Hamilton, who came along much later). In June 1967, this 4-some laid down these sounds, live in Montreux, Switzerland, and are now available to all. This group is a band with a track record, not merely a bunch of players convened for the occasion. Lloyd is to be sure inspired by Trane, but he channels it in his own way, in a manner accessible (as in more melodious—and that’s not meant as a criticism of Coltrane) to open-minded rock crowds as well as jazz-heads. Jarrett had then begun his protean expressive/near-romantic style; McClure was nimble and probing; and DeJohnette shows him beginning the tactic he would later perfect with Miles Davis—crackling, the oomph of a rock drummer combined with the volatile focus of a jazz drummer. Lloyd also played the flute, heard here in its glory on “Lady Gabor”—lithe and lyrical, but with a similar feverish flow he put into his sax; Jarrett’s solo is punchy and glistens like the lights of dawn upon a flower bed. Not everything here is golden—some of the lengthy soloing within “Sweet Georgia Bright” verges on golly-dig-me-creating-sound self-indulgence. But most of this set is jazz from the top of the shelf and makes you (pardon again an aside) want to reach for it. Warning: one can hear Jarrett “vocalizing” along with his solos. (2 discs, 6 tracks, 103 min.) challengerecords.com 26

The Monochrome Set HHH1/2 Fabula Mendax Tapete The Monochrome Set is a UK band that has been around off and on since 1978. This combo is not easy to categorize—this lot seems to try to be effete and archly clever, so much so that Morrissey’s solo albums sound like the works of James Brown by comparison. Mannered vocals with more than a touch of melodrama, tres clever lyrics, and just-so musicality are the hallmarks of their sound, not to mention subtly catchy melodies and the kind of wise-ass humor at which some Brits excel. But by gum, The MSet sound so good doing it, scoring the soundtrack for a jubilee of angst, or to enjoy at twilight with a tumbler of wine. The undulating “Throw It Out the Window” is perfect for a time of temperament of cynical estrangement. The undulating “Summer of the Demon” seems to be sublime self-mockery (“in the courtyard of my twilight there are shadows running free”—oh, jeez), sung in a manner that is both a tribute to—and

acoustic side of Golden Era of Fusion (approximately 1968-74, when the most iconic fusion albums were recorded). Fusion, in this case, does not mean snazzy and slick but a bright melding of approaches, in this case acoustic jazz with Indian ethnic styles to produce a dandy hunk of work. (Think some of the better works of American fusion combo Oregon in their Vanguard Records period.) “Road Movie” is a travelogue into mystery, Abbasi (for this opus concentrating chiefly though not solely on the acoustic ax) picking leisurely and precisely with a touch of the influences of guitar masters John Fahey and Ralph Towner (before picking up the tempo) and tabla player Prabhu Edouard plays with amazing speed and precision. “Dodeca” features gentle wispy exchanges between the two stringers. ”Other Tones” goes back and forth from lilting (Western) folk-like melodicism until it gets into a groove that a Spyrogyra fan could dig, each strings-player trading-off until a bright, almost idyllic-building-to-slightly-stormy groove is established. David Paycha works at the traditional

affectionate parody of—the mannered, worldly personae of Bryan Ferry and his artistic offspring The Arcade Fire and The Decemberists. The band is directly, smoothly melodious, and many of the songs have a charming lilt to them…which is (also) a nice way of saying they don’t rock out hard. They even parody themselves (or others) with the droll “rootsy” rocker “Sliding Icicle” (think Little Feat, Stevie Ray Vaughan), complete with sharp slide guitar and plush organ chords. Start up the fireplace or grab that electric blanket and get haughtily cozy with this. (10 tracks, 34 min.) tapeterecords.de Isabelle Olivier/Rez AbbasiHHHH1/2 Sound in Sound Enja Yellowbird Guitarist Rez Abbasi is an American jazz player born in Pakistan; harpist Isabella Olivier is a French harpist (note: NOT “mouth harp” aka harmonica) who’s performed and recorded in over 20 nations with such well-known jazz cats as Peter Erskine and Norma Winstone. Sound in Sound is a collaboration of the two and bless ‘em, it evokes (without nostalgia) the

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Western drum set-up in a driving and crisp manner that never gets overbearing/too-busy. Sound is engagingly accessible minus any overt “sweetening” or pandering moves. (10 tracks, 47 min.) reztone.com / enjajazz.de

Warren Storm HHH1/2 Taking the World By Storm APO Born in Louisiana in 1937, Warren Storm has been slinging his brand of swamp pop, a mélange of R&B, country, rock & roll, and Cajun strains since the mid-1950s. At a time when many singers go into (or have been in) re-

tirement, Storm is still at it and doing just fine. He has a slightly raspy, full-bodied voice in the manner of Ray Charles and descendants Doug Sahm (Sir Douglas Quinet) and John Fogerty, who guests on his Creedence Clearwater Revival chestnut “As Long As I Can See Light.” The set features hot-sharp guest-shot slide guitar from Sonny Landreth, who is in some ways an heir (stylistically and vocally, while in no way imitative) to Storm’s legacy. Nothing too strenuous here, just some honest roots music sung from the heart with easy joie de vivre. The band has a lean, rollicking, dance-hall feel, and the album is as comfy as a well-worn pair of boots one might wear to a dance. You get an earnest country lament, “Tennessee Blues,” that’ll have fans of Charles and Johnny Cash reaching for hearty beers in which to weep. “In My Moments of Sorrow” is a dandy Fats Domino-style mid-tempo lament (great hearty sax solo herein) and Merle Haggard’s “My House of Memories” also gets the Fats treatment. This is the kind of album you put on loud enough to hear on your back porch on a balmy evening to unwind after a hard day at the [fill in the blank]. 11 tracks, 35 min.)

Claude Debussy/Aleck Karis HHHH1/2 Etudes/Children’s Corner Bridge Claude Debussy (1862-1918) was one of the first “modern” composers. His music was valued by cutting-edge cats earlier in the 20th century like Stravinsky and Messiaen, and Debussy himself was less than thrilled by the bedrock of (his day’s and today’s) classical mainstream— Schubert and Brahms left him kind of cold. Debussy was one of the earliest Western composers influenced by the cyclic sounds of the gamelan music of the islands of Bali and Java. (That was somewhat of an influence on jazz icon Don Cherry too, not to mention the classi-

cal minimalist composers such as Steve Reich.) CB’s piano music is some of the most popular and enduring modern stuff for the 88s, and the proof is in this pudding. Piano ace Aleck Karis explores the subtle quietude of his “Etudes” (books 1 & 2) and “Children’s Corner.” While not a minimalist (they didn’t have that concept as we know it), Debussy wrote stripped-down sonic tapestries for the piano that could be exceedingly pretty and yet oddly (and fascinatingly) oblique simultaneously. While some of this stuff shimmers like a sunset, it can also be powerfully rhythmic, along with hugging (and reconstructing) the background. Aleck Karis plays with great subtilty and potent vigor throughout. The sonic quality of these performances can be and frequently are both pristine and persuasive, stark and gregarious, and like the music of Erik Satie also droll and engaging, besides sidestepping any staid shadings. If you like modern piano music—and that takes in Bill Evans too—you could do yourself some good by latching onto this platter. (18 tracks, 70 min.) bridgerecords.com n ICON | JANUARY 2020 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

pop

A.D. AMOROSI

Harry Styles HHH Fine Line (Sony) The one-time One Direction member made a thrilling, self-titled freshman album on his way out of the band, one that touched on several shades of David Bowie (from “Space Oddity” to “Hunky Dory”) for influence, but with a sweeter pop edge, a handful of passionate falsetto vocal runs, and several smart lyrical looks at obsessive romance. With that start, Harry

Styles’ sophomore effort should have been a dream, especially since he’s been touting his Fleetwood Mac adoration and singing with Stevie Nicks. The Mac, McCartney, and America’s power-pop kings, Big Star, are part of “Fine Line” ’s palette of muted colors and melancholy tones, and Style’s wise, lyrical observations traffic in love’s loss. Sometimes, however, “Fine Line,” feels too old and wise—and safe—without the swagger of his solo debut. That doesn’t mean that “Fine Line” isn’t fine. It is. While the acoustic “To Be So Lonely,” has the charm of McCartney’s more pastoral early solo period, “Cherry” sounds like Paul’s first band at its most psychedelic and swirly. And “She,” like most of the album, dedicated to his recent bustup, finds Styles bursting out the breast-beating falsetto and losing control. Good. Sadly, there’s not more unrestrained moments or truly memorable melodies or clever lyrical couplets to hold “Fine Line” ’s interest, or the weight of Style’s personality. 28

Big Star #1 Record HHHH Radio City HHHH (Craft) This CD features all-analog mastering and local manufacturing in Big Star’s hometown of Memphis. There’s just a hint here of light and smoky soul to the coy, Brit-inspired power-pop of Alex Chilton, Chris Bell and Jody Stephens’ 1972 jangly opus, #1 Record, and 1974’s yearning Radio City. “Record” is effortless in its swelling, sugary harmonies, and wistful but cocksure lyrics. When Bell left the band high and dry before recording Radio City, Chilton became Big Star’s sole big star and wrote catty lyrics and sang fussy, fuzzy vocal lines to the likes of “September Gurls,” and made googly eyes and giddy melodies for “I’m in Love with a

Girl,” and “Back of a Car.” Like the Velvet Underground, Big Star influenced every American band in their wake. Unlike the Velvets, most of those who know Big Star’s jangle and swagger know it from the recordings of their followers, such as R.E.M., the Posies, and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers. Prince HHHHH 1999 (Warner Bros/Rhino) Even in its original 1982 release with two albums at its start, Prince & the Revolution’s “1999” sounded as if it was busting precociously at the seams at some point in an imagined future. Like The Clash’s “Sandinista,” Marvin Gaye’s “Here, My Dear,” Todd Rundgren’s Something/Anything” and Prince’s own “Sign O’ the Times” —famously oversized multi-album projects, all—Prince was playing with too much, too fast at too great an aesthetic height. Then again, that was the whole point of looking into a funky, futuristic apocalypse, and laugh-

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ing, just like the protagonists of Evelyn Waugh’s “Vile Bodies.” You have nothing to lose. With the Super Deluxe Version of “1999,” we are witness to the full frenzy effect of Prince & Co. truly letting it all hang out with a concert DVD (in Houston) and a live album (Detroit), respectively filmed and recorded around this very time in 1982. The DVD includes 24 previously unissued studio tracks and demos, b-sides and remixes, and a spanking new version of the original album that manages to sound, as it did upon release, grimy and glossy all at once in its guitar wonk-strewn, in-the-red, souped-up, funky synth-phonic glory. Now, only more so, “1999” fits. And it doesn’t. Like the gluttonous Reagan era in which it was born, the new “1999” is explosively opulent and askew for the Trump moment in its excess and mess. The future-forward death disco R&B of the title song,

the swaggering swirl of “D.M.S.R.,” the new wave halt of “Delirious,” and the slamming tech-throb ballad, “Little Red Corvette” come across as both freshly free and eerily lived in, the latter perhaps because, as Prince fans, we grew accustomed to his pace and gait. If you’re any kind of Prince aficionado, you’ve heard the outtakes and outside tracks such as the tight as a drum James Brown manqué “Irresistible Bitch,” the Rufus-like space out of “Moonbeam Levels,” the absolutely mesmerizing “Money Don’t Grow on Trees,” and the warm and fuzzy “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore?” Placing these songs, and cuts such as the childish “Vagina,” close to their original mooring station gives these songs heart and context, rather than have them dangling in the wind. n

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7 | IT’S MITT ROMNEY’S MOMENT

FOR A PROFILE IN COURAGE

7 | EVANGELICALS NEED TO FOLLOW

CHRISTIANITY’S MORALS, NOT TRUMP’S

support to be. The president’s most visible evangelical supporters—doing their best to mimic his tone and approach—brayed in agreement. And some conservative writers were highly critical of the editorial. My colleague Hugh Hewitt pronounced himself “bewildered” that anyone would “seek an absolutist political opinion from a website about evangelical faith.” “Whether Trump is good or bad for the republic isn’t a theological question,” said Hewitt. “It is a political one.”

sisting that the Senate conduct an actual trial and weigh the House’s allegations that Trump abused power and obstructed Congress. This simple stand for an impartial trial (if backed by several more brave Republicans) would restore sanity to this process. Trump would probably still be acquitted, but it wouldn’t be in a firestorm of partisan rage. Romney’s collision course with Trump was set long ago. Romney tried initially to make peace after the election, but every time he has expressed an independent opinion, Trump has lacerated and belittled him. Romney said in October that it was “wrong and appalling” for Trump to pressure Ukraine into investigating former Vice President Joe Biden. Trump tweeted in response that Romney was “a pompous ‘ass’” and a “fool” and urged Utah voters to dump him, “#IMPEACHMITTROMNEY.” Romney is laying low for the moment. Asked whether he favors calling witnesses, he had the mumbles: “It’s not that I don’t have any point of view; it’s just that I’m not willing to share that point of view.” He told The Salt Lake Tribune, his hometown paper, “I will act as a juror and will be unbiased in evaluating the cases that are presented.” But he hasn’t explained yet what that will mean. Romney and other Republicans might add to their reading lists a little book called Profiles in Courage, by President John F. Kennedy. It tells the stories of eight senators who resisted party pressure to do what they thought was right— from John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts, the only member of the Federalist Party to support the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, to George Norris of Nebraska, who broke from his Republican Party in 1928 to oppose Herbert Hoover for president, fearing that his economic policies would be ruinous. You’re probably sick of quotes from the Federalist Papers, but try just one more, from Alexander Hamilton about the Senate’s role in impeachment: “Where else than in the Senate could have been found a tribunal sufficiently dignified, or sufficiently independent? What other body would be likely to feel confidence enough in its own situation, to preserve, unawed and uninfluenced, the necessary impartiality between an individual accused, and the representatives of the people, his accusers?” Read that passage carefully, Sen. Romney. Hamilton is talking across the centuries to you. Sometimes politicians find a moment when their actions—their willingness to suffer criticism to do what they believe is right—can play a decisive role in the fate of the country. Such a moment is approaching for Romney. n

vangelical institutions like Christianity Today, in other words, should be content to stay in their lane. They should defer to the political experts. Like Fox News. Like conservative talk radio. Like conspiratorial internet sites. Wouldn’t it be easier for all involved if evangelicals simply accepted the proposition that a political coalition with ethno-nationalists, led by a malicious, immoral buffoon, is good for the cause of justice and for the cause of Christ? Isn’t it obvious that the appointment of conservative judges should satisfy all the other moral convictions of Christian citizens? This, after all, isn’t a theological matter. It isn’t a theological matter that evangelicals—influenced by conservative media and white identity politics—have become the religious group most hostile to refugee resettlement and most supportive of a policy of family separation at the border. It isn’t a theological matter that loyalty to Trump is making an older generation of evangelicals look like crude hypocrites in the eyes of their own children, who are fleeing the tradition in droves. From the perspective of Trump partisans, a less carnal version of the Ailes arrangement still applies. Evangelicals will be given rhetorical deference, White House access and judges and regulations of their liking. All they need to do is set aside their criticisms of cruelty, deception, misogyny, racism and contempt for the vulnerable. All they need to do is forget decency and moral consistency. From the standpoint of committed evangelicals, the calculus should be more complex. Christians are called to be representatives of God’s kingdom in the life of this world. Betraying that role not only hurts the reputation of evangelicalism; it does a nasty disservice to the reputation of the Gospel. It is time, and past time, for Christian believers to listen to Christian sources on Christian social ethics, including the small, clear voice of Christianity Today. n

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20 | FILM ROUNDUP

Richard Jewell (Dir. Clint Eastwood). Starring: Paul Walter Hauser, Sam Rockwell, Jon Hamm, Olivia Wilde, Kathy Bates. Everything you need to know about the motives behind director Clint Eastwood’s drama about former security guard Richard Jewell, wrongly accused of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics bombing, is contained in the character of Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde). She’s the Atlanta newspaper reporter who breaks the story on Jewell’s possible guilt, and Wilde plays her as a headlinechasing, sexed-up bimbo who seems meant to stand in for the entirety of the American media. It’s a repellent role, though she’s in good bad company: Her partner in crime is Jon Hamm’s relentless FBI agent, who is convinced of Jewell’s guilt to a near-psychopathic degree. Media and government institutions are in no way worthy of lionization—but they don’t deserve simplistic demonization of the sort that Eastwood doles out here—a very 2019 pose to strike. On the flip side of these fiendish characterizations is Jewell himself, played by I, Tonya’s Paul Walter Hauser as a saintly gentle giant whose biggest crime is that he believes in doing the right thing to a frustrating fault. He’s barely a person, but Eastwood hasn’t dealt with people in his movies for a while now. Every character here is made of straw, and the arguments for Eastwood as the last in a long line of no-nonsense Hollywood classicists hardly matters when the content of his recent art is so obviously ignorant. [R] H Atlantics (Dir. Mati Diop). Starring: Mame Bineta Sane, Amadou Mbow, Ibrahima Traore, Babacar Sylla. A superb feature debut by French actress Mati Diop, Atlantics initially appears to be a politically charged drama about a Senegalese construction worker, Souleiman (Ibrahima Traore), fighting for a better life. Slowly, the film reveals itself to be more about Ada (Mame Bineta Sane), Souleiman’s independent-minded lover, who is betrothed to the much wealthier, extremely full-of-himself Omar (Sylla). When Souleiman and several of his fellow workers vanish after trying to reach the Spanish coast by sea, Ada is left to pick up the pieces and potentially go through the marital motions. Then the film takes a turn toward the supernatural that is both haunting and provocative, not to mention beautifully, evocatively photographed by Claire Mathon. Gender lines are blurred. Class and socioeconomic distinctions are probed with razor-edged precision. And all allegory aside, Atlantics works purely as a ghostly romance, the heart of which is Sane (in her first movie role) and her achingly expressive face. [N/R] HHHH1/2 n

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harper’s FINDINGS

INDEX

Hydrocarbon fuels can now be produced with sunlight and air, making them carbon-neutral; the hole in the ozone layer was shrinking; and the first successful climate model of the early Eocene showed that temperatures are increasingly sensitive to additional CO2 as its atmospheric concentration rises. The cooling effect of fragrant terpene aerosols from coniferous boreal forests was decreasing, and aeolian accumulations of dust on the Loess Plateau indicated that human existence did not coincide with a high-carbon atmosphere until 1965. British scientists urged the government to support breastfeeding in order to reduce the carbon imprint of baby formula, Iron Age infant graves were found to contain ceramic bottles for feeding babies animal milk, and Japanese researchers deciphered the characteristic odor of newborn babies’ heads. As mammals grow more sophisticated, the proportions of their skulls approach the Golden Ratio.

Number of new Christmas films that will debut on Hallmark channels this year: 40 Percentage of the world’s internet traffic that is attributable to Netflix: 12 % increase since 1996 in the average price of a movie ticket in the United States: 106 In the average price of a concert ticket: 256 Estimated annual amount that U.S. book publishers lose to piracy: $315,000,000 % of people downloading pirated e-books who make $100,000 or more a year: 29 Number of requests Google has received since 2014 to delete search results based on the E.U.’s “right to be forgotten” law: 3,300,000 Percentage of those requests Google has granted (see page 12): 45 Factor by which the U.S. public trusts law enforcement more than advertisers to use facial-recognition technology “responsibly”: 3 Amount that the Florida D.M.V. earned selling personal data in 2017: $77,865,737 % of American women aged 30 & older who receive financial help from their parents: 49 Of American men aged 30 and older: 62 Median % of student-loan debt owed by white borrowers 20 years after enrolling in college: 6 Of student-loan debt owed by black borrowers: 95 Minimum number of laws in San Francisco penalizing homelessness: 24 % change in calls to 911 about homeless people in San Francisco from 2013–2017: +78 Number of months for which Japanese men are legally guaranteed paid paternity leave: 12 Percentage of Japanese fathers who take some advantage of the policy: 6 Who take all twelve months: 0.1 Percentage of U.S. adults over 55 who did freelance work this year: 29 Percentage of images in U.S. online media that feature people aged 50 or older: 15 Percentage of Americans who are older than 50: 46 % by which people who nap once or twice a week are less likely than non-nappers to face serious heart illnesses: 48 Factor by which non-white Americans are more likely than white Americans to be vegetarians: 3 Percentage by which U.S. sales of plant-based meat substitutes increased this year: 10 Number of states with laws prohibiting the use of the words “meat,” “burger,” or “steak” on labels for non-animal products: 7 Rank of “well done” among the ways that Americans prefer their steaks to be cooked: 1 Chance that an American avoids drinking tap water at home because of safety concerns: 1 in 3 Percentage of bottled water sold in the United States that is filtered tap water: 64 Estimated amount that Americans spent on bottled water last year: $31,000,000,000 % of the U.S. automobile market that is composed of S.U.V.s and pickup trucks: 66 Of sedans: 22 Percentage of Americans who believe electric cars require gasoline to run: 42 Number of Nobel laureates in physics who have been named John: 8 Who have been named Wolfgang: 3 Who have been women: 3 Factor by which a public restroom floor hosts more bacteria than a toilet seat: 40,000 By which a kitchen sponge hosts more bacteria than a toilet seat: 17,700,000,000 Rank of kitchen cleaning among Americans’ least favorite chores: 1 Portion of Americans who say they’d give up sex for life if they never had to do any more chores: 1/5

Biologists who counted the warts on the heads of octopuses in the Pacific found more warts on those who live in deeper waters. Baltic marine predators were losing weight, and washing machines’ delicate cycles were contributing more microplastics to the oceans than were regular cycles. High levels of toxins, some of which are heritable, were discovered in bottlenose dolphins in the Normano-Breton Gulf, and antibiotic resistance continued to rise among bottlenose dolphins in Florida’s Indian River Lagoon. Nose swabs of 188 dead hedgehogs submitted by members of the Danish public resulted in positive tests for MRSA. Overweight Danes are likelier to have overweight dogs, which researchers blamed on those owners’ tendency to use snacks not as training incentives but as “hygge candy,” to create an atmosphere of cozy conviviality. Pine martens were reintroduced to the Forest of Dean, and authorities in New South Wales were evacuating fish from the Darling River ahead of the austral summer. The completion of genomic sequencing for all living species of penguins was announced by the Penguin Genome Consortium, and anthropologists warned of dwindling genetic diversity among the long-legged chicken landraces of the Horn of Africa. The United States and Canada were found to have lost 29 percent of their bird populations since 1970. Eastern gray squirrels eavesdrop on birds.

Formerly inexplicable high global rates of gonorrhea can be explained by kissing, and H.I.V. resistance may be promoted by repeated vaginal exposure to semen. During sex, male honeybees inject queens with a toxin that temporarily blinds them, presumably to make it more dangerous for them to fly off and mate with other males. Some cancer cells eat one another to survive chemotherapy. Exosome therapy proved better than both retinol and stem cells at treating nude mice with sun-damaged skin. Darker male giraffes are less sociable. A researcher who found that wolves break their teeth more often when prey is scarce suggested that her findings would also apply to lions, tigers, and bears. British doctors reported a case of transient Brexit-induced psychosis. Impostor syndrome is more widespread than previously estimated. A meta-meta-analysis of autism studies showed that those diagnosed with the disorder were becoming increasingly hard to distinguish from the population at large. A species of tumbleweed has defied projections of its inevitable extinction and is now thriving. 32

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“Harper’s Index” is a registered trademark.

SOURCES: 1 Crown Media (Studio City, Calif.); 2 Sandvine (Fremont, Calif.); 3 National Association of Theatre Owners (Los Angeles); 4 Pollstar (Fresno, Calif.); 5,6 Digimarc (Beaverton, Ore.); 7,8 Google (Mountain View, Calif.); 9 Pew Research Center (Washington); 10 Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (Tallahassee, Fla.); 11,12 Merrill Lynch (NYC); 13,14 Thomas Shapiro, Brandeis University (Waltham, Mass.); 15 Jeffrey Selbin, University of California, Berkeley; 16 Chris Herring (Berkeley, Calif.); 17–19 International Network on Leave Policies & Research (Kobe, Japan); 20 Edelman Intelligence (NYC); 21,22 AARP (Washington); 23 Nadine Häusler, University of Lausanne (Switzerland); 24 Gallup (Washington); 25,26 Plant Based Food Association (Washington); 27 YouGov (NYC); 28 Consumer Reports (Westport, Conn.); 29,30 Beverage Marketing Corporation (NYC); 31,32 LMC Automotive (Detroit); 33 Ford Motor Company (Detroit); 34–36 Harper’s research; 37 Lisa A. Cuchara, Quinnipiac University (Hamden, Conn.); 38 Markus Egert, Hochschule Furtwangen University (Furtwangen im Schwarzwald, Germany); 39,40 Yelp (NYC).

18 | JANE MONHEIT

many ways, and I could do that all flipping afternoon. But I think what it comes down to is that in almost every case, they’re love songs. They’re all love songs, and so universal, and for everybody at every age. You feel “I Got it Bad, and That Ain’t Good” at 11 years of age, whether you deserve to or not, or whether you know what that means or not. I remember reading something in some Liza Minelli liner notes when I was younger and having an epiphany. I do believe in choosing the appropriate songs for the appropriate ages and that, as young people, we get a pass on that for a while, but I think that these songs are great because they’re all about love. How do you, having sung your share of blues, figure into the menu of song? It’s all Black American song, or Black influenced. It’s all there. You can’t be someone who’s in the world of Black American music and not be influenced by the blues. You came out around the same time as Claudia Acua, Katie Melua, and the somewhat poppier Norah Jones, but none of them have your elegance and ability to phrase in such a unique and stately fashion. Everyone went their own way. What do you recall most about your start? What moves did you make to further your art while staying true to who you are? My start was crazy. Really nuts. And I’ve been revisiting it a lot lately as I just judged the Sarah Vaughn Vocal Competition, which is run by the man who ran my first record label. My first manager just passed away. It’s the 20th anniversary of my first album, which we’ve been celebrating on the road. So, yes, that time has been coming up lately. This was before MySpace. We recorded my first album to tape. We did everything the old fashioned way. It’s so different for people now. Me? Then? I took steps to make my work the way I wanted it, where I refused to work with anyone who said anything about my looks or my weight. Bye-bye. You don’t deserve to be in my life. And then, everybody and their mothers were telling me I had to do pop covers. No. Please. Please just let me sing the songbook. It’s what I love. Let me do this. Let me carry this history forward. And unapologetically. Oh, yes. So now I only work with people who really know me and really love me for who I am. And they understand that I’m this looney tunes suburban mom who rescues senior Chihuahuas, likes to wear sequins, and sing the Great American Songbook. So now my life is exactly the way I want it, and it’s great. You mention some of the worst aspects, but what were the best challenges of that first album?

What was amazing is that you do all of your best learning on the bandstand. It was “The Bandstand of Life.” I had to learn how to put on a show. I knew how to play a gig in a restaurant where no one was listening. I had to learn how to entertain people. I had to learn how to navigate interviews when, at age 20, everyone wanted to find out some sort of dirt on me when there wasn’t any. I had to stand up in a recording studio next to greats such as Ron Carter, Kenny Barron, Bucky Pizzarelli, Louis Nash, and Joel Dorn—and deliver, and respect them, and know how to behave. It was crazy. I learned on that bandstand like you wouldn’t believe in the first year or two. I knew Joel Dorn. A great guy. What was your take on him? Oh, man. He was like a second dad to me. We were very close, and I miss him every single day. His son Adam lives not so far from me in Los Angeles, and we’ve been friends since then. Now that I produce other vocalists, I do them the way he produced mine. I let them be exactly who they are, frame what is best about them, bring out their strengths, and love what is great. I don’t say this is bad, or this is wrong— I find what is good and best and celebrate that. And not stress out, but rather have a good time. And, of course, to have the best possible band. Good vibes in the studio are a necessity. No assholes allowed. Pardon my French. Then again, Joel was never one to curb his language, so, in his honor, I will allow the a-word. From the first time anyone had something to say about me—the photographer, whomever—Joel was like, “No, kid. You’re great. Don’t listen to them. You’re good.” He talked to me like my own dad talks to me, and that resonated. He died when I was pregnant with my son. The fact that my son will never know Joel breaks my heart. The last time you were around these parts was for your Ella record. You said then that it wasn’t her voice or aesthetic that was an inspiration, but rather her warmth and charm. How do you quantify the influence of charm? I learned a lot from her aesthetically. If you listen to the way I construct a solo or how I improvise or the choices I make harmonically— it’s all out of Ella’s book. But that was everybody’s book. And that’s how she was in real life for those who knew her. It’s just something I can feel when listening to her or singing songs associated with her, or even just when I’m singing. It’s like singing a lullaby to a child you love or cuddling a puppy. It’s the warmth that radiates out of you toward someone else. That’s what I felt from her, and that’s how I feel when I sing. When I’m singing “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” I might as well be sitting in a basket full of kittens. n

22 | REEL NEWS

The Irishman (Director Martin Scorsese. Staring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci.) Microwave an extra bag or two of popcorn and spread out the dips and chips for this three and a half hour Superbowl saga by Netflix that chronicles decades of the seldom seen underbelly of organized crime. Told through the eyes and narration of aged and remorseless hitman Frank Sheeran (De Niro at his best since Goodfellas and Casino), we get the behind-thescenes tour of the mobbed-up era of the 1950– ’70s. The action centers around Sheeran’s role as the enforcer for Russell Bufalino (Pesci), a Philadelphia Mafia boss, and the time he spent as bodyguard and mob middleman for Jimmy Hoffa (Pachino). We follow Sheeran as he soldiers along faithfully and unquestioningly committing brutal atrocities as mundanely as a carpenter driving nails into wood all day. If the devil is in the details, Scorsese weaves a complex and compelling tapestry of intrigue with the devilish details of a morally moribund and corrupt culture that shaped much of the economics and politics of midcentury America. Yet the point of the movie is not to glorify the evil incarnate that wreaked havoc when big business and big politics teamed up with big crime. Scorsese brings all the ruthless acts down to a human scale by focusing on the mindset and emotions, or lack thereof, of the gangsters themselves, and the ultimate price they paid in their personal lives by selling their souls. (R)

HHHHH

An Elephant Sitting Still (Director Bo Hu. Starring Zhang Xiaolong, Yuchang Peng, Yu Zhang), Wang Yuwen). Bleak and morose, this four-hour exposé of human hopelessness chronicles a day in the life of four characters trapped in the mire of a dysfunctional society in a large Chinese city. The drama begins in a high school with a fight over a stolen cell phone. In the beat down, Wei Bu (Peng) seriously injures Yu Shuai (Xiaolong), whose gangster brother Yu Cheng (Yu Zhang) then vows revenge. But the stolen cell phone is only round one in a plot that circles endlessly around the immoveable elephant: the hidden agenda of overriding self-interest required to survive in a culture riddled with inequality, oppression, corruption, and despair. Every decision and every relationship, from family and friends to the top levels of government, is superseded by the me-first-at-any-sacrifice instinct. During the day-long slice of life, we see love affairs, suicides, shootings, brutal fights, and an elderly father forced out of his home by his adult children. This epic film, already regarded as a classic in social statement, was Bo Hu’s only feature. The hopeless, no-escape theme might be considered autobiographical since he committed suicide at age 29, the year the film was released. In Mandarin with subtitles. (NR) HHHH n

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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

INITIAL OFFERINGS By David Kwon

ACROSS

1 4 9 14 18 19 20 21 22 23 26 27 28 29 30 34 35 36 37

40 43 47 50 52 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 67 74 75 76 77 78 81 82 83 84 85 89 91 92 93 94 96 34

Extra NHL periods Official order Prefix suggesting savings Weightlifting units Like a nonexistent chance Provides an excuse Queen Amidala’s “Star Wars” home Rink move Christmas buy When the Commodore 64 computer was released Clean Air Act org. Eye drop Looks for prints Driveway hoops game World capital since 1931 Bart Simpson’s grandma One might be slipped California’s Santa __ River Character who said about her father, “Yet he hath ever but slenderly known himself” Amigo of Fidel Doctrines Tennis great Hood 1982 Physical Tour singer Corrida participant Bug Novel makeup Prey for a Hauskatze Starchy roots Card game shout “Cotton Candy” jazzman Defeat Low-pH stuff “Excuse me ... ” Son of Seth “Gigi” playwright Assures, as a win Cal Poly campus site, initially Zoo features “Beloved” novelist Morrison Lab dish eponym Give the chance to Word on a bill What a shutout lowers Place to get a lift Aspiring atty.’s exam Sushi roll wrap Camera move Ahead Personal quirk

98 102 104 110 112 114 115 116

Org. giving G’s and R’s Declines Capital near Siena College Stiller’s partner Lucas droid Quick reminder Hindu title Highest grossing movie of 1980, with “The” 120 X, at times 121 Cut out 122 Attach with twine 123 Unsettling looks 124 Bread grain 125 Living __ 126 Professional gps. 127 One of the vitals 128 With 87-Down, fairly DOWN

1 Insult 2 National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall site 3 Soda shop supply 4 Architect Saarinen 5 Alice’s cat 6 Andorra’s region 7 Op. __ 8 Half a fly 9 Ho-hum feeling 10 Type of salad 11 Parting words? 12 Quaffs with punch 13 Massage reaction 14 Ersatz silk 15 Tool for removing broken screws 16 Seats arranged in rows 17 Shrub with a purple fruit 19 Chip in a pot 24 Baseball Hall of Famer Roush 25 Beachwear for the immodest 31 Lowest multiple of CLI that fits in this space 32 Thunderstruck 33 Creator of the GOP elephant 34 “Death in Venice” author 38 Freudian topics 39 “Dilbert” cry 41 Subway fare? 42 God with a quiver 44 Drawing tools 45 First quarterback to exceed 5,000 passing yards in a season 46 Derisive sounds 48 Superfamily including gibbons

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49 Makes into law 51 German town 52 “Movin’ __”: ’70s-’80s sitcom theme song 53 “Smallville” character 54 Horror film helper 55 O.T. queen 56 Artful dodge 61 More under the influence 64 Soccer great Messi 65 Inverse trig function 66 Big name in tequila 68 Thinks 69 SpaceX CEO Musk 70 Nothing, in Nantes 71 Madonna’s “La __ Bonita” 72 Cassini of fashion 73 Reference book reference 78 Verge 79 “Lonely Boy” singer 80 Testing subject 81 Palm smartphone 82 World leader who’s a judo black belt 85 Long times 86 Pertinent 87 See 128-Across 88 Frost-covered 90 Kind of pneumonia 95 Benefactor 97 One of two in a crash 99 Recovery place 100 Overdue debt more commonly pluralized

101 103 105 106 107 108 109 110 111

Quite a bit like Shiny, in product names Butcher shop cuts __ choy Is closer to reaching Run the show Bowl-shaped pans “I’m ready to come in now” John’s first partner on American TV’s “The Avengers” 112 Clearance item caveat 113 Highways: Abbr. 117 Bus sched. letters 118 FRA neighbor, to the IOC 119 Onetime Beatle Sutcliffe Answer to December’s puzzle, PET SITTING

CALL FOR ARTISTS

The Phoenix Show: INNER VISIONS. A juried Exhibition, Doylestown. Submission Deadline Feb. 11, Opening March 7, $6,000 Cash prizes. Open to artists in the six adjacent counties to Bucks, including Allentown, Princeton & Philadelphia. phoenixshow.com ART

THRU 1/11/2020 Holiday Show, closing reception 1/11/2020, 6-9pm. Bethlehem House Gallery. 459 Main St., Bethlehem. 610-419-6262. Bethlehemhousegallery.com

THRU 1/12 Silverman Gallery of Bucks County Impressionist Art presents, exhibition featuring David Stier. Wed. - Sun. 11-6pm. 4920 York R., (Rte. 202), Buckingham Green Shopping Center, Holicong, PA. 215-794-4300. Silvermangallery.com

agenda

1/31 The 4th Annual Juried Show: HOME, 6-9pm. Bethlehem House Gallery. 459 Main St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-419-6262. Bethlehemhousegallery.com

DANCE

1/7-1/19 The Band’s Visit, a Tony Award-winning musical based on the award-winning Israeli film. Philadelphia. 215893-1999. kimmelcenter.org

MUSIC 1/19 Cathedral Arts presents, Anthony Leach and guest vocal artists. Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-865-0727. Nativitycathedral.org

THEATER

1/10 Comedy Pet Theater. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132. statetheatre.org

2/1 Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven & Sibelius. Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org

THRU 2/9/2020 Pigskin Peanuts. Explore the world of football through Charles M. Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip. Mercer Museum, 84 South Pine St., Doylestown, PA. 215345-0210. Mercermuseum.org

2/9 Chester County Chorale Vocal Chamber Ensemble. Cathedral Arts, Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem. 610-865-0727. Nativitycathedral.org

THRU 3/29/2020 Evolution of the Spiritual | Europe to America. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA. 610432-4333. AllentownArtMuseum.org

1/17–3/1/ Beverlee Lehr: Late Ceramic Wall Works. New Arts Program Gallery, 173 W. Main St., Kutztown, PA. FriSun 11–3:00. Reception 1/17, 6–9:00; talk 7:30. Private 1-hr conversations with Lehr 1/17&18 by appt. 610-683-6440. newartsprogram.org 1/19-5/3 Color & Complexity, 30 Years at Durham Press. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-4333. allentownartmuseum.org

1/25-26, 2/1-2 Pennsbury Art Majors 2020 Show. Creative works of young emerging artists. Opening reception 01/24, 68PM. Hours Jan 25-26 and Feb 1-2, 12–5. AOY Art Center, 949 Mirror Lake Road, Yardley PA. aoyartcenter.org

1/24 Bakithi Kumalo & The Graceland Tribute Band. Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. 610758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org

1/26 Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, “Winter Vivaldi”. Chamber ensemble with soloist Father Sean Duggan, piano. Works by Vivaldi, Bach, Telemann, Quantz. Wesley Church, 2540 Center St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-4347811. PASinfonia.org

THRU 2/8/2020 Heide Fasnacht, Past Imperfect. Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3467. Muhlenberg.edu

THRU 4/30/2020 Purseonality, A Stylish Handbag History, presented by Historic Bethlehem Museums & Sites. Showing at Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts and Moravian Museum of Bethlehem, PA. Tickets at 800-360TOUR. HistoricBethlehem.org

2/6-2/8 Master Choreographers. Muhlenberg College Theatre and Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-6643333. muhlenberg.edu/dance

2/15 Rennie Harris, Funkedified. Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org 1/16-1/17 STOMP. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132. statetheatre.org 1/25 The Hit Men. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 610-252-3132. statetheatre.org 2/7 Abba Mania. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 610-252-3132. statetheatre.org

2/9 RENT. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132. statetheatre.org

2/22 Manual Cinema presents No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks. Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton. 610-330-5009. Williamscenter.org

MUSIKFEST CAFÉ 101 Founders Way Bethlehem, PA 610-332-1300 Artsquest.org 1/4

1/16 1/18 1/24 1/26 2/5 2/18

Craig Thatcher Band: Clapton Retrospective Everyone Orchestra, Moe, Galactic & more Dry Humor: Standup for Recovery The Blues Brotherhood Tribute to the Blues Brothers Bob Mould The Dustbowl Revival Jake Shimabukuro

DINNER THEATER Every Thurs.-Sat., Dinner and a Show at SteelStacks, Bethlehem, PA. 5-10:00pm, table service and valet parking. For more information, menus and upcoming events visit SteelStacks.org

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