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contents 10

MAY ~ 2012

INTERVIEWS A VOYAGE INTO THE HEART OF A FATHER’S COMPLICATED LOVE FOR HIS SON I 28 Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights and Twitter curmudgeon, crossed the country with Zach, his son who was born with trace brain damage. The trip allowed Bissinger to finally see the person behind the behavioral quirks.

JOHN CUSACK EMBRACES THE DARK SIDE I 32 In his latest role as Edgar Allen Poe in The Raven, Cusack had to risk some unsettling discomfort in order to realize his creation, a method for which the character proved the ultimate inspiration.

TONY BRAITHWAITE I 34 With his new job as artistic director at Act II Playhouse, the Philadelphia actor takes on the biggest role of his career.

FEATURE A PHOTOGRAPHER’S MERRY-GO-ROUND TOUR OF BUSHKILL PARK I 26 Ray Yoshida (1930-2009), Untitled, 1971.

Will Sasso, Chris Diamantopoulos, Sean Hayes.

Is there anything less amusing than a dead amusement park? This question carouseled through David Sestak’s mind as he photographed Bushkill Park, a 110-year-old entertainment emporium in Easton, Pa., wrecked by flood, vandalism and other forces of nature and human nature.

OPINION

COLUMNS

Eugene Robinson | 5 Lexicrockery | 53

City Beat | 5

Steve Kuhn; Kate McGarry; Kenny

Jim Delpino | 43

Garrett; Billy Hart; Melissa Stylianou

ART

Dave Barry | 44

Sally Friedman | 46

FILM Cinematters | 14 Monsieur Lazhar Keresman on Film | 16 The Three Stooges Bad Movie | 18 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

David Sestak, Small Children Only, Tub Car.

Reel News | 20 Coriolanus; Albert Nobbs; The Grey; Rampart Film Roundup | 24 God Bless America; Meeting Evil; Monty Python and the Holy Grail; Raid: The Redemption

FOOD M Restaurant | 39 Tastebuds | 40

WINE | 42 Author Buzz Bissinger.

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France’s Rhone River Valley M AY 2 0 1 2

Nick’s Picks | 56

Jazz Library | 58 Lucky Thompson

STAGE Regional Theater | 48

ETCETERA

A Behanding in Spokane; Hairspray;

Day Trip | 59

Boston Marriage; The Island;

Harper’s Findings | 59

Anything Goes; Titus Andronicus;

L.A. Times Crossword | 60

Harold and the Purple Crayon. Harper’s Index | 61 Footlights | 49 Tribes

Calendar | 63

MUSIC Classical Notebook | 50 Ray Chen Anne Akiko Meyers Singer / Songwriter | 52 Nanci Griffith; Phil Alvin; Loudon Wainwright; Dulcie Taylor; Lurrie Bell. Keresman on Disc | 54 Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things; Krzysztof Penderecki / Jonny Greenwood; Morton Feldman; La Sera; Marisa Monte; Jay Farrar/Will Johnson/Anders Parker/Yim Yames; Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs

ON THE COVER: Actor John Cusack. Page 32.

opinion

city beat

EDITED BY THOM NIICKELS

ThomNickels1@aol.com

Republican rhetoric over the top EUGENE ROBINSON NOT ALL OVERHEATED POLITICAL rhetoric is alike. Delusional rightwing crazy talk—the kind of ranting we’ve heard recently from washed-up rock star Ted Nugent and Tea Party-backed Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.)—is a special kind of poison that cannot be safely ignored. Let me be clear: I’m saying that the extreme language we hear from the far right is qualitatively different from the extreme language we hear from the far left—and far more damaging to the ties that bind us as a nation. Tuttutting that both sides should tone it down is meaningless. For all intents and purposes, one side is the problem. Believe me, I would prefer not to dignify the ravings of Nugent or West by commenting on them. Nugent seems to be motivated by paranoia; West, perhaps by cynical calculation. It would be satisfying to withhold the attention they seek, but this is not an option. The only effective way to deal with bullies is to confront them. Nugent, who delivered his foaming-atthe-mouth peroration at a National Rifle Association convention, earned a visit from the Ted Nugent. Secret Service with his promise that “if Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year.” That might or might not constitute an actual threat to the president of the United States. More chilling, to me, was the way his audience of gun en-

THE 3RD ANNUAL SCHUYLKILL Banks Art Stroll (May 18-20) promises to transform the Schuylkill River Park area into a Parisian Boulevard. Twenty working artists, canvasses in hand, will be in “zoological” formation for riverbank observation. Twenty years ago, SRP and the long stretch of Conrail tracks was a wasteland for Carl Sandburg-style hobos, crime, and inappropriate outdoor amour. Today the area’s fit for a garden party. Gary Steuer, Chief Cultural Office for the City, says the Art Stroll is a “first-of-its kind public art event,” and “a wonderful way to show off one of the country’s liveliest art communities.”

Call it a Charade of architects, but at the Center for Architecture (1218 Arch Street) on Thursday, May 10, they’ll be an all-day charrette (imagine Picasso doodling on bar napkins) titled Transforming Urban Schoolyards Design Charrette, where you can observe theoretical design professionals tinkering with playground options. Many of today’s playgrounds aren’t what they used to be— seesaws are no longer politically correct, and even sliding boards have been axed as dangerous. Tell the charrette team to design seesaws when you register for the all day breakfast-to-evening reception affair at 215-569-3186.

The popularity of Sunday brunch, from Honey’s restaurant in Northern Liberties to the new breakfast bistros near the Italian Market, may not last forever if the coming 2012 Mayan apocalypse snuffs out those puff omelets & hipster plaid shirts. Before this happens, get a premier of sorts at U. Penn’s Maya 2012: Lords of Time (May 5 to January 2013), where the ancient civilization that produced the calendar that ran out of ink comes alive before your eyes. Porfirio Lobo Sosa, President of the Republic of Honduras, will join Penn Museum president in a ribbon cutting ceremony at 10 am on Saturday, May 5th. He will then return to Honduras to await his doom…. Dancing as stress therapy might mean saying a fond farewell to the last round of Riverdance at the Merriam Theater (May 11 through 13). Riverdance’s evolution from a seven-minute, 1994 Eurovision song contest dance segment into a Broadway spectacular still has entertainment skeptics shaking their heads….

Kelly A. Burnhardt is a Godzilla lesbian who’s played with Barbie dolls. She’s also VP of (Global) Operations at TLA Releasing, a photographer and filmmaker. Her first solo photography exhibit at Ven and Vaida Gallery (Atomic Age, May 4-May 30) will include a self-portrait where she looks like David Lynch. “I like seeing the progression of my style,” she says, “I am so steeped in 1950s and ‘60s culture—that comes across in some of my images.”

Equality Forum, with its 25 panels, six parties and International dinner celebrates 25 years of committed LGBT programs and events. This year’s featured nation is Israel, and why not? Tel Aviv was voted Best Gay City 2011 by GayCities.com, which puts it light-years ahead of any other Middle Eastern city, most notably tech savvy (but gay unfriendly) Dubai, where towering skyscrapers clash with intense medieval ground forces. Check out the Israeli Tourism Panel at U of Arts and the forum honoring Israeli photographer David Adika. Arleen Olshan and partner Linda Slodki opened the Solomon Levy Gallery of Art in their Mt. Airy Art Garage last month. MAAG is now a staple in this unique Philly hood. Levy, a VP and a founding board member of MAAG until his death last year, will be honored with an exhibition of his photography. Travels Through Life will be on display until May 20. “It is a wonderful feeling that this is getting off the ground and that the community has been really supportive,” Olshan said. “Most of the money we have put into the building has been donations, income from events, memberships and renewals.”

Hello, Hello, by Kelly A. Burkhardt.

Kelly’s touchable pompadour (“I’m a non-conformist in every way”) will rule the roost during the exhibit’s opening reception on Friday, May 4. Prepare yourselves for social commentary photography which will include images of toys from Burnhardt’s childhood, and then look for some Warholesque Burkhardt pop up art in the near future. Speaking of Andy, catch the Warhol photography exhibit at La Salle University Art Museum (215-951-1000). Andy was always taking Polaroid snapshots in the ‘70s and ‘80s and you’ll see 150 photos that Andy took as he made his way about town mixing with the city’s power elite. This month’s question: What’s with the folks at Philly.com? Two months ago journalists at The Inky, the Daily News and Philly.com were up in arms about censorship but now they’ve U-turned and applied the censorship screws to conservative and unpopular opinions on Philly.com’s own comment sites. Is this the “let’s ban everybody” season? Maybe we need a Mayan apocalypse…. ■ M AY 2 0 1 2

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icon 5 / OPINION / REPUBLICAN RHETORIC OVER THE TOP

The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, opinion and mad genius

Filling the hunger since 1992 thusiasts applauded in agreement as Nugent compared the Obama administration to a bunch of “coyotes in your living room” who deserve to be shot. Nugent

Congressman Alan West.

ended by exhorting his listeners: “We are Braveheart. We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November. Am I—any questions?”

No, I think he made himself quite clear. Violent metaphors aside, the nub of Nugent’s argument—and I use the word advisedly—was this: “If you can’t go home and get everybody in your lives to clean house in this vile, evil, America-hating administration, I don’t even know what you’re made of.” Vile? Evil? America-hating? Nugent doesn’t just characterize those with different political views as misguided or wrong. He seeks to paint them as alien and anti-American—as enemies of this nation, rather than citizens with whom he disagrees. In a subsequent interview, Nugent called Nancy Pelosi a “sub-human scoundrel” and referred to liberals as cockroaches to “stomp” in November. This is what distinguishes the flamethrowers of the far right from those of the far left. Nugent and his ilk seek to deny their political opponents the very right to believe in a different philosophy. Agree with me, he says, or be stomped. It would be one thing if this sort of vicious intolerance came only from aging rockers whose brains may have been scrambled by all those high-decibel performances. But it comes, too, from an elected member of the House of Representatives. At a town hall meeting last week in Palm City, Fla., West was asked how many Marxists there are in Congress. He replied, “I believe there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party who are members of the Communist Party.” That is, of

course, a bald-faced lie. There are no communists in Congress. What makes the lie even worse is West’s subsequent declaration that he stands by his words because he was referring to the 80-member Congressional Progressive Caucus, which West considers a branch of the Comintern. “There is a very thin line between communism, progressivism, Marxism, socialism,” West claimed this week. “It’s about nationalizing production. It’s about creating and expanding the welfare state. It’s about this idea of social and economic justice. You hear that being played out now with fairness, fair share, economic equality.” West can’t really believe this nonsense. What he’s trying to do is delegitimize the entire stream of progressive thought that has run wide and deep through American history since the nation’s founding. Disagree with his views, West insists, and you’re not just a political opponent, you’re a godless Marxist. There is no symmetry here. The far left may hurl insults at the right but doesn’t scream “fascism” whenever a Republican proposes privatizing Medicare. So this is what I want to know: Mitt Romney, do you agree with your prominent endorser Ted Nugent that the Obama administration is evil and hates America? House Speaker John Boehner, do you agree with your star freshman West that “78 to 81” of your colleagues are card-carrying communists? Speak up, gentlemen; I didn’t hear you. ■

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City Beat Editor Thom Nickels Fine Arts Editors Edward Higgins

Burton Wasserman Classical Music Editor Peter H. Gistelinck Music Editors Nick Bewsey

Mark Keresman Bob Perkins Tom Wilk Theater Critic David Schultz Food Editor Robert Gordon Wine Editor Patricia Savoie Contributing Writers A.D. Amorosi

Robert Beck Jack Byer Ralph Collier Peter Croatto James P. Delpino Sally Friedman Geoff Gehman George Oxford Miller Thom Nickels R. Kurt Osenlund Victor Stabin

PO Box 120 • New Hope, PA 18938 (800) 354-8776 Fax (215) 862-9845 ICON is published twelve times per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. Subscriptions are available for $40 (shipping & handling). Copyright 2012 by Prime Time Publishing Co., Inc.

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a thousand words

STORY AND PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

Thanksgiving

PRING, WHEN A HUSH of new color tints the landscape and the whisper of new growth perfumes the air. The earth is reborn and a man’s thoughts turn to barbeque. I lifted the lid of the Weber to see what condition I had left it in last year and was startled by a flurry of movement. The grill was stuffed with leaves and wood shavings right up to the underside of the grate, and a field mouse was frantically darting back and forth in the gap, wide-eyed, looking for escape. She couldn’t squeeze through at the end because five brand new babies barely larger than jellybeans were attached to her belly. They clung to her nipples tenaciously as she forced herself through the narrow opening. I watched horrified as two of them tore loose and she scurried over the side falling to the bluestone, the other three still dangling under her legs. The mouse disappeared into an opening in the stone wall and I stared at the tiny abandoned babies in the shavings…translucent pink, blind and unaware, breathing rapidly, doomed. It wasn’t as if I haven’t trapped mice or other “pests” who have dared trespass on my turf, but I couldn’t leave the babies there. I gently placed them near the wall and they were gone when I cleaned out the grill an hour later. Who knows what happened to them. The image of a mother so frightened that escape was more important than her babies found a permanent spot in my psyche. It’s something I think about often, triggered randomly by nature videos, cartoons, and barbeque sauce. I know people who would snicker in my direction and gleefully describe the weapon they would have used to settle the matter, but it’s been a long time since I subscribed to that level of thinking. Civilized behavior can be difficult to maintain when the natural world— everything else but humans, allegedly—operates in survival of the fittest mode. It’s easy to forget we have the option. Civilization is an elective. Last year I learned about a local couple who lost their jobs, then their house, and now live out of a station wagon. They find work where they can but it gets increasingly difficult. That’s something that has always scared me: once you slide past a tipping point it can take all you have just to stay

alive. How hard is it to claw back when you don’t have an address or a phone? Or when your clothes wear out and no one wants to look at you? How about when you have a bad tooth and no money? Then it was mentioned that the homeless couple have three girls. A bleak scenario took on a sharper and darker dimension. I couldn’t imagine how difficult it had to be to hold a family together, living in a car. I had to name it—create an image that expressed my understanding—in order to move forward. Painting from imagination is more than just copying a mental picture. There is no one picture, just emotion, and you have to decide what combination of visual elements communicates that feeling. What kind of car? Where are they? What are they doing? A thousand considerations. How could I convey the dignity of people who are doing their best amidst dwindling alternatives without surrendering my image to cliché? It took months to arrive at a completed painting. In the interim I learned how homeless people network to subsist safely out of view. And how relief organizations struggle to provide essential services to those who suddenly find them-

selves on the short side of the American bell curve, pushed to the edge because somebody has to suffer when our economy contracts. You will see many pleas online for animal rescue, but not for people rescue. The homeless aren’t warm and furry, and the remedy not so clear-cut. In the contemporary language of avoidance: it’s complicated. Many homeless people, and families, were just finding their way—like us— when circumstances changed and they found themselves past that tipping point. Given the right chain of events it would be you or me. Or your daughter and her kids. They deserve a path back to a decent life. Every man for himself isn’t a civilization, it’s a mouse nest in a Weber, and it’s fair that we be judged by how those who are most vulnerable are treated in the celebrated, liberating, socio-economic society the rest of us enjoy. ■ Robert Beck’s exhibition, Iconic Manhattan, opens at the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South, May 3 and runs through May 12. Beck maintains a gallery and academy in Lambertville, NJ. www.robertbeck.net M AY 2 0 1 2

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art

ED HIGGINS

Liveliness, blinding color and inherent movement yield

excitement with a beat

ZECA LIGIERO, A THEATER and video director, who specializes in Afro-Brazilian culture at the University of Rio de Janeiro, maintains that the three passions of his county—soccer, samba, and capoeira—have African origins. Given the current exhibition at the Arthur Ross Gallery of the University of Pennsylvania he might well want to add primitive art. Samba Sessao: Afro-Brazilian Art and Film is currently on display through July 19. The University of Pennsylvania has thrown a lot of resources at the show which usually means everyone involved—including the audience—comes 8

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Maria Auxiliadora da Silva, 1938-1974,. Incendio (Fire), 1960s, oil on canvas. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The John Axelrod Collection–Frank B. Bemis Fund and Charles H. Bayley Fund

away entertained and smarter. The title can be translated as “samba session.” The show is the end result of the work of eight students from the Halpern-Rogath Curatorial Seminar guided by art history professors Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw and Tamara J. Walker. The show has been supported by the Gallery, the friends of the Gallery, the Center for Africana Studies, Latin American and Latino Studies, the History department, the Interdisciplinary Arts Grant, and the Office of the Provost. Even before all that there was John Axelrod who collected the work and then sent it to the Boston Museum of Fine

Arts where he is a trustee. According to the Boston Globe, “Axelrod, 64, grew up in Andover, one of several towns in which his father, Harry, built homes and hotels. He attended Phillips Academy, Yale University, and Harvard Law School. For a time, Axelrod ran a fashion company.” He is retired and an active collector of what he calls American art. Axelrod has a history of buying the works of under-appreciated artists, forming a collection and then selling them to a museum. These selections are all from 20th century artists. He is currently collecting New York graffiti artists from the 1980s.

The students first went to Boston to track down the paintings, then on to Brazil to track down the artists and study the country’s art, museums and exhibition history. This no easy task as Brazil is the world’s fifth largest country and its traditions and culture harken back to the time when it claimed the largest concentration of African slaves in the America’s and a slavery system that lasted longer than any other. The exhibit is comprised of 15 paintings and four sculptures, but each is the subject of a mini-essay by one of the students. There is also a video display of Brazilian television dating from the 1950s. The three passions, as Ligiero has it, are football (soccer, to us), samba, music and dance, and capoeira, both a dance and a form of martial arts that combines the physical and the spiritual. Capoeira can be best understood in the United States by looking at the gospel music and spirituals of south-

ern blacks that carried secret codes that passed Underground Railroad information along to a people forbidden to learn to read and write. The exhibition is accompanied by capoeira demonstrations, samba concerts, dance lessons, and a film series that includes such well-known movies as Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands and Kiss of the Spider Woman. There are also bateria drum lessons, music by a Philadelphia-based Brazilian ensemble, lectures and, given the academic setting, a symposium. Dr. Shaw points out, “In the canvases, sculptures, and films featured in the gallery, we witness birth, death, love, conflict, belief, and fantasy. We see bustling life in the big city and the slower pace of country roads side-by-side with ribald dancing and visionary rituals. The social and cultural landscape of Brazil is brought to life.”

Tamara Walker adds, “The past—its weight, lessons, as well as its triumphs—is ingrained into the symbols and stories at the heart of pieces on display, and as such it provides the key to understanding them.” One might assume that this is an esoteric isolated slice of academia—however, the liveliness of the work, the blinding color and inherent movement powered by the force of the naïve painting style is excitement with a beat. If you see this show and don’t feel the rhythm you should check your heartbeat immediately. Grades for this semester are not posted yet, but the smart money bets on at least eight students acing the course. Grade=A+ ■

Edward Higgins is a member of The Association Internationale Des Critiques d’Art.

Heitor dos Prazeres, 1898-1966, Roda de Samba (Samba Circle), 1957, oil on particle board. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The John Axelrod Collection–Frank B. Bemis Fund and Charles H. Bayley Fund

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art

BURT WASSERMAN

PERHAPS THE CREATIVE WORK of Ray Yoshida and the mid-western artists associated with him should be called the maximum movement. More so than any other composite, modern style, their efforts are the most diametrically opposite to the approach called minimalism. Above all, their art dares to deal with all manner of possible reality. Typically, they include bodies, human and otherwise, and virtually everything and anything with which those bodies may come into contact. When Yoshida died of cancer in 2009, former students and friends wept mournfully. They knew they had lost a great personal friend and a deeply rooted source of exceptional aesthetic stimulus. Born in Hawaii in 1930, Yoshida was raised and then spent most of his mature years in Chicago. His energies and attention were devoted to the pursuit of both his own oeuvre and providing guidance and instruction in painting for students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. It all culminated in a style that came to be called the Chicago Imagists. His combination of sincere encouragement and enthusiastic support was an especially important factor for several generations of artists who have lived and worked in that vicinity to the present day. Unlike the several post-World War II directions that flourished in New York City and were directed primarily to abstract form and conceptualism, the vanguard artists in Chicago took their impetus from surrealism—the world of strange fantasy and fuzzy-wuzzy, highly idiosyncratic humor. Besides Yoshida, some of the artists who were his students and later made considerable names for themselves include Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson, Roger Brown, Suellen Rocca and Christina Ramberg.

Dr. Burton Wasserman is a professor emeritus of Art at Rowan University, and a serious artist of long standing. Dr. Wasserman’s program Art From Near and Far can be heard on WWFM in Central and Northern New Jersey and Bucks County and WGLS in South Jersey.

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Currently, the Museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is presenting an exhibition of artworks by Yoshida and several of the individuals who were influenced by him. Organized by the distinguished scholar, Dr. Robert Cozzolino of the Museum staff, the show offers visitors a stimulating confrontation with the far-out quirks and offbeat nature of their achievements. The installation is mounted in Gallery 6 of the historic landmark building designed by Frank Furness, located a couple of blocks north of City Hall on Broad St. and Lenfest Plaza in center-city Philadelphia. It will remain on public display through the closing date of July 8, 2012 From the selections on view, one may see how Yoshida and his disciples came up with enigmatic, cartoonish images of weirdly stylized figures in and out of rooms, on stages and in landscapes conceived deep in the heart of their innermost imaginations. Throughout, you can’t help but see how the impact of comic book illustration, the influence of such truly great modern masters as Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee and the existence of folk and outsider art have all been absorbed into the examples in the show. Together, they make for an expressive vision that is rich with sophisticated configurations, a daring use of color, meticulous technique

and eye-catching pattern. In “Eating Etiquette,” Yoshida has planted five peculiarly angular figures in a weird cafeteria of sorts where they hold several, ready to munch, goodies in what passes for their hands. The anatomy of these orange and off-green characters suggests they may be acrylic painted, doll-like visitors to Planet Earth from some remote galaxy in outer space. How they found their way onto Yoshida’s canvas remains known only within what may have once been the interior recesses of his brain. Along with other selections, Chris Ramberg is represented by a bizarre headless and handless creature in a curious tan, black and brick red uniform. This mannequin-like form stands upright in front of a somber gray background. The playful title of the artwork is “Hereditary Uncertainty.” Because the missing appendages lend an eerie note to the lugubrious identity of the scene, it hovers vertically in space within the overall dimensions of the composition. Though it may take a while to come to terms with the unfamiliar image, there is no doubt but that it projects a powerful emotional charge for your interior sensitivities. Furthermore, its capacity to provoke serious thought and sustained wonderment is quite impressive.

As art exhibitions go, this offering is free of compromise to obvious and populist expectations. Instead, it’s alive with challenge and daring as it raises elusive questions and avoids becoming a group of simplistic vignettes filled with insipid and provincial content. In their own way, the artworks on exhibition transform the raw material perceived by your senses into exceptional forms with a unique new life of their own. As such, they serve as passports to a land of haunting enchantment. And, within that realm, they invite you to explore paths of fancy, where magical threads of glistening discovery come vividly into focus. ■

This page: EWWWWWW! AAAHHHH! AAWOOOOOOO!, 2002-03, Collage on heavy paper; 48 x 72 inches, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Gift of the Raymond K. Yoshida Living Trust and Kohler Foundation, Inc., 2011.12.2 Opposite page: Untitled, 1970, Watercolor and felt tip pen on paper; 24 x 18 inches, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Gift of the Raymond K. Yoshida Living Trust and Kohler Foundation, Inc., 2011.12.3

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exhibitions

Jane Mihalik, Yesteryear.

Terra Emota by Chip Forelli Red Filter Gallery 74 Bridge Street, Lambertville, NJ 08534 Through July 1, 2012 Opening Reception: May 5, 3pm The artist states: “My creative quest is the discovery of visual gifts—those precious instances of unrevealed beauty that we unknowingly encounter every day. Much is to be gained by embracing these opportunities. Experiencing beauty, whether occuring naturally or introduced by the hand of man, is a primal need in society that I would put on par with the need for sustenance and love. To convey it, we have relied largely upon the arts through the ages. However, beauty is in short supply in the art world today, so I want to do my part in redirecting our attention to that which elevates and enriches the spirit and gives us hope. Our society needs this more than ever. An integral part of this process is the rekindling of the qualities of childhood that should never have been lost: curiosity, exploration, discovery and wonder.” Chip Forelli’s photographic career encompasses 25 years as a professional photographer with international gallery representation and publication credits including the cover and a feature profile in Communication Arts as well as articles in Photo District News, Graphis, Lenswork, Rangefinder and Lürzer’s Archive. His images have been incorporated into all Apple Macintosh operating systems as desktop background choices. Solo exhibitions of his work have been at the Steinhardt Conservatory Gallery of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, the Mercedes Benz Gallery of New York, the Art Institute of Atlanta, the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies and Hoopers Gallery in London, England. In reviewing the shows, The New York Times has noted, “These photos cover an impressive range of ideas and interpretations... revealing uncanny simultaneous experiences with alternating haze and hard edged clarity... absorbing examples that tease perception and intense compositions that bring in an otherworldly lighting contribute to a spiritual quality.”

The Art of the Miniature XX The Snow Goose Gallery 470 Main St., Bethlehem, PA 18018 (610) 974-9099 thesnowgoosegallery.com May 6-June 17, 2012 T- F 10-5:30, Th 10-8, Sat 10-5 Sun 11-4 Collectors Preview: Saturday, May 5: 5-8 PM Opening Reception: Sunday, May 6: 1-5 PM This 20th exhibition is the largest collection ever assembled at The Snow Goose Gallery. Consisting of work by 71 artists, the show features miniature oils, watercolors, acrylics, mixed media, drawings, etchings and sculptures from many of the United States, England, Germany, South Africa and Canada. Award-winning artists include: Beverly Abbott, Carol Andre, James Andrews, Chrysoula Argyros, Elizabeth Babb, Clifford Bailey, Anastasia Baranoff, Elena Baranoff, John beach, Rita Beckford, Brenda Berdnik, Jan Borgner, Jo Bradney, Susan Brooke, Nancy Coirier, Jean Cook, Carolyn Councell, Debi davis, Viviane de Kosinsky, Shara Donohue, Paul Eaton, Elizabeth Eckert, Phillis Elliott, Wyn Foland, Beverly Fotheringham, Patricia Getha, Fred Gruizinga, Elaine Hahn, Diana Harvey, Susan Hayes- Murani, Richard William Haynes, Mimi Hegler, LaVerne Hill, David Hunter, Kimberly Jansen, Mary Jansen, Judith Johnson, Debra Keirce, Janet LairdLagassee, Judy Lalingo, Rebecca Latham, Gerald Lubeck, Jane Mihalik, Linda Morgan, Jeanette Mullane, Paul Murray, Charles Nelson, C. Pamela Palco, Ruth Penn, Lynn Ponto- Peterson, Cheryl Price, Genevieve Roberts, Linda Rossin, Doug Roy, Ann Ruppert, Mary Serfass, Rachelle Siegrist, Wes Siegrist, Barbara Stanton, Narissa Steel, Nancy Still, Ellen Strope, Shirley Tabler, Dana Lee Thompson, Cyril Turner, Laura Von Stetina, Sue Wall, Akiko Watanabe, David Weston, and Steve Worthington.

Linda Rossin, Garden of Dreams.

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47th Annual Bethlehem Fine Art & Craft Show Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission Main Street, Historic Bethlehem, PA Saturday, May 12, 10-5 Sunday, May 13, 11-5 www.bfac-lv.org Held annually over Mother’s Day Weekend, the sidewalk show is a celebration of the finest of local and regional artists. Over 75 juried artists and crafters are welcomed each year in this two-day outdoor Art Show. Judging takes place on Saturday and along with the Best of Show, Second Prize, Third Prize, and Best Display, the judge also selects a Purchase Prize which is annually presented to the Mayor as a gift to the City of Bethlehem. A number of local musicians will be stationed at different locations along the Show route. Music will be provided by Bethlehem’s own David Frye and Easton’s Earl the Accordionist among others. Families are encouraged to take part in the children’s art activities sponsored each year by Crayola. On Sunday from 11am-3pm, artist Virginia Abbott will help children create an “up-cycled” sculpture from found and discarded objects. This is a perfect opportunity to bring the entire family to a wonderful experience in Historic Downtown Bethlehem. For more information on the Art and Craft Show, the Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission and other upcoming BFAC events, go to www.bfac-lv.org

VICTOR STABIN’S UNAUTHORIZED

NPR CAUTIONARY TALES

Quodlibetical Moments What happens when hybrid creatures living in surreal environments go through their daily routines with the radio on.

DEATH AND DECAY IN THE STACKS by Andy Lanset HE RESTS DEEP IN the bowels of the archives. Hidden from view, his lair is beyond the grooves of a Father Coughlin sermon. There it was on the shelf, next to the pressings. It compact shelving featured in the recent murderous TV reality show, Libraries in the Raw. wasn’t just another anti-New Deal homily from The Shrine of the Little Flower, but a lip He (and we are certain of his gender), restlessly sleeps along with the binder that holds the smacking, gob spattering, apoplectic burst of anti-Semitic bombast. If you saw the grooves iron oxide and chromium dioxide to the acetate and polyester ribbons we know as tape. He as a digital wave form they were violent hills and dales like some hyper-manic stock market is the molecular key to lacquer graph punctuated by pregnant discs of a bygone sonic age. He is pauses that only made the steep the latent nano operative whose rises and falls more extreme and overstuffed Y-shaped form is the remalevolent than their speaker. sult of recording industry indulBut first he had to make his gence in Kava extracts for the sole way through the aging lignan-laced purpose of short-term gain at the sleeves that were nice and warm. expense of long-term preservation. In fact, they were on fire, a slow He is the yava-skin ypsiliform ylem. acid burn that turned their once “What me worry?” he says, in a newspaper-colored gray to a fine rare lucid Alfred E. Newman-mosepia-toned haze that conveys a ment between bits of high and nornostalgia to the average Joe and mal bias tape. There is enough, the beginning of the end to those quite enough of a legacy here to who know. Just a little more time keep him stoned on the broadcast and they would be dust. But he history of this NPR station for years couldn’t wait. The slight hint of offto come. gassing and visions of a real pal“Theme music alone would satmetic acid trip were driving him inisfy me,” he boasted, “but why setsane. It was time to make his tle for just beginnings and endings move. when I can have the whole show?” The lights were out. He made Temperature and humidity are his move. Pushing through the consistently in his favor. Batch mixpucker-creased cellulose fibers he tures with whale oil extract for lulicked the lacquer edge hoping to bricant may have once protected find a nub of nuance by simply magnetic heads, but now only serve rolling in the groove and feeling as an appetizer for our feasting the confluence of tone and pacing triple-Y fiend. as it resonated through his body In the beginning, it was the with every move. But he wasn’t Yava-Skin, n. A kind of Elephantiasis caused by the habitual use of Kava. electronic music programs on going to eat just any old part of the Yipsiloform, adj. Y shaped. Shamrock tape from the 1950s that ‘ol buggers radio address. He was Ylem, n. In cosmology the original matter that existed before the formawasn’t so lucky. Then there was the in search of sweet sarcasm delivcrawl space between glass and niered as innocent rhetorical question of chemical elements, pre Big Bang matter. trocellulose acetate coatings where tions. Kava, n. A polynesian shrub, of the pepper family, the aromatic roots of he disturbs the ink black grooves “…And wouldn’t Mr. Roosevelt which are used to make an inoxicating beverage. and is about as subtle as the Taliban want to invite the very leaders of at a Sarah Lawrence dinner party. his precious WPA to the White You’ve asked me, “Where does House for tea and biscuits?” it end?” I can only tell you that he hasn’t crossed the vast analog to digital divide. That’s for Oh, what a night! He made it though at least ten minutes of doggeral platitudes before another generation. The one that’s preoccupied with bit rot. He has no interest in virtual bihe found what he wanted. Then there he was scoring big time, straight down to the alunary systems. For him, ones and zeros are cold, sterile and euphemistic. Oh, but sound with minum base, stuffing himself silly in a frenzy of mezmerizing mastication. ”God,” he its roots in vacuum tubes and glowing filaments—now that’s something he can sink his thought, ”what did I do to deserve such aural delights?” ■ minivilli into and work with hand-in-hand (so to speak) with real rot. He could tell, despite consistent temperature and humidity, the solstice was at hand. Summer, winter, it didn’t matter which one. It was just an extreme end of a swing like a penAndy Lanset is the Director of Archives at New York Public dulum at its maximum arc just before the return. All that energy, ready to roar back before Radio where he routinely battles the seen and unseen hooking up with the brotherhood of momentum. Maybe it had something to do with gravicritters who like to take advantage of innocent sound ty, a shift in the magnetic north or aftershocks of the Japanese earthquake. recordings. For more about Andy and his work go to: What did it matter? Only that it coincided with an opportunity to dive into the rich http://www.wnyc.org/series/archives-and-preservation

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cinematters

PETE CROATTO

Monsieur Lazhar

A ASSEMBLE THE RIGHT SNIPPETS of everyday life and there’s extraordinary drama: a marriage that finds redemption, a friendship that goes sour, or in the case of the fantastic Canadian import, Monsieur Lazhar, a job that yields unexpected pains and pleasures. Philippe Falardeau’s masterpiece of economy (and a 2011 Oscar nominee for best foreign film) takes place in a Frenchspeaking middle school in Montreal, the kind of free-minded institution where the kids call the teachers by their first names and the classrooms are decorated like a birthday party. That tranquility is shattered when a popular young teacher, Martine (Héléna Laliberté), hangs herself in her own classroom. It’s an act that leaves students and faculty stunned. Soon after, polite, regal Bachir Lazhar (Mohamed Fellag) visits the school’s principal (Danielle Proulx) to inquire about the open position. Based on his 19 years of college teaching experience in Algiers and immediate availability, he’s immediately hired. Order has to be restored. Lazhar starts teaching grammar and composition to 11and 12-year-olds, but something is amiss. His source material for dictation—what is this, a 1950s secretarial school?—is Balzac; he disciplines a kid by slapping him in the back of the head. Oh, and there will be no semi-circles here. Lazhar isn’t being rebelliously old school. He has no relevant experience. In Algeria, Lazhar was a civil servant before running a restaurant. His wife was actually a teacher until her inflammatory

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criticism of the Algerian government got her and their two children killed. Lazhar was already in Montreal, preparing for a reunion that never happened. Now he’s a refugee with deportation looming over his head. Falardeau shrewdly uses Lazhar’s duplicity to establish the character’s fragile soul and to reveal the stifling sterility of today’s teacher-student relationship. That means Lazhar cannot fill the hole left in his life and the kids become the victims of stone-faced policy. Teachers can’t touch anybody, even out of compassion. If you talk about feelings, bring in the school psychologist and leave the room. The days of a teacher having any real influence are over. After Lazhar mentions a student’s personality tic to her parents, her father huffs, “We prefer that you teach our daughter, not try to raise her.” Isn’t the latter part of that concern crucial in teaching children, especially when the parents aren’t around? Lazhar does develop a rapport with the precocious and lonely Alice (Sophie Nélisse). Mom is an airline pilot and Alice isn’t on speaking terms with her friend Simon (Émilien Néron), whom she blames for Martine’s death. Lazhar is someone she can actually talk to, and the only who listens. She reads an essay about her conflicted feelings for Martine in his class. Afterward, he begs the principal to distribute copies throughout the school. The request is denied. When Lazhar tells the kids that the classroom is a place of life, it’s a plea, not a fact. Little moments like this—refreshingly free of musical or

visual cues—are strung together like pearls, a nice change from most dramas, which unload pathos with the eagerness of a 2 for 1 sale. The young lovers will die for each other; here are the saccharine wedding vows, the sensually lit sex scene to prove it. Mom and dad disapprove of the union: behold their icy stares. Falardeau understands the powerful beauty that comes in letting a story tell itself. Alice eats a meal as her mom rushes to her next destination. Grading papers, Lazhar sees the sun peek through the branches, and we know he’s finally found a sliver of contentment. By trusting the material and the performances—Fellag is terrific because he never appears comfortable in his new life—Falardeau can let everything can unfold without dramatic fireworks. When Lazhar’s ruse is discovered, forcing him to give up his class, we feel the cumulative weight of every tiny gesture, every silent movement. Moments later, we’re offered a farewell that tears our heart while massaging our soul. Only then do we realize just how beautiful movies can be when they aren’t in such a rush to tell us how to feel. [PG-13] ■

A senior critic at Filmcritic.com from 2002 to 2007, Pete Croatto also reviews movies for The Weekender. His essays, reviews, and feature writing have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, Publishers Weekly, TCNJ Magazine, Deadspin, and The Star-Ledger. You can read more on his blog, whatpeteswatching.blogspot.com.

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keresman on film

SURELY THE WORLD HAS progressed beyond the crass, bust-ya-over-the-head antics of the Three Stooges, right? What with the sophistication of Punk’d, Jersey Shore, Bad Teacher, Bridesmaids, and most of the Farrelly Brothers movies (to say nothing of the “films” of Adam Sandler and Rob Schneider)…yeah, that’s obvious, lame sarcasm. If anything, the world is catching up to the Three Stooges. But I digress… First off, this writer is a fan of the Three Stooges. Not everything in their 1930s-1960s careers of short films (and a few features) is golden, but hey, there are lame(r) episodes of Monty Python and The Dick Van Dyke Show, too. One reason the Stooges’s silly, gonzo slapstick antics endure is their lack of (for the most part) topicality. While their short films had moments of historical context, their humor is based on physicality (people getting clobbered by metal objects…lots), goofy wordplay (a law firm named “Cess, Poole, and Drane”), and colliding personalities. Moe was the leader, bossy, sarcastic, easy to anger, and brutal in bashing his partners in (cinematic) crime—Larry, the reactive, relatively easygoing, dim-witted semi-straight man, and Moe’s brother Curly, Daffy Duck made mortal man, a nearly out-ofcontrol man-child, the John Belushi of his day. (Curly had a fondness for spirits and was married four times, and like Belushi, wild living was his ultimate undoing.) Their few attempts at topicality were limited to references to the Great Depression, class distinctions (the Stooges routinely trashed the homes and savaged the pretentions of the filthy rich) and—most notably—the Stooges were the first Americans to mock Adolf Hitler on film. Their short film You Nazty Spy! was produced almost a year before Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator and before America entered World War II. The Stooges, y’see, were Jewish (in a time when Jews were openly discriminated against)

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MARK KERESMAN

and aware of the nasty goings-on on the Continent. Moe, of course, played the Dictator, Larry “was” Josef Goebbels, and Curly “was” Heinrich Himmler and even did a brief impression of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. While many dissed the Stooges then and ever since, many loved them and their style of comedy went on to forthrightly influence succeeding generations of funny business. (Just to name some obvious ones: Caddyshack, Animal House, Scrooged, and Spinal Tap—remember their drummers named “Stumpy” and “Stumpy Joe”?) Many have wondered since the last of the Stooges went to the Great Comedy Club in the Sky: Could the Stooges be “reincarnated” for a full-length movie? Would their type of seemingly anti-intellectual, slapstick humor translate to current times? I’d have to answer “yes” to both and it took the Farrelly Brothers (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary) to do it. The Three Stooges is both an update and tribute to the Stooges with three actors cast as the spittin’ images of the boys: Chris Diamantopoulos (Moe), Sean Hays (Larry), and Will

Sasso (Curly). The plot is similar to The Blues Brothers—the orphanage in which the lads were raised is in danger of going down the tubes, and the Stooges, being dim-bulbs with good hearts, resolve to help by raising a few hundred grand to save the place. These guys become the Stooges. At first, it’s a little odd and uncomfortable, like seeing an Elvis impersonator or the stage show Beatlemania with guys looking just like the Fab Four and realizing, “Shucks, it’s just not the same.” But once you let yourself get past that, it’s actually very funny. The goofiness comes fast and furious, the absurdity gets laid on thick—a beautiful lady (Sofia Vergara) offers to “help” our trio of dimwits by offering them the opportunity to put her “sick” husband out of his misery (so she may inherit his money). The three lads think very little and act (out) a lot, obliviously laying waste to nearly everything they touch. The plot thickens—literally—when Moe gets his big break in show biz by getting a part on Jersey Shore. (If there’s anyone in TV-land that can make the Stooges seem like Woody Allen, Denis Leary, and Victor Buono by comparison, it’s those Jersey clowns…who btw play themselves.) Is The Three Stooges fine cinema? Not really. But is it entertaining? Yes, if you enjoy the sights and sounds of gleefully violent (yet mostly malice-free), good-hearted but clueless dolts smashing their way through a world that mostly perplexes them. The supporting cast is fine and garners some laughs of their own while supporting the lads: Vergara (some Stooges shorts had an exotic femme fatale), Jane Lynch, Larry David (as a nasty, raspy-voiced nun that resembles Peter Sellers), Craig Bierko, Jennifer Hudson, and Emy Coligado. If subtlety you value, you’ll not find it here—but if you’ve ever chuckled at Bugs Bunny vs. Elmer Fudd and the cheery crassness of Sarah Silverman or grooved to the Zen of someone clocked with a (not-real) hammer, this is the place. (Stay through the credits.) ■ In addition to ICON, Mark Keresman is a contributing writer for SF Weekly, East Bay Express, Pittsburgh City Paper, Paste, Jazz Review, downBeat, and the Manhattan Resident.

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bad movie

Rather Bo ring & a Little Anno ying 18

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MARK KERESMAN

TRAGEDY CHANGES US ALL—sometimes for the better, sometimes not. The day of the World Trade Center crime changed things for a lot of people, including filmmakers. There have been movies to commemorate (or capitalize on) the losses of that day—Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is one of those movies. Tom Hanks is a father that died in the 9/11 attacks; Sandra Bullock is the mother that survived, and Thomas Horn is Oskar, the young (pre-teen) grieving son that finds a key among his father’s possessions. The key is in an envelope labeled “Black,” so the child tries to contact every person named thusly in New York City’s five boroughs. The movie is “about” his adventures…or something. I think what this

movie is “about” is winning an Oscar (no pun intended), about wringing some tears and emotion from an audience to that end. There are serious problems with this movie. The main one is Oskar himself—does he have Aspergers or is he just a spoiled, petulant, know-it-all little brat who thinks the world revolves around him? He enunciates every word within an inch of its life, and he frequently shakes a tambourine to calm himself. (I may never want to hear a tambourine again.) Oskar is such a darn precocious and smug little fellow that some viewers might wish for him to fall into a rabbit hole or a space-time warp. His attitude skirts abusiveness and rudeness toward people he meets in his travels…and about his travels: It’s a little, uh, much to swallow that someone would walk (Oskar doesn’t like subways) from somewhere in the Central Park whereabouts to Fort Greene in Brooklyn back and forth, let alone a young lad by himself. The sight of a kid walking through the Big Apple by himself raised no red flags? Nearly everyone this youth meets is amazingly un-bad (no knock against NYC, but I wouldn’t let a dog or cat wander the mean streets…etc.). The pacing is slow, very slow. The soundtrack and the cinematography virtually cry “poignancy”—and that’s what else is annoying about Extremely Loud. I felt director Stephen Daldry (The Reader, another manipulation-festival—let’s feel badly for an illiterate SS guard pedophile who looks like an attractive English actress) was pushing all the right buttons but in such noxious earnest it was hard to take. Yes, believe it or leave it, I’ve cried at movies (Ironweed, Wings of Desire, Running On Empty) but Extremely Loud left me so cold I had to put on a sweater to finish it. Tom Hanks’s portrayal of “Wonderful Dad” has the “whimsical” and “gosh-darn charming” aspects turned up to “11.” Sandra Bullock gives a decent performance of the mom, shattered by her husband’s death and trying to raise her smarty-pants son. Another thing—a minor one, but: In one scene Bullock’s character says to Oskar, “I don’t know why that man flew a plane into a building,” which is not true. We know why that plane was flown into the WTC—that’s something hard to speak of and I think if the movie had the guts to tackle that subject (not make it a major plot point, but to broach it), it’d have more gravitas and more resonance in this thing we call “real life.” (In The Reader, the pretty SS guard is confronted with her crimes at her trial—regarding her letting her prisoners die in a fire, she exclaims defiantly, “What would you have done?” It’d have been something had someone tried to answer her.) To say nothing of the child’s feelings—to know bad or fanatical people exist in our world, that America has enemies, etc., might’ve helped. (As a young ‘un, my father told me about some of his service in WWII…so when I watched movies set in WWII, I knew a little of the context, what was at stake, and of the sacrifices.) Young Mr. Horn has potential, but this movie was/is a bore, and a manipulative one at that. ■

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reel news

REVIEWS OF RECENTLY RELEASED DVDS BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

Coriolanus (2012) ★★★ Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Vanessa Redgrave, Jessica Chastain Genre: War drama Based on the play by William Shakespeare. Directed by Ralph Fiennes. Rated R for bloody violence. Running time 122 minutes.

The Grey (2011) ★★★ Cast: Liam Neeson, Dermot Mulroney, Dallas Roberts Genre: Horror/Thriller Based on the short story Ghost Walker by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers. Rated R for violence, disturbing content including bloody images, and for pervasive language. Running time 117 minutes.

Can a dialogue-rich play by Shakespeare be converted into a formula action-thriller and still to itself be true? In this timeless tale of the hellish consequences of fruitless war, divisive politics, and a bankrupted economy (sound familiar?), the victorious general Coriolanus (Fi-

Suspense builds as seven oil workers trod through the frozen taiga after their plane crashes in remote Alaska. Yet hunger and bone-chilling temperatures are minor concerns compared to the pack of bone-crunching wolves that stalk them. John Ottway (Neeson), the

Scene from The Grey. Photo Credit- Kimberley French John Kani, Vanessa Redgrave, Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastain and Harry Fenn. Photo; Larry D. Horricks

ennes) discovers that words indeed can hurt him. After advancing politically with the support of his influential mother (Redgrave) and wife (Chastain), he criticizes the masses, who riot in response, and he must flee Rome for his life. He allies with the vanquished enemy and returns for bloody revenge. In his directorial debut, Fiennes modernizes the 400-yearold tragedy with assault weapons and grenade launchers, but the ageless reality of duplicitous politicians, war-worn society, and manipulated masses sound like today’s network news. Both Redgrave and Chastain received numerous film festival awards and nominations for their roles.

Albert Nobbs (2011) ★★★ Cast: Glenn Close, Janet McTeer, Mia Wasikowska Genre: Drama Based on a short story by George Moore. Rated R for some sexuality, brief nudity and language. Running time 113 minutes. Awards: Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Set in late-1800s Ireland, this period drama portrays Albert Nobbs (Close), a woman who loses her soul when she chooses security over self-realization. To hold a job, she masquerades as a man. Every moment of every day, every decision, every denied emotion is governed by a paralyzing fear, instead of love, of life. To survive, she becomes a hollow shell. Then Albert meets Hubert (McTeer), a hidden-gender painter, whose jovial life is as colorful as her paint palette. For the first time, Albert lets herself dream of a life with a smidgen of fulfillment, though still as a man. But by now her dried-up self-esteem has no concept of reality. Close, who played the character on stage 30 years ago, powerfully portrays a tragic, pathetic, and borderline repellent character who has lost all touch with herself. 20

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oil company wolf hunter, wrote his suicide letter the previous day; now he fights for his and the men’s lives against the fierce predators. The voracious wolves, as inescapable as the bitter cold, crouch in the shadows patiently waiting for the smallest human error. In the dance with death, the men reveal themselves and their will to survive despite overwhelming odds. Don’t expect a Discovery Channel treatment about northern gray wolf behavior, but rather an unnerving suspense where men are the underdogs.

Rampart (2012) ★★★ Cast: Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster, Sigourney Weaver Genre: Crime drama Directed by Oren Moverman. Written by James Ellroy and Moverman. Rated R for pervasive language, sexual content, and violence. Running time 112 minutes. In the Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department, forget the good-cop, bad-cop stereotype. In 1999, the rogues rule and Detective Dave Brown (Harrelson) is the meanest badass of all. He’s a macho racist, misogynist, homophobic, and loves a beat-down more than sex. If he had a Facebook page, he’d probably list his profession as “human waste disposal.” His nefarious deeds finally attract the attention of the assistant DA (Weaver) and a black Internal Affairs investigator (Ice Cube). With video of him stomping a suspect and the accumulation of his past abuses, his life begins to spiral out of control. Harrelson delivers a pitch-perfect performance of an amoral, unredeemable human devoid of emotion, empathy, and conscience. ■ George Miller is a member of the Society of American Travel Writers and believes that travel is a product of the heart, not the itinerary. See his webmagazine at www.travelsdujour.com.

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film roundup

PETE CROATTO Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

God Bless America (Dir: Bobcat Goldthwait). Starring: Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr. Lonely and ignored, Frank (Murray) is a middle-aged nobody living in a world that he loathes. Pointless celebrities are idolized. The public insults and tortures the weak for its own enjoyment. Everyone, tethered to technology, regurgitates the same talking points they heard on the morning commute. “Nobody talks about

anything real anymore,” he laments. After he’s fired and diagnosed with a brain tumor, the timid Frank finds his spark. He embarks on a soul-cleansing, civilization-saving killing spree, picking up a similarly minded, tart-tongued teenager (Barr) early on. Writer-director Goldthwait offers an extended middle finger to America’s cultural wasteland—political pundits, American Idol, middle-aged men who lust after teenage girls. He’s frequently dead-on and profanely eloquent. And occasionally boring: the ranting as dialogue loses steam about halfway through. TV veteran Murray (delivering his lines in a hypnotic sad-sack rhythm) and Barr (all barbed sarcasm) pick up the slack by providing a heartbeat to the slaughter as cultural commentary. Currently available On Demand. ★★★ [R] Meeting Evil (Dir: Chris Fisher). Starring: Luke Wilson, Samuel L. Jackson, Leslie Bibb, Peyton List. Defeated family man John (Wilson) is having the kind of day usually described in country songs. He comes without a job and to a foreclosure notice on the door. His relationship with his wife (Bibb) and kids is strained; in fact, there’s a good chance she’s sleeping with the pool installation guy. Just when things can’t get any worse, a well-dressed stranger (Jackson) appears at his doorstep, claiming car trouble and hiding a disturbing agenda. John is soon thrown into a world of chaos, as the dapper psychopath leads the helpless suburbanite on a deadly journey. Overblown thriller starts slowly before bombarding us with plot twists and character revelations to make up for lost time. These are confusing more than intriguing. Why does Bibb’s character suddenly turn into a Linda Fiorentino-like tough cookie? Is Jackson a supernatural killing machine or just ninja quick? Another drama about how the suburbs are ripe with evil and ulterior motives, only with those important elements missing. ★★ [R] 24

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Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Dirs: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones). Starring: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam. A re-release that will bring much rejoicing, and not just to the quote-loving fanboys. Right now, it is the best comedy of the year. The legendary troupe’s 1975 masterpiece—a zany ode to the bravery of King Arthur and his men—has been remastered and begins with Gilliam’s wry commentary to previously unseen animated footage. Don’t watch it for those reasons. Watch because there’s an agenda-less, overflowing joy that isn’t seen in today’s comedies. The wackiness and quick wit aren’t cloaked in irony and sarcasm. The performers, who also wrote the script, approach every scene as an opportunity to do something memorable, like a rebellious teenager testing their parents’ authority. And with every killer rabbit and shrubbery joke, they pull it off. Watch because Python is a rarity, a sketch comedy pioneer whose accomplishments don’t have an expiration date. The movie will run at the Ritz Bourse through at least Thursday, May 3, with no guarantee of future engagements. ★★★★ [PG] Raid: The Redemption (Dir: Gareth Evans). Starring: Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Doni Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, Ray Sahetapy. Eleven-year-old me’s favorite movie of all time. A SWAT team is dispatched to a slum high-rise with a simple task: remove ruthless crime lord Tama (Sahetapy) from his headquarters while avoiding the dangerous tenants who reside there. But the team’s cover gets blown, prompting Tama to lock down the building and proclaim open season on the unwelcome visitors. Now, the good guys have to

battle an inexhaustible supply of well-armed, skillfully violent punks, though the quick reflexes and fatal fists of a rookie cop (Uwais, in a dazzling athletic performance) could provide the equalizer. Essentially a series of fight scenes interrupted by dialogue and plot twists, Raid: The Redemption is so breathlessly choreographed and intoxicatingly violent that we can’t keep our eyes off it. Writer-director-editor Evans taps into our fascination with violence, but not in a way that’s exploitative or fetishistic. We just can’t wait to behold what kind of gruesome artistry comes next. Already a cult hit, Ritz Theaters in Philadelphia actually dropped it from their schedule. ★★★★ [R] ■

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feature

GEOFF GEHMAN

A PHOTOGRAPHER’S MERRY-GO-ROUND TOUR OF BUSHKILL PARK IS THERE ANYTHING LESS amusing than a dead amusement park? This question carouseled through David Sestak’s mind as he photographed Bushkill Park, a 110-year-old entertainment emporium in Easton, Pa., wrecked by flood, vandalism and other forces of nature and human nature. And yet the Bethlehem native could easily feel the fun that pumped in his first favorite amusement park. He could feel the giddy whirl of the merry-go-round even though it was stripped of its hand-carved horses, the satisfying jolt of the Art Deco bumper cars even though they were caked in mud, the spooky thrill of the Haunted Pretzel ride even though the cinderblock mural of Frankenstein was decapitated. Even in their absence he felt their presence. This stubborn optimism animates Bushkill Park: Closure, an exhibit of 67 Sestak pictures at two galleries in Bethlehem. Shot in color and black and white, when the park was closed and open, the photos share beautiful composition, bright tones and subtle shades of melancholy. They honor a rare American amusement park with old-fashioned wooden attractions in a pastoral setting, a quaint, quirky sanctuary for five generations. The Bushkill project is part of Sestak’s mission to link Americana to the American Dream. The founding president of Media Five Entertainment in Bethlehem manages acts (former clients include the popular rock bands Fuel and Live), books acts for the Sands Bethlehem Casino and collects robust photographs of post-World War II rebels. He connects the rush he felt at Bushkill, bashing bumper cars and whipping the Whip, to the rush he feels in Danny Lyons’s portraits of guerrilla bikers and Allen Ginsberg’s portraits of literary outlaws. Sestak, 63, recently discussed his Bushkill odyssey at one of the show’s sites. Speaking under his seven-foot-wide panorama of the park, he sounded like an aesthetic sociologist and an eternal kid.

Left: Mural, Barl of Fun, Bushkill Park, 1999. Archival digital print mounted on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Photo Rag, 36 x 24. Middle: Bumper Cars, After the Flood, Bushkill Park, 2004. Archival digital print on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Photo Rag, 19.5 x 13. Right: Roller Skates, Roller Rink, After the Flood, Bushkill Park, 2004. Archival digital print on Hahnemuhle Fine Art Photo Rag, 19.5 x 13.

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FIRST WENT TO BUSHKILL with my parents when I was under five years old. It was a great place for a kid; Kiddie Land had a whole bunch of rides for two- to three-year-olds. The first definitive memory I have of the park was during a seventh-grade yearend home-room party. We had a pass where we could go anywhere and do everything. I remember playing in this arcade with penny machines from the ’20s and ’30s. I won some glassware, which I gave to my mom as a present. The heart of the park was the carousel with the handcarved characters. It was magnificent; it was like kinetic sculpture. I loved the sound even when it wasn’t perfect, when the rotors and beaters were out of time and tune. It was still a thrill. The Whip was the ride I enjoyed the most. I loved the sound of the metal wheels on the tin floor, the excitement

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interview

Author Buzz Bissinger and son Zach.

PETE CROATTO

A Voyage Into the Heart of a Father’s Complicated Love for his Son 28

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MANY PEOPLE KNOW PULITZER Prize-winner Buzz Bissinger as the author of Friday Night Lights, the classic book on Texas high school football that spawned a movie and a beloved television series. In recent years, countless more know the Philadelphia writer as Twitter’s resident crank. His activity on the social network site is astounding, 140 characters of rage-filled catharsis that was the subject of a Los Angeles Times story. Here’s some April activity: “David Simon [the creator of the classic TV crime drama The Wire] [is] a full of himself dickweed. Don’t ever put us in the same sentence.” In response to @loveandcomedy: “Fuck you. I will say to [you] whatever the fuck I want when you criticize me. Nice pic by the way. You look like total moron.” “People say, ‘Well, you’re just acting like a curmudgeon,’”

says Bissinger, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a sports columnist for the Daily Beast. “Well, when I was in eighth grade there was an eighth grade yearbook, and the occupation predicted for me was undertaker.” Those highly amusing—and occasionally ostracizing— tweets threaten to overshadow Bissinger’s talents as a writer, a potential problem he obliterates with his beautiful new memoir, Father’s Day: A Journey into the Mind & Heart of My Extraordinary Son. In the book, Bissinger takes a cross-country trip with his then-24-year-old son, Zach, who was born with trace brain

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28 / INTERVIEW / A VOYAGE INTO THE HEART OF A FATHER’S COMPLICATED LOVE FOR HIS SON

damage. (Zach, a savant, and his unscathed twin brother, Gerry, were born 13-and-a-half weeks prematurely.) The trip allows Bissinger to finally see the person behind the behavioral quirks. He also turns the spotlight on himself, exploring his own flaws as a father, son, and husband. Unfiltered honesty keeps you reading. There is no happy ending or miracle cure, just a father navigating a complicated love for the son he never wanted but can't live without. Fresh off a family trip to South Africa, Bissinger thought jet lag might hinder his eloquence for this interview, which was conducted over the phone and edited for space and clarity. He had nothing to worry about. Pete Croatto: In the book you mention that you had been keeping notes and files on Zach for years. What made you decide that now was the time for a book on you and your son—not later or earlier? Buzz Bissinger: As I thought about doing it, and I have thought about it for 20 years, I began to realize that a lot of the issues that a parent faces, the crucial issues—What’s to become of my son? Should he be in a group home? What is

the future going to be like?—they really intensify when he becomes an adult. I think when he was so adorable as a child I held out certain hopes. Reality set in when he became 21 and I just think it made the issues that more intense, that more emotional. And I think it makes for an interesting book for readers. PC: I guess when Zach was younger the guise of cuteness hid some of the pain. BB: That’s a great point. It does. He was just absolutely gorgeous as a child. You hold out certain hopes. You ride the circuit of these psychologists, psychopharmacologists—many of whom are terrible…The cuteness hides a lot of it and, you know, there have been a lot of wonderful books written about kids who are different, but they also focus on the kids when they’re at a young age. I just felt it’d be more interesting for readers if I focused on what he is like now. He’s 28 now. He’s not getting any cuter and he’s not getting any younger, and it just crystallizes what is going to become of him when I’m gone and his mom is gone and the wrenching decision of, should he be in a group home now if he’s with his friends? Is that better than having him living with me or his brother or his mother? Those wrenching issues really, really crystallized. They are wrenching, wrenching issues because you always have the feeling that as good as a group home may be, am I putting my son into a kind of prison. I still grapple with that. [Writer’s note: Zach currently lives with his mother and Bissinger’s ex-wife, Debra, in Haddonfield, NJ.] PC: With this cross-country trip, did you ever think about keeping it between you and Zach, especially since it’s so personal? BB: In the back of the mind, I thought could this be a book and then in the back of my mind—or maybe in the forefront of my mind—is if I do a book like this am I revealing too much about him and also about myself? It’s a difficult, difficult decision particularly in the case of someone like 30

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Zach. He hasn’t read the galley. Even if he did, I don’t think he would understand a lot of it, and that was a great weight on my shoulders and it’s like any private story: You hope it has a universal application, but at its root is a private story. Should I go public with it and how should I go public with it? I felt it was worth a book because, to me, it’s a universal book about parenting because we all have ambitions for our kids and certainly it’s a universal book for the millions of parents who have kids who are different and, to me, the label is irrelevant. I just felt the only way to write was to be as wrenchingly honest as possible. Otherwise, what’s the point? PC: I think a lot people look at those with savantism as something out of Rain Man. They have a talent for numbers or a crazy memory. One of the book’s great assets is that you show Zach has a functioning mind. BB: Well, he does. And it’s something I think I really learned on the trip, and it’s not B.S. I learned a tremendous amount on the trip really because I was focusing on him for the first time in terms of how his mind worked, and I also felt I needed to tell him certain things about his life. I didn’t want to hide it from him, the fact that he was very sick when

he was born, the fact that he might go into a group home, the fact that he would never get married. The whole thing, for me, was so emotionally wrought because he has a twin brother who is thriving. And I think Zach in his own way feels that, and wants to keep up with his brother and can’t. But he clearly has a mind in which he’s certainly able to articulate, he’s able to function. I always thought savantism was kind of a parlor trick, but it’s not. He uses his memory, memory for him, past is the present and he uses it to connect to people. And I see it all the time. That’s how he relates. And he proves himself to be far more empathetic than I ever realized….Particularly the first half of the trip, I got angry a lot, I got moody a lot. Zach just never got mad and hung in there and really, really wanted to calm me down. I also found he’s surprisingly observant. He just won’t say it at the time, but then something will pop out of his mouth. He has seen something and it resonates with him and it stays with him. So, there really is a beautiful mind there. I think there is a tendency in all of us, you see a kid with a disability and you do two one of two things: you sort of shy away or you’re very, very patronizing. But most of us don’t know what to do. I think the more you say, “Well, they’re just kids, they’re just adults, maybe a little bit different, you treat them the same you would everyone else.” First of all, they love it. And, second of all, it’s delightful to see how their minds work and how they put things together. You know, they’re human beings. PC: You’ve mentioned emotionally wrenching a few times. How difficult was it to write this book? Between the trip ending and the publication of the book, we’re talking four or five years, correct? BB: We’re talking about four years, and I think that’s a reflection of how hard the book was to write. The trip was in 2007, and I thought I could pretty much bang this out in a year and a half. And I could not. I blocked on it. It was hard to find the right tone. It was hard to find the right mood. It was hard to find how much should I say, how honest should

I be. I just blocked. I wrote about 60 or 70 pages in the beginning, and they just weren’t very good. I was very dissatisfied with it. I just had to put it away. I kept staring in front of the computer and I just wasn’t getting anywhere. I wound up doing another book, Shooting Stars with LeBron James, and it wasn’t a great book, I’ll be the first to admit it. I did it for the money, because I have to live. And then I went back to it, and I was saved by two things. My agent in Hollywood, Ari Emanuel, he literally called me, sometimes it was once a week, but it was at least every month, pushing me to do this book just pushing me and pushing me. Then, finally, what happened was that my editor at Houghton Mifflin, a guy named Eamon Dolan, he called and he said, “Hey, look, we need the book. We believe in it, I believe in it, and if we don’t get it in six months we’re not going to be able to publish it.” Every writer needs a kick in the ass. PC: As a former newspaperman, I’m sure having an imminent deadline… BB: We all need deadlines. I tweet a lot and tend to be very outspoken and sometimes say things that are true or funny—and sometimes say things that make a complete ass of myself. But it was all avoidance. Then I sort of restarted, rewrote, and started at the beginning and found a tone and a rhythm that I felt worked. As I wrote, I said, “You have to be honest.” Not as a conceit. I think one of the things that I’m trying to do in this book is give voice to those millions of parents who feel the same pain that I do, who feel the same frustration, who feel the same anger, who feel cheated, who feel this is not the child I wanted and are afraid to say it simply because people will misinterpret it and say, “Well, that means you don’t love your child.” I love Zach madly. But I’m not going to lie. He is not the child I wanted. He is never the child I envisioned. It took me a long time to accept that. Once you find acceptance, you perceive things within him that are marvelous, but there are still moments where it’s just very hard…Zach still does things where he gets stuck. It feels like we’re a needle in the groove of a record that’s stuck. We’re just playing the same song over and over again. PC: But then there are those breakthroughs. BB: …I remember asking him [during the trip], “Do you know what responsibility is?” It wasn’t to be arrogant; I’m not quite sure. And he says, “Well, I think it means take care of your things, not like losing your camera bag.” And he was exactly right. PC: Going back to the book’s tone, covering this territory is ripe for folk heroes and gooey, black and white sentiment, but Father’s Day—refreshingly—has none of those dramatic trappings. BB: That was conscious, and it took a lot of time to get through, and the editing was wonderful. Look, I don’t want this book to be a complete downer. Parts of it, I hope, are funny. The interactions between Zach and I myself are funny. PC: It is. I’m not… BB: I know you’re not contradicting that. I did not want it to be one of these traditional “Zach is an angel from God” and have that kind of very weighty tone to it. There are certain moments in the book that are wrenching, but there are moments that are poignant, but there are moments that are funny. Because he is funny, because he doesn’t know jealousy, he doesn’t know guile, he doesn’t know manipulation, he doesn’t know competition. He just does what he thinks. It’s interesting to me that it takes someone with trace brain damage to have those traits. Maybe we all need a little trace brain damage.

PC: Well, at the end of the book you do write that you need him more than he needs you. BB: Every day that I see him he’s still progressing, he’s still growing. His processing is astounding me. He’s really working hard to become conversational, and I just have this incredible smile on my face. I also worry about him; he’s still very limited. I am gratified that he is in my life. He’s a spectacular man. It’s not hyperbole—I admire him more than anyone in my life. He really has worked hard to create a life for himself, and he has done that—an integrated life of work and adult friends and contemporary friends. And he’s cheerful and he works hard and he has appropriate independence. I really do admire him. But I’m not going to say he’s changed me. At the end of every book, there’s, “well, this changed my life.” I’m still grumpy. I am. I’m still moody. I’m still a lot of things. But this man, Zach, is a breath of fresh air. He really is. PC: I’m with you on that. I’m apprehensive of the whole “this changed my life” attitude because life is still going on. You’re still going to be a parent. You write that things still aren’t great, that you shed a tear for Zach every day. BB: They’re not going to be great. You shed a tear because Zach is close. He has significant impairment, but the thing about Zach, and I think this comes out of the book, is that there are these kinds of moments of incredible lucidity. But they’re moments. And you see those moments and you just think, “He is so close. He is so close. I wish I could move a wire here and move a wire over there.” But you can’t, but you can’t. They excite you and then the tears come from saying, “Well, he’s not going to marry. He’s not going to live alone. He’s not going to drive a car.” These are the realities, and you have his twin brother who is doing all of these things, basically, and is thriving at his job and will get married and owns his own house…It’s like looking at an inverted mirror of one another. One mirror is unblemished and the other is quite blemished. PC: The theme of losing touch comes up frequently in the book. You go into your relationship with your mother and father, and the trip with Zach seems like a chance to not have someone else important in your life drift away. BB: I think that’s a great point. That’s why it was put in. It was not put in to be indulgent. It’s a book about fathers and sons. My relationship with my father, in particular in the end, was very, very complex. I didn’t want to repeat my relationship with my mother and father. They were great people, but there were things that were missing. I did learn from them as a young parent that there were certain things that I did not want to repeat, and I did not want to lose touch with my son. And I felt to some degree that I had because of the divorce, because of not spending a lot of time with him alone. That’s another reason I took the trip: I wanted to do something special with him like I had done with my other kids where we were just together. PC: After this cross-country trip, do you feel like you’re taking better care of your relationships? BB: I feel like I’m taking better care of my relationship with Zach. I see his search for independence, and I think that’s important. It indicates to me that’s a natural matura-

tion and progression in life. You have to be careful. You don’t want to ever put someone like Zach into a situation he can’t handle, but at the same time I celebrate that. I try to give him as wide a berth as I can. If he wants to walk around Cape Town, I know he has a great sense of direction, it’s a safe place. If I say, “Zach, that’s fine, just be back at the hotel in an hour,” and he’ll be back in an hour. I want to celebrate that. I just pay more attention to his vocabulary and what he’s learning and spend more time on sort of appropriate behavior, and then praise for what’s wonderful behavior. We talk a lot about how to deal with people and how to be conversational and how not to interrupt and to participate in the flow of a conversation. That’s been a great breakthrough from him. Normally there would be those non-sequiturs like, “When is your birthday?” and “What tie do you wear?” and “Where do you work?” He’s really gotten away from that. PC: I know in the book you work with him on certain things during the trip, but it’s wonderful you’re seeing that progress. BB: Yeah, it really is. Normally, he sends out these blast emails to everyone. He loves his email, but they would ask him questions, he would never answer. Now, he’s answering. He’s giving good answers. I gave him an iPhone, which has changed his life. Like everyone, he’s completely addicted. And he loves to text. So, like yesterday, he texts me, “Hey, Dad. The Inquirer won a Pulitzer.” That was pretty cool. [Laughs] PC: Is Zach excited about the book? BB: He’s excited about the book in the sense that he knows it’s garnering attention and we talked about it. He’s not giddy about it. I remember when I showed him the cover he sort of it looked it and said, “That’s nice,” and didn’t stare it and just kind of put it away. I think he’s excited, but he’s not doing cartwheels, although he talks about it to a lot of people. Maybe as publicity increases—there’s going to be a segment on The Today Show—that may excite him. But one of the things that keeps Zach going is he’s always on to the next thing. He doesn’t dwell on nostalgia. But I think he’s excited. I don’t think he’s apoplectic…He wants to keep propelling himself forward. PC: If the book doesn’t do well, commercially or critically, will that bother you, especially since the material is so near and dear to you? BB: Well, look, any author is lying—I don’t care how big the reviewer is, how big the reviewing mechanism is—nobody likes negative things said about their work. And, yes, it’s intensified by the fact that it’s a very personal story and maybe you feel, “Well, gee, I should get a pass. I really laid myself out on the page.” You can’t judge yourself by how it’s reviewed. Reviewing can be very arbitrary. Some reviewers are great. Some are terrible. Some really read the book carefully. A lot of them don’t. You try to get on all the shows you can, but I don’t want my life judged by Terry Gross [of NPR’s Fresh Air]: she passed on the show, that’s fine. That’s her prerogative, but I don’t really give a shit about her. I don’t want to be judged by that. I’m proud of the book. I’m proud that I wrote it. It was a tremendous departure from what I wrote in the past. I think it’s a good book. It’s certainly a tribute to the most special

person that I’ve ever met. You always hope it resonates with readers, but you never know. The book business is so different now, and just getting attention is very, very hard and it’s taken me a long time to get that. Now, if The New York Times comes out and smashes it, Pete, call me in ten minutes and I’ll be going through the fucking roof, getting really pissed off. I still do that, but then I calm down and get it out of my system and write a nasty e-mail to my editors saying they should all be killed. And then it passes. I know when I’ve written something that’s good. I know when I’ve written something that’s bad. Shooting Stars [LeBron James’s memoir of his high school days, which Bissinger wrote] was bad—I’ve said that publicly. It wasn’t a good book for me to do. It just wasn’t. PC: You’re known as being a journalist and non-fiction writer. Was it strange to become the subject of a book? BB: Oh yeah, it’s incredibly strange because what’s going through your head is, “Why is anyone going to care about this story? It’s a personal story.” How do you write about yourself? How do you write about someone who really is defenseless?…How much do you reveal about [Zach]? It’s just very, very different. I’m used to taking notes about other people and making observances about other people. The practical problem was, how much do I say about myself? Is it becoming indulgent? And you want every sentence to be perfect and you really want to get it right and you really want to be honest. It wears you down, which is why I really blocked on it. That’s not an exaggeration. I’ve always had depression, but I couldn’t deal with it. Putting it away was really good because then I went back to it, took a few breaths, and saw that it was a mess and did what you have to do in any book, which is find how you want to tell it and what’s the right tone. PC: If this were the only project you were working on, it would have been hell on earth. But you have a ton of stuff going on. BB: It helped. I’m not one of these people who can write for ten hours a day anyway. I get too anxious. I write in the morning and then I can’t stand going back to it. It helped to have other projects. I think with books like this if you get three good hours, you’re lucky. It’s just emotionally exhausting. PC: The galley I have is a shade under 235 pages, and there’s not an ounce of wasted emotion here. Was that all you were capable of? If your editor said, “We need 275 pages” would you have said, “I can’t do this. I’m emotionally drained”? BB: You can always do it. I could have put in more about me or more about certain situations. I do think the little history that’s in it was pretty fascinating. Savantism is so fascinating because it’s so bizarre. The history of premature babies; I never knew they were treated as freak shows. I had no idea. There was a lot more about me in it, which did make it longer. I think it came in at about 260, 275. Eamon and I together pared probably about 10,000 words from it…It’s a beautiful story, but you’ve got to keep your eye on the ball. As much as it is a journey with Zach, it is my own personal journey: coming to grips with Zach, coming to grips with what impact my own ambitions—my own relationships with my mother and father—have had on me and on my kids. Like when I went to California without them [to write for TV’s NYPD Blue]. That was doomed from the start.

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interview

R. KURT OSENLUND

John Cusack Embraces the Dark Side

THE SCENE IS SET. The mood is perfect. Amid low lighting that even makes it tough to read one’s notes, I sit patiently on a lounge sofa, waiting for guest of honor John Cusack to make his entrance. It’s midday in New York City, but you wouldn’t know it sitting in the dark stone basement in The Vault at Pfaff ’s, a nostalgic tavern that served as a hub for the American Bohemian movement in the 1850s. Though it didn’t officially open until after his death in 1849, the Vault attributed much of its inspiration and popularity to Edgar Allen Poe, whose like-minded admirers (or “Pfaffians,” as many came to be called) gathered amid its candlelit rooms in the spirit of their late hero. Thus, it’s the ideal place to chat with Cusack about The Raven, a period thriller that sees the 45-year-old A-Lister don the cloak and wield the pen of literature’s dark prince. “It’s fun, right?” Cusack says of grimmer work after finally creeping into the journalists’ corner. “That’s Poe’s deal, right? We’re all sort of attracted to the abyss, I think. It’s poetic. Po-etic. Around Halloween and Day of the Dead, don’t we all get into the supernatural...and ghouls... and the underworld...dreams and nightmares? It’s just dramatic. And interesting. Interesting character, interesting head space. It’s not somewhere I want to stay, but it’s certainly a fun space to visit once in a while.” Cusack might be best known for lighthearted romance and offbeat comedy like Say Anything... and High Fidelity, but he hasn’t completely steered clear of that abyss he explores in The Raven. Over the last decade or so, Cusack has actively

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interview

A Full Plate

Philadelphia actor Tony Braithwaite takes on the biggest role of his career.

NOT COUNTING HIS RECENT STAY at 1812 Production’s hilarious Let’s Pretend We’re Famous, the last time I spent a lot of time with Barrymore Award-winning actor Tony Braithwaite was in 2009. Three years ago, the comicleaning thespian was performing in and directing shows at Kimmel Center’s Innovation Studio (The Odd Couple, Give My Regards to Broadway), acting in Act II Playhouse’s Iron Kisses, and directing St. Joseph’s Prep’s version of Urinetown, to say nothing of his live vibing talk show on Act II’s stages as well as his Nichols & May-like (or is it Burns & Allen?) professional relationship with 1812’s Jen Childs. Busy guy. He’s had no less a hectic schedule since that time as, throughout 2012’s early months, he’s been gearing up for Act II’s currently running My Fair Lady (as the very proper Henry Higgins, of course) as well as wrapping up Let’s Pretend We’re Famous. But a funny thing happened to Philly’s top-ranking humorous acting deity along the way: he got an offer to be the artistic director at Act II Playhouse, the theater with which he is most closely aligned. It’s a huge deal— and honor—for Braithwaite to be considered for the position that starts, in effect, as soon as his run at My Fair Lady wraps. So many questions loom. A.D. Amorosi: The last time we spoke, you were doing a real juggling act between acting and directing. Does it feel more clear to be juggling fewer company productions, or are you one of those guys who need to be going 1,000 miles an hour while running through a dozen different mazes? Tony Braithwaite: I think I’ve always been one of those who need to be going 1,000 miles an hour while running through a dozen different mazes—that’s me. I’ve even actually found myself saying lately—and believing, too—that relaxation is overrated. I can remember a guidance counselor in high school showing me a picture of Nancy Reagan with the quote above her head, “Just Say No.” This was the ‘80s, you know. His point was to reinforce that I didn’t have to do everything that I was doing—all the different activities and clubs and whatnot at school. I don’t think he realized he was comparing being busy to drugs, but it wasn’t lost me that I was sort of addicted to structured chaos. ADA: Maybe he was on drugs. So what now do you consider your theatrical calling card? TB: I think I’d be classified as an entertainer more than an actor. Growing up my parents loved the theater—a lot— but they also loved comedy, singers, song and dance men, witty rejoinders at cocktail parties, telling a good story, and competing for who had the best one-liner at the dinner table. For me, it’s all one.

Tony Braithwaite. Photo: Kelly Faulkner.

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ADA: Tell me a little bit about what you’re going through in My Fair Lady right now as Henry Higgins. How fun, grueling, goofy or charming is it to play him? TB: I think the key is this: he’s passionate about phonetics—he says that his profession is also his hobby. Higgins has a bit of an arrested development where relationships are concerned until Eliza enters his life, and all of a sudden she stirs in him these new, uncomfortable feelings. I don’t think he’s a pure misogynist. I see much of that as his defense mechanism against vulnerability. Some of his lines are wildly

A. D. AMOROSI

politically incorrect for this day and age. But I hope \we live in a post-Mad Men world where we can accept the differences in cultures and eras with a sense of irony. ADA: As you’re going through My Fair Lady are you thinking hard about what it is you’re bringing to Act II? TB: Not specifically that—I’m now struck by the elements of rehearsal and the whole process which I used to be able to take for granted, but which now often have residual components for me. In the past, for example, if ticket sales were great I would be personally pleased, but that’s about it. Now I’m also pleased on about three other levels for various obvious reasons that need to be teased out and acted upon for the good of the Playhouse. ADA: Let’s discuss your deal with Act II, do you live near there? What was your first role there? TB: I live about 20 minutes away in Rosemont. Jen Childs hired me in 2003 to do Schrodinger’s Girlfriend there. Not a big hit. In fact, I’m still not sure I fully understand the script. But next up was The Big Bang a year later, and that was a huge hit which we were lucky to keep running and running. ADA: Bud Martin and Harriet Power—what do you think about their powerful roles at Act II and succeeding them there? TB: Bud and Harriet have been my directors, collaborators, and friends. I’m elated that both will be directing at Act II next season—Lend Me a Tenor and Scared of Dance, respectively. They’ve both been very instrumental in Act II’s success for the past several seasons—and I hope to continue that good work. ADA: What has been your absolutely favorite role there? You’ve had so many. TB: I think Alvin in The Story of My Life, directed by Bud, because by all accounts we were able to communicate the story more effectively than the previous production which he had produced in New York. It really kind of flopped there, but Bud believed in it and brought it to Act II. I also really loved working with Jim Stanek on that show, he’s a class act. ADA: How is the live talk show production Heeere’s Tony! going and will it continue as you take on the artistic

If A.D. Amorosi can’t be found writing features for ICON, the Philadelphia Inquirer, doing Icepacks and Icecubes (amongst other stories) for Philadelphia City Paper or appearing on NBC-TV’s The 10! Show, he’s probably hitting restaurants like Stephen Starr’s or running his greyhound.

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33 / INTERVIEW / JOHN CUSACK EMBRACES THE DARK SIDE

mixed his accessible fare with tales of eerie drama and disaster, starring not just in Serendipity and Hot Tub Time Machine, but also in the motel slasher Identity, the Stephen King adaptation 1408, and the apocalyptic effects fest 2012. But has he ever gone darker than he does as Poe? Close observers of his career will likely say no. Directed by James McTeigue (V for Vendetta) and written by Ben Livingston and Hannah Shakespeare, The Raven begins in the last hours of Poe’s life, when he was found alone on a park bench before passing away shortly after. It then winds back to reimagine the famous author’s final days, which have long been shrouded in uncertainty. In the movie’s version of the story, a crazed killer chooses to carry out the events in Poe’s gruesomest writings, dispatching one of his colleagues based on happenings in The Pit and the Pendulum, and even kidnapping his fiancée in an effort to recreate The Cask of Amontillado. At first considered a suspect and then emerging as a valued asset, Poe begins helping the police in their investigation, making the unorthodox writer into an unlikely detective. “I thought the conceit of the story was actually a really smart one,” Cusack says, “because biopics can be sort of boring. And if you were doing a biopic of Poe, you’d have seen him when he was poor and troubled, and he’d have been writing and going through editors and trying to get money to write and getting in fights with guys and getting really drunk. But you still wouldn’t get into his imagination. So, by having Poe become one of his stories, and then having him deconstruct his own stories, you get to hear Poe on Poe. You can get into his imagination more. I thought it was a very cool idea.” Cusack is talking in a whisper so low it’s a wonder the tape recorder catches his responses. He’s eased back in a cushioned chair with his legs crossed. He’s smoking an electronic cigarette, the occasional puff of water vapor settling onto his lap. The sly and somber demeanor suggests that Poe hasn’t quite left the actor, and given the interview setting, he somehow seems right at home. The implication is that, like Poe, Cusack had to risk some unsettling discomfort in order to realize his creation, a method for which the character proved the ultimate inspiration. “Poe was a certain kind of person,” Cusack says. “Not many writers try to think about what their worst nightmare is. Most people want to wake up and get away from it. But there are a couple who want to go deeper in, and that’s just an interesting mind. He was this guy who wanted to embrace the nightmare. He had to face his fears, and he had to do the wrong thing or the most destructive thing to get to that place. His romance with the abyss is very...I don’t know, it just makes him incredibly courageous and tragic and sympathetic. And we all have a bit of that in us. He just became an architect for that kind of thing. A shadowy world.” Naturally, Cusack pored over the life of Poe in his role research, and he expresses a keen knowledge and interest in factors, events, demons, and shortcomings that shaped the author’s work and existence. He discusses Poe’s struggles with the loss of women that he loved, and how his mother, step-mother and first wife all tragically died. He talks about Poe’s relentless alcoholism, which still allowed him to be a functional writer, but surely claimed some of his sanity. He muses over the possible guilt of releasing fiction that could potentially harm and haunt others, but how the outlet of expression was worth the risk. Most of all, though, Cusack says Poe’s spirit is right there in his work, the beauty and the pain. “I thought it was all in his writing,” Cusack says. “I think people probably don’t often remember that he wrote in different forms and styles. He called his writing ‘the ludicrous heightened into the grotesque.’ At times, he wrote pure, beautiful poetry. Esoteric, highly intellectual stuff. But then he also wrote pulp for the Saturday evening papers, and he was aware of the zeitgeist and aware of everybody’s fears. He was very calculating that way, and good at it, and he was willing to do things in bad taste and he had kind of an absurdist streak, too. It was pretty ghoulish, radical shit that he was putting out there in the 1840s. But all of his darkness is there and I think his stuff really has to do with loss. And that feeling of being an orphan in the world. He definitely wasn’t wired quite right, but he was incredibly smart and sensitive.” And so it is that one could further link Cusack to his character, not in the sense that the actor is damaged and badly wired, but that one could glean a lot about him from his creative output. Popular culture has unofficially decreed that this 1980s breakout is a gleeful, earnest comic, when in truth, there are far more facets. Even mentioning the more ominous titles of the aughts leaves a a whole spectrum of work unconsidered, including roles in Terrence Malick’s war epic The Thin Red Line and Charlie Kaufman’s genre-defying Being John Malkovich. In short, Cusack has put enough of himself on film, honestly and eagerly, to illustrate the highs, lows, lights, and darks of a whole life. And just as Poe’s soul was on the page, one might say Cusack’s soul is on the screen. ■

R. Kurt Osenlund is the managing editor of The House Next Door, the official blog of Slant Magazine. He is also the film critic for South Philly Review, and a contributing writer for ICON, Slant, Cineaste, Fandor and The Film Experience. He compiles his work and posts other goodies at his blog, www.yourmoviebuddy.blogspot.com. Email at rkurtosenlund@gmail.com. 36

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34 / INTERVIEW / TONY BRAITHWAITE

director role? TB: We’ve now done Heeere’s Tony! at a few different theaters, also as a one-night-only a few times, and even for private parties. It seems to land nicely in each incarnation. I’d be surprised if it didn’t show up again somewhere somehow. It’s a lot of fun to do since every show is different. ADA: What did you think—immediately, first thought—when they asked you to do this job? Have you sought out this level responsibility before or wanted it? I do know you’re the director of dramatics at St. Joseph’s Prep. TB: I was shocked when Bud first mentioned it, but as I pondered the idea it started to make more and more sense to me. I had never sought this type of job before, but I think it just might work at this time, with this particular theater. A lot of the pieces fell into place well, including my dear friend Howie Brown being the managing director and Bud Martin agreeing to stay on as treasurer of the board. ADA: The place is small—130 seats. Are you fulfilled there as a performer and how do you think you’ll be fulfilled as its AD? TB: 130 seats and every seat’s a good one! I am very fulfilled at Act II. I’ve been able to do shows I’ve always wanted to like Art, Say Goodnight Gracie, now Fair Lady, upcoming Lend Me a Tenor, while also creating original pieces, too. All that plus free parking. ADA: Have you the support of the community around it? I know that you’re the true face of the theater. That’s a scary responsibility. TB: I’ve gotten to meet a lot of the folks of Ambler over the years—we even had the mayor as a guest on Heeere’s Tony—and I do feel very supported. ADA: What are your immediate plans for taking the reins over at the theater? What productions do you have planned? TB: One exciting plan is to add a children’s theater component as soon as next year. I suppose my major plan is to ensure the financial and artistic success of the theater while maintaining and strengthening our brand. We’ve announced our season, and I assisted in the selection but some shows had already been chosen before I was on board. I did suggest we bring Jen Childs’s Scared of Dance show to Act II because audiences loved her last year when we did Let’s Pretend We’re Married. And I’ve thought for years that Lend Me a Tenor would be a good fit for Act II’s audiences. ADA: How can you—and will you—market outside your immediate community—or do you need to even bother? TB: Not sure yet, as we do get a ton of “within a certain mile radius” audience members as our base. ADA: Are you looking to challenge the audiences there? It’s such a family-oriented space with like-minded fare. TB: We tend to do a show a year that is what we’d deem challenging. But foremost and always we want the audience at Act II to be entertained. We want them to have an enjoyable night, we want them to have fun. Comedy nights, cabarets, plays, farces, talk shows, revues—we do all sorts of programming. But if it isn’t entertaining, they just ain’t gonna come. I’m a big fan of the phrase, “Art that isn’t fun isn’t art.” ADA: Forget about acting at Act II—you’re a three-time Barrymore Award-winning actor renowned for work for theater companies such as 1812, Philadelphia Theater Company, Hedgerow, and stages like the Arden. You’ve done Death of a Salesman, damn it. Can you and will you maintain the klatch of diverse acting gigs all over town? TB: Act II will now become my primary place to perform, but I won’t pull out completely from all other opportunities. ADA: Do you still run the corporate division of your brother’s Braithwaite Communications and do tailored improvisations and spoof videos for corporate events. TB: We still do some of that stuff, my brother and I, but much less so—for no real reason other than how busy we both are in other areas. ADA: If you’re not taking on a slew of other projects for a minute, can you do it without missing it TB: The slew of projects will now be mini-projects within the larger umbrella that is Act II—casting, selecting shows, fundraising, long-range planning. ADA: What do you want for yourself and for Act II audiences once the gig kicks in TB: I’d love people to come to know and trust Act II as a place that always delivers. Every time they’re there, for whatever form of programming, they are entertained. ■

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N S WA N

HOTEL Modern Cuisine h Classic Comfort Corner of Swan & Main Lambertville, NJ 609-397-3552

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dining

ROBERT GORDON

M RESTAURANT tial mansion located nearby on 6th and High Streets. And no for history buffs, the Morris family that bought the home in 1817 was not related to Robert Morris, the hallowed Financier of the Revolution, and our nation’s first Superintendent of Finance from 1781-1784. The physical structure of both the Morris Hotel and M Restaurant is august, authentic, and beautiful. Coupled with its unique alfresco space in the Quaker City, M Restaurant has few rivals among the city’s historical venues for gracious, pretention-free, upscale dining. Chef Aaron Bellizi, a New York native, and CIA graduate who sharpened his culinary chops in renowned

nary a vehicle in sight—no whiff of exhaust to distort or diminish M Restaurant’s excellent food. That’s a rare alfresco portrait given that the M is only a block or so away from Independence Park. The M Restaurant and the Morris Hotel, its cross-courtyard partner, are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Both were birthed during our nation’s Constitutional Summer of 1787. Brothers William and John Reynolds were the first owners. The house design was selected from the same book of architecture as Independence Hall. It closely resembled our nation’s first presiden-

kitchens like Midtown Manhattan’s Gilt and le Cirque. Not impeded by operating in Center City digs, Aaron stocks his pantries with local foodstuffs. Some are grown in M’s own secluded courtyard. But the lion’s share come from Philly’s fertile surrounding counties. So the Chef builds his menu around vibrant, local seasonal fare. His offerings are earthy-rich, fresh and healthful, turned out, for the most part, with Mediterranean flare. The Chef tosses in some surprises, too. You’ll find tasteful, tasty contemporary tidbits culled from the molecular gastronomy playbook. By design, the menu is not large. But it does provide plenty of choice. Among the Soups & Vegetables, you’ll find the Sunchoke Velouté as velvety smooth as the classic demands. A well-tuned synthesis of ingredients: horserad-

Send comments and suggestions to r.gordon33@verizon.net

ish, dill, and red onion hitch up to Sunchoke (you may know it as a Jerusalem artichoke) and add to its buttery essence. A log of creamy goat cheese redolent of caraway sides the sunchoke as do roasted and raw beets and walnuts. Crispy pork belly—the crisped skin layers a just-right pad of fat—stretches out over braised red cabbage with spheres of baby Brussels sprouts alongside. The key step in the preparation is compressing the pork. The intensely rich flavor that results is extraordinary. Slices of apple press against monkfish, which is glazed to retain its succulence. The rich fish is served with chunks of cauliflower in a delicious curry sauce sparked with shredded coconut. But of all the dishes I like, it’s the sweetbreads that rock the most. They’re caramelized—an unlikely touch that deepens their taste. The sweetbreads lie on a bed of granola with bacon vinaigrette—another unlikely, but successful touch. On top of the sweetbreads, there’s an eyecatchy white asparagus foam capped with three gossamer slices of radish. The dish is tasty, exciting, and bold. Roasted in beurre blanc sauce, turbot is presented appealingly. Once more the Chef taps into molecular gastronomy by poising pomegranate foam on the turbot. The pink foam plays colorfully with the deep greens of the celery and celery root that entangle the fish. Underlying the fish are sweet celery purée and a cache of pistachios. Manicotti is fashioned into a paper-thin rectangle, harboring a payload of short ribs that’s perked with gremolata. Braised Oxtail and Potato Terrine is tender and texturally terrific. And the accompaniments of parsnip, piquillo, and charred scallion are spot-on. Each adds a different level of nuance. None cloud or diminish the impact of the oxtail. The menu features local artisanal cheese choices, selected and vetted by the Chef. Don’t miss the Roncol, which is a heavenly, creamy raw sheep cheese that is served with a lively raspberry syrup accompaniment. As for dessert, don’t miss the Pineapple Upside Down Cake. The pressed pineapples in this divinely moist cake and the bright, intense sauce slathered on the plate elevate this dish beyond the standard. For fine dining and a pleasant evening out, M Restaurant, as some foodie friends insist, is one of the city’s best kept secrets. M offers a full schedule of events all year long, including daily happy hours, jazz nights, “Suite & Eat” hotel-restaurant weekends, baby-shower deals, party packages, pre-theater specials, and a host of other specials keep the place hopping. But when the nice weather sweeps in, out in M’s alfresco courtyard, Mother Nature hosts the most extraordinary event of all. n M Restaurant, 231 S. 8th Street, Philadelphia PA 19106 (215) 625-6666. Tues-Sat 5-10; Happy Hour Tuesday-Saturday 5-7. www.mrestaurantphilly.com.

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food & wine

NOW THAT WINTER (MORE like the prequel to spring this year) has passed, diners’ fancies start drifting alfresco. In the open air, few city venues match M Restaurant. That’s not just my opinion. CBS Philly picks M Restaurant as one of our area’s “Seven Best Restaurants with a View” (Included in that septet were Valley Green Inn, featured in the December 2010 issue of ICON, and the Water Works, featured in the September, 2009 issue of ICON). But M Restaurant boasts the most singular atmosphere. Although ensconced in mid-city, diners at the M sup in a verdant courtyard, cobbled with ancient brick pathways. Above them is a leafy canopy of green. There’s

dining

ROBERT GORDON

tastebuds

food & wine

I’VE HEARD FROM A number of friends and readers recently about their “find” in New Hope: Tastebuds. A find? Really? OK, they’re partially right. Tastebuds is a (seemingly) stuck-away gem off the beaten path. But it’s not a new gem. It’s not unknown. The tidy little BYOB has been turning out some of New Hope’s more imaginative food for 19 years. Borough regulars certainly know its virtues. I like the sense of détente that Tastebuds cajoles with its artsy, minimalist décor. The uneven planked floors groan

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with soul. And once seated, I always get the impression that I’m peering out from a Wyeth canvas. Tastebuds is located inside New Hope. It’s just slightly outside New Hope’s mainstream. The eatery monopolizes the entirety of the plot on the quiet southwest corner of Stockton and Ferry. Yet, this seemingly out-of-the-way corner is only one block west of S. Main Street, the hub of New Hope bustle. That’s about a two-minute walk. No, Tastebuds is not a find. It just feels that way. Don’t look for glitz at Tastebuds. Look for what arguably might be the town’s most inventive menu. John Barbacane, owner and sometime chef, is the creative force. His culinary ideas range from brilliantly simple to decadently intricate. The results are usually good, with occasional flashes of brilliance. For instance, we rave about how he transforms the humble radish into a memorable appetizer/ hors d’oeuvre. The radish is generally relegated to bit roles or garnish cameos, but Red Radish Toast gives this unappreciated root veggie a starring role. Sliced paper thin, the radish discs are spread out over all-grain bread in overlapping circles. The bread is smothered in mustard-butter, which makes every bite moist and alive. The radish, mustard seeds, and grainy bread reel with jaunty, funky crunch and flavor—an exploration of simplicity with surprising results. Roasted Red Beets pair with house-made ricotta and crystallized wasabi, which is a clever touch that notches the dish above other recipes. Wasabi powder mixed with water is allowed to stand for 15 minutes and then sugar is added. The process results in pellets of wasabi with a subtle sweetness that tempers the heat and adds a contrasting texture to the beets and cheese. A flotilla of pine nuts floats atop Fennel Soup with golden raisins and Cerignola olives—this soup, although free of

cream, is notably thick and hearty. Chopped wild mushrooms and pistachios spiral around flaky strudel accompanied by crushed pistachio mounds and Carousel Farm honey. A delightful dish. A large elliptical slice of Smoked Andouille soaks in an apple cider reduction with tender black peas and sweet potato salad. Baked Red Snapper accompanied by spinach and cashews gains vibrancy from Mandarin Oranges. Roasted Duck Breast with fig-balsamic reduction, pearl onions, and a luscious pear hash is topped with sage. A mammoth chunk of beef tenderloin rubbed with ancho chili is accompanied by green beans and whipped potatoes—savory Cuban espresso sauce brings out the full measure of the meat’s essence. A couple of dessert favorites stand out. Choosing Challah as the bread in Sun-Dried Cherry Bread Pudding makes all the difference. Topped with walnuts that glisten beneath fruity, puckery coulis, the bread pudding is uncommonly moist and lively. Ruth’s Fruit Nut Cake is a show-stopper. John Barbacane concedes that he lifted the recipe from Billy Weaver, iconic chef at Philly’s Friday, Saturday, Sunday during the seventies and eighties. “It’s a recipe Billy never gave anyone else, including Gourmet Magazine,” John smiles. Fluffy, flavorful, and feather-light, Ruth’s Fruit Cake is a delectably airy treat. You might call Ruth’s Fruit Cake a find, but you certainly can’t pin that tag on Tastebuds. n Tastebuds, 49 W. Ferry St., New Hope, PA 18938 (215) 862-9722 Hours: Wed-Sun open 5:30PM; Closed Monday & Tuesday. Website: http://www.tastebudsnewhope.com/Restaurantinfo.htm

Email: r.gordon33@verizon.net

food & wine

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first sip

PATRICIA SAVOIE

food & wine

Take Me to the River EXCELLENT WINES ARE PRODUCED along most of the 150-mile length of France’s Rhone River Valley. The Valley is always divided, however, into North and South when referring to wine regions. There are very good reasons for this. The weather and terrain differ significantly from North to South. In the North, there are four distinct seasons and a continental climate. The banks of the river are very steep, and vines are planted at almost vertical inclines or on terraces carved from the granite. In the South, the climate is Mediterranean so weather is generally warmer, and the land by the river is a wide flat plain with sandy or rocky soils. There is, in fact a 25mile band—a wine “no man’s land”—between North and South, where grapes are not grown. All these differences have a major impact on which grapes grow in each area. In the South, over 20 different varieties of grapes are grown. In the North, there are only four—the whites, Viognier, Rousanne and Marsanne, and the red, Syrah. There are nine different AOC (Appélation d’Origine Côntrolée) wine regions in the North: Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, SaintJoseph, Cornas, Cote Rotie, Cotes du Rhone, Condrieu, Saint-Peray and Chateau GrilAnnecy, France. let (these latter three produce only white wines). Chateau Grillet is a singlechateau AOC, with fewer than ten acres of vines. It is owned by the same owners as Bordeaux’s Chateau Latour. The wines are rare and expensive. In most of the red wine AOCs, Syrah may be blended with any of the white grapes (except in Cornas). The origin of the Syrah grape was confused for much of its existence. People thought it came from Persia or the Middle East. But in 1998, DNA testing was applied to the grape, and it was proven that Syrah originated in the Northern Rhone. It derives from two obscure varieties: Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche. Syrah is actually the fourth most popular grape in the world, as measured by acres planted. And it reaches its ultimate in the Northern Rhone. [By the way, Syrah is not the same grape as Petite Sirah, which comes from Southern France and is now grown so successfully in California. It is the same grape as Shiraz, grown in Australia.] Syrah likes the sun and does well with oak ageing, where it picks up characteristics like smoke and leather. Typical aromas and flavors associated with it are black cherry, blackberry, plum, green olive, pepper, clove and even bacon. Of the white-wine grapes, Viognier is the prima ballerina among the troupe. It pro42

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duces a delicate wine with lovely floral aromas. Most Viogniers are best drunk young (up to four years old), since they tend to lose that floral aroma as they mature. However, some Viogniers can develop very interesting characteristics with more age, as was the case with the 2002 Condrieu wine from Delas Freres listed below. Marsanne and Rousanne are most often blended, with Rousanne bringing a fruit-and-honey character to Marsanne’s body and structure. At a recent tasting sponsored by the Wine Media Guild, these were some of my favorites: White Wines Vidal Fleury Cotes du Rhone Blanc 2010. A lovely blend of Viognier, and the other whites. It is crisp and food friendly and a real value ($15). Chapoutier CrozesHermitage Petite Ruche blanc 2010. This is a 100% Marsanne wine, so a bit drier to the taste but nice weight. Green apple, flowers, white peach, chamomile ($22-25). Delas Freres Condrieu “La Galopine” 2002. This 100% Viognier shows that the grape can age. There are still a few bottles of this vintage available, and it is a deep gold honey color with white flower nose and ripe peach flavor ($45-50). Red Wines Cave de Tain Saint-Joseph rouge “Esprit de Granit 2009. This wine was the show stealer considering its price. Purple tints, with lots of fruit and underlying minerals ($22). Delas Crozes-Hermitage “Les Launes” rouge 2006. Complex nose with coffee hints and fruit, spice, earth. Firm, well-defined wine. ($19-23) Chapoutier Crozes-Hermitage Petite Rouche rouge 2009. Fresh and lively. Lots of ripe red fruit and pepper and herb undertones. 100% Syrah. ($22-25). Louis Barruol Cote-Rotie “Les Roses” 2009. Big black fruit aromas of blackberry and plum, with licorice and coffee flavors. Velvety. Fresh ($65). Chapoutier La Sizeranne 2007. From a ripe year, this wine brims with red and black raspberries, currants and dried cherries with spice notes. Rich. What a Hermitage should be ($120). ■ Patricia Savoie is a wine and culinary travel writer. Email: WordsOnWine@gmail.com

Whoopee! about life

JAMES P. DELPINO

What’s the rush to have sex? THERE IS AN OLD French saying that roughly translates to “Most men regret all of the women they never slept with, while most women regret most of the men they have slept with.” We are forty years plus post the sexual revolution and this statement still holds true for the most part. With an open society and in the information age sex is still a difficult and tricky subject for many, many people. How could this still be so? The rush to the bedroom has taken hold, but high quality sex still remains a vague mystery. Remember, animals can copulate. It doesn’t take anything special for two people to get together and have sexual experiences. It happens every day, and with the world population so large, sex is happening thousands of times all over the world all the time. Frequent sex is not the same as high quality sex between two people. Having intercourse is a much more emotionally risky situation for women than for men. The latest neuroscience research confirms some things we’ve known all along. Sex is a much more emotional and bonding-type experience for women. Oxytocin and Vasopressin ( the bonding chemicals) are elevated for both genders during sexual experiences, but the levels of these substances is substantially higher in women. In addition to bonding, higher levels of oxytocin engender more feelings of trust in the other person and even have what is known as an amnesiac effect. This temporary amnesia helps to block negative memories of the sexual partner. This may, in part, explain why “make-up sex” can be so powerful and noteworthy for couples. All of this may help to clear up, on the biological level, how much hormones can affect the sexual judgment and choices women make about sexual partners. It may also expand the understanding of how so many smart and developed women end up with sexual experiences that they either feel ashamed of or would rather soon forget (as well as regret). Just staring into the eyes of another person for as little as thirty seconds can raise oxcytocin levels and promote bonding. Bonding experiences are common; deep bonding experiences are more rare, desirable and rewarding. This is where the “fine

Have we forgotten the fine art of seduction?

art of seduction” comes into play. From what I observe in life as well as in psychotherapy sessions, seduction is becoming a lost art. Great sex is not the same as fast and easy sex. While the fantasy of having sex with a mysterious stranger or new partner is common, the reality turns out to more frequently not live up to the fantasy for most people. This is so because fantasies are something we dream up, so they don’t exist in reality unless we make them happen in a way that the dream and the reality merge. Merging quickly is no guarantee of high quality, it’s just a guarantee of sex. Seduction uses the magic of imagining and fantasizing to stir and build desire, even lust. The experience of something highly anticipated is usually more satisfying than seizing an opportunity for standard copulation. For women, having the skills to prolong the seduction has many advantages. One of those advantages is the opportunity to check the potential partner more deeply over time. Because women are wired much more relationally than men, they are seeking not only a connection, but a connection that can be sustained over time in the context of a relationship. Having the luxury of time allows a woman to sort through her feelings and needs to see if a partner can meet her real expectations. Being a good lover does not

necessarily mean being a good partner outside of the bedroom. Another advantage of making seduction a longer process is that it allows for better communication and understanding, which is one key to eventually having great sex. With profound understanding, great communication, and a bonding process over time the likelihood of higher, deeper and broader sexual experience increases dramatically. This is why sex too soon does not equal great sex. So here is some advice I frequently give to women to promote a great and prolonged seduction without coming across like a prude or a person with sexual inhibitions: Remember that just because a man desires you it is not necessarily a compliment. Women can find men to desire them on any street corner. When a man expresses his desire to be with you, ask him to tell you what he’d like to do to you. This allows for you to test his creativity, evaluate his verbal communication skills and assess his sexual persona. If a couple is unable to talk about it, then they are not ready to do it. What comes too easily or too quickly is often undervalued. Waiting raises your value. Many women lack the confidence to withstand sexual advances from partners they deem to be attractive. They fear losing a good man to someone else who will “put out.” This is also how to differentiate between a player who seeks conquest and a developed person who understands that a deep and sustained connection makes for great sex and a better relationship in general. If you compromise here, you will pay a price. Make sure to communicate clearly that you are worth the wait. Great men like the chase. Being chased is very exciting and good for the esteem. If you allow sex too soon, you’re depriving yourself and your potential partner of the thrill of a great chase and seduction. Players and predators generally want the most vulnerable and easy victims. Great sex is not based upon playing games and being victimized by shallowness. n

Jim Delpino is a psychotherapist in private practice for over 30 years. jdelpino@aol.com (215) 364-0139.

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ICON

dave barry

One Degree of Separation A commencement address: THIS IS YOUR BIG day—the day when you jam four years’ worth of unlaundered underwear into a Hefty bag and leave college, prepared by your professors to go out into the Real World. The first thing you’ll notice is that your professors did not go out there with you. They’re not stupid; that’s why they’re professors. They’ve figured out that college is a carefree place where the most serious real problem is finding a legal parking space. So your professors are going to stay in college until they die. Even then, they’ll go right on teaching classes. This is called “tenure.” But you have committed the grave tactical blunder of acquiring enough credits to graduate. So now you’re leaving college and embarking upon the greatest adventure—and the biggest challenge—of your young lives: moving back in with your parents. Decades ago, when I graduated from college, my friends and I would rather have undergone a vasectomy with a fondue fork than move back in with our parents. But times have changed, and today many graduates don’t want to go straight from college into a harsh and unforgiving world fraught with unbearable hardships, such as no free high-speed Internet. And so many of you will return home, hand your Hefty bag to Mom for processing, and move back into your old room, which is filled with your childhood memories, not to mention the faint aroma of gerbil doots. Is this a bad thing? Does the fact that you, a grown adult, are moving back in with your parents mean that you’re a sponging loser? Yes. You are SpongeBob LoserPants. No! Sorry! I mean: No. It’s fine! Your parents don’t mind! They’re thrilled to have you back home! Even from way up here on the podium, I can hear their teeth grinding with joy. Besides, it’s only temporary, right? In time you’ll get tired of living with your parents, with their constant nagging about how you need to find a job, or at least help with the housework, and could you put gas in Dad’s car when you borrow it, and can you explain the Mystery Thong that Dad found in the backseat cup holder, and MY GOD IS THAT A TATTOO, and could you not play that music so loud at night, or could you at least play some DECENT music, we’re not “squares” you know, we like GOOD rock ‘n’ roll, we like The Mamas and the Papas, the Beatles — though not the later Beatles — but this music today, you can’t even call it music, it sounds like angry men clubbing a yak to death with electric guitars, and HOW COULD YOU GET A TATTOO THERE, and there are 15 Starbucks—no wait, now it’s 16 Starbucks—within walking distance of this house and surely one of them would be happy to hire somebody with a degree in anthropology, and here’s an article I found in Women’s Day about tattoo removal that you might want to . . . DON’T YOU WALK AWAY WHEN I’M TALKING TO YOU . . . Yes, graduates, as much as you love your mom and dad, you’re realistic enough to understand, deep down inside, that they are the two most annoying human beings on the planet. And so the time will come—I give it six weeks—when you realize that you can no longer continue living with them. And so, you will summon your courage, take a deep breath, and ask them to move out. It’s only fair! They’ve had the house practically to themselves for years! Now it’s your turn! Of course, eventually, you will want to have a career. You may think you’ll never find your “dream job,” but trust me: If you set your goals high, and you never, ever give up, I guarantee you that one day you will find yourself working for a huge impersonal corporation run by morons. Everybody does! It’s not so bad: You get a little cubicle where you sit all day doing some tedious corporate thing that has absolutely nothing to do with anything you learned in college. On your break, you’ll go buy a mocha latte from Dad. You’ll settle into a comfortable routine, and before you know it, you’ll have kids of your own. And one day, you’ll send them off to college. When that happens, change the locks. ■ 44

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essay

SALLY FRIEDMAN

Your Daughter Remembers SHE IS GONE NOW, and I miss her more than I ever imagined I would. But my mother’s imprint is on my soul, and always will be. Here, a collage of memories that explain why. I am very young and very impatient. It’s winter and there’s snow on the ground. We’re standing at the downstairs closet, and I’m bursting to go outdoors to play in that newly-fallen, still unspoiled snow. You stand with me, understanding my impatience with the burden of being bundled into snowsuit and leggings, muffler and hood. But gently, you continue your timeless mother’s mission, telling me that soon—soon—I’ll be out there. And as you soothe me, you pull on my wooly gloves, being careful to fit each stubby finger into its rightful place. I look up at you that morning and I suddenly know what it is to be loved, protected and warmed in the deepest sense. I’ve never forgotten it. I am burning up with fever. An enemy called chicken pox has invaded me, and I am a blotched portrait in misery. I am lying in a darkened room tormented by the sound of the neighborhood kids playing outside. You come up to my bed smelling of the kitchen and sweet cologne. You sit by me, stroke my hair and somehow, make the terrible itching go away. You promise me that you won’t leave me until I’m sleeping. Several days later, when I am begging to play outside again, you hug me and your eyes are teary. Those tears tell me that the curse of chicken pox wasn’t just my problem. I am only nine years old, but that day, I learn that mothers are not spared their childrens’ pain. I’m a teenager—insolent, brooding, alternately giddy and raging. I hole up in my room and keep the door closed against any and all intruders, including you and dad. I play music you hate, make you crazy with my eating and starving jags, my taste in clothes and my insistence that you ruined my life by suggesting that I cut my hair. Besides, it’s your fault that I don’t have a steady boyfriend. You endure. You abide. You tolerate your younger daughter’s insolence and nastiness, and when I recover from what must have seemed this endless malaise, you are there waiting with open arms and wise words. I guess I always knew you would be. His name was Mike. He was that proverbial tall, dark and handsome rogue and you knew it, even if I didn’t. You

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warned me that he would surely break my heart and I accused you of being a traitor to the cause. I hated you for saying those words because at some level, I knew they rang true. Of course you were right. Mike wasn’t around six months later. And you had the incredible grace not to say “I told you so.” I have met a man more perfect than any other. After a whirlwind courtship of four months, I tell you that we’re going to be married. You seem to know, perhaps better than I do, that this IS the right man, a man not unlike the one you married. You plunge into planning a wedding with all your energy and your endless endurance for detail. And not until I have daughters of my own who are brides do I understand what it takes to create magic like that. Did I ever really thank you for making our wedding at high noon on a summer day a glisteningly beautiful memory? Probably not. We return to the house of my childhood after daddy’s funeral. But it isn’t home for you any more. Even though you cry, mom, you still remember how to laugh, and we learn by your example that life does go on. I have never thanked you for that incredibly important lesson. I present you with granddaughters. Three of them. They, in turn, present you with great-grandchildren—seven of them. Despite profound losses of your own, and that ultimate marauder, terminal illness, you welcome them all into your heart and make boundless room for them there. Over the years, I watched you give to them what once you gave to me. All of us have searched for ways to thank you for loving us like no one else ever has. And we’ve always failed. In this Mother’s Day season, we remember you. We miss you with a kind of longing that reaches beyond words. And we honor you. ■ Sally Friedman has been “living out loud” for over three decades. In addition to ICON, she contributes to the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, AARP Magazine and other national and regional publications. She is the mother of three fierce daughters, grandmother of seven exceptional grandchildren and the wife of retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Victor Friedman. Email: PINEGANDER@aol.com.

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regional theater

EDITED BY DAVID SCHULTZ

A Behanding in Spokane Through 5/13

Boston Marriage Through 5/20

In a dead-end town in Ohio, in a desolate hotel a mysterious stranger comes to find his hand, the one he has been seeking for the last twenty-seven years. Into this web of deranged obsession falls a young drug-dealing couple and a devious hotel clerk. This macabre comedy, written by playwright Martin McDonagh, is filled with his typically profane dialogue. Directed by Joe Canuso. Theatre Exile @ Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 N. American St. (near 2nd & Market Sts.), Phila. (215) 218-4022. $18-$40. theatreexile.org

From celebrated American playwright David Mamet (American Buffalo, Glengarry Glen Ross), Boston Marriage is the caustically funny story of Anna, Claire, and their Scottish maid, Catherine. Anna and Claire share a life together, but in late 19th century America, discretion and outside resources are a necessity. To that end, Anna takes up with a wealthy older man, and Claire finds her heartstrings being pulled in a decidedly younger direction. These clandestine affairs set into motion a raucous series of events where classes clash and Anna and Claire have only their wits and a cache of social legerdemain to keep them from a stay at the local jail. 1812 Productions @ Plays & Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Street, Phila. (215) 592-9560. $20-$36. 1812productions.org

Hairspray 6/13-7/1 Hairspray is a musical with music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Shaiman and a book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on the 1988 John Waters film Hairspray. The songs include 1960s-style dance music and “downtown” rhythm and blues. In 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, plump teenager Tracy Turnblad’s dream is to dance on The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance program based on the real-life Buddy Deane Show.[1] When Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight. She then launches a campaign to integrate the show. Hairspray is a social commentary on the injustices of parts of American society in the 1960s. Muhlenberg College Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavillion for Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3333, Muhlenberg.edu/smt

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The Island 5/17-6/10 The Island is Robben Island, South Africa’s notorious prison, where John and Winston are political prisoners and cellmates. After absurdly grueling days laboring under the sun, they return to their dark cell to rehearse a makeshift performance of Sophocles’s play Antigone. Rehearsals in the cramped cell will test their friendship and strain their resilience in this gripping, vivid portrait of apartheid-era struggle. Undeniably moving and surprisingly funny, this modern classic by Tony Awardwinners Athol Fugard, John Kani, and Winston Ntshona celebrates hope, passion, and the strength of friendship. Lantern

Theater Company @ St. Stephen's Theater, 10th & Ludlow Sts., Phila. (215) 829-0395. $10-$56. lanterntheater.org

Anything Goes Through 5/6 Two pairs of unlikely lovers, exotic disguises, a chorus of singing sailors, and some good old-fashioned blackmail are all packed in this champagne-tinged musical. Written with wit and style to spare, this musical penned by Cole Porter is truly timeless. This classic is a rave in New York City, winning the Tony Award last season for Best Revival. Act 1, DeSales University Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, Center Valley PA. (610) 282-3192. $22$27. Titus Andronicus Through 5/19 This rarely performed work by William Shakespeare is as gory and violent as the latest Quentin Tarantino flick. This first play by the Bard is an insane melange of intense scenes that build with increasing tension. The complex plot drips with menace and intricate plot lines. Directed by Aaron Cromie, Titus Andronicus will thrill modern audiences with shadow play, specially-designed puppets, and copious amounts of blood. The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, 2111 Sansom St., Phila. (215) 496-9722. $20-$35. Harold & the Purple Crayon 6/20-7/28 The beloved children's book springs to life, in this spectacular adaptation by Enchantment Theatre Company. Follow Harold's adventures as he creates the world around him with his trusty purple crayon, exploring oceans, braving dragons, and finding friendship. Enchantment's kidfriendly adaptation tells the story through movement, narration, and imagination, with unique magically animated scenery! Muhlenberg College Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavillion for Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3333, Muhlenberg.edu/smt ■

footlights

DAVID SCHULTZ

Susan Pourfar, Gayle Rankin, Jeff Perry and Russell Harvard

IT IS QUITE EARLY in the season to make any predictions about my favorite plays of the year. But I’d be hard pressed to not include this heartfelt play among the top ten. English playwright Nina Raine has created a superb group of characters and situations that resonate deeply. Staged in the round, this intimate production is impeccably designed by Scott Pask. The main setting is the dining room and living quarters of a quirky English family. Parents Christopher (Jeff Perry) and Beth (Mare Winningham) are both highly literate, he an academic critic with a cranky underside, she an aspiring writer of dubious talents. These two harangue each other frequently in the name of love—but they’re equally matched in their emotionally fractious home with all three of their children, all still living at home under the same roof. Daughter Ruth (Gayle Rankin) is gamely attempting a career singing opera in the local pub. That she can’t sing very well is beside the point— to her, anyway. Oldest brother Daniel (Will Brill) is obsessed with writing his thesis, never finishing it, constantly pacing about, anxious, and hearing voices in his head. He is a bundle of nerves and enjoys simultaneously the insanity that his family represents and the torment it brings him. Billy (Russell Harvard) is the youngest and the black sheep of the family. He is deaf and seems the most content, at first. Billy was born deaf and since his unconventional brood never saw fit to have him learn sign lan-

Tribes guage he is both coddled and hampered by this cocoon of safety. Not thinking he needs it, Billy is happy to live under the cloistered control of his overly attentive family. Things seem to be running on course until an outsider enters their lives and upends the family in unexpected ways. Billy, out one night at a nightclub, meets an attractive young woman named Sylvia (Susan Pourfar). They meet awkwardly, but form a flirtatious friendship which blossoms into love. Sylvia’s parents are deaf, and she has inherited their symptoms and is slowly going deaf. The incredibly complex confluence of their physical and emotional states forms the crux of the play. Just detailing the outline of this play can come nowhere near the experience of seeing and hearing how each of these characters relate and separate from one another in subtle ways. Daniel Kluger has created an all-absorbing sound design that envelopes the theater and, on more than one occasion, even attempts to mimic what Billy experiences in his soundless world for the audience’s ears. That Billy’s family is so intellectually verbal and overwrought with numerous episodes of crosstalk makes it even more touching for the viewer. Seen sporadically throughout the play are supertitles. These titles, shone onto the surrounding walls of the theater, are used with great comic effect as what people say out loud and what they are saying as they sign are frequently

skewed. This comes about as Sylvia, who has grown up signing, teaches a reluctant Billy the language of sign. Billy’s parents are outraged and feel threatened by the new freedom it gives Billy, as they see him eventually drift away from the brood and form a unique bond with Sylvia. Each actor within this work has impeccably crafted his or her character with amazing skill. Their interpersonal relationships and gently shifting allegiances are achingly real. One plus or minus, depending on your perspective, is that because of the in the round seating, one never sees all the actors at any given time. But, amazingly, it works. Director David Cromer (Our Town) brings out the characters’ quirks and gives them room to stretch and breathe. There are many rich moments of raw emotion that spill forth during this fine work. The extreme (and rare) confluence of perfectly cast actors, highly detailed set and sound design are the keys to its success. The undeniable love that imbues each of these diverse people is laid bare. The universal need to be heard and understood, both for the hearing and deaf is made loud and clear in this genuinely moving play. ■ Playing at the Barrow Street Theater, 27 Barrow Street, Manhattan, through September 2, 2012.

David Schultz is a member of the Outer Critics Circle.

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classical notebook

Ray Chen ★★★★ Tchaikovsky/Mendelssohn Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra Daniel Harding, Conductor Sony Classical www.sonyclassics.com www.raychenviolin.com Winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition (2009) and the Yehudi Menuhin Competition (2008), Ray Chen is among the most compelling young violinists today. “Ray has proven himself to be a very pure musician with great qualities such as a beautiful youthful tone, vitality and lightness. He has all the skills of a truly musical interpreter,” said his friend and mentor Maxim Vengerov. Ray Chen’s premiere album, Virtuoso, won the prestigious Echo Klassik Award in 2011. The recording has received glowing reviews from major media outlets including The Times and Chicago Tribune, which named it the “CD of the week.” Following the success of this album, Ray Chen was profiled by The Strad and Gramophone magazines as “the one to watch” and, indeed, his 2011 recital tour featuring Virtuoso took him to Tokyo, Hamburg, Berlin, Munich, Zurich, and Dresden. Ray Chen continues to win the admiration of fans and fellow musicians worldwide. He received standing ovations at Ravinia and Schleswig-Holstein and his Verbier and Dresden Festival debuts resulted in immediate re-engagements. Other recent highlights of Ray’s rapidly developing career include successful debuts with Filarmonica della Scala, Spanish National Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and a sold-out performance with the Seoul Philharmonic and Maestro Myung-Whun Chung at the Asian Games Festival in Guangzhou. He is looking forward to his upcoming engagements with the Gewandhaus Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, and Israel Philharmonic, as well as the televised performance at the Nobel Prize concert in Stockholm with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Eschenbach. Born in Taiwan and raised in Australia, Chen was accepted to the Curtis Institute of Music at the age of 15, where he studied with Aaron Rosand. He plays the 1721 “Macmillan” Stradivari provided as part of the award for winning the 2008-09 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. In 2010, 22-year-old Ray Chen was signed exclusively to the Sony Classical label. At the time, the president of Sony Classical, Bogdan Roscic, said, “The musicianship of Ray Chen is just as exciting as that of Gustavo Dudamel. He seems to have it all: instantly recognizable tone, charismatic personality and musical authority unusual for his age.” Chen’s mentor, violinist Maxim Vengerov, says, “Ray has proven himself to be a very pure musician with great qualities such as a beautiful youthful tone, vitality and lightness. He has all the skills of a truly musical interpreter.” This wonderful and extremely musical Mendelssohn/Tchaikovsky recording is Chen’s second album and it was released last February. It features both composers’ worldwide known violin concertos, with Daniel Harding conducting the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. These two famous concertos have a special meaning for the violinist: a performance of the former won him first prize in the 2008 Menuhin Competition. He played the Tchaikovsky concerto to win first prize at the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition. Ray Chen.

Peter H. Gistelinck is the Executive Director of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. Prior to joining the Orchestra, he was the Director of Sales and Marketing and Co-Artistic Director for the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra and Flemish Radio Choir in Belgium. Mr. Gistelinck is a member of the Kimmel Center Resident Advisory Committee, The Recording Academy, American Film Institute, Musical Fund Society, Philadelphia Arts and Business Council, International Academy of Jazz and International Society for the Performing Arts.

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Ray Chen is currently on a world tour and will perform in coming months in Bergamo and Brescia (Italy), Hong Kong (China), Dresden (Germany), Paris (France), Graz (Austria), Philadelphia (US), Gstaad (Switzerland), Aspen-Colorado (US), Lima (Peru), Fukoka, Hogyo and Tokyo (Japan) and at the end of this year also in Brussels (Belgium) and Seoul (Korea). Ray Chen is definitely one of the most gifted violinists of our time and an artist to watch. Although still very young, he’s a soloist whose career you want to follow over the years to come.

PETER H. GISTELINCK Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

Anne Akiko Meyers ★★★★ Air: The Bach Album English Chamber Orchestra; Steven Mercurio, Conductor Eone Records www.eonemusic.com / www.anneakikomeyers.com Anne Akiko Meyers is celebrated as one of the world’s premiere concert violinists, described as “trailblazing” and one who is constantly “charting her own course.” Ms. Meyers studied with Alice and Eleonore Schoenfeld in Los Angeles and Dorothy DeLay, Masao Kawasaki and Felix Galimir at the Juilliard School in New York. She burst into national prominence at age 11, when she twice performed on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The following year she made her New York Philharmonic debut with Zubin Mehta conducting. While in her teens, Anne performed throughout the United States, Japan, Australia and Europe. At age 18, when her debut recording with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of the Barber and Bruch violin concertos was released, she was recognized as one of the stars of her generation. At age 23, she was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the only artist to be the sole recipient of this annual prize. Ms. Meyers has premiered works by composers, including Mason Bates, Jakub Ciupinski, John Corigliano, Jennifer Higdon, Wynton Marsalis, Olivier Messiaen, Gene Pritsker, Somei Satoh and Joseph Schwantner and she has collaborated with diverse artists such as Michael Bolton and Ryuichi Sakamoto. She has recently collaborated with top jazz artists such as Chris Botti, pop singing sensation, Il Divo and jazz legend, Wynton Marsalis, who composed cadenzas for her in Mozart’s G Major Violin Concerto. I met her about 14 years ago, when I was the Executive Director of I Fiamminghi, the Chamber Orchestra of Flanders (Belgium) and I still recall her amazing performance of a Mendelssohn violin concerto and the impact it had on the audiences, including the ones at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Although a live performance has more impact than a so-called “studio” recording, I must say that Anne always had that special gift—or let’s call it talent—of keeping these recordings definitely lively and not sterile as some studio recordings tend to be. And it is also the case with this latest Bach recording. Bach’s masterpieces for violin and orchestra are here alongside the two concertos for violin. Ms. Meyers has recorded the Concerto for Two Violins, performing both parts on her own two Stradivari violins. After her recent acquisition of the “ex-Napoleon/Molitor” Stradivari violin from 1697, Meyers decided to become the first violinist to record both solo parts of the “Bach Double” on two different violins. At one point, Ms. Meyers even joked that this was the first time she agreed that the golden purity of the tone of the “ex-Molitor/Napoleon” Strad contrasts beautifully with the darker timbre of the 1730 “Royal Spanish” Strad, on which she recorded the second violin part. It is true that the distinctive voice of each violin gave Meyers the idea of recording both parts, as she feels like she sounds like a different violinist on each instrument. Furthermore, Anne said, “It was magical recording the Bach album with the English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Steven Mercurio; the special combination of beautiful repertoire, including ‘Air,’ ‘Largo’ and ‘Ave Maria,’ the Violin Concertos and the fresh take of recording both parts of the ‘Double Concerto’ on two different Strads, was pure joy to make!” Air: The Bach Album entered the Billboard classical charts at Number One just days after its release on Valentine’s Day, last February 14. The CD was recorded in May, 2011, at the LSO at St.Luke’s in London, England and in September, 2011 at the Performing Arts Center in Purchase, NY. The recording was produced by Susan Napodano DelGiorno and engineered by Phil Rowlands. Additional engineering, mixing and mastering was taken care of by Silas Brown. This recording is dedicated to the great luthier, Rene Morel and to Anne’s 96-year-old grandmother, Setsuko Kamata, who unfortunately passed away two months ago. This CD is definitely a must-have! ■

Anne Akiko Meyers. Photo: Lisa-Marie Mazzucco.

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singer /songwriter Nanci Griffith ★★★1/2 Intersection Hell No Records/Thirty Tigers

icon 1-800-354-8776

On Intersection, her 20th album, Nanci Griffith sings of life’s choices and consequences, of roads taken and not taken in her eloquent manner. She also displays a rarely heard fiery side on “Hell No (I’m Not Alright),” a song inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s a song of personal and social dissatisfaction. “Nothing’s gonna change/No end in sight,” Griffith rails on a chorus that recalls the character of Howard Beale in Network (“I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore.”). Griffith’s songs explore loss on a community and personal level. “Bethlehem Steel” is a lament for the Pennsylvania town’s loss of its industrial base, while the Buddy Holly-influenced “Bad Seed” examines the distance between her and her father. Griffith remains an effective Nanci Griffith. interpreter of other people’s artists’ songs. She captures the wistfulness of Blaze Foley’s “If I Could Only Fly” while the buoyant reading of Loretta Lynn’s “High on a Mountaintop” ends the album on an optimistic note, a glimmer of light in the darkness. Phil Alvin ★★★1/2 Un Sung Stories Wounded Bird Records Phil Alvin’s Un Sung Stories has largely been an unheard album since its initial release on vinyl and cassette in 1986. Long out of print, the album is making its overdue debut on compact disc. Alvin, the lead singer of the roots-rock band the Blasters, took a different tack with Un Sung Stories, his first solo album. He explores jazz, blue, gospel and country in a journey through the American songbook. The jump blues of “Someone Stole Gabriel’s Horn” shows Alvin’s inventiveness as a singer as he vocally weaves around the horn stylings of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. On “The Ballad of Smokey Joe,” Alvin teams up with Sun Ra & The Arkestra for a tribute to Cab Calloway. Alvin and Sun Ra join forces again for a powerful reading of the Depression-era “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” a song still relevant to these times. “Titanic Blues,” with Alvin accompanying himself on guitar is a timely ode to the doomed ocean liner.

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LEXICROCKERY by Robert Gordon TOM WILK Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

Loudon Wainwright III ★★★★ Older Than My Old Man Now 2nd Story Sound Records At age 65, Loudon Wainwright III is confronting time and mortality, aging and dying in his own way—a collection of 15 songs that mixes humor and pathos in his uniquely wry look at the human condition. The CD was inspired by the realization that he has outlived his father. “The Here and The Now” is a capsule look at his life to date featuring vocals from all four of his children and two of their mothers: “It’s the 21st century and I’m downright old/My seeds are spent and my loins are cold,” he declares. On the title track and “The Days That We Die,” Wainwright introduces the songs with spoken-word recitations penned by his father, Loudon Wainwright Jr., a former editor for Life magazine. The songs articulate the ties that bind fathers and sons and families beyond a parent’s lifetime. “Date Line,” with its tropical inflections, is a comic riff on the perils of living along the International Date Line. Both “My Meds” and “I Remember Sex” feature Wainwright’s trademark humor on songs that will hit home with aging baby boomers.

Dearth Rate: the rate at which Republican candidates tanked in their quest for the Presidency due to monumental dearth of knowledge. Stakeholders: [1] corporate consortium of stockholders, managers, and employees who hold a stake in the corporation’s success; [2] those who clasp implements of destruction to drive through the hearts of all they deem unholy; ex.: The stakeholders of big-oil frackers are the stakeholders for our clean drinking water supply. Stompgap Measures: measures sought by the Occupy Movement to lessen the gap between the 99% and the 1% and stem the upward hemorrhage of wealth.

Loudon Wainwright III.

Dulcie Taylor ★★★ Free of This Sorrow Mesa/Bluemoon Records Dulcie Taylor makes a welcome return with Free of This Sorrow, her first album in eight years. Taylor again serves up her blend of folk, country and pop on 11 songs, all of which she wrote or co-wrote. The title track is a plea to escape the consequences of life’s mistakes, while “Man of Few Words” is a charming love song about accepting a lover for who he or she is, a recognition that all of us have limitations. Taylor’s dulcimer meshes nicely with John McEuen acoustic guitar and banjo on the reflective “Dark Blue Velvet” to create a musical dialog. “All Along the River” has the feel of a traditional folk ballad in its depiction of a military encampment before battle. The elegiac “Cigarette Smoke” is a song based on Taylor’s mother, a heavy smoker with a gravelly voice who liked to sing. Taylor expresses her gratitude for the time they shared together. The uptempo “Love Can Take You High” is Taylor’s take on the headiness of romance and recalls the early ‘90s work of Mary Chapin Carpenter.

Contemptorary: describes Rick Santorum’s contempt of contemporary society and exhorts a reversion to the theocentric mores of the 14th century when the church-government viewed their subjects as either non-heretics or soon-to-be-corpses [similar in contemporary terms, to Mitch Daniels’ either “rich or soon-to-be-rich.”]. Splintermittant: refers to Mitt Romney’s uncanny ability to splinter himself in two on every issue; intermittently pro-choice and pro-life; pro-Medicare and anti-Medicare; pro cap-and-trade and anti-cap-and-trade; etc. Joie de deceivre: the joy politicians take in deceiving the populace about actually representing the interests of the electorate. Profittears: tears of remorse shed by Wendel Potter and a few others with a conscience for profiting on the misery and suffering of others.

Dulcie Taylor.

Lurrie Bell ★★★ The Devil Ain’t Got No Music Aria B.G. Records Blues and gospel music are two components of Lurrie Bell’s artistic DNA. The Chicago-based musician combines the two on The Devil Ain’t Got No Music, a powerful affirmation of faith during difficult times. The CD’s dozen selection mix traditional, classic and contemporary gospel songs anchored by Bell’s guitar and authoritative vocals that make him sound a bit like e prophet. Bell, the son of bluesman Carey Bell, delivers a musical sermon on “Don’t Let The Devil Ride” and teams up with slide Joe Louis Walker for a a heartfelt version of Thomas Dorsey’s timeless standard “Peace in the Valley.” Bell offers a vision of the future on Walker’s “I’ll Get to Heaven on My Own,” while warning of the difficulties that await on the traditional “Trouble in My Way.” Producer Matthew Skoller and Bell opt for an acoustic sound that gives the music a warmth and emotional forcefulness on Tom Waits’s “Down in the Hole” and The Rev. Gary Davis’ “Death Don’t Have No Mercy. ■

Sputternik: North Korean rocket.

UnMittigrating: Mitt Romney’s relentlessly grating attack on “America the Beautiful” as a beautiful anthem. Be-lessed be the poor: religiousright’s update on an old Messiah’s tale Diploidacy: brand of diplomacy that legislates rights for diploid cells in their blastocyst stage while denying the same rights for mature organisms. Lurrie Bell, Chicago Blues Festival 2010.

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keresman on disc Mike Reed’s People, Places & Things ★★★1/2 Clean on the Corner 482 Music Mike Reed is a Chicago jazz drummer/bandleader and his group People, Places & Things slings dandy cutting-edge jazz with plenty of swing. One of the most impressive aspects of PP&T (two saxes, bass, drums, plus guests Craig Taborn, piano, and Josh Berman, cornet) is

People, Places & Things. Photo credit: Danielle Oosterop.

how it spans two eras of Windy City jazz without being limited to one, namely hard bop and free jazz/the avant-garde. It’s a heady mix but nothing off-putting about Clean—“Sharon” swings mightily as any Art Blakey or Max Roach number from the late ‘50s. There’s some brooding yet savory free-bop and echoes of Charles Mingus’s ragged gospel-charged raveups…and despite the leader being a drummer, no drumming-showcases! This Corner is at an intersection of Eric Dolphy, Mingus, Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Johnny Griffin—location, location, location! 482music.com Krzysztof Penderecki / Jonny Greenwood ★★★★1/2 Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima Polymophia Nonesuch Morton Feldman ★★★1/2 Orchestra Mode Contemporary Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki (b. 1933) is better known than you’d think, Dear Reader—his music has been used in films Shutter Island, The Shining, Wild at Heart, Inland Empire, Fearless, and Children of Men. (What, no Hitchcock?) His music utilizes (intense) tension, dwarf-star density, and judicious dissonance in a lush, opulent orchestral manner recalling Bruckner and Mahler. This disc presents two of his more popular pieces, Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima (as comforting as its title; as searing a piece of music you’ll maybe ever hear) and Polymophia (used in The Exorcist), along with one of his younger disciples, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood. Before you classical fans start rolling your eyes, thinking, “Oy, another rock guy thinking he’s a Serious Composshemp@hotmail.com 54

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er,” Greenwood’s done more that bash three chords—JG wrote the score to There Will be Blood. Greenwood’s clearly been inspired by Penderecki but he’s no imitator—”Popcorn Superhet Receiver” has the dark drama of Bernard Herrmann (from Hitchcock’s films) and the streamlined frankness of rock-like rhythms. No, it doesn’t “rock,” but has similar blood relationship. nonesuch.com Morton Feldman (1926-1987) was a pal of John Cage’s but while they share some qualities (inspiration from modern art, dance, etc.), Morty (from Brooklyn) is a bit closer to the

Jonny Greenwood and Krzysztof Penderecki (both with flowers). Photo: European Culture Congress, Marcin Oliva-Soto

classi-tradition. The compositions here span 1951-1976, going from the musicians vs. sound conflagration “Intersection” to the eerily lovely “Voice and Instruments” and “Orchestra,” both of which have a pattern-like intricacy not unlike a spider’s web or the formation of a snowflake. While perhaps not the very “best” Feldman in the marketplace, Orchestra may be the best place entry point to his magnificently mystifying sound-world. moderecords.com La Sera ★★★★1/2 Sees the Light Hardly Art Either older than she looks or her parents have an extensive record collection, Katy Goodman—bassist of Brooklyn rock combo Vivian Girls, here doing business as La Sera—draws on an usually rich palette of pop music (which is to say, going back more than the past ten years). Light reflects the pull of Bacharach/David’s classy songcraft, jangling guitars, youthful angst of girlgroups (Shirelles vulnerable, Shangri-La’s tuff), the wannabe-baroque-ness of the Left Banke and Donovan, and the urgent brittleness of a thousand garages. Goodman has a high, bittersweet, somewhat little-girl-lost warble that comes across as sincere rather than affected. If the Beach Boys’s Brian Wilson were a mope-y girl instead of a mope-y

La Sera.

MARK KERESMAN Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

guy, he might’ve written the emotive mini-chorale “I’m Alone.” The stormy “I Can’t Keep You in My Mind” is a fab Blondie song from their early days, only Blondie didn’t write it— Goodman did. Tender without being wimpy, vulnerable without victim-hood, Sees the Light is a melancholy, autumnal, and charmingly addictive pop confection from Brooklyn’s own Petula Clark, bless her hardlyart.com

Was Woody Guthrie among the most awesome songwriters America produced? No. Cole Porter, he—CP wrote about city high-life, Guthrie about life in small towns, railroad yards, the Oakie Dust Bowl, the inverse of American high-life. These four indie-rock stalwarts— members of Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, My Morning Jacket, etc.—got together with Guthrie’s estate and applied melodies to previously unseen/unheard Guthrie verse. Long before Dylan and Lennon, Guthrie broached topics verboten in American pop—“V.D. City” is an

Marisa Monte ★★★★1/2 Que Você Quer Saber de Verdade Phonomotor/Blue Note If a handle you must have, Brazilian singer, songwriters, and multi-instrumentalist Marisa Monte is a purveyor of Musica Popular Brasileira (MPB), a blending of Brazlian genres bossa

Will Johnson, Jay Farrar, Yim Yames, and Anders Parker have teamed. Photo: Anna Webber.

Marisa Monte.

nova, samba, forro, etc., with jazz, Anglo-Euro rock, pop, and folk styles, and whatever. Que Você is Monte’s first album in about five years, and it is both a gem and a departure. First off, it doesn’t sound overtly “Brazilian” (which is not a put-down)—it’s closer to the lustrous, balmy, chilled-out Euro-pop of Françoise Hardy and the sleek Anglo-Brazilian pop of Sergio Mendes & Brazil ’66 than the modern sounds of Caetano Veloso or Gilberto Gil. Her singing is as lovely as ever, comparable with Norah Jones, Sade, Astrud Gilberto, and Rita Coolidge. With the 1920’s jazz-tinged “Verdade, Uma Ilusão” (yes, all in Portuguese), one can easily imagine oneself in a café in Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. The ballad “Depois” is so close to sultry (American) Southern R&B that it’s easy to imagine Dusty Springfield or Ann Peebles singing it. Her accompaniment is lush but subtly so, never overbearing. Put this in rotation with Sinatra/Jobim: The Complete Reprise Recordings and feel the earth rotate just a little slower and cooler. bluenote.com Jay Farrar/Will Johnson/Anders Parker/Yim Yames ★★★★1/2 New Multitudes Rounder Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs ★★★1/2 Long Distance Transdreamer

anguish-laced folk-rocker that sounds like a Highway 61 outtake given the Neil Young & Crazy Horse treatment. The forlorn, bittersweet “Chorine” would’ve sounded at home on those Grateful guys’ Workingman’s Dead. Cheery stuff? Nope. Genuine, forthright American music about feeling life behind the eightball? You bet. rounder.com Brit-born, Georgia-residing Holly Golightly Smith (that’s her story, sticking to it) plays a charmingly rough-hewn mix of blues— from that transition point from rural acoustic to city electric (think Lightnin’ Hopkins, John Lee Hooker), Hank Williams/Band-esque twang, and Guthrie/Leadbelly-like folk. Backed by Texas-bred Lawyer Dave (a.k.a. Brokeoffs), this Distance is like a ride from a party in the country in an on-it-last-legs pickup with one headlight and two bald tires. This set will treat you like a basement party/back porch Saturday night. transdreamer.com ■

Holly Golightly & the Brokeoffs. Photo: Alison Wonderland.

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nick’s picks Steve Kuhn ★★★★1/2 Wisteria ECM

Kate McGarry ★★★★ Girl Talk Palmetto

Pianist Steve Kuhn approaches music with the respectful notion that one needs to weave an emotional thread through a song, so whether he’s playing a standard or tunes

Visionary women in jazz—we’re talking Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter, Anita O’Day and Carmen McCrae—may be the hook and inspiration for Girl Talk, but it also gives Grammynominated singer Kate McGarry a platform to cozy up to standards her own way, which means suppressing her pop inclinations (just a little bit) for something more soulfully reflective. It’s not quite a reinvention, but McGarry slips into the hypnotic chanteuse role splendidly on Girl Talk, with a true romanticism that swirls like so much cigarette smoke of a bygone era, until she blows it away with her stunningly original takes on chestnuts like “Charade” (a tango!) and George and Ira Gershwin’s “The Man I Love.” Credit her longtime Kate McGarry Quartet. musical family—guitarist (and husband) Keith Ganz, organist/pianist Gary Versace, bassist Rueben Rogers, and drummer/percussionist Clarence Penn who lays down a foundation of supple beats. McGarry is a singer with a difference. She’s a smart and committed song stylist with an airy, breezy voice that’s easy to swoon over. Thanks to the solid, modern arrangements, she makes tunes like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “We Kiss In The Shadow” sounds like it was written yesterday. That she included it as a banner-waving proclamation for marriage equality gets her major bonus points. There’s more good stuff like her giddy gospel take of Neil Hefti’s title tune with Versace’s quivering organ fills and Ganz’s bluesy solo, and the fingerpopping grooves of “This Heart Of Mine” and “It’s a Wonderful World” with lyrics that she coos with affection. But nothing beats the punch of the Jimmy Rowles’s, “Looking Back,” a wistful song that affirms once again that “home is where the heart is.” Over the gentle accompaniment of Ganz’s lush guitar sonics, McGarry sings with uncommon sincerity and her longing becomes our own. With her song choices, thematic concept and those ace musicians along for the ride, Girl Talk is another McGarry triumph. (10 tracks; 44:42 minutes)

Steve Kuhn, Joey Baron and Steve Swallow. Photo: John Rogers

from his own memorable playbook, his musical language has a remarkable capacity to connect deeply with the listener. Classically trained, Kuhn has had an illustrious career performing in groups led by trumpeters Kenny Dorham and Art Farmer and notably in the early 60’s, when he briefly played in John Coltrane’s soon-to-be legendary quartet, but quit to join Stan Getz’s band. As a leader, there’s much to treasure in Kuhn’s solo recordings, especially those for Concord, ECM and the Reservoir label. Wisteria is a trio recording, a combo where Kuhn shines, and it’s enriched by unexpected tune choices as much as the lively accompaniment by bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Joey Baron, both of whom individually share a history with Kuhn but make their debut as a unit here. On this straight-ahead outing, Kuhn returns to the urbane, airy style of playing that recalls the rhythmic joys of albums by Bill Evans or McCoy Tyner. Kuhn revels in tunes from his own repertoire, as well as solid tracks composed by Swallow, Carla Bley and the title tune by Art Farmer. Modern sounding originals like “Chalet” bloom with melodic invention while the gorgeous “Morning Dew” is characterized by Swallow’s serpentine bass solo, deliciously tuneful, along with impressive tonal coloration by Baron who plays his kit with the subtlest of touches and just the right amount of kick-drum. Baron, who has played with the pianist in a variety of settings for more than 20 years, underscores the fast pitch of Kuhn’s “A Likely Story,” the album’s barnburner and most fun tune, with the kind of percussive fireworks that define drummers in his league. If you like hearing a master at work, as well as just plain, great piano jazz, Wisteria is among Kuhn’s best; it’s a terrific mainstream release with solid tunes, incomparable teamwork and an overall good feeling. (11 tracks; 67:31 minutes) [Note: Kuhn, Swallow and Baron will celebrate the release of Wisteria with five nights of shows at New York’s Birdland club from May 8th to the 12th.]

Nick Bewsey has been writing about jazz for ICON since 2004. A member of The Jazz Journalists Association, he blogs about jazz and entertainment at www.jazzinspace.blogspot.com. Twitter: @countingbeats 56 ■

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Kenny Garrett ★★★★ Seeds From The Underground Mack Avenue Seeds From The Underground, saxophonist Kenny Garrett’s second recording for the Mack Avenue label, catches the alto player heading up an all-original date with pianist Benito Gonzalez, bassist Nat Reeves, drummer Ronald Bruner and percussionist Rudy Bird. Press notes confirm Garrett’s affection for melody and rhythm and Seeds gives us the lyrical side of the saxophonist, who dedicates each tune on the recording to musical friends, teachers and heroes that he has encountered during his illustrious 30-year career. There’s a wide range of feeling and mood on the recording, from the exuberant post

NICK BEWSEY Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

bop surge of “J Mac” (written for Jackie McLean) to the groove-based lines on “Wiggins,” written for his high school band director. Keith Jarrett, Ellington, Monk and drummer Roy Haynes each get a tune written for them, along with musical praise for Mother Earth (“Welcome Earth Song”) and the music of Guadeloupe. As a composer Garrett covers a lot of bases and history—“Detroit” incorporates the static layer of pops and clicks of a worn vinyl LP and brings in vocalist Nedelka Prescod to evoke the music Duke Pearson arranged for Donald Byrd’s 1964 album, A New Perspective, with nods to “Chant” and “Cristo Redentor.” Garrett has always been an innovator. Kenny Garrett. His muscular tone and taut phrasing mesh well with the Latin tinge he gives most of his originals and at its core, Seeds illustrates Garrett’s high standard for playing jazz. The album makes a convincing musical statement for both the man and his inspirations. (10 tracks; 70:04 minutes)

Melissa Stylianou ★★★★1/2 Silent Movie Anzic Melissa Stylianou is a new name to me, yet Silent Movie is her fourth recording and it’s a winner by all measures, from the program of songs to the hues of emotion made musical and colored brightly by her amazing band. Her liner notes reveal that evoking a mood, a place or a memory is foremost on Stylianou’s mind, and in that respect I am reminded of Joni Mitchell’s early records since Stylianou’s style of singing suggests Mitchell as well. By linking the listening of her album to the experience of watching a story unfold on screen, Stylianou smartly frames these twelve songs that comprise Silent Movie with a wel-

Billy Hart ★★★★ All Our Reasons ECM Drummer Billy Hart has been playing and performing with top tier names since the ‘60s, but based on the music he’s recorded with pianist Ethan Iverson (The Bad Plus), saxophonist Mark Turner (FLY) and bassist Ben Street (Kurt Rosenwinkel), he sounds like he’s never been happier. That’s what you hear on 2009’s Quartet (HighNote), an album characterized by this band’s high functioning level of interplay. With its refreshing reads on tunes by Coltrane and Parker, and an edgy mix of originals, Quartet sounds like nothing less than a master class on improvisational possibilities. All Our Reasons, their debut on the ECM label, finds the band delving deeper into a sound shaped by nuance of tone and tempo. The album doesn’t produce the same frisson as hearing the band live, but suggests just the same that there’s more going on than just music. It’s a brotherhood, linked in part by musical telepathy but mostly an open appreciation and respect for Billy Hart. The music on Reasons is bold and nearly free-form. Hart’s “Song For Balkis” intrigues as a sweetly textured ballad with Turner playing Billy Hart. pensively around Hart’s gentle but unpredictable beats until the drummer escalates the tempo with dramatic flourishes. Iverson reworks John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” as “Ohnedaruth” (Coltrane’s adopted spiritual name), merely whispering its familiar melody as he pursues harmonic variations within. Turner’s “Nigeria” is a high-speed workout, the band flushed with facility and fast reflexes. And “Duchess” squeezes evocative solos out of melodic motifs for a nicely twisted sonic free-for-all. Throughout, Street’s tuneful bass wraps delicious notes around the contours of bandmate’s solos, Turner confidently moves between contemplation and bursts of expressiveness and Hart works his kit like a percussive orchestra, and in the end they all come together, playing like a quartet of musical brothers. (9 tracks; 59:34 minutes)

Melissa Stylianou.

come intimacy. The gifted quartet of musicians that support her, guitarist Pete McCann, bassist Gary Wang, drummer Rodney Green and the fresh sounding pianist, Jamie Reynolds, collectively become the weavers of her dreams and Stylianou’s set list is delivered with breathtaking clarity, thanks to the uncluttered arrangements that frame her gorgeous voice. Her song selection mixes modern classics like Paul Simon’s “Hearts and Bones” and James Taylor’s “Something In The Way She Moves,” with the unexpected (Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone”) and the band is often augmented by the multi-reed magic of Anat Cohen whose subtle assist gives the music a sonic buzz. Stylianou’s original lyrics (added to tunes by Vince Mendoza and Edgar Meyer) have equal power to move you, particularly the title track where a conflicted couple watch a film, yet their emotional division preoccupies them to distraction. Happily, the album has a satisfying completeness that keeps you fully engaged and its cinematic motif is nicely underscored by Charles Chaplin’s “Smile” and Mancini’s “Moon River,” stalwart screen gems with built in appeal that bookend the recording and which Stylianou delivers with delicate grace. (12 tracks; 54:47 minutes) ■ M AY 2 0 1 2

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jazz library

LUCKY

IT’S NO SECRET THAT some fine and performing artists often endure much suffering. The initial suffering has to do with honing their craft to a fine point. The second phase comes while they toil for recognition. Some suffer longer before recognition translates into getting paid . The sometimes eccentric behavior of some artists during their effort for self-satisfaction and for their work to be seen or heard, is perhaps the reason that stories about them are so interesting. Books have been penned about struggling jazz artists. Some fairly good films have also chronicled the sometimes mystifying and ambivalent existence of great and near-great jazz musicians. One such story has to do with saxophonist Eli “Lucky” Thompson, whose misfortunes in life in general, and music in particular, belied his nickname.

Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Monday through Thursday night from 6:00 to 9:00pm and Sunday, 11:00am to 3pm. 58

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BOB PERKINS

Thompson was born June 16, 1924 in Columbia, South Carolina. The family moved to Detroit, where Thompson attended high school. It’s not known exactly when he began saxophone lessons, but while in his late teens, and with some local gigs under his belt, he became proficient enough on the tenor saxophone to move to New York City where he landed jobs in the bands of Lionel Hampton, Don Redman, Billy Eckstine Lucky Millinder, and later Count Basie While his playing was steeped in the swing era, he quickly assimilated what the so-called bebop players were doing, and began mixing with the moderists. After leaving Basie and moving to the West Coast, he was hired by Dizzy Gillespie who used him as a backup, in case the sometimes unreliable Charlie Parker didn’t show. During the late 1940s, Thompson moved back to Detroit, then later returned to New York where he led his own group, and worked for Miles Davis on the trumpeter’s famous Walkin’ session. He was also a sideman with Stan Kenton on the leader’s adventurous Cuban Fire LP. From 1957-1962 he lived in Paris and moved back to the US, only to return to The City of Lights in 1968 where he remained until 1971. He played and recorded much in Paris, and while there began to play soprano sax. From 1973-74, at Dartmouth, he coached students on playing the instrument. Thompson was a very private person, but in his outspoken moments, he was highly critical of the way he thought record companies, music publishers and booking agents controlled jazz. This was the main reason he moved to Paris twice. But in the mid-’70s, he walked away from music, completely disappearing from the Northeast where he’d settled. His whereabouts from then on are sketchy. He was said to have been seen in various places at various times, but not engaged in making music. Thompson was finally traced to Seattle in the early 1990s, acting out of sorts and living in the woods, or being taken in by friends. It’s said that he walked long distances and looked to be in excellent physical shape. But according to others, he was suffering from Alzheimers. He was hospitalized several times in 1994, and finally was placed in a health-care facility for rehabilitation. He spent his final days there, and died in 1995 at the age of 81. With all of the weigh-ins about why he quit playing after 1975, no one ever reported seeing him even holding a saxophone following his self-imposed retirement. Lucky Thompson was a fine tenor saxophonist, and to these ears, played even better on the soprano sax. His playing was smooth and fluid on both instruments, but his melodic execution on the smaller horn might have been characterized as somewhere near a modern-day Sidney Bechet.. Thompson shared stages and recording studios with more famous names and always held his own. So what happened? Did discontent with the music industry alone, turn an intelligent, talented musician into a derelict. Or, could there have been other devils chasing him? Who really knows. Perhaps those with knowledge of similar stories about fine and performing artists, could come forward with stories similar to that of the confused and irregular life and times of Eli “Lucky” Thompson. But the answers as to why could be just as cloudy. n

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day trip

DAN HUGOS

FINDINGS By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi

A compendium of research facts

ENTOMOLOGISTS RE-CREATED THE CHIRPING of the Jurassic bush cricket, and Russian soil cryologists cultivated a 31,800-year-old plant from a fossilized squirrel burrow in Siberia. It was determined that ancient Egyptians fed snails to dead ibises, and it was suggested that the guinea pigs of Elizabethan Europe were used primarily as pets rather than as food. In China, zookeepers married a ram and a doe. Chinese were found less likely than Britons to focus on the eyes when asked to evaluate the faces of sheep. In Portugal, Grupo Lobo was disbursing to goatherds such traditional dogs as cão de Castro Laboreiro, cão de gado transmontano, and cão da Serra da Estrela. Pygmy kids exhibit goat accents. Pygmies in Cameroon and Congo were being trained to track poachers using the program Blindate. Fish in the lakes of Switzerland were hybridizing themselves out of existence. Crew aboard the icebreaker Aurora Australis tricked Adélie penguins into grooming a plush-toy penguin chick. A U.S. District Court in San Diego threw out a slavery lawsuit filed against SeaWorld by orcas Corky, Kasatka, Katina, Tilikum, and Ulises. Stress-hormone levels in the feces of right whales were found to have dropped after 9/11.

A Fun Month for the Whole Family FLOWERS ARE IN STORE for Jim Thorpe in May. The month typically brings warm weather to Jim Thorpe after a long winter. It sends the message that summer is indeed here, especially when you look at what there is to do. Our outdoor outfitting companies are scheduling trips down the Lehigh Gorge for every kind of water enthusiast, and there will be several dam release weekends. Enjoy the beauty of the new Jim Thorpe Rail Trail, whether you walk, run, or ride. It's a sublime trail, that crosses the Lehigh River and often parallels the train tracks run by the Lehigh Scenic Gorge Railway, which offers rides beginning on Memorial Day Weekend. Two festivals take place on consecutive weekends on May 5 and May 19, the Jim Thorpe

AN UNIDENTIFIED DEEP-SEA QUACKING was attributed to species of fish with specialized structures likely used for vocalizing. Such fish, said an ichthyoneurologist not involved in the research, “aren’t going to have a frivolous organ that does nothing.” Scientists released photos of a brownbanded bamboo shark being swallowed whole by a tasseled wobbegong. The dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 was consuming a smaller dwarf galaxy. Stacks of solid buckyballs were observed around the binary star system XX Ophiuchi. Alan Turing was found to have correctly predicted the genetic mechanism whereby ridges form in the roof of a mouse’s mouth. Physicists succeeded in deriving the shape of any ponytail using the Ponytail Shape Equation and the Rapunzel Number. The cost-benefit calculations of a sea slug’s central nervous system were found to persist when it is removed from the slug, placed in a dish, and offered food. A seventeen-year-old English girl’s anemia was attributed to her having eaten primarily Chicken McNuggets, KFC chicken nuggets, and supermarket chicken nuggets since the age of two. Urologists at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center found that children’s bedwetting is often due to constipation, but that the mild constipation often responsible is inadequately diagnosed under the guidelines of the International Children’s Continence Society. Art Weekend and the Jim Thorpe Birthday Celebration, respectively. The Art Weekend has STARLINGS CAN BE FOOLED into making irrational choices, yawning is contagious among budgies, and ecologists observed a truce between jackdaws and lesser kestrels in Italy. Old male sparrows do not appear to feel threatened by the song of younger rivals. Australian ethologists confirmed that female great bowerbirds are fooled by the forced-perspective illusion whereby males construct their bowers to appear more impressively large. India’s government commissioned a study on the effect of cell phone radiation on birds. In Argentina, chalk-browed mockingbirds had stopped trying to rid their nests of shiny cowbirds’ parasitic eggs. Biologist Martin Burd suggested that the efficiency-dictated size limits observed in the colonies of Central American leaf-cutter ants may help predict the maximum size of human cities. The disproportionately large hippocampi of hummingbirds allow them to remember the location of every flower in their territory. The dense feathering of the wings of barn owls (who in Scotland were enjoying a glut of voles) enables the birds to fly silently. The discovery, suggested the lead researcher, may have aeronautical applications, but, he noted, “We are far away from that point. . . . Until then, we will conduct many more experiments on owl wings.”

been organized by local artists and also features a musical component with free music at the downtown Josiah White Park and culminating with the rapidly up-and-coming group MiZ at the Opera House. Jim Thorpe Birthday also features extensive music and craft offerings in the park and all up and down Broadway. In addition, it salutes the great Native American athlete by holding a Special Olympics event at Jim Thorpe High School and involving Jim Thorpe High School with a run and torch hand-off at various points throughout the town. The Mauch Chunk Opera House celebrates Cinco de Mayo with the Marko Marcinko Latin Jazz, and continues with soulful crooner Mike Farris, the fine Elton John tribute Bennie and the Jets, classical pianist Giorgi Latsabidze, Montreal’s The Barr Brothers with Kishi Bashi, MiZ, and rockabilly Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun in the month of May. To see the whole schedule or pick up tickets just go online at MauchChunkOperaHouse.com. The Opera House Performance Card is not only a great deal for shows, but gets you discounts at restaurants throughout town. Just show it to your waiter and you can get as much as 20% off your food bill. For any amount you pre-fill the card with, the Opera House will add an extra 20%. Then, once you go to five shows, your 6th show is free. For everything there is to do in Jim Thorpe, visit www.JimThorpe.org. ■ M AY 2 0 1 2

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The Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle H-HOUR By Patti Varol Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Memorable touchdown maker, briefly 4 Girl having a ball? 7 “Arabian Nights” woodcutter 14 Moral climate 19 Tchotchke holder 21 CPU jointly developed by Apple, IBM and Motorola 22 Cook just below a boil 23 Intrinsically 24 First woman on the Supreme Court 25 Sleeper’s difficulty 26 Presidential stylists? 28 Apt. feature, in ads 30 “Criminy!” 31 Plant deeply 32 Banned pesticide 34 “Martin Chuzzlewit” novelist 36 Blond shade 39 Bk. read at Purim 40 Holdup 42 __ beer: low-alcohol beverage 43 Snowman’s eyes 45 Helipad fee? 48 Humanities degs. 51 Perry of fashion 52 Narrow waterway 53 Filing aids 54 Like aged cheddar 56 Kewpie, e.g. 57 Still going 60 Canapé spread 62 Enjoying a lot 63 Viscounts’ superiors 65 “I’m hunting wabbits” speaker 67 Live-in helper 69 Gift holder 71 Fireside deity? 75 Trick 76 Bird of prey 78 Dalmatian, for one 79 Hasidic teacher 81 Company that makes the Ektorp sofa 82 “GWTW” plantation 84 Church ceremony 87 Yemen neighbor 90 Gives in 92 Bits of wordplay 94 Down for the count 95 Gun-shy 96 Nav. rank 97 Punching range? 101 Palmer of the links 102 572-year-old school 104 Sets, as a trap 60

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105 Neurol. readouts 107 Ink spots, briefly? 108 Hollies hit featuring a shared umbrella 111 NYC subway org. 112 Longtime “Sexually Speaking” host 114 View from Neuchâtel, to locals 115 Courtroom VIPs 117 Furs worn in a spring parade? 122 Cal __ 124 It’s based on past legal decisions 126 “If you ask me ...” 127 Like Samuel Beckett 128 Off the charts 129 Geico spokespeople with a shortlived sitcom 130 Puts on cargo 131 Has a conniption 132 Nor. neighbor 133 “Doctor Who” creatures

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 27 29 33 35 36 37 38 40 41 44 46 47 49 50

Sister of Rachel Jazz legend James Half a food fish “Children of a Lesser God” subject Box score statistic Affiance Yeats’s “__ to His Beloved” Bonkers “Hmm, maybe ...” Eggs __: brunch fare Prince Valiant’s son Fraternal org. Nose-burning Org. concerned with climate change Sunflower State capital Closet consultant’s concern? Main Roe sources “Brooklyn’s Finest” co-star Partner in crime January honoree Like some road sign symbols Ho-hum grades Solved with ease Chorister’s big moment What the winner of a catered wedding gets? Likely consequence of kicking dirt at the ump Knight wear Philanthropist Wallace Sundial number Trio before U Clarinetist Shaw Good-time Charlie

55 57 58 59 61 64 66 68 69 70 72 73 74 77 80 83 85 86 88 89 91 93 95 98 99 100 103 106 108

Fanny pack spot All eyes and ears “GWTW” side “Pomp and Circumstance” composer Gallery stand P-like letter What bored people may go through, with “the” iMac-to-iPhone connector Grease, as it were Like bourbon barrels “Keep on Truckin’” cartoonist Classic muscle car Division of time Wee bit Dutch South African When some Tauruses are born: Abbr. Jerk Vocalizes Operatic 37-Down Kremlin vote Bar order Leaves no footprints, in a way Checkmate, e.g. “And giving __, up the chimney ...” Web merchant Derring-do Dangerous fly Hearty chuckle Spaghetti sauce herb

109 110 112 113 116

Violet opening Tries to walk off nerves Like morning grass Hound’s prey __-Altenburg: old German duchy 118 Helen Mirren’s title

119 120 121 123 125

“I, Claudius” setting Popular tech review site Coop crowd Quizzical sounds Canonized Fr. woman Answer in next month’s issue.

Answer to April’s puzzle, FRONT MONEY

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INDEX Facts compiled by the editors of Harper’s Magazine

Percentage decrease in the incidence of the terms “global warming” and “climate change” in major newspapers in 2011: 33 Number of times President Obama mentioned “climate change” in his 2012 State of the Union address: 1 Number of times he mentioned “energy”: 23 Number of new planets discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission since 2009: 61 Number of “planetary candidates” awaiting verification: 2,326 Value of loose change left at TSA checkpoints in 2010: $409,085.56 Estimated number of houses built or repaired in Haiti since the January 2010 earthquake: 18,362 Of Haitians still living in displacement camps: 515,000 Minimum number of luxury hotels slated to open in Rwanda in the next year: 2 Percentage of black Americans who believe in God: 80 Of Jewish Americans: 27 Percentage of Mormons who believe blacks in the United States face “a lot of discrimination”: 31 Who believe Mormons do: 46 Estimated minimum net worth of Mitt Romney: $190,000,000 Estimated inflation-adjusted net worth of George Washington: $525,000,000 Cost of a one-day course at the Institute for Civility in Government in Houston: $50 Factor by which the percentage of college freshmen taking out more than $10,000 in loans has increased since 2001: 2 Portion of the $62 million raised by major presidential Super PACs in 2011 that came from the top twenty-two givers: 1/2 Price of a gold ingot engraved with the name of Jean Paul Gaultier: $1,931 Cost of shipping and handling: $25 Age in years of the average car on the road in America: 10.8 Rank of that number among the highest on record: 1 Amount BMW paid to name a European weather system under a Berlin university’s “adopt-a-vortex” plan: $396 Minimum number of people who have died from the “Mini Cooper” system: 32 Estimated number of people the Social Security Administration accidentally lists in its “Death Master File” each year: 14,000 Percentage of federal benefits that went to the bottom fifth of U.S. households in 1979: 54 Today: 36 Percentage increase in total U.S. health-care spending in 2009 and 2010, respectively: 3.8, 3.9 Respective rank of these annual increases among the lowest of the past fifty years: 1, 2 Percentage of doctors who will make an obesity diagnosis if a patient’s weight is equal to or greater than their own: 93 Number of generations it takes mammals to evolve from mouse-size to elephant-size: 24,000,000 Estimated percentage by which the population of Japan will shrink by 2060: 32 Portion of its population that will be out of the workforce by then: 1/2 Percentage increase in the rate of alcohol abuse for every percent by which U.S. unemployment increases: 17 Percentage increase, since 2006, in violent sex crimes perpetrated by members of the U.S. Army: 97 Date on which the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report revised its definition of rape to include male victims: 1/6/12 Portion of Afghans who believe their national police will be ready to handle security when NATO forces leave: 3/4 Who believe the national police are “somewhat or very corrupt”: 1/2 Date on which the email passwords of the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs were hacked and made public: 2/5/2012 Portion of ministry officials whose passwords were “12345”: 1/3

Index Sources 1 Max Boykoff, CIRES Center for Science and Technology Policy Research, University of Colorado Boulder; 2,3 Harper’s research; 4--,5 NASA Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, Calif.); 6 Transportation Security Administration (Arlington, Va.); 7,8 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Port-au-Prince); 9 Marriott International (Bethesda, Md.)/The Rezidor Hotel Group (Cape Town, South Africa); 10,11 National Opinion Research Center, University of Chicago; 12,13 Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life (Washington); 14 Romney for President, Inc. (Boston); 15 24/7 Wall St. (N.Y.C.); 16 Institute for Civility in Government (Houston); 17 Higher Education Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles; 18 Sunlight Foundation (Washington); 19,20 Dillon Gage (Addison, Tex.); 21,22 Polk (Southfield, Mich.); 23 Institut für Meteorologie, Freie Universität Berlin; 24 Harper’s research; 25 Scripps Howard News Service (Washington); 26,27 Congressional Budget Office; 28,29 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (Washington); 30 Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore); 31 Alistair Evans, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia); 32,33 Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (Tokyo); 34 University of Miami; 35 U.S. Army Office of Public Affairs (Arlington, Va.); 36 FBI (Washington); 37,38 United Nations Development Programme (Kabul); 39,40 Anonymous/Harper’s research. M AY 2 0 1 2

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26 / FEATURE / A PHOTOGRAPHER’S MERRY-GO-ROUND TOUR OF BUSHKILL PARK

of pulling back on the bar and arching my back to get more G forces. I even loved the smell of the grease. The beauty of the park is that much of it was the same when my wife Chris and I took our two kids there (I spent more time at Bushkill than Chris; she grew up in Allentown, which means she’s more of a Dorney Park fan). The Barl of Fun [funhouse] had the same funky murals of clowns. There were the same wooden speed boats that slowly circled around with the same cool features: a brass bell you could ring and four wheels, which meant that no one had to fight over who would steer. One time our oldest daughter, Khaley, who was then three, just wouldn’t get off the speed-boat ride. Luckily, there weren’t any kids waiting to get on so I kept feeding tickets to the operator so she could get her fill. The funny thing is, in high school she got a job at Bushkill and ended up working at Kiddie Land. So it kind of came full circle—like the speed-boat ride itself. The park has played a direct role in my photography career. In 1994 I retired as a photography teacher at Nazareth High School; it was time to stop living vicariously through my students. When I was managing Live, I took my camera on tour. I learned a lot from watching Danny Clinch, who photographed the band in the old, closed Ambassador Hotel [in Los Angeles], where Robert Kennedy was shot. I took pictures there while we were waiting for the makeup artist or moving to another location. I like shooting empty places that were once crowded—like Bushkill. I began photographing Bushkill in the late 1990s. Back then I was in a Walker Evans mode, capturing the patterns and the graphics, using a medium-format camera loaded with classic black-and-white film. I loved shooting the bumper cars; they were so sleek, so Deco-esque. The eagle hood ornaments remind me of the eagle parapets on the Chrysler Building. And the cars were classics; they were made by Lusse Brothers, the Rolls-Royce of “auto scooters.” In 2004 I returned to photograph the park after it was devastated by Hurricane Ivan. That’s when I really saw the savage power of nature. The Bushkill Creek had overflowed and had taken a vicious shortcut through the carousel house, through the Barl of Fun, through the Whip and the bumper cars. The velocity was so fierce, it was like the water was driving one of those hairpins at [the] Watkins Glen [racetrack]. I’m laughing now, but at the time it was a shock to the system. This time I shot with a digital camera, knowing that I was going to print the images in color. Black and white would have been too depressing. And I wanted to represent the intense colors of the park, to show it still had some life, some sense of novelty. People have told me, “Geez, I really like your color effect,” and I say, “There is no effect—bright colors are part of an amusement park.” I’m from the straight school of photography where you don’t enhance, you just record. In 2006, when we had the show Bushkill Park: Ride Not Over in Easton, I was of the mindset: Let’s get the park up and running again. That’s why I donated 20 percent of the proceeds from the sale of my prints to reviving Bushkill. My mindset is different with this show. The park hasn’t been open since 2006, and it’s really stripped, a sad shadow of itself. Pavilions have been crushed by falling trees, most of the rides have been removed, those great hood ornaments on the bumper cars have been heisted. One of the speed boats disappeared; there’s a definite void when you see five where six should be. It’s not a totally blank canvas at Bushkill…and yet something keeps drawing me back. I go back to the park to see how it changes in different seasons, different atmospheres, different lights (I love light; you know, photography really is light writing). And I love the total silence—with the exception of the birds and squirrels. It’s so quiet that you can conjure places with your mind, your imagination. And you see such strange, surreal things—like a dummy without a head that keeps moving around the park. He’s sitting on the Merry Mixer; he’s sitting on the steps to the ticket window; he’s sitting with other artifacts, like it’s a still life. But we decided to leave him out of the show because it looked like conceptual art. This project has really brought out the preservationist in me. I want to remind everyone that Bushkill was not just a park for people who lived within a ten-mile radius around Easton. This was an oasis for folks in Northampton County, in Monroe County, in Upper Bucks and Warren. I’m using these photographs to make people aware of what Bushkill was, what it went through, and that it’s still standing. People who have come to the show have reminded me of the importance of the park in terms of family history and memorable moments. And I’m always learning something new. I didn’t know until recently that the water in the pool was actually from the creek; no wonder it was so cold. We don’t have anything here about the concession stands, yet so many people have told me about the park having the best French fries in the world. And when they talk about the salt and the vinegar, well, I can just about smell those fries. In a way I’m glad the Bushkill project is over. I have to move on; for the last few years I’ve been shooting the Midway at the Allentown Fair. And yet, if Bushkill comes back in some form, I think I’d like to photograph it and see how it feels. I mean, the Barl of Fun can run again; it’s pretty indestructible. The speed boats are still there—well, most of them. All the Whip cars are ready to go, with the right amount of money. You know, I could really use a good stiff jolt of those G forces. ■

31 / INTERVIEW / A VOYAGE INTO THE HEART

PC: That part was heart wrenching to read. BB: It was just doomed. I remember sitting on that bedspread in the Marriott Residence, or wherever the hell it was, eating fishies [Goldfish], because Zach and I would eat fishies. I knew I had made the worst decision of my life. And then, of course, when you work in Hollywood you just shoot yourself anyway. PC: You’re safely ensconced in Philadelphia now, so you’re far away from that scene. BB: I can go out to Hollywood, I don’t have to live there. I can be more relaxed. I like Philly. We live in a beautiful part of the city. I’ve got more flexibility to kind of come and go as I please. PC: When you’re a writer, you do have that freedom to write from anywhere. So, if it’s better to write in Rittenhouse Square than on Hollywood Boulevard… BB: You’re writing basically in a windowless room in Hollywood trying to simulate the reality of the New York police department. People do it wonderfully; I could not. PC: You mentioned earlier that several members of your family have read Father’s Day. What’s been their reaction to it? BB: I think Gerry was very moved by it, and loved it. Zach’s mom said she liked it a great deal. Frankly, the reaction from the family has been fantastic…Look, is it going to have the success of Friday Night Lights? There’s no way, because how many books have that success. That was the real shooting star. But people actually say, “I think the writing is better, there’s not an ounce of fat, and you really laid out on the page.” They think it’s the best book I’ve done and certainly the most honest and admirable. PC: I think it’s a tremendous book, but I’m no fortuneteller when it comes to the book industry. BB: Look, nobody is. It’s always in the back of your mind. Any writer who says, “I don’t really care about my audience” or “I don’t care if it sells,” they’re the biggest liar in the world. You want your books to sell, but you can’t compromise. I didn’t make things up. Although it’s a memoir, a lot of it was journalistically based. Ninety percent of it was based on tape-recorded conversations between Zach and me, supplemented with pictures that I took. A lot of stuff with Gerry was [based on] interviews. I kept a running file. I think a lot of memoirs are piped, frankly. They make things up to make them more interesting or more exciting or more this or more that. I’m sure some people will say, “Too bad you didn’t get robbed or Zach didn’t kill you in the end” or whatever.

Bushkill Park: Closure, photographs by David Sestak, through May 27, Home & Planet, 25 E. 3rd St., Bethlehem, 610866-7370, and Fox Optical & Gallery, 28 E. 3rd St., Bethlehem, 610-332-2400. Meet-the-artist 7-10 p.m. May 4 at both stores during Bethlehem First Friday; talks by Sestak and local historian Len Buscemi and Q&A with Neal Fehnel, former Bushkill owner, 7:00 p.m. May 10 at Home & Planet.

PC: So many memoirs bathe in those elements of woe, but… BB: That’s true. A lot of memoirs are always blaming someone else. I didn’t want to do that. I do have faults. I do have flaws. I love my children madly, but I can fly off the handle. I can be very self-flagellating. I can be very hard on myself. That’s not all contrivance. I’ve made mistakes. I have. I’m not going to pass them off…At the end of the day, the responsibility is mine. ■

Geoff Gehman profiled David Sestak and his Bushkill Park photography project as an arts writer for The Morning Call in Allentown. In the 1960s he fell for a dead general store/social center in Wainscott, N.Y., a subject of The Kingdom of the Kid, his memoir of growing up in the middle-class, long-lost Hamptons. He can be reached at geoffgehman@verizon.net.

Buzz Bissinger’s tour in support of Father’s Day starts on Wednesday, May 16, at the Philadelphia Free Library. The event starts at 7:30 p.m.

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calendar ART EXHIBITS THRU 5/6 William G. Middleton: Body Aesthetic. Twenty-Two Gallery, 236 So. 22nd St., Phila. 215-772-1911. twenty-twogallery.com. THRU 5/13 Who Shot Rock & Roll: A Photographic History, 1955 to the Present. Allentown Art Museum, 31 N., 5th. St., Allentown, PA. 610-4324333 allentownartmuseum.org THRU 5/13 The Spirit of Place. Work by Derek Bernstein. The Prallsville Mill, 33 Risler St., Stockton, NJ. Thurs-Sun 12-7. derekbernstein.com. THRU 5/26 Hidden Realities: Mavis Smith. James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 So. Pine St., Doylestown, PA 215-3409800. michenerartmuseum.org Thru 5/31 Emily Steinberg: Cornices and Teacups. Reception for the artist 5/12, 1-5pm. SFA Gallery, Thurs.-Sun. 11-5, 10 Bridge St., Suite 7, Frenchtown, NJ, 08825. 908-268-1700. sfagallery.com Thru 6/10 John Schmidtberger: Observations. The Quiet Life Gallery, 17 So. Main St., Lambertville, NJ. Open Wed.- Sun. 609-397-0880. quietlifegallery.com

3rdstreetgallery.com 5/4-5/30 Atomic Age, photography by Kelly Burkhardt. Artist talk 5/24, 6pm. Ven and Vaida, 18 S. 3rd. St., Philadelphia. venandvaida.com 5/5-6/30 A Torn Continent Revisited, photography by Pierrot Man of Madagascar. Opening reception 5/5, 7pm. Dakota Ridge Gallery, 9 W. Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA. Fri-Sun 11-5. dakotaridgegallery.com. 5/6-6/17 The Art of the Miniature. Invitational exhibition of fine art miniatures from around the world. The Snow Goose Gallery, 470 Main St., Historic Bethlehem, PA. 610-9749099. thesnowgoosegallery.com. 5/11-6/3 Michele Gallagher: Recent Works. Opening reception 5/11, 6-9. TwentyTwo Gallery, 236 S. 22nd St., Philadelphia. Wed-Sun 12-6. 215-772-1911. twenty-twogallery.com. 5/12, 13, 19, 20 14th Annual Art Show at Cedar Maze. Recent works in stone by Steven Snyder. 252 Cafferty Rd, Pipersville, PA stonesculpture.net. 5/11-13 Pennsylvania Guild: Fine Craft Fair. Rittenhouse Square,

THRU 7/1 “Terra Emotta,” Chip Forelli, “Alternative Views,” and Soho Photo Gallery group show. “Monochrome Winter” in Upstairs Gallery II. Red Filter Gallery, Thurs.- Sun. 12- 5, 74 Bridge St, Lambertville, NJ. 347244-9758. redfiltergallery.com

6/1-6/30 New works by landscape impressionists. Champagne reception & live music, 6/1, 7-9pm. Painting demonstrations, 6/2, 11-4pm. Rich Timmons Studio & Gallery, 3795 Rte. 202, Doylestown. 267-247-5867. 3795gallery.com

THRU 8/10 Offering of the Angels. Treasures from the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, PA. 215-340-9800. michenerartmuseum.org

6/3-9/9 At the Edge, Art of the Fantastic. Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley, 31 N., 5th. St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-4333. allentownartmuseum.org

5/3-5/12 Robert Beck: Iconic Manhattan. National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park So., NYC. Receptions 5/3 & 5/5 - RSVP joychasan@aol.com.

THEATER

5/2-5/27 Present Tense, Paintings and Collages by Marjorie Grigonis. First Friday, 5/4, 5-9pm. Artist’s reception, 5/13, 2-5pm. 3rd Street Gallery, 58 N. 2nd St., Philadelphia, PA. Wed.-Sun. 12-5. 215-625-0993.

THRU 5/6 Anything Goes. Act 1 Performing Arts, DeSales University, The Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. desales.edu/act1 6/13-7/29 Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre, Hairspray, HMS Pinafore, and Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Muhlenberg College Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavillion for Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484664-3333. Muhlenberg.edu/smt

ARTSQUEST CENTER AT STEELSTACKS (Musikfest Café) 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA 610-332-1300. artsquest.org

DINNER & MUSIC 5/12: Saturday nights: Sette Luna Restaurant, 219 Ferry St., Easton, PA. 610253-8888. setteluna.com CONCERTS Some organizations perform in various locations. If no address is listed, check the website for location of performance. 5/4, 5/6, 5/11, 5/12 The 105th Bethlehem Bach Festival. The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Bach Festival Orchestra, Greg Funfgeld, Artistic Dir. & Conductor. Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. 888-743-3100, ext. 10 or 15 5/5 On-Stage Jazz Cabaret with Kevin Mahogany, 6pm dinner/7pm show. Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org

5/19: 5/20: 5/23: 5/25: 6/1: 6/3: 6/6: 6/7: 6/8: 6/10: 6/13: 6/22: 7/6:

MAUCH CHUNK OPERA HOUSE One of America’s oldest vaudeville theaters, built in 1881. 14 West Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 570-325-0249. mauchchunkoperahouse.com

5/13 Wister Quartet. Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem, Foy Concert Hall, Moravian College, W. Church & Main Streets, Historic Bethlehem, PA. lvartsboxoffice.org or cmsob.org

5/12:

5/19 Broadway Revue. Symphony Hall, 23 N. 6th St., Allentown, PA. 610434-7811. LVArtsBoxOffice.org PASinfonia.org

6/1: 6/8: 6/9:

5/20 St. John’s Choir & Friends, psalm settings & other favorite anthems, 4pm. Arts at St. John’s, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 37 So. Fifth St., Allentown, PA. Freewill offering. stjohnsallentown.org. 610-435-1641 6/1-8/5 Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, on the Center Valley campus of DeSales University. Much Ado About Nothing, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Tempest, King John, and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. 610-282-WILL. pashakespeare.org 6/14 Trace Adkins, 8pm.. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. $72/$65. 610-252-3132, 1-800-999 state. statetheatre.org

Preservation Hall Jazz Band RiverJazz Presented By Concannon Miller Zen for Primates Rusted Root Bela Fleck & The Marcus Roberts Trio Kevin Eubanks Splintered Sunlight Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk Tommy Emmanuel Dickey Betts & Great Southern Edwin McCain Lindsey Buckingham Bruce Hornsby/Noisemakers Sonny Landreth John Mayall

5/13: 5/18: 5/19: 5/25:

6/15: 6/16: 6/22: 6/23:

Bennie and the Jets A Tribute to Elton John Pianist Giorgi Latsabidze The Barr Brothers MiZ: folk, rock, bluegrass Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun The “The Band” Band Cabinet Craig Thatcher’s Salute to the Fillmore Paul Thorn Band Peek-A-Boo Revue Leon Redbone The Felice Brothers

EVENTS THRU 5/20 SOTA Designer Showhouse & Gardens, farmhouse on Three Chimneys Farm. 610-432-4333, ext. 145. Thedesignguide.com/?p=1470 5/12 & 5/13 47th Annual Fine Art & Craft Show. Historic Main Street, Bethlehem, PA. bfac-lv.org 5/19 27th Annual Baum School Art Auction. 510 W. Linden St., Allentown, PA. Auction preview night, May 17, 6-8pm. 610-433-0032. baumschool.org 5/19 Arts Alive! East & West Broad Streets, Quakertown, PA. 215-5292273. quakertownalive.com. 5/19 7th Annual Young Playwrights’ Festival. Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA. 610-867-1689. touchstone.org 5/19 27th Annual Baum School Art Auction. 510 W. Linden St., Allentown, PA. Auction preview night, May 17th, 6-8pm. 610-433-0032. baumschool.org 5/20 Book launch party, “Healing Journeys: Stories of Mind, Body and Spirit,” by Dr. Kevin Kita, 4:307:30. Illustrated with paintings by Jessie Krause. Netherfield Gallery, 11 East Bridge St., New Hope, PA. 215862- 4500. netherfieldgallery.com 5/24 2012 Freddy Awards. The State Theatre Center for the Arts, 7pm.

POETRY READINGS 5/6 Poets Vasiliki Katsarou & Mary Ann L. Miller will read from their poetry collections: Memento Tsunami and Locus Mentis. 2pm, Hunterdon County Library Headquarters, 314 State Rte. 12, Bldg. 3, Flemington, NJ. 908788-1444. 5/12 Panoply Books Reading Series 2012: Poet Lois Marie Harrod. Winner of the Tennessee Chapbook Prize 2012. 6pm, Panoply Books, 46 North Union St., Lambertville, NJ. 609- 397-1145. panoplybooks.com

5/24-5/28 Mayfair Festival of the Arts, Art Without Limits. Cedar Beach Park, Allentown, PA. MayfairFestival.org 6/15 Stahl’s Pottery Preservation Society 25th Annual Summer Pottery Festival GALA, 6-9pm.Silent auction, live music, hors d’oeuvres, and wine. 6826 Corning Rd., Zionsville, PA. 610-965- 5019. stahlspottery.com 6/16 Stahl’s Pottery Preservation Society Presents its 25th Annual Summer Pottery Festival, 9am-4pm. Pottery, demonstrations. 6826 Corning Rd., Zionsville, PA. 610-965-5019. stahlspottery.com

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