ICON Magazine

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contents

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SUDAN ARCHIVE

With her debut album, the boundary-breaking, violin-playing singer-composer iconoclast shows all the influences that make her who she is today.

Resnick: Stained Glass Bethlehem House Gallery

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ICON

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KRISTIN CHENOWETH Just like Zelig, the multi-talented star seems to pop up everywhere.

5| 16 | Joseph Barrett, Vase of Flowers Silverman Gallery

ESSAYS

MORE FILM

A THOUSAND WORDS In But Out

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VOICES Dreaming Brooklyn

OPINION 7|

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George T. Conway III

ART EXHIBITIONS

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Home Bethlehem House Gallery Mural Gallery & Fine Art Opening

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Mural Dreams

The Amish Outlaws.

FILM ROUNDUP Bacurau Deerskin First Cow Young Ahmed REEL NEWS Suburban Birds Knives Out Synonyms Clemency

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Brush & Lens: The Female Perspective The Owl and the Nightingale

THEATER

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22 | ON THE COVER: Kristin Chenoweth.

Photo: Gian Andrea di Stefano.

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PRODUCTION Richard DeCosta Susan Danforth Rita Kaplan INTERNS Joey Fonseca CONTRIBUTING WRITERS A. D. Amorosi Jack Byer Peter Croatto

George Miller

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POP Khruangbin + Leon Bridges Sergio Mendes JAZZ/ ROCK/CLASSICAL/ALT The Westerlies Christopher Stark Keith Oxman Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio Denise Mangiardi

ETCETERA 36 |

HARPER’S FINDINGS

NEW BOOKS

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HARPER’S INDEX

FILM

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L. A. TIMES CROSSWORD

CINEMATTERS Greed

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AGENDA

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Raina Filipiak / Advertising filipiakr@comcast.net

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Silverman Gallery

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EDITORIAL Editor / trina@icondv.com

Mark Keresman

Joseph Barrett & Mitch Michener: Two Birds of a Feather 10 |

PRESIDENT Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com

Geoff Gehman

New Hope Arts Center

NIGHTLIFE

215-862-9558 icondv.com facebook.com/icondv

MUSIC

Gallery On Fourth

First Cow.

Since 1992

Robert Beck DOCUMENTARY The Booksellers

200 Years of Bucks County Art Mercer Museum

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

Susan Van Dongen Keith Uhlich

Subscription: $40 (12 issues) PO Box 120 • New Hope 18938 215-862-9558 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. ©2020 Prime Time Publishing Co., Inc.

i

a thousand words

STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

In But Out

I’M BACK IN THE plein air saddle again, although I might get an argument about that. There are plenty of people for whom painting an interior doesn’t qualify as plein air because the term means “outdoors” in French (give or take). But those of us who think saying “Painting the actual thing while you are standing there” is cumbersome, know that addressing any subject outside the studio using a portable painting kit is all the same anyway, and we tend to bandy the term about roughshod. I’ll admit, it’s not true plein air. Sue me.

It’s been asked if painting a landscape out a window qualifies as plein air. You might turn it around and ask if standing outside under the sun while painting an interior through a door or window is any better. We could call it plein in. Nobody who I want to listen to cares about that stuff. It’s all just our response to the effects of light on form.

I don’t get to work outside of the studio as much as I used to, but it still excites me. This subject required painting two environments in the same image, describing what’s outside the window as well as the room the viewer is in, which is a big challenge. Even a camera has problems doing that.

Painting from life is more demanding than from photos, but it gives you a lot more information with which to work. For beginners, it is often overwhelming. I’m fairly experienced, and it’s still hard to establish the inside-outside thing. I can suggest with my drawing that those are windows, and there is something out there, but I don’t want the viewer to take my word for it; I want them to sense a distinct location beyond the wall.

It’s a different place out there, and it requires its own atmosphere. Atmosphere puts objects in the same thought. Two atmospheres in the same painting have to cohabitate, and that’s tricky.

This room is on the second floor of an old Firehouse in Lambertville, looking out on Main Street. It’s an office at Fisherman’s Mark. The place isn’t as spacious as I made it look. I painted some furniture out of the image, and I brought the ceiling fan into the composition from the middle of the room.

To create a separate “outside,” I accentuated the power lines, trees, and buildings being eclipsed by the window frame, so they must be on the other side of the wall. Overlap is a key drawing tool for simulating depth. I also used a slightly different palette for the exterior, so the color harmony seems vaguely different out there. That was sufficient. A description isn’t always helped by more particulars. Sometimes you just have to get enough right that it can’t be anything else.

Why this painting, this view? It’s a gift for Linda Meacham, who is retiring. Linda has been the executive director of Fisherman’s Mark for nine years, during a difficult period, and with phenomenal results. You know about the extraordinary role Fisherman’s Mark plays in making this area a wonderful place to live, how many people have been helped to find their way out of jams, and how vital the non-profit organization is to the quality of everybody’s life around here. It has a small staff, dedicated volunteers, and generous contributors, who all think of Linda as the heart. Those of us who are familiar with her know the hours and effort she’s put in, and we extend our sincere thanks. She has changed lives.

The narrative elements were all there in front of me: Linda at her busy desk; the town outside the window; chairs for the many people she serves; and the fan, a symbol for working through adverse conditions. It hasn’t been an easy job, but it’s certainly one she can be proud of, and that’s what I want her to remember. The organization, its place in the community, and the big part she played in it. We are all so fortunate to have worked with Linda and wish her the absolute best.

When Jenn (the new executive director) and Linda saw that I was having trouble finding a good place to set up because the two tall, heavy bookcases were in the way, they jumped up from their desks, put their shoulders into it, and slid them across the room.

Then they went back to work. Boom, done. Jenn won’t let Fisherman’s Mark miss a beat, and Linda isn’t going to slow down either. n ICON | MARCH 2020 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

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exhibitions

Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom..

200 Years of Bucks County Art Mercer Museum 84 South Pine St., Doylestown, PA 215-345-0210 Mercermuseum.org Daily 10–5 March 20-September 7

Casamassa: Not Without Honor (2019)

Home Bethlehem House Gallery 459 Main St., Bethlehem, PA 610-419-6262 BethlehemHouseGallery.com Through April 4 Closing reception, April 4, 6–9 View artwork from emerging and established artists residing in DE, NJ, NY, and PA in the beautifully curated, furnished gallery. Paintings, drawings, photography, collage, sculpture, and mixed media will all be represented.

Art is brought to life in the environment in which it belongs. The unique way the artwork is hung, in a living environment, reinforces this one-of-a-kind gallery’s motto, “Art belongs in the home.”

Harmuth: More Coffee, 36x36, acrylic 6

(Detail)

Mural Gallery & Fine Art Opening

Since its founding in 1880, the Bucks County Historical Society has collected works of art—fine and folk paintings, portraits and landscapes, genre and decorative works. Never before displayed together, this collection is the centerpiece of the Mercer Museum’s new exhibit 200 Years of Bucks County Art. This exhibit highlights local portraiture and landscape painting by noted American artists and important regional painters, as well as historical artifacts, documents, and images from the Bucks County Historical Society collection that relate to the artists or their subjects.

Mural Dreams 5676 Stump Rd., Pipersville, PA 484-682-4767 Muraldreams.com March 21, 2–7 Local holistic artist and muralist Laura C. Bray of Mural Dreams invites the dreamers, movers, and shakers of the world to a unique art experience.

Bray showcases full-room murals in her house, she refers to them as portals to imaginary worlds. Her home gallery is open to the public, so that she can share the immersive experience with art lovers of the community who want to feel “transported.” This experience will help visitors imagine the possibilities for their own custom murals. Each room showcases Bray’s talent for creating different environments and her skill in painting diverse subject matter.

Bray’s fine art painting and prints will also be on display and for sale. Visit her website for information about her Flow Art Workshops.

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Daniel Garber, October.

opinion I believe the president, and in the president

By George T. Conway III I BELIEVE THE SENATE is right to acquit the president. I believe a fair trial is one with no witnesses, and that the trial was therefore fair. I believe the House was unfair because it found evidence against him. I believe that if the president does something that he believes will get himself reelected, that’s in the public interest and can’t be the kind of thing that results in impeachment.

I believe former national security adviser John Bolton has no relevant testimony because he didn’t leave the White House on good terms.

I believe the president’s call was perfect. I believe he is deeply concerned about corruption in Ukraine. I believe the president can find Ukraine on a map.

I believe Ukraine interfered with the 2016 election, and that the intelligence community’s suggestion otherwise is a Deep State lie. I believe the Democratic National Committee server is in Ukraine, where CrowdStrike hid it.

I believe President Barack Obama placed a “tapp” on the president’s phones in 2016, and that the Russia investigation was a plot to keep him from winning, even though the plotters didn’t think he could win.

I believe former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III was conflicted because he quit one of the president’s golf clubs, and that he and his Angry Democrats conducted a Witch Hunt to destroy the president. But I believe Mueller’s report totally exonerated the president, because it found no collusion and no obstruction.

I believe it would be okay for the president to say he grabs women by their p-----s, because he is a star, and stars are allowed to do that. But I believe he didn’t say that, even though he apologized for it, because I believe the “Access Hollywood” tape was doctored, because he said it was.

I believe E. Jean Carroll lied when she accused the president of rape, because he said she’s not his type. I believe the dozens of other women who accused him of sexual misconduct are also lying, because he would never think of grabbing them by their p-----s or anything else.

I believe the president didn’t know Michael Cohen was paying off porn star Stormy Daniels, and that Cohen did it on his own, because the president had no reason to pay her off. I believe the president was reimbursing Cohen for his legal expertise.

I believe the president is a good Christian, because TV pastors say so, and that it’s okay he doesn’t ask for God’s forgiveness, because he doesn’t need to, since he’s the Chosen One. I believe the president knows the Bible, and that two Corinthians are better than one.

I believe the president wants to release his taxes but has not because he’s under audit, which is why he has fought all the way to the Supreme Court not to disclose them. I believe he will disclose them when the audit is over, and that they will show him to be as rich and honest as he says he is.

I believe the president is a very stable genius, and that he repeatedly tells us so because it’s true.

I believe the president can spell. I believe any spelling mistakes he makes are because he’s a very busy man who doesn’t watch much TV, or because he’s intentionally triggering the libs.

I believe Hurricane Dorian was headed straight for Alabama. I believe the president’s map wasn’t altered with a Sharpie, and that if it was, he didn’t do it, since he didn’t need to because he was right.

I believe the president didn’t call Apple’s CEO “Tim Apple,” and that he said “Tim Cook of Apple” really, really fast, but that if he did say “Tim Apple,” it was to save words, which he always tries to do.

I believe windmills are bad and cause cancer. I believe there was a mass shooting in Toledo and that there were airports during the Revolution, because the president said so.

I believe the president is defeating socialism, despite the subsidies he’s paying to save farmers from his protectionism and the $3.2 trillion he’s added to the national debt during his term.

I believe the president has made tremendous progress building the wall, that Mexico paid for it in the trade deal, that the wall will soon run from San Diego to the Gulf of Mexico, that it will stop those caravans cold, and that it won’t fall down.

I believe the president has a 95 percent approval rating among Republicans, and that there’s no need to cite polls for that.

I believe the president had the largest inaugural crowd ever, regardless of what any photos from liberal bureaucrats might show.

I believe there is no longer a nuclear threat from North Korea.

I believe China pays all tariffs levied on imported Chinese goods.

I believe the president is truthful. I believe the Fake News media lied each of the 16,241 times they have said he has made a false or misleading claim.

I believe the president is selfless, and always puts the nation’s interests first. I believe he isn’t a narcissist, but he’d be entitled to be one if he were one. I believe the president would never exercise his presidential powers to advance his personal interests, but if he did, that would be okay, because whatever is in his personal interests is necessarily in the nation’s interests as well.

I believe Article II of the Constitution gives the president the right to do whatever he wants. n George T. Conway III is a lawyer in New York and an adviser to the Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump super PAC. ICON | MARCH 2020 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

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exhibitions

Louise Fiore, Ford F-250, 2017, Digital photograph on archival paper, 16” x 20”

Brush & Lens: The Female Perspective Gallery On Fourth 401 Northampton St., Easton, PA (Corner of Fourth & Northampton) 610-905-4627 Galleryonfourth.org Through April 5 Closing Reception April 5, 12-5 p.m.

Gallery On Fourth is pleased to present Brush & Lens: The Female Perspective, a group exhibition celebrating the work of Aida Birritteri, Jane Dell, Louise Fiore, Lee Muslin and Natalie Searl.

These artists have vastly different styles and methods. Their subjects span the realms of arcadia and reality, and present us with images that vary from serene and delightful to provocative and unsettling. Each artist’s body of work stands on its own creative merits. Surveyed collectively, the exhibition has an organic flow, a cohesive interplay between representational and abstract which encourages dialogue and offers new ways of seeing. Brush & Lens invites us to explore each artist’s work through both literal and figurative lenses to find meaning, narrative and connection.

Aida Birritteri, Marigolds, n.d., Watercolor on paper, 22” x 25” 8

Malcolm Bray, Drypool Bridge, 70” x 70,” oil on linen Joseph Barrett, Edge of Farm, 30” x 28,” oil on canvas.

The Owl and the Nightingale New Hope Arts Center 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope, PA 215-862-9606 Newhopearts.org March 7–28 Opening Reception March 7, 6-9 Closing Reception March 28, 6-9 Bray’s recent paintings represent a new chapter; he plunges into interpenetration and ambiguity, taking viewers on a journey to explore relationships between light and its absence.

Georgeson’s vision looks backward into all of the great periods of sculpture in western art.

From these reflections he attempts to extend this complex and varied tradition, whose subject is the human condition.

Harry Georgeson, Sidney, bronze 13: x 13” x 7”

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Joseph Barrett & Mitch Michener: Two Birds of a Feather Silverman Gallery of Impressionist Art 4920 York Rd., (Route 202), Holicong, PA 215-794-4300 Silvermangallerybuckscounty March 21–April 19 Opening receptions March 21, 5-8 and March 22, 1-4 The joyful and lively work of these longtime friends and Lahaska neighbors complements each other perfectly.

Barrett's oil paintings are instantly recognizable by his vibrant palette, impasto brushwork and signature frames. A well-known local folk artist, Michener creates whimsical, handcarved and painted birds, fish and other animals. His folk art resonates with Barrett's work, whether hung on the wall or standing on tables, mantles or shelves.

Mitch Michener, Rooster.

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nightlife

CURATED BY A.D. AMOROSI

MARCH

Philadelphia, themetphilly.com

6 THE POGUES

20 THE AMISH OUTLAWS

While the Pogues’ original singer, punk, poet, and all-around troublemaker Shane MacGowan remains wheelchairbound, from a 2015 accident, others lead the march in his name. Johnny Depp and director Julian Temple are preparing a documentary film on his life and that of his merry Irish band. Better still, original Pogues Spider Stacy and Cait O’Riordan, when not busy writing a Broadway-bound musical based on MacGowan’s life and music, lead an allIrish ensemble playing the Pogues greatest hits just before St. Patrick’s Day. This should be a drunken mess and all the better for it. City Winery Phila., citywinery.com/Philadelphia

Either this is a Lancaster-based take on the attitude-laden country stars of the same name, or it’s those badass, methdealing Amish cats forming a band. Either way, yikes. Steelstacks Bethlehem, steelstacks.org better than having to listen to fellow jazzbo revivalists Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. World Café Live, worldcafelive.com

10 JEFF PARKER’S THE NEW BREED One of the driving forces of Tortoise and the whole of the new Chicago avantgarde, this guitarist brings a supposedly autobiographical vision to his eclectic original music. Johnny Brenda’s, johnnybrendas.com

6 LOUIS CK Here’s a production that could go either way: two shows with Louis CK, a comedian brought down by the weight of his own stupidity and privilege, to say nothing of women rightfully empowered by all things #MeToo. CK took a break

10 WIRE With the Gang of 4’s Andy Gill recently deceased, the originators of the London underground is getting smaller. God bless Colin Ewman and the rest of Wire for continuing and advancing that level of madness and noise, with yet another new bold and noisy album, Mind Hive.

Underground Arts,undergroundarts.com

the ethereal electro-pop of When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? What she’ll do for an encore is anybody’s guess beyond more of the same. For now, let these kids enjoy their extended victory lap. Wells Fargo Center, wellsfargocenterphilly.com

14 JIM MESSINA

Still fresh in people’s minds as David Bowie’s last album, the elegiac, angular Blackstar gets a new breathy interpretation courtesy cellist/composer Maya Beiser. Annenberg Center/Travel Guide to Nicaragua Premiere, annenbergcenter.org

Long before Kenny Loggins went “Footloose,” he was part of an LA soft rock ensemble, Loggins & Messina, who made their bones with a single entitled “Your Mama Don’t Dance (and Your Daddy Don’t Rock n’ Roll”). A true precursor to Loggins’ paean dedicated to low levels of fun, their duo’s hit was the beginning of the end, as Kenny became a pop star, and Messina stayed in the folk-rock vein. But, while Loggins became a punchline (albeit a rich one),

25 MEAT LOAF PRESENTS: BAT

12 SUN OF GOLDFINGER

from performing to listen to what women were saying without having apologized too much for his wrongs.

Some would say he didn’t truly express sorrow, or that he wasn’t away from the stage long enough. Then again, the first show sold out so fast that a second performance was added, a late show, for that same March 6 night. So who is right and who is wrong? Perhaps letting an audience decide how long a season in hell should be is best. We’ll see how this night turns out. The Met Philadelphia, themetphilly.com

8 SQUIRREL NUT ZIPPERS 25TH ANNIVERSARY One of the snazziest and most inventive ensembles responsible for the 90s era new swinging revival return. Not as good as watching “Swingers,” but way 10

An avant-garde all-star unholy allegiance of Fripp-like guitarist David Torn (Carter Burwell, David Bowie), squirrelly saxophonist Tim Berne (Julius Hemphill, Joey Baron, Nels Cline), and clunky percussionist Ches Smith (Xiu Xiu, Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog) hit the boards of Fishtown’s finest live hall. Johnny Brenda’s, johnnybrendas.com

13 THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS 30TH FLOOD ANNIVERSARY The Johns, Linell, and Flansburgh, proves that thirty years later, its best work, Flood, is still as ghoulish and goofy as it is gloriously inventive and melodically flush. Union Transfer, utphilly.com

13 BILLIE EILISH Eilish and her brother, Finneas, won a bushel full of Grammys, got to perform the memorial segment for the Academy’s dead at the Oscars, and got the nod to write and record a new James Bond theme, the quietly creepy “No Time to Die.” Great. The pair deserves as much after having won the hearts and wallets of young and old alike with

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22 MAYA BAISER’S BLACKSTAR SYMPHONY

Messina continued, respectfully, making deeply felt, American roots music. Good for him. Steelstacks Bethlehem, steelstacks.org

Here’s an interesting concept: Meat Loaf, the singer and muse behind composer Jim Steinman’s vision of love, lust, and Phil Spector-like metal courtesy 'Bat Out of Hell’ can’t hit the hard high notes like he once did. American Idol winner Caleb Johnson can, though, and with Meat’s blessing, the new singer will take ‘Bat Out of Hell’ for a spin with Loaf's original band, the Neverland Express. Considering that Steinman is staging the Bat as a touring, OffBroadway musical with WPVI-TV’s Don Polec’s kid in the lead, all bets are off.

World Café Live, worldcafelive.com

15 EVERLAST The Caucasian rapper behind House of Pain’s “Jump Around” wound up with a handsome acoustic rock troubadour’s career, to go with his husky voice, after the age of hip hop consent had waned.

He’s made a decent go of it, and still manages to include his rap hits into the new frank folk mix. Steelstacks Bethlehem, steelstacks.org

20 “THE BACHELOR” LIVE It’s a live show based on the television exploits of one sad man in a tux and 20 women desperate for his attention. This will sell out in a minute. The Met

31 LESLIE ODOM, JR. The Tony winner for playing Aaron Burr in the original Broadway version of Hamilton is a beloved Philadelphia actor and vocalist who not only has a new album in “Mr.,” but a film career filled with big movies such as “Harriet” (still running in theaters), the currently lensing “One Night in Miami” from first-time director Regina King and the sequel to “The Sopranos” series, “The Many Saints of Newark.” His family still lives in the area, so here’s betting that World Café Live will be filled with Odoms.

World Café Live, worldcafelive.com n

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valley theater

city theater

Edith Piaf: Hymn to Love. Touchstone Theatre and Teatro Potlach reboot a 2015 solo show about the larger-than-life, legendary chanteuse. (Touchstone, 321 E. 4th St., Bethlehem, March 5–8)

Ship. Famed Orbiter 5 organizer and playwright Douglas Williams and Azuka Theatre’s Artistic Director Kevin Glaccum join forces for a story of a Connecticut woman looking for a one-time classmate who tried and failed to grow the longest fingernails in the world and hopes to become a tour guide at her neighboring seaport. My guess is that this looks something like Blue Velvet, but I’ll wait and see to pass such judgment. Either way, both Williams and Glaccum are expert storytellers when it comes to the subject of ‘the outsider,’ so….

(Azuka Theatre at the at The Drake, 302 S. Hicks Street, through March 15)

Silence! The Musical. This musical spoof of “Silence of the Lambs” scored big at the NY Fringe Festival. Serial killer Hannibal Lecter and FBI agent Clarice Starling duet on “Quid Pro Quo”; serial skinner Buffalo Bill wonders “Are You About a Size 14?” (Civic Theatre of Allentown, 514 N. 19 St., March 13–15, 19–21) The Revolutionists. Selkie Theatre stages Lauren Gunderson’s rollickingly revisionary feminist four-hander for a playwright, a Haitian rebel, an assassin and Marie Antoinette in 1793 Paris. (Ice House, 56 River St., Bethlehem, March 20-29) Silent Sky. Lauren Gunderson telescopes the scientific and social breakthroughs of Henrietta Leavitt and other women astronomers. (Samuels Theatre, Tompkins College Center, Cedar Crest College, 100 College Dr., Allentown, March 26–29) Finding Neverland. Kelsey Grammer was Captain Hook in the Broadway production of this musical baptism of Peter Pan. (Baker Theater, Zoellner Center for the Arts, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., March 22) Newsies. An ambitious rookie reporter tells and sells the musical story of smart-ass newsboys who strike after a publisher hikes their distribution fee.

(Star of the Day Event Productions, St. John’s UCC, 139 N. 4th St., Emmaus, March 27–29, April 3–5) The Bacchae. Karen Dearborn, an esteemed professor of dance, choreographs Muhlenberg College’s rendition of Euripides’ storied showcase for Dionysus, who disguises himself as a mortal to punish mortals for not honoring him as immortal. (Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, March 26–29) An Enemy of the People. Moravian College presents Ibsen’s fiery debate between a geologist who wants to close a polluted spa and citizens hungry for a new meal ticket. (Arena Theatre, 1200 Main St., Bethlehem, March 26–29) Twelve Angry Men. A trial severely tests jurors charged with the destiny of a young man charged with his father’s murder. Comedians starred in a 2003 production directed by Guy Masterson, who performed his solo A Christmas Carol in December in Bethlehem. (Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick’s Mill Rd., Bethlehem, March 27–29, April 3–5, 17–19) Lombardi. Northampton Community College offered a crisp, colorful, tightly contested take on Eric Simonson’s portrait of a fanatically successful football coach’s tumultuous week. Robert Trexler smoothly navigated Vince Lombardi’s blazing bluster, lashing guilt and stoic logic. Ryan Patrick Allen’s tenacious magazine writer had the right combination of stiff spine and stiff arm. Lori Colacito gave Lombardi’s wife a winning weariness, wariness and wisdom. Director Bill Mutimer coached an exceptional game, making sure dynamics were dynamite in locker room, bar room and living room.

The Humans. Civic Theatre of Allentown offered a seamlessly naturalistic, gently engrossing version of Stephen Karam’s fly-on-the-nose view of a troubled family’s not-so-thankful Thanksgiving. Rachel Williams radiated poignant pain as a daughter mourning losses of job, love and health. Pat Kelly was remarkably flexible as a father scarred by a near 9/11 disaster, shifting carefully between ashy optimism and cheery desperation. Director Will Morris conducted a sublimely magnetic score of mundane and momentous notes, spoiled only by a tediously long nightmarish finale. n — GEOFF GEHMAN 12

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The Agitators. Beyond Black History Month, any word on the quietly incendiary author, activist, statesman, and educator Frederick Douglass is a good word. Together with original Caucasian suffragist Susan B. Anthony, in playwright Mat Smart’s The Agitators, Douglass crafts the American Dream in their rebellious image, whether in total agreement or defiance of each other’s vision.

Starring Charlotte Northeast and Steven Wright, expect fire and rage on the stage on Theatre Horizon. (Theatre Horizon, 401 DeKalb Street, through March 22) Oedipus el Rey. Directed by writer and actor Tanaquil Marquez from a script by playwright Luis Alfaro, Oedipus el Rey is a fresh and frenetic LatinX twist on the classic Greek tragedy, as played out in prisons, real and imagined. As this is the final show of Teatro del Sol’s 2019-2020 season, expect Marquez’s crew to go all out with abandon. Teatro del Sol at the Bob and Selma Horan Studio Theatre at the Arden, 62 N. 2nd Street, March 7–22) Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles. The four men who dress up and play Fab Four songs have been doing this for over three decades by this point—far longer than the Beatles themselves did likewise—and are creating concepts set to go beyond the original material. For this live stage showcase, Rain pays tribute and lends focus to Abbey Road, so expect long hair rather than mop tops and bell-bottoms rather than tight suits with Nehru collars. (Merriam Theater, 250 S Broad Street, March 13–15)

Les Misérables. Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s Tony Awardwinning musical based on the Victor Hugo legend is depressing and slow, yet somehow victorious and reminiscent of why the resilience of the human spirit always works on stage. Bring your French flag. (Academy Of Music, 240 S Broad Street, March 17–29) Set It Off: Live On Stage. In 1996, Vivica A. Fox), Queen Latifah and Jada Pinkett—before she became Will Smith’s wife, and Pinkett Smith—filmed a taught and thrilling drama that changed the game for women criminal masterminds. Take that Oceans 8. Now actor/director Je’Caryous Johnson brings the bank heist, urban cult classic on stage in an action-packed rendition with rappers Lil Mo and Da Brat, The Cosby Show’s Keshia Knight Pulliam, Drew Sidora, and Leon. Just wow. (Merriam Theater, 250 S Broad Street, March 26–28) Pee Wee Herman’s 35th Anniversary. Considering that the Los Angelino comedian and actor started off as a performance artist, and his Playground was, in reality, a Gary Panter-esque mess of mazes, colors and swirls, yes—this is as much a theatrical event as it is a comic one. (The Met Philadelphia, 858 N Broad Street, March 27) Twelfth Night. Philly’s first time crack at Kwame Kwei-Armah and Shaina Taub’s musical adaptation of Shakespeare’s legendary romantic comedy about mistaken identity comes courtesy the Jenkintown Music Theatre with a new original dazz-disco funk-jazz score from Taub. I’m in. (The Kuykendall Auditorium at Jenkintown HS, 285 West Avenue, March 27–April 4) n — A.D. AMOROSI

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new books The Nation City: Why Mayors Are Now Running the World Rahm Emanuel Knopf At a time of anxiety about the effectiveness of our national government, Rahm Emanuel provides a clear vision, for both progressives and centrists, of how to get things done in America today—a bracing, optimistic vision of America's future from one of our most experienced and original political minds.

Emanuel argues that cities are the most ancient political institutions, dating back thousands of years and have reemerged as the nation-states of our time. He makes clear how mayors are accountable to their voters to a greater degree than any other elected officials and illuminates how progressives and centrists alike can best accomplish their goals by focusing their energies on local politics. The Nation City maps out a new, energizing, and hopeful way forward.

Separation Anxiety Laura Zigman Ecco Life hasn’t gone according to Judy’s plan. Her career as a children’s book author offered a glimpse of success before taking a nose dive.

Teddy, now a teenager, treats her with some combination of mortification and indifference. Her best friend is dying. And her husband, Gary, has become a pot-addled professional “snackologist” who she can’t afford to divorce. On top of it all, she has a painfully ironic job writing articles for a self-help website—a poor fit for someone seemingly incapable of helping herself Wickedly funny and surprisingly tender, Separation Anxiety offers a frank portrait of middle-aged limbo, examining the ebb and flow of life’s most important relationships.

Tapping into the insecurities and anxieties that most of us keep under wraps, and with a voice that is at once gleefully irreverent and genuinely touching, Laura Zigman has crafted a new classic for anyone taking fumbling steps toward happiness.

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Chasing Eden Renny Reynolds and Jack Staub Timber Press One of the most spectacular private gardens in America, Hortulus Farm on Thompson Mill Road in Wrightstown, PA, is the masterpiece of Reynolds and Staub, renowned experts in the fields of design, gardening, and entertaining. It is beautifully captured in a lavishly illustrated roadmap to creating a personal Eden.

Hortulus Farm is a not only a model of classical tenets, but also a showcase of how traditions can be successfully broken. Gardeners will discover information on specific design principles, from vistas and allées to hardscaping and water features. They will also learn how to adapt these principles to less-than-optimal settings without sacrificing a site’s sense of place. Both aspirational and practical, Chasing Eden will inspire home gardeners to create their own earthly paradise.

Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife Bart D. Ehrman Simon and Schuster A New York Times bestselling historian takes on two of the most gripping questions of human existence: where did the ideas of heaven and hell come from, and why do they endure?

What happens when we die? A recent Pew Research poll showed that 72% of Americans believe in a literal heaven, 58% in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. But eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament and are not what Jesus or his disciples taught.

So where did the ideas come from?

In clear and compelling terms, Bart Ehrman recounts the long history of the afterlife, ranging from The Epic of Gilgamesh up to the writings of Augustine, focusing especially on the teachings of Jesus and his early followers.

The NRA: The Unauthorized History Frank Smyth Flatiron Books

Broken Don Winslow William Morrow

For the first time, the definitive account of America’s most powerful, secretive, and controversial nonprofit, and how far it has strayed from its origins.

As Smyth shows, the NRA evolved from an organization which supported most government efforts around gun control for a hundred years to one that resists all attempts to restrict guns in any way. At the same time, the organization has also buried its own remarkable history.

Here is that story, from the NRA’s surprising roots in post-Civil War New York City to the defining event that changed its culture forever—the so called “Cincinnati Revolt” of 1977—to the present day, where President Donald Trump is the most ardent champion in the White House the NRA has ever had. For anyone who has looked at access to guns in our society and asked “Why?”, this is an unmatched account of how we got here, and who got us here.

In six intense short novels connected by the themes of crime, corruption, vengeance, justice, loss, betrayal, guilt and redemption, Broken is #1 international bestseller Don Winslow at his nerveshattering, heart-stopping, heartbreaking best. In Broken, he creates a world of highlevel thieves and low-life crooks, obsessed cops struggling with life on and off the job, private detectives, dope dealers, bounty hunters and fugitives, the lost souls driving without headlights through the dark night on the American criminal highway.

With his trademark blend of insight, humanity, humor, action and the highest level of literary craftsmanship, Winslow delivers a collection of tales that will become classics of crime fiction. “One of America’s greatest storytellers.” – Stephen King No matter how you come into this world, you come out broken . . .

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voices

This page is for you. We welcome submissions of essays, short stories, an excerpt from your book, and opinion pieces.

Professional writers, experts, and amateurs are all invited to contribute. Send an email with the subject line VOICES to trina@icondv.com. Include your name, address, and phone number. If your piece is chosen to be published we’ll let you know and only print your name.

Dreaming Brooklyn

By Stephen Purcell

ON WASH LINES IN the convent yard hang the nuns’ undergarments: black stockings, girdles, and other stuff. Playing third base—the only girl on either team—is a pouty-faced, pony-tailed tomboy to beat Don Zimmer (third baseman for the Dodgers). The boy takes note of all of this, the underwear, the girl, and more.

It’s balmy for a late afternoon early in March. The air in Brooklyn is heavy with something the boy in his innocence can’t articulate, but which he feels intensely nonetheless.

The weather seems almost an ‘occasion of sin,’ keeping him out late against his will.

It’s coming on dark. He’s going to be late. His mom will be worried. He’ll probably get yelled at. He’s decided, at the risk of committing a venial sin, to stay and finish the punch ball game with the older guys, and Miss Ponytail.

Miss Ponytail’s name is Regina. She’s in seventh grade, a year ahead of the boy. She reminds him of Justine on American Bandstand. He takes note of the darkening sky somewhere over Carnarsie, a blaze of orange, purple and pink. He notices, too, the Blob-like shadow of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral under which they play.

Something’s happening here, something momentous, maybe even miraculous. He’s excited and scared, wonderful and terrible, all at once.

He’s never felt like this before. He doesn’t let on, though; he doesn’t dare. He plays it cool, like Elvis in King Creole.

This wonderful, terrible feeling is larger than the boy’s innocence can comprehend, even if he has rated straight A’s since first grade. Suppose, he wonders, just suppose that the Pope at this very moment is opening “The Letter.” The letter that the nuns are always talking about… the letter from the Virgin Mary… the letter that tells when the world is supposed to end.

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Last inning. Tie score.

He steps up to the plate, a chalked box on grainy blacktop. It’s do or die. There’ll be no extra innings to play today. The boy wants to get home quickly and see his mom and dad.

Just in case . . .

At the plate, he bounces the soft, pink Spalding—once, twice, ten times. The creeping shadow of the cathedral looms larger now. To confirm the enormity of the moment, a black cloud shuts out the flaming colors over Canarsie. A sudden evening chill descends upon the borough of Brooklyn.

“C’mon, batter up. Punch the ball!” someone yells.

He might be the youngest player on the field, but he’s one of the best. They play him deep in the outfield, back up against the high chain-link fence.

Finally, the boy crouches into the punch.

With his left hand, he lobs the ball a foot over his head, rears back and, with his right hand closed into a fist, smacks the ball with the flat face of his tender knuckles. The ball sails high, high up into the blackening sky, not hitting the outfield fence until he’s rounded first base and

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scrambled halfway to second. Off the fence, the ball bounces funny, confusing the players in the outfield. He bounds past second and keeps running. At third, inexplicably, he slows his locomotive stride.

He could have scored easily. The game would be over. Game over, he could have rushed home to see his mom and dad, before. …

Anyway, brushing against Regina playing tight to third, the boy steps on the base and scrambles a few feet past her, stops, hesitates … and beats his Keds back.

“Nice hit,” Regina says, standing close.

“Thanks,” the boy says.

“You could have made it home.”

The next batter up punches a single. The boy scores the winning run. He should tag straight for home. Instead, he walks the eight blocks along Ridgewood Avenue with several of his teammates. He bops to the rear of the sidewalk phalanx, all the while aware of pouty Regina strutting alone, across the street but even with him.

Once, for a wide yawning second, their eyes meet. Across busy Ridgewood Avenue, they glare at each other, like about-to-be combatants in a schoolyard rumble. Regina sticks her tongue out, breaks into a trot, and she’s gone, into the Brooklyn twilight.

The boy’s mom doesn’t yell at him for being late. She just asks him where he was and what he was doing. She says she was beginning to worry. His dad’s working late, so he gets to eat dinner and watch television in the living room.

By the time his mom serves him Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks and macaroni on a TV tray, he’s forgotten the letter from the Virgin Mary to the Pope telling him about the end of the world. He hasn’t forgotten Regina, though.

Her last name was Donnelly, as I recall. n

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interview

archive

A.D. AMOROSI

Diving deep into the AS INFLUENCED BY EXPERIMENTAL electronica as she was traditional music—from R&B, to the gospel epiphanies of her youth in Cincinnati, to Sudanese fiddle folk—violinist and singer Brittany Parks set out on a path to craft unique, violin-laced electro soul. That meant becoming Sudan Archives, dropping several splintered sounding EPs (Sudan Archives in 2017, Sink in 2018) before truly exposing herself with her full-length studio album, the magical Athena, released in November, 2019 As she does on the cover of Athena and torrid tracks such as “Water” and her more recent “Confessions,” Sudan Archives opens up and bares her heart, mind, stories of growing up absurd, and the weird R&B she’s heard in her head since she was a kid.

Before her March 13 appearance at Johnny Brenda’s in Fishtown, Parks and I discussed Athena in all of its forms, sounds and visions.

Being a loner recording your first two EPs all but on your own, what was it like working in a more collaborative mode on Athena?

At first, it was scary because it felt like… well, I was used to doing things alone in my bedroom, and that’s it. Suddenly there were people in my mind and people there to help me make my art. It was weird having a team for once, because it never felt like that before—but I won’t say that I didn’t like it. Yes, at first it was hard, but the final product was a huge relief, and now I have a bigger team that is more like a family behind me. Nobody wants to really be a loner, right?

Back in the day, you recorded for the pop soul LaFace label with your sister as N2. It didn’t last, but was there anything about that glossy sound that carried over? I ask because Athena is far slicker than Your career is ascendyour first two EPs. ing. Are you enjoying the Yeah. Back then, havWHEN YOU’RE WORKING WITH ride? ing a sister helping me PRODUCERS, AND WRITERS OTHER I’m the type of person write, leaving me to work EVERYONE IN THE ROOM KNOWS that when stuff is happenon the melodies…that was ing, it doesn’t feel real to cool because it was family WHAT THE SONG IS ABOUT. THEY me, to be honest. I don’t oriented. It was my stepMAKE YOU OWN UP TO IT, PUSH know; it moves so fast dad, my sister, and me THOSE BUTTONS. IT’S LIKE WHEN sometimes, it’s surreal. I working on a project, and almost don’t get a chance going for our dreams. It YOU TELL A STORY AND OMIT THE to deal with anything as didn’t work out. I was JUICY PART, ANOTHER WRITER WILL it’s happening. being difficult and got GET YOU TO TELL IT. thrown out of the band.

You grew up as a stu[laughs] But I always dent of music in the choir loved that sound. I missed of the church you attended as a kid three times it. That’s why “Did You Know,” the first song on a week. Did that make music more of a pragthe album, is on Athena—that’s the first tune matic, workman-like skill? my sister and I ever did.

It was always magic because there wasn’t really discipline with my instrument. I never realHow different is the new version from the ly took lessons. It just seemed magical going up original? into the choir and learning all of the songs.

I sound like a little girl on the original. You Being there all the time—it was a vibe, somecan actually find it on Soundcloud. And the prothing good. Music never felt like something that duction is similar to the original. Actually, I like I had to do every day with a this-equals-that that sound, that production. There just hapoutcome. pened to be additional things that I wanted that back then I couldn’t describe. I couldn’t commuMusic wasn’t something that you had to nicate that with people, so I just appeared diffimiss childhood for. cult to work with. I wanted to put that song on No, because I didn’t know what that was eiAthena as the first track because it shows my ther, as I was always a bit of a loner. I never felt journey as an artist. I learned how to say what I as if I was missing out on anything in order to wanted, and it started there. We just enhanced it make music. for the new album.

[ ]

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The songs that are on your EPs are more fragmented, choppy, and frenetic than those on Athena. I don’t want to read too much into this, but would you say that it was purely a musical expression or a picture of where you were emotionally making the EPs? It could be both. For the EPs, it was me, my violin, my loop station, and a laptop that was farting and just barely able to record onto, get ideas down. I was coming home every night, stressed out from, say, working my second job, and having to wake up at 6 a.m. with nothing to do but record an idea—real quick. Yes, that does represent where I was with my life, just barely able to get my ideas down without having to leave my house to work. The album sounds expansive and slick because it started in a studio, ended in a studio, and I had time to record. Plus, remember, those EPS are just me singing into an iPhone.

Are you a tech head or a Luddite?

I definitely like to keep things more raw, get the first take down. We worked off of a lot of demos from my iPad—I can pour my heart into something with immediacy there. That’s where I feel most comfortable. I’m a gearhead. I love technology. I love my computers. I like equient I can touch with my hands. The iPad , the loop station, onto which I put my violin? That may all boil down to just two tracks, but you can’t mess it up. It’s archived there.

Do you feel the same way about writing lyrics? There’s family drama, confessions, and heartbreak laced throughout Athena. I feel your ache.

Was that easy to convey?

Both. Maybe more so because it was harder. When you’re writing with only yourself, you can get it out. It’s also easy to be a pussy and go back on what you said, and cover it up. Like ‘um—I don’t know if I want the world to really know what I’m thinking, so I’ll make some abstract poetry out of it, use some metaphors so that no one will understand it.’ But when you’re working with other writers and producers, everyone in the room knows what the song is about. They make you own up to it, push those buttons. It’s like when you tell a story and omit the juicy part—another writer will get you to tell it.

Would I be right in assuming that you appearing as you do on the cover of Athena—nude, but as a statue—that nakedness is a metaphor for your lyrics?

Yeah, because I feel like this is the biggest, most real I’ve ever been—as a lyricist and a person. I shaved my head after I recorded the album! I’m tired of hiding. No more covering up with layers. I want to strip everything away. That was all me in the photo. I had to go into this 3-D printing van and be naked in front of 360-degree cameras. Every camera represented another set of eyes. Yup, that’s me. Onstage I want to look just like I do in my bedroom, because that’s what Athena’s about. Athena says this is me. Raw. I’m not hiding. This is the soundtrack of my life, so this is how I want you to see me. n ICON | MARCH 2020 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

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interview SUSAN VAN DONGEN

like Zelig,

K

SHE’S A MULTI-TASKING TALENT, starring in theater, film, TV and even voiceovers. Chenoweth won an Emmy (Pushing Daisies, 1999) and a Tony, (You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, 1999), and has been nominated numerous times for both awards, including for her role as Glinda the Good Witch in the original Broadway production of Wicked.

More recently, the Oklahoma native has been showing off her comedy chops as the scene-stealing heiress Lavinia Peck-Foster in the NBC comedy Trial and Error.

Listen closely and you can hear Chenoweth voicing various roles on the oddball animated Netflix series Bojack Horseman.

But, she’s probably best known as a vocalist and, short of gangsta rap, Chenoweth really can sing anything. Dig a little and you’ll find clips of her as Cunegonde, performing the virtuosic “Glitter and be Gay” from Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, a nod to her formal training in opera.

Just a few months ago, Chenoweth released For the Girls, showcasing great songs made famous by legends such as Dolly Parton, Barbra Streisand, Peggy Lee, Carole King and Linda Ronstadt, to

RISTIN CHENOWETH

seems to pop up everywhere Left to Right: Peter Gallagher, Michael McGrath, Kristin Chenoweth, Mark Linn-Baker, and Andy Karl in On the Twentieth Century in 2015. Photo: Joan Marcus.

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name just a few. She’ll be at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia on March 13, celebrating the album.

Born July 24, 1968, the singer grew up in Broken Arrow, adopted when only a few days old by Junie and Jerry Chenoweth. She traces her musical beginnings to singing in church, performing as a soloist by age 12.

She went on to study opera at Oklahoma City University, earning a master’s degree in Opera Performance there in 1992. Indeed, Kristin was in grad school when she came to New York City with a friend, who came East to audition for a Broadway musical. Chenoweth decided to audition too, got a role and...well, you know the rest.

This petite tour-de-force took a break from her bustling schedule to speak with ICON last month.

What was your motivation to record ‘‘For the Girls?’’ Not a feminist statement, but a celebration.

I wanted to pay homage to the women who have come before me. It’s everyone from Lesley Gore to Dinah Washington to Dolly Parton. This is For The Girls, By The Girls, To The Girls and the men who love us.

You’re stepping into some really big shoes: how did you choose these artists and songs?

I’m challenged by things that scare me. These songs are all iconic and while I wanted to pay tribute to each artist. I also know how important it is to put my own stamp on each song.

You do Lesley Gore’s classic “You Don’t Own Me” as a duet with Ariana Grande. She’s super talented, but it also might have been like teaching music history—she’s so young!

Trust me, I picked the song specifically for Ariana and (myself) to do together. It’s old school meets new school. And as much as I hope I’ve inspired her, she’s inspired me, doubly so.

I had a little tear in my eye listening to “Desperado.” What’s your relationship to the song, and to Linda Ronstadt’s music?

Very first time I heard it, it was sung by Linda, then later I found out a couple of great guys wrote it. To me, I never understood why it wasn’t a woman’s song as well. And because of Linda, it gives artists like me permission to be somewhat of a “desperado” myself.

It’s so poignant now that she can’t sing anymore due to Parkinson’s.

Did that cross your mind?

What really crossed my mind was the stamp that she’s made in music history. Linda is the same artist who did 70s rock, a Spanish record and the operetta Pirates of Penzance. When I was growing up, I wore out the record she did with the Nelson Riddle band of all American songbook standards (What’s New, 1983). So as I sing anything as Linda sung, I tend to focus more on what she has done than what she can no longer do.

I also got goosebumps listening to “I Will Always Love You.” Nice to hear it as Dolly Parton imagined it.

Let’s just say, when she said yes, I thought “I can retire now!” Every-

>

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cinematters

g

MICHAEL WINTERBOTTOM’S GREED IS, by turns, a flashback-laden biography; a ticktock on a terrible billionaire’s 60th birthday bash in Greece; a flabby commentary on wealth inequality; and a pallid drama on family dynamics.

There may have been another one or two iterations before fatigue arrived and the film ended.

The best part gets the shortest amount of time, the rise of Sir Richard McCreadie’s business success, which starts with him as a irritable prep school student who runs illegal poker games and uses magic tricks to steal his classmates’ pocket money. It’s a fitting harbinger of what’s to come, more so since his mother—an acidic force of personality who uses her wealth as a middle finger—is an ally. She’s played by the peerless Shirley Henderson, who is used early and then phased out as the movie staggers onward. McCreadie grows up, assembles a retail empire form a credit scheme, and is played by the wonderful Steve Coogan. Of course, he’s a bottomless asshole with fluorescent choppers.

I am by no means a Winterbottom completist, but I find he excels when he sits back and lets the talent run the show. Witness the hilarious Trip films with Coogan and comedian

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PETE CROATTO

Greed Rob Brydon portraying themselves as two selfobsessed bozos traipsing through Europe oblivious to their obnoxiousness and fully aware that their best days are behind them. In Greed, the commentary is shoved in our faces, such as when the clueless journalist (David Mitchell) writing McCreadie’s authorized biography learns how his subject built his fortune from a business journalist, or the epilogue featuring troubling facts about billionaires. It’s exposition without wit. The characters should present the commentary via dialogue and actions, but Winterbottom sketches everything out for us instead of letting the absurdity unfold, the least of which is Sir Richard hastily constructing a replica of the Coliseum in a land teeming with ruins.

In a career defined by his portrayal of selfimportant dimwits for decades, Sir Richard should be Coogan’s Hamlet. But he’s shoved aside for watered-down social commentary expressed by an ungainly Altmanian parade of supporting characters crammed to fit some kind of esteemed ensemble quota: the moody, neglected teenage son, played by Hugo’s Asa Butterfield; the doddering, schlubby journalist; the bystander with a conscious. No one is our

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proxy. By the time that character emerges—one of Sir Richard’s many handlers, a sympathetic young woman played by Dinita Gohil—we’ve lost interest. And then she gets parlayed into another tidy parable. If the characters are not sieves, they’re inconsistent. McCreadie’s vacuous ex-trophy wife (Isla Fisher) suddenly grows an intellect. The moron journalist, presumably writing a puffy celebrity biography, probes like he’s Michael Lewis.

The world is on fire right now, but Winterbottom wants to cover nearly every spark: the horrible working conditions in Sri Lankan clothing factories; Syrian refugees who call Greece’s public beaches home, who ruin McCreadie’s party plans; the contrived shallowness of reality television. Greed is so top-heavy on important contemporary ideas that none carry potency.

I can’t imagine how intolerable this would have been without Coogan. He’s a profane, daft delight as Sir Richard, who makes deals as if he’s owed everything plus the change on your bedroom table. Greed provides an opportunity to savor Coogan’s above-it-all wink-wink smarm, the lone touch of wit in Winterbottom’s spraypaint-by-numbers approach. [R] n

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KEITH UHLICH

Deerskin

film roundup

Bacurau (Dirs. Juliano Dornelles and Kleber Mendonça Filho). Starring: Bárbara Colen, Sônia Braga, Udo Kier. The genre elements that percolated beneath the prior two features—Neighbouring Sounds and Aquarius—by Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho come to the fore in his latest film, which he co-directed with Juliano Dornelles. The first shot is key: a direct reference to the evocative outer space opening of The Thing remake by John Carpenter (who is referenced several times throughout). But despite the clues, you might initially think that you’re watching a slow-burn drama about the residents of a remote Brazilian village eking out the best existence possible while protesting various authoritarian indignities.

Then the UFO and Udo Kier show up, and the movie morphs into something much more violent and vicious. Filho is heartily on the side of the oppressed, and fumingly, though quite humorously, against people in power. That Bacurau has appeared while Jair Bolsonaro runs roughshod over the film’s country of origin is no accident. [N/R]

HHHH

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Deerskin (Dir. Quentin Dupieux).

Starring: Jean Dujardin, Adèle Haenel, Albert Delpy. The clothes make the man in French writer-director Quentin Dupieux’s horrorcomedy about a middle-aged sociopath who tips over into psychosis. Georges (Dujardin) has left his wife and is making a fresh start in a remote village. He splurges his savings on a designer deerskin jacket that proves to have an unearthly hold on body and mind. His obsession with the garment’s “sick style” leads him, with the aid of a bartender (Haenel), on a quixotic quest to eliminate all jackets except his own. His behavior escalates from the confrontationally comic (he pretends to be a filmmaker so he can win over the bejacketed masses) to the murderous (a sharpened fan-blade gets wielded like one of Jason Voorhees’s machetes). Dujardin sticks rigorously, and often hilariously, to a Buster Keaton-like stoicism. As often with Dupieux’s films (such as the dark comic “killer tire” thriller Rubber), Deerskin leans hard into its wacky central concept at the expense of much else. [N/R] HH

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First Cow (Dir. Kelly Reichardt).

Starring: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones. Co-writer and director Kelly Reichardt follows up her terrific Certain Women (2016) with this uneven period Western.

It opens in the present, as a woman uncovers skeletons beside a river. How did the bones get there? The answer lies in the friendship between a fur-trapper (Magaro) and a Chinese immigrant (Orion Lee). Over a century before, the pair continuously stole the milk from a rich man’s cow (the first such animal in their rural county) to bake pastries.

First Cow, then, is a slow-burn anti-capitalist parable, heavy on fetid atmosphere, languid in momentum. Magaro and Lee have a good rapport, yet their characters ring false. It’s as if Reichardt sees them as symbols first and people second. This wreaks havoc with the emotional undercurrents (the ending in particular strains, in all its verdant symbolism, for profundity), though Reichardt still has an overall vision that is uniquely hers and worth experiencing even when it falls short. [N/R] HH1/2

Young Ahmed (Dirs. Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne).

Starring: Idir Ben Addi, Myriem Akheddiou, Victoria Bluck). It looks like a Dardenne Brothers’ film, and feels like one, too. But Young Ahmed is one of the rare missteps in the Belgian filmmaker’s peerless oeuvre. Their Western Christian sensibilities make for an awkward, bordering on offensive fit with this tale of a radicalized teenager, Ahmed (Idir Ben Addi), obsessed with killing his teacher (Akheddiou). It’s no less aesthetically accomplished and narratively propulsive as one of their great works of grace sought and found (The Kid with a Bike for just one stellar example). The film opens in media res and barely lets up as it traces Ahmed’s obsessive quest for martyrdom, which extends even to his stay in a deprogramming camp. The Dardennes love this character, as they do all their creations, though this is the first time that the arc of absolution the brothers have traced out (complete with a literal fall from grace) comes off as paternalistic and condescending. [N/R] HH n

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reel news

Knives Out.

NEW & SOON-TO-BE-RELEASED DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

Suburban Birds (Director Sheng Qiu. Starring Zihan Gong, Lu Huang, Mason Lee.) Filled with allegory and intersecting timelines, this arthouse cinema seems concocted more as festival fare than for mainstream consumption. It opens with a survey team analyzing a ruined neighborhood that originally looked healthy and stable, but literally, like the government agency that approved the construction, was rotten to its core. Sinkholes created by subterranean faults caused the buildings to collapse. While rummaging through an abandoned schoolhouse, one surveyor, Hao (Lee), finds a student’s diary that describes a traumatic event.

Hardly coincidental, the boy (Zihan) is also named Hao. Suddenly the story shifts to a group of young boys playing in the woods, birdwatching, exploring, searching for the secrets of nature. They find a bird egg and wonder if it hides 26

a monster. Then one goes missing. Their idyllic free-for-all turns into a quest for their lost comrade. Now we have two parallel realities to follow, each thematically mirroring a shattering, end-of-innocence event. Both teams are searching for answers to an unexpected happening that disrupted their lives. Director Qiu uses radically different camera technics and pacing to frame each reality, but the composition and settings often echo each other. Each narrative presents its unanswered mysteries in a compelling, slow-cinema approach that twines around and enthralls your imagination. In Mandarin with English subtitles. (NR) HHH Knives Out (Director Rian Johnson. Starring Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Ana de Armas.) This Agatha Christi style whodone-it throws all murder-in-the-mansion

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stereotypes out the window, along with the game of Clue and Daniel Craig’s image as James Bond. At times it approaches parody with its share of one-liners and plenitude of despicable suspects, but Johnson creates a new game with its own style and rules. When 85-year-old crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Plummer) is found with his throat cut, gentleman detective Benoit Blanc (Craig with a deep southern accent, tweed attire, and a foot-long cigar) arrives unannounced on the scene. The host of duplicitous, cut-throat (literally) family members battle for control of the murdered patriarch’s fortune. Blanc takes one look and declares that everyone’s a suspect, and the misdirection and machinations begin. We see Harlan’s daughter,

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documentary

w

WHETHER YOU’RE A JOURNALIST, a documentarian, or a photographer, style comes from a mastery of fundamentals and facts. The Booksellers, a rudderless exploration of New York City’s dwindling community of antiquarian booksellers, shows a deficit of both. There is much to hold our interest: passionate subjects, a forgotten side of New York City’s history, apartments and warehouses creaking with wobbly skyscrapers of paper and glue and obsession. Director D.W. Young captures the scenes and the emotions with a casual air, but his inability to grasp the basics blunts the passion of his subjects.

Young profiles a crop of these booksellers, most of whom are older and don’t sugarcoat their profession’s wobbly future. The Internet has eliminated the need for these dealers, and the printed word dwindles in value daily. But hope remains. There’s a younger crowd, led by Rebecca Romney—you might remember her from History Channel’s Pawn Stars—and a growing need to chronicle and categorize hip-hop’s print age.

The modern era of collectible books is upon us.

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PETE CROATTO

The Booksellers What form that takes or how long it will last is anyone’s guess.

That uncertainty is perhaps why Young veers from vignettes of booksellers to projections for the future to history of the New York City scene to quirks of the trade (high-priced auctions; the value of author archives). These sidebars sputter to a conclusion.

There’s a desperate need for an editor—the Ben Bradlee kind, not the Thelma Schoomaker kind—to pare down the scope and find a digestible story. An unwillingness to engage in journalism’s basic tenets—asking questions that can’t be answered “yes” or “no,” providing background, killing your darlings—plagues more than a few documentaries but infests The Booksellers.

Young can’t capture basic facts that would provide the narrative with emotional heft, like how a bookseller survives, let alone thrives. Dave Bergman’s tiny apartment is a maze of obscure, dusty titles. I kept wondering how he affords to live this way, more so after we learn he plays for several softball teams throughout the city. Or how bookseller Jim Cummins, who has three

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warehouses in Jersey teeming with books and various ephemera, maintains such an operation.

It would have been nice to know their roles in this “horrible business.” Or their full names, which I found by visiting the film’s website.

The lack of context is a mosquito bite that slowly and assuredly festers into a full-body annoyance. Main characters, or at least someone whom viewers can rally around, are non-existent. Ditto a reference point, like the New York International Antiquarian Book Fair, to give the story form and purpose. Young seems disinterested in justifying why we should stick around beyond good intentions. Yes, the subjects are earnest and eloquent and likable, people compelled to follow a passion that diminishes in relevance as another adult orphan places first-edition gems on eBay. That Young has eliminated an entry point for the audience, isolates those unfamiliar with a precious, personal profession. In an unintentional and aggravating way, Caruso has provided a commentary on the insular appeal of rare books. The die-hards will nod in agreement; everyone else, I fear, will nod off. [NR] n

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pop

A.D. AMOROSI

Khruangbin + Leon Bridges HHH Texas Sun Dead Oceans Raw silken R&B vocalist Leon Bridges and the twisty, turn-y psychedelic rock-funk instrumentalists of Khruangbin toured as one package last year as a show of unity of Texan soul makers. Fort Worth’s Bridges has always been a little bit buttoned up—a modern-day Sam Cooke if ever there was—even though, by the end of his 2018 sophomore effort, Good Thing, Bridges loosens up for a dazz-dusic-disco-jam vocal workout. Speaking of jam, Houston’s Khruangbin is a psilocybin power trio, what the Grateful

gives the band a much needed blunt punctuation on the chugging, blissful title track, and the vocalist some genuine cojones and rough swagger on the elastic “Conversion.” While the sloe gin-swigging, sauntering ballad “Midnight” sounds the most like your usual Bridges ranch stash—some late 60s’ rhythmic and melodic touches here, some noir soul between the sheets, some lyrics about driving while holding his sweetheart there, “CSide”—the best song on the too short EP—comes across like vintage Khruangbin: all swirly and exotic with malleted grooves, off-pulse cowbell and a funky, funhouse atmosphere that’s the sonic equivalent of Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai.

Here’s to a further expansion of this pairings’ brand of Texas tea.

Sergio Mendes HHHH In The Key Of Joy Concord At 78, Brazilian-born pianist, composer, and arranger Sergio Mendes just might be ready for his close up. Don’t get me wrong. Since moving from the service to his mentor, Antônio Carlos Jobim, and bringing jazzy bossa nova into 1960s AM radio pop prominence and consciousness, Mendes has forever been a face for Brazil’s breezily sophisticated sound.

He was ubiquitous; you couldn’t avoid seeing his big eyes, snazzy suits, and Brasil ’66 ensemble, or hear his smooth ethnic rhythms and chord changes. Mendes is the samba-tinged, cosmopolitan equivalent of Bacharach, Brian Wilson and The Beatles. Past the 1960s, Mendes contin-

Dead would have sounded like if boiled down to Cream-like essentials. The right-tight, but still way loose Khruangbin—guitarist Mark Speer, bassist Laura Lee, drummer Donald Johnson—create a hypnotic sonic (water) bed for a vocalist to loll and spin upon. This is a neat trick as it’s something the flowery power trio has never attempted. That the singer is Bridges 30

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ued to make his mark, particularly with his neo-soul/hip hop-filled Timeless of 2006, a 2012 Best Song Oscar nomination for “Real in Rio” from the animated film Rio, and his breakthrough hit “Mas Que Nada.” In The Key Of Joy, a fresh documentary from director John Scheinfeld (renowned for Chasing Trane), will bring the savvy Mendes into current focus, as will a double album of the same name. While the second disc features radiofriendly Brasil ’66 hits of yore—the pretty and pensively syncopated “The Look of Love,” and the hushed, rushing “The Frog”—the first disc is as new and nuanced as its inspiration and will feel familiar to fans. It’s a weird start as “Sabor Do Rio” and the collection’s title tune play host to oddly rigid Chicago rappers Common and Buddy, respectively. Perhaps welcoming MCs whose voices were more fluid and whose lyrics felt fresher would’ve allowed each song a freer vibe. Yet, the basis of each track’s buoyancy and its merry carnival mien stem from the literal squeaks, bells, whistles, undulating indigenous percussive rolls, and the plush choral blend of female voices that have made Mendes famous. n

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jazz / classical / alt / rock MARK KERESMAN

The Westerlies HHHH Therein Lies the Good Westerlies Records We have become accustomed to hearing “rhythm” expressed or carried by what used to be called “the rhythm section,” namely the cadence(s) of bass and drums. Some units have been able to dispense with that rhythm team-up in the traditional sense without getting rid of the concept of, well, rhythm. Of course, in classical music, this concept is different, so other instru-

ments express that sense of forward motion.

The Westerlies are a Seattle-born quartet of two trumpeters and two trombonists, and while the music herein has a certain “nakedness” to it, what they play stands on its own without other types of instrumentation…and by gum, it works.

The gospel standard “Travelin’ Shoes” is often heard as an a cappella number; here, it’s played with the swinging vigor of a vocal group, given an additional dimension by what sounds like the surging qualities of a jazz orchestra. Further, with the growls and wails of the horns, this lot evokes the expressive brass-men of Duke Ellington’s bands. “Weeping Mary” is a 19th-century American hymn with an aching wistfulness and a gently swaying rhythm evoking rustic songforms. Their rendition of the hymn “Do Unto Others” shows the relationship—in a totally natural and non-didactic manner—between gospel rhythms and swing. The crackling, apocalyptic “Eli” by Arthur Russell sounds like Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five playing late-period Duke Ellington. This is a disc for the almost sillyeclectic, those who dig Bach and Carl Stalling (the wizard of Warner Brothers classic cartoon music) in the same sitting. (18 tracks, 65 minutes) westerliesmusic.com Christopher Stark HHHH1/2 Seasonal Music Bridge Records Born in 1980 and now based in St. Louis, Christopher Stark is a composer in the tradition 32

of those whose music is impacted by where they grew up. As sure as Debussy was French and Stravinsky was Russian, Stark’s sounds are given savor by the rugged setting of Montana.

This is not to imply that Stark’s sounds will conjure the American West like the soundtracks to classic films composed by Ennio Morricone (some of the spaghetti westerns), Max Steiner (The Searchers), or Elmer Bernstein (The Mag-

nificent Seven)—while there is commonality there, Stark goes for a sonic essence of the West. The title piece, performed by the Momenta Quartet, contains high-pitched and tense (as well as mostly tonal with delicate use of dissonance) passages for string quartet evoking the unforgiving windswept landscapes, astringent climes, and harsh beauty of those wild open spaces. “This is Not a Story” is scored for strings, clarinet, piano, and electronics—it’s a tense but oddly cathartic fall through a sonic funhouse mirror. It’s melodious but not mellow, deeply mournful, slightly whimsical, occasionally turbulent, and some passages convey shades of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Those seeking modern sounds with ties to early 20th century old masters (the pros, you dig?) are urged to get here. (9 tracks, 55 min.) bridgerecords.com Keith Oxman HHH1/2 Two Cigarettes in the Dark Capri Jazz history has been marked by “the tenor battle”—a session or performance helmed by two talented exponents of the tenor saxophone, with all the excitement and playful rivalry that goes with it. Gene Ammons & Sonny Stitt; Zoot Sims & Al Cohn, and Dexter Gordon, and the

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died-too-young Wardell Gray—they duetted and playfully jousted, each urging the other on to “top that, bro.” In the growing “sincere artistry” of contemporary jazz, this phenomenon had fallen by the wayside, or so many might think. Keith Oxman is a Denver-based tenor man, and he’s gotten props by no less than Benny Golson, who’s helmed a swell session or three (and did some tenor dual/duel-ing too) himself. Oxman has a style in the classic modern mold—John Coltrane, Dexter Gordon, Wayne Shorter. His special guest on this album is an icon unto himself, Houston Person, the ex-

ponent of the big-toned, sophisticated, unabashedly romantic tenor style, one of the few originals still kicking around. Two Cigarettes is in the tradition of two like-instrumented cats going to town via that big tenor horn, one an acolyte of classic hard bop tenor and the other a master of big, breathy sax. The menu is swinging bop and romantic ballads, nothing too challenging but enough to spur these fellows forward. The title track sounds as if it could’ve come from an old film starring Maureen O’Hara or Tyrone Power—it swings old-school, genially and unhurriedly, each tenor strutting his stuff as if all the time in the world is in their pocket(s). One swings suavely, the other swings as if trying to keep his emotions in check while expressing what’s in heart/mind. Hank Mobley’s “Bossa for Baby” aims to blame it on the bossa nova (with cheers, not tears)—it’s sultry, midtempo, and it’s amazing to hear a couple of swells plays such genial lines with such ease and feeling (never over-emoting, either). “Sweet Sucker” is a rollicking blues-flavored bit with a

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32 | JAZZ / CLASSICAL / ALT / ROCK

rollicking solo from pianist Jeff Jenkins—the highlight is hearing how the lads play off each other, trading-off, then in unison. As a bonus, there are Sarah Vaughan-ish guest vocals by Annette Murrell on two tracks. Good stuff with which to slake your sax-drive. (10 tracks, 55 minutes) caprirecords.com Kenny Barron/Dave Holland Trio Without Deception HHHHH Dare 2 Sometimes in this life, you can count on certain things—out of a whole slew of new TV shows, a couple will be good and have staying power, and great musicians will get together a dandy album seemingly without exerting themselves. Here we have pianist Kenny Barron, a son of Philadelphia, who has been on hundreds of recordings as a sideperson or leader, a keycracker whose catalog from the mid-1960s to

now can make you dizzy with delight; bassist Dave Holland, UK-born but America-based, who came to fame with Miles Davis in his early electric era (though in the past several years he sticks to the acoustic axe) and led some great bands in the past couple of decades; and Johnathan Blake, son of jazz violinist John Blake, another son of Philly who’s tapped the tubs for Tom Harrell, Oliver Lake, and McCoy Tyner. A trio session of these cats couldn’t miss.

A Barron original, “Porto Alegre,” opens, and he gently grabs you by weaving bright lines with Holland and Blake, which summon steady yet constantly shifting rhythms—and for a change, unlike some jazz albums, Blake is prominent in the audio mix without sounding overbearing.

It’s a near-perfect hard bop intro, not too glib, warm, and expressive, designed to draw the listener in and keep him there. The mid-tempo, somewhat lilting “Second Thoughts,” is by the late Mulgrew Miller, and here is where the Monk inspiration on Barron shines. Not that he resembles Monk sonically, but the influence is 34

there, the careful yet deceptively casual economy of notes. Some jazz cats bang out more notes than they know what to do with, whereas Barron sounds utterly relaxed and poised, careful with the notes but never sounding tentative or cerebral. Holland gets a pithy yet melodious (yes!) solo, Blake swinging like he was born to do so, no overplaying, just steady and thoughtful. “Until Then” is an enigmatic ballad—there’s remarkable restraint here like

Barron is yeaning to bust loose but makes poetry instead. Here he reminds us of Dave Brubeck—not style, but the delightful melodious and ruminative qualities in his playing, not to mention (mildly) percussive. Holland and Blake are buoyant and terse, keeping the flow going. At times Blake sounds a little too enthused, but who could blame him? Not a dealbreaker at all—Blake’s got more drive than General Motors. Aces high, folks—piano trio lovers, you’ll likely be on Cloud 9.5, and the straightforward aspects of this set make it recommendable to new kids on jazz block. (10 tracks, 66 minutes) daveholland.com/dare2 Denise Mangiardi HHH1/2 Brown Book Alice’s Loft Music From New York but now residing in Britain, jazz singer Denise Mangiardi is, pardon the cliché, a breath of reasonably fresh air. Her vocal approach is as a descendant of Billie Holliday, though her influence is not limiting. She sounds a little like Holiday in her phrasing, but she’s not an imitator. Brown Book finds her fronting a small group featuring such swells as

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Jerry Bergonzi (tenor sax), Mark Soskin (piano), and Jay Anderson (bass), with some tracks lusciously enriched by strings of the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra. The interesting thing about this is that she takes the Lady Day inspiration to some unusual places.

“The Exchange” is a mini-melodrama, a film noir distilled into a jazz ballad, Mangiardi’s voice conveying incredible longing, but coolly.

“Day Time Kind of Gal” is a blues-tinged ballad, Bergonzi providing a counterpoint of sorts to Mangiardi’s sly, slightly theatrical singing. “My Beauty” is tinged with Delta bluesy slide guitar before turning into the type of grand ballad on which Nat “King” Cole made his bones, going from the deep south to an uptown bistro (you’d better have reservations, pal) as if it were the most natural thing in the world. On “Red Bouquet,” Mangiardi evokes Judy Garland somewhat (albeit light on theatricality), accompanied only by Brian Seeger’s softly strummed electric guitar. The potential hit single “Horn Song” begins with a gently swinging mini-sax section, has a percolating rhythm and Mangiardi singing up a storm—but she holds back a little, leaving a bit in reserve, enough so that you go back for more. Mangiardi’s singing is masterful, occasionally buoyed by the strings. Her voice is like Holiday’s in one other vital way— she sings like she’s “within the song” without over-emoting. She could become the voice for a new generation. (10 tracks, 46 min.) denisemangiardi.com (album also available via CD Baby & Amazon) n

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21 | KRISTIN CHENOWETH

one that knows me, knows I respect, admire and love Dolly Parton. I still listen to the track in disbelief that she said yes.

It was a full circle moment for me. When I was a little girl, many people compared me to her. Well, make no mistake, there’s only one of Dolly. But I am lucky enough to get to say, that I got to record her biggest hit with her. I wanted to make her proud of me. I still care what women who have come before me think of my interpretations of music. I will never not care.

lovers. Because of them, I was able to learn about everyone like Carole King to Leonard Bernstein. My dad always says that they feel blessed to have adopted me but I tell him that I won the lottery.

It was gospel that you first sung: did your parents or preacher object to your change in musical preferences?

I was so lucky. My parents only wanted me to follow my passion whether that was country, gospel or opera. That is why I do all of it in my show. That is why this record was so important for me to do; it gave me permission to sing a lot of different styles which is 100% in my DNA. I imagine moving to New York City was like, “jump in the water and learn to swim.”

Was it difficult for you?

Interestingly enough, I felt like I found my tribe. I was so happy to be working with professional artists. The difficult part was learning how to live in NYC after living in Oklahoma.

Learning the subway. Understanding where to eat. And what’s safe.

When I moved to New York I thought everyone was yelling all the time. Then, one day I yelled at somebody and I knew I had adjusted.

What’s your next project?

I’m attached to a new musical called Death Becomes Her, which was a film starring Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn. I’m also attached to a project about Brownie Wise, the woman behind the man of Tupperware. Brownie Wise was doing Me Too before Me Too was a thing.

Thank you, too, for giving Doris Day some love with “When I Fall in Love.” People don’t remember that she was very talented, they only remember “cutesie Doris Day.” I chose to cover Doris Day because there’s a large part of me that understands, there’s more to her than just “cute.” There’s certainly worse things to be accused of, but I have a similar challenge.

Were you always precociously musical?

Were your adoptive parents musical?

I grew up with engineers in a non-musical family. That’s not to say they weren’t music

I hear you’re also working on a musical based on Tammy Faye Bakker’s story, but it’s coming along slowly.

I wish I had an update [about the show]. In my opinion, Tammy Faye Bakker wanted to spread her love of God to everyone. However, the part of her that I’m interested in were her struggles. There was addiction. There was a scandal. There was an end of an era.

I truly believe Tammy Faye Baker was ahead of her time. She was the first person to have someone dying of AIDS on national TV. She told him she loved him and accepted him, just as Jesus did. She showed love. She was an example of what I believe we are supposed to be no matter our faith. In my dream the play will be a tribute to the human side of a Christian woman. n Kristin Chenoweth, Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, 300 So. Broad St., Phila. March 13, 8 p.m. (215) 790-5800. kimmelcenter.org ICON | MARCH 2020 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV

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harper’s FINDINGS

Scientists confirmed that toddlers have temper tantrums when they do not use their words and that the practice of limiting oyster consumption to months ending in r has been observed for thousands of years, though climate change will further reduce safe oyster season. Many U.S. coastal homeowners accept the reality of climate change but have taken no action to prepare for it. Climatologists corrected earlier estimates of coastal flooding that used treetops and buildings, rather than landmass, for elevation data, and concluded that several major cities will suffer severe inundation by 2050, including Jakarta, which the Indonesian government plans to abandon at a projected cost of $33 billion, and the replacement for which, to be built in Borneo, risks releasing nearly 50 million tons of carbon through habitat destruction.

Scientists who identified major climate tipping points a decade ago have now ruled half of them to be “active.” The Arctic may now emit more carbon than it stores, and its lower reflectivity was found to be due to ice loss, rather than the addition of soot. As the atmosphere warms, bacteria emits more CO2, and drought-stricken plants squeal in distress. Astronomers continued to search for neutral hydrogen signals from the universe’s pre-galactic dark age.

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A study of the Y chromosomes of present-day inhabitants of Belgium and the Netherlands found that the nineteenth-century urban poor were six times as likely as well-off farmers to have unexpected paternity. Maxillofacial surgeons scored the jaw deformations of inbred Hapsburgs, and a test of 6,300 participants in eighty-five countries found that women are likelier than men to accurately read feline facial expressions. Engineers attempted to make internet memes comprehensible to the visually impaired. Researchers concluded that the growing cross-sectioned despair among Americans currently approaching midlife may be a realistic reflection of rising mortality rates.

In the past three years, Vermont has experienced a 640 percent rise in the number of kindergartners claiming religious exemptions from vaccines. Japanese scientists studying live mice and dead humans associated high levels of hydrogen sulfide with schizophrenia. Biomedical engineers reported success in breeding E. coli to produce psilocybin.

Hospital-acquired infections can be reduced by copper beds, and early deaths can be reduced by the presence of irregularly shaped parks.

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Tokyo scientists identified, apart from DNA, at least one million forms of stable nucleic acid–like polymers that would be capable of storing genetic information, and four chromosomes of the Eurasian skylark were found to have fused together, giving the bird the largest recorded avian sex chromosome. Female fish will mate outside their species if a male is attractive enough or if the female can’t see clearly. A nineteen-year-old Margarita Island capuchin monkey in a Chinese zoo with a humanlike face has remained unable to find a mate, which zookeepers attribute not to his appearance but to his bad personality. The heart of a blue whale beats as infrequently as twice a minute. The carbon-isotope ratio in tuna has shifted significantly since 2000. Pumas in the Santa Cruz Mountains were being poisoned by mercury in coastal fog. Deer remains from the Lower Paleolithic indicate that hunters saved marrow bones for later snacking.

The mitochondrial DNA of mummified sacrificial ibises indicated that the ancient demand for Egyptian ibis was met not through centralized farms but through short-term husbandry projects run by priests, who wrote of feeding the birds bread and clover. Genetic testing could not determine whether an 18,000-year-old puppy that emerged from Siberian permafrost was a dog or a wolf. School in a village in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug was canceled when thinning sea ice caused an invasion of fifty-six polar bears. A Tennessee electric eel was switching the lights of a Christmas tree on and off.

INDEX

Portion of South Koreans who say they’d support North Korea in a war with Japan: 1/2 Estimated number of drones that governments worldwide will purchase in the next decade for combat use: 1,800 For surveillance use: 75,000 Percentage of nonmilitary drones for sale in the U.S. that were manufactured in China: 80 Minimum number of products that are available for purchase on Amazon: 500,000,000 Estimated percentage of New York City apartments that receive at least one package every day: 15 Minimum number of contractors employed by Google to evaluate the usefulness of search results: 10,000 Number of changes that Google made to its search algorithm and interface in 2018: 3,234 Portion of U.S. voting precincts that rely on electronic voting machines that leave no paper trail: 1/10 Number of U.S. states that use a mobile voting app: 1 Percentage of American men who say they would not feel “very comfortable” with a woman as president: 51 Of American women who say so: 41 Estimated number of Americans who have lost a friend or family member since 2014 because health care was too costly: 34,000,000 Factor by which this is more likely to be true of a Democrat than a Republican: 3 Factor by which the amount a U.S. insurer pays for a flu shot can vary depending on where it is administered: 3 Factor by which an American adult is more likely to go out of network for mental health care than for medical care: 5 Estimated percentage of Americans who have an autoimmune disease: 15 Who can name an autoimmune disease: 15 Percentage of unemployed Americans receiving unemployment benefits in 2000: 37 In 2018: 28 Estimated value of extra expenses that an average American household incurs as a result of oligopolies: $5,000 Percentage of civil defendants in U.S. general-jurisdiction courts who had lawyers in 1992: 95 Who have lawyers today: 46 Rank of the U.S. among countries with the highest rates of immigrant children in detention: 1 Of Mexico: 2 Number of refugees resettled in the United States in October: 0 Number of countries in which the annual number of tourists outnumbers residents: 41 In which this ratio is at least 2 to 1: 23 Percentage of Americans aged 13 to 38 who would be willing to post sponsored content to their social-media accounts: 86 Who would become a social-media influencer if given the opportunity: 54 Factor by which the number of social-media influencers using the word “anxiety” increased from 2016 to 2019: 3 Minimum number of apps that promise to help people find friends: 22 Amount per hour that the company People Walker charges for an “on-demand walking partner”: $14 Percentage of Americans with siblings who think their mother has a favorite child: 33 Percentage of those Americans who believe they are the favorite: 30 Factor by which men are more likely than women to believe they are the favorite: 2 Percentage of Americans aged 18 to 34 who say they have witnessed ageism in the workplace: 52 Of Americans aged 55 and older: 39 Number of pending patent applications for variations of the phrase “OK, Boomer”: 6 SOURCES: 1 Korea Institute for National Unification (Seoul); 2,3 IHS Markit (London); 4 Drone Industry Insights (Hamburg, Germany); 5 Marketplace Pulse (NYC); 6 José Holguín- Veras, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, N.Y.); 7,8 Google (Mountain View, Calif.); 9 Verified Voting (Philadelphia); 10 National Conference of State Legislatures (Denver); 11,12 Kantar Public (London); 13,14 Gallup (Atlanta); 15 Kaiser Family Foundation (Washington); 16 Milliman (Denver); 17,18 American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (Eastpointe, Mich.); 19,20 Bureau of Labor Statistics (Washington); 21 Thomas Philippon, New York University; 22,23 National Center for State Courts (Williamsburg, Va.); 24,25 Global Detention Project (Geneva); 26 U.S. Department of State; 27,28 World Tourism Organization (Madrid); 29,30 Morning Consult (Washington); 31 Captiv8 (San Francisco); 32,33 Harper’s research; 34–36 YouGov (NYC); 37,38 Glassdoor (Mill Valley, Calif.); 39 U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (Alexandria, Va.).

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26 | REEL NEWS

son, in-laws, and grandkids, all played with cutting-edge perfection, maneuvering to dismember the competition. The only person who cared about the old man was his immigrant nurse Marta (Ana de Armas), who struggles to survive the backstabbing backlash. The story rollicks along with clues, dropped at every turn of the pretzel-twisted plot. If you are as observant and clever as Detective Blanc and his trusted ally Marta, you too can ferret out how the death in the game room played out. From the elegantly appointed Southern mansion to the greed-crazed family, the movie is the hoot of the year. (PG-13) HHHHH Synonyms (Director Nadav Lapid, Starring Tom Mercier, Quentin Dolmaire, Louise Chevillotte.) Perhaps one of the most profound realizations about life is that There Is No Escape from the identity we create for ourselves. Our reaction to experiences mold us like a master potter, and shattering the old and creating a new vessel is rarely an option. Yoav (Mercier), a disillusioned Israeli, discovers this when he flees Israel for Paris and tries to create a new life, a new identity, a shiny new self. He refuses to speak Hebrew and uses his French dictionary to learn as many derogatory synonyms as he can for his hated homeland. When he crashes in an empty apartment, and someone steals all his belongings, including his clothes, his wish comes true. Suddenly he is stripped of all things Israel, at least externally. Would his internal baggage could so easily be jettisoned. Director Lapid traces Yoav’s internal journey as he attempts to shed the militaristic and machismo values instilled in him as a youth and in the military. For every one step forward toward his French rebirth, flashbacks show us how his cultural imprint as an Israeli became so indelible. Lapid uses his personal history as an Israeli ex-pat in Paris, he contrasts exaggerated stereotypes of artsy French men with macho Israeli men, and most of all, he illustrates that

there is no geo-fix for the pain, or the demons, that live in our heart. In French and Hebrew with subtitles. (NR) HHH Clemency (Director Chinonye Chukwu. Starring Alfre Woodard, Aldis Hodge, Michael O’Neill.) Death row movies are all about suspense. Traditionally, it’s will the condemned prisoner, presumably innocent, receive a last-minute reprieve? But this suspense is not a ticking-clock race to save a life; it’s a slow-burn character study of a hard-faced warden who’s seen too many lethal injections. We meet Warden Bernadine William (Woodard) at the first of two executions that bookend the compelling drama. She sits stoically in the visitors’ gallery even when the injections go horribly wrong, and the curtains are whipped shut. Bernadine maintains her calm, but the close up of her face shows the subtle signs of the inner turmoil that will define the arc of the coming narrative. Bernadine patrols the concrete corridors of her walled and barred domain like a queen in full control of her fiefdom. But the real challenge is confining her emotions to solitary confinement in her inner prison. How can she watch a man die an excruciating death on her watch, then go home to a chatty, romantic dinner with her husband? The smoldering pressure of her emotional fight for life nears riot level as she prepares for the execution of Anthony Woods (Hodge), a cop killer who hopes beyond hope for a stay of execution. As the hour nears, Woods despairs in his cell, and Bernadine edges closer to a meltdown. When the prisoner’s last breath comes, a full three-minute close-up of Bernadine’s face powerfully illustrates that Woods is not the only execution taking place. In what many consider the top acting performance of the year, Woodard majestically expresses, with nuance more than words, the slow disintegration of the warden’s self-control until her emotions stage a fullblown prison breakout. HHHH n

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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

NO RHYME, NO REASON

By Amick Klawitter

ACROSS

1 4 8 13 19 21 22 23

Just one of the fam Quayle successor Part of PBR Brazilian dances 1881 face-off spot “... only God can make __”: Kilmer How some bills are paid Costuming choice for a “Cats” performance?

25 Move to protect a king 26 Put away 27 Mag. edition 28 “Hulk” director Lee 29 Retired flier, briefly 30 Fair-hiring abbr.

31 Narrow inlets 33 Crowded subway metaphor 36 Prince in “Frozen” 37 Proctor’s nightmare?

41 Tree surgeon’s challenge?

44 Just right 45 Yucatán’s yesterday 47 Reeves of “Point Break” 48 Self-descriptive adjective 49 Prof’s assistants 51 One skilled at squandering?

57 “Mamma Mia!” song 58 See 87-Down 59 Midori in a rink 60 Brother of Macaulay and Rory 61 Like each succeeding eye chart line 63 Butterflies 66 Broad bean 67 Fathered, biblically 70 Sweeping thoroughfare?

72 Mont Blanc’s range, to its west 73 News source, perhaps 74 Pool slip-up 75 Author of kids’ Busytown books 77 Showing faith in 79 Bit of animation 80 “We’re gonna be late!”

81 Utter 84 Expert on current energy options?

88 Classic ending?

89 “Mi __ es tu __” 90 Wide receiver Don who played in five Super Bowls 91 Shanghai money 93 Part of a Norwegian-sounding ice cream name 95 Dud of a car that Stephen King might write about?

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100 Chophouse bandit?

102 All over 103 Lasagna layer 105 More than half 106 H.S. dropout’s goal 107 Small shot 109 Piece of TNT? 110 First lady Hoover 112 Garlicky spread 116 “Aladdin” backdrop 118 Lazy son, vis-à-vis his lazy dad?

121 They bite 122 Sleep disorder 123 Fib 124 Prominent Syrian family 125 Bette’s “Divine” nickname 126 Editor’s backpedaling 127 Self starter?

DOWN

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 24 29 32 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 42 43 46 50 52

What’s underfoot?

DIY furniture brand Robbie Coltrane, e.g.

Curling stone Hockey great Salad slice Some annexes Kung __ chicken Rose oil 1971 Peace Prize awardee Golfer Garcia Talks acronym Unleashes (on) Med school subj.

Mic wielders Flat-bottomed boat Comparable in distance “Blimey!” cousin Run or work English homework Rocker Bob Blackjack holding “Up and __!”

Zap in the kitchen Indoor buzzer?

Sporty muscle cars Milk Dud rival “CSI” actor George Egg-hunt holidays Sells aggressively __ B’rith Deluge result, perhaps The best one is airtight Ending for hip

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53 54 55 56 58 61 62 64 65 67 68 69 71 72 74 76 78 81 82 83 85 86 87

89 92 94 95 96 97

Bilbao bulls Con game, say Roof edge Genetic strands Trace “Brava!”

Cookbook author DiSpirito Protective shot Dutch wheels Diner menu staples MIT Chapel designer Saarinen Caesar’s France Writer of really old stories?

Valiant’s son German wine region Abstract expressionist Mark _____ Chihuahua choo-choo Stuffing stuff Well offshore Reb’s rival Transmitting truckers Sphere opener With 58-Across, area with severely declining industry Bar in Baja Dickens title starter Verbal attack First European to sail to India Juarez winter months Gold and silver

98 Well-armed swimmers?

99 Shutout feature 101 Good luck charm 104 Fork “fingers” 107 Frequent flier 108 Singer Lance, or the part he sang with *NSYNC 111 Leftover scraps 113 Check out creepily 114 Island chains 115 Ticks off 117 Barnyard bleat 118 Thanksgiving tuber 119 Whale group 120 World Cup cry Answer to February’s puzzle, CHANGE FOR A BUCK

CALL FOR ARTISTS AOY Art Center. 9th Annual Juried Show, 949 Mirror Lake rd, Yardley PA. April 4–26. Opening April 3, 6-8PM Digital entry deadline March 13. Cash prizes awarded. See prospectus for details. aoyartcenter.org ART

THRU 3/15 Life of the Mind. Burak Delier, Pilvi Takala and Vesna Pavlovi. Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-6643467. Muhlenberg.edu

THRU 3/29 Evolution of the Spiritual | Europe to America. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-4333.

AllentownArtMuseum.org THRU 4/4 4th Annual Juried Show: Home. Closing reception 4/4, 6-9. Bethlehem House Contemporary Art Gallery, 459 Main St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-419-6262.

BethlehemHouseGallery.com

THRU 4/5 Brush & Lens: The Female Perspective.

Closing reception 4/5, 12-5. Gallery On Fourth, 401 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-905-4627. Galleryonfourth.org THRU 4/11 William Lamson, Badwater. Lafayette Art Galleries, Easton, PA. 610-3305361. Galleries.lafayette.edu THRU 4/11 Looted? Jim Sanborn. Lafayette College Art Galleries, Easton, PA. 610-3305361. Galleries.lafayette.edu

THRU 5/3 Color & Complexity, 30 Years at Durham Press. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA. 610-4324333. allentownartmuseum.org

THRU 6/7 Votes for Women, A Visual History. Rediscover the compelling story of the suffrage movement. Brandywine River Museum of Art, Route 1, Chadds Ford, PA. Brandywine.org/museum THRU 6/14 Witness to History: Selma Photography of Stephen Somerstein. Brandywine River Museum of Art, Route 1, Chadds Ford. Brandywine.org/museum

agenda

3/7 The Phoenix Show: A Juried Exhibition, Inner Visions. 5-6, Artists & sponsor reception. 6-9, awards & opening reception. The Conservatory, 4059 Skyron Dr., Doylestown. Phoenix-show.com

3/7-3/28 The Owl and The Nightingale, Harry Georgeson & Malcolm Bray. Opening reception, 3/7, 6-9; closing reception, 3/28, 6-9. New Hope Arts Center, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope, PA. 215862-9606. Newhopearts.org 3/9-3/21 The Phoenix Show: A Juried Exhibition, Inner Visions. 10-7, Mon.-Fri., 10-2, Sat. The Conservatory, 4059 Skyron Dr., Doylestown. Phoenix-show.com

3/10-4/11 Anthony Cervino: Hurry with the Furies. Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3467. Muhlenberg.edu

3/13-4/26 Liz Whitney Quisgard: Fiber Works.

New Arts Program Gallery, 173 W. Main St, Kutztown. Fri-Sun 11–3:00.

Opening recep. 3/13, 6–9. 610-6836440. newartsprogram.org 3/20-9/7 200 Years of Bucks County Art. Mercer Museum, 84 So. Pine St., Doylestown, PA. 215-345-0210. Mercermuseum.org 3/21 Mural Gallery & Fine Art Opening: Laura Bray. 2-7, Mural Dreams, 5676 Stump Rd., Pipersville, PA. 484-6824767. Muraldreams.com

3/21-4/19 Joseph Barrett & folk artist Mitch Michener. Silverman Gallery, Bucks County Impressionist Art. Buckingham Green, rte. 202, 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA. 215-794-4300. Silvermangallery.com 3/25-5/25 The Autonomist Anomaly, curated by Felice Moramarco. Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3467. Muhlenberg.edu THEATER

3/12 Bandstand The Musical, 7:00. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132. statetheatre.org

3/13 Erth’s Prehistoric Aquarium, giant puppets. 7:30, Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610-7582787. Zoellnerartscenter.org 3/22 Finding Neverland, 7:00, Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. Zoellnerartscenter.org 4/3-4/5 The Secret. Mock Turtle Marionette Theatre’s newest creation. Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-867-1689. Touchstone.org

4/16-4/19 Dogfight. Northampton Community College, NCC Theatre Dept., Kopecek Hall, 3835 Green Pond Rd., Bethlehem, PA. 484-484-3412. Ncctix.org COMEDY

4/18 The Daily Show Writers Comedy Tour, 8. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132. Statetheatre.org DANCE

3/15 Sleeping Beauty, Russian National Ballet Theatre. 4:00, Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610758-2787. Zoellnerartscenter.org 3/20-3/22 Dance Ensemble Concert, artistic direction by Angela Sigley Grossman. Act 1 Performing Arts, DeSales University, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. DeSales.edu/act1 MUSIC

3/13 Kristin Chenoweth, For the Girls, 8. Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, 300 S Broad St., Philadelphia, PA. 215-893-1999.

Kimmelcenter.org 3/22 The Cathedral Choral Scholars in Recita. Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem. 610865-0727. Nativitycathedral.org 3/28 Pablo Ziegler Jazz Tango Trio. 8, Williams

Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, Easton, PA. 610-330-5009. Williamscenter.org 3/29 The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, 2020 Spring Concert: Bach Easter Oratorio Handel Messiah (Part 2). First Presbyterian Church, Bethlehem, PA. 610-8664382, ext.115/110. Bach.org

3/31 Celtic Woman: Celebration: The 15th Anniversary Tour. The Met Philadelphia, 858 N. Broad St., Philadelphia, PA. themetphilly.com

4/4 Pennsylvania Sinfonia Orchestra, “Dance and Romance.” Soloist Michael Gurt, piano. Schumann, Dvorak, Bartok.

7:30 p.m., First Presbyterian Church, 3231 W. Tilghman St., Allentown. 610434-7811. PASinfonia.org 4/5 The Cathedral Choir and Friends in Concert: Pergolesi, Vierne, Mozart, 4.

Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte St., Bethlehem, PA. 610865-0727. Nativitycathedral.org

4/11 Audra McDonald. 8 PM, Verizon Hall, Kimmel Center, 300 S Broad St., Philadelphia, PA. 215-893-1999. Kimmelcenter.org MUSIKFEST CAFÉ 101 Founders Way Bethlehem, PA 610-332-1300 Artsquest.org 3/6 3/13 3/14 3/15 3/22 3/27 4/11

Scythian Gary Hoey Jim Messina Everlast The High Kings BBMAK Marc Broussard

DINNER THEATER THRU 2/29 Murder Mystery Dinner Theater : Cheers to Murder. Fridays & Saturdays, 7:30 – 10:00 , Peddler’s Village, routes 202 & 263, Lahaska, PA. 215-794-4000.

Peddlersvillage.com

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

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