Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe Lehigh University Art Galleries
5th Annual ARTOber 2024 Festival River Arts Collective
Imagination Unleashed: Childlike Wonders, and Abstract Journeys Nazareth Center for the Arts
30th Annual New Hope Arts & Crafts Festival New Hope - Solebury High School
Crafts in the Meadow 2024 Fall Invitational Craft Show Tyler Park Center for the Arts
Another Point of View: 4 Visually Impaired Artists Rotunda Gallery, Bethlehem
95th Juried Art Show Phillips’ Mill
Raise the Roof: Contemporary Barnscapes New Hope Arts
Quite Passage: Reflections of Neighboring Farms Stover Mill Gallery
Out of one man’s imagination, wry, dry humor, and poignant storytelling, Garrison Keillor, one of radio theater’s most innovative creatives brought to life A Prairie Home Companion. And a town is born.
JOHN AND YOKO
The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius. Since 1992
215-862-9558 icondv.com
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com
ADVERTISING
Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net
PRODUCTION
Joanne Smythe Mariana Giorgino
WRITERS
A.D. Amorosi
Ricardo Barros
Robert Beck
Geoff Gehman
Fredricka Maister
David Stoller
Keith Uhlich PO
Reproduction
sion
Robert Beck, Gray’s Papaya, oil, 16 x 20.
a thousand words
SO IT BEGINS
“COME, WATSON, COME!” HE cried. “The game is afoot! Not a word! Into your clothes and come!”
I love that opening by Arthur Conan Doyle. A sharp command from one brought to feverish distraction by the chance to function at a high level. It’s been sixty years since I first read that line, and it still delivers the mystery, immediacy, and excitement of Holmes grabbing his coat, hat, and cane from the hall rack and rushing out the door without as much as a glance at Watson as he speaks. I know that feeling. Every artist
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Robert Beck is a painter, writer, lecturer and ex-radio host. His paintings have been featured in more than seventy juried and thirty solo gallery shows, and three solo museum exhibitions. His column has appeared monthly in ICON Magazine since 2005. www.robertbeck.net
ROBERT BECK
STORY & PAINTING BY
exhibitions
Jennifer Hansen Rolli: Cascade Silverman Gallery
4920 York Road, Route 202, Holicong, PA 215-794-4300 silvermangallery.com
September 14 - October 13, 2024
Opening reception Sept.14, 5-8 & Sept. 15, 1-4
Open Wed-Sat. 11-6, Sun. 11-4 and by appt.
With the Silverman Gallery since its inception in 2011, Rolli has garnered many faithful collectors and numerous awards. In her own words: "A painting, much like in life, unfolds upon itself in a continuous cascade, where the decisions of each layer influence the next. One lays the groundwork and has an idea of how they want things to go, but it's the surprises along the way that determine the true path.” Jennifer's new collection is on the gallery's website: silvermangallerybuckscountypa.com
Here and Now, Beck’s first solo exhibition since his 2021 Michener Art Museum retrospective, expands on his representational work in New York, Maine, and Bucks County. Here and Now includes a special selection of images created in Manhattan, as well as the first gallery showing of two large works returning from museum shows.
Art
Annual
Patterson Farm, 949 Mirror Lake Rd., Yardley PA
September 22, from 10-4; Rain date 9/29
Enjoy a Fine Arts & Crafts market where you can buy one-of-a-kind pieces from the artists and artisan; Live music with local band Roadside Panic; Food trucks: Farmstead Foods and Goodnoe Ice Cream; Face painting. We are looking forward to an unforgettable day filled with creativity, joy, and community.
Cream & Yellow Peonies, 12 x 12 inches, oil on canvas
Wading Heron, 7 x 5 inches, oil on board
Robert Beck: Here and Now
First Light
Spring Creek Barn.
First Light.
on the Farm
Outdoor Art Festival
exhibitions
Really Free: The Radical Art of Nellie Mae Rowe
Lehigh University Art Galleries, Main Gallery Zoellner Arts Center
Really Free features 58 works exploring themes of girlhood, freedom, spirituality, and play. The exhibition offers an unprecedented view of how Rowe cultivated her self-taught art late in life as a Black woman artist in the context of the postcivil rights era. Colorful sketches, handmade dolls, sculptures made from cast-off objects, and depictions of the artist’s “Playhouse” in Vinings, GA convey the unique practice that fueled Rowe’s reclaiming of a lifelong vision. Organized by the High Museum of Art, Really Free is the first major exhibition of Rowe’s work in more than 20 years.
5th Annual ARTOber 2024 Festival
River Arts Collective
Delaware River Valley region
Every weekend, October 1 - 31 riverartscollective.org
Over 40 arts organizations, museums, galleries, artists and makers have joined together to establish the Delaware River Valley region as an epicenter for art and culture under the banner ARTOber. Open to the public, enjoy curated exhibitions, museum and gallery shows along the many places to shop and dine every weekend. Find a listing of all of the activities, download the self-guided map and brochure at riverartscollective.org.
Bennett Rambo
Imagination Unleashed: Childlike Wonders, and Abstract Journeys
Nazareth Center for the Arts
30 E. Belvidere St., Nazareth, PA nazaretharts.org
September 6 - October 27
Hours: Fri., Sat., Sun. noon - 3
Opening Reception: Friday, Sept. 6, 6 - 8
Explore the playful and play between childlike imagination and abstract artistry. A highlight will be the unveiling of a series of four abstract skull paintings, a collaborative effort between Rambo and his son, Jagger. This partnership showcases their shared vision and creativity, bridging the gap between childhood wonder and artistic expression.
Brown Dog on the Road, Vinings, Georgia, Crayon and colored pencil on paper, 25” x 30 3/4"
Hand with Large Signature, crayon, pen and pencil on paper, 11” x 8 1/2"
Karen Engelmeyer, Shapeshifter 4, Collage
Leah Reitz Winter, Embrace, Acrylic
Rubik’s Cube, Acrylic, Oil Sticks, and Spray Paint
Inner Chi.
exhibitions
30th Annual New Hope Arts & Crafts Festival
New Hope - Solebury High School
182 W. Bridge St., New Hope, PA
September 21 - 22 (Rain or Shine)
Saturday 10-5-, Sunday 10-4
Admission $5, children 12 and under are free Free shuttle to & from downtown New Hope Paid parking available on site visitnewhope.com
For three decades, the New Hope Arts and Crafts Festival has been a cornerstone of the region’s cultural scene, attracting thousands of visitors each year. This year’s Festival will feature over 150 talented artisans and craftsmen displaying their unique creations, ranging from handwoven textiles and intricate jewelry to stunning paintings and handcrafted ceramics. Browse, purchase and meet the artists creating these exquisite works.
Enjoy live music performances by regional singer/songwriters and performances from the Philadelphia School of Circus, and enjoy food from vendors. A weekend of creativity, connection, and celebration; fun for the entire family. Visitnewhope.com for full list of artists and event schedules
Crafts in the Meadow
2024 Fall Invitational Craft Show
Tyler Park Center for the Arts
10 Stable Mill Trail, Richboro PA 267-218-0290 TylerParkArts.org
October 19 & 20; Saturday 10-5, Sunday 1-4 50% discount until October 2 $10 at the gate. Members Free
140 + artisans at the pinnacle of their medium gather annually in Tyler State Park to share their creativity with the community. Meet the artists, explore hands-on demonstrations, and opportunities to elevate gift giving. Beautiful handmade pottery, fine art, photography, wood working, fiber art, jewelry, and glass. Live New Orleans R&B, eclectic blues, country, and classic music. Patrons are an integral part of the fabric of this true community art center where workshops and classes round out the year culminating with this annual gathering.
Another Point of View: 4 Visually Impaired Artists
Rotunda Gallery
10 E. Church St., Bethlehem
The Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission September 30-November 4
Artist Reception Sunday, October 6, 2-4 Monday-Friday 8-4 bfac-lv.org
Another Point of View: 4 Visually Impaired Artists, is presented by the Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission and the PA Council on the Arts and features the work of Mary Ann Dunwoodie, Michael Freeman, Dianne Michels, and Terry Newhard. The exhibition brings together four visually impaired artisans with varying degrees of vision who use their personal creative process as a means of self expression and inspiration.
Claudio Trudu, Trudu Leather bag, Doylestown
Ryan Lee, traditionally designed and hand carved wooden spoons.
Dianne Michels, Farm, Pastels
Michael Freeman, World of Colors No. 1, acrylic paint pens
exhibitions
95th Juried Art Show
Phillips’ Mill, 2619 River Road, New Hope, PA
September 21-October 27
Hours: Daily 1-5 and online 215-862-0582 phillipsmill.org
Our 95th Anniversary will be held in the 18th century mill that’s been home since 1929. Over 100 artists will display paintings, drawings, sculpture, printmaking, and multimedia pieces. Serious art collectors from across the region and beyond anticipate this show as an important opportunity to expand their collections.
Raise the Roof: Contemporary Barnscapes
New Hope Arts, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope, PA 215-862-9606 newhopearts.org
Through October 6
Opening reception Saturday, Sept. 7, 6-8 PM
Hours: Friday-Sunday 12-5 PM
Raise the Roof: Contemporary Barnscapes, is a multi-disciplinary exhibit that showcases the bucolic beauty and rich rural heritage of Bucks County and features the work of more than 50 regional artists. The exhibit will include paintings, sculptures, photography, and mixedmedia works, all inspired by the county's agricultural legacy and natural splendor. This is not your ordinary barn show, there will be delightful interpretations.
The exhibit is part of New Hope Arts’ ongoing effort to support and promote the arts in the region while also raising awareness of the need for a new roof for the historic New Hope Arts Center. Funds raised from this exhibit will go towards the roof replacement, ensuring the center can continue to serve as a hub for artistic expression and cultural enrichment in the community.
For a full list of participating artists and details on how to support the New Hope Arts Center, please visit www.newhopearts.org or contact Christine Ramirez at info@newhopearts.org.
Quite Passage: Reflections of Neighboring Farms
Stover Mill Gallery 852 River Rd., Pipersville, PA tinicumcivicassociation.org/stovermillgallery janeramsey.com
Weekends, September 7-29, 1-5
Over 75 works on paper including watercolors, drawings, and monotypes, showcasing work completed over the past 7 years on the Ulrich Farm, an historic dairy farm in Bedminster, PA. Jane is drawn to the stories that celebrate the best of humanity, the attributes to which we all aspire; acts of kindness, goodness of fellow neighbors, nobility of hard work, and the relentless pursuit of following one’s passions. Jane’s first book, Quiet Passage: Reflections of Neighboring Farms, will also be available for sale.
Janine Dunn Wade, Peonies, Pansies, and Badger
Donna Ruane Rogers, March Afternoon
Jack, The Heart of a Farmer. Graphite.
Jane Ramsey, The Quiet Season. Watercolor
Jane Ramsey, Jack’s Rye. Watercolor.
Ernest Koch, Old Stone Barn, photograph.
the art of poetry
American Legion baseball, Miles City, Montana
The game is a dream Rich with sorrow and A long, deep breath
The game is a dream
It is twilight; a stadium in Montana. The lights are on, Even as the outfield catches The last reach of the sun.
It’s all there in that perfect angle: Umpire and catcher Bent over the same marker, Oracles of prophecy and prayer.
They lean as one into The collective sadness of their lives, Hopeless but not without longing, Safe in the green surrounds.
The hero, upright and sturdy, Doesn’t understand, So eager, so ready, That he is condemned.
He is the unwitting victim Of an age-old deceit, suffering, To its inevitable end, From the demands of his father.
The bleachers count few occupants, sitting alone, Marking their programs like huddled scribes, Memorializing in detail their boredom, Keeping score of their mounting loneliness.
There are moments—a ball in the gap, Stretching to a triple—that test their art, That widen their eyes, but only for the moment, Then they slide back safely, into their dream.
Painter Robert Beck, long recognized as a pre-eminent regional artist, whose “region,” largely focused on Bucks County, has continued to expand his canvas, now including Maine and New York City. Beck is also a superb writer, and no stranger to this magazine—his art/photo essays have been featured in ICON for more than 17 years. He’s celebrated as a keen observer of places, events and occupations, revealing meaning in everyday moments that we might otherwise miss. “I think of painting as naming what I see,” says Robert. “My images are more than just what I encounter, they’re about us.” I found this “illumination” in the painting here, American Legion Baseball, Miles City Montana, which I tried to capture in my poem of the same title. I’m a big baseball fan, still holding fast to my nostalgia for “America’s Pastime,” even as its cultural importance fades. Relatedly, I’ve long enjoyed and viewed this painting as a simple celebration of the tradition of amateur baseball in towns across America. Then I looked more closely, and found myself suddenly melancholic—the nearly empty stadium now a theater, the few spectators and players on stage, actors frozen in their loneliness, regret, longing … certainly not the glory of our time. I feel like an apology is in order, but … to whom? n
David Stoller has had a career spanning law, private equity, and entrepreneurial leadership. He was a partner at Milbank Tweed and led various companies in law, insurance, live entertainment, and the visual arts. David is an active art collector and founder of River Arts Press, which published a collection of his poetry, Finding My Feet
DAVID STOLLER
American Legion Baseball, Miles City Montana
BALANCING CRAFT & CREATIVITY
WE ASSOCIATE CRAFT WITH discipline, commitment, and control. Craftspeople are characterized not only by the degree to which they have mastered their media but also by their investment in acquiring skills. Malcolm Gladwell refers to this investment as 10,000 hours. Once a person has practiced something for 10,000 hours, Gladwell writes, execution of that skill becomes second nature. That person no longer has to think about doing whatever they do; they do it, and it comes out beautifully.
Creativity, on the other hand, is about failing to recognize constraints. We have many guide rails in our lives, and for good reason. Guide rails steer us to the middle of the lane, where we are generally safe. We venture beyond the rails at our peril. Creative people appear to not see the rails or disregard them if they do. It is not that artists intentionally court disaster. More likely, their curiosity lures them into uncharted territory. Their exploration is a form of play. Through play, they discover new treasures.
Sometimes, craft inhibits creativity and produces unremarkable results. Blandness overtakes us when we lose our sense of curiosity and wonder, making our work repetitive. It can also occur because of self-restraint. We tend to inhibit ourselves when materials are costly or the process is expensive. One antidote, of course, is to experiment with affordable media. The failures required to fuel our growth are more tolerable. Who wouldn't play more freely with tin foil than with gold leaf? But — the risk of failure be damned — we must still dare play when it counts.
Martha Posner is one such creative person. Martha was intrigued by how watercolors flowed. She was so intrigued that she took finished watercolor paintings, paintings she had worked hours on, and held them under a running faucet. “I wasn’t afraid to lose the finished painting on the chance I could make it better,” she said.
Martha Posner’s courage was inspiration for this silver print portrait. n
Ricardo Barros’ works are in the permanent collections of eleven museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the author of Facing Sculpture: A Portfolio of Portraits, Sculpture and Related Ideas
PHOTOGRAPH AND ESSAY BY RICARDO BARROS
VALLEY
GEOFF GEHMAN
writing, naturally, about the Celtic Classic Highland Games & Festival, a smorgasbord much easier on the system than Musikfest. (Sept. 27-29, North Bethlehem; 610-868-9599; celticfest.org)
Five fun facts about Tom Jones, who in his longtime prime could sing most singers under the table — even operatic tenors. (1) His concerts open with “I’m Growing Old” and “Not Dark Yet,” sly reminders that his lungs are much younger than 84 years old. (2)
Another show staple, “I Won’t Crumble with You If You Fall,” honors his late wife, Linda, who made her husband of nearly 60 years promise he would stay solid after she died. (3)
He amplified his love of boxing by singing the United Kingdom and Welsh national anthems before championship matches. (4) He coached the UK edition of The Voice, coincidentally a Jones nickname. (5)
The three-color vinyl version of his 2012 single “Evil,” produced by Jack White, was sold only at a Welsh record shop Jones frequented as a kid; opened in 1894, it’s the oldest operating vinyl emporium. (Sept. 13, Wind Creek Event Center, 77 Wind Creek Blvd., Bethlehem; 610-297-7414; windcreekeventcenter.com)
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Geoff Gehman is a former arts writer for The Morning Call and the author of five books: Planet Mom: Keeping an Aging Parent from Aging, The Kingdom of the Kid: Growing Up in the Long-Lost Hamptons, and Fast Women and Slow Horses: The (mis)Adventures of a Bar, Betting and Barbecue Man with William Mayberry geoffgehman@verizon.net
CITY
A.D. AMOROSI
You’ve had enough of a summer, getting to know new names such as Walz, Vance and Emhoff, trying to figure out the fresh meanings of “joy” and “weird,” worrying if Bennifer 2.0 was going to last, and how much higher all-things-Swift-and-or-Deadpool could go. Find your center, and delight in all that September has to offer — joyful, weird, Walz-ian and beyond.
You like the always-rewarding (and always award-winning) Malvern-based theater People’s Light, you like anniversary parties and you like bluegrass. So, starting on September 18, People’s Light commences its 50th anniversary season with the regional premiere of The Porch on Windy Hill, a brand new play with some old, but golden music by David M. Lutken, Sherry Stregack Lutken, Lisa Helmi Johanson, and Morgan Morse. According to the people of People’s Light, The Porch on Windy Hill “follows a young couple who leave their life in Brooklyn Heights for the mountains of North Carolina in search of musical inspiration.” This fresh play with old timey music features live performances of traditional American roots melodies gigged-up on People’s Light’s small Steinbright Stage, an intimate, flexible 140-seat theater within a theater, all until October 13.
Everyone has been predicting that late night comedy talk shows are coming to a close, and yet, most of you talk about what you saw on Fallon-Kimmel-Colbert-Myers all day the next day. And since 2023, there’s been a new addition to the late night milieu with stand-up comedianturned-imaginary-game show host Taylor Tomlinson and her sarcastic re-do of the old Comedy Central show @ Midnight. That’s funny. On September 20 and 21 at Helium Comedy Club Philadelphia, Tomlinson will ply her stand-up talents for two sure-to-sell-out live showcases. I’ll bite. Also at Helium later in the month, September 29 is Mutlu making his stand-up comedy debut, If the name sounds familiar it should: Mutlu is every Philadelphian’s favorite per-
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Telephone pole tossing. Border collie sheep herding. Haggis eating competing. Jigging, reeling and hornpiping galoring. Tartan kilt peacocking. We’re
Garrison Keillor is Forever Wobegone
AT ANY AGE, AUTHOR and radio personality Garrison Keillor would be a treasure with wonder works such as A Prairie Home Companion (and his mythical Minnesota town Lake Wobegon) and his podcasted The Writer's Almanac part of the 20th and 21st centuries’ lexicon of wry, dry humor and poignant, fictional pop culturalism. Keillor has been, from the start, one of radio theater’s most innovative creatives.
“Innovator?” says Keillor, stifling a laugh at the top of our brief interview “You give me much too much credit. I think that all of my talent lies in simply imitating myself over and over again.”
At the age of 82, Kellior is iconic for what it is he has accomplished,
and continues to create. He spent 2023 and 2024 covering the United States with live renditions of his Prairie Home Companion in celebration of its 50th anniversary.
Talking about the roots of his work in radio and A Prairie Home Companion, come courtesy a protest (repeated airings of “Help Me Rhonda” by the Beach Boys) at his first station, KSJR in Minnesota – a longtime classical station that objected to Keillor’s musical selection geared towards modern pop, blues, jazz, country and folk.
“People liked my musical taste,” he says of his early-day program, A Prairie Home Entertainment, in 1969.
“It was six-o-clock in the morning, Audiences weren’t ready for Brahms then. They certainly weren’t ready for Tchaikovsky. I had a lot of country people, like truckers listening to me at that time of the morning. I had
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A.D. AMOROSI
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 dog-daughter Tia.
I Was There When it
Wasn’t
I MET JOHN LENNON and Yoko Ono less than a month after their legendary appearance on the Dick Cavett Show September 11, 1971. OK, saying that I “met” them might be a bit of a stretch, although I did exchange a few pleasantries with the couple. It was on October 8, 1971, the day before the opening of Ono’s first US solo art exhibit, This is Not Here (and Lennon’s 31st birthday), at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York.
So why was I there? I was a student at Syracuse University from 1970 to 1974 studying journalism at the Newhouse School of Communications. I was also a freelance photographer for several national news agencies and newspapers, including the Syracuse Herald Journal, which asked
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Steve Siegel has been an arts and entertainment writer for the Morning Call newspaper in Allentown where he’s contributed feature stories, interviews, and a weekly classical music column. His articles and photography have also appeared in Pennsylvania Magazine, Lehigh Valley Magazine, The Express Times, and other area publications.
Photo by Steve Siegel
film roundup
Trap (Dir. M. Night Shyamalan.). Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan. A terrific performance by the deservedly resurgent Josh Hartnett anchors M. Night Shyamalan’s latest goof of a suspense flick. Hartnett’s doting dad Cooper takes his tween daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert headlined by pop star Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan, the filmmaker’s musician daughter). But Cooper slowly discovers that the whole performance is a setup whose aim is to capture a long-inthe-wind serial killer named The Butcher…aka he himself. No patented Shyamalan twist here. We know the protagonist’s unsavory predilections from the start, and much of the fun comes from the ways in which he avoids detection, running circles around a cadre of Keystone Kops headed by criminal profiler/ex-Parent Trap-er Hayley Mills. Also featuring some terrific cinematography by the great Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, this is perhaps the most fun project the oft-self-serious Shyamalan has ever helmed. Not even the typically moronic narrative contortions he utilizes to get his characters
Keith Uhlich is a NY-based writer published at Slant Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out New York, and ICON. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. His personal website is (All (Parentheses)), accessible at keithuhlich.substack.com.
from Point A to Point B negate the very real pleasures of the production. [PG-13] HHH1/2
Alien: Romulus (Dir. Fede Alvarez). Starring: Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux. Feeling down? How about a (face)hug? The latest installment of the Alien series begins promisingly enough with a vividly realized milieu (a distant star wracked by sun-blocking pollution and populated with working class, effectively indentured corporate servants) as well as an intriguingly pulpy setup. A ragtag group of proles plan to steal the cryochambers from a destroyed space station and hightail it to better, brighter places. But those damn phallic-headed extraterrestrials have other ravenous ideas. Priscilla and Civil War’s Cailee Spaeny stars in the Ellen Ripley role. And she’s certainly put through her paces by director Fede Alvarez, who takes elements of the initial Alien quartet, throws them in a blender, and pulses them all to inedible gruel. Everything here has been seen before and done better, and that particularly includes one unforgivable CGI-assisted resurrection — the worst of its kind since poor Peter Cushing was raised from the grave for the godawful Star Wars prequel Rogue One. [R] H1/2
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KEITH UHLICH
Trap
film classics
Mon Oncle (1958, Jacques Tati, France/Italy)
For his second go-round as the charmingly hapless Monsieur Hulot, French filmmaker Jacques Tati concocted a delightfully, and deceptively, lighthearted satire of modernization. The pipe-smoking Hulot lives in an old-time Parisian neighborhood where everyone knows each other and the hustle and bustle of daily life has a sublime musicality. (Literally in the case of the bird that tweets only when a certain window reflects a sunbeam in its direction — one of several first-rate repeated gags.) Hulot’s nine-year-old nephew, by contrast, resides in an ultra-modern home in the suburbs where his mother and father move through their day with mechanistic heedlessness. It would be too easy, however, to reduce the movie to a reactionary embrace of the old over the new.
Tati is more interested in how the people in his films navigate the spaces in which they move and the myriad comic potential of those scenarios. Take as one example the maze-like stairway of the city residence with its innumerable nooks, crannies, and hairpin corner turns, something Tati affectionately contrasts with the clean lined “ease” of the suburban property’s cobblestone paths, which all the characters nonetheless insist on navigating in the most complex ways possible. There is humor and humanity to be found in even the most seemingly soulless expanses, a theme that Tati would hone further in his 9-years-later masterpiece PlayTime. (Streaming on Max.)
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KEITH UHLICH
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Harry Chapin’s songs are cat’s cradles of humanity. His characters — taxi driver, disc jockey, Titanic musicians, son-oblivious dad — crisscross through ecstasy and sorrow, anger and humor, bittersweet acceptance and hardwon wisdom. Killed in a 1981 car accident, his eternal flame is lit by a family band with his brothers, daughter, nieces, longtime bassist and longtime drummer. They perform lively, loving renditions of everything from “Corey’s Coming” to “Circle”; tell back stories about his tall tales, and salute his ceaseless mission to feed the hungry. (Sept. 15, State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton; 610-258-7766; statetheatre.org; non-perishable items will be donated to a local food bank)
Lin-Manuel Miranda fell under the spell of musicals thanks to his father. Luis Jr., who as a youngster in Puerto Rico watched the movie The Sound of Music around 80 times. Lin-Manuel grew up to create and star in the hit musicals In the Heights and Hamilton, proof positive of Luis Jr.’s storied success as a strategist. Over six decades the elder Miranda has lobbied tirelessly for Latino rights as a neighborhood activist, adviser to New York mayors, and campaign guru for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton. He calls his approach “shock therapy”; he calls his memoir and lecture tour “Relentless.” This fall he’ll play a pivotal role stressing the pivotal role Latino voters will play during a pivotal presidential election. (Sept. 19, Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem; 610-758-2787; zoellnerartscenter.org)
The Gavilan brothers have circled the globe playing classical, jazz and Afro-Cuban—Aldo as a composing pianist, Ilmar as a founding violinist of the Harlem Quartet. Division between the U.S. and their native Cuba separated them for two decades, with Ilmar based in New York and Aldo in Havana. Their joint concert debut in 2015, shepherded by violinist Joshua Bell, anchors the excellent 2000 documentary Los Hermanos (The Brothers). (Sept. 11, Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, 317 Hamilton St., Easton; 610-330-5009; williamscenter.lafayette.edu; free screening of “Los Hermanos” Sept. 11 in Lafayette’s Landis Center, 730 High St.)
A price is often paid for seeking, and/or accepting, a stranger’s aid. Whether the gift is love or lust, a windfall or an emergency call, it’s usually strung with sticky cords. This seesaw is at the core of Hollow Apple, the Koresh Dance Company’s new long work, scored by original music and poetry. It’s one of 40-plus pieces choreographed by Ronen (Roni) Koresh, whose palette includes modern jazz, hip hop and military patterns adapted from his time in the Israeli Army. Opened in 1991 in Philadelphia, his company triples as a school offering nearly 40 adult classes and an ecumenical community center. (Sept. 7, Williams Center for the Arts, Lafayette College, 317 Hamilton St., Easton; 610-330-5009; williamscenter.lafayette.edu) n
The Doobie Brothers are actually two brotherhoods. One plays jazzy pop —“Takin’ It to the Street,” “What a Fool Believes”—starring Michael McDonald’s syncopated keyboards and husky, creamy vocals. The other plays outlaw rock— “Jesus Is Just Alright with Me,” “Without You”— starring the stampeding synchronized guitars of Tom Johnston, John McFee and Patrick Simmons. On Sept. 28 the road warriors will return to Allentown, where in
1982 they began their first farewell tour (PPL Center, 701 Hamilton St.; 610-224-4625; pplcenter.com)
Food trucks can be culinary circuses. Cirque Kikasse’s food truck serves extreme gymnastics and acrobatics. Members of the Montreal troupe trampoline through windows, dangle from a 30-foot-tall tower built of furniture, and frolic with a runaway popcorn machine. Oh, and they dispense digestibles, too. (Sept. 18, parking lot of Fritz Laboratory, Lehigh University, 13 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem; 610-758-2787; zoellnerartscenter.org) n
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cussion session man. And though he made waves with his own jazzy pop world music solo albums back in the day, Mutlu wants a shot at laughing matters of late. Why not?
Your September 20 through the 30 at Wells Fargo Center is more unexpectedly diverse than you would ever imagine for any hockey arena. While the olde English stringy pop ensemble Jeff Lynne’s ELO (that’s Electric Light Orchestra, but with a contractual obligation) celebrates two nights in South Philadelphia (September 20 and 21), the moodily modern midnight soul man Maxwell owns the evening of September 24 for his Serenade Tour date. While no electro (Brat) summer is complete without Charl XCX and Troye Sivan doubling billing and cooing at WFC on September 25, Mexican pop vocalist uses September 30 as his sold-out springboard for Latin continuum vibes in Philly. n
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CITY
STORY / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 18
me to attend the press reception.
It was appropriate that Lennon would appear at the show’s opening. After all, the couple first met in London in 1966, when the Beatles stopped by Ono's solo exhibit at the Indica Gallery after hearing about "this Japanese avant-garde artist.” Yet Lennon’s presence, in addition to that of Ringo Starr, fueled rumors that a Beatles reunion would be announced. How perfect that would have been, just weeks after Lennon’s candid comments on the Cavett show that Yoko Ono did not break up the Beatles.
The press reception I attended had none of the hubbub of opening day, when something like six thousand people flocked to the museum, mostly due to the reunion rumors. The October 11, 1971 New York Times wrote, “Is Syracuse ready for Yoko Ono and John Lennon?”
Ono explained the meaning behind the exhibit’s title was to suggest that what is important about art is not the objects themselves, but the reactions of the people who view them. Unfortunately over the course of the years, I can’t recall much personal reaction to Ono’s art, although I do recall an apple on a pedestal, marked “Apple.”
The Times article ran on page 48 with a single photo of Ono; the Syracuse Herald Journal never ran my story or photos. Perhaps I really wasn’t there after all? n
Photo by Steve Siegel
dairy farmers and storekeepers. But I started my show with the Mills Brothers doing The Bugle Call, and played New Orleans’ jazz, and the Beach Boys. The people loved it. Maybe the management didn’t, but my listeners did.”
Listeners too turned in to hear Keillor’s deep, resonating bass-baritone speaking voice, and his occasional bon mots — stories of the fictional people who seemed ever-so-close. “I was in the entertainment business, and not in the business of upholding the standards of St. John’s University who ran the radio station. I was there for rural Minnesotans, especially on cold winter mornings.”
With Brahms being “way too much” for wintry weather, and Keillor additionally getting his first work of fiction published in The New Yorker magazine (“Local Family Keeps Son Happy,” appeared in a September 1970 issue), by 1974, the writer and radio broadcaster was ready for something bigger in scope, weightier in emotional and humorous heft, and filled with live, old timey music: A Prairie Home Companion, its mythical Minnesota town and its rollcall of made-up, post-soap-opera affairs of the head and the heart.
“My most vivid recollection of that first broadcast was confusion, as I was completely out of my depth,” said the broadcaster, considering his Prairie Home Companion’s variety show before a live audience July 6, 1974 start. “I had written a piece about the Grand Old Opry for The New Yorker which inspired me to do my show this way. But for a writer to then [laughs] try to recreate, live, what he had written about was a seemingly impossible thing. Nobody knew that I was out of my depths because I was trying something new, a radio variety show for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and audiences who had never witnessed that sort of entertainment. When in doubt, venture out.”
If Keillor’s audience, then, was filled with Minnesotan truckers and farmers who had never witnessed smartly funny, live musical soap opera in their past, who now is it that thrills to the author-producer’s tales of Lake Wobegone and its unsettled settlers?
“There are a lot of people, my age and leading up to my age, who come to the shows,” says Keillor. “There are also their children and their children’s children. There are many people on the Left in my audience, though I can sense a few Republicans. I stay away from politics — when I go down South, there are usually more Evangelicals who know all the words to “Rock of Ages.” No matter. When I go to the lobby to meet them after the show, they’re all fascinating people.” Here, Keillor tells of meeting one of his newest fans flown in from Buenos Airies and their State Department’s agricultural division. “I was so impressed by everything he knew about agriculture. I love to see what people are up to in our crowds.”
The last time I looked in on Keillor’s tiny, chilly burg, in his 2022 book Boom Town: a Lake Wobegon Novel, all of its gourmet meatloaf was selling like hot cakes, and its townspeople loved it like gravy.
In 2024, where does its town’s creator see things going? “Lake Wobegone is in a time of change,” he says. “Agriculture has changed. Highly educated young people there are doing very enterprising things such as plant research, coming up with new breeds of tomato that maintain their brilliance even after it is picked and shipped — the American Utopian Tomato — raised as they are in enormous greenhouses. Everyone has profited greatly from this. My classmates are getting old. The pastor of our church, Reverend Liz, is doing great things, and we have a nonbinary singer in the Lake Wobegone Lutheran Church choir. Some days, they sit in the church choir loft wearing a red and orange sundress — so what, though. The only thing that the church’s attendees wish is that it was a different shade of orange, but that is their choice. But, Lutherans are good at ignoring things that they don’t to talk about. I talk all about the things that I know.” n
| SEPTEMBER 2024 | ICONDV.COM GARRISON KEILLOR / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16
FILM CLASSICS / CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22
Beetlejuice (1988, Tim Burton, United States)
With its 36-years-later sequel now in theaters, what better time to revisit Tim Burton’s breakthrough comedy about “the Ghost with the Most.” You might have forgotten that Michael Keaton’s mischievously malevolent spirit — spelled Betelgeuse, thank you very much — is only onscreen for about 20 minutes total. Yet he makes an indelible impression, a sort of Lenny Bruce by way of the Tazmanian Devil who assists a recently deceased couple, Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara (Geena Davis), with scaring the newly installed Deetz family out of their small-town gothic home. Burton’s visual inventiveness is on full display, from the eye-poppingly garish set design to such comically grotesque figures as Sylvia Sydney’s throat-slashed netherworld bureaucrat. (And the sequence where Baldwin and Davis stretch their faces into the ghastliest of forms is some kind of pinnacle of makeup f/x work.) Winona Ryder’s gloomy teen daughter Lydia is additionally one of Burton’s most memorable introverts. Though Keaton of course steals the show with his never-flagging whirlwind energy, a stark contrast to the doomy Bruce Wayne/Batman he would inhabit for Burton in two blockbusters to follow. (Streaming on Amazon Prime.)
Forbidden Planet (1956, Fred M. Wilcox, United States)
A CinemaScope sci-fi riff on William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, this classic space opera features a pre-parody movie Leslie Nielsen as spaceship Commander John J. Adams, on a mission to a distant planet to determine the fate of a scientific expedition from many years before. Only the mad Doctor Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his alluring daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) have survived, with the former coming under the influence of artifacts left behind by an extinct species known as the Krell. The film pioneered several tropes of cinematic science fiction, from the light speed mode of travel to the entirely otherworldly setting to the superb electronic score. And the “id monster” antagonist, seen in hair-raisingly electronic outline or suggested by the chillingly deep footprints it leaves on the planet surface, still has the power to haunt your dreams. Who can also forget Morbius’s loyal companion Robby the Robot, a gorgeously clunky vision of mechanoid life and the key to the movie’s concurrent ability to make even the cheesiest visions profound. (Streaming on Criterion.)
Wendy and Lucy (2008, Kelly Reichardt, United States)
Sometimes all you need to make a great movie is a girl and a dog. In Kelly Reichardt’s unsentimentally tear-jerking drama, the itinerant Wendy (Michelle Williams) and her loyal canine companion Lucy become separated in Oregon after a shoplifting gone awry. She spends the rest of the running time looking for the animal while encountering varying degrees of compassion and cruelty from the people she meets. It’s the world in 80 minutes. And Reichardt’s style manages a perfect blend of the grounded and the dreamy, conveying the challenges Wendy faces through a hazy, languid prism of a life willfully unburdened by time and direction, an existence that carries its own kinds of uncertainties and anxieties. Williams is superb, fully casting off the shackles of her teen soap upbringing. And she brings a Chaplin-esque profundity to the movie’s climax in which a deeply emotional parting of ways hits with a strangely stoical clarity. (Streaming on Mubi.) n
Cuckoo (Dir. Tilman Singer). Starring: Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jan Bluthardt. Grieving teen Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) moves with her father, stepmother and stepsister to a resort in the Bavarian alps, where evil things are afoot courtesy the thickly accented scientist Herr König (Dan Stevens). It has something to do with melding avian and human DNA, though in truth writer-director Tilman Singer’s tonally schizo horror flick works best when it sticks to the twin realms of nonsense and surreality. On those shifty grounds, the movie is in often rock-solid form, building suspense scenes out of creepy shadowplay and the oddest of oddball behavior. Stevens in particular relishes his every mad doctor utterance, and the monster his character creates is quite memorable in the way it melds elegance with literally screeching devilry. Cuckoo is a good vehicle for Schafer as well, who is put through the wringer to a degree (her body often bloodied or broken, her face consistently tear-stained) that suggests an emo-angst variation of Die Hard. The film doesn’t hold together overall, but it still works as a broken thing, mirroring, in its way, the shattered glass psyche of the ceaselessly tormented protagonist, [R] HHH
Didi (Dir. Sean Wang). Starring: Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen. In the long-ago world of 2008 (yes, we’re doing 2008 period pieces now), Taiwanese American middle schooler Chris (Izaac Wang) is coming of age through the years of The Dark Knight and Superbad, of AOL Instant Messenger and MySpace. Writer-director Sean Wang’s semi-autobiographical drama, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, breaks no new ground in its indie-film-fest-approved structure that forces the square peg of teenage anxieties through the round hole of three-act drama. Tensions between characters arise and are resolved by the climax, or are given a facile sense of ambiguity, particularly in the ebbs and flows of Chris’s various friend groups. The cast is still extremely winning, and the wonderful Joan Chen, playing the protagonist’s failedpainter mother, makes something profound out of each line reading and every loving glance toward her offspring. Wang was lucky to get her; it’s a reminder that the right performer can frequently elevate the most schematic of material. [R] HHH n
knows that feeling. Things come together out of nowhere, and you suddenly find yourself up on the horse at a gallop.
I have two painting modes: life and studio. When I work from life I’m recording my reaction to something. There are problems to solve and a time limit. Information presents itself, and I deal with it. Painting from life fine tunes my understanding of the world around me and how to describe it. I can do it any time I want to.
My studio work originates within, and I must wait for several things to come together. I’ll make some chance connections among the many thoughts running in my head, and bang, there’s that horse again.
Ideas can gestate for months or years before I know I’m on to something, and even then I‘m not sure what I’ll have when I’m done. I start when I’ve got enough to launch. At that point, I can’t talk to anybody about my idea or it lets gas out of the bag. I do small sketches to determine composition, but not much more. I don’t want to uncover any big truths in the preliminary work; I want them to be found in the painting. That might not be the best way, but it’s how I keep engaged.
When you paint as a hobby, time and energy are at a premium. You might look forward to Saturday morning as free time to create, but when the weekend comes, something else must be taken care of, you are distracted, or you’re just not up to it. That happens to professional artists, too, but we have more time for workarounds and can make adjustments to suit opportunities and enthusiasm. Still, that time and energy need to be managed.
Preparing to paint involves focus and clarity. Studio work requires a calculated ramping-up. There is no telling how long a drawing and possibly a monochromatic underpainting will take, so I need to clear out an entire day. I like starting early in the morning when the world is quiet, and things still feel cozy. It’s best if I haven’t read the news. Maybe I’ll start a fire in the wood stove. I’ll put out the colors and select brushes, but I won’t begin right away. I’ll sit a bit and anticipate the experiments, risks, and unknowns so that I can learn from any mistakes without losing the entire image.
It’s essential to maintain a positive inertia during what can be a fouror five-day process. I end each session at a point when I’m enthusiastic about what I’m going to do next. I don’t want to walk away from the easel angry or discouraged because then it is easy to lose the drive. The painting is done when I can’t move it forward in a meaningful way.
This image came from the desire to describe the crush of the waves at the shore. When there, one can feel and hear the surf from a distance. The force is under your feet and in the air, powerful, and unnegotiable. The ocean chooses colors to match its mood. It changes its mind. It’s never still. Paint that.
I leaned on my memory of a brisk off-season day at the Hamptons. The figure was a decision made after the rest of the painting was in place. I wanted a heartbeat. Not someone fishing, walking, or playing. No blankets or umbrellas. I chose my wife, bundled against the wind and chill. What started as an attempt to describe the sea became how we were, and are.
It’s not difficult for me to decide when a painting is complete, but that doesn’t mean I’m done with it. The finishing phase can be most gratifying. If the construction is sound, the final brushstrokes can be magical, but detail isn’t content, and a stroke too few is better than too many. In subsequent weeks, I will take time to look at it and see what I’ve done. Or in this case, listen to the waves. n
harper’s FINDINGS INDEX
Archaeologists translated cuneiform tablets recording shareholder agreements for the first company in Anatolia. People living in the Horn of Africa survived the explosion of the Toba supervolcano 74,000 years ago, and shifts in the Nile River system, such as floodplain expansion and consolidation from a wandering braided network of smaller rivers into a single channel, may have contributed to the prosperity of Egypt’s New Kingdom. Exposure to tidal environments causes freshwater snails to develop circatidal rhythms, and exposure to metals from abandoned mines causes genetic isolation in British trout. The volume of water in Tibetan lakes is expected to quadruple by 2100. Warm ocean water unexpectedly intruded between the Thwaites Glacier and its bedrock. The combustion efficiency of carbon fuels in the Yangtze River Delta doubled between 2011 and 2021, soilphosphorus availability may restrict the higher levels of forest growth resulting from carbon fertilization, and higher atmospheric CO2 levels are allowing the plants that fuel wildfires to grow faster. Fertilizing the ocean with iron could remove marine CO2 at a cost of between $7 and $1,500 per ton, but verifying that the CO2 was successfully removed would triple or quadruple costs. Southern California beach erosion is expected to increase by 50 percent by 2050. Unusually heavy snow over Japan’s Noto Peninsula was determined to have contributed to a swarm of earthquakes.
7
China landed a second craft on the moon’s dark side, astronomers identified sixty stars whose inexplicably high infrared radiation suggests they may be surrounded by Dyson spheres constructed by aliens to harness their energy, and the Perseus cluster is home to 1.5 trillion orphan stars. It was confirmed that an orphan drug can treat necrosis caused by spitting-cobra venom. A New Caledonian fern, Tmesipteris oblanceolata, was found to be the organism with the largest known genome. A cave in the Amazon was found to contain a new cricket species with no stridulatory apparatus on the tegmina, a new giant virus was discovered in an Austrian wastewater plant, and another that may infect snow algae and could be repurposed to control glacial melting was found on the Greenland ice sheet. Dogs are attacking mountain tapirs in the cloud forests of Colombia. The incisor enamel of beavers is iron-rich.
7
Sets of both fraternal and identical twins exhibit internally similar metacognitive abilities, suggesting that metacognition is environmental rather than heritable. A study of brain-injured but not brain-dead patients found that many would have survived had their families not chosen to withdraw life support. The perceived onset of old age increases by approximately one year for every four to five years a person ages. Women bond more closely with therapy bulls than men do. Among black, Chinese, Hispanic, and white Americans, only black fathers were less likely to die than non-fathers. Increased border-wall height was tentatively linked to a thirtyfold increase in the rate of migrant drowning deaths off San Diego. Orcas breathe just once between dives. Oceanic boundlessness induced by psilocybin is associated with global hyperconnectivity. Scientists created an oral gel whose iron and gold atoms catalyze alcohol into acetic acid before it can enter the bloodstream. Salmonella enterica, E. coli, and Citrobacter koseri eat human blood. South African taphonomists found that pigs decompose more slowly when they are wearing winter garments and more quickly when they are eaten by the Cape gray mongoose. Researchers debuted an 88 percent accurate hate-speech detector and a superior sarcasm detector and may be able to send messages back in time. n
Portion of U.S. voters who believe that unemployment is at a fifty-year high : 1/2
Who say they don’t know which sources of information about the economy are trustworthy: 2/3
% of U.S. HR officers who strongly believe that their performance-management system leads to improvement : 2
% of U.S. millennial employees who say they have adopted slang to fit in with their younger co-workers : 28
% of U.S. Gen Z employees who say they struggle to understand their older co-workers : 24
Portion of U.S. adults planning to retire who intend to do so before the age of 50 : 1/4
Portion of Americans who say they would not stop to pick up a coin of any value off the street : 1/10
Who say they would stop to pick up a penny : 1/2
Number of households set to be added to the New York City Housing Authority’s Section 8 voucher wait list this month : 200,000
Number of years it would take NYCHA to issue this number of vouchers at its expected rate : 17
Portion of New York City residents who are millionaires : 1/24
% change in the number of millionaires in New York City over the past decade : +48
In the number of billionaires in New York City in that time span : +25
In the number of billionaires in London : −26
Minimum estimated amount spent by the NYPD on overtime for officers responding to protests since October 7, 2023 : $65,000,000
% of U.S. adults who say that the United States is spending too much on aid to Israel : 47 Who say that the United States is not spending enough : 11
% of U.S. adults who say that the United States is spending too much on aid to Ukraine : 50 Who say that the United States is not spending enough : 11
% of Russians who say they felt angered by the news of Alexei Navalny’s death : 3 Who say they felt indifferent : 69
% of Russians who approve of President Vladimir Putin’s handling of foreign policy : 67 Who say they feel comfortable criticizing Putin both online and offline : 62
Portion of people in India who say that social media has been a good thing for their democracy : 3/4
Portion of people in Sweden who say so : 2/3
Portion in the United States who do : 1/3
% of Anguilla’s nominal GDP in 2023 that came from “.ai” web-domain registration fees : 6
Estimated % of Johns Hopkins University’s funding in the past decade that came from tuition and fees : 17
That came from the U.S. Department of Defense : 19
% of U.S. college students who have considered dropping out in the past six months : 35
% by which those considering dropping out are more likely to cite emotional stress than financial reasons : 74
% of U.S. parents who say their children prefer online shopping to any other form of entertainment : 22
% who say their children have an online-shopping addiction : 16
% decrease in OB-GYN residency applicants in the United States since 2022 : 5
% decrease in OB-GYN residency applicants in states that have enacted abortion bans : 18
Portion of U.S. women and girls aged 15–49 who live in states where abortion is banned or severely restricted : 1/3
% of organ-transplant recipients who report changes in their personality after their operation : 89
Who report changes in their religious or spiritual beliefs : 13
In their political views : 2
SOURCES: 1,2 The Harris Poll (Chicago); 3 Gallup (Washington); 4,5 Preply (Brookline, Mass.); 6 NerdWallet (San Francisco); 7,8 YouGov (NYC); 9,10 New York City Housing Authority; 11–14 New World Wealth (Johannesburg); 15 New York City Police Department; 16–19 University of Michigan Ross School of Business (Ann Arbor); 20,21 Levada Center (Moscow); 22,23 NORC at the University of Chicago; 24–26 Pew Research Center (Washington); 27 Anguilla Ministry of Finance (The Valley); 28,29 Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore); 30,31 Gallup; 32,33 WebPurify (Irvine, Calif.); 34,35 Association of American Medical Colleges (Washington); 36 Guttmacher Institute (NYC); 37–39 Mitchell B. Liester, University of Colorado School of Medicine (Aurora).
PLAYING THE HITS
BY EVAN BIRNHOLZ
95 Holt of “Dateline NBC”
1 “Get outta here!”
6 Enliven
11 Combos in canasta and pinochle
16 The “Frozen” snowman Olaf singing about how he wants to experience summer, for example
17 Frozen, chocolate-covered fruits in “Arrested Development” scenes
19 Sans serif typeface
20 Gives shape to
21 The Reuben James of Woody Guthrie’s song “The Sinking of the Reuben James,” e.g. (HIT)
23 77 Down filling
24 Climbing plants in the legume family
26 Hunting dog breed
28 Setting of the “Top Gun” opening, when “Top Gun Anthem” and “Danger Zone” can be heard (HIT HIT)
32 One providing admission to the bar
35 Yours ___ (me)
36 Decides in favor of
40 Rock concert booster
41 Job detail, for short
43 Palindromic legal org.
44 Plumlike fruit
45 “I ___ it all to you”
46 Pollster’s numbers, e.g.
48 Waters bordering Iran (MISS)
51 Many a Tate Modern patron
52 “Dang it!”
54 Wallet leather
55 Chicken tender?
57 What stars and stripes may indicate
58 “In the Bedroom” Oscar nominee Wilkinson
59 Egypti_n _er_ent
61 Wrangler’s item
62 Waters by a Pacific archipelago (MISS MISS MISS)
68 Goes out, at the beach
72 Cheer word in the song “Hernando’s Hideaway”
73 Organ that you may keep to the ground
74 ___-tac-toe
75 Genre for the singer Ayumi Hamasaki
79 Parliamentary law that led to a Boston “party”
81 Store ledges
84 Golfer Mark
86 Light snoozes
88 Enjoyed home cooking
89 Silver server, maybe
90 Beachside shelter
91 Waters surrounding Antarctica (MISS MISS)
94 Become inedible
97 Like the gorilla Snowflake, once at the Barcelona Zoo
99 Grammy winner for the albums “21” and “25”
101 Vessel in the lyrics to “In the Navy” (HIT)
107 “Different strokes for different ___”
110 Spends time at
112 Belted constellation
113 Veteran’s counterpart, informally
114 Barbecue powder
115 Naval-sounding band that performed a 1979 hit spelled out in this puzzle’s “hits”
120 Submission to Poetry
121 Comp ___ (MIT major)
122 “Schitt’s Creek” co-star and co-creator Levy
123 Most superior in quality
124 Obey a “+” sign
125 Blouse or cardigan
126 Like some bases and cars
127 Appear that way
128 National ___ Hall of Fame (institution that could potentially induct the board game that inspired this puzzle) DOWN
1 Characters in the video game designer Will Wright’s “virtual dollhouse”
2 Cawing black bird
3 What an actor can land
4 Of the Earth’s longest mountain range
5 NBA : Wizards :: WNBA : ___
6 1973 Volkswagen debut
7 Tolkien forest being
8 ___-6 (rare golf hole)
9 50 percent of dos
10 Money-making time
11 Hacker in a jungle
12 Bugs in programs, e.g.
“In ___ of gifts ...”
“Holy Moses!”
Snowy hill coaster 17 Den mother, maybe? 18 Fortuneteller
Royal proclamation 22 Go again in Dungeons & Dragons, say 25 Like some private school students’ aesthetic
27 Awful deal
29 Easily broken
30 Marching band horns
31 Sound of a sword striking a shield
32 Result of a CEO’s embarrassing gaffe, say
33 Nebraska’s largest city
34 Four-time MLB all-star Justin
37 Filled-in documents
38 Playground boo-boos
39 Like games evoking trips down memory lane
Some Louisiana residents
Heavenly descents?
Peachy
Partially
Baroque sculptor___ Lorenzo Bernini
Swimsuit piece
Psychic’s purported skill
In the manner of
Up to, in ads
Tire pressure abbr.
Rhyming stew
“For Your Love” actress Holly Robinson ___
Less bright in color
“The Empire Strikes Back” director Kershner
Water purification company that touts itself as a “global sustain ability leader”
Carve into stone, say
Boyfriend, from the French for “handsome” 70 The USS Missouri, e.g., where the music video for Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time” was filmed (HIT)
___ Juan, Puerto Rico
“Jumbo” vehicle
Titular vessel of an old Australian
TV series whose theme song has been performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (HIT)
77 Three-layered treat
78 Segment
80 Tapes with tunes
82 “Gotcha!”
83 Roxy Music’s Brian
85 Position paper, perhaps
87 Seeks legal redress
89 “O Rei” of soccer
92 Nickname for Capote
93 Cylindrical food holder
96 QB Manning
98 At this very moment
99 Blackbeard’s “Stop!”
100 Music whose dancers might point fingers
102 “The Blacklist” actress Megan
103 Children’s book series with characters that have surnames like Happy, Lazy and Noisy
