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Contents 28

MAY ~ 2011

FEATURE

POD I 44

Museums Size Up the Down Economy I 34

The Dining Guide I 46

DAVE BARRY INTERVIEWS Sheila Hicks: The Pollock of Textile I 28 The Good Witch: Eva Green I 30 Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff I 32

POLITICS & OPINION Textile artist Sheila Hicks.

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Real Men Can’t Buy Gifts I 49

ESSAY When Daughters Become Mothers I 50

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ABOUT LIFE Distracted, Unfocused, Impulsive I 53

Charles Krauthammer I 5

DESTINATIONS

E. J. Dionne Jr. I 5

Winter in Lapland I 54

Lexicrockery I 50

May Flowerings I 58

ART

MUSIC

Out of Place I 7

Keresman on Disc I 56

Charles Demuth I 8

Terri Hendrix

After They’ve Seen Paree I 10

Bill Dixon Orchestra

Exhibitions I 12

Luc Ferrari Neil Diamond

STAGE The Book of Mormon I 14 Regional Theater I 16

FILM Reel News I 18 Casino Jack

Actress Eva Green.

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Ward No. 6 A Somewhat Gentle Man Bob Dylan Revealed

John Hicks & Frank Morgan Singer / Songwriter I 58 Paul Simon Randy Newman Emmylou Harris Dana Fuchs Robbie Robertson Nick’s Picks I 60 Taylor Haskins

Cinematters: Arthur I 20

Ben Allison

Keresman on Film: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold I 22

Samir Zarif

Bad Movie: Stone I 24

Dave Juarez

Film Roundup I 26 L’Amour Fou

Charles Demuth, Nude No. 4.

Marcin Wasilewski Trio Art Hirahara Noah Haidu

Lebanon, PA

Jazz Library: Frank Morgan I 62

The Princess of Montpensier

GOING OUT CALENDAR I 67

Dumbstruck

ETCETERA

PAFA’s Historic Landmark Building.

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FOOD & WINE I 41-46

Harper’s INDEX I 6

California’s Century-Old Wineries I 42

L.A. Times Sunday Crossword I 52

Stockton Inn I 43

Harper’s FINDINGS I 63

ON THE COVER: Sheila Hicks, La Clef, 1988 rubber bands, metal key 9 1-2 x 6 inches Private collection Photo: Bastiaan van den Berg.

Page 28.

opinion The racing form, 2012

What history will apply to the 2012 election?

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

E. J. DIONNE JR.

UNIFIED FIELD THEORY OF 2012, Axiom One: The more the Republicans can make the 2012 election like 2010, the better their chances of winning.

The 2010 Democratic shellacking had the distinction of being the most ideological election in 30 years. It was driven by one central argument in its several parts: the size and reach of government, spending and debt, and, most fundamentally, the nature of the American social contract. 2010 was a referendum on the Obama experiment in hyper-liberalism. It lost resoundingly.

Of course, presidential elections are not arguments in the abstract but arguments with a face. Hence, Axiom Two: The less attention the Republican candidate draws to him/herself, the better the chances of winning. To the extent that 2012 is about ideas, about the case for smaller government, Republicans have a decided edge. If it’s a referendum on the fitness and soundness of the Republican candidate—advantage Obama.

Which suggests Axiom Three: No baggage and no need for flash. Having tried charisma in 2008, the electorate is not looking for a thrill up the leg in 2012. It’s looking for solid, stable, sober and, above all, not scary. Given these Euclidean truths, here’s the early line. (Remember: This is analysis, not advocacy.)

Long shots: Michele Bachmann: Tea Party favorite. Appeals to Palinites. Could do well in Iowa. Hard to see how she makes her way through the rest of the primary thicket. A strong showing in debates and a respectable finish would increase her national stature for 2016. But for now: 20-1 to win the nomination.

Donald Trump: He’s not a candidate, he’s a spectacle. He’s also not a conservative.

With a wink and a smile, Muhammad Ali showed that self-promoting obnoxiousness could be charming. Trump shows that it can be merely vulgar. A provocateur and a clown, the Republicans’s Al Sharpton. The Lions have a better chance of winning the Super Bowl.

The major candidates: Mitt Romney: Serious guy. Already vetted. Tons of privateand public-sector executive experience. If not for one thing, he’d be the prohibitive front-runner. Unfortunately, the one thing is a big thing: Massachusetts’s Romneycare.

For an election in which the main issue is excessive government (see Axiom One), that’s a huge liability. Every sentient Republican has been trying to figure out how to explain it away. I’ve heard no reports of any success. Romney is Secretariat at Belmont, but ridden by Minnesota Fats. He goes out at 5-1.

Newt Gingrich: Smart guy. A fountain of ideas. No, a Vesuvius of ideas. Some brilliance, lots of lava. Architect of a historic Republican victory in 1994. Rocky speakership.

Unfortunate personal baggage. 12-1.

Haley Barbour: Successful governor. Experienced Washington hand. Abundant charm. Baggage: Years of lobbying, unforced errors on civil rights, early neo-isolationist deviations. Rarely without a comeback, however. 7-1.

Tim Pawlenty: Formerly, unassuming, unprepossessing, solid two-term Minnesota governor. Currently, mouse that roars. Up-tempo style, middle-of-the-road conservative content. Apparently baggageless. Could be the last man standing. 5-1.

Mitch Daniels: Highly successful governor. Budget guru. Delightful dullness satisfies all axioms (see above). Foreign policy unknown, assuming he has one. Alienated some conservatives with his call for a truce on—i.e., deferring—social issues. If he runs, 6-1.

Likely not running: Mike Huckabee: Has a good life—hosting a popular TV show, making money, building his dream house in Florida. He’d be crazy to run. Doesn’t look crazy to me.

Sarah Palin: Same deal. Showed her power in 2010 as kingmaker and opinion shaper. Must know (I think) she has little chance at the nomination and none in the general election. Why risk it, and the inevitable diminishment defeat would bring?

Even less likely to run—the 2016 bench: A remarkable class of young up-andcomers includes Paul Ryan, Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley. All impressive, all new to the national stage, all with bright futures. 2012, however, is too early—except possibly for Ryan, who last week became de facto leader of the Republican Party. For months, he will be going head-to-head with President Obama on the budget, which is a surrogate for the central issue of 2012: the proper role of government. If Ryan acquits himself well, by summer’s end he could emerge as a formidable anti-Obama.

One problem: Ryan has zero inclination to run. Wants to continue what he’s doing right now. Would have to be drafted. That would require persuasion. Can anyone rustle up a posse?

HANDICAPPING AN ELECTION 19 MONTHS away seems relevant only to political junkies except for this: Expectations, as shrewd investors know, affect actions.

The Republican presidential field might be more formidable if President Obama were less strongly favored. And over time, what Congress does will be shaped by the presidential campaign’s direction.

Views of 2012 are heavily influenced by the metaphors that prognosticators invoke.

Will it be 1984, 1988 or 1992?

Obama’s camp loves 1984. President Ronald Reagan’s popularity plummeted during the economic downturn of his first two years, and Republicans did badly in the 1982 midterms. Then the economy roared back and so did Reagan. He won the landslide Obama’s handlers dream about.

Republicans like 1992. In the year before the election, the smart money was on President George H.W. Bush’s reelection. But out of nowhere came a young Democratic governor named Bill Clinton. He took advantage of economic discontent and the way Ross Perot’s independent candidacy shook up the campaign. Bush lost, with only 37.5 percent of the popular vote. Republicans want to believe Obama is as invisibly vulnerable now as Bush was then.

Both comparisons are flawed. Obama will get stronger as the economy improves, but he won’t be able to get close to a Reagan-like triumph, given how many core Republican states seem impossible to crack. The problem with the Republicans’ 1992 metaphor is that while Bush may not have seen Clinton coming, many Democrats had identified him as an awesome talent years before he ran. None of the current GOP contenders can claim this.

I like 1988 (the year the first President Bush defeated Democrat Michael Dukakis) as a metaphor for the Republicans’ stature problem. That year, the Democratic hopefuls came to be known as “the seven dwarfs.” This wasn’t fair to them, and it may not be fair to this year’s Republican field, whatever its eventual size. But the dwarf line speaks to an image deficit shared by both fields.

Of the current GOP bunch, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty is the Dukakis of 2012. I say this as someone who is fond of Dukakis and believes he was an excellent governor of Massachusetts. He just wasn’t a great presidential candidate. The strength Pawlenty and Dukakis share is the absence of any glaring shortcomings. Dukakis was the remainder candidate, the guy most likely to be left standing. That looks like Pawlenty’s role this year. But it’s also hard to see Pawlenty escaping Dukakis’s eventual fate in a general election.

Mitt Romney, the sort-of, kind-of front-runner, is intelligent and well organized. But his lack of constancy on certain issues and the Massachusetts health-care plan (which he should be proud of fathering but has had to disown) hurt him with primary voters.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is the guy you would most want to have a drink with, but that’s not necessarily the key to winning a nomination. Gov. Mitch Daniels of Indiana is bright and substantive. He should run, but I don’t think he will.

Then there’s the rest—Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Donald Trump and Jon Huntsman. I can’t see any of them making it, but keep an eye on Trump’s economic nationalism and his tough-on-China rhetoric. If he cans the birther nonsense, the Donald might surprise people.

For the election, here’s the math: With the new census, the states Obama carried last time (plus the lone elector he won in Nebraska) start him with 359 electoral votes.

From his original states, Obama can lose Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Virginia and North Carolina and still win exactly the 270 electoral votes he needs—as long as he holds his other states, notably Pennsylvania and Florida, and that single elector from Nebraska. Under this scenario, if he also lost the one Nebraska vote, the Electoral College would be tied, 269-269.

This gives Obama a lot of maneuvering room, but note that Pennsylvania and Florida both trended Republican last year. So Obama is certainly the favorite, but I’m not in the camp that sees the election as over before it starts.

And in the congressional races, something could happen in 2012 that’s never happened before: Both houses could switch parties, but in opposite directions. The Democrats could take back the House—the GOP is defending a lot of Democratic-leaning seats—while Republicans could take over the Senate, given the difficult array of states Democrats must win. If this happens, remember, you read it here first.

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HARPER’S M

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INDEX

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

Filling the hunger since 1992

Facts compiled by the editors of Harper’s Magazine

1-800-354-8776 • voice: 215-862-9558 fax: 215-862-9845

Chances that an American describes his or her diet as “healthy”: 9 in 10 Graduates of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board “Masters of Beef Advocacy” program since 2009: 1,950 Number of U.S. states that have more pigs than people: 3 Radioactive animal droppings found in 2009 near the Hanford nuclear site in Washington: 33 Percentage change since 2001 in the Alsatian great hamster population: ?–78 (See page 84) Minimum number of birds that die from crashing into New York City windows each year: 100,000 Percentage of black kite raptors that decorate their nests with white plastic: 82 Maximum occupancy of a Madrid hotel, made entirely from garbage, that opened in January: 10 Portion of Singaporeans who live in public housing: 4/5 Chance that an American benefits from at least one government antipoverty project: 1 in 6 Amount Santa Barbara proposes to spend moving benches to discourage the homeless from panhandling on them: $50,000 Amount Massachusetts has allocated since 2000 to decrease class size and increase teacher pay: $1,200,000,000 Percentage of that allocation that has gone to cover rising health-care costs: 100 Chances that an American opposes any cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or education spending: 6 in 10 Minimum number of U.S. religious facilities that have been foreclosed on since 2008: 195 Percentage by which books on contemporary ethics are more likely than other books to be stolen: 50 Minimum cost of a “pleasure palace” being built for Vladimir Putin: $1,000,000,000 Number of Bentleys purchased in Russia in 2000 and in 2010, respectively: 0, 113 Rank of Communist China among the “greenest” regimes in history, based on total atmospheric carbon reduction: 1 Of Genghis Khan’s Mongol Empire: 2 Estimated portion of registered voters in Zimbabwe who are dead: 1/4 Average annual income of an Englishman living at the start of the Black Death, adjusted for inflation: $1,300 Of a Haitian at the start of the current cholera epidemic: $659 Number of hostages taken by pirates last year: 1,181 Years since record-keeping began in which that number has been higher: 0 Number of militias active in the United States in 2007 and in 2010, respectively: 43, 330 Respective number of states with budget shortfalls in those years: 1, 48 Number of states that have applied for funding under the 2010 Affordable Care Act: 50 Number that have joined a lawsuit challenging the act’s constitutionality: 26 Minimum number of U.S. states and territories in which the Army flew unmanned drones last year: 21 Percentage of Americans aged 18 to 29 who think violence against the U.S. government is justified: 17 Date on which Glenn Beck hypothesized that an attempted assassination of Sarah Palin “could bring the republic down”: 1/10/11 Percentage of Canadians who support increasing their country’s military presence in the Arctic: 58 Number of American soldiers who died in combat last year: 455 Minimum number who committed suicide: 407 Percentage of Ohio voters who think that House Speaker John Boehner’s willingness to cry is a sign of strength: 36 Average minutes more exercise per week that a heavy drinker gets than a non-drinker: 21 Percentage increase since 2000 in the number of Britons under 30 with alcohol-related liver disease: 53 Chance that a woman undergoing in-vitro fertilization in Israel becomes pregnant: 1 in 5 Chance if she is subjected, before fertilization, to “medical clowning”: 1 in 3 1 Burness Communications (Bethesda, Md.); 2 Cattlemen’s Beef Board (Centennial, Colo.); 3 Harper’s research; 4 U.S. Department of Energy, Richland Operation Office (Richland, Wash.); 5 Office National de la Chasse et de la Faune Sauvage (Gerstheim, France); 6 Harper’s research; 7 Estación Biológica de Doñana (Seville, Spain); 8 H.A. Schult-Museum für Aktionskunst (Cologne, Germany); 9 Housing and Development Board (Toa Payoh, Singapore); 10 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; 11 City of Santa Barbara Redevelopment Agency (Calif.); 12,13 Harper’s research; 14 Gallup (Princeton, N.J.); 15 CoStar Group (Washington); 16 Eric Schwitzgebel, University of California, Riverside; 17 Harper’s research; 18 Bentley Motors, Inc. (Boston); 19,20 The Carnegie Institution of Washington; 21 Zimbabwe Election Support Network (Harare); 22 Stephen Broadberry, University of Warwick (Coventry, England); 23 International Monetary Fund (Washington); 24,25 I.C.C. International Maritime Bureau (London); 26 Southern Poverty Law Center (Montgomery, Ala.); 27 National Conference of State Legislatures (Denver); 28 Harper’s research; 29 Office of the Attorney General of Florida (Tallahassee); 30 U.S. Department of Defense; 31 Public Policy Polling (Raleigh, N.C.); 32 Harper’s research; 33 Neil Desai, University of Toronto; 34 U.S. Department of Defense; 35 Harper’s research; 36 Quinnipiac University Polling Institute (Hamden, Conn.); 37 Michael French, University of Miami (Coral Gables, Fla.); 38 The National Health Service (London); 39,40 Assaf Harofeh Medical Center (Zerifin, Israel).

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www.ICONdv.com Publisher & Editor-in-Chief

Trina McKenna trina@ICONdv.com

ADVERTISING 800-354-8776 Email: advertising@ICONdv.com

Fine Arts Editors Edward Higgins

Burton Wasserman

Music Editors Nick Bewsey

Mark Keresman Bob Perkins Tom Wilk Theater Critic David Schultz Food Editor Robert Gordon Wine Editor Patricia Savoie

Contributing A.D. Amorosi Writers Robert Beck

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

PO Box 120 • New Hope, PA 18938 (800) 354-8776 Fax (215) 862-9845 ICON is published twelve times per year. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. ICON welcomes letters to the editor, editorial ideas and submissions, but assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material. ICON is not responsible for claims made by advertisers. Subscriptions are available for $40 (shipping & handling). Copyright 2011 by Prime Time Publishing Co., Inc.

a thousand words

STORY AND PAINTING BY ROBERT BECK

OUT OF PLACE

M

Y FINGERS DUG INTO the seat as I craned my neck to see past the driver’s head.

Smokey Robinson sang from the dashboard as we hurtled along a barely paved road in Senegal, avoiding the kaleidoscope of people, buses, and goat carts emerging from the dust ahead. All of us, the black doctor from Dakar, the white surgeons from the States, and the painter, bouncing and swerving in our Grand Cherokee cocoon, singing “Tracks of My Tears” as we careened from one near miss to another.

People say I’m the life of the party ‘cause I tell a joke or two . . .

Back seat and front took turns on the refrain:.

I need you (need you) need you (need you) . . .

There was no saying, “Stop, let me get out to collect my thoughts and find something familiar, something predictable.” The song was as close as we would get. You are in Africa. You must learn to surrender at times or it will drive you nuts.

In other developed countries, people do much the same things we do, just differently. In a third-world country they do different things. Hurt yourself in Europe and a strange looking ambulance with an odd siren takes you away. Hurt yourself between Mbour and Joal in Senegal and you don’t get an ambulance. The rules are not the ones we take for granted at home. It’s not an overt threat, but you’re always aware that your options are greatly reduced, and in many instances you’re on your own. In that case, you put your head in a place above and slightly to the left of reality and get on with it.

We were about an hour past Mbour when I saw a farming village out my window; a handful of small block and grass houses tucked into the scrub on the side of the road. It was the kind of iconic African scene I had imagined when planning my trip. I traveled thousands of miles to paint everyday life in Senegal—and there it was right in front of my face. I asked the driver to stop the car. I said I was getting out.

The looks of incredulity I received from my fellow passengers were totally warranted. I’m not an easy traveler and it was the last thing they expected me to do. Leaving the team and going off by myself was way outside my comfort zone, but I wasn’t going to let that painting get away. I’ve had to live with enough of my own decisions to know that “I wish I had” is a cold draft that lasts a lifetime. I told them they could pick me up on their way back. Jim, a chief resident from the hospital at NYU, nodded his head and softly offered his diagnosis: “Regret minimalization.”

I walked into the village with our interpreter. She had a brief exchange with a man, then told me it was okay for me to paint there. I went back and grabbed my kit out of the Jeep, then watched my safety net pull back onto the road and disappear into the distant shimmer.

A man in the village brought a plastic lawn chair out of his hut for me. I work standing, but sat down to set up my easel as a way of showing appreciation. It was hot and my shirt stuck to my back. A young girl walked up and started demonstrating her jump rope, but the man shooed her away. The locals watched me prepare my palette, then silently gathered behind as the white Amer-

ican magician conjured his image of their world.

When I was done, I sat in the chair again to pack up.

The man saw me wiping my hands with paper towels and motioned for me to come with him. We walked around the block house to the well where he drew a pitcher of water. He handed me a small bar of soap and we crouched together under a tree. He poured water onto my hands while I washed.

The Jeep arrived and I put my stuff in the back. The man and I smiled and shook hands longer than we might have had we known each other better, looking into the other’s eyes for the last time ever. The driver slid The Dixie Chicks and Dolly Parton into the CD player, I put my brain back into Detached Observer Mode, and climbed in. Locked in its case behind my seat was a fourhour slice of time when, in the midst of surreal uncertainty, things couldn’t have been any clearer.

Robert Beck maintains a gallery and academy in Lambertville, NJ. The series of 12 images painted in Senegal will be sold May 26 at a benefit at New Hope Arts to help equip a hospital in Dakar. Visit www.assists.us.com M AY 2 0 1 1

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art CharlesDEMUTH

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HARLES DEMUTH, THE INCREDIBLY famous Lancaster artist, habitué of theaters and nightclubs, virtual hermit at home, crippled most of his life, yet light in his dancing shoes, drew inspiration, equally it seems, from life and art in cosmopolitan Paris, and his mother’s backyard herb garden outside his studio window.

Charles Demuth in the City of Lights, currently at the Woodmere Art Museum through June 26, explores the impact of Paris on Demuth during his trips there in 1907, 1912-14, and a final trip in 1921. The show was curated by Anne Lampe of the Demuth Museum in Lancaster, which collaborated on the show. The exhibition is also part of the city-wide, Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts, which features the arts of France. A second show at the Woodmere, Violet Oakley and the Women Artist of Paris, is also a part of the festival.

Demuth’s reputation rests on two paintings, “The Figure Five in Gold” and “My Egypt.” Both are oils from the latter part of his career when he developed a style of painting known as Precisionism. “Five,” often described as foreshadowing Pop Art, was inspired by a poem by William Carlos Williams. “Egypt,” depicting a Lancaster County Edward Higgins is a member of The Association Internationale Des Critiques d’Art.

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farm, was inspired by Howard Carter’s discovery of King Tut’s tomb in 1922 and the subsequent mania that came afterward.

For mostly of his career, Demuth was known for his delicate watercolors of flowers and herbs in his mother’s garden right outside his studio. The Demuth story, however, is not complete without his extraordinary upbringing. His family owned and operated a tobacco shop, now the oldest still in operation in the country. Born in 1883, he was a sickly youth, not allowed to participate in rough activities, and throughout his life was coddled. When Demuth developed diabetes, he became one of the first patients in the country to inject insulin. He died of complications from the disease in 1935.

His childhood illnesses, the female-dominated environment, and his own artistic sensibilities have led many to speculate that he was homosexual. Certainly a lot of his art was homoerotic to the point that much of it is still not exhibited. He also was drawn to homosexual circles. Demuth could fairly be described as effete, and he never married. However, little is known about his private life. He did maintain a close relationship from around 1909 with Robert Evans Locher (1888–1956), an Art Deco interior decorator and stage designer who was also from Lancaster.

Demuth was educated at the Franklin and Marshall Academy, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Drexel University and several Parisian academies. He was highly

ED HIGGINS

social with friends while away from Lancaster, enjoying theater, dance, and nightclubs. At home, however, he was isolated, living and working in his house, which today is a museum. It is clear that both home and abroad had deep meaning for him. An art critic writing in the 1940s said, “His mind was greatly broadened by travel. He was abundantly curious in the French sense of the word and investigated and followed up clues that led to the revelation of the spirit of his time.”

The work on display at the Woodmere includes a number of sketches which were probably made in Paris and brought back to be finished in Lancaster. The condition of some of the work is such that only lighting of ten candlepower is allowed. The great influences from Europe were Cubism—which he made his own while developing Precisionism—and Cezanne. Many of these works, such as “Acrobat” from 1918, show some of the sharp-edged lines that would later be found in his architectural pieces. Many point to the beautiful Demuth still lifes— fruit and flowers were the subjects he loved the most—and see the influence of Cezanne.

Demuth, whose friends called him Deem, was part of a New York group centered on Alfred Stieglitz, including Marsden Hartley, Georgia O’Keeffe, Arthur Dove, and Charles Sheeler. He left all his art to Georgia O’Keeffe, who expertly managed his artistic legacy. The Museum has set up a number of public programs in conjunction with the show.

Opposite page: Zinnias and Scarlet Sage, 1928, watercolor and graphite on paper, 11 5/8 x 17 3/4 in. Collection of the Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA. This page: Aviariste, 1912, watercolor on paper, 11 x 8 1⁄2 in. Collection of the Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA. M AY 2 0 1 1

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E Marsden Hartley, Flower Abstraction, 1914. Oil on canvas Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

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BURT WASSERMAN

After they’ve seen Paree

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EARLY IN THE 20TH century, some forward-looking American painters felt a need to make original art forms—images able to bring deeply significant meaning to the true tenor of the times. Social and political changes, as well as the transformative emergence of advances in science and technology, had modified the old order of things and replaced them in order to fashion a bold new world. Perpetuating artistic mannerisms inherited from the past was akin to binding expressive impulses in chains of sterile conformity and suffocating complacency.

An extraordinary road to a contemporary vision had been paved by the efforts of Cézanne, Gauguin, van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso who, at various times, all lived and worked in France.

When such American painters as Arthur B. Carles, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley and John Marin went abroad they found daring breakthroughs, given voice in piercingly compelling images, alive with the spirit of a modern age. Specifically, their talent and creative drive were both stimulated and challenged by such radical art movements as cubism and fauvism. The impact of the new forms helped shatter the prevailing provincialism of late 19th and early 20th century American art attitudes and practices.

Demonstrating how the Americans benefited from their exposure to the European modes of modernism, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has installed an exhibition titled How Ya Gonna Keep Em Down on the Farm After They’ve Seen Paree? Metaphorically, this title, taken from a World War I Era popular song, alludes to how some members of a certain generation were stimulated and challenged by the cosmopolitan outlooks they encountered across the Atlantic, in contrast to the otherwise conservative tendencies they had been exposed to back home. The closing date of the show is May 29, 2011.

A central work in the exhibition is a naïvely styled, Fauve-inspired picture of a picnic by Florine Stettheimer, who had studied in France, as well as America. In it, she and her sisters are shown having lunch in a bucolic set-

Florine Stettheimer, Picnic at Bedford Hills, 1918. Oil on canvas. Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

ting with the European emigrés, Marcel Duchamp and Elie Nadelman. In its own charming manner, the painting suggests the exchange of ideas and outlooks between representatives of the two different cultures. Incidentally, Nadelman’s wooden sculpture, “Chanteuse of 1916,” is included in the exhibition.

“Flower Abstraction” of 1915 is a superb example of a semi-abstract, almost entirely non-representational composition by Marsden Hartley. Painted with incisive colors and bold zig-zag shapes, the artwork is alive with an esthetic electricity and a dynamic presence that hold together as a balanced unity of handsomely diversified design elements. In my opinion, it’s one of the best examples of early modernism by an American artist in the entire collection of the Museum.

Another, more prosaic, example of a floral theme is the oil on canvas painted between 1925 and 1927 by Arthur Carles titled White Callas. While it doesn’t have the esthetic gusto one sees in examples by more venturesome painters, the picture does manifest a degree of fluid grace and integrated chromatic consistency that are very much to Carles’ credit.

In due course, as American expatriate painters returned to their native shores, they settled in no single

venue. However, because it provided a flourishing locale for the exhibition and sale of vanguard art, New York City eventually became the acknowledged center of brave new art developments.

Probably, the major step forward in this respect occurred during the turmoil of World War II when many European artists such as Josef Albers, Max Beckmann.

Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, George Grosz, and Piet Mondrian came to live and work in America.

Their earlier achievements and influence went far in the direction of sensitizing young painters over here to pursue an emphasis on deeply motivated artistic innovation and individual personal expression. Perhaps an exhibition of their accomplishments would make an excellent follow-up show at the Museum of the Academy of the Fine Arts.

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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exhibitions

Mary Serfass, Autumn Glows

Colors of Sound and Light The artwork of Annie Haslam, the Voice of English Classical Rock band RENAISSANCE Twenty-Two Gallery 236 S. 22nd St., Phila.

215-772-1911 twenty-twogallery.com May 10 - 12, 2011 Extended Galley Hours: Noon to 9 PM for 3-day Public Exhibition Annie Haslam will make personal appearances each day. Call gallery for details The woman whose crystal clear, high-flying soprano vocals earned her worldwide attention as the lead singer of the English classical rock band, Renaissance, has recently achieved an entirely new level of appreciation as an “Intuitive” painter. Annie is able to tune into people, animals, situations, emotions and places, and portray them in her own unique style. Annie also channels her art from deep within the earth and far off in the universe.

On canvas, Annie Haslam’s unmistakable world of sound is taken into unique vistas of color and vibration, not unlike the flow of her five-octave voice.

Transporting the viewer to other worlds and through inner boundaries is her ultimate goal, bringing healing, serenity and peace through her work.

Nicholas J. Sands, director of Sands & Company Fine Art in New York City, heralded Annie’s paintings as “magical, enigmatic and wondrous for their ability to take us to a faraway place... of fluid forms that are at once alien and familiar, primordial yet recognizable, which dance in an endless array of colors that are as rich and intense as molten lava.”

In 2009 Annie and bandmate Michael Dunford reformed Renaissance and have been touring the world and recording ever since. A fall concert tour is currently being planned. www.anniehaslam.com

The Art of the Miniature XIX The Snow Goose Gallery 470 Main St. Bethlehem, PA 18018 610-974-9099 thesnowgoosegallery.com T, W 10-5:30; Th 10-8; F 10-5:30; Sat 10-5, Sun 11-4 May 1-June 11, 2011 Fine art miniatures from around the world: oils, acrylics, drawings, mixed media, collage, etchings and sculptures by internationally acclaimed artists including: Beverly Abbott, Carol Andre, James Andrews, Elizabeth Babb, Rita Beckford, Jo Bradney, Susan Brooke, Nancy Coirier, Mona Diane Conner, Jean Cook, Caroline Councell, Anita Cox, Debi Davis, Shara Donohue, Phillis Elliott, Airi Foote, Nancy Fortunato, Beverly Fotheringham, Catherine Girard, Jennifer Robb Hall, Tracy Hall, Richard William Haynes, Mimi Hegler, LaVerne Hill, Judith Johnson, Gail MacArgel, Rebecca Latham, Judy Minor, Linda Morgan, Charles Nelson, Demaris Olson, C. Pamela Palco, Genevieve Roberts, Linda Rossin, Doug Roy, Ann Ruppert, Mary Serfass, Nancy Shelly, Rachel Siegrist, Wes Siegrist, Narissa Steel, Shirley Tabler, Dana Lee Thompson, Laura Von Stetina, David Weston, Connie Ward Woolard, and Steve Worthington.

Linda Rossin, Gossip Column

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Felt Rocks!

Focus On Fiber Art 10 Bridge Street, annex, Frenchtown, NJ 908-996-3344 focusonfiberart.com Wed–Sun 11–5 Open House: May 14, 4–8pm; May 15, 1–5pm On exhibit is a series of felted vessels called Felt Rocks! by fiber and textile artist Elena Stokes, gallery owner and artist in residence. Ms. Stokes employs the time-honored and labor-intensive technique of wet felting to create her vessels. No machines, knitting or sewing. Just wool fibers, water, a little soap and a lot of elbow grease. An accomplished quilt artist and dyer as well, many of Elena’s art quilts and hand-dyed scarves are also on exhibit.

Focus On Fiber Art, a gallery and studio dedicated to fiber and textile art, celebrates its first anniversary this May with an open house on the 14th and 15th. Also featured at the gallery are several fiber, textile and mixed media artists, all local, including emerging, accomplished and award-winning artists.

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footlights L-R: Nikki M. James, Andrew Rannells, Josh Gad and ensemble. Photo: Joan Marcus.

DAVID SCHULTZ

The Book of Mormon IN A BROADWAY PLAYBILL there is usually a page listing the numbers in a splashy musical. The Book of Mormon, directed by Casey Nicholaw and Trey Parker, sidesteps this tradition. As well it should… for if patrons were to see some of the song titles, they might run up the aisles to escape their sacrilegious tone. But, then again, most of those theatergoers know full well what lies ahead. The creators of this shocking and brilliant musical are well known for their scatological, naughty shenanigans. Trey Parker and Matt Stone (creators of South Park) and composer-lyricist Robert Lopez (co-writer of Avenue Q) are the twisted minds behind this blasphemous show.

As soon as the first musical number ended I knew I was in very capable hands. Setting the tone of the show are nearly a dozen fresh-faced, eager men joyfully ringing doorbells, and cheerfully singing of the joys of joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The melodic line and witty lyrics are perfectly crafted throughout the entire production.

The place is Salt Lake City, where these energetic men are given their assignments to “spread the Word” and go forth with their missionary work. The spotlight shines upon Elders Price (Andrew Rannels) a brash, clean-cut idealist, and the slovenly Cunningham (Josh Gad)—who galumphs along as second fiddle to his alpha male partner.

They’re paired up, as are all the boys, to make good on their promise to the church and become “real men” in the process. Elder Price fantasizes that his location will be in Orlando, Florida, near Disneyland. However, no such luck befalls him, as these two impressionable lads are sent—egads—to Uganda! Their reaction to this third-world country proves eye opening. The local townsfolk have seen their like, as men with bibles 14

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and religion have come-a-thumping into their barren village before. The villagers will have none of it, thank you very much. Many of them are riddled with hunger, disease, AIDS, and are a deeply gloomy bunch. “I have maggots in my scrotum,” is one villager’s aching lament. And he says it a lot. They have all but given up hope. Adding to the gloom is an evil one-eyed warlord who rules with a genocidal fervor.

How these crisply dry-cleaned Mormons attempt to change the horrific conditions forms the crux of the musical. The mixture of truly dark elements and bright, cheerful bursts of song work even better than one would think.

The crafty storyline delves into the Church’s history with a dramatization of founder Joseph Smith finding his magical tablets. Jesus and Moroni (an angel) make their appearances, as well. This forms the back story for the uninitiated. The musical even dives straight into hell in Act II with its inhabitants—including Attila the Hun, the Unabomber and Hitler—cavorting and dancing in a hilarious dream/nightmare sequence.

The underlying sweetness and rounded characters work in perfect disharmony to the shockingly explicit language and lyrics. This musical—hands down the front-runner for Best New Musical this year—has its cake and eats it, too.

The Book of Mormon, the Eugene O’Neill Theatre, 230 West 49th Street, New York.

David Schultz is a member of the Outer Critics Circle.

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regional theater The Cripple of Inishmaan 5/19, 5/20, 5/21, 5/22 Written by Academy Award-winner Martin McDonagh and directed by Tony Award winner Garry Hynes, The Cripple of Inishmaan is set in rural Ireland in 1934. This dark comedy depicts the impact that a Hollywood film crew has over the local residents when it shows up to document the tiny island of Inishmore. When a young, orphaned “cripple” named Billy Claven is selected for a part in the film, his dreams of escape take flight. The Cripple of Inishmaan is part of an eight-city, 14week tour of the United States, the biggest U.S. tour undertaken by an Irish company since the 1930s.

Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 3680 Walnut Street, Philadelphia PA. (215) Tadhg Murphy and Clare Dunne. Photo: Robert Day. 898-3900. $20-$40.

Saturn Returns Thru 5/22 There are echoes of the loved ones we have lost orbiting around us always, reminding us of the joy and the grief that make up the tiny moments of our lives. Eighty-eightyear-old Gustin Novak knows this better than anyone. As his past plays out before him again and again, Gustin pits his wicked sense of humor against the pain of endless goodbyes. Written by Noah Haidle. Directed by Brenna Geffers. Theatre Exile @ Christ Church Neighborhood House, 20 North American Street, Philadelphia PA. (215) 2184022. $15-$40. theatreexile.org Cinderella 5/6-5/22 Eternal tale of girl who rises from the ashes to take her rightful place alongside the prince. Performed “Panto” style with a mix of dance, physical comedy, spectacular sets, and zany costumes. This season-ending production is perfect fodder for the spring season and brought to vivid life by the Pennsylvania Youth Theatre. Ice House on Sand Island, Pennsylvania Youth Theatre, 25 West 3rd Street, Bethlehem PA. $10-$24. (610) 332-1400.

Dividing the Estate 5/11-6/5 In a small Texas town c. 1987, the Gordons are land rich, cash poor and grandly deluded. Crisis forces the self-absorbed and endearingly dysfunctional family to agree on a course of action to steady an uncertain future. The Gordon family is locked in a battle over whether to divide, sell or keep the family estate. As open space dwindles and estates are developed, what options are available to landowners? This pungent play written by the late Horton Foote finds some interesting answers. This Philadelphia premiere was an Off-Broadway and Broadway hit a few seasons ago. People’s Light & The-

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EDITED BY DAVID SCHULTZ

atre, 39 Conestoga Road, Rt. 401, Malvern PA. (610) 644-3500. PeoplesLight.org Tosca 5/1, 5/4, 5/6, 5/8 Composer Giacomo Puccini is famous for the grace and strength of his glorious heroines. Enter Floria Tosca, a diva with flashing eyes and a jealous heart who loves only one man—Mario Cavaradossi. When he is taken as a political prisoner, his captor, Baron Scarpia, has met his match in Cavaradossi’s faithful Tosca. Puccini’s beloved work has not been seen at the Opera Company of Philadelphia for over ten years. Adina Nitescu sings the title role and Italian-Brazilian tenor ThiaAdina Nitescu. go Arancam is her Cavaradossi. Boris Statsenko promises a villainous star turn as Scarpia. (Performed in Italian with English translations). Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets, Philadelphia. (215) 732-8400.

Cabaret 5/6-5/22 Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret focuses on the seedy and indulgent nightlife at the Kit Kat Klub in 1930s Berlin—a spot that serves as a decadent oasis from a country undergoing a dangerous transition. While a young English cabaret performer strikes up a relationship with a young American writer, the world outside the walls of the cabaret starts a slow spiral into madness as the Nazi party begins its imminent rise to power.

Cabaret debuted on Broadway in 1966 to immediate acclaim. The production spawned an Oscar-winning 1972 film as well as two major revivals. Cabaret has won 12 Tony Awards and three Drama Desk awards. Civic Theatre of Allentown, 527 North 19th Street, Allentown PA. (610) 432-8943. $26-$31.

Dublin by Lamplight Thru 5/14 Amidst the filth and fury of Dublin 1904, the theatrical event of the century is about to explode. Will the Irish National Theatre of Ireland seize its chance for glory? Fading stars, rebels, whores, and romantics irreverently expose the strange and lurid world of Dublin by Lamplight. A stylized physical performance, this offbeat piece combines storytelling with Commedia Dell’Arte and fantasy with the grotesque. This American premiere was written by Michael West. Inis Nua Theatre Company, @ Broad Street Ministry, 315 South Broad Street, Philadelphia PA. (215) 454-9776. $15-$25. www.inisnuatheatre.org My Wonderful Day 5/18-6/19 In My Wonderful Day, Laverne, an Afro-Caribbean cleaning woman, brings Winnie, her young daughter, to the house of her wealthy clients in London. Winnie is determined to complete her school assignment of chronicling her “wonderful day,” but quite unexpectedly finds herself witness to a tangled love affair. What ensues is a wickedly funny and bold dissection of a turbulent marriage. Playwright Alan Ayckbourn was knighted in 1997, and in the span of his career has written and produced seventyfive full-length plays which have been translated into over thirty-five languages. Wilma Theater, 265 Broad Street, Philadelphia PA. (215) 546-7824. $36-$65. www.wilmatheater.org

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reel news Casino Jack (2010) Cast: Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper Genre: Drama Running time 108 minutes.

Rated R for pervasive language, some violence, and brief nudity.

Awards: Nominated Golden Globes Best Actor In January, 2006, the conservative Republican super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud, tax evasion, and conspiracy to bribe public officials. He bilked Indian casinos out of millions, blatantly bribed politicians of both parties, lobbied for sweatshops and shady operations, and developed a network of corruption that entwined Congress like a starving python. For all his misdeeds, he served four years in prison, but the culture of corruption never slowed down. In this adaptation, Kevin Spacey epitomizes the charismatic huckster who turned self-righteous when accused by the hypocrites in power. Abramoff ’s circle of influence included the leading Republicans on the Hill and the movie doesn’t flinch about using actual names. Rep. Tom DeLay, Ralph Reed, George W. Bush, Karl Rove, and Sen. John McCain get their screen time. This “apolitical” version isn’t as hard ball as the documentary, Casino Jack & The United States of Money (2010). Instead of targeting Abramoff ’s pay-for-play money empire, it focuses more on the megalomaniac’s shameless personality.

Ward No. 6 (2009) Cast: Vladimir Ilyin, Alexey Vertkov Genre: Drama Based on the story by Anton Chekhov.

Running time 83 minutes.

Unrated Russian submission for foreign-language film Oscar (not nominated) Russian with English subtitles.

Filmed entirely in a Russian mental institution with interviews with actual patients, this quasi-documentary explores timeless questions, such as who’s running the asylum, the sane or the crazies? With madmen dictators in the Middle East gunning down rebellions citizens, the question is as relevant today as when Chekhov penned the story in 1892. The chief of staff of Ward No. 6, a snobbish intellectual who’s more philosopher than therapist, feels as isolated from reality as his patients. He retreats to his books until he meets a paranoid-delusional patient who engages him in conversations about the meaning and futility of life. The doctor spirals into nihilist depression and eventually loses his grasp on reality. Russians love slow-paced, dialogue-intense novels and films and this one stretches both time and reality.

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

A Somewhat Gentle Man (2010) Cast: Stellen Skarsgard, Bjorn Floberg Genre: Black comedy Unrated Running time 103 minutes.

In Norwegian with English subtitles.

Set in the frigid landscape of Norway and populated with dysfunctional, stereotypical characters, this anti-hero gangster comedy follows the hapless adventures of Ulrik (Skarsgard), a released murderer who wants out of the game. Jensen (Floberg), his

aging gang boss, insists that he get revenge on the snitch who sent him up for 12 years.

Ulrik just wants to eat fish soup. His efforts to reinvent himself don’t get much beyond uninspired relationships and unglamorous sex until feelings begin to thaw with his adult son. With sight gags, droll humor, satire and irony, yet always understated, the semi-sweet story follows Ulrik’s struggle to discover the human side of life after years on the other side of the prison bars.

DOCUMENTARY OF THE MONTH Bob Dylan Revealed (2011) Cast: Bob Dylan Genre: Documentary Running time 110 minutes.

Light the candles, sing the song: on May 24, Robert Allen Zimmerman, aka Bob Dylan, turns 70. But what happened to the definitive voice of the hippy generation after he parted ways with Baez and the protesters?

When the bushy-headed balladeer sang “The times they are a-changin’,” he was talking about himself as much as the culture. Fans who once burned draft cards now carry AARP cards, and baldness replaced long hair, but they (we) still idolize the protest era icon. Meanwhile, Dylan reinvented himself and never looked back. He abandoned protest ballads and coffee houses for Christian hymns and Nashville, then returned to Judaism and stage-thumping, paint-peeling rock n’ roll. This timely biopic chronicles 50 years of life-changing events and musical phases of Dylan’s dynamic career. With backstage clips, concert footage, interviews, and insights about his religious and cultural flip-flops, the film focuses on the forces that shaped the singer/songwriter’s personality and creativity.

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PETE CROATTO

Arthur

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JOEL AND ETHAN COEN’S inspired, Western noir take on 1969’s sappy True Grit demonstrated the cardinal rule of remakes: Make sure the property is in dire need of repair before considering renovation. If a director can’t improve the original product, then what’s the point of revisiting it?

That question is practically a leitmotif in the new version of Arthur, a movie so unnecessary that its mere presence is redundant.

The 1981 original, starring Dudley Moore as the millionaire man-child title character and John Gielgud as his long-suffering valet, doesn’t creak like some older comedies, a testament to director Steve Gordon’s charming, crackling screenplay. Rent the movie—it holds up.

But since Gordon, Moore, and Gielgud are all dead—and no one consulted me—we’re subjected to the unhinged Russell Brand as the rudderless, fun-loving tycoon. An alcoholic womanizer whose idea of a good time is taking the Batmobile for a joyride around New York, he’s a tabloid editor’s best friend. If not for Arthur’s ever-present nanny, Hobson (Helen Mirren), the young man’s obituary would have been written years ago.

His mother (Geraldine James), who runs a mega-successful, multi-faced corporation, has had enough. She gives her only child— and heir to the family fortune—an ultimatum: Arthur must marry Susan Johnson (Jennifer Garner), an attractive corporate go-getter, or he’s cut off. He reluctantly agrees, but the arrangement becomes stifling when Arthur meets the working-class, adorably attired Naomi (Greta Gerwig). There’s obviously a connection between the two, but can love triumph over financial security?

I’ll give you one guess.

The lack of romantic suspense doesn’t affect the enjoyment. What kills Arthur 2.0 is that its attempts to shake things up fall so flat. Susan was a minor character in the original. Here she’s a shrill, humorless Gordon-Gekko-in-Prada monster whose only function is to make the audience realize whom Arthur should choose. And she has a father (Nick Nolte) who’s an overtly threatening, roughA senior critic at Filmcritic.com from 2002-07, Pete Croatto’s reviews, essays, and articles have appeared in Publishers Weekly, The Star-Ledger, Mad Magazine, and Deadspin.com. He writes about movies and other nonsense at http://whatpeteswatching.blogspot.com.

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around-the-edges man’s man! (Having two pros like Garner and Nolte play such stupid sieves should be a federal violation of some sort.) Mirren is fine as Hobson, but director Jason Winer makes her into a tolerant surrogate mother. The beauty of Gielgud’s Oscar-winning performance was that though he stood by his ward, he couldn’t stand Arthur.

The only notable improvement from the first film is the casting of Gerwig.

Long considered a cinematic breath of fresh air, the Greenberg star steals the movie as Arthur’s soul mate. She remains blissfully natural. Some actresses have to huff and puff to reach winsome, but like Amy Adams, Gerwig does it without breaking a sweat.

That brings us to Brand.

Moviegoers might remember the manic British comedian for his work as hipster doofus rock star Aldous Snow in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the unbearable Get Him to the Greek. Brand is best enjoyed in small doses; he’s almost like the comedic version of Daniel DayLewis. In Arthur, Brand is in nearly every scene. He isn’t annoying, but his character’s constantly shifting personality is.

One minute, Arthur is witty. The next, he’s child-like. Suddenly, he’s partying like Charlie Sheen’s eager protégé.

It’s hard to warm up to an undefined character, and Brand’s physical presence makes it even harder. Equipped with the build of a buff scarecrow, a mop of inky black hair, and a gaunt, serious face, he never resembles lovable. Brand looks so much like a professional goofball that he’s a stranger in his own movie. This is the wrong kind of showcase for Brand, who can’t even convey that underneath Arthur’s lavish tomfoolery lies a lonely, miserable man. He’s nothing but good times.

Arthur is just a marketing gimmick, a purposeless new spin on an old favorite, like blue ketchup or square bagels. It’s not that Arthur is terrible. Thanks to Gerwig and a quip-heavy script, it’s sometimes sprightly and fun. Overall, it’s okay.

But if you’re going to remake a borderline comedy classic that’s remembered fondly by millions, okay won’t cut it.

Judging by the movie’s lackluster showing at the box office, audiences agree.

[PG-13]

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keresman on film

Morgan Spurlock and Ralph Nader. Photo: Daniel Marracino.

MARK KERESMAN

The Greatest Movie Ever Sold THIS IS IT! DOCUMENTARY filmmaker Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me, in which he reveals to an uncomprehending world that TOO MUCH FAST/CRAP FOOD CAN BE BAD for your health—imagine!) unleashes a pulse-pounding exposé on the million-dollar racket that is product-placement in movies! It’ll rock Mad Avenue to its foundations!

Had you going there for a minute, didn’t I? Unlike some documentaries, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold is not out to “reveal” hidden (or less-than-obvious for some folk) facts, events, or points-of-view, nor is it poised to disclose the “lowdown” on a pervasive conspiracy. It’s simply about how “advertisements” and mentions of products are cleverly (or not so cleverly) inserted (“placed”) in TV shows and movies. The Greatest Movie Ever Sold uses a semi-subtle variation on the film-within-a-film device—the movie is a documentary about Spurlock getting corporations to sponsor the making of a documentary about product placement by, well, placing their products.

At no point does Spurlock try to tell the audience that product placement is a bad Mark Keresman is a bon vivant misanthrope-about-town who has contributed to SF Weekly, East Bay Express, Pittsburgh City Paper, Paste, Jazz Review, downBeat, Manhattan Resident and the men's room wall in the Squirill Hill Cafe.

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thing per se, except if/when the corporate “sponsors” try to impact on the details of the movie itself. Obviously, Okra-Cola Ltd. is not going to be happy if their product is portrayed in a film as rust-eating swill consumed by subhuman swine, but most filmmakers aren’t happy with the idea of relinquishing creative control to some corporate drone with an agenda. They are concerned, naturally, that their product be portrayed in something of a positive light. But should a film or TV show be a platform for products? Well, they are, like it or not, Besides, older readers (or those with long memories) may recall a time when ANY type of product in a fictional context was always made by the “Acme Corporation.” It’s somewhat unrealistic that characters in a story would never ever mention Katherine Heigl having dined on a fine repast of Rice Krispies and a Double Whopper in her Volvo (or Pacer, to pick an ugly/silly car) while on route to the airport to stop Mr. Right from getting on Trans-Love Airways Flight 252.

We see Mr. Spurlock going from company to company trying to get their respective Big Cheeses to put up the green for him to “display” their products. Naturally, many

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bad movie

Edward Norton.

MARK KERESMAN

A

Stone

ANYBODY HERE SEEN MY old friend Robert…can you tell me where he’s gone...?

I realize this “dates” me but I can recall a time when a movie starring Robert De Niro was something of an Event. Think of the quality of movies in which he’s featured: Taxi Driver, The Godfather Part 2, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, Raging Bull, Casino, The Mission, Cape Fear, Midnight Run, the underrated True Confessions, A Bronx Tale, The Score (the latter isn’t fantastic, just very good)…just to name a few. In recent years, however, De Niro seems to be…slipping. It’s almost as if he might be thinking, “How many good years do I have left? Should I just make movies for the paycheck and save up for that rainy day?” Recent years have found De Niro starring in several mediocre movies and some outright cinematic sludge: Righteous Kill, The Fan, The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle, City By the Sea, Godsend, and, sadly, Stone.

Comes along Stone, which had enough juice for it to be a great movie—stars are De Niro, Edward Norton, and action queen Milla Jovovich; it’s written by Angus MacLachlan of Junebug fame, and directed by John Curran, who wrote the screenplay for the harrowing The Killer Inside Me. The plot was good—Norton is Stone Creeson, a convict in jail for arson and is up for parole. He needs Jack Mabry’s (De Niro) thumbs-up to get out of prison—so, he gets his wife Lucetta (Milla J) to seduce Jack to seal the deal. What could go wrong?

The problem is not the acting, which for the most part ranges from good to excellent—the lead (and supporting) actors do a fine job with what they had to work with.

The screenplay and pacing, to put in simply and mildly, both suck. Stone is very talky, which isn’t bad in and of itself—it’s almost like a stage play that wasn’t adapted to make it work as a film. The characters behave in befuddling ways—Stone conveys in no uncertain terms that he NEEDS to get OUT of prison or he’ll go insane—but after the halfway point he has a “spiritual epiphany” (which isn’t all that believable), then acts as if he could care less whether he gets out or not. (But his eyes do grow wider, 24

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(2010)

though, as if he’s just seen the remake of Lost Horizon or read about Jimmy Swaggart.) Further, he talks “ghetto” in the first half and after the “epiphany,” he talks like…Edward Norton. Then he says things to Jack that anyone with half a brain wouldn’t say because, duuh, it might be taken as a clue that he hasn’t been “rehabilitated.” (“After I set the fire, it looked AWESOME.” Were I an arsonist desiring parole, I’d say that too.) At the beginning of the film, a flashback shows the younger Jack being a royal bastard to his wife and daughter…then no more is said/shown about that. Jack is simply—too simply, really—a guy that’s hollow inside, going through the motions of living, half-heartedly looking for redemption, something to believe in, we’re not really sure what he’s looking for. Until he meets Lucetta, that is, upon which Jack gets that seven-year itch he’s just got to scratch horizontally, dig? Lucetta is, at times, a sweet-natured, caring kindergarten teacher, a lusty manipulator, a devoted wife, a wife that hints that hubby is at heart a sleazeball/criminal [?], charming, erudite, a potty-mouth, and off-and-on white-trash. (We know she’s “kinda trashy” because she smokes a lot of cigarettes and makes a phone call topless.) I couldn’t tell if it was great acting or if the filmmakers couldn’t settle on a POV for Milla’s character…or it could be both. [small spoiler] A calamity happens to Jack and his wife, and his wife takes it so darn well that it comes off as unfathomable, inexplicable…silly.

The pacing: Slow. Talky. Slow. There is lots of Robert Altman-esque “overheard/overlapping” dialogue and samples of conversation from Pray/Talk Radio, to which most of the callers sound like people that just got through with their Existentialism 101(or Intro to World Religions) final exams. Did I mention it was slow? The ending is (not to give anything away) is just that: The End. This film just kind of stops.

Have any of the three main characters changed, grown, evolved, gone unchanged?

Who knows? And unless you just want to see actors display their craft with a screenplay Tennessee Williams wouldn’t wipe his hiney with, it’s unlikely who’ll care.

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film roundup L'Amour Fou (Dir: Pierre Thoretton) After legendary fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent died in 2008, his longtime lover and business associate, Pierre Bergé, put their valuable art collection up for auction. As Bergé prepares to part with the objects, he reminisces about Saint Laurent, whose quest for creativity led to self-destruction and isolation. You would think the art would serve as some kind of symbolic motivator, a metaphor for two slowly separating lives, but debut director Thoretton ignores that

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

that after years of tunnel vision and city life, the town’s simple ways look awfully appealing to the young man. Writer/director/editor Hickernell’s carefully paced, insightful character study covers familiar topics (teen pregnancy, finding yourself) but uses them to deliver universal truths: All small towns aren’t destinations for spiritual rebirth; the intimacy there can embrace and suffocate you. A little heavy-handed in spots, but it’s definitely worth watching. Hickernell, who also works as a freelance producer and director of photography for Philadelphia media companies, is a Haverford College graduate. Kitson is a theater major at Temple University. [NR] The Princess of Montpensier (Dir: Bertrand Tavernier) Starring: Mélanie Thierry, Grégoire Leprince Ringuet, Gaspard Ulliel, Lambert Wilson. In 1567 France, the beautiful Marie de Mézieres (Thierry) gets hearts aflutter as the Huguenots and Catholics bat-

Yves Saint Laurent.

possibility as well as others: Why is Bergé so eager to sell the collection? What’s it like emerging from someone’s shadow after decades? Hell, it’d be neat just to meet the potential buyers of these works, or to explore the particular difficulties of packing and shipping a Picasso. Bergé and Saint Laurent’s tumultuous life together (and apart) is entertaining; after all, who doesn’t like to learn more about the fabulously wealthy?

But to focus on oral biography when so many tantalizing options remain unexplored— well, it’s puzzling to the point of distraction. [NR] Lebanon, PA (Dir: Ben Hickernell) Starring: Josh Hopkins, Rachel Kitson, Ian Merrill Peakes, Samantha Mathis, Mary Beth Hurt. Following the death of his estranged father, a brusque Philadelphia ad exec (Hopkins) heads to quiet Lebanon, PA for the funeral and to settle affairs. His weeklong visit gets extended after he develops a bond with his 17-year-old distant relative/neighbor, pregnant, college-bound CJ (Kitson), and develops feelings for her married, dissatisfied teacher (Mathis). Complicating matters is

Rachel Kitson and Josh Hopkins.

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Mélanie Thierry.

tle. Marie is forced to marry the Prince of Montpensier (Ringuet), a man of substance, but lacking the flashy qualities that would enchant a young lady. She’s madly in love with Henri de Guise (Ulliel), a dashing swordsman whose scars only enhance his brooding sex appeal. Helping to navigate her way through the tumult is the prince’s right-hand man and mentor, Chabannes (Wilson), who in tutoring Marie about the ways of the world develops a dangerous affection for her. Takes a while to get going, but director/co-writer Tavernier’s shifty focus—the movie doesn’t invest all its attention on one character—and the emotional maneuvering keep you involved. The Princess of Montpensier is an intelligent romantic drama that never settles for pat answers—a rare find these days. [NR] Dumbstruck (Dir: Mark Goffman) Wonderful documentary focuses on five ventriloquists of various skill levels whom we initially meet at the annual Vent Haven Convention in Ft. Mitchell, Ky. Dylan is a 13-year-old who sheds his shy demeanor when giving voice to his wise-cracking dummy; Kim, a former beauty queen, dreams of ascending to the next level—cruise ships; Dan, a respected veteran, struggles to balance family with his non-stop work schedule; and Bucks County resident Wilma, shunned by her family and behind on her taxes, views ventriloquism (and its community of practitioners) as her salvation. Then there’s Terry Fator, who after 20 years of professional failure, became a Las Vegas sensation after winning TV’s America’s Got Talent. To his everlasting credit, debut director Goffman treats his subjects with compassion and respect, which prevents Dumbstruck from becoming a feature-length spoof on overzealous kooks. It’s really a stirring, poignant look at the difficulties that arise when someone tries to make their dream come true. [NR]

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interview SHEILA HICKS:

A.D. AMOROSI

the Pollock of textile

NO SOONER THAN THE French themed Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts ends, this city must turn its attention to another Parisian, Sheila Hicks, for her epic retrospective Sheila Hicks: 50 Years at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) which runs at the University of Pennsylvania through August 7. For the uninitiated, Hicks is an

Sheila Hicks at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, where her current show is installed. Ryan Collerd for The New York Times. Photo courtesy of The New York Times.

American fiber artist born in Hastings, Nebraska who moved to Paris between 1963 and 1964 to continue the tactile innovations in textile art that operate somewhere between the sculptural realm and a brand of performance art. Her work dares you to jump into its balls of boldly toned yarn, towering wool tassels, shag rug-like tufts and unfurling spools of silk. From her initial interests in the traditions of Mexican hand-weaving, which inspired her miniature woven pieces, to the industrial methods that enlarge scale—from the drawing table to the site-specific to the stadium-sized—Hicks is like the Christo of heavily woven fabrics. She’s the Pollock of textile, only embedding her works with cotton to add sculptural density and encrusting her colorful items with shells, rubber bands, wood, hair and paper to make the fiber pliable. Fifty years ago, at her start, there was nothing like that which she’d execute—mammoth Bauhaus modernist designs infused with splashes of Meso-Mexican design done up in textiles. She expanded her work and its influences to include her studies in architecture and photography as infiltration of the world of weaving continued. So, too, was she inspired by the humor and culture of her times. The yellow pile of bound yarn, that “Banisteriopsis” from the mid-60s, makes reference to the notorious hallucinatory plant extract. Her use of human hair and steel wool feels like part of the free flowing assemblage movement. “Trésors et Secrets” hidden objects could’ve been born of Duchamp.

For all that diversity in her work, Hicks is a woman of few, but choice, words as I learned during our e-mail chatter between Philly and Paris.

Q: Honest first question: why fiber at the very start of your “career”? Why did you move from painting to fiber and its crafts when you did? Was there something gorgeously tactile that you couldn’t resist? An “aha!” moment, if you will?

A: In reality, I do not move completely from one medium to another in the spirit of abandonment or as an alternative. I draw, paint, photograph, weave and build environments and sculpture with a variety of materials. In the ICA space, the curators accentuated my sculpture in line, wool, bamboo, cotton and fibers of steel.

Sheila Hicks’s installation at The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) in Philadelphia.

Photo: Aaron Igler/Greenhouse Media

If A.D. Amorosi isn’t found writing features for ICON, the Philadelphia Inquirer, acting as a columnist for Philadelphia City Paper (amongst other writings appearing on NBC-TV’s The 10! Show, and editing at Blurt magazine), he’s probably running his greyhound or trying on snug fitting suits.

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Q: I didn’t mean to make it seem as if you had abandoned or eschewed any medium or material. Was it a hard transition—especially when it came to academia’s looksee into what you had done, during your formative years?

A: During my school years at Yale, I had classes in lettering, typography, engraving, lithography, etching, woodblock printing and sculpture. Plus, photo lab, color lab,

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interview

R. KURT OSENLUND

The Good Witch Currently starring in the arthouse drama Cracks and the TV series Camelot, actress Eva Green says she has ambitions to soar beyond the dangerous, mysterious roles that have become her trademark.

Too bad she’s so bloody good at playing them.

IF EVA GREEN HAD her way, she’d be starring in a remake of Mata Hari, the 1931 espionage drama that saw Greta Garbo don the bejeweled headdresses of the titular dancing spy. The larger-than-life character is the one 30-year-old Green says she’s most desperate to play, which, of course, couldn’t make more sense. Widely regarded as the 20th century’s foremost femme fatale, Mata Hari, who in 1917 was executed for allegedly spying for Germany during World War I, would prove the ultimate conquest for Green, whose relatively short filmography is already brimming with vamps and vixens to be reckoned with.

“I think it’s always interesting for a character to have a secret,” Green says in a recent phone interview, the poor connection no match for the rich timbre of her distinctive voice. “Something dark for the audience to discover.”

“Dark” and “secret” are words that spring to mind just from looking at this French actress, her ambiguous pout and smoky-eyed stare as unnerving as they are sexy.

Over the past decade, Green has portrayed a witch in The Golden Compass, a princess capable of murdering her own son in Kingdom of Heaven, and the enigmatic double agent and Bond girl Vesper Lynd in Casino Royale (“It made me famous,” Green says of the latter).

But femme fatale archetypes, Green insists, aren’t the only characters she’s after, nor is fame a primary pursuit. Her upcoming films include the German-made cloning drama Womb and the Sundance selection Perfect Sense, two little-known projects in which she plays a “nerdy, shy character” and a “normal character,” respectively. She can currently be seen in Cracks, a boarding30

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school period piece from Jordan Scott, daughter of Green’s Kingdom of Heaven director, the great Ridley Scott.

While she certainly meets Green’s criteria of dark and secretive, Green’s character, an ostensibly id-driven English swimming instructor known only as Miss G., doesn’t wield any literal weapons or ensnare men. She does, however, bewitch the bevy of teenage girls who idolize her, and are entranced by her feminist impulses, her wild stories and her worldview, which bucks the norms of the film’s 1930s setting (smoking and preaching the supreme merit of “desire!” she’s like Mona Lisa Smile’s whore cousin).

“Don’t think; do!” Miss G. tells her captivated pupils, whose social hierarchy is dependent upon who can best fill the role of teacher’s pet. But is Miss G. as free-spirited and forward-minded as she seems? Green, who in her own life is more thinker than doer (“I should cut off my head sometimes in order to get things done,” she says), had a blast constructing, then deconstructing, her complicated screen persona, who’s surely the main attraction, if not quite the main character. Known for her bold fashion sense and occasional modeling gigs (Emporio Armani, Dior), Green worked closely with costume designer Alison Byrne to develop a look for Miss G., whose flowing frocks and glamorous headbands and hairstyles evoke film actresses of the era.

“We wanted her to look very much like a movie star,” Green says, “Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis. I imagine that Miss G. is sewing during the night—everything has to look perfect.”

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A graduate of Temple University's Film and Media Arts program, R. Kurt Osenlund has been obsessed with cinema and pop culture for as long as he can remember. In addition to ICON, he writes for several weekly newspapers, and regularly updates his blog, www.yourmoviebuddy.blogspot.com. Email: rkurtosenlund@gmail.com

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feature Architects of The Sound of Philadelphia

Leon Huff and Kenny Gamble.

“IT DID HAPPEN. YOU can’t say what couldn’t have.”

“It’s too scary to think about.”

This is how Kenneth Gamble and Leon Huff respond, respectively, when presented with the following scenario: What if the legendary hitmakers, the architects of The Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP), had never met?

You can’t blame them for dismissing such unpleasantness. Who wants to live in a world where we can’t shimmy in our car seat to “Love Train”? Or where you can’t belt “Close the Door” in the shower, the only acceptable venue for approximating the soulful yearnings of Teddy Pendergrass. Jeez, how many babies were made to “When Will I See You Again,” “Me and Mrs. Jones” and “Lady Love”?

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PETE CROATTO

honored and feted thoroughly by various associations, colleges, halls of fame, and Philadelphia, the city that became their muse. Gamble and Huff Walk lies in front of the duo’s headquarters, Philadelphia International Records—the famed record label they formed 40 years ago.

Huff ’s hometown of Camden, NJ, features Leon Huff Way. On Saturday, May 21, The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia will join the respectful masses, holding a Lifetime Achievement Award gala for the duo. The event, held at the Westin Philadelphia, starts at 6 p.m.

Not to take anything away from awards and tuxedoed dinners, but the highest honor may actually be a statistic: Every 13-and-a-half minutes, somewhere in the world, a Gamble and Huff song is played on the radio. The appeal of TSOP—soulful singing, Every thirteen-and-a-half lush arrangements, and eloquent lyrics—remains untarseconds, somewhere in nished by time. And appreciated by just about everyone. the world, a Gamble and The Chamber Orchestra plans Huff song is played on to release a CD featuring a selection of the duo’s hits (in the radio. classical form, of course) sometime next year.

“That’s the mark of a real original,” says Bruce Warren, program director at Philadelphia’s WXPN, 88.5 FM. “You can create something so unique that it may have some immediate influences, but it can still stand on its own.”

“There is nothing today that is playable that will bring you back to a better time,” says Jerry Blavat, the legendary Philadelphia deejay/mover n’ shaker, who has known Gamble and Huff since before their nearly 50year partnership. “Their music brings you back to a better time.”

Even Huff doesn’t tire of his music following him wherever he goes.

“It still sounds great,” he says.

From the start they were musical soul mates.

Huff instantly felt the chemistry. Their early output was staggering, and effortless—”five or six songs a day, like it was nothing,” Gamble recalls. They’d write song titles on legal pads, one would stick out, and then “Huff would hit a chord on the piano, and that would be it,” explains Gamble. “We’d be off to the races.”

“You’ve got to talk songs, to me,” Huff says. “We always talked about life itself, and all the activity that goes on in the world. Some great songs can come out of conversations or other people’s mouths or any-

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A senior critic at Filmcritic.com from 2002-07, Pete Croatto’s reviews, essays, and articles have appeared in Publishers Weekly, The StarLedger, Mad Magazine, and Deadspin.com. He writes about movies and other nonsense at http://whatpeteswatching.blogspot.com.

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feature

THOM NICKELS

MUSEUMS size up the down economy THE TIME IS 2001, AND Anne d’Harnoncourt is director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Museum’s dining room is packed with art critics and journalists anticipating that this press luncheon will launch another world-class exhibit. The waitstaff offers red and white wine as journalists search the twenty or so silver-accented tables for their name cards. The mood is celebratory, like a scene from the Vincent Minnelli movie, Gigi.

After the speeches, appetizer, entrée and dessert, the press is handed complimentary copies of the exhibition catalog, which is really not a catalog at all but a pricey art book in the $50.00 range. These art tomes—Cezanne and Beyond, Andrew Wyeth, Giorgio de Chirico, The Arts in Latin America, Renoir, Dali or Thomas Eakins—make a substantial addition to any library.

If you think this sounds good, just a couple of years before, at the Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi exhibit, the Museum hosted “journalist trolleys” that escorted the press to Manayunk and back in order to visit the Venturi offices after another sumptuous feast in the PMA dining room.

Journalist Thom Nickels’s books include Philadelphia Architecture, Tropic of Libra, Out in History and SPORE. His novel SPORE will be released in early 2010. He is the recipient of the 2005 Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Architecture Journalism Award. thomnickels.blogspot. com 34

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Today, many of the classic perks that still have journalists talking are gone.

Signs that the bad economy was impacting the Museum surfaced shortly before Ms. d’Harnoncourt’s, death when the Versailles-style press luncheon, in a nod to minimalism, replaced wine with iced tea, and the press catalogs with CDs of photographs.

Not only at PMA, but at large and small museums nationwide, layoffs have decimated staffs, reduced departments, and forced high-profile museum personnel—who thought they had a lifetime career—to look for other work.

In Massachusetts, the Rose Museum at Brandeis University put its entire collection up for sale—deaccessing is the term—in order to cover operating expenses. In New York, the Brooklyn Museum, in order not to betray a donor, turned its exhibition space over to one artist. The Art Newspaper reported that in Colorado, the Denver Museum announced plans in 2010 to sell four of the 825 works earmarked for its new satellite site, the Clyfford Still Museum. With layoffs, furloughs and hiring freezes at an all-time

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Above: Lenfest Plaza will stand between the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts’ Historic Landmark and Samuel M.V. Hamilton buildings. The new civic space was designed by internationally renowned landscape architecture firm OLIN and offers public outdoor seating and rotating works of emerging and established artists in an urban setting. An upscale restaurant will look out into the Plaza from the ground level of the Hamilton Building. A 53-ft paintbrush sculpture, Paint Torch, commissioned by Claes Oldenburg for Lenfest Plaza, will extend between PAFA’s two buildings with a 6-ft paint glob situated underneath the paintbrush.

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high, not to mention endowments shrinking by a third during the worst of the market swoon…the larger the museum the steeper the loss.

Economic stagnation also affected general museum income from tourists, members, publications, shops and restaurants. Corporate support, once solid, was scaled back because of market priorities. If you think this couldn’t get worse, consider the startling new statistics regarding the museum habits of Americans: Three out of four people, in general, don’t visit museums, but when they do, it’s for King Tut-style blockbuster exhibitions that bring in huge audiences. Museum visitors are also getting older, unless, of course, you count the six-year-olds who like to go to Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum.

Please Touch, as has been noted in the Philadelphia press, has also seen better days.

The Museum opened in October 2008 to great fanfare, but its move from an economically smart (and small) Center City location to high-priced Fairmount Park has the potential to spell financial disaster for the “little Museum that could.” Today, both membership and attendance at Please Touch is considerably down.

“The new Please Touch Museum has won adoration from 6-year-olds and other important critics,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reported recently, “and its move to Memorial Hall undoubtedly kept a rare architectural artifact of the 1876 Centennial Exposition from sliding into irretrievable decrepitude…”

The implied “but'” here refers to the Museum’s slide into economic disaster.

When plans were announced several years ago to move Please Touch to Memorial Hall, skeptics predicted that the new location wouldn't work. The criticism didn’t question the remarkable renovation of Memorial Hall that took place, but it did suggest that betting on a children’s museum to garner enough financial support to meet an $88 million dollars fundraising goal (according to The Inquirer, Please Touch is still $21.5 million shy of its target) was comparable to investing in sub-prime loans.

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The N.C. Wyeth Gallery in the Brandywine Art Museum.

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At the James A. Michener Art Museum, construction is underway for the new Edgar N. Putman Event Pavilion that will open next year.

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The planners, whose vision it was to turn the small Center City Museum into a PMA-like fortress devoted to the “toy” fantasies of 6-year-olds, must have been smoking something.

Museum officials are still hopeful that Please Touch can rise to the occasion. Executive Vice President Concetta Bencivenga said, “Because the economy is starting to show some hopeful signs, we are hopeful that engaged individuals who are passionate about children and education, and really passionate about educating the next generation, begin to support Please Touch, or reaffirm their commitment to help us fulfill our goal of completing our capital campaign.

“Anyone who has ever opened a museum knows that the first year is the most inefficient year,” Bencivenga added, “So we have gone through a lot of reorganization as we settle into the new space.”

It’s hoped that can be accomplished despite the museum’s relative isolation from the rest of the city. SEPTA bus service to this part of Fairmount Park is tricky unless you’re a veteran bus rider, so travel by car is almost a necessity. A museum that is out of the “walkable” centralized area of the city where buses rarely travel is bound to experience trouble.

Perspective views of renovations and additions to the existing building of Allentown Art Museum. The expansion will increase size of the Museum by 7,900 square feet, allowing it to display more of its permanent collection and to bring larger traveling exhibitions to the Lehigh Valley.

Design by Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, Inc.

In marked contrast to Please Touch, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts has had a relatively unscathed last few years, according to PAFA President and CEO, David R. Brigham. PAFA, in fact, is experiencing a kind of Renaissance with its new director, Harry Philbrick, formerly Director of Education at The Aldrich Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut.

“Aldrich was a very nice and quiet contemporary art center and he [Philbrick] turned it into a very important contemporary art museum,” Brigham says, “He has an artist’s edge and an artist’s hand.”

PAFA has not only weathered the economy, but according to Brigham it has had six consecutive balanced budgets. “We’ve also maintained full employment—we’ve had no layoffs during the recession and we’ve actually been able to grow our program and not cut it. We’ve been healthy.” With 650 full-time students and 65 faculty members, tuition helps keep PAFA afloat, but it’s not the only thing. “A remaining portion comes from earned income from the store, facility rentals and income from endowments, and that’s a good healthy mix,” Brigham adds.

The PAFA collection houses some 2,000 paintings, 450 sculptures and 11,000 works on paper. The Museum’s biggest draw is the annual student exhibition which takes place in May. The exhibition, which showcases the work of graduating students, attracts potential buyers who survey the works while balancing checkbook, drinks and hors d’oeuvres. The exhibition gives student artists the opportunity to chat up guests as well as make themselves available for interviews.

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tion center directly across the street is likely to increase visitors. A serendipitous element was the center’s recent gala opening with a convention of 20,000 operating room nurses. The timing for PAFA couldn’t have been better, since its March exhibition, Anatomy Academy [featured in ICON’s March issue], included Thomas Eakins’s “Gross Clinic,” as well as other medical works, something that Brigham called an “ideal content for that audience.”

While many museums around the world, in order to increase revenue, have taken to hosting commercially-based “blockbuster” exhibitions, that’s certainly not the case with PAFA. “The blockbuster exhibition model,” Brigham said, “is not our model, because going this route tends to lead to decisions that might be in conflict with one’s mission.

That’s not our motivation. Our motivation is to organize exhibits that help to illuminate the current state of American art. Of course we want them to be popular, but our first motivation is to do serious exhibitions.”

Museums outside the City of Philadelphia are also feeling the Recession’s scorched earth policy.

Mention Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania to most people and chances are they will think of artist Andrew Wyeth.

At the Brandywine River Museum one can see generations of Wyeth family art, as well as American art that relates in some way to the Brandywine Valley. American still life paintings, illustrations, portraits and landscapes are among the hundreds of works represented in the collection. This summer, the Museum plans a large Jamie Wyeth exhibit (Farm Work by Jamie Wyeth) that will feature the sculpted shapes of farm implements as seen by the artist, who lives on a farm in Chadds Ford with his wife, Phyllis.

The Brandywine River Museum was a favorite place of Andrew Wyeth, who used to “pop in and out all the time” according to Director James Duff.

“Jamie pops in as his father did. It’s never a regular thing, but it’s fairly frequent because they want to see art. On any given day, you might have found Andrew Wyeth in our gallery just looking at pictures. And Jamie does the same thing to a certain degree.

Jamie is more peripatetic; one day he might be in Washington, the next day in New York or Maine.”

The Brandywine is unique in that it is not a separate organization but a department of the Brandywine Conservancy. The Conservancy, according to Duff, also operates the Chadds Ford Environmental Management Center, charged with the specific task of water quality preservation. This double-barrel mission has been made more complicated by the faltering economy.

“We are scrambling for funds to support environmental work just as we are scrambling for funds to support the arts program,” Duff adds. “The environmental program was here before the Museum came along. “ An old 1864 grist mill was acquired in 1967 for the Conservancy, and then later, as Duff notes, “a lot of people thought it would make a dandy museum to deal with regional art.” That happened when the mill was renovated by Baltimore architect James R. Reeves.

Duff was the director of a museum in New York State before coming to the Brandywine 38 years ago. “There have been significant changes in the area,” he says. “When the Museum first opened 40 years ago people wondered why there was a four-lane highway down here because there wasn’t enough traffic to justify four-lane traffic on US Route One. No one would have conceived of a stoplight in the middle of Chadds Ford then, it was just so unnecessary.”

With the growth of the region came the growth of the Museum.

Today the Museum has over 300 volunteers and five buildings on a 12-acre campus filled with wildflowers and indigenous trees. But the Brandywine, like most museums, has not had an easy time of it. “These times have been difficult,” Duff confesses,” especially the last two years, but right now with endowment is coming back nearly to what it was three years ago, and with attendance increasing, we’re very hopeful about the future.

“Most not-for-profit institutions take their income based on a trailing average of the market value. When you do that,” Duff adds, “the effect of a declining endowment hits you even years after the actual decline. But with the market coming back we look forward to what we hope will be years of able and growing income.”

Duff also believes that the Brandywine collection will grow, and mentions that the last two exhibits related to the Civil War have been drawing in a large and diverse audience.

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In nearby Bucks County, the place where William Penn called home, there are historic stone cottages, gourmet restaurants, country stores, the Delaware River Canal, and two museums: the Henry Chapman Mercer Museum and the James Michener Art Museum.

The Michener Museum, says Museum director Bruce Katsiff, was one of hundreds of regional museums built in the late 1980s and early 1990s when 1.2 museums a week were opening around the country. These institutions celebrated local cultural history.

As for the Museum’s namesake, Katsiff says that many people coming into the Museum today don’t know who Michener was.

After entering through a low vaulted hall at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the visitor steps into the spectacularly ornamented Grand Stairhall. Its staircase, bordered by richly tiled floor and walls, and bronze and mahogany banisters, sweeps upward to the gallery level (shown).

This grand space is ringed with gothic arches carrying gold rosette-studded walls. The vaulted ceiling above is painted a brilliant blue with silver stars. Beyond are the galleries where foliate columns support exposed steel beams, one of several radical design elements in the building.

“He’s not in the pantheon of American literature by any means. Young people will come to the Museum and they will know that there’s a museum named after him, but that’s it. When the Museum started out, there were some people who said that the entire Museum should be about Michener.

“Like most museums,” Katsiff says, “the majority of things come to us through gifts, but we do have modest, limited acquisition funds and we are buying new work. If we give an artist an exhibition we try very hard to buy something from the exhibit for the collection.”

The economy has forced the Michener to cut back on staff through hiring freezes, some layoffs and early retirements. The Museum also shrank a portion of its programming. The Michener is a leaner institution than it was five years ago.

It also experienced a radical 50 percent cut in state arts funding, declining federal support and the end of a state run program called the Legislative Initiative Grants.

“In the current climate there’s even more negative pressure on government support. Witness the recent effort to eliminate funds for NPR,” he says. Katsiff doesn’t think all the factors in the current government support for the arts climate are the byproduct of the culture war. “Some factors are byproducts of financial pressure. The culture war issue may be lingering a little bit in the minds of some people, but I don’t think it has the power that it had ten or 15 years ago.”

For the Michener, the silver lining in the crisis is that it is forcing museums to find more diverse funding sources. “The final outcome,” he says, “may be a strengthening, and one of the options may be that not all non-profits or all cultural institutions are going to survive. The question is what degree of government support is healthy.”

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Perhaps the most traumatic change for the Michener was the forced closure of its satellite facility in New Hope sometime before the financial collapse. It closed because the Museum was not able to support it.

“Look,” Katsiff says, “I think we saw that 20 years ago Canadian cultural institutions were almost entirely dependent on government money and then there was a shift.

Reagan came in and there was a shift in thinking about government money for cultural institutions, and the Canadian institutions really suffered serious cutbacks because there had been only one source of money—the government. An institution has to have multiple sources of income so that no one agency ‘owns’ it.”

Despite its financial woes, the Michener added a new wing designed by Philadelphia’s Hillier Group and a new project, by the prestigious Kieran Timberlake firm (currently involved in the design of the US embassy in London), is set to begin soon. The Museum is also opening a pavilion for concerts, lectures and jazz at night entertainment, a “must do” development in an age when museums must be multi-purpose. Fortunately for the Michener, it is located in a county of almost 700,000 people, many of whom have substantial financial means.

The Allentown Art Museum, in a town made famous by Billy Joel, is on a growth trajectory.

Brooks Joyner, President and CEO of the Museum since May 2010, says that the nation’s financial crises has caused the Museum “to hit rock bottom with a bare bones budget.”

Founded in the 1930s, the Allentown Art Museum has a diverse collection of American and Renaissance painting. The Museum’s famous Samuel H. Kress Collection includes some important Old World Masters—Italian, Dutch and Flemish masterpieces that have been in storage since the Museum’s temporary closure until the construction of new gallery space is completed. The Museum is scheduled to reopen in October 2011 with a grand opening in February.

Staying open during construction was an option, but an expensive one that Joyner says would have cost the Museum at least $250,000. Joyner, who hails from the Josyln Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, has had plenty of experience in budget cuts.

At the Joslyn, he recalls a July 2001 meeting in which the Museum was told by its controllers and financial officers that the institution would come up a 1.2 million shortfall and literally run out of money to pay its obligations. “Jaws dropped on a number of Board members’ and our Chairman’s face when we heard this,” he said. “And this was before 9/11 and the great economic disaster.”

Joyner says that the Museum has been suffering since 2008 when it lost its funding at the federal, state and county levels. The last two to three years have been difficult, with the Museum eliminating Tuesday hours, reducing personnel, establishing a hiring freeze and reducing salaries by five percent across the board. It also had to change employee benefit packages and order departments to reduce their budgets. The bold paring-down, while seeming harsh, produced results: By June 2010 the Museum was able to balance its budget.

Joyner tells me, “We hope to do that this year. We’ve turned the corner on the losing proposition that had reduced benefits, morale and salaries. Our plan is to restore salaries to the level where they once were.” Just as importantly, the Museum has achieved this without, as Joyner says, selling out the integrity of its programs in any way when it lost government funding.

“We’ve been able to supplement with private, corporate and foundation support.”

If that happens, the Museum can look forward to a significant rebound when it reopens in October; a rebound that Joyner expects will “hit some of our all-time highs next year.”

As if the American museum financial crisis needed more bad news, Joyner reminds me that over the last couple of years there’s been “a generational die-off ” among the nation’s top museum directors.

“The greatest museum directors in the country have been dying quite frequently,” he says. “It’s unbelievable. A few years ago, the Cleveland Museum’s director was going to speak at our Museum in Omaha, but we got a call from his secretary who said he was ill, not feeling well, and he was dead in five days. We also lost Jim Woods, the Chicago Art Institute director, and, most recently, the Getty president, and then Anne d’Harnoncourt—and two months ago the director of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Some die of age and infirmity, but some die suddenly and unexpectedly.”

But that, as they say, is another sad story.

food and wine

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One of the Mural Rooms in the historic Stockton Inn. Page 43

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PATRICIA SAVOIE

California’s Century-Old Wineries

food & wine

IN APRIL, THE WINE Media Guild of New York tasting lunch celebrated California’s 100-year-old wineries. Seven California wineries, all founded over 100 years ago, participated in the event—sending at least one older “library” wine and two younger vintages. These historic wineries are: Buena Vista (1857), Beaulieu Vineyard (established in 1900), Charles Krug (1861), Schramsberg (1862), Simi (1876), Gundlach Bundschu (1858) and Wente (1883). The older wines for the most part were Catherine Deneuves—they had aged gracefully and elegantly and everyone flocked to be near them.

Though relatively young compared to European estates, these historic wineries were the pioneers of California’s development into the leading wine producer in the US. Some of them closed down during Prohibition and then reopened after its repeal in 1933. There is not space in this column to describe the history of all six wineries. However, Charles Krug and Gundlach Bundschu are two good examples.

Charles Krug Winery is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year. It was founded in 1861 in Napa Valley by Charles Krug, a 27-year-old Prussian immigrant. Charles introduced the cider press for winemaking, the first of which is still on display at the winery. He carefully selected rootstocks, varietals and vineyard sites—a novel concept in late 19th Century America. The knowledge he gained and shared benefited the whole developing California wine industry.

After his death in 1892, James Moffitt purchased the winery in 1893, holding it in proprietorship through Prohibition, when it was closed. In 1943 he sold the winery to Italian immigrants Cesare and Rosa Mondavi for $75,000. When Cesare died in 1959, their sons Robert and Peter took over management. In 1966, Peter became President and Robert moved south to Oakville and began construction of his own winery.

The Peter Mondavi Family has shown a dedication to ecological sustainability and stewardship of the vineyards in order to preserve the land for future generations.

Peter Mondavi, Jr. was a featured speaker at the April tasting. He said that he is seeing a “movement—not a rebellion— toward wines that are more restrained and structured, with a more judicious use of oak.” But owing to various factors, climate change and virus-free vines among them, he said the days of 12.5% California wines are past, because with “climate change variability” (not global warming, since each area experiences something different), the sugars develop much faster.

He also voiced doubts that today’s wines will age as well, or as long, as those from previous decades.

The 1966 Charles Krug Cabernet Sauvignon was impressive, with a brick red color typical of a 45-year-old Cabernet and an earthy, forest-funky nose with tobacco, herbaceous and eucalyptus, lively red fruit and soft tannins. That and the 1974, with its herbaceous notes and a dash of spice and Patricia Savoie is a wine and culinary travel writer. She can be reached at WordsOnWine@gmail.com 42

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horseradish, bested the new 2008 ($60) which was carrying around 15% alcohol.

Gundlach Bundschu The Gundlach Bundschu Wine estate has been in the same family since its founding in 1858, when Jacob Gundlach purchased 400 acres in Sonoma and called it Rhinefarm. The first vintage from the property was in 1861. Shortly after that, Charles Bundschu joined the winery. After marrying Jacob’s eldest daughter, he became a partner. In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake and fire destroyed the original city-based winery, as well as three family houses. They retreated to the Sonoma farm and built a small winery. But, when the 18th amendment (Prohibition) was passed in 1919, GunBun, as it is known, closed it doors and liquidated its stock of wine.

After Charles’s death, his son, Walter, converted much of the land to fruit orchards. In 1933, Prohibition was repealed, but because Walter’s wife was a stanch prohibitionist, the winery stayed closed. However, in the meantime, Walter’s brother, Carl, had been hired to run the Inglenook Winery, and Carl bought grapes from Walter. After Walter’s sudden death, his 19-year-old son, Towle, came home to help run the farm. He bought more acres, and began selling grapes to the Almaden winery. In 1969, Towle’s son, Jim Bundschu, convinced his father that the market for high quality grapes was improving, so they planted all new vineyards. In 1973, the first crush took place in the newly opened winery. In 2000, Jeff Bundschu, Jim’s son, took over as president of the winery. A decision was made to focus only on estate wines.

At the April tasting, the 1982 Gundlach Bundschu Rhinefarm Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon was outstanding, showing concentrated blackberry fruit, mint, eucalyptus and mineral notes. Among the current releases, the blueberry fruit and hint of chocolate of the 2008 Gundlach Bundschu Vintage Reserve (a red blend-$40) was very nice, as was the 1997 Rhinefarm Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon.

Schramsberg Schramsberg, of Napa Valley, makes mainly sparkling wines. Their 1981 Blanc de Blancs had great yeasty/toasty aromas and was dry and elegant. The 2004 J. Schram ($100) was full of green apple, lime and classic toast scents. Flavors of citrus and orange with balanced acidity.

Simi Simi (Napa Valley) pulled out all the stops and sent five wines, all Cabernet Sauvignons—1935, 1974, 1984, 1994 and 2004 ($60). Associate winemaker Megan Schofield was there to decant and pour some of the very old bottles and talk about the wines. It was interesting to see the development of

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ROBERT GORDON

Stockton Inn “THERE’S A SMALL HOTEL” (with a wishing well). Stockton Inn was the inspiration for the Richard Rodgers song of that title, and that “small hotel” keeps improving. That’s saying something. The song was a show-stopper in the 1936 Broadway smash hit, On Your Toes. Rodgers’s immortalization is just one episode in the starpowered history of the Inn. Over the past 301 years, music has puffed many a mighty gust beneath this icon’s wings. This summer, Marshall Tucker Band, the pride of Spartansburg, SC, will reprise its 2010 Stockton Inn concert appearance with sounds distinct and different from anything in the Richard Rodgers songbook.

And if Marshal Tucker’s July 16 gig doesn’t soothe your blues-gospel, southern rock soul, you can wait to get down at the Inn’s Fall Blues Festival on September 18.

food & wine

The bona fide elegance of this gorgeous property might pose an overwhelming temptation to trade on over-the-top quaintness. Owners Fred and Janet Strackhouse are not overwhelmed. They haven’t succumbed. The entire operation— restaurant, bar, inn, concerts—is run with contemporary customer-focus and exudes the confidence the Inn’s pedigree confers. I’ll defer discussing its charms till later. First, a look at the fare.

I’ve been going to the Stockton Inn for over two decades now. Over that span, the kitchen has had its ups and downs. The Strackhouses, owners since 2006, have done a yeoman’s job not only of sprucing up the entire operation but markedly spiking up the kitchen’s performance. The menu is full of standards that, through creative updating and bright flavorings, have neither the look or taste of tired standards. I enjoy the liveliness and playfulness found in recipes like pork loin rolled up in coconut, stuffed with figs and apples. Or Chicken Breast with apples, walnuts and Brie. Or Shrimp with Sambuca and caramelized onions. That last entrée boasts an intoxicating anise aftertaste. Try it. It’s unusual and refreshing. Point is: Stockton Inn, as well as Stockton Inn’s fare, is anything but tired and old. Some other histori-

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ROBERT GORDON

pod

food & wine

WHEN POD DEBUTED IN 2000, I was thrilled. It struck me as a positive move for Philly—a necessary step to close the widening east coast/west coast sushi gap of the era. POD promised to be an impressively bold venue, energized, energizing, class spiked with funk. The new eatery’s interior oozed intrigue—a Johnand-Yoko “White Period” dreamscape come to life.

White rising-high walls; white glistening floors; white tables, and white chairs—the relentless alabaster theme

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

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was otherworldly. Geometric shapes and sexy swerving curves swirled everywhere.

In 2011, POD’s movie-set glamour remains bewitching. But the POD of 2011 has transformed from novelty to icon, becoming an integrated, integral, vital part of its University City neighborhood. POD energy focuses on food—on producing plate after plate of some of the city’s most flavorful Asian and fusion food. Couple that energy with surprisingly low prices and POD draws one of the city’s more eclectic crowds—an all-age multi-ethnic mix.

No-frills salmon sushi priced at only $6 is a sublime sushi fix. In fact, there’s nary a miss among sushi choices. Meticulous just-in-time preparation leaves each grain of rice uniformly moist. There are no dry, hard kernels—a major detraction in lesser kitchens. A delicious new vegetarian gambit, the TnT Roll, pairs with tamago and a slice of tomato that masquerades as salmon.

Heavenly light tempura is prepared with your choice of vegetables, shrimp, or huge chunks of lobster.

Try the tempura combination platter, which plates a heaping helping of each. House-made citrusy ponzu and wasabi black pepper sauce is perfect for dipping.

An extensive Dim Sum menu includes familiar stanEmail r.gordon33@verizon.net and visit his website at robertgordononline.com.

dards like Yellowtail Sashimi, Crispy Chicken and Seafood Spring Rolls, Chicken Potstickers, and Lettuce Wraps. Pork Dumplings are chock-full of shredded pork braced with diced veggies. A number of Hibachi selections includes shrimp, chicken, and skirt steak accompanied by white miso, yakitori and wasabi sauces. Lamb Lo Mein, Shrimp Pad Thai and Udon Noodles pad the menu’s Noodles section. Asian Braised Beef Short Ribs on udon noodles is the star. This dish, with fork-tender beef marinated and braised to perfection, is a bar-setter for contemporary Asian-fused comfort food.

There are several gems among the Main Dishes.

Grilled Kobe Skirt Steak is bathed in teriyaki and framed with crunchy white beech mushrooms. This dish is one of the finest skirt steak recipes I’ve ever enjoyed. Duck 2 Ways has moist, thick coupons of duck fanned out like cards along the plate’s periphery. Next to them is a bell-shaped white bun encasing duck confit. Sun-dried cherries infuse just-right pucker into each bite of the confit. The first couple of seared duck coupons were uncharacteristically tough. The rest of the meat was sublime.

POD lists a couple of pages of reasonably-priced, well-prepared Nigeri and Maki Sushi, Sushi Rolls, and Sushi/Sashimi combinations, as well as $48 and $58 three-course Tasting Menus.

Often, desserts at many Asian restaurants are afterthoughts or mere concessions to the American sweet tooth. POD’s slate of desserts like Mocha Brownie, Passion Crème Brulée Tart, and Chocolate Bread Pudding are decidedly western, all house-made, and they’re notably good.

A final note on something I seldom explore: specialty drinks. They’re exceptional here. Why? Well, start with the collegiate buzz that hums throughout University City and mix in youthful experimentation and POD proves you can dream up some awesome combos.

A few seasons have gone round since I dined at POD in its halcyon days. We returned a couple of years ago when Stephen Colbert brought his act to Philly. We were shut out at POD because the entire Colbert Nation, or so it seemed, descended there en masse after the show let out. So we were delighted recently to enjoy POD when it was characteristically busy but not frantic. We could savor how gracefully POD has aged. In reality, POD hasn’t aged at all. Every bit as electric and eye-catchy as ever, POD is simply more mature and comfortable in its own skin. Or perhaps its own pod.

POD, 3636 Sansom Street, Philadelphia PA 19104 215-387-1803 podrestaurant.com

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FOR THE PRICE OF A DAILY CAPPUCCINO YOU CAN ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS. Call us and we’ll show you how.

1-800-354-8776.

the dining guide 1741 on the Terrace Relax in the ambiance of the room – the beautiful Moravian tile floor and soaring Palladian windows. Admire the charming view of downtown Bethlehem while enjoying Award winning cuisine and a wine list that is filled with wines from around the world, but with a focus on American wines. Call for information about Sunday’s Musical Brunch combining live music with a splendid buffet array. 437 Main St., Bethlehem, PA 18018 (610) 625-5000. hotelbethlehem.com

food & wine

Apollo Grill Nestled in historic Bethlehem, Apollo Grill stands out.

Voted “Best in the Valley” for the 11th year proves their dedication to fine cuisine and customer satisfaction.

Whether you find yourself at an intimate table for two or unwinding at the bar, the bistro-style Apollo Grill will delight you with its imaginative menu that includes over 30 appetizers, impressive wine list and lively ambiance.

Tuesday-Saturday lunch, 11-5; dinner 5-10; bar open late. 85 W. Broad St., Bethlehem, PA (610) 865-9600. apollogrill.com Hamilton’s Grill Room Nestled in a charming courtyard on the canal, Hamilton’s Grill Room remains one of the most romantic settings in the Northeast. Bring wine and enjoy the rustic elegance of Jim Hamilton’s vibrant menus and chef Mark Miller’s fire-grilled meats and seafood. Entree range: $16-$34. 8 Coryell St., Lambertville, NJ (609) 3974343; hamiltonsgrill-room.com. Reviewed Feb. 2005.

The Landing Restaurant The most sought after outdoor dining and bar on the Delaware goes inside for the winter. Wood-burning fireplaces, river views, and the best of all…affordable great food and a bustling bar beckon you to stay a while. Free wi-fi and parking. Entrées $9-$26. Open every day. 22 North Main Street, New Hope (215) 862-5711 landingrestaurant.com Matt’s Red Rooster.

One of the most exciting culinary properties to hit Flemington, NJ. Domiciled in a venerable Victorian building and lovingly restored. Matt’s is comprised of two floors that are tastefully adorned, with the woodfired grill and open kitchen at the heart. Dinner only.

BYOB. Closed Monday. Entrées $22-$40. 22 Bloomfield Ave., Flemington, NJ (908) 788-7050. mattsredroostergrill.com. Reviewed June 2009.

The National Hotel is a luxury historic boutique B&B with quality dining, signature drinks, and weekly entertainment. It is ideally located in a very special corner of Hunterdon County’s Delaware River valley. From music to poetry readings and dinner theatre, there’s always something happening. 31 Race St, Frenchtown 08825, (908) 996-3200. Email: info@thenationalhotelnj.com 46

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Restaurateurs: To include your restaurant here, call 215-862-9558.

Sette Luna Primetime 2006 Best Café. Rustic Italian trattoria featuring made in house pasta and authentic wood oven pizza. Heirloom and local ingredients utilized in this eclectic, dynamic menu. Alfresco dining, private wine cellar, Belgian beer and over 250 wines. Valley’s most extensive bar selections. Sunday Brunch. 219 Ferry St. Easton (610) 253-8888. M-Th 11:30-9:30, Fri 11:30-10:30, Sat 12-10:30, Sun 10:30-8:30 Stockton Inn Some things do get better with age. The 300-year-old Stockton Inn and its outstanding wine reserve certainly fits this category. Dine elegantly in one of the mural rooms with fireplace, the glass room in springtime, casually in the tavern, or on the outdoor patio. Spend the night in one of their cozy suites. An unforgettable weekend getaway. One Main St., Stockton, NJ (609) 397-1250. www.stocktoninn.com Swan Hotel Bar The Swan Bar is a cozy spot to enjoy a light meal or full dinner with great cocktails, wine or beer to match. 43 So. Main St., Lambertville, NJ (609) 397-3552. Open TuFri at 5:00; Sat and Sun at 1:00. Major credit cards accepted. Reviewed September 2006.

Tap Room at the Historic Hotel Bethlehem Casually elegant, Lounge by the vintage mahogany bar, in an atmosphere evoking the Jazz Age. Enjoy Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner overlooking the heart of Bethlehem’s historic district. Every Thursday, live jazz performances add to the 1920s atmosphere. 437 Main St., Bethlehem, PA (610) 625-5000. hotelbethlehem.com The Clinton House Established in 1743 and nestled in Clinton, New Jersey, resides the Clinton House. Recently renovated to establish its 18th Century Charm, the Clinton House provides sensational, tantalizing meals and a sense of tranquility. Come and join us for a truly exquisite dining experience. Mon-Sat 11:30-2:30; Mon-Fri 5-9:30; Sat 5-10; Sun 12-8:30. Bakery: daily 11-6. 2 West Main Street, Clinton, NJ (908) 730-9300.

Tortilla’s Tortillas is a colorful little Mexican oasis using only the freshest ingredients to offer healthy and delectable Mexican specialties. Come in and check out our salsa bar, and stay for a complimentary Marguerita. Our tortillas are made fresh daily. Brunch on Sundays from 10-2. MTh 11-9:30; Fri-Sat 9-10:30; Sun: 9-9:30. 634 No. York Rd., Willow Grove, PA (215) 706-0777; tortillasrestaurant. com. Reviewed April 2006.

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cal venues would do well to take a page from the Inn’s book. Honor the 18th century indeed. But, meanwhile, embrace the 21st.

The menu shows some gastronomic class with a huge, bargain-priced $11 artisanal cheese plate, and an expertly seasoned Sausage Trio—another bargain at $12. Ginger packs a punch into one of the three sausages. Venison and cherry team harmoniously in a second while Duck and Armagnac rounds out the threesome.

There are a number of salads to choose from. Some change seasonally. In any season, the $8 House Salad is a standout with mesculin greens, dried cranberries, spiced walnuts, fried wonton crisps, and blue cheese.

A huge serving of Crab Cake zinged with red aïoli sauce measures up. That’s no small compliment in our crabcake-blessed region. House-made Stuffed Mozzarrella is served with savory roasted peppers and spinach, with a bite of balsamic.

Tender calamari with a garlic-infused supporting cast of shrimp, eggplant, squash, peppers, and tomato are served in spicy Marinara sauce. Lightly browned Sea Scallops pair with raisin-nut coconut rice—a recipe that typifies the kitchen’s deftness at coaxing a plateful of flavor out of every dish. Nothing is ho-hummed.

The chef shows skill and artful restraint in an untinkered-with classic French preparation of Rack of Lamb. Priced moderately at $28, succulent lamb is crusted with mustard and herbs and in a smooth Barolo reduction. House-made Gnocchi with Porcini

mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, and spinach is served in a delicious sherry wine sauce. And long-time favorite Osso Buco pairs with vegetable risotto.

As for the Stockton Inn’s history, visit and soak it all in. It was built in 1710 as a private residence. Four of the original chimneys remain. The Lenni Lenape Native Americans hailed the site as flood-free. They hit the mark. The Inn has been spared the Delaware’s ravages for 300 years.

In addition to showing the role the Inn played in Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, a walk through the Inn’s almanac reveals that it was once a behind-thescenes heavyweight in the Hauptman-Lindbergh Trial. It was also the restaurant that legendary Paul Whiteman, leader of the ‘40s swing orchestra, used to reference when he signed off from his weekly radio show with “I’m going to dinner at Ma Colligan’s.”

Interestingly, too, it was a Mecca for a veritable “Algonquin Table” of 1930s personalities such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Damon Runyon, and S. J. Perleman. Their table is still there, in the corner, as if waiting for them to come back.

Ironically, the enduring attraction of the Stockton Inn is the present: the enchanting outdoor bars, the historic authenticity, the creaky enchantment of the beautifully muraled dining rooms, bar room, the fully charged calendar of music and other events, and—food, glorious food.

Stockton Inn, 1 Main Street, Stockton, NJ 08559 609-397-1250 stocktoninn.com

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dave barry

REAL MEN CAN’T BUY GIFTS

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HE OTHER DAY, MY son and I were talking, and the subject of women came up, and I realized that it was time he and I had a Serious Talk. It’s a talk every father should have with his son; and yet, far too often, we fathers avoid the subject, because it’s so awkward. The subject I’m referring to is: buying gifts for women.

This is an area where many men do not have a clue. Exhibit A was my father, who was a very thoughtful man, but who once gave my mother, on their anniversary, the following token of his love, his commitment, and— yes-—his passion for her: an electric blanket. He honestly could not understand why, when she opened the box, she gave him that look (you veteran men know the look I mean). Another example: I once worked with a guy named George who, for Christmas, gave his wife, for her big gift-—and I am not making this gift up-—a chain saw. (As he later explained: “Hey, we NEEDED a chain saw.”) Fortunately, the saw was not operational when his wife unwrapped it.

The mistake that George and my dad made, and that many guys make, was thinking that when you choose a gift for a woman, it should do something useful. Wrong! The first rule of buying gifts for women is: THE GIFT SHOULD NOT DO ANYTHING, OR, IF IT DOES, IT SHOULD DO IT BADLY. For example, let’s consider two possible gifts, both of which, theoretically, perform the same function: GIFT ONE: A state-of-the-art gasoline-powered lantern, with electronic ignition and dual mantles capable of generating 1,200 lumens of light for ten hours on a single tank of fuel.

GIFT TWO: A scented beeswax candle, containing visible particles of bee poop and providing roughly the same illumination as a lukewarm corn dog.

Now to a guy, Gift One is clearly superior, because you could use it to see in the dark. Whereas to a woman, Gift Two is MUCH better, because women love to sit around in the gloom with reeking, sputtering candles, and don’t ask ME why. I also don’t know

why a woman would be ticked off if you gave her a 56-piece socket-wrench set with a 72-tooth reversible ratchet, but thrilled if you give her a tiny, very expensive vial of liquid with a name like “L’essence de Nooquie Eau de Parfum de Cologne de Toilette de Bidet,” which, to the naked male nostril, does not smell any better than a stick of Juicy Fruit. All I’m saying is that this is the kind of thing women want. (That’s why the ultimate gift is jewelry; it’s totally useless.)

The second rule of buying gifts for women is: YOU ARE NEVER FINISHED. This is the scary part, the part that my son and his friends are just discovering. If you have a girlfriend, she will give you, at MINIMUM, a birthday gift, an anniversary gift, a Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa gift and a Valentine’s Day gift, and every one of these gifts will be nicely wrapped AND accompanied by a thoughtful card.

When she gives you this gift, YOU HAVE TO GIVE HER ONE BACK. You can’t just open your wallet and say, “Here’s, let’s see . . . 17 dollars!”

And, as I told my son, it only gets worse. Looming ahead are bridal showers, weddings, baby showers, more Mother’s Days and other Mandatory Gift Occasions that would not even EXIST if men, as is alleged, really ran the world. Women observe ALL of these occasions, and MORE. My wife will buy gifts for NO REASON. She’ll go into one of those gift stores at the mall that men never enter, and she’ll find something, maybe a tiny cute box that could not hold anything larger than a molecule, and is therefore useless, and she’ll buy it, PLUS a thoughtful card, and SHE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW WHO THE RECIPIENT IS YET. Millions of other women are out doing the same thing, getting further and further ahead, while we guys are home watching instant replays. We have no chance of winning this war.

That’s what I told my son. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was time he knew the truth.

Some day, when he is older and stronger, we’ll tackle an even more difficult issue, namely, what to do when a woman asks: “Do these pants make me look fat?” (Answer: Flee the country.)

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LEXICROCKERY

by Robert Gordon Neposchism – disconnect between a famous parent's philosophy and that of his/ her son or daughter, as in Ronald and Ron Jr. Reagan, John and Meghan McCain and George W. and Barbara Bush.

Vocapillary – the phenomenon, seen at Fox “News” in which a precise, consistent vocabulary starts at the roots of the organization and works its way up unchanged, cell by cell, to its distant extremes.

Rensignation – named for Senator John Ensign: resignation from a government post because of the humiliation inflicted by the liberal press’s unfair persecution of Ensign for his infidelity along with the residual righteous outrage Ensign harbors from his own principled impeachment campaign for Clinton's infidelity.

Prosblurrity – Preacher Joel Osteen’s blurring of the Gospel message that it’s “easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” with his retooled message that Jesus wants Christians to prosper, as in “get rich.”

Squirmish – squirming to avoid skirmishes on issues, like healthcare and gay marriage, where a candidate has flip-flopped à la Mitt Romney.

Oilwellian – a society whose freedoms, policies, and wars are determined and controlled by oil-industry propaganda, misinformation, false science, denial of truth, and manipulation of the past.

ReNewtable Energy – Republican form of renewable energy that is lethal for every environment but that of a penthouse.

Trump l’oeil – fool-the-eye politics where a self-professed, ruthless, winat-any-cost megalomaniac whose lifelong pursuit and “talent” has been to negotiate win-at-the-expense-of-others deals maintains he will inexplicably and uncharacteristically bring prosperity to all if elected to a position where he is given access to exploiting and hustling 300 million people.

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essay

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SALLY FRIEDMAN

When daughters become mothers

“JUST WAIT UNTIL YOU have children of your own…”

How many times had I uttered that famous line when one or the other of my daughters tested me to my limits, when I honestly thought the only answer for me was to walk out and let them fend for themselves. And if you’re a mother, you know exactly what I mean.

I never did run off and join the circus, as I threatened to do when I thought one more cry of “I HATE HER!” echoing through my overtaxed senses would be my last. I did, however, slam doors and raise my voice in ways that I swore I never would…before I had kids.

And just when each of our girls seemed to be emerging from the long, twisted tunnel of coming of age female, it was time for them to leave us. Figures, right? Off they matched into their young adult lives and, to my amazement, they didn’t do the crazy, dangerous irresponsible things I was sure they would.

They did travel to places I wouldn’t have.

They did occasionally bring home young men I found unappealing at best, downright awful at worst.

Thankfully, they didn’t marry them.

And for a while there, I didn’t have much occasion to utter those words about “children of your own.”

Then, in turn, Jill, Nancy and Amy became mothers. And everything changed in an instant.

Suddenly, these daughters, once so sure, so confident and willful, became putty in the tiny hands of their babies. I watched from the sidelines as they surrendered to creatures no bigger than a sack of flour.

Jill, the public defender who could defend heinous criminals without batting an eyelash, wept bitter tears for weeks when her infant daughter refused to follow the script and breastfeed contentedly. Not even veteran lactation counselors, unheard of in my day, could solve the problem.

As a mother, Jill felt like a failure. And failure was a bitter pill to swallow, yet one that all of us who mother ultimately experience. We are not, alas, as wise and omnipotent as we’d like to be, and those reminders begin almost as soon as that cry rings

out in the delivery room/birthing suite.

Amy could conquer the dog-eat-dog corporate world and walk those mean streets of Manhattan with bounce in her step.

But getting through baby Emily’s first night of screaming without apparent cause was another story.

Amy was undone. Powerless. And like her own mother decades before, Amy ultimately collapsed in a heap and let Emily cry it out. It was, she later told me, the longest night of her life.

And now there’s Carly, just 16 months behind Emily, and life is more than twice as complicated.

Nancy is living her own version of “My Three Sons” with appropriate humility. She now knows that her credentials as a psychologist vanish in thin air when Sam or Jonah or even little Danny figure out ingenious ways to make her lose all that rational control she thought she’d surely have. But the combined mischief quotient of Nancy’s sons far surpasses her hard-won pedigree, and this daughter who deftly solves other people’s problems faces the sobering fact that like the rest of us, she sometimes can’t solve her own.

Kids do that to us.

They’re geniuses at keeping us humble. And vulnerable, too.

My daughters knew exactly which buttons to push to turn me into a raving lunatic. And they pushed them regularly…just as I did with my mother. The cycle is endless and somewhere along the way, we mothers utter those immortal words, “Just wait…”

But there’s a flip side to that coin. And I devour it in great, proud gulps. My daughters have turned out to be better mothers than I ever was. They read more, know more, and came to motherhood older and wiser than I had. They struggle to give their kids happy good mornings and safe goodnights every day of their lives, and most days they succeed.

So, in this Mother’s Day season, as we Friedman women celebrate being mothers together, I’ll pause sometime in the midst of the mayhem to look around and think “Look at this! Look at these daughters of mine.” And on this, or any Mother’s Day, that will be my most profound and precious gift.

Sally Friedman has been “living out loud” for over three decades. In addition to ICON, she contributes to the New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, AARP Magazine and other national and regional publications. She is the mother of three fierce daughters, grandmother of seven exceptional grandchildren and the wife of retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Victor Friedman. Email: PINEGANDER@aol.com.

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The Los Angeles Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle UNFINISHED B MOVIES

By Chris A. McGlothlin Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

ACROSS 1 Words preceding a pronouncement 5 2010 Heisman Trophy winner Newton 8 Novel digits 12 Trig function 19 Guy 20 In the style of 21 Popeye’s __’ Pea 22 Sentence alterations 23 Film about an embarrassing fig leaf situation?

25 Film about winning the chicken breeder’s trophy?

27 Toast triangle topper 28 Link letters 29 Most prone to brooding 30 Film about great cornbread?

35 Buffy’s love 38 Simpson judge 39 Tallow source 40 Scrub over 45 Italian mine 46 Walk pompously 48 Strip 50 Bassoon relative 51 Film about where to put Melba sauce?

54 Film about clashing egos?

57 Catholic college near Oakland 58 45 players 61 Bridge supports 62 “... the whites of __ eyes” 63 TV intro opening 64 With 115-Down, wrinkly pooch 65 Computer add-on 66 Film about swabbing drudgery?

71 Some four-yr. degrees 74 Really could use 75 Afterward 76 Bribable 80 Moves back 82 “Kills 99.9% of bacteria” product 83 Lennon classic 85 Film about Milo’s pal Otis?

87 Film about a tick at a kennel club event?

89 Colorado River feeder 90 __ bene 92 Am 93 First name in despotism 94 Run fast 97 Team-player liaisons: Abbr.

99 Saucer contents?

100 Setting for “Starry Night Over the Rhone” 102 Film set in a sty?

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106 109 110 114 116 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125

Trapped Opener’s target Prepared for baking, as flour Film about a celebrity golf tournament?

Film about V-chip users?

“The Kids Are All Right” Oscar nominee Bening Art Deco designer Clampett patriarch The Auld Sod Painters’ plasters Pastoral poem Madrid Mrs. Way out

DOWN 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 24 26 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 41 42 43 44 46 47 49 52 53 55 56 59 60

All-in-one Apple Word from a crib Norwegian royal name Hebrew, e.g.

Writer John le __ Rhyming fighter Tourist’s aid Disputed point Ice cream lines Bankrupt Harry Reid’s st.

Cook’s protector Fast-talking performer Princess jaunt It’s always underfoot Troubles Bygone Nair competitor D.C. setting Satirist Mort Drama queen, e.g.

Some Millers Neither esta nor esa One with backing Friends, in slang “__ Wanted Man”: 2008 novel Amendment dealing with unenumerated rights “You win” Amazes Belittle Tender spots “Steppenwolf ” author Watch secretly Lead-in following a second point Supple Corey of “The Lost Boys” Going concerns?

Apothecary’s weight Old VW camper Greek cheeses Carbon-14, e.g.

63 64 67 68 69 70 71 72

73 77 78 79 81 82 83 84 86 88 91 95 96 98 100 101 103 104 105 106

Buried NASDAQ unit Projection booth item Common conifer secretion Fax forerunners Cribbage pieces Fayetteville fort Tone of the Kansas sequences in “The Wizard of Oz” Oar It meant nothing to Nero Battery current entry point Comedian Black It’s the same in Paris “Unhand me!” “__ Easy”: Guns N’ Roses song Charles River sch.

Got all bubbly Jedi adversary Payment option Decides one will Somalian menace Wisenheimer Speller’s clarification Made calls, in a way They’re found in pools Photographer Adams Fed. nutritional no. __ Reader

107 “Only the credits held my attention” et al.

108 Greek war god 111 Crosby, Stills & Nash, e.g.

112 Architect Saarinen 113 A few bucks?

114 115 116 117

Lose support See 64-Across Short sleepers?

Anthem contraction Answer in next month’s issue.

Answer to April’s puzzle, THE PLAY’S THE THING

about life

JAMES P. DELPINO

Distracted, Unfocused, Impulsive: Treating Attention Deficit Disorder THE DEFINITION OF ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) is “Decreased neuroelectric activity and decreased blood flow to the frontal lobe.” The frontal lobe is the area of the brain located just behind the forehead. Two important functions of the frontal lobe are judgment and concentration. These are the two areas most affected by ADD. Judgment is clinically defined as “the capacity to anticipate the consequences of words or actions before speaking or acting.” When judgment is impaired, the result is that many words or actions appear to be impulsive. When concentration or focus is impaired, difficulty with learning and interactions with others become compromised. The key symptoms of ADD are impulsivity and poor focus (lack of or impaired concentration) and hyperactivity.

The two most common co-committants of ADD are ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder) and low self-esteem/depression. Those who have ADD and their family members can easily see the component of ODD, even well into adulthood. Low self-esteem/depression is often the result of conflicts and failures at home, school and the workplace for many individuals with this diagnosis.

When deciding what to do about ADD, the first and most important step is to get an accurate diagnosis.

Research indicates that ADD is 96 percent genetic, so a correct diagnosis should include an extensive history of the person, as ADD is present at birth and there should be some indicators early in life. There should be evidence of ADD present in other family members, too—siblings, parents, uncles, aunts, etc. The four percent of non-genetic origin ADD are attributed to head injuries and environmental toxins. It’s very important to know that there is no one test or measurement to determine ADD. A good clinician will contact teachers, counselors, and other family members, as well as review school reports, psychological and neurological tests. All of these offer evidence to support or contradict the diagnosis of ADD. On average, untreated ADD results in the person acting and speaking at a level 25 percent lower than their age. This last fact points to the importance of obtaining an accurate diagnosis at an early age, along with early intervention and treatment. As with all diagnoses, ADD ranges from mild, to moderate to severe.

Important considerations in treating ADD are the knowledge and competency of the therapist, having an excellent psychiatrist involved if medications are appropriate and the involvement of the family, especially if the patient is a child or teenager. In cases of adult ADD, it’s greatly beneficial to include the spouse or significant other in the treatment process. Professional skill and patient/family commitment are the two key elements in successful treatment of ADD. Jim Delpino is a psychotherapist in private practice for over 30 years. Email comments or questions to jdelpino@aol.com or call (215) 364-0139.

A central and basic decision must be made about the use of prescription medication in aiding the treatment of ADD. The most common medications are psycho-stimulants.

These medications increase the neuroelectric activity to the frontal lobe. On average, when these medications are correctly prescribed, a 76 percent decrease of symptoms is observed. The second most common type of medication used in treatment is an antidepressant. Because of the common concurrent depression often associated with ADD, some patients report that their mood elevates with anti-depressants.

“Pills aren’t skills” is a saying among psychotherapists. Simply taking one or more medications for ADD is not sufficient. People with ADD also need to learn solid organizational skills and how to structure homework/work and chores. Some families also employ the services of an ADD coach who will come to the home and make specific recommendations about the specifics of organization and structuring for that particular home and family.

So, medications alone do not fix the problem. Developing the capacities and skills that are lacking does not occur without work and effort invested into an effective treatment plan. A medicine that improves concentration, for example, still requires the patients to engage in work or activities that help promote concentration. The brain has the ability to rewire itself physiologically as a reaction and reflection of experiences to which it is exposed. This a property of the brain known as neuroplasticity.

In much the same way as a stroke or head trauma patient learns to speak or walk again, a person with ADD can learn how to concentrate and/or focus better. Impulsivity, too, can be reduced by learning to improve judgment and foresight. There are exercises, routines, reminders and approaches of all sorts to aid in developing these skills.

ADD does not happen in a vacuum. Those who are around it will experience any number of challenges. Parents often feel angry or confused when they have a child with ADD. They often feel ineffective and are likely to blame each other for parenting mistakes. Siblings often complain about disruptions and arguments with the identified patient. In the case of adult ADD, partners experience difficulty with follow-through and communication. Very frequently, behavioral issues resulting from impulsivity deeply affect relationships. Integrating the loved ones of a person with ADD into treatments allows for several helpful things to occur: It is an opportunity for the clinician to assess the levels of functioning in more areas, which helps to focus the techniques of treatment to those areas most in need of attention; It allows the clinician to educate others about ADD; It allows the clinician the opportunity to recruit important people to the patient to become supportively engaged in assisting treatment; Using the power of relationships to assist the treatment can greatly affect the outcome of treatment; Because these family members or friends see the patient much more frequently and for longer periods of time they can consistently and frequently promote skill development.

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destinations Winter in Lapland An American journalist in the land of the Midnight Sun

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THERE’S NOT MUCH TO the Finnish Lapland day during the winter months. The sun rises around 10:30 am and begins to set around 2:00 pm. In the summer, it’s a different story. Twenty-four hours of sunlight make this the land of the Midnight Sun. It’s also a time, however, when Laplanders admit to having trouble sleeping.

“Even if I draw the curtains and make my bedroom as dark as possible, I know the sun is out there and this makes it hard to sleep,” is a comment you might hear if you ever make the day-and-a-half journey to this faraway place.

A winter’s day in Lapland is a fragile thing. I know because I traveled to this unique part of the world in January. My first view of the Lapland sunrise was from the lobby of the Levi Soko hotel where I roomed with other members of a small international press corps after our “get acquainted” dinner the night before. The sunrise on that first morning was hardly spectacular. The sun’s rays were so weak throughout the day that I commented to someone, “It looks like the sun is in Intensive Care.”

We were seven journalists from countries as diverse as Russia, England, Austria, Italy, Germany, Poland and the US. As the representative American journalist, I had traveled the longest with multihour stopovers in Copenhagen and Helsinki before hopping a jet to Rovaniemi, Lapland, where I met my colleagues.

The Rovaniemi airport was my first sense of being near the North Pole. A large neon Santa sleigh that looks as if it’s emblazoned in the sky hovers over the airport as a sort of reminder that the world’s only official Santa Claus Post Office Box is in this very town.

In Rovaniemi—where the corps, as if in a synchronized trance, studied the tall, snow-capped Finish trees—boarded a small chartered bus for the two-hour trek into Levi Lapland. It was snowing lightly, the Arctic’s version of the daily “pineapple mist” rain in the Hawaiian Islands. The flakes had a non-threatening feel. Never, for instance, did we feel that our driver would get stuck in a snow drift as she drove with militarylike precision into the Arctic Rim. The Finns, after all, are geniuses when it comes to dealing with snow.

During the ride we were given a rundown on the two Finnish personalities.

“There’s the winter persona—dour and introspective; and the summer self, which is high, sunny, and extroverted,” Leena, our Lapland tour guide, said.

Later, in restaurants, I’d notice Finnish couples and families who’d sit and brood in silence, as if awaiting execution. Couples sat with their backs to walls rather than face one another. Leena explained that although the Finns seem cold they have good hearts. “Once they decide you are a friend, they are there ‘permanently.’” Certainly not like those fickle Californians who have made an art out of the easy, meaningless smile.

Our hotel was a good place to observe interactions between Finns and Russians.

Because the December-January holiday is the Russian ski season, many of the Russians were checking out while we were there, so it was easy to observe classic Bolshevik boisterousness, which reminded me of Philadelphia Flyers fans after a winning game.

(During a post-tour visit to Helsinki several days later, I’d be informed that the Finns like the Russians about as much as the Russians like modern Finnish design. “The Russians want everything to be gold. The gaudier, the better!” my guide told me.)

Journalist Thom Nickels’s books include Philadelphia Architecture, Tropic of Libra, Out in History and Spore. He is the recipient of the 2005 Philadelphia AIA Lewis Mumford Architecture Journalism Award. thomnickels.blogspot. com 54

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Day one of the tour was a snowmobiling safari, so we boarded the bus that gave us ample views of the architecturally plain Lapland houses, set back in snowy Hallmark card style silhouettes. Mention was made of a snow covered golf course “somewhere out there in the distance.” A reward was offered to anyone who could spot a golf ball.

Snowmobiling is big business in Lapland. We donned zoot suits and helmets and signed waivers promising we would not hold the snowmobile company accountable for accidents.

Snowmobile injuries and deaths are not uncommon in Lapland. In fact, it was only after the safari that I Our ride guide upped the checked the Internet for the grisly speed quota which meant facts associated with this. It was then that I understood why the Berlin journalist who had opted to be my that he was through passenger had been so frightened.

While I proved to be a fairly good babysitting. driver—I kept myself in the lead section throughout much of the ride— there were a couple of near skirmishes in which my snowmobile almost toppled over.

Driving these 30-40 mph devices made me think of WW II and the time that Finnish Commander-in-Chief Gustof Emil Mannerhein (later the country’s sixth president), invited Hitler to lunch. It was Hitler’s only visit to Finland, and Mannerheim, eager to show his independence, did his best to blow cigar smoke in the (antismoking) Fuhrer’s face, as well as annoy the persnickety vegetarian by asking for great helpings of meat.

Our snowmobile safari traveled for miles through the Lapland wilderness, stopping periodically for photographs or to let the slower drivers catch up. Our destination was a Reindeer Farm by Perhesafarit, where we would meet our guides, a young married couple in traditional Laplander clothes. At the farm we were taught how to feed and walk the animals after taking the obligatory sleigh ride. Lunch was in their private home at a long wooden table near a blazing fireplace. Salmon soup, bread, and an iced berry drink warmed us considerably even as a few of us began to fantasize about red wine. Alcohol and snowmobiling don’t mix, however. In fact, it’s more of a lethal combination on snowmobile paths than it is on US roadways.

By the time we said good-bye to this very 1960s “Alice’s Restaurant” couple, the sun was beginning to set.

On the snowmobiles again, there was a rush to beat impending darkness. Our ride guide upped the speed quota which meant that he was through babysitting. The snowmobiles in front of me, headlights on, bolted away in a jet propulsion thrust. I didn’t know that speed like this was possible on a wintry terrain. Then I recalled our guide’s warning: “Slowing down out of fear only increases the chances of tipping over, so keep at it.” With this in mind, I stepped on it as the Berlin journalist behind me held on for dear life.

“We’re going to be all right,” I said, more out of self-affirmation than certainty.

During the ride back two journalists fell far behind the group, lost somewhere in the forest. For some reason I thought of the Donner party, although they eventually surfaced.

Laplanders, perhaps because of the extreme climate, seem to have a healthy, sexy vitality. While many Finnish men and women have Scandinavian traits—tall with large

THOM NICKELS

extremities (at the Soko there were a number of statuesque Finnish females in long Heidi-braids)—never tell a Swede that Finland is part of Scandinavia. It is not. (When I visited Sweden a couple years ago, the Finns were referred to as if they constituted a population of the developmentally disabled. Conversely, in Finland, I spotted menu items like Baked Swede, which seemed to tap into this animosity. ) Nightlife in Levi has the exuberance of a 1980s USA disco. I witnessed kids in knit hats raise their hands in unison to a DJ and sing along enthusiastically as if acting in a Pepsi commercial. The mood is definitely “Up with People,” with men dancing with men when no women are present. There are almost no bar fights in Lapland We writers had no trouble dancing together in Lapland’s many bars and clubs.

A few of us even joined the Moscow writers for vodka at an Irish pub. Breakfast the next morning was a little later than usual.

At Levi’s Polar Speed Husky farm we watched as hundreds of huskies, some of them mixed-breed wolves, barked in unison. Huskies live to work, but while waiting to pull sleds they can look sad or anxious. The sled ride itself, at least in the beginning, is a fast and furious affair. I definitely got the feeling that one miscalculation by the dogs or driver could have wrapped the lot of us around a tree or two. Still, few things in life are as beautiful as finding yourself in a sled being pulled by dogs over a vast frozen lake surrounded by tall, snow-capped trees.

No trip to Finland is complete without a traditional Finnish sauna. In our case the men and women split up and headed towards separate cabins on a frozen lake.

There, naked, each of us dipped our bodies into a hole in the below-zero lake before heading into the sauna.

In August, 2010, Finland’s annual World Sauna Championship was called off after the death of a Russian man who had spent six minutes in a sauna with a temperature of 110c. His competitor, a Finnish man, was hospitalized.

Finland is secular nation, with the Evangelical Lutheran Church as the official state religion, and the Finnish Orthodox Church claiming about ten percent of the population. My Helsinki city guide was quick to tell me that when Finns need spiritual nourishment, they go outdoors and sit among the tall trees “where they commune with Nature.”

Helsinki is a small, walkable city with a building height limit much like pre-1986 Philadelphia. It’s hilly in sections, making a postsnowstorm walk on the sidewalks a dicey affair. During my frequent forays to and from the KlausK Design Hotel in the central design district, I found myself taking measured baby steps to avoid a Laurel and Hardy-style slide down the steep hills. I was also told to be on the lookout for falling ice from the tops of buildings, a not uncommon occurrence during the Finnish winter.

With Reija, my guide, we met designers in Artek (Art Furniture) at Etelaesplanadi 18; toured Designforum Finland and snuck a peek inside Aero Design Furniture. Everywhere we visited we found the signature “stamp” of architect/designer Alvan Aalto, from furniture and buildings to a bottle of Aalto red wine. The famous Academy Bookstore, with its stairway to the stars design, occupied me for hours. The Contemporary Art Museum Kiasma, while mostly trendy, did feature a 24/7 video of Russian youths revolting in the nearby town because town fathers had decided to disassemble a Russian statue.

At the Uspenski Cathedral Orthodox Church, I met with Timo Mertanen, a monk, who told me that the church used to have a miraculous icon. The miracle-working Mother of God Kozelchan icon was recently stolen by thieves who entered the church at night through a small window. The icon, covered in jewels and gems offered by the faithful in thanksgiving for favors received, has still not been recovered.

As a memento of my visit, Timo the monk handed me a replica of the miracle-working icon, a gesture I appreciated and that I’m sure saved me from a lot of traveler angst, or even a plane crash, on the way home.

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keresman on disc Terri Hendrix Cry Till You Laugh Wilory Cracker (band) has a song featuring the line: “What the world needs now is another folk singer/like I need a hole in my head.” I must reluctantly agree, but that’s because the lads in Cracker hadn’t yet heard Texas singer/songster Terri Hendrix (no relation to Jimi). Unlike many young ladies with an acoustic guitar, Hendrix does not mine the usual vein of young adult angst.

Stylistically, imagine if Lucinda Williams had a precocious little sister, or if Bonnie Raitt had graduated college (in TX, of course) eight years ago, and you have the nub of my gist. Hendrix kicks off the disc with the Terry Hendrix. Photo: Mary Burton. solo vocal-and-harmonica setting of two Dorothy Parker poems—the gal’s got spunk and smarts, country blues at the Algonquin Round Table. While most of the album continues in her L. Williams-esque amalgamation of folk, country, blues, and rock of her previous albums, Cry Till You Laugh introduces a new wrinkle. On a couple of tracks Hendrix embraces New Orleans-style jazz, singing with Crescent City joie de vive and even using her voice wordlessly in tandem with the instruments. Not that Squirrel Nut Zippers or Madeleine Peyroux will lose any sleep, but by sheer chutzpah and animated charm Hendrix pulls it off. On the winners-never-quit “Einstein’s Brain,” she covertly/slyly refers to her 20-year battle with epilepsy. Hendrix has released over a dozen albums on her own label, and she’s way better than a hole in nearly anyone’s head. Listen to her. wiloryrecords.com Bill Dixon Orchestra Intents and Purposes International Phonograph Inc. Luc Ferrari Visage 2/Apres Presque Rien/Madame de Shanghai Mode A couple of platters by two semi-recently departed gents, Luc Ferrari (1929-2005) and Bill Dixon (1925-2010). Both were composers (and performers) that approached music in singular and slightly similar ways—Ferrari emerged from the French classical music scene, but he embraced improvisation, electronics, and multimedia presentations; Dixon (also a painter and educator) came from a jazz orientation, but his approach blurred the “line(s)” between composed and improvised forms and between concepts of “jazz” and “classical.”

Out of print in the USA for decades, Dixon’s Intents and Purposes (originally released 1967) is considered a classic of ‘60s avant-garde and rightly so. With a batch of players drawn from assorted styles (trombonist Jimmy Cheatham from trad/swing jazz, Byard Lancaster from “out” jazz, classical & studio cats), Intents is challenging but shemp@hotmail.com 56

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

oddly accessible. Dixon (who plays trumpet & flugelhorn) is of the less-is-more school of thought and sometimes the four compositions herein evoke a cool mash-up of Igor Stravinsky and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The overall mood is melancholy, the textures jagged and almost Cubist, a blending of composed lyricism and restless energy (not swing, but there is capital-R rhythm). It sounds “aimless” until you really listen—I don’t think Dixon was seeking a “fusion” of jazz and classical but instead took from both until he arrived at something All His Own. internationalphonographinc.com Ferrari’s disc includes material from the 1950s, the mid-‘90s, and the year before his death. For the uninitiated, one frame of reference is Frank Zappa, especially We’re Only In It For the Money and Absolutely Free. Not that Ferrari’s compositions “sound like” Zappa but rather ARE like Zappa—they both have a cheerfully mocking/irreverent sense of humor (listen closely and you’ll discern Woody Woodpecker’s laugh in “Apres…”) and mix-and-match (seeming) beauty and (seeming) chaos. Ferrari is much more surreal than Zappa, occasionally dipping into the minimalism of P. Glass and S. Reich, not to mention the pastel-hued dreaminess and Impressionism of Debussy and, well, the Impressionist painters. There’s a nifty LF quote in this disc’s booklet: “Yet I still breathe, which is already not so bad. […] I also have fun. Fortunately.” He wrote that a year before his passing…a decent attitude at age 76, I say. moderecords.com Neil Diamond The Bang Years Legacy Recordings I can hear the collective (imaginary/symbolic) shriek: Has ICON’s resident eclectic music geek gone nuts? Has his trolley jumped the track? Before more aphorisms happen, I can unequivocally state with a degree of certainty: Their once was a time when Neil Diamond was COOL, and this collection of his 1966-68 recordings is the proof. His early songs are some of the era’s BEST—rousing gospel-derived chords and background choruses, snappy NYC Latin-tinged rock rhythms, Everyman/Everyschnook lyrics about getting through the day and savoring the little pleasures within reach (“The Boat That I Row,” “Thank The Lord For the Nighttime”), romantic paranoia (“Solitary Man”), and top-o’-theworld joy (“You Got To Me”). True, later on (post-1974) Diamond became the King of Soppy Schmaltz (“You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” is up there with “Freebird” as something I’d be happy to never hear again), but his earlier stuff is Moody Orchestrated Angst and Rock-edged Pop Gems. (The Monkees’s hit “I’m A Believer”? ND.) Neil wanted to be the Jewish Elvis, and to a degree he succeeded (for better and worse…but Neil still lives). He also became Dusty Springfield’s American cousin and the uncle of Belle & Sebastian (“I had a dream and it filled me with wonder/She had other plans”), and best of all, many of his songs are as great now as they were then. Moreover, this set has obscure, ought-to-be-discovered rarities “The Long Way Home” and oddly bluesy “The Time is Now.” I almost never use this word, but for Neil fans AND Neil novices: Indispensible! legacyrecordings.com

MARK KERESMAN

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John Hicks & Frank Morgan Twogether HighNote Now, alas, I get to use the phrase “twilight of their lives”—because Twogether was recorded by a couple of gents in what turned out to be their final years on this plane of existence. Both pianist John Hicks (1941-2006) and alto saxophonist Frank Morgan (1933-2007) [see page 62] were erstwhile pros, jazz masters not that well known beyond jazz, but both left an indelible footprint in American music. Hicks established himself accompanying singers—Della Reese, Betty Carter, even Albert King!—and performing/recording in contexts mainstream (Woody Herman) and “out” (Billy Bang). Morgan was, along with Art Pepper, one of THE primo disciples of bebop icon Charlie Parker, and like Pepper, spent many a year as a guest of the state due to pharmaceutical misadventures.

The title is a slight misnomer—Morgan and Hicks

duet on over half the album, recorded live in Los Angeles 2005, with three tracks of Hicks performing unaccompanied, recorded live in New Hope 2006. (The credits unfortunately don’t mention where in NH, however.) The solo tracks prove (for them needing it) that Hicks was one of the best jazz pianists on the American scene—just listen to the elegant yet bracing whirlwind that is his version of “Parisian Thoroughfare.” Morgan plays like a man that’s been through many fires yet kept his tenderness intact—“My One and Only Love” is one of those overplayed standard, but Twogether gives it a reading poetic, harrowing, and not-s(l)oppy sentimental. While not a minimalist (in the sense of amount of notes played), Hicks was at saying what needed to be said and no more, even when doing it by himself. His take on “Passion Flower” should be the music you hear on your way to Heaven…or upon leaving Vegas, depending on your belief system. While not really for neophytes, jazz pianoheads should scarf this up immediately, if not sooner. jazzdepot.com

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day/weekend trip

DAN HUGOS

May Flowerings IF APRIL SHOWERS ARE any indication this year, then flowers are in store for Jim Thorpe in May. The month typically brings warm weather to Jim Thorpe after a seemingly long winter. It sends the message that summer is indeed here, especially when you look at what there is to do.

Jim Thorpe’s outdoor outfitting companies are ecstatic about all the rain and snow they’ve received so far in 2011. The Lehigh River is brimming with water, and these companies are scheduling trips down the Lehigh Gorge for every kind of water enthusiast. The ground is pretty soaked, so water should be filling the river for the foreseeable future, and there will be several dam release weekends.

All the moisture signals an especially picturesque summer as well. Enjoy the beauty of the new Jim Thorpe Rail Trail, whether you walk, run, or ride. It’s a sublime trail that crosses the Lehigh River and often parallels the train tracks run by the Lehigh Scenic Gorge Railway, whose rides begin on Memorial Day Weekend.

Two festivals take place on consecutive weekends on May 14 and May 21, the Jim Thorpe Art Weekend and the Jim Thorpe Birthday Celebration, respectively. The Art Weekend has been organized by local artists and also features a musical component with free music at the downtown Josiah White

singer /songwriter Paul Simon So Beautiful or So What Hear Music Facing his 70th birthday in October, Paul Simon has crafted a collection of songs that deals with mortality, the hereafter and the mysteries of love. The resulting album, So Beautiful or So What, ranks among the best of Simon’s 40-year solo career. Like the image of DNA on the CD cover, Simon has woven together diverse musical strands—gospel, folk, doo wop, blues and rock—to create a pleasing musical gumbo.

Set to a slithering rhythm, “Getting Ready for Christmas Day” effectively blends Simon’s observations on the holiday with excerpts from a 1941 sermon by the Rev. J.M. Gates. “The Afterlife” is a fanciful imagining of Judgment Day that’s elevated by the guitar work of Simon, Vincent Nguini and Jim Oblon. “Rewrite” brims with Simon’s wit about the desire to get things right and the need for second chances in life. “Love is Eternal Sacred Light” is a groove-filled song that could fit at home on Simon’s Graceland album. The title track features some of Simon’s most striking imagery and sums up the album’s themes: “You know life is what you make of it/So beautiful or so what.”

Randy Newman The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 2 Nonesuch

Park, culminating with the Brooklyn-based group Yarn at the Opera House.

Jim Thorpe Birthday also features extensive music and craft offerings in the park and all up and down Broadway. In addition, it salutes Jim Thorpe’s Birthday by organizing a Special Olympics event at Jim Thorpe High School with a run and torch hand-off at various points throughout the town.

The Mauch Chunk Opera House features Chris Hillman, Artimus Pyle, Carbon Leaf, Yarn, Todd Snider and Michelle Shocked in the month of May. The venue also rolls out its new website and online ticketing system, and has recently begun distributing its new Performance Card. For only $10, it can be used as a discount card at just about all restaurants in town, in addition to the Inn at Jim Thorpe.

The Performance Card can also be used against future shows while providing you with a big discount. For a limited time, if you purchase a $50 card, the venue will fill the card with $60, and for $75 you get $90. In addition, once you go to five shows, your 6th show is free.

For everything there is to do in Jim Thorpe, visit www.JimThorpe.org.

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The formula for the Randy Newman Songbook series is simple but successful: Put the singer/songwriter behind his piano for solo renditions of songs from his extensive back catalog.

Heard without a backup band or orchestra, the 16 songs on The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 2 take on a new intimacy.

It’s akin to a concert recording without the audience being present.

The song selections range from “Cowboy” off his 1968 debut album to “Losing You” and “Laugh and Be Happy” from his 2008 studio CD Harps and Angels. The autobiographical “Dixie Flyer,” written about his early years in New Orleans, rolls along rhythmically like the train of the title.

He captures the bravado of Huey Long on “Kingfish” and the overinflated self-importance of a rock star on “My Life is Good.” On “Dayton Ohio-1903,” Newman captures a bygone era with a song that sounds as if it were written in the early 20th century. Incorporating elements of both George Gershwin and Fats Domino in his piano style, Newman establishes himself as a link in a chain of influential pianists and songwriters.

Emmylou Harris Hard Bargain Nonesuch Since Red Dirt Girl, her 2000 Grammy-winning studio, Emmylou tomwilk@rocketmail.com

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

Harris has placed a greater emphasis on her songwriting. On Hard Bargain, for which she wrote 11 of the 13 songs, Harris continues to refine her craft. Working in a trio format with producer Jay Joyce and multi-instrumentalist Giles Reeves, Harris delivers a set of intimate performances that keeps the focus on her wondrous voice. At 64, Harris looks back at the people who influenced her personally and artistically.

“The Road” is a warm recounting of her relationship with Gram Parsons, her musical mentor who blazed a path for her career in country music. There’s a sense of ache and loss in her voice for Parsons, who died at 26 in 1973.

“Darlin’ Kate” is a moving tribute to Kate McGarrigle, a friend and musical collaborator who died of cancer last year. “The Ship on His Arm” is a loving look back at her parents’ relationship, focusing on the time her father was missing in action in the Korean War. “Big Black Dog” lightens the mood but offers a serious message in music as Harris sings on behalf of animals without homes, a cause close to her heart.

[ This is Jason. He’s not a typical ICON reader. Yet. ]

Dana Fuchs Love to Beg Ruf Records

Jason is happy.

Dana Fuchs sings with a voice that commands a listener’s attention as shown on Love to Beg, a new collection of 13 songs of which she co-wrote a dozen. The title track jumps out of the speakers as Fuchs sketches out a romantic dilemma with the admission that “I’m never far from loving you again.” “Nothing’s What I Cry For,” is a pedal-to-the-medal rocker showcasing co-producer Jon Diamond’s lead guitar. “Drive” features a John Hiatt vice in its depiction of people down on their luck and searching for a way out.

Vocally, Fuchs combines the intensity of Melissa Etheridge and the passion of Janis Joplin in her delivery. Fuchs has played Joplin in the off-Broadway musical Love, Janis and portrayed Sadie in the 2007 film Across The Universe.

Fuchs particularly shines on the slower songs, including the Memphis-style soul ballad “Summersong” and a soulful reading of Otis Redding’s “I’ve Been Loving You Too Long.”

His parents went to www.ICONdv.com.

Robbie Robertson How to Become Clairvoyant 429 Records/Macrobiotic Records

That’s why Jason’s a happy baby.

How to Become Clairvoyant, Robbie Robertson’s first solo album in 13 years, finds The Band’s former guitarist and principal songwriter in a reflective mood. “Straight Down The Line” offers a gritty snapshot of his life as a traveling musician at the start of his career “from the Chitlin Circuit to the Peppermint Lounge,” Robertson sings in a smoky baritone.

“When The Night Was Young” looks back wistfully to the start of The Band when all things seemed possible. “This is Where I Get Off ” is that song’s bookend as Robertson addresses his decision to stop touring with the group after The Last Waltz.

Robertson, 67, works with musicians from his own generation (Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood) and newer stars (Robert Randolph, Tom Morello, Trent Reznor) to give the album a sonic balance. “Fear of Falling,” a vocal collaboration with Clapton, is the closest in tone to his work with The Band. Morello adds a modern touch to “Axman,” a tribute to the masters of the guitar from Robert Johnson to Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Why is Jason so happy?

They took our reader survey.

They won our monthly drawing.

Their prize is dinner for two at one of the most romantic restaurants in the region: Hamilton’s Grill Room in Lambertville, NJ Jason’s parents are going to have a darn good dinner.

They made their reservation and then they made a call to Anne.

Jason knows that when his folks go out...Anne comes in.

And Anne is Jason’s prettiest babysitter.

Just send an email to trina@ICONdv.com with the subject line, Glorious Food. if you win, we’ll reply to your email.

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nick’s picks Taylor Haskins Recombination 19/8 Records Trumpeter Taylor Haskins, an authoritative voice on the horn, is a member of bassist Dave Holland’s Grammy-winning “Overtime” band and has previously made waves on his own (American Dream, Sunnyside, 2010.) For his third solo recording of all-original tunes, Recombination, Haskins plugs into electro-sounds tinted with rockera Miles pyrotechnics and the music buzzes with sonic brilliance (“Clouds From

Haskin’s digital tinkering in and outside the studio pays off. The synthesized tunes flatter Haskin’s trumpet playing (so effectively on “Passing Through”) and enhance the emotional payoff of his music. The nimble fretwork of Monder is especially fine (“A Lazy Afternoon”) and he complements Haskin’s clean, limpid tone and inclination for ear-friendly melodies. A tip of the hat to the visionary graphics—paintings by Catherine Ross and design by Gabriele Wilson—its clever analog motif fits perfectly with the music and it’s the sort of detail that you can’t get by downloading. (12 tracks; 59:06 minutes) Ben Allison Action-Refraction Palmetto The redoubtable bassist Ben Allison is well known as a bell ringer for jazz, and his creative enthusiasm has spawned a series of intrepid solo recordings as well as a productive NY based jazz collective. For his 10th recording, Allison culls his first collection

Ben Allison. Photo: Jimmy Katz.

Taylor Haskins. Photo: Chris Drukker.

Below Us”), crunchy grooves (“Upward Mobility”) and nifty jazz-pop (“The Shifting Twilight”). Drummer Nate Smith supplies the loose and quickening pulse an album like this requires. He roots keyboardist Henry Hey, bassist Todd Sickafoose and guitarist Ben Monder firmly in Haskin’s futuristic tableau, which blends real and synthetic sounds with astonishing vibrancy.

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 60

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of covers with Action-Refraction, and reboots them in wild and wonderful ways, including a switched on version of Samuel Barber’s “St Ita’s Vision” (where Allison is thinking Sun Ra as much as Leontyne Price) and a compellingly reverent remix of Neil Young’s “Philadelphia.”

As the leader and arranger, Allison expands his palette with his intuitive “electroacoustic orchestra”—saxophonist/bass clarinetist Michael Blake, guitarists Steve Cardenas and Brandon Seabrook, drummer Rudy Royston and, particularly, Jason Lindner on piano and synthesizer, who rocks the sonic trance arrangement of Donny Hathway’s “Someday We’ll All Be Free.” Allison’s eloquent liner notes may explain his approach to covering Thelonious Monk (“his music is timeless and perpetually relevant”) and PJ Harvey’s “Missed,” but it’s his clear-eyed articulation of “We’ve Only Just Begun” and a remake of his own “Broken,” complete with Prince-like guitar licks and Trent Reznor feedback, that makes this album an adventure in sound. At a trim 40+ minutes, the Allison team beautifully networks the concept and its aural pleasures will sustain multiple spins. (7 tracks; 41:22 minutes)

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

Samir Zarif Starting Point Mythology Like many of his contemporaries, Texas-born saxophonist/vocalist Samir Zarif isn’t boxed in by tradition, which makes his splendidly realized debut recording, Starting Point, something to talk about. Zarif programs his recording like a suite, and it’s clear that he finds sonic quality to be as vital as rhythm and harmony, and the album

ics or the indelible rapport for which they are acclaimed, and the title track (written by Ornette Coleman) sums up what the MW Trio does best, which is to coerce sophisticated improvisations out of the subtlest of melodies, sometimes a note at a time. (10 tracks; 71:48 minutes) Dave Juarez Round Red Light Positione A Barcelona native, guitarist Dave Juarez wins major points on his debut for Positone Records, an LA based independent label with a dazzling roster of young jazz lions, mostly due to his deep commitment to the band concept and a playbook of super strong compositions. He pulls together a like-minded team— tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake, pianist John Escreet, bassist Lauren Falls and drummer Bastian Weinhold— on a collection of fresh tracks that highlight the strengths of each. Blake is the veteran here, having a host of solo recordings and dozens of sideman gigs to his credit, and he gives the album a boost with his scintillating solos. Escreet is an especially communicative player, full of surprise and brilliance, and he doesn’t disappoint whether applying his staccato intensity on “Lonely Brooklyn” or applying a glossy lyricism to “Belleza Anonima.” As the leader, Juarez runs his lines with grace and poetic humility (“The Echo Of Your Smile”) and takes a clever stab at the harmonics on Monk’s “Round Midnight (see title tune). If there’s any criticism, it’s that Juarez is a touch shy, giving too much space to Blake. But all is forgiven listening to Juarez on the moon-kissed “Luna De Barcelona,” a tune that inspires peak performances from his copacetic quintet and features a blissed out solo by the guitarist. (9 tracks; 61:45 minutes) Art Hirahara Noble Path Posi-tone Records

Samir Zarif. Photo: Aestheticize Media.

unfolds with an engaging purpose. A meticulous musician with a gifted ear for composition, much of the album reaches for Trane-like highs with reverential tunes (“Dancing In The Garden Of Dead Roses”) and sinewy horn solos (“Letter To The Brothers”). But his “jazz beyond jazz” approach works best on “Fear and Deceptions,” opening the door for punchy bass notes by Zack Lober and crisp backbeats courtesy of drummers Greg Ritchie and Colin Stranahan. Zarif expertly fuses poetry slam performance art (“The Old Man’s Box”) with spacey pop electronics (“Keep The Faith”) and steps out with a remarkable vocal duet with Maria Neckam on “This Life,” a song that wears the sensitive textures of a Nick Drake tune. (10 tracks; 57:11 minutes) Marcin Wasilewski Trio Faithful ECM As an acoustic trio, pianist Marcin Wasilewski, bassist Slawomir Kurkiewicz and drummer Michal Miskiewicz choose harmony over conflict, cultivating endless possibilities as they improvise their way through lyrical passages and peaceful interludes.

Faithful is their third solo album as a group and playing against expectations the trio gets its groove on, so to speak. Maybe it’s because they’ve played and recorded with fellow label mate, the energetic drummer, Manu Katche, but several of this album’s tracks share Katche’s adoration for sparkling percussion and expressive interplay. Paul Bley’s mischievous “Big Foot” is the trio’s standout moment—polyrhythmic beats and deeply satisfying bass feed its momentum. The group doesn’t abandon the atmospher-

For his trio CD, Noble Path, Bay area pianist Art Hirahara goes pleasurably old school, with an abundance of catchy, melodic originals. It’s a successful foray into the kind of music that one associates with leaders like Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton or John Hicks, and it’s clear that Hirahara holds a deep respect for musicians that ply the jazz trio tradition. Bassist Yoshi Waki and drummer Dan Aran, both rhythm masters in their own right, provide exemplary support on inspired originals (“Stood Down”) and dazzling covers (“All Or Nothing At All,” Dizzy Gillespie’s “Con Alma.”). Hirahara has a deft technique that memorably crowns his originals and his fleet finger play positively shines on the title track. But you can sense this working group’s own satisfaction when bopping through the changes on Billy Strayhorn’s “Isfahan” or feeling the love from Cole Porter’s “Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye.” (12 tracks; 63:16 minutes) Noah Haidu Slipstream Posi-tone Noah Haidu is a pianist who endows his debut, Slipstream, with a no-nonsense, straight-ahead groove, and it’s some of the best group jazz you can hear in 2011, thanks to a line-up of boffo contemporary players—trumpeter Jeremy Pelt and saxophonist Jon Irabagon, two neo-traditionalists who always blow hot and cool; bassist Chris Haney and drummer John Davis keep things tight and tuneful, and the great stickman, Willie Jones III, kicks it out on drums for three tracks. Haidu boldly demonstrates his affection for the great acoustic jazz groups of the ‘50s and ‘60s, but his charts and adroit technique (“Break Tune”) shout modern jazz. The pianist proves that he’s an enterprising improviser, from the jaunty “Soulstep” and the trippy ballad, “Float,” to the romp and circumstance of “Just One Of Those Things.” It’s affirming to hear a pianist who’s chock full of ideas, with a standout quintet that never outshines the leader. (8 tracks; 49:19 minutes) M AY 2 0 1 1

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IN THE LATTER PART of the 1950s, a classic cop show on TV was called The Naked City. The announcer would close each episode with the dramatic pronouncement: “There are eight million stories in the naked city...and this has been one of them.” The Frank Morgan story, although very interesting, would not have qualified for an episode on this show, or even on one of today’s crime shows, though he had run-ins with the law, and spent almost a third of his life incarcerated.

Frank Morgan’s trials and tribulations, if presented on TV, would have more of a human-interest flavor...the saga of a man who did wrong, paid a very high the price and in the twilight of his time, turned his life around and became internationally known.

Morgan’s father was a guitarist who played with the popular group known as The Ink Spots. He once revealed that his father told him that he “played the guitar near my mother’s womb.

And that he also played the guitar near my crib.” Perhaps this proximity thing worked, because Morgan began taking guitar

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

lessons from his father at age three. After the family moved to Los Angeles in 1947, he began clarinet and alto saxophone lessons at his high school, under the direction of the same teachers who taught future jazz legends Dexter Gordon, Wardell Gray and Don Cherry.

Morgan learned to play the sax so quickly that at age 15 Duke Ellington wanted to take him on the road. Frank’s father said no, that he wanted his son to finish school. But Morgan was still impressing folks at home with his playing in the house band at the Club Alabam, backing stars like Josephine Baker and Billie Holiday, among others.

After winning a TV talent contest, he landed a job with Lionel Hampton’s band, and a little later began recording as a sideman with Ray Charles, Teddy Charles and Kenny Clarke. In 1955, it was a dream come true for Morgan to finally meet Charlie Parker, the man he’d fashioned his playing after. As the story goes, Parker encouraged Morgan to stay with the music, and lectured him on the ills of drugs, saying: “Man, can’t you see what it’s doing to me? It’s killing me.” Morgan said he offered Parker heroin and cocaine and that changed everything.

In an interview years later, Morgan wondered what affect it would have had on him, if he’d seen his idol turn the drugs down.

It was also in 1955 that Charlie Parker died, succumbing in great part to the ravages of drugs and alcohol and the year that Morgan recorded his debut album as a leader, titled Easy Living. Ironically, this was also the year Morgan—like Parker— began to self-destruct, due to drug abuse, and crimes related to drugs.

The next thirty years of Morgan’s life were something of a blur because he was in and out of various jails and prisons. He spent 20 years in San Quentin, where he and another alto sax great, Art Pepper, formed an outstanding prison band. Morgan was a celebrity in prison, and could have anything he wanted— except freedom.

In 1985 Morgan finally decided to travel the straight and narrow. He met and later married a lady named Rosalinda Kolb, who helped him avoid the detours. He firmly admitted some years later, “It was my wife who save my life.”

From the mid-1980s on, Morgan’s career flourished, even though a stroke in 1998, set him back for six months. He recorded a dozen albums from the time of his final release from prison, until his death in December 14, 2007, just days shy of his 74th birthday.

Morgan played the alto saxophone like few others before him. He was a true virtuoso on the instrument. During his brief, but notable fame, he recording for the Antilles, Contemporary and High Note labels. Very aware that he received a second chance at life, and to play the music he loved, he told one interviewer: “...The more good things they write about me, the harder I’ll practice, and the harder I’ll try to be the best human being Frank Morgan can be.”

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By Rafil Kroll-Zaidi

A compendium of research facts

SCIENTISTS FOUND A STRONG correlation between a neighborhood’s liquor-store density and risky drinking among its African-American women; that among U.S. Internet daters, black men are much likelier to seek white women than white men are to seek black women; and that ovulation makes white American women more afraid of black men. Young Hispanic women are 9.7 times as likely as young white women to be screened for chlamydia at U.S. health-care facilities. Gonorrhea has been stealing human DNA. It was determined that in greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky, street-drug use among stroke patients rose ninefold between 1993 and 2005. Infants shown videos of snakes spend more time watching when the video is accompanied by a fearful voice than by a happy one. Autistics are more likely than non-?autistics to blame a woman named Janet for the death of Janet’s friend who dies of jellyfish stings after Janet tells her the jellyfish are harmless. Mood swings and hesitant speech betray feigned remorse.

A STUDY PUBLISHED IN the journal Gut found that a black Labrador from Japan’s St. Sugar Cancer Sniffing Dog Training Center was able, by sniffing the feces of patients, to detect the presence of colorectal cancer with greater effectiveness than the standard clinical screening, the fecal occult blood test. A study published in European Urology reported that a Belgian Malinois shepherd had been trained, with 91 percent accuracy, to smell prostate cancer in the urine of patients. Sniffer dogs are likelier to signal false positives if their handlers believe drugs or explosives to be present. It was discovered that the East African Evarcha culicivora jumping spider, which engages in spree killings of mosquitoes, is attracted to smelly socks; scientists suggested that humans should seek to “recruit” the spider as a defense against malaria. Girls are more likely to transmit flu to girls, and boys to boys. Fathers pass smoking habits to sons, and mothers to daughters. Children who think their fathers spend too much time working are more likely to be bullies, whereas the perceived absence of mothers does not seem to inspire bullying. Best Actress Academy Award winners have a higher risk of divorce than do losing nominees; Best Actor winners do not have a higher risk. The most aggressive eighth- through tenth-grade students are those near, but not atop, their social hierarchies.

BETWEEN ONE FIFTH AND one half of England’s leisure horses are obese.

The regional accents of crested gibbons can be detected in their song, and the beards of male bustards boast the birds’ robustness. Male splendid fairy wrens and superb fairy wrens imitate the calls of butcherbirds, who prey on both splendids and superbs, to get the attention of females. A species of carnivorous pitcher plant that previously was observed to catch far fewer insects than its peers was found to obtain significant nutrients from the feces of Hardwicke’s woolly bats; the plant allows the bats to roost inside itself and refrains from eating them. Most Australian parrots are left-footed and -eyed. Scientists found that pigeons have trouble finding their way home if their right nostrils are plugged.

In France, whose government faced fines from the European Court of Justice for failing to protect the great hamsters of Alsace, biologists prevented despair among mice undergoing morphine withdrawal. Czech red foxes, when attacking prey, almost always pounce to the northeast. Mice raised without gut bacteria grow up to be less anxious and more adventuresome. Prairie dogs kiss more often if humans are watching. Scotland eradicated the American mink.

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30 / INTERVIEW / EVA GREEN

But, naturally, everything is not perfect, and as the mystique of Miss G. unravels, her wardrobe does, too. Jewelry, tailored jackets and finger waves give way to frumpy housecoats, unkempt coifs and no makeup. It comes as no surprise that Green reveled in the character’s downward spiral, digging into the aesthetic and dramatic opportunities of a classic movie breakdown. But the arc of Miss G. is what appealed to the actress most—the chance to embody a strange woman with a wide, metamorphic range of “colors,” a word Green drops a lot when discussing the parts she chooses.

“It’s difficult to find good, multi-faceted roles in movies for women,” she says. “I need to fall in love with the character. I cannot just do something for the sake of it or for the money, otherwise I think I’d die. I have to fall in love with it. I’m picky—too picky, probably.”

Green’s discriminating instincts haven’t exactly steered her wrong. Along with a perceptive mentor and a whole lot of nerve, she has them to thank for her breakthrough.

In 2002, when Green was discovered by Italian provocateur Bernardo Bertolucci and offered a major role in his forthcoming film The Dreamers, she was urged by her family and entourage to decline. The 2003 movie, which co-stars Louis Garrel and Michael Pitt and shows a whole lot of skin, didn’t scream “wise career move” to Green’s camp. But Green ignored the warnings, having long been a fan of Bertolucci’s controversial classic Last Tango in Paris. The Dreamers, a daringly beautiful film (which, incidentally, features Green doing Garbo while play-acting scenes from Queen Christina), became an arthouse and critical success, and it gave Green a helluva first experience as a bigscreen actress.

“I had to pinch myself every day, like, ‘Oh my god, I’m in a Bertolucci movie,’” Green says. “We used to go to his house every weekend and he’d talk about the cinema and music and art. It was just amazing. It was a great start, for sure, to work with Bertolucci. It was hard, though, because when you start with somebody so great, you think you’ll be disappointed after that.”

T

hough she doesn’t say it, it’s fair to assume Green hasn’t met such disappointment, nor has her career gone the way of recently-deceased Last Tango star Maria Schneider, who never truly regained the attention that, for better or worse, her baring-all breakout brought her. Green, who cites French luminary Isabelle Adjani as her childhood icon and actorly inspiration, has starred opposite Nicole Kidman, Orlando Bloom, Daniel Graig, Judi Dench, Jeremy Irons, Romain Duris, Edward Norton, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ewan McGregor. As is the case with Cracks, it’s not uncommon for her to be the most indelible player of the movie in which she appears.

Born to a French mother and Swedish father and raised partially in London, Green has an alluringly odd, uniquely exotic appeal, which undoubtedly affects the sorts of scripts she’s offered. Is it a help or a hindrance for an actor to have a trademark package of characteristics that inevitably paints a specific picture in the minds of filmmakers and casting directors? Green seems torn on the question. She’s aware that she’s sometimes perceived as being “mysterious” and “not from this world” (“It’s kind of true,” she laughs), but she also doesn’t want to be pigeonholed, or “put in the femme fatale box.”

Yes, the femme fatale. Despite her best efforts to deflect it, and despite a clear capacity for dramatic range (The Dreamers, which may still boast Green’s best performance, is, for a large chunk, lighhearted), the femme fatale thing has a way of hovering over Green, not like a dark cloud, but, perhaps, a dark halo. Her other current role is in Camelot, the Starz TV series based on Arthurian legend. She plays Morgan le Fay, Arthur’s cunning sorceress of a half-sister who battles him for the throne. Morgan—or Morgana, as she’s often called—is right up there with Mata Hari in the rogues’ gallery of cultural and historical vamps. It might be somewhat unconscious, it might be partly due to forces “not from this world,” but Green sure seems to have cornered a market.

Which, box or no box, is not to be undervalued—there’s something to be said of an actress who knows just how to play to her considerable strengths.

Green’s next big project is Dark Shadows, Tim Burton’s much-anticipated adaptation of the 1960s-era gothic soap opera. Starring alongside Burton muse Johnny Depp, and among a cast of characters that includes zombies, ghosts and vampires, Green plays Angelique Bouchard, a villainess who practices witchcraft.

“She’s kind of dark,” Green says with a laugh and a light, submissive sigh. “So, here we go again.”

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22 / KERESMAN ON FILM / THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD

big-names do not return his calls. There’s plenty of self-deprecating humor and satirical jabs at advertising concepts, along with man/woman-on-the-street opinions about the concept of “honesty” in advertising itself. Spurlock also interviews some iconic types about advertising, such as Donald “Captain Comb-Over” Trump and Ralph Nader.

He also touches briefly on the subject of song placement, interviewing some musician/songwriter-types about getting their music heard by millions of people because their song was played during an otherwise silent montage in a movie or TV program.

Where the movie stumbles a bit is that Spurlock doesn’t delve “deeply” enough into his subject. For instance, has corporate placement caused filmmakers or studios to alter their final product(s)? (As a youth I recall reading about a TV documentary or concert film of the band Creedence Clearwater Revival of European origin that never got seen in America because the presence of Coke-Cola beverages offended sponsors Pepsi-Cola, or vice versa.) Have actors or directors had a product placement in a movie come back to bite them in the ass? Semi-fictional example: Let’s say an actor or actress that’s publically anti-fur was glamorously draped in fur for a role in a movie, or perhaps the product “placed” in a movie wasn’t “Earth-friendly”? After all, director James Cameron and singer/sometime actress Sheryl Crow have gone all public-record on us World Citizens for living wasteful, unfriendly-to-the-ecosystem lives. (Never mind the fact that their huge estates and private jets leave much BIGGER carbon-footprints in one year than you or I will leave in 20. But I digress.)

On the plus side, Greatest Movie Ever Sold is mostly breezy, light entertainment.

Occasionally Spurlock seems a tiny bit smug, but his lightness of touch about the whole deal throughout mitigates it. He does show a couple of clips from TV with really BRAZEN product-pimping, but I wish he dug just a tad deeper without screaming “J’accuse!” Next thing you know he’ll do a film demarcating how the music business puts commerce before artistic integrity, wherein the untalented make millions while the truly gifted are forced by circumstance to burn stolen copies of Billboard and downBeat and eat the ashes for sustenance.

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42 / FIRST SIP / CALIFORNIA’S CENTURY-OLD WINERIES

the wine at ten-year intervals. The 1974 Simi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon stood out: heady, earthy aromas—eucalyptus, sandalwood, menthol and dark soil—with black fruit and textured tannins. The wine was confident; it had arrived. The other vintages were variations on this, with more fruit showing as the wines got younger.

Perhaps the most impressive wine of the tasting was the 1935 “Montepulciano” Cabernet Sauvignon (previous name of Simi winery), the first commercial vintage after Prohibition, which was released in 1942. It was still fresh, with those lovely menthol and eucalyptus and dark berry notes. Its alcohol level was a mere 12%.

Beaulieu Vineyards Beaulieu (Napa Valley) sent three of its famed Georges de Latour Cabernet Sauvignons—1979, 1995 and 2007 ($90). The 1979 was impressive and showed great breeding. The 1995 had more fruit, and the 2007 was a big wine with a concentrated blackberry nose and taste.

Buena Vista Buena Vista Winery sent three Pinot Noir wines—1981, 1990, and 2007. The 1981 showed pronounced mint and eucalyptus and mature fruit. The 1990 Carneros was an elegant wine, and the 2007 Carneros Ramal Vineyard showed great promise ($42).

Wente Wente tested many of its older wines and was not happy with how they had aged.

They sent three of their newer Nth Degree Chardonnays—2002, 2004, 2008 ($30) from the Livermore Valley. All showed fine balance and were full-bodied, with apple and vanilla notes and buttery hints. These are very limited production, available only to wine club members.

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32 / INTERVIEW / GAMBLE & HUFF

where.” A tape recorder was always running.

The ease of their productivity belied the music’s depth. Blavat says the duo not only captured America’s swirl of social change in the 1970s—think of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes’s “Wake Up Everybody” and The O’Jays’s “Back Stabbers”—but they “knew what was happening musically in the streets and they took it to another level with full orchestration.”

TSOP’s distinct sound—classical elements like violins and French horns mingling with finger-snapping drum, keyboard and guitar work—came from another acronym, MFSB (Mother Father Sister Brother), the 42-piece orchestra that provided the music.

Its rhythm section featured members of The Romeos, Gamble’s former band. “We had great musicians, see, and the thing that made us real great is that we played together all the time,” Gamble says. “Everybody knew each other. You knew what the other person could do.”

“That created a certain sound, a certain quality of sound, that kept getting better and better,” Huff says.

“We could play anything,” says renowned drummer Earl Young, who was a staple on TSOP tracks along with his late bandmates, bassist Ronald Baker and guitarist Norman Harris.

“The major part of our production and skill was rehearsal,” says Gamble. “We would rehearse a couple of weeks before we would decide what songs we were going to do with the artist.” The performer would sing the song, and then the musicians would work on the groove, says Young. “It was more of a feeling than cutting a record,” he adds.

Young says Gamble had a great ear, which allowed the producer to pick one drumbeat from the vast array that the drummer played. Gamble still marvels over Huff ’s instincts for knowing—regardless of how trivial it might be—what belonged in a song.

“If the song warrants it, that little ding could be important,” Huff says.

Creating the music was an instinctive, even personal process. Gamble insists that songs were written specifically for the artist—”We didn’t write songs just to write them.”

But there were roles, according to Joe Tarsia, TSOP’s recording engineer and founder of the legendary Sigma Sound Studios. Gamble, he says, was the “architect of the story,” while Huff developed the music’s rhythm and intensity.

A “basic rhythm concept” would be worked on in the studio, Tarsia says. Then, voices would be added; arrangers would write music for strings and horns. By the end, a song could contain dozens of parts. “But it was always more than less, so that in the final mix it left room to make arrangements that built and climaxed,” he says. “It was sort of sexual in a way—there was some foreplay before you got to the climax of the song.”

We’re currently in the nostalgic afterglow. All you need to cut a record these days, Young says, is a computer before dropping the tracks in the studio.

Thanks to the Internet, the music industry’s bar of entry is pretty much on the ground. “You’re a producer if you say you are,” says David Uosikkinen, the longtime drummer for The Hooters. Tarsia compares the changing music scene to television.

There used to be three TV stations, he says, but “now we have 300 [and] no one can afford anything of substance.”

“Musicians don’t go to the studio and create music anymore,” Young says.

“I think that’s the way technology has changed music,” says Uosikkinen, whose project, In the Pocket (www.songsinthepocket.org), features a rotating group of musicians playing songs either recorded in Philadelphia or by Philadelphians. “For better or for worse, that’s how it is. It’s expensive to do it [like Gamble and Huff]. There are a lot of economics involved. Just to get five great musicians into a room together costs money.”

Just because something is the norm, doesn’t make it right. “There’s nothing like being in a studio [with musicians] because you’re going to feel the real dramatics from the human beings that are going to be inflicted into your music,” Huff says.

“Humans sweat,” Gamble says. “That’s what’s missing from the records today, is the sweat and the effort and the energy. And the other thing that’s missing from it is the mistakes that humans make that sometimes turn out to be something that’s fantastic.”

Gamble and Huff ’s collaborative, hands-on days do come back—every 13-and-a-half minutes, to be exact.

“That scene was remarkable,” says Uosikkinen, who plans to record “Back Stabbers” with MFSB guitarists Bobby Eli and T.J. Tindall for In the Pocket. “It’s part of Americana and it comes from our city. It’s awesome.”

For more information on the Lifetime Achievement Award Gala for Gamble and Huff, visit www.chamberorchestra.org/gala or call 215-545-5451, ext. 29.

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28 / INTERVIEW / SHEILA HICKS: THE POLLOCK OF TEXTILE

painting and art history contributed to forming my visual vocabulary. I discovered the materials along the way.

Q: What did you have to know to be good at your brand of art, your bourgeoning aesthetic, as there were no real predecessors?

A: I had some real masters in all the above disciplines teaching me what they knew.

I absorbed all that I could. Then, through doing field work, I found other masters in spinning, dyeing, and weaving in the Andes, in Mexico, in India, Morocco, Japan, Germany and France.

Q: I have to preface this by saying I’m a fan of both your work and that of Jackson Pollock, but in the same way some people say Pollock simply dribbled paint, do people ever think your stuff is just pulled or bundled-up yarn?

A: Perceptions are reliant on individual sensibilities. The range of reactions to my work is vast, off the scale, in fact.

Q: How do you know when a piece is done—many of your works seem as if they want to go on forever?

A: They do.

Q: There are woven rugs that are centuries old. What do you see as the life expectancy of the pieces you’ve made? How do you protect the shelf life? Or is there an ashes-to-ashes temporal quality to the work… even if the timespan is 200 years?

A: Glue is the enemy of fiber. Ultraviolet light devours color. Otherwise, time enhances the work. It ages, improves and increases in value with each century.

Q: You seem quite at ease doing commercial work—restaurants, courtrooms. Are there favorites of yours, ones that maintain both mass appeal and personal intimacy?

A: I work for my pleasure and quest. When someone else can approach and relate to the work it increases my pleasure and enhances my quest. Individuals move between public and private space. So do I. The exhibition includes “May I Have This Dance” which was made by hand in my intimate studio. [Author note, the 2002/2003 work of which she speaks is the monumental fiber octopus of sorts whose tentacles spring from a corner of the ceiling at the ICA.] The installation in the gallery launches it into collective viewing and open-ended participation.

Q: The diversity of the work is expansive and voluminous. Aare you ever surprised at how much you’ve tackled/will continue to tackle?

A: Eclectic ecstasy, may it continue. I am grateful to the collaborators who helped me make these many varied works such as “Cristobal’s Trapeze,” “Bamian,” and “The Preferred Wife,” to mention a few.

Q: With so much art now dependent on the interactive, how can audiences interact with such delicate work?

A: They must touch with their eyes and examine with their curiosity.

Q: Do you have cats? I ask because the temptation to play with your work seems too…too…

A: I have birds in my courtyard. They build nests with whatever they find. And sing at dawn. See the pile up of linen, wool and raffia sculpture of the “Banisteriopsis” series in the exhibition.

Q: The advent of the internet and computers changed a lot of the art world. Can you or have you used the computer in any important way to change the feel and look of the work. How so if so? Why not, if not?

A: Advanced technology interrupts, questions, and enables evolution in established methods and thought-building processes. I am caught in the middle of conserving the old and progressing with the never-ending new. Included in the exhibition is a handspun, Chinese wild silk stitched panel for the interior of an Air France Boeing 747 airplane which I made with the help of Carmelite nuns in the convent of Boulogne Billancourt. I could visualize variations of the grid design on the computer and execute multiple versions.

Q: Why Philadelphia by the way? Do you have or feel a certain affinity for the city?

Or do we for you?

A: Pure coincidence, I believe. To say nothing of the brave curator Jenelle Porter and the ICA’s director Claudia Gould who embraced my show. Maybe your city has an affinity for my work. The Philadelphia Museum of Art has the largest number of examples of my work than any of the museums in the Unites States.

Q: You started as a lone gun innovator and you’re still singular in your field. Is that a lonely place? Are there now more contemporaries in this field? I know that you worked and studied with weavers and architects.

A: You are never lonely when you connect with your material and find your voice.

See the fifty years-worth of “Minimes” [small miniatures] displayed and you’ll see what I mean.

Detail of artwork by Sheila Hicks on display at ICA in Philadelphia.

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going out calendar ART EXHIBITS THRU 5/14 Annual Sculpture Show. Reception 4/16, 6-8. New Hope Arts, 2 Stockton Ave., New Hope. 215-862-9606. newhopearts.org.

THRU 5/14 John Langdon: Depth Perception. AxD Gallery, 265 S. 10th St., Phila., PA 215627-6250. a-x-d.com THRU 5/15 American Icons: Ali / Elvis. James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine Street, Doylestown, PA 215-340-9800. michenerartmuseum.org THRU 5/22 The Vase Project: Made in China-Landscape in Blue. Lafayette College Art Galleries, Williams Center Gallery, 317 Hamilton St., Easton. 610-330-5361. galleries.lafayette.edu THRU 5/28 New Works by Alisandra Wederich.

Opening reception May 6, 6pm. Red Filter Fine Art Photography Gallery, 74 Bridge St., Lambertville, NJ. 347-244-9758. redfiltergallery.com Open PM Thurs.-Sun. THRU 5/29 How ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm After They’ve Seen Paree. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Broad St., Phila. pafa.org THRU 5/30 John Schmidtberger. The Quiet Life Gallery, 17 South Main St., Lambertville, NJ, 609-397-0880. quietlifegallery.com THRU 5/31 Annual Members’ Show. Juried exhibition of works on paper. Philadelphia Water Color Society at Barnstone Gallery, 388 W. Pothouse Rd., Phoenixville, PA pwcsociety.org THRU 6/11 The Art of the Miniature XIX. Collectors’ preview 4/30, 6-8pm. Opening reception, May 1, 1-5pm. The Snow Goose Gallery, 470 Main St., Bethlehem. 610974-9099. thesnowgoosegallery.com 5/6-6/11 6th Annual Members Show. Opening reception 5/6, 6-9. Artists of Yardley, Art Center, 949 Mirror Lake Rd., Yardley, PA artistsofyardley.org.

5/7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29 Here and Abroad. Paintings by Helena van Emmerik-Finn. Meet the artist reception 5/7 & 5/8, 1-5. Stover Mill Gallery, 852 River Rd. (Rt. 32), Erwinna. 610-2949420.

5/7 & 5/8 46th Annual Fine Art & Craft Show, Sat. 10am-5pm, Sun. 11am-5pm. Historic Bethlehem, PA. Over 80 artists and art projects for kids. Fun for the entire Family.

Free parking. bfac-lv.org 5/7-6/25 Size Matters, an exhibition of all things textile. Opening reception May 7, 3-5pm, music by Seventh Corvus. Some Things Looming, 526 Washington St., Reading, PA. 610-373-7337. somethingslooming.com

5/8-6/26 Spring Art Exhibition. Coryell Gallery, 8 Coryell St., Lambertville, NJ. 609-3970804. coryellgallery.com 5/13-6/5 Bonnie Schorske 2010. Opening reception 5/13, 6-9. Twenty-Two Gallery, 236 S. 22nd St., Phila., PA 215-772-1911. twenty-twogallery.com 5/13-6/5 110th Annual Student Exhibition.

PAFA, 128 N. Broad St., Phila. pafa.org 5/14 & 5/15 felt rocks! Open House, Sat., 4-8pm and Sun., 1-5pm. Felted vessels by fiber and textile artist Elena Stokes. ROOM, 10 Bridge St., annex, Frenchtown, NJ. 908996-3344, focusonfiberart.com 5/21 26th Annual Art Auction. The Baum School of Art. Silent Auction 6pm; live auction 8pm. 510 W. Linden St., Allentown. 610-433-0032. baumschool.org 6/4-30 Alluvial Days. Exhibition by Bucks County Impressionist Joseph Barrett. Silverman Gallery, 4920 York Rd., Rt. 202, Buckingham Green, Buckingham, PA. 215-7944300. silvermangallery.com.

6/4-10/2 So Bravely and So Well.The art and life of William T. Trego. The James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine St., Doylestown, PA michenerartmuseum.org.

Valley, PA. Tickets: 610 282 3192. desales.edu/act1 5/6-22 Cabaret. Kander & Ebb’s iconic musical.

Civic Theatre of Allentown, 527 N. 19th St., Allentown, PA. 610-432-8943. civictheatre.com 5/6-8/27 Gilligan’s Island…of Death. Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, Fridays & Saturdays, 7:15pm, $49.95/person, includes dinner, show, tax & gratuity. Peddler’s Pub at the Cock’ n Bull, Peddler’s Village, Rt. 263, Lahaska, PA. peddlersvillage.com 5/21 6th Annual Young Playwright’s Festival. 7pm. Baker Hall, Zoellner Arts Center, 420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. touchstone.org 6/3-8/7 Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Hamlet, Pride & Prejudice, The Comedy of Errors, South Pacific, The Two Noble Kinsmen. On the Campus of DeSales University, 2755 Station Ave., Center Valley, PA. Order early for best seats, 610-282-WILL. pashakespeare.org

DINNER & MUSIC Tuesdays: Music & poetry, dance performances, storytellers & buffet. $30 includes tax and gratuity. Hamilton’s Grill Room, 8 Coryell Street, Lambertville, NJ 609-397-4343. hamiltonsgrillroom.com

CALL TO ARTISTS

Saturday nights: Sette Luna Restaurant, 219 Ferry St., Easton, PA setteluna.com

3rd Annual Fringe Wilmington Festival. A five-day celebration of unconventional and experimental art. September 21-25, 2011 in Wilmington, Delaware.

CATEGORIES: Performance, Visual and Cinematic Arts. Application Deadline: June 1, 2011. For more information or to apply: 302-576-2100, visit FringeWilmingtonDE.com or email info@FringeWilmingtonDE.com

Sunday afternoons: Musical Brunch features live musicians featuring harpsichord, harp, piano, jazz duos or even bagpipes for our Celtic Brunch. Hotel Bethlehem, 437 Main St., Bethlehem, PA. 610 625 2226, 1741ontheterrace.com

Some Things Looming, a fiber arts community, presents Size Matters, an exhibition of all things textile, May 7-June 25, 2011. All work must be original, one-ofa-kind, made by the artist submitting entry. “Size Matters” 2-D work must be 12” x 12,” 3-D work 12”x12”x12.” Size requirements will be strictly adhered to.

All entries must be postmarked by March 15, 2011. 526 washington street, reading, pa 19601. 610-373-7337. somethingslooming.com/sizematters_prospectus.pdf Philadelphia Water Color Society: 111th Anniversary, International Exhibition of Works on Paper. Show: 10/211/19. Community Arts Center, Wallingford, PA. Mediums: pastel, water media, drawings, hand-pulled prints. Deadline: 6/10,2011. Prizes over $6,000. Prospectus: pwcsociety.org or send SASE to PWCS Entries, PO Box 555, Swarthmore, PA 19081.

THEATER THRU 5/8 Camelot. Act 1 Performing Arts, DeSales University, The Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, 2755 Station Ave., Center

The National Hotel, 31 Race Street, Frenchtown, NJ. Weekly live music: Wed, Thurs, Sat & Sun, monthly poetry afternoons, & Tues trivia. 908-996-3200. thenationalhotelnj.com

GALA 5/21 Kenneth Gamble & Leon Huff. 6pm.

Creators of “The Sound of Philadelphia,” Gamble and Huff wrote and produced some of the biggest pop, soul and R&B songs of all time. The Chamber Orchestra honors the team with a Lifetime Achievement Award. Live and Silent auction, cocktails, dinner, open bar, dancing with live band. The Westin Philadelphia, 99 So. 17th St., Phila. 215-545-5451 ext. 29.

CONCERTS Some organizations perform in various locations.

If no address is listed, check the website for location of performance.

5/6, 5/7, 5/13, 5/14 The 104th Bethlehem Bach Festival.

The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Bach Festival Orchestra, Greg Funfgeld, artistic director & conductor. 1-888-743-3100, ext.

15. bach.org

5/7 Robin McKelle. Cabaret. Zoellner Arts Center, Lehigh University,420 E. Packer Ave., Bethlehem. 610-758-2787. zoellnerartscenter.org 5/20 Northern Lights. Voices Chorale present outstanding music from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark at 8 :00 pm, Pennington Presbyterian Church, 13 S. Main Street, Pennington, NJ Visit www.VOICESChorale.org or call 609-6379383 for tickets & information.

5/21 Philadelphia Voices of Pride is celebrating its fifth anniversary with the concert Oh, The Places We Have Been! The concert will be held Saturday, May 21, 8pm, at The Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany 330 S. 13th St. Philadelphia, PA. Tickets cost $20 and are available at the door. Visit pvop.org for more information.

5/22 Northern Lights. Voices Chorale present outstanding music from Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark at 3:00 pm, Anchor Presbyterian Church, 980 Durham Rd (Rte 413), Wrightstown, PA 18940.

Visit www.VOICESChorale.org or call 609-637-9383 for tickets & information.

5/15 Spring Choral Concert, 4.00 pm. Arts at St. John’s, St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 37 So. Fifth St., Allentown, PA, 610-435-1641. stjohnsallentown.org 6/4 2nd Annual National Palooza Music Festival, 4pm-2am. The National Hotel, 31 Race St., Frenchtown, NJ. For info or tickets call 908-996-3200. thenationalhotelnj.com 6/5 Organ & Orchestra!. Stephen Williams, organ, The Monocacy Chamber Orchestra, 4pm. St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, 37 S. Fifth St., Allentown, PA, 610-435-1641, stjohnsallentown.org 7/16 Marshall Tucker Band. The Stockton Inn, One Main St., Stockton, NJ. Reserve tickets: 609-397-1250. stocktoninn.com

ARTSQUEST CENTER AT STEELSTACKS (Musicfest Café) 101 Founders Way, Bethlehem, PA 610332-1300. artsquest.org 5/2: Jon Anderson 5/4: Steve Azar 5/5: Matt Dusk 5/6: Dr. Dog 5/7: Leo Kottke 5/8: Ralph Stanley/Clinch Mtn. Boys 5/11: Stenzl Piano Duo 5/13: Relient K 5/14: Mike Doughty 5/15: Buffy Sainte-Marie 5/17: Maceo Parker 5/18: The Radiators: Farewell Tour 5/20: Dala 5/21: Scythian 5/22: John Mayall 5/26: Raul Malo 5/27: Leon Redbone 5/29: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy 5/30: Daniel Rodriquez

MAUCH CHUNK OPERA HOUSE One of America’s oldest vaudeville theaters, built in 1881. 14 West Broadway, Jim Thorpe, PA 570-325-0249. mauchchunkoperahouse.com 5/14: Yarn 5/21: Todd Snider 5/27: Carbon Leaf 5/28: Michelle Shocked 6/4: Jay Smar & KJ 6/10: Dave Wilcox 7/2: Bennie and the Jets (Elton John Show) 7/16; The Janks 7/23: Paul Thorne

EVENTS 5/15-11/20 Hunterdon Land Trust Farmers Market. Fruit, vegetables, organic produce, wine, grass-fed meats, artisan cheese & bread, music. 111 Mine St. at the Rt. 12 Circle, Flemington, NJ 908237-4582. hlta.org.

5/21 Arts Alive!. East & West Broad Sts., Quakertown, 10am-4pm. Arts & Crafts for sale, kid’s activities & rides, free parking, live music and great food. Rain location, Strayer Middle School. quakertownalive.com 5/26-30 Mayfair Festival of the Arts: Celebrating 25 years of imagination. Live music performances at multiple stages, 50 fine artists, dance, children’s events, food and beverages. Allentown, PA. For tickets & venue information: mayfairfestival.org 5/28-30 Brandywine River Museum Antiques Show. Preview reception 5/27, 6-9. Route One, Chadds Ford. 610-388-2700. brandywinemuseum.org.

6/4 Music and Art Benefit for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Silent auction for original oils by Gordon Haas and Tony LaSalle. Music by The Shackers, J.B. Kline and Jalopy. Tickets $25, includes hors d’oeuvres. The Inn at Lambertville Station, Bridge St., Lambertville, NJ. 6/3-8/13 Free Outdoor Films and Music. Fridays and Saturdays in Lambertville, NJ. For info visit AcmeScreeningRoom.org. Suggested donation, $10.

CLASSES THRU 6/26 Sunflower Glass Studio. Stained glass classes. 877 Sergeantsville Road, Stockton, NJ 609-397-1535. sunflowerglassstudio.com.

CAMP Summer Art Camp, The Baum School of Art. One- and two-week camps, June 20Aug. 12. 510 Linden St., Allentown. Register early at 610-433-0032. baumschool.org

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