PUBLISHER
Trina
Lehigh Valley Advertising
Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net
PRODUCTION
Priscilla DeSoto
WRITERS
A.D. Amorosi
Ricardo Barros
Robert Beck
Geoff Gehman
Fredricka Maister
Val Sivilli
David Stoller
Keith Uhlich
Reproduction
sion
VERDI SQUARE IN NEW YORK is not a square; it’s a trapezoid — a consequence of Broadway’s diagonal journey up an otherwise neatly gridded Manhattan. Occupying about a city block and a half, the square contains two subway stations — one resembling the Crystal Palace in London and the other a southwestern mission. There is also a monument to Giuseppe Verdi, created by Pasquale Civiletti, with the composer at the top, above a surround of representatives from his operas. A funky kiosk sits at one end of the Square, but most of the space is a beautiful garden. A refuge from the snarl and claw of the city. A place to sit and let your mind relax in a buffered environment. Take a seat, just for a minute, or more if you have more, and breathe. Doesn’t that feel good? Being in Nature is being in the moment. I love feeling it all around me: the plants, the trees, the dirt. I grew up in dirt. It feels much more like home to me than concrete and asphalt. The garden at Verdi Square is good for a reduction of fifteen blood pressure points on the way to your next immediacy.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 28
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
60th Annual Juried Fine Art & Craft Show
Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission
Main Street, Historic Bethlehem bfac-lv.org
May 10, 10–5; May 11, 11–5
Held over Mother’s Day weekend, this juried sidewalk art show features more than 75 of the finest local and regional artists and craft artisans. Judging takes place on Saturday afternoon and the award reception is held Saturday evening. Families are invited to take part in the Children’s Art Activities hosted by The Art Nook. Visit “ArtsQuest in Residence,” booth #28 to learn how they are making the arts more accessible to the community and meet some of their teaching artistists.
Kirby Fredendall
Echoes of the Sublime: Landscapes in Water and Sound
ArtWRKD Exhibition Space
128 South State St., Newtown 215-377-9766 artwrkd.com
April 4 – 27
Art Noir First Friday 4/4, 6:00
Artist Reception 4/12, 6:00
Artist Dialogue 4/26, 1:00
Invitational
Artists & Member Group Show
Jae Martin, Lucine Kaplan, Kev Von Holt, Margaret Koval, Jeanette Griffith & Michael Palladino
ArtWRKD Workshop Gallery
126 South State St., Newtown
April 4 – 27, Art Noir First Friday, 4/4, 6:00
Artist Reception 4/12, 6:00
Artist Dialogue 4/26, 1:00
The Art of the Miniature XXXIII
The 33rd invitational exhibition of fine art miniatures from around the world
The Snow Goose Gallery 470 Main St., Bethlehem 610-974-9099 thesnowgoosegallery.com
May 4–June 14
Preview Sat., 05/3, 1–5 Reception Sun., 05/4, 1–5
More than 350 works by more than 70 artists will be available for purchase in the Gallery’s loft. The entire exhibition will be on our website as well. For more information, please call or visit thesnowgoosegallery.com.
Lonely sat the pear, When another asked to share — Each blushed, double-dare, But love ripened, and now they’re … More delicious as a pair.
GOODYEAR
WAS a brilliant and innovative artist, who utilized painting, sculpture, drawing, light optics, and installation in a career that spanned more than six decades. His work can be found in museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Albright-Knox Gallery, the Walker Art Center, and locally, the Michener Art Museum, where he was awarded a major retrospective in 2000. Goodyear was also a gifted teacher and chairman of the Rutgers University Art Department for more than thirty years.
show at the Amel Gallery, New York Times art critic Brian Doherty wrote: “It is in fact a staggering display of invention and virtuosity within strict disciplines, in which intelligence manipulates feeling with exact and removed precision… .”
David Stoller has had a career spanning law, private equity, and entrepreneurial leadership. He was a partner at 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 Finding My Feet, a collection of his poetry.
In the late fifties, Goodyear developed the idea to paint in three-dimension, resulting in works that fluctuate between painting and sculpture, and continued developing these three-dimensional paintings into kinetic constructions that brought him to the attention of major museums and collectors. Reviewing his
Over his career, Goodyear required the viewer to become a powerful component of his work, creating harmonious dissonances in his various artistic investigations, always informed by his playful intellect, which is delightfully evident in the subject work, A Pair. In 2005, Goodyear curated a show of small Dada-style works and three-dimensional kinetic constructions. I bought the modest catalogue for the show. About a month after the show closed, I received a package in the mail. In it was a lovely small box imprinted “A Pair.” Opening it, I found the beautiful “pair” of “pear” sculptures shown here. I wrote A Pair then and there, with John in mind. As he liked to say, “Art makes one see; what one sees makes art.” n
PHOTOGRAPHY IS FUN, AND CAMERAS and computers are cool. Everybody starts taking photos because they enjoy it. At first, it doesn't matter what one photographs, nor why, and the compulsion to take pictures is sufficient. We click the shutter, laugh, and are grateful for the experience. Then, for those who become more serious about the medium, we study the craft. We seek precision in our self-expression. We compose more carefully, strive for sensitivity to light, and process our imagery with subtler refinement. Eventually, we reach a point where we've mastered the technique only to find ourselves confronting an existential question: Now what? What do I photograph?
It’s a horrible feeling to be all dressed up and have nowhere to go, yet that’s the position many photographers find themselves in. Lacking another plan, they grab a camera and venture into the world, seeking a suitable subject. There’s a long tradition of photographers successfully taking this approach. One of my favorites is Henri Cartier Bresson, who continuously found one unrelated composition after another. (Luck was not involved. He stalked his subjects, staked out compositions, and had an uncanny sense of timing.) But hidden pitfalls lurk if we mindlessly follow in his footsteps. Foremost among these is the unhelpful premise that we are observers, separate from what we see.
It’s easy to overlook our presence in the events we photograph. Our presence is a given. We are present in all of our experiences, and we are not invisible. Like it or not, we are participants. Were we not there, the events we ‘objectively document’ would unfold differently. Physicists know this; they refer to it as Schrodinger's Cat. Ironically, the code of conduct for professional journalists would have us pretend otherwise. But artists need not be professional journalists.
Especially for artists, if we embrace our involvement in the imagery we produce, we open the door to another realm of possibilities. We can explore and express ourselves more freely. Rather than merely reporting on our subjects, no matter how interesting they might be, we can say something about our relationship with a particular subject and a particular experience. We can comment on what we see. We can introduce new ideas, ideas our subjects might have never otherwise contemplated, yet ideas enriching their lives and ours.
So, if you find yourself all dressed up and nowhere to go, unlatch the gate! Realize that you’re in the right place — and the right time is now. Don't think that good subject matter is something you'll discover out there. Know that good subjects follow you around. Look carefully. You’ll see them. You needn't wait for an event to happen — participate in one and photograph it. 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
Sticka Väva is the light-filled studio where Marilynn Cowgill, a master weaver/artisan, weaves her creations. (In Swedish, sticka translates to knitting — to make fabric from thread or yarn — and väva to weaving.) Each room in Marilynn’s studio is filled with textiles, yarns of luxurious fibers such as silk, linen, merino wool, Egyptian and Peruvian cotton and cashmere, much of which she dyes herself. And, of course, the looms, two of them. The large loom is from Sweden and the smaller loom is American-made. Before opening Sticka in 2022, and far from having anything to do with weaving, she taught others how to start
businesses at Colorado University and Penn State, with a focus on helping people understand complex financial issues.
Marilynn has been a textile and fiber artist for more than 40 years. When she was ten years old her aunt taught her how to knit. At 11 she learned to sew. In 1981 a friend invited her to join a weaving class at the Delaware Art Museum and the rest is history. The click and clack sounds of the loom and the tactile, meditative sense of sitting at the loom weaving is her joy.
When she’s not working at one of the looms, she focuses on researching and exploring weaving patterns from the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. She interprets those patterns from the past, brings them into the present, and creates wearable and usable home décor, clothing, and accessories. Each item is one-of-a-kind, whether it’s a wall-hanging, kimono, jacket, blanket, coverlet, bag or pillow. She also takes commissions for made-to-order creations. Her “Coverlet Series” is based on old American weaving patterns. (Located in front of The BirdHouse on Main Street, stickavavastudio.com, 267-307-9896)
At the corner of Church and George Streets is a window filled with whimsical, emotive clay people, you’ve arrived at the studio of sculptor Winnie Weiss. All her creations are hand-built. Winnie explained, “I begin by making clay coils and slabs, and from there each piece emerges, some intentional and some accidental.”
After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in physics, the need to create, to explore, learn, work with hands, head
and heart was always gnawing at her. She studied figurative sculpture at Fleisher Art Memorial in Philadelphia, then was accepted at PAFA where she worked on painting and drawing. “There I learned how to look at people and see contours, shapes, colors, and forms.”
After PAFA she began sculpting faces, heads, and slowly added bodies. Her people speak a language that Winnie leaves to the viewer to interpret. Some clay pieces depict a partial room and open doorways leading the viewer to know something is there, but we can’t see it.
Her sculptures can be seen at A Mano Gallery in Lambertville and
Gallery Piquel in New Hope. Her work has also been shown at the New Hope Arts Sculpture exhibitions, but showing her work is less important to Winnie than creating it. “I’m very content to create, not necessarily to sell, but just for the joy of creation. Once a piece is finished, I just move on to the next.”
Forty years ago, Winnie and Barney Stone married. At that time, Winnie working as a research assistant at Children’s Hospital, and Barney as CEO of a software company. In the ‘60s, Barney and his sister sold food at the Woodstock Festival, then opened a hippie coffeehouse, ran a video production business, worked for a rocket company, and founded two computer software companies. Barney sold his company in 2011 and began to create glass and kinetic art. He opened his Lambertville studio and gallery in 2012 with a kiln given by his mother, who enam-
When she arrived in 1978, she immediately knew Lambertville was/is her forever home. Her varied background includes: artist, writer, public speaker, athlete, pianist, singer, actor, potter, state/federal education project director, and award-winning English teacher.
On April 26 the Allentown Art Museum will complete an unusually charitable eight-year quest to acquire, conserve, and install two stained-glass windows made by Tiffany Studios, the fabled producer of glowing, flowing kaleidoscopes. That day the museum will unveil riveting glass landscapes—rivers, rocks, shrubs, trees, sun-streaked skies— commissioned as memorials by the United Presbyterian Church in Pottsville. Their new life was financed by 220-plus donors, with some proceeds funding—here’s the extra added bonus—the church’s social programs. Attributed to designer Agnes Northrup, a renowned Tiffany artisan for half a century, the Pottsville commissions will be supplemented by an April 26-June 29 exhibit of ten Tiffany lamps and windows with botanical arrangements inspired in part by the greenhouses and gardens at Louis Comfort Tiffany’s legendary Long Island lair. (31 N. 5th St.; 610-432-4333; allentownartmuseum.org)
Lafayette College opened in 1826, a year after its namesake, the Marquis de Lafayette, finished a 13-month, 6,000-mile visit to America’s 24 states, a virtual coronation for the Revolution’s last living major general. This year a French orchestra based partly in Lafayette’s native Auvergne is performing in Charleston, New Orleans and other Marquis destinations. The tour will end April 27 at Lafayette, with the ensemble playing everything from a Mozart violin concerto to the opening of The Anonymous Lover by the Chevalier de Saint-Georges (Joseph Bologne), a wildly popular conductor, fencer, soldier and free man of color. The concert will be accompanied by a sound-and-light immersion into Lafayette’s historic pilgrimage, during which he met a host of places and people named after him. (Williams Center for the Arts, 317 Hamilton St., Easton; 610-330-5009; williamscenter/lafayette.edu)
A young woman is courted by a developer to turn a Manhattan book store she inherited into an apartment complex. She’s also courted by the store’s workers, a passionate, compassionate tribe. That’s thethrust of the play The Bookstore, a dark comedy by Adam Szymkowicz, whose works have been staged from Mexico to Thailand. Equally prolific and fertile, he’s created scenes for cheerleaders, Christmas tree farmers and a pyromaniac fire chief. (April 11-13, 16-19, Zoellner Center for the Arts, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem; 610-758-2787; zoellner.cas.lehigh.edu)
Tanuel Joachim, also known as TJ, is that rare Americanbased stand-up comic who has performed in French in Europe and written op-eds for The New York Times The Comedy Cellar regular offers wry, sly observations about the quirks of his adopted country and his homeland of Haiti. (April 19, Bethlehem Visitors Center, 711 E. 1st St.; 610-332-1300; steelstacks.org)
Who can forget Donald O’Connor turning a room inside out and upside down with vaudevillian circus tricks? Or Gene Kelly soggy shoeing a love duet with umbrella and puddles? These indelible moments buoy Singin’ in the Rain, the marvelous movie musical about silent pictures being yanked into talkies territory. The stage version will be produced this month and next by Act 1, the area’s busiest, most versatile collegiate theater company. (April 24-27, April 29-May 4, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley; 610-282-3192; desales.edu)
Have you ever wanted to compete in a spelling bee? Or change instantly from spectator to actor?
You can do both in the musical
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, where three audience members join six young spellers, an improvcomic pronouncer and a lifelining Jesus. The play was workshopped and christened at a Massachusetts theater company headed by Easton native Julianne Boyd, who conceived and directed the musical revues Eubie! and A…My Name Is Alice. (April 10-13, Lipkin Theater, Kopecek Hall, Northampton Community College, 3835 Green Pond Rd., Bethlehem; 484-484-3442; ncctix.org)
Three exhibit quick hits: Warehouse Valley chronicles the area’s tectonic shifts from farms to cities to suburbs to industrial parks. (through July 6, Sigal Museum, 342 Northampton St., Easton; 610-2531222; sigalmuseum.org). Unseen Signals showcases the many revolutionary radio/radar wavelengths surfed by engineer/inventor E. Howard Armstrong, who harnessed frequency modulation, or FM. (through April 30, National Museum of Industrial History, 602 E. 2nd St., Bethlehem; 610-694-6644; nmih.org). Visitors to Battle of the Car Clubs can vote for the best groups of very cool vintage Buicks, hot rods, T-Birds and Chryslers customized with Mopar parts. (America on Wheels, 5 N. Front St., Allentown; 610-432-4200; americaonwheels.org)
Geoff Gehman is a former arts writer for The Morning Call and the author of five books: Planet Mom: Keeping an Aging Parent from Aging, The Kingdom of the Kid: Growing Up in the Long-Lost Hamptons, and Fast Women and Slow Horses: The (mis)Adventures of a Bar, Betting and Barbecue Man with William Mayberry geoffgehman@verizon.net
Last year the restaurant at the 1904 Fairgrounds Hotel became Allentown’s third prominent seafood emporium, joining veterans Youell’s and Henry’s Salt of the Sea. The hotel’s jam-packed, ship-to-shore menu includes crabby fries; snow crab legs; Cajun mahi-mahi; crab-and-hollandaise salmon; a combo featuring crab-stuffed shrimp and cod, and a flight of lobster tails from Maine, South Africa and Tristan, an extremely remote volcanic island inhabited by 200-odd Brits 7,000 miles away. A pneumatic strawberry pie salutes the signature dessert at the beloved Hess’s department store, demolished for a hockey arena never built. (448 N. 17th St.; 610-433-7630; fairgroundshotel.com) n
Kristin Chenoweth is impossible to categorize. Her career spans film, television, writing, stage, and cultivating young artistic talent with her Broadway Bootcamp.
KRISTIN CHENOWETH IS SO BUSY with so many fires in the hottest ovens at present that you barely remember that she was the originator of Wicked’s Galinda/Glinda role, which is still enveloping crowds of musical theatergoers.
The Tony and Emmy Award-winning actress-vocalist will bring her biggest voice to the Academy of Music, with guest conductor MaryMitchell Campbell on May 3.
Chenoweth is also teaming up with F. Murray Abraham for Stephen Schwartz’s musical, the true story-based The Queen of Versailles on Broadway..
A.D. Amorosi: You’ve been busy the last several years with writing: I’m No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts: Mini-Meditations for Saints, Sinners, and the Rest of Us, and What Will I Do with My Love Today? What is the writing bug about?
Kristin Chenoweth: I’ve always loved to write, and started as a little kid. I journaled all the time. Now with life, we get busier and busier, but one thing that has never stopped is my journaling. The last thing that I did, I’m No Philosopher, But I Got Thoughts, I just looked at my journal, and realized how much I had changed. All of that was in my journals. And I thought that that should be a book. When we write things, we should inspire — hopefully, even help people. That’s why I like to write now.
A.D. Amorosi: You also took on co-writing songs, such as “Live Like That,” for the animated The King of Kings film.
Kristin Chenoweth: I saw a great movie from Angel Studios called Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. It’s about a Catholic priest in Nazi Germany, a real story. I loved the movie and left comments on their website, after which they asked me to write a song for a film they had coming out at Easter. I watched the movie and wrote the song. Many people know that I’m a Christian. What I want my witness to be is about love. God loves you. We’re made in His image. He’s there to help us; if we’d only pray and sur-
render to Him. If you want to call “God” the “Universe,” go right ahead as long as there is a higher power for you. I told them that I didn’t want to do a song just for Christians, I wanted to write an inspirational song for everyone.
A.D. Amorosi: What can you say about the Stephen Schwartz who wrote Wicked and the Stephen Schwartz who wrote for the upcoming The Queen of Versailles?
Kristin Chenoweth: Twenty-three years ago, he was my mentor, and still is. I recall a Stephen who knew that he was on the brink of something
“Fran is one of my favorite parts, because when you’re a comedienne, no one wants to see you as a depressed person who tries to take her life. When I take a part, I need to work through something. In a lot of ways, she’s the character that I’ve been the most in my life. Nobody would guess that, right?”
great, something special; I watched that in realtime. He’s always had confidence, but it’s more relaxed now. When you heard Stephen Schwartz in the past, you knew it would be classic musical theater. With The Queen of Versailles, there’s opera, too.
A.D. Amorosi: That real-life story about Jackie and David Siegel building the most expensive house in the country. Do you feel as if he’s stretching you, the “lyric soprano” you?
Kristin Chenoweth: My voice teacher told me not to let people know how hard it is; just show them. At the risk of dishonoring what she taught me, I’m telling you that this is kicking my butt. It’s so hard, but also challenging. I want to be challenged at this point in my life and career. Plus, I love that this is a real-life person we’re dealing with. How do you feel for a billionaire who has everything that money can buy, then doesn’t? Their lives have been all over the news, and how do you handle that? I grew up in a gen-
eration where you had to suck it up, buttercup. People don’t know the difficulties in any person’s life, and that’s why her story reached me.
A.D. Amorosi: I loved you doing Bacharach songs in Promises, Promises, and as Lily Garland in On the Twentieth Century, and I loved you as Glinda in Wicked. What’s the through line with Jackie in The Queen of Versailles?
Kristin Chenoweth: That is so hard. Fran [Promises, Promises] is one of my favorite parts, because when you’re a comedienne, no one wants to see you as this depressed person who tries to take her life. When I take a part, I need to work through something. In a lot of ways, she’s the character that I’ve been the most in my life. Nobody would guess that, right? Lily had it all, but really didn’t. Fran, too. Great job. Great lover. Then not. Glinda has my favorite arc; the most popular girl who had it all, but lost her love to her best friend, and lost the friendship. Glinda must put on a façade and pretend she isn’t hurt. Wicked has it all: friendship, loss, and forgiveness. Jackie Siegel is like that. We discovered that all of these characters have had it all — then not, then figuring out how to survive.
A.D. Amorosi : I’ve interviewed theater artists about their bootcamps, but no one has reached ten years in the field as you have. What was your goal with the camp?
Kristin Chenoweth: I bring in the best and teach them singing, acting, dancing, and life skills. This camp is for kids want to do this. This isn’t a camp for kids who maybe want to do this. The bootcamp is extremely competitive — the be-careful-for-what-you-wish-for-Kristin-camp. Kids come from all over the world for just 66 spots. I’m talking about talent; kids age 13 to 18 with something special. I didn’t have this when I was growing up. That’s why I created the boot camp. I grew up in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where we had football and Sonic. Not this. I created this so that kids anywhere could find each other. And I am most proud of this. n
Since the March in which I am writing The List: April 2025 in is so brightly sunny and gorgeously warm — but not temple-throbbing humid or Philly sticky (you know exactly the level of elbow-crease gummy and heart-palpitating clamminess I’m talking about) — I’d say let’s remain in this month’s holding pattern save for these few Spring events, shall we?
First things, first: by the time this April issue of ICON is in your hot little hands, pioneering Mexican restauranteur David Suro-Piñera — on the heels of celebrating his 40th anniversary on Locust Street — will re-open his treasured, white-linen hot spot, Tequilas , and pop the top on his son, Dan’s new morning-tonight cafe and bar space, La Jefa. If this isn’t worth righteously recalibrating your Spring’s celebration, nothing is (or at least, isn’t as tasty).
On April 13, basketball ends for our home team in this its 76th season. But, but, but… the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center — the Sixers are so bad, this is the cheapest ticket in town for any brand of entertainment. Revel in the savings while you can. They can only better next season, then the prices will soar. And pretty much the same is true of Gritty and the Philadelphia Flyers at the Wells Fargo Center who wrap up their 2024-2025 on April 15. Luckily, baseball season started for the Phillies across the street at Citizens Bank Park, or Pattison Avenue would be a dead zone.
Philly’s Walnut Street Theatre isn’t always a place I would recommend. It’s just not — and for a lot of reasons. But, from now through May 4, things get a little brighter now that the six-time Tony Awardwinning musical Dreamgirls and its whimsical 1960s Supremes-like girl group song hits the block.
April 15 is Tax Day for all. But for those of you who love Bruce Springsteen (we live in the Delaware Valley, it is an actual referendum), yet can’t spare the time (three-plus hours) or mortgage payment prices to go see him and his E Street Band, can check out the Boss’ forever drummer Max Weinberg do his eras-spanning Jukebox rhythm showcase at City Winery Philadelphia. You can yell “Broooooooooooce” all you like, and enjoy a quality vintage rather than red plastic cup beers at the Linc.
For people who love the sleek display of art and design prevalent throughout the 1940s, but hate going thrift shopping, Boom at the Philadelphia Museum of Art is just your sort of lengthy exhibition. Starting on April 12 and running through September 1, 2025, the PMoA will pull old Emerson radios, Horace Pippin paintings, Louise
Bourgeois sculptures and more from its own collection, all for the edification of those who enjoy crisp design innovation.
This isn’t the first time that I’ve asked ICON readers to pull up a chair and enjoy the month’s offerings at the Met Philadelphia, but it is certainly the most sonically progressive and lyrically satisfying. And while last month on North Broad Street was ripe with stand-up comedians such as Aziz Ansari and Kathy Griffith, in April, the Met bears down on the blunt, poetic romanticism of singersongwriter Lucy Dacus (April 16) and her new album focus for Forever Is a Feeling. On April 26, the spiritually uplifting drama of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds takes the Met stage for its newest creation, Wild God And while there is sadly no new music in the offing for Mark Mothersbaugh, Jerry Casale and Co. — DEVO — on May 1 at the Met, there is a 50th anniversary celebration of all things, well, frankly de-evolutionary and techno-tronic. Revel in THAT. n
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 dog-daughter Tia.
Black Bag (Dir. Steven Soderbergh). Starring: Michael Fassbender, Cate Blanchett, Tom Burke. Happily wedded British spies George (Michael Fassbender) and Kathryn (Cate Blanchett) are the central cogs in director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter David Koepp’s soufflé-light whodunit. As in many a John le Carré novel, there’s a mole in a UK intelligence unit and George must discover who it is. The suspects range from an anxious newbie (Marisa Abela) to a sex-and-drink obsessed cynic (Tom Burke) to the lithe and mysterious Kathryn herself. Could “’til death do us part” truly come to pass? Plot is a pretext for Soderbergh, Koepp and the cast to put married life (and relationships generally) under an often dark-comic microscope. This doesn’t have the emotional heft of Soderbergh’s other genre effort from this year — the ghost story/family drama Presence — yet Black Bag still revels in the multifaceted beauties of George and Kathryn’s romantic pairing, one that proves resilient under tremendous stress. [R] HHH1/2
Flow (Dir. Gints Zilbalodis). Animated. If you haven’t yet seen this year’s Academy Award winner for Animated Feature, get on it — particularly if you’re an animal lover. Director Gints Zilbalodis hails from Latvia and with a very small team made this often breathtaking and dialogue-free feature about a cat navigating literal rising tides in the company of a mini-Noah’s Ark-worth of critters. There’s a regal bird, a curious dog, a hording lemur. (The capybara, of course, steals the show.) The climate change allegory is unmistakable: Humans are mere remnants in this world, represented only by the statues and decaying structures they’ve left behind. Yet this isn’t a scolding or doom-laden screed. If anything, Flow understands the essential truth that change comes whether we want it or not, whether we hasten it or not, and that such trials can provide us a framework to make true and beautiful connections with all who we encounter. [PG] HHHH1/2
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.
Mickey 17 (Dir. Bong Joon Ho). Starring: Robert Pattinson, Steven Yuen, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo. As the follow-up to his multi-Oscarwinning Parasite, South Korean writer-director Bong Joon Ho goes big, sprawling, and often sublimely messy. Robert Pattinson plays “expendable” Mickey Barnes, one of multiple cogs in a interstellar Moloch that literally works him to death. Fortunately, Mickey can be reborn (reprinted, more like) with all his memories intact, if not necessarily his sanity. Things get especially out of hand when his 17th iteration survives after his 18th iteration has been printed, and that’s not a quarter of what Bong throws into the narrative mix. This is the definition of a mixed-bag movie, with highs (such as Pattinson’s unhinged peformance(s) and a refreshingly open attitude toward horned-up, guilt-free erotic couplings) freely intermingled with lows (Mark Ruffalo and Toni Collette cringingly channeling, respectively, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton as the main antagonists). All post-Academy Award blank check projects should be as simultaneously intriguing and irritating as this. [R] HHH
Seven Veils (Dir. Atom Egoyan). Starring: Amanda Seyfried, Douglas Smith, Rebecca Liddiard. There was a time in the ‘90s when Canadian auteur Atom Egoyan was belle of the proverbial ball, making heady and deeply moving projects like Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter. He’s since retreated into either high-toned trash (Chloe) or lesser simulacrums of his best work, the latter of which describes Seven Veils to a tee. Amanda Seyfried plays a theater director mounting a production of the opera Salome in a similar style to her deceased mentor. The anxieties of his unseen influence, as well as behind the scenes upheavals involving everything from stingy backers to sexual harassment, makes up the bulk of the dramatic incidents, all of which remain lightly involving even when it feels like Egoyan is straining for effect. The most interesting aspects tend toward the meta, such as the fact that the two productions of Salome interspersed throughout were each directed by Egoyan at different points in his own career. He seems in a reflective and somewhat bitter mood, though the insularity of his approach keeps us always at a too-discreet distance. [N/R] HH1/2
The Conversation (1974, Francis Ford Coppola, United States)
The world lost a great talent last month in actor Gene Hackman, so for this month’s Classics, we thought we’d revisit some of his career highlights. Start your rewatch (or first watch!) with Francis Ford Coppola’s chillingly leisurely paranoid thriller in which Hackman plays surveillance expert Harry Caul, whose latest assignment convinces him that a murder will soon occur. Coppola released this feature the same year as his much-feted sequel The Godfather: Part II, an incredible onetwo creative punch. It’s hard to imagine this film working as well without Hackman, though. His bespectacled aloofness masks a world of everdeepening hurt and as the killer conspiracy unravels before him, so does his own mind. The bigger picture of a society collapsing under the weight of its worst impulses segues tragically into the smaller one of a single life left in anonymized ruins. (Streaming on Criterion.)
Superman (1978, Richard Donner, United States/United Kingdom/Switzerland/Panama)
The original overstuffed superhero blockbuster, Superman is a head-spinning mixture of styles and tones, from Christopher Reeve’s All-American aw-shucksness to Marlon Brando’s anything-for-a-paycheck detachment. In the prime villain role sits Hackman’s Lex Luthor, Metropolis’s own megalomaniac, a Category 5 blusterer forever abusing his sycophants, Otis (Ned Beatty) and Miss Teschmacher (Valerie Perrine), when he isn’t plotting the downfall of his otherworldly nemesis. Hackman goes all-in on the scenery chewing, delightfully so, to the point that when he reveals the character’s signature bald pate at film’s end it plays equally like a gotcha! punchline and a transcendent grace note. The actor is the opposite of the Kryptonite his Luthor wants desperately to wield. (Streaming on Max.)
Another Woman (1988, Woody Allen, United States) Woody Allen’s slender drama about a 50-something college dean, Marion (Gena Rowlands), in crisis is one of his Ingmar Bergman riffs, specifically on Wild Strawberries (1957). That it is in many ways the equal of that great film is largely due to star Gena Rowlands who embodies another movingly complex character; an upper-crust companion to her vividly working-class roles with husband John Cassavetes. Everyone here, though, is at the top of their game, from a supercilious Ian Holm as the divorced man Marion is due to marry, to Hackman as the acquaintance, Larry, who she really loves. It’s rare that Hackman was called on to be gently romantic and sexy in films, and even in his brief screen time here he gets to exercise that underutilized part of his talent to awe-inspiring ends. (Streaming on Tubi.)
Unforgiven (1992, Clint Eastwood, United States)
Hackman won the best supporting actor Oscar for his terrifying efforts in Clint Eastwood’s elegiac Western. Eastwood himself plays William Munny, an aging, resentful gunslinger called upon to avenge a sex worker’s face-slashing in the town of Big Whiskey, Wyoming. Lording over all is Hackman’s Sheriff “Little Bill” Daggett, a psycho in all senses of the term whose behavior just cries out for a thrillingly vengeful killing. Things don’t work out that way. Though Munny and Daggett do eventually come face to face and the gunfight results are about what one would expect, any sense of satisfaction with the bloodletting is tempered by the larger sense of the world passing these two men by. Neither their cynical regrets nor their all-consuming monomania matters much in the grand scheme. Few actors have portrayed a small man as mythically as Hackman does here. (Streaming on Apple TV.) n
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elled copper. Always fascinated by glass, the kiln gave him the impetus to study glass techniques. He took his first class in glass casting at the Corning Museum studio of ancient and modern glass, followed by sand casting at Wheaton Arts. He began by making fused bowls and tiles, and then expanded into three-dimensional works.
His kinetic creations are made from found objects. Barney has a sign in his gallery, “If you see a crank, turn it. If you see a button, push it. If you see a box, open it.” He says, “Most glass is meant to be looked though; art glass looked at. I like to do glass that’s meant to be looked into.” (204 N. Union Street, SeeingGlass.com and KineticContraptions.com, 609-917-4854)
It’s Shad Festival time, April 26–27. Begun by Jim Hamilton and Jack Curtin in 1981 to celebrate the shad returning to spawn. The first poster auction took place in 1982. Today, local artists create collectable poster art for the auction. The auction funds the Jim Hamilton Memorial Shad Fest scholarship, co-chaired by Amy Coss and Jane Wesby The scholarships provide two $10,000 scholarships to students pursuing fine arts, performance, and culinary arts. The poster auction begins at 3:00 on April 27, at the Presbyterian Church on N. Union St. (shadfest.com, lambertvillechamber.com/shad-fest) n
The park became a real dump post-war but was revitalized when the station was reconfigured twenty years ago. It quickly fell into disrepair again. People who lived nearby formed an organization called The Friends of Verdi Square and assumed its rehabilitation. There is support from local residents and businesses, but the Friends have to raise the money and put in the effort. There is a lot more to it than just picking up the trash, which there is plenty of. It’s a real garden. Amidst the foliage are 192 distinct types of specimen trees and plants to be considered and cared for
There are great reasons to garden. Your body makes Vitamin D from sunlight, which is good for your bones and immune system and reduces your risk of some nasty diseases. Gardening is also a well-rounded exercise. It’s calming, mood-boosting, and fosters feelings of agency and connection. In short, it makes you healthier and happier and is cheaper than going to doctors and the gym.
The Friends of Verdi Square Volunteers never know what they will come across while working in the garden. They are out in all kinds of weather, planting, pruning, weeding, watering, and picking up refuse with a heroic devotion to duty. Over the years, they have turned the park into a sensory refuge for the community and a tangible connection to the natural world. It’s easy to forget what a mess it used to be and would still be without their efforts.
Unusual discoveries are commonplace at Verdi Square, illuminating where we are as a civilization. The gardeners don’t have to dig for these artifacts; they are waiting when they show up on Saturday mornings.
Clothing and Jewelry make up a big part of the collection. At the top of the list is an unworn pair of black patent leather dancing shoes with large bows, size 9-1/2, in excellent condition. There is also a single new white sneaker and some striped satin pumps. We are just beginning. A generous bra. A YSL bracelet, another of pink beads, and a faux gold multi-strand necklace. An ornate elephant charm with blue Jewels. A heart surrounded by diamonds.
Coins find their way into the urns containing Elephant Ears and Creeping Jenny. A toothbrush was picked up at one end of the garden and the toothpaste tube at the other. The White Wood Asters held a hard-bound volume of The World’s Greatest Religions (Life; fair condition).
They are all surprise discoveries with no linear connection but the same plotline. The artifact was brought to the square, lost, broken, or discarded, and it was discovered by a gardener. The rest is a mystery. Most are photographed and uploaded to the Friends of Verdi Square Instagram page.
A television remote with its cradle was found in the Swamp Mallow, and a phone in the Turtle Heads. There was most of a ten-dollar bill. A wooden back of a chair (I find that intriguing). A card for 15% discount at Romantic Depot. A metal whistle.
My favorite is the 2-1/2 lb. Chairman’s Reserve Prime pork tenderloin from Fairway Supermarket, still wrapped and labeled. Bundle that with the can of beef stew and the unopened bottles of siracha, olive oil, and red wine, and you’ve got most of your Sunday afternoon ready to go.
These discoveries happen as city life keeps pace in the park. People stream to and from the stations. Maestro Mike — a musician who is a regular at the square — sings Billy Jean and plays keyboard as a woman with a large hat dances on the paved walkway, arms outstretched, hands sweeping in front of the Viburnum and Brown-eyed Susan, spinning and gliding under the gaze of hundred-year-old sycamores. One of the gardeners reaches down and picks up an antique doorknob with polished brass rim and faceted glass center, wipes it off with the bottom of her shirt, and puts it aside to show the others later. n
Rabbits are capable of digesting their teeth as they wear down and reusing the calcium to grow new ones. Chinese scientists successfully raised to adulthood mice born of two fathers and then dissected them. Mice who inhale xenon gas stave off dementia. Estrogen receptor 1–expressing neurons in Barrington’s nucleus were found to act as the master controller of mouse urination, and a survey of 1,328 urinary events found that, unlike contagious yawning, the contagious urination of chimpanzees appears to be correlated to social rank rather than social closeness. Researchers in Namibia who shone lasers on wild chacma baboons found that the monkeys failed to recognize themselves in mirrors but also did not regard their reflections as strangers. Coyotes in dense areas of Chicago die younger if the average human income is high. Scientists found no evidence that radiation is to blame for the genetic differentiation among dogs at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Birds who drape snakeskin on their cavity nests deter predators, and it is possible that songbirds who migrate at night socialize with one another in flight and speak to other species. Costa Rican white-faced capuchins were more likely to survive El Niño if their feces exhibited higher levels of stress hormones during preceding droughts. Suicides appeared to rise following droughts but not floods, hurricanes, or tornadoes; nor, among the Maori, do they appear to correspond to lunar cycles.
lA medieval Italian fresco was found to depict a church’s altar draped in an Islamic tent, and a skull previously thought to belong to Cleopatra’s sister was found to be that of an Italian boy with a deformed jaw. Experimental reenactments suggested that, at Little Muck Shelter, trimming ostrich-eggshell beads before perforating them was slightly more successful than perforating before trimming. The moon, which the World Monuments Fund declared to be at risk, was found to be more geologically dynamic than previously thought. Neolithic Danes may have sacrificed sunstones following the disappearance of the sun, Iron Age Britons were matrilocal, and a Viking grave in Norway appeared to contain a vulva stone. French archaeologists discovered a Gaulish curse tablet tucked between a skeleton’s legs.
lFifty-two experts were consulted to produce a six-criteria test for predicting vasectomy regret. Researchers unveiled an androgen clock that measures hormone exposure in mice and sheep by examining their DNA and concluded that the more fights a male mouse wins the less essential dopamine becomes to his aggression. “Forestalgia” is more effective than nostalgia in vacation marketing. An infradian clock may control the alternation between depression and mania. Ambien inhibits the brain’s ability to wash itself during deep sleep. Swedes with a history of psychosisinduced violence exhibit a lower threshold for resisting auditory startles, and Swedes born prematurely likely receive too little pain medication. American college students gain muscle rather than fat during the holidays; American parents tend to exhibit a slight preference for their offspring who are younger, female, or more agreeable; and the recent increase in the number of American babies lost to sudden unexpected infant death may be attributable to respiratory viruses, parental opioid use, and unsafe co-sleeping practices popularized through social media. Severe autism reduces the time children spend looking at cute stimuli.
Chance that a large asteroid will strike Earth on December 22, 2032 : 1 in 32
% decrease last year in global champagne sales : 9
Chance that an average American attended a party on any given weekend in 2004 : 1 in 16
In 2024 : 1 in 25
Average number of people in a U.S. household in 1970 : 3.1
In 2023 : 2.5
Factor by which the number of unoccupied bedrooms in the United States has increased since 1970 : 8
Year in which U.S. deaths are projected to begin exceeding births : 2033
Average number of years by which people diagnosed with ADHD have shorter life expectancies : 7.7
Chance that an American man convicted of a crime was older than 50 in 1990 : 1 in 25
In 2023 : 1 in 7
Estimated % of violent crimes in NYC that are committed on the streets : 43
In the subway : 3
Estimated number of crimes committed in the New York City subway for every million hours people spend there : 1
% of Republicans who say that corporate DEI programs have had no effect on their careers : 53
Who say that these programs have benefited their careers : 26
Hindered their careers : 21
% by which Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they expect to drink alcohol almost every day in 2025 : 30
Estimated amount of microplastics, in grams, in the average American’s brain in 2016 : 4.7 In 2024 : 6.8
% of Americans who cannot distinguish between right and left : 15
Who say they rely on a “hand-related strategy” to do so : 45
% of U.S. engineers with Ph.D.s who were born abroad : 56
Portion of job-seeking Harvard Business School students who were unemployed three months after graduation in 2022 : 1/10 In 2024 : 1/4
% increase since 2022 in job turnover among U.S. CEOs : 80
% of funds deposited into online gambling apps that come from the top 3 percent of bettors : 69
Chance that an online gambler has ever withdrawn any winnings : 1 in 10
% increase over the past year in new American learners of Mandarin on Duolingo : 216
Minimum number of monthly users of character.ai, a website that offers AI-generated conversation partners : 20,000,000
Number of minutes per day that the average user spends on character.ai : 90
% chance that an American is able to identify whether a poem was written by Shakespeare or by ChatGPT : 42
% of Americans who, in a blind comparison of poems by Shakespeare and by ChatGPT, find the latter more beautiful : 61
Portion of Gen Z Americans whose favorite movie is Avengers: Endgame : 1/4
Average length, in minutes, that Americans think a movie should be : 92
Average length, in minutes, of a movie nominated for Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards : 150
Number of minutes that the average American says they would spend watching movies or TV on a perfect day : 186
That they would spend with friends : 84
Number of perfect days the average American says they had last year : 12
SOURCES: 1 Center for Near-Earth Object Studies, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, Calif.); 2 Comité Champagne (Épernay, France); 3,4 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; 5,6 U.S. Census Bureau (Suitland, Md.); 7 Realtor.com (Austin, Texas); 8 Congressional Budget Office; 9 Josh Scott, University College London; 10,11 Federal Bureau of Investigation; 12–14 Vital City (NYC); 15–17 Harris Poll (NYC); 18 YouGov (NYC); 19,20 Matthew J. Campen, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (Albuquerque); 21,22 Ineke van der Ham, Leiden University (Netherlands); 23 National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (Alexandria, Va.); 24,25 Harvard Business School (Boston); 26 Challenger, Gray & Christmas (Chicago); 27,28 Wayne Taylor, Southern Methodist University (Dallas); 29 Duolingo (Pittsburgh); 30,31 Character.ai (Menlo Park, Calif.); 32,33 Brian Porter (Pittsburgh); 34,35 Talker Research (Brooklyn, N.Y.); 36 Harper’s research; 37–39 Talker Research.
BY EVAN BIRNHOLZ
85 Setter’s statement
1 Paper Mate product
2 Crushing
4 “Apples Never Fall” author Moriarty
6 Do some light roasting
8 “Sharks in the Rivers” poet Limón
9 Snapper, for short
10 Start to play?
11 Parcel out
12 Obedience training command
13 Site with Stories and Reels, familiarly
14 Loses fur
15 Appearances
16 Rathskeller mug
18 Dust ___ (arachnid)
20 Alternatives to 45s
21 Org. in Beatriz Williams’s novel “Our Woman in Moscow”
23 ID on IRS forms
24 Many Omanis
28 ___ sapiens
32 Pig voiced by Christine Cavanaugh
35 BirdLife Australia journal
37 Doodle site
39 Shortly, in stanzas
40 Geometry calculation
41 “After that man!”
43 Revival method, briefly
44 Short way to go?
45 Cryotherapy material
46 Pulitzer Prize-winning musical by Michael R.Jackson, and an alternate title for this puzzle
49 Midmonth day
50 Pound
52 Drink mix on John Glenn’s flight
53 Michael of “Tenet”
54 Suspension over falls
55 Harp ___ (Arctic swimmer)
57 Part of the leg
58 Florida city southwest of O-Town
60 How a team making a dramatic turnaround can go ... and a hint for how you must enter 15 answers in this puzzle
67 Tranquil state
68 Per person
69 Ball game
70 43 Across employers
71 Elizabeth of cosmetics
73 MVP front-runner?
76 Musical group whose album “No Strings Attached” was the highestselling album of 2000 in the U.S.
80 Tranquil state
81 Changing to a lower gear, and an alternate title for this puzzle
84 Pump jack’s extraction
86 Bounce, as on the surface of water
87 Before the deadline
88 Marine apex predator
89 Sailor’s bow
91 Torre’s successor as Yankees manager
93 Make a run for it
94 Tiny complaint
95 Ritualistic burner
96 Oldest son of Lucious and Cookie on “Empire”
97 ADHD Awareness mo.
99 “___ to Ethiopia” (Paul Laurence Dunbar poem)
101 “What the Wind Knows” author Harmon
103 Football analyst Kimes
105 When Brutus sees the ghost of Julius Caesar
109 “Makes ___”
112 Like some transit
115 Basis for a promotion
119 “Chicago Boy” singer Lennox
120 Spots for some caps
121 Letter-drop?
122 Deftly avoid
123 Hair gel, e.g.
124 People pursued by the paparazzi
125 Org. that Lisa Simpson joins in the episode “They Saved Lisa’s Brain”
126 Small city blocks?
127 Show that aired a 50th anniversary special on Feb. 16, 2025
3 Paint holder
5 Experiencing a breeding cycle, as cats might
7 “House of Wax” co-star Cuthbert
17 Company parodied as ORSK in Grady Hendrix’s novel “Horrorstör”
19 One of nine on a diamond, typically
20 Drug dropped in the ’60s
22 Pleads for help
23 “Kama ___: A Tale of Love” (1996 film directed by Mira Nair)
25 Take back
26 Tap, as for a post
27 Nobleman who may wear a coronet
29 Giving up the goodies, perhaps
30 Resettles in
31 Quick ballroom dance
32 Attraction by the river?
33 Curved part of a viaduct
34 Drink that the Dude receives when he orders “two oat
sodas,” in “The Big Lebowski”
36 Fortitude
38 Redditor’s gasp
42 Solo played by Ford
46 Supports, as in a heist
47 Second thought?
48 Sauce on some bow ties
49 Forces
51 Undergo diffusion
56 “Full speed ___!”
57 Gas treatment brand
59 Bodybuilding competition garment
60 Program that may come with ads unless a user pays to avoid them
61 Exchange rings anew
62 Selects
63 Bleeping reason
64 Where you might get a cab at no charge?
65 Large quantities
66 Kia model that was renamed the K5
72 Bird considered a harbinger of spring
73 Servile assistant
74 ___-mentioned
75 Circus clown elevator
77 Bygone days
78 “That’s great!”
79 Say “yes!” to the address, in a way
82 Concealed
83 “The sea is everything” speaker
of a 19th-century sci-fi novel
88 Bloc concerned with
84 Across
90 Polecat’s relative
91 ___ Times (U.K.-based LGBTQ+ magazine)
92 Negligent
98 Arrived after the bell, say
100 Gadget for marking the month, day and year
102 Campaign’s strategy for com municating a vision to the public
104 One dreaming of a better world
106 Clearance event in one’s yard, perhaps
107 Attaches, as patches
108 Floral symbols of Sapphic love
109 Vail visitor’s ticket
110 Broke things off
111 Infant
112 Sends in, as payment
113 “I have strong doubts about what you just said,” among kindergartners
114 “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” and “Glib jocks quiz nymph to vex dwarf,” e.g
116 Made level
117 Raucous parties
118 Veiled vow
