the list

David Gilmour. Judy Collins. Paul Simon. Paul McCartney. Johnny Cash. Rosanne Cash. All these neon names have custom guitars made by leaders of the Luthier Summit, a hands-on, ears-tuned banquet sponsored by the foundation of Martin Guitar, the Nazareth crafter of celebrated acoustic instruments for three centuries. Eight workshops cover everything from neck carving to 3-D modeling to repairing. Keynote speakers include Dick Boak, who as Martin’s artist-relations honcho coordinated its vaunted series of limitededition signature guitars, and Sean Brandle, Martin’s former inlay/design master. (August 7-11, Northampton Community College, 511 E. 3rd St., Bethlehem. 610-332-8665; fablab@northampton.edu. Cost includes Aug. 6 reception, meals, Martin tour, free lodging/lectures for one adult guest)

William Beck had a celluloid soul. “Becky” screened movies all over tarnation: sitting rooms and veterans’ halls, county homes and a baseball field. From 1946 until his death in 1987 his main attraction was Becky’s, the Valley’s second oldest drive-in theater and the only one with two giant screens. While it no longer serves French fries made by Beck’s late wife, Alice, it remains a delightfully light site for such family fare as the touching tragicomedy Getting Grace and the quirky whodunit Lucky Louie, written and directed by co-star Dan Roebuck, the Bethlehem native. The place remains a family affair, run by Alice and Bill’s four surviving children along with grandkids and longtime associates. Extra added bonuses include well-stocked concessions (turkey BBQ, hot bologna, mango smoothies) and a website with a neat photographic timeline as well as

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

As Philadelphia holds so much of America’s history in its wide, sweaty hands, everything that is independence-y and red, white or blue will take up the majority of your early summer celebrating. If you are, like me, not really a fan of the color scheme, its music or its family-friendly fare, let’s look beyond the star-spangled bliss to find the dark heart of the June and July within.

And nothing goes deeper red (like blood-soaked and heart-broken) and black than The Cure, moaning, touslehaired Robert Smith’s spidery, preGoth, post-punk ensemble. Why mention The Cure now? Because Smith’s floating membership ensemble, currently featuring one-time David Bowie chicken-choking guitarist Reeves Gabrels, is on its first tour of America in well over a decade, and stopping in Philadelphia at the Wells Fargo Center on Saturday, June 24. Boo.

Less bleak (depends on your point of view, I guess) and coming just in time for the outdoor-live-concert-in-a-stadium season is the likes of (they promise) the last ever tour from Bob Weir’s The Dead & Company with longtime Grateful Dead mates (such as Mickey Hart) and new school Jerry Garcia aficionados such as guitarist John Meyer. While this Dead, Not Dead show takes place on June 15 at Citizens Bank Park, that same baseball field will open wide for

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