2
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
3
contents ICON The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius.
ART 6|
Since 1992
EXHIBITIONS
215-862-9558 icondv.com
Pennsbury H.S. Art Majors 2022 AOY Art Center
Wayne Thiebaud 100: Paintings, Prints, and Drawings The Brandywine River Museum of Art
14
Ed Kerns: Interconnected Lafayette Art Galleries 8|
Jim Rodgers Solo Exhibition Silverman Gallery Keith Haring: A Radiant Legacy Michener Art Museum New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship Exhibition Artworks
5|
7|
10 |
16 |
18 |
The Zombies. Rod Argent, third from left: Colin Blunstone, fourth from left. Photo: Jules Annan, courtesy of The Zombies. Page 14 4
ICON |
Interview with co-founders Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent
A THOUSAND WORDS Simple Things
20 |
ART LECTURES
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought A.I. to Google, Facebook, and the World by Cade Metz
THE LIST Valley City
FILMS Kimi Nitram Petite Maman The Souvenir: Part II POETRY Commandment
CLASSIC FILMS Gaslight The Godfather: Part II Reservoir Dogs Damage
BOOKS We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker
Jews & American Modernism Helen Frankenthaler Louise Nevelson
12 |
ON THE COVER:
The Zombies
Win by Harlan Coben Vogue Paris: 100 Years by the Editors of Vogue 24 | 26 |
27 |
WHERE TO FIND ICON HARPER’S Findings Index
PUZZLE Washington Post Crossword
PUBLISHER & EDITOR Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com ADVERTISING Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net PRODUCTION Gabriel Juarez
Joanne Smythe CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
A.D. Amorosi Robert Beck Jack Byer
Jane Fawcett
Geoff Gehman
Susan Van Dongen Grigsby Mark Keresman David Stoller Keith Uhlich
PO Box 120 New Hope 18938 215-862-9558 IReproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. ©2022 Primetime Publishing Co., Inc.
a thousand words
STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK
SIMPLE THINGS THE CHALLENGES IN ART aren’t always dramatic. Often a subtlety can elevate an image from one you can identify to one that resonates. A painting is a flat surface, yet the viewer is accustomed to a world with three dimensions and a wider range of color and light. The painter has to deal with the medium’s limits in a manner that speaks a language the viewer is familiar with. In the search for that shared language, the individual elements—the vocabulary—matters. Those common understandings are at the core of representational painting. I’m looking for elements we all can recognize, even someone who may not have C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 5 ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
5
exhibitions
Cityscape by Ami Patel
Pennsbury High School Art Majors 2022 AOY Art Center, 949 Mirror Lake Rd, Yardley aoyarts.org March 25–April 3 Fri, Sat, Sun 12–5 Each year Pennsbury High School provides an opportunity for their art majors to exhibit at Pennsbury. This year AOY Art Center will host the show juried by David Rivera and Marc Schimsky, two prominent local artists. The students’ artwork brings a fresh perspective to AOY and it is our privilege to provide a formal gallery setting allowing the community to see the art and the students’ artistic voices to be heard. “It is so important that the community, especially our AOY community of artists, foster young people in their pursuit of the arts,” said Alison Smith, AOY President.
Copper Sculpture by Casey Schaeffer 6
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
Wayne Thiebaud, Pies, Pies, Pies, 1961. Oil on canvas, 20 x 30 in. Crocker Art Museum, gift of Philip L. Ehlert in memory of Dorothy Evelyn Ehlert, 1974.12. © 2022 Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Wayne Thiebaud 100: Paintings, Prints, and Drawings The Brandywine River Museum of Art 1 Hoffmans Mill Road, Chadds Ford, PA 610-388-2700 brandywine.org/museum Wed–Monday 10–4 (closed Tuesdays) Through April 10, 2022 Highlighting the full range of this iconic American artist’s work made over 70 years, the exhibition features a spectacular selection of his paintings, watercolors, and prints. Created to mark Thiebaud’s 100th birthday, the exhibition now also serves as a fitting tribute to his remarkable career following the artist’s recent death on December 25, 2021.
Endemesim, Specific and Explosive in Form, 2018, acrylic, stencil on canvas, 50” x 30" (detail)
Ed Kerns: Interconnected Lafayette College Art Galleries Grossman Gallery 243 N 3rd St., Easton, PA (and other locations on campus) galleries.lafayette.edu Through April 16, 2022 Panel Discussion and Artist Reception on April 9, 3-7 pm
Wayne Thiebaud, Park Place, 1995. Color etching hand-worked w/ watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, graphite & pastel, 29 9/16 x 20 3/4 in.(sheet / image). Crocker Art Museum, gift of the Artist's family, 1995.9.50. © 2022 Wayne Thiebaud / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Ed Kerns: Interconnected presents the creative practice of an extraordinary artist over the last forty years. The evolution of Ed Kerns’ work is perceptible when the works are viewed in totality. From a very early abstract expressionist piece, to minimalist abstractions, to the more current work that incorporated biology, chemistry, and physics, and took on more organic forms and biomorphic shapes, you will be delighted to discover these shifts as you view the works at various exhibition venues on Lafayette College.
art
DAVID STOLLER
JEWS & AMERICAN MODERNISM II Art Lectures in New Hope On October 26, 1952, Helen Frankenthaler, all of 24 years old, gazed at the large 7’ x 10’ canvas spread out before her on the floor. She intended to draw, but as if being guided by some invisible hand, spread on the canvas turpentine-thinned colors—blue and pink, sea-foam green, salmon and red—and watched as they pooled, stained, and soaked the canvas. She called it “soak and stain,” and her painting Mountain and Sea, in the National Gallery of Art, instantly became a landmark in American modern art, and introduced a new style that was to be called “color field” painting. Frankenthaler’s career flourished over six decades, time enough to launch another major innovation in the art of woodcuts that would change that medium forever.
;
Around the same time, Louise Nevelson, twenty years Frankenthaler’s senior and already becoming known for her structural assemblages of recycled wood and her archaic forms—later heralded as the first examples of environmental art—was moving toward larger and larger works. In 1958, her monumental 11’ x 10’ sculpture Sky Cathedral, in MoMA, hit the art world like an explosion. No one had ever seen anything like it—particularly from a woman artist. After a career already spanning three decades, Nevelson took her place among the giants of American sculpture. Over the next three decades, she would continue to produce extraordinary public works that are installed all over the world.
Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952, oil and charcoal on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Collection Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc.
;
The Little Shul by the River, Kehilat HaNahar, New Hope’s Reconstructionist synagogue, is presenting Zoom lectures by David Stoller on the lives and careers of these two giants of American modern art, Nevelson on April 10 and Frankenthaler on May 1, continuing its series on “Jews & American Modernism.” The public is invited. To register, email littleshul@kehilathanahar.org. Recordings of the previous lectures on Ben Shahn and Mark Rothko are available at kehilathanahar.org/bagel-u. Please visit kehilathanahar.org for more details on these and other cultural and educational programs. n
Louise Nevelson. Photo: Robert Mapplethorpe.
Louise Nevelson, Sky Cathedral. ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
7
exhibitions
Martinis, Dry, 12 x 16 inches, oil on board
Jim Rodgers - Solo Exhibition Silverman Gallery 4920 York Rd., Rte. 202, Holicong, PA 215-794-4300 Silvermangallery.com Wed.–Sat. 11–6 & Sun. 11-4 March 19–April 16 Meet the artist: 3/19, 5–8 & 3/27, noon–4 Silverman Gallery of Bucks County Impressionist Art is proud to present new work by Jim Rodgers. Jim has been painting Bucks County, the Delaware River towns and beyond since the mid-1980s. Gallery visitors and collectors are attractd to Jim’s wonderful use of light and color. He creates fine art that draws you in from across a room, inviting you to step into the views that have caught his eye and imagination. The collection will also be on the gallery’s website.
Solebury Orchard in June, 20 x 16 inches, oil on board 8
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
Grace Graupe-Pillard, Wear One, 2020, oil/alkyd/wood, 48” x 36”
New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship Exhibition Artworks, 19 Everett Alley, Trenton, NJ Artworkstrenton.org March 22-May 21 Opening reception March 26, 6pm-8pm Tuesday–Saturday 11–6
Photograph by Allan Tannenbaum.
Keith Haring: A Radiant Legacy James A. Michener Art Museum 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, PA 215-340-9800 MichenerArtMuseum.org March 12–July 31 Featuring more than 100 unique and notable works by acclaimed Pop Art icon. Born in Reading, PA, and raised in Kutztown, Keith Haring (1958-1990) was arguably the most accomplished and prominent American artist of the 1980s. Through his friendship with artists Kenny Scharf and Jean-Michel Basquiat, he became interested in the colorful graffiti art of city streets which would influence his meteoric rise. During his brief ten-year career, Haring rewrote the rulebook for contemporary art, integrating the seemingly discrete arenas of New York City’s gritty downtown counterculture and uptown art aristocracy. A friend of Andy Warhol’s, Haring unabashedly developed and promoted his own brand through commercial partnerships, mass market products, and even his own storefront. Equally important was his social justice activism, raising awareness of AIDS and fighting against racism and the proliferation of illegal drugs.
“This exhibition falls right in line with the Artworks Trenton mission of promoting artistic diversity by fostering creativity, learning, and appreciation of the arts. The exhibition will showcase 38 artists from across NJ, working in a variety of disciplines,” said Addison Vincent, gallery manager. The Arts Council created the Artists’ Fellowship Program in 1971, and to this day it continues to acknowledge and assist artists working at the highest levels of excellence as determined by their peers.
Ed Maximus, Untitled #6 (Young At Heart), 2021, photography, 20” x 24”
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
9
the list
VALLEY
CITY — GEOFF GEHMAN
— A.D. AMOROSI
The South Bethlehem Greenway is an evergreen, split-screen experience. The naturalist in me likes the oasis of trees, shrubs, grasses and flowers planted along a paved path snaking over a demolished passenger railroad line. The journalist/voyeur likes eavesdropping on backyard gardens and side-yard cookouts, a skateboard plaza and a craftbeer tap room crafted from a former funeral parlor. The urban planner likes a linear park shadowed by a steel plant transformed into an entertainment center and a steel workers’ bank transformed into a restaurant/distillery. The sociologist likes the Asian casino visitors practicing tai chi near a Chinese pavilion, a homeless shelter and a luncheonette benefitting people with mental-health issues. The historian likes the bisecting streets named for James Polk, Zachary Taylor and other easily forgotten 19th-century U.S. presidents. The architectural recycler likes the brick warehouse converted into an apartment complex with a grassy courtyard under a missing roof with beams. The lifelong train buff—I’ve always lived near railroads--likes the footprint of freedom, that liberating feeling of passing through worlds in two-odd miles. (Runs between 4th Street and 3rd Street/Route 412 from South New Street to the Wind Creek Casino; parking in ArtsQuest lots; bethlehem-pa.gov) Trains run under the Emmaus Theatre, serenading spectators with a rumbling, comforting lullaby. The special effect makes this old-fashioned, no-frills house much more special than all those cookie-cutter, soul-less multiplexes. Another distinctive attraction is a robust lineup of comedians, hip-hoppers, burlesque queens and envelope-ripping films. Last month I enjoyed “Hedvig and the Angry Inch,” a rollicking rock musical about a German transsexual touring American family restaurants while tracking the glam-rock protégé who stole his songs and his thunder. On March 11 I plan to watch “Crock of Gold,” Julien Temple’s documentary about Shane MacGowan, the notorious leader of the Pogues, the notorious Irish punksters. I’ll savor the cylindrical, bundled wall lamps with Tequila sunrise colors and the marquee that blinks “EMMAUS,” a hot shot of cool Americana. (19 S. 4th St.; 610965-2878; emmaustheatre.com) Lehigh University’s permanent art gallery samples a vaunted collection of 18,000-plus objects and serves as a valuable lab for student curators. A jewel box with pristine white walls and a high-gloss, almost glassy wood floor, it contains everything from Rembrandt prints to a sculpture of a Salvador Dali painting of two people cradling a melting watch, a manger masquerading as a confessional. Three glass “tanks” showcase artifacts from ancient cultures; especially notable is an antelope/anteater headdress, a piece of West African spiritual performance art. A gathering of contemporary African American and Indian works were acquired and interpreted by 14 students with a $25,000 budget. The gallery was the brainchild baby of the late Ricardo Viera, who over
March is a very tricky month. The weather is weird, and nobody knows what the hell the Ides of March is (or are) any longer. Everyone forgets what sports are being played because no one local is winning any of them. And the Philadelphia Home Show goes on forever, occupying too much brain space selling trellises. Here’s the good stuff. RENT: THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY FAREWELL TOUR, 3/4–6 Merriam Theater on the Kimmel Cultural Campus Do you know that when it first came out, I hated Rent? Didn’t get the feel for its ornately complex rush of rock, pop and art-show tunes or its overly emotive lyrics and bloviating singing. It just wasn’t me 25 years ago. Seasons change, however (dur), and my appreciation for the late, great Jonathan Larson has since escalated to the point where debut director Lin Manuel-Miranda’s musical biographical take on the process of becoming Larson with Tick, Tick….Boom! is my favorite film of 2021. With no Oscar noms for TTB!, save for a deserved one for Andrew Garfield as the musical author (hey, I didn’t really dig Garfield until this shaggy dog role, wow, I’m all about Larson now), you can celebrate Larson’s finest with a run at what might be Rent’s last live showing for a time. Savor that. PHILADELPHIA AUTO SHOW, 3/5-3/13 PA Convention Center Don’t you read or watch the news? There are no cars to be had from dealers or the lots. Nobody stuck in Covid is making or shipping them, and haven’t for 2+ years. That’s why automobile theft and car stripping are at their highest peak ever. The automotive industry’s latest creations spread across Arch Street’s half-a-million-square-foot display is going to look mighty lonely. Or the hundreds of classic, luxury, and exotic cars will just get pilfered. Fun. KEITH HARING, A RADIANT LEGACY, 3/12–7/31 James A. Michener Art Museum This is where I get to sound like the bad guy. Keith Haring was a genius, the man who brought inner city graffiti-inspired Pop artist to the masses—yes, he was a Caucasian appropriating a legendarily longtime African American art form, and watered down its edges—and made it all so greeting card and mug design worthy. Yes, the Michener Art Museum will display a private collection of more than 100 works, including rare drawings that Reading, PA-native Haring drew in New York City subways. His famed Medusa Head, his largest ever print, will also be displayed. But, like The Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, howamigettingouttofucking Doylestown? JAZMINE SULLIVAN’S HEAUX TALES TOUR, 3/18 The Met Philadelphia
C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 2 10
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 2
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
11
film roundup
ThsKimi Souvenir. Photo courtesy A24
Kimi (Dir. Steven Soderbergh). Starring: Zoë Kravitz, Erika Christensen, Rita Wilson. You could do worse for a Covid-era genre piece than Steven Soderbergh’s latest, an HBOMax exclusive that has style to spare and a story, penned by David Koepp, that feels like a mid’90s-thriller throwback. Zoë Kravitz stars as agoraphobic techie Angela Childs, who monitors the voice commands given by random consumers to their Kimis (this movie’s version of Amazon Echo). One night she hears what sounds like a murder and must overcome her fear of leaving her apartment during a pandemic, as well as several other obstacles, to report it. The initial stretch in Angela’s apartment is rather dull, despite Soderbergh’s attempts to jazz things up aurally and visually (he does make great use of noisecancelling headphone audio dropouts to put us more fully in his protagonist’s headspace). When Angela finally leaves home, the film becomes more engrossing, mainly because it leans hard into her paranoid perspective. It’s nearly enough to make you forgive the trio of Euro-trash villains who seem like they’ve been transplanted from a low-rent DTV thriller of another era. [R] HHH Nitram (Dir. Justin Kurzel). Starring: Caleb 12
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
Landry Jones, Judy Davis, Anthony LaPaglia, Essie Davis. Caleb Landry Jones was rightfully awarded at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance in this disturbing character study, a dramatic re-enactment of the events leading up to the 1996 Port Arthur shooting massacre in Tasmania. Jones plays the burgeoning mass killer, nicknamed Nitram, whose spree is never shown onscreen. The film instead aims to demystify the tabloid elements of his life, particularly his affair with a Grey Gardens-like socialite (Essie Davis), which left him flush with cash upon the woman’s unexpected death. Director Justin Kurzel’s style isn’t exactly nitty-gritty verité. The sound design is frequently abrasive and the saturated coloring of scenes just a hair’s breadth removed from garish. It’s all dangerously, often thrillingly close to giallo. Jones’s untamed peculiarity is matched scene for scene by costar Judy Davis as Nitram’s mother, a steely woman who has made denial her defensive default mode. Davis’s world-weary opacity has rarely been utilized this effectively. [N/R] HHHH Petite Maman (Dir. Céline Sciamma). Starring: Joséphine Sanz, Gabrielle Sanz, Nina Meurisse. This gentle-to-a-fault fantasy from
KEITH UHLICH
French writer-director Céline Sciamma (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) stars sisters Joséphine and Gabrielle Sanz as Nelly and Marion, two youngsters who strike up a friendship after crossing paths in the woods. Nelly is staying with her parents (Nina Meurisse and Stéphane Varupenne) at the family cabin, which they’re cleaning out after the death of her grandmother. Marion resides with her own mother in another cabin (one strangely similar to Nelly’s) where she is awaiting a hopefully life-saving operation. There’s a magical-mystical connection between the two girls that is revealed by midpoint, and which is a bit too Shyamalan-lite for this viewer’s taste. The low-key nature of the film works against it at moments and for it at others, though the Sanz siblings do appreciably bear the weight of the themes Sciamma is exploring, in particular the quite literal timelessness of generational kinship. [N/R] HHH The Souvenir: Part II (Dir. Joanna Hogg). Starring: Honor Swinton Byrne, Tilda Swinton, Richard Ayoade. Writer-director Joanna Hogg’s semi-autobiographical followup to her 2019 feature The Souvenir is obvious where the former was opaque. That’s not necessarily a detriment, and it could even be seen as intentional since film student Julie (Honor Swinton Byrne) is herself artistically exploring the very real fallout of her relationship with older drug addict Anthony (Tom Burke, co-star of the first movie, who cameos here). The layers of aesthetic and thematic artifice are meant to be raw, ragged—a heady jumble of the poetic and the prosaic. What’s best here, though, are the moments that feel directly ripped from life, like a scene in which Julie accidentally breaks a piece of pottery created by her mother (Tilda Swinton). Despite the pair’s mild-mannered apologetics, the world seems to shift off its axis. Sequences of this sort have a lot more power than the increasingly meta ones on Julie’s various movie sets, though Richard Ayoade is tremendous fun as a flamboyant director modeled on Absolute Beginners helmer Julien Temple. [R] HHH n
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
13
interview
Zombies,
A.D. AMOROSI
For the the time of the season is now
W
were probably finding our feet as musicians. Plus, we were WHEN THE ZOMBIES AND its longtime vocalist Colin Blunstone play Phoenixville’s Colonial Theatre on April 20 and Atyoung, you know.” lantic City’s Music Box at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa on Cue the Swinging ’60s music and Carnaby Street scenes of April 23, the celebration will hold many thrills. mod London. Along with celebrating the overlooked majesty of 1968’s Move forward a decade to the top of the 1970s. Another swirling Odessey and Oracle and soulful, back catalog smash whirlwind occurred, one that Blunstone and I discussed recenthits such as “She’s Not There” and “Time of the Season,” Blunly: the 50th anniversary of his grand, folksy, quiet storming stone and Zombies’ co-founder Rod Argent insist on making R&B-ish solo albums One Year (1971) and Ennismore (1972), smart new music, with As Far as I Can See (2004), Breathe Out, the former of which was due to celebrate its silver anniversary Breathe In (2011) and Still Got That Hunger (2015) as equally with orchestral solo shows in Los Angeles and New York City strong as the band’s classics. Yet another new Zombies album under the pandemic struck. Again. and an additional tour are planned for the end of 2022. Ask Blunstone about his initial solo yearnings after the Zom“You need to be a special person to go and play only old mabies broke up (the first time) in 1968 over management issues. terial, night in, night out for years,” Blunstone says. “That isn’t At first, Colin didn’t want to be a solo act and instead worked a us, and neither Rod nor I would last very long doing just that.” 9-to-5 job as a clerk in an insurance office. The last time I spoke with Zombies’ Blunstone “When The Zombies broke up, we had to immediand Argent, playing off each other like DeNiro ately get day jobs because we had no money,” and Pacino in Heat, the two said of fresh says Blunstone with a snicker. “It’s not as if ARGENT AND BLUNSTONE SEEM tracks such as the jazz bluesy “Moving we chose to have office jobs over making LIKE AN OLD MARRIED COUPLE. WERE On” and the baroquely inspired music. We just didn’t have any choice.” THEY A PAIR WHO DECIDED TO REKINDLE THE “Chasing the Path,” like kids with a When “Time of the Season” finally new toy. “Colin’s voice is so natural hit in America (after its reign in OLD FLAME WITH NEW TRICKS ONCE THEY REand rich that my wild Hammond Britain), it came when the band had alUNITED OR A BAND WHO NEVER TRULY GOT organ and loads of weird chord seready broken up. When labels were THE CHANCE TO BURN AND SIZZLE IN THE quences just follow in line, naturally,” suddenly looking for The Zombies to said Argent. quote their other hit, they weren’t there. FIRST PLACE? EITHER WAY, EVERYTHING “I think going forward from our first reStill, labels were looking for the hushed soulWAS A BLUR. union in 2001, our influences have stayed the ful voice behind the newfound smash, and Blunsame, as we never used them in a contrived way,” stone returned, signed with the Deram label, and resaid Argent. “We were just there to make songs work. I suppose leased three singles in a row in 1969 under a pseudonym, Neil you’re prey to the climate of the times.” He does say that when MacArthur. the band did Oracle, there were “subconscious issues” of influ“This was all just experimental, mind you,” laughs Blunstone ence, specifically the complexity of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds. of the thought of going it alone. “I didn’t know if going into the “I always loved developing melodic bass lines,” Argent says. “So music business a second time would work either. And the name did Brian Wilson, and that excited me.” change? It was all so arbitrary. It was going to be ‘James Repeatedly during this, my first Zombies interview, one MacArthur’ until we found out that there was an American actor member begins a thought, the other finishes. With that, Argent by that name in a show called Hawaii 5-0. So I became Neil and Blunstone seem like an old married couple. Were they a pair MacArthur. Not as a big career move, but rather as a guess.” who decided to rekindle the old flame with new tricks once they When MacArthur/Blunstone actually wound up with a solo reunited or a band who never truly got the chance to burn and hit redoing the Zombies’ “She’s Not There,” some of Colin’s old sizzle in the first place? Either way, everything was a blur. bandmates, Rod Argent and Chris White, had started a produc“Very early on,” said Blunstone, the Zombies in its initial 16 C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E ’60s heyday all went by in a whirlwind. “For that first year, we
14
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
Rod Argent.
Rod Argent in the ’60s.
The Zombies in 2017- Tom Toomey, Rod Argent, the late Jim Rodford, Colin Blunstone, and Steve Rodford. Photo by Andrew Eccles ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
15
poetry COMMANDMENT Forgive me, for I Keep sinning effortlessly, In my own image. Seems I can’t get past One of those first Commandments — No gods before me. I make forms of clay And each one is about me — Models of myself. Great Expectations. The latest reality. My little golems. I pinch their nostrils, Take a breath, and blow … And they worship me. — David Stoller
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 4
tion company and insisted he change his name back and that they record together. “That’s when we recorded One Year at Abbey Road Studios,” recalls Blunstone. Giving the lion’s share of the credits for his debut solo album’s lustrous, spare orchestration to Argent and White, Blunstone’s subtly smoked and caramelly vocals were the rich, sensual, cakey layers to his Zombie-mates frothy icing. “Rod wanted something different, something like Bartok when it came to the strings,” Blunstone said. “That string sound was so sympathetic to my voice. And yet it was radically different than anything that we had done previously.” Along with Argent’s string arrangements for Blunstone were those executed by Chris Gunning and Tony Visconti. Pointing to the haunted strings of “Misty Roses” from songwriter Tim Hardin’s catalog or “Say You Don’t Mind,” from Moody Blues-Wings man, Denny Laine, are both One Year tracks that Blunstone was bowled over at their first listen. “Phenomenal,” he says, in awe of his work. “It was very brave to turn what was essentially a folk song and a pop blues song into supple tunes that ended up having these strident string parts. The Denny Laine song, which we tried as a rock song, didn’t work, so we gave it a 21-piece orchestra’s backing. They played the Hardin tune for me on piano, and I had no idea what they were talking about regarding such soft strings, as they were doing it. We were all taking a chance. Even more so than taking those chances, I wanted One Year to explore the most simple backgrounds, the ones least intrusive to my voice—a stark string quartet, an acoustic guitar, nothing too lush. That sound was so special to me, my voice and the songs of One Year, from start to finish. Even now, with The Zombies, when we tour, I can do the ‘big rock voice,’” Blunstone says with a laugh. “But a sparse backing and my voice at its quietest is so comfortable for me. The point is, I like the whole lot.” n 16
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
17
KEITH UHLICH
Damage
classic films
Beware the Ides of March Gaslight (1944, George Cukor, U.S.) “Beware the Ides of March,” so the saying goes. Since we’re in the month of betrayal, there’s no better time to spotlight four classic films that hinge on treachery, though this quartet might be best grouped under Judas kisses as opposed to Brutus-like breaches of trust. Begin with George Cukor’s psychological thriller in which Ingrid Bergman’s meek and anxious Paula is unwittingly tormented by her devious spouse Gregory Anton (Charles Boyer), whom she marries after a whirlwind romance. Big mistake. Anton works overtime to convince Paula that she is mad—no dear, he insists, our maid (memorably played by a very young Angela Lansbury), doesn’t hate you…it’s all in your head. But this is just one piece of an elaborate scheme by Anton to 18
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
swindle Paula out of a fortune in jewels. When the tables are turned, Paula doesn’t hesitate to avenge herself, via an operatic monologue that only Bergman could pull off with such cathartic dexterity. (Streaming on Criterion Channel.) The Godfather: Part II (1974, Francis Ford Coppola, United States) There are myriad riches in the classic second installment of Francis Ford Coppola’s gangster series, though perhaps none quite so affecting as the arc of middle brother Fredo Corleone (John Cazale). His betrayal of his brother Michael (Al Pacino) is discovered on the eve of the overthrow of the Batista government in Cuba, so the end result of the kiss of death that Michael plants on his flesh and blood (“I
knew it was you, Fredo”) is deferred. In Cazale’s centerpiece scene, he flails around like a rag doll while unloading the familial resentments he feels toward Michael, one of the most upsetting scenes in a series filled with them. The betrayer eventually becomes the betrayed, as Michael forgives Fredo, then orders his murder. A vicious cycle is completed; any and all humanity is squelched from existence. (Available via Amazon.) Reservoir Dogs (1992, Quentin Tarantino, United States) The betrayer in Quentin Tarantino’s bloody and profane robberygone-wrong debut is technically the good guy. Tim Roth’s Mr. Orange is an undercover cop C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 2
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
19
books
We Begin at the End by Chris Whitaker Henry Holt and Co., $27.99 Duchess Day Radley is a thirteen-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Rules are for other people. She is the fierce protector of her five-yearold brother, Robin, and the parent to her mother, Star, a single mom incapable of taking care of herself, let alone her two kids. Walk has never left the coastal California town where he and Star grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. And he's in overdrive protecting Duchess and her brother. Now, thirty years later, Vincent is being released. And Duchess and Walk must face the trouble that comes with his return. We Begin at the End is an extraordinary novel about two kinds of families—the ones we are born into and the ones we create. Genius Makers: The Mavericks Who Brought A.I. to Google, Facebook, and the World by Cade Metz Dutton, $28 Long dismissed as a technology of the distant future, artificial intelligence was a project consigned to the fringes of the scientific community. Then two researchers changed everything. One was a 64-yearold computer science professor who didn’t drive and didn’t fly because he could no longer sit down—but still made his way across North America for the moment that would define a new age of technology. The other was a 36-year-old neuroscientist and chess prodigy who laid claim to being the greatest game player of all time before vowing to build a machine that could do anything the human brain could do. They took two very different paths to that lofty goal, and they disagreed on how quickly it would arrive. But both were soon drawn into the heart of the tech industry. Their ideas drove a new kind of arms race, spanning Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and OpenAI, a new lab founded by Silicon Valley king20
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
pin Elon Musk. But some believed that China would beat them all to the finish line. Genius Makers dramatically presents the fierce conflict among national interests, shareholder value, the pursuit of scientific knowledge, and the very human concerns about privacy, security, bias, and prejudice. Win by Harlan Coben Grand Central Publishing, $29 Over twenty years ago, the heiress Patricia Lockwood was abducted during a robbery of her family’s estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin for months. Patricia escaped, but so did her captors— and the items stolen from her family were never recovered. Until now. On the Upper West Side, a recluse is found murdered alongside two objects of note: a stolen Vermeer painting and a leather suitcase bearing the initials WHL3. For the first time in years, the authorities have a lead. Windsor Horne Lockwood III doesn’t know how his suitcase and his family's stolen painting ended up with a dead man. But his interest is piqued when the FBI tells him that the man who kidnapped his cousin was also behind an act of domestic terrorism—and that the conspirators may still be at large. The two cases have baffled the FBI for decades, but Win has three things the FBI doesn't: a personal connection to the case; an ungodly fortune; and his own unique brand of justice. Vogue Paris: 100 Years by the Editors of Vogue Abrams, $65.00 A visually engaging history of the 100year-old fashion authority Vogue Paris Always a defender of artistic and literary creation, Vogue Paris, more than other publications, makes fashion a cultural and societal topic as much as an object of fantasy. With photographs, drawings, and magazines, this book will highlight how Vogue Paris plays a major and singular role in the diffusion of Parisian style. n
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
21
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 0
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 0
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 8
Hometown hero Jazmine Sullivan has long been a hero of mine, not only for her deep, commanding voice and crisply atmospheric (self-) productions through (self-) penned, genre-jumbling compositions, but also her lyrical mien—one that was forever vulnerable yet take-no-prisoners strong, sexual and commanding. For her 2021 Heaux Tales album (many times Grammy-nominated for 2022 in the R&B category) and this year’s deluxe expanded edition, Heaux Tales, Mo’ Tales, Sullivan and her friends—including Insecure’s Issa Rae and vocalist Ari
five decades expanded Lehigh’s collections and museum operations with operatic flair. He made the campus a center for abstract outdoor sculpture, classic jazz photographs by university graduate William Gottlieb and African portraits of Barack Obama. The gallery includes Viera’s gift of a video manipulating scenes from “West Side Story,” a sign of his Falstaffian gusto. (Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem; 610-7583615; luag.org)
who infiltrates a gang of criminals plotting a diamond heist. He endears himself, in particular, to Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), a career thief whose trust in his treacherous companion only grows when Orange takes a bullet in the gut. Through the rest of the robbery’s fallout, the two men grow closer, and their backstories (along with a few other characters like Michael Madsen’s psychotic Mr. Blonde) are filled in via criss-crossing flashbacks. The out-of-order storytelling, along with the emotive performances by Keitel and Roth, make the moment when the mask finally drops, when White sees Orange for who he really is, that much more powerful and tragic. (Streaming on HBOMax.)
Lenox—tell their own stories of shame, strength, sexuality, supplication, denial, hurt, and gain in a way that is as old as every soul music trope—and as new as a freshly blossomed flower. See this show. Brockhampton, March 22, The Fillmore Here’s a funny story: Brockhampton started out of the gate calling itself a boy band when instead they were closer to a hip hop harmony act with the weirdest of sonically arranged insurrections occurring through each song. Hardly pop, every Brockhampton track was an epic, and every one of its albums more brilliant than the last. And now, they say they're breaking up and that this is a united Brockhampton last tour. Maybe they’re lying, but why risk it? NCAA March Madness, March 25 and March 27, the Wells Fargo Center I know, Philly. You’ve been hurt this season on the basketball tip. Ben Simmons let you down. James Harden can’t get here and working with the 76ers fast enough. I’m psyched then to check the 2022 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament—March Madness—which brings the much-needed joy of college balling and hoops hoopla to town for the East Regional Sweet 16 and Elite Eight rounds of the tournament. Do this, Philly. It will heal you. n 22
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
z Stephanie Nagy customizes customer service at Spin Me Round Records, the Valley’s biggest, baddest music store. The animated owner may promote an old David Bowie album by chanting the cha-cha-cha lick from his song “Changes.” She may spin Lana Del Rey’s catalog by noting that the smart singer-songwriter earned a philosophy degree from Fordham University. Her discjockey jive fills a room as long as two bowling lanes. There’s plenty of space to comb neatly arranged, easily reachable shelves and bins with plenty of neat selections: Amy Winehouse remixes; the Del Vikings’ rare “Come Go” LP; a 45 of Simon & Garfunkel’s “My Little Town” with bonus singles from both boys. Bargains galore can be found among DVDs, books and boxed sets; four CDs of Bruce Springsteen’s “Tracks” cost me a mere 10 bucks. Nagy’s zesty spirit also sparks the store’s web site, a funky forum for news of new releases. (151 Palmer Park Mall, Easton; 610-258-8885; spinmeroundstore.com)
Damage (1992, Louis Malle, U.K./France) A London-based government minister, Dr. Stephen Fleming (Jeremy Irons), embarks on an affair with his son’s girlfriend, Anna (Juliette Binoche), in Louis Malle’s acidic drama. Despite the copious nudity, eroticism is blunted throughout. The sex scenes between Stephen and Anna have an air of guilt hanging about them since the participants are both so completely removed from their moral centers. It’s all feral coupling, a rageful sort of release from the bourgeois existence they’re each expected to uphold. It’s inevitable that the affair will be discovered. But how that happens is more shocking (tawdry in all the right ways) than you may think. In the disturbing back half, Miranda Richardson, playing Stephen’s prim and proper wife, gets to wrathfully let loose, and in the process steal the movie away from her costars. (Available via Amazon.) n
z Solution to WORD FOR WORD
This month marks the 20th anniversary of Tulum, the extremely popular, extremely good Beth-Mex eatery named for a Mexican city. Behind the extremely slender rustic wood façade is a beehive kitchen that makes hefty dishes with fresh, snappy ingredients. A relatively short menu has a long list of tasty flavorings: sweet potatoes; toasted almonds; the bittersweet chocolate sauce known as mole. My favorite choice is the Mayan, a burly burrito smoothed by guacamole and sharpened by grilled pineapple salsa. Tacos, quesadillas and wings can be eaten at a handful of tables, a counter or a backyard patio. Tulum is a great place to work off a hunger worked up at gallery or greenway. (17 W. Morton St., Bethlehem; 610-691-8300; tulumbethmex.com) n
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
23
WHERE TO FIND ICON ALLENTOWN Allentown Art Musuem Baum School of Art Blick Art Civic Theatre Crown Supermarket Da Vinci Center Fegley’s Brew Works Lehigh Valley Chamber Hava Java Jewish Community Center Johnny Bagels Miller Symphony Hall Primo Cafe & Gelato Starbucks Venny’s Pizza Weis Food Market
BETHLEHEM Ahart’s Market Azar Supermarket Banana Factory/ArtsQuest Bethlehem Brew Works Bethlehem Library BOX: Bethlehem House Gallery Cafe the Lodge Compact Disc Center Crown Supermarket Déja Brew Coffeehouse Designer Consigner Donegal Square Godfrey Daniels Hotel Bethlehem Johnny’s Bagels & Deli 1 Johnny’s Bagels & Deli 2 Latin Cruise Lore Salon L.V. Convention Center Mama Nin Rocecheria Menchies Moravian Book Store PBS Channel 39 Redner’s Warehouse Market Saxby’s Shoprite Snow Goose Gallery The Bagel Basket The Café The Cup/Lehigh University The Flying Egg Boutique Diner Valley Farm Market WDIY FM Lehigh Valley Wegman’s Supermarket Weis Market Wise Bean Zoellner Arts Center
CENTER VALLEY DeSales Performing Art Center 24
ICON |
EASTON 3rd Street Alliance Buck Hall (performing arts Ctr) Ciao! The Cosmic Cup Easton Public Market Film & Media Studies Bldg. Gallery On Fourth Karl Stirner Arts Building Lafayette Art Gallery @Lehigh U. Lehigh Valley Chamber Playa Bowls Quadrant Book Mart/Café Sette Luna State Theatre The Strand Terra café W Graphics Williams Center for the Arts Williams Visual Arts Building
LAMBERTVILLE Alba Home A Mano Gallery Anton’s at the Swan A Touch of the Past Antiques Bear Apothecary Blue Raccoon BOX: Lambertville Station BOX: 5 & Dime BOX: Guiseppe’s Ristorante Bucks Espresso Del Vue Dry Cleaners Frame Shop Gio Salon Heritage Lighting Inn of the Hawke Lambertville House Niece Lumber People’s Store Rojo’s Roastery Swan Bar Walker’s Wine & Spirits Welsh’s Liquor
NEW HOPE Alpha Dermatology Citizen’s Bank BOX: CVS & McCaffrey’s First National Bank Giant Supermarket Jamie Hollander Gourmet New Hope Cleaners New Hope Star Diner Penn Community Bank Wedgwood Bed & Breakfast
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
PHILADELPHIA 1830 Rittenouse 2101 Cooperative Inc 220 W. Rittenhouse Adademy House Acme Supermarket Adelphia House Anthony's Coffeeshop Arden Theater Aria Condos Arts Tower Condos Belgravia Condos Benjamin Franklin House Bishop's Collar Bluestone Lane BOX BOX (trolley turnabout) BOX (The Met) BOX (Craftworks BOX (Milcrate Cafe) Brauhaus Brewery Co Cafe Ole Center City One Chestnut Lofts City Fitness City Hall Visitors Lobby City Tap House City View Condos 1820 Rittenhouse Condos 1900 Rittenhouse Square Constitution Building Cosmopolitan Condos Dessert Crazy Earth Cup/Sam's Place Ellelauri Boutique Evil Genius Beer Company FOX29 Studio - Greenroom Franklin Tower Free Library of Philadelphia Fresh Grocer Good Dog Bar & Restaurant Good Karma Café Good Karma Café Good Karma Café Green Aisle Grocert Green Eggs Green Eggs Midtown Green Line Café Green Line Café Hawthorne's Café Hinge Cafe
Historic: The Touraine Condos Historic: Waterfront Condos Historic: Waterfront Condos Historic: Trinity Condos Historic: Logan Condos Honey's Sit and Eat Hopkinson House (mailroom) IGA Supermarket Jefferson Hospital Jefferson Hospital (Main ) Jefferson Hospital (East) JJ'S Food Market Joe’s Coffee ShoP Johnny Brendas Kelly Writer's House Kite & Key La Colombe Torrefaction Last Drop Latimer Deli Left Bank Apartments Lucky Goat Coffee House Mad Rex Restauran Marathon Grill Mariposa Food Co-op Masala Kitchen Kati Rolls Memphis Taproom Metropolitan Bakery Milk & Honey Milk and Honey Café Milkboy Milkcrate Café Mixto Bar & Restaurant Mulberry Market Museum Towers National Liberty Museum National Mechanics Nook Bakery & Coffee Bar North Bowl OCF Coffee House Old Nelson Food Market One Franklin Towne Condos Oregon Market Palm Tree Market Philadelphia Java Co Pier 3 Condos Pier 7 Condos Pizza Brain Plough and the Stars Punk Burger Race Street Cafe Rally Coffee
Reading Terminal Reanimator Coffee Rittenhouse Market River Loft Riverview Apartments Rodriguez Free Library Rotten Ralph’s Saladworks Sassafras Market Saxby’s Coffee Rittenouse Shop Rite Shop Rite (Bridge/Harbison) Shop Rite (shelf) Silk City Sporting Club at Bellevue Standard Tap Starbucks Stateside Steap & Grind Suburban Station Supremo Food Market Suya Suya Sweat Sweat Fitness The Bean Cafe The Carlyle Apartments The Collonade The Dorchester (mail room) The Dorchester (lobby) The Foodery The Foodery The Good Spoon The National at Old City The Phoenix The Sterling The View at Old City The Westbury Apartments The Wireworks Tivoli Condos Tuscany Apartments Tuscany Cafe (Rittenhouse) Walnut Towers Warwick Condos Watermark Waterworks World Cafe Live Yakitori Boy Zama
C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 5
seen the specific subject before, so I’m searching for what makes it universal. The barge on Sawyer Cove was transient. I hadn’t noticed it on previous trips. Barges like these come in various sizes, for carrying lumber and machinery to transporting large trucks and even buildings, in Maritime communities everywhere. They are very handy and in a way emblematic of life where people live largely by their own hands. This small barge with an outboard on the back was there because somebody nearby needed something taken somewhere by water. The size and position of the barge in the composition determines how the viewer will regard it compared to the rest of the painting. At 12” x 16”, it’s a small image, and the viewer will stand relatively close, creating an intimate narrative. Jonesport is a small town with a population that takes care of most things themselves. That self-dependency and remoteness drew me to the subject, and I wanted the composition to feel large and open. The barge is that solo, sometimes isolated, heartbeat that’s part of daily life on the North Coast of Maine. The limited palette keeps the wind on your neck. Burnt Sienna, Ultramarine, Yellow
Ochre, and white, to begin with. I included a couple of flicks other colors toward the end, but I’m more of a tonalist than a colorist, and I keep my harmonies simple—natural but still rich with mature color. Brightly painted images of the Down East Coast don’t describe the Maine I know. The Jersey shore, maybe. One challenge was to suggest the channels and flats beneath what little remained of the tide. But there was more to be told. This cove is too shallow to navigate and too watered to walk across. Nature ain’t easy, and sometimes you just have to wait for the tide. A full cove and a cheery day with dancing gulls would have been at odds with that idea. There is something about the slack line from the bow to the grounded mooring buoy that barks from the back room, “tide’s out, come back in a few hours.” That happened in the drawing stage, and I made sure I didn’t screw it up as I painted. A second blue (Prussian) was added to my palette to help water look different than the sky and the sky’s reflection. I kept checking if my landscape was advancing and receding correctly, and if not, was it because I made mistakes with my color or because my perspective was wacky. There isn’t much in the
way of receding lines in this image so simulating depth gets tricky. I needed the bigness. My friend Alan is a good painter, and he suggested the life preserver. Changes and additions come with consequences, though, and every late adjustment runs the risk of affecting the whole, requiring patching things back together if the sense of place begins to go wobbly. I put the life preserver on the front of the cabin; otherwise, it would have been an orange bullseye. Even there, it is where your eye gravitates. The last thing I added was the light blue sea beyond the trees to soften that area and push the horizon back. That raised the viewer’s vantage as well, adding a touch of solitude. I’ve often been asked how I know I’m done. It’s simple. Painting is a process of moving my image forward, and when I can’t do that anymore, I’m done. There are a couple of caveats to that: One is that I can’t always improve things, and continuing sometimes make them worse rather than better— sometimes I was done yesterday. The other is that being done doesn’t mean you’ve accomplished anything. Some paintings are very done and not very good. This one came in for a nice landing. n
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
25
harper’s FINDINGS
The Justinianic Plague may have had a more profound impact on Byzantine society than recent research has posited, as evidenced by the devaluation of currency and attempts to impose wage and price controls amid labor shortages and what the emperor described as the “encircling presence of death.” Liangzhu culture was destroyed by climate change, volcanic eruptions made Chinese dynasties of the past two thousand years likelier to collapse, and the end-Permian mass extinction may have been caused by southern Chinese volcanism in addition to the eruptions of the Siberian Traps, which lowered global temperatures by several degrees. Japonic, Koreanic, Mongolic, Tungusic, and Turkic languages were traced to Neolithic millet farmers who lived near the West Liao River. Archaeologists announced the discovery, at the Armenian archaeological site of Artashat-Artaxata, of the easternmost Roman aqueduct. Astronomers reported the presence of a planet in the Hercules constellation with a year that lasts sixteen hours and the surface temperature of a small star. Interplanetary dust may have provided the phosphorus necessary for life on Earth. Researchers summarized heavy-metal poisonings in Missouri and Rhode Island caused by luster dust. “Not all glitters,” they warned, “are created equal.”
Dutch and Japanese speakers can tell whether someone is laughing in Dutch or Japanese. Half of children can appreciate humor by the time they are two months old, and half can produce humor by eleven months. Faces can be identified as those of adults from noses and eyebrows, and as those of children from eyes and jawlines. Mandatory masking improves performance on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes test. Neck musculature predicts fighting success among men, and was found to be the most significant sexually dimorphic characteristic. DC superheroes exhibit the upper-body proportions of champion male bodybuilders, whereas Marvel superheroes exceed them, and both DC and Marvel superheroines have smaller waist-to-hip ratios than popular pornographic actresses. Women are likelier than men to seek out aggression in pornography, greater pornography consumption among straight people predicts support for gay marriage, arranged marriages may counter natural selection, and the psychological profiles of Flemish divorcées’ new husbands suggest that the former learned from their mistakes and suffered from decreased value in the marriage market. A study of posts on a relationship forum indicated that breakups cause more emotional pain to men than women. Men are better than women at tuning into their hearts, but no differences were observed for gastric self-perception.
Americans are less distressed by the certainty of death than by the possibility of toothache. The personality trait most closely associated with a belief in astrology is narcissism. Researchers presented a framework for understanding malevolent creativity. Agreeable individuals are likelier to comply with social distancing and to contract COVID-19. Rare cases of in utero COVID-19 infection may occur if the fetus swallows amniotic fluid. Singing male adults produce high quantities of respiratory aerosols. Zoologists concluded that a single species of frog has true teeth in its lower jaw, and that it is probably extinct. “These traits,” said the lead author, “don’t exist anywhere else in the frog tree of life.” Forest fires were lowering human birth weights, zoo chimpanzees in Kyoto enjoy virtual forests, and the chimpanzees of the Bossou community are formal in their greetings but unceremonious in their leave-taking. 26
ICON |
M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
INDEX
% of Republicans and Democrats, respectively, who got a flu shot in 2019−20: 53, 56 Who say they have gotten or are very likely to get a flu shot this season: 44, 68 % increase in U.S. sales of cigarettes in 2020: 0.4 Year in which U.S. cigarette sales last increased: 2000 Portion of Americans aged 18 to 25 who say their alcohol use has increased during the pandemic: 1/5 Who say their drug use has increased: 1/5 Portion of Americans who say that drug use is a source of trouble for their family: 1/3 Avg. number of times people switch between screens or tabs per day: 566 Avg. number of minutes it takes to get back on task after checking a cell phone notification: 25 % increase in U.S. workers who have been involved in a workplace relationship since the start of the pandemic: 26 % of adults with shared finances who have lied to their partners about money: 39 % by which fewer Americans planned to celebrate Valentine’s Day last year than the year before: 5 % change since 2017 of married people who say their spouse makes life meaningful: −58 Estimated number of U.S. households that acquired a cat or dog during the pandemic: 23,000,000 Factor by which the number of dog training services offered via Zoom increased during the pandemic: 2 % by which more women than men report experience burnout often or almost always: 20 No. of years by which the avg. retirement age is lower in China than in the United States: 3 Minimum number of U.S. employee walkouts since the start of the pandemic: 1,670 % increase since August in Google searches for “how to send a resignation email”: 3,450 % by which bonuses for U.S. investment bankers and traders were projected to increase last year: 20 Portion of active-duty U.S. military families that face food insecurity: 1/6 Min. number of prison workers who’ve been arrested or sentenced since 2019: 100 Avg. number of mistreatment and neglect reports filed with New York City child-welfare caseworkers per week: 1,054 Min. number of eviction cases filed in NYC since the start of the pandemic: 77,346 % increase in rat sightings in New York City last year: 52 Min. number of birds killed each year in NYC by collisions with glass windows: 90,000 Minimum number of whales killed by collisions with ships each year: 750 Factor by which the weight of whales killed in the twentieth century exceeds that of all wild mammals today: 2 Min. tons of pandemic-associated plastic waste deposited in the ocean: 25,000 % of material received by U.S. recycling centers that is nonrecyclable: 22 Factor by which U.S. online grocery sales have increased since the start of the pandemic: 6 % of New York City food delivery workers who have had their bikes stolen: 54 Portion of college grads projected to need at least 20 years to recoup tuition costs: 1/4 Portion of those graduates who will likely never recoup the total: 3/5 % by which philosophy majors are more likely than psychology majors to describe themselves as “brilliant”: 9 Portion of U.S. adults who say they have questioned the meaning of life in the past year: 1/4 Who say that suffering is mostly a consequence of one’s own actions: 7/10 Who believe in heaven: 3/4 Portion of Americans with graduate degrees who believe in ghosts: 1/3 SOURCES: 1 AP–NORC Center for Public Affairs Research (Chicago); 2 Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index (NYC); 3,4 Federal Trade Commission (Washington); 5,6 Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality (Rockville, Md.); 7 Gallup (Washington); 8,9 Gloria Mark, University of California, Irvine; 10 Society for Human Resource Management (Alexandria, Va.); 11 National Endowment for Financial Education (Denver); 12 National Retail Federation (Washington); 13 Pew Research Center (Washington); 14 American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NYC); 15 Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers (NYC); 16 McKinsey & Company (NYC) and LeanIn.org (Palo Alto, Calif.); 17 Society of Actuaries Research Institute (Schaumburg, Ill.) and Matthew S. Rutledge, Boston College; 18 Payday Report (Pittsburgh); 19 Google (Mountain View, Calif.); 20 Johnson Associates (NYC); 21 Military Family Advisory Network (Shawnee, Kan.); 22 Associated Press (NYC); 23 NYC Administration for Children’s Services; 24 Eviction Lab at Princeton University (N.J.); 25 NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; 26 NYC Audubon; 27 Great Whale Conservancy (Burnsville, N.C.); 28 Matthew S. Savoca, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University (Pacific Grove, Calif.); 29 Yanxu Zhang, Nanjing University (China); 30 Republic Services (Phoenix); 31 Coresight Research (NYC); 32 The Worker Institute, Cornell University (Ithaca, N.Y.); 33,34 Third Way (Washington); 35 Heather Maranges, Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, N.C.); 36–38 Pew Research Center; 39 Gradient Metrics (NYC)
WORD FOR WORD by Evan Birnholz ACROSS 1 5 10 15 19 20 21 22 23 25 27 28 30 31 33 35 36 37 39 41 42 43 45 47 51 56 57 58 60 61 63 64 65 68 70 71 72
74 77 78 80 81
Basset’s big body parts Park, e.g., or a word that follows Park School fleet Underwater forest algae Rossi who played Juice on “Sons of Anarchy” Concerning hearing NBA Hall of Famer who appeared in “Blue Chips” At any point Investing aphorism, and a hint to 33 Across 1993 hit by Haddaway, and a hint to 65 Across Subjected to a trial I, as in Ioannina “Enola Holmes” star ___ Bobby Brown Discussion between enemies *How some restaurant bills may be paid “Minari” Oscar nominee Yeun Extent Gaping mouth Nisan ritual feast Cabbage family plant Little bit of science? ___ recognition (ocular-based identification method) Mexican gray wolf Productivity adage, and a hint to 51 Across *Preschooler’s break Willow Smith, to Jaden Parts of paws Ironic term of address for many a socialist Measures by oneself? Migraine symptom Many rides about town Relish, as food *“___ it be?” (bartender’s question) Some Ashley Home Store purchases *Arrival announcement Like a Tootsie Roll Trousers material that be comes a country by changing its last letter ___ Mae (company offering student loans) Shower affection (on) Take advantage of “Don’t move!” BMW or GMC owners might rely on it for directions
84
86
89 90 91 92 96 100 101 102 104 106 107 108 109 111 114 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125
*Bit of assistance for a contestant on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” Advice for appreciating every moment, and a hint to 84 Across Valuable diamonds, perhaps Dishonest type Chono Ca Pe’s people Device with a dial Evasive maneuver Crown expert’s deg. Device in Newton’s refraction experiment “You Bring Me Joy” singer ___ Lily *Not as much Social hierarchy levels Sailboats’ spars “So, that’s disappointing,” online Tried to rectify wrongs 2002 song by the Goo Goo Dolls, and a hint to 70 Across Minimalist’s maxim, and a hint to 104 Across “The Ex Hex” author Sterling Dialed the wrong number, say Pertaining to petrels Soon, in old poetry Skilled Decrepit, as a building Evidence of joy or sadness G-suit, to an astronaut, e.g. DOWN
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 24
And others: Lat. Epiphanic interjection Heads inside a building? “I swear ...” Ashen-looking Jacobin writer Savage Barren Pinto beans holder ___ Marbles (sculptures that were originally part of the Parthenon) Purple accessory for Mr. Smithers Release, as from one’s grip Oceanography interest Sup, say Slenderizes “Light in My Darkness” author Helen Change due to mutation, sa Imposes, as a fine Is self-congratulatory Elucidation response
26 29 31 32 33 34 37 38 40 44 46 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 59 61 62 64 65 66 67 69 70 72
“The Golden Girls,” e.g. Signs off on Exams taken in H.S. Half of “Rent” Meaning of “gin” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star Sarah Michelle ___ Invisible rope pullers Materialized White stripes’ sites Triple ___ (liqueur that originated in France) “Later!” Team that defeated England in the UEFA Euro 2020 final Godmother of ___ (nickname for Patti LaBelle) “That was a stupid thing to do!” The P of AP Indigenous group based in Oklahoma Porto-___, Benin North Carolina school near Burlington Period long past MIT Sloan grad’s degree Like part II vis-a-vis part I Fourth wall-breaking comment Emmy-winning colleague of Drake and Dysart on “L.A. Law” Some HDTVs Eager student’s shout Strike in Washington? The thumb, numerically, on piano sheet music Hardships Had a bawl? ICON |
73 75 76 78 79 81 82 83 85 87 88 92 93 94 95 97 98 99 101 103 105 106 109 110 112 113 115 116 117
Two-wheeled carriage Up by a point, say Beasts’ retreats Compassionate initials Goalless score Finished the job “Purple” output from authors Cherries’ discards Island that’s the origin of the chicken dish poulet fafa Stereotypical dog name that means “faithful” Biblical quartet member Cleaned, as dishes Electric current unit Marv’s relative? One seen by a therapist Stopped, as a football during a punt Like one who can never get enough Silver ___ (fish) “Iron Chef” vessels Zebras’ relatives Pie-in-the-face sound effect Pre-kickoff flippers Big region in the board game Globetrotters Old monarchical title Prospective master’s student’s hurdle, briefly Metallurgy stuff “The Good Body” writer Ensler Masago, in Japanese cuisine Appropriate location for this answer
Solution to this month’s puzzle on page 22 M A R C H 2 0 2 2 | I C O N D V. C O M
27
