ICON Magazine

Lakecia Benjamin Jonathan Hogue

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

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Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com

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PRODUCTION

Paul Rosen

Joanne Smythe

Margaret M. O’Connor

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

A.D. Amorosi

Ricardo Barros

Robert Beck

Pete Croatto

Geoff Gehman

Susan Van Dongen Grigsby

Fredricka Maister

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.

Lakecia Benjamin. Photo: ©Elizabeth Leitzell. Page 16

BLACK & WHITE

IT’S LIKE ANY OFthe questions you ask yourself when trying to communicate with someone. Who is your audience, where do you start, what are the key points to touch on, and how much is too much information? What kind of delivery will work best? A painter has more options, such as scale, composition, and color harmony. The spoken word is short-lived, but the painted image is there as long as the observer cares to look at it.

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Robert Beck is a painter, writer, lecturer and ex-radio host. His paintings have been featured in more than seventy juried and thirty solo gallery shows, and three solo museum exhibitions. His column has appeared monthly in ICON Magazine since 2005. www.robertbeck.net

exhibitions

Fine Art & Craft Show

Annual Downtown Bethlehem

Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission

Main Street Historic Bethlehem, PA bfac-lv.org

May 13, 10–5, May 14, 11–5

Held over Mother’s Day Weekend, this juried sidewalk art show is a celebration of the finest local and regional artists, and craft artisans.

Judging takes place on Saturday for Best of Show, Second Prize, Third Prize and Best Display, with over $1,300 in prizes. Awards are presented Saturday evening to recipients.

This year’s Artist in Residence is local artist, Tina Cantelmi, who will be painting and displaying her recent work. We welcome families to take part in our Children’s Art Activities, including interactive art projects and a chance to make a special handmade gift or card celebrating Mother’s Day. Local musicians will be performing along the Show route, so that you can enjoy acoustic tunes as you peruse the artist stalls. This free event is fun for the all ages

Outside – Inside Artists’ Gallery, 18 Bridge Street, Lambertville 609-397-4588 lambertvillearts.com

April 6–30; Thurs–Sun, 11–6

Larry Mitnick and Heather Barros have different approaches, yet one finds common ground in their work. Mitnick abstracts, while Barros paints figuratively.

The Art of the Miniature XXXI

The 31st invitational exhibition of fine art miniatures from around the world. The Snow Goose Gallery 470 Main St., Bethlehem, PA 610- 974- 9099 thesnowgoosegallery.com May 7–June 10

Now in its 31st year, The Snow Goose Gallery presents one of the most unique exhibitions in the area: fine art miniatures small enough to be held in the hand. More than 90 national and international award winning artists are featured, with works in watercolor, oil, etchings, sculptures, drawings, acrylics, mixed media and more.

Join us for our special Collectors’ Preview on Saturday, May 6, from 12–5. Meet some of the artists at our opening reception on Sunday, May 7, from 1–5.

The entire exhibition will be online beginning opening weekend.

Gallery hours are Tues.–Sat., 11–5

The gallery will be open on Mother’s Day weekend as well.

For more information, please visit our website, or call 610-974-9099

John Gulyas

Donna Gratkowsk

Heather Barros, Edge of Woods, pastel, 9 x 6.5

Larry Mitnick, Open Window, acrylic, 20 x 30”

Celyne Brassard (Canada), Spring Activity, oil/lacquer, 1 1/4” x 3 1/4"

Sue Adair (NY), Autumn Red-Belly, mixed media, 3” x 2 1/4”

Sandra Corpora Paintings

Small Works: Landscape, Portrait, Still Life

Bethlehem Town Hall Rotunda Gallery

10 E. Church Street, Bethlehem

April 5–May 12, 2023

Reception: April 16 2–4 PM

Hours: Mon.–Fri., 8 AM–4:00 PM

Closed Weekends and Holidays

The selection of small works here show the practice of the artist creating across subject matter and methods. The work represents teaching pieces, plein air pieces, and study pieces. Whether the subject matter is landscape, portraits with live models, or still life studies, the theme and subject matter must be interpreted honestly. The struggle is there, but it shouldn’t show.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission

David Stier: Close to Home Silverman Gallery

4920 York Rd., Holicong, PA silvermangallery.com 215-794-4300

Through April 30, 2023

Opening reception April 2, 1–4 Wed.–Sat.11–6, Sun. 11–4, and by appt.

The gallery’s first exhibition of the season will feature a wide variety of landscape, still life, and interior paintings, presented in Stier’s own frames, crafted in his workshop.

“Finding a subject is a private, subtle, elusive matter. I often conceive of subjects in the peace and tranquility of twilight. Here, in silence and stillness, and in the space between thoughts, giving careful attention to what I see, I find roots in the present moment, a witness to life and its miraculous beauty.”

11th Annual Juried Art Exhibition

AOY Art Center

949 Mirror Lake Road Yardley / aoyarts.org

April 14–May 14

Awards at Opening Reception on 4/14, 6–8

The exhibition will feature paintings, sculptures, mixed media, and photography, from abstract to realistic depictions of everyday life. Jessica Todd Smith, director of curatorial initiatives and the Susan Gray Detweiler curator of American Art at the Phila. Museum of Art curated this show. Awards and prizes will be announced at the Opening Reception. The gallery is open 12–5, beginning Sat., 4/15, and then Fridays, Sat., Sun. through 5/14.

Neighbors, 18 x 27 inches, oil on board

Hayloft, 20 x 14 inches, oil on board

Carole Barocca, Swan Ballet, photograph

Rob Herion, Arising, handmade wooden box.

Jo-Ann Osnoe, Summer Escape, oil and cold wax on cradled panel

Fall Afternoon Along Cooks Creek

Haley From Life, oil

the art of poetry

Charles Rosen Bridge

I wanted to cross the bridge.

She asked: “Have you ever burned one?”

“Yes,” I replied, stung by the memory —

“And did you try to repair it?”

“No,” I said, I built a wall instead.

I started across at a slow crawl.

She asked, “Are you afraid it’s too far?”

“Yes,” I replied, tasting my weakness —

“Listen for the one who inspires you,” she said,

“And follow the length of your fears.”

My pace quickened, and I crossed.

“What about your fears?” she asked.

“Gone. Water under the bridge.”

“And whose voice did you hear?”

“Oh, it was my mother’s. She said “Go!

— and take a sandwich.”

— David Stoller

Charles Rosen (1878–1950) was one of Pennsylvania’s (and later, Woodstock’s) finest painters. Rosen was celebrated for his exquisite impressionist paintings, which focused primarily on the Delaware River and Bucks County surroundings in the early 20th century — then, beginning around 1925, for his powerful industrial/precisionist style. Brian Peterson, former senior curator at the Michener Museum, viewed Railroad Bridge as a “transitional painting” that represents Rosen’s dramatic move to a modern style while retaining certain impressionist flourishes. The subject, a bridge, seems to be an apt symbol of Rosen’s metamorphosis, crossing a bridge from one shore to another — uniquely equipped to capture the beauty of both. n

David Stoller has had a career spanning law, private equity, and entrepreneurial leadership. He was a partner and co-head of Milbank Tweed and led various companies in law, insurance, live entertainment, and the visual arts. David is an active art collector and founder of River Arts Press, which published a collection of his poetry, Finding My Feet.

Railroad Bridge, 1925

PHOTOGRAPH AND ESSAY BY RICARDO BARROS

CORNEL WEST

There is no one “right” way to make a photograph. So why are some pictures stronger than others? Certain photographs stop us in our tracks, while others we hardly notice. Is it the camerawork?

Some purists insist on unaltered photographs, imagery that comes straight from the camera. For them, artistry resides in the seeing. Purists say that the camera (and photographic technique) should be an extension of natural observation. I was one of these purists. By stalking the light, I could make a beautiful picture almost anywhere out of nearly anything. I grew dissatisfied because, for me, that process became one of finding compositions.

Slowly, the missing elements dawned upon me. Foremost among them was authenticity. By this, I mean whether the image comes from the photographer’s heart. Whether the work is unique to the maker. And then, too, there is the power of story. What does the photograph — or the photographer — have to say? What is this person sharing?

This insight led me to a more purposeful approach. Rather than be opportunistic, photographing whatever traipsed upon my path, I would identify a subject and make an appointment to photograph. My photographs became conceptually driven. No longer was I a passive observer; I embraced the role of an active participant. I engaged with my subjects as well as the camerawork. I photographed events that might never have happened were it not for my initiative.

I still find beauty to be beautiful. But beauty does not have the hold over me it once did. For me, the problem with beautiful photographs is that, too often, they show me something I already know. They repeat what has been said many times before.

So, what makes a photograph strong? For me, it is a coalescence of several components. These include the subject and how the subject is seen, the story, authenticity, the imagery’s relevance, and appropriate camerawork. When these elements work in harmony, the photograph sings.

I was commissioned by Princeton University to photograph Cornel West. To make this portrait, I brought him to meet LUV and KASSO, graffiti writers who had painted a mural of his likeness. n

Ricardo Barros’ works are in the permanent collections of eleven museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the author of Facing Sculpture: A Portfolio of Portraits, Sculpture and Related Ideas

the list

VALLEY —

A good ruin is a grand place to imagine long-gone jobs, lives and vibes when they were vibrant. Lock Ridge Furnace is a great imaginarium, a roofless, windowless, sometimes wall-less stone center for burning coal and milling iron from 1868 to 1921, when the Valley was an industrial titan. The building’s graceful, gritty geometry has a European flair, conjuring collapsed castles in England and pancaked monasteries in Ireland. An historic place on the National Register, the Furnace contains a neat museum devoted to old iron making and a courtyard magnetic enough for weddings and other celebrations. Even better, it anchors a gracious, generous 59acre park with trails, picnic areas and a fishable creek. Better yet, this month a large patch planted by a furnace worker yields a lake of bluebells, a lovely reminder of nature overtaking human nature. (525 Franklin St., Alburtis; 610-4351074; lehighcounty.org; lehighcountyhistoricalsociety.org)

Dan Roebuck loves to christen his movies around his birthplace. Five years ago three Valley theaters premiered the Bethlehem native’s Getting Grace, a charming, shot-withheart feature pairing a rather awkward funeral director with a fiercely cheerful terminally ill teen. On April 22 the Roxy Theatre in Northampton will debut Lucky Louie, in which Roebuck plays one of four former prisoners helping a detective crack a case 50 years cold. Also made in the Valley, the film was written and directed by Roebuck with his daughter, Grace, and produced by A Channel of Peace, a spiritual nonprofit run by Roebuck and his wife, Tammy. The latest picture extends a crammed, catapult career for Roebuck, who played Andy Grif-

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Geoff Gehman is a former arts writer for The Morning Call in Allentown and the author of five books, including Planet Mom: Keeping an Aging Parent from Aging, The Kingdom of the Kid: Growing Up in the LongLost Hamptons, and Fast Women and Slow Horses: The (mis)Adventures of a Bar, Betting and Barbecue Man (with William Mayberry) He lives in Bethlehem. geoffgehman@verizon.net

CITY

If spring really and truly hangs you up the most, whether it is the standard-bearing song by Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf or the re-jiggering of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, then this month’s THE LIST column isn’t really for you, is it. Begone, or just hang here and wait for winter, grouch.

No matter what religion you practice or don’t, the annual tradition of the South Street Headhouse District Easter Promenade — this year on Sunday, April 9 at 12:30 p.m. — is a treat. Always led by Halloween’s inimitable host-with-the-most holiday-appropriate costume

changes, Henri David, this year’s Easter strut, celebrates its 90th anniversary. And, of course, children and grown-ups will come dressed in their Sunday best, so expect a visit from the Easter Bunny, who judges the best-dressed contests. But please get your Easter picture taken with Henri David — he is the jewel in that and any crown.

Stand-up comedian and dramatic actor Adam Sandler — a Philadelphia favorite, what with Netflix’s locally-filmed basketball dramedy of

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A.D. Amorosi is a Los Angeles Press Club National Art and Entertainment Journalism award-winning journalist and national public radio host and producer (WPPM.org’s Theater in the Round) married to a garden-to-table cooking instructor + award-winning gardener, Reese, and father to dogdaughter Tia.

GEOFF GEHMAN

— A.D. AMOROSI

Dan Roebuck

Showing Up (Dir. Kelly Reichardt). Starring: Michelle Williams, Hong Chau, André Benjamin. The Portland, Oregon art scene provides the backdrop for cowriter-director Kelly Reichardt’s deceptively low-key drama. The focus initially seems to be the rivalry between sculptors Lizzy (Michelle Williams) and Jo (Hong Chau); the latter is also the former’s absentee-to-a-fault landlord, which provides for a very funny and relatable running gag about a lack of hot water. But Reichardt and her co-scenarist Jon Raymond’s perspective quickly broadens to take in and sketch the distinct personalities of the people — friends and family both — who surround Lizzy and Jo. A vivid portrait of a longenduring community emerges. And even touches that seem at first too symbolic (such as the injured pigeon that Lizzy nurses back to health over the course of the film) prove to have a larger, more mysterious purpose. Reichardt’s best movies manage to touch the sublime in the most unexpected of ways, and Showing Up is a prime example of that.

[R] HHHH

Keith Uhlich is a NY-based writer published at Slant Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out New York, and ICON. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. His personal website is (All (Parentheses)), accessible at keithuhlich.substack.com.

Cocaine Bear (Dir. Elizabeth Banks). Starring: Keri Russell, Alden Ehrenreich, Ray Liotta. Among its many sins, director Elizabeth Banks’ and screenwriter Jimmy Warden’s execrable comic exploitation film futzes up a reunion of the central trio from the great TV series The Americans, wasting a try-hard Keri Russell, a cameoing Matthew Rhys, and a game-as-ever Margo Martindale in this grisly tale of a grizzly bear that goes on a murderous rampage after ingesting several kilos of cocaine. In the words of William Hurt’s mobster character from David Cronenberg’s A History of Violence, “How do you fuck that up?!?” The answer is repeatedly, via chintzy CGI (the bear never once looks like it exists in the same space as the performers), jaw-droppingly inept staging, and a smugly sentimental subtheme about trans-species mother love (I wish I were joking). All this and an ill-used Ray Liotta in his sadly final role? Bare those claws and tear this thing to shreds!

[R] H

How to Blow Up a Pipeline (Dir. Daniel Goldhaber). Starring: Ariela Barer, Kristine Froseth, Lukas Gage. Director Daniel Goldhaber and co-writers Ariela Barer and Jordan Sjol turn Andreas Malm’s 2021 cli-

Cocaine Bear.

learned that, as a musician, your sound is the first thing people get to know about you — before who you are or what else you do — so you have to make it count. You’re preparing them for your message. So, your pitch and your timbre are crucial in that introduction.”

That is something that saxophonist and composer Lakecia Benjamin told me about recording her exquisite Pursuance : The Coltranes (which contained six briskly expressionist covers, each by Alice and John Coltrane) as well as her teaming with New School college buddy, pianist Georgia Anne Muldrow on the latter’s Mama album.

Between what Benjamin has executed elegantly on Pursuance, her conversation around jazz, and her sisterly devotion to Muldrow, I knew we had to speak again.

I didn’t realize that Benjamin would have to tragically endure a horrific accident, first — in September 2021, returning from a Cleveland Tri-C Jazz Festival gig where she would fracture her jaw and collarbone and break her scapula. After

BENJAMIN

all that — nearly dying — she was back on the road two weeks later at Pittsburgh Jazz Fest, playing with her jaw broken.

Coltranes, Benjamin not only made it through that pain but found herself emboldened to urgent create her

[I WANTED] TO DO LEGACY WORK, SOMETHING TO PASS DOWN TO THE NEXT GENERATIONS, MEANT FINDING SOMEONE THAT WHEN THEY SPEAK, WE LISTEN. WHO WAS AN ELDER THAT WOULD STOP OUR TRACKS AND BE GENDER-

string trio on “Mercy”), poet Sonia Sanchez (on “Blast”), and – in one on his final performances – saxophone genius Wayne Shorter reading poetry on “Supernova.”

With all this and tracks dedicated to the Afro-Futurism of a “Trane” and a “Basquiat,” Phoenix is Benjamin’s most focused, finessed, and provocative recording. On top of Phoenix, Benjamin is part of the Kimmel Cultural Campus’ Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour event on Saturday, April 8, at Verizon Hall.

How dedicated is Lakecia Benjamin to her craft? She phoned me from Poland just after she finished up the last notes of a concert where audiences were enthralled.

next work — her epically noisy and nuanced fourth album, Phoenix , that touches on the necessity of ancestors and influences while reconfiguring them in a present-day and emotional (and often experimental) set of soundscapes. Co-produced with Terri Lyne Carrington, Benjamin’s Pursuance quartet — Victor Gould (piano, organ, Fender Rhodes), E.J. Strickland (drums), Ivan Taylor (basses) — is joined by legends such as pianist Patrice Rushen, activist Angela Davis, vocalist Dianne Reeves (and a

A.D. Amorosi: The first thing that I think of when I think of Lakecia Benjamin is hardcore evolution –and quickly – considering your move through the R&B of your first leader album, Retox, to your spaced-out soul work with pianist Georgia Anne Muldrow, to your spiritualized tribute to both Alice and John Coltrane on Pursuance, and now, where you are today on Phoenix, and its confident mix of angularity, chaos, and elegant melody. What does evolution mean to you?

Lakecia Benjamin: I don’t know what evolution is or what it means, but I always try to reflect on the times and the space I am in. Where the planets are, and how they line up. 2012 when I dropped my first album, is night and day different

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From soul to spiritual serenity to pandemonium: the many sides of saxophonist LAKECIA

Photo: ©Elizabeth Leizell

AT A TIME WHENBroadway and Off-Broadway are said to be plagued with early show closings and hard-to-fill theaters in a postpandemic, current recession economy, composer and creator Jonathan Hogue is an anomaly, an artist whose first show, Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical just got another of its extensions for an Off-Broadway run at Playhouse 46 — this time through April 30.

Why audiences are drawn to a satirical look at Netflix’s hit program, Stranger Things — itself, adarkly comic take on 80s sci-fi tropes and souped- up synthetic musical themes — captivates Hogue as much as it captures the public’s imagination.

“Several things are going on with our show that I am thrilled about,” said Hogue from a coffee shop near the St. Luke’s theater space at 308 W. 46th Street. “The first is that our show is built upon the biggest IT in television right now, so there is a lot of immediate recognition there. But, in addition, we are taking some- thing familiar, flipping it on its back, and doing something new with it. And audiences want to know what that might be or look like — it’s a level of curiosity that drives them.”

Not unlike a Rocky Horror Picture Show, Hogue also states that the crowd around Stranger Sings! has become something of a cult with audience members coming to see his show as often as 12 times — for now. “Because it is comedy and because of its improvisational manner, Stranger Sings! is never the same show twice. Every show that you see is a different experience.” Hogue points, too, to how Stranger Sings! Is performed in the round for four-sided, differing, audience-to-actor interaction.

What sort of actor does Hogue require for his Stranger Sings! cast and their takes on Stranger Things familiars such as Mike, Eleven, Lucas, Dustin, and, of course, Joyce? Definitely artists who can think on their feet and bring something new to each character every time out. “There is a direction that we have given to Nickolaus Colon (Hopper), Kyle Mangold (Steve/Jonathan), Jamir Brown (Lucas), Jeremiah

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How Strange is Jonathan Hogue the creator/writer behind Off-Broadway’s Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical

Jonathan Hogue. Photo: Jennifer Broski

Take a trip back to Hawkins, Indiana: 1983… when times were simpler, hair was bigger, and unsupervised children were getting snatched by inter-dimensional creatures.

film classics

Hardcore (1979, Paul Schrader, United States)

You’ve surely seen the memes in which an apoplectic George C. Scott screams, “Turn it off!” repeatedly at some random movie or television clip. Now go back to the source, writer-director Paul Schrader’s second feature, to see the original context. Scott’s religious Midwest American father, Jake VanDorn, is reacting to a XXX film starring his until-then pious daughter. Making like John Wayne in John Ford’s The Searchers (a key text for Schrader and so many of his contemporaries), Jake travels to Los Angeles to infiltrate the erotic cinema underground, torturously risking — as many a Schrader protagonist does — his soul in the process. Despite the obvious influence of Ford’s knotty masterpiece, Hardcore conjures its own bracingly seedy ambience (one memorable strip-club scene imagines Star Wars characters dueling in a salacious cabaret) that engages with and examines humanity’s baser instincts, both pornographic and populist. (Streaming on MUBI.)

Forty Guns (1957, Samuel Fuller, United States)

From frame one, it’s clear that Forty Guns is no ordinary Western. Writer-director Samuel Fuller introduces us to rancher Jessica Drum-

mond, played by a commanding Barbara Stanwyck, in an alternating series of wide and close shots as she gallops along a hillside with her male entourage. She looms large, as does most everything in this CinemaScope production, which packs so much into its 80-minute runtime it leaves you breathless. Fuller’s penchant for hairpin shifts of tone is fully evident: At certain points the film is a comedy, at others a tragedy, and even, in a few instances, a musical (guaranteed the song “High Ridin’ Woman” will be stuck in your subconscious for days). His use of widescreen is equally inspired, particularly in a memorable sequence involving the longest dining room table ever photographed. The film’s briskness and brusqueness has a philosophical weight that eludes all manner of more self-serious artists. (Streaming on Criterion Channel.)

Wavelength (1967, Michael Snow, Canada/United States)

Over forty-five captivating (and aurally challenging) minutes, Michael Snow’s avant-garde masterpiece slowly traverses the lengthy space of an apartment, from a wide shot to an extreme close-up of a photograph on

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KEITH UHLICH

George C. Scott in Hardcore

JONATHAN HOGUE / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18

ody is something of a love language. I had a real love for Stranger Things, and writing a parody of it was a means to stretch its

for Barb? There was a “justice for Barb” campaign online that I built on — there were many things to consider. And once you

(Barb),” noted Hogue. “But it is how they run with it that matters. They bring themselves and their own moment to life within each character.

Hogue has a thing for parody musical making. His script for The Nations that preceded Stranger Sings! reads like a piss-take on The Book of Mormon with its “six millennial American Christian missionaries descending upon a little village somewhere in the third world for a nine-month mission of sharing the Gospel and changing lives.”

What draws Hogue to the form comes down to how naturally he has taken to it as a writer and that the satirical format has been part of his life and artistry since childhood. “I loved Mel Brooks, Monty Python and Saturday Night Live — you can take the familiar and see through it. Parody is about commenting on something that the audience may already have in its head. And par-

scenes or tropes to logical — or illogical — extremes, while paying homage to everything that is great about that streaming show.”

What was the thing that was great, the hook that caught Hogue, concerning Stranger Things?

“The character of Joyce played by Winona Ryder, from the first season on — she is a very manic, eccentric mom,” said Hogue. “We remember Ryder from this whole generation of movies, from Heathers onward. And there was this insistent internet commentary about where Wynona ended, and where Joyce began. There was fun that could be had with that. And you could tell that this character wanted to sing — she is a true diva with her attraction and repulsion to flashing lights. Barb too is intriguing especially since she’s been missing for so much of this. Why didn’t anyone look

and go down that rabbit hole — to say nothing of the fact that Stranger Things is a wealth of multiple homages to all things 1980s its icons and tropes — you can’t escape all of its joys and pleasures.”

Hair metal songs. Power ballads. Synthpop. All of these things and sounds are part of Stranger Things and Stranger Sings! But as a young gentleman who is still in school — by day, he is pursuing an MFA in Theatre Management & Producing at Columbia University — Hogue is part of another generation.

“Unfortunately, I am a 90s baby,” laughs Hogue. “But I still grew up on ET and Raiders of the Lost Ark, so there is something of a nostalgic vibe when I watch Stranger Things. That show connects me to my childhood, and I hope Stranger Sings! connects audiences with their levels of nostalgia, no matter when they were born.” n

Garcia (Dustin), Caroline Huerta (Joyce/Will), Jeffrey Laughrun (Mike) and Harley Seger (Eleven/ Nancy) and SLee

The creative team: Michael Kaish (Music Supervision, Arrangements & Orchestrations), Jonathan Hogur (Book, Music, & Lyrics), Ashley Marinelli (Choreographer), Nick Flatto (director).

the opposite wall. In between, people come and go. A bookcase is moved into place. Two women listen to a distorted version of The Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever.” A man collapses on the floor, and a

TOUCHDOWN / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5

The art school trope is: if you can’t make it good, make it big; and if you can’t make it big, make it red. But black and white is a vernacular that is unconcerned by color relationships, and sometimes it’s the best way to get an idea across — a clear melody instead of full orchestration.

Taking photos was more complex and less available to the average person until the digital age. My dad had a darkroom in the basement, where I learned to appreciate the language of light. City dwellers passionate about photography would build a darkroom in their closet. Now everyone has a camera at their fingertips, and in the city, somebody lives in the closet. More than a century was defined by black & white photos, but now the b&w genre, especially the chemical kind, has become a niche, artisan practice. Color photography has evolved from looking for naturalness or truth in hue to a point now where it is easily manipulated in any direction, and photographs themselves can’t be trusted. Of course, paintings never could.

Many of my New York memories emerge as black & white, even if they eventually hold ground in color. My father’s photos greatly influenced me, and those afternoons as a kid spent after school watching programs on our b&w television. Magazines and movies turned the world to color, but it was clear that it was just dazzle, and you could tell a good story without it. Sometimes better. Black & white comes in the door with an edge, talking tough in a fedora. Like New York. It suggests the viewer consider the historical aspect and not be distracted by a gleam of decoration. It seemed right for this painting.

woman, played by film critic Amy Taubin, calls the police to report a murder. At most other times, the space is empty. The color of the light shifts so that we can see outside the apartment windows, and sometimes not, trapping us inside. A hum on the soundtrack (the titular wavelength?) increases its eardrum-pulsating frequency throughout. The human drama is kept at bay. We have to reach the other side. That distant photograph beckons, promising some kind of release. It’s a literally interior journey during which a whole life is lived. But whose? (Streaming on rarefilmm.)

Mary Poppins (1964, Robert Stevenson, United States) Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…a flying British lady with an umbrella? In the Walt Disney Studios’ classic fantasy, the best-ever nanny (Julie Andrews) descends from the clouds to bring some discipline and cheer into the life of the Banks family — children Jane (Karen Dotrice) and Michael (Matthew Garber), suffragette mom Winnifred (Glynis Johns) and uptight patriarch George (David Tomlinson). There are spoonfuls of sugar that help icky medicine go down, as well as a visit to an animated world of make-believe where you can lunch with dancing waiter penguins. Elsewhere, an ingratiating chimney sweep named Bert (Dick van Dyke) shows that there’s as much magic on the London roofs as on its bustling streets, though be sure to help the local bird lady feed those hungry pigeons for tuppence-a-bag. It’s all supercalifragilistic fun and games until the melancholy necessity to let go of childish things, for young and old alike, settles in. But even as things inevitably change, we can still go fly a kite. (Streaming on Disney+.) n

I wasn’t sure how I wanted to portray the south subway headhouse at the 72nd St. station, and I walked around imagining how it could be presented from various vantage points. I looked through the door glass on the north side and watched a couple of people pay their fare and go down to the platform. One guy waited until the others were through, then he took off his backpack and ducked under the turnstile. He was down the stairs in a flash. Obviously, he makes a practice of it because he has the moves down pat. I wondered if I would be thrown out if I set up my easel inside there. Of course, I would.

There are many black and white pigments to choose from when painting. I used ivory and lamp blacks with titanium and flake whites. Those gave me warm and cool grays, plus other neutrals on my pallet and many lighter and darker shades depending on the proportions of the mix. It’s not a huge temperature range, but enough to play with.

It helps to think of warm and cool as warmer and cooler than what the color is compared to. Just like “large” isn’t a thing, “warm” isn’t a thing. But “warmer” is. It is a comparison to something. These warm(er) and cool(er) grays let me do fun things, like suggest light and shadow. I can push areas of the image away by cooling them and bring others forward with some warmth. That glimmer on the tall building is made of cool white on the warm façade — purposely in opposition — so it reads separate and distinct from the building, like a sunlight reflection, and not a white-color top of a building.

It’s not so much the building’s details that attract my attention; it is that mission-like design. It sits squat in the open square, ringed at a distance by shoulder-to-shoulder tall buildings held in abeyance by… what? Time, I suppose. For now, it looks like a subway station outside of Albuquerque. There is sky and clouds and air. If a sunny day happens, you can find it here. It’s a place where a New Yorker might be tempted to look up. n

Wavelength.

mate change manifesto into a tense and involving thriller, one strangely tinged with humor and optimism. A group of disparate young characters teams up to, as the title implies, destroy an oil pipeline in Texas, with the aim of spurring worldwide systemic change that has been

Flaws aside, the series is in toto as affecting as the game, and (as a new season has now been ordered) it’ll be interesting to see how the cre-

ators adopt the much more sprawling and ambitious (as well as virulently divisive) The Last of Us Part II. [N/R] HHH1/2 n

Solution to FORMING A BOND

frustratingly incremental, if not entirely stagnant. Goldhaber eschews didacticism, choosing to let the meticulously procedural actions of the crew speak for themselves. As these youthful radicals tend to their uncertain present, their pasts are sketched in via expertly interwoven flashbacks that tend to come at heightened moments of suspense. The whole film feels like a tightrope walk over a bottomless pit, which suits our own world’s current ethically and emotionally careening ambiance. You still may be unprepared for how galvanizing the movie ultimately is in its overall lack of doom and gloom. [R] HHHH

The Last of Us (Dirs. Ali Abbasi, Jeremy Webb, Neil Druckmann, Peter Hoar, Liza Johnson, Craig Mazin, Jasmila Zbanic). Starring: Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey. Best Videogame Adaptation Ever is, let’s admit, a low bar. And let’s also acknowledge that the hit HBO series The Last of Us, which just concluded its first nine-episode season, had one of the strongest source materials (a universally beloved 2013 PlayStation action-adventure) from which to extract a serialized narrative. Still cocreators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann’s efforts to transpose the emotionally charged tale of bereaved father Joel Miller (Pedro Pascal) and prickly pre-teen Ellie (Bella Ramsey) as they traverse a world upended by a global funghi-initiated pandemic pays plenty of dividends. The two leads have a terrific chemistry that believably thaws over the course of the season, and the series looks like the millions of bucks that were spent to bring it to life. That said, it’s best when sticking close to Joel and Ellie, less so when it separates them or removes them from the story entirely. (I’m one of those who finds the digressive third episode featuring Nick Offerman and Murray Bartlett as a gay couple navigating the post-apocalypse together too maudlin for its own good.)

The strange theme answers form the name of an actor who played James Bond. The missing one is Daniel Craig, which can be formed by combining ACCRA and IGLOO to make ACCRA_IGLOO.

VALLEY / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

fith’s sidekick on the TV series Matlock and who co-starred as Jay Leno in the TV movie The Late Shift, which chronicles Leno’s latenight rivalry with David Letterman. Exceptionally genial and curious, Roebuck has traveled a galaxy from his youthful training at the Pennsylvania Playhouse in Bethlehem. (1:00 and 6:00 p.m.; Roxy Theatre, 2004 Main St., Northampton; $25; eventbrite.com; 610-262-7699; roxytheaternorthampton.com)

Lehigh University’s Zoellner Arts Center is the only Valley venue big enough, and big-pocketed enough, to present the fabled New York Philharmonic — not once, not twice, but thrice. On April 15 its annual gala will showcase the first local performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra, another fabled ensemble with a mighty long, mighty legacy. Guest conductor Keith Lockhart, the longtime leader of the Boston Pops, will share the stage with boffo Broadway baritone Brian Stokes Mitchell, whose impeccably balanced, cobweb-sweeping voice served him well in the original role of Coalhouse Walker Jr. in “Ragtime” and in his Tony-winning turn in “Kiss Me, Kate.” The concert opens with performances by Bandaloop, a boundary-breaking dance troupe, and singer-songwriter Zia Victoria, whose credits include a tune she composed for the educational foundation of Novak Djokovic, the tennis hero. (8 p.m., Baker Hall, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem; $75 ticket includes dessert reception; 610-758-2787; zoellner.cas.lehigh.edu)

Nature blends with human nature on the Water Street Park trail, which is pretty pleasing without being particularly pretty. The graveland-earth path runs through woods past an abandoned coal-storage pit, its domino-like concrete walls painted with fairly charismatic graffiti; the big scowling face of a big cat somehow reminds me of the eyeglass billboard by the ash graveyard in The Great Gatsby. The trail follows the bending, rushing Saucon Creek and ends underneath a rusty iron-trussed bridge closed to cars and overlooking a cantilevered house hedged with a huge crop of bamboo. What makes the path unique are its east-west neighbors: a bike-and-hike trail created from an extinct railroad line and an ex-dump with butterfly bushes and wickedly tough trees, the Valley’s version of a desert. Across Water Street are two welcoming pit stops: PA House, which serves wood-fired pizzas in a spiffy indoor/outdoor former garage, and Hello Joe, which dispenses coffee and pastries in an Airstream trailer near Adirondack chairs on a creek bank. (Water Street Park, 90 W. Water St., Hellertown; 610-838-7041; hellertownborough.org)

The first Allentown Film Festival is a four-day, four-venue feast featuring everyone from an Allentown mayor’s wife to a pumpkin sculptor to Bill Murray signing and not signing autographs at a Berlin film festival. A baker’s dozen of blocks survey music and mayhem, comedy and horror, family and bad behavior (i.e., a banker jumping into a life-changing trade on 9/11). Every block but one costs $10; the exception, “What Is Art?,” includes a live talk by actor/artist Robert Shields, one half of Shields & Yarnell. (April 13-16, various locations; allentownfilmfestival.org)

The sixth annual Jim Thorpe Independent film festival is a four-day, 18-block banquet of shorts and longs exploring such topics as Mourning Glory and When I Consume You. As in past editions, there will be opening and closing parties, after-screening Q&As with directors, an awards ceremony and a Hollywood-esque hoopla. (4/20-23, Mauch Chunk Opera House, 14 W. Broadway; jimthorpeindependentfilmfest.org) n

CITY / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12

2022 — is returning to the live stage on April 14 at the Wells Fargo Center, surely between breaks of filming his new hardcore Safdie Brothers movie. I caught the show in Atlantic City’s Ettess Arena at the Hard Rock Casino with friend and fellow one-time Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider as the Sandman’s opening act — and the entire show just killed. Including Sandler’s emotional finale dedicated to another old pal and SNL alum, Chris Farley. Don’t miss this. He’s only going to become a bigger film star as time goes by. If he wins an Oscar, BOOM — no more stand-up.

I’m not sure how good things are looking for the Philadelphia Phillies, yet, at the start of their new season at South Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park in April. The last time we saw the Phills was during the autumn and their World Series Red October effort — but, see, we were the lambs that got slaughtered by the Houston Astros. So, are you still excited? Are the Phillies still hungry? Wait and see.

Philadelphia native singer and songwriter Ron Gallo, I believe, has left town for the West Coast and career-making moves, which is only fitting considering his polish and stature. On April 8, Gallo returns to Philly, Northern Liberties, and its Johnny Brenda’s tower of song for a run at his newly released album, Foreground Music, and its surprisingly politically-charged new material and fuzz-toned guitar sound.

From April 1–9, Tony Award-nominated playwrights Lucy Moss and Toby Marlow’s musical dramatization of the Tudor Dynasty and all women Mrs. Henry the VIII (SIX) runs through the Academy of Music on the Kimmel Cultural Campus. SIX has been called “500 years of heartbreak turned into 21st-century empowerment.”

The Wine Walk Philly at XFINITY Live! on Sunday, April 2, sounds scary as I only know this venue to be a beer and bites palace. Clearly, an afternoon of unlimited tastings of nearly 50 wines and pay-as-yougo artisanal food will either change my mind or give me a headache.

Actually, it is THIS sort of thing that I would expect at XFINITY Live!: the rip-snorting, two-day April 14–15, two heavy metal and crushing craft beer fest put together by marauding music’s publication, Decibel

Magazine. Heavy metal and hardcore bands like Suicidal Tendencies, The Black Dahlia Murder, Gorguts, Incantation, and more will roar while 3 Floyds, Broken Goblet Brewing, Brimming Horn Meadery, and many others offer heady, heavy brews at The Fillmore Philadelphia. n

Black Dahlia Murder

than 2023. I just try to deal, musically, with where I am in my current state — whatever that current state may be. For Retox, then Rise Up, I had just started taking more pop gigs, that scene, so my mind was there. As time went on, including what went on with the pandemic, I began to concentrate on creating more legacy pieces to my work — to evolve past the expression of only one way or one sound.

A.D. Amorosi: I’ve noticed between what you have done with, say, Pursuance, as opposed to Phoenix, is that your saxophone’s tone THEN was more expansive and welcoming. On Phoenix, there’s much room for more noise and odd angles. How has the inspiration of the Coltranes moved on, carried on, since Pursuance, and what can you say about the angularity of Phoenix?

Lakecia Benjamin: After spending so much time with them and their music and pursuing their mission of healing messages and peace, I will always move forward with that vibe. I think that that was something I couldn’t just leave behind. I look up to the Coltranes and hope to embody their spirit on my own plane, my own personality, and my own growth. That album was a flashpoint for me — once it happened, I could never go back. You start down a path and keep moving. That said, with Phoenix, I did not plan an album. I was forced to do an album. All of my other albums were long-planned and thought out. Not Phoenix. Things are moving within their own systems now. Now, in my own way with my own music, I’m trying to spread my message and who I am — but also, the Coltranes are branded onto me.

A.D. Amorosi: Having an album push for it to be made is fascinating. Do you think your accident catalyzed such force for Phoenix? How did the accident impact you psychologically and musically?

Lakecia Benjamin: I didn’t have any albums planned before the accident, and didn’t want to just do something. [laughs] I had to think hard about what I wanted to do after such huge work as Pursuance Not only did the accident put me, physically and psychologically, through trauma, it added to the trauma I was living through with Covid. Three weeks after the accident, I went on a tour of Europe with my jaw broken, playing my Coltrane music for a month and a half. That kind of pain changes you.

A.D. Amorosi: Is the accident still a problem?

Lakecia Benjamin: At first, I was fine on stage while playing. But as soon as I got off stage, I was in excruciating pain. At the top of this year, I finally regained motion in my right arm. I’m still limited, but it is at around 80% better. Before that, it was 20%.

A.D. Amorosi: Once the process of Phoenix commences and the composition begins — are they written during or before the album records?

Lakecia Benjamin: I wrote it all before so that the band would have something to play in the studio and recorded fast for two days. This is the same band that toured with me, playing Coltrane music all this time. They were already in that Coltrane vibe with me.

A.D. Amorosi : Along with Terry Lyn Carrington producing Phoenix, the album also features Angela Davis, Diane Reeves, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Patrice Rushen, and Sonia Sanchez. Were you looking to create some positive feminine dynamic going into this album?

Lakecia Benjamin: I don’t believe that thought was in my head, but maybe in my heart. Before the accident, I was forming a bond with Patrice Rushen and knew I wanted to work with her. I was getting clos-

er to Dianne Reeves, so maybe the universe moved it that way. I was looking to focus on people who impacted me by watching how their careers grew. People who had to fight to make their way or make a name for themselves. Look at Patrice Rushen. She is just now getting recognition for what she’s done and the jazz chops she’s always had beyond “Forget Me Nots.” I know all of her albums. She is teaching and changing lives. Pursuance was, of course, about highlighting the elders. I wanted to look at people still out here, doing what they’re doing in an elevated fashion, doing the people’s work — even in their 80s.

A.D. Amorosi: Doing the people’s work: I can’t help but think that you picked on Black activism’s brightest and boldest longtime voices in Angela Davis and Sonia Sanchez. Can you talk about that process?

Lakecia Benjamin: Besides it being amazing (laughs). I didn’t just want musicians and singers on this album. I spoke to choreographers, dancers, to impactful people. That's what I wanted for Phoenix. As soon as you hear their names, you know who they are and what they stand for, can envision their careers, and imagine what part they might play on my album. Resilient? Think of that word, and you think of these women.

A.D. Amorosi: I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that you have the legendary saxophone giant Wayne Shorter reading poetry on Phoenix. How did that happen?

Lakecia Benjamin: After the women recorded their parts, I still felt something was missing. I knew I had female guests, but there was another story that I wanted to tell a certain way. The idea of me wanting to do legacy work, something to pass down to the next generations, meant finding someone that when they speak, we listen. Who was an elder that would stop our tracks AND be gender-less, genre-less, no race, almost from another planet? How should we move forward, someone with a personality where anything could come out but could make us question how and why we were here. And the answer came back Wayne Shorter.

A.D. Amorosi: Talk about writing “Basquiat” from that perspective. There’s an Ornette Coleman-esque feel to that track.

Lakecia Benjamin: There are two secret messages that I can tell you here: One, I wrote the song “American Skin” which is on this album, thinking about Ornette Coleman. I thought of his “Lonely Woman” and wanted to write that classical melody. I wanted a trumpet on the bottom, and I wanted that vibe. And two, Basquiat is actually a suite. Terri Lyn wanted to terrorize you guys and put the entire suite, all 20 minutes, on the album. The idea was to continue that theme of resilience, and who also may have been cut short. Basquiat was cut short. But what he put forth — has lasted when you consider how people dress and how art has changed. Basquiat embodies the change we see today. His avant-garde, his abstraction is today’s normal. I’m looking for my albums to be complete bodies of work with themes and actions and their own dramas.

A.D. Amorosi: Is that why you’re utilizing more electronic instrumentation and atmospheres than usual in places and spaces within Phoenix?

Lakecia Benjamin: The entire album is about exploring — who I was, who I am now, and who I might be. I wanted the album to have a produced feel rather than an acoustic jazz feel. I didn’t want to move backward. I wanted the listener to be right where I am within the production. I wanted them to move forward with me. n

harper’s FINDINGS INDEX

Toxoplasma gondii infection, which was recently found to increase human facial symmetry and attractiveness, makes Danish women become successful entrepreneurs. Open-label placebos reduce feelings of guilt, and video game loot-box purchases are strongly correlated with problem gambling. Exeter researchers sought gamblers to treat with ketamine, and other Exeter researchers who reared pheasant chicks, trained them on cognitive puzzles, and released them into the wild found that they were likelier to be eaten by foxes near the edges of their home range. A Finnish researcher warned of rising sexual inequality and loneliness in straight men, noting that 5 percent of them have half of all penile-vaginal sex. Erogenous mapping revealed a pronounced preference for the tip of the penis and the middle third of the ventral penile shaft among circumcised men. A longlegged teen with cubitus varus and shotty testicles was diagnosed with 49,XXXXY syndrome. Biologists studying Lamprologus callipterus identified the chromosomal difference between bourgeois males, who are large enough to lift the shells needed for female brooding, and dwarf males, who are small enough to sneak inside the shells and fertilize the females. Chinese researchers described the gonadal development of the dwarf surf clam, and astrophysicists discovered the tightest ultracool dwarf binary. Downregulation of Sonic Hedgehog signaling was found to promote genital warts.

9

Neanderthals roasted brown crabs in Gruta da Figueira Brava ninety thousand years ago, genetic taint from chickens has disrupted the red jungle fowl genome, and Vikings brought over their own animals in addition to stealing them from Britons. A Coccocephalus wildi fossil discovered in a coal mine in England a century ago was found to possess the oldest well-preserved vertebrate brain, and no evidence of evisceration was found among previously undisturbed crocodile mummies of varying quality at Qubbat al-Hawa. Dolphins whistle louder and longer to communicate over anthropogenic noise. An analysis of the feces of Japanese macaques in Kamikochi suggested the active predation of fishes. The common quail was suspected as an unknown reservoir of Toscana virus and sandfly fever Sicilian virus. The Alongshan virus, discovered five years ago in China, appeared in Swiss ticks. Temnothorax rugatulus rock ants combine systematic meandering with random walks to search for food. Mouthwear in crickets was compared with that of tyrannosaurids.

9

Researchers in Ireland asserted that there is no fetal microbiome; tiny bites of solid food reduce breastfeeding duration; and living near green environments increases the oligosaccharide diversity of a mother’s milk. Xenobiotics that are likely to originate in personal care products were found in the vaginas of mothers who gave birth prematurely. American children may be poisoned by the makeup they use for playing dress-up. Parental separation leads to an increase in a child’s unstructured time, and five different genetic variants increase the risk of nearsightedness the more schooling one receives. The administration of chemotherapy in the afternoon reduces female lymphoma patients’ mortality rate by a factor of 12.5. Mpumalangans with HIV experience delayed melatonin release and shorter sleep cycles. Shenzhen adolescents left behind by their migrating parents have problems with their sleep and mental health. Climate change was found to be an important motivation for Polish antinatalists. The number of homes burned per square mile of wildfire in the American West is increasing. Mycotoxins were appearing frequently in Lebanese spices and nuts. n

Percentage of Americans who do not know the deadline for filing taxes: 69

Estimated portion of Americans who owe no federal income taxes: 2/5

Percentage of Americans who believe their neighbors cheat on their taxes: 48

Who would take a vow of celibacy in exchange for never having to do their taxes again: 20 Who would move to a different country: 37

Cost of renouncing one’s U.S. citizenship: $2,350

Percentage by which the government has proposed decreasing this fee: 81

Amount, in hours, by which the top-earning 10 percent of U.S. men worked less last year than in 2019: 77

By which the bottom-earning 10 percent of men worked more: 37

Portion of American men aged 25 to 54 who are neither working nor seeking work: 1/9

Factor by which the number of U.S. job-offer scams reported since 2019 has increased: 3

Minimum amount U.S. workers lost last year to these scams: $249,962,090

Percentage decrease in the past year in job postings for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion positions: 27

Portion of U.S. workers who believe they are treated unfairly: 1/2

Portion of U.S. workers who describe their workplace as at least somewhat “toxic”: 1/5

Percentage increase since 2019 in the number of whistleblower tips sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission: 136

Percentage increase since 2020 in the number of expletives used on corporate earnings calls: 60

Portion of U.S. workers who would switch jobs for greater pay transparency: 2/3

Portion of workers seeking jobs elsewhere who believe they are being paid below market rates: 2/3

Percentage by which U.S. workers with a best friend at work are less likely to look for another job: 25

Percentage of U.S. workers who have used ChatGPT for work who have not disclosed this: 68

Portion of K–12 educators who have caught students using ChatGPT to cheat: 1/4

Portion of Americans who have paid to use online dating platforms: 1/3

Who believe that online dating algorithms can predict love: 1/5

Percentage by which U.S. women are more likely to think infidelity is wrong for married men than for women: 22

By which U.S. men are more likely to think this: 14

Portion of parents who feel that their partner judges their parenting ability: 1/2

Portion of parents with children under 18 who are worried about their children’s mental health: 3/4

Who are worried about their children being kidnapped: 3/5 Being shot: 1/2

Minimum portion of Americans who cannot identify an influential person in their community: 7/10

Percentage of influential figures identified who are politicians: 63

Who are businesspeople: 9

Who are religious leaders: 3

Percentage decrease over the past five years in the number of Americans who believe in God: 6

Chances that a U.S. adult under 30 believes in astrology: 2 in 5

Amount Americans spend each year on the “psychic services” industry: $2,200,000,000

Percentage of religious Americans who believe that God can hear prayers and intervene in the world: 42

Who believe that God can hear prayers but cannot intervene: 28

Minimum number of Americans who believe that hell exists but heaven does not: 2,608,367

SOURCES: 1 Delaware State Chamber of Commerce (Wilmington); 2 Tax Policy Center (Washington); 3–5 WalletHub (Miami); 6,7 Department of State; 8,9 National Bureau of Economic Research (Cambridge, Mass.); 10 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; 11,12 Federal Trade Commission; 13 Textio (Seattle); 14 Gallup (Washington); 15 American Psychological Association (Washington); 16 Securities and Exchange Commission; 17 AlphaSense (NYC); 18 Visier (Vancouver, British Columbia); 19 Payscale (Seattle); 20 Gallup; 21 Fishbowl (San Francisco); 22 Study.com (Mountain View, Calif.); 23,24 Pew Research Center (Washington); 25,26 American Enterprise Institute (Washington); 27–30 Pew Research Center; 31–34 Eitan Hersh, Tufts University (Medford, Mass.); 35 Gallup; 36 YouGov (NYC); 37 IBISWorld (Los Angeles); 38,39 Gallup; 40 Pew Research Center.

The answer to this week’s metapuzzle is the missing seventh theme answer, formed by combining two entries in the completed grid.

19 Fastened with clicks, like some jackets

20 1970 NFL MVP John

24 Antelope literally found in “pasturelands”

27 Enjoyed leftovers, say

29 “False” objects of worship

31 Jack in a nursery rhyme

32 Adam Sandler’s SNL character who would sing about the news on “Weekend Update”

35 Taking flight, as a fugitive 36 “Later,” in León 38 Cook (up), as grub

39 Gun-the-engine sounds

40 Treatment quantity

41 Do some cardio, e.g. 44 Cold packs encircling achy knees, say

45 Shredded, with “up”

46 Trivial untruth

48 Hot thing, for now 50 Warehouse box

52 Second digit of this clue number, en español 54 Remove from a sheet 56 Core beliefs of a movement 57 Refuses to acquiesce 58 Urgent message, maybe 60 Hit home?

75 Instrument for Imrat Khan

76 “How’s it ___?”

80 Companion

81 “If I ___ my way ...”

82 Counter-wiping cloth

83 Flightless birds

87 Where judo and jujitsu originated

88 Substituting for, with “of”

89Ability to sense a particular orientation

90 Swampy region

91 Pocket poker pair known as “snowmen”

92 Benefits from lessons

93 The hip-hop group Cypress Hill, e.g.

94 Becomes shiny, as a Mr. Olympia contestant does

95 Is in math class?

96 Eclipsed star, at times

97 Sound signal booster

98 Like a rich stew

99 Archipelago group

101 Group email intro

104 Barbecue pit detritus

110 Thumbs-up at NASA

111 Enjoy a cold resort

112 Safe ___ (sure thing)

113 Org. featuring the human-sized Ducks in the 100 Across clue

114Small battery type

115One led by an abbess

Solution on page 26