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Blow the Man Down
ICON The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius.
DEAD CAN DANCE Since Dead Can Dance’s start in the Australian outback (OK, Melbourne) of the 1980s, multi-instrumentalist Brendan Perry and vocalist Lisa Gerrard—the ensemble’s co-founders and core—have consistently maintained mixing creakily ambient electronic atmospheres with world beat rhythms, melodies cribbed from the Renaissance and Middle Ages, Irish-Anglo folk, and often wordless Gregorian chants to create an ethereal garden of dark-wave vibes and passive-aggressive new age tones.
12 Heimat is a Space in Time
Since 1992 215-862-9558 icondv.com facebook.com/icondv PRESIDENT Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com EDITORIAL Editor / trina@icondv.com Raina Filipiak / Advertising filipiakr@comcast.net PRODUCTION Richard DeCosta Rita Kaplan
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ESSAYS
MORE FILM
A THOUSAND WORDS Winter Lore
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Abby Pacheco
VOICES Growing Roots
REEL NEWS Jojo Rabbit 1917 Little Women
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NEW BOOKS OPINION
MUSIC 18 |
Fareed Zakaria Boston Globe Editorial Board 20 |
FILM Lizz Wright
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CINEMATTERS Blow the Man Down
FILM ROUNDUP Heimat is a Space in Time The Personal History of David Copperfield The Invisible Man The Wild Goose Lake
ON THE COVER: Norman Rockwell, The Catch, 1919, 29x29, oil on canvas. Norman Rockwell Museum. 4
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS A. D. Amorosi Robert Beck Jack Byer
Jojo Rabbit
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INTERNS
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POP Lil Uzi Vert Ozzy Osbourne Megan Thee Stallion JAZZ/ ROCK/CLASSICAL/ALT Ella 100: Live at the Apollo! Ohad Talmor Newsreel Sextet J.C. Hopkins Biggish Band John DiMartino
ETCETERA 22 |
HARPER’S FINDINGS
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HARPER’S INDEX
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L. A. TIMES CROSSWORD
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AGENDA
Peter Croatto Geoff Gehman Mark Keresman George Miller 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.
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a thousand words
STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK
Winter Lore
GREETINGS FROM THE WILD, Wild, Upper West Side. Cue the soundtrack for the great American romantic urban symphony: Fanfare For the Common Manhattanite. It’s all right there outside the building: the clip-clop of the manhole covers, and bellowing horns as a herd of taxis drives its way through the limestone canyons. The spirit of our nation in full orchestration lies just beyond my triple-pane windows. It’s certainly been unusual weather this year. We’ve had a couple of spells of collars-up cold, but these past few months have mostly been too warm for comfort. Old Man Winter took some swats at us but never landed any punches. He’s obviously no match for human apathy and ignorance, and his heart doesn’t appear to be in delivering any hard lessons this go-round. I reread that paragraph and was struck (as in upside the head) by all the masculine pronouns, and I’m concerned that the term Old Man Winter is too patriarchically biased for today’s sensibilities. Maybe it should be Old Lady Winter? No, that sounds like a fast way to deep trouble. Young woman? Yikes! I’d better be really careful with that, too. Hmmm. Other countries and cultures seem to have different takes on this, so pardon me while I search for direction online. Here we go. Skadi (or Skaoi), the Norse God of Winter, is female. She was married to Njord, the Vanir God of wind, seafarers, coasts, and inland waters. That’s quite an extensive portfolio the two of them have. It covers a lot of territory. Quite the power couple, they. I suppose you can’t have a god for every little this and that, so bundling makes sense. Skadi is also responsible for things pertaining to skiers and hunters. And that’s just her winter responsibilities. According to the Internet (and who knows better?) she is also in charge of knowledge, revenge, justice, damage, and independence. That’s a whole lot of sharp-edged serious stuff, there. Sounds like she’s smart, effective, fair, perhaps a little short tempered, and plays
by her own rules. I sure hope she has a good sense of humor. And did I mention that she’s a Giant? I’m not an expert, but it seems that anybody who is anybody in mythology is a giant. In addition, Skadi is described as being “associated to cold and death, but in a benevolent way.” Which in a sense accounts for this winter. Reading more into Skadi, it appears that she can be ferocious. Her family history is full of kidnappings, killings, retribution and ransom, so there’s no surprise she sometimes exhibits an outsized temperament. The story has it that her dad, Thazi, was killed by some other gods, and she came after them, bent on revenge. Given her resumé and experience, the gods wanted to make a deal rather than duke it out. Her demands included that they make her laugh. I find that a little surprising, but I guess in her world a good laugh is tough to come by. The gods were successful, but it involved tying a rope around a billy goat’s beard, and his testicles, and making him jump around. It’s not clear how that compensated for the death of her father, but if you are familiar with opera plots
then you’re not surprised. Skadi was also given the pick of a husband from a lineup of gods, but because it’s mythology she could only look at the candidates’ feet before choosing. I know, this is starting to sound like American television. Or the Senate. She ended up picking Njord because he had great shoes, so we shouldn’t be surprised that the marriage didn’t last. Skadi’s trail grows a little cold after that, but you knew it had to happen. After all, this is the first time you‘ve heard of her, right? Nevertheless, we’ve solved my problem. I can go forward with Lady Winter, Madam Winter, or just Ms. Winter, because I have the example of Skadi: an eminently qualified female God of Winter, who is a great shot with a bow, has a quirky way of making decisions, and absolutely takes no shit. If you’re not a fan of science, that’s as good an explanation of weather as any. But the warm winter doesn’t bode well for us mortals. It’s a concern even if we have moved on to spring now. I’d still keep an eye out for her if I were you. Look for somebody in Norse battle dress. She’s big, and I’m pretty sure she’s a blonde. n
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new books Camino Winds John Grisham Doubleday
If It Bleeds Stephen King Scribner
The Story of More Hope Jahren Vintage
Just as Bruce Cable’s Bay Books is preparing for the return of bestselling author Mercer Mann, Hurricane Leo veers from its predicted course. Florida’s governor orders a mandatory evacuation, and most residents board up their houses, but Bruce decides to stay and ride out the storm. The hurricane is devastating, a dozen people lose their lives. One of the victims is Nelson Kerr, a friend of Bruce’s and an author of thrillers. But the nature of Nelson’s injuries suggests that the storm wasn’t the cause of his death. Who would want Nelson dead? Bruce begins to wonder if the shady characters in Nelson’s novels might be more real than fictional. And somewhere on Nelson’s computer is the manuscript of his new novel. Could the key to the case be right there—in black and white? As Bruce starts to investigate, what he discovers between the lines is more shocking than any of Nelson’s plot twists— and far more dangerous.
The four never-beforepublished novellas in this collection represent King at his finest, using the weird and uncanny to riff on mortality, the price of creativity, and the unpredictable consequences of material attachments. A teenager discovers that a dead friend’s cell phone, which was buried with the body, still communicates from beyond the grave in “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone,” which reads like a Twilight Zone episode infused with an EC Comics vibe. In the profoundly moving “The Life of Chuck,” a series of apocalyptic incidents bear out a claim that “when a man or a woman dies, a whole world falls to ruin.” “Rat” sees a writer strike a Faustian bargain to complete his novel, and in the title story, private investigator Holly Gibney, the recurring heroine of King’s Bill Hodges trilogy and The Outsider, faces off against a ghoulish television newscaster who vampirically feeds off the anguish he provokes. This excellent collection delivers exactly the kind of bravura storytelling King’s readers expect.
Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist, a brilliant writer, a passionate teacher, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. In The Story of More, she illuminates the link between human habits and our imperiled planet. In concise, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions—from electric power to large-scale farming to automobiles—that, even as they help us, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like never before. She explains the current and projected consequences of global warming—from superstorms to rising sea levels—and the actions that we all can take to fight back. At once an explainer on the mechanisms of global change and a lively, personal narrative given to us in Jahren’s inimitable voice, The Story of More is the essential pocket primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it.
Pelosi Molly Ball Henry Holt and Co. She’s the iconic leader who puts Donald Trump in his place, the woman with the toughness to take on a lawless president and defend American democracy. Ever since the Democrats took back the House in the 2018 midterm elections, Nancy Pelosi has led the opposition with strategic mastery and inimitable elan. It’s a remarkable comeback for the veteran politician who for years was demonized by the right and taken for granted by many in her own party—even though, as speaker under President Barack Obama, she deserves much of the credit for universal access to health care, to saving the US economy from collapse, allowing gay people to serve openly in the military. How did an Italian grandmother in four-inch heels become the greatest legislator since LBJ? Based on exclusive interviews with the Speaker and deep background reporting, Ball shows Pelosi through a thoroughly modern lens to explain how this extraordinary woman has met her moment. 6
Keto Friendly Recipes: Bake It Keto Jennifer Marie Garza Houghton Mifflin Harcourt The keto diet continues to take the country by storm as people not only experience dramatic weight loss, but keep the weight off too. One of America's leading keto and low-carb experts is Jennifer Marie Garza, the best-selling author of Keto Friendly Recipes: Easy Keto for Busy People, whose popular Facebook page Keto Friendly Recipes has amassed more than 450,000 loyal followers. Jennifer Marie's recipes taste too delicious to be good for you, and fans keep coming back for more, so she knows what people like best—the baked goods, both savory and sweet, such as keto breads, muffins, cookies, casseroles, and more. In her new book, Jennifer Marie brings back fan-favorite recipes plus all new dishes, organized into chapters for breakfast, lunch, dinner, appetizers, and foil-pack meals for people on the go. It doesn't get much easier than these 120 one-dish recipes, like Keto Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas, Baked French Toast, Keto Pot Pie, and Portobella Mushroom Pizza.
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The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad Mike Birbiglia Grand Central Publishing In 2016 comedian Mike Birbiglia and poet Jennifer Hope Stein took their fourteen-month-old daughter Oona to the Nantucket Film Festival. When the festival director picked them up at the airport she asked Mike if he would perform. And so Mike began sharing some of his darkest and funniest thoughts about the decision to have a child. Jen and Mike revealed to each other their sides of what had gone down during Jen’s pregnancy and that first year with their child. Over the next couple of years, these stories evolved into a Broadway show, and the more Mike performed it the more he heard how it resonated. So he pored over his journals, dug deeper, and created this book. Along with hilarious and poignant stories he has never shared before, these pages are sprinkled with poetry Jen wrote as she navigated the same rocky shores of new parenthood. So here it is. This book is an experiment —sort of like a family.
opinion The U.S. is still exceptional—but now for its incompetence By FAREED ZAKARIA Washington Post March 26, 2020
A president unfit for a pandemic Much of the suffering and death coming was preventable. The president has blood on his hands. By THE EDITORIAL BOARD of the Boston Globe March 30, 2020
When a crisis hits the United States, the country’s general instinct is to rally around the flag and wish the best for its leaders. That’s probably why President Trump has seen his approval ratings rise, even though he has had a delayed and fitful approach to this pandemic. But at some point, we Americans must look at the facts and recognize an uncomfortable reality. The United States is on track to have the worst outbreak of coronavirus among wealthy countries, largely because of the ineffectiveness of its government. This is the new face of American exceptionalism. The United States [has] the largest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world, outstripping even China. The first line of defense against the disease is testing. On this key metric, the U.S. experience has been a fiasco: We started late, using a faulty test, and never quite recovered. President Trump’s claim that “anybody that wants a test can get a test” is a cruel hoax. Access to tests remains much worse than in most advanced countries. His assertion that the U.S. has tested more people than South Korea is nonsense because it doesn’t take into account that South Korea has one-sixth America’s population. Per capita, South Korea has done five times more testing than the United States, as of the end of March. But forget about South Korea. Italy, a country not known for the smooth workings of its government, has tested four times as much per capita as the U.S. The U.S. has shortages of everything—ventilators, masks, gloves, gowns—and no national emergency system to provide new supplies fast. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says his state will need 40,000 beds for critical care. It has only 3,000. That means many patients will die simply because they lack access to care that is available under normal circumstances. Not even three weeks into this pandemic, health care workers are reusing masks, sewing their own, and pleading for donations. In a searing essay in the Atlantic, Ed Yong writes, “Rudderless, blindsided, lethargic, and uncoordinated, America has mishandled the COVID-19 crisis to a substantially worse degree than what every health expert I’ve spoken with had feared.” Why did this happen? It’s easy to blame Donald Trump, and the president has been inept from the start. But there is a much larger story behind this fiasco. America is paying the price today for decades of defunding government, politicizing independent agencies, fetishizing local control, and demeaning and disparaging government workers and bureaucrats. This was not always how it was. America historically prized limited but effective government. In Federalist 70, Alexander Hamilton wrote, “a government ill executed, whatever it may be in theory, must be, in practice, a bad government.” Franklin Roosevelt created the modern federal bureaucracy, which was strikingly lean and efficient. In recent decades, as the scope of government has increased, the bureaucracy has been starved and made increasingly dysfunctional. In the 1950s, the percent of federal civilian employees compared to total employment was above 5%. It has dropped to under 2% today, despite a population that is twice as large and a GDP that is seven times higher (adjusting for inflation). Federal agencies are understaffed but overburdened with mountains of regulations and politicized mandates and rules, giving officials little power and discretion. The FDA’s cumbersome rules and bureaucracy—which
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The president has made grave errors in addressing the coronavirus outbreak. Come November, there must be a reckoning for the lives lost and the suffering endured. “Things fall apart; the center cannot hold,” wrote W.B. Yeats in 1919. A century later, it’s clear: The epicenter cannot hold. Catastrophic decisions in the White House have doomed the world’s richest country to a season of untold suffering. The United States, long a beacon of scientific progress and medical innovation with its world-class research institutions and hospitals, is now the hub of a global pandemic that has infected at least [as of March 30] 745,000 people and already claimed more than 35,000 lives worldwide. Now that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States—more than 140,000—has surpassed that of any other nation, Americans are consigned
for the coming weeks to watching the illness fell family members and friends, and to fearing for their own fate as they watch death tolls rise. While the spread of the novel coronavirus has been aggressive around the world, much of the profound impact it will have here in the United States was preventable. As the American public braces itself for the worst of this crisis, it’s worth remembering that the reach of the virus here is not attributable to an act of God or a foreign invasion, but a colossal failure of leadership. The outbreak that began in China demanded a White House that could act swiftly and competently to protect public health, informed by science and guided by compassion and public service. It required an administration that could quickly deploy reliable tests around the nation to isolate cases and trace and contain the virus’s spread, as South Korea effectively did, as well as to manufacture and distribute scarce medical supplies around the country. It begged for a president of the United States to deliver clear, consistent, scientifically sound messages on the state of the epidemic and its solutions, to reassure the public amid their fear, and to provide steady guidance to cities and states. And it demanded a leader who would put the country’s well-being first, above near-term stock market returns and his
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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.
T’S NOT THE AROMA of coffee brewing, the warm, earthy taste or the energizing bolt people claim it gives them. For me, it’s the ritual connected to my cup of morning joe that feeds my coffee fix. I permit myself, a naturally hyper Energizer Bunny, one cup of coffee a day, and that coffee must be sipped and savored in a coffee shop. Takeout coffee to drink at home or on the run will not do. I crave a physical space where I can sit, drink, co-exist with strangers, and encounter familiar people behind the counter who know me—well, not me per se, but my standard order: a small coffee with half and half, and please, no sugar. It’s not that I am incapable of making a cup of coffee at home. I own a coffeemaker that can whip up a cup in an emergency. What constitutes an emergency is tricky. I’ve been known to venture out even in blizzards, bundled up in layers of clothing and snow boots as I gingerly inch my way to a neighborhood coffee shop. My ritual developed slowly and evolved over the years—a day per week, then a few days, until every day, weekends included—as I increasingly devoted myself to my writing, a lonely endeavor with no human interaction. I grew to love my coffee outings where I could mingle with the human race and start the day off with a sense of calm and order that grounded me, laying the foundation to cope with the creative chaos that inevitably followed. If, for some reason, I had to skip my morning coffee ritual, my day felt out of control and unmanageable, fueling any resistance I had to writing. In New York City where I lived until my recent move to the City of Brotherly Love, I had two go-to coffee shops. Second Avenue Bagels was where I supplemented my coffee with an authentic New York (as opposed to New York-style) bagel. At Juliano’s, the coffee hangout across from my gym, I’d sit with the newspaper, a quick read with a crossword puzzle, or chat with my exercise buddies at a table reserved for us. One of my biggest concerns about moving to 8
voices
Growing Roots: the secret is coffee By Fredricka Maister
Philly was whether I could incorporate my morning coffee ritual into my daily routine. Would I find a nearby coffee shop å la New York, where I could quietly park myself and feel comfortable? And, since I no longer had a part-time salary to add to my bottom line, could I still afford the luxury of having my daily coffee out? Since moving to Philadelphia, I have discovered three coffee shops that meet my criteria. Their presence in my life has made a difficult transition easier as I acclimate to my new home. Here they are (in the order I discovered them): (1) Across the street from my condo is a Dunkin’ Donuts. Aside from the convenience, it has tables where I can sit and finish the newspaper without infringing on anyone else’s space. At the counter, there is a sign, “Smiles Are Free!!!,” which always makes me smile at the
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already smiley faces behind the counter, especially Angel who, as I am about to order, reminds me, “I got it!” As an indefatigable peoplewatcher, I love peering out the windows from my ringside seat indoors and witnessing the melting pot of Philadelphians as they pass by. (2) The Milkhouse in Suburban Station offers a super-sized medium coffee for just a $1 (yes, $1.00!) and an opportunity to blend coffee flavors; I opt for Rittenhouse and Organic Mexican Roast. There are always vacant tables outside the shop inviting me to hang out for an hour or so. That hour passes quickly but leisurely as I read, check my phone or watch the commuters on their way to and from the suburbs. Unlike the frenetic atmosphere of Grand Central or Penn Stations in New York, Suburban Station is less crowded, slower-paced and friendlier. Sometimes I even make eye contact with a passerby and we both smile as if we already know each other. (3) On Sundays it’s Federal Donuts, where I splurge on coffee and a cookie and cream donut, made to order, served warm. I’m not even a fan of donuts, but OMG, OMG...this donut melts in your mouth. I usually manage to secure a seat where I watch the non-stop customers, mostly millennial, leave with bags and boxes of donuts straight from the fryer. Before these coffee havens, I found myself at loose ends, disoriented, lost, a stranger in a strange land, often feeling like a tourist. Moving to Philadelphia seemed surreal, maybe even a mistake. I no longer wanted to be in New York, but I missed the friends, coffee haunts and routines I left behind. I had become a transplant who didn’t belong anywhere anymore, that is, until Dunkin’, Milkhouse and Federal Donuts showed up in my life and made me feel settled and connected to my new hometown and its inhabitants. Having lived as a New Yorker for decades, I know New York City will always be embedded in my DNA, but I’m gradually mutating into a Philly girl. Go Eagles! n
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cinematters
Blow the Man Down IT’S TEMPTING TO CALL Blow the Man Down (now available on Amazon Prime) a haddockscented Coen Brothers’ film or a briny Brick, Rian Johnson’s 2005 nourish gem set in a high school where the cliques and formalities peel away to reveal a rotting core. Regardless of its origin story, writers-directors Danielle Krudy and Bridget Savage Cole’s film is a dark, twisty romp, a perfect distraction from cabin fever and ceaseless dread. Morgan Saylor and Sophie Lowe play Mary Beth and Priscilla “Pris” Connolly, two twentysomething sisters chafing in Easter Cove, Maine, a fishing town where deadening familiarity is the other 10
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PETE CROATTO
catch. The sisters’ mom has died, leaving them with no money and no prospects. After the funeral, Priscilla takes her anger out on the dishes; Mary Beth heads to the local bar, where she spots a different face. She sidles up to the guy, reaches for his cigs, and gets friendly. The night grows ugly. They drive off. He snorts some coke. She spots a small pistol in the glove box. But when Mary Beth sees a pastiche of blood and hair in the trunk, she retreats. He pursues. She ends the night by ramming a harpoon through his throat. A blood-splattered Mary Beth heads home. Shortly thereafter, the sisters are cramming the fresh corpse into a cooler and off a cliff. Pris and Mary Beth’s disposal triggers a series of actions that inadvertently fuels a battle for the town’s soul. To create picturesque smalltown boredom requires work—from the local owner (Margo Martindale) of a really cozy bed and breakfast to the trio of busybodies (Annette O’Toole, June Squibb, and Marceline Hugot) who enforce the town’s order to the earnest, shrewd young cop (Will Brittain) who digs Pris. It’s fitting that many scenes feature someone knocking on a door, as if we’re about to be let in on a secret. The stakes get higher. Where’s the knife Pris used to cut the creep down to size? What’s with that bag of money by the door? That note the grandmotherly Squibb leaves for a wayward girl: is it a token of affection or a warning? We don’t know where anyone stands, and Martindale’s adroit, infatuating performance as the town’s power broker sets that shifty tone. She goes from New England curt to matronly menace to moaning pathos. She’s a cornered animal, prone to strike or cower. Mary Beth, spirited and chafing to leave, isn’t the one who navigates this sordidness. Pris grabs control of the mess Mary Beth has created, covering up the tracks and cleaning the narrative. Mary Beth's fire-engine-red winter’s hat makes her an outlier in Easter Cove, a stranger. But Pris, dressed in subdued knits fit for this buttoneddown town, was born into this battle. She just doesn’t know it yet. In the end, a wry smile from a familiar face tells us everything. Yes, there’s a Fargo influence here, with the frozen exterior shots and the giant fisherman that’s a poor replacement for Paul Bunyan. The keeping-up-appearances storyline shares much with Hot Fuzz, the 2007 Edgar Wright comedy. But Krudy and Savage Cole’s approach is far more subdued and far darker than the blithe havoc Wright envisioned. The directors have their influences, but they’ve made a movie aspiring filmmakers will likely draw upon, one where smart women of all ages get their hands dirty. Some even get away with it. [R] n
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film roundup
Heimat is a Space in Time
KEITH UHLICH
Heimat is a Space in Time (Dir. Thomas Heise). Documentary. In this four-hour essay film shot mostly in black-and-white, German documentarian Thomas Heise moves mesmerically through the history of his country and his family, many of whom lived through, and actively resisted, tyrannical regimes. World War I, the rise and fall of Nazism, and the Berlin Wall (both its construction and destruction) are the macro touchstones. Around this Heise explores specific tales from his ancestry, such as a series of anxiety-inducing letters from his grandmother (read over a slow-scrolling backdrop of Nazi documents containing innumerable Jewish names) or a provocative formative incident from his own boyhood in which Heise and his brother kissed each other in a darkened movie theater. The boundaries between personal and communal experience are collapsed, though never entirely obliterated. Time and again Heise reminds how difficult it is to be an individual while living among oppressively powerful forces, actual and existential. Somehow we endure—our struggles, hopefully, remembered. [N/R] HHHH The Personal History of David Copperfield (Dir. Armando Iannucci). Starring: Dev Patel, Hugh Laurie, Tilda Swinton. It seems an odd fit: The acidly funny Armando Iannucci (one of the main minds behind the corrosive political satires In the Loop and The Death of Stalin) adapting Charles Dickens’s more gently satiri12
cal coming-of-age novel David Copperfield. And at first, it seems that Iannucci has succumbed to a kind of aggressive, Wes Andersonian whimsy as incidents from the life of his protagonist (Dev Patel) pile up inelegantly, at the speed of a hurricane. What emerges from this maelstrom, fortunately, is a blissful paean to language. At heart, this Copperfield is about Iannucci paying tribute to a time-honored talent who shaped his own love of words. It also boasts a cast that is splendid from stem to stern, best in show being Hugh Laurie’s absentminded Mr. Dick and Ben Wishaw’s scheming Uriah Heep. [PG] HHH1/2 The Invisible Man (Dir. Leigh Whannell). Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Harriet Dyer, Aldis Hodge. Universal’s big-budget, interconnected “Dark Universe” series collapsed after a single release (the lamentable Tom Cruise vehicle The Mummy). So the studio went smaller and stand-alone with Leigh Whannell’s take on the classic imperceptible movie monster. The eponymous “Man”—an uberwealthy expert in optics, natch, played by Oliver Jackson-Cohen—isn’t really the focus. It’s his victim, abused girlfriend Cecilia Kass (Elisabeth Moss), who takes center stage, which gives the proceedings a post-#MeToo charge. She breaks out of her gilded cage in a tense opening scene, then spends most of the rest of the movie trying to convince anyone who will listen that her former beau is stalking her sight unseen. Moss is
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excellent as the gaslit, increasingly distressed protagonist, and Whannell orchestrates several good fright sequences, the best occurring in a crowded Chinese restaurant. By the end, though, the film’s desire for of-the-moment relevance overwhelms the well-choreographed genre thrills. [R] HH1/2 The Wild Goose Lake (Dir. Diao Yinan). Starring: Hu Ge, Gwei Lun Mei, Qi Dao, Liao Fan. Chinese filmmaker Diao Yinan’s seedy noir is an alluringly rain-drenched fever dream, its smeary neon color palette something Michael Mann might envy. The film is told partially in flashback courtesy on-the-run gangster Zhou (Hu Ge), who works with a gang that steals and resells motor bikes, and who now has a price on his head. There is, of course, a femme fatale (Gwei Lun Mei), who plies her trade as a “bathing beauty” (a beachside prostitute), in addition to all manner of cops and criminals whom Zhou has to avoid, at least until he ensures the physical and fiscal safety of his wife. Our antihero is convinced his death is inevitable, and the air of fatalism that hangs over the movie is potent. Though it’s more likely you’ll remember the squalid ambience (a sex scene in a boat climaxes with a loogie for the ages), not to mention two shockingly graphic kills, one via umbrella! Style might be paramount here, but there is substance enough in the grubby visions that Diao conjures. [N/R]
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interview A.D. AMOROSI
Neither dead nor dancing, yet still celebrating
SINCE DEAD CAN DANCE’S start in the Australian outback (OK, Melbourne) of the 1980s, multi-instrumentalist Brendan Perry and vocalist Lisa Gerrard—the ensemble’s co-founders and core—have consistently maintained mixing creakily ambient electronic atmospheres with world beat rhythms, melodies cribbed from the Renaissance and Middle Ages, Irish-Anglo folk, and often wordless Gregorian chants to create an ethereal garden of dark-wave vibes and passiveaggressive new age tones. That may be a mouthful. Yet, it doesn’t say enough about the innovation that Dead Can Dance brought to music. The graphics, too, were innovative, especially the album covers on Britain’s 4 AD label. From lustrous albums such as Spiritchaser, through scores for films such as El Niño de la Luna, and Gladiator—an Academy Award-winner—to its most recent efforts, Anastasis and Dionysus, Dead Can Dance continues to make daring, eerie-yet- healing music their bold and beautiful signature. I spoke to Brendan Perry from his home in London. I noticed that celebration is more prominent in Dead Can Dance’s later work; in the beginning things were usually touching on sorrow or existential dilemma. I don’t know if we’re less existential, but celebratory, yes. That’s precisely what we’re doing now, celebrating our musical partnership—40 years now. One aspect of our evolution is that you can only talk about existentialist subjects for so long before you start chasing your tail. And that of your audience. Right. Eventually, it will all become post-absurdist. As time goes on, we’ve regularly reflected our newer musical interests and how we have evolved as artists and as people—I mean, our families have grown, we’ve settled into the fabrics of our lives. We’ve become parents. We’ve become taxpayers. Everything else that comes with real life. “Dionysus,” though it has more depth to it than this, is about celebration, and getting out it. When “Dionysus” was released we spoke of Impressionism, and how how it was an inspiration. Will it continue to inspire you? Yes. It’s breaking new ground. You challenge yourself—making a concept album like that, a pagan opera. That’s something where you’re 14
pushing your envelope and going beyond all boundaries. That’s partially why I love working on new projects—that’s how you develop, move along, move forward. There’s no better way to have greater depth and acquire more skills than to take those risks. Your solo output is as endearing and daring as the music you’ve made as Dead Can Dance. Thanks. I’m currently working on a solo album, and will probably release that this autumn, and that is a complete shift away from what I do as Dead Can Dance. The album will be called Songs of Disenchantment, and it will be all cover versions of Greek songs from the Golden Age of rebetika [Greek folk music] from the 1930s, translated into English for the very first time, and all played on original Greek instruments. That’s a complete departure from our usual. I’m also speaking with Lisa about a future Dead Can Dance album, and it looks like it will be a classical recording along the lines of neoBaroque music. Why has Greek culture become so integral to your and Dead Can Dance’s work? My upbringing and education was such that Greek culture was the cornerstone of everything. The Romans were great engineers, but when it comes to philosophy the Greeks laid the bedrock for further development. I remember reading Homer’s Ulysses as a child, and was fascinated. Songs of Disenchantment, is interesting to me because it covers a period in Greek history when they had to take in millions of immigrants from Turkey in 1922. This created a new urban music, a cross-pollination of cultures. A cross-pollination of cultures has always been Dead Can Dance’s bag. Exactly. Greece is right at the crossroads of eastern Asia. So the transmission of culture has been passing through, non-stop, forever. That’s still going on today. Immigration and cross-pollination—migration that will happen with the rising seas, and people will be displaced. There are matters now of cultural appropriation—that borrowing bits of other cultures of which you are not an original part, and making those elements your own, is questionable. Where do you stand on matters of sourcing and attribution? You must quote all of your sources. If you quote them, you are not misappropriating. That
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is integrally important. The thing that inspires you, you should reference and credit, In regard to music, it’s tricky. Culture is always an evolution of different strains and rivers that feed into greater, wider oceans of action and experience. Having said that, you need to reference the original place from where you’ve come. If you’re going to plagiarize, you do it in a way that celebrates the original influence. Dead Can Dance was born within the punk scene of Melbourne. Is there anything in the Brendan Perry of today that still has that aggression, that punk vibe, punk spirit? That’s a tricky question because I do feel as if I carry that spirit with me naturally. I am my own creation. I haven’t changed my general outlook on the world since I was in my late teens. I’m still a bit of an anarchist at heart. I mean that in the sense of not trusting completely the ruling classes that govern us. That’s been borne out over the decades by the state that we are in now, geopolitically. It’s a real mess. Those in successive governments have landed us in this disastrous point in history—this precipice. They haven’t done anything to prevent this. Greed still rules. So my general outlook on the world, my political side, is very much anti-establishment, because the establishment has proven itself to be inadequate. That’s my punk backbone. I left home at 17 and lived with prostitutes. My girlfriend was a prostitute. I did loads of drugs, heroin, you name it. I lived on the streets. That education—after coming from a comfortable, suburban middle-class family I might add—was crucial to my development. When did you become the man you are now? I think when I met my wife. I was a bit of a loner—even celibate for a long time—before I met her. Yeah, that’s the completeness for me. Meeting my future wife and having a child was essential. How did that affect your music? That’s hard to answer. I don’t think it’s anything dramatic. I’m still interested in melancholia when it comes to music, and beautiful lyrics that are straight from the heart. That hasn’t changed. Being married means being settled so that I can focus on the music.
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15
reel news
Jojo Rabbit
NEW & SOON-TO-BE-RELEASED DVDS REVIEWED BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER
Jojo Rabbit (Director Taika Waititi. Starring Roman Griffin Davis, Scarlett Johansson, Thomasin McKenzi, Taika Waititi.) This sublime satire isn’t about a cartoonish rabbit, but a cartoonish take on the evil-incarnate Hitler and his program to brainwash kids to hate Jews. Highlighting historical realities that are understandably too painful for many to see treated lightly makes this a love-it or hate-it film. Writer and director Waitiki creates both serious, sobbing scenes of the heartbreaking tragedies of bigotry gone extreme, and goofy Nazi spoofs, like the kooky Hitler (Waititi) that ten-year-old Jojo (Davis) imagines as his father figure. His buffoon Hitler espouses absurd myths and anti-Jewish propaganda to young Jojo, who enlists in the Nazi youth corps. While 16
Jojo is shouting Heil Hitler! and creating a picture book of Jewish monsters, his mother Rose (Johansson) passes out anti-war leaflets and harbors a teenage Jewish girl in the attic. Jojo’s inculcated universe begins to shatter when he finds Elsa (McKenzie) and discovers she is not a bat monster who hangs from the rafters. His heroic coming of age embraces a new paradigm without bigotry, is forged by the horrors of street-to-street combat, tragic loss, and finally, the realization that he can create a new life with trust and love. Davis is astounding as Jojo, and Johansson and McKenzi provide an unexpected pathos that grounds the satire in reality. Somehow Waititi manages to create a feel-good movie about the worst of human nature. (Rated PG-13) HHHHH
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1917 (Director Sam Mendes. Starring George MacKay, Dean-Charles Chapman.) Inspired by an actual incident that was told to director Sam Mendes by his grandfather, this harrowing tale follows the footsteps of two British soldiers, Schofield (MacKay) and Blake (Chapman), on a death-defying odyssey. With no radio communication and the telegraph lines cut, they must cross many miles of German-controlled territory in order to stop a British battalion from advancing into an ambush. If they fail, 1,600 men, including Blake’s brother, face inescapable slaughter. Mendes uses long takes and tight editing—with no obvious cuts or fades—to create the intimate feeling of actually being at the men’s side. So off we go in real-time through a labyrinth of trenches and booby-trapped tun-
nels, across decimated fields and farms, and into burning villages. The tension builds with every narrow escape, and the stakes increase as time runs out before the inevitably doomed attack. With a personal reason to risk his all, Blake is determined, while reluctant Schofield questions every step that could be their last. Yet in the heat of battle, he becomes the unassuming hero and delivers the critical message. Mendes, as usual, artfully alternates heart-pounding action with catch-your-breath downtime, but by the last near-death experience, the tally of World War I horrors almost reaches hairy-dog status. Regardless, this is one of the best crafted, most memorable war movies ever. (R) HHHH Little Women (Director Greta Gerwig. Starring Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Meryl Streep.) The life sagas of the four March sisters, their struggles, heartbreaks, and successes, have been told numerous times since Louisa May Alcott penned her timeless novel in 1868. Timeless because the underlying civil issues and cultural prejudices that challenged women then, not to mention the verities of
human nature, still dominate our male-centric society. In her refreshing rendition, Gerwig weaves present and future timelines, so we know what becomes of each woman, and can better appreciate how they overcome or don’t, the obstacles they confront. The story vividly brings to life the personalities and aspirations of the girls, the strength of their tightknit, harmonious family, and the attitudes and unexpected circumstances that threaten their dreams. Fiercely independent Jo (Ronan)is determined to write realistic novels with female protagonists that defy traditional expectations. Meg (Watson) gives up her dream of acting to marry a schoolteacher and raise a family. Beth (Scanlen) is a natural at the piano, and Amy (Pugh) moves to Paris with wealthy Aunt Marsh (Streep) to study painting. The arc of the plot follows each from childhood, through tempestuous adolescence and coming of age, to womanhood. By halfway through the narrative, I felt like the girls were my sisters, Marmee (Dern) was my mother, and aged Aunt March was issuing her sage advice to me. (PG) HHHHH n ICON | APRIL 2020 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV
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pop
A.D. AMOROSI
Lil Uzi Vert HHHH Eternal Atake (Atlantic) I like surprises. And I like Philly’s Lil Uzi Vert. So imagine my surprise at his two surprise offerings. After three years of starts, stops, Instagram fit pics, retirements, guest features, Heaven’s Gate Hale-Bopp lawsuits and
$90,000 college tuition payoffs to those willing to finish school Uzi decided to not only drop one version of his long-awaited Eternal Atake album—his first full artist since 2017’s Luv is Rage 2. Uzi dropped two versions of Eternal Atake, the second version coming one week later, featuring 14 additional new songs, and co-starring fellow rappers Future and Young Thug. Uzi Vert’s new epic finds him at a time where space is the place (to quote Sun Ra), glitch-rapping his way through curt cuts such as “Urgency,” and “POP,” both sounding as frantic and fun as their titles, “Chrome Hearts Tags” comes from a beat originally crafted by Chief Keef, “Baby Pluto” is hot, odd and piercing. And the entirety of Eternal Atake is a massively fullblooded work, genius-level hip hop busting at the seams with ideas that boldly go where no Philly rapper has before. The reward for Uzi from his fan base is that Eternal Atake leapt straight into No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Album Chart, thus marking his second No. 1 album and the biggest streaming week for an album since 2018. As hysterical as it is historical. Lil Uzi Vert’s radically percussive and shockingly melodic new album is a masterpiece. Ozzy Osbourne HH Ordinary Man (Epic) The Blizzard of Oz’s first solo album in ten years often feels as if the one-time Black Sabbath singer intended this as a mournful swan song. Yet, 18
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for all of its teary goodbyes, Ordinary Man manages to be eerily elegiac and dumb fun at the same time. Then again, Osbourne’s entire solo career has been similarly funereal and goofy. So what’s the big difference in Osbourne, then and the now? This time out, Ozzy is going for sprightly hard
rock more so than turgid rough metal, and Ordinary Man is more lavishly produced than Ozzy’s sludge-glam sound of his past. Blame Ozzy’s new producer Andrew Watt, of Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy and Post Malone’s Beerbongs & Bentleys fame, for bringing a pop sheen to Osbourne’s usual sludge metal proceedings. To go with that lighter sonic touch, Watt, who co-wrote the tracks and played guitar here, brought in a core group of ragers—Guns N’ Roses bassist Duff McKagan, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith— along with guests such as Malone, Elton John, Charlie Puth and Slash. With most of its tracks recorded in one or two takes (according to Osbourne during a SiriusXM live listening session in Hollywood on Feb. 13), Ordinary Man juts out at the listener. Opening with an airy heavenly choir’s wails, “Straight to Hell” wastes no time before its narrator screeches “All right now” as he did back on the Sabbath classic “Sweet Leaf.” There’s (thankfully) not a lot of Black Sabbath touchstones here; the gloom gods ended their run several years ago. The only memories being summoned here are pure solo Ozzy, with its riffing guitar sound curt and cutting. With that, Ordinary Man is like driving a clown car through a funeral wake. It’s great, fast fun even when it’s sad. Megan Thee Stallion HHH Suga (1501 Certified/300 Entertainment) Houston rapper Megan Thee Stallion is (or should be) as beloved for her hooks as she is the swagger of sensuality. The guttural confidence that is her flagrant lyrical display is not explicit. This isn’t Millie Jackson we’re talking about. Rather, Meg is upfront, frank and meticulous about every-
thing she has and wants—not just sex. As heard on such past tracks as “Big Ole Freak” and her new album’s slipperiest cut, “Savage,” she wants it all, and she wants it hard. After calling herself “a ’hood Mona Lisa,” claiming herself as “way too exclusive, I don’t shop on Insta’ boutiques,” and giving her lady parts the loveliest of descriptions, Stallion kicks into the catchiest, most direct, declaration of the self, to go with a short-and-sweet anthem of a chorus:
“I’m a savage / Classy, bougie, ratchet / Sassy, moody, nasty / Acting stupid, what’s happening?” That Meg is fantastically unique at setting up records with a theatrical flourish and making viral catchphrases is a talent not to be taken lightly considering how even and un-dramatic many hip-hop and pop hits have been since 2018. Megan Thee Stallion has a way of finding the histrionic within the deceptively simple. And on this newest album, she moves mountains, whether it’s her tight, tautly percussive brand of hip hop or on songs that find her drifting into nu-vibe of atmospheric R&B. n ICON | APRIL 2020 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV
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jazz / classical / alt / rock MARK KERESMAN
Ella 100: Live at the Apollo! HHHHH Concord Jazz Ella Jane Fitzgerald (1917-1996) was and remains one of the great American ladies of Song. Fitzgerald was one of the few jazz artists whose popularity and influence went beyond the jazz sphere and impacted mainstream pop music. Frank Sinatra counted her among his favorite singers, and the two performed together periodically over the years. (As to why they did not record together, check out the book The Song is You, the great Will Friedwald bio of Sinatra’s recording career.) Fitzgerald sang with crisp, clean articulation and could improvise like the master musicians with whom she shared stages and studios. Swing was/is the thing, and Ella symbolized that as few others could. Like Elvis would do later, Fitzgerald slimmed and shattered the barriers between musical zones—The NY Times’ Frank Rich said of her, “Here was a black woman popularizing urban songs often written by immigrant Jews to a national audience of predominantly white Christians.” This might not seem crucial today, pilgrims, but when one stops and considers the stratification of American society and culture—there was a time when folks with non-
warhorse “How High the Moon.” (Worth the price of admission—take that to the bank.) Take a breather from all that singing with a driving, droll instrumental “Back to the Apollo” that shows the Basie legacy is indeed in good hands (and showing why the Basie band was favored by Sinatra, dancers, and swing aficionados then and now). Cassandra Wilson applies her trademarked dusky, smoky tones to the classic torch/cry-in-your-beer ballad “Cry Me a River,” and Monica Mancini—daughter of cool-cat soundtrack wizard Henry—channels the Ella influence via a crystalline barebones take on “Once in a While.” The show closes with the slightly irreverent/joyously jivey “You’ll Have to Swing It Mr. Paganini” duetted by Austin and Grier. Unlike some “tribute” discs, this celebrates more than pays homage to the legacy of Ella Fitzgerald…as well as showing her legacy is in good hands/throats. Ohad Talmor Newsreel Sextet HHHHH Long Forms Intakt Every once in a while, you read about someone who makes you realize how little you’ve accomplished: saxophonist Ohad Talmor grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, mixed it up in the European jazz scene with Joachim Kuhn, Steve Swallow, and Lee Konitz (the latter a mentor to him), had his music performed by European orchestras (such as Germany’s legendary WDR Big Band and Portugal’s OJM Big Band), composed the score for the depressing-but-worth-seeing biopic Lowdown (starring John Hawkes, Elle Fanning, Glenn Close, and Peter Dinklage), a Professorship at Queens College CUNY, and finds time to lead swell studio sessions such as this. Among his combo is trumpeter Shane Endsley, guitarist Miles Okazaki, and rock-solid drummer Dan Weiss. “Casado” is a rich panorama of spare, ringing piano chords and haunting, intertwining horn phrases over a majestically pensive rhythmic base. “Kayeda” features overlapping phrases from the horns and guitar, rippling yet reflective piano from Jacob
Cassandra Wilson.
pale skin tones were forbidden to drink Cokes at the same counters and Jews could not rent hotel rooms where their Christian brethren could— it’s significant. Fitzgerald performed and recorded with some of the greatest big bands ever, those of Count Basie, Chick Webb (mentioned in the film Taxi Driver), Duke Ellington, and Benny Goodman. Ms. Ella appeared in movies too, including Let No Man Write My Epitaph (starring Burl Ives, Shelley Winters, and tragic heroine Jean Seberg) and Pete Kelly’s Blues (starring Jack Webb, Peggy Lee, and Lee Marvin). In 2007 there was the release of We All Love Ella, a tribute album recorded for the 90th anniversary of Fitzgerald’s birth featuring Michael Bublé, Natalie Cole, Gladys Knight, Diana Krall, k.d. lang, Queen Latifah, and Linda Ronstadt. Her legacy continues. Ella 100: Live at the Apollo is a recorded celebration of Ella’s life and enduring inspiration. Co-hosted by singer Patti Austin and actor/singer David Alan Grier, this concert program features Lizz Wright, Cassandra Wilson, the Count Basie Orchestra, Ayo, Afro Blue, Monica Mancini, and Brian Nova. Grier essays a surprisingly suave “Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me” with spunky accompaniment from the Basie outfit. Lizz Wright navigates “Love You Madly” with swaggering grace and irresistible uptown sass. The vocal ensemble Afro Blue dazzles with “Lady Be Good,” the voices wordlessly glisten separately/together as light through a prism, then join Austin for a grooving, kaleidoscopic, and STUNNING take on the 20
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Sacks, driving cyclic phrases that drill into your skull, and soloing from Talmor that, like that bowl of Cream of Wheat TV commercial, will follow and warm you all day. “Scent” is a spacious hunk of balladry in which notes are parsed out with an aching, yet not tentative, clarity and a bereaved sob-into-the-wilderness (a little different than cry-in-your-beer) quality. Talmor has a vibrant, hearty, low-on-vibrato, and a not too sentimental tenor sound, but his compositions are the stars here—no frameworks/excuses for drawn-out soloing, full of intriguing shades/arrangements and loaded with gutsy delivery. A winner. (6 tracks, 52 min.) intaktrec.ch
J.C. Hopkins Biggish Band HHHH New York Moment Twee-Jazz Here’s a (probable) rarity: A retro-ish band that transcends (seeming) nostalgia with plenty of class. J.C. Hopkins’ deep background is in the world of indie rock as a member of the Bay Area indie-rock combo Flophouse, but he’s forsaken the zone of alternative pop music in favor of big band jazz (leaning heavily toward the Great American Songbook axis) with his Biggish Band. Hopkins functions here as bandleader, pianist, and songwriter, leaving the vocals to such as Joy Hanson, Nico Sarbanes (also on trumpet), Vanisha-Arlene Gould, and others. “Sublime Beauty” features Gould in a delicious languid ballad in the manner of greats of jazz song Sarah Vaughan and Carmen McRae, her husky and romantic tones caressing the lyrics for all they’re worth—and it might be worth the price of admission just to hear the way she coos the word “objectivity” with killer confidence. The slyly lifting swing of “What Would You Say?” evokes the classy Capitol era of Ol’ Blue Eyes (Mr. Sinatra to you, Mac) and the Verve era of Ella, the voices intertwining elegantly like candle smoke. Hopkins does a dandy job of distilling the nature of the Great American Songbook with a small, sleek orchestra, stylistically emulating Count Basie bounce and the classy arrangements of Nelson Riddle without ever veering to parody (intentional or not) or cheesiness. But get you not the notion this is some look backward—note the drolly urgent bluesy swagger of “The Children Will Lead Us” with its brittle, sleek electric guitar solo, sixstringer Alicyn Yaffe literally coaxing notes (with vivid, slightly wrenching ease) from her axe. The resulting number can be heard as the great lost Ray Charles 1950s take that never was. This album could unite the generations—referring naturally to the ones valuing the crooners and thrushes of yore and the young-ish sharkskin-wearing hepcats getting wise to the ways of the elder ones. Zoot! (11 tracks, 43 min.) jchopkins.com John DiMartino HHHHH Passion Flower: The Music of Billy Strayhorn Sunnyside Pianist/composer Billy Strayhorn was to a degree Duke Ellington’s right hand—“Take the ‘A’ Train,” while forever linked to The Duke, was Strayhorn’s tune. This was not lost on pianist John DiMartino: Passion Flower is an all-Strayhorn set, 14 gems from his pen that became identified with the Ellington songbook, rendered by DiMartino’s quartet of Eric Alexander, tenor sax; Boris Kozlov, bass, and drummer to/for the stars Lewis Nash. As the setting is for four, we get an intimate viewing into Strayhorn’s vividly tasty, many-are-standards tunes. “Isfahan” is a bit of Ellingtonian exotica given a stripped-down treatment as a bebop ballad—DiMartino chasing the ghost of Thelonious Monk, Alexander showing how to take the essence of ‘Trane as a point of departure, all the while playing heartily and semisweetly. “Chelsea Bridge” is one of jazz’s loveliest songs ever, and these fellows get inside it with rare grace and an achingly beautiful sense of economy. Alexander gets a brief, completely unaccompanied solo spot that’s sure to make the other sax-guys in town (any town, really) nervous with its tender assurance. “U.M.M.G” finds DiMartino saying a lot by playing precious few notes and Alexander judiciously using a bit of echo on his horn, building into some brief, bracing dissonance before fading out. “Blood Count” finds Alexander getting poetic against DiMartino’s classically spare chords. What makes this set so special is that many of these tunes are so familiar and the DiMartino posse take them to different places by under-playing and re-harmonizing without muddling (or taking for granted) the inventive, passionate melodies at the core of Strayhorn’s songs. This lot plays it pretty but not excessively so, taking us to the dark corners but not letting the light shine all the way’ round. I like to think Strayhorn would be pleased. (14 tracks, 62 min.) sunnysiderecords.com n ICON | APRIL 2020 | ICONDV.COM | FACEBOOK.COM/ICONDV
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harper’s FINDINGS
INDEX
Jimi Hendrix was cleared of responsibility for the proliferation of London’s non-native parakeet population, whereas humans were found solely responsible for the extinction of the United States’ only native parrot. The collapse of Norse colonies in Greenland was blamed on walrus depletion that in turn arose from falling wholesale prices for walrus ivory. Eighty-five-hundred-year-old human tooth pendants were found at Catalhöyük. The earliest known use of lead-tin-yellow pigment predating 1300 ad was found in sixth-century bc limestone reliefs, which also contain Egyptian blue, from the Palace of Apries. In a gold-lined tomb next to that of the Griffin Warrior, archaeologists found a gold pendant of the Egyptian goddess Hathor. Runologists determined that the nine riddles of the Rök stone bespeak Vikings’ fear of another Fimbulwinter, and a star-shaped magnetic anomaly resulting from an ancient lightning strike was discovered at the Calanais Standing Stones’ Airigh na Beinne Bige. Megadroughts encouraged farmers to clear and cultivate Andean cloud forests. The last remaining Pacific glaciers between the Himalayas and the Andes were expected to melt in the coming decade. In the past two hundred years, American men have cooled by a temperature of 1º F.
Percentage of sexually active Americans who say that their “skills in the bedroom” have improved over the past year: 57 Who say that 2019 was their “best year of sex”: 44 Number of years by which the average age of a North or South American nation’s leader has increased since 1950: 10.5 By which the average age of a European nation’s leader has decreased since then: 2.5 Number of European nations whose leader is 45 years old or younger: 15 Percentage of U.S. Protestants who have “a lot” of confidence in their clergy’s ability to provide useful parenting advice: 49 Of U.S. Catholics who do: 23 Percentage by which the median length of U.S. black Protestant sermons exceeds that of U.S. Catholic homilies: 286 Factor by which evangelical Christian sermons are likelier than those of other Christian traditions to include the phrase “eternal hell”: 3 Average % of their fortunes that the 20 richest Americans gave to charity in 2018: 0.8 Median amount owed by U.S. renters evicted 2014–2016 for failing to pay rent: $1,253 Percentage of those evicted who owed less than $500: 12 Percentage of U.S. manufacturing jobs that required a bachelor’s degree in 1983: 14 That required one in 2018: 31 Projected percentage growth over the next year in the office-chair market: 10 In the gaming-chair market: 30 Chance that an American aged 19 to 34 is prediabetic: 1 in 4 Average percentage by which an obese person contributes more carbon emissions than someone in the “normal-weight” range: 20 Rank of SUVs among contributors to the increase in carbon emissions over the past decade: 2 Rank of the power industry: 1 Percentage of total retail sales made in 2018 that were returned: 10.6 Amount, in tons, of annual carbon emissions that can be attributed to retail returns: 16,500,000 Percentage of American travelers who say they cut back on flying in 2019 for environmental reasons: 38 Percentage of the world’s cities with populations over 500,000 that experience periodic water shortages: 47 Number of people injured in a volcanic eruption in New Zealand in December: 13 Amount of human skin, in square footage, subsequently ordered by New Zealand from the United States: 516 Factor by which the portion of Americans dying at home has increased since 1972: 2 Percentage of U.S. school districts in which the portion of Latino teachers equals or exceeds that of Latino students: 0.1 Year in which the NFL first required teams to interview candidates of color for every available head coaching job: 2003 Number of head coaches of color employed by the NFL at the time: 3 Number who are today: 4 Percentage by which men are more likely than women to frame research findings in top scientific journals with positive adjectives: 21 By which the use of a positive adjective in a paper title or abstract increases subsequent citations in those journals: 13 Percentage of Americans who think that the Chinese government is sometimes or very often a source of disinformation: 36 Who think that CNN is: 36 Number of fact-checking organizations that were active in 2014: 103 That are active today: 225 Rank of Donald Trump among the most admired men in America: 1 Of Barack Obama: 1
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Established brands are resilient against fake news, which was also found to implant false memories. Fish farmers freed a bald eagle from an octopus. In Australia, hypersaline effluent at the Sydney Desalination Plant was found to have increased the local population of one-spot puller. The sounds of underwater piledriving elicit signs of both alarm and habituation in longfin squid, and the medium-term stress level of fish can be determined by plucking their scales and testing for cortisol. Illuminating bat caves disturbs bats. European zoologists urged the preservation of tree cavities to accommodate honeybees, and a reward remained on offer for information leading to the poisoner of seven million Florida bees. Military interrogators at the end of Word War II were found to have improperly disregarded Nazis’ claims of having invented a form of DDTmuch safer for mammals.
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Italic fonts were rated more liberal than boldface ones, and a feeling of vulnerability to disease was found to predict political conservatism. Liberals are likelier than conservatives to experience caring emotions in their chests, whereas conservatives are likelier to experience them in their faces. Patients from the McLean Hospital Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Institute who each had one of their real hands and a rubber hand stroked synchronously by Harvard doctors who then dabbed fake feces on the rubber hand before returning to stroking both hands displayed nearly twice as much facial disgust as patients whose real and rubber hands were stroked asynchronously. A study in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes reported the stress-relieving effects of “enjoyed flirtation” in the workplace. Sexually exploitable men are less attractive to straight women than sexually exploitable women are to straight men. Women, but not men, experience better orgasms with worse socioeconomic circumstances. Female Chinese university students who shift their vocal pitch up are perceived as more attractive, whereas male counterparts who shift their pitch down become less attractive. Baboons’ clear articulation of proto-vowels led scientists to conclude that speech could have begun developing twenty million years earlier than was previously thought. Mantled howler monkeys howl for longer in the resource-rich interiors of forests than in areas impacted by human activity. Japanese macaques were recolonizing the abandoned zone around Fukushima. 22
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SOURCES: 1,2 72Point Inc (NYC); 3–5 One Earth Future (Broomfield, Colo.); 6–9 Pew Research Center (Washington); 10 Gabriel Zucman, University of California, Berkeley; 11,12 The Eviction Lab (Princeton, N.J.); 13,14 Nicole Smith, Georgetown University (Washington); 15,16 Raynor Group (West Hempstead, N.Y.); 17 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta); 18 Faidon Magkos, University of Copenhagen (Denmark); 19,20 International Energy Agency (Paris); 21 National Retail Federation (Washington); 22 Optoro (Washington); 23 UBS (London); 24 The Nature Conservancy (Arlington, Va.); 25,26 Middlemore Hospital (Auckland, New Zealand); 27 Haider J. Warraich, VA Boston Healthcare System; 28 Washington Post; 29–31 Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (Orlando, Fla.); 32,33 Marc Lerchenmueller, University of Mannheim (Germany); 34,35 Ipsos (Chicago); 36,37 Bill Adair, Duke University (Durham, N.C.); 38,39 Gallup (Atlanta).
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14 | DEAD CAN DANCE
So many have tried to copy you, but can’t. How do you attribute this popularity? It’s flattering, it is. Our music has been used in third-party works—lots of lifting of the voices—and 80 percent of it isn’t my cup of tea. They use Lisa’s voice a lot because it injects human emotion into their songs. That’s Lisa’s forte, her voice is very emotive. What arrangements do you most want to perform on this tour? We have no favorites. What was interesting was choosing songs that have never been performed live outside of their studio settings. That was probably the most eagerly anticipated part of the whole process—how can we make this work live? All we ever imagined was its studio recording. Do you make those moments work onstage by doing original arrangements or improvising? I’d say the original. Let me put it this way: all of our recordings and productions do not exist in multi-track form. No one can do remixes of our work. That was done on purpose. Like an artist who makes a painting or a sculpture, they don’t do versions of the work—they create one final piece, and that’s it. That’s been our approach to music since our start—an approach like fine art. There’s only one, so we try to be faithful to our original. To us, that is our unique template. Voices change. You’ll never emulate the sound of your voice at age 20 but you get close. And improvisation? That’s where our love of progressive rock stops in its tracks. n (Dead Can Dance’s appearance at The Met Philadelphia on April 17 has been postponed. Check themetphilly.com for updates.)
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7 | FAREED ZAKARIA
have proved a huge problem in this case—is just one example among hundreds. The scholar who has long studied this topic, Paul Light, notes that under John F. Kennedy, the Cabinet departments had 17 “layers” of hierarchy. By the time Trump took office, there were a staggering 71 layers. Both parties have contributed to the problem, making the federal government a caricature of bureaucratic inefficiency. Most of these dysfunctions are replicated at the state and local level with their own smaller agencies. The challenge of creating a national strategy is complicated by the reality that the true power in public health lies with 2,684 state, local and tribal systems, each jealously guarding its independence. We like to celebrate American federalism as the flourishing of local democracy. But this crazy quilt patchwork of authority is proving a nightmare when tackling an epidemic that knows no borders, and where any locality with a weak response will allow the infection to keep spreading elsewhere. What happens on Florida’s beaches doesn’t stay on Florida’s beaches. It’s an easy cop-out to say that America can’t mirror China’s dictatorship. The governments that are handling this pandemic effectively include democracies like South Korea, Taiwan and Germany. Many of the best practices employed in places like Singapore and Hong Kong are not tyrannical but smart—testing, contact tracing, and isolation. But all these places have governments that are well-funded, efficient and responsive. In today’s world, with problems that spill across borders at lightning speed, “well executed government” is what makes a country truly exceptional. n 24
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7 | BOSTON GLOBE
own reelection prospects, and who would work with other nations to stem the tide of COVID-19 cases around the world. What we have instead is a president epically outmatched by a global pandemic. A president who in late January, when the first confirmed coronavirus case was announced in the United States, downplayed the risk and insisted all was under control. A president who, rather than aggressively test all those exposed to the virus, said he’d prefer not to bring ashore passengers on a contaminated cruise ship so as to keep national case numbers (artificially) low. A president who, consistent with his mistrust and undermining of scientific fact, has misled the public about unproven cures for COVID-19, and who baited-and-switched last week about whether the country ought to end social distancing to open up by Easter, and then about whether he’d impose a quarantine on New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A president who has pledged to oversee the doling out of the $500 billion in corporate bailout money in the latest stimulus package, some of which will go to the travel industry in which his family is invested. A president who spent a good chunk of a recent press conference complaining about how hard it is for a rich man to serve in the White House even as Americans had already begun to lose their jobs, their health care, and their lives. A president who has reinforced racial stigma by calling the contagion a “Chinese virus” and failed to collaborate adequately with other countries to contain their outbreaks and study the disease. A president who evades responsibility and refuses to acknowledge, let alone own, the bitter truth of National Institutes of Health scientist Dr. Anthony Fauci’s testimony: that the country’s testing rollout was “a failing.”
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iming is everything in pandemic response: It can make the difference between a contained local outbreak that endures a few weeks and an uncontrollable contagion that afflicts millions. The Trump administration has made critical errors over the past two months, choosing early on to develop its own diagnostic test, which failed, instead of adopting the World Health Organization’s test—a move that kneecapped the US coronavirus response and, by most public health experts’ estimation, will cost thousands if not hundreds of thousands of American lives. Rather than making the expected federal effort to mobilize rapidly to distribute needed gowns, masks, and ventilators to ill-equipped hospitals and to the doctors and nurses around the country who are left unprotected treating a burgeoning number of patients, the administration has instead been caught outbidding individual states (including Massachusetts) trying to purchase medical supplies. It has dragged its heels on invoking the Defense Production Act to get scarce, sorely needed ventilators and masks into production so that they can be distributed to hospitals nationwide as they hit their peaks in the cycle of the epidemic. It has left governors and mayors in the lurch, begging for help. The months the administration wasted with prevarication about the threat and its subsequent missteps will amount to exponentially more COVID-19 cases than were necessary. In other words, the president has blood on his hands. It’s not too much for Americans to ask of their leaders that they be competent and informed when responding to a crisis of historic proportions. Instead, they have a White House marred by corruption and incompetence, whose mixed messages roil the markets and rock their sense of security. Instead of compassion and clarity, the president, in his addresses to the nation, embodies callousness, self-concern, and a lack of compass. Dangling unverified cures and possible quarantines in front of the public like reality TV cliffhangers, he unsettles rather than reassures. The pandemic reveals that the worst features of this presidency are not merely late-night comedy fodder; they come at the cost of lives, livelihoods, and our collective psyche. Many pivotal decision points in this crisis are past us, but more are still to come. For our own sake, every American should be hoping for a miraculous turnaround—and that the too-little, too-late strategy of the White House task force will henceforth at least prevent contagion and economic ruin of the grandest scale. But come November, there must be a reckoning for the lives lost, and for the vast, avoidable suffering about to ensue under the president’s watch. n
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The Los Angeles Times SUNDAY CROSSWORD PUZZLE
WHAT’S MISSING? By David Alfred Bywaters
ACROSS
1 6 11 15 19 20 21 22 23 25 27 28 30 31 32 34 36 38 39 41 43 44 47 49 50 54 56 57 58 59 61 63 67 68 70 71 73 74 76 81 83 85 87 88 91 26
Worrier’s agenda Audibly amazed “Zounds!” Ingredient in some pancakes Musical genre that means “work” in Italian Wrist bones Nautilus captain “A-Hunting We Will Go” songwriter Feeling caused by reading too many self-referential articles? Where movie actors rehearse Southern accents? Left Often-improvised light source Soybean paste Factor of DX Spray Walk proudly Lobster __ When doubled, a dangerous fly “Yo ho ho” beverage “Poison” shrub Get top billing for Prodigy Unrestrained episode Goddess of peace Overhead support for a small army? Urban pedestrian’s maneuver? Noise Narrow victory margin Infielders Performer with a record 21 Oscar nominations They hang around Try Rite lead-in? Fútbol cheer Chicago’s __ Center Shamus Ostrichlike bird Edit __ Seamy component, as of politics Digits in a clumsiness metaphor Big league members R-rating reason Savory jelly Insult humor in a cornfield? Trust that a supervised job will lead to full-time work?
93 Transplant, in a way 94 Demeter’s Roman counterpart 96 Cat pickup spot 97 Very 99 1972 missile pact 101 Pig thief of rhyme 102 Estonia, once: Abbr. 105 Winner’s flag 107 Fallback strategy 109 Perfectly detailed model 112 Gnome cousin 113 Floral neckwear 115 Follow 117 Cheer for 118 Legume farmer’s concern? 121 Sailing one small ship after another? 123 Violin music word 124 Hudson-to-Niagara River canal 125 Not yet realized 126 Shilling’s five 127 Fraction of a min. 128 Stare blankly 129 Shows the way 130 Biblical mounts DOWN
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 24 26 29 33 35 37 40 42 44
Act aggressively toward Very tops Hang it up, so to speak Muse with a lyre Hotel amenities Do something Pace of walking Rival of Sparta Dramatic growth periods Bakery shell Finish Microbe With full force Searches for a well, say Actor Mineo Obtained with effort Indefatigable Appointed one Worshipper Best time for beachcombing Camel’s fat-storage site Afternoon date, maybe Seafood sauce Industry bigwigs Aesopian conclusion Stop Glass unit
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45 46 48 50 51 52 53 55 58 60 62 64 65 66 69 72 75 77 78 79 80 82 84 86 88 89 90 91 92 95
Pitcher Nomo with two no-nos Spring month in Porto Bring to bear Indian tea region “Ask somebody else” Italian city known for a shroud Providence athletes “No more for me” Well-meaning Dwarf planet since 2006 How-__: manuals Adagio and presto Gamut Kyle or Kurt of NASCAR Early computer Badinage Still eligible for a full refund, as clothing Pill bottle info Catch in a sting Pair in jigs? Put up Mil. flying branch Gallery event Miscalculation, say Galette cooker Merrymakers Feature of a gravycovered sandwich Port straddling the Bosporus Uno, por ejemplo Magazine with a pronoun title
98 Large size of the ’80s that now sounds tiny 100 Half-baked 102 Sedate protests 103 Wall fixture 104 Roams freely 106 Sparkly headgear 108 Myanmar, once 110 Family nickname 111 Bounding gaits 114 Cut off 116 __ out a living 119 Holliday nickname 120 Snider of Twisted Sister 122 Elevs. Answer to March’s puzzle, NO RHYME, NO REASON
agenda ART Thru 4/15 Brush & Lens: The Female Perspective. View the full collection online. Gallery On Fourth, 401 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-905-4627. Galleryonfourth.org Thru 4/30 Joseph Barrett and folk artist Mitch Michener. View show online! Silverman Gallery, Bucks County Impressionist Art. Buckingham Green, rte. 202, 4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA. 215-794-4300. Silvermangallery.com
Thru 4/30 Holistic artist-muralist Laura C. Bray. Social distancing equals more social connection. Entertaining artful online videos, blog posts and inspirations: elevate your mood with Mural Dreams by Laura on Facebook, Instagram.com /mural_dreams_by_laura, YouTube, and Muraldreams.com. Thru 5/3 Color & Complexity, 30 Years at
Durham Press. Online tours. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N. 5th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-4333. allentownartmuseum.org
Thru 6/14 The Art of the Miniature XXVIII. The 28th invitational exhibition of fine art miniatures from around the world. View entire show online at thesnowgoosegallery.com. The Snow Goose Gallery, 470 Main St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-974-9099. Thru 9/7 200 Years of Bucks County Art. Mercer Museum, 84 So. Pine St., Doylestown, PA. 215-345-0210. Mercermuseum.org ART FESTIVALS
5/9-5/10 Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission Art & Craft Show, celebrating 55 years. May 9, 10am-5pm & May 10, 11am-5pm. Historic Main Street, Bethlehem, PA. Bfac-lv.org 5/22-5/24 Mayfair Festival of the Arts, at Cedar Crest
College. Free admission, art, food, and performance. Fun for the entire family. Allentown, PA. Cedarcrest.edu/mayfair
THEATER
4/16-4/19 Dogfight. Northampton Community College, NCC Theatre Dept., Kopecek Hall, 3835 Green Pond Rd., Bethlehem, PA. 484-4843412. Ncctix.org 5/2 The Color Purple. 2 PM and 7:30 PM. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132. statetheatre.org
MUSIC
5/8-5/9 113th Bethlehem Bach Festival, Bethlehem, PA. Complete schedule & tickets at Bach.org. 610866-4382, ext.115/110. 5/15-5/17 113th Bethlehem Bach Festival, Bethlehem, PA. Complete schedule & tickets at Bach.org. 610866-4382, ext.115/110.
MUSIKFEST CAFÉ 101 Founders Way Bethlehem, PA 610-332-1300 Artsquest.org
Visit website for online programming including promoting local musicians’ streaming concerts, art gallery tours, playlists of upcoming shows! ArtsQuest.org/athome 4/16 Here Come the Mummies 4/24 WXPN Welcomes Guided By Voices 4/26 WXPN Welcomes Jonny Lang 5/5 Jake E. Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel
DINNER THEATER Thru 4/31 Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. Fridays & Saturdays, 7:30-10:00, Peddler’s Village, routes 202 & 263, Lahaska, PA. 215-794-4000. Peddlersvillage.com
Thru 4/30 Every Thurs.-Sat., Dinner and a Show at SteelStacks, Bethlehem, PA. 5-10:00pm, table service and valet parking. For more info visit steelstacks.org n
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