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contents

NOVEMBER ~ 2012

INTERVIEWS 14

QUIARA FROM THE BLOCK | 28 The West Philadelphia native went from Central High School to Washington Heights, to the heights of theater, winning the 2008 Tony award for Best Musical for In the Heights, and the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Water by the Spoonful.

A SESSION WITH HELEN HUNT | 30 An Oscar-winner and household favorite, Helen Hunt has shaped a career around sincere viewer connection.

She’s keeping the trend going with the fact-based film The Sessions, and unveiling a whole new part of herself, including her finest performance in years.

FEATURE CARA BLOUIN’S BRAVE NEW WORLD OF REPUBLICAN THEATER | 32

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Registered as an Independent who voted Democrat in the last two elections, Blouin is staging a play that some actors don’t want on their resumes.

OPINION

COLUMNS

A College That Should be Disbanded | 5

City Beat | 5

Vijay Iyer Trio; Kathy Mattea;

Jim Delpino | 43

Mariel Roberts; Fred Hersch Trio;

Sally Friedman | 44

András Schiff; Takae Ohnishi

Alliteration of the Month | 6 Last Seating | 7

STAGE

William Trost Richards | 8

Regional Theater & Dance | 46

ART

Christopher Walken.

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Inspired Serenity | 10

Nutcracker; A Christmas Story;

Obama-Rama | 14

The Moody Blues; Shatner’s World;

Exhibitions | 16

Guys and Dolls; The Bourgeois Pig;

Keresman on Disc | 53

Jazz Library | 54 Coleman Hawkins

ETCETERA Day Trip | 55

Moving Stories; Going Green the Wong

Harper’s Findings | 55

FILM

Way; Christmas Follies XIII; The Liar;

L.A. Times Crossword | 56

Cinematters | 18 The Sessions

The English Bride; Pookie Goes

Harper’s Index | 57

Keresman on Film | 20 Seven Psychopaths

Behind the Eye.

Bad Movie | 22 Atlas Shrugged: Part II Reel News | 24 Even the Rain; Your Sister’s Sister; Men in Black 3; The Dust Bowl Film Roundup | 26 A Royal Affair; Sister; The Black Tulip; Smashed

FOOD LaScala’s | 39 Matador | 40

Grenading; Faust in France;

Calendar | 58

Footlights | 47 Grace

MUSIC Singer / Songwriter | 48 Paul Simon; Bonnie Bishop; Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby; Johnny Ace; Bob Dylan Essay | 49 Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie!

Classical Notebook | 50 Burt Bacharach Comes to Philadelphia Nick’s Picks | 52 Elizabeth Shepherd; Laverne Butler;

Quiara Alegria Hudes. Photo: Joseph Moran.

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WINE

Marc Johnson, Eliane Elias;

The “Other” Wines of Piedmont | 42

Dave Douglas

ON THE COVER: Kurt Osenlund has a “session” with Helen Hunt, star of “The Sessions,” on page 30.

opinion

city beat

EDITED BY THOM NIICKELS

ThomNickels1@aol.com

A college that should be disbanded RICHARD COHEN I’VE VOTED ALL MY life in either Washington, D.C., or New York state. Most of that time, my vote didn’t matter one bit and this year is no exception. New York, where I now live, is in the bag for Barack Obama. Even though it is called the Empire State, has 29 electoral votes and is the birth state of four presidents (and the home of others), it might as well be Podunk when it comes to the presidential race. Because of the electoral college, New York isn’t the Big Apple. It’s nowhere.

New York is hardly alone in this (non) category. Most of the nation has watched the candidates return time and time again to a place called Ohio or to Florida, which is a resort, for crying out loud.

These are two of the vaunted battleground states that will choose the next president for the rest of us. Speaking just for myself, I am not grateful.

What’s true for New York is true also for California and most other states.

Were it not for the need to do some fundraising, the candidates might spend the whole year in Ohio — Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have been there 14 times this month alone — or in Colorado. I have yet to see a single presidential spot on TV. Ohioans, in contrast, have been bombarded with zillions of them, almost certain years from now to prove deleterious to their health. Nevada is another swing state, and the lucky people of Las Vegas have weathered about 73,000 ads just since June. This cannot be good for growing children.

If we had a simple popular-vote system, my vote would count the same as someone’s in Ohio or Virginia. I would not be taken for granted and, even better, the winner of the popular

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THE DEATH OF ARLEN Specter got me thinking about this time I found myself in line at a Center City Rite Aid. The store was crowded, but when my turn came to approach the register a customer appeared out of nowhere and threw the item he wanted to pay for on the counter in front of me. I think it was dental floss. The cashier turned to the man and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but this gentleman [me] was in line before you.” I looked at the man who threw the item and saw that it was Arlen Specter, Philadelphia’s DA in 1965 and (for a while) Ira Einhorn’s defense attorney. Specter was far smaller and frailer than his TV image. He looked at me in a quizzical way as if he expected me to support his hijacking of the line.

I wondered then if Mr. Specter had a habit of throwing items on store counters as a way to jump the line. Was he used to people bowing to his wishes and saying, “Oh, honored sir of the Warren Commission Report, oh honored ex-Pennsylvania senator, please, by all means, step ahead of me and all the people behind me. As first among equals, please proceed.”

While I didn’t say this, I knew I had to say something, so I did the next best thing: I introduced myself by mentioning that I’d been following his career for years and that it was a pleasure to finally shake his hand. This was not a lie or even flattery but the God’s truth.

When we shook hands, Mr. Specter said, “I’m not worried about you, I’m worried about her,” meaning the poor checkout girl who had had the verve to do what was right, but who was now being given an eyeball once over by The Man. The truth, of course, is that the cashier, being in her twenties, probably didn’t even know who Arlen Specter was. But even if she had recognized him, she still would have stuck to the rules of the line. Rest in peace, you old curmudgeon.

We heard Jackie Salit of the Independence Party of New York speak at the UPenn Bookstore in University City. Salit, who could easily double as a latter day Mary Tyler Moore, is the author of Independents Rising, a book that traces the growth of the Independent Party movement in NYC. Salit’s book is a chatty but intelligent account of her work with New York’s Mayor Bloomberg to “mainstream” the Independent Party movement there. The event attracted a few diehard Philadelphia politicos who seemed to agree that New York is a less partisan city than Philadelphia. (There’s a fluidity in New York’s political waters that allows for the election of liberal Republican mayors, something that would never happen in Philadelphia). We were thoroughly into Salit’s presentation when up popped Cheri Honkala who stole the spotlight by introducing herself and telling the audience that she was the Green Party’s vice presidential candidate. While Green Party stuff and Honkala’s history of welfare rights activism warms our heart, microphone hijacking is always an arched eyebrow moment. Salit, ever gracious, let Honkala go through the Green Party alphabet even as it became apparent that much of the audience was now fixated on the interloper. Seasoned coitus interrupters, of course, know when to apply the brakes, but in this case it took the UPenn moderator to step in and redirect the focus. The silver lining in all this was that we were at least encouraged to double-check the style and qualifications of Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president. Later, we headed to Doc Magrogan’s at 34th and Sansom Streets, (formerly La Terrasse) with Salit, her entourage and Save Our Sites president, John Dowling, for a light bite.

Who doesn’t love the Roaring Twenties, with its libertine razzle dazzle, bathing cap hats, and beads? The Young Friends of the Philadelphia Museum of Art were supposed to hold the annual event at the Rodin, but the threat of rain forced a cancellation. Instead, we headed over to the Perelman Building with Drexel’s new Director of Development, Vanessa Bender, for an evening of Elliot Ness and Dorothy Parker. Our fears that we’d be the only fogies in this mainly twenty-something event were unfounded. We blended in well despite our lack of a flapper-era costume. Some of the fedoras we spotted were of the very un-‘20s — thin brim Northern Liberties variety, but who’s complaining? Music ranged from Al Jolson’s “Toot Toot Tootsie (Goo’Bye)” to Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five and the Peerless Quartet, although there was no Charleston to speak of and no bootleg booze either, unless you count the bar’s delicious hybrid concoction in addition to bottled wine. As with every Museumbased party, there were the less than celebratory looks on duty security guards’ faces making sure that nobody brought their drinks into the exhibition area. While some guards wore a stoic expression, others seemed to be noticeably frowning as if feeling left out of the fun.

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5 / OPINION / A COLLEGE THAT SHOULD BE DISBANDED

vote would be the winner of the election. As things stand, this is not always the case. In 2000, Al Gore got precisely 543,895 more votes than did George W. Bush but lost (narrowly) in the electoral college. Admittedly, this is a rare event, but the estimable political analyst Charlie Cook is now saying it could happen again. As long as the country remains more or less evenly split, the possibility of a popularvote win but an electoral-college loss remains all too real.

It’s even possible to have an electoral-college tie.

Should this be the case, the election would get thrown into the House of Representatives, where the votes will be cast by states as a single unit. In other words, New York gets one vote and so does North Dakota. You got a problem with that? Probably not if you live in Fargo. It has a population of 107,349, which is approximately the number of people who live on my block.

The electoral college is like some creaky old machine, just waiting to break down. It was devised to keep some power in the hands of small states and it is so convoluted that my crack research staff (Wikipedia) says a candidate could win by carrying just 11 states: California (55), Texas (38), New York (29), Florida (29), Illinois (20), Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18), Michigan (16), Georgia (16), North Carolina (15) and New Jersey (14) add up to the necessary 270 votes, which is a majority of the electoral college but not necessarily of the nation. This ain’t right.

The electoral college is one of those compromises layered into the Constitution to protect one special interest or another — slaveholders, small states — or a combination of the two. From time to time, efforts are made at reform, but they invariably fail. A stab was made after Richard Nixon won a narrow victory over Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968 but trounced him in the electoral college. The attempt failed when pro-reform senators could not muster a filibusterproof majority and Nixon quietly withdrew his support. Any such effort, though, would ultimately require a constitutional amendment, and those are hard to get off the ground.

I appreciate that abolishing the electoral college lacks the urgency of the fiscal cliff or the coming entitlements crackup. But an electoral-college tie or another election won by the loser of the popular vote will do incalculable damage to the public’s faith in democracy. We can keep skating over this thin ice. Sooner or later, we’re going down. In the meantime, I will steadfastly continue to vote no matter what.

Unless it rains. n

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We wish Kevin McLaughlin well in his 25-year-old dream to open Mae Downs & Co Accessories for Home, at 1118 Pine Street. The store, which carries a quality selection of interior decoration, antique and decorative arts selections, had a lively opening reception that brought in many friends and neighbors. Philadelphia Mural Art’s Brian Campbell worked the introductions and told me that Mae Downs will donate ten percent of its profits every month to a different charity.

Henry Miller once wrote, “When I hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver.” Miller, of course, was talking about the cultural status quo labeling some forms of art bad and other forms of art good. He also might have been thinking of the banning of books like Ulysses and even his own Tropic of Cancer. He was not thinking of the Knights Arts Challenge Philadelphia, which dispenses grants for “innovative ideas in the arts from nonprofits, companies and individuals.” In 2011, 36 Knights Challenge winners received some 2.7 million dollars in funding. While the money received is generally smaller than funds from grant giants like the Pew Fellowship, the problem, as we see it, is that individual artist applicants often get weeded out of the KG system by organizations with the ability to generate financial support. To wit: grant recipients in 2011 included established Philadelphia museums, ballet companies, the Barnes Foundation, arts and cultural organizations, the Opera Company of Philadelphia and even the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy. Individual artist winners are almost nowhere to be seen. Based on this, is it fair to conclude that struggling, worthy individual artists are being overlooked? Do we dare ask those lucrative organizations with fancy Boards of Directors to try to get their small grant money elsewhere?

What’s in a book festival? The annual fall Chestnut Hill Book Festival (“Great Authors of Philadelphia”) hosts many readings by writers. While hosting multiple writers at one time is often well intentioned, the mistake is to think that festivals like this can duplicate the annual June Rittenhouse Square clothesline art exhibit where artists line up like Wyoming cattle. The written word, after all, is about investing time listening to individual readings. This is why we will continue to value single or duo classic staged author/poet reading events at places like Robin’s Books on So. 13th St., where we recently heard Philly legendary poet Jim Cory read some new work.

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

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www.iconmagazineonline.com Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Assistant Editor

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ADVERTISING 800-354-8776 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

What better place to hear the polyphonic singing style of ancient Constantinople and Russia, sans Pussy Riot, than with the Choral Arts Philadelphia’s performance of Rachmaninov’s Vespers (All Night Vigil) Op. 37 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. No instruments of any kind are permitted in Eastern Church music, which made the voices of Mezza-soprano Jenifer L. Smith and Tenor David Price all the more powerful. At the end of the performance, the audience all but levitated out the door and into the autumn evening. n

alliteration of the month

Contributing Writers A.D. Amorosi

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

PO Box 120 • New Hope, PA 18938 (800) 354-8776 Fax (215) 862-9845

is for lissome logophile loach Lissome, adj. Lithe, nimble, flexible Logophile, n. A lover of words Loach, n. A small river fish of a family related to carp, having a long, narrow body and spines around its mouth.

Victor’s work can be seen at his gallery and Flow restaurant in Jim Thorpe or VictorStabin.com

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a thousand words

STORY AND PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

Last Seating ERIC IS TELLING ME the story of his first job working as a barkeep in Frenchtown in 1976. It was, as he calls it, a bucket of blood bar. Dartboard, pool table, a place where the shift workers from the paper mill came to get a shot of Kessler’s Whiskey for 50 cents and a beer chaser for free.

One night, two tough guys get in a boozy argument and one takes out a knife and cuts his friend’s throat.

Eric takes a sip of his martini and says, “It missed the jugular, but the guy was going pale. I’m probably the first person in history to apply a tourniquet to somebody’s neck.”

We shake our heads and laugh. The waitress brings our salads. You might think that early experience would be enough to make him pursue another career path, but no. He worked another bar at a place in Buckingham for a short time then found a home at the Swan in Lambertville. That was 31 years ago.

“Back then the Lambertville Station was a pigeon coop,” says Eric, and he goes on to list all the restaurants that weren’t there then, who started which, and what used to be there but isn’t now.

We order wine as Eric gives me a feel for what things were like at the Swan in those days. Back when the drinking age was 18 and there was no Sunday service. They had a piano bar on Friday and Saturday nights. “Lee Finch played the piano,” Eric says. “Big hands, big fingers. Ex-Marine. Sold real estate. Had a huge following. He’d pass books around and people would call out songs.”

“Here’s the menu,” he grins. “Roast beef, ham, and turkey sandwiches; white, rye or pumpernickel. Macaroni salad we got from the deli.” Eric was bartender, waiter, and sandwich vendor until they brought in a woman who handled the food and made homemade soup and chili.

Back then the wine list was limited to Paul Masson Hearty Burgundy, Rosé and Chablis. “People were drinking Dewar’s and soda,” Eric says, hunching his shoulders and spreading his hands. “We didn’t need a hundred martini glasses, no one had heard of a cosmopolitan. No boutique breweries. It was an innovation when we got Miller Lite.”

Eric leans forward. “This was the martini list: gin or vodka, twist or olive. Now everything is about the glass.

Everyone wants the martini glass. But they’re not always sure what they want in the glass.”

The subsequent three decades managing the Swan bar have brought big changes and allowed Eric to hone a distinctive style. The bar is now an upscale, sophisticated place with

great food, and Eric has become a detail-oriented professional. He knows wine and he know how to take care of a customer. When the situation demands (or allows) the ringmaster in him comes out. Want to talk about football? Stand back. Art? He’s there. Want to give the bartender a little sass?

I wouldn’t. It’s his circus. His whip.

The Swan is where I first met Eric. We have a common background in art but our friendship grew out of more than that. We share a certain temperament and world view.

Eric is a vegetarian, and food is his passion. We put together a small group that included omnivores, which would meet at each other’s houses for grand vegetarian dinners.

Everyone brought an animal-free course. These were some of the best meals I’ve ever had. Eric would create a fabulous main and the rest of us would try hard, clearly bested by the master but glad to be at the table. One evening he made an entire five-course dinner based on the heirloom tomatoes

from his own garden. Never, anywhere, have I had a meal I’ve enjoyed more.

Eric keeps me laughing with stories from his days managing the Swan until the check comes. Some of them I can’t write about even if I had an unlimited word count. We walk out to our cars and give each other a hug. It’s our last dinner before he leaves for California, and his history here becomes part of the who did what and when that we talked about over dinner. Considering the crowd that showed up at his last night behind the bar, and the way Facebook lit up when I mentioned his leaving, I’m not the only one who will remember him as an important part of the last few decades around here. Bon voyage and bon appetit. ■ Robert Beck’s exhibit, Homecoming, runs through November 18 at the Gallery of Robert Beck, 204 N. Union St. in Lambertville. Visit robertbeck.net NOVEMBER 2012

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art

Brandywine.

EDWARD HIGGINS

William Trost Richards WILLIAM TROST RICHARDS’ (1833-1905) ART falls between several major American art movements with kinships to the watercolors of Winslow Homer’s landscapes, J.M.W. Turner’s pre-abstract seascapes, and ultra-detailed execution of the photo-realists.

He has been labeled a Hudson River School artist and included in a vague grouping called American Pre-Raphaelites.

No doubt he was open to the influence of his contemporaries and was particularly taken with the natural world. His mature landscape work was influenced by the doctrines of English art critic, John Ruskin.

However, a current exhibition at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art demonstrates that Richards was in a league of his own. The art consists of 110 watercolors each about 3 by 5 inches that were sent to Richards’ long time patron, George Whitney in the mid-19th century. A Mine of Beauty: Landscapes by William Trost Richards runs through December 30.

The Museum has provided magnifying glasses so visitors can examine the exquisite details in the collection, a promised gift to the Academy from Mrs. Dorrance Hamilton.

Richards was born and bred in Philadelphia and by the time he was 40, he’d been proclaimed, “America’s best known watercolor painter.” He was at home with the coastline of southwest England, the rocky shores of Rhode Island, the River Thames, and the Brandywine River Valley. Although he traveled extensively and often lived for extended periods outside of Philadelphia, he had a tie to Chester County — he had purchased a farm in Oldmixon in West Caln Township for his

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daughter and her family and visited often. He was equally at home painting the ocean at the newly developed resort of Atlantic City as he was at Stonehenge.

Richards’ first exhibition was in 1858 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, organized by artist Albert Bierstadt. He consistently exhibited thereafter. And today, his works are featured in many important American museums, including the National Gallery, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Yale University Art Gallery, the High Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Fogg Art Museum, and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Whitney, his friend and patron, was a Philadelphia collector whose paintings were internationally known. Whitney and his father had developed a superior wheel for railroad trains and methods of raising barges up canal inclines that made the family fortune. Richards sent the small pictures in recognition of the patronage and the friendship. The collection was dispersed and sold upon Whitney’s death; however, the small works remained in the family. These small gems show an extraordinary command of his craft, and that skill plus his talent allowed him to convey precise images from nature but also endow them with great feeling. At the time, artists with these qualities were called American Pre-Raphaelites, even though there was little in common with the British group.

On one painting excursion to the Brandywine River “…I drove over to Coatesville by ways more charming than I could have believed. In one place, for instance, the road runs by a

mill race which on each side is bordered by old apple trees — through which is seen the long slopes of the meadow. Everywhere there are pictures….”

Among the London images are scenes from the River Thames. Richards wrote that “I am beginning to learn that the Thames is the most picturesque river in the world and I wish I could give myself up to the Thames subject alone. Even Turner has not done justice to it.” That sets the bar quite high as Turner is arguably the world’s greatest marine artist.

For many years Richards spent summers in Rhode Island and had a home on Conanicut Island. The paintings of that coast and the coast of Cornwall shared remarkable similarities and the same damp and cool temperatures associated with those shores.

The Academy has also taken several large-scale paintings

by Richards and interspersed them with the smaller landscapes, and as these are also done with exactitude, there is a feeling that any one of the smaller pieces could be enlarged to great effect.

The Academy has produced a catalogue for the show with more than 100 full-color images and is also sponsoring a lecture on December 5 by Dr. Linda Ferber, senior art historian for the New York Historical Society. Dr. Ferber was the guest curator for another Richards show at the Brandywine in 2001. n Edward Higgins is a member of The Association Internationale Des Critiques d’Art.

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art

BURT WASSERMAN

Inspired Serenity

Paintings by Barbara J. Zucker and Richard E. Goldberg

Richard E. Goldberg, Simply Put.

Barbara J. Zucker, Nine Variations on Infinity.

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I COULD BE WRONG. But it seems to me, sooner or later, everyone on Planet Earth takes time to contemplate the natural cosmos and everything in it. Pondering what this super reality is all about, we find ourselves awed by its many complex mysteries, its occasional intervals of calm, its strange contradictions and its seemingly infinite supply of troubles.

No matter how much Father Time does his best to bring peace to Mother Nature, sadly she often experiences anxiety-ridden stretches of unalleviated discomfort. For example, aggressive warfare is constantly going on somewhere on the face of the globe. Who isn’t aware of the timeless truth that big fishes far and wide, eat little fishes? Seeds try to survive in frequently hostile environments. And if they do manage to germinate, along comes a rabbit to convert the living sprout into lunch. Fortunately, the picture is not entirely bleak. On occasion, you encounter periods of inspired serenity, even though they are rather few and far between.

All of these thoughts came to me as I studied recent artworks by Barbara J. Zucker and Richard E. Goldberg. Their pictures are inspired testimonials, demonstrating how knowledgeable artists may interpret the passage of nature’s appearance from stages of agitated stress to states of nonchalant stillness.

From November 7 to December 15 (with the exception of November 22 to 24,) visitors to the Widener University Art Gallery in Chester, PA may visit a show of their work titled Two Visions of Tranquility. Specifically, both artists are exhibiting topics from nature, reflecting her quiet side. The Gallery is open, free of charge, from Wednesday to Saturday, 10 to 4:30.

On Saturday, November 10 from 1 to 4 p.m. the public can meet the artists in person and if so inclined, attend a free symposium sponsored by the Brain Injury Association of Delaware. The theme of the discussion is From Chaos to Tranquility.

For the most part, Zucker paints her canvases with acrylic media. The shapes, given voice, generally, in rich, deep colors, continue from the face of the picture around the edges on the four sides of each composition. Incidentally, this practice eliminates the need for a frame. In fact, it’s almost as if the areas of different color each voices its own end, somewhat like the way a period marks the close of a written sentence.

By contrast, the inner spirit of her color passages vibrates with a very special resonance in notes of cool blue, dark green and ripe rust-tones of orange and red. As much as I have seen these tones in her work over the years, I never tire of seeing them again and again because she brings such a distinctive touch of refreshing variety to her total vocabulary of form.

Of all the different selections on view by Zucker, I think the most striking show-piece of all is a composite of nine squares that become a grand extravaganza, sized 24” X 24”, in which assorted cloudscapes merge into a single vista. The range of hues defining the amorphous drifts of damp haze and mottled banks of moisture provide an apparently weightless wonderland that lifts you skyward without any expenditure of earthly effort whatsoever.

As a painter, Richard E. Goldberg is a magic realist. His poetry of vision is given shape by exercising an exceptionally fertile imagination. Its most significant attribute is a will to be free of any need to conceive image content describing scenes of violent anger or devastating trauma.

Patiently and sensitively, he prescribes the sizes, placement, colors and textures of subject matter to be rendered with oil colors on linen canvas. By and large, his creative decisions are made from intuitive resources located deep within his sinews and nerve tissue. A self-taught artist, the source of his highly original pictures is a running well-spring of ideas that can not be measured objectively with a scale marked in inches or ounces.

To see his paintings is to have your sense of sight touched by an aesthetic lexicon able to replace rancorous thoughts and feelings with an invitation to seek peaceful ways of pursuing balance, harmony and overall well-being. n 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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art

GEOFF GEHMAN

Obama-Rama West African sign painters portray America’s first African-American president as pitchman-wingman

IN 2009 A WEST African artist with one name made Barack Obama his lobbyist. Sheff painted portraits of Obama to advertise his sign-painting store in Accra, Ghana. He placed them outside his ramshackle shop, hoping that customers would be more inclined to employ a sign painter endorsed by likenesses of America’s first African-American president.

That July, an American entrepreneur-ethnographer named George Jevremovic stopped by Sheff ’s shop. He was hunting for Obama images for his collection of West African signs where caricatures of celebrities — Martin Luther King Jr., Michael Jackson — promote businesses, barber shops, cellphone stores they have no business promoting.

Jevremovic was seduced by Sheff ’s unfinished picture of Obama. The collector thought the likeness seemed regal even without a mouth, a politician’s favorite asset. To him, the painting had the vitality and nobility of Gilbert Stuart’s famous unfinished portrait of George Washington, a model for the first president on the $1 bill.

Jevremovic ended up buying a bunch of West African Obamas: crude, polished, poignant, unintentionally funny, unfinished. He brought them back to Material Culture, his Philadelphia store/auction house/museum/bazaar of global goods and services for home and garden. In 2009 he exhibited these paintings, sculptures and accessories in the 60,000-square-foot former radio factory, which sells doors from British Colonial India, cabinets from Tibetan monasteries and enough Turkish rugs to carpet the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. He supplemented the show with a 39-month calendar showcasing Obama images, which he titled “Dreams of My Brother” after Obama’s memoir Dreams from My Father.

Dozens of Jevremovic’s Obamas are displayed through December 9 in a Lehigh University show hitched to the bandwagon of Obama’s second presidential campaign. The 44th CEO of the United States appears as hero and king, dancer and “basketball addict,” a pitchman-wingman with statesmen and entertainers. Part coronation and part carnival, African Visions of Barack Obama is all Obama-rama.

The exhibit was organized by two Lehigh teachers who are, like Jevremovic, bearded, burly, Falstaffian scholars. Over four decades, Norman Girardot, a professor of religion studies, and Ricardo Viera, curator/director of galleries/museum operations, have made the school a hub of refreshingly raw works with many labels: self-taught, naïve, visionary, God’s junkyard.

They’ve shepherded shows, installations and residencies by the likes of the late Mr. Imagination (aka Gregory Warmack), who made scepters and thrones with bottle caps, and the late Rev. Howard Finster, who made amazing mazes of space ships, herringboned angels and a baby prophet named Elvis Presley.

Girardot, Viera and Jevremovic believe that art can be fine even when it’s not. This isn’t a paradox for sign painters in Burkina Faso, Mali and other West African countries. They

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have no problem advertising a tailor shop with a portrait of Prince Charles, or a video store with a caricature of Jesus Christ. For they are pure politicians and purer capitalists.

Jevremovic knew that Obama would join the hall of fame of West African sign painting long before he entered the Oval Office. West Africans, after all, had adopted Obama as a native brother and son during a 2006 speaking tour in Nairobi, when he was an Illinois senator. They were pleased to hear him praise his late father, Barack Sr., an economist in Kenya, and his step-grandmother, Sarah, who still lives in a Kenyan village.

They were especially pleased by his promise to reduce disease and poverty in his ancestral homeland. Some considered him the second coming of civil-rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., who in 1957 came to Accra to celebrate the birth of Ghana.

After Obama’s 2008 election, sign painters scrambled to make the new president a superhero. Joakim Onyango Ndalo painted him with his grandmother over the red headline “MARTIN LUTHER K (JNR’S) DREAM COMES TRUE.” Ibrahim Iddrisu portrayed him as a smiling Superman. Laty, a chronically busy barber-shop artist, placed him in two very different pantheons. Obama shares one ad with Kofi Annan, former secretary-general of the United Nations, and Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president. He shares another ad with rapper Tupac Shakur, whose murder made him a martyr.

These are works that could be mistaken for souvenirs for tourists or political conventioneers. His face animates sandals, hangers and the backs of flour sacks, a common canvas for movie posters. “Where commerce ends and starts, and where art starts and ends,” says Jevremovic, “are very gray areas.”

Indeed, Jevremovic found a rather royal Obama by a roundabout. The traffic circle in Kumasi, Ghana, doubles as the outdoor store of Almighty God (born Kwame Akoto), a Pentecostal preacher who once painted taxis. Jevremovic was particularly intrigued by Almighty’s towering Obama in front of an American flag, wearing a tribal robe with a pulsing pattern, a time-traveling philosopher.

“He’s really more Greek or Roman than Ashanti king,” says Jevremovic. “He really looks like Plato in sandals.”

This fashionable message appeals to Baj Njie, an American-African barista at Re-Wired, my coffeeshop in Bethlehem.

Born in Manhattan, she lived from age four to 17 in Banjul, a city in her father’s native Gambia. There she learned about her father’s hero, Martin Luther King Jr. There she fell under the spell of tailor-shop signs with pictures of long, flowing dresses with rich designs. They intensified her love of clothes with elegance and mystery, style and substance.

For Njie, the Obama sign paintings are more than advertisements for African businesses. They’re also advertisements for a healthier Africa. “They showcase what’s happening on the continent, how Africans view the world, that the whole rise of Obama has a deep meaning for them,” she says. “They

can really identify with him, even though he’s never lived in Africa. A lot of them understand the historical significance of his journey. That’s why they think: ‘He’s one of us.’”

Not surprisingly, Njie rejoiced when Obama became America’s first African-American president. Asked to rate her excitement, she responds: “On a scale of one to ten, how’s 20?”

Not surprisingly, some of the fantasies of the Obama sign painters are, well, fantastic. One artist depicts Obama bicycling from Africa toward a glowing U.S. Capitol building, which is misidentified as the White House. Another artist portrays Obama dancing with an unusually stocky Ellen DeGeneres, who looks less like a talk-show host/comic than an off-duty roller-derby queen. She’s misidentified as Hillary Clinton, wife of America’s 42nd president, Obama’s former presidential rival and U.S. Secretary of State. The figure resembles Clinton as much as sex therapist Ruth Westheimer resembles sex-therapy candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Michelle Obama fares even worse. In painting after painting the striking First Lady appears strikingly ugly. Imagine Jevremovic’s delight when he finally located a Michelle who looked like Michelle. Imagine his disappointment when artist D.A. Jasper said his model was actually an old girlfriend.

In July 2009, Jevremovic met one of his favorite Obamas.

He was in Accra, attending Obama’s first speech in Sub-Sahara Africa. Afterward, he and his son were robbed while they slept.

They reported the crime to the police, relieved they lost a laptop and not their lives. The station was across the street from Sheff Art Services, where Jevremovic was immediately mesmerized by “Unfinished Obama.” “I knew we got robbed,” he says, “for a reason.”

Jevremovic offered to buy “Unfinished Obama.” Sheff promised he would finish the painting in two days. Jevremovic asked the artist to leave it unfinished. He wanted to preserve the aura of Gilbert Stuart’s unfinished George Washington, the halo of presidential potential.

“I said: ‘Is it okay if I just take it like this?’ And Sheff just laughed and said, ‘No problem.’ Hey, the customer’s always right, right?”

African Visions of Barack Obama, through December 9, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA, www.luag.org; 610-758-3615; lecture by folklorist Henry Glassie at 5 p.m. Nov. 15. Material Culture, 4700 Wissahickon Ave., Philadelphia, www.materialculture.com, 215849-8030. A portion of proceeds from the sale of the Material Culture calendar “Dreams of My Brother” will be donated to fighting malaria fatalities, one of Obama’s favorite causes. ■ Geoff Gehman is a former arts writer for The Morning Call.

He is the author of The Kingdom of the Kid, a memoir of growing up in the middle-class, long-lost Hamptons (SUNY Press, 2013). geoffgehman@verizon.net.

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George Sawyer Trunk Show “Love & Commitment – Made in America” Heart of the Home / Hearts Afire 28 S. Main Street, New Hope, PA 215-862-1880 heartofthehome.com Wine & cheese November 10, 2012 It’s never been a better time to fall in love in America. Heart of the Home-Hearts Afire welcomes a new artist this Fall: George Sawyer. On display will be a selection of hand-crafted commitment rings from the artist’s studio in Minneapolis. A representative from the artist’s studio will be on hand to provide information and answer questions. George Sawyers’ inspirations come from history, nature and art, covered bridges, tiger stripes and Japanese swords.

George Sawyer is an American artist with a specialty in the original precious metal mokume gane, his signature technique. Over four decades ago, Mr. Sawyer’s interest in Japanese art developed into this beautiful form of art, a material that still inspires him as he finds new painterly effects and symmetries to explore. Expanding his palette beyond to include a variety of shakudo alloys and Japanese roksho patina colors, he recently developed “Koi” and “Wabi-Sabi” metals with colored gold alloys and fine silver. His reward comes in creating both materials and finished pieces that are art in their own right. With these colorful, complex, solid patterned materials, the artist finds great pleasure in creating art pieces ranging from small wedding bands to large objects.

Twenty-Two Gallery 236 S. 22nd Street, Philadelphia 215-772-1911 twenty-twogallery.com Wednesday-Sunday, Noon to 6 November 9 - December 9 Reception, 11/9, 6-9 An exhibition of two generations — Bruce Murray, Sr. (1893-1969) and Bruce Murray, Jr. (1919-1991) — true American photographers, capturing America in beautiful black & white images spanning over 50 years. The father and son duo started their photojournalist careers in Philadelphia as press photographers. The subject matter of these timeless images range from President Woodrow Wilson in 1913, to Baseball legends in the 1920s, Babe Ruth and Connie Mack, to a pie eating contest at a city street party in the late 1940s. They evoke great memories and heart warming feelings that may be our own… or perhaps ones that we have learned from our family or relations. Printing from the vintage large format negatives make the clarity, richness, depth of field and pure quality of these fine art photographs like windows back in time. Times that were perhaps more simpler… but very poignant times. They not only tell stories, but also bring us all together as Americans sharing our common past. The images transcend generations and geography to bring us pleasure for years to come.

The Murray photos are part of the permanent collections of such institutions as the Thomas Edison Museum, the Babe Ruth Museum, the Franklin Institute and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. They are part of the private collections of many notables such as Reggie Jackson, Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Les Paul and John Goodman. Homegrown collectors include former Phillies Larry Christensen and Don Money, and Phila. D.A. Lynn Abraham.

For further information regarding the work of Bruce Murray Sr. & Jr. visit www.brucemurray.com

Whitney Abrams.

Mary Serfass, A Long Way From Oz, 7 3/4 x 5 3/4, colored pencil on vellum.

Lens through Time

It’s About Time The Snow Goose Gallery 470 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA 18018 610-974-9099 thesnowgoosegallery.com Tu- Fri 10-5:30; Thurs 10-7; Sat 10-5; Sun 11-4 November 4 - December 30 Opening reception 11/4, 1-5 PM It’s About Time is a collaboration between Mary Serfass and Alexander Volkov to capture fleeting moments.

It’s about that time of the evening when the moon is just rising, or the sun setting. It’s about the flicker of fireflies on a summer evening. It’s about catching a glimpse of a crescent moon through the trees. It’s about storm clouds building over the Pacific Ocean, or a first snowfall. And it’s about time they paired up for this exhibition.

Born in Russia, Alexander Volkov combines a fascination with architecture, landscapes and still life subjects in his oil paintings. He merges mood and atmosphere, evoking powerful emotions that create harmony. “There is no greater mystery to me than a conflict of light and dark. In the way they clash and penetrate each other, there is the source of everything.”

Landscapes and trees are primary subjects for Mary Serfass, although the occasional floral makes an appearance. Serfass works in ink and colored pencil. The substrata for her drawings may be anything from illustration board to delicate rice paper. Often, parts of her drawings will wander out on to the mat, her signature style.

“Where’s the fun in staying within the lines?” she asks.

Alexander Volkov, Daybreak, 24 x 36, enhanced giclee on canvas.

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HE POSTER I SAW for The Sessions includes this breathless blurb from Examiner.com: “Destined to be a player at the Academy Awards.” This comment is as deceiving — does the person actually like the movie? — as it is telling.

Between now and the end of December, we will be inundated with movies aimed directly at Academy members, efforts usually affixed with such adjectives as “inspiring,” “heartwarming,” and “crowd-pleasing.” Let’s be clear: there’s a difference between movies that shamelessly mug for awards (War Horse) and ones that earn them by being terrific and without agenda (The Artist).

Written and directed by Ben Lewin, The Sessions lies somewhere in between. It will be discussed come awards season because it covers the prestige picture playbook: earnest characters facing challenges, a storyline celebrating the tenacity of the human spirit, tasteful, functional nudity.

Even though we know the film is conning our heartstrings, we don’t mind. We like the main character. His problems resonate with us. We can cry without feeling duped.

The Sessions introduces us to real-life journalist and poet Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes) whose body has been rendered twisted and immobile since a childhood bout with polio. It’s a setback he’s overcome quite nicely. By 1988, he is a college graduate with a career as a working writer. And he has an upbeat attitude, something rarely found even in healthy writers.

In a life full of professional and personal accomplish-

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The Sessions ments, Mark has never enjoyed a romance — in any form.

He falls in love with his assistant (Annika Marks), a charming young woman who sees past his physical shortcomings but can’t reciprocate his feelings. Shortly afterward, he’s assigned to write an article about sex and the disabled. It’s unfamiliar terrain. “I feel like an anthropologist interviewing a tribe of headhunters,” Mark says.

But 38-year-old Mark wants to feel what his interview subjects discuss, so he hires Cheryl Cohen Greene (Helen Hunt), a sex surrogate, to get his body and mind to respond sexually. Mark is as skittish as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, but Cheryl is calm, soothing, and has unlimited patience. He soon falls in love with her. The therapist in Cheryl expects that. What she doesn’t expect is that she begins to feel the same way, which gives each of their mandated six sessions a delicious uneasiness.

The Sessions is a vexing movie because Lewin unintentionally trivializes the material. William H. Macy co-stars as Mark’s priest. Instead of offering a moral counterpoint to Mark’s plan, the padre playfully furrows his brow over these organized sexual conquests, proving that the Catholic Church is a swinging place, baby. During one of Mark and Cheryl’s Holiday Inn therapy sessions, his new assistant (Moon Bloodgood) discusses today’s agenda, simultaneous orgasms, with the hotel manager. “What’s that?” he asks, in a moment better suited for a sitcom. Lewin even has trouble

steering the story; the finale is a deflating series of postscripts that almost negates Cheryl and Mark’s relationship.

But he never loses sight of Mark’s plight, which is why we stick around. It’s not about getting laid. Sex allows Mark to feel like everyone else after a life of being in everyone’s way.

Anybody who hasn’t felt undesirable or unwanted hasn’t breathed a breath.

Attribute the movie’s heights to Hawkes, an ace character actor who refuses to chew the scenery or emote to the heavens. The obstacles imposed by polio aren’t part of the performance. It’s stripped to the essentials: a man wants to experience sex so he’s one step closer to reciprocal love.

Hawkes’ fine work atones for another labored performance from Hunt, who still believes that ridiculous accents are the key to authenticity, and the criminal misuse of Macy’s talents.

The Sessions should be a player at the Academy Awards, thanks to Hawkes’ restraint and the film’s almost accidental dignity. It’s solid and spirited. And that’s probably more than can be said for the eventual Oscar nominees that will heartwarm and crowdplease their way to blandness. [R] ■ A senior critic at Filmcritic.com from 2002 to 2007, Pete Croatto also reviews movies for The Weekender. His essays, reviews, and features 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

MARK KERESMAN

Seven Psychopaths

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MOVIES WITHIN MOVIES — OR, movies about the making of movies — are a classic plot-variation. Singin’ in the Rain, Barton Fink, The Stunt Man, The Artist, Get Shorty, the Warner Brothers Daffy Duck cartoon short, The Scarlet Pumpernickel, and (to a lesser extent) Sunset Boulevard are among the movies that take us into the not-so-magical yet surreal world of the process in which films are written, acted, and/or filmed. We get to witness the blood, sweat, tears, ego, rapacity, and just plain goofiness that goes into the making a movie. And now we can add Seven Psychopaths.

Colin Farrell is Marty, a Hollywood screenwriter behind on the screenplay for a movie. Marty wants to write a film about psychopaths but without the usual Hollywood bangbang shoot-shoot BS, but has that condition common to writers in movies, namely “writer’s block.” Sam Rockwell is Billy, his friend, confidant, jester, and sounding-board — Billy is an aspiring actor that makes ends meet by kidnapping dogs with friend Hans (Christopher Walken) and returning them to their owners for the reward. Slight spoiler/disclaimer for animal/dog lovers: None of the dogs (or any animals) in Seven Psychopaths get hurt or killed…in fact, the dognappers are actually kind and caring to the pooches. Billy keeps giving Marty “ideas” for his screenplay that are, to put it kindly, zany — the kind of ideas Quentin Tarantino would reject for being too “cartoonish” or “over-the-top.” We see Billy’s scenarios “acted-out” before us on-screen. Billy and Hans grab the beloved canine belonging to vicious gangster Charlie (Woody Harrelson), which is likely the only living thing to-

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ward which he has kind feelings. Then things get wildly Tarantino-esque.

Not for the faint of heart, Seven Psychopaths is a brutal thrill-ride about a few somewhat crazy, rather violent individuals. There is LOTS of bloodletting. But what makes it an engaging — yes, engaging — movie is how we get to know these characters. Without exactly making them overly sympathetic or anti-heroes, Seven Psychopaths shows some of the motivations of these individuals, a la Dexter, and as with the small screen’s favorite serial murderer, the motivations are a little deeper than simple cruelty. Further, without being too heavy-handed, this movie is an exercise in self-awareness — [slight spoiler] some of the violence, while seen onscreen, is “imagined.” Another aspect of almost over-the-top self-awareness is when a character remarks that in violent films there are few if any substantial and/or eloquent female characters...and on the poster for Seven Psychopaths, the lovely actresses Olga Kurylenko and Abby Cornish (from the Ukraine and Australia, respectively) are pictured with The Guys, the Main Stars, the Major Attractions, yet each gal appears in the movie for between five and ten minutes a piece. The only substantial female role is that of Hans’ wife Myra, played by Linda Bright Clay…who, naturally [spoiler] gets killed.

There are fine supporting turns by Tom Waits, Harry Dean Stanton, Long Nguyen, Amanda Mason Warren, and Bonny the dog. Farrell is good as the Hollywood-ite writer who wanted to get into the minds of violent people and got much more than he bargained for, but the movie belongs to

Walken and Rockwell. Walken, naturally, gets to say lines that only Walken could say in that wonderfully halting, oddly-cadenced manner in which he speaks and have them be pithy and hilarious. Rockwell stops just short of overacting — his character is like unto a gremlin — which is to say a demon, but one that’s more mischievous than malicious and just as destructive. Rockwell’s Billy is the kind of friend nearly everyone has at one time or another: A loose cannon, an almost consistent source of disruption or annoyance but always in your corner, always good for a laugh or encouragement when you need it, and Rockwell plays it to the veritable hilt.

(He could be the new Nicolas Cage, since Cage has resigned himself to being a parody of…well, himself.)

Seven Psychopaths could’ve been simply another Tarantino wannabe. But like the underrated 2 Days in the Valley (1996), it takes elements of Tarantino or, to be precise, the classic B-movie and drive-in movie principles of blatant sexiness, peculiar intrigue, and cheery, blood-spattered carnage that Tarantino loves and infused it with a bit of tenderness, with pathos. As we’ve learned from watching Dexter, serial killers can have feelings too, even if they think they’re not capable of feeling. It’s a little-under-two-hours of bloody, notquite-amoral fun. ■

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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even the president) who orders people to NOT QUIT their jobs and to SPEND as much money as they did the previous year; Robert Picardo as a Jell-o/Blob-like government scientist; and Michael Gross, a corporate toady. Jeez, were Craig T. Nelson, Janine Turner, Victoria Jackson, Paula Marshall, and F. Murray Abraham not available? In fact, no actor from Part I of Ayn’s three-part-video-realization was “available.”

Ah, the movie…Atlas Shrugged is essentially a soap opera with socio-economic and philosophical pretensions. Nearly all the “action” takes place in bedrooms, aristocratic boardrooms and offices, swanky restaurants, limousines, and executive railcars...the very wealthy, get it? (Oy, I’m glad I wasn’t born rich.) It has some of the most stilted, awkward, who-talkslike-this dialogue ever uttered in a film that did not go direct to DVD. Scientist to Dagny: “Imagine, Ms. Taggart!”

Dagny: “I do…all the time.”

One rich lady to another in a swanky eatery: “Oh hello, Lillian, slumming again, a-ha-ha! Don’t get the blah-blah paté.” (titter) Recurring use of the phrase “for the greater/public good,” uttered as if it were a Marxist cliché or an obscenity. (Re: the latter: Imagine James Lipton or Merle Streep saying “Rob Schneider” at an Academy Awards broadcast).

Almost every third or fourth line of dialogue refers to or reminds the audience of the difficulties of the rich and notso-powerful. In Rand’s America, the rich are not powerful and are continually hamstrung by the government, which is concerned with…wait for it — the greater good of the people.

Atlas Shrugged: Part II THIS BEING THE ELECTION month, We The People are hearing lots about what doesn’t work, what could work, and how (or not how) to “fix” the USA. Well, shucks, author Ayn Rand knew all along.

First off, I’m not a fan of the kind of fiction written by Ayn Rand (1905-1982). Rand’s philosophy most often bears the “Objectivist” tag, which can be simply and brutally summarized as, “I got mine, screw you,” and “selfless acts are for suckers.” Rand grew the tea leaves the Tea Party uses to make their bitter, self-serving brew. We The People have been hearing about how the USA is (d)evolving into two parts, the 1% Haves and the 99% Have-nots — whether you believe that or not is up to you, but in Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the 1% are the Brave Innovators and Captains of Industry and the 99% include the freeloaders and parasites…get the idea?

The setting: In a dystopian near-future, gasoline is $42/gallon and worldwide financial collapse is (naturally) imminent. It is not-so-subtly implied that government interference in the mechanism of capitalism is to blame, and to be

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even more blatant about the film’s world-view, we see lots of raggedy protestors carrying crudely-drawn signs proclaiming “Where is MY share?” (Lazy do-nothing scum!) Yup, “I want MY SHARE of the pie that YOU BAKED, you filthy robberbaron, you!” Early in the 20th century, when workers went on strike for fair wages, the eight-hour day, and decent working conditions, Rand likely sympathized with guys like Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, whom before libraries were named for them were MAJOR SOBs. But I digress…

Firstly, our “heroes”: Samantha Mathis is Dagny Taggart, heiress that inherited — uh, built — America’s major transcontinental railroad; Jason Beghe, manager/magnate of the miracle metal Rearden Metal that the US government opposed (in Part I) but now wants, and Esai Morales is Francisco, a South American mining mega-mogul. The “villains”: Paul McCrane (one of the bad guys in the original Robocop), a slimy government “regulatory” type that might as well have a Snidely Whiplash mustache and cloak; Ray Wise (another Robocop villain) as the icy Head of State Thompson (he’s not

Magnate 1: “I’d sooner blow up my factories than let the government have them!”

Magnate 2: “Why don’t you?” [paraphrased but close] Further, Rand’s America is driven by steel and railways, whereas the America you and I live in hasn’t been driven thus for a few decades. A government flunky blackmails the unhappily married Rearden with photos of him hugging and kissing Dagny…who is respected, but isn’t married [gasp]!

Golly, that might have been scarily scandalous in the 1940s or ‘50s, but since — seeing as JFK nailed every dame that moved and he’s still somewhat revered, not to mention a lox like Donald Trump — such photos wouldn’t make page 52 in People magazine these days. An invention in Dagny’s possession might save the world, if she can only get it to work: It’s a machine that draws upon and focuses static electricity. Yup, pulls ENERGY out of THE AIR, and is a viable source of, well, energy for the World. Worst of all, in Rand’s America it’s not the poor and non-wealthy that are seething with frustration, that’ve “had enough” — it’s the put-upon, beleaguered UPPER CLASS, the magnates and moguls, the best and brightest, the job-creators and innovators!

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would love this film. I think it’s one of the worst pieces of cinematic crap I’ve ever seen, a Plan Nine From Outer Space for (or in) America’s future. ■

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REVIEWS OF RECENTLY RELEASED DVDS BY GEORGE OXFORD MILLER

Men in Black 3 stars Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.

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

Even the Rain (2010 Spain) ★★★★ Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Luis Tosar, Juan Carlos Aduviri Genre: Drama No MPAA rating, contains strong language (in subtitle).

Running time: 104 minutes.

Awards: Numerous Spanish, European, Latin American awards for Best Movie and Actor.

In Spanish with English subtitles.

Some things, like human nature, never change. This metaphoric movie uses actual events in Bolivia to show how insidious racism permeates modern society. A film crew sets up in remote Bolivia to shoot a revisionist movie that focuses on the atrocities committed by Columbus and how he mistreated the Indians. Repeating history, the producer and director underpay and abuse the villagers while making the film. The villager hired to lead the rebellion in the movie turns out to be the Indian leader protesting a government deal that sold all the area’s water rights, including the rain, to a multinational corporation. The villagers ultimately riot and the film producer has to decide whether to support their cause or the corporation that stole their rights. Note: The actual Cochabamba Water Wars occurred 1999–2000 when the World Monetary Fund required the Bolivian government to privatize the water supply and build a dam. After a year and a half of protesting, villagers brought the nation to a standstill until the agreement was reversed.

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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Your Sister’s Sister (2012) ★★★ Cast: Emily Blunt, Mark Duplass, Rosemarie DeWitt Genre: Drama, comedy Rated R for language and some sexual content.

Running time 90 minutes.

One guy, two women isolated in a cabin on a remote island. Everyone has a secret, deep emotional problems abound. Instead of a horror or tragedy, this complex character study uses light comedy and thoughtful insights to let the characters find their own answers. Jack (Buplass) sinks into despondency when his brother dies. His best friend Iris (Blunt) gives him the key to her family cabin so he can chill out and get his head straight. Jack accepts but finds the cabin occupied by Iris’s sister Hannah (DeWitt), who just broke up a seven-year relationship. They get drunk and hit the sack, together. Who’s to care, they’re unattached adults alone in the woods. Then Iris shows up and they both scramble to cover up their impromptu fling. Sibling problems, relationship problems, sexuality problems… it’s a hoot but expressed with authentic and honest feelings of people desperate for relief.

Men in Black 3 (2012) ★★★★ Cast: Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Genre: Sci-Fi comedy Rates PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, and suggestive content.

Running time 106 minutes.

After two episodes, most everyone knows the back story: Agents J and K (Smith and Jones) protect the Earth from alien villains with a wicked sense of humor that could laser through steel. Then one of K’s old enemies, Boris the

Animal, escapes from an alien prison on the Moon and travels back in time to kill the younger K who arrested him. To save K and the planet, J travels back in time to stop Boris. J encounters not only a young and carefree Agent K (Brolin), but also secrets and situations that could change the history and fate of humankind. Where MiB2 faltered, the creative plot and spot-on casting of MiB3 rediscovers the chemistry that make agents J and K irresistible.

The Dust Bowl (2012) ★★★★ Genre: Documentary (PBS) Rated TV-PL+L Running time 4 hours (2 disks).

The mistakes we make are a harsh teacher, yet our collective memory seems to forget long before personal memories fade. Like the Wall Street collapse of 2008, the economic indulgences of the 1920s led to the Great Depression. When the decade-long drought of the 1930s struck, thousands of acres of bankrupt farms lay fallow. By 1935, dust storms devastated the Midwest plains and thousands of homeless families fled to California. Lest we forget, Ken Burns’ two-part, four-hour documentary graphically retells one of the most painful eras in our nation’s history. Film footage and stills, written accounts, and people who lived through the era describe the heartbreaking human drama. As individuals and a nation, we endured the Depression, Dust Bowl, and subprime mortgage debacle, yet the survivors of the Dust Bowl might ask, “Will we ever learn?” We blindly deny the threat of global disaster created by excessive production of greenhouse gasses, and this time there won’t be a “California” to take us in. n

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

Scene from The Black Tulip.

film roundup

A Royal Affair (Dir: Nicolaj Arcel). Starring: Alicia Vikander, Mads Mikkelsen, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, Trine Dyrholm, David Dencik, Thomas W. Gabrielsson, Cyron Melville. In the late 1760s and early 1770s Denmark’s ruler is the whoring, boozing, and mentally precarious Christian VII (Følsgaard). His beautiful, neglected wife, Caroline Mathilde (Vikander), wisely stays in the background, giving birth to a son and lending placid class to the national farce. When Christian is appointed a personal physician (Mikkelsen) to rein him in, Caroline’s indifference vanishes upon discovering that she and Dr. Strauss share two loves: books and the tenets of the Age of Enlightenment. They start a torrid affair in the bedroom and legislative chambers, where Strauss uses Christian’s trust and admiration to overhaul Denmark’s punishing laws, in the process drawing resentment from the nobility. Sumptuously filmed historical drama is well acted by the three principals (particularly the rugged and dignified Mikkelsen), ripe with backroom intrigue, and always engaging. Perhaps its most useful purpose is serving as a reminder, like last month’s The Other Dream Team, that sacrifice for a fair and just way of life is not just an American concept. [R] ★★★ Sister (Dir: Ursula Meier). Starring: Kacey Mottet Klein, Léa Seydoux, Martin Compston, Gillian Anderson. Whipsmart, 12-year-old Simon (Klein) takes advantage of living near a fancy Swiss ski resort, stealing ski equipment and reselling it to the neighborhood kids at reduced prices. His 26

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entrepreneurial hustle is out of necessity; his independence is a mirage. Living with an older sister (Seydoux) more concerned with having a good time than earning a steady paycheck, Simon runs the household and pays the bills. Desperate for love and submerged by responsibility, he is the world’s oldest, loneliest boy — a condition that becomes harder to endure as his sister drifts further away from him.

Meier builds the plot and the characters through small moments (Simon learning English through ski magazines) and leitmotivs (the brother and sister’s isolated, towering apartment; wide-angle shots that emphasize space). The movie’s power and poetry gradually seize your attention then never let go. A haunting, beautiful film about a family that runs on obligation, not love, brought to vividness by Klein and Seydoux’s desperate, stirring performances. [NR] ★★★★ The Black Tulip (Dir: Sonia Nassery Cole). Starring: Haji Gul Asser, Sonia Nassery Cole, Walid Amini, Somaia Razaye, Hosna Tanha. In 2010, a husband and wife (Asser, Cole) open a restaurant in Kabul called The Poet’s Corner, where guests can recite poetry. This development enrages the Taliban, which employs extreme measures to shut down the business. Shot entirely in Afghanistan, The Black Tulip provides an extensive look at the real lives of Afghanis. If you want to observe a wedding and learn about women’s changing role in the country, look no further. But by serving as a fact-heavy cultural brochure, Cole extinguishes the narrative momentum, resulting in a violent sec-

ond half that feels dissonant and shrill. In the film’s production notes, it’s clear that Cole wants to portray Afghanistan beyond the accounts we’ve absorbed in sobering news reports. If that’s the case, why not make a documentary about this unseen side instead of incorporating it into a spiritless, forgettable revenge film? Afghanistan’s official entry for the 2011 Academy Awards. [NR] ★★ Smashed (Dir: James Ponsoldt). Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Aaron Paul, Nick Offerman, Octavia Spencer, Mary Kay Place, Megan Mullally. Frightened by her increasingly erratic behavior — which includes succumbing to a hangover in front of her elementary school class and waking up in strange places — a young woman (Winstead) decides to quit drinking and attend AA meetings. She gains support from a sympathetic co-worker (Offerman) and her straight-shooting sponsor (Spencer) but lacks support where it matters most. Her writer husband (Paul, TV’s Breaking Bad), still stuck in booze-induced neutral, is upset that he and his wife’s common bond has vanished.

Director Ponsoldt and writer Susan Burke, a recovering alcoholic, offer an unflinching, refreshingly blunt account of the unexpected rewards and obstacles that occur in forging a new, unpopular life path. Winstead (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) is fantastic — you never stop rooting for her. And she’s supported by a sterling group of actors that lends depth and humanity to characters usually presented as devils or Samaritans. [R] ★★★1/2 ■

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JACK BYER

Quiara

A conversation with the Pulitzer Prize-winning West Philly native

“IN THE HEIGHTS” — THAT phrase echoes in the life of Quiara Alegria Hudes. In 2008, she received the Tony award for Best Musical for her play, In the Heights, as well as a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical. The show was set in Washington Heights, the vibrant Dominican/Puerto Rican section of Upper Manhattan — in fact, the highest point in Manhattan — where Quiara lives with her lawyer husband and young daughter. Their upper floor aerie overlooks the Hudson River in a building called Castle Towers.

Moreover, having won the 2012 Pulitzer for Drama for her play Water by the Spoonful, she has once again soared to great heights. (Ok, enough.) I spoke with Quiara at her apartment about winning the Pulitzer, her family, and the spiritual beliefs that permeate her work.

Quiara, your Pulitzer seemed to come out of nowhere. There was no anticipation about it. No lead-up to it.

[Laughter] No time to even have thoughts about whether I deserved it. Hearing the shock of people who called to congratulate me was so much fun. I still listen to my husband’s voicemail when I’m in a bad mood because it cracks me up.

He is a very chill guy. Very relaxed. But he cannot talk. Cannot catch his breath. He sounds like he is going to hyperventilate.

He doesn’t congratulate me. He thought there had been a mistake on the The New York Times web page.

None of the Pulitzer jurors saw a production of your play. They chose it on the script alone. John Lahr wrote in The New Yorker that was “as absurd as giving a restaurant four stars on the basis of its menu.”

I don’t know what kind of words you’re permitted to print in ICON. But that’s ridiculous. My first encounter with plays was as literature. I didn’t get to go see plays as a kid. I know plays on the page first before I know them on the stage. That’s how they last in our culture. A play might be more vital on the stage. But productions are fleeting.

Did you see the other nominated plays? Both of them had very successful New York runs.

I didn’t see Son of the Prophet, but I read it. It’s remarkable. I did see Other Desert Cities, which is just incredible. Those plays are great accomplishments. I would like to write a play like Other Desert Cities — a single set, people sitting in a room for thirty-five minutes straight for one scene. My new play Daphne’s Dive, is more like that. Two acts. Five scenes.

Four are set in a bar. It’s a wonderful challenge. I’ve not done it before.

Do you feel then that Other Desert Cities is superior to your own play?

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I don’t feel that it is superior. But I do feel very lucky in winning the Pulitzer. I rarely compare myself to other writers. I’m more concerned with whether I’ve achieved what I set out to do in my own writing. That being said, masterpieces are another thing. When I’m reading Edward Albee’s The Goat — one of my favorite plays — I’m hoping that I can achieve that level of accomplishment one day.

What did you do with the $10,000 prize money?

I gave some to family members. They’ve been so generous in sharing their stories with me and in watching me rip them apart, fictionalize them, bastardize them on stage. And then I gave some to the organizations that have made a difference in my life, namely Philadelphia Young Playwrights, which produced my first play in the tenth grade, and Page 73 Playwrights, which gave me my first production in New York of Elliot, A Soldier’s Fugue. And then I bought my husband a set of golf clubs and painted the master bedroom and paid a month of my mortgage.

Your family has been a source and inspiration for much of your work as has Philadelphia and the barrio. Telling their stories seems to drive your work.

The Elliot trilogy, of which “Water by the Spoonful” is a part, was inspired by your cousin Elliot Ruiz’ story. And “The Happiest Plays Last,” the last play of the trilogy, which premieres at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago next spring is also set in Philly and involves people you know from the barrio.

That play was inspired by the tragic death of Joaquin Rivera, a popular local musician, high school counselor, and advocate for Puerto Rican folk arts. He was robbed as he was dying of a heart attack in the waiting room of a Frankford Hospital. The play is about how in the community one can be a hero, an icon, and in the larger community be invisible.

He was close to the family.

Your mother’s side of the family is very matriarchal.

That’s true. My abuela brought my mom and my mom’s four sisters here from Puerto Rico.. They were teenagers and they started a whole new life here. It was a big decision for her to uproot her family like that. She was not a highly educated woman. She had a few years of grade school. She could read because she read the Bible. She said she spoke no English.

That wasn’t totally true. She could eavesdrop on some English conversations, but she never spoke English with me. And, in fact, my Spanish was better when she was still alive. I could practice speaking Spanish with her. My grandfather, a farmer, never came. He tried once or twice, but he never was going to stay. He came to say “hello” for a funeral or something like that. We still go back to Puerto Rico and visit family there.

Hearing their stories about their life on the island and about their first coming to Philly must be like hearing about a different world.

Exactly. The apartment they lived in early on was right next to the precinct. The cops didn’t speak Spanish, but they loved my grandmother. She fed everyone. She had an awesome energy. My mom kept getting bullied by a gang of girls after school. It was the African American girls and the Puerto Rican girls. It was very turfy. My grandma had gotten wind of this.

She had a machete — who knows why — and was sharpening the machete on the front steps, waiting for the bullies to come. She threatened these girls, and they ran away. When the cops got wind of this problem, her favorite cop brought her a gun to protect herself. She used it once. This pervert moved in across the street, and the family had some run-ins with this guy. My grandma shot at him. She just wanted to scare him, but she nicked him in the leg. The recoil of the gun knocked her down. She had never used a gun in her life. She was more comfortable with a machete. So she gave the cop the gun back. She didn’t want anything more to do with it.

There was antagonism with the cops, especially early on. but some of the cops were from the neighborhood. They were good beat cops who wanted the neighborhood to stay safe.

[Laughing] By passing out guns, apparently. You’re blessed in many ways. Graduated from Yale where you studied music composition, did graduate work at Brown, where you studied playwriting under Paula Brown, you’re happily married to your Central High School sweetheart, have a beautiful daughter, you’re living in an apartment overlooking the Hudson, and your career is flourishing. But you had a rough start as a kid.

My parents split when I was young. I think I was about seven years old. My dad moved out to the suburbs and remarried.

My mom stayed in the city. She remarried my stepfather, who raised me from that point on. It was an acrimonious divorce.

Custody battles. That was a very difficult time of my life. It took my entire childhood to recover from that. It took a toll on my mom, too. I feel I got a lot of emotional bumps out of the way as a child, which led me to want to cultivate a much calmer adulthood.

You’ve had a very interesting exposure to different religions.

My mom worked for the American Friends Service Committee when I was a child, so I went to Quaker meeting growing up, which I loved. I was pretty active there. My biological father is Jewish. My stepfather is Catholic, but I never went to Catholic church. My mom became a Santera [a priestess of Santeria] when I was young. So Santeria was part of my spiri-

tual landscape growing up. My mom was always a very spiritual woman. She was an herbalist. She is connected to the world in a different, very special way. I’ve asked my mom to be in charge of my daughter’s spiritual education because she is a real treasure trove. My mom teaches her a lot. They take nature walks together. My mom is a woman who has seriously studied the curative nature of plants, so she teaches her about these things. My mom teaches her about breathing, meditation, and about heaven and ghosts.

Many of your plays involve ritual.

Being very connected with rituals on a daily basis wasn’t an obligation or duty. It was an active, daily practice that had ancient roots and immediate roots because it dealt with your immediate ancestors, too. So there is something about that that I felt was part of how I saw the world. And it was related to performance somehow.

A lot of people view ritual as repetitive, deadening.

I had some contact with Santeria in Cuba. It was very intense. Very beautiful. There is a lot of a magic and poetry in the Yoruba history and lineage. I remember the drumming.

Yes, Santeria is a living religion. There is no church to go to.

People would come to our living room. It’s not just rituals, it’s a higher aesthetic practice. It’s a way of being. It was only natural when I began to write that that was a way into the world of writing for me. Now it’s become more subtle in my work.

It’s still there, but I’m not dealing with it directly.

Some people might even view the ritual of the Quaker meeting that way, but my experience in meeting was always quite thunderous and intense, even if it was quiet. And the rituals I have experienced in Santeria were repetitive in that they used common writings, music and structures, but the expectation was that one was there to open oneself up in a vulnerable way to whatever spiritual force presented itself in the room.

You understand that the forces of nature are much stronger than you. You cannot fight them. You have to go with it. It is part of making the body raw. Opening up. Acknowledging

that you don’t have the power. You’re inviting in a world that you can’t control or understand.

You’ve been exposed to Santeria, Catholicism, Judaism, Quakerism. How do you define yourself religiously?

I can’t say I’m in a regular practice. But I believe in God. That is very important to me. It’s important to my daughter. It’s funny, I taught a lot of my favorite plays at Wesleyan this past spring. The one play that for some reason students didn’t respond to was August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Coming Home.

The play is deeply spiritual. In their responses, they used words like “superstition” and “voodoo.” I realized that many of them simply didn’t have a context of spirituality in which to understand the story. So next week, we had a conversation about why superstition and spirituality might be different.

What an ancestor might be. All of this to say that I do feel a deep spiritual connection with the world. ■

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R. KURT OSENLUND

A Session with Helen Hunt An Oscar-winner and household favorite, Helen Hunt has shaped a career around sincere viewer connection. She’s keeping the trend going with the fact-based film The Sessions, and unveiling a whole new part of herself, including her finest performance in years.

THERE ARE STORM CLOUDS outside, and delivery trucks honking at intersections, but all is calm inside Helen Hunt’s SoHo hotel room, where she patiently waits in a comfy chair to get the interview started. Much of the décor is soothing and white, and though she’s clearly primped to look just so, Hunt projects an unfussy stillness, like a real woman with a real life who just happens to be world-famous. Upon first meeting, she almost seems a little shy, which is quite unexpected given the nature of her latest role. After already logging nearly three dozen films, Hunt joined millions of families in their living rooms each week as co-star of Mad About You, the NBC sitcom that ran for seven straight seasons in the 1990s.

There was also Twister, What Women Want, Pay It Forward, and As Good As It Gets, the James L. Brooks dramedy that landed her an Oscar for Best Actress. And yet, even with that range of signature roles, Hunt bares yet another side of herself in this season’s The Sessions, a sensitive, humane indie about polio survivor Mark O’Brien (John Hawkes), whose urge to lose his virginity leads him to Cheryl Cohen Greene (Hunt), a sex surrogate who speaks her mind and frequently, nonchalantly disrobes. [Read Pete Croatto’s take on The Sessions on page 18] As kudos for Hunt’s lovely performance continue to roll in, more and more writers are bound to label her work as “brave,” a word so often reserved for actresses who go full-frontal. But to reduce Hunt’s work to the

“Her goal is to help these men, and, occasionally, women, go and live full, sexual lives.

And, in this case, really quickly, because Mark’s going to die soon.”

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, and can be reached via email at rkurtosenlund@gmail.com.

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skin she shows is gravely missing the point. Now 49, Hunt has spent years forging a trust level with her audience, and if there’s bravery in her work, it’s in the assurance that she can maintain that connection, and that degree of thoughtful focus, when not just emotionally naked, but physically naked as well. And maintain it she surely does, slipping into the skin of a woman who, not unlike herself, approaches work with a deft balance of command and compassion. It’s Hunt’s best performance since the one that won her an Academy Award, and if you believe the hype, it’s primed to put her in line for another. In a lengthy chat that covered The Sessions and beyond, Hunt shared, in an enduringly soft timbre, her thoughts on awards, sexuality, and one curious little fact: that at least two of her characters have been proudly declared “the greatest woman on Earth.”

So, how many questions have you had to answer about the nudity?

There’s not an interview where it doesn’t come up. Is this going to be the one?

I’m afraid not But I’ll keep it to a minimum.

No, that’s all right. It’s a big part of it.

How long did it take you to be so comfortable just stepping into the scene and disrobing, because Cheryl doesn’t even hesitate.

Yeah, well we didn’t have a lot of time. We just did it. I don’t know what I would have done with a lot of time anyway. But, you know, you work on a part really hard so that, hopefully, on the day of shooting, you’re as not-selfconscious as possible. And part of Cheryl’s job was to appear comfortable whether she was or not, and she shared with me that when she saw Mark for the first time, she actually was pretty freaked out at how severe his disability was. But, obviously, it was her job to not let any of that show on her face. So, even the character’s pretending to some extent, so I didn’t have to suddenly be 100 percent fine being naked in front of strangers — I just had to seem like I was.

There have been plenty of times in which an actress or an actor takes a part with a nude scene, and the vehicle just doesn’t seem right, whether due to level of taste or level of quality. This film

doesn’t have either of those issues, but did you ever worry that you might regret doing it?

The internet kind of ups the ante on everything now.

There’s just nothing sacred anymore at all — nothing private, nothing controlled. So I thought about all that, and I actually kind of hate that anyway. But, I think I felt like it’s getting late. I’m getting older and who cares anymore.

Grab a good story and do something that you love. Embody this woman who is what I wish for my kids, which is a positive promoter of people’s views of their sexuality, in the sense that she says you don’t have to tolerate anything. You can ask for what you want and you can say no to what you don’t want, and sex can be a celebratory, nonjudgmental, inclusive thing. So that seemed much more important than whether or not anyone would look at my naked body.

There was a ten-year stretch between Twister and Bobby (2006) when you were really busy and working steadily, and then you directed and starred in Then She Found Me, and then the work tapered off a bit. I know you did some stage work, and worked as a stage manager, but only a couple of films. What pulled you away, and what then drew you back?

Well, I think everything sort of conspired at once. First of all, I was working an obscene amount. I was working in television and in movies, each enough for two people, and you can’t keep that going forever. [Viewers] would get bored of me anyway. So that happened. I had a baby, and that was a huge thing that happened. And when you’re in your twenties, you just work. Somebody gives you a job, and you work and you pay your dues, and some go well and some don’t. Some characters you like and some you don’t. But you just collect experience and I think, now, it’s different. Now I have a family that, when I work, I’m with less, and I get a lot out of being with them.

So it has to be something meaningful to me. A lot of money is meaningful, a beautiful story is the most meaningful. Working with somebody whose work I have loved is meaningful. You don’t just work to work anymore when you’ve worked as long as I’ve worked.

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A.D. AMOROSI

The

w Republican e n

THOSE VERY WORDS STRIKE fear in the heart of Philadelphia actors, directors and producers to say nothing of like-minded liberals in the arts community. Yet there it came: a note from West Philly’s Cara Blouin whose Forearmed Productions would stage a play titled Dan Rottenberg is Thinking about Raping You — a satire of a victim-blaming column about rape entitled “Male Sex Abuse and Female Naievete” written by Dan Rottenberg in the Broad Street Review — and start a Republican-minded theater festival.

For Blouin, a 33-year-old theater artist who started with the Philly Fringe in 2009 after moving from New York City where she worked with a company Some of the actors I asked to be whose focus was political issues like health a part of it said that they didcare and immigration, n’t want it on their resumes. this seemed dangerous.

Good for her. Since Nathan Foley…said ‘I don’t coming here from NYC, Blouin has worked with know if I can say some of these Plays & Players, the thethings... .’ He also said that in ater company who is hosting November’s his last two shows, he had post-election Republiplayed an ax murderer and a can Theater Festival (RTF). Last year, she dipedophile but hadn’t felt this rected the world prelevel of concern. miere of Pardon My Invasion by Joy Cutler at Plays & Players, and is currently at work on Chris Braak’s Glossolalia for the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Play Festival. Yet nothing has put her name in bold letters like her right-touting play and programming.

“And I am not a Republican,” says Blouin. “I was a Rush-listening conservative most of the time I was growing up in Arizona, but by my last year of college I was organizing for the Green Party.” Registered as an Independent at present who voted Democrat in the last two elections, Blouin grew up in a mixed house — mom’s an ardent liberal and dad’s a Catholic, free-market conservative — with her own politics never completely settled on one side or the other.

When Blouin is irritated, as she was when Rottenberg’s BSR’s column blamed women — in particular, Lara Logan, the reporter who was gang raped in Egypt 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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Theater Festival

while covering the Arab Spring — for their own violet sexual assault, action must be taken.

“When I announced that I was doing a Republican Theater Festival, a lot of people said to me ‘well, why

Cara Blouin.

don’t you just do a festival that shows all the viewpoints,’ which in a very warped way makes me think of when people say ‘well, why isn’t there a White History Month?’ We don’t a need a White History Month because we all know white history. We don’t need a liberal theater festival because almost every play that gets produced is sympathetic to liberal ideas.

When Blouin put out the call for conservative theater work submissions, she was concerned “…that I wouldn’t get even three plays.” She figured that her Republican fest would be but a small-scale experiment and that’s that. First, though, she went through scandal — a discussion on the Theater Alliance’s list-serve about whether or not she should be holding the Festival. “I’ve had some rough discussions with people close to me who are still not very happy with my doing the Festival

because they believe that I’m giving voice to arguments that are inherently morally wrong,” says Blouin. “One of my liberal directors, Chris Braak posted on Facebook last week ‘I guess I finally have to admit that I’m working on the Republican Theater Festival.’ Some of the actors I asked to be a part of it said that they didn’t want it on their resumes. I was talking to Nathan Foley, an actor in one of the pieces when he was debating whether or not to take the role, and he said ‘I don’t know if I can say some of these things... .’ He also said that in his last two shows, he had played an ax murderer and a pedophile but hadn’t felt this level of concern.”

About a day after the call for conservative plays went out and the controversy broke out on the Theater Alliance list-serve, she got three like-minded plays from Eric Balchunus, a local playwright. “I thought, ‘Well, at least there’ll be three plays,’” she said.

Two weeks later, she had 60 submissions. When the deadline came, she had over 100 of which ten plays will appear in the 2012 Festival.

“It’s been really great hearing from all of Philadelphia theater’s closet conservatives. I’ve read a lot of impassioned emails from actors, designers and writers who feel ostracized where they work. An actress I work with but whom I never knew was conservative ‘came out’ to me and talked about what it’s like to sit in the dressing room and listen to people make jokes about Christians and politics with the assumption that they couldn’t be offending anyone present.” Playwrights, too, spoke with Blouin about not being able to get their work produced by venues who said flat out that the content is too conservative. “One of the playwrights who submitted to the Festival asked me for contact information for the others, and they have founded a Conservative Playwrights Forum online to talk about how they can get their work seen.”

Blouin asked for plays that explored ideas of fiscal or social conservatism, issues that are part of the Republican party platform, and concerns of people of faith. She specifically stated in the call for submissions that the RTF wouldn’t accept plays that criticized or satirized conservative ideas. “And still, I got at least ten plays that were blatant criticisms of conservatism. I’m not sure if the writers didn’t read the call or if they were hoping to catch me off guard and ‘convert’ me.”

When considering plays for RTF 2012, the first priority for its producers was to choose compelling stories. They weren’t interested in the (many) scripts they

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30 / INTERVIEW / HELEN HUNT

And you have met Cheryl Cohen Greene. What was the main thing about her personality that stood out for you?

Her kind of wide open, slightly loud, unabashed way of being.

And her ballsy Boston accent. That all struck me even more than the details of how she works and how she came to do that. I thought, for half-an-hour before I come in the movie, we’re going to be wondering what’s gonna walk in the door.

We’re going to think, “Is it going to be a whore, is it going to be a virgin? What’s it going to be?” So I wanted to invent, or borrow, something that was neither of those things, and this kind of absolutely frank, unabashed woman was what I wanted to use. So that was the biggest thing that hit me. Just her way of being, and the lack of weird shame, jokes, or strangeness around sex.

She’s very commanding in her presence, but she’s also, immediately, very comforting. Was that something that was difficult to balance?

No, it’s what you want. It’s what we all want to be with each other. Completely honest, totally looking out for herself, and totally loving to this person, too. When she works with people, she really wants the best for them, you know? And there’s a line in the movie that I stole from her and really wanted in there, which was, “There’s a difference between me and a prostitute — I have nothing against prostitutes, but prostitutes want your return business and I don’t.” Her goal is to help these men, and, occasionally, women, go and live full, sexual lives. And, in this case, really quickly, because Mark’s going to die soon.

Uh, I don’t know if it did. I can’t really tell. There’s no one event in a life that makes “the big difference.” At least, in my career, I didn’t come right from nowhere and have one big thing. I had a lot of little things, and then a big TV show that was supposed to mean I couldn’t be in movies. But then I was in this action movie and that somehow helped me get this other thing. You know what I mean? It’s been a strange, windy road, and I’ve been very committed to not being told that if I’m on a TV show I can’t be in a movie, or if I’m in a movie I’m too busy to be in a play, or if I’m in a play I can’t be home with my daughter. I have not wanted to be limited to those things, so I’ve just done my best to bob and weave and do it all.

For me, there have been things about the look of films you’ve been in that have enhanced the mood and performances. In Twister, for whatever reason, it’s the food in those kitchen scenes. In What Women Want, it’s that spectacular office space. In The Sessions, its Cheryl’s clothes. I wanted to know if you had a lot of input in the selection of her wardrobe.

Well, often, I was wearing my assistant’s clothes, and she dresses much more “Berkley 1980” than I do. But the costume designer was terrific, and with no money at all, the three of us — my assistant, designer Justine Seymour, and I — went fishing around to find the appropriate stuff. You know, you just

In three roles for which you’re famous — Carol in As Good as It Gets, Arlene in Pay It Forward, and now Cheryl in The Sessions — you play women who are great catches for men whom many would see as outcasts. And yet, your characters aren’t just sympathetic to these men, but truly drawn to them. Do you find these roles or do these roles find you?

John Hawkes and Helen Hunt in The Sessions.

Well, they have to find me, I guess, because it’s not up to me who they pick. But then I grab them or don’t, and I think in all three of those parts I found something interesting to play.

As As Good as It Gets is very high among my favorite dramatic comedies, and I fell in love with Cheryl much like I fell in love with Carol. And part of the reason, specifically, is how you react to being told that you’re beautiful or lovable. There’s something great in how both characters take it humbly, but you can see that they also know they deserve it, too. Is that you deep in character or is that you taking the compliment?

Well I don’t know about that, but yeah, in both cases the other character says something like she’s the “greatest woman in the world.” But what Jack Nicholson says in [As Good as It Gets] is that he likes it about himself that he can see that. So he realizes that it’s just his projection of her, not necessarily her. I think that movie is so well-written. It just grabbed on to people, especially men of a certain age, in their 50s, 60s, and 70s.

I really couldn’t tell you how many times I’ve seen it.

It’s the writing. It’s like Terms of Endearment. If you trip on it, you’re stuck for however much longer it’s gonna be on TV. You can’t walk away.

Did your life change a lot after that movie?

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look, and first the pants aren’t right, and you don’t see the character, and then you get one blouse, and one pair of shoes, and you go, “Oh, there she is.” And then you build on that.

That’s just always how it works. You despair and despair and then you find one or two pieces of clothes where you see her for a minute, and then you have a beginning. Then you put on the next thing and go, “Yeah — that’s the same person who wore that. That can be in the same closet.” But it’s very scary. I hate first fittings. I just think, “I’m never gonna figure out who this woman is. I’m never gonna find it.”

When in the process does that usually happen.

Long before or just before, depending on how early you’re hired or how much time and money there is. In this case it was next to no time or money, but there was a lot of goodwill.

There was a lot of hard work and a lot of scrounging through stores and borrowing. You know, I wore my assistant’s clothes, and the costume designer’s clothes, her friend’s clothes. You just piece it together.

Do you watch your own work?

I watch at a premiere or when a director shows it to me, and then I don’t watch it again. It just seems so creepy — I’m gonna sit there and, like, Norma-Desmond out. I don’t have the stomach for it.

Do you find it hard to leave any of your characters behind when the project ends? Do you get attached to them, or maybe, find it hard to shake them off?

Yeah, sometimes. What I’ve learned is that you can’t not be affected by the work, but you can know that you’re going to be affected by the work, and be careful for that reason. And yeah, I think it just takes time. In this case it was mostly a wonderful thing to carry around because I’m playing such a positive person. At the end of every day, though, I did think, “I want my clothes on!” I’m naked for an-hour-and-a-half in this movie. All day, being that vulnerable, not just because I don’t have any clothes on but because I’m trying to bring to life a kind of vulnerability for this other character, I was really ready for a hamburger and a sweatshirt by the time we wrapped each day.

This was based on true events, of course, but was there a time when reading the script that you hoped for some fantasy where Mark and Cheryl wound up together?

No, no, no. That would have been a bad movie. I think all the tension would have slipped away. No, I think it’s handled so delicately. Just...that thing that can happen for one second.

And you say, “Oh no, I’ve gotten hit. Some stray Cupid’s arrow has hit and now I’m screwed. And I have to white-knuckle my way out of it” — and they both do. She knows it’s her job to do it, she holds all the power, and it is of great importance that she not foster this [romance] one bit. And he knows — in real life, he knew — that he is the one who must call it off early. He wants to know that the number of sessions are limited because he knows he might get attached. I find that totally stunning that Mark would have the presence of mind to do that and not just say, “I’m just going to be with you until you leave because this is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” That he would be looking out for himself in that way. So in that way, it’s a movie about self-care. Self-love. Which I think is a big part of loving.

Are you planning to direct again?

Yes. I wrote another movie that I’m trying to get made. I directed an episode of Californication last year, and I’m going to do an episode of House of Lies and an episode of Revenge this year. I am directing.

Can you say anything about your new project?

Sure. It’s a mother-son story. Kind of an empty-nest-gone-wild story. It takes place in New York and in California. And a good amount of it takes place in the ocean.

Sounds exciting. What’s the greatest philosophical reward you took away from The Sessions?

Well, I have a 15-year-old stepson and an eight-year-old daughter, so we are circling that time when sexuality is, you know, gonna be part of their lives. So however I parent that, I would like it to have the positive spirit that Cheryl had. I would really love it if young people saw this movie, actually — if 15-year old and 16-year-old people saw it with their parents. That would be a really good sign to me. So many people you talk to say, “My parents never said anything to me,” or “They said something three years after I was already having sex.” I would love to think that the community of young people that I know, because of my kids, would have a little bit of the spirit of this movie involved in how they learn that.

I actually just saw it last night, so it’s all very fresh.

Oh, okay, great. I think it’s a beautiful film, I really do. I can say that unabashedly. And I hope people see it more in an audience than not, because I think you have this feeling of everyone laughing together, and everyone kind of naked together. I was at the Sundance screening and there were 1,300 people who had no idea what it was about. It was called The Surrogate then and they didn’t know anything. And there was roaring, can’t-hear-the-dialogue laughter for the first half-hour, and then suddenly they were terrified because Mark was so terrified. And it was a real shared event, and so I hope people see it in theaters.

I think part of the jolt of seeing the film for the first time is that so many people are so familiar with you, and they’ve never seen you do anything like this before.

Yeah, that adds a little hot wire to the whole thing.

Was that something you were concerned about?

I knew that would be a factor, but I actually thought that would be kind of helpful. They weren’t scenes of actors that you’ve seen naked ten times. It was all very new, and very unencumbered. I think that the sex in the movie was blissfully, blessedly unencumbered.

And you have a very comforting aura about you to begin with. Is there something that you might attribute that to?

Oh, I have no idea. I hope I do, because I have a daughter who’s counting on that! But I don’t know.

There’s been a lot of awards buzz surrounding the film, particularly about you and John Hawkes. Do you think about that?

I do when someone says the word “awards,” but luckily there’s nothing I can really do about it, so I don’t know. That’d be great. It would be pretty spectacular if this tiny movie about one small, you know, step for mankind that this guy takes, and a movie about sex that’s so not weird and adorned, got recognized on that level. I think that would be a very good sign for all of us. ■

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Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem, PNC Plaza at SteelStacks, Nov. 15Dec. 23, check website for hours.

645 E. First St. Recognized by Travel + Leisure as one of the top holiday markets in the world, Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem features aisles of handmade works by the nation's finest artisans, live holiday music, delicious food and more. Admission: $8 for ages 12 and older and free for ages 11 and under. $18 for a season’s pass. www.artsquest.org or 610-332-3378 SouthSide Horse-drawn Carriage & Wagonette Guided Christmas Tours See the lights and sites of the Christmas City in a horse-drawn carriage or wagonette! Carriage rides are 15 minutes long and can accommodate up to four passengers; wagonette rides are 20 minutes long and can accommodate up to eight people. Advance reservations are required. Cost: $45 for up to four people for the carriage rides; $11 per person for wagonette rides. Tickets/Reservations: www.artsquest.org or 610-332-3378 Christmas at SteelStacks Daily, Nov. 15-Dec. 31. SteelStacks, First Street and Founders Way Enjoy a magical holiday experience

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as the SteelStacks campus comes alive with the sights and sounds of Christmas! Info: www.artsquest.org or 610-297-7100 Christmas with the von Trapps.

Thurs.-Sat., Nov. 15-17, Thurs., 2 p.m., and Fri.-Sat., 2 and 7:30 p.m.

ArtsQuest Center’s Musikfest Café presented by Yuengling, 101 Founders Way. The world-renowned von Trapps return to Bethlehem for a very limited engagement! Tickets: $35, www.artsquest.org or 610332-3378 SteelStacks Fine Art Sale Fri.-Sun., Nov. 15-17 and 23-25, Fri.Sat., 10 a.m.-8 p.m., Sun., 10 a.m.-4 p.m. ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks, 101 Founders Way. Exquisite yet affordable works of art by some of the region's most talented artists, including the resident artists of ArtsQuest's Banana Factory. Handcrafted jewelry, fine art photography, glass art, functional and decorative pottery and more. Free. Info: www.artsquest.org or 610-297-7100 Bethlehem’s Christmas Open House Sat., Nov. 17, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. North and SouthSide Shopping Districts.

Stroll the streets from 3:30-5:30 p.m.

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to see live ballet dancers in the store windows on Main and Broad Streets, and Third Street on the SouthSide! 610-577-6962 or downtownbethlehemassociation.com Doors & Windows of Bethlehem Nov. 17-Dec. 31. The businesses of the Downtown Bethlehem Historic District and SouthSide have put together a friendly competition! Take a self-guided tour of all the shops and restaurants’ decorated doors and windows. Vote for your favorite at www.doorsofbethlehem.com and be entered in a drawing to win a $1,000 shopping spree to the merchants of Downtown Bethlehem! Free. Info: www.downtownbethlehemassociation.com or 610-577-6962 1750 Smithy Blacksmith Demonstrations Nov. 23-Dec. 23, Thurs.-Sat., 11 a.m.6 p.m., and Sun., 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Dec. 26-30, 11 a.m.-6 p.m.

Dec. 31, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Adjacent to Historic Hotel Bethlehem on Main St. See sparks fly at one of the most popular spots in the Christmas City.

Visit includes live demonstrations and explanation of this important trade in early Bethlehem. Free (donations accepted.) Info: www.historicbethlehem.org or 610-691-6055

Bethlehem by Night Bus Tour (NORTH) Nov. 23-Dec. 23, Thurs.-Sat., 5, 6 and 7 p.m., and Sun., 4, 5 and 6 p.m.

Dec. 26-30, 5, 6 and 7 p.m.

Tours depart from Historic Bethlehem Visitor Center, 505 Main St. Sit back and enjoy the Christmas City on a trip back in time with our certified guide in period dress. Tickets: $12 for adults; $6 for ages 3-12; free for under 3 lap child. www.artsquest.org or 610-332-3378. Info: www.historicbethlehem.org or 610-691-6055 Bethlehem by Night Bus Tour (SOUTH) Nov. 23-Dec. 23, Thurs.-Sat., 5:30, 6:30 and 7:30 p.m., and Sun., 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Leaves from Bethlehem Visitor Center at SteelStacks, 711 E. First St. See Bethlehem by Night Bus Tour description. Tickets: $12 for adults; $6 for ages 3-12; free for under 3 lap child. artsquest.org or 610-332-3378. Info: www.historicbethlehem.org or 610-691-6055 Central Moravian Church Putz Nov. 23-Dec. 23 and Dec. 27-30. Central Moravian Church Christian Education Building, 40 W. Church St. The putz retells the story of Christ’s birth through narration and music, while tiny lights illuminate each

scene. The figures, many of them antiques of German origin, are nestled amidst live moss, driftwood and rocks. Info: www.centralmoravianchurch.org or 610-866-5661 Central Moravian Church Star and Candle Shoppe Nov. 23-Dec. 23 and Dec. 27-30. Central Moravian Church Christian Education Building, 40 W. Church St., Bethlehem, PA. Offering handcrafted gifts, cards, jewelry, beeswax candles, German folded stars, Moravian sugar cake and more. Info: www.centralmoravianchurch.org or 610-866-5661 Moravian Museum of Bethlehem Nov. 23-Dec. 23 – Thurs.-Sun., 11 a.m.-4 p.m., Dec. 26-31, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., 66 W. Church St. Step back in time in the 1741 Gemeinhaus, the oldest building in Bethlehem and a National Historic Landmark. Tickets: $7 for adults and $3 for ages 12 and under. www.artsquest.org or 610-3323378. historicbethlehem.org or 610-691-6055

Christmas City Stroll Nov. 23-Dec. 23, Mon.-Wed., 4 p.m.; Thurs.-Sat., 3, 4 and 6 p.m.; and Sun., 3 and 4 p.m., Dec. 26-30, 3, 4 and 6 p.m. Tours depart from Historic

Bethlehem Visitor Center, 505 Main St. Tour through downtown Historic Bethlehem. Guides in period dress share the story of Bethlehem's beginnings in 1741, Tickets: $12 for adults; $6 ages 6-12; free under 6. www.artsquest.org or 610-332-3378. Info: www.historicbethlehem.org or 610-691-6055 Christmas City Tree Lighting Ceremony Nov. 23, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Payrow Plaza, 10 E. Church St. Join Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan as Bethlehem kicks off the Christmas season with its annual tree lighting ceremony.

Christmas carols, music, hot chocolate, cookies, candy canes and Santa Claus. Free. Info: bethlehempa.org or 610-739-1510 Christmas City Village Nov. 23-Dec. 31, Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.-8 p.m., and Sun., 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Sun Inn Courtyard & the Smithy on Main St. Set throughout the beautiful downtown Historic Bethlehem, this German-inspired outdoor Weihnachtsmarkt features traditional food, fine crafters and live holiday music in the same spirit as European Christmas festivals. Free. Info: www.downtownbethlehemassociation.com or 610-577-6962

Horse-drawn Carriage Rides Nov. 23-Dec. 23 – Thurs.-Sun., 4-10 p.m. (departs every 20 min.) Dec. 2631, 4-10 p.m. (departs every 20 min.)

No ride 7-7:20 p.m. Rides depart outside Central Moravian Church on Main St. Cozy, serene rides through beautiful downtown North Bethlehem are the perfect way to enjoy the Christmas City. Cost: $50 for the carriage (holds four people). historicbethlehem.org or 610-691-6055. $10. artsquest.org or 610-332-3378 Cinderella’s Christmas Nov. 24, 1pm. Performed by The Kaleidoscope Children’s Theatre of Rhode Island, a show for all ages. $50 family four pack, $10 child/$20 adult.

Allentown Symphony, 23 N. 6th St..

610-432-6715, www.allentownsymphony.org “Christmas 1944” Musical Revue Nov. 29-Dec. 1 and Dec. 6-9, 1:30 p.m. ArtsQuest Center’s Musikfest Café presented by Yuengling, 101 Founders Way. A heart-warming musical telling the story of three women and their journey for hope, love and Christmas spirit during World War II. $54 artsquest.org or 610-332-3378 Christmas City Follies XIII Nov. 29-Dec. 22, Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.,

and Sun., 2 p.m. Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. Fourth St. Annual vaudevillian holiday show features live music, whimsical characters and old-time razzle-dazzle wrapped into a sweet, irreverent and uniquely Bethlehem evening of winter merriment. $25; $15, students & seniors. Every Thurs is Pay-What-You-Will at the Door. touchstone.org or 610-867-1689 Jim Brickman: On a Winter’s Night.

Nov. 30, 8pm. Returning this season with a spectacular Holiday concert weaving together humor, warmth, holiday favorites. $35/$40/$50. 610432-6715 allentownsymphony.org The New York Tenors Christmas, Memories of Herald Square. Dec. 1, 8pm. Daniel Rodriguez, Andy Cooney, and Michael Amante join together to celebrate the Holidays, the city of New York and our great nation! State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton, PA. 610-252-3132, 1800-999-state. www.statetheatre.org Live Advent Calendar Dec. 1-23, 5:30 p.m. Goundie House, 501 Main St. 5:30 p.m., the Goundie House Door on Main St. opens and a surprise for the crowd comes out of the door! A performance, goodies,

Community Advent Breakfast Dec. 1, 8:30-10 a.m. (doors open at 8 a.m.) Moravian Village, 526 Wood St. Non-denominational Bethlehem tradition features a trombone choir, beeswax candle lighting ceremony and a generous breakfast buffet. $10. bethlehempa.org or 610-739-1510

Christkindlmarkt Bethlehem, PNC Plaza at SteelStacks, 645 E. First St. A delicious hot breakfast, photo with St. Nick, admission to Christkindlmarkt, goodie bag, arts & crafts are included. Advance ticket purchase is strongly recommended, as these breakfasts usually sell out. Tickets: $14.95 for ages 11 & older; $11.95 for ages 2-10; $6.95 under 2. artsquest.org or 610-332-3378

Busy Workers’ Christmas Sale Sat., Dec. 1, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Central Moravian Church Old Chapel, Off Heckewelder Place and Church St. Moravian crafts, baked goods & unique, handmade items. Info: www.centralmoravianchurch.org or 610-866-5661

East Hills Moravian Church Christmas Putz Dec. 1-31, Wed. and Fri., 6-8 p.m., and Sat. and Sun., 3-8-p.m.

East Hills Moravian Church, 1830 Butztown Rd. Free, goodwill offerings accepted. Info: www.easthillsmc.org or 610-868-6481

Advent Organ Concert Sat., Dec. 1, 2 p.m. Central Moravian Church, Main and Church Streets Join Central Moravian Church Director of Music Rebecca Kleintop Owens as she plays favorite songs and Moravian hymns to welcome Advent and the Christmas season. $10 (suggested donation) artsquest.org or 610332-3378. centralmoravianchurch.org or 610-866-5661

Edgeboro Moravian Christmas Putz Dec. 1-22, Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-2 p.m. & appt. Fri.-Sat., 6-8 p.m. open to public. Sun., 3-6 p.m. open to public.

Edgeboro Moravian Church, 645 Hamilton Ave. The story of the birth of Jesus through sight and sound; also features a Christmas Shop. Call for group reservations. edgeboromoravian.org or 610-866-8793

discounts. Free. downtownbethlehemassociation.com or 610-577-6962

Breakfast with St. Nicholas Sat., Dec. 1, 8 and 15, 9:30 a.m..

German and English Advent Singstunde Dec. 4, 7 p.m.. Central Moravian Church Old Chapel, Off Heckewelder Place and Church St. Hymns for the season, in German and English, presented by Dr. Paul Peucker of the Moravian Archives. Info: www.centralmoravianchurch.org or 610-866-5661 David Parker and The Bang Group's “Nut/Cracked” Fri., Dec. 7, 8 p.m. ArtsQuest Center’s Musikfest Café presented by Yuengling, 101 Founders Way An enterprising mix of tap, ballet, contemporary, disco and even toe tap. Twenty-two sections are accompanied by a mix of popular, jazz and novelty versions of Tchaikovsky’s orchestral suite. Tickets: $20-$25 (student with ID $10). artsquest.org or 610-332-3378 34th Annual Live Bethlehem Christmas Pageant Dec. 8-9, 1:45 p.m. Bethlehem Rose Garden Band Shell, off Eighth Ave. Singing, narration, actors and live animals in this reenactment of the historical events surrounding the birth of Christ. Free outdoor event. Goodwill offerings accepted. Info: 610-865-0274

A Christmas Lovefeast at Central Moravian Church Sat., Dec. 8, 11 a.m.., Central Moravian Church, Main and Church Streets. A unique Moravian tradition that dates back to the 1700s as a celebration of community in a shared meal of a beverage and lovefeast bun. Christmas carols and Moravian hymns. Experience “Christmas in Bethlehem.” $20. artsquest.org or 610-332-3378; 610-866-5661. centralmoravianchurch.org Concert - Britten: Saint Nicolas and Bach: Magnificat Bach Choir of Bethlehem Christmas, Sun., Dec. 9, 4 p.m. First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, 2344 Center St. Written by Benjamin Britten in 1948, Saint Nicolas embodies some of the most charming and dramatic storytelling in music. Also, Bach’s Magnificat, Mary’s song of praise as told in the Gospel of Saint Luke.

Greg Funfgeld will invite the audience to sing carols and hymns with The Choir. bach.org or 610-866-4382 Cirque Éloize iD Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University. Dec. 22, 8pm & Dec. 23, 3pm.

Family-friendly event, free event parking. $45/$35. 610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org

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

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ROBERT GORDON

LaScala’s ALMOST A CENTURY AGO, Charles LaScala landed in Philadelphia with no money in his pockets. He started selling pizza. His company, Apollo Pizza, prospered, expanded to a half-dozen locations, and picked up some “Best of Philly” pizza awards along the way. In 2005, the company ventured outside the pizza genre and opened LaScala’s at 7th & Chestnut. The fine-dining genre poses a different set of challenges from making pizza, as La Scala’s has discovered. LaScala’s means “steps” in Italian, and LaScala’s has fallen several steps behind its pizza operation.

LaScala’s is situated in a propitious spot in Washington West, bordering the city’s historical center — a spot that helps it tap into the tourist trade. But LaScala’s isn’t impressing locals. As of this writing, La Scala’s Zagat ranking is a dismal #50 out of 60 among Washington West restaurants, a ranking that places it squarely in the area’s bottom quintile. LaScala’s also fares horribly among Philly’s Italian restaurants, coming in a bleak 122nd out of 167, which places it squarely in the bottom quartile.

The La Scala’s menu is stocked with recognizable fare. Starters include Brocoli Rabe, charged with a heap of undistinguished Italian sausage and a sparse sprinkling of sun-dried tomatoes. Siding the rabe is a disc of polenta that’s overly coarse, suggesting too long a stint in the pot or insufficient stirring. Stuffed mushrooms are a good idea that suffers from runny, weak Hollandaise sauce. Grilled Baby Artichokes, in contrast, are fairly tasty. Prosciutto adds salty accent to the seasonally fresh artichokes. However, another appetizer, chewy, tough-textured Fried Calamari sputters under a cumbersome coating of cornmeal.

Salads are, for the most part, reliable. Roasted Beet and Goat Cheese Salad is a bed of mixed greens studded with toasted walnuts and dressed with white balsamic vinaigrette. A couple of walnuts hide amidst the Arugula and Peach Salad, which is drenched with balsamic vinaigrette. Fresh peach slices fan across the plate to make a nice presentation.

Though hand-tossed pizzas are tasty, the array of choices is somewhat uninspired.

There’s a de rigeur Margherita, Eggplant, Clams & Bacon, and Marinara. Given the eatery’s pedigree in pizza, I expected some bolder, more ambitious compositions. Surprisingly, La Scala’s hasn’t fared well with the pizzerati in many “Best of Lists” either, although it did land a spot in Philadelphia magazine’s list of top 50 pizza toppings. Nonetheless, in pizza rankings like uwishunu.com and the Zagat Margherita Pizza Smackdown in which LaScala’s went unmentioned, its nearby competitors like Revolution House and Nomad Pizza (both have been featured in ICON) took top five honors.

Pastas are not made on the premises. Fettucini is an exception. It’s made in-house and served with Goat Cheese, crimini mushrooms, basil, and tomato sauce. Some fellow diners felt the tomato sauce is bland but I find it complements the fettucini reasonably well.

Gnocchi with mozzarella is unexceptional but satisfying. Lobster Ravioli, however, is disappointing. There’s scant lobster to be found inside ravioli that’s clad in leaden, overly creamy sauce.

Entrées or secondi piatti are available in chicken, veal, or seafood. Grilled hangar steak and grilled pork chop expand the choices outside the Italian genre. Arugula, radicchio and cherry tomatoes are a flavorful platform for ruby red-centered, pepper-rimmed tuna. But it’s the spunky spicing that makes Spicy Tuna a winning entrée. Shoestring fries, crispy, with no hint of sogginess, add to the fun.

Various facets of LaScala’s dining operation should be revisited or reimagined. For instance, in light of current heart-healthy trends, the gigantic pat of butter afloat in oil-andherbs dipping sauce that accompanies the bread seems outmoded. It actually drew an audible gasp from a nearby table. Also, while servers are generally attentive and courteous, the staff makes some troubling gaffs in mispronunciations and menu interpretations. And on one occasion, we sent a specialty margarita back because it was seriously lacking the drink’s key ingredient. It came back unaltered. Twice. In short, La Scala’s fare is decent though undistinguished. It needs to up its game to compete in Washington West’s thriving dining scene. ■ LaScala, 615 Chestnut St., Philadelphia PA (215) 928-0900 lascalasphilly.com

r.gordon33@verizon.net

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ROBERT GORDON

Matador LOOKS CAN DECEIVE. CHEF-OWNER Matt Pressler’s Matador has nailed down a choice spot along Wayne Avenue’s Restaurant Row. Matador may strike the casual passerby as a typical good-time nook with a festive blare and charming bling and passable noshes. Granted, Matador does have its share of revelers. But a peek at the menu unveils a list of tapas that are miles above the fajitas and über-clad fried fare that bog bellies and clog arteries at ersatz establishments.

Matador’s atmosphere possesses festive charm. Ubiquitous browns and beiges warm the spacious interior. A huge dark wood, Spanish-style split-staircase dominates the rear of the room.

A lovely barroom lies beyond the stairs, through a wide arch that’s framed with a flowing scarlet curtain. Wooden beamed ceilings and a wooden stage also mimics Spanish décor. Matador hosts some out of the ordinary entertainment on the second floor, with evenings of Spanish music and dance featuring artists directly from Spain.

Check out the Matador website for future shows.

Servers are cheery and helpful. Matador boasts one of the most foodie-oriented waitstaffs in the region. Many are chefs themselves or were formerly chefs. Even Matador’s original General Manager was a CIA culinary grad who handled the front of the house.

Tapas recipes are carefully researched and vetted. Quests for authenticity are palpable in the lineup with tapas prepared both in traditional Spanish fashion and in New World style. Gloppy beer-andcheer finger foods are absent in a menu that offers Sopas, Ensaladas, and two pages of Fish, Vegetable, Meat and Chicken, Cheeses, and Cured Meats tapas selections. There are also a half-dozen Main (full) Courses and three paella choices — Vegetarian, Fish, Chicken & Chorizo — that rank among the best I’ve tasted since a stay in Majorca a few years back.

Ancho Chile Relleno beckons with bright colors and reels with vivid flavor. Smoked chicken slivers are stuffed inside a fresh pepper together with a pantry’s worth of dried fruits. Red mole clads the pepper and green mole slicks the plate. A beige-white Nogada sauce — a Spanish specialty made with crushed almonds — caps the pepper and moderates this bristling palette of tastes. Cabra En Sofrito is a hearty sofrito — a Spanish dish of finely diced garlic, onions, and tomatoes cooked in garlic oil — piqued with braised goat cheese.

Vegetarians, take note: Matador’s menu is stocked with several appealing vegetarian dishes.

Gambas al Ajillo is a traditional, uncomplicated recipe for Costa del Sol shrimp. A half-dozen huge, plump shrimp sizzle in a spicy pool of garlic and guindilla peppers (mildly hot Basque country peppers with a hint of sweetness) in a terra cotta bowl. Garbanzas Con Espinacas are a chickpea purée crammed with spinach and chickpeas in a hefty earthenware bowl.

Tortilla Española, an egg-potato-onion combo, wetted with saffron aioli, is satisfying, although I feel the dish fails to distinguish itself in taste or appearance like so many other menu items do. However, Calamari a la Plancha — seared calamari with parsley garlic aioli — is outstanding. The calamari is not the overly breaded messy mass unleashed by lesser kitchens.

It’s a delicate dish where a proper measure of parsley and garlic lend depth to tender squid. Ensalada de Jicama combines farm greens, jicama, pepitas (pumpkin seeds), panela cheese (a cheese akin to mozzarella), diced tomatoes, and olives.

Pumpkin seed vinaigrette lends sweet overtones. For the carnivore, Chorizo Bilbao a la Plancha brings three skewers stacked with grill-kissed spicy sausage bathed in perky tomato-based sauce — all served on a cheery yellow Matador-monogrammed plate.

Finding a restaurant that serves a large slate of legit Spanish tapas is a treat. Many eateries claim they serve Spanish tapas and substitute Tex-Mex fare. Matador is the exception to that rule. Matador’s soulful tapas, colorful ceramic plates, and energized atmosphere capture the spirit and essence of the Spanish tapas bars I love in Spain — right down to the professionalism and chef-like knowledge of the waitstaff. Too many chefs might spoil the broth, but definitely not the tapas. n Matador, 110 N. Wayne Ave., Wayne, PA 19087 (610) 688-6282 matadorrestaurante.com Email comments and suggestions to r.gordon33@verizon.net 40

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PATRICIA SAVOIE

The Other Wines of Piedmont

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

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I RECENTLY SPENT A week in Piedmont in Northern Italy as a guest of the “Perfect Piedmont” organization. I discovered many new wines and had some great meals. Wine and food have always been of major importance in Piedmont. The home of the Slow Food is in the city of Bra in the Roero region. Piedmont (Piemonte in Italian, meaning “at the foot of the mountains “— the Alps and Apeninnes) is also the mother lode of white truffles and a major producer of hazelnuts on which Nutella and Ferro Rocher chocolate products are based.

Piedmont is a beautiful place.

While a lot of press is devoted to Tuscany and its picturesque hills and fields, the northern Piedmont is dominated by its own rolling hills, many with old towns such as Asti, La Morra, Serralunga and Alba or even castles or fortresses as in the town of Gavi — all with the Alps as an ever-present backdrop. Vines are everywhere, planted at whatever angle best catches the sun.

When Piedmont wine is the topic, the first to mind will usually be Barolo and Barbaresco — regal wines made from the Nebbiolo grape — or Barbera from the grape of the same name. But Piedmont also is fertile ground Marchesi di Barolo, Piedmont for many other grape varieties and wines.

Two of the most charming are the Dolcetto, a red, and Arneis, a white variety.

Arneis was first called “white Nebbiolo” because it was grown as a blending grape for the heavier Nebbiolo-based wines. The birthplace of Arneis is the Piedmont region of Roero, in the province of Cuneo, not far from Alba. While it can be traced back to the 15th Century. The Arneis vineyards survived until the first and second World Wars almost wiped them out. As replanting started, Arneis lost some ground to Nebbiolo, which supplanted many Arneis vines. But a few knowledgeable wine makers replanted it. In fact, the first wines bearing the Arneis name on the label were produced in the 1970s. In 2005, Roero Arneis was granted the coveted DOCG status.

Arneis wines are low in alcohol (11 or 12%) and have a crisp acidity and soft mouthfeel, but a nice hefty body. Floral, pear, peach, mint and hazelnut notes are typical. (Many vineyards co-habit with the hazelnut orchards.) It’s dry and makes an excellent companion

to white meats, non-oily fish, pastas and rice dishes; the local risottos are ethereal. There is a sparkling version of Arneis — Roero Arneis Spumante — which is light and refreshing and good as an aperitif.

These wines are also easy on the wallet, selling generally in the $12-20 range.

Some recommended Arneis wines: Ceretto, Montero, Pertinace, Damilano, Fontanafredda, Vietti, Giacosa, Gianni Voerzio.

Dolcetto’s first roots were in the Monferrato area of Piedmont.

Its name translates to “little sweet one.” And though the grape is sweet, it is not made into a sweet wine. It does tend to be a soft wine. And while Nebbiolo and Barbera wines require ageing, Dolcetto is best drunk within two or three years of bottling. Much Dolcetto is drunk by the Piemontese, who save Barolos and Barbarescos for special occasions.

There are several ideal locations for Dolcetto, and three of them, di Dogliani, di Diano d’Alba and di Ovada have DOCG status.

DOC-level Dolcettos come from Alba, Asti, Acqui.

The wines often have aromas of blackberry, mint, almonds or walnuts and can be earthy.

They are great companions for the local specialty of vitello tonnato— thinly sliced cold veal with a tuna infused mayonnaise.

One of the largest producers of Dolcetto is the cooperative Clavesana, which has over 300 members who sell it their Dolcetto grapes that go into producing its three million bottles. Clavesana produces about 90% of all the Dolcetto from Piedmont, in five levels from basic (called “D’OH” in the U.S.) up to Superior. Four are made from four individual producers’ vineyards.

Prices of Dolcetto generally fall in the $15-20 range.

Some recommended Dolcetto wines: Clavesana, Veglio, Fosco, Giuseppe Cortese, Francesco Boschis, Pecchenino, Marcarini, Costafiore, G.D. Vajra. ■

Patricia Savoie is a wine and culinary travel writer.

Email: WordsOnWine@gmail.com

a t f t t p p

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JAMES P. DELPINO

Balancing the need for connection with the need for solitude

UMANS ARE HIGHLY SOCIAL as a species, thus the phrase “no man is an island.” When they connect, all kinds of wonderful things can happen. They can potentially enjoy some of the most uplifting times with communication, laughter, family and friends. The experiences of shared delights are the memories people reflect upon pleasantly in their older years. Without connections between people, the experience of love could never happen. Study after study, as well as mega-studies (mega studies combine the results of many studies), show that people who have committed relationships and the support of family and friends tend to live longer and have significantly lower incidences of heart attack, stroke and cancer. In general, having positive connections with other humans greatly enhances and enriches life.

A common diagnostic criteria of many mental illnesses is social withdrawal. Being ostracized by a community or nation has been one historic way to punish those who were perceived to have done great wrongs. The use of solitary confinement in prison is also used to punish and control undesired behaviors. An individual can become isolated by a group for not being sufficiently normative. These are all examples of depriving interpersonal connection, and serve to further illustrate how powerful the need for connectedness is for all people.

Like so many other things in life, though, there can be too much of a good thing. Sometimes, connections with others can become hurtful and destructive. Much of the greatest suffering in life is the pain inflicted on one human being by another human being. Some people become too dependent on others for their own good. Inducing dependency is also a common feature of controlling relationships. Consider, for example, the relationship between a junkie and a dealer as an example of control by induced dependency.

Some people can be emotionally toxic for certain individuals. In the recovery movement, participants are encouraged to avoid people, places and things that might trigger a slip. Connections are fine and good so long as those bonds between people do not become chains. When connections become too negative or abusive it’s often better to break them in favor of healthier ones.

When things become too painful or destructive in interpersonal relationships, many

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

people benefit by seeking solitude. Cultivating solitude to reflect, analyze and process the complexities and difficulties of life is an age-old process. The use of contemplation in solitude is sometimes the road that leads to a higher level of interconnectedness. Consider that four thousand years ago, the Buddha removed himself and cultivated a solitude in meditation that led him to see the interconnectedness of all people and things. The positive use of solitude to assimilate experience and learning allows us to make the necessary accommodations for the challenges that must be faced and dealt with in life.

Many of the greatest masterpieces in art, poetry and literature would not have been created were it not for the cultivation of solitude.

The creative process sometimes demands time and space away from others — as it does in a scientist’s process of making a great discovery and/or invention. Many of the great psychological insights have occurred when people have dug deeply into themselves for answers in the context of being removed from others. When people are overstimulated with fear or anger, it’s often useful for them to withdraw from the situation to regain their objectivity and functionality. Consider the situation for caregivers who, if they do not take some time out for themselves, become burned out from giving more than they have to give as an example of another postive use of solitude. For those who are religious or spiritual, taking time away from others to pray or meditate is highly beneficial.

Neither solitude or connection alone is sufficient to achieve the best results in life. Each one offers great rewards. Each one also contains the seeds of self- and other destruction.

Great works of art and literature, even if they’re born and nurtured in solitude are of little benefit if they’re not shared with others and the world. Yet these and the great scientific advances through history could not have happened if these individuals did not first have a connection with a teacher or mentor to guide and cultivate their learning and techniques.

Combining or balancing the positive power of connection and solitude can bring about the best outcomes. Some folks are more comfortable alone and would do well to learn how to be equally as comfortable in the company of others. Those who do well socially and fear being alone would do well by facing the fears of being alone to take advantage of the benefits of reflection and contemplation. People can achieve balance by developing the best harmony between these two very different experiences in life. Connection and solitude are part of a dialectical process in which integrating the two in coordination with the other leads to a better and more fruitful path in life. n NOVEMBER 2012

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< sally friedman

Giving Thanks AN AUGUST SUN IS blazing, and miraculously, our daughters, sons-in-law, significant others and seven grandchildren have managed to be in the same place at the same time.

The beach house where we gather is a rental, although we dream of buying one like it someday. The food we eat is about as simple as food can get, but we insist that no hamburgers or corn ever tasted better. Six sun-kissed grandchildren chase one another around the deck, but one — sleepy little Danny — has surrendered, and rests his freckled little face on my shoulder as dusk settles. As good as it gets? Worth profound thankfulness?

You bet.

It’s a bitterly cold day and we’ve dashed into the house, heads bent against a mean wind. My husband turns on the lights to dispel the late afternoon winter gloom, and we even talk about lighting a fire in the fireplace. But it’s too much work. So we just flop down in the den, turn on the TV and luxuriate in being home — and warm — on a winter’s day at dusk. Not much? Why bother even mentioning such a mundane experience? Because in the catalogue of Thanksgiving reflections — in the tally of what matters and what doesn’t — that simple night in a home that shelters us scores mightily.

Our daughter Nancy has taken the plunge. She has decided to return to the workplace — at least part-time. Her anxiety is palpable.

Has she made a major mistake? Can she possibly balance her life as a psychologist with her life as a mommy? And will her clients AND her sons suffer?

I worry with her. The juggling act is today’s most daunting challenge for legions of women, and I’m not at all sure I could have handled it at Nancy’s stage of the game. And then along comes the phone call that eradicates all the doubt and faltering. Nancy is feeling validated. Her boys are in love with their babysitter. Work has been more gratifying than Nan had dared to hope. Nancy is on the right trajectory. And for that gift of a daughter’s right decision at a crossroads I am humbly grateful.

My husband is smelling the flowers after a wonderful but challenging professional life. He worked with grace and compassion in the battlefield of justice, and I often wondered how he did what he did and still managed to maintain

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his great and generous spirit.

And now he is “floating” — his word — and taking his 35th course at a nearby university. He is learning the things he never had time for with earnest undergraduates who have come to know the silver-haired man who sits among them. He is invigorated, delighted, fulfilled.

How sweet, those flowers of retirement…

Carly is standing behind the tallest kid in her fourth grade class, barely visible. Suddenly, she steps forward to the front of the stage in this sweet little play about the countries of the world. I hold my breath. But with courage that brings a lump to my throat, this granddaughter recites her lines perfectly, her cheeks flushed with excitement. She’s done it — she’s made her stage debut. She steps back to her place, and I could swear she’s grown another inch. No one can convince me that she hasn’t.

We’ve planned the vacation for weeks. But everything depends on the weather on this trip to the “sunny south.” The last time we did this, the sunny south rained on our vacation parade…relentlessly.

We saw a lot of movies, and left a day early. This time around, Mother Nature is more than benevolent.

One sunny, glorious day spills onto the next. We eat fresh berries for breakfast, swim in a blue-green sea and walk on a beach occupied by gulls…and us. Now I understand what “as good as it gets” means.

Later this month, we will gather as the “societal unit” known as a family. But for us, that jargon is meaningless. For us, family means everything, from love and commitment to chaos and confusion. And never will that be more apparent than on Thanksgiving Day. At our table, there will be too much food, too much noise, and always, always, too little time together.

But just as in years past, we will grab what we can and savor it.

Somewhere along the way, I will look at my husband and without words, we’ll know that this — this, too, is as good as it gets.

For that singular moment at a Thanksgiving Day table, I’m forever humbled. I give thanks. ■

32 / FEATURE / THE NEW REPUBLICAN THEATER FESTIVAL

received in which a man walks into a bar, orders a whiskey and then rants for ten pages about what Blouin calls the “theft of America by degenerates” to a silent bartender. “We wanted to give conservative ideas a good showing, so we tried to choose the strongest plays with the most persuasive arguments. Brendan Norton (who was on the selection committee) sent me this message about my choice of Basil Considine’s The Abortion Bomb, which I think sums up the experience of a lot of the liberal readers on the committee: “I’m super glad that we’re doing it, because it literally makes me nauseous — it presents such a responsible, wellthought-out argument for being pro-life, so I’m torn between respect for the playwright and total revulsion for the characters/ending.’”

Ardmore playwright Quinn D. Eli is one of the playwrights that Blouin respects. His work has been a mainstay of local theater for over a decade with “Hazardous,” a prescient comedy about Scientology and Tom Cruise’s auditions for a wife. Produced by Tiny Dynamite as part of the A Play, a Pie and a Pint series, it was one of his proudest moments. Like Blouin, he’s no Republican. In fact, party affiliation wasn’t a factor when he submitted a play for consideration. “I wasn’t asked to take a blood oath supporting Mitt Romney when the play was accepted,” says Eli. “As a black kid growing up in the Bronx, Martin Luther King, Jr. and JFK were the two patron saints of my household, so I’m a pretty dyed-in-the-wool Democrat. I’m rabidly political, though, and what attracted me to the Festival was its explicit focus on a political theme.”

Before the Festival was announced, Quinn had written a play about an African-American athlete caught up in a sex scandal, who, instead of dodging the scandal (shades of Tiger Woods), decides to go to the press and take full responsibility for his actions, even as his white manager urges him to play the proverbial “race card” and claim that he was actually a “victim” of predatory women. Quinn says that when he originally wrote the play, a theater in New York offered to produce it — on one condition. “I was asked to take out the lampooning of white liberal culture that occurs in the play, and to depict the black athlete as an authentic victim whose bad behavior is sort of justifiable given his legitimate grievances with ‘the man,’” notes Quinn with emphasis. “They clearly didn’t understand the play at all. When I got the email asking for the changes, I almost laughed. In fact, I did laugh. Then I refused. And the theater declined to produce the play.” Quinn learned three things from his refusal to run the play with editing. “There is a uniform point of view about race that theaters expect all black playwrights to share, one that validates the racial attitudes and progressive sensibilities of the individuals running those theaters.

That failure to conform is met with hostility. Liberals probably have a better sense of humor than conservatives, but not when it comes to laughing at themselves.”

The same play he offered to that New York City theater, Run Amok, will be presented at Philadelphia’s RTF this November.

“If I’m taking any position at all in the play, the position is that we are all ultimately responsible for our own actions,” says Quinn. “And that’s not a Republican or Conservative value — it’s a moral one. But since Republicans seem to believe they corner the market on personal responsibility — the rest of us, to paraphrase Mitt Romney, are just a bunch of deadbeats, looking for a handout — then I guess it makes sense to have the play staged at a Republican Theater Festival. Our job is to hold up a mirror to humanity and show the obscene contradictions that define us all.” ■

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regional theater Misery 11/24-12/8, Misery tells the story of novelist Paul Sheldon, as he has plans to make the difficult transition from writing historical romances featuring heroine Misery Chastain to publishing literary fiction. The Bucks County Playhouse, New Hope, PA. 215-862-2121.

BCPTheater.org Nutcracker 12/6 Moscow Ballet celebrates its 20th year of touring this performance across North America, and to much critical acclaim! The Great Russian Nutcracker is a magical and timeless holiday tradition that comes to life! State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 1-800-999-STATE. statetheatre.org

EDITED BY DAVID SCHULTZ

The Moody Blues: The Voyage Continues - Highway 45 11/23 The Moody Blues have sold in excess of 70 million albums worldwide and have been awarded an astonishing 14 platinum and gold discs. The band has sold out tours on a consistent basis over the course of several decades, making them one of the all-time best-selling album and top-grossing touring bands in existence. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 1-800-999STATE. statetheatre.org The Bourgeois Pig 11/28-12/2

Pookie’s dreams are bigger than she is.

After all she’s only 14. But when you truly believe there are multiple ways for kids to get weapon grade explosives in this town, and you’re hell bent on producing the most epic play in history, are you really going to let your guidance counselor stand in your way? This wacky fun-filled tale penned by J.C. Lee, is a perfect show for kids and adults alike. Directed by Kevin Glaccum. Azuka Theatre, @ The Off-Broad Street Theater, 1636 Sansom St., Phila.

(215) 563-1100. azukatheatre.org

It’s 1978 L.A., and the Riley family is trying to hang on to their hopes and to each other in the face of serious dysfunction.

Jack, the father, is a brilliant but damaged former war photographer-turned-reluctant paparazzi who never really came back from Vietnam. His ex-wife’s acting career began (and ended) with an appearance on LaughIn. Older daughter Riley is in her first year at UCLA, awakening to intellectual exploration and her attraction to women. Her sister Colette struggles with the pressure of her mother’s expectation that she grow up thin and beautiful, and find the success that her mother never had. Muhlenberg College, Studio Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484664-3693. muhlenberg.edu/theatre (For mature audience.)

A Christmas Story 11/28-12/9

Shatner’s World 11/11

A Leg Lamp. A Red Ryder BB gun. A Scary Santa. And one of the most popular modern Christmas tales of all time. Ralphie Parker is obsessed with finding a Daisy Brand Red Ryder BB gun under the tree on Christmas morning. Neither bullies, frozen flagpoles, or a horrifying Macy’s Santa Claus can arrest Ralphie from his quest.

Based upon the heartwarming motion picture, A Christmas Story is a holiday treat for the entire family. A Christmas classic by Phil Grecian. Based on the motion picture written by Jean Shepheard, Leigh Brown, and Bob Clark. Directed by Steven Dennis.

The Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA 610-2823192. desales.edu/act1

A one-man force of nature delivers a larger than life performance complete with his laugh-out-loud humor, signature storytelling and select musical selections in his inimitable style. Through anecdotes, songs, jokes and even some poignant moments, you will experience William Shatner’s phenomenal path from classically trained Shakespearean actor to cultural icon, brilliantly creating the larger-than-life and most important character he has ever played, William Shatner. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 1-800-999-STATE. statetheatre.org

Pookie Goes Grenading 10/31-11/8

The English Bride 11/8-12/2 The English Bride follows a rapid series

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of interrogations conducted after a bombing attempt on an El Al flight out of London. The hunt for truth unfolds in a fastpaced explosion of love, lies and terrorist plots. A determined Israeli Mossad agent resolves to solve the mystery at any cost as the search for truth becomes an elusive chase in the interrogation of an Englishwoman and the Arab man with whom she has fallen in love. Theatre Exile @ Studio X, 1340 S. 13th St., Phila. (215) 218-4022. $20-$34. theatreexile.org Guys and Dolls 11/17 Bustling with gamblers, gangsters, and sassy showgirls, Guys and Dolls celebrates Broadway’s golden era with one of the greatest scores ever written for a musical by the legendary Frank Loesser, lyrics by Joe Swerling and Abe Burrows, and the glorious Damon Runyon’s comic book world of 1940s Times Square New York City. State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton.

1-800-999-STATE. statetheatre.org Behind the Eye Through 11/18

Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3693. muhlenberg.edu/theatre Going Green the Wong Way 11/16 & 17 Based on guest artist Kristina Wong’s true-life adventures, elevated to surrealist heights, the production takes us from Kristina’s confrontational 6th grade science project, to her wandering years as a missionary of recycling, to her true calling as Los Angeles’ patron martyr of carbon-free living. Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. 4th St., Bethlehem. 610-867-1689. touchstone.org Christmas City Follies XIII 11/29-12/22 Ring in the Mayan Apocalypse with Bethlehem’s favorite Holiday tradition! This Touchstone Theatre ensemble-created classic yet again re-imagines what the holidays are all about with music, wit and holiday hijinks. We look forward to standing under the mistletoe with you. Touchstone Theatre, 321 E. 4th St., Bethlehem.

610-867-1689. touchstone.org

This story of free spirit Lee Miller, who lived a life most only dream of, globetrotting through New York, Paris, Egypt, London and the front lines of World War II. Forever a free spirit who followed her own ambitions and insatiable curiosity, Miller left behind a top modeling career at Vogue, and became the muse to some of the 20th century’s most significant artists: befriended by Picasso, idolized by Cocteau, and the single most important lover and inspiration to Man Ray. Her body--or parts of it--would become iconic of surrealism, but the story behind her enigmatic gaze and her photography is largely unknown. Gas & Electric Arts @ The Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre, 2111 Sansom S., Phila. (215) 407-0556. $16-$25. GasAndElectricArts.org

The Liar 11/1-11/25

Moving Stories 11/15-17

This new play by Christopher Shorr, is based on Christopher Marlowe’s classical tragedy Doctor Faustus. In the trenches of WWI, with bombs bursting overhead, a German scientist, John Faust, tries desperately to crack the riddle of creating poison gas. When all else fails, he turns to the evil Mephistophilis for help. Arena Theatre, Haupert Union Bldg, Moravian College Theatre Company, Monocacy & Locust Streets, Bethlehem. (610) 861-1489 n

This is dance as storytelling, narration in human form — themes as broad-ranging as the students’ own diverse backgrounds.

Some of their pieces are introspective, some lighthearted, some cheerful, some profound; all represent the work of talented students finding expression in collaboration and movement. Muhlenberg College,

Charming, handsome, and an incorrigible liar, Dorante has come to Paris seeking pleasure. He falls head over heels for the beautiful Clarice, but mistakes her name for that of her best friend Lucrece. After lying his way into a world of trouble, can Dorante lie his way back out again? Wildly clever and a bit naughty, the wordplay and swordplay of The Liar make for an evening that’s filled with delight. Lantern Theater Company, 10th & Ludlow Street, Phila.

(215) 829-0395 www.lanterntheater.org Faust in France 11/1-11/4

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GRACE OPENS WITH A bang — literally — in this new work by playwright Craig Wright and directed by Dexter Bullard. One character brandishes a gun and fires, not once, but twice, at two separate people. Or is it three? They each fall, wounded, dead perhaps. The scene freezes, and then in slow motion, and moving in reverse order, the previous moments are played backward, with the wounded rising up from what seems to be a death scene into the stressful moments leading up to it. They even speak a gibberish that is intended to replicate speaking in reverse. It is certainly a unique way to begin a play.

The dénouement starts rather than ends the work. It makes the audience attuned to the possibility of violence that awaits the characters onstage.

Steve and Sara (Paul Rudd and Kate Arrington) are a married couple who recently moved from the Midwest and now live in Florida. He is a modern day committed Christian — they both are, but he more so. Steve is in the final stage of making a deal with some mysterious foreign investors to set up a chain of Gospel-themed hotels for the holy-rollers in Florida, and possibly nationwide. It seems a perfect idea for the fervent folks who need a spiritual lift. Their slogan? “Where would Jesus stay?”

Other characters include Karl (Ed Asner), an elderly German exterminator who spars with Steve and is fond of telling horrific tales of living through the Nazis during WWII; their unpleasant neighbor, Sam (Michael Shannon), a computer wiz recovering from a horrific car

DAVID SCHULTZ

Michael Shannon, Kate Arrington, Paul Rudd and Ed Asner

crash that left his fiancée dead, as well as his face permanently disfigured. Sam’s soulless emptiness is intriguing to the couple, but for different reasons: Sara is drawn to comfort him, as she, too, is lonely for love; her wheeler-dealer husband reaches out to him because he senses that Steve might weaken, open his wallet, and invest in his hotel vision. That Steve is convinced and does invest starts the ball rolling and we are on our way to hell — or redemption. You decide.

When the deal with the investor goes sour, which is not surprising, each character goes through a transformation, both positive and negative. The absurdity of the situation spirals downward…or upward. The opening moments of the work hang like a thick fog over the entire play, and only in the final moments does it all coalesce. The theater audience has more perspective in their seats and can see what the people trapped within its tightly knitted condos can’t.

Grace is a kind of Rorschach test. Whether it leaves you with a bitter sour aftertaste — or a sense of hopeful redemption — lies within each theatergoer’s heart. ■ Cort Theatre, 138 W. 48th Street, Manhattan. Runs through January 6, 2013.

David Schultz is a member of the Outer Critics Circle.

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singer /songwriter Paul Simon ★★★★ Live in New York City Hear Music/Concord Music Group Paul Simon offers an entertaining journey through his illustrions songwriting catalog with Live in New York City, a document of a 2011 concert. Performing in the city where he grew up, Simon runs through 20 songs in this two-CD/oneDVD collection.

TOM WILK Ratings: ★=skip it; ★★=mediocre; ★★★=good; ★★★★=excellent; ★★★★★=classic

Seed” show the unrestrained side of the singer as her backing band tries to keep up with her. The latter has a groove that recalls classic Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

“Right Where You Are” is a joyous slice of soul-infused rock that wraps up the proceedings on an optimistic note.

Darker Shade of Brown,” the opening track, and it sets the stage for the ten songs that follow. “The Doubt” is a dizzying tale of romantic uncertainty that fits the whirling music nicely. “Rebel Girl Rebel Girl” is a bittersweet pop song featuring Rigby on lead vocals that would have fit in on her solo albums. “Sombreros in the Airport” captures the travails of plane travel. “Do You Remember That” is a shimmering, seemingly autobiographical song of the days of early romance that shows the strength of Rigby as a vocalist.

Johnny Ace ★★★★ Ace’s Wild! The Complete Solo Sides and Sessions Fantastic Voyage

Bonnie Bishop.

With seven songs that clock in just under 30 minutes, Free falls between an extended play and full-length album and leaves the listener wanting to hear more.

Paul Simon.

Backed by an eight-piece band, Simon puts the emphasis on his solo material with some new wrinkles. He incorporates horns on “The Obvious Child” and adds an explosive instrumental jam to “The Boy in the Bubble.” The Zydeco-flavored “That Was Your Mother” receives a zesty treatment, while “Gone at Last” effectively mixes the secular and spiritual.

At 71, Simon remains a strong vocalist with with a reflective “Hearts and Bones,” the title track of his overlooked 1983 album and an intense reading of “So Beautiful or So What” from his 2011 album of the same name. He returns to his Simon and Garfunkel roots with a spare, acoustic version of “The Sound of Silence,” the duo’s breakthrough hit. The only quibble with the release is Simon’s omission of the cover songs he performed on the 2011 tour, including The Beatles’ “Here Comes The Sun” and Elvis Presley’s “Mystery Train” that could have added another dimension to a fine recording.

Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby ★★★ A Working Museum Southern Domestic The couple that stays together plays together. That could serve as the motto for Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby, marital partners and musical collaborators who team up for A Working Museum, their third CD together. The album’s title is a reference to their combined 70 years in the music business. It’s an album that mixes pop songwriting with

Bonnie Bishop ★★★1/2 Free Self-released In the aftermath of a divorce, Bonnie Bishop turned to music as a way to regroup and get on with her life. The result is Free, a striking collection of original songs that recounts lessons learned and a recognition that life will go on.

As a singer, Bishop recalls Janis Joplin and Bonnie Bramlett with a power and intensity to convincingly deliver a lyric.

The title track and “Best Songs Come From Broken Hearts” are gospel-tinged ballads that allow Bishop to bare her soul.

Full-throttle rockers such as “Keep Using Me” and “Bad tomwilk@rocketmail.com 48

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Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby. Photo: Fionn Reilly

sonic manipulation, distorted instrumentation and layered vocals, recalling the Beatles of “Sgt. Pepper” and late ‘60s psychedelia.

“Let’s throw everything to the wind,” Eric sings on “A

Johnny Ace’s infamous death — he died in December 1954 at age 25 of a self-inflicted gunshot that may have resulted from a game of Russian roulette — eclipsed his musical achievements. Ace’s Wild! The Complete Solo Sides and Sessions pulls Ace out of the historical shadows with a firstrate anthology of his work The two-CD set collects all 21 of Ace’s solo recordings and 26 tracks featuring Ace on piano or organ backing up such artists as B.B King and Bobby “Blue” Bland. As a singer, Ace was a masterful balladeer, be it the mournful “My Song” or the after-hours blues of “So Lonely” or the pleading “Pledging My Love,” his biggest hit single.

Ace was equally adept at uptempo numbers such as “Yes Baby,” a duet with Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton and the horn-powered “No Money” that has echoes of Big Joe Turner’s best work. Ace also had a knack for crafting solid instrumentals with “Aces Wild” and “Burley Cutie.” Bob Dylan, who recorded Ace’s ballad “Never Let Me Go” as a duet with Joan Baez, said in a 1974 interview that Ace’s music transcended nostalgia. Ace’s Wild! shows the truth of that statement and reveals the timelessness of his work.

Bob Dylan ★★★ Tempest Columbia Tempest marks Bob Dylan’s 50th year as a recording artist and serves as an exploration of American roots music that has been the bedrock of his songwriting.

“Duquense Whistle” uses a Western swing riff that brings to mind Bob Wills as Dylan uses a train motif to describe what’s on his mind. The melody of “Early Roman Kings” owes a debt to Muddy Waters’ “Mannish Boy.” The rockabilly-flavored “Narrow Way” shows Dylan’s gift for wordplay: “If I can’t work up to you, you’ll surely have to work down to me some day.” It’s a line that could be addressed to a lover or a higher power.

Death and mortality are the underlying themes of the CD’s final two songs. The title track is a sprawling, 14minute track on the sinking of the Titanic that could have used a little editing. “Roll on John” is a heartfelt tribute to to John Lennon, utilizing lyrics from his work with the Beatles and as a solo artist.

Dylan’s voice has deepened with the passage of time.

His raspy enunciation has the sound of authority but can also be a little distracting. In the end, Tempest is solid, if unspectacular, Dylan song craft. ■

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BRUCE H. KLAUBER, D., MUS.

Clap hands, here comes

Charlie!

tunes. He was accompanied by his longtime cohorts, Count WHEN I FIRST TOOK up the drums at the age of eight, Lewis, a.k.a. Lewis A. DePasquale, on organ, and the great Gene Krupa was all I knew. While I’d like to think my drumdrum stylist, Tony DeNicola. The thing was, Charlie was in ming has advanced beyond the Krupa style, the fact is, his town. I had to get to WCAU. sound, aura and charismatic personality has never left my I rode my bike to the station and cornered him just after heart. I’ve written two books on Gene, produced two Krupa the broadcast ended. I said that he was my idol, and asked if tribute DVDs, produced several Krupa CDs, and run the Jazhe was appearing in the area. He said that he was playing at a zLegends.com website devoted to all things GK. restaurant and bar in Center Cvity Philadelphia, The Saxony As a youngster still pounding on a practice pad, my parEast. Charlie invited me to stop by any time. ents bought me a Krupa record called Drummin’ Man. There I must have gone into The Saxony East, sometimes alone were two tracks on that record performed by what was called and sometimes with friends, every night for months. The ownThe Gene Krupa Jazz Trio, “Dark Eyes” and “Body and Soul,” ers, took pity on me, realizing that I had next to no money, recorded March 8, 1945, and featuring the piano of Teddy and fed me plenty of spaghetti, gratis, to keep me going. I got Napoleon and the tenor saxophone of Charlie Ventura. to know Charlie, Tony and The Count quite well and peppered I hadn’t heard Ventura prior to this. them with questions every night. “Did you really know Charlie I was captivated by his sound and style and by the Trio.

I’ve never heard anything like it before or since. Was it tasteful? Parker?” “What was he like?” “Did you really know Dizzy Gillespie?” You get the idea.

Was it art? Probably not, but to me, it had a passion, strength They were kind to this inquisitive (read: annoying) youngand even a schmaltz that remains unrivaled. I began looking ster. Through it all, I begged to into Charlie’s life, music and casit in on just one tune on drums. reer. Born in South Philadelphia It didn’t happen. Maybe they at 1609 Porter Street, he became sensed I wasn’t ready. a star with Krupa. But starting in It was obvious that Charlie the late 1940s, he led a series of had an alcohol problem. After a extraordinary small bands, with beer or two, would become ramthe moniker of “Bop For the Peobling and incoherent. He once inple,” designed to bring modern troduced me to a one-time coljazz to the masses. He won all league, pianist John Bunch — the awards and the polls, and as who stopped in after his gig conlate as 1957, tied with none other ducting for Tony Bennett at the than Stan Getz as the nation’s Latin Casino — a dozen times in number one tenor in the Playthe course of two minutes. I was boy magazine “Jazz Poll.” He certold that CV caused more than tainly advanced stylistically since one public scene, and heard stothose sides were made in 1945 ries that he was kicked out of Las — and eventually played on bass, Vegas. I did witness strange bebaritone, alto and soprano saxohavior on occasion; he threw me phones in addition to his tenor out of a club once as I moved his — and gave a lot of promising Charlie Ventura (L) and Bill Harris (R), April 1947 horn in order to set up my youngsters their start. Some of drums. But the juice never seemed to affect his playing. those youngsters included the singing/playing duo of Jackie One afternoon, after returning home from school, my Cain and Roy Kral, future Tonight Show drummer Ed Shaughmother told me that a “Count Lewis” had called, and that I was nessy, trombonist Bennie Green, trumpeter Conte Condoli, to return the call asap. The phone number was Charlie Ventubassist Richard Davis, and fellow Philadelphian Eddie Fisher. ra’s. Charlie said that his drummer, Tony DeNicola, had been Ventura was forced to fire Fisher after less than a month, sayin a car accident, and that he needed a drummer to play severing that the fledgling singer “couldn’t keep time.” al nights at The Saxony East, beginning that night. Keep in All I knew was this: After hearing Ventura on a recording, I mind that he never, ever heard me play, but I guess he wanted — I needed — to play drums with him, and I vowed thought I was ready. The only musical direction he gave me that somehow, before I died, I would. was this: “Stay with the brushes until I get heavy,” he said.

Around 1970, the great Philadelphia radio and television “Then pick up the sticks.” personality, Jerry (“The Geator with the Heater”) Blavat was This master saxophonist was still a relatively big name at hosting a Mike Douglas-like talk show in Philadelphi on this date, especially in his native Philadelphia. He had run a WCAUa. One afternoon, I tuned in Blavat’s show. Among the popular night spot in Lindenwold, NJ, for years, called Charlie guests that day was an older gentleman who was strumming a Ventura’s Open House, and was still fondly remembered. My guitar while seated with other guests. I couldn’t believe it. It pending gig proved to be something of an event within our was Charlie Ventura himself, later joined by his vastly underratfamily. I don’t know how my mother pulled it together on ed, saxophone-playing son, Charlie, Jr., for a couple of rousing

lW

such short notice, but by the time I was ready to play that night, a good dozen or so family members were seated ringside. I was a bit shaky for the first few hours and was dragging the beat, but I caught on. I couldn’t believe I was playing with my idol, the man I first heard playing “Dark Eyes” and “Body and Soul” as a child. Man, I was Gene Krupa! Charlie was wonderful and supportive as was Count Lewis. I wish every young musician had mentors like that today. His only advice to me was, “Rushing the beat a little is okay, but dragging isn’t.”

On a break, Charlie went over to the table to meet my folks. He asked my mother and father what nationality they were, and when they answered “Jewish,” he conversed with them in fluent Yiddish for a good six minutes. I was amazed.

After the gig, I asked him how he did that. He said to me, “I could have done five minutes in Polish, too.”

Stories about Charlie Ventura are legion. One of the funniest was told to me by Count Lewis. One Sunday afternoon, Count and Charlie were relaxing at DeNicola’s home in Trenton, NJ, watching the Jackie Gleason golf tournament on television. An announcement was made that comic Gleason would be playing host to President Gerald Ford on the golf course much later in the day. Hearing that, Charlie got agitated, saying over and over that Gleason owed him “thousands of dollars worth of money” from a series of “mood music” records he made with Gleason years ago.

Taking matters into his own hands, Charlie got on the telephone and rang up The White House, hoping to speak to the President about getting his money from Gleason. Charlie was somewhat disoriented at that point, and whoever was speaking to him from The White House probably thought this was a potentially dangerous guy. According to Count Lewis, the next thing everyone knew, the DeNicola home was surrounded by a dozen Secret Service agents who were looking for this nutcase. That was Charlie for you.

Ventura moved around a lot and had some good years after leaving Philadelphia. I saw him in what was to be his last reunion with Gene Krupa at Brandi’s Wharf in 1971. He played a critically acclaimed series of shows with legendary pianist Teddy Wilson at Michael’s Pub in NYC. Then he moved to the Sheraton Tobacco Valley Inn near Windsor, CT, where he led a marvelous small band, and often featured guest stars like trumpeter Bobby Hackett. He ended up on the West Coast where he really cleaned up his act, but health complications— with severe dental problems on top of it—began to catch up with him. He died in the Atlantic City at the home of Count Lewis, who had become his caretaker, in 1992. ■ Bruce Klauber is the biographer of jazz great Gene Krupa, writer/producer of the Warner Bros. and Hudson Music “Jazz Legends” DVD series, CD producer for the Barcelona-based Fresh Sound Records, Public Relations Director of the Philadelphia nonprofit, Jazz Bridge; a working jazz drummer and entertainment industry professional since childhood. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Temple University and an Honorary Doctorate from Combs College of Music for his “contributions to music scholarship and jazz performance.”

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classical notebook

Burt Bacharach comes to Philadelphia THE LEGENDARY COMPOSER, PIANIST, conductor, arranger and music producer will visit the City of Brotherly Love on Saturday May 4, 2013, when he will be honored with The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award during their Annual Gala.

The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia has a clear tradition of honoring music legends: Luciano Pavarotti (2003), Mitslav Rostropovich (2005), Michel Legrand (2007), Marvin Hamlisch (2008), Placido Domingo (2009), Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff (2011) and, earlier this year, Jessye Norman. In 2013, it is the Chamber Orchestra’s distinguished honor and privilege to present its prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award to another music legend, Burt Bacharach, nearly one week before his 85th birthday.

Burt F. Bacharach, born May 12, 1928, is known for his popular hit songs and compositions from the mid-1950s through the 1980s, with lyrics written by Hal David. Many of their hits were produced specifically for, and performed by, Dionne Warwick. As of 2012, Bacharach has written 73 Top 40 hits in the U.S., and 52 Top 40 hits in the UK, a clear record.

Bacharach was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in the Forest Hills section of New York City. He is the son of Irma and Bert Bacharach, a well-known syndicated newspaper columnist. Bacharach studied music at McGill University, under Helmut Blume, at the renowned Mannes School of Music, and at the Music Academy of the West in Montecito, near Santa Barbara in California. His composition teachers included Darius Milhaud, Henry Cowell and Bohuslav Martinu.

Following service in the U.S. Army, Bacharach worked as a pianist, both as a soloist and as an accompanist for singers such as Vic Damone, Polly Bergen, Steve Lawrence, the Ames Brothers and Paula Stewart (who became his first wife). For some years he was even the musical arranger for the legendary Marlene Dietrich.

In 1957, Bacharach and lyricist Hal David met at the Brill Building in NYC, and at that moment began their longtime writing partnership. Almost a year later, they received their career break when “The Story of My Life” was recorded by Marty Robbins, becoming a No. 1 hit on the U.S. country music charts in late 1957. Soon after, “Magic Moments” was recorded by Perry Como, and became a No. 4 U.S. hit, as well as back-to-back No. 1 singles in the UK.

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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In 1959, their song “Make Room for the Joy” was featured in Jukebox Rhythm, sung by Jack Jones. In the early 1960s, Bacharach wrote well over 100 songs with David and the two were associated throughout the ‘60s with Dionne Warwick, a conservatory-trained vocalist. Bacharach and David started writing a portion of their work with Warwick in mind, leading to one of the most successful teams in popular music history.

Over a 20-year period, Warwick charted 38 singles co-written or produced by Bacharach and David, including 22 Top-40, 12 Top-20, and nine Top-10 hits on the American Billboard Hot 100 charts. During the early ‘60s, Bacharach also collaborated with Bob Hilliard on a number of songs, including “Please Stay” for The Drifters, “Any Day Now” for Chuck Jackson, and “Dreamin’ all the Time” for Jack Jones.

Other singers of Bacharach songs in the ‘60s and ‘70s included Bobby Vinton (“Blue on Blue”); Dusty Springfield (“The Look of Love”); Cilla Black, Cher (“Alfie”); The Shirelles, The Beatles (“Baby, It’s You”); The Carpenters (“Close to You”); Aretha Franklin (“I Say a Little Prayer”); Isaac Hayes; B. J. Thomas (“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”); Tom Jones (“What’s New, Pussycat?”); Engelbert Humperdinck; Jack Jones (“Wives and Lovers”); Jackie DeShannon (“What the World Needs Now Is Love”); Gene Pitney (“Only Love Can Break a Heart”); Herb Alpert, (“This Guy’s in Love with You”); Sergio Mendes & Brasil ‘66 (“The Look of Love”); Jerry Butler, the Walker Brothers (“Make It Easy on Yourself ”); and the Fifth Dimension (“One Less Bell to Answer”).

Bacharach songs were also adapted by jazz artists such as Stan Getz and Wes Montgomery. The Bacharach/David composition “My Little Red Book,” originally recorded by Manfred Mann for the film What’s New, Pussycat?, and promptly covered by Love in 1966, became a rock standard; however, according to Robin Platts’ book Burt Bacharach and Hal David, the composer did not really like Love’s version.

Bacharach and David also collaborated with Broadway producer David Merrick on the 1968 musical Promises, Promises, which yielded two hits, the title tune and “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again,” for Dionne Warwick. The year 1969 marked, perhaps, the most successful Bacharach-David collaboration: the Oscar-winning “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” written for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Bacharach’s musical style is characterized mostly by unusual chord progressions, striking syncopated rhythmic patterns, irregular melodic phrasing, frequent modulation, and odd, changing meters. An example of his distinctive use of changing meter is found in “Promises, Promises.” His style is also associated with particular instrumental combinations he is assumed to favor or to have favored, including the use of the flugelhorn in such works as “Walk on By” and “Nikki.”

In 1970, Johnny Mathis issued a double-LP album set, Sings the Music of Bacharach & Kaempfert, for Columbia. It consisted of 21 tracks in a heavyweight gatefold picture sleeve. The Bert Kaempfert tracks were done in the arrange-

ment style of the German composer and orchestra leader, and the Bacharach tracks were in the American’s upbeat style.

In 1973, Bacharach and David were commissioned to score the revival of the 1937 film, Lost Horizon. The result, however, was a critical and commercial disaster, and resulted in a flurry of lawsuits between the composer and the lyricist, as well as from Warwick. She reportedly felt abandoned when Bacharach and David refused to work together. Bacharach tried several solo projects, including the 1977 album Futures, but the projects all failed to yield hits.

By the early 1980s, Bacharach’s marriage to Angie Dickinson had ended, but a new partnership with lyricist Carole Bayer Sager proved rewarding, both commercially and personally. The two married and collaborated on several major hits, including “Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)” sung

by Christopher Cross, co-written with Cross and Peter Allen; “Heartlight” (Neil Diamond); “Making Love” (Roberta Flack); “On My Own” (Patti LaBelle with Michael McDonald), and perhaps most memorably, “That’s What Friends Are For” in 1985, actually the second single which reunited Bacharach and Warwick.

Other artists continued to revive Bacharach’s earlier hits, giving them a new audience in the 1980s and 1990s: Luther Vandross’ “A House is Not a Home”; Naked Eyes’ 1983 version of “Always Something There to Remind Me,” and Ronnie Milsap’s 1982 country version of “Any Day Now.” Bacharach continues a concert career, appearing at auditoriums throughout the world, often featuring large orchestras as accompaniment.

He is occasionally joined with Warwick, appearing in sold-out concerts in New York, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles.

In 1990, Deacon Blue charted Number Two in the UK singles chart with an EP entitled Four Bacharach & David Songs, with the first track, “I’ll Never Fall in Love Again” receiving extensive media coverage. In 1996, jazz pianist McCoy Tyner recorded an album of nine Bacharach standards. In 1998, Bacharach co-wrote and recorded a Grammy-winning album with Elvis Costello, Painted from Memory, on which the compositions began to take on the sound of his earlier work. In 2006, he recorded a jazz album with Dutch female jazz singer Trijntje Oosterhuis and the Metropole Orchestra called The Burt Bacharach Songbook and in 2002 he collaborated with Cathy Dennis to write an original song for the Pop Idol winner Will Young. This was “What’s in Goodbye,” and it appears on Young’s debut album From Now On. Another star treatment of Bacharach’s compositions was the 2003 album Here I Am featuring Ronald Isley, revisiting a number of his 1960s compositions, and also the Luther Vandross arrangement of “A House Is Not a Home.” Bacharach’s 2005 solo album At This Time saw a departure from past works in that Bacharach penned his own lyrics. Guest stars on some tracks included Elvis Costello, Rufus Wainwright, and even hip-hop producer Dr. Dre. On October 24, 2008, Bacharach opened the BBC Electric

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Proms at The Roundhouse in London, performing with the BBC Concert Orchestra accompanied by guest vocalists Adele, Beth Rowley and Jamie Cullum. The concert was a retrospective look back at his unparalleled six-decade career.

Bacharach and Hal David were awarded

by President Barack Obama with the 2011 Gershwin Prize for Popular Song bestowed by the Library of Congress, the first time a songwriting team was given the honor.

Throughout the ‘60s and ‘70s, Bacharach was featured in TV specials videotaped in the UK. Bacharach and David did the score for an original musical for ABC-TV titled On the Flip Side, starring Rick Nelson as a faded pop star trying for a comeback.

During the 1970s, Bacharach and thenwife Angie Dickinson appeared in several TV commercials for Martini & Rossi, and even penned a short jingle (“Say Yes”) for the spots. Bacharach also appeared on The Merv Griffin Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and many others.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Bacharach had cameo roles in Hollywood movies, including all three Austin Powers movies. During subsequent Bacharach concert tours, each show would even open with a very brief video clip from the movie Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, with Mike Myers (as Austin Powers) uttering “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Burt Bacharach.”

Bacharach also appeared as a celebrity performer and guest vocal coach for contestants on the television show American Idol during the 2006 season, during which an entire episode was dedicated to his music.

In 2008, Bacharach featured in the BBC Electric Proms at The Roundhouse with the BBC Concert Orchestra. He performed similar shows in the same year at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and with the Sydney Symphony.

Bacharach has been married four times.

His first marriage was to Paula Stewart, which lasted five years (1953–58). His second marriage was to actress Angie Dickinson, which lasted fifteen years (1965–80). Bacharach and Dickinson had a daughter, Nikki Bacharach, who committed suicide in 2007 at age 40.

His third marriage was to lyricist Carole Bayer Sager, which lasted nine years (1982–91). Bacharach and Bayer Sager col-

Burt Bacharach.

laborated on a number of musical pieces, and adopted a son, Christopher. Bacharach married his current wife, Jane Hansen, in 1993; they have two children and live in LA. Please mark your calendars and join The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia at the Westin Hotel in Philadelphia on Saturday, May 4, 2013 to honor this very special music legend during a mini-concert

with special guests, followed by the Award giving and a performance

by Burt Bacharach himself, a cocktail reception, sit-down dinner and late-night dancing with Mr. Bacharach’s music. For more information call 215-545-5451 x25. Details about the event will also be made available on chamberorchestra.org. n

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nick’s picks

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

Elizabeth Shepherd ★★★★ Rewind Linus Entertainment

Laverne Butler ★★★★ Love Lost and Found Again HighNote Records

With a clear and unusually pleasant voice, Montrealbased singer Elizabeth Shepherd gives frequently heard standards a jolt on Rewind, her fourth recording, by updating songs like “Love For Sale,” “Poinciana,” and Cannonball Adderley’s “Sack Of Woe” with a pop twist and overt modern groove. Sure, this is a common retro exercise among up-and-coming song stylists today, but Shepherd is gifted and clever enough to push these tunes into contemporary territory. On the leadoff tune, “Love For Sale,” Shepherd lets her core trio (bassist Ross Macintyre and drummer Colin

If you want to hear a truly great artist in the classic jazz tradition of Dinah Washington — bluesy, smooth and soulful — Laverne Butler has a style that’s just about as irresistible.

Her interpretive gifts can be heard on a handful of infrequent recordings, but Ms. Butler seems happiest entertaining fans on stage and in clubs around the world, something she’s concentrated on since the mid-‘80s according to the liner notes of her lustrous recording, Love Lost and Found Again.

Seizing the opportunity to record with producer Wayne Winborne and pianist/arranger Bruce Barth (a superior soloist and leader) during a brief visit to NYC in May 2012, Butler calls on top-tier players — bassist Ugonna Okegwo (Tom Harrell), drummer Rudy Royston and the irrepressible and very busy tenor saxophonist Houston Person, who collectively bring an exemplary depth of feeling and swing to a mix of standards and Broadway tunes. The bluesy “Any Place I Hang My Hat is Home” sets the mood with a tempo that brings out the best in Butler’s voice, its deep, chocolate-like resonance carries plenty of authority. “The Bluest Blues” is a fun number on which Butler invites the boys in her band for a call and response exchange — surely a crowd pleaser in her live act. Another track, “Travelin’ Light,” is a finger-popping delight with an arresting walking bass line, and Butler sounds equally as glorious on the unexpected ballad, “In My Own Little Corner,” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Her timbre and precise enunciation makes her a compelling chanteuse and certainly deserving of wide popularity.

A word about the saxophonist: with more than 75 solo records under his name, Houston Person has perfected that burnished honeyed-tone that sounds so fine, and he shows no sign of stopping that flow. His current recording is called Naturally (HighNote,) another first-rate in-the-pocket studio gig with pianist Cedar Walton, bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Lewis Nash. Person’s sideman role on “Love Lost and Found Again” adds the cherry to Butler’s playlist and turns this dinner-party album into an entertainment that’s as good as they come. (11 tracks; 52:17 minutes)

Elizabeth Shepherd.

Kinsmore) lay down a percussive groove augmented by her own accompaniment on a Wurlitzer organ that gives this Cole Porter chestnut an edge. She solos on keyboards throughout Rewind and very well, too, fusing beatbox electronics on Mel Torme’s “Born to be Blue” and an off-kilter rhythm on Gershwin’s “Buzzard Song.” A popular tune like “Feeling Good” was never covered better than Nina Simone and here, Shepherd’s version sounds slightly forced despite a superior Rhodes solo and dapper bass line.

Throughout, this is an engaging listening experience and it’s hard to pick the best moments, but I’ll go with two: “Midnight Sun” is a rush of elation with a up-tempo arrangement, a wonderful bass solo by Scott Kemp and a deft piano feature for Shepherd that dazzles. As a sort of grand finale, Ellington’s “Prelude To A Kiss” pairs Shepherd with fellow Canadian Denzal Sinclaire, a jazz singer with a smooth-as-silk voice (think Nat Cole or Johnny Hartman), and their too brief duet is a model of clarity and emotional directness.

Her liner notes detail the decision to cut an album of familiar tunes due to being eight months pregnant with her son, and while that alone should qualify Shepherd for an endurance award, Rewind is smartly crafted with genuine staying power. (12 tracks; 51:02 minutes)

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.

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on rollicking tracks like “One Thousand and One Nights” and the after hours romanticism of “It’s Time,” two out of five Elias originals. Her warm tone is abetted by the sonically superior studio techniques favored by ECM. Actually, everyone sounds remarkably present, from Johnson’s lush bass notes to Baron’s precise accompaniment on his kit, but it’s Lovano that truly surprises as sideman. On tracks like “Moments,” he enters the soundstage with a heavenly tone that embodies the delicacy of Stan Getz and the grounding emotional sweep that the venerated saxman perfected. Johnson and Elias have an earlier album together, Shades of Jade (2005, ECM) that promoted an inventive interplay coupled with an easy-going swing, but Swept Away ups the ante. This is an album with mainstream jazz appeal, where Elias embraces her lyrical side (“B is for Butterfly”) with resolute grace and it gives this quartet a vivid sense of purpose and clarity. (11 tracks; 68:30 minutes) Dave Douglas ★★★★ Be Still Greenleaf Music The poignant story behind trumpeter Dave Douglas’ recording, Be Still, begins with his mother, Emily Douglas, who attended over 200 of her son’s performances and asked him to play this selection of hymns at her funeral. Of course, the album is affecting and it’s aesthetically noteworthy in the way that his quintet expresses another side of Douglas’ prolific creativity — the songs lucidly mix jazz with folk, bluegrass and traditional Protestant song forms. In another

Marc Johnson, Eliane Elias ★★★★ 1/2 Swept Away ECM

Dave Douglas. Photo: Austin Nelson.

The Brazilian pianist/singer Eliane Elias may be better known to jazz listeners for her recent records for Blue Note, Something for You: Eliane Elias Sings & Plays Bill Evans and Bossa Nova Stories, two popular turns that took advantage of her sensuality as much as her musical gifts, which moved her effortlessly into Diana Krall terrain. On the instrumental Swept Away, she shares top billing with her husband, bassist Marc Johnson, creating a blissful album that exercises her jazz chops and provides an opportunity to ply her estimable talent against like-minded colleagues, saxophonist Joe Lovano and drummer Joey Baron. Less meditative than most ECM albums, Swept Away swings from the bows of Elias’ athletic pianism, ushering in a particularly rewarding brand of straight-ahead jazz. Her charisma goes far

satisfying turn, the trumpeter adds the vocals and guitar of Aoife O’Donovan, which Douglas underscores with subtle tonalities behind the lyrics. Be Still is more celebratory than mournful (“Whither Must I Wander,”) with saxophonist Jon Irabagon, bassist Linda Oh, pianist Matt Mitchell and the versatile drummer Rudy Royston on hand to enhance its nondenominational pleasures. There’s also a fitting dedication to drummer Paul Motian (“Middle March”) that resonates with free-form interplay and the track elegantly reinforces the band’s musical cohesion. Recorded in April 2012, Be Still is more celebratory than mournful (“Whither Must I Wander,”) is a stand-alone gem in the Douglas discography, an evocative ode to a profound relationship and played with deeply felt significance. (9 tracks; 42:56 minutes) ■

keresman on disc

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

Vijay Iyer Trio ★★★★ Accelerando ACT

Mariel Roberts ★★★★★ Nonextraneous Sounds Innova

There’s nothing quite like a disc by a working jazz combo.

As with Fred Hersch’s trio and precious few others, the Vijay Iyer Trio has the near-magical rapport that comes from true — dare I say — team spirit. But what separates (and elevates) the VI3 from many other similar combos (with similar solidari-

Mariel Roberts is a classical cellist who’s played under the direction of Pierre Boulez and at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival in North Adams, Massachusetts, and more heavy stuff besides. Nonextraneous Sounds is a disc of (mostly) unaccompanied cello, but before you skip to the next ‘view, dig: This is not some staid, solemn “recital” — Ms. Roberts plays contemporary music “designed” to be listened to (as opposed to some conceptual b.s. wherein a composer is seemingly more interested in the “process” of a composition rather than the end result) and she plays with what can only be described as rock and roll energy. Sean Friar’s “Teaser” is as urgent and

sen chestnuts (Miles Davis’ great “Nardis,” Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman”) for a double-disc dalliance that’ll thrill the trousers off any fan of acoustic modernist key-crackers (Evans, Keith Jarrett, Paul Bley, Chick Corea, Marilyn Crispell, etc.) palmetto-records.com

Fred Hersch. Photo: Michael Jackson Vijay Iyer Trio

ty) is their eagerness to take chances and make them pay off.

Accelerando is not only “of ” the jazz sphere, with its sharp originals and versions of gems by Duke Ellington and Herbie Nichols, but of the “rest” of the world, with its reinventions of songs by Heatwave and Michael Jackson. Iyer is like unto Hersch in that both are supremely expressive (VI is a tad edgier) and concise — unlike some horn players I could mention, neither gent saturates with a flood of notes when a few wellplaced ones will put you in orbit. actmusic.com Kathy Mattea ★★★★ Calling Me Home Sugar Hill Circa late ‘80s/early ‘90s, Kathy Mattea was a queen of country radio with a big perm. But even then she did things her way, her albums exploring connections betwixt country and trad Scottish folk; her Top Five hit “Walking Away a Winner” was an almost power-pop country-rocker, and she took a stand for AIDS awareness onstage at the 1991 Country Music Association Awards. Calling Me Home finds Mattea embracing her Appalachian roots — but while her vocals are somewhat “smooth,” the songs are not. They’re about living where mining coal is a way of life and not always a rosy one. In a predominantly acoustic, bluegrass-leaning context, she sings poignant, angst-laden songs by Jean Ritchie, Hazel Dickens, and Alice Gerrard, among others. “Gone, Gonna Rise Again” and “West Virginia Mine Disaster” are as plaintive, haunting and harrowing as anything by Woody Guthrie, Bert Jansch, and/or the Pentangle. Home — rich with contributions from Bryan Sutton, Patty Loveless, Tim & Mollie O’Brien, Emmylou Harris, and Alison Krauss — is full of songs that take you there. sugarhillrecords.com shemp@hotmail.com

J.S. Bach/András Schiff ★★★★★ The Well-Tempered Clavier Books I & II ECM

Mariel Roberts

insistent as Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” and as plaintively stirring and harrowing as Shostakovich. “Saint Arc” by Daniel Wohl is like a somewhat minimalist version of Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock take on the “Star Spangled Banner” — sharp contrast, an orchestral texture, and anguished, positively cathartic feedback-like wailing and sawing. This set closes with Tristan Perich’s “Formations,” in which MR plays with some snazzy software for a dramatic, entrancing (and lyrical!) workout that evokes the freshness and zest of Philip Glass’ 1970s works.

This is one of the few discs I can play in entirety more than once a night. innova.mu / marielroberts.com Fred Hersch Trio ★★★★ 1/2 Alive at the Village Vanguard Palmetto This isn’t the first Fred Hersch album recorded at the iconic NYC jazz club, Village Vanguard (heck, FH should be made a partner), and with any luck it won’t be the last, either.

Pianist Hersch — who established himself with such swells as Art Farmer, Stan Getz, and Jane Ira Bloom — is so darn wellregarded that almost anything this writer could write is redundant…almost. Put simply, the mantle of the late Bill Evans — that master of romantic-but-not-soppy lyricism and conciseness — has an heir in Hersch. Like Evans (while in no way imitative), Hersch plays with deceptive simplicity and technique that serves the music, never the ego. His trio of bassist John Hébert and Eric McPherson has such subtle and empathetic rapport that it rivals or equals any piano trio one could name.

The FH3 present a dandy mix of originals and judiciously cho-

J.S. Bach/Takae Ohnishi ★★★★★ Goldberg Variations Bridge To recount the significance of classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) in a brief space is absurd; suffice it to say his significance is on a par with Shakespeare’s in literature and Mineo’s in Pittsburgh pizza. One of the chief aspects of JSB’s legendhood is his works for keyboard instruments — both collections, one played on piano and the other on harpsichord, are devastatingly yummy. Clavier, played by UK-residing Hungarian piano ace András Schiff, is considered one of THE most important works ever, as it’s one of the first compositions for keys using all major and minor keys and (eventually, natch) contributing to jazz harmony. Within the genteel yet driven rhythms and almost mathematics-like perfection, it’s easy to hear the “beginnings” of jazz, rock and roll, minimalism, and other assorted styles/genres both in and beyond classical music. Schiff has a firm, ornately lyrical touch that brings out the brightness and dark (and even a bit of subliminal swing) in these miniatures. ecmrecords.com JSB’s Goldberg Variations are thought to be named for a gent named Johann G. Goldberg, who’d first performed them. Japan-born San Diego-based Takae Ohnishi performs them on a brand-new (well, 2010) harpsichord. Where the Clavier pieces feel like linear models of (deceptive) simplicity, the more ornate Variations are given a reading that is forestdense and luxuriant. While the Clavier “tunes” are sometimes sober, spare, cerebral, and motivated, the Variations can be wistful, playful, folk-like (believe it or leave it, strains of JSB’s era’s folk and pop sounds made their way into his, uh, tunes) and nearly celebratory. Ms. Ohnishi is a one-woman orchestra behind those keys. bridgerecords.com ■ NOVEMBER 2012

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jazz library

BOB PERKINS

ColemanHAWKINS JUST AS THERE ARE people who are ambidextrous, and can use their right or left hand with equal facility, there are those in the word of music who can play both classical and jazz music. On a related note: history also tells us that toward the middle part of the previous century, there were a few jazz musicians in the swing era, who were talented enough to absorb a more modern form of jazz when it evolved. This new jazz somehow got the name “bebop.”

One of the musicians that made the transition from the traditional to the new music was saxophonist Coleman Hawkins. But Hawkins was like a daddy longlegs, in that he continued to have one foot planted in the swing era, while stretching his talent and swinging with the more modern cats. For using his noggin to accomplishing this musical giant step, he earned from his contemporaries the sobriquet, “The Bean.” One writer noting that Hawkins’ knowledge of chord structures and harmonies was encyclopedic.

Hawkins’ other nickname was “The Hawk.

He is credited with not only popularizing the tenor saxophone, but playing it better than anyone else had, or for many years, could.

He added an exclamation point to this recognition by recording a short, but definitive recording of “Body and Soul.” In 1939, his rendition of the song became the talk of the jazz music world for many years — and The Bean became the yardstick by which all tenor saxophonists were measured, and he remained a leading voice in jazz for four decades.

The Coleman Randolph Hawkins Story began November 21, 1904, in St. Joseph, Missouri.

He began piano lessons at an early age, later switching to cello and ultimately to saxophone at age nine. He began his professional career at age 12, and a few years later played in a Kansas City theater pit band. (This was after the family had first moved to Chicago and then to Topeka, Kansas, where Hawkins attended high school. The boy wonder claimed to have studied harmony and composition at Washington College while still in high school.)

Hawkins’ first major gig was with Mamie Smith’s band in 1921. Two years later, he was a member of Fletcher Henderson’s Orchestra, where he remained until 1934, sometimes doubling on other reed instruments. While with Henderson, he did some vmoonlighting, recording solo and with small groups; both did much to spread his name.

He made Europe his home from 1934 to 1939, working with jazz legends Django Reinhardt and Benny Carter in Paris in 1937. Upon his return to the States, he formed a short-lived big band, but quickly returned to fronting smaller groups, one of which included Miles Davis, Max Roach, Thelonious Monk and Oscar Pettiford. Hawkins’ influence on modern jazz musicians was well noted when Miles Davis commented, “When I heard Hawk, I learned to play ballads.”

The Hawk’s association with more advanced jazz men continued when he toured with trumpeter Howard McGee and trombonist J.J. Johnson, and later with Jazz at the Philharmonic Troupe.

By the late 1940s, Hawkins was dividing his time between New York and Europe, recording regularly and working as a sideman and leader. He continued working with swing era associates, but still exerted an influence on emerging modern saxophonists like Sonny Rollins.

Time and heavy drinking were beginning to take their toll on Hawkins. But even at a reduced speed, the great alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges said about him, “The older he gets, the better he gets. When you think he’s through, he’s gone right ahead again.”

The last years of Hawkins’ existence were not pretty. He seemed to lose interest in life. He didn’t eat properly, but continued to drink heavily. He was once a powerfully built man, but began to waste away physically. And the great musical mind that had once earned him the title of The Bean also began to fail.

But Hawkins had many credits to fall back on. His discography is long, and a couple of his finer works and collaborations include the CDs, Prestige Profiled Coleman Hawkins; Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins, and Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster.

Hawkins contracted pneumonia in 1969 and succumbed to the disease. In 1990, British jazz historian John Chilton authored a biography which chronicles Hawkins’ career, The Song of the Hawk. n Bob Perkins is a writer and host of an all-jazz radio program that airs on WRTI-FM 90.1 Monday-Thurs. night from 6 to 9pm & Sunday, 11–3pm.

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FINDINGS

By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi

A compendium of research facts

TEAMS OF NEUROSCIENTISTS AT the Max-Planck-Institut für Kognitions und Neurowissenschaften traced dyslexia to the brain’s medial geniculate body and located metaconsciousness in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar regions, and the precuneus. French researchers used irony to activate the brain’s Theory of Mind network. fMRIs reveal abnormal activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and insula when adults with hoarding disorder are threatened with the loss of their junk mail. Berlin somnologists implanted a tongue pacemaker to regulate the hypoglossal nerve. Doctors writing in Deutsches Ärzteblatt International suggested measures for thwarting the nocebo effect.

Industrial psychologists debuted the Workplace Arrogance Scale to help identify problem managers. A multinational survey with the Olweus Bullying Questionnaire found that traditional bullying was still much more popular than cyberbullying. Seventy percent of Chilean children who have fetal alcohol syndrome do not look it. Doctors tend not to diagnose alcoholism unless a patient is drunk when examined. NASCAR fans were increasingly uninterested in crashes. Poor mothers suffering from generalized anxiety disorder were found to be anxious not because of mental illness but because of poverty. Economists found that small amounts of opportunity allow people to accept large amounts of inequality.

Pediatric intensive-care doctors in Britain argued that the devout parents of dying children should not expect divine intervention. A Delaware pediatrician who studies the near-death experiences of children was arrested for waterboarding his stepdaughter. The American Psychological Association found that Americans would benefit from more psychotherapy.

MOSS WAS FOUND TO depend on springtails for the transport of its sperm, which otherwise must swim through the morning dew. The royal jelly of worker bees, when fortified by scientists, trebles the size of queens. Piglets work hard for Nesquik. Most deaths of fruit flies on methamphetamine are due to anorexia.

Innovation but not persistence leads to success among hyenas. Crippled American farmers were being injured by their insufficiently robust prosthetic limbs. A woman born with three fingers on her right hand was reported, following the amputation of that hand, to experience a phantom hand with five fingers. Humans more easily see women as body parts and men as whole people. A Singaporean company unveiled Kissenger, a pair of plastic lips mounted on a large plastic egg, which transmits real-time interactive kisses to a distant lover. “I am not interested in the sexual uses for it,” said the device’s inventor. “We’ve taken several steps to minimize the creepiness.”

BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS HOPED THAT a cyberegg would help them learn about the cygnet-hatching strategies of the mute swans of Abbotsbury Swannery.

Scotland worried that its geologists were failing to abide by the Code of Conduct for Rock Coring. Welsh scientists defended their having sewn shut the eyes of kittens. The Manx Basking Shark Watch reported a basking shark with plastic around its nose near Contrary Head. Two dolphin pods had become one. One hundred and fifty tons of spilled Chinese nurdles were threatening finless porpoises. Swiss sheep were testing panic collars that can text-message shepherds during wolf attacks. Mountain gorillas in Rwanda were observed dismantling poachers’ traps. Scientists identified the combination of arenaviruses and filoviruses likely responsible for inclusion body disease, which causes snakes to wither, stargaze, and die. Mars was found to have plate tectonics and also, presumably, Marsquakes. Sturzstroms were reported on Iapetus. Sally Ride died.

American flags were still standing on the moon. Physicists and mathematicians continued to debate whether it is better to walk or to run in the rain. ■

day trip

DAN HUGOS

Claire Lynch Brings Traditional Bluegrass to the Opera House CLAIRE LYNCH BRINGS A prolific history as a singer and songwriter to the Mauch Chunk Opera House in Jim Thorpe on Friday, November 9, as well as a voice that’s been compared to Nanci Griffith and Alison Krauss. Her niche is traditional bluegrass, and her personal history is a testament to her talents.

Since 1976, Claire and her band, The Front Porch String Band, became one of the hardest-working groups in Alabama. Their self-produced debut album, Smilin’ at You, released in 1977, was followed by Country Rain later the same year. In 1981, the Front Porch String Band released a self-titled, nationally distributed album on Rebel, while Claire released her solo debut, Breakin’ It, on the smaller Ambush label.

In 1982 they met John Starling, the former lead singer of the Seldom Scene, who had left music to becoming a practicing physician.

Starling took the Lynches under his wing and helped them sharpen their skills as performers, as well as promoting Claire Lynch’s songwriting by sending copies of her songs to a Nashville publisher. As a result, Lynch’s songs were soon covered by Stephanie Davis (“Moonlighter”), Patty Loveless (“Some Morning Soon”), and Kathy Mattea (“Hills of Alabama”), and she was signed by Polygram to a staff writing contract.

In 1990, Claire formed a new version of the Front Porch String Band. The following year, the band released its comeback album, Lines & Traces. In subsequent years, the lineup of the re-formed group has featured such musicians as Michael McLain, formerly of the McLain Family Band, on banjo, mandolin, and vocals; Missy Raines, formerly of Eddie & Martha Adcock’s band, on upright bass; and Jim Hurst, who previously played with the touring bands of Holly Dunn and Trisha Yearwood, on guitar and vocals.

Claire Lynch’s second solo album, Friends for a Lifetime, released in 1993 and reissued in 1995, was a celebration of gospel music. Her 1995 album, Moonlighter, was nominated for a Grammy Award as Best Bluegrass Album. Silver and Gold was released in 1997. Lovelight followed in the spring of 2000, and Out in the Country was issued a year later.

In March of 2006, Lynch released New Day on Rounder Records, following it up three years later in 2009 with a second Rounder release, Whatcha Gonna Do. In addition to singing on her solo albums and recordings with the Front Porch String Band, Claire has sung on albums by Ralph Stanley, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Dolly Parton, John Starling, and Pam Tillis. ■ Pick up tickets on MauchChunkOperaHouse.com or call the box office at 570-325-0249.

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The Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle ALL FIRED UP

By Robin Stears Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

1 6 10 14 19 20 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 31 33 35 36 39 42 46 49 52 53 55 56 58 59 61 63 65 69 70 71 74 77 79 80 82 85 87 88 89 92 94 95 99 100 102 103 105 107 109

ACROSS Weathered the storm Crocodile’s greeting?

Turquoise relative Comment to the audience Fade away Dramatic solo, often Abridges Host at a communion Extra-strength panic button?

Lukas of “Witness” Photographer Adams Kevin’s “Footloose” role Spin doctor’s concern “No hitting below the belt” et al.?

St. Clare’s town Kingdom “Silent Spring” subj.

“I __ mean it” Orbital shape Detrained, say Acronymic candy company Saltine special?

Grammar best-seller “Woe __” Filmmaker who alternates top billing with his brother SeaWorld barker Babydoll Hidden retreat Savory gelatin Tap type Schumann songs “Magic Hour” author Susan Destined Mischievous sort Subdivision at the mannequin factory?

La Jolla winter hrs.

Willies-inducing World’s largest desert More beloved Pots-and-pans noises “Fiddler” meddler Oak trunk Gate fastener Yom Kippur War prime minister Ho-hum “You __ My Sunshine” First critters on a farm?

Upholstery jobs Curiosity destination Notable 1968 groom Hombre’s title Time’s 2006 Person of the Year Joint at the corner Turns to swing

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113 Legion of ventriloquist dummies?

118 Texas attraction 121 __ kwon do 122 Product suffix suggesting noodles 123 Theater level 124 Sharon’s home?

126 Zellweger of “Chicago” 127 The Auld Sod 128 “Shucks” 129 Flop or lop follower 130 Gets in the game 131 Faction 132 Silk Road locale 133 “NYPD Blue” actor

NOVEMBER 2012

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DOWN “Lost Horizon” director Bright-toned winds Little men When Nancy bakes?

Mockery Jamboree Big snooze ABC or BET, e.g.

Versatile veggie Paris was too much for him Serious predicament Its motto is “Industry” Busy ed.’s request Cy Young, e.g.

Safe places In that case Transfer document Della’s creator In the center of Columbo portrayer Biographer Leon Wallet item Common Market inits.

Some PX patrons Apprehensive Antidrug commercials, e.g., briefly Seven-veil dancer Hard-to-read preliminary print?

Golfer Aoki Freeway roller Harper Lee’s first name Online commerce Head judge on “Top Chef ”?

Ouzo flavorings Big spread “Sex and the City” role Adm.’s milieu

60 Bit of bullring gear 62 Dent site 64 “At the __ Core”: Burroughs novel 66 Reclining chair user’s sigh 67 Supercomputer name 68 Scattered 72 Broadway’s first Oakley 73 “The Luncheon on the Grass” and “Olympia,” e.g.

75 Alabama march city 76 Maple and pine 78 Inclusive abbr.

81 Soak up 82 Chowder tidbit 83 Zhivago’s love 84 Antitoxin sources 86 Put a charge into?

90 “I can’t explain how I did that” 91 Junk mail addressee 93 Chemical variants 96 __ de force 97 Baptism, for one 98 Polymer ending 101 Bondi Beach city 104 32-Down datum 106 Stage prizes 108 Motel posting 110 Asteroids creator 111 “Don’t play,” on a score

112 113 114 115 116 117

Origins Bend Hershiser of ESPN Chaplin’s fourth wife French cruise stops Bush fighter

119 120 124 125

Centers of activity “My Way” lyricist ’50s song syllable Hasty escape Answer in next month’s issue.

Answer to October’s puzzle, HIGH JINKS

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INDEX Facts compiled by the editors of Harper’s Magazine

Percentage change in Chief Justice John Roberts’s approval rating among Republicans since his 2005 confirmation: –60 Among Democrats: +54 Ratio of the value of Obama contributions to Romney contributions among education workers: 6 to 1 Among for-profit education workers: 1 to 4 Percentage of Americans who viewed college as a good financial investment in 2008: 81 Who do today: 57 Portion of college students who reported experiencing “phantom” cell phone vibrations in a July study: 9/10 Date on which Grum, a Russian spambot, was taken offline: 7/18/2012 Percentage of the world’s spam for which Grum was responsible at its peak: 17 Portion of Russians who believe that “most people can succeed if they are willing to work hard”: 1/3 Of Americans who do: 3/4 Percentage change since 2007 in the portion of Spaniards who believe people are better off in a free market economy: –30 In the portion of Americans who do: –4 Percentage increase since 1990 in the share of U.S. men who say they “worry about their weight”: 95 Portion of adults worldwide who don’t meet World Health Organization standards for physical activity: 1/3 Estimated number of deaths caused by physical inactivity each year: 5,300,000 Percentage by which the Defense Department’s health care spending is projected to increase in the next two decades: 81 Estimated percentage of its current health care spending allocated for mental health: 5 Chance that a death among U.S. service members is a suicide: 1 in 5 Among military-age members of the general population: 1 in 20 Portion of service members who are under the age of 25: 1/3 Of those who commit suicide who are: 1/2 Chance an American child lives in a family headed by a single mother: 1 in 4 Portion of new U.S. jobs since 2009 that have gone to men: 4/5 Percentage by which sales of convertibles increase when the temperature is at least 20 degrees warmer than average: 8.5 Percentage of the continental United States that experienced drought conditions this summer: 60 Last year in which the number was that high: 1954 Portion of the 2012 U.S. corn crop in “poor” or “very poor” condition, according to the USDA: 1/2 Amount by which the average Canadian household is richer than the average American one: $43,232 Estimated number of billionaires worldwide: 1,226 Years it would take the average American household to spend a billion dollars: 20,786 Amount the debt-ceiling standoff cost the federal government in 2011: $1,300,000,000 Percentage increase since 1976 in the portion of Americans living at or below half the poverty line: 100 Number of registered Pennsylvanians who may be prevented from voting by a new voter-identification law: 1,600,000 Portion of Philadelphians the law may affect: 2/5 Number of documented instances of voter-impersonation fraud in Pennsylvania history: 0 Percentage of Americans who believe Obama would handle an extraterrestrial invasion better than Romney: 65 Date on which Harry Reid said Romney “couldn’t be confirmed as a dogcatcher” if he didn’t release more tax returns: 7/12/2012 Number of years of his own tax returns Reid has made public: 0

Index Sources 1,2 Gallup (Washington); 3,4 Center for Responsive Politics (Washington); 5,6 Country Financial (Bloomington, Ill.); 7 Michelle Drouin, Indiana University–Purdue University Fort Wayne; 8,9 FireEye (Milpitas, Calif.); 10–13 Pew Research Center (Washington); 14 Gallup (Washington); 15,16 I-Min Lee, Harvard School of Public Health (Boston); 17 U.S. Congressional Budget Office; 18,19 U.S. Department of Defense; 20 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta); 21,22 U.S. Department of Defense; 23 U.S. Census Bureau (Suitland, Md.); 24 National Women’s Law Center (Washington); 25 Meghan R. Busse, Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.); 26,27 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Asheville, N.C.); 28 U.S. Department of Agriculture; 29 Environics (Toronto); 30 Forbes (N.Y.C.); 31 Harper’s research; 32 U.S. Government Accountability Office; 33 U.S. Census Bureau (Suitland, Md.); 34,35 Pennsylvania AFL-CIO (Harrisburg); 36 Stephanie Singer, City Commissioners Office (Philadelphia); 37 Kelton Global (Los Angeles); 38,39 Harper’s research.

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calendar CALL TO ARTISTS GoggleWorks Center for the Arts 2013 Juried Exhibition. Home: Interpreting the Familiar Grand Prize: solo show in the Cohen Gallery.

GoggleWorks is the country’s largest, most comprehensive interactive arts center. Cash prizes for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place. Open to all media. Up to 3 works allowed, $35. Juror: Genevieve Coutroubis, award winning photographer and director, The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia. Deadline: Dec. 21, 2012. Exhibition: May 11 – June 23, 2013.

Prospectus: www.goggleworks.org/Exhibitions/Call-for-Artists/. 201 Washington St., Reading, PA, 19601, 610-374-4600 ART EXHIBITS THRU 11/4 Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, by Brian Lav. Red Filter Fine Art Photography Gallery, 74 Bridge St., Lambertville, NJ. Thur.-Sun. 12-5.

347-244-9758. redfiltergallery.com.

THRU 11/4 Of the Earth and Sky, Michael Filipiak. Patricia Hutton Galleries, 47 W. State St., Doylestown.

215-348-1728. Patriciahuttongalleries.com THRU 11/18 Robert Beck: Homecoming. Guest artist, Raymond Mathis. 204 N. Union St., Lambertville, NJ 609-397-5679 robertbeck.net THRU 11/25 Dan Christmas: Orbs. The Quiet Life Gallery, 17 So. Main St., Lambertville, NJ. 609-397-0880. quietlifegallery.com THRU 11/30 Netherfield Fine Art features works by fine artist Jessie Krause. 11 E. Bridge St., New Hope, PA. 215-862-4500.

Netherfieldfineart.com THRU 11/30 Corinne Lalin, Encaustics and Constructions.

SFA Gallery, 10 Bridge St., Suite 7, Frenchtown, NJ. 908-268-1700. sfagallery.com THRU 12/14 Nestor Armando Gil: Pan (Myotopia), a multimedia installation exploring borders and relocation/dislocation, whether psychological, physical, or geographical. Grossman Gallery, Lafayette Art Galleries, Easton, PA. 610-3305361. http://galleries.lafayette.edu.

THRU 12/14 Booked, an exhibition that will have one re-examining the book as an inspiration for the artistic imagination. Williams Center Gallery, Lafayette Art Galleries, Easton, PA. 610-3305361. http://galleries.lafayette.edu.

THRU 12/30 Kardon Gallery showcases paintings by Si Lewen. 139 South Main Street, Doylestown.

Wed.-Sat. 10-5, Sun. 12-5, and by appt.

215-489-4287. kardongallery.com.

Fishman and Razel Kapustin. Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Ave, Phila.

215-247-0476 woodmereartmuseum.org

Going Green the Wong Way. Just how tricky is it to “do the right thing?” 8pm, 321 E. Fourth St., Bethlehem, PA. 610-867-1689. touchstone.org

College, Allentown, PA. Tickets available at door or at lvartsboxoffice.org. cmsob.org

12/15: 12/15:

11/23 Stephen Williams, organ. “A French Connection: Guilmant, Widor Dupré, Demessieux, 7:30 PM. Arts at St. John’s, St. John’s Lutheran Church, 37 So. Fifth St., Allentown.

610-435-1641. stjohnsallentown.org

12/22: 12/30:

THRU 1/6 Murray Dessner: A Retrospective. Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Ave, Phila.

215-247-0476 woodmereartmuseum.org

11/24-12/8 Misery. The Bucks County Playhouse, New Hope, PA. 215-862-2121. BCPTheater.org

11/3-11/23 Subjects Emerge, Oils of Peter Fiore. Travis Gallery, 6089 Lower York Rd. (Rt. 202), New Hope, PA, 18938. Wed.-Sat. 10-5. 215-7943903, www.travisgallery.com

11/28-12/2 The Bourgeois Pig: A new play by Brighde Mullins. Muhlenberg College of Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484664-3693. muhlenberg.edu/theatre

11/23 The Moody Blues, The Voyage Continues-Highway 45. State Theatre, 8pm, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 610-252-3132. statetheatre.org

11/4-12/30 It’s About Time…Alexander Volkov and Mary Serfass, The Snow Goose Gallery. Meet the artists Sun., Nov. 4, 1-5pm. 470 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA. 610-974-9099. thesnowgoosegallery.com

11/28-12/9 A Christmas Story, based on the motion picture and directed by Steven Dennis. Act 1, DeSales University, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. 610-282-3192. desales.edu/act1

11/30 Jim Brickman, On a Winter’s Night, 8pm. Holiday concert weaving humor, warmth and holiday favorites in an unforgettable evening! Allentown Symphony, 23 N. 6th St., Allentown.

610-432-6715 allentownsymphony.org

11/8-1/6 “Wabi-Sabi” photographs by Bruce MacDougall. “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” by Brian Lav continues in Upstairs Gallery II. Red Filter Gallery, 74 Bridge St., Lambertville, NJ 347-244-9758. redfiltergallery.com.

Th.-Sun. 12-5.

12/13-12/30 It’s a Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play by Joe Landay. The Bucks County Playhouse, New Hope, PA. 215-862-2121. BCPTheater.org

12/8 & 12/9 The Bach Choir of Bethlehem Christmas Concert, Benjamin Britten’s, St. Nicolas and Bach’s Magnificat, 8pm, First Presbyterian Church, Allentown. $29-$40 adults, $10 students.

610-866-4382. Bach.org

11/9-12/9 Lens Through Time: Photography by Bruce Murray, Sr. and Bruce Murray, Jr. Opening reception, 11/9, 6-9. Twenty-Two Gallery, 236 S. 22nd St., Phila. Wed-Sun 12-6. 215-772-1911. twenty-twogallery.com 11/9-12/2 Patterns & Meaning: Work by Andrew Werth and Alan J. Klawans. Opening reception 11/10, 3-6. Artists’ Gallery, 18 Bridge Street, Lambertville, NJ Fri, Sat, Sun 11-6. 609-397-4588. lambertvillearts.com

12/22 & 23 Cirque Eloize iD! A vibrant hip-hop universe collides with a kaleidoscope of circus arts.

Zoellner Arts Center, 8pm, $45/$35. 610-7582787. zoellnerartscenter.org THRU 12/29 Murder Mystery Dinner Theater- Dinner, Desert… and Death. New show, Peddler’s Village, Fri. & Sat. evenings, 7pm, $51.95 per person (includes dining, show, tax & service charge.) Peddler’s Pub, Cock n’ Bull in Peddler’s Village, Rte. 263 & Street Rd., Lahaska, PA. 215-794-4051. peddlersvillage.com

DINNER & MUSIC 11/10-12/9 Works in Wood, The 11th Annual Juried exhibition of Contemporary, functional and sculptural forms. New Hope Arts, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope. newhopearts.org. 215-862-9606.

11/16 Grand Opening Reception 6-8pm, Paintings and Drawings from Ani Art Academy Waichulis apprentices and alumni. Atelier Dualis, 91 West Broad St., Bethlehem. atelierdualis.com

Saturday nights: Sette Luna Restaurant, 219 Ferry St., Easton, PA. 610-253-8888. setteluna.com Thursday nights: John Beacher’s Community Stage, 8-12pm, Community Stage sign ups, 9pm: Solo act, 8-9pm. Karla’s, 5 W. Mechanic St., New Hope. 215-862-2612. karlasnewhope.com DANCE

11/23-25 Covered Bridge Artisans 18th Annual Holiday Studio Tour. Visit artists’ studios in the Sergeantsville Cultural Arts Center, and enjoy a free self-guided tour in southern Hunterdon County, NJ. Fri. & Sat., 10-5, Sun. 10-4. Visit coveredbridgeartisans.com for information.

11/23-12/2 Galerie Marta Whistler: Annual Holiday Sale, 10 days only. All paintings, oil pastels and sculpture at 50% discount. Open every day 12 noon – 8:00PM. Galerie Marta Whistler, 158-B Northampton Street, Easton. martawhistler.com

11/4 Zoellner Arts Center presents MOMIX Botanica, 7pm. A must see ground-breaking dance performance. Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem, PA. 610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org.

11/24 Cinderella’s Christmas, 1pm. The Kaleidoscope Children’s Theatre of Rhode Island performs Cinderella’s Christmas. Allentown Symphony, 23 N. 6th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-6715. allentownsymphony.org

ARTSQUEST CENTER AT STEELSTACKS (Musikfest Café) 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA 610-332-1300. artsquest.org 11/9: 11/10:

Conspirator - SteelJam 2012 Victor Wooten Band & Jimmy Herring Band 11/15-17:Christmas w/The Von Trapp Children 11/24: Enter the Haggis 11/29: Christmas 1944 11/30: Classic Albums Live - Recreating Pink Floyd's “Dark Side Of The Moon” 12/1: Christmas 1944 12/2: The Greater Lehigh Valley Music Association Presents The Lehigh Valley Music Awards 14 12/4: Clay Aiken: Joyful Noise Tour 2012 12/6: Christmas 1944 12/7: David Parker And The Bang Group's Nut/Cracked Returns 12/8,9: The Second City's Dysfunctional Holiday Revue 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 11/10: 11/17: 11/21: 11/23: 11/24: 11/30: 12/1:

CONCERTS THRU 12/30 It’s About Time…Captured Moments, Mary Serfass and Alexander Volkov. The Snow Goose Gallery. Meet the artists Sun., Nov. 4, 1-5pm.

470 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA. 610-9749099. thesnowgoosegallery.com.

THRU 1/6 Generations: Louise Fishman, Gertrude Fisher-

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THEATER 11/15-17 Moving Stories Dance Concert, Thurs. & Fri., 8pm, Sat. 2pm & 8pm. Muhlenberg College of Theatre & Dance, 2400 Chew St., Allentown, PA. 484-664-3693. muhlenberg.edu/theatre 11/16 -17

NOVEMBER 2012

Some organizations perform in various locations. If no address is listed, check the website for location of performance.

11/18 Adaskin String Trio with Ensemble Schumann, 4pm. Chamber Music Society of Bethlehem, Baker Theatre, Trexler Pavilion, Muhlenberg

12/7:

12/8: 12/8: 12/14:

The ‘The Band’ Band – Last Waltz Celebration Start Making Sense with special guests, The Great White Caps Free Range Folk - Harvest Jam The Eric Mintel Quartet The Funk Ark A Coal Country Christmas Carol Twelve Twenty Four: Holiday Show featuring the music of the Trans Siberian Orchestra Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus. A Christmas Show event!

A Coal Country Christmas Carol Peek-A-Boo Revue Holiday Spectacular Season Celebration with Cabinet and MiZ

A Coal Country Christmas Carol Craig Thatcher and Friends Rockin’ Christmas A Coal Country Christmas Carol The Tartan Terrors EVENTS

11/10 Cocktails & Collecting, the premiere art event of the fall, 6pm, Allentown Art Museum of the Lehigh Valley. Fine artists, and art dealers from the Lehigh Valley and beyond, hors-d’oeuvres and cocktails, curators to consult on the art of collecting. 31 North Fifth Street, Allentown.

610-432-4333.

11/16 Grand Illumination Celebration, Santa switches on the outdoor holiday light display at 6:15pm. Free cider & marshmallow toasting.

Peddler’s Village, Routes 202 & 263, Lahaska.

215-794-4000. Peddlersvillage.com 11/17-12/31 Christmas City highlights include Christmas open house, tree lighting, Christmas city village, live advent calendar, and much, much more! Bethlehem. Full list of events, downtownbethlehemassociation.org 11/21-12/21 Celebrate the Holidays with the Baum School of Art! 2012 Holiday Gallery and Sale, fine art & crafts by local artists. Gallery reception: Wed., Nov. 28, 6-8pm. M-Th: 9-9, F&Sat: 9-3, Sun. closed. 510 West Linden St., Allentown.

610-433-0032. baumschool.org 11/23 Rice’s Market will be open for Black Friday. Offering great deals, a wide array of holiday gifts, and a fun atmosphere. 6326 Greenhill Rd., New Hope. 215-297-5593. ricesmarket.com 11/23-25 Dickens’ Days, an old-fashioned Christmas with carolers, horse drawn carriage, and more.

Explore shops, museums, galleries, fine dining and cafes. Charming town of Clinton, NJ. For schedule, go to clintonguild.com 11/24 Green Changes trunk show, 12-3pm. Alchemy, 17 Bridge St., Frenchtown, NJ. 908-996-9000. alchemyclothing.com 12/1 Holiday Party at Modern Love, 6-9pm. A night of shopping, food & drinks, a holiday photo booth, and give-aways. 908-996-3387. shopmodernlove.com 12/7 Christmas Parade, 7pm. Explore the charming town of Clinton, NJ offering shops, galleries, museums, fine dining and cafes. For full schedule of holiday events, go to clintonguild.com READINGS 11/17 Panoply Books Reading Series 2012: Debora Kuan. Accomplished poet and critic, will read from her debut poetry collection, XING. Free, 6pm. Panoply Books, 46 N. Union St., Lambertville, NJ. 609-397-1145. panoplybooks.com