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contents
ART 6|
EXHIBITIONS
Winter Show
Bethlehem House Gallery Bethlehem, PA
Towers: Holding On Edwin J. Torres Photographs Artworks, Trenton, NJ
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The Creative Continuum New Hope Arts, New Hope, PA
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Jews and American Modernism, by David Stoller
Between 1905–1915, more than one million Jews immigrated to America. Among these were four artists who would one day be recognized as masters of 20th Century American modern art: Ben Shahn, Mark Rothko, Louise Nevelson, and Helen Frankenthaler. What explains the outsized contribution and influence of Jewish artists in America?
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215-862-9558 icondv.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com
City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman
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THE LIST
FILMS Benedetta Drive My Car Parallel Mothers The Worst Person in the World
The Prophet’s Wife by Libbie Grant 18 |
CLASSIC FILMS This month’s films are by: Director Peter Bogdanovich Targets They All Laughed Mask Daisy Miller
End State Maintenance by Bill Clinton
MUSIC In celebration of Black History Month Five Piano Sonatas George Walker, Steven Beck Buddy Collette in Concert - Live
Buddy Collette Dorothy Maynor in Concert Dorothy Maynor Arpad Sandor, piano
BOOKS Yonder by Jabari Asim
Trust the Plan by Will Sommer
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Since 1992
A THOUSAND WORDS
The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas by Andrea Canepari and Judith Goode
Helen Frankenthaler, Fiesta, 1973. Acrylic on paper, 22.25 x 30.25 in. ©Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc.
The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius.
Like a Big Pizza Pie
16 | ON THE COVER:
ICON
A one-time political science majorturned-author, Jabari Asim was the former editor in chief of The Crisis, before turning his skills to a series of non-fiction books. His newest fiction work, Yonder [Ed. see page 16], is a love letter shared between enslaved children in the 19th century who, after growing accustomed to the horrors of plantation life, must consider a future without slavery. Questions of what freedom looks like, let alone what one would and wouldn’t do to attain it become paramount.
Leontine Price Great Performances Leontyne Price & Samuel Barber Algonquin Cecil Taylor 26 |
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HARPER’S Findings Index
PUZZLE Washington Post Crossword
ADVERTISING Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net PRODUCTION Gabriel Juarez
Joanne Smythe CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
A.D. Amorosi Robert Beck Jack Byer
Jane Fawcett
Geoff Gehman
Susan Van Dongen Grigsby Mark Keresman Keith Uhlich
PO Box 120 New Hope 18938 215-862-9558 IReproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. ©2022 Primetime Publishing Co., Inc.
a thousand words
STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK
LIKE A BIG PIZZA PIE YOU HAVE TO LOVE the moon. I can’t get enough of it. The moon appears oddly all-present sailing slowly through the night sky. I’ve always felt it has a Victorian or Nouveau style to it, which I know is absurd, but if I found a moon Globe Lamp on a Tiffany-style base, I’d jump on it. Jules Verne must have had one. The elementary storyline is that we only see the side of the moon that faces us, and because it is larger than the viewer, we can’t quite see all of that half. In truth, we can see nearly 60% of the moon due to something called libration. The moon’s orbit around us is elliptical, like a stretched band. It slings out in one direction, comes back, and slings out in the other. When it does this, we get to see more of the leading portion as it comes and trailing portion as it goes. It also wobbles on its axis, which tilts toward us, providing an occasional peek at what is beyond the very top. The moon used to be closer to earth, and a lot warmer too, so over time gravitational forces produced an elongated shape. Front to back (away from us) is longer than the width of what faces us.
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exhibitions
Justin Helps Abuelo Get Dressed for Abuela’s Funeral, 11x17, Digital Photograph. 08-16-21, Lee Kaloides.
The Creative Continuum Laura Brady, 30”x 30” (detail)
New Hope Arts, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope. 215-862-9606 Newhopearts.org
Winter Show
Fri., Sat., Sun., 12–5. Masks required.
Bethlehem House Gallery 459 Main St., Bethlehem, PA 610-419-6262 BethlehemHouseGallery.com February 5–April 9 Opening Reception Feb. 5, 6-9pm Wed.–Thurs. 11–7, Fri.–Sat. 12–9, Sun. 12–5 The Winter Show features artists Khalil Allaik, Hazem Akil, Laura Brady, Shawn Campbell, Elaine Soltis and Ward Van Haute. Director and curator, Ward Van Haute, integrates scenography, grounding each gallery room into a unique interior space to highlight the use of fine art in the modern home.
Ward Van Haute, Stealing Poppy, oils on glass, 20 x 28
Elaine Soltis, Carrying a Greeen Lantern, mixed media, 36” x 25” 6
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Through February 28
Two Girls After Sunday Mass, 8x10, 35mm Black & White film..
Towers: Holding On Edwin J. Torres Photographs Artworks, 19 Everett Alley, Trenton, NJ Artworkstrenton.org February 1–26 Opening reception February 5, 6–8 On April 4, 2020, Nitza Magalay Garay, mother of Edwin Torres, passed away. It was early in the pandemic—too early to know the risks of undergoing an elective surgery or convalescing in a rehab facility in New York where COVID-19 would take many thousands of lives. Since that time, like many others, Edwin learned what so often is gained through grief: family is safety, stability, purpose. These are family photos—intimate moments caught on film of the people who loom large over Edwin’s life. Torres. Towers. Like you, I am an outsider invited to observe. These are the photos he has chosen to show us to preserve the memory of his family. They are honest moments—the kind that take root in our foundation and form a family’s history. I study the subjects to better know the artist: their faces, expressions, posture, surroundings. Their story is one of courage, migration, loss, joy, pain, perseverance, and triumph. It is set in Puerto Rico and the Bronx, NY. They are strong, full of life, flawed, but admirable. This project is dedicated to them, and to the memory of Edwin’s mother, Nitza.
The Creative Continuum is an Invitational Exhibition and celebrates the creative spark that motivates an artist. It features twelve lifelong art-makers and their work. New Hope Arts’ 20th anniversary season begins by honoring master teachers through February 28. Art is a tool for sharing, helping, guiding and revealing unconscious motivation in the hands of teachers who use metaphor, theme and storytelling, as well as technique and formal elements, contributing to the “creative continuum.” Recent sculptural works of Guy Ciarcia, most created during the past 20 months of Covid isolation, are the centerpiece for painting, photography and assemblage works by likeminded artists.
Susanne Pitak Davis, Mescalito's Vision (detail)
art
DAVID STOLLER
JEWS & AMERICAN MODERNISM Art Lectures in New Hope IN THE DECADE BETWEEN 1905–1915, more than one million Jews immigrated to America. Among these were families of four artists who would one day be recognized as masters of 20th Century American modern art: Ben Shahn, Mark Rothko, Louise Nevelson, and Helen Frankenthaler. Shahn would become one of the country’s most celebrated artists in the ’30s and ’40s, and the leading proponent of “Social Realism.” Rothko’s rich rectangular fields of color would mark him a leader in Abstract Expressionism. Nevelson became famous for her monumental wall pieces and outdoor sculpture (leading generations of women into a province previously reserved for men) and use of found materials. And at age 24, Frankenthaler became the leading exponent of color field painting and, as one of her fellow artists observed, “The bridge between [Jackson] Pollack and what was possible”. These four are representative of an extraordinary group of Jewish artists that led the way into American modernism, including Newman, Gottlieb, Guston, Krasner, Shapiro, Rivers, Steinberg, and many others. What explains the outsized contribution and influence of Jewish artists in America? They were disproportionately fewer in number, unfamiliar with the language and culture (nearly all Yiddish speaking), and they lacked claim of any artistic heritage. Driven by their ambitions and outsider status, they embraced the chance to make their mark as individuals; inclined to an inwardness cultivated over generations of dispossession, they pushed themselves to extraordinary emotional depths. Shahn, Rothko, Nevelson and Frankenthaler played a frontline role in American art, and it is impossible to disentangle their Jewish identities from their work. Kehilat Hanahar, New Hope’s Jewish Reconstructionist Synagogue, is presenting three lectures on Zoom by David Stoller, covering the story of these four remarkable artists, on successive Sundays: February 13, 20, and 27, at 1:00. The public is invited. Please register at littleshul@kehilathanahar.org for more details on these and other cultural and educational programs offered by the synagogue. n
Helen Frankenthaler works on an abstract expressionist painting in her studio. NYC, 1957. © Burt Glinn, Magnum Photos
Rothko in his West 53rd Street studio, painting what may have been a version of Untitled, 1952–1953. Photo by Henry Elkan, c.1953. Courtesy of Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao)
Mark Rothko, Orange, Red, Yellow, 1956.
Helen Frankenthaler, Jacob’s Ladder, 1957. ICON | FEBRUARY 2022 | ICONDV.COM
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the list
VALLEY
CITY
Kuali is Malay for wok, a cooking bowl that welcomes high heat and spicy stir fries. Jenny’s Kuali is a communal melting pot, a family restaurant for all sorts of families, the beating heart of South Bethlehem’s culinary United Nations. Jenny and Roy Kim, who grew up in Butterworth, Malaysia, serve feisty, fragrant, fine food: Chinese eggplant; mango shrimp; pineapple fried rice; noodle soup with Chinese greens and chili sauce; huge, hearty pork dumplings that satisfy to the marrow. The staffers, which have included the Kims’ children Ka Seng and Mei Yi, make me feel at home whether I’m eating solo, duo or in a birthday-party sextet. My late English mother loved the place, partly because Jenny treated her like a queen. When Mom was hospitalized with the flu, my sister and I ordered Jenny’s takeout to cheer and charge her up. We knew she was on the road to recovery when she laughed, in spite of herself, at a fortune cookie insisting “It’s not the end yet. Let’s stay with it.” (102 E. 4th St., Bethlehem; 610-758-8088; jennyskuali.com; BYOB)
Because February is both Black History Month and Valentine’s Month, I would not dare be so bold as to tell you how to serve and how to love, be it communally or personally. All I can ask you to do is make certain that you do.
The Valley’s liveliest facade has long belonged to the Roxy Theatre’s marquee. More than 700 colored bulbs flash, chase and create a grinning glow that makes the crappiest weather happy. Behind the marquee, which somehow resembles a Native American headdress, is a century-old venue slowly and carefully restored to Art Deco glory. Second-run films come with first-rate prices ($3 tickets; $3.50 large popcorn) and effects (a synchronized light-and-curtain show; a Wurlitzer organ that entertained roller skaters). Owner/operator Richard C. Wolfe is an expert on historic atmospherics; as a teen he worked at the Boyd Theater in Easton, a long-demolished plaster palace with a twinkling constellation on the ceiling and a Mediterranean village on the side walls. At the Roxy he’s preserved the sparkling spark of a house that presented vaudeville, Wild West shows and concerts by the likes of John Belushi and KISS. Billy Joel credits exuberant Roxy fans with boosting his stagnant career. During a 1973 gig they refused to let him leave the stage until he had played his catalog plus tunes by Elton John, his future touring mate. Sixteen years later my father and I bonded over “Field of Dreams,” tearing up and squeezing hands as a quixotic farmer played catch with his ghost dad. (2004 Main St., Northampton; 610-262-7699; roxynorthampton.com) Neighbored by a chain pizza joint, the Compact Disc Center offers plenty of pies and toppings. A cornerstone since 1989, the store sells a
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—GEOFF GEHMAN 8
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Now through March Deconstructing Bowie: Freedom in Eccentricity National Liberty Museum. A truncated-due-to-Omicron Philly Bowie Week cleverly shifted its activities with the pandemic variant’s rush, but left us with this literally and figuratively dazzling art and fashion exhibition focusing on Philadelphia favorite David Bowie’s iconic role as “social disruptor and rebel, through work inspired by his music, art and fashion.” Not only is the look-see worth your time—all of its star-dusted creations on display will be for sale, benefiting the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. February 5–May 1 Tattoo: Identity Through Ink American Swedish Historical Museum. The last time I was in the wilds of South Philadelphia’s “lakes,” it was for the outdoor, grassy knollish Philadelphia Flower Show. It was then that I realized how gorgeous the American Swedish Historical Museum was, so that alone makes this trip into tattoos and modern-day tribalism fascinating. “From indigenous cultures to today’s athletes and celebrities,” the identity exhibition looks at the last 150 years of tattooing in the U.S while additionally celebrating Swedes’ skills: artists like Norwegian Johan Frederik Knudsen and Norwegian-American Amund Dietzel and the question of whether or not Vikings had tattoos. I don’t recall asking, but I’ll bite. Plus, this starts right before the Philadelphia Tattoo Festival, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center (February 22-27) where Philly, Jersey and nationally renowned tattoo artists hang for a weekend of inking and like-minded entertainment. Plenty of sideshow acts and burlesque, too. February 9—22 Hadestown Academy of Music. Pop-edged folkie Anais Mitchell had been working the usual record-tour cycle when she came upon the idea of Hell on Earth with a Dylan-Joni-esque kink. Voila. Hadestown. Broadway. A rustic elec-
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—A.D. AMOROSI
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KEITH UHLICH
Parallwl Mothers.
film roundup
Benedetta (Dir. Paul Verhoeven). Starring: Virginie Efira, Charlotte Rampling, Daphne Patakia. Paul Showgirls Verhoeven directing a nunsploitation movie? That’s a match made in heaven. Or hell. Virginie Efira stars as a 17thcentury novice prone to religious visions that revolve around a Fabio-like Jesus. These lurid reveries (equal parts Roberto Rossellini historical and late-night softcore) make her a thorn in the side to her abbess (Rampling), as well as an object of mutual lust to a feral woman (Patakia) to whom her convent gives refuge. Plague runs through the land, a blood moon occasions a murder-suicide, and a dildo gets carved out of a Virgin Mary statuette, among other blasphemies. You could call all this par for the course with Verhoeven, but he orchestrates the ecclesiastical chaos with a master’s touch, especially once Lambert Wilson arrives as a seethingly hypocritical nonce longing to burn Benedetta at the stake. [N/R] HHH1/2 10
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Drive My Car (Dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi). Starring: Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima. Japan’s Ryûsuke Hamaguchi has been making waves on the festival circuit for a while now. Drive My Car, his adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story, is proving to be a breakthrough. Hidetoshi Nishijima plays Yûsuke, a theater director who believes himself to be happily married. For the film’s first forty minutes, that theory is tested…and only then do the opening credits roll and the main story begin. In the aftermath of a personal tragedy, Yusuke travels to Hiroshima where he plans to direct a production of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya. While there, he befriends his female driver (Tôko Miura), who slowly helps him open up to his grief. The drama is low-key to a fault, though there isn’t a moment when Hamaguchi’s directorial hand wavers; see the extended conversation between Yûsuke and his hothead of a lead actor for an example of how
to make a subdued conversation unbearably tense. Perhaps it is that sense of total control, though, that leaves the film feeling somewhat cold and clinical overall. [N/R] HHH1/2 Parallel Mothers (Dir. Pedro Almodóvar). Starring: Penélope Cruz, Milena Smit, Rossy de Palma. Melodrama becomes the Spanish writer-director Pedro Almodóvar, something particularly evident in his latest feature, Parallel Mothers, about a pair of women, photographer Janis (Penélope Cruz) and waitress Ana (Milena Smit), who give birth on the same day…with complications. The central twist (not to be spoiled here) is as hoary as they come. Yet Almodóvar uses it as a pretext to bring the women closer together, and to excavate his characters’ innermost longings and desires—some of them so transgressive that
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classic films
Mask.
KEITH UHLICH
Films by Director Peter Bogdanovich (1939–2022) Targets (1968) The recent death of Peter Bogdanovich is a supreme loss for movie culture. Not only a pre-eminent Old Hollywood cinephile and critic, he was also a major director in his own right, though the acclaim tends to be limited to the three-film run of The Last Picture Show (1971), What’s Up, Doc? (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). Here we’ll sing the praises of four other Bogdanovich films that equally deserve the term classic. Begin with his 1968 debut, Targets, which came about in large part because Boris Karloff (cinema’s original Frankenstein) owed producer Roger Corman two days work. Karloff plays aged horror movie star Byron Orlok, who is reluctantly roped into appearing at a drive-in screening of one of his movies. In a separate, no-less compelling thread, Vietnam veteran Bobby Thompson (Tim O’Kelly) murders his family and goes on a shooting spree, eventually ending up at the same drive-in as Orlok. A showdown between real-life violence and cinematic wish-fulfillment ensues, and the truly chilling thing about the picture is that neither perspective entirely triumphs. This is a smashing debut and something of a tonal outlier in Bogdanovich’s career. (Streaming on Amazon Prime.) They All Laughed (1981) The release of Bogdanovich’s modern, NYC-set romance was marred by the murder 12
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of his then-lover Dorothy Stratten, one of this film’s ace ensemble that also includes Ben Gazzara, Audrey Hepburn, and John Ritter. They All Laughed marries the fantasia of an Old Hollywood screwball to a gritty East Coast realism, tracking via a madcap private-eye narrative several pairings of prospective romantic partners across the 1981 Big Apple. Its wild energy is infectious, as is its time capsule portrait of a city soon to have some of its edges permanently sanded. The real-life air of tragedy that hangs over the proceedings only deepens the aura of regret while not at all mitigating the profound sense of play. Among a grab-bag of highlights, nothing tops Gazzara’s throwaway line to Hepburn in a toy store (“Puzzles, puzzles”), which captures the myriad bemusements of the heart in a phrase. (Available via Amazon.) Mask (1985) After They All Laughed bankrupted Bogdanovich, he pivoted to what, in many hands, would be a shallowly crowd-pleasing tale of an outcast living life to the fullest. Mask—based on the true story of Rocky Dennis, a teenager with a facial deformity known as lionitis—was indeed a hit, though Bogdanovich brings his own Old Hollywood-inspired depths and concerns to the tale, specifically in the John Fordlike portrayal of the biker community that acts as a second-family to Rocky (Eric Stoltz). His actual blood relations are limited to his
freewheeling mother, Rusty, whose portrayal by Cher garnered her a Best Actress award at Cannes and should be included in any pantheon of onscreen matriarchs. (This despite the fact that Bogdanovich and Cher got along like oil and water on set.) Mask is a tearjerker that earns every lachrymal drop, and it has fortunately been reissued on home video in Bogdanovich’s original cut, with seven excised minutes and the soundtrack of Bruce Springsteen songs (replaced hastily in the theatrical release by Bob Seger needle drops) reinstated. (Available via Amazon.) Daisy Miller (1974) Bogdanovich’s adaptation of Henry James’ novella about a doomed 19th-century socialite was heavily criticized for the title performance by Cybill Shepherd (Bogdanovich’s thengirlfriend). Her relentlessly bubbly demeanor is exhausting at best, irritating at worst, but quite on point to James’ satire of upper-crust social niceties. Daisy runs roughshod through anything customary, and this both repels and attracts the handsome young expatriate, Frederick Winterbourne (Barry Brown), who falls for her. Much of the movie is a screwball comedy of manners done in a kind of costumedrama drag. Bogdanovich maintains the unflagging energy right up until the devastating finale, when illness intrudes and the movie’s breezy lightness takes on the weight of grand tragedy. (Streaming on Amazon Prime.) n
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interview
A.D. AMOROSI
Into the Wild, Yonder With
Jabari Asim
ANY MONTH IS A great month to read the detailed, conscious work of author, poet, playwright, and associate professor of writing, literature, and publishing at Emerson College Jabari Asim. A one-time political science majorturned-author, Asim was the former editor in chief of The Crisis, before turning his skills to a series of non-fiction books (Not Guilty: Twelve Black Men Speak Out on the Law, Justice, and Life; The N Word: Who Can Say It, Who Shouldn’t and Why; and We Can’t Breathe: On Black Lives, White Lies, and the Art of Survival), poetry (Stop and Frisk: American Poems) and live theater pieces (Brother Nat: Rise Revolt Redemption—a sung-through musical/opera). Along with theater, I became aware of Asim’s writing through his vividly honest portrayal of social justice initiatives for kids in his children’s books. There are 14 so far, including his most recent book, Mighty Justice, and his fiction, richly explosive magical reality works such as A Taste of Honey: Stories and Only the Strong. His newest work, Yonder [Ed. see page 16], is a love letter shared between enslaved children in the 19th century who, after growing accustomed to the horrors of plantation life, must consider a future without slavery. Questions of what freedom looks like, let alone what one would and wouldn’t do to attain it become paramount. To celebrate his new Yonder, and focus on Black history, I spoke with the eminently thoughtful and thought-provoking Jabari Asim. I want to draw a line between all of your work, to connect some dots, those marking your fiction and nonfiction, your theater pieces, and your poetry, up through your new novel, “Yonder.” What’s the through-line that drives you? 14
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I don’t believe that I can reduce it to just one. When it comes to nonfiction, at least for adults, there’s an interest in social justice, arguing on behalf of the full spectrum of humanity for Black people. For my fiction, the through-line is romantic love. In particular, in real life, I’m interested in how couples come together. That’s funny. In my mind, so many writers use love as a concept in a very broad sense. You seem as if there is something pointed, poignant, and specific about your vision of why love and romance matter. Before I even thought about writing or having a life as a creative artist of any type, I was curious about this. I’m that guy who, when he meets a couple, has to ask them how they met and the circumstances. You know those wedding columns or pages in newspapers that describe the nuptials and the connection between each person in a couple? I always read them. I love those stories. So when I did commit to a life of writing, I knew that interest of mine would come out. Couples who want to be together but with obstacles in their way to make the relationship work are of particular interest. I want to get back to how romantic couples with obstacles before them affect your new novel, “Yonder,” but I have a question about embracing the topic of social justice. With your wealth of children’s books, within several of them, there’s a dedication to questions of what is justice and social truth when it comes to Black youth. Young minds are flourishing minds. What does it mean to impart that knowledge to children, and how does it differ from kids to adults? That’s interesting. In many respects, it’s more challenging, especially in the editing process. The challenge is that you want to tell the truth, but you don’t want to overwhelm
or depress children so that they drop the book and walk away. At the outset, when I’m working with my editors, we’re always talking about this. In A Child’s Guide to African American History, I knew that we had obligations to be frank, thorough, and as historically complete as we could, but I didn’t want kids to run away screaming. I count on my editors to reign me in if necessary, sound a cautionary note, or rephrase things. It’s a very fine line. You want to tell a full story, but you also want to entertain them, hook them in a way that they’re not only committed to reading your book but to reading in general. You’re a multidisciplinary artist. How did you land on writing, and how does your inner voice decide what goes where: What’s poetry? What’s theater? How I got there was in college. I was spending all of my spare time on literature courses; I was drawn to it. A light bulb went off—it was what I loved most. In terms of how and what I know, where it will land, or what form it will be, I don’t always know. I just revisit these things a lot, and the form it’s meant to take will emerge. Tell me how you developed and staged your “Nat Turner” musical opera/concert piece. Back when I lived in St. Louis, my wife and I had a very small, bare-bones theater company where we created and staged our concepts. An overwhelming percentage of these pieces were musicals. We both love musicals and always have that form in our imaginations. We watched more than a few locally staged operas in Boston, so that was in the back of our minds. Back in 2018, my wife and I wrote the book and lyrics, and we brought in a composer for a children’s musical that we did in an arts festival in Boston, while at the same time working on a story on
leaving one life for anTHERE ARE generations of
“THERE ARE A LoT oF ‘WHAT IFS’ ABouT Nat Turner, the slave-rebel of whom we were fascinated. After getting several grants, we worked on the book and eventually got involved with composer Melissa Jones and staged a concert version. We would love to do a fully staged, fully costumed version, hoping for a more elaborate form.
wanted a page-turner, one that never slows down. I was very conscious of keeping the story moving. “I always write with my ancestors looking over my shoulder,” you wrote in “Yonder,” where magical reality sits next to that action we discussed. What connects the history in “Yonder” to your history? I was that nerdy kid who asked tons of questions of my grandparents. I wanted to know about everyone who came before them, about aunts and uncles who had died before I ever got to know them. I’m fascinated by the past, that ancestors can interact in your life. I write with photos of my ancestors on my desk while doing this. I’m looking at them now. In my fiction, they interact with the present day, especially ancestral women who intervene.
other THAT MAy BE EvEN WoRSE. Black people who say THAT THEy WouLD NoT HAvE STooD FoR SLAvERy, that they would have fought back or run. IT’S vERy easy for us to impose that judgment oN PEoPLE WHo lived in circumstances not our own oR NoT oF THIS PRESENT.”
In “Yonder” you tell a dynamic, historically significant, romantic story, emotionally. Beyond that, however, you tell it cinematically, and you can feel the action unfolding through every page, from start to finish. A.D., you’re the third person who’s told me that this week. I didn’t envision it this way. That said, I have a friend whose ambition is to write literary fiction that moves, that has deep action. That’s it. I
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books
Yonder by Jabari Asim Simon & Schuster, $27 They call themselves the Stolen. Their owners call them captives. They’re taught their captors’ tongues and beliefs but have a language and rituals all their own. In a world that would be allegorical if it weren’t saturated in harsh truths, Cato and William meet at Placid Hall, a plantation in the American South. Subject to the whims of their tyrannical and eccentric captor, Cannonball Greene, they never know what harm may befall them: inhumane physical toil in the quarry by day, a beating by night, or the sale of a loved one at any moment. It’s that cruel practice—the wanton destruction of love, the belief that Black people aren’t even capable of loving—that hurts the most. It hurts the reserved and stubborn William, who finds himself falling for Margaret, a small but mighty woman with selfpossession beyond her years. And it hurts Cato, whose first love, Iris, was sold off with no forewarning. He now finds solace in his hearty band of friends, including William, who is like a brother; Margaret; Little Zander; and Milton, a gifted artist. There is also Pandora, with thick braids and long limbs, whose beauty calls to him. Their relationships begin to fray when a visiting minister with a mysterious past starts to fill their heads with ideas about independence. He tells them that with freedom comes the right to choose the small things—when to dine, when to begin and end work—as well as the big things, such as whom and how to love. In an elegant work of monumental imagination, Jabari Asim presents a beautiful, powerful, and elegiac novel that examines intimacy and longing in the quarters while asking a vital question: What would happen if an enslaved person risked everything for love? The Italian Legacy in Philadelphia: History, Culture, People, and Ideas by Andrea Canepari and Judith Goode Temple University Press, $50 Italian arts and culture have been a significant influence on Philadelphia dating back to Thomas Jefferson and colonial times. Throughout the ensuing decades, Italian art and architecture styles flourished, and wealthy Philadelphians traveled to Italy and
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brought back objects to display in emerging institutions of art and culture. New immigrants formed neighborhoods, and Italian business leaders, politicians, artists, musicians and sports figures came to prominence and became part of the social fabric of the city. This glorious volume celebrates the history, impact, and legacy of this vibrant community, tracing four periods of key transformation in the city’s political, economic, and social structures. Essays, along with nearly 250 gorgeous images, it explores everyday cultural practices, memories, and traditions that became part of American culture, a legacy that thrives in contemporary Philadelphia. Trust the Plan by Will Sommer Harper, $28.99 Over the last year, as the Covid-19 pandemic spread worldwide, so too did the proTrump cabal known as QAnon. What began as a fringe online conspiracy in the mid- 2000s is now embraced by millions of Americans across the country including new members of Congress and the thousands of Trump followers, armed with guns and a variety of makeshift weapons, who attacked the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, searching for lawmakers including the Vice President, shouting “hang Mike Pence.” Following internet clues from a mysterious figure named “Q”—who has claimed to be a high-level government insider with a Qlevel clearance—QAnon adherents, fueled by paranoia and hatred of the left, believe that Donald Trump has been anointed by God to stop evil Democrats who sexually abuse, kill, and eat children; that Trump won the 2020 election and will soon order mass executions of Democrats, including Hillary Clinton, the Obamas, George Soros, and many others. While in office, Trump praised QAnon believers, invited them to the White House, and retweeted their crazed messages on a neardaily basis. Though he is gone, the threat of widespread violence from his acolytes—”the
Storm is coming”—remains high. What can we do about Q’s growing platform? Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer has been reporting on the QAnon conspiracy for years and has been targeted by the group. In this book, he explains the genesis of QAnon, his experience covering its members online and in the real world, Q’s lies and how they’re spread, how Q has overshadowed politics, and what the nation must do to address this growing danger. End State Maintenance by Bill Clinton [editor’s note: not that one.] Palmetto Publishing, $22.99 You didn't know what this book was about until it was done. It’s about time and chance and choices. You improvised it all. You’re drinking wine. Red. Enjoying music. Blue. Maybe some more wine. You’re daydreaming. An idea dances around in your head. You follow it. More wine, more music. You begin to improvise a narrative on the idea. You conjure up some characters to live the story. More wine—who’s counting? You start upbeat, comical, absurd; then some sadness. Life is not all fun and games, you say. You struggle, and always hope. You rule your world and you’re having a great time making it up. But how do you get out of here? Okay, enough wine. You can’t end the story until you stop improvising. Literature is tough work you say as you adjust the couch pillows. You’ve got it! The perfect conclusion. You fall asleep, wake up, finish the wine and write it all down. There you go. This is an enchanting, clever, sometimes humorous, always intriguing book. City of the Dead by Jonathan Kellerman Ballantine Books, $28.99 Los Angeles is a city of sunlight, celebrity, and possibility. The L.A. often experienced by Homicide Lt. Detective Milo Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware, is a city of the dead. One morning, they find themselves in a neighborhood of pretty houses, pretty cars, and pretty people. The scene they encounter
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music
IN CELEBRATION OF BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Five Piano Sonatas George Walker, Steven Beck Bridge A sequence of piano sonatas offers one of the most direct looks into a composer’s most private and most practical obsessions, not to mention one easy way to measure the evolution (or lack of evolution) of their compositional techniques. Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert turned them out by the dozen. The romantics were more cautious, with Chopin, Brahms, Schumann writing only three each. In the 20th century, certain Russians regained ground in terms of sheer numbers, such as Mednter (14), Scriabin (10), Prokofiev (9) and Ustvolskaya (6). As for some prominent Americans, Copland, Carter and Barber wrote one, Ives wrote two, Sessions three and Wuorinen four. George Walker is one of the few leading American composers of the 20th century to produce as many as five piano sonatas. Taken together, they securely chart a lifetime of stylistic change. Walker was the first black person to break through various glass ceilings: the first to be accepted at the Curtis Institute of Music, first to study with Nadia Boulanger and the first to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Walker is also one of the only major composer-pianists to have recorded worthy performances of virtuoso standard repertoire including Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto and the Brahms second piano concerto. Buddy Collette in Concert - Live
Buddy Collette Bridge A fluent multi-instrumentalist, and the composer of everything from TV jingles to chamber music to jamsession staples, Buddy Collette has tended to be a victim of his own versatility. But The Buddy Collette Big Band in Concert, which captures a 1996 performance in Washington, D.C., is probably his best calling card to date. For one thing, it demonstrates that the 75-year-old leader remains in fine form on the tenor sax, clarinet, and (especially) flute—check out his nuanced reading of “Blues in Torrance,” and the 18
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way his ebullient solo keeps bumping up against the tune’s descending harmonies. What’s more, the disk showcases Collette’s compositional gifts. He’s concocted some rousing vehicles for his 19-piece band, and the bright, brassy arrangements on “Andre” and “Blues Number Four” suggest late-period Basie, alternating catchy riffing with piquant solo voices. Among the latter, Garnett Brown delivers some attractively gutbucket trombone, while saxophonist Louis Taylor comes out swinging on “Magali.” There’s also a guest appearance by the leader’s old comrade-inarms Chico Hamilton, who drives the ensemble through a heated version of “Buddy Boo.” But despite his aversion to hogging the spotlight, this is clearly Collette’s show—and it’s about time, isn’t it? —James Marcus Dorothy Maynor in Concert Dorothy Maynor, Arpad Sandor, piano Bridge The release of this newly re-mastered 1940 recital by the great Dorothy Maynor is cause for celebration. Historian Rosalyn M. Story writes, “In the history of American singers, Dorothy Maynor stands out as an artist endowed with the power to exalt, to transport the hearer above the realm of the ordinary and beyond the limits of normal expectation.” A discovery of Serge Koussevitzky, who called her, “a musical revelation,” Maynor quickly established herself as one of the great talents of the era. This recital program contains riveting interpretations of songs and arias from the German and French and American repertoire. Maynor’s last group, and her encores focus on Negro spirituals. Writing in the Washington Post, Paul Hume called Maynor’s voice, “a starspangled glory; its effortless beauty haunted audiences that came to love the singer as much as the song.” It was that kind of communication that endeared Maynor to audiences, and made her one of her country’s greatest singers. Leontine Price, Great Performances Leontyne Price and Samuel Barber Bridge This award-winning disc compiles two live performances featuring Leontyne Price and Samuel Barber. The 1953 recording features
the spectacular 26-year-old Leontyne Price, accompanied by Samuel Barber at the Library of Congress. The duo’s entire recital is issued complete for the first time. In this recital Ms. Price and Mr. Barber give the world premiere performance of Barber’s “Hermit Songs,” and perform Henri Sauguet’s “La Voyante” (The Fortune Teller) and other songs by Barber, Poulenc and Fauré. The remarkable 1938 recording, released to the public for the first time, gives us the 28-year-old baritone, Samuel Barber in 12 songs, accompanying himself at the piano. This rare recording reveals Barber as a performer of uncommonly deep communicative power. The 1938 recording (issued in cooperation with Mr. Barber’s estate and the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia) includes folk songs from England, America, the Tyrol and Tuscany as well as lieder by Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, C.P.E Bach and Schubert. Algonquin Cecil Taylor Bridge The visionary piano virtuoso Cecil Taylor was commissioned by the Library of Congress to write a work for violin and piano in 1999. The result was Algonquin—an intensely joyful dialogue between violinist Mat Maneri and Taylor. Taylor’s score bridges the gap between jazz and classical music–between improvisation and notated music. As annotator Bill Shoemaker writes: “A Taylor score opens a moment of intense creativity, but only for that moment; afterwards, the score is merely part of the record, fodder for the files. What endures in Taylor’s music defies notation, conventional or otherwise. It begs the question: Is a score that is little more than an outline, and designed only for a single use, as legitimate as one where all aspects of performance are specified, and has been repeatedly performed over for years, decades and even centuries? Given the exhilarating energy conveyed through this recording, the answer is surely yes.” n
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15 JABARI ASIM
Your five main characters in “Yonder” go through harrowing, unforgiving beginnings to get to a fulfilling finale. Part of the most horrific circumstances— I knew that at some point, my story would revolve around the question of “How do we get out of this?” I had to establish what this is before I could create the puzzle to get them out of harm’s way so that the reader could appreciate all that was at stake. There are five narrators: two couples and an itinerate minister named Ransom. At first, I was going to have it be just one of the main antagonist’s stories, his narration through the entire story, but as his partner had her own version of events, her story emerged, and the need for her to tell her tale. Multiple narrators is a much trickier proposition, but I figured what the heck? From there, the challenge was to make them vastly different, present them with wildly different circumstances and life experiences, and make them complementary personalities. One character may be brave but not so reflective, while another is his opposite, even spiritual. I thought it would be interesting to have people who love each other have that challenge between them. Disrupting security to find freedom, even when that security is sad, horrific, and wrong, is at the heart of “Yonder.” Freedom is the goal for everyone. What was the challenge in writing what freedom looks like? Each character has their own needs and their own goals, as well as an eye on what each of them is giving up to attain those goals. There’s something pragmatic at work for some of the characters, as this isn’t the best life, but the hurdle becomes the unknown, not knowing what else is out there. There are a lot of ‘what ifs’ about leaving one life for another that may be even worse. I wanted each character to discuss the understanding and the risks of where they were and where they might be going. There are generations of Black people who say that they would not have stood for slavery, that they would have fought back or run. It’s very easy for us to impose that judgment on people who lived in circumstances not our own or not of this present. But we could hardly imagine all of what they had to go through to arrive at the decisions they made for themselves or their families. People don’t consider blood relations, parents, children, and partners. Leaving loved ones behind is no simple task. n 20
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8 THE LIST / CITY
tric musical that won many a Tony and is now just down the block from where you live. February 18 ZOPA Kung Fu Necktie. Whether you know well the rhythm or rhyme of the New York City avant-indie rock trio, ZOPA, and its just-released debut album La Dolce Vita, is less of a problem once you get that its centerpiece is Michael Imperioli. The actor was forever a part of NYC’s underground arts scene at the top of the 1980s, Photo: Andrzej Liguz. which meant working in the close quarters of theater and music tied together as one. While ZOPA’s Elijah Amitin and Olmo Tighe made their way, solely through song, Imperoli became a “Goodfella,” a “Soprano”, and, most recently a tourist in HBO’s White Lotus season two, before doubling back to the trio, its single “In Pink,” and now, their full length. Plus, Kung Fu Necktie!?! Two yesses at once. February 18–September: Harry Potter: The Exhibition The Franklin Institute Along with The Cauldron Bar opening in Midtown Village/the Gayborhood, J. K. Rowling’s boldest creation (beyond the flight of fancy that is her weird personal opinion about identity) gets a comprehensive, immersive, interactive exhibition into all aspects of the Wizarding World, the Harry Potter series, and the Fantastic Beasts prequels. Not only does this sound very cute, it will also take a whole hell of a lot less time than those many books and that series of three hour+ movies. February 22–27 Beautiful: The Carole King Musical Kimmel Cultural Campus After the January 2022 passing of Ronnie Spector, the need to revive the vibe of what Carole King, Barry Mann, Gerry Goffin, Cynthia Weil, Neil Sedaka and Neil Diamond built and made classic is more necessary than ever. One problem: how do you do this without celebrating the truly heinous producer and songwriter Phil Spector who built that world with King, and formed a Wall of Sound around The Ronnettes, Darlene Love and others with King, Goffin, Mann and Weil’s help? Sorry to throw a damper on a fun evening out at the theater, but this is pop’s great conundrum all wrapped up in a not-so-neat bow. n
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WHERE TO FIND ICON ALLENTOWN Allentown Art Musuem Baum School of Art Blick Art Civic Theatre Crown Supermarket Da Vinci Center Fegley’s Brew Works Lehigh Valley Chamber Hava Java Jewish Community Center Johnny Bagels Miller Symphony Hall Primo Cafe & Gelato Starbucks Venny’s Pizza Weis Food Market
BETHLEHEM Ahart’s Market Azar Supermarket Banana Factory/ArtsQuest Bethlehem Brew Works Bethlehem Library BOX: Bethlehem House Gallery Cafe the Lodge Compact Disc Center Crown Supermarket Déja Brew Coffeehouse Designer Consigner Donegal Square Godfrey Daniels Hotel Bethlehem Johnny’s Bagels & Deli 1 Johnny’s Bagels & Deli 2 Latin Cruise Lore Salon L.V. Convention Center Mama Nin Rocecheria Menchies Moravian Book Store PBS Channel 39 Redner’s Warehouse Market Saxby’s Shoprite Snow Goose Gallery The Bagel Basket The Café The Cup/Lehigh University The Flying Egg Boutique Diner Valley Farm Market WDIY FM Lehigh Valley Wegman’s Supermarket Weis Market Wise Bean Zoellner Arts Center
CENTER VALLEY DeSales Performing Art Center 22
EASTON 3rd Street Alliance Buck Hall (performing arts Ctr) Ciao! The Cosmic Cup Easton Public Market Film & Media Studies Bldg. Gallery On Fourth Karl Stirner Arts Building Lafayette Art Gallery @Lehigh U. Lehigh Valley Chamber Playa Bowls Quadrant Book Mart/Café Sette Luna State Theatre The Strand Terra café W Graphics Williams Center for the Arts Williams Visual Arts Building
LAMBERTVILLE Alba Home A Mano Gallery Anton’s at the Swan A Touch of the Past Antiques Bear Apothecary Blue Raccoon BOX: Lambertville Station BOX: 5 & Dime BOX: Guiseppe’s Ristorante Bucks Espresso Del Vue Dry Cleaners Frame Shop Gio Salon Heritage Lighting Inn of the Hawke Lambertville House Niece Lumber People’s Store Rojo’s Roastery Swan Bar Walker’s Wine & Spirits Welsh’s Liquor
NEW HOPE Alpha Dermatology Citizen’s Bank BOX: CVS & McCaffrey’s First National Bank Giant Supermarket Jamie Hollander Gourmet New Hope Cleaners New Hope Star Diner Penn Community Bank Wedgwood Bed & Breakfast
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PHILADELPHIA 1830 Rittenouse 2101 Cooperative Inc 220 W. Rittenhouse Adademy House Acme Supermarket Adelphia House Anthony's Coffeeshop Arden Theater Aria Condos Arts Tower Condos Belgravia Condos Benjamin Franklin House Bishop's Collar Bluestone Lane BOX BOX (trolley turnabout) BOX (The Met) BOX (Craftworks BOX (Milcrate Cafe) Brauhaus Brewery Co Cafe Ole Center City One Chestnut Lofts City Fitness City Hall Visitors Lobby City Tap House City View Condos 1820 Rittenhouse Condos 1900 Rittenhouse Square Constitution Building Cosmopolitan Condos Dessert Crazy Earth Cup/Sam's Place Ellelauri Boutique Evil Genius Beer Company FOX29 Studio - Greenroom Franklin Tower Free Library of Philadelphia Fresh Grocer Good Dog Bar & Restaurant Good Karma Café Good Karma Café Good Karma Café Green Aisle Grocert Green Eggs Green Eggs Midtown Green Line Café Green Line Café Hawthorne's Café Hinge Cafe
Historic: The Touraine Condos Historic: Waterfront Condos Historic: Waterfront Condos Historic: Trinity Condos Historic: Logan Condos Honey's Sit and Eat Hopkinson House (mailroom) IGA Supermarket Jefferson Hospital Jefferson Hospital (Main ) Jefferson Hospital (East) JJ'S Food Market Joe’s Coffee ShoP Johnny Brendas Kelly Writer's House Kite & Key La Colombe Torrefaction Last Drop Latimer Deli Left Bank Apartments Lucky Goat Coffee House Mad Rex Restauran Marathon Grill Mariposa Food Co-op Masala Kitchen Kati Rolls Memphis Taproom Metropolitan Bakery Milk & Honey Milk and Honey Café Milkboy Milkcrate Café Mixto Bar & Restaurant Mulberry Market Museum Towers National Liberty Museum National Mechanics Nook Bakery & Coffee Bar North Bowl OCF Coffee House Old Nelson Food Market One Franklin Towne Condos Oregon Market Palm Tree Market Philadelphia Java Co Pier 3 Condos Pier 7 Condos Pizza Brain Plough and the Stars Punk Burger Race Street Cafe Rally Coffee
Reading Terminal Reanimator Coffee Rittenhouse Market River Loft Riverview Apartments Rodriguez Free Library Rotten Ralph’s Saladworks Sassafras Market Saxby’s Coffee Rittenouse Shop Rite Shop Rite (Bridge/Harbison) Shop Rite (shelf) Silk City Sporting Club at Bellevue Standard Tap Starbucks Stateside Steap & Grind Suburban Station Supremo Food Market Suya Suya Sweat Sweat Fitness The Bean Cafe The Carlyle Apartments The Collonade The Dorchester (mail room) The Dorchester (lobby) The Foodery The Foodery The Good Spoon The National at Old City The Phoenix The Sterling The View at Old City The Westbury Apartments The Wireworks Tivoli Condos Tuscany Apartments Tuscany Cafe (Rittenhouse) Walnut Towers Warwick Condos Watermark Waterworks World Cafe Live Yakitori Boy Zama
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16 BOOKS
is anything but. A naked young man lies dead in the street, the apparent victim of a collision with a truck hurtling through the dark. But any thoughts of accidental death vanish when a blood trail leads to a nearby home. Inside, a young woman lies butchered. The identity of the male victim and his role in the horror remain elusive, but that of the woman creates additional questions. Adding to the shock, Alex has met her while working a case. Cordelia Gannett was an internet influencer who’d gotten into legal troubles by posing as a psychologist. Even after promising to desist, she continued to amass clicks and ads by counseling followers. Upon closer examination, Alex and Milo discover that her own relationships are troublesome. Has that come back to haunt her in the worst way? Is the mystery man collateral damage or will he turn out to be the key to solving a grisly double homicide? As the psychologist and the detective explore L.A.’s meanest streets, they peel back layer after layer of secrets and encounter a savage, psychologically twisted, almost unthinkable motive for violence and bloodshed. The Prophet’s Wife by Libbie Grant Avon, $16.99 In 1825, Emma Hale marries an itinerant treasure-digger who has nothing but a conviction that he speaks directly to God. His name is Joseph Smith and he will found the Mormon religion. While the Mormon religion runs beyond the grasp of its founder, Emma struggles to maintain her place in Joseph’s heart and the religion that has become her world. Joseph maintains his authority by issuing ever-stranger commandments on God’s behalf, culminating in an edict that men should marry as many women as they please. Polygamy only sets them further apart, and soon their communities are ravaged by violence at the hands of their fellow Americans. For Emma, things take a personal toll as Joseph brings in a new woman whom Emma considers a sister. She knows there will never be peace until Joseph faces the law. But on the half-wild edge of the frontier, he’s more likely to find death at the hands of a vigilante posse than a fair trial. For the sake of her people—and her soul—Emma must convince the Prophet of God to surrender... and perhaps to sacrifice his life. n 24
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10 FILM ROUNDUP
it’s astonishing how palatable they seem in context. The film revolves around several buried secrets, not only among the women, but the country in which they live. It’s debatable if the story’s political thrust entirely meshes with the intentionally overripe central relationship. But there’s something resonant and deeply moving about the big swings Almodóvar takes here, even if they don’t completely connect. [R] HHH1/2 The Worst Person in the World (Dir. Joachim Trier). Starring: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Hans Olav Brenner. Norwegian director Joachim Trier’s drama—the third in his loose “Oslo Trilogy” that includes Reprise and Oslo, 31 August—is an odd duck. Broken into 12 chapters, with a Prologue and an Epilogue, it follows four years in the life of a young woman named Julie (Renate Reinsve), who pursues multiple careers while pingponging between two men, macho comic artist Aksel (Anders Danielsen Lie) and sweet, doughy barista Eivind (Herbert Nordrum). The film begins in an agitated register that nicely mirrors Julie’s own indecision. But as the story unfolds, she becomes less and less the focus, despite appearing in every scene. In truth, she seems a construct through which the Aksel character (and perhaps Trier himself) can express a begrudging perspective on humanity. It must be admitted that Lie gives his all to a moving climactic monologue that nails the feeling of being left behind by the culture to which you’ve dedicated yourself. Yet how strange that a seemingly female-centered tale should turn out to be, at heart, a rather shallow and regressive male weepie. [R] HH1/2 n Solution to THEMELESS NO. 18
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nicely eclectic, esoteric mix of old and new CDs and LPs, movie and music DVDs, and hordes of cassettes—a feast for lo-fi guys like me. Pleasant surprises abound: a “Soul Train” boxed set; a video collection of Frank Sinatra concerts; Italian soundtrack numbers cut by Chet Baker, the great jazz trumpeter; BBC sessions from Renaissance, the orchestral rock band with classical Russian chops. A robust sense of history is nurtured by co-owner Mary “Radak” Radakovits, whose radio show Rock with Radak is a soul/garage/girl-group thrill (6-9 p.m. Wednesdays on WLVR 91.3 FM/HD2). (1365 Easton Ave., Bethlehem; 610-868-3070; cdcenterpa.com) The Old Library Bookshop is guarded by a scale-model knight in armor. A storybook mascot suits a storybook store opened by a daughter-and-mother team in 1996 in Hellertown’s old public library and run since 2000 in a former Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall in Bethlehem. Shelf after shelf holds delight after delight: a memoir by Dr. Rock Positano, Joe DiMaggio’s healing orthopedist and preferred dinner mate; the novel Bech at Bay signed by author John Updike; a volume of molten, electric paintings by James Paul Kocsis, whose Nisky Hill Cemetery monument features his and his wife’s life masks. The stacks are framed by a banquet of framed prints: landscapes, cityscapes, even an ad for a 1940 movie starring Mickey Rooney as young Thomas Edison. (1419 Center St.; 610-814-3434; oldlib.com) Lehigh University’s campuses are contemporary sculpture gardens, with many pieces donated by Muriel and Philip Berman, the late philanthropist/provocateurs. One of the most playful works is Menashe Kadishman’s “Trees,” eight towering rusty rectangles with cut-out tree forms that double as portals to real trees arranged in a similar diagonal grove. The magnetic installation invites walking around and through; it’s truly enter-active. (Murray H. Goodman athletic complex, Bethlehem; 610-758-3615; luag.org) The Cathedral Church of the Nativity is an architectural hodgepodge, a Gothic Revival castle, fortress and stone dragon. Last year it was humanized by seven “cascades” of netted fabric flowers tumbling from the window frames of an impressive semicircular gallery. Made by Yarns of Love volunteers, they are beautiful memorials and gorgeous prayers. (Corner of 3rd Street and Route 378, Bethlehem; 610-865-0727; cathedralnativity.org) n
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5 LIKE A BIG PIZZA PIE
The moon is fortunate to have ended up beyond the Roche Limit, which is the point where it is safe from the Earth’s destructive ways. Mars has a moon that is spiraling toward the planet a handful of feet per day, and in something like 50-million years it will crash into the surface with the residuum becoming a ring. That will be visually dramatic but probably a bad time to book your visit. We know a lot about what the moon is made of. The other bodies in our solar system vary quite a bit in makeup from each other, but the earth and moon are significantly similar. The way it always faces the earth is called tidal lock. Of the different ways earth and moon could have come to be in that situation, the only theory supported by the fact we have identical isotopes is an impact 4.5 billion years ago with a Mars-sized body, referred to by scientists as Theia. When the dust settled, there was the moon; part Theia, part us. The effects of the moon’s cooling and contracting on its terrain have been helpful in determining both its history and structure. By analyzing remnant magnetic fields, we understand how its overall magnetic field (which used to be as strong as earth’s) weakened to almost nothing as its insides cooled and changed composition. Put that together with observations of orbital and rotation variations, rock samples that were brought to the surface by eruptions and impacts, Doppler shift of radio transmissions, and measurements of surface movements from the cooling, and that’s amore. Celestial bodies stretched and bulged and banged into each other
more often in the early days. It was a tough neighborhood to live in, which is one reason why nobody was here. But we are now. The moon plays a cultural role in our history as far back as you look. It has filled the jobs of deity, clock, and calendar. It shows up in stories, movies, songs, poems, and legend. The moon is hard to ignore, hanging up there all round and bright. For many creatures, it’s impossible to do without; it’s their migratory GPS. Our own species has never existed when that huge gravitational mass wasn’t moving seas and continents twice a day with precision you can measure clocks by . . . so why would you think it influences us less than it does a duck. Let me mention here that the moon is still the same size and mass regardless of phase. When we observe a full moon, the sun is (roughly) on the opposite side of the earth from it, and when we see a new moon (or more likely don’t), the sun is in that same part of the heavens. But the entire moon is always there. It’s the combined tidal pull of both moon and Sun that moves oceans, guides wildfowl, and confuses New Jersey drivers. When I look at the moon, the throughgoing realization that my friends here, and in New York, and in Maine, could be seeing and feeling the very same things as I am at that moment gives me a deep sense of awe. I can include friends on other continents, Bruce in Wales, Marian in Belgium, and Diop in Senegal, all seeing the same thing and giving wonder. How can you not? n
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harper’s FINDINGS A review of 14,024 babies injured while being worn by caregivers found the youngest most vulnerable. One quarter of first-year college students reported moderate to severe pet separation anxiety. Shelter cats gradually become less unfriendly, and a case of hip dysplasia suggests saber-toothed cats were sociable. A Finnish study inventoried hyperactivity and impulsivity in 11,000 dogs. Birds living in the former conflict zones of Sri Lanka’s civil war remain wary of humans. Zoo gorillas recognize the voices of specific people and behave guardedly if the individual is someone they have had negative experiences with. African penguins recognize one another’s voices and faces. The mismatch between snowshoe hares’ winter coats and snowless environments has little impact on their mortality rates. The Japanese wolf, the last known specimen of which was killed by humans in 1905, was found to be the closest known relative of the dog. Paleontologists announced the discovery of a 100-million-year-old crab preserved in amber and a turtle impaled by a flying branch in the moments after the Chicxulub Impact. For the first time in lizards’ existence, a tail was regenerated with its original dorsoventral patterning on the skeleton.
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Researchers with the Institute for Mummy Studies reported that Iron Age feces recovered from the salt mines of Hallstatt contained evidence of beer and blue cheese, and that microbiomes in human guts were consistent until the Baroque period. A thousand-year-old gold Sicán burial mask was found to be covered in human blood and bird egg. The year of the first Viking settlement in North America was determined to be ad 1021. Tall el-Hammam may have been destroyed by a massive cosmic airburst and may have been the biblical Sodom. Astronomers recorded the Camel, which joins the Cow and the Koala as the third known fast blue optical transient; the MicroBooNE experiment excluded the possibility of a sterile neutrino; and binary neutron star mergers were found to produce more heavy metals than mergers between neutron stars and black holes. The majority of space travelers experience back pain. CBD may block the hyperlocomotive effects of ketamine. Unusual medial prefrontal cortex activity was recorded in the brains of subjects enticed to approximate intimate partner violence, and an investigation of body maps of psychotic hallucinations found that none of the male subjects hallucinated in their genitals.
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A conservative estimate put the number of microplastic particles in the upper oceans and the Great Lakes at 24.4 trillion. Warming seas are making giant kelp less nutritious, and replacing the consumption of beef and poultry with tropical forest bushmeat would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both the chucao tapaculo and the black-throated huet-huet enjoy truffles. Order fulfillment at drive-through restaurants slowed by 26 seconds from 2020 to 2021. The life expectancy of English men now differs by as much as 27 years depending on the region of the country in which they live. High-risk laborers work 2.6 minutes less a day for each degree the temperature rises above 90 degrees Fahrenheit, but only during periods of economic growth. Ecologists reported that, following a California megafire in 2018, deer returned while the trees were still smoldering. Thirty headless goats were found floating in the Chattahoochee River, and a man fleeing bees in Brazil jumped into a lake, where he was eaten by piranhas. n 26
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INDEX Portion of adults who think COVID-19 will change the United States for the better: 1/5 Who say it’s acceptable to fake one’s vaccination status to keep a job: 1/5 To eat at a restaurant: 1/5 Percentage of restaurant workers who say the past year has taken a toll on their mental health: 78 Chance that a small restaurant was unable to pay rent in September: 1 in 2 Portion of U.S. households that say they have faced serious financial difficulties in recent months: 2/5 That say they have depleted all of their savings since the pandemic started: 1/5 Percentage of Americans who think that not having the newest iPhone is a sign of financial struggle: 15 Portion of Americans willing to go into debt for a new iPhone: 1/5 Percentage increase in the number of yachts sold last year: 14 Amount by which the price of a seat on a Virgin Galactic spaceflight increased last year: $200,000 Percentage increase in the wealth of U.S. billionaires since the start of the pandemic: 70 Percentage increase since 2020 in the number of Americans who view the existence of billionaires as bad for the country: 26 Portion of adults who believe that U.S. crime has increased in the past year: 3/5 Of regular Fox News viewers who believe so: 3/4 Percentage change in the number of major crimes in the United States in the past year: -5 Percentage by which yakuza membership has declined in the past decade: 63 Percentage of people killed by police between 1980 and 2018 whose death certificates list a different cause of death: 55 Percentage by which more men died from police encounters than from testicular cancer in 2019: 135 Factor by which the Chicago Police Department’s advertising budget is projected to increase this year: 96 Minimum number of times Chevron has aired TV ads since June 2020 promoting itself as green or sustainable: 26,400 Maximum percentage of Chevron’s budget spent on green technologies in the past decade: 1 Average number of U.S. oil spills reported in the Gulf of Mexico each month: 25 Percentage increase last year in the amount of U.S. electricity generated by coal-fired plants: 22 Percentage of people worldwide who are “not too concerned” about climate change: 27 Who are unwilling to make significant changes to their lives to reduce its effects: 19 Factor by which someone born in 2020 will likely experience more river floods and droughts than someone born in 1960: 3 By which they will likely experience more heat waves: 7 Percentage change since 2005 in the number of teenagers who say it is a bad time to be growing up: +65 Percentage of teenagers who say they have a good or excellent relationship with their parents: 96 Portion of single American men who live in a parent’s home: 3/10 Amount per month the president of Spain has proposed paying adults to move out of their parents’ homes: $292 Percentage by which single U.S. adults are less likely than those in relationships to have at least a bachelor’s degree: 41 By which they are less likely to be employed: 9 Percentage by which men are more likely to panic-sell their stock portfolios than women: 15 By which those who rate their investment knowledge as “excellent” are more likely to do so than those who claim none: 70 Estimated number of fake businesses removed from Google Maps in 2020: 3,000,000 Minimum number of fake reviews on Google: 107,000,000 Rank of “Google” among the most searched terms on the search engine Bing: 1 SOURCES: 1 Washington Post/ABC News; 2,3 YouGov (NYC); 4 Black Box Intelligence (Dallas); 5 Alignable (Boston); 6,7 Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (Boston); 8,9 WalletHub (Washington); 10 National Marine Manufacturers Association (Chicago); 11 Virgin Galactic (Mojave, Calif.); 12 Institute for Policy Studies/Americans for Tax Fairness (Washington); 13 Pew Research Center (Washington); 14–16 YouGov; 17 National Police Agency (Tokyo); 18,19 University of Washington (Seattle); 20 Chicago Office of Budget and Management; 21 AdImpact (Alexandria, Va.); 22 ClientEarth (London); 23 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Silver Spring, Md.); 24 U.S. Energy Information Administration (Washington); 25,26 Pew Research Center; 27,28 Wim Thiery, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium); 29,30 Washington Post/Ipsos; 31 Pew Research Center; 32 La Moncloa (Madrid); 33,34 Pew Research Center; 35,36 Andrew Lo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge); 37 Google (Mountain View, Calif.); 38 Uberall (Berlin); 39 Ahrefs (Singapore).
THEMELESS NO. 18 by Evan Birnholz
ACROSS 1 What Michael Darling wears in “Peter Pan” 8 Zero-to-hero character, in film tropes 13 Old coin-op restaurant 20 Singsong syllables 21 Pitch-tracking device 22 Aperture providing a discreet view of who ís outside your door 23 Not recognizable by 24 ___ Dog Museum (attraction in Odate, Japan) 25 Medieval copiers 26 Relief during hard times 27 “The Kiss” composer 29 What an NFL team with the No. 1 draft pick piled up during the previous season 30 Shinto structures near torii gates 32 Bar order in a 20-ounce glass, say 34 “Oh. My. God.” 37 What’s produced on scoreboards during shutouts 41 With 40 Down, total revenue after subtracting allowances, discounts and returns 42 “Hello?” 46 Savings plan that may involve tax-deductible contributions 47 Covered area in a monastery 50 Old device for watching “JFK” or “UHF,” say 51 Spooky synonym for a manta ray 54 Make fizzy 55 Bob’s business? 57 ___ Labaki, first female Arab director to be nominated for an Oscar for best foreign language film 58 Principal Skinner’s first name 60 Source of ancient dialogues 61 Arrivals 62 They can be caused by submarine landslides 64 Making an impression, in a way 66 ___/her pronouns 68 ___ over (helped through difficult times) 69 Out at night, maybe? 70 Upper-arm muscles, briefly 73 Like drakes and drones
75 77 78 79 83 84
Rainforest greenery Warning sign in a studio Issuer of phone lines? “Let’s keep that under wraps” “Drive” band, aptly Card game where cheating is expected 85 1998 Wimbledon champion Jana 86 Torment persistently 87 Small business bigwig 88 Like some lower regions 89 Containers with crusts 92 Crash remedy, perhaps 95 Feeling the effects of a bad trip on Amtrak, say 98 Draw on squares 102 ___ management 103 2012 Paul Thomas Anderson film about a cult leader 107 “The Beguiled” director Coppola 108 Former Apple instant-messaging program 109 Goes through cycles of weight fluctuation 110 Black rings, often 111 Typical AP exam taker 112 Pop music family that released a Christmas album in 1976 113 Wild prairie ___ (state flower of North Dakota) DOWN 1 Orgs. participating in School of Excellence programs 2 Guthrie Center founder Guthrie 3 It’s 10 spaces before Free Parking 4 Orioles might sit atop it, briefly 5 Fu ___ (mustache) 6 Parallel planes in science fiction 7 ___ Luís, Brazil 8 Seriously funny show? 9 Brings back to reality 10 Line of revision 11 Torment persistently 12 Actor Kenneth who directed “Thor” 13 Mule’s father 14 In your face 15 “Turn Back the Hands of Time” singer Davis 16 “Ah, that makes sense”
17 Flash ___ (sudden public performances) 18 Sheltered, on the ocean 19 Miss Trueheart played by Glenne Headly in “Dick Tracy” 27 Scoffing smile 28 Plants with spiny leaves 31 About, on a memo 33 Component of world-building, in fantasy fiction 34 People who attended rituals performed by nonbinary shamans known as quariwarmi 35 Chaotic row 36 Account holder? 38 Starting a new life? 39 Rupert who played Ron Weasley 40 See 41 Across 43 Some bread roll shapes 44 Sch. where some “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” scenes filmed 45 Gaits at a horse track 48 Maker of Perfect Portions cat food 49 Imperial ___ (strong, dark beer) 52 “The X-Files” star Duchovny 53 Garden mentioned in certain verses 55 Swingers with long tails 56 “Pass” 59 Sources of hits 61 Prescription for treating sleep deprivation 63 App setting? 65 Far from lax 66 “Downton Abbey” Emmy-winner Maggie 67 ___ yoga
71 “Zorba the Greek” actress Papas 72 Instrument played by Anoushka Shankar 74 Oft-scaled rock formation at Yosemite 76 Obeys a yellow light 77 Animal tending to pups 78 Gold medal-winning ice dancing partner of Tessa Virtue 80 Medieval helmet that sounds like where a newborn sleeps 81 Morrison-Clark Historic ___ and Restaurant (D.C., included among Historic Hotels of America) 82 Setting of Lene Gammelgaard’s book “Climbing High” 90 Feeling for a poor soul 91 Tissue-taker’s noise 93 Negates a deletion, in proofreading 94 Covers with black liquid 95 Buffoonish sort 96 It may have many laps 97 Tennis star whose name is a homophone of a gray shade 99 Hairstyle that’s “a way to fight the status quo without saying a word,” per the writer Princess Gabbara 100 Some wedding reception accessories 101 Hardship antonym 104 Curfew setter, maybe 105 Bustle, to the Bard 106 “Original” thing of Christian doctrine Solution to this month’s puzzle on page 24 ICON | FEBRUARY 2022 | ICONDV.COM
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