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contents
CONVERSATION 18 Jazz singer, songwriter Maci Miller 20 Allen Ginsberg: The best mind of his generation
ART EXHIBITIONS
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Holiday Show Bethlehem House Gallery
Evan Harrington: From the Air The Silverman Gallery
Covered Bridge Artisans 29th Annual Fall Studio Tour Various locations Hunterdon/Bucks Counties
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A THOUSAND WORDS Keeping Time
8 | THE ART OF POETRY Never More Alive
10 | PORTFOLIO
Artistic Truth
12 | THE LIST Valley City
14 | FILM ROUNDUP ON THE COVER:
Killers of the Flower Moo Poor Things The Holdovers Priscilla
22 | ESSAY
Mrs. Lassie and Me
24 | FILM CLASSICS Mommie Dearest The Passenger The Color Purple The Rapture
34 | HARPER’S Findings Index
Janet Dance, Romp (detail), oil on canvas. Bethlehem House Gallery, 459 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA 610-419-6262 BethlehemHouseGallery.com
35 | PUZZLE
Washington Post Crossword
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ICON The intersection of art, entertainment, culture, nightlife and mad genius.
Since 1992 215-862-9558 icondv.com PUBLISHER & EDITOR Trina McKenna trina@icondv.com ADVERTISING Raina Filipiak filipiakr@comcast.net PRODUCTION Paul Rosen
Joanne Smythe
Margaret M. O’Connor CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
A.D. Amorosi Ricardo Barros Robert Beck Pete Croatto Geoff Gehman Fredricka Maister David Stoller Keith Uhlich
PO Box 120 New Hope 18938 215-862-9558
IReproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. ©2022 Primetime Publishing Co., Inc.
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a thousand words
STORY & PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK
KEEPING TIME It had been a few years since I stopped by the Bucks County Folk Music Shop. I’ve become so accustomed to places that I care for changing or disappearing that I get a little time-warpy when I come across something important from my past that still exists as it was. I didn’t know when I was young that time did this stuff—that things would disappear and never come back or that I would stumble across places and objects from my past that would snatch me back to a much earlier sensibility. It took decades before I understood that time could go fast, or slow, or have gaps. C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 8
Robert Beck is a painter, writer, lecturer and ex-radio host. His paintings have been featured in more than seventy juried and thirty solo gallery shows, and three solo museum exhibitions. His column has appeared monthly in ICON Magazine since 2005. www.robertbeck.net ICON |
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exhibitions
Rhonda Snowaert, Ocean Rhythm III. Kiln formed glass, 17.25 x 7.5 x 0.375. $475
Holiday Show Bethlehem House Gallery 459 Main Street, Bethlehem, PA 610-419-6262 BethlehemHouseGallery.com Through January 6, 2024 Closing Reception January 6, 2024, 6–9 Wed.-Thurs. 11-7, Fri.-Sat. 12-9, Sun. 12-5 Holiday hours: Nov. 24-Dec. 24, open every day, incl. Tues. 11-7 The Holiday Show features artists Richard Begbie, Berrisford Boothe, Janet Dance, Al Johnson, Danny Polk Jr., Rhonda Snowaert.
Blackberry Patch, 18 x 24, oil on linen on board
Constance Bassett of Moorland Studio: Peony
Evan Harrington: From the Air The Silverman Gallery 4920 York Rd, Rte. 202, Holicong, PA 215-794-4300 Silvermangallerybuckscountypa.com Wed.-Sat. 11–6, Sun. 11–4, and by appt. November 4 – December 3 Opening receptions 11/4, 5–8 & 11/12, 1–4
Covered Bridge Artisans 29th Annual Fall Studio Tour Various locations Hunterdon/Bucks Counties CoveredBridgeArtisans.com November 24, 25, & 26, 2023 10–5
Harrington's paintings are infused with their own light, in dramatic contrast to areas of intense darks and layered backgrounds. “Consistently inspired by the beauty of Bucks County, I created this collection as a journal of sorts, to document the local spectacular scenes that I’ve come across in different seasons and times of day. Emphasizing color, light, and design, I aim to share the excitement and impact these moments have had on me.”
Danny Polk Jr., Matte Wild Honey Sphere. Blown glass, 6” globe. $355
King Air, 11 x 23, oil on linen on board
Richard Begbie, Composition #4. Archival print on fine art paper, 24 x 30 x 2. $500
Indigo, 14 x 18, oil on linen on board
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A self-guided tour located in the Delaware River Valley of lower Hunterdon and Bucks Counties. The Thanksgiving weekend studio tour will take place in seven professional artists’ studios in Lambertville, Stockton, New Hope and Sergeantsville, with 14 additional artists at the Sergeantsville Firehouse Events Center. This year the tour has a great variety of artisans working in painting, glass, jewelry, ceramics, cast bronze, photography, woodworking, sculpture, quilts and much more. The self-guided tour takes one through the beautiful small roads and towns of our lovely river valley. It is a casual, friendly, varied experience that is a delightful, tactile antidote to the online shopping world. The artists love sharing what they create with all their patrons. Visit www.CoveredBridgeArtisans.com for more information and the tour map.
Karen Caldwell of Sunflower Glass Studio, fused and stained glass: The Volunteer Garden
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the art of poetry
DAVID STOLLER
Never More Alive He was never more alive. Canvas and brush, Sail and paint, November on the sea. Fully provisioned, Heading north, Water and light; He wants for nothing. Waterfronts, moorlands, Wastelands, docks; Fishermen, ferry slips, All passing. He secures his mooring At Montauk’s point; Mindful, surely, The approaching storm. He’s been here before, Squalls and gales; He would ride this out The same. His boat survived, But he did not; His final work, Still on board, unfinished. In the end, Glorying perhaps In the storm’s wild beauty, He was never more alive.
Ferry Slip at Oyster Bay is by William Lathrop (1859-1938), an important American impressionist painter and founder of the still-vibrant art colony of New Hope, Pennsylvania. His work is displayed in museums and important collections around the world. Born in Painesville, Ohio (where he learned to sail along the shore of Lake Erie), he relocated to New York City to pursue his art and, in 1899, settled in New Hope with several of his students. Lathrop and his wife Annie were famous for hosting afternoon teas on their lawn bordering the Delaware Canal, upon which he poled his barge Sunshine while conducting
sketching classes as he and his students cruised the countryside. In the late twenties, Lathrop handbuilt The Widge, a 20-ft sailboat launched in the Delaware River, that he intended to pilot along the coastal waterways of the Atlantic for the rest of his life, painting as he went. The Ferry Slip at Oyster Bay was painted five years later. While moored in a harbor at Montauk Point, he was lost in the great hurricane of 1938. Speculation is that he either died of a heart attack at the storm's onset or was washed overboard. In any event, the nearly finished painting was recovered from his beloved and miraculously undamaged Widge. n
David Stoller has had a career spanning law, private equity, and entrepreneurial leadership. He was a partner at Milbank Tweed and led various companies in law, insurance, live entertainment, and the visual arts. David is an active art collector and founder of River Arts Press, which published a collection of his poetry, Finding My Feet.
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portfolio
PHOTOGRAPH AND ESSAY BY RICARDO BARROS
ARTISTIC TRUTH There is a difference between “fact” and “truth.” Facts are independent of perspective, while truths are nestled in context. We make no distinction between the two in our daily lives. They appear to be interchangeable. Issues arise when we encounter someone whose upbringing, experience or beliefs differ significantly from ours. Here are some facts: A gun is an object. A gun is a tool. A gun fires a bullet. And here are some truths: A gun is a weapon. (This alludes to the intent of the person wielding a gun.) A gun is good/bad/necessary. (How we value the gun.) It is my right to own a gun. (An interpretation of the Second Amendment.) The distinction between fact and truth is relevant to photography. We document facts, and we respond with truths. In its ideal form, photojournalism exclusively represents fact. A specific thing exists, or a particular event happened. Editorial photography, like a newspaper’s opinion page, explicitly acknowledges the author’s point of
view. And art photographers enjoy an additional degree of freedom. We visually comment on what we see without necessarily being constrained by what the camera did or did not capture. For an art photographer, the significance of a photograph lies not in its content but in its truth. What context should we place this photograph in? Where is our interest being directed? What is the photographer’s relationship to his or her subject? What are the photographer’s values? Why should we care? I call attention to the distinction between fact and truth because of its link to artistic motivation. Consider why the artist chose to make an artwork in the first place. The answer, I believe, is his or her need to express a personal truth. It is easy to be inspired. Creating a work that inspires somebody else is a much larger challenge. I believe our greatest successes come when we are truthful. n
Ricardo Barros’ works are in the permanent collections of eleven museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He is the author of Facing Sculpture: A Portfolio of Portraits, Sculpture and Related Ideas. 10
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the list VALLEY
CITY — GEOFF GEHMAN
WMUH broadcasts itself as “the only station that matters.” It’s a cheeky, sneaky mission statement for a community switchboard for free-range, DIY programs: quirky artist interviews; couch-potato movie reviews; crazy cosmic monologues; music shows around the dial and galaxy (“Gutbucket Esoterica,” “Junkyard Jukebox”). Based at Muhlenberg College and 91.7 FM, the station will celebrate its 75th anniversary with three typically, delightfully diverse headliners. The Catatonic Suns, an Allentown trio, has psychedelic stripes, as reflected in the song “Tangerine Dayglo.” Kurt Vile and the Violators perform catchy, crafty “fried” pop/rock, with Vile specializing in songs about writing songs. The Sun Ra Arkestra zooms between big band, funk, spiritual soul, outer-space jazz and pure pageantry. The eightdecade-old ensemble shepherded and emceed by Marshall Allen, a 99-year-old saxophonist. (Nov. 18, Miller Symphony Hall, 23 N. 6th St., Allentown; 610-432-6715; millersymphonyhall.org)
— A.D. AMOROSI
I see no real reason to have a parade outside in the cold just because you decided to kill a turkey and stuff the poor thing full of bread and its liver. This Thanksgiving, perhaps you can snap a carrot or crack a few celery stalks and prance around your neighborhood. Until you start marching around over some particularly crisp green beans, here are the other best parades and November events around Philadelphia. If, like me, you are confused about the difference between a live podcast and a stand-up comedy routine, perhaps you should head to
Talk about a celestial union: 11 top-tier horn players playing classical, jazz and hybrid idioms in a 19th-century Gothic church with acoustics brawny enough for Bach’s massive passions. Planets will align on Nov. 17 as Lehigh University’s Packer Memorial Chapel hosts the Rodney Marsalis Philadelphia Big Brass, led by a New Orleans trumpeter trained by his cousin Wynton, who declares that only Rod-
Alex Cooper. Photo: Sarah Krick
The Met Philadelphia on November 9 and 10 when Call Her Daddy’s Alexandra Cooper comes to town. Cooper has been doing the Call Her Daddy advice and comedy podcast with Sofia Franklyn since 2018 and wound up hooking up with Spotify in a deal worth $60 million. They’re either really funny, or that advice is really solid.
Rodney Marsalis and The Philadelphia Big Brass.
ney plays “absolutely beautifully all the time.” The group is integrated racially and sexually, spatially and sonically. Pieces feature a solo Marsalis, a quintet, percussion and organ. Marsalis and his comrades have played South America, Asia and the Boston Symphony’s Berkshires home. In “Brothers on the Battlefield: The Power of Love” CONTINUED
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Taylor Swift fans currently busying themselves with multiple visits to The Eras Tour film screening and counting the days to the next Travis Kelce game with the Kansas City Chiefs will remember that Taylor hung around with weirdo Matt Heally during her summer tour dates in Philly. Oddly enough, none of Swift’s starshine rubbed off on the abrasive Heally—a Bowie-like crooner fronting the funkybut-chic punk ensemble, The 1975. For Swifties and goofballs alike, The 1975 plays at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly on November 10. Maybe I’m not a big fan of children’s programming. Then again, if every theater had fifteen-year-old Heidi Schreck at the center of their stories, I’d be more impressed. Schreck famously earned her CONTINUED
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KEITH UHLICH
Killers of the Flower Moon
film roundup
Killers of the Flower Moon (Dir. Martin Scorsese). Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone. Even by his usual lofty standards, Martin Scorsese’s captivating historical tragedy is a creative peak. Adapted from David Grann’s nonfiction book of the same name, Killers of the Flower Moon tells the horrific true story of the clandestine murders of multiple Osage natives in Oklahoma circa the 1920s. The instigators are rancher William Hale (Robert De Niro), a respected member of the community, and his semidimwitted nephew Ernest Burkhart (Leonardo DiCaprio), the latter of whom marries an Osage woman, Mollie (Lily Gladstone), with the express purpose of slow-killing her and stealing her oil-based fortune. The marital melodrama recalls Cukor’s Gaslight and Hitchcock’s Suspicion in its expertly cultivated air of uncertainty. Even when we know something is off in Ernest and Mollie’s relationship, we wish to think otherwise—much in the way a multiplicity of Americans prefers to think the best of a country that, beneath its welcoming veneer, has rapacious and malicious tendencies. The actors are all magKeith Uhlich is a NY-based writer published at Slant Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, Time Out New York, and ICON. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle. His personal website is (All (Parentheses)), accessible at keithuhlich.substack.com. 14
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nificent, with Gladstone proving to be the movie’s emotional center and, as the astonishingly provocative finale reveals, its tragic heart. [R] HHHHH Poor Things (Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos). Starring: Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe. The Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite) helmed this brash and bawdy riff on Frankenstein, adapted from Scottish writer Alisdair Gray’s novel. The “monster” is Bella Baxter (Emma Stone), a reanimated woman with the body of a suicidal socialite and the brain of an infant. Over the course of the film’s two-and-a-half hours, she travels across Europe—much of it in the company of a buffoonish lothario played by Mark Ruffalo—and learns the various ways of mankind, most of them materialistic and predatory. But there is hope as well, particularly in the offbeat communities Bella discovers among the economically and socially downtrodden. It’s prime material for Lanthimos and his literally cockeyed perspective (the fisheye lenses he often loves to employ make a return here). And Stone is superb as Bella, who is up to submit herself to any indignity as long it proves a learning experience. The film does however wear out its welcome long before hour three, its point C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 2 8
Christmas City, USA Bethlehem has a rich holiday heritage that dates back to the 18th century, when the Moravians who settled the city christened it “Bethlehem” on Christmas Eve, 1741. Since 1937, the city has officially been known as Christmas City, USA. From guided walking tours of the city’s Historic Moravian District, one of the finest collections of 18th Century Germanic-Style architecture in the nation, to the Christkindlmarkt marketplace and Christmas Carriage rides through the city. There are dozens of attractions and activities for all ages. Christmas Huts on Main Nov. 10- Dec. 24. Wooden huts filled with unique gift ideas in new locations this year. Main and Broad Streets, Downtown Bethlehem. LehighValleyChamber.org Beginner Glass Fusing, Holiday Ornaments Banana Factory, Nov. 11, 11am-2pm. 25 W 3rd St., Bethlehem. (610) 332-1300. BananaFactory.org
holiday markets in the U.S. by Travel + Leisure. PNC Plaza at SteelStacks, 645 East First St. Bethlehem. christmascity.org. 877212-2463 Trees of Historic Bethlehem: The Finer Things Nov. 18, 11am-Nov. 20, 6pm. With over 25 beautifully decorated trees on display across historic sites. Visit website for more information. 1-800-360-TOUR, HistoricBethlehem.org The Ice Rink at SteelStacks Nov. 21-Jan. 15, 2024, daily and including holidays. Celebrate the magic of the season on the outdoor ice skating rink at the base of the blast furnaces. Fun for every age. ArtsQuest, 645 East First St., Bethlehem. ChristimasCity.org Tree Lighting Ceremony Nov. 24, 5pm-6pm. Payrow Plaza/City Hall in Bethlehem, 10 East Church St. Enjoy free cokkies, hot chocolate, visit with Santa and live performances. (484) 280-3024
Christkindlmarkt at SteelStacks Nov. 17-19, Nov. 24-Nov. 26, Nov. 30-Dec. 3, Dec. 7-10, Dec. 14-17. Thurs. & Sun. 10an6pm, Fri. & Sat. 10am-8pm. One of the best
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Holiday Wassail Open House Nov. 24, 5:30pm – 7:30pm, after City of Bethlehem tree lighting. Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, 427 North New St. historicbethlehem.org. 800-360-8687
Christmas Putz and Star & Candle Shoppe Nov. 24 – Dec. 23. The Christmas Putz is a retelling of the story of Christ’s birth through narration and music. centralmoravianchurch.org. 610-866-5661
Horse-Drawn Carriage Rides Starting Nov. 24, experience “Christmas City, USA” like never before. Horse-drawn carriage rides are the perfect way to enjoy the lights, sights, and sounds of Bethlehem. Purchase tickets today at HistoricBethlehem.org
Historic Turkey Trot 5K & Fun Walk Nov. 25, a family-friendly 5K Run/Walk & 1.7 mile fun Walk. See the sights of Historic Bethlehem. Info: HistoricBethlehem.org
State Theatre Presents: Nutcracker A Magical Christmas Ballet, Nov. 25, 3:00 and 7:00
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A Magical Cirque Christmas Nov. 29, 7:00 Preservation Hall Jazz Band: Creole Christmas Dec. 1, 7:00pm Straight No Chaser, Sleighin’ It Tour Dec. 9, 3:00 and 7:00 Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol Dec. 16, 7:30pm State Theatre, 453 Northampton St., Easton. 610-252-3132, StateTheatre.org
The Baum School of Art’s Handmade Holiday Gift Shop Nov. 28-Dec. 20. Stop in and shop for everyone on your list for unique gifts from over 35 local artists and crafters. 510 W. Linden St., Allentown. 610-433-0032, baumschool.org
Miracle on 34th Street Live Radio Play Nov. 30-Dec. 2, 7:30 and Dec. 3, 2:00 PM. Enjoy this classic based on the 1947 holiday film with family and friends. Weiss Theater at Buck Hall, 248 N Third St., Easton, PA. 610-330-5009 williamscenter.lafayette.edu
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Edgeboro Moravian Church Christmas Putz and Christmas Shop Dec. 1-22. Edgeboro Moravian Church, 645 Hamilton Ave. edgeboromoravian.org. 610-866-8793
Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. (610) 758-2787 ZoellnerArtsCenter.org
Bach Choir of Bethlehem Christmas Concert (two locations)
December 1-22. Touchstone Theatre’s 24th annual holiday show has been singing, dancing, laughing and cart wheeling its way into the hearts of audiences. 321 East 4th St., Bethlehem. touchstone.org. 610-867-1689
J.S. Bach’s “Magnificat” & “Christen ätzet deisen Tag, BWV 63” Dec. 9, 4:00p.m. First Presbyterian Church, 3231 Tilghman St., Allentown. Also, Dec. 10, 4:00p.m. First Presbyterian Church, 2344 Center St., Bethlehem (610) 866-4382, x 115/110, Bach.org
55th Annual Community Advent Breakfast
SteelStacks, ArtsQuest. Films
Christmas City Follies
Dec. 2, 8:30 - 9 a.m. This nondenominational Bethlehem tradition offers holiday music along with a generous served breakfast. Christmascity.org. 610-739-3385
White Christmas, Nov. 30-Dec. 2 Don’t Open Till Christmas, Dec. 2 Torch Song Trilogy, Dec. 3 Elf (20th Anniversary), Dec. 6
Zoellner Arts Center Presents
The Bishop’s Wife, Dec. 7
Fancy Nancy, Splendiferous Christmas Dec. 3, 3:00pm
Gremlins, Dec. 13
Cherish the Ladies, a Celtic Christmas, Dec. 8, 7:30pm Vienna Boys Choir Dec. 15, in Packer Memorial Church, 7:30pm The Nutcracker Dec. 16-17, 1:00 and 4:30
Meet Me in St. Louis, Dec. 14-Dec. 16 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Dec. 20 It’s a Wonderful Life, Dec. 21 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem. Steelstacks.org, (610) 332-1300
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conversation
A.D. AMOROSI
MACI MILLER and
all that jazz
AT A TIME WHEN making jazz a populist aesthetic still seems strange and distant, vocalist and composer Maci Miller makes the medicine go down sweetly and seamlessly. Currently with five albums under her belt—including her newly-released full-length Nine, where six of its nine tracks are written by Miller and her producer, pianist Aaron Graves—the Harrisburg-born, Philly-based, but bi-coastally bound touring artist twists the avidly inventive traditions of jazz into something smooth and sultry without turning it into (dare I say the horrid phrase) smooth jazz. Once tagged as a vocalist sitting pretty at “the intersection of Norah Jones and Bille Holiday,” Miller’s bluesy, blowsy way with song and rhythmic punctuation—be it her own new tracks such as “I Can’t Wait,” “Strange is the Night” and “Feel the Music” or inventive takes on standards like “The Nearness of You”—show off her range handsomely. Nine also portrays Miller as a swinging lover and an Ella-like crooner, cohabiting the spirit of each song with an exquisite list of Philly’s finest jazzmen, such as Aaron Graves, Jeremy Pelt, Mike Boone, Victor North, Byron Landham, David O’Rourke, Steve Jankowski, Larry McKenna, Carl Cox, and Damon Bennett. Sitting in her home’s music room, sipping coffee and working on promotional material for her album, Nine, Miller is collecting thoughts for even newer music to make. “I’m always writing as there’s always so much material in the world providing both good and sentimental ideas for new music,” she said. Music reared its head early due in part to Miller’s long and musical family that included one of the Ziegfeld Follies’ first violinists. Starting as a singer, Miller worked the hotel bar residency scene across the globe before settling down to touring in the United States and moving into the Bucks County region. “When I got to the Bucks and Philadelphia area, I wanted to get to know the music scene here and all of its players,” she said. “That rich culture and that connection changed the face of my music.” Jazz? Though she loves and sings R&B and pop, the jazz idiom has forever been the one that genuinely moved Miller. “It was the music I enjoyed the most and relaxed to the most, even before I started recording jazz. My entrée to jazz vocals was Ella Fitzgerald, but I was hooked once I started digging into Monk and Miles and Coltrane.”
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A.D. AMOROSI
The Best Mind of His Generation
The Allen Ginsberg Revival of 2023 AS FAR AS ANGEL-HEADED hipsters with ties to William Blake and William S. Burroughs go, sage poet and activist Allen Ginsberg reigns supreme as the very soul of America’s counter-culture multiculturalism. From his co-formation of the saintly Beat Generation of authors to his own literary innovations in epic, anaphoric free verse, from his living, breathing advocacy against all things militaristic and material to his promotion of homosexual freedom, drugs, and avid selfexpression, Ginsberg had few rivals from the publication of Howl in 1956 until his passing in 1997. Rather than rest on his laurels on early classics such as Kaddish and Other Poems (1961) and Planet News (1968), by the release of 1973’s The Fall of America: Poems of These States 1965–1971, Gins-
Then there is the Shimmy Disc label’s new take on Ginsberg’s own spoken word wonder from 1989 with The Lion for Real Re-born, an atmospheric musical adventure featuring players such as Marc Ribot, Mark Bingham, Bill Frisell, and Arto Lindsay, remastered, and featuring eight additional tracks not on the original release. Artist, producer, and Shimmy Disc label head Mark Kramer said of his new version of The Lion for Real Re-Born that its release “wasn’t a choice so much as an integral part of my crusade to re-illuminate and reintroduce Hal Willner’s finest work as a producer, achieved through
“...that’s why it hasn’t happened until now, and today, 26 years after his untimely passing, no poet has surpassed Allen’s sense of Truth, HIS MAGICAL ABILITY TO CONVEY it directly to the reader/listener with immediacy and power, or his WAR-LIKE REJECTION OF DOGMA. He was the world’s greatest soldier for poetry, and he remains the JIMI HENDRIX OF VERSE. No one will ever be better, and no one will ever even come close in trying.” —Mark Kramer berg had experimented with the objective viewpoint of William Carlos Williams, and interspersing his work with spontaneous Burroughs-like elements of collaged politicized war headlines, radio news clips, Buddhist advice, travel writing and smartly-told songs with the help of his friend, Bob Dylan’s gift of a portable reel-to-reel tape recorder. Even until his death, Ginsberg continued to win praise for new works, including snagging a Pulitzer Prize nomination in 1995 for his late-in-life collection, Cosmopolitan Greetings: Poems 1986–1992. Ginsberg’s rhythmic impressionist, gentle, yet incendiary way with words has had no equal—not in poetry, prose, or music. This autumn, Ginsberg’s unique brilliance is being celebrated with the release of several past written works and new collections. Along with City Light’s re-publication of its pocketbook The Fall of America, and the recent release of its accompanying The Fall of America Journals, 1965-1971, powerHouse Books will publish curator-author’s Material Wealth: Mining the Personal Archive of Allen Ginsberg featuring previously unseen writings, journal entries, and personally-held-dear tchotchkes. As Ginsberg himself was a recording artist of esteem (and certainly a friend and mentor to the likes of Dylan, Patti Smith, and Downtown New York’s lit-punk elite), the sound of the newly-released The Fall of America Volume II featuring the likes of Philip Glass, Yoni Wolf, Devendra Banhart, Miho Hatori and Thurston Moore with Saul Williams in tribute to the 1973 volume will impress lovers of the Beat bard. 20
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Allen Ginsberg, photographed by William S. Burroughs, on the rooftop of his Lower East Side apartment, between Avenues B and C, in the Fall of 1953.
Shimmy-Disc’s partnership with Paris Records in re-releasing Hal’s ‘spoken-word & music’ masterpieces. This began last year with Hunter S. Thompson’s The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved. We had to work a little longer and a lot harder to get the rights back to the Ginsberg LP (now a double LP that includes eight tracks that were not on the original 1989 release). So that’s why it hasn’t happened until now, and today, 26 years after his untimely passing, no poet has surpassed Allen’s sense of Truth, his magical ability to convey it directly to the reader/listener with immediacy and power, or his war-like rejection of dogma. He was the world’s greatest soldier for poetry, and he remains the Jimi Hendrix of verse. No one will ever be better, and no one will ever even come close in trying.” Regarding Ginsburg’s hierarchy in the current state of popular culture, it’d be hard to name an artist or a word-composer who sits above him. “His omnipotence is god-like, and his words have never seemed to be more vital to the survival of humanity than they are at this point in history,” said Kramer. “We need him now more than ever. I recall attending so many readings of his in NYC’s East Village in the 1980s. Freezing in the winter or sweltering in the summer, the St. Mark’s Church would be overflowing with poetry addicts, yet still you could hear a pin drop. Imagine how different the world might be today if Allen Ginsberg spoke his mind once again, and the whole world stopped and listened.”
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Producers Peter Hale and Jesse Goodman of the Allen Ginsberg Project [allenginsberg.com], the web manifestation of the Allen Ginsberg Estate, have put their blood and guts into funneling adventurous, like-minded artists into creating music dedicated to The Fall of America in two separate volumes. For over 20 years, Hale and Goodman have worked together—not only on recorded Ginsberg projects—but concerts for the Henry Miller Library in Big Sur. For Hale, Ginsberg’s connection to the currency of popular culture comes down to the poet and activist’s tremendous staying power. “Not sure I’m surprised, either, since Ginsberg really speaks to an emotional authenticity lacking in our current era,” said Hale. “He’s able to touch people on a deeper level that pop culture deprives us of. Howl is still a perennial inspiration for that age coming right out of high school, when you’re starting to grasp the greater world you’re about to enter. There’s a humanity and empathy that touches the reader in a way that makes you feel human and part of a community that cares.” For Goodman, Ginsberg’s relevance to the 21st Century and beyond comes down to the beauty of his language as he speaks to love, loss, and pain. “There are core emotions and experiences that we can all relate to—particularly thinking about The Fall of America—there are references to the insanity and horror of war, the greed and hypocrisy of elected politicians, giving a voice to those without one, tenderly thinking of friends who passed away, to how we are blindly destroying the Allen Ginsberg in a Playboy interview, 1969. Photo: Jerry Yulsman planet, juxtaposed against the backdrop of the vast and beautiful American landscape,” remarked Goodman. “It’s so relevant that amidst the chaos being described, there’s beauty, hope, inspiration. I never tire of listening to Allen and find his voice incredibly soothing.” Calling their musical takes on The Fall of America difficult to set to music (“its poems are so long and flow of consciousness, which doesn’t lend itself to ‘song’ as such,” said Hale), by the time the pandemic passed and fellow travelers considered Ginsberg’s work of brilliance, “we ended up with so many musicians wanting to participate and with over 40 tracks that very early on we knew we’d have enough material for two volumes,” said Goodman. Many of the collaborations that took place on Fall of America were accidental by Hale’s accounts. Thurston Moore had worked with Allen on several projects and became a regular teacher at Naropa University, where Allen started the Kerouac School with Anne Waldman. Yoni Wolf came to the producers through Wes Pagano, A BMG Repertoire manager, who’d been recommending bands and acts that would be a good fit for Ginsberg. “Philip Glass and Allen had a long history of collaborations; in fact, their best known, Wichita Vortex Sutra, is from the same period, the core anti-war poem, The Fall of America auto poesy poem cycle, of what is essentially an anti-war book,” noted Hale. “Ed Sanders was perfect for Memory Gardens, as it’s about Jack Kerouac’s
funeral, and Ed was actually there. Bill Frisell, Ai Weiwei, Anne Waldman, were friends of Allen’s; I could keep going. Every track and artist on these two volumes has an interesting story behind it.” Goodman speaks to the connection to Ginsberg’s words and poetry and worked hard to make The Fall of America albums as eclectic a collection as possible with different musical perspectives and a diverse range of musicians. “The entire project has been an incredible honor and joy to work on—alongside my best friend, who had the advantage of being so aligned throughout that often Peter and I could each take on parts of the project and keep everything moving forward, sometimes without even having to speak to each other, each time building on each other’s last move,” said Goodman. Patrick Thomas, the curator, editor, and writer behind the archival Material Wealth, states that Ginsberg’s continued importance comes down to his relevance during three separate, generational youthquakes and the icons who made those moments totemic: the flaunting of literary and social convention that was the Beat 1950s, the psychedelicized sexual and political revolution of the 1960s and the radical DIY-ism of the punk 1970s. “Ginsberg is an original Beat in its 1950s incarnation, the 1960s hippie-anti-war movement, and participates heavily in 1970s punk culture, including recording with The Clash; he was an inspiration to three separate generations,” said Thomas. “There aren’t many poets who we can say that about. Plus, he was the warmer, fuzzier counterpart to Burroughs’ cold, reptilian vibe. Allen was more approachable, like your weird, cool uncle.” Thomas’ Material Wealth and its page after page of Ginsberg’s personal archives (along with rare writing, including never-before-seen essays on Bob Dylan) goes a long way to portray the poet-activist as a man who enjoyed mixing it up, mingling with fellow celebrities and looking for connection. “Everyone wanted to meet him, and he wanted to meet everyone,” said Thomas. “And this book isn’t a biography—it’s an incredible visual archive of who Ginsberg was. It is the only book on him that hasn’t been done before.” That sense of communion that Thomas speaks of, which acts as a connector between all of the items pictured in Material Wealth, is captured in memorabilia and totems from Ginsberg’s treks to Mexico, Morocco, and India, his relationships to Kerouac, Burroughs, Dylan, Paul McCartney, Abbie Hoffman, and Jerry Rubin, and his deeply personal and poetic relationship to politics, sexuality, and spirituality. Considering Thomas’ past of having written Listen, Whitey! The Sights & Sounds of Black Power 1965–1975 and Did It! From Yippie to Yuppie: Jerry Rubin, An American Revolutionary, the counter-culturalism of the 1960s remains an embraceable topic for the author. “Many of us love the 1960s–Warhol, the Beatles, Monetary Pop, the Rolling Stones,” said Thomas. “But for me, what made this period unique was its radical, historical politics. I’m as fascinated by that as I am the rock and roll of the period, and Allen Ginsberg was at the forefront of all of it.” n ICON |
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GEOFF GEHMAN
Mrs. Lassie & Me A fabled book and fabulous friendship
EVERY WEEK, I DRIVE 20 minutes to hike a Bucks County nature trail named for my torch donor. Looping through the woods, past rivulets and ravines, wildflower meadow and chestnut grove, is my thank-you to my late friend Jere Knight for trusting me to write the first biography of her late husband Eric Knight, the English-American author of the novel Lassie Come-Home. Jere and I talked for umpteen hours in the nearby farmhouse where, 83 years ago, Eric finished the eternalflame tale of a courageous collie traveling nearly 1,000 unfamiliar, treacherous miles to join her original humans.
“That kind of love is not only durable, it’s endurable,” Jere said during one of our recorded chats. “Life doesn’t give you a deal like that a second time. It’s pretty special, believe me, kid.” I met Jere in 1986 after she publicly demonstrated Lassie and collie behavior with her own collie. Nicknamed Mrs. Lassie, she had spent 43 of her 79 years promoting the legacy of Eric, who died at 45 in the crash of a military plane, a U.S. Army major at the peak of his fame, quickly forgotten in the middle of a world war. I was impressed by her boundless devotion to her man: writing two “Lassie” books for children, lobbying for an Eric stamp, and working with two would-be biographers. I was charmed by her lofty earthiness, merry wit, enviable English elocution, and twinkling cornflower-blue eyes. Somehow, she reminded me of a Philadelphia Quaker version of Katharine Hepburn, who failed to buy the movie rights to This Above All, the 1941 novel that made Eric a global sensation. Our bond began in 1988, after my thennewspaper, The Morning Call in Allentown, ran my two long articles marking the 50th anniversary of “Lassie” as a short story in The Saturday Evening Post. Jere liked my diligence, passion, and fondness for separating 22
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fact from fantasy. She also liked that all my mentors were senior citizens who cared for their dying spouses. Jere and I teamed up in the lovely 18thcentury home in Pleasant Valley that she and Eric bought as a wreck in 1939, the seventh year of their marriage—her first, his second. I set up shop in the two-story, two-level study built with movie money for This Above All, a 1942 vehicle for Joan Fontaine and Tyrone Power as star-crossed lovers
her like a bard in letter after letter, sometimes two a day. In one missive, he alphabetized her virtues; in another, he praised her in the style of Shakespeare and Hemingway. He made her braver and funnier, strengths that helped her
Jere Knight with a portrait of Eric painted by Peter Hurd in 1941.
in blitzkrieged England. Here, during four years of weekends, I roamed through Jere’s meticulous, library-like archives of letters, contracts, drafts, reviews, interviews, and the world’s best bank of “Lassie” cartoons. We compared notes in the dark dining room/den with the walk-in fireplace and the signed print of a painting by Grant Wood, Eric’s good friend. Stoked by tea and cookies, we analyzed Eric as a virtual orphan, child laborer, World War I soldier, cinema journalist, screenwriter for Spencer Tracy, military propagandist with Lt. Col. Frank Capra, pal of the poet E.E. Cummings, and everything to Ruth (Jere) Brylawski—translator, Olympic-caliber fencer, and professional pacifist. Nothing pleased Jere more than remembering her love alliance with Eric. He courted
handle his three long-estranged daughters and a team of bullish assistant story editors at a major movie studio. She made him a much more successful writer by taking care of home affairs, personal business matters, social engagements, and all kinds of crises. They were each other’s first true champions, the best of their breed, a tribe called Jeric. “That kind of love is not only durable, it’s endurable,” Jere said during one of our recorded chats. “Life doesn’t give you a deal like that a second time. It’s pretty special, believe me, kid.” Literary widows can be black widows, poisonously protecting reputations. Jere was an open book with dog-eared pages. She downplayed her many prominent roles, including writing speeches for Oveta Culp Hobby, the first director of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. Jere made fun of her failure to win the war on Eric’s behalf and made light of her inability to bear a child with Eric, joking that he joked about her “sympathetic” pregnancies during his absences. She was tickled that she lovingly nagged Eric to save his energy by C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E 3 2
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KEITH UHLICH
Mommie Dearest
film classics
Mommie Dearest (1981, Frank Perry, United States) A classic of the campiest sort, this biopic about actress Joan Crawford and her tempestuous relationship with her daughter Christina is a prime showcase for one Ms. Faye Dunaway. Her face made up with Joan’s smooth-skinned sheen and boldly drawn-on eyebrows, she resembles, as some critics noted at the time of the film’s release, a Noh-mask version of the icon we all know. There isn’t a single piece of scenery that Dunaway doesn’t devour, regurgitate, and wolf down again. Favorite moments are ample: the “wire hangers” aria; the Pepsi board meeting outburst; endlessly quotable lines such as “Tina…bring me the axe!” and “I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at the dirt!” Mommie Dearest is a laugh riot that, in its own weird way, gets profoundly at the sense of terror a parent can instill in a child, how even the most ridiculous outbursts can still leave deep and festering wounds. Even if unintended, this is one of the great movies about making a cackleworthy spectacle of your own trauma. (Streaming on Max.)
The Passenger (1975, Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy/France/Spain) The great Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni teamed up with American superstar Jack Nicholson for this mesmerizing treatise on the malleability of self. Nicholson plays journalist David Locke, whose disaffection leads him to assume the life of a mysteriously deceased businessman. As he embarks on this new existence, Locke becomes caught up in a plot that includes arms dealing, hitmen, and a mysterious woman (Maria Schneider) who becomes his companion. But this being an Antonioni film, the emphasis is less on story than on bodies moving through space, often with a purposelessness that the director, with his impeccable aural and visual rigor, manages to make poetic and profound. It’s an existentially fraught journey that culminates in one of the greatest climactic shots in cinema history, as a person obliquely becomes a corpse, effaced of any need for identification or, indeed, of being. (Streaming on MUBI.) C O N T I N U E D O N PA G E
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they roam from the Civil War to the civil rights movement. This season the Valley becomes Marsalis-ville, as Rodney follows saxophonist cousin Branford, who gigged last month at Lafayette College, and prefaces Wynton, who in February returns to Lafayette with his Lincoln Center orchestra. (18 University Drive, by East Packer Avenue; 610-758-2787; zoellnerartscenter.org) The Allentown Symphony Orchestra is really, truly on the move. Last month the venerable ensemble moved two blocks to the PPL Center to play John Williams’ score in sync with a screening of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. This month it will move 17 miles to play familiar and unfamiliar pieces in Lafayette College’s Williams Center for the Arts, a site for the late Lehigh Valley Chamber Orchestra, which made its bones pairing prominent musicians (flutist Eugenia Zukerman) with prominent composers (Libby Larsen). On the bill are Mozart’s “Jupiter” and a new work by pianist Clarice Assad, the orchestra’s resident composer. Guitarist Petrit Ceku, winner of the ASO’s annual Schadt String Competition, will interpret Vivaldi’s Guitar Concerto in D and Rodrigo’s “Fantasia para un GentilAnswer to TEAM PICTURE
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hombre,” both ear-pleasing evergreens. (Nov. 14, 317 Hamilton St., Easton; 610330-5009; williamscenter.lafayette.edu) John Kander and Fred Ebb wrote at least two great musicals, Cabaret and Chicago. Two standout tunes, “Maybe This Time” and “Cell Block Tango,” star in Sing Happy!, a jam-packed, clever Ebb & Kander revue coconceived by Fleetwood native Eric Schaeffer for Signature Theatre, the innovative company he helped launch and direct in Arlington, Va. The namesake song was written for Flora the Red Menace, a Broadway failure that made Liza Minnelli a Tony-winning success. (Nov. 3-5, Trexler Pavilion for Theatre & Dance, Muhlenberg College, 2400 Chew St., Allentown; 484-664-3333; muhlenberg.edu) A novice fact checker and a veteran writer spar over a magazine story about a teen’s suicide in The Lifespan of a Fact, one of this month’s two imaginatively titled plays. The material seems ripped from the womb/tomb of a social-media/meta/A.I. sphere where news blurs with opinion and reality is relatively robotic. (Nov. 16-20, Norman Roberts Lab Theatre, Kopecek Hall, Northampton Community College, 3835 Green Pond Rd, Bethlehem; 484-484-3412; ncctheatreprograms.org) Last month’s play title of the month was …And Jesus Moonwalks the Mississippi. This month’s winner is Rags Parkland Sings the Songs of the Future, a 23rd-century sci-fi musical where a Moon-living musician conducts an Earthly rebellion against cyborg-erasing enemies. (Nov. 10-12 and 1517, Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem; 610-7582787; zoellnerartscenter.org)
Each theme answer ends with a member of an NFL team. The clue for 135 Across is a hint to look at each team’s logo. The logos can be described as HORSESHOE, BULL, STAR, FLEUR-DE-LIS, LIGHTNING BOLT, PIRATE FLAG, and HELMET. These phrases can be given the same clues as for the grid entries RING, ELAND, DREAM, BASTILLE, INSTANT, RUIN, and DOME. The first letters of these grid entries spell RED BIRD, a description of the logo for the ARIZONA CARDINALS. 26
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Josie’s New York Deli is back. finally and thankfully. Closed by Covid for three years, the 40-year-old shop has resumed making hoagies, Reubens and chicken-salad sandwiches that are fresh, tangy and stuffed enough for two meals. I’m partial to pitas packed with horseradish-laced corned beef and pastrami marinated in coleslaw. Never mind the glacially white remodeling job; Josie’s remains a warm hub. (14 Centre Square Circle, Easton; 610-252-5081; josiesnewyorkdeli.com) n
college tuition and developed a deep love of the Constitution by winning debate after debate across the United States. Steered by the always colorful vision of Director Jennifer Childs, Schreck’s script for What the Constitution Means to Me—running now until December 10 at Old City’s Arden Theatre—is a heartwarming, humorous, and multi-layered play that touches on how the living document of the Constitution affected her past and how it will shape the next generations of Americans. What the Constitution Means to Me will be one of the most produced plays in the country next year, but Arden’s production will be the only one performed blocks away from where the document was written,” says Arden management. Color me impressed. For anyone still enthused by grunge, Pearl Jam, or anything remotely 90s, Philadelphia has its very own Flannel Fest on November 12 in Germantown. While everyone is encouraged to wear the downy, soft checked design—shirt, jacket, or coat— there will be tastings from local wineries, distilleries, breweries, and a host of food trucks. You’ll have to get me drunk in order to return me to my flannel days. For the last two years, the corner of North 2nd and Girard Streets in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia has been a hub of construction activity for something called SIN. Having nothing to do with crimes against God, SIN is a Los Angeles/Las Vegas stylized Italian steakhouse and live entertainment venue set to open on November 9. The promise of SIN is based on co-owner Justin Veasey’s dream of something wild, wonderful, and charr-tasty. “My vision for SIN is to become known as a top destination for a unique experience that fuses vibes, entertainment, high-end food, unique cocktails, quality service, and great company,” said Veasey in a press release. Word has it that SIN is one of the priciest restaurants in the Philadelphia area when it comes to design and architectural splendor. Can’t wait. And thankfully, they won’t serve turkey. n
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The Holdovers
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that mankind is more beast than Bella ever could be hammered so relentlessly that any lingering pleasure in the performances, as well as in the fantastical visuals, is nullified. [R] HHH
I knew Karl and Jackie when they opened Bucks County Folk Music in New Britain in 1966. When I was in my twenties, I bought a beautiful deep-red flat-top Guild there. Years later, they sold me a Guild twelve-string, which I still have. Their shop was where I went for strings, books, and miscellaneous music accessories, but more than anything, a fix. I hoped that buying things would make me a better player, and to the extent they got me to play more, I suppose there was sense to that.
The Holdovers (Dir. Alexander Payne). Starring: Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Dominic Sessa. For the follow-up to his failed climate-change satire Downsizing, director Alexander Payne takes a stab at a low-key crowd-pleaser that wouldn’t have been out of place in the American cinema of the 1970s, when the story is set. Winter break approaches at a tony prep school and crotchety instructor Paul
Hunham (Paul Giamatti) is tasked with keeping watch over several “holdovers”—students who won’t be going home for the holidays. His chief charge is Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa), a kid with a harsh attitude and plenty of promise. Alongside the school’s head cook, Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who recently lost her son in Vietnam, Paul and Angus work through their antagonism, learn an abundance of life lessons, and build that “unlikely friendship” that is the narrative fallback of many a movie. It works as far as it goes, and there’s very few instances, as there were tons in Downsizing, where it feels like Payne’s reach exceeds his grasp. But that doesn’t mean the film has much staying power. Like snow on sun-heated concrete, it dissolves upon contact. [R] HHH Priscilla (Dir. Sofia Coppola). Starring: Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi, Ari Cohen. The King of Rock and Roll got his own biopic last year. Now it’s time to focus on his Queen. Sofia Coppola writes and directs, in her typically woozy style, this study of the teenage Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny), who achieved the dream of many an adolescent girl in the 1960s by marrying music superstar Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi). It is not a union made in heaven, with Priscilla primarily confined to the gilded cage of Graceland while her husband is on the road. And every time he’s back home, this hunka-hunka-burnin’love treats his spouse more as a plaything than a partner, even and especially after she gives birth to their daughter Lisa Marie. Coppola is fascinated by the ways in which a privileged life can be a prison, and she gets a lot of mileage out of her actors’ sheer physical differences—Spaeny short and endearingly waify, Elordi tall and creepily detached. Priscilla is a nightmare about the price of living in the shadow of superstardom, though overall it feels rather unproductively monotonous, which wasn’t the case in Coppola’s great and thematically similar Marie Antoinette (2006). [R] HH1/2 n 28
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’ve always had a stringed instrument nearby, although I never learned to play much beyond a strum or some rudimentary picking. In the early days, I went to open mics and even played gigs in pubs a few times, but it led to the realization that my music is all about what it means to me, and caring about someone else’s approval just got in the way. Today, I’m a now-and-then player. I pick up my guitar when I need it. I’m still not much of a musician, and my voice is gone, so it’s best for everybody that I keep to myself. The guitar doesn’t care. I can tap into a place inside myself and calm the disquiet. That’s medicine everybody should have access to. Bucks County Folk Music has a lot of beautiful and unusual instruments. The kind you fall in love with. Plenty of excellent entry-level instruments and nice high-end ones, too. Some new, some experienced. Many have a singular past. All of them have a future. If you prefer, There is a hundred-year-old guitar with its original patina and a gorgeous pearl inlay that weaves up the neck, cut and set by eye—an absolute treasure. And deliciously decorated banjos from long ago. Mandolins, dulcimers, ukuleles, percussion instruments, and a wall of violins. I can’t play them, but I love being near them. A half-century of resonance lingers within the walls, and you can feel the spirit of the makers—the people who created these functional works of art, giving them means and voices, and those who take them and create the music. How can you not want to be part of the intimacy, the continuum, of making music, even if just as a custodian. The shop looks like a country store for acoustic stringed instruments, but not in a Disney way. It’s still the unpretentious place it was fifty-plus years ago, where good things happen. While I was painting, dulcimer maker Gerry Heinrich came in with a few of his instruments, resulting in an impromptu and mesmerizing demonstration on one of his teardrops. I included him in the image while he played. After that, a young man came in and dazzled us with a remarkable set on a mandolin, then a violin, and then a jumbo guitar. Awesome stuff, yet not all that uncommon there. The shop has something even harder to find. I took my Martin to have Karl reset the neck a few years ago. When he gave it back to me, he said he was able to use the same strings. Saved me ten bucks. It says something about why we are all here. They are at the center of a community that takes care of each other, and one of those unusual businesses that looks after their customers’ interests. Like somebody pushed a reset button. We lost Karl earlier this year, but Jackie, daughter Kim, and a few others keep it all in rhythm: the sales, the repairs, the excellent advice, and that extraordinary resonance. Bucks County Folk Music has been doing precisely the right thing for nearly sixty years. The store hasn’t been allowed to lose its meaning, which is why it became a destination. It’s still the way it was because that was the right way to be, and a better one hasn’t come along. I don’t expect it to change. n
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Five albums and countless tours into the game, and jazz runs through her veins like blood. “There is an instrumental depth to this music like no other that allows me the freedom of improvisation and a better interpretation of the lyrics, whether it is something we cover or a story I am writing,” said Miller. Do the four albums that came before Nine act as a prelude and aptly capture her personal moments and the vibe around her? “For sure. I’m proud of all my albums and believe they were photographs of my time— whether I was in a big band mood or something more intimate. I know I’ve grown from who I was in each album’s past, especially as a singer and lyricist. And I know that I have so much more growing to do. If I’m doing it justice, I’ll never stop evolving and growing as part of the process.” Aaron Graves and most of the band members who play on Nine became known to her during the Covid pandemic after a time when Miller took a nearly decade-long hiatus to raise her daughter. “I had been away
for so long I almost didn’t know if I was returning to music after only singing lullabies and Disney songs to my daughter. But I did, and my first album back after many years was Round Midnight with David O’Rourke. I was four gigs into my new revived career and a new CD, and then the world shut down. Making lemonade out of lemons, I did live stream concerts and backyard events and got to know Mike Boone, another player onto the live stream thing early on. That’s what started me working with all the Philly players—including Aaron Graves.” With Graves, Miller began working on old music and freshly-made songs for nearly three years to come up with the material for new sets with the pianist and Boone, as well as for the material that fills Nine. From there, this trio began welcoming additional Philly players to the fold as time went on. “Aaron is every vocalist’s dream piano player,” said Miller of her principal collaborator, co-writer, and producer. “He adds nuance and listens thoroughly and completely. Aaron can swing his ass off and yet be extremely subtle. Knowing that he’s composed tons of originals, I told him I had been working on my own songs, and he was immediately into it. Aaron truly taps into what you’re doing and thinking—what’s in your head—be it your melodies or counter melodies. He can read your mind.” Nine’s original numbers such as “Love Me for Who I Am,” “I Can’t Wait, “Strange is the Night,” and “Feel the Music” come out of the MillerGraves union with the vocalist acting as “a vessel,” a conduit between 30
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atmosphere and action. Dreams of full or mostly realized songs pop into her head, and she writes from each sleep’s memory. “With Covid, we got introspective by default,” said Miller. “The floodgates opened, and I took advantage of the thoughts and emotions that poured out.” From there, Graves works out Miller’s dreams into fully functioning songs. “Graves is a very spiritual, deep person… bringing things to the heart of the matter, always wanting to know the story I want to tell.”
Bamboo Bar at the Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok
As Nine is very much an album (rather than a selection of songs), Miller’s curation of standards, new and old, such as “High Wire,” is crucial to its success. “What the story of each song, and the gift that we wished to give people with Nine, was important to us,” said Miller. “For me, Nine was about making people feel uplifted. “High Wire” is positive, about an aerialist in flight, a metaphor for living through fear and feeling alive. Cedar Walton’s “Firm Roots” connects us with the earth and each other at a time of war and strife—and finding joy. And “Nearness of You” is just the most daydreamy love song.” That Maci Miller can take worldly joy and connectivity, make it personal, and maintain an inventive edge as a vocalist on new songs and old makes her worthy of the jazz aesthetic. Miller, Graves, and their ensemble’s next shows throughout November happen at the Kennett Flash in Kennett Square, PA, on November 14, at Chris’ Jazz Café in Philadelphia for Maci’s birthday bash on November 22, and as part of Tom Angello’s All-Star Jazz Series in Somers Point, NJ on November 29. n
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writing his stories rather than acting them to crowds of fans, and was proud that she inspired the lovingly nagging wives in “Lassie” and his other Yorkshire yarns. “I don’t think we women need to be ashamed of being preachy and bossy or matriarchal,” Jere explained. “It’s in the nature of the beast.” As an editor, Jere could be a tough mother. I still feel the bruises from her “NO!!!” on my manuscript pages in black, blue, and red ink. As an earth mother, she was tougher. I still feel her death-ray glare when I trashed a piece of aluminum foil long before its time. Yet we had only one serious disagreement, a remarkable feat for a decade of collaboration. Jere insisted that Eric dreamed up “Lassie” while walking a New York forest with his dog Toots, a come-home collie taught by her companion to obey commands in French, German, and Shakespeare. I insisted that he dreamed up “Lassie” at a train station in England after talking to unemployed shipbuilders forced to sell their beloved dogs, part of his research for a Saturday Evening Post article on Britain’s depressed industrial areas. As usual, we reached a happy compromise. We settled on “Lassie” as an English-American fable about a collie testing greed and generosity to shepherd a more humane society. In short, it’s no more a kid’s book than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Jere made me much more than a dedicated recycler. She expanded my vocabulary by calling herself an “amanuensis” rather than an artistic assistant, a “relict” rather than a widow (“Just don’t call me a relic, kid”). Driving to a “Lassie at 50” exhibition at Yale University, she instructed me to keep at least two car lengths back on the highway, a safety tip that’s kept me accident-free for 30-plus years. Most importantly, Jere offered the right words at the right and wrong times. She comforted me during romantic breakdowns and the mental meltdowns that led my father to disappear for a month into Manhattan homeless shelters. After my dog died, she sent me her consoling poem about the death of the collie that brought us together. She lived the Quaker mandate to “speak to thy condition.” Somewhere along the line, I became Jere’s “extra” son, “G-Geoff” to “J-Jeff” Lindtner, her second-marriage child. Jeff sealed our friendship by letting me share the honors he coordinated for his mother. He turned her twilight into an Indian summer with the publication of her first poetry collection and Springfield Township’s first quality-of-life award for being an early environmentalist and model citizen. “As long as I’m around this community,” she vowed, “I’m going to yak.” In 1996, Jeff invited me to visit Jere during her final hours in a Quaker retirement community. I held her hand when she cried, “Eric! Eric!” with her eyes closed, in a dream state. For some reason, I looked at the floor and saw three chapters from my unfinished Eric book. The top page was bloodied with corrections and redirections. There was nothing to do but laugh. Three years ago, I decided to celebrate “Lassie” at 80 with weekly pilgrimages to the Jere Knight Nature Trail. I like to stop by her dedicatory plaque, written and produced by her son, high above the creek she helped preserve. I make a peace sign with two fingers, place them on “friend,” the last of her 17 bronze graces, and repeat her call to me to action: “What else have we got, brother?” n
The Color Purple (1985, Steven Spielberg, United States) In preparation for the new musical version coming this Christmas, revisit Steven Spielberg’s popular adaptation of Alice Walker’s novel about Celie Johnson (Whoopi Goldberg), an African-American woman who pushes back against the bonds of personal and societal oppression. Walker’s novel was tough and ragged and may seem an ill-fit for Spielberg’s more emotive sensibilities. But he finds a way into the material by treating it like an Old Hollywood melodrama with the typical racial roles reversed. It often feels like we’re glimpsing an alternative pop-cultural history, one that only heightens the story’s emphasis on literacy, in both literal and figurative senses, as a
Geoff Gehman is the author of Down But Not Quite Out in Hollow-weird (Scarecrow Press), a biography-in-letters of Eric Knight’s two stints—he called them sentences--as a screenwriter. Visit jereknight.com for a full account of the overflowing lives of Eric and Jere. Her namesake nature trail is located at 2844 Slifer Valley Rd., Riegelsville—more information: heritageconservancy.org; 215-345-7020. 32
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Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple (1985)
pathway to liberation. This was Goldberg’s film debut and it’s arguable that she’s never been better, though the whole cast (which also includes Oprah Winfrey and Danny Glover) is spectacular, keyed into the extravagant and expressive mode Spielberg adopts to get at very complex truths about love and endurance. (Streaming on Amazon.) The Rapture (1991, Michael Tolkin, United States) The writer Michael Tolkin (whose novel The Player would later be adapted into a great Hollywood satire by Robert Altman) made his directorial debut with this unparalleled oddity about sex, sin, and the end of the world. It begins like a Skinemax quickie, as Los Angeles telephone operator Sharon (Mimi Rogers) indulges in nightly bouts of intercourse (the physical kind) with multiple men and women. Her life is going nowhere fast until she unexpectedly finds God and becomes a committed acolyte convinced the rapture is imminent. But her surety of belief is tested when tragedy strikes in multiple ways, leading her to question her devotion to the ultimate Man—the one in the sky. You may think you know where the movie is going, but Tolkin continually upends expectations until we’re as emotionally unmoored as Sharon. This makes her final scenes all the more powerful as she reckons with the consequences of her righteous defiance and is consigned to one of the greatest visions of the underworld ever put onscreen. (Streaming on Criterion.) n
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harper’s FINDINGS Researchers found that, over the course of an academic year, middle schoolers grew increasingly unpopular and more likely to misuse alcohol if they were considered unattractive and unathletic, and that such shortcomings are no longer seen as gender-specific. Heavy drinking and handgun-carrying are positively correlated among rural American adolescents, blood-lead levels are higher for black children in segregated North Carolina neighborhoods, and a warming climate can accelerate age-related cognitive decline among black Americans and those living in poor neighborhoods. The U.S. municipal bond market penalizes communities in proportion to the percentage of their population that is black but generally ignores their vulnerability to climate change. In Neptune’s atmosphere, where a large dark spot was observed next to a small and unexpected bright spot, the relative scarcity of clouds is explained by the planet’s eleven-year solar cycle, rather by than by decades-long seasons. The dark-brown carbon emitted by forest fires was found to trap heat from the entire spectrum of visible light and to resist solar bleaching, blowing snow in the central Arctic is producing abundant fine sea salt aerosols that create heattrapping clouds, and deeper than usual snowpack in certain areas of the Arctic is trapping summer heat for longer periods of time and releasing ancient carbon. Past carbon dioxide spikes were correlated with interbreeding between humans and other hominins.
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Ötzi the Iceman shared ancestry with Anatolians and experienced extensive hair loss. The collapse of the Qing Dynasty was driven by the quadrupling of its population and consequent rural impoverishment, an overabundance of qualified applicants for elite academic degrees, rising costs and trade deficits, and falling productivity, which were variously associated with internal unrest, opium imports, and the depletion of silver reserves. Yayoi- and Kofun-era residents of Tanegashima may have deformed their craniums as a way of identifying themselves as members of the shellfish trade. Geoscientists were confident that, given access to the oldest barnacles on the flaperon of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, they could help pinpoint its crash site. As many as seven thousand common noctules may have been killed in the Russian siege of Kharkiv, and scientists were not certain whether the globally synchronized waves observed in the brains of wakeful rats on ketamine or LSD were a cause or a symptom of hallucinations. Researchers revealed a humanized mouse liver and grew humanized mesonephroi in pigs. The heart tissues of cardiac surgery patients were found to be embedded with at least nine kinds of microplastics.
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The Academy of Management Journal published “A Spillover Model of Dreams and Work Behavior: How Dream Meaning Ascription Promotes Awe and Employee Resilience.” People in East Asia go to bed later and sleep less than Westerners. Frequent nightmares were associated with major depression among young Hong Kongers who experienced recent social unrest and COVID-19 restrictions, a meta-review found childhood nightmare prevalence to peak between ages ten and fourteen, and doctors were baffled by a case of paroxysmal sleep laughter. Somalis, surveyed as proxies for earlier inhabitants of the Cradle of Humankind, were found to fear spiders less than scorpions but snakes to the expected degree. A Texas woman was attacked by a snake that fell from the sky and then by the hawk who had dropped it. A new snake was named for Harrison Ford and found to be harmless to humans. Particle physicists announced that there is strong evidence of a fifth force of nature. 34
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INDEX Increase since 1981 in the median age of first-time U.S. home buyers: 7 Portion of prospective home buyers who consider climate change when evaluating where to live: 4/5 Est. % decrease since 2019 in the number of fire lookouts employed in the U.S: 18 Min. number of residents who moved to Florida’s high flood-risk counties between 2019 and 2022: 383,680 % of Floridians who have flood insurance: 18 Portion of Americans earning at least $175,000 p/year who consider themselves to be poor or “just getting by”: 1/4 Who have less than $200,000 in retirement savings: 1/4 Portion of U.S. families who have less than $100,000 in retirement savings: 4/5 Who have no retirement savings: 1/2 % inc. since 2008 in the number of assets in non-traditional financial institutions: 141 Portion of Americans who remain continuously employed through their 50s: 1/2 Portion of U.S. employees who know what is expected of them at work: 1/2 Factor by which people who say they are lonely are more likely to miss work than those who say they are not: 2 % by which married people are more likely than unmarried to say they are happy: 9,560 % of American adults under the age of 25 who describe themselves as lonely: 79 % change since 2020 in the number of U.S. men aged 18 to 29 who are single: −3 In the number of U.S. women who are single: +18 % by which single men are more interested in dating than single women: 31 By which single women are more likely than men to say they can’t find someone who meets their expectations: 65 % by which U.S. women are more likely than men to have a tattoo: 41 Portion of U.S. adults with tattoos who regret getting at least one of them: 1/4 % change since 2019 in employment assessment scores for job seekers under 25: −10 Minimum percentage of U.S. school districts that do not employ librarians: 35 % of U.S. adults who believe parents are not “tough enough” when disciplining: 64 % increase since 2018 in the number of Americans who believe moderate drinking is bad for one’s health: 39 In the number of adults aged 18 to 34 who believe this: 53 % by which non-religious adults are more likely than Christians to believe this: 34 % change this year in sales of Bud Light: −16 In sales of Modelo Especial: +11 Factor by which beer imports from Mexico have increased since 2013: 2 % by which beer imports from other countries have decreased: 29 % increase in the value of the non-alcoholic beer industry since 2021: 43 % of U.S. alcohol consumption for which one fifth of the population is responsible: 53 Of injuries needing medical attention for which 20% of the population is responsible: 78 % of pet owners who, given the choice between saving the life of one person or one dog, would choose the dog: 21 Who, given the choice between saving the lives of one hundred people or one dog, would choose the dog: 18 % of Americans who say that a dead relative has communicated with them in the past year: 15 Who say that they have felt a dead relative’s presence: 34 That a dead relative has visited them in a dream: 46 SOURCES: 1 National Association of Realtors (Chicago); 2 Zillow (Seattle); 3 Forest Fire Lookout Association (Bigfork, Mont.); 4 Redfin (Seattle); 5 Insurance Information Institute (NYC); 6,7 Bloomberg (NYC); 8,9 Employee Benefit Research Institute (Washington); 10 Financial Stability Board (Basel, Switzerland); 11 Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies (Cambridge, Mass.); 12 Gallup (Washington); 13 The Cigna Group (Bloomfield, Conn.); 14 Sam Peltzman, University of Chicago; 15 The Cigna Group; 16–19 Survey Center on American Life (Washington); 20,21 Pew Research Center (Washington); 22 Criteria Corp (Los Angeles); 23 SLIDE, Antioch University Seattle; 24 YouGov (NYC); 25–27 Gallup; 28,29 Bump Williams Consulting (Milford, Conn.); 30,31 Beer Institute (Washington); 32 IWSR Drinks Market Analysis (London); 33,34 Joshua Jackson, Washington University in St. Louis; 35,36 YouGov; 37–39 Pew Research Center.
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TEAM PICTURE
BY EVAN BIRNHOLZ
The answer to this metapuzzle is an NFL team. ACROSS 1 5 10
14 18 19 20 21 23 25 26 27 28 29 31 32 34 37 40 42 43 44 49 51 55 56 57 59 60 61 63 64 65 67 69 71 74 79 80
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Item tossed at a stake Spritelike Scientist who was called the “Father of Biophilosophy” in the New York Times in 1966 “FBI” actress Ward Tennis racket head’s shape Tortilla chip topping Paradisiacal plot Beast with horns Revolver inventor (9) (4) Speck of dust Phrase indicating informal attire Evil 42 Across It imposed an embargo on the U.S. in 1973 Purpose Letters meaning “When should we expect you?” “You’re ___ right!” Student newspaper at a Southern university (4) (5) Ruby’s son on “Black-ish” Trapshooting asset Smile Many, many lifetimes Cry of encouragement at a rodeo (4) (5) Hrs. at London’s Royal Observatory Faucet annoyance Cryptic puzzle Distress signal? Symbol historically associated with the French monarchy British race place Fella Assist in an offense From Seoul or Surat “How I ___ Your Mother” Not long from now Bring into the business Flash Francis of Assisi or Catherine of Siena, to Italy (5-2-3) (8) Keep ___ of (stay informed about) New Balance rival Drink introduced by a company once known as Chero-Cola Boxing attack Like spiral notebooks “... plus other authors” Like some models in art class drawings
90 Steel plow maker John 92 Erupt from frustration 94 Copper strand, often 95 Attempt at calling someone who’s late? 96 Fantasia Mermaid perfume maker Sui 97 Academic extension 98 Device that powers up an Android (9,4) (7) 100 “___ you dig it?” 102 “En garde!” speaker’s weapon 104 Female kangaroo 105 TV trailers, e.g. 106 Amphibious aircraft that sounds like a vacation spot for Blackbeard’s crew (6,4) (4) 112 Polite, elided address 115 Dec. 31, e.g. 116 Rise on hind legs 117 Speech-language pathology subject 119 Random drawing game 123 Jane with two Oscars 125 Southwestern river 126 “Iron Chef America” host (6) (4) 128 ___ over (supported during a difficult time) 129 Chemist Fischer who received a Nobel Prize 130 Irritate impishly 131 Working busily 132 Protective cover at a stadium 133 Catches, as a play 134 Defeated by a whisker 135 Picture designed for an NFL team, say
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Diana of Motown Catcher Rodriguez Facebook profile info Affixed, as with Elmer’s Communication subj. for recent immigrants Linguistically brief Fiasco of a film Small body of land “Like you’d expect” Like wines with less residual sugar than sweet wines “My Lord,” in the Torah Leaving alone Prepare to practice some yoga poses Directed at “Olé ___” (1976 album with a palindromic title)
16 17 22 24 30 33 35 36 37 38 39 41 45 46 47 48 50 52 53 54 58 60 61 62 66 68 70 72 73 74 75 76 77
Medical glove material “Reimagining Equality” author Hill Official who manages academic programs Stage of history Denials in Krasnodar Cry for attention at a young age Ghostbuster with glasses Heed a military recruiter Night sight Wash off ___ of Nantes (1598 document) “One ___ please” What a trip may satisfy Defib pros Became champion Scented additive in a tub Showing at 2 p.m., say “On the Waterfront” director Kazan Cryptanalyst Turing Clark with superpowers Univ. class aides Sporting facial hair like Tony Stark’s in “Iron Man” films “Coming 2 America” actor Hall 2008 Television Hall of Fame inductee Arthur “Covert” CIA missions Printer supply ___ degree (math class concept) Compound with uracil “That’s right” “Dancing Queen” band Oasis, to someone lost in the desert, say Where you might see a skull Intertwine ICON |
78 Excitement, as in a Shakespeare title 81 Creative development 82 Towering achievement of the gaming industry? 83 Like three-point shots or the three-point line 84 Common orders during pub trivia 87 Genre of the podcast “My Favorite Murder” 89 Large coffee container 91 Hare’s long body part 93 Convention center, for an expo 94 “Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay!” 95 ___ butter (skin care product ingredient) 98 International contacts, perhaps 99 Invent numbers? 101 Scrape away 103 Tony Sirico’s role on “The Sopranos” 106 Word aptly describing this answer’s position 107 Stay away from 108 Armored swordplay 109 Hamsters’ enclosures 110 Make happy 111 Made mad 113 Cleric’s vestment 114 Takeaway of a parable 118 Alone, as at a dance 120 “Return to Oz” dog 121 Piece of a branch 122 “We might be ___ something here!” 124 The D of DNC: Abbr. 127 Praiseland founder Flanders
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