ICON March 2012 by ICON Magazine

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

contents 10

MARCH ~ 2012

INTERVIEWS ROCK’S MUSES OF FIRE | 14 Photographer Judy Linn’s exhibit, Patti Smith 1969-1976, portrays the singer in apartments and on streets in bohemian New York City, in various states of dress and undress, in sublimely funky scenes inspired by Stieglitz photos and Godard films. Running simultaneously, photographer Anastasia Pantsios’s exhibit, Girls on Film, captured women in rock bands as they became prominent.

PAUL DANO I 30 The star of Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, and this month’s Being Flynn discusses daddy issues, generational pride, and what it’s like to square off against Day-Lewis and De Niro.

Mi-Kyoung Lee, Untitled, 2011 (detail)

PERNOT’S CUBA I 34 The man who brought Nuevo Latino cuisine to Philly embraces the culture and heritage of his wife, the great-great-grandaughter of Aurelio Mario García Menocal, Cuba’s president from 1913 to 1921.

14 OPINION Eugene Robinson | 5 E. J. Dionne Jr. | 5 Lexicrockery | 53

FOOD Monsú | 39 Cosmopolitan | 40

COLUMNS

ART

Sally Friedman | 36

Alliteration of the Month | 6

Dave Barry | 44

Jim Delpino | 42

Nick’s Picks | 56 The Robert Glasper Experiment; Gregory Porter; Tord Gustavsen Quartet; Jeremy Pelt; Kirk Whalum; The Wee Trio; Paul Brown. Jazz Library | 58 Hank Jones

Condimentary | 7

Patti Smith and Sam Shepard. Photo: Judy Linn.

Re-imagining the Distaff Toolkit | 8

STAGE

In Material: Fiber 2012 | 10

Regional Theater | 48

ETCETERA Harper’s Findings | 59

Van Gogh’s Sanctuary of Nature | 12

Travesties; Sister’s Easter Catechism:

Exhibitions | 16

Will My Bunny Go to Heaven?; Young

Quodlibetical Moments | 17

Frankenstein; Romeo & Juliet; Curse

Harper’s Index | 61

of the Starving Class; A Midsummer

Calendar | 63

FILM Cinematters | 18 Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

Night’s Dream; God of Carnage; One Cannot Kiss Alone; Let’s Pretend We’re Famous.

Keresman on Film | 20 Coriolanus

Footlights | 49

Bad Movie | 22 Killer Elite

MUSIC

Reel News | 24 A Dangerous Method; My Week With Marilyn; Carnage; Melancholia Film Roundup | 26 Rampart; Jiro Dreams of Sushi; The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye; No Room For Rockstars

L.A. Times Crossword | 60

Russian Transport

Classical Notebook | 50 Jessye Norman Singer / Songwriter | 52 The Revelations featuring Tre Williams; Woody Guthrie; James Armstrong; Steve Cropper; Katy Boyd. Keresman on Disc | 54 Stanley Clarke; Melinda Wagner;

WINE | 38 Two Margaux Wines From Bordeaux Ralph Fiennes. 4

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

Moraine; São Paulo Underground; The Chieftains; Altan.

ON THE COVER: Paul Dano. Photo: Billy Kidd. Page 30.

R d

opinion Rick Santorum could take Republicans down with him

President Obama as an alien

EUGENE ROBINSON

E. J. DIONNE JR.

REPUBLICANS HAVEN’T QUITE THROWN away what they see as a winnable presidential election, at least not yet. But they’re trying their best. In GOP circles, there is more than a whiff of panic in the air. Unemployment is still painfully high, Americans remain dissatisfied with the country’s direction, even the most favorable polls show President Obama’s approval at barely 50 percent—and yet there is a sense that the Republicans’ odds of winning back the White House grow longer day by day. Mitt Romney, whose main selling point is his supposed ability to beat Obama in November, has shown himself incapable of putting away a couple of—let’s face it—political hasbeens whose glory days were in the previous century. Romney was crushed by Newt Gingrich in South Carolina, which has a history of picking the Republican nominee—perhaps because the party’s most loyal voters, as well as its heart and soul, reside in the South. Romney was beaten by Rick Santorum, of all people, in the heartland states of Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri, as well as in Colorado, a key swing state. And, according to the polls, Romney is in grave danger of losing to Santorum next week in Michigan, the state where Romney was born and raised. If this were to occur, Santorum’s tentative status as the new front-runner for the nomination would be confirmed. Hence the wave of fear that is washing over the GOP establishment. The prospect of a Romney flame-out has given rise to crazy talk about a brokered convention at which an attempt is made to dragoon somebody else, into accepting the nomination—Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, just about anybody. This remote scenario would probably lead to a debacle. The last contested GOP convention was in 1976, when incumbent Gerald Ford narrowly defeated insurgent Ronald Reagan—and then lost to Jimmy Carter in the fall. Back then, the establishment still had the clout to impose its will on the party. Today, restive constituencies such as the Tea Party refuse to get pushed around by—to use a Gingrich term—political “elites.” The convention hall in Tampa would be a battle zone. But what’s the alternative? At the moment, Gingrich seems to be fading. This could change in March if he does well on Super Tuesday, but for now it looks like a race between Romney, who has trouble communicating with voters, and Santorum, whose message is alarmingly clear.

THEY SAY THAT PRESIDENT Obama is a Muslim, but if he isn’t, he’s a secularist who is waging war on religion. On some days he’s a Nazi, but on most others he’s merely a socialist. His especially creative opponents see him as having a “Kenyan anti-colonial worldview,” while the less adventurous say that he’s an elitist who spent too much time in Cambridge, Hyde Park and other excessively academic precincts. Whatever our president is, he is never allowed to be a garden-variety American who plays basketball and golf, has a remarkably old-fashioned family life and, in the manner we regularly recommend to our kids, got ahead by getting a good education. Please forgive this outburst. It’s simply astonishing that a man in his fourth year as our president continues to be the object of the most extraordinary paranoid fantasies. A significant part of his opposition still cannot accept that Obama is a rather moderate politician quite conventional in his tastes and his interests. And now that the economy is improving, short-circuiting easy criticisms, Obama’s adversaries are reheating all the old tropes and cliches and slanders. True, some of this is driven by cable television (a venue in which I acknowledge regularly participating). Attacks designed to gin up the conservative base are quickly recycled to gin up outrage within Obama’s own base. Moreover, Obama is not the first president caught up in the rank unpleasantness of this particularly unforgiving political moment. A quick Google search will unearth references to George W. Bush as a “Nazi,” and Bill Clinton’s Republican opponents went so far as to impeach him in a shameful episode of extreme partisanship. On those Hitler metaphors: Can we please agree to a voluntary cross-party ban on invoking the Fuhrer in the context of American politics? Only dictators who commit genocide against millions qualify for this odious comparison. It trivializes Hitler’s crimes to use Nazi references as everyday epithets. But there is something especially rancid about the never-ending efforts to turn Obama into a stranger, an alien, a Manchurian Candidate with a diabolical hidden agenda. Are we trying to undo all the good it did us with the rest of the world when we elected an African American with a middle name popular among Muslims? In my experience, even Americans who voted against Obama were proud that our nation showed friend and foe alike that we are a special place. We know it’s wrong to judge

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

5 / OPINION / SANTORUM COULD TAKE REPUBLICANS DOWN

5 / OPINION / PRESIDENT OBAMA AS AN ALIEN

icon

The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, opinion and mad genius

Filling the hunger since 1992 At times, it seems as if Santorum is running to become theologian in chief. He made the bizarre allegation Saturday that Obama’s actions are motivated by “some phony theology, not a theology based on the Bible.” On Sunday, he said by way of clarification that he understands Obama is a Christian, but that the president was somehow misinterpreting God’s truth—as revealed to Rick Santorum—about our duty to be stewards of the Earth. This is not customary fodder for a presidential campaign. Nor is Santorum’s obvious obsession with women’s reproductive issues—not just his absolute opposition to abortion but his criticism of contraception and prenatal testing as well. Santorum’s social conservatism is a huge iceberg, and his views on women and childbearing are just the tip. He not only opposes gay marriage but has criticized the Supreme Court decision that struck down anti-sodomy laws and declared that “I have no problem with homosexuality. I have a problem with homosexual acts.” That alone would be enough to put him well outside the mainstream. But his Ozzie-and-Harriet ideas about family life place him in a different solar system. In his 2005 book, It Takes a Family: Conservatism and the Common Good, he lectured women who choose to work outside the home, writing that “the purported need to provide things for their children simply provides a convenient rationalization for pursuing a gratifying career outside the home.” Convenient rationalization? Given all the money Santorum has made as a Washington insider since leaving office, perhaps he forgets that most American families need two incomes just to put food on the table. The issue, for Republicans, is not just that Santorum would lose in November. It’s that he could be a drag on House and Senate candidates as well. Imagine, say, Sen. Scott Brown (RMass.) trying to explain to his constituents why someone who doesn’t fully understand women’s participation in the workforce should be president. Listen closely and you can hear the anguished cries: “Mitch! Chris! Jeb! Help!” ■

people by their race or lineage, and we so value religious freedom and openness that we elected a Christian convert who is the son of a Muslim father and an agnostic mother to lead us at one of our most difficult moments. Yet many in the anti-Obama camp just can’t stop themselves from playing on fears that electing a man who defies old stereotypes was a terrible mistake. Thus did the Rev. Franklin Graham assert…on MSNBC not only that Muslims regard Obama as “a son of Islam” (because his father was Muslim) but also that “under President Obama, the Muslims of the world, he seems to be more concerned about them than the Christians that are being murdered in the Muslim countries.” Graham slightly softened his comments on CNN…but it remains troubling that he chose to turn a legitimate concern about the persecution of Christians into a slander. In the meantime, Republican presidential candidates want to take a disagreement over whether and how contraception should be covered in plans issued under the new health-care law and turn it into a war against religion itself. “Unfortunately, possibly because of the people the president hangs around with, and their agenda, their secular agenda—they have fought against religion,” declared Mitt Romney, who pursued a similar line of attack in [Arizona’s] debate. It’s another breathtaking slander to label Obama’s choice as an attack on religion altogether—and I say this as someone who strongly opposed the president’s initial decision not to offer any accommodation to religiously affiliated institutions on contraception. And how strange it is that Obama’s critics imply that he’s a Muslim and also condemn him as a secularist. He must be terribly clever—maybe it’s that fancy education of his—to be both. As for Obama as a socialist, ponder two numbers: 13,005, which the Dow Jones average hit this week, up from a low point of 6,547 in March 2009. Some socialist. We are blessed with the freedom to say whatever we want about our president. But those who cast Obama as something other than one of us don’t understand him and don’t understand what it means to be American. ■

1-800-354-8776 • voice: 215-862-9558 fax: 215-862-9845

www.iconmagazineonline.com Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com

ADVERTISING 800-354-8776

Fine Arts Editors Edward Higgins

Burton Wasserman Classica Music Editor Peter H. Gistelinck Music Editors Nick Bewsey

Mark Keresman Bob Perkins Tom Wilk Theater Critic David Schultz Food Editor Robert Gordon Wine Editor Patricia Savoie

Contributing A.D. Amorosi Writers Robert Beck

Jack Byer Ralph Collier Peter Croatto James P. Delpino Sally Friedman Geoff Gehman George Oxford Miller Thom Nickels R. Kurt Osenlund Victor Stabin

PO Box 120 • New Hope, PA 18938 (800) 354-8776 Fax (215) 862-9845 ICON is published twelve times per year. Reproduction 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. Subscriptions are available for $40 (shipping & handling). Copyright 2012 by Prime Time Publishing Co., Inc.

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

a thousand words Condimentary It’s coming. You can feel it in the balmy March air, right? Barbeque season. No, really. Sure we have the rest of winter and half of Spring to get out of the way before we can think of breaking out the deck furniture, but with the kind of weather we’ve had so far it’s clear I’ll be rousting the field mice from the ‘ol Weber and trucking down to Heath’s Service Station to fill up the propane tank in no time.

STORY AND PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

HERE ARE THINGS THAT I enjoy about all the seasons, but the highlight of summer, the big reward that makes mosquitoes, ticks, and even the bicyclists on the towpath tolerable, is hot dogs. Not just any hot dogs, but natural casing links that the butcher pulls from the tray in a chain, and when lightly charred and nestled in a spit-top bun snap between your teeth releasing a flood of celebratory memories. The strongest of these recollections is my 4th of Julys spent in Newton Junction, New Hampshire, and our community celebration that included three-legged scrambles and sawdust piles for the kids, father vs. son softball games, sailboat races, and a huge line of tables stocked with lobsters and dogs. There was also a New Years Day counterpart where Uncle Earl would drill a hole in the ice flooding it with a fresh surface, and folks would appear from all ends of the lake for an afternoon skating party with dogs and hot chocolate. It’s all there in every bite. Let me be clear; boiled hot dogs need not apply. The grilling part is essential, but it’s tricky. The liberal media would have you believe that the char stripes should go across the width of a dog but that’s a problem. Dogs curl when heated, and always flop on their side unless you line them up tight against each other so they can’t move. I cook them long-ways, nestled in the grill slots. It still takes some balancing but it’s worth the results. The split-top bun is a matter of style, but still important. It, too, must be lightly toasted on the grill. And, although yellow mustard is the most popular kind in America, a grilled tube steak begs for spicy brown. I pass on the boutique varieties, relying instead on Gulden’s for just the right sass. I’ve always been impressed by the gold medals on the label: Chicago worlds fair in 1893; Paris exhibition in 1900. Who knew they gave awards for condiments at these things? For some reason the current label touts having won the gold at the 2005 Napa Mustard Festival, which just doesn’t have the same gravity. But I like the idea of a Mustard Festival. Gulden’s tapered jar still has that glue pot/inkwell old-world persona, which makes it taste even better. So that’s my hot dog. I don’t go for flamboyant options like chili, but I respect those who do. When I suspect the dog I’ve been handed is less than I would make for myself I add some sweet relish to cover. I use ketchup on my burgers, and in keeping with my snooty, elitist tendencies prefer it from a classic tall-neck bottle. I know it sometimes takes some deft maneuvering to get it to flow but that is all part of the art. Which reminds me of a poem from years back: When getting ketchup from a bottle First none will come but then a lot’ll Plastic squeeze-bottles or the ones that stand on their tops are declasse. The phlltttt-splatter you get when it runs low is appallingly bad culinary feng shui. Preparing a burger must begin with the twist of a white metal cap or you never recover the balance. Squeeze containers only bring you down. I have to mention ketchup’s doppelganger—catsup. Being brought up ketchup I always felt the name “catsup” sounded like something you would find in a veterinarian’s office, but it’s really the same stuff. Catsup is still being marketed as such today even though most manufacturers changed the name of their product when Congress decreed ketchup a vegetable (and not catsup) to bolster its presence in school cafeterias. Like pizza. If you happen to be a catsup fan, there is good news, however. You can visit the world’s largest catsup bottle in Collinsville, Illinois. Seventy feet tall on top of a hundred-foot tower. Sounds like a place that would have a heck of a 4th of July party. ■ Robert Beck maintains a gallery and art academy in Lambertville, NJ. He is featured in the New Hope Arts exhibition, Continuum, through Mar. 18.

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

art

ED HIGGINS

Re-Imagining the Distaff Toolkit ARTISTS EXPLORING THE AESTHETIC values of everyday objects have been a mainstay in the art world for generations. Those explorations differ from design exhibits where a 1950s toaster is the star attraction. Also since Marcel Duchamps’s 1917 Urinal, found objects have been imbued with their own beauty. A particularly witty and profound exhibition of what this exploration can lead to is now on view at the Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College. Re-Imaging the Distaff Toolkit comprises more than three dozen pieces by 19 artists and runs through April 1. It chronicles the suffering and celebrations of women and the tools associated with their traditional roles in the household. The objects range from Victorian times to the early years of the last century, The tools include a washboard, iron, a basket, blankets, frying pans, dressmaker’s figures, a garden hoe, rug beaters, a needle threader, darning eggs, a rolling pin, doilies, dress patterns, mason jar and grater. The exhibition catalogue explains the entomology of “distaff,” as being an ancient device used in the making of thread and yarn. It was also later part of a spinning wheel, a machine associated with women. That tool also went away in the 1760s as the Industrial Revolution converted hand work to machine work. Over time the word began to refer to anything to do with women. There is definitely a feminist politic in the show but much of it is treated with tongue in check. One artist has stacked folded blankets about 20 feet high making a whimsical and visual statement, yet her statement regarding her work is somewhat pompous. “I consciously draw on indigenous design principles, oral traditions and personal experience to shape the inner logic of the work I make.” Really? Judith Hoyt’s “Grater Woman” turns a cheese or potato grater into a sculptural wall hanging which manages to convey dignity and authority with a smile. That artist’s other piece is “Bucket Woman,” made with parts of a bucket but clad in a plaid jumper that looks for all the world like a Catholic school girl’s. “Shredded Joy” by Mildred Johnson is a multi-media assemblage whose background is the front page of the Rombauer classic, The Joy of Cooking. “Feeding Time” by Tom Cohen, one of three men in the show, shows a clock with the hours marked by photographs and angrily crying babies. Cohen also has a piece called “Battle Ax” showing the chief character of the long ago comic strip, Bringing Up Father being whacked on the head with a rolling pin. Other pieces such as “National Racism: We Was Mostly ‘Bout Survival” by Betye Saar deals with black slave women and are profound and sad. One extremely well-crafted piece consists of doilies, beautifully laced intricate snowflakes, until one finds out they are the viruses of HIV, Herpes, SARS, Hepadna, and influenza. The beauty and deadly are combined. Artist Laura Splan has mounted them on black velvet. The travelling exhibition was put together by Dr. Rickie Solinger, an independent curator, and has been seen across the country. In her forward she points out that many objects in their day may have been in the context of “very hard and repetitive labor [that was] diminished and disrespected.” However, as the years go on older objects, with the patina of time, become prized and cherished. They become art. It was the late Susan Sontag’s observation that snapshots turned into art as they aged. And so the black iron skillet—an age-old cooking utensil—can be thought of as beautiful. Artist Alison Saar impressed a face on the bottom and called it “Mirror, Mirror” harkening no doubt back to Snow White’s cruel taskmistress. n Ursinus College, 601 E. Main St., Collegeville, PA www.ursinus.edu Edward Higgins is a member of The Association Internationale Des Critiques d’Art. 8

ICON

MARCH 2012

Opposite page left: Judy Hoyt, Grater Woman, 2007. Found metal nailed to ¾” plywood with edges painted in oil paint. Opposite page right: Judy Hoyt, Bucket Woman, 2007. Found metal nailed to ¾” plywood with edges painted in oil paint This page: Marie Watt, Conversation: Plow, 2007. Wool blankets, satin binding, thread, hand sewn

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

art

BURT WASSERMAN

IN MATERIAL: FIBER 2012

AN INTERESTING ART EXHIBITION, recently opened to the public at the Arthur Ross Gallery in center-city Philadelphia, will surely pique the interest and curiosity of both well-informed visitors and laymen who may be unfamiliar with the medium of fiber. Because the examples on view are generally off the beaten path, they add a measure of challenge to the occasion. Once again, the Gallery is alive with the presence of several venturesome contemporary design directions. They are on loan from the studios of four artists who live and work in different parts of the country. The Arthur Ross Gallery is located in the Fisher Fine Arts Library Building at 220 S. 34th St., and Locust Walk (between Walnut and Spruce Sts.) on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. There is no admission fee for entrance to see the items on display. Titled In Material: Fiber 2012, the show comes to an end on March 25, 2012. Incidentally, it is being presented in conjunction with Fiber Philadelphia 2012, a jointly run program, offered by 30 other venues, all providing a focus on new ways of working in fiber. Generally, ethnologists believe that ever since people first appeared on the face of the earth, fiber forms made into various finished products have been used to decorate the human body and protect it from all sorts of possible harm. In addition, textiles made from various fibers have also been used for personal enhancement and insulation from excessive heat and cold.

Dr. Burton Wasserman is a professor emeritus of Art at Rowan University, and a serious artist of long standing. Dr. Wasserman’s program Art From Near and Far can be heard on WWFM in Central and Northern New Jersey and Bucks County and WGLS in South Jersey.

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

When people found such materials helped them feel more comfortable, instead of going around entirely uncovered, the habit of wearing both jewelry and clothing began. This brought the days of living naked to an end. Still another use of fabrics consisted of covering various indoor spaces with spun and woven materials made from fiber in order to enhance interior settings with attractive variations of color and texture. All of these varied applications of fiber are still very much in use today. Cynthia Schira, a classic weaver, also makes use of an electronic Jacquard loom and a personal computer to arrive at woven forms that give expression to both the modern age and a highly individual poetry of abstract design relationships. Her talent has been recognized by the receipt of a long list of honors awarded by institutions in the United States and abroad. A professor emerita of art from the University of Kansas, she lives and maintains her studio in Westport, NY. Lucy Arai makes her residence today in California. Her distinctive approach to making art consists of combining stitched materials with hand-made paper and other exam-

ples of mixed media. In her hands, these elements become arrangements rich with a mystical presence and a timeless sense of balanced order. Her ability to join sensitive passages of 18 karat gilding material with indigo pigments and sumi ink is remarkable for its subtle character and dramatic impact. Sonya Clark Draws upon an Afro-Carrabean ancestry to shape unusual composites of combs and hair-stylings. An artist who has exhibited in over a hundred venues worldwide, she is Chair of the Craft/Material Studies Department of Virginia Commonwealth University at the state capital in Richmond, VA. In her own work, she makes skillful use of human hair and wire as well as thread and plastic to assemble elegant selections that echo forms handsomely identified with her ethnic origins. Philadelphia-based Mi-Kyoning Lee is the Chair of the Fiber Arts Department at the University of the Arts. She has held eight solo shows and is professionally represented by the Snyderman-Works Gallery. She has also participated in internationally recognized displays in such locations as the Art Museum in the Cranbrook Academy of Bloomfield Hills,

Michigan and in Alsace, France. For several years she collaborated with the International Opera Theater Company by creating costumes and set designs for a number of musical productions. This is a truly first-rate exhibition, filled with assorted examples of modern day activity in the area of inventive fiber-craft activity. ■

Opposite page, left: Lucy Arai, 2006. Mixed Media sashiko: handmade paper, sumi ink, indigo pigment, thread, 18-karat gold gilding, 27” x 96” Opposite page, right: Sonya Clark, “Hair Wreath,” 2002. Human hair/wire, 12” x 12” This page: Cynthia Schira, “Etymon,” 2010 (detail) Constructed on an electronic Jacquard loom at the Oriole Mill in North Carolina, and woven using a fine Egyptian cotton. Visually the abstract patterns are composed from 39 online digital images of objects within a single museum collection. 10’ x 30’

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

art

Van Gogh’s Sanctuary of Nature,

Up Close

VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890) LIVED three lifetimes during his last three years. He Theo’s presence animates the biggest, strangest work in Up Close. The last of the created a bold brand of Expressionism, painted a host of fabulous fables (“The Night Café,” show’s 40-plus paintings, it’s an unusually large, unusually cheery oil of an ancient almond “The Starry Night”), failed to establish an art commune with Paul Gauguin, left a piece of his tree flourishing with spring blossoms. Van Gogh painted this wallpaper-like semi-still life to butchered ear at Gauguin’s favorite brothel, turned a stormy relationship with his beloved celebrate the birth of Theo’s first child, Vincent, and to celebrate his own rebirth as a probrother Theo into a hurricane, and was committed to an asylum for delusions of grandeur ductive artist. and illusions of persecution. Yet Vincent was also troubled by the arrival of his namesake. The infant reminded him During this period Van Gogh nourished a nurturing relationship with nature. Using the of his barren life, which rekindled his zealous jealousy toward Theo, which made him miss outdoors as laboratory and confessional, he made landscapes that were simultaneously subhis best-friend brother even more. Vincent had this same love-hate affair with nature, as tle and shocking. This seesaw relationship is explored in Van Gogh: Up Close at the PhiladelSteven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith indicate in their massive 2011 biography of Van phia Museum of Art, a surprisingly merGogh. Indeed, the stars in one of his happiest curial revue of swirling meadows and paintings, “The Starry Night,” symbolized his shimmering forests, sculptural irises and distance from his loved ones. skyrocketing sunflowers. Van Gogh’s beautiful melancholy has been The show’s first subjects are two sunmined by songwriters Don McLean (“Vincent flowers, posed side by side like big [Starry Starry Night]”) and David Olney (“Vinbeached shells, as rusty and shaggy as cent’s Blues”). In Up Close the best example of one of Van Gogh’s self-portraits. A sort of this musical melancholy is “Rain” (1889), which abstract autobiography, it illustrates his doubles as the show’s most mesmerizing myslifelong obsession with natural mysteries. tery. Van Gogh created a zigzagging, heaving As a child he followed the kaleidoscopic landscape, carved it with prismatic grooves, patterns of water bugs, collected beetles and lashed it with slanted, chalky streaks of in handmade boxes, practically adopted rain. The gloominess is thrilling, the loneliness birds. Internalizing the outdoors enabled chilling. It exemplifies Van Gogh’s existential him to escape a chilly family ruled by his dilemma with nature, which is summarized father, a scary Calvinist minister. neatly by White Smith and Naifeh: “Was he Nature became Van Gogh’s sanctuary alone with God’s creation, or just abandoned?” of ecstasy. In 1888-1890 he converted A year after finishing “Rain,” Van Gogh died three rural places in France—Arles, Aufrom a gunshot wound he inflicted or, as Naifeh vers and Saint-Remy—into open-air and White Smith suggest, was inflicted by boys churches. Inspired by saffron light, a carwith a misfiring weapon. His death ended a nival of flowers and the bursting optithree-year period where he channeled his immism of olive orchards, he intensified his potent life into potent paintings, essentially beunique blend of pinwheeling colors, eleccoming the hero of his own tragedy. tric forms and juicy textures. An impressive survey of an impressive time, Sunflowers, 1887. Vincent Willem van Gogh, Dutch, 1853 - 1890. Oil on canvas, In Up Close this magnetic mix is most Up Close ends up being heroic, too. It should 17 x 24 inches (43.2 x 61 cm) Framed: 26 1/4 x 33 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches (66.7 x 85.1 x 6.4 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1949. evident in an 1890 view of wet wheat impress fans of Impressionism and Abstract Exfields in Auvers. It’s a settling, unsettling pressionism, collectors of eight-figure paintings combination of woodcut-rough ridges, a half-dozen quilted greens and a spinning, slightly and one-figure postcards, visionary cynics and revisionary romantics. n banking perspective. It looks like a painted tapestry. It feels like a flying carpet. It was in the French countryside that Van Gogh felt free to experiment with Japanese Van Gogh: Up Close continues through May 6 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, 26th woodblock prints, one of his favorite traditions. He was fascinated by these sophisticated Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia. Tickets are dated, timed, nonrefundable cartoons, with their melting shades, levitating lines and earthy ethereality. Up Close has sevand include an audio guide. 215-763-8100, www.philamuseum.org. eral of his Oriental hybrids, including a bird’s-eye view of a squiggled vineyard and a stageset woods anchored by violet trees. Vincent and Theo owned nearly 500 Japanese woodblock prints. Paradoxically, these Geoff Gehman reviewed the 2000-2001 Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibit Van Gogh: other-worldly Oriental worlds made them feel more at home. In fact, when Vincent left Paris Face to Face for The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa. He is the author of The Kingdom of the for Arles in 1888, he rearranged the Japanese prints in his apartment so Theo would feel his Kid, a memoir of growing up in the middle-class, long-lost Hamptons. He can be reached at presence when he was absent. geoffgehman@verizon.net. 12

ICON

MARCH 2012

GEOFF GEHMAN

Almond Blossom, 1890. Vincent Willem van Gogh, Dutch, 1853 - 1890. Oil on canvas, 28 15/16 x 36 1/4 inches (73.5 x 92 cm). Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

Rock’s Muses of Fire

Gwen Stefani, December 2006. Photo: Anastasia Pantsios

FOR THE NEXT THREE months Lehigh University in Bethlehem will be an arena for photographs of female musicians who double as models and role models. From 1969 to 1976 Judy Linn portrayed her pal Patti Smith in apartments and on streets in bohemian New York City, in various states of dress and undress, in sublimely funky scenes inspired by Stieglitz photos and Godard films. These tough, tender pictures are, in fact, a sort of silent movie where Smith essentially auditions to become what she became: a punk poet-priestess. Many of the images in the Lehigh exhibit appear in Linn’s 2011 book Patti Smith 19691976. They serve as a visual soundtrack for Just Kids, Smith’s best-selling, prize-winning 2010 memoir of her life with boyfriend Sam Shepard, then a hot playwright, and soul mate Robert Mapplethorpe, later a fabled photographer of flowers and bodies. Both authors chronicle friendship, fearlessness and fixing the fleeting past. Smith cameos in Girls on Film: 40 Years of Women in Rock, Anastasia Pantsios’s sharp, snappy portraits of inventive, gutsy frontwomen. Organized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, where Pantsios lives, the Bethlehem show is full of queens (Aretha Franklin), divas (Stevie Nicks), shockers (Wendy O. Williams), chameleons (Madonna) and pioneers (June Millington of Fanny, a ‘70s all-female rock band admired by David Bowie). Boundary breakers please Pantsios, who began photographing rock musicians partly because male editors refused to let her write about rock musicians. Pantsios and Linn have much more in common than a photographic odyssey that began in 1969. They grew up in the Midwest, where their fathers played key roles in their early photography. Their pictures have run in The Village Voice, Rolling Stone and many other prominent publications. Linn, who teaches at Vassar College, printed for the late, legendary photographer Helen Levitt, her occasional poker partner. Pantsios, a staffer for Cleveland Scene magazine, served as a second-string reviewer for the late, legendary rock journalist Jane Scott, who reminded Pantsios to always carry a sandwich, tissues and a bad-ass/good-ass attitude.

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

interview JUDY LINN: STAGING IMAGINARY LIVES Geoff Gehman: Why did you decide to put together and publish a book of your portraits of Patti Smith five decades after you took them? Was the success of Patti’s book Just Kids an important factor? Judy Linn: Piggybacking off Just Kids was definitely enticing to my publisher. The reason it took so long for my book to come out is that Patti thought some of the pictures were too racy for her children. She wanted to hold off on publishing until her kids were out of high school, when it would be less upsetting for them to see a picture of their mother naked, showing her tits. GG: Why is that portrait of Patti holding your movie camera magnetic enough for the cover of the book? JL: Well, it’s kind of an iconic picture. It has a nice shape and it’s easy to read in any size, from any angle or distance. Also, it was taken at the beginning of our creative relationship. It was the first time she came over to my apartment at 450 Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn. It was before I began consciously taking pictures of her. We were going to make a movie; it was the first time we were really going to do something. The footage was lost a long time ago, although I still have the audio. GG: Why does Patti hold a hammer in the promotional shots for Robert Mapplethorpe’s jewelry? JL: Well, Robert was kind of a radical stylist. And Patti was always carrying around a hammer when she was a kid. When she was eight years old she wanted to be a geologist. GG: Was Patti a role model of a model? That is, was she extremely creative, collaborative, mercurial? JL: Oh yeah, she would really play. We had a lot of fun taking pictures. It was very easy—like having One, always bring a peanuta conversation. We enjoyed the same art, the same butter sandwich because you visual references, although we were quite different in a lot of ways. She was much more ambitious never know when you’ll have time about moving ahead professionally. I kind of didn’t to get something to eat. And, two, know what was going on, what I should be doing. She and Robert [Mapplethorpe] were very singlealways take Kleenex because you minded about where they wanted to be, and very don’t know when there will be toiinventive in ways of getting there. I was kind of astounded by how supportive he was of her, and she let paper in the bathroom. of him. I didn’t really realize it then; I realized it when I was reading Just Kids. GG: Was Patti surprised, or stunned, by anything in your book? JL: I think she was surprised when her friends said, Did you realize how pretty you were? I know she was surprised by the whole segment on Sam Shepard, which she had never seen before. She said it made her cry. GG: Did Patti consult you while she was writing Just Kids? And did you consult her while you were making Patti Smith 1969-1976? JL: She asked me about a few things: some logistics, places in Brooklyn. At one point she said to me, “Oh, I have to go home. I’m working on this book; it’s killing me.” I did not want her involved in my book because she has different desires, different motives. When my book was done, she took out some stuff she thought was too racy or out of control, like when she’s laughing hysterically. She also took out a shot of herself in bed with Sam Shepard. That made her uncomfortable. GG: Did putting these photos together, between covers, make you feel nostalgic or bittersweet about bohemian-punk New York in the early ‘70s, or the silent movie you and Patti created for yourselves? JL: I didn’t feel nostalgic or bittersweet. I was just trying to make a visual story for the first time. What was fun was seeing there was actually a rhythm, a narrative that made sense. I think the denouement in the book is the segment with Patti and Sam Shepard. In most of the photographs they just can’t enough of one another. I remember they were just kissing all the time—they were always just wrapped around each other. You could have been a

GEOFF GEHMAN

door, and they would have had no idea you were there. In the book there’s a picture at the end of their section where they’re both looking down and rather disheartened. It shows the remorse that they realize their relationship is not going to last. That’s the emotional truth, the emotional crux. GG: What did you learn, or remember anew, from selecting and sequencing the Patti pictures? JL: I really learned that our period of partnership had to come to an end because her audience was getting bigger. At the end of the book there’s a picture of her talking on the phone. I’m at her place to hang out, and she’s not really paying attention to me. She doesn’t need my attention the way she once did. She’s now getting it from other people. GG: Patti writes in the book’s afterword that you helped make her braver—about showing off her body and performing in general. What did she do for you? JL: I guess what I got from Patti was to just believe in myself and follow what I wanted to do. Before I photographed her, my way of looking at the world was from the Minor White/Robert Frank school of photography. And these photographs were definitely outside of that; they were more female oriented, more fashionable. I thought I was making fashion photographs, although no fashion magazine saw these photographs [laughs]. You know, this book has gotten much more attention than I realized it would. The images are floating all around; it gets blogged all over the United States. A review in Fader [magazine] said it was just a style book and that girls should just check it out for the outfits. I thought that was terrific. GG: So how do you feel about immortalizing Patti’s breasts? JL: [Pauses, carefully considers her answer] It was the ‘60s and ‘70s, so things were just a little different in terms of being freer with one’s body. And Patti had a terrific body she didn’t mind exposing. One of the first times I went to take pictures of her, she took her shirt off. I just think she knew what was an interesting photo. I also think it’s very important to see pre-silicone breasts. There’s a beauty to the real. It’s quite offensive to my religious and conservative relatives, but I’m not ashamed. Women in general are obsessed with breasts, just as men are. It’s really interesting because the breast is the only body part you don’t start out with and then you get. Hey, I think tits are terrific.

ANASTASIA PANTSIOS: SHOOTING REAL LIVES Geoff Gehman: What was the first photo of a rocker you couldn’t forget, that made you feel music differently? Anastasia Pantsios: My first unforgettable photo was actually of Jefferson Airplane, the first band I shot, the first band I fell in love with. This was in 1969, during a free concert in Grant Park in Chicago, where I grew up. It really amazed me that I could be there, be that close, and take these pictures—for keeps. It’s different today, when everybody has a phone on their camera. Back then, a picture was precious GG: One of the attractions of shooting that show was the Airplane’s Grace Slick, your first favorite female rock singer. Why did she ring her bell? AP: She sang real rock and roll, without pretense. She was saying: Here I am; I’m singing me. She struck me as being more honest, and more exciting, than anyone else around at the time. Back then there were pretty much only two roles for popular women singers. You could be Janis Joplin, the ballsy blues mama with the raw voice who drank too much Southern Comfort. Or you could be the long-haired, barefoot folk singer—Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Buffy Sainte-Marie. That didn’t appeal to me at all. Grace wasn’t performing wimpassed music. Say the word “unplugged” to me and I break out in hives. GG: One of the reasons you began photographing rock musicians in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s is that male editors blocked you from your first passion, writing about rock musicians. Do you have examples of obvious discrimination?

> MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

46 15

exhibitions

Joanna Krasnansky, Yesteryears.

31st Annual Juried Art Exhibition Coryell Gallery 8 Coryell Street, Lambertville, NJ 609-386-0804 www.coryellgallery.com Wed-Sun, 12-5 Through 3/18 Eric Fausnacht, Holy Cow, oil on canvas, 36 x 30 in.

Fowl Images Twenty-Two Gallery 236 S. 22nd St., Philadelphia 215-772-1911 www.twenty-twogallery.com Wed.-Sun. noon to 6 PM or by appt. March 9-April 8 Opening reception March 9, 6-9 Eric N. Fausnacht is a Bucks County artist who paints portraits of domestic animals and fowl in a contemporary/pop/baroque style. Fausnacht takes cues from portrait styles of Warhol, Frances Bacon, Jeff Koons, Matisse, Chuck Close, Kehinde Wiley and the schools of photo realism and historic turn of the century animal portraiture. His subject matter of domestic animals shows strength, beauty and regal splendor in a classic portrait style. The subject matter is a stylized portrait, showing a complexity and beauty that makes each image forceful and strong, as well as light and elegant. Bringing out the beauty and strength of character in these images shows a juxtaposition of the common animal as elevated elegance. His portraits fuse the boundaries between a traditional animal painting and a contemporary modern portrait. His paintings take a subject with historical references and fuse color, pattern, and textile design with a larger than life-size figure to depict strength and beauty. The animal figure takes up most of the canvas and is then fused with a rococo ornamentation. This takes a simple portrait and emphasizes and compliments the textural aspects throughout the subject’s body. After receiving a BSE in Art Education from Millersville University of Pennsylvania, he continued his education at The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and The Art Institute of Philadelphia.

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

Nine cash awards have been selected to the following artists: The Lambertville Historical Society Award of $100 is to Dean Thomas, of Sellersville for his oil painting titled “Lambertville From Above”; The Coryell Gallery Award of $100 is to Barbara Postel of Point Pleasant for her oil Painting titled “River Dawn”; the Hunterdon County Cultural & Heritage Commission Award of $100 to a Hunterdon County Artist, Jack Muessig of Ringoes, NJ, for his pastel painting titled “The Sentinels”; The Friend of Coryell Gallery Award of $100 is to Pat Smythe of Glen Rock, NJ, for her watercolor titled “The Inn at Phillips Mill”; The Stoller Family Award of $125 is to Tom Chesar, of Ringoes, NJ for his gouache painting titled “The Conversation”; Award in Memory of Charles A. Wilson of $125, given by Don Wilson, is to Dot Bunn of Doylestown, for her oil painting titled “Descent to the River”; Award in Memory of Elaine Restifo of $125 to Michael Budden of Chesterfield, NJ, for his oil painting titled “Evening in New Hope”; Award in Honor of Janet Marsh Hunt given by Robert Pritchett for $200, is to Richard Lennox of Erwinna for his oil painting titled “The Pink House, Lambertville”; Carol and Louis Della Penna Award of $250 is to David Hahn of Doylestown, for his oil painting titled “Solebury Landscape.” The Judge of the 31st Annual Juried Exhibition this year was Douglas Wiltraut, well-known painter in the Delaware Valley and beyond. He selected all the awards, including four Honorable Mentions and they are: Robert Beck, of New Hope for his oil Painting titled “From Goat Hill”; Jeff Gola of Moorestown, NJ for his egg tempera painting titled “The Delaware at Prallsville”; Carol CoshHarrison of Flemington, NJ, for her watercolor titled “traffic Jam in Lambertville”; Jas Szygiel of Chalfont for his oil painting titled “Early Evening, Lambertville.” The watercolor titled “Yesteryears” by Joanna Krasnansky has been selected by members of the Lambertville Historical Society to be raffled off at $5.00 per ticket to benefit the Society. Tickets are available in the Gallery and from members of the Society. The drawing will take place in the Gallery on Sunday, March 17 at 4:00 pm.

Reenactor Williams Center Gallery Lafayette College Williams Center for the Arts 317 Hamilton Street, Easton Mon-Fri 11-5; Thurs 11-8; Sat & Sun 12-5 Visual and performance-theater artist Pope.L, premieres his film, Reenactor at Lafayette’s William Center Art Gallery; the film will be screened daily during gallery hours through March 17. Reenactor is a film about how we costume and theatricalize time in order to make sense of our mortality. “We dress up in history, documentary, biography, or art to restage and reorder the chaos of getting from one side of life to the other.” Pope.L adds, “I call Reenactor my Civil War film, but the war I’m referring to is any great trauma that marks the land and its people such that ghosts are spawned and made restless.” Most of the film was shot in the city of Nashville, Tennessee, in 2009 and 2010. Footage of historical reenactments was shot in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.” Pope.L is an artist and educator who makes culture out of contraries and is, perhaps, best known for a series of “crawls” through busy city streets to draw attention to the marginalized members of society. The Chicago-based artist actively confronts issues of race, gender, power, consumerism and social class through provocative performances, installations, film events and art objects.

VICTOR STABIN’S UNAUTHORIZED

NPR CAUTIONARY TALES

quodlibetical moments* What happens when hybrid creatures living in surreal environments go through their daily routines with the radio on.

Chapter A: The Apperceptive Achatina CALL ME APPER ACHA. I am an apperceptive achatina. My strong suit is my ability to exclusively think about myself reflectively from many angles. It’s been a while, so I can’t remember which came first—the apperception or the mirrors. I‘ve lost track. Perhaps my ADD makes it just too hard to count the mirrors. I never quite get past about fifty without seeing myself from a new angle and start drifting. The professionals diagnose me as having severe apperception. My wife simply thinks I’m a narcissist. My bedroom is covered with wall-to-wall, ceiling-to-floor mirrors. This morning, like most mornings, I awake to my unset inner alarm clock, never knowing if I’ve slept enough. I slip out of bed and slide to the top of the mirrored staircase, slip down to the living room, boot up the computer, continue my slide slip to the kitchen to put water in the kettle for coffee. The desktop blinks on and I put on radio WHYY’s top of the hour National Public Radio news feed, for my tenminute fix of the news in anticipation of hearing the Quodlibetical Quahog (the chatty clam). Whistling prompts the pouring of the boiling water into the French press coffee pot. I rest my chin on the plunger and lean into a fresh pot of coffee, slowly sipping and listening to whatever the clam’s take is on what’s important in the world today. C-o-f-f-e-e. Catching my reflection in the highly polished stainless steel refrigerator, I start thinking about myself while the clam’s voice fills the ambient space in my head. Time passes.

“On a more serious note...,” the clam’s solemn tenor jolts me from my inner journey. The radio tolls. The veils lift. Serious news from the clam—and if you’re a snail, potentially grave news. The known but mostly ignored extinction of the global frog population has come local. Bug populations have grown from gazillions to beyond googolplex. Reports are coming in that parents and grandparents are realizing kids are no longer bringing frogs home! Five-yearolds, when interviewed about not catching frogs, ask, “Grandma, Grandpa, Mommy, Daddy, what is a frog?” Being an extremely “me”centric Achatina, my first thought is the paranoiac assumption that if kids could no longer find frogs, snails gotta be on a short list…but for what? Or should I say, “but when”? I haven’t seen Frog for a while now. Maybe it wasn’t something I said. Loading the toaster with Wonder Bread I lose myself in my reflection. Four minutes till toast. Do not ask for whom the radio tolls. The radio tolls for thee. n Victor stabin is a struggling A.D.D. survivor most notably known for his Turtle Series paintings. He was recently honored to have Voyage of the Turtle author and oceanic visonary writer Dr. Carl Safina provide the title for Stabin's latest painting, “Hatchlings.” Victor's work is on display locally at the Victor Stabin Gallery and Flow restaurant in Jim Thorpe, PA, globally at www.VictorStabin.com.

*Quodlibetical, adj. Not confined to a particular subject; discussed at pleasure for curiosity or entertainment. Quahog, n. A large species of clam. *bonus words MARCH 2012

ICON

cinematters

PETE CROATTO

Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen

THIS YEAR THE MULTIPLEX offered two releases timed for Valentine’s Day: The Vow, a scented candle of a movie with The Notebook’s stale aroma, and This Means War, an adrenaline-laced romance from the auteur behind Charlie’s Angels that for some reason starred Reese Witherspoon. (I did not see the second movie. Witherspoon’s confused expression in the previews struck me as a dire warning.) The more adult date movies, stuff like An Officer and a Gentleman or Out of Sight, are hard to find these days. As Mark Harris lamented in his brilliant essay for GQ, “The Day the Movies Died,” a trip to the neighborhood movie house once meant that “adults were treated as adults rather than as overgrown children hell-bent on enshrining their own arrested development.” Grown-up crowd pleasers have been shelved for can’t-miss, profit-generating products aimed at A senior critic at Filmcritic.com from 2002 to 2007, Pete Croatto also reviews movies for The Weekender. His essays, reviews, and feature writing have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Publishers Weekly, TCNJ Magazine, Deadspin, and The Star-Ledger. You can read more on his blog, whatpeteswatching.blogspot.com.

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

shiny new things. Which would explain why Witherspoon, who turns 36 in March, still chases the youth vote. Those factors have contributed to Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, an adaptation of Paul Torday’s novel, opening in the anonymous month of March. The movie is a throwback in the best possible way, featuring adults with problems that can’t be solved by special effects or wardrobe changes. Directed with uncharacteristic restraint by Lasse Hallström, who ripped out our heartstrings with Chocolat and The Cider House Rules, his latest film surprises us with its lack of saccharine guile. Events begin when young consultant Harriet ChetwodeTalbot (Emily Blunt) reaches out to Dr. Alfred Jones (Ewan McGregor), Britain’s fisheries expert, on behalf of her wealthy client, a sheikh who wants to introduce salmon fishing to Yemen. Harriet believes this will improve “AngloYemeni relations.” Alfred immediately dismisses the project as “fundamentally unfeasible.” That would be that, except violence in the Middle East has the British prime minister’s publicity maven (Kristin Scott Thomas) searching for good news there that she can attach to the UK. She finds Harriet’s email regarding the

salmon project and puts it on the fast track. Alfred, the embodiment of the stuffed-shirt academic, hates the idea. The sheikh’s plan is a waste of time, nothing more than the extravagant whims of a deluded, well-funded hobbyist. Harriet, of course, disagrees, backing up her points with science and hard data. Pressure from work and at home, plus the promise of a big salary, forces Alfred to collaborate with Harriet on the fishing equivalent of a mission to Mars. A funny thing happens. Alfred becomes fascinated by the project’s ambition and the ideals of the kind sheikh (Amr Waked), who views fishing as a religion that’s open to all. But it’s Harriet, whip-smart and PR pretty, who energizes him. Clearly the two are destined to share a toothbrush, so Hallström and Simon Beaufoy (the wry, heartfelt screenwriter of The Full Monty and Slumdog Millionaire) concentrate on their growing rapport. The delivery is surprisingly uncutesy, like the scene where Alfred corrects Harriet (who guessed his measurements) on his pants size when they both look terrific in formal attire or how he brings her a sandwich during a rough patch. His attraction to her goes beyond the physical. “She’s a friend,” Alfred screams at his suspicious, emotionally distant wife (Rachael Stirling). Harriet’s professional façade hides a scared kid; Alfred’s kindness is a balm to her. Right before Harriet and her new solider boyfriend (Tom Mison) make love, she tells him to “please be nice to me.” Alfred and Harriet are proficient in everything else, except as people in relationships. They need each other, especially since their current partners are concepts. Harriet barely knows her boyfriend, but the newness excites her. Alfred’s wife, constantly traveling for her job, has become a co-worker he sometimes shares a bed with. The selling point behind any romance is its leads—they must resemble us in some way. Harriet’s premature swooning and Alfred’s complacency fit the bill, but Blunt and McGregor’s ability to evolve throughout the movie instead of offering one trademark emotion is crucial. (That’s one reason why The Vow, starring the permanently dour Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum—whose defining characteristic is his apparent devotion to ab workouts—is so ponderous.) Blunt and McGregor soften throughout the movie, and we follow suit. When things get too mushy, Scott Thomas, channeling Peter Capaldi’s profane spin doctor from In the Loop, offers a riotous, curt complement. Salmon Fishing in the Yemen charms us slowly and assuredly, offering us a sparkling romance in real-life terms. Harriet learns that you can’t fall in love with an idea. Alfred discovers that a soul mate compels you to exceed your own expectations. Hallström does nothing more than reveal that there is a fish for every line, an idea that may not be sexy enough for big box-office. But for an enchanting, relatable romantic comedy, it’s pretty close to perfect. [PG-13] ■

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

keresman on film

MARK KERESMAN

Coriolanus NCE UPON A TIME there was a dynasty of great power. The king of this dynasty was both loved and feared. He had three sons (plus one adopted son that became a trusted advisor) and, as it is with kings and kids, one of them would succeed him, One son was goodhearted but a little slow in the head; another was fierce and strong but often acted first and thought second, and the third son was both smart and strong, albeit in an understated way. The king wanted to spare the third son the stresses and strain of power, hoping he’d go on to carve his own glory, his own niche in the world. But tides of fortune changed—a rival gravely wounded the king, forcing the middle son to take the reins. Soon, his impulsive nature made him vulnerable and rivals murdered him—this compelled the third son to take the throne. He then decimated all possible rivals, thus safeguarding the dynasty—but any chance of him being happy apart from the dynasty was gone forever. There was a mighty general—a ferocious warrior, a hero to his nation. He dealt with enemies abroad and unrest at home. He was urged by family and friends to become a senator—but he lacked a politician’s tact and “diplomacy.” Insiders urged the general to show some humility to the public—trouble was, the general held a low opinion of “the people,” regarding them as fickle, easily distracted, ungrateful, and all too willing to let guys like the him do the dirty work. “It isn’t enough I shed my and lots of others’ blood for them, but I got to kiss their asses too? Screw ‘em.” A mob, organized in part by one of the senators, tells the general where to go, and he says, “Back atcha, I’m outta here, you bunch o’ ungrateful rubes.” Exiled, the general hits the road, a wanderer, eventually ending up on the doorstep of his greatest foreign enemy, a general he hates but respects. He figures, “This is my chance to show those clowns back home what trouble really is.” Which of the two scenarios above is a William Shakespeare play? Or could they both be Big Bill’s plays? The first one is the outline of the book and film The Godfather, the second is of the Shakespeare play Coriolanus, which has been adapted to modern times and brought to the screen starring and directed by Ralph Fiennes (his directorial debut). While Coriolanus has contemporary scenery it’s still “framed” in its Roman Empire setting. Everything else we hold dear—TV, cell phones, automatic weapons, etc.—is present. But the dialogue is pure Shakespeare—that may pose a problem for some, but it can be surmounted by doing something many movies don’t require of viewers— paying attention to the dialogue. That, and by the context of scenes, is the key to, as Saint Marvin said, what’s goin’ on. Perhaps because of its theatrical roots, the acting herein is intense. The majorly buffed-up/out Fiennes is so fervent that you can see (and practically, uh, taste) the spittle flying from his facial cavity—but he never gets into William Shatner/Christopher Walken territory (the patron saints of overacting). He looks scary, as if he could play the Eternal Soldier, or he could walk out of this play/movie and into Apoc20

ICON

MARCH 2012

Ralph Fiennes and Gerard Butler.

alypse Now or “Saving Private Brutus,” the kind of guy that seems incomplete without a weapon in or blood on his hands. Jessica Chastain (The Help) is very good as Virgilia, wife of Coriolanus—in what’s very little screen time, she establishes a character of great devotion and longing. She, and nearly everyone else, is dwarfed by Vanessa Redgrave as Volumnia, Coriolanus’s prideful, cunning, somewhat domineering mother. She might, at first glance, look like “a frail old lady/grand dame,” but she practically radiates iron-fistin-a-velvet-glove power—sometimes she even wears a military uniform (it’s not explained if she’s an officer or it’s “honorary,” like that guy on a US aircraft carrier a few years back). She’s the only one that exerts any kind of influence over him and you get the feeling that, with her brains and guts, if she were to pull a Glenn Close, she’d be holding the scepter of power. If this were set in the Boardwalk Empire days, Volumnia might say to Coriolanus, “Son, with your balls and my brains, before long we’ll be runnin’ the show!” Brian Cox (the original Hannibal Lecter in 1986’s Manhunter) is excellent as Menenius, a senator that’s in Coriolanus’s corner. He seems to have a paternal, protective relationship to him, is genuinely affectionate to Coriolanus’s family, and he tries to mentor him in the ways of Roman politics. (In some ways, Coriolanus is a lot like Tony Montana from Scarface—no matter how well things go, he’s a seething ball of fury; plus he’s fearless in battle and spills blood enthusiastically.) He’s also a wily politician—he sees

(and tries to counter) behind-the-scenes power-plays and tries to impress upon Corio that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar—it doesn’t take. As great a warrior as he is, off the battlefield he seems his own worst enemy. Gerard Butler is fine (if a little underdeveloped) as his opposite number/beloved enemy, although when he gets loud and talks fast, he sounds lots more Irish than at regular vocal levels. As some of Will S’s plays can be violent, so it is with Coriolanus the movie—the battle scenes are almost as nasty as those in Heat, Patton, and The Hurt Locker. There’s hand-to-hand combat with plenty of blood and you can practically hear bullets rending flesh…and as “war dramas” should, we get to see some of the collateral damage (i.e., non-warrior corpses). Fiennes’s direction puts you right in the center of the action (nice use of close-ups) but he thankfully spares us that annoying hand-held camera nonsense that’s been damaging many movies lately. While you don’t have to be a Shakespeare fan to enjoy Coriolanus, it helps…but this is one “literary adaptation” movie to which you can take along a fan of Nic Cage/Jason Statham action films and s/he just might like it. n In addition to ICON, Mark Keresman is a contributing writer for SF Weekly, East Bay Express, Pittsburgh City Paper, Paste, Jazz Review, downBeat, and the Manhattan Resident.

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

bad movie

MARK KERESMAN

Killer Elite One military guy: “All this killing! And killing, and killing, and more killing…and what’s it gotten us?” Other military guy: “Death, mostly.”

Jason Statham. Photo: Jack English.

ICON

MARCH 2012

CTION MOVIES ARE USUALLY fun—good, turn-off-your-brain, havoc- and testosterone-laden fun. The laws of physics are often suspended—if you hit someone with a sturdy chair, I’ll wager Krugerrands to English muffins the chair breaks, not the person. If you run barefoot over broken glass, you won’t be running very far…and so on. One way to explain/extend the basic concept of action movies is to feature tough guys—REAL tough guys, not the kind that Keanu Reeves plays. And so it is with Killer Elite, a film allegedly based on allegedly real events. Many of the characters here are or were members of SAS, the Special Air Services, the elite fighting force of England (sometimes known as the United Kingdom). These guys (in real life, now) are SO bad-ass that the armies of the USA, France, and Israel were inspired by this unit to form their own counterparts, using SAS as a model—for America, it’s Delta Force. But what happens—in movies, anyway—when professional soldiers run out of wars, or want to get paid better? They become mercenaries. In Killer Elite, these guys are Hunter (Robert De Niro), grizzled veteran/wise mentor and Danny (Jason Statham), devoted pupil, our sort-of heroes. A Middle Eastern sheikh puts the grab on Hunter and blackmails Danny into terminating “with extreme prejudice” three SAS guys that killed his sons in one of the assorted wars occurring in Oil-land. Were these SAS guys just doing their job as soldiers or did they go below-and-beyond the call of duty? Hints are dropped that it was the latter— said hints come from a cabal of English…well, we’re never told exactly who these mature gents in suits (Captains of industry? Politicians? Military? Masons? All of the above?) are, but it’s hinted (again with the hints) these are The Guys that covertly and really run things, whether the Prime Minister knows about it or not. This boys’ club gets wind of the plot and decide to “protect their assets”—after all, you never know when you’ll need to topple a regime or assassinate some high-ranking troublesome schmoe someplace. So they send Spike (Clive Owen) to find and terminate the terminators. Got that? While having a few impressive hand-to-hand fight scenes, Killer Elite is so cookie-cutter I kept expecting the Pillsbury Doughboy to show up to serve tasty snacks for the (mostly Australian) cast. Let’s see, what have we got that viewers over the age of 25 have seen many times before: battle-hardened pro warrior with a good heart/mentor, check; tough, capable disciple/soldier-for-hire (lethal, but with scruples) that’s forced to do “just one more job, then I’m out,” check; obligatory female love-interest that soldier-for-hire is willing to give it all up for, check; mysterious guys in suits that use the word “deniability” the way movie mob guys use “fugeddaboudit,” check; slightly less mysterious well-dressed go-between (the guy that gets our heroes work) that oozes duplicity and sleaziness, check; so many one-dimensional characters that are watching, trailing, or killing each other it’s hard to know (or care) what’s going on, check; the obligatory guy that tells the weary, sympathetic soldier-forhire, “Why, you’re a KILLER, son, and a darn good one! You can’t walk away/run/hide from/change what you are,” check; the love interest feels discouraged because her new love can’t talk freely about his past, check. (“What’d you do at work today, honey?” “Ah, I had to strangle a guy with his own intestines.”) Killer Elite also features one of the recurring tropes/faults of horror films—namely many characters are nitwits and do silly stuff that gets them killed. We’re talking SAS here, folks, guys that’d give Navy SEALs a run for their money, and so often they seem like slowon-the-draw thugs. (Note: I am not saying either outfit—SAS, SEALs—is better than the other, just trying to impart the level of proficiency of the SAS to American readers who might not know about the SAS…so don’t kill me, guys.) The dialogue is distinctly dull. (“Killing is easy; living with it every day is the hard part.”) Jason Statham is playing Jason Statham once again—while he’s sort of likable as an earthy type of action hero, his acting ranges from “stoic” to “wittily stoic” to “extremely stoic.” De Niro, at least, doesn’t embarrass himself—he even manages to bring a wee touch of class to yet another role not worthy of him. There could have been a good film here, had the “creative team” behind it wanted to put a little work in it. As it is, another film industry “product” made without respect for the audience. n

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

reel news A Dangerous Method (2011) ★★★★ Cast: Keira Knightley, Viggo Mortensen, Michael Fassbender Genre: Drama Based on the book, A Most Dangerous Method, by John Kerr. Rated R for sexual content and brief language. Running time 99 minutes. Awards: Golden Globes nomination, Best Supporting Actor.

REVIEWS OF RECENTLY RELEASED DVDS BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

Carnage (2011) ★★★ Cast: Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz, John C. Reilly Genre: Drama Based on the play “God of Carnage” by Yasmina Reza. Directed by Roman Polanski. Rated R for language.

Can you imagine Sigmund Freud’s reaction when he found out his trusted colleague, Carl Jung, had fallen in love and bedded a hysterically psychotic patient? Viggo Mortensen adopts the persona of Freud as he grapples with the opposing force of his friend, Jung (Fassbender). Jung proves the untried science of psychotherapy works, in this case with a little sex therapy added, by bringing Sabina Spielrein (Knightley) back

When two 11-year-old boys get into a playground fight, teeth fly. When the victim’s parents invite the bully’s parents over to discuss the incident, civility takes flight. In the tempered constraints of a high-dollar apartment, the four adults sit with tea and pie and tulips on the table and discuss how boys will be boys. When tea can’t sort it out, whisky becomes the drink of choice. Over the course of the evening, blame and guilt ebb and flow, and the façade of civilization slowly crumbles. Like werewolves under a full moon,

Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley

Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet.

into the world of reason. She also became Freud’s patient and eventually a prominent psychoanalyst in Russia. The tension between conflicting egos, ethics and passion, and love and betrayal test the sanity and civility of the three founding advocates of the “talking cure” for mental illness. Authentic costuming, insightful acting, and locations where the historical figures lived and worked make this period piece a delightful slice of history.

the four adults become, or revert to, fanged animals protecting their families from threats more psychological than actual. Razor-sharp dialogue, biting satire, dismissive humor, and raw self-preservation reveal how little humans have evolved since we discovered our thumbs.

My Week With Marilyn (2011) ★★★★ Cast: Michelle Williams, Eddie Redmayne Genre: Drama Rated R for foul language, drug and alcohol abuse, and discreet female nudity. Running time 96 minutes. Awards: Golden Globes, Best Actress, nominated Best Supporting Actor, Best Picture; Oscar nominated Best Actor, Actress; SAG nominated Best Actor, Actress. Slice–of-life movies often meander like a lost river, but not this tightly channeled story. Starting with the title, we know we’re going to be immersed in one well-defined, documented week in the life of Marilyn Monroe. But does anything happen? It doesn’t matter, we’re here to experience the coy-but-innocent, vulnerable-but-assured, timebomb nature of the sexpot idol. These quixotic qualities, an if-you-got-it-flaunt-it Bardot attitude, made her a universal sex symbol. While working on the film The Prince and the Showgirl in England, Marilyn gets a week off when her husband, Arthur Miller, jaunts off in Paris. The film’s gofer, 23-year-old Colin Clark (Redmayne) is assigned to attend to the recalcitrant star. She needs a pressure valve and he’s the only non-threatening male on the set. Superb acting and pacing propelled this period piece from the Golden Globes to the Oscars.

ICON

MARCH 2012

Melancholia (2011) ★★★ Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgård, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Genre: Drama, suspense, fantasy Rated R for some graphic nudity, sexual content, and language. Running time 135 minutes. Awards: Cannes, Best Actress. Scored in two movements, this visual sympathy begins with a wedding and ends with, well, the end of the world. It would make a great double feature with Tree of Life, which begins with Creation, and is just as mystic and visually stunning. Chronically depressed Justine (Dunst) tries marriage to get her out of the dumps. Foreshadowing the future, the extravagant wedding shatters with disastrous results. Just when she thinks things can’t get any worse, along comes Part 2 with the discovery of trouble in the heavens. Justine may be the only person alive who thinks a rogue planet on a collision course with the Earth is a better way to end depression than Prozac. This isn’t a feel-good movie, but it will stimulate your senses like a fork in an electric outlet. Which can be a good thing or a bad thing. n George Miller is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and believes that travel is a product of the heart, not the itinerary. See his webmagazine at www.travelsdujour.com.

MARCH 2012

ICON

film roundup Rampart (Dir: Oren Moverman). Starring: Woody Harrelson, Robin Wright, Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon, Brie Larson, Ned Beatty, Ice Cube, Ben Foster, Steve Buscemi, Sigourney Weaver. In 1999 Los Angeles, veteran police officer Dave Brown (Harrelson) has become irrelevant. His racist views and strong-armed tactics make him dangerous in a city still hurting from the Rodney King beating. At home, his two ex-wives (Heche and Nixon, playing sisters)

Woody Harrelson.

are tired of the headaches and make it clear that they don’t need him. When Brown is involved in two high-profile job-related scandals, the LAPD wants him gone. Brown’s desperate insistence that he’s a victim, the target of a cover-up, quickly causes his life to unravel. Harrelson’s blistering performance of a pathetic soul seeking an elusive happy ending keeps our attention even when Moverman (The Messenger) and James Ellroy’s script covers the same ground. A sobering, unforgiving look at what happens when heroism passes its expiration date, captured with gritty flair by cinematographer Bobby Bukowski. Foster, also Harrelson’s co-star in The Messenger, produced. [R] ★★★1/2 Jiro Dreams of Sushi (Dir: David Gelb). “I don’t think I have achieved perfection,” says 85-year-old Jiro Ono, a world-renowned sushi chef who spends his days honing his skills at his small Tokyo sushi restaurant. There are no other pursuits in a life dedicated to exacting standards and routine. Gelb’s charming, artfully filmed documentary—food is frequently prepared in slow motion to the strains of classical musical—playfully examines the mixture of quirk and dedication required for this particular creative endeavor. What elevates the film beyond quaint treasure is its emotional heft. Gelb reveals how Jiro’s passion has both strained and united a family. Jiro’s older son, Yoshikazu, forever waits to take over the restaurant and impossible expectations; at a second location, younger son Takeshi can’t charge the same prices as his father—he doesn’t have the old man’s reputation. Jiro expresses everything through work—all he’s known since leaving home at age nine—including love for his sons, who have learned from a culinary master. This is a touching, satisfying, and mouth-watering film that makes its point slowly and sweetly. [PG] ★★★★ 26

ICON

MARCH 2012

PETE CROATTO Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye (Dir: Marie Losier). Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, the industrial rock pioneer and performance artist, met a willowy young NYC-based dominatrix named Lady Jaye (née Jacqueline Breyer) in the early 1990s. The two lovers were so consumed with the notion of becoming one that they endured multiple surgeries to look like each other. For his part, Genesis got breasts, dressed in women’s clothes, and adopted Lady Jaye’s blonde locks. The mirroring also doubled as a piece of performance art known as “Creating the Pandrogyne.” Losier’s jittery, homespun documentary follows Genesis’s life and the couple’s time together, switching between mundane scenes (e.g., a birthday party, Genesis looking Lady Jaye and Genesis Breyer P-Orridge. through his albums) to unusual snippets of performance art to a concert tour. The film’s herky-jerky style and artsy insistence does not take away from Losier’s skill in capturing the humanity behind the incomprehensible. What you’re watching is a compelling, ultimately sad love story. The packaging is just different. [NR] ★★★ No Room for Rockstars (Dir: Parris Patton). For years, the Vans Warped Tour has funneled counterculture musical acts into the mainstream. No Doubt, Eminem, and Blink 182 were part of the raucous outdoor summer concert series before becoming chart toppers. Patton follows the 2010 tour, which covered 93 cities and nearly 30,000 miles in 52 days, and its various personalities. They include Mike

Posner, whose appearance coincides with staggering commercial success; 19-year-old Cristofer Drew Ingle of Never Shout Never, a sensitive teen heartthrob, who struggles for normalcy after three years on the road; and Mitch Lucker, the heavily tattooed screamer of Suicide Silence, who relentlessly tours for one reason: to provide for his daughter. At each stop, Forever Came Calling, an unknown California-based band confined to a decrepit van and a non-existent budget, sells homemade CDs and inches its way toward notoriety. Despite a lack of investigative crunch or conflict—the film is part of Warped Tour promotions—Patton ably captures the color and chaos behind a labor of love. [NR] ★★★ n

MARCH 2012

ICON

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

Being PAUL DANO The star of Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, and this month’s Being Flynn discusses daddy issues, generational pride, and what it’s like to square off against Day-Lewis and De Niro.

IT FEELS APPROPRIATE TO be speaking with Paul Dano following the close of 2011, a year marked by a celebrated resurgence of silent film acting. After all, most who know this 27-year-old’s work first made his acquaintance with 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine, which saw him play an angsty mute with hopeless aviation dreams. Since that indelibly expressive breakout performance (which was in fact his eighth in a feature film), Dano, a New Yorkborn culture junkie who fronts a rock band on the side, has appeared in a wildly diverse collection of movies, most of them falling just outside your typical multiplex fare. He unforgettably played sniveling twin brothers Paul and Eli Sunday opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood. He lent his voice to perhaps the most tender and tragic Sendak-inspired creature in Where the Wild Things Are. He starred alongside Michelle Williams in one of last year’s very best films, Meek’s Cutoff. And to follow all that, he’s sharing the screen with Robert De Niro in this month’s Being Flynn, an adaptation of poet Nick Flynn’s 2004 memoir, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City.

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

interview

R. KURT OSENLUND

Celebrity interviews very often acknowledge the unexpected commonness of their subjects, who, wouldn’t you know it, are actually people, too. Dano offers the extreme of that norm. He has a terrific look that’s all his own, yet he’s by no means movie-star handsome. He’s very much in command of his words and demeanor, yet he’s no more intimidating than his Little Miss Sunshine co-star, Abigail Breslin. Lean and exceptionally casual, he’s an actor whose fame dissolves within minutes of speaking to him. This is the quality that’s landed Dano the roles he’s amassed, including his new role as Nick Flynn, a homeless shelter worker and eventual addict tasked to overcome the fears of becoming his father (De Niro), a delusional failed writer living on the street. Dano’s innate virtues make for excellent character immersion―it’s rare that you don’t wholly believe him onscreen. He took a pause from an ever-crowding schedule to chat at New York’s Waldorf Astoria. He confirmed a classy approach to craft that promises artistic longevity. And while he may have caught the world’s attention with a largely wordless performance, in each new film, the fact that he’s arrived comes across loud and clear. R. Kurt Osenlund: You broke into the indie world at 17 with your role in Michael Cuesta’s L.I.E., a controversial role many child actors probably weren’t willing to take. Did you have an inkling then that that would lead you to so many un-Hollywood films? Or are the roles you’ve taken since the kind you always had your eye on? Paul Dano: No, I had no clue. That was the first film I ever did. I didn’t have a problem with the material [which concerns a close bond between an aging pedophile and a 15-year-old boy]. I thought the script was good. But I was really young, so who knows what my interpretation of good was? I know L.I.E. was a really eye-opening experience for me, though. We went to Sundance, and then it came out and played at other festivals. It did alright―I think it’s a good film. It opened me up to a world of film that I frankly didn’t know about, and that I started to feel really good about. It seemed like people really cared about what they do, and I guess I like really interesting and challenging material, and a lot of it lies in that world. RKO: Do you get offered a lot of big Hollywood stuff? PD: I get offered some stuff. You meet on things, every now and then you audition for things. For me, it usually comes down to just how the words make me feel on the page. And obviously the cast matters, and the director probably matters most, but I don’t want to get up and be convincing myself that I’m going to make dialogue better than

R. Kurt Osenlund is the managing editor of The House Next Door, the official blog of Slant Magazine. He is also the film critic for South Philly Review, and a contributing writer for ICON, Slant, Cineaste, Fandor and The Film Experience. He compiles his work and posts other goodies at his blog, www.yourmoviebuddy.blogspot.com. Email at rkurtosenlund@gmail.com.

it is. I want the material to make me a better actor. I just want to get that rush from reading something. So whether it’s big or small, it’s the same thing that you’re looking for, that you’re chasing. It’s the same feeling―to be inspired. RKO: On that note, in regard to material, you’re often tasked to scream a lot in films. You have a lot of scenes of emotional outburst, which you certainly have a talent for. We see it in Little Miss Sunshine, There Will Be Blood, and now again in Being Flynn. Are most of those eruptions already on the page? Or is it often a matter of you and the director saying, “Let’s channel Paul Dano’s volatile talents into what’s already there”? PD: You know, I try to take my cues from what’s on the page and what the character is sort of telling me to do. It’s a funny thing―you try to put as much of yourself into a part and try to get as far away from yourself as you can at the same time. Sometimes you don’t rehearse, so you’re always thinking, “well I hope they’re okay with what I’m feeling here.” But I think those things all feel natural and right for the scene to me. RKO: A film that I really liked that you appeared in was The Extra Man with Kevin Kline, which, like Being Flynn, involved literature and coming of age and this eccentric father figure. Were you ever concerned that these two films were too similar, or were you just excited about the source material? PD: Sometimes I think about those kind of things, but then, I think that character [in The Extra Man] is completely different from this one. I’m sure there might be some similarities, but this film, I think, is much more of a drama, and it’s a true story, and I think the journey is much different. I think for me this film is really about looking at who you are, who you’re becoming, who your parents are, and sort of saying, “Hey, maybe I have a choice of who I’m going to be. Am I going to continue on a downhill path, which is

probably the easy thing to do, or am I gonna do better for myself?” Then this guy goes to NA and AA, and becomes a teacher and a successful poet, and it’s pretty amazing that he was able to do that after a pretty tough go at life. So, that doesn’t really relate to The Extra Man for me. RKO: Stop me if I’m getting too personal, but do you have a smooth relationship with your own father? Because I wonder what you draw upon when you need to embody a character with such strong paternal issues. PD: Yeah, I have a good relationship with my dad. The memoir and the script were both very well-written, so you just have a great entry point for your imagination, and for my own empathy toward this character, Nick. And for an actor, for me to play this whole father thing, it doesn’t have to be my father, it just has to be someone personal that you either have that fear of becoming, or have that kind of conflict with. But I just think that, even if you haven’t experienced it, the whole father-son thing and mother-son thing is so universal and instinctual that I think you can put yourself in that position and feel what it might feel like. RKO: Robert De Niro’s character, Jonathan Flynn, boasts that “everything he creates is a masterpiece,” when ultimately, for me, the film suggested that the only real masterpiece he created was your character, his son. Was that something you thought about when you were tackling the role? PD: Well that’s what’s so great about this story and the psychology of it. Nick’s father is everything he doesn’t want to be, and also what he wants to be in some ways, at least in terms of wanting to be a writer. I think Nick has is, not quite eccentricities, but he’s got his issues and conflicts. I

> MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

interview

A.D. AMOROSI

Guillermo Pernot’s

CUBA

yesterday and today THROUGHOUT SEVERAL SPRING, SUMMER and autumn visits to Cuba Libre in Old City during the restaurant’s tenth anniversary I found more than a few surprises in the stately black and tan manor, beyond the usual of a fleeting few celebratory cocktails and menu specials that other local watering holes might barely bother to accomplish. The towering cabana that Larry Cohen and Barry Gutin brought to Second Street (along with several other East Coast cities) had been reborn with new signage, new musical vibes and a marvelously reinvigorated menu born of the man who brought Nuevo Latino cuisine to Philly in the first place—master chef and Cuba Libre co-owner Guillermo Pernot. Twenty five new piqueos in the small plate department were at the top of Pernot’s mind after having spent a season in his wife Lucia’s hometown of Havana (Pernot is from Argentina) for culinary research. “When I was Guillermo Pernot. working on the new menu, I wanted to bring a new life by introducing more authentic flavors and ingredients,” says Pernot. “These were things that I found while visiting Cuba earlier this year. Small

If A.D. Amorosi can’t be found writing features for the Philadelphia Inquirer, doing Icepacks and Icecubes (amongst other stories) for Philadelphia City Paper or appearing on NBCTV’s The 10! Show, he’s probably hitting restaurants like Stephen Starr’s or running his greyhound. 34

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

plates—which I’ve seen in several paladares in Cuba—allows [people] to share and provides a more social experience.” Pernot credits what he calls “the new new items” reflections of culinary trends that he experienced with his chef friends in Havana. “I always enjoy challenging myself with everything that I cook,” says Pernot when asked if refreshing his menu was as much about personal revelation as it was competitive largesse. “I do this for the guests as well as the success of the restaurant. I’m not one to try to compete with anyone.” Where personal discovery and self-achievement is concerned, the chef who built his Nuevo Latino empire, first with the Argentinian Vega Grill in Manayunk and the famed Pasion! on 15th Street (he worked at the Fish Market, La Terrasse, Monte Carlo Living Room and the Four Seasons’s Fountain dining room, too) before arriving at Cuba Libre felt it was crucial to experience that which he had embraced

with such zest: the tastes and heritage of Cuba gleaned from Lucia, the great great granddaughter of the President of Cuba, Aurelio Mario García Menocal. Pernot’s partners at Cuba Libre, Cohen and Gutin, responded well to the chef ’s desires to re-invent and re-contemporize their restaurant with extensive travel plans. “Very positively, I’d say,” states Pernot. “Both Barry and Larry were very receptive to my interest in traveling to Cuba to learn about what is being cooked there today. My travels were not only for the culinary scene, but also for my own personal interest since my wife is Cuban. Actually, my initial visit was prompted by my sister-in-law who was going to spend the holidays of last year in Havana. I decided it was an opportune time to visit myself, as I would be able to discover old and new family as well as the traditional, as well as the modern flavors of the cuisine, which on my second and third trips this year, I got more involved with.”

There is little of Aurelio Mario García Menocal, the Cuban president from 1913 to 1921, in Pernot’s everyday. “My wife does not keep any memorabilia of President Menocal. I am sure my in-laws do, but as you can probably expect, politics is something they prefer not to talk about,” he said. But the family of a president is treated like royalty and, as expected with Pernot and his family, privy to the finer things and foods that Havana had to offer. “Yes, I was exposed to the finest things, but I also saw the other side of the spectrum,” said Pernot adamantly. “The markets where regular people shop, the fisherman’s private shop next to the inlet, the rabbit farm and some other vegetable farms—these were key to our existence there. The fact is that some of the products that the very expensive restaurants and hotels use

are purchased at these places. It is what you do with the ingredients, not how much you charge that was inspiring.” Inspiration was not limited to culinary displays, there or upon his return. Though a novice in the art of photography, Pernot kept a running photographic journal of the penthouse and the pavement, the streets and the seats of power that proved to be just as enlivening to what Cuba Libre would become for its tenth anniversary forward. Pernot’s richly colorful photos—sometimes close-up lushly displayed looks through Werner Herzog-ian greenery, others playful like humble village displays of daily culinary ritual—became part of the new Cuba Libre’s décor. “I am not a photographer, I just did my best,” says Pernot. Beyond being just a series of postcard-like snapshots of what it meant to be a

tourist in Havana, the chef sought to present “the soul of the food and the warmth of the people” that he had learned and accepted throughout his and his family’s time in Cuba. As he walks through his Philadelphia operation throughout the week, the photos make him wistful and his guests greenly envious. For those reasons, Pernot is planning to write a new cookbook about Cuban cuisine. He’s also planning a trek back to Cuba. “I wish that everyone could go and experience what I did; so much so that we are in the midst of planning a culinary tour of Havana for our guests. I hope that they are able to experience the things I did.” My guess is that no matter who goes with Pernot, they won’t be able to bring it back as vibrantly as Pernot has. ■

Photos by Guillermo Pernot.

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

essay

SALLY FRIEDMAN

love in

Bloom

On their very first date, way back in 1931, my parents went to the Philadelphia Flower Show. My mother was a 20-year-old beauty. My father was a dashing young lawyer of 26. THE ROMANCE TOOK OFF quickly, and they were married before the next spring. My mother always insisted that she accepted this ardent suitor’s proposal because he had shown her just how lovely the world could be. My father always said that she was more beautiful than the most beautiful rose at the show. So it was probably inevitable that my sister and I were taken to the Philadelphia Flower Show as tots, taking trolleys and buses for what seemed an eternity to get to the old Commercial Museum in Philadelphia near the University of Pennsylvania’s campus. It all seemed so vast to me, and I’m sure I whined that my feet hurt. But it wasn’t cool to go to flower shows with your mother when the elementary school years were over, and I steadfastly refused to do it. I did go back once with my high school friends, but the mission was not, alas, to smell the flowers. It was to be near Penn’s campus to search out the cute guys all around us. And then I became a student at Penn. During a particularly stormy romance, I still recall buying myself a lone ticket to the Flower Show, and wandering around, blinking back tears at all that beauty because I was so dramatically melancholy. But spring was just around the corner, and the flower show propelled me past my broken heart. When marriage and motherhood took over the reins of my life, I do recall trying to brave the show with my husband and three tiny girls in tow, and the misery of that experience. But as the girls got older, and a bit more reasonable, we did occasionally head to the then-new Civic Center, hopefully to dazzle them with the display of all things beautiful. Of course, our daughters grew up while our backs were turned, and soon enough it was back to just the two of us. And in the inevitable march of time and life’s passages, my mother was now a widow. Each year that we could, my husband and I would plan an afternoon with her at the show.

Sally Friedman has been “living out loud” for over three decades. In addition to ICON, she contributes to the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, AARP Magazine and other national and regional publications. She is the mother of three fierce daughters, grandmother of seven exceptional grandchildren and the wife of retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Victor Friedman. Email: PINEGANDER@aol.com. 36

ICON

MARCH 2012

How she loved it, even all those decades after her young lawyer had squired her around. Her eyes always sparkled on those Flower Show days, and she seemed to shed years. When the show moved downtown to the spanking new Convention Center, it morphed into an even greater extravaganza. There was the instant “Wow!” factor for Mom because of the space. In 2006, a tough year for us, my mother’s health was failing rapidly, yet she desperately wanted to get to that show. So my husband and I checked into wheelchairs, into handicap access, and just when we thought we had it all figured out, Mom made her pronouncement: No more flower shows for her. I’ll never forget the resignation in her voice. She died later that year. The next year, I couldn’t bring myself to go to the show. Too many memories lurking. Too many painful associations. But I couldn’t stay away for long. And I was there again last year. I walked and walked, a dazed, happy wanderer drinking in ruby red roses, the dainty violets, a splendid lemon tree. And I kept remembering my mother’s face, and missing her like crazy. Everywhere I looked were explosions of color. Around every bend was something that made me gasp. How she would have loved it! Before I left the show, I bought a tiny fern to carry away with me. It was still young and delicate, and not quite perfect. I relished the idea of nurturing it. In a sometimes too-quiet empty nest, I wanted something to care for. My mother, I know, would have understood. I’ll be going again this month. I can’t stay away. And sometime during my wanderings, I’ll no doubt think about that young couple on a first date in a different era—and a different world. I’ll probably stop in my tracks to get my bearings…such remembrances can be overwhelmingly emotional. And then I’ll push on, breathing in Hawaii, this year’s theme. Once again, I’ll pause to buy something alive and beautiful. It will be small and not too expensive—I’m a practical woman. And I’ll leave with sweet remembrances of flower shows past…and of that couple I carry in my genes and my heart who once, long ago, found love among the flowers. n The 2012 Philadelphia International Flower Show runs from March 4 to March 11 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. www.theflowershow.com

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

S WA N

first sip

PATRICIA SAVOIE

A vertical tasting: two Margaux wines from Bordeaux

HOTEL Modern Cuisine h Classic Comfort

food & wine

Corner of Swan & Main Lambertville, NJ 609-397-3552

ICON

MARCH 2012

MARGAUX IS THE LARGEST of the Bordeaux left bank wine producing areas and is an official A.O.C. (appellation d’origine côntrolée). The name can be a bit confusing, as one of the leading wines from the area bears the name: first growth Chateau Margaux As with much of the left bank, or Médoc area, the vineyards of Margaux were planted on what once were swamps. Now, the underlying soil is white gravel. And while the grape varieties planted are similar to the rest of the Medoc, the proportions are a bit different. While Pauillacs or St. Julien’s have a significant amount of Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, Margaux wines tend to use a bit less, with more Merlot—resulting in softer wines often termed “elegant” and “refined.” The wines tend to show blackberry, cassis and violet notes, and sometimes the earthiness of truffles and, with aging, tobacco. Margaux has more classified second and third growths than any other Bordeaux appellation. I had the opportunity to taste two of those, second growth Chateau Rauzan-Ségla and third growth Chateau d’Issan in depth in late January at a tasting lunch of the Wine Media Guild of NY. The leaders of each, Emmanuel Cruse, whose family owns Chateau d’Issan, and John Kolasa, Managing Director of Chateau RauzanSégla (which is owned by the House of Chanel), talked of vintages, the market and the problems facing Bordeaux wines. Chaeau d’Issan has only Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot planted, with vines about 35 years old. Its wines tend to be, on average, 65% Cabernet and 35% Merlot. The vines are about 35 years old. Rauzan-Ségla’s plantings are 59% Cabernet, 41% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot and 1% Cabernet Franc. Chateau d’Issan is generally lighter than Chateau Rauzan-Ségla and will be ready to drink before a RauzanSégla in the same vintage. Chateau d’Issan is fruity and soft, while Chateau Rauzan-Ségal has more body and is more concentrated and tannic. Both wines tend to be low in alcohol—about 12.5%, making them very food friendly. Regarding recent vintages, both men agreed that 2009 and 2010 are excellent years. They actually described 2009 as an “American Vintage” and 2010 as a “British vintage,” meaning that 2009 will be ready to drink sooner and be more pleasing to the American palate. The 2010 is a “classic Margaux vintage” that will take longer to mature. They compared 2009 to the 2003 warm vintage. As with most other top Bordeaux, the wines need aging: at least ten years before they show real development and preferably 20 for the complexity and elegance to emerge. The 2011 vintage is expected to be better than the 2008, but not so good as ’09 or ‘10. Mr. Cruse stated that the 2010 Chateau d’Issan (currently still in barrel) is the “best ever” wine that the estate has produced. Last I looked, the 2010 d’Issan was priced “at futures” at $90 a bottle, which for a “best” is a great value. These wines will be delivered in a year or two. For comparison, 2010 Chateau Margaux futures are $1,000 a bottle. Eight wines from each producer were tasted, and some of my favorites are noted. Chateau d’ Issan. Wines tasted: 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004 and 2001, 2000, 1999 and a 1995 from magnum.

The 2004 was excellent, and also had the highest percentage of Merlot (40%). Earthy but elegant. The 2006 came from a difficult year and is complex. The vintage 2000 was a great vintage and the wine, which can still be found in the market (at anywhere from $60-80) is outstanding. Floral notes, licorice, fruit. The 1983 was the crowd pleaser. It had come into its own. The one listing I found priced it at $180 a bottle. Chateau Rauzan-Segla. Wines tasted: 2009, 2008, 2005, 2003, 2001, 1999 from Magnum, 1995, 1988 and 1986. The 2001 showed coffee and fruit and was another crowd pleaser. The 2003, a very hot year in Bordeaux, and the 2009 were fuller bodied and had lots of red fruit. Again, the oldest wine, the1986, was a joy to drink and showed the potential of an aged Bordeaux. It is listed on the Internet from $90 up to $300+ a bottle. n Patricia Savoie is a wine and culinary travel writer. She can be reached at WordsOnWine@gmail.com

DISCOVERING THE WORLD OF WINE Pat Savoie has been the ICON wine columnist since 2004. Her new online wine course, Discovering the World of Wine, has just launched on The New York Times Knowledge Network (TKN). The course was commissioned by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s International School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (FDU) in collaboration with TKN. This course was created, written and produced by Pat and co-author Ron Kapon, a wine writer and educator and teacher of the FDU classroom wine course. Discovering the World of Wine is different from any other online or DVD course. It consists of 26 individual Classes, each on a different wine topic. Each Class is concise and clearly written with all the important information needed to gain an understanding of the topic. A dozen of the Classes have accompanying Tasting Videos, in which Philippe Newlin, who teaches wine courses at Columbia Business School and the Yale School of Management, explores seven wines with a group of student tasters. All but four of these classes are organized by grape type because the authors believe that comparing wines by grape variety across several different growing places is the best way to understand how and why grapes and their wines differ and for students to figure out what they like. The student tasters make comments and raise questions, just as in a real classroom. In addition, each Class has a list of the wines tasted in the Tasting Video and suggestions for substitutes so you can purchase them and taste along with Mr. Newlin and the students. Other videos take the student into one of NYC's top restaurants where the diners discuss food and wine pairings with the Sommelier, or into a retail store where the Manager suggests ideas for buying wine. The course is $149 on TKN. For more information on the course or to register, go to www.fdu.edu/wineonline

MONSÚ

1-800-354-8776

ROBERT GORDON

icon

dining

food & wine

MONSÚ NESTLES ALONG THE path of Rocky’s run. But the tidy little eatery has experienced nothing approaching a rocky run in establishing cred at 9th and Christian. In Philly lore, that’s hallowed turf, immortalized by Rocky’s run in the 1976 breakthrough-for-Philly movie. Three-and-a-half decades later, Monsú has stitched itself into the fabric of this uniquely Philadelphian neighborhood. And in doing so, Monsú has earned a slot in Gayot’s coveted Top Ten Philly BYOBs. Monsú is another stud in Peter McAndrews’s stable of eateries, which includes Modo Mio. Monsú sticks to the rustic, homey theme that plays in all McAndrews’s venues, and channels the tastes, scents and multi-cultural culinary amalgam that is Sicily. Owing to its strategic central-Mediterranean berth, Sicily boasts a potpourri of different gastronomies. Over the millennia, Carthaginians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Normans, Angevins, Hapsburgs, Bourbons and others came, saw, conquered and cooked. Each helped to cobble an eclectic culinary legacy. The Monsú menu is a fiesta of bright tastes, vivid spices, and fresh ingredients that gives a number of Sicilian classics peppy interpretations. Warm Octopus Salad is one such standard. Grilled octopus is accompanied by green olives, sundried tomatoes, wild fennel and walnuts. Arancia is a bon fide Sicilian classic: a saffron rice ball with peas and truffled burratta cheese in tomato marmalade. Another Sicilian standby, Panelle, turns into a crispytextured crêpe loaded with eggplant caponata and mozzarella. Throughout the menu, Chef McAndrews’s lust for the Mediterranean tradition shines through. Lumache, braised snails and mushrooms in a red-wine reduction with shallots, is a hefty take on escargots. In the Prima section, the Gnocchi are light and fluffy, stuffed with crabmeat and ground pistachios, in a lemon tomato cream. Fusilli rings perk in a ragu with chunks of conch. But Spaghetti al Farouk is the pièce de résistance: shimp, clams, and mussels in cream redolent of ginger and curry. The Secondi menu section boasts some tasty dishes, but to my taste, the heart and soul of Monsú resides in the antipastas and pastas. Nonetheless, Maiale Siciliana is a superb Secondi— grilled and breaded boneless pork loin partnered with sopresetta that’s braced with lemon and capers, topped with a fried egg. Red Snapper musters sausage, mozzarella, raisins, olives, and almonds in a spicy tomato broth atop Sicilian couscous. Except for two selections, prices for Secondi are all $20 or less. No Prima Piatti selection exceeds $16. They’re great prices, all the more so because the kitchen makes things the exacting, time-consuming old-fashioned, Old Country way. And the care shows. Even the housemade, rough textured semolina bread is a treat, as is the accompanying olive oil dip infused with lemon, rosemary and goat cheese. Very little misses the mark. Monsú is situated right outside Penn’s original city layout. This area took off in the late 1880s when Italian immigrants flocked here. Many of them headed to Antonio Palumbo’s boarding house around 9th and Fitzwatertown. A number of shops set up along 9th Street to give the quarter the unique, quaint character that remains virtually unchanged one and a quarter centuries later. Actually, the Italian Market neighborhood is arguably the City of Neighborhood’s most unaltered link to the turn of the 20th century and life in that century. Philadelphians of a certain age remember Palumbo’s Night Club, which was Philly’s unchallenged celebrity hangout. Sinatra and the Rat Pack used to hang out here. Palumbo’s was also the spot where hordes of rosy-cheeked Philly high school grads ended Prom night laughing at the jokes of local comedians like Club Avalon legend Cozy Morley. With its spiffy take on Sicilian fare, Monsú is a fine fit for this turf where so many names end in a vowel. Monsú ends in a vowel. And most meals there end with a wow. ■ Monsú, 901 Christian Street, Phila. (215) 440-0495 | BYOB | Cash Only, no credit cards

Please send comments and suggestions to r.gordon33@verizon.net

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

dining

ROBERT GORDON

cosmopolitan

food & wine

SWANKY. THAT’S COSMOPOLITAN: SWANKY. Eye-poppingly so. In terms of style and class, this Allentown showcase indisputably ups the bar for Lehigh Valley eateries. Just as important however, it ups the bar food, for elegant, upscale cuisine. More on that presently. It’s hard to resist writing a piece about Cosmopolitan without beginning with the physical plant. With two main dining rooms and a rooftop lounge, Cosmopolitan effectively fills three stories of a handsome six-story building in the Allentown arts district. The dining room dimensions are baronial. The main dining area, resplendent with courtly columns, skyscraping ceilings, chic appointments and tangible air of sophistication, is striking. Traditional elegance punctuated with dramatic contemporary accents mesh artfully. Cosmopolitan can match any of its rivals in terms of commodious, comfortable dining. Large-surfaced tables remove the cramped feeling that detracts at some other fine venues. Distances between tables enhance intimacy. The decibel level is muted masterfully. Finally, although basking in elegance and sophistication, the space is devoid of “attitude.” The staff is friendly and grounded. The first impression is: Why such a palace? Why here? Center-city Allentown traffic is expected to increase significantly as the city revs up and revitalizes. There are plans for two huge new attractions: a nearby hockey rink and concert hall. All such plans aside, you should look for any excuse to visit Cosmopolitan: a stand-alone Lehigh Valley worth-going-out-of-your-way destination. The cuisine, most aptly categorized as American contemporary, measures up to the setting. But prices do not. And that’s a positive thing. Prices are surprisingly low for such august digs. Only one entrée tops $30, which is typically the starting price for restaurants of this ilk. Cosmopolitan’s entrées fall between $20 and $25—impressive, given the quality of the fare. There’s nothing edgy or experimental happening on the menu, as you might expect, in a place of classic refinement. But there’s nothing boring or outdated either. In fact, a Crispy Pork Belly app—an increasingly ubiquitous dish—is the zestiest I've sampled anywhere. Elsewhere, the thick pad of fat often pushes richness over the top, but the pad is pared down here. The fat content is just-right, neither greasy nor cloying. Asian Salad, a huge mound of cabbage, onions and julienned carrots, is drenched in sweet soy glaze with a tangy undercurrent. Smoked trout,

chopped clams, shrimp and potato bask in hefty yet still delicate Seafood Chowder. Roasted slices of apple and fennel salad work nicely in mesclun pampered with goat cheese. The salad is dressed in balsamic vinaigrette and harbors a hint of cinnamon. The regular entrée carte contains seven meat dishes and three fish selections. Duo of Duck pairs a smoked confit drummette and a half-dozen coupons of ruby-red centered duck breast. A thin layer of fat separates the divinely tender meat from its crisped outer skin, which has been treated with Chinese 5-spice rub. Salsify purée pools beneath the duck breast giving it a pleasant, earthy finish. The biggest surprise was the Lager Braised Short Ribs. I usually don’t expect to give accolades to such a common dish. However, they are possibly the most tender braised short ribs I've ever tasted. The texture is sublime. Pan-Seared Barramundi with hoisin glaze stretches across crispy, creamy polenta cake and carrot purée piqued with ginger. House-made desserts are well crafted. Actually the dessert menu does boast an intriguing piece of experimentation: a deconstructed cannoli called a Cannoli Napoleon. Ricotta and Mascarpone studded with milk chocolate chips comprises the stuffing—but the stuffing is not stuffed inside. The filling is outside, atop a thin, cinnamon-sugar wafer. A blood orange reduction and crème anglaise tinted with white chocolate pool around the plate. Slices of oranges add further appeal to this tasty, coherent preparation. Cosmopolitan suits many dining moods. Sure it’s a venue for intimate, upscale dining. But it’s also a nice choice for drinks and light bar fare, too. The wine list is eclectic and reasonably priced, including a number of Italian imports, as well as a vibrant cast of South American, French, Australian, and California selections. There’s also an inviting slate of house-created specialty cocktails. The six-story building that houses Cosmopolitan is architecturally striking, particularly in the evening when purple accent lights cast a whimsical spell on the façade. Complimentary valet parking day and evening removes all angst about finding a parking spot. Cosmopolitan is well on its way to being the dining spot in the Valley. ■ Cosmopolitan, 22 North Sixth Street, Allentown, PA 610-435-3540 http://ourcosmopolitan.com

Please send comments and suggestions to r.gordon33@verizon.net 40

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

food & wine

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

about life

JAMES P. DELPINO

Adults who are teen-like and teens who are adult-like WE’VE ALL MET ADULTS who seem to possess little maturity in some area or another. We’ve also met teens who seem to be wise or mature beyond their years. In each of these cases something has probably gone wrong. The average onset of adulthood in our culture is age 25. Adulthood is roughly defined as being able to support oneself. While this is a functional definition, it doesn’t mean that all those who support themselves have achieved maturity commensurate with their age. While it is the rare teen who can support himself there are many examples of teens who juggle many of the roles we expect from mature adults. Life is full of developmental challenges. We expect to see our children walking and talking within a certain age range, and we expect letter and number recognition at a later range of ages. The developmental tasks in maturity are much more complex and challenging. For some people, earlier failures in developing certain skills or problem solving abilities can lead to later failures further on into life, such as authority issues. While it is typical for a teen to show negative, questioning and challenging reactions to authority figures, we expect a mature person to react to authority in a calmer, perhaps more respectful fashion. This is a fairly common and easy to spot phenomena. When you see an irate customer screaming at a store manager you might also be witnessing an adult expressing unresolved issues related to authority. This might actually be the inner teen thinking that authority figures don’t care and perhaps need to be verbally assaulted to motivate them or get attention. Many frustrated attention needs can be brought along into adulthood. Attitudes, beliefs and judgments are often deeply formed in the mind during adolescent years. The adolescent world is fraught with challenges and outright dangers to normal and healthy self-development. In some homes, the level of dysfunction is so great it cannot help but interfere with the developmental process. Some of the more common circumstances that promote dysfunction in families: death of a parent; death of a sibling; domestic violence; child abuse, both physical and/or emotional; drugs and alcohol and other addictions like gambling or work; severe psychiatric issues; severe economic issues. Teens are forced to choose how to deal with problems that are beyond their ability to understand or control. Teens most often act out to relieve the tensions and pain of familial dysfunction. Many times the teen becomes an adultlike individual to deal with the pressures of a chaotic family life. They often take on the roles normally associated with adults in the family. These roles might include things like providing childcare for younger siblings. Imagine a family where the remaining parent, after a bitter divorce is a drug addict. The oldest child is often providing meals, helping with homework, protection, nurturance and basic child care for the younger children in the

ICON

MARCH 2012

home. This person becomes what is known as the “parentified child.” Some teens are less involved in the dysfunction at home and become go-getters, focusing on studies, athletics and perhaps a job or two. These are the adult-like teens. The teen-like adults of the world are often stuck in the wounds that hurt and arrested or delayed their developmental process. There are the forty-somethings who live a twenty-something party lifestyle in an attempt to recapture or redo their earlier lives. There are the unresolved sexist beliefs resultant from adolescent scars. Beliefs that suggest all women or all men are like this or that. This speaks to someone who repeats the pattern of dating the same kind of person over and over. Perhaps you’ve noticed that all men are not alike, as well as all women are not alike. If you have noticed these facts it’s because your judgment—defined as the ability to project consequences into the future—and insight are more developed. The adolescent tendency to overgeneralize is a hallmark of limited experience. When this carries on into adulthood perceiving differences and making helpful distinctions in life is more limited. Because your high school boyfriend or girlfriend broke your heart does not mean that no one is trustworthy. Using negative adult relationship experience as proof that people are not trustworthy may actually be a problem with knowing how to accurately read character in another person. It might also be the dramatic and over-emotional teen-like tendency to deeply invest in someone they do not know. Many times these quick and deep investments of feelings are based on projections of who the other person is, as opposed to who the other person really is. Many adults operate their relationships through these fantasy-type projections. While the pain of disappointment is very real, the pain is often a result of not having developed the ability to honestly assess another person’s strengths and weaknesses. This is a very difficult and complex skill. This might explain why the divorce rate in our country is so high. Imagine two very nice adults who fall in love with each other and slowly come to realize that the other person is not who they thought they were. What helps an adult-like teen when he reaches adulthood is learning to relax, play, be less self-critical and letting go of things they cannot control instead of trying to control as a compensation for chaotic earlier years. What helps teen-like adults is to understand that maturity is not giving into authority, but accepting what is so in life—and that fighting city hall is a very tiresome way to live. n

Jim Delpino is a psychotherapist in private practice for over 30 years. Email jdelpino@aol.com (215) 364-0139.

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

dave barry

Hello, Cyanide Delivery Service? WE SET OUT FROM Miami early on Feb. 5, two adults and a 2-year-old, bound for Salt Lake City. In a sense, we were following the Mormon pioneers, who trekked to Utah on foot, trudging 1,300 brutal miles over harsh terrain. They had it easy. We had to take a connecting flight through Dallas. Even on a good day, the Dallas-Fort Worth airport is not traveler-friendly. It was apparently built on top of a warp in the space-time continuum, so no matter what gate you arrive at, you’re at least six miles from your departure gate. There is a tram system, but veteran travelers don’t use it, because it moves at the speed of a water buffalo passing through the

digestive system of a python. Amelia Earhart is on there somewhere. So as I say, this airport is not convenient on a good day. But we did not arrive on a good day. We arrived when something incredible was happening, something so astounding, so extraordinary, so totally unpredictable that nobody—certainly nobody operating an airport—could possibly have anticipated it: snow. In winter! What are the odds? Fortunately, the airport had a Snow Emergency Plan. Unfortunately, the plan apparently involved turning all ground operations over to Lucy and Ethel. So when we landed, our pilot informed us that we’d be delayed getting to our gate. A half-hour later, he informed us, in case we were wondering, that we were still delayed. One

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

hour after that, he informed us that he was now talking to—this is a real quote-—“somebody who seems to have slightly more of a clue than the person we’ve been talking to for the last hour and a half.” After that, it took us only one more hour to get to our gate. At that point, we’d been on the plane five hours: 21⁄2 getting from Miami to Dallas, and another 21⁄2 getting the last 300 yards. During this time, we were each given one (one) tiny packet of a gritty substance that was called a “breakfast snack,” because you cannot come right out and inform passengers that they’re being fed gerbil treats. Anyway, we finally got into the terminal, and as we hustled the six miles to our departure gate, we were heartened by the fact that the monitors said our outbound flight was now scheduled to leave at 1:41 p.m. “Wow!” we thought, with hunger-weakened brains. “One-forty-ONE! They have this thing figured down to the MINUTE!” And guess what? Our plane was at the gate, and we boarded, and they closed the doors almost exactly at 1:41! And then... ... and then we sat for FOUR HOURS. If there is any activity more fun than sitting in a non-moving, meal-free plane for four hours with a 2-year-old, it would have to involve cattle prods. But finally our pilot started the engines, and we taxied for about a mile, after which the pilot stopped the plane and informed us that we would be waiting there for AT LEAST TWO MORE HOURS, because there were 40 planes ahead of us for the de-icing procedure, which was apparently being performed by a lone worker with a windshield scraper. The pilot also said we could use our cell phones. I considered calling the Cyanide Capsule Delivery Service, but my wife, who’s more of an idealist, called the airport offices to complain. She finally reached somebody who said, basically, that airport management had nothing to do with managing the airport, and that our beef was with the airline, which I will call “Nacirema Airlines.” So my wife called Nacirema, and was eventually dumped on Consumer Affairs. A person there said this was not Nacirema’s fault, because it was a weather problem. My wife said she understood about the weather, but wished to complain that we’d all been loaded onto a plane without being told that the plane would not take off for at least SIX HOURS, which Nacirema surely knew. The Consumer Affairs person responded that—get ready—she would not even record this complaint, because it was a weather problem. Finally, a little over six hours after we boarded, the flight took off, and two hours later we were in Salt Lake City. So our trip took 13 hours, of which we spent 81⁄2 sitting on the ground. My point is this: If we catch Osama bin Laden’s successor, which I hope we do, I don’t know what would be the best way to try him, or where the trial should be held. But I DEFINITELY know how we should get him there. ■ (c) 2009 The Miami Herald Distributed by Tribune Media Services, Inc.

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

15 / INTERVIEW / PHOTOGRAPHING ROCK’S MUSES OF FIRE

AP: No, it was more that they would just ignore you. I remember picking up one issue of Rolling Stone, maybe ‘70, ‘71, and there wasn’t a single word written by a woman, not one. I wanted to get involved in a local underground publication, the Great Swamp Erie da da Boom, but they just handed you the guys’ articles to type or asked you to make coffee. I quit after one issue. It was just unreasonable. GG: In the late ‘70s you opened Kaleyediscope Photography with two female photo comrades to market your images and dismiss the stereotype of female rock photographers as groupies. Were you ever actually misidentified as a groupie? AP: Not that I remember. It was more an attitude from local record-label promotion guys who basically treated us like little girls in their way. These were the days when record companies had local branches and those guys thought they were media kings. GG: A fair number of the musicians in Girls on Film are role models for other female musicia—Deborah Harry, Chrissie Hynde, even Wendy O. Williams, that chain-sawing, banshee-singing, ex-stripping exhibitionist. Did any of your subjects inspire you with their creativity and guts? AP: Ah, Wendy O....such a nice human being. It was so heartbreaking when she committed suicide. But, no, I can’t really say I was inspired by any of them, directly. I’m just a very different person from a lot of them. I don’t have the performer’s gene. Back then I was a theater tekkie. I wanted to be a lighting designer. I never, ever was drawn to being on stage. I was more of an observer. I’ve always been more interested in capturing the moment

GG: Have you shot any truly wild concerts, when the moment pretty much captured you? AP: Oh wow [laughs]. I remember when Public Image Ltd. first played at the Agora [in Cleveland]. It was a rough place because you had to shoot very pressed to the stage, which was low. After the show the crowd was cheering for an encore and [lead singer/mischief maker] Johnny Lydon didn’t come back—and didn’t come back. When he finally returned he took these deli trays and just started throwing them at the audience. You can just imagine the place was insane. GG: I really enjoyed your “Visual Music” exhibition essay on the ups, downs and upsidedowns of rock photographers from northeastern Ohio. So did Kenny Laguna, Joan Jett’s manager, actually poke holes in your photos of Joan that he didn’t like? AP: That never happened to me. But Kenny was definitely tough. I remember going up to Pittsburgh when Joan was on the bill with the Police and Kenny said, “Oh no, she doesn’t want to be photographed because she’s sick and doesn’t like the way she looks today.” And my feeling was, well, then she should refund everybody’s money. Another time I saw her here at the Agora on a Monday night before “I Love Rock and Roll” became a big hit. There were maybe 150 people in a 1,000-capacity room. I remember sitting there with Linda Woods, a photographer for [Cleveland] Scene magazine. Kenny comes out and says: “No pictures of Joan, no pictures of Joan!” So Scene published a big black square with the explanation, “This is where the picture of Joan Jett should have gone but her manager wouldn’t allow us to photograph her.” GG: Did you have any guerrilla tactics for sabotaging those oppressive-to-asinine concert restrictions like shooting only the first three songs of a show and shooting all the way back at the soundboard? AP: Well, I would buy a ticket and sneak my dismantled camera into the room, with parts all over me. I’d wrap the telephoto lens in Kotex and put it in my makeup bag and they didn’t look there. And that’s how I took great pictures of Prince at the [Richfield, Ohio] Coliseum on the Purple Rain tour. Another time the photographers had to sit in a penalty box at the Coliseum. I was standing there and chatting with one of the security guards when a well-known New York photographer—who will go nameless—waltzes in and sets up her camera and tripod in front of us and we can’t see anything. I’m figuring out how to get around her when the security guard I had hung out with says, “Come on down with your camera.” He takes me down to the second row and says, “Sit here and I’ll make sure nobody bothers you.” So there’s another tactic: Always be nice to the security GG: So when are you going to give us your memoir, your rock-photographer version of Almost Famous? AP: [Laughs] Well, I’m not a person who draws attention to myself, although I am working on two books. One is on the Cleveland music scene. The other is on Jane Scott [the late, legendary rock writer] for The Plain Dealer [in Cleveland]. She always said she’d write her memoirs after she retired. The problem was, she didn’t retire until she was well into her 80s, and after she retired she continued to write. Then she broke her hip and her memory failed. I spent 13 years at The Plain Dealer as a sort of second-string rock critic. Basically, I was there to cover whatever Jane didn’t have time to cover. It was the late ‘70s and early ‘80s and there were two to three shows a night, so I was very busy. Jane was a good friend and I miss her. She gave me a few great tips. One, always bring a peanut-butter sandwich because you never know when you’ll have time to get something to eat. And, two, always take Kleenex because you don’t know when there will be toilet paper in the bathroom. That was very handy for outdoor shows. Jane also showed me you don’t have to be an asshole to be successful. My philosophy is not to be super impressed by people who are very famous. Some of the really famous are big jerks. Besides, we’re all grown-ups and everyone has a good story. Of course there are exceptions. It’s perfectly okay to become a babbling idiot when you meet, say, George Harrison. n Patti Smith 1969-1976: Photographs by Judy Linn, through May 25, DuBois Gallery, Maginnes Hall, Lehigh University, Bethlehem; lecture and book signing by Linn on March 15. Girls on Film: 40 Years of Women in Rock, photographs by Anastasia Pantsios, through May 27, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh; lecture by Pantsios on March 29. More information: 610758-3615, www.luag.org.

CLARIFICATION

“Patti as Rock Star,” by Judy Linn.

ICON

MARCH 2012

A misinterpetation was made in Geoff Gehman's February interview with Gail Buckland, curator of the exhibit Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present,. currently at the Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley. Buckland did not mean to say it was “a wonderful, wonderful story” that Jewish punk rockers wore swastikas in spite of, or to spite, their Holocaust-survivor parents. She meant to say that the rebellious, even dangerous nature of rock and roll is “a wonderful, wonderful story.”

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

regional theater

EDITED BY DAVID SCHULTZ

Travesties 3/13-4/1

evening progresses, the parents become increasingly childish and manaical, as they devolve into chaos. Walnut Street Theater, 825 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA. (215) 574-3550. $10$85 www.walnutstreettheatre.org.

Zurich, 1917—Take one part Wilde, a touch of Lenin, a dash of Dada, a pinch of Joyce, and you’ve got Tom Stoppard’s absurdly hilarious Travesties. Prepare to be delighted as Stoppard (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare in Love) spins you into a dazzling medley of literature, philosophy, politics, and history. The wildest revolutionary minds of the 20th century come alive in this romantic and achingly funny modern masterpiece. McCarter Theatre Center, 91 University Place, Princeton, NJ 08540 609-258-2787 www.mccarter.org

One Cannot Kiss Alone 3/2

Sister’s Easter Catechism: Will My Bunny Go to Heaven? 3/20-3/25 Celebrate the Easter Season with Sister as she answers time worn questions of the season like Who was Mary Magdalene?, Why isn't Easter on the same day every year like Christmas?, and "Will My Bunny Go To Heaven?. Part pageant, and wHOLY hysterical, this latest of the sinfully funny Late Nite Catechism series unearths the origins of Easter bunnies, Easter eggs, Easter baskets, Easter bonnets, and, of course, those yummy Easter Peeps! State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132, 1-800-999-STATE, www.statetheatre.org Young Frankenstein 4/5

Dr. Frankenstein and Monster.

Start with four hopelessly entangled young lovers—add a royal wedding, some traveling thespians, and some serious parenting problems— and send everyone off to the enchanted woods, where they get caught in the crossfire between the King and Queen of the Faeries. What do you get? You get the funny, sexy, spirited magic of Shakespeare's most popular comedy (and one of his goofiest), full of mistaken identity, love potions, mayhem, mystical creatures, ass-headed weavers, and nature gone mad. Muhlenberg College Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavillion for Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-6643333. muhlenberg.edu/dancev God of Carnage 3/13-4/29 Playwright Yasmina Reza puts two married couples with children through a meat grinder and comes out with grade A+ Beef. This pair of parents, one of whose child has hurt the other at a public park, meet to discuss the matter in a civilized manner. However, as the

ICON

MARCH 2012

Curse of the Starving Class 3/7-4/8

Max Raabe

Meet the wildly unpredictable Tate family as they attempt to ride the changing tides of pre-suburban Southern California. Financially ruined, their farm is in chaos and the debt collectors are getting increasingly ruthless. The story whirlwinds with dark comedy and captivating twists as each family member goes to fantastic extremes grappling with a curse that continues to resonate today. Curse, penned by playwright/actor Sam Shepard, received its World Premiere at the Royal Court in London in 1977 and its US Premiere at the New York Shakespeare Festival in March 1978. It has received critical acclaim from audiences and critics alike for over thirty years. This production includes a live lamb on stage. Directed by Richard Hamburger. Wilma Theater, 265 South Broad Street, Philadelphia PA. (215) 5467824. $39-$66. www.wilmatheater.org

The classic Mel Brooks movie is ALIVE and it’s Broadway’s award-winning MONSTER HIT! Winner of the 2008 Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, this wickedly inspired comedy re-imagines Dr. Frankenstein’s {Fronkensteen!} attempts to bring a corpse to life with help from Igor and the curvaceous Inga—with scary and hilarious complications. Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA 610-758-2787. www.zoellnerartscenter.org A Midsummer Night’s Dream 3/28-4/1

Max Raabe & Palast Orchester embark on a 2012 U.S. tour that lands in Philadelphia for one night only. With the looks of Fred Astaire and the deadpan humor of Christopher Walken, the dapper Max Raabe performs sophisticated cabaret hits of the 1920s and ‘30s Berlin. This dazzling evening is comprised of twelve tales of modern love told through a vintage lens—plus five of those happy/melancholic Raabe orginals. Merriam Theater, 250 South Broad Streets, $25-$45. (215) 893-1999 www.kimmelcenter.org.

Let’s Pretend We’re Famous 3/6-3/25 Following 1812’s original cabaret Let’s Pretend We’re Married, this new evening of original comedy and classic songs surveying the wild and hilarious world of American celebrity is a good bookend piece. LPWF features one-of-a-kind interpretations of songs like “Everything’s Coming up Roses” (in a way Mama Rose could never have imagined), “Fame,” “MacArthur Park,” “Major Tom” and a host of others. Dissections of American celebrity are given their due in this skewed tour of the great arc of fame and its downward spiral....with nods to addiction, rehab, and reality TV. 1812 Productions, @ Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Street, Philadelphia PA. (215) 5929560. $20-$36. www.1812productions.org n

Jennifer Childs and Tony Braithwaite.

footlights

DAVID SCHULTZ

Janeane-Garofalo and Morgan-Spector. Photo: Serge Nivelle

ERIKA SHEFFER’S FIRST PLAY, Russian Transport, sort of creeps up on you. Smartly directed with dollops of sly humor by Scott Elliott, the overall effect doesn’t really tally up until the eerie fadeout. This simmering drama is set in the Russian Jewish section of modern-day Brooklyn in the ethnic hood of Sheepshead Bay. Not much seems to be happening in the first few scenes, but in Sheffer’s replication of life in that part of the world, things are churning in menacing ways right under the unknowing eyes of immigrant parents Diana (Janeane Garofalo) and Misha (Daniel Oreskes). Financially strapped, with moderate income provided by the family’s struggling car service (run out of their house), this middleaged couple pines for the American Dream. Their two teenage children are vaguely aware of the emotional and financial turmoil at home, but are caught up in their own teenage obsessions. Daughter Mira (Sarah Steele) is discovering her sexuality, amid her moodiness and dealing with her taunting brother Alex (Raviv Ullman). Alex works at a wireless Verizon store selling cell phones between schoolwork and sneaking out for mysterious reasons at night. Everyone in the household is set in their ways and going through life on automatic pilot. The catalyst, as is often the case, is a visitor. Diana’s younger brother Boris (Morgan Spector) arrives from Rus-

sia. He seems dazzled by this new world and hopes to make a better life for himself. He seems innocent and green, but that, of course, is just a ruse for what he has really has up his sleeve. Uncle Boris is very intriguing to the kids—so exotic and sexy—and is doted on by Diana. Slowly, the family loyalty is severely put to test. Boris surreptitiously offers Alex the chance to make some extra cash transporting mysterious packages (drugs and paraphernalia). This devolves into an even creepier plot to transport young innocent girls sent via plane from Russia into an underground slavery ring. Alex knows his family is strapped for cash and goes along with Boris at first, not understanding the complete picture—the end result of transporting the young impressionable girls. Alex delivers his extra cash in an envelope to his parents, and, although they don’t know exactly how he made the money, they sense Boris is somehow involved. As the full weight of what he is doing dawns on Alex, he realizes he is in very deep trouble. The slow transition from warm Uncle Boris to menacing thug is realistically embodied by Mr. Spector. Ms. Garofalo perfectly captures the essence of her character and imbues her line readings with increasing tension. Playwright Sheffer doesn’t spell everything out for the audience. She lets things happen organically and leaves

some things up to the audience to figure out. Particular attention is given to some of the characters at key times: Sheffer is aware that an unspoken thought or action, a pause or withering stare, can be transferred to a watchful audience. Not every character is completely aware of what the other is doing and suspicion is generated as a result. The plotline may sound heavy, but the entire work is peppered with unexpected moments of levity. Set designer Derek McLane has devised a very kitschy two-tired set. His attention to this Russian family’s household accoutrements seems both claustrophobic and amusing at once. Lighting designer Peter Kaczorowski paints the entire background a gruesome shade of red. Russian Transport ends in an unfinished moment. Something will and is about to occur, but Sheffer stops the scene in mid-breath and leaves it totally up to the viewer to decide what happens next. ■ The New Group @ Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Manhattan. Playing through March 24th.

David Schultz is a member of the Outer Critics Circle.

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

classical notebook

A Portrait ★★★★★ Jessye Norman A film by André Heller DECCA DVD – A Universal Music Company www.decca.com JESSYE NORMAN’S BIOGRAPHY STATES that she is “one of those once-in-a-generation singers who is not simply following in the footsteps of others, but is staking out her own niche in the history of singing.” he film about Ms. Norman’s career and life by André Heller and released on DVD by Decca combines her singing with several interviews on subjects like Childhood & Family, University & Early Career, Technique, Repertoire, Preparation, Conductors & Orchestras, Loneliness, Politics and Fears & Beliefs, and definitely confirms the above mentioned statement. This DVD is an intimate new film portrait of the great soprano that also includes twelve unique performances of her best loved repertoire with songs and arias by Mozart, Schubert, Richard Strauss, Wagner, Mahler and Ravel, and is definitely not to be missed. The rich history continues to be made as Ms. Norman brings her sumptuous sound, her joy of singing and spontaneous passion to recital performances, operatic portrayals and appearances with symphony orchestras and chamber music collaborators to audiences all around the world. And the sheer size, power, and luster of her voice share equal acclaim with that of her thoughtful music-making, innovative programming of the classics, and fervent advocacy of contemporary music. Her recent performances of a staged version of Schubert’s Winterreise by Robert Wilson and the unique doublebill of Erwartung of Schoenberg and La Voix Humaine of Poulenc staged by André Heller—these two one-person operas never before performed by one singer on a single evening—allow Ms. Norman to continue the singular expansion and deepening of her artistic vision. The integrity and depth of Jessye Norman’s performances are often characterized as in a New York Times article, which stated, “This is an amazing voice, a catalogue of all that is virtuous in singing.” The Jerusalem Post wrote, “The immensity of her voice struck like a thunderbolt…It was like an eruption of primal power.” But there is also the Jessye Norman School of the Arts in her hometown of Augusta, Georgia, now entering its sixth academic year, serving as a platform and unique study facili-

Peter H. Gistelinck is the Executive Director of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Prior to joining the Orchestra, he was the Director of Sales and Marketing and Co-Artistic Director for the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra and Flemish Radio Choir in Belgium. Mr. Gistelinck is a member of the Kimmel Center Resident Advisory Committee, The Recording Academy, American Film Institute, Musical Fund Society, Philadelphia Arts and Business Council, International Academy of Jazz and International Society for the Performing Arts.

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

ty for talented middle-school students in music performance, writing, drama, dance and graphic art. The students attend this after-school program tuition-free. And a fellowship and master class series in her name established recently at the University of Michigan School of Music further attest to Ms. Norman’s encouragement and support of emerging talent. Ms. Norman is the recipient of many awards and honors, too. In December of 1997, she was honored with the United States’s highest award in the performing arts, the Kennedy Center Honor, making history as the youngest recipient in its twenty-year existence. Her many other presti-

President Obama paid his respects to Jessye Norman at the Ford's Theater reopening celebration in Washington, DC. The theater underwent an 18-month renovation. Photo: EPA/Aude Guerrucci/POOL

gious distinctions include honorary doctorates at some thirty-five colleges, universities and conservatories around the world, the most recent being the Doctor of Fine Arts Honoris Causa from the University of North Carolina in May of 2008. And next month, more specifically on Saturday April 14, she’ll be returning to Philadelphia after 30 long years where she made her United States Operatic debut in 1982 with the Opera Company. Ms. Norman will be awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia during its Annual Gala at the Westin Hotel. While on tour in Europe, Ms. Norman delivered the following message on being honored with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia’s Lifetime Achievement Award:

“In these often troubling times in which we live, it is especially gratifying to be reminded that the arts play an essential part, have a special resonance in bringing us back to the beauty of life, the inspiring, the blessing of something as ephemeral as a dance step, as lasting as a sculpture in bronze, as deep in our consciousness as a song that finds its way in the harmony of our minds and stays there. “I am very pleased indeed that the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia has decided to pause and celebrate music and all that it gives to us and I could not be happier to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award on this occasion. “I happen to agree with the words of Shakespeare that ‘Life without music would be a mistake’…and am completely joy-filled that music is indeed at the center of my life and that I am given the privilege of sharing its nurturing magic with every ear that will hear and every heart that is open to its pleasures. Thank you, Philadelphia; I look forward to returning to your brotherly and sisterly embrace.” — Jessye Norman London, 27 January 2012 Ms. Norman’s distinguished catalogue of recordings has been awarded, too, including with the France’s Grand Prix National du Disque for the music of Wagner, Schumann, Mahler and Schubert; London’s prestigious Gramophone Award for her outstanding interpretation of Strauss’s Four Last Songs; Amsterdam’s Edison Prize; and recording honors in Belgium, Spain and Germany. In the United States, her Grammy Award-winning recordings include Songs of Maurice Ravel, Wagner’s Lohengrin and Die Walkure. Bluebeard’s Castle with Pierre Boulez and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra received the Grammy Award for best opera in February 1999. In February of 2006, Jessye Norman became only the fourth opera/classical music singer in the fortyeight year history of the Grammy Awards Celebration, to be presented The Lifetime Achievement Award for Classical Music. Creating her own place in this legendary list of awardees, Ms. Norman joined the illustrious company of Enrico Caruso, Marian Anderson and Leontyne Price. In addition to her busy performance schedule, Ms. Norman serves on the board of directors for The New York Public Library and she is a member of the Board of Governors for the New York Botanical Garden. She also serves on the boards of Carnegie Hall, The Dance Theatre of Harlem, Howard University, the Lupus Foundation, Paine College, and The Augusta Opera Association. She is national spokesperson for The Lupus Foundation and The Partnership for the Homeless. Ms. Norman was the recipient of two honorary doctorate degrees in June of 2011 from The Manhattan School of Music and Northwestern University. ■ Information about The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia Lifetime Achievement Award Gala honoring Jessye Norman can be found on www.chamberorchestra.org/gala or by calling 215-545-5451 x29. Information about The Jessye Norman School of Music can be found on www.jessyenormanschool.org

PETER H. GISTELINCK Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

Jessye Norman. Photo credit: Carol Friedman.

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

singer /songwriter The Revelations featuring Tre Williams ★★★1/2 Concrete Blues Decision Records On Concrete Blues, their second studio album, the Revelations combine the best of traditional soul and contemporary rhythm and blues for a cohesive collection of songs that recall Marvin Gaye’s work of the early 1970s. Songs such as “Something’s Got to Give” and the title track are social commentaries on life in urban America and favorably invite comparisons to Gaye’s landmark What’s Going On album. Tre Williams is an expressive singer who fits in seamlessly with the band on such numbers as the gritty “Trouble Man.” Recorded partially in Memphis at the late Willie Mitchell’s Royal Studios, the album evokes the spirit of Al Green as Williams duets with Vick Allen on the amorous “I Gotta Have It” and captures the heartbreak of “Lonely Room.” As a bonus, the CD contains three songs from the Revelations’s debut album The Bleeding Edge. Highlights include the horn-powered “Everybody Knows” and the tough-edged “Let’s Straighten It Out.”

tomwilk@rocketmail.com 52

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

Woody Guthrie was a prolific artist, penning thousands of songs that continue to be performed around the world on record and on stage. The Live Wire offers a rare opportunity to hear Guthrie in concert, interacting with an audience. Guthrie was 37 when he played before about 25 people at Fuld Hall in 1949 in Newark, N.J. Rutgers student Paul Braverman captured the performance on his wire recorder and it’s now getting an expanded release. Onstage, Guthrie was an engaging, funny performer who knew how to pace a show as he accompanies himself on acoustic guitar. His songs reflect his Oklahoma upbringing (“The Great Dust Storm” and “Tom Joad”) and American triumphs (“Grand Coulee Dam”) and tragedies (“1913 Massacre” and “Goodbye Centralia”). Guthrie’s wife, Marjorie, serves as MC, engaging him in conversation about his work as he discusses the origins of his songs and other topics, including a humorous discussion of the perils of rehearsal. Guthrie created a template for contemporary singer/songwriters and it’s worth going back to the source on the centennial of his birth.

James Armstrong ★★★1/2 Blues at the Border Catfood Records

Tre Williams

Woody Guthrie ★★★1/2 The Live Wire: Woody Guthrie in Performance 1949 Rounder Records

Woody Guthrie.

Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

After an extended hiatus, James Armstrong makes a strong return with Blues at the Border, his first studio album in 11 years. The CD is a reflection of the changes in the world and his personal life in that interval. The bluesy title track details the frustration of a traveler in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of 2001. “The world has changed/We got blues at the border,” declares Armstrong, who co-wrote the song with his girlfriend, a Canadian resident. Armstrong puts a contemporary spin on the blues. “Everything Good to Ya” (Ain’t Always Good For Ya)” is a cautionary tale to take life in moderation, while “Long Black Car” is a reminder not to let materialism rule one’s life. The autobiographical “Young Man With The Blues” details Armstrong’s relationship with his father and the gift of music that links generations. He lightens the mood with “High Maintenance Woman,” a tongue-in-cheek look at James Armstrong. modern romance that features Madonna Hamel, his girlfriend, with a vocal cameo.

LEXICROCKERY by Robert Gordon TOM WILK

Fornivacation Sexual downtime for rhythmmethod practitioners Steve Cropper ★★★ Dedicated 429 Records With a little help from his friends, guitarist and songwriter Steve Cropper pays tribute to Lowman Pauling, one of his biggest influences with Dedicated. Subtitled “a tribute to the 5 Royales,” Cropper explores the songbook of the legendary 1950s rhythm-and-blues group. A line can be traced from Pawling’s guitar work to the stinging and memorable lines that Cropper played with Booker T. & The MGs and as a session player with Stax Records in the 1960s. Cropper acknowledges that debt with heartfelt instrumental versions of “Think” and “Help Me Somebody,” a pair of Top 10 r&b singles that Pauling wrote. For the vocal tracks, Cropper recruited a wide range of American and British singers. Lucinda Williams delivers an emotionally charged version of “Dedicated to the One I Love,” likely the 5 Royales best-known song. Dan Penn mines the secular and spiritual themes of “Someone Made You For Me.” B.B. King and Shemekia Copeland team up for the funky “Baby Don’t Do It” while Dylan LeBlanc and Sharon Jones duet on “Come On & Save Me.” Steve Winwood charges through “Thirty Second Lover,” recalling his work with the Spencer Davis Group. Dedicated is a reminder that old songs need new voices to make them come alive.

Katy Boyd ★★★ Paper Hearts Self-released

Subdude The non-emotive guy who makes your hoagie

Condemns Brand of condoms for the 98% of Catholics who practice birth control

Dumbfounded George W. Bush Library

Going Bar-rogue President Barack morphing into Al Green at the Apollo

Mittology Folk tale that casts Mitt Romney as a job creator

Gambulatory As a songwriter, Katy Boyd draws on her life experiences to create a body of work that any adult can relate to: from the struggles to maintain a relationship to coping with the consequences of one’s decisions. On Paper Hearts she demonstrates a knack to spin a song in an unexpected direction. “Time Machine” starts out as song about a failed marriage but goes beyond that in the chorus: “If I had a time machine I’d know just what I’d do/I’d tell Jesus about Judas and Hitler and World War II,” she sings wistfully over a folk melody. “If I had a time machine, I would not marry you,” the chorus ends, bringing the song full circle. “Mary Katherine Magdalena” is a haunting song of a young girl giving up her child for adoption and the repercussions that ensue. “Happy Single Mothers Day” is a humorous look at the and joys and frustrations of Katy Boyd. parenthood that show her eye for detail. Boyd wrote nine of the CD’s ten songs and shows goods taste with her airy version of Steve Winwood’s “Can’t Find My Way Home,” a highlight of Blind Faith’s 1969 album. ■

Refers to the gamble a candidate takes in actually walking his talk

Europepeons Opinion of Europeans in the eyes of Romney and the Republican slate of candidates

Big Business American Exceptionalism Longtime practice of excepting Americans from their payrolls

Skewart How those foolish enough to attack John Stewart end up: skewered

DracKoman Measures Brokering a good cause to advance special-interest social agendas

Yawnswer Soporific, stock answers to questions at Republican debates

Blingrich The amount of bling $500,000 can buy at Tiffany’s

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

keresman on disc Stanley Clarke ★★★1/2 The Complete 1970s Epic Albums Collection Epic/Legacy Before the rise and legendhood of Jaco Pastorius, Philadelphian Stanley Clarke was THE MAN on the electric bass. Clarke first established himself in the jazz world on acoustic bass

Melinda Wagner ★★★★ Melinda Wagner: Concerto for Trombone/Settings/Wick Bridge Melinda Wagner (b. 1957) is a composer born in Philadelphia, and for this disc she’s enlisted the services of the NY Philharmonic, conducted by the great Lorin Maazel; (singing) soprano Christine Brandes, and the NY New Music Ensemble. Don’t assume because she’s a “classical” composer and still alive, her album will be a noise-fest meant for the terminally smug—while her style is indeed “modern” it’s closer to the jagged but mostly tonal Americana of Charles Ives and William Schuman than to the chuck-tonality-out-on-itsass school of Euro-masters Webern and Stockhausen. “Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra,” with soloist Joseph Alessi, is brassy and turbulent in a cinematic fashion that suggests pre-tubby Orson Welles (sight) and Leonard Bernstein’s film/theater works (sound). Alessi’s ‘bone is sublimely expressive with a hefty yet yearning tone. “Wick” contains dash of postCharlie Parker jazz and Glass/Reich-type minimalism but only for brief moments. There are long, sustained tones (though not drones), suspenseful silences, swirling cadences, spiky and ringing piano notes…just a few of my favorite things. “Wick” evokes some of Frank Zappa’s classical works, also some of Bernard Herrmann’s film music (for Hitchcock)—it’s somber, serrated, and absorbing. “Four Settings” for soprano and small ensemble is not my cup o’ tea, so I shan’t comment on it. Wagner’s CD is an espresso-double-shot cup of modclassical caffeine with a dash of cocoa to take the edge off, artful without being arrogant or flaky. bridgerecords.com Moraine Metamorphic Rock ★★★1/2 Moonjune

Stanley Clarke.

with Pharaoh Sanders, Joe Henderson, and Stan Getz in 1971-72. He soon transitioned to the electric axe, merging his nimble, warm tone on acoustic with the rubbery, sinuous funky popping of Sly Stone’s bass man Larry Graham and came up with a style that’s impacted nearly every jazz, funk, and pop e-bassist since. A seven-CD set, Complete is just as the title states, all the albums that made Clarke a star in the jazz and rock spheres in the ‘70s. On these, Clarke combined jazz sophistication and improvisation, rock dynamics, funky rhythms, and even bits of classical music with the accent on hot soloing for a catalog that defines and mostly transcends an era. Of course, not everything here is golden—like some jazz musicians, Clarke thinks he can sing when he cannot, and as the ‘70s ended, the funky and crowd-pleasing aspects of his approach eclipsed the subtler jazz side of the equation. But good and great outweigh the mediocre, and some of this is as good/great as fusion got in its heyday, up there with the best of Chick Corea and The Mahavishnu Orchestra, and most importantly, sounds boss today. Sharp, terse soloing; irresistible grooves, vibrant ensemble work, and some of the best musicianship that period had to offer: Getz, Freddie Hubbard, John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, the underrated Bill Connors, George Duke, and the Miami Vice twittery-king Jan Hammer. The only downside is there are no “extras,” no previously unreleased goodies, but “miniatures” of original album covers house each disc (nice!). If you want to replace your scratchy Clarke vinyl or simply have his entire ‘70s output (almost—there was the ‘73 album Children of Forever, now on Verve) in one handy package, this is worth brown-bagging a few lunches to save-up for. legacyrecordings.com shemp@hotmail.com 54

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

Two formerly highly visible sub-genres of rock are instrumental rock (just what it says) and progressive rock (wherein elements of classical music [mainly] and jazz [sometimes] are combined with rock, with emphasis on technical acumen). Before the 1960s British Invasion, instrumental combos were on the charts; in the early and mid-‘70s bands like Yes and Genesis were the stuff of which arenas were filled. These styles never really went away, just moved out of the spotlight—went underground, if you will. (These days, almost anything that doesn’t sell nine million units is “underground.” But I digress.) From Seattle USA, Moraine is an unlikely amalgam of both: Moody, semi-cinematic tunes a la Ventures and Shadows and pointed, accomplished whiz-bang intricacy in one tidy package. A quintet of guitar, violin, sax, bass, and drums, Moraine encompass swirling, thorny complexity (evoking the Mahavishnu Orchestra circa their first three platters, Zappa at his non-vocal best) and memorably lyrical, sometimes cool tune-age. Plus, they incorporate the inspiration of the less-commercial yet still-snazzy wing of Brit oddball-itry, namely the fuzzed-out quirks of Soft Machine…and they sidestep the excesses of prog’s golden age (i.e, no interminable/pointless show-off solos). Metamorphic Rock is a platter to be enjoyed by more than one generation of rock fans. moonjune.com

MARK KERESMAN Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

São Paulo Underground ★★★★ Três Cabecas Loucuras Cuneiform Take a talented, eclectic cornetist from Chicago to São Paulo, Brazil, give him a million dollars and a key to the city, and what happens? Beats me, but forget the bucks and key and introduce him to some flexible-minded locals and press “record” and you’ve got a platter that sounds like few in the marketplace. Rob Mazurek—a made guy in the ranks of the jazz and altrock spheres of Chicago—is the focal point of the Chicago Underground Duo and Trio. He went south of many borders and struck pay dirt—three lads playing keyboards, electronics, and assorted percussion and the results are a mix of electric jazz, minimalism, and Brazilian samba, bossa nova, and street sounds. Percolating textures, crackling cornet (smacking of Miles Davis and Don Cherry), and surreal electronica process local riffs and rhythms for music that dances and frolics with all the joy and cheery chaos of a São Paulo street fair. If Syd Barrett lost his mind in Brazil instead of Britain, hooked up with Sergio Mendes and invited Chick Corea (portions evoke pre-heavy guitar-era Return to Forever) and DJ Logic to town, this’d likely be the upshot. cuneiformrecords.com The Chieftains ★★★★ Voice of Ages Hear/Concord Music Group Altan ★★★1/2 The Poison Glen Compass Here are two bands that keep the flames of traditional Irish music burning brightly, the Chieftains (since circa 1963) and Altan (since circa 1983). Oddly enough, it’s the “younger” band that sounds more “traditional,” comparing these two platters. The Chieftains continue their custom of collaborating with artists not usually associated with Irish folk sounds—Voice of Ages marks appearances by the Civil Wars, Low Anthem, Imelda May, and Bon Iver, among others. As it’s been with many Altan albums, vocal songs alternate with instrumental pieces (jigs, reels, airs), frequently in the form of medleys. Mairéad Ni Mhaonaigh has a truly lovely, supremely soothing voice—slightly similar to that of Enya, but deeper and an earth-bound lilt (singing in Gaelic, natch). The production and ambiance is somewhat austere, albeit with warmth. (Some performers are so “respectful” they treat trad music with all the uninAltan. Photo: Colm Hogan. hibited merriment of a microbiologist— while on the solemn side, Altan does not.) The Chieftains take a dissimilar approach. While nearly all selections are ancient/traditional (‘cept for a couple by young upstarts Ewan MacColl and Bob Dylan), the Chieftains, an instrumental combo, is joined on each song by a singer or group that is folk-inspired but hardly traditional. Ergo, songs are performed with a bit of the oomph that post-baby-boomer generations brought to the table. No, the results don’t “rock-out,” but there’s a fuller, more lighthearted sound compared to Altan. The Chiefs and company explore common ground(s), areas where Irish folk strains overlap or segue into assorted Americana. That’s why “Pretty Little Girl,” featuring the Carolina Chocolate Drops (an African-American ensemble) is such an exhilarating workout you’ll never think in terms of “cultural cross-pollination”—you’ll be too preoccupied smiling or dancing. “When the Ship Comes In” with the Decemberists evokes the folk-rock fusions of Steeleye Span and the Pogues, and “Peggy Gordon” with the Secret Sisters display commonality betwixt Emerald Isle folk and USA country. There you have it— two class-A Irish acts, both traditional, each laudable/dandy in their way. compassrecords.com / concordmusicgroup.com ■

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

nick’s picks The Robert Glasper Experiment ★★★★1/2 Black Radio Blue Note Pianist Robert Glasper arrives at the nexus of jazz, hip-hop, R&B and pop on the much-anticipated Black Radio, a state-of-the-art album that soars with deft rhymes, thick beats and a top-tier array of guests starting with Erykah Badu, Meshell Ndegeocello and Lalah Hathaway. Glasper, a genuine jazz guy, hinted at the possibilities of reshaping his music on Double Booked (Blue Note, 2009), his previous album that programmed trio-based tunes upfront and let looser material fly with his band, saxist Casey Benjamin, bassist Derrick Hodge and knockout drummer Chris Dave, all of whom assist in delivering the goods here. This immaculate production follows pioneering records by Guru, De La Soul and mostly, A Tribe Called Quest, but what makes Black Radio hum is the jolt of genuine pianism that courses through the album’s veins, particularly when Glasper lets loose on winning covers of David Bowie’s “Letter To Hermione,” and a cerebrally funky “Smells Like Teen Spirit” where BenRobert Glasper. jamin’s vocoder blends with spacey, ray-gun effects and a Zapp-infused groove. There’s a dose of MC-styled social consciousness (“Always Shine” with Lupe Fiasco and Bilal; the beat-heavy title tune with Mos Def) that comfortably shares space with heart and soul tracks like the sweetly gorgeous “Move” with KING and “Ah Yeah” with Musiq Soulchild and Chrisette, that helps make listening to the venture a gratifying experience. Like others before him, notably trumpeter Roy Hargrove recording as The RH Factor and trumpeter Nicholas Payton whose self-released Bitches was a superior jazz-hop hybrid that no domestic label wanted to touch, Glasper is confidently at peace in all realms of his musical world and even with the incredible all-star line up, there’s no doubting that on Black Radio the pianist shines the brightest of all. (12 tracks; 63:47 minutes)

background is evident when you listen to Porter’s tunes; the songs on Be Good are structured as narratives, taking up residence in your head, and you’re happily struck by how hummable, soulful and memorable they are. Credit veteran producer Brian Bacchus (Norah Jones) who frames Porter with right-on accompaniment—pianist Chip Crawford, bassist Aaron James and drummer Emanuel Harrold hold down the brilliant rhythm section—and essentially lets Porter do his thing. Porter definitely accentuates the positive and his hearty singing style evokes Bill Withers’ soulful endeavors. On “Real Good Hands,” he infuses a story about new romance with a bluesy cadence and again on the title track, “Be Good (Lion’s Song),” a parable about beauty and seduction set in ¾ time. But it’s the fabulously catchy love letter “On My Way To Harlem” where Porter pulls out the stops and salutes heroes like Duke, Langston Hughes and Marvin Gaye, complete with a rubbery bassline, tick-tock percussion, and punchy horns. It’s a song that shows why Porter is boundless by genre and subject matter; he can soothe (“Painted on Canvas”) or inspire (“Mother’s Song”), but Porter always moves you with his righteous lyrics and gentleman’s croon. (12 tracks; 62:09 minutes) Tord Gustavsen Quartet ★★★★ The Well ECM There’s a welcome artistic reinvention on Norwegian pianist Tord Gustavsen’s release, The Well, and that’s good news because his current group, which includes the neo-Gabarek saxophonist Tore Brunborg, is more refined and plays with greater common purpose since their last outing, Returned, Restored, a fine album that mixed things up with a vocalist. Here, Gustavsen focuses on the music, reconnecting with his compositional confidence on a warmer-than-usual album that benefits enormously from the quartet’s looseness and grounded interplay. Most of the tunes hover around the 4-5 minute mark, which makes for

Gregory Porter ★★★1/2 Be Good Motema Singer/songwriter Gregory Porter has made the great jazz vocal album of 2012 with his sophomore recording, Be Good, an intoxicating mix of storytelling and elegant musicianship, sprinkled with Motown backbeats and fleet horn arrangements by Kamau Kenyatta. Porter, whose debut, Water (Motema, 2010) was nominated for a Grammy®, started out singing in jazz clubs in college, later creating a one-man theatrical tribute to Nat King Cole and eventually ending up on Broadway in It Ain’t Nothing But The Blues. That performance

Nick Bewsey has been writing about jazz for ICON since 2004. A member of The Jazz Journalists Association, he blogs about jazz and entertainment at www.jazzinspace.blogspot.com. Twitter: @countingbeats

56 ■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

Tord Gustavsen Trio with Jarle Vespestad and Harald Johnsen. Photo: Hans Fredrik Asbjørnsen

some concise but penetrating solos, especially on the album’s centerpiece, “Circling,” a blues-shaded track with a gospel heritage where Gustavsen’s Evans-like playing has a satisfying rightness. Drummer Jarle Vespestad maintains some nicely patterned grooves (“Playing” and “Suite”) and bassist Mats Eilertsen has a deep, resonant tone that underscores the richness of the leader’s music. Naturally, the ECM recording is flawless and a carefully designed listening experience from the eloquent pitch of “Prelude” to the mallets on cymbals that draws down the closing track (“Inside”) much like the sun setting on the horizon in winter. (11 tracks; 53:19 minutes)

NICK BEWSEY Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

Jeremy Pelt ★★★★1/2 Soul HighNote After two first-rate jazz recordings with the same band, Men of Honor (2010, HighNote) and last year’s The Talented Mr. Pelt, trumpeter Jeremy Pelt dials down his exuberance but not his passion on Soul, a superior album of mostly supple ballads that blends the leader’s

Jeremy Pelt.

smooth tone with the boss tenor of J.D. Allen. His rhythm section, pianist Danny Grissett, bassist Dwayne Burno and drummer Gerald Cleaver, is sublime and they get to stretch out winningly on the medium tempo burner “The Tempest,” and again on the swinging “What’s Wrong Is Right,” a luxuriously long track drenched in rhythm and the blues. The big takeaway is the brief but gorgeous standard, “Moondrift,” sung by Philadelphia-based Joanna Pascale, whose glistening performance suggests a spectacular talent that cries out for her own album with this svelte band. (8 tracks: 53:45 minutes)v Kirk Whalum ★★★★ Romance Language Rendezvous/Mack Avenue The stylish jazz saxophonist Kirk Whalum consistently hits that crossover sweet spot with his buttery tone and lyrical phrasing that finds him at home in multiple places, be it smooth jazz, R&B, gospel or straight-ahead jazz. Like his 2011 tribute to Donny Hathaway, Romance Language dips into familiar territory. In collaboration with his brother, vocalist Kevin Whalum, they reimagine the classic 1963 album, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, a desert-island disc of tenor sax/vocal bliss if ever there was one. That’s a risky proposition, but Whalum’s devotion to the original’s emotional core is evident throughout Language. Recorded mostly “live” in Nashville with his touring band, Whalum and co-producer/pianist John Stoddard update all six songs that were on the original and places them squarely in the

present day. Turns out that these pitch-perfect pop/jazz confections have an elegance all their own with instrumentation that’s as smooth as Kevin Whalum’s honeyed pipes. Whalum rounds out the recording with four superbly soulful tunes associated with Brandy, Lewis and Jam, Eric Benet and Joe, and while they have their own merits, those first six tracks deserve their own playlist. (10 tracks; 55:10 minutes) The Wee Trio ★★★★ Ashes To Ashes Bionic Records This powerhouse trio, bassist Dan Loomis, vibraphonist James Westfall and drummer Jared Schonig, resolutely charts their own musical trajectory by following up their pair of boisterously fun albums (Capitol Diner, Volume One and Two) with a nifty EP of David Bowie tunes that cranks out “Battle For Britain” and “Queen Bitch” with blazing authority. Schonig’s a busy drummer who mixes in-the-pocket grooves (“1984”) with headbanging thrashers (“Sunday”), but the band, especially bassist Loomis, maintains a sonic playground that’s The Wee Trio grounded with dazzling teamplay. Subtitled “A David Bowie Intraspective,” who knew the vibes could funnel the lyrical rawness of the originals into something so manically fun? Find them at www.cdbaby.com (6 tracks; 31:21 minutes) Paul Brown ★★★ The Funky Joint Woodward Avenue Records Guitarist Paul Brown is a well-known producer with a golden touch, and he’s supplied most of the biggest names in contemporary jazz (George Benson, Al Jarreau) with the melodies and pop grooves that inevitably lift their sales and profiles. As a solo artist— this is his sixth record—Brown cooks up a strong set list for The Funky Joint, concentrating his formidable skills to make a relaxed, soulful recording brimming with indelible hooks and glossy fret work. Guest contributions from saxophonist Boney James and (unrelated) pianist Bob James provide their upscale signature touches, but it’s the understated collaboration with guitarist Marc Antoine (“On A Clear Day”) and keyboardist Marco Basci (“Montreaux”) that gives Joint its plush vibe. Other pluses include the shrewd horn section at play on the title tune, a cooledout rhythm track that makes “Say It Like It Is” click, and Brown’s own blues-drenched vocal on “I Get A Feeling.” (10 tracks; 39:27 minutes) ■ MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

jazz library

BOB PERKINS

HANKJONES

Hank Jones. Photo: Jimmy Katz.

OVER THE SEVERAL YEARS I’ve been writing about various jazz personalities for ICON, I’ve sometimes wondered what other work could the subject of a piece have engaged in, other than the one the subject did so extremely well. If this subjective shoe were to be placed on the foot of Hank Jones, it would fit better than any other jazz artist I’ve written about. Hank Jones’s artistry at the piano was unbelievable. He simply makes “basic” sound beautiful. His playing seems to be an extension of his self-effacing persona— urbane, relaxed, thoughtful, polished, and yet chock full of wonder. Some critics praised his “touch.” In an interview in The Detroit Press some years ago, Jones explained, “I never tried consciously to develop a ‘touch.’ I think the way you practice has a lot to do with it. If you practice scales religiously, and practice each note firmly with equal strength, certainly you’ll develop a certain smoothness.” He said he used to practice every day and still did. He was 78 years old at the time. Even Jones can’t clearly explain why his playing sets him apart from so many other jazz pianists. The man just appears to have an undefinable way of making the piano sound like none other than Hank Jones is playing it. Jones was born in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was one of nine children. Even though I’m getting ahead of myself, I feel it important to mention here that years later, Hank, along with younger brothers Elvin and Thad, became one of the few trios of world-renowned brothers in jazz: Elvin, the drummer, making music with the storied John Coltrane Quartet of the early and mid-1960; and Thad, the trumpet player, arranger, composer and bandleader, starred with the Count Basie Band, and later, either lead or co-lead his own big bands. The Jones Family moved to the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, Michigan when Hank was very young. He began piano studies and listening to and playing jazz, to the chagrin of his father, a Baptist deacon. Jones worked with regional bands around Michigan and Ohio before moving to New York in 1944 where he began to freelance. He became Ella Fitzgerald’s accompanist in 1947 and remained with “The First Lady of Song” until 1953. He then began an association with Benny Goodman, and later another great clarinetist, Artie Shaw. Jones landed a choice and financially rewarding great “day job” when he auditioned and was hired by CBS as a staff musician, a position he held for 15 years. Reflecting on those years, Jones said, “I may not have been playing the kind of music I’d prefer to play, and it may have slowed me down a bit. I would have been a lot further down the road to where I want to be musically, had I not worked at CBS. But the work gave me an economic base for trying to build something.”

When CBS did away with its studio musician division, Jones teamed with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams to form The Great Jazz Trio. Over the years, the bassist and drummer positions were filled by new members. The swagger evident in the group’s name remained, even though it didn’t fit Jones’s modest demeanor. He let it be known that the name was not of his choosing. Hank Jones had a long and fruitful career. He continued to be a vital and respected name in jazz. He performed almost until his last days. As a sideman, his piano voice stood out as boldly as of the leaders, but not in an overpowering manner—it was just that, to the trained ear, it was clear that Hank Jones was on the scene. And one does not get to accompany the likes of Ella Fitzgerald unless one knows what one is doing. Singers loved to have Jones accompany them. Of all the CDs I would suggest to you—instrumentally, or otherwise—I recommend Nancy Wilson’s But Beautiful. The quartet that backs Wilson is marvelous all around, but Jones follows Wilson so closely and sympathetically on all the cuts, that he could have been charged with stalking, and this is especially true on the title track. Henry “Hank” Jones passed away May 16, 2010. He was 91. He was a fine cat, and his playing was beautiful and then some. ■

Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Monday through Thursday night from 6:00 to 9:00pm and Sunday, 11:00am to 3pm. 58

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

HARPER’S M

FINDINGS By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi

A compendium of research facts STUDIES FOUND THAT PEDIATRICIANS’ warnings about obesity may easily be forgotten by the parents of fat American children, that Swedish children who eat fish before the age of nine months are less likely to suffer from pre-school wheeze, and that anemia would increase threefold among Malagasy forest children denied the opportunity to eat lemurs and fruit bats. Babies as young as eight months enjoy seeing bad puppets punished. Genome regulation was found to be altered in Russian orphans, and the armpit sweat of gonorrhean young Russian men smells putrid to young Russian women. Neuroscientists tested the brains of human subjects who can at will hallucinate colors where none exist. Evidence suggested that some criminals deemed psychopathic are in fact emotionally disturbed rather than emotionally detached. Wisconsin researchers found weaker connections between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the amygdala in the brains of psychopaths but could not explain what caused them. “We have a chicken and an egg,” said an experimental psychologist who was not involved in the study. “In a sense.” UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SCIENTISTS found that for rats “the value of freeing a trapped cagemate is on par with that of accessing chocolate chips”; Duke University’s Bilbo Lab found that ratlings who are intensively touched by their mothers are better able to resist morphine later in life. Mice genetically engineered to suffer cleft palates were genetically cured, mice bred into alcoholism for forty generations were found to be three times too drunk to drive, mice deprived of the H3R gene were found to be less likely than wild mice to drink alcohol in the dark, mice deprived of the FoxC1 gene were found to grow blood vessels in their corneas, and pregnant female mice given heart attacks were healed by the fetal stem cells of their pups. Mice who lack SIRT1, one of a class of proteins associated with aging, spend less time floating and more time fighting when about to drown, and are unaffected by Prozac. Scientists vaccinated mice against HIV and Ebola. Infrared-spectrometer analysis implied that an emulsion of casein and microbial transglutaminase may cause toughness through its entrapment in the meat matrix of a hot dog. THREE QUARTERS OF BRITISH oysters were found to contain the winter vomiting virus, and Scottish scientists asked the public to assist in the categorization of pilot whales’ dialects. Heavily pregnant dolphins swim at half speed, with a 13 percent reduction in the arc of their tail strokes. Emperor penguins time their dives to an average of 237 wingbeats before ascending. Paleontologists discovered twenty whales in a Chilean desert and guessed at the purpose of the skin-bones of rapetosaurs unearthed in Madagascar. Ornithologists found that, contrary to what was previously believed, the erections of ostriches are bloodless. The tiny bodies of spiderlings cause their brains to be squeezed out into their appendages. Australian riverturtle eggs confer on when to hatch. Lungfish were observed walking underwater. Hummingbirds who were X-rayed in flight with platinum beads glued to the skin of their wrists were observed to flap their wings like insects. The Schumann Resonances were leaking into outer space. Tree scientists feared for the future of the walnut. Engineers simulated primary rainbows, double rainbows, rainbows with single and multiple supernumerary arcs, twin rainbows, red bows, and cloud bows.

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

The Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle LE PUZZLE By Elizabeth C. Gorski Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

1 7 10 13 17 18 20 22 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 32 37 39 40 41 43 46 50 53 54 55 56 57 59 61 64 67 68 73 74 75 76 79 81 82 85 86 89 93 96 97 98 99 101 102 108 60

ACROSS Not more than Mayo to mayo, e.g. “__ Blue”: George Strait hit One of the Three Bears Pacify No Quieted Cheap laugh? It can knock you out Commentator Coulter “Evita” role Casino attraction Rescue squad initials Ripken of baseball U.S. territory divided in 1889 Create belt hardware in record time? Caspian feeder Letters under TUV, on many phones About 30% of Africa “Nothing Compares 2 U” singer O’Connor Gad about Hiker’s power lunch? Sweet-and-sour pita sandwich with a crunch? Earth, to Mahler Japanese veggie Iceland-to-Ireland dir. Vegas-based TV drama Fusses Ocean diver Old cash register key Bakery artists Big 12 Conference city Pet’s protective-yet-amusing neckwear? Ran away Norwegian king who died in 1000 Los __ Untrustworthy sort Beau and Jeff, to Lloyd “Pshaw!” Have dinner DC Comics collectible: Abbr. Actress Hatcher Old-fashioned restraint with a built-in boom box? Protein shake spoonful Future D.A.’s exam Bless with oil Sounds heard from herds Sports doc’s pix College application nos. Plumber’s inquiry about a drippy faucet? Botanist Gray ■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

109 110 111 112 114 117 119 123 124 125 126 127 128 129

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 19 20 21 23 28 31 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 42 44 45 47 48 49 51 52 58 60 61 62

Startled cries Common Mkt. Battleship color Yellow wheels Knock Morning rounds? Like an off-key football lineman? Latin carol starter Least arduous Manhattan-to-Far Rockaway service Sources of red berries Soul, to Sartre Galoot Paine and others, religiously DOWN Whodunit pooch Hamlet’s kin Van Morrison album or song Handicapper’s hangout, for short Oyster shell PC doctor Not the shortest line between two points O.T. book Handy Demand from Glucose-creating enzyme Suffix with infant 1051, on a monument Old-style term of regret Mercury, for one High-heeled Astaire Team with 17 official Final Four appearances Guy in front of an orchestra High rises Dole running mate Old knockout agent Supermodel Wek Dynamic leader? Big cheese linked with Big Macs? Not certifiable? Low island Mail letters Social reformer Jacob Potemkin mutiny city Wrap initialism Rap sheet initials Healing Myanmar, formerly “Doe, __, a female ...” Rogers and Lichtenstein Cliburn’s instrument Every other second?v Actress Ward Chums Composer Rorem et al. “Bad” cholesterol, briefly

63 65 66 68 69 70 71 72 73 77 78 80 82 83 84 87 88 90 91 92 94 95 100 102 103 104 105 106

JFK postings Faith syst. Picket line crossers Blood partner It may involve a flat fee “The Lodger” actor Novello Sioux enemies “Mean Girls” actress IMHO cousin Teen comic originally focused on social graces Some fine print ‘60s campus gp. Duds for the downwardly mobile? Forearm bone Vet’s charges Medieval violin-like instrument Jordan neighbor “__ Said”: Neil Diamond hit Other, in Oaxaca Sprockets “Modern Family” airer “Of Human Bondage” author Machu Picchu architect Longtime morning show __ Island “So what else __?” Delete Indian wedding dress, perhaps

107 108 113 115 116 118

Like go-getters Ease Barely Came down to earth Cross creations __ Constitution

119 120 121 122

Crossing site Egyptian viper Fr. holy woman Dernier __ Answer in next month’s issue.

Answer to February’s puzzle, UNDERCOVER CORPSE

HARPER’S M

INDEX Facts compiled by the editors of Harper’s Magazine

Number of members of Congress among the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans by net worth : 57 Average annual tax savings for members of the top 1 percent of earners under the Bush tax cuts : $66,384 Average annual income for the other 99 percent : $58,506 Factor by which an American is more likely to cite unemployment than the deficit as the country’s “most important problem” : 3 Factor by which a wealthy American is more likely to cite the deficit than unemployment : 3 Chance a Florida Republican thinks the party is intentionally “stalling” the economy to prevent Obama’s reelection : 1 in 4 Number of jobs lost by African-American women during the recession : 233,000 During the first two years of the recovery : 258,000 Percentage of former NFL players who experience financial distress within five years of retirement : 86 Estimated number of jobs created by every $1,000,000,000 of military spending : 11,000 By the same amount devoted to education : 27,000 Portion of states that allow children to take all their classes online : 3/5 Number of students enrolled full-time in “cyberschools” : 250,000 Minimum global population of robots, excluding toys and household appliances : 1,107,000 Minimum amount by which Facebook is overvalued, according to a November study : $70,000,000,000 Percentage of U.S. children age two or younger who have an online presence : 92 Percentage decrease in birth weight when the first trimester of a U.S. pregnancy occurs during an economic downturn : 4 Amount by which sales of ADHD medications increased between 2006 and 2010 : $3,400,000,000 Rank of hydrocodone among the most prescribed drugs in the United States : 1 Factor by which U.S. deaths due to painkiller overdoses increased between 1999 and 2008 : 4 Estimated percentage of comatose patients diagnosed as “vegetative” who are actually “minimally conscious” : 40 Cost of a pack of cigarettes delivered to a gravesite at a Vietnam cemetery through an online ancestor-worship service : 71¢ Minimum number of Tibetan monks and nuns who self-immolated last year in protest against Chinese rule : 12 Average number of U.S. veterans who commit suicide each day : 18 Percentage of Americans who believed “our culture is superior to others” in 2002 : 60 Who believe this today : 49 Factor by which the number of Americans age ninety and over has increased since 1980 : 3 Projected percentage increase in food production required by 2050 in order to sustain the world’s population : 70 Portion of the world’s land considered “highly degraded” due to soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and water pollution : 1/4 Percentage of Americans who believed in anthropogenic global warming in 2001 : 75 Today : 44 Percentage change since 2006 in the value of U.S. residential land : –70 In the value of U.S. cropland : +18 Amount U.S. millionaires received in federal land-preservation grants for ranches and estates in 2009 and 2010 : $89,000,000 Percentage of California residents who were born in the state, according to the last census : 53 Number of previous decades on record in which a majority of Californians were native born : 0 Number of states in which adultery is a criminal offense : 22 Number of reservations White Castle expects nationwide for its candlelit Valentine’s Day dinner : 6,400 Amount Tampa’s Penthouse Club spent on renovations to prepare for the Republican convention : $1,000,000 Chance that a page in Michele Bachmann’s memoir contains an exclamation point : 1 in 3

icon 1-800-354-8776

Index Sources 1 Center for Responsive Politics (Washington); 2,3 Citizens for Tax Justice (Washington); 4-- Gallup (Washington); 5 Benjamin I. Page, Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.); 6 Political Research Center, Suffolk University (Boston); 7,8 National Women’s Law Center (Washington); 9 Chapwood Capital Investment Management, LLC (Addison, Texas); 10,11 Political Economy Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Amherst; 12,13 Evergreen Education Group (Durango, Colo.); 14 Harper’s research; 15 Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich; 16 AVG Technologies USA, Inc. (Chelmsford, Mass.); 17 Center for Social Work Research and Population Research Center, University of Texas at Austin; 18 IMS Health (Parsippany, N.J.); 19,20 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta); 21 Coma Science Group (Liège, Belgium); 22 Harper’s research; 23 Students for a Free Tibet (N.Y.C.); 24 Center for a New American Security (Washington)/U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (Washington); 25,26 Pew Research Center (Washington); 27 U.S. Census Bureau (Suitland, Md.); 28,29 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (Washington); 30,31 Harris Interactive (N.Y.C.); 32,33 Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (Cambridge, Mass.)/U.S. Department of Agriculture; 34 Office of Senator Tom Coburn (Washington); 35,36 U.S. Census Bureau (Suitland, Md.); 37 Fordham University School of Law (N.Y.C.); 38 Paul Werth Associates, Inc. (Columbus, Ohio); 39 The Penthouse Club (Tampa); 40 Harper’s research. MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

Whoopee! < Winner of the

ICON monthly drawing for

DINNER FOR 2: DEMETRIUS BAGLEY You can win, too. Here’s how: Send an email with the subject line

Glorious Food Then write your full name and send to

trina@icondv.com

Whoopee! Winner of the

ICON monthly drawing for

DINNER FOR 2: INGRID WELDMAN You can win, too. Here’s how: Send an email with the subject line

Glorious Food Then write your full name and send to

trina@icondv.com 62

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012

31 / BEING PAUL DANO

didn’t need to think, you know, “My father’s created me and I’m his real work, or his masterpiece.” That’s not really necessary for me as an actor. I think it’s part of the story, and Nick was able to use this adversity and tough go at things with his dad to create a work of art, his book, which I think is pretty phenomenal. So I think Nick was maybe able to make a masterpiece out of his father. RKO: The film is relevant in that it starts to really show the field-leveling of poverty, and the humbling truth that really anyone can be homeless. Is that something that drew you to the project? PD: Yeah, it was. And then when I started going out and volunteering for shelters and going out on the truck and delivering stuff around the city, it was eye-opening how many people were “normal.” You do have mental illness out there, and you do have addiction, but I think a lot of people just kind of assume most homeless people are that in some degree, when there were a lot of people I saw who had just been homeless three weeks―just lost jobs, lost their apartment, debt, whatever. I met an athlete who’d gotten hurt at some point, and maybe wasn’t equipped for the workforce, and now couldn’t get a job. Yeah, I met a lot of people who were just like you and me, and that was really eye-opening, especially having grown up in New York where interaction with the homeless is part of your daily life. To have that reminder that they’re people was a good thing. RKO: Even with more than a decade’s worth of films under your belt, is there something surreal about playing opposite Robert De Niro, and sharing heart-to-hearts with him on camera. PD: Oh, yeah, absolutely. I really relish the opportunities to work with people I admire. That means a lot to me. It’s something I cherish, and I always hope I’m going to learn something from the people I work with. De Niro’s one of the greatest actors we have, and to get to have so many great scenes with him, and to step in the ring and go at it with him, as an actor, is a dream. He also, I thought, was a great guy. He’s very warm, and sweet, and he disarmed me immediately with a giant hug. I couldn’t believe it. But then, when we were at work, it was not a terribly long shoot, and we were both pretty well prepared and we both cared about this film. So, on the days when we were filming it was more about the work than, you know, hanging out together. RKO: This is probably just begging for the answer, “They’re both great guys,” but who’s the more formidable presence on set: Robert De Niro or Daniel Day Lewis? PD: Unfortunately...well, with both of them...Daniel did not play two people who get along and neither did Robert De Niro (L) stars as Jonathan Flynn and Paul Dano (R) stars as Nick Flynn in Being Flynn. Photo: David Lee Bob and I. They were both conflicted relationships, so, I feel like that has more to do with the on-set presence than who they are as people. Because when you come to work, hopefully you’re more focused on the life of the character than your won life at that point. I never, honestly, when I’m on set, let those thoughts of who they are or what their presence is enter the workspace too much. Sometimes, at the end of the day, if I had a really great scene with one of these great actors, I do sort of go, “Fuck, I just had spent 12 hours acting with Robert De Niro doing a great scene.” But I think the characters and the content lend themselves to that relationship. I don’t really think about it any other way. RKO: You’ve got at least two more films on the horizon, So Yong Kim’s For Ellen and Rian Johnson’s Looper, the latter of which has you starring alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He’s an actor whose career is similar to yours in that he largely made a name for himself by working just outside the mainstream. Is he a peer you identify with? And who else do you see in your generation who approaches acting in a similar way that you do? PD: I think Joe’s a really good actor, he’s a really good guy, and yeah, I definitely really like what he’s doing. I think our generation has some really good actors. I think it’s exciting. It’s just about all of us making an effort to try to help films that we like and that we want to go see and that we care about get made. So, yeah, he’s an exciting guy, and Tom Hardy, and Ryan Gosling, Ben Whishaw, Andrew Garfield, Ben Foster, Michelle Williams. We’ve got a lot of good people. RKO: Is there a genre or type of work that excites you the most? PD: No, I like all of it, really. I’d like to do some kind of crazy sci-fi film, some kind of epic period film, I’d like to kick some ass at some point. It’s just about getting excited about what the film could be. I do like certain types of characters. I like people with a lot of conflict, because it’s more fun and more challenging, but I’d like to do it all some day. ■

calendar CALL FOR ENTRIES Philadelphia Sketch Club, 149th Exhibition of Small Oil Paintings, open juried show, April 6th through April 21st, Reception April 15th. Entries hand-delivered March 23 -24. Cash awards. See our website, under Exhibitions, for the prospectus with full details. Philadelphia Sketch Club, 235 South Camac Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107-5608, phone 267-6642434. ARTIST SPACE FOR RENT Join a community of working artists! Artist space available at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts, the country’s largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center. More info and a studio application available at www.goggleworks.org or 610-374-4600, x136. ART EXHIBITS THRU 3/17 William Pope.L: Reenactor. Lafayette College, Williams Center Gallery, Easton, PA. Mon., Tues., Wed., Fri., 11-5; Thurs. 11-8; Sat. & Sun. 12-5. 610-330-5361. http://galleries.lafayette.edu THRU 3/18 Silent auction of original oil paintings by Evgeni Gordiets. Designs for Tranquility, 41 Bridge St., Frenchtown, NJ. 908-996-9990. designsfortranquility.com

Spirit. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Broad St., Philadelphia. 215972-7600. pafa.org/tanner THRU 5/26 Hidden Realities: Mavis Smith. James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 So. Pine St., Doylestown, PA 215-3409800. michenerartmuseum.org THRU 5/13 Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N., 5th. St., Allentown, PA. 610-4324333 allentownartmuseum.org 3/1-4/22 Alternative Views, alternative process group show. Monochrome Winter and Moments de Curiosite continue in Upstairs Gallery II. Red Filter Gallery, 74 Bridge St., Lambertville. 347-244-9758. redfiltergallery.com. Th-Sun., 12-5. 3/2-4/15 Eleanor Voorhees: New Paintings. The Quiet Life Gallery, 17 So. Main St., Lambertville, NJ. Wed.-Sun. 609397-0880. www.quietlifegallery.com 3/9-4/8 Eric Fausnacht, Fowl Images.Opening reception 3/9, 6-9. Twenty-Two Gallery, 236 S. 22nd St., Phila. 215-772-1911. twenty-twogallery.com THEATER 3/10 Celtic Nights, direct from Ireland, 8pm. Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org

THRU 3/18 31st Annual Juried Art Exhibition. Coryell Gallery, 8 Coryell St., Lambertville, NJ. 609-397-0804. coryellgallery.com

3/17 Moscow Festival Ballet, Cinderella. 8pm. Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org

THRU 3/25 In Material: Fiber 2012. Gallery talk with artists 3/3, 10:30am. University of Pennsylvania, Arthur Ross Gallery, 220 So. 34th St, Philadelphia. upenn.edu/ARG

3/20-3/25 Sister's Easter Catechism: Will My Bunny Go to Heaven? State Theatre, Tues.-Fri. 7.30pm, Sat. & Sun. 2 & 6pm. 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132, 1-800-999-STATE, www.statetheatre.org

THRU 4/15 Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern

4/13-15 Mr. Dan Rice’s Traveling Show and The People of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in A Resting Place, a new theatrical spectacular. Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-867-1689. www.touchstone.org FILM

THRU 3/18 Continuum… the emerging image. New Hope Arts, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope, PA. 215-862-9606. newhopearts.org

THRU 3/31 Small Works by Gallery Artists, SFA Gallery, Thurs.-Sun. 11-5, 10 Bridge St., Suite 7, Frenchtown, NJ. 908-2681700. www.sfagallery.com

4/5 Young Frankenstein, The New Mel Brooks Musical, 8pm. Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. www.zoellnerartscenter.org

3/28-4/1 A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Muhlenberg College Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavillion for Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-6643333. muhlenberg.edu/dance

3/23 & 24 Student Film Festival, 8pm. Act 1 Performing Arts, DeSales University TV/Film. The Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. desales.edu/act1. 610-282-3192 DINNER & MUSIC Tuesdays: Music & poetry, dance performances, storytellers & buffet. $30 includes tax and gratuity. Hamilton’s Grill Room, 8 Coryell Street, Lambertville, NJ 609-397-4343. hamiltonsgrillroom.com Saturday nights: Sette Luna Restaurant, 219 Ferry St., Easton, PA. 610253-8888. setteluna.com 3/15 St. Patrick’s Cabaret & Dinner, 6.30pm. A prix fixe Irish menu and Michelle Wiley singing favorite Irish songs. Reservations required. Market Roost, 65 Main St., Flemington, NJ. 908-788-4949. marketroost.com CONCERTS Some organizations perform in various locations. If no address is listed, check the website for location of performance. 3/4 & 3/5 All Beethoven. Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano. Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Dirk Brossé, music director. Tickets: 215-545-1739 or chamberorchestra.org. 3/10 (8:00 pm) "IRISH HEARTSONG" concert by Voices Chorale, with Irish singer Jerry Dignan, Nassau Presbyterian Presbyterian Church, 61 Nassau St., Princeton, NJ. Tickets: $25; Family Pass $55; Children/Students with ID $10; NJ

Pass Holders 25% discount. Advance sale: $5 off Gen. Adm. & Familly Pass tickets. www.VOICESChorale.org 609637-9383. 3/11 (3:00 pm) "IRISH HEARTSONG" concert by Voices Chorale, with Irish singer Jerry Dignan. Anchor Presbyterian Church, 980 Durham Rd. (Rte 413), Wrightstown, PA. Gen. Adm. $25; Family Pass $55; Children/Students with ID $10. Advance sale: $5 off Gen. Adm. & Familly Pass tickets. www.VOICESChorale.org 609-637-9383. 3/14-3/16 Dance Ensemble Concert, Act 1 Performing Arts, DeSales University. Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. desales.edu/act1 3/16 The Manhattan Piano Trio. 8pm. Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem, Foy Concert Hall, Moravian College, W. Church & Main Sts, Bethlehem. lvartsboxoffice.org. cmsob.org 3/18 Brahms’ Requiem. The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, PA. 4pm. 888-7433100, ext. 10 or 15. bach.org. 3/18 Allentown Band. Arts at St. John’s, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 37 S. Fifth St., Allentown. stjohnsallentown.org, 610-435-1641. 3/24 The Singing Violin, with Karina Canellakis. Music of Mozart, Vaughan Williams. Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, 1st Presbyterian Church, Cedar Crest Blvd., Allentown, PA. 610-434-7811. PASinfonia.org ARTSQUEST CENTER AT STEELSTACKS (Musikfest Café) 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA 610-332-1300. artsquest.org 3/11:

3/14: 3/16: 3/17: 3/26: 3/30: 3/31: 4/6: 4/7:

SteelStacks High School Jazz Band Showcase Preliminary Round The Irish Comedy Tour Salsa Night with Hector Rosado & Su Orchestra Runa The English Beat Nowadays: Indie Rock Fest Nowadays: Indie Rock Fest The Ventures The Psychedelic Furs

4/12: 4/13:

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy Salsa Night with Hector Rosado & Su Orchestra

MAUCH CHUNK OPERA HOUSE One of America’s oldest vaudeville theaters, built in 1881. 14 West Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 570-325-0249. mauchchunkoperahouse.com 3/9: 3/10: 3/16: 3/23: 3/24:

3/30:

3/31: 4/14: 4/21: 4/27:

4/28: 4/29:

The Barley Boys Noel V. Ginnity and Taylor’s Irish Cabaret Montana Skies Steve Forbert Aztec Two-Step’s 40th Anniversary –“Debut to New” The Denny Siewell Trio (Original Drummer for Paul McCartney & Wings) Willy Porter The Janis Experience Charlie Hunter Duo Stop Making Sense with special guests The Great White Caps Wishbone Ash Gershwin, by pianist Thomas Pandolfi POETRY READING

3/10 Panoply Books Reading Series 2012: Juditha Dowd will read from and discuss several works-in-progress, including a full-length poetry collection, a verse biography, and a collection of short stories about Istanbul. Ms. Dowd is also a member of the acclaimed poetry performance group, Cool Women. 6pm, 46 North Union St., Lambertville, NJ. 609-397-1145, www.panoplybooks.com EVENTS THRU 5/1 Rock Through the Valley, a Collaboration of Art, Music, and Fashion, is a cooperative effort undertaken by the Allentown Art Museum, and local businesses to go hand-in-hand with the Museum’s “Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955Present.” rockthroughthevalley.com 3/17 2nd Annual Parade of the Shamrocks, presented by Celtic Classic Highland Games & Festival, downtown Bethlehem, PA. For event schedule and ticket purchase, go to www.celticfest.org

MARCH 2012

■

ICON

■

ICON

■

MARCH 2012